January 5, 2015

Feliz Novo Ano!

Our Church Schedule moved from 8:30 am to 9 am. Elder Capaletti has been attending our ward for the last 3 weeks for the holidays. He is a super cool guy. He played Futbol with us last P-Day. He played well.

No, you did not already tell me that Isaac Malstrom was called to Jackson Mississippi. They have really good food there. It's also SUPER Southern'. 

There amount of freedom that you have depends on your Mission President. The Senior missionaries are pretty free to do what they want. They can skype and have iPads and go to the movies and stuff. I think leaving the mission boundaries for anyone is a BIG no-no, including President. 

Getting people to Church is one of the hardest thing in the world. It's like pulling teeth. But when the people come to Church, more then one time, they normally are elect. 

Yeah you can make cleaning appointment and Dr. Dan appointments. Late July would be good for the de-worming. Because I am going to probably eat lots of tasty things when I get home. If I have worms with me for the banquet I might not get as fat as fast. If you know what I mean. Not that I have any plans to be fat again. 

Elder Giesler already engaged? I am 100 percent sure I will not get married that fast.

 For New Years we went to a members house and ate BBQ and drank CocaCola, Then everybody in Brasil lit fireworks. Super noisy. New years day we went bowling with all of the missionaries in Cuiabá and Várzea Grande.

I have never made rice and beans. It is a bit different here then the united states. Here the beans come in a bag and you have to make them in a Pressure Pan. I am pretty sure they done have canned beans here. There are a couple different kind of beans. I don't know how to explain in English.  

The rice is "fried"/cooked in a pot. I have not seen a rice cooker here. 

Oh, I made the Brownies. First I ate a lot of brownie batter, until I got full. Then I baked them. I was really afraid, because the ovens here are "different". But there turned out perfectly.  I even shared a little bit.

My First Companion Elder Mc Naughton, goes home next week. That's really weird for me.

That's all I have time to write for this week 

Do your home and visiting teaching!

Love, Elder Gibb

December 22, 2014 - Found the Holy Grail

Hey Family!

Congrats on having the Elders over on Christmas. Little presents for Elders is a good Idea. Subway and Chocolate would be what I would want. They might call home from your house, if you have doubt, just ask them. We have 2 P Days this week and next week. For Christmas and New Year.

To be prepared for the call? I just have the laptop to on, Skype open and the sound on, when I call you will know because Skype will make noises. I should be calling from here after 4 o clock my time.

Difference about Christmas? There are many. There are not as many Christmas lights or decorations. The whole deal of a Sleigh and reindeer is almost non existent. There Christmas music is a bit different. Everything is super commercialized here. They have black Friday here too. They Christmas trees are not as big

The 70 has a regular job and stuff, he works at a glass company, Obviously he works a little higher up then the normal lacky. But he travels a lot being a 70. His name is Elder Capalette, I think that how you spell it.

Being a Zone leader is a lot of responsibility. There is a lot of extra stuff we have to do. The zone is the entire Cuiabá stake. We have to do a Zone meeting once a transfer. We also have to divisions with all of the District leaders and the assistants do divisions with us. We have to fix any problems between people and the other Elders behavior and stuff. We have to pass all the numbers to the assistants and to the people in the office.

 

Elder Yezzi family is all members. He speaks a few words of English. He is helping me with Portuguese and I help with English.

Oh! I found a store this week that sells Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. They are 3R$ for each. I was very happy.

So, you might want to sit down, here is our Spiritual experience for this week.

Today we were walking to the Church to go play soccer when a Guy on a Motorcycle stopped in Front of us on the side walk. He pulled out a gun and demanded our phones and money. We did not know if the gun was real, but we did not want to find out, so Elder Yezzi gave the guy our Nokia Brick Phone and about 12R$ in 2R$ notes (the smallest note Brazil has, which he luckily received as change from the bus station). I started to pull out the lone 20R$ I had with me. 

After examining the phone and Yezzi's small amount of money, I think he looked at our name tags. Because he asked if we where "from around here". We told him "No". Our Gun-Wielding, Moto-Driving friend returned our Brick and Yezzi's 2R$ collection and drove away.  I think he was expecting a nice smart smart phone and something larger then a 2R$ bills.

So, don't worry mom, we are just fine and we did not lose anything. 

Até logo,

 Elder Gibb

November 11, 2014 - Drumming Right Along

Tudo bom!

That's really cool that yáll met Elder Giesler. I am glad he said nice things about me.

That is a small world kind of thing.  Elder Park lived in the apartment next door for my first 4 transfers. It was awesome. He is one of my best mission buddies.

I think of North Carolina a lot. Its basically like second home for me. I got used to being there and then had to go. I miss it. I really miss the food, oh man the North Carolina food was soooooooooooooooooooooooo good. I miss Southern style fried food and Southern style BBQ and Chinese buffets. I do like Brasil food and especially Brazilian BBQ, but there is just something special about the way they do it in North Carolina.

This week was pretty good for us. Lene, the investigator, finally quit drinking coffee so now she can be baptized. Then we have Raissa who should be baptized this Saturday. She is super elect. She actually reads the Book of Mormon.

We have a lot of people in Brazil who believe the book of Mormon is the word God. But hey have a hard time making the connection or accepting the fact that they now have to follow what they believe.

There are also a lot of people here who find them selves in the same situation as Joseph Smith. They get all confused on what church they should go to which direction they should follow.  A lot of them cant get it through their heads that they need to pray. A lot of them have fear that they won't like the answer.

This week we were doing some door clapping in our area. While we where walking I heard someone playing drums. So we went and clapped his house. After a minute the guy finally came out.

Here was the door approach

Elder Gibb: Hey How is it doing?

Micheal: Good, how are you?

E.G: Great, do you play drums?

M: Yes I do.

E.G: That's really cool. We are missionaries from the Church. My name is Elder Gibb and this is Elder Duncan. Normally as missionaries we share with people messages about Christ. But today I was wondering if I could play your drum set.

So, Micheal let us right in and let me play the drum set. They were super stoked that some random American in a white shirt and tie wanted to play drums with them. Micheal ended up taking a video of me playing and posting it on facebook.   So now almost all of the drummers in Campo Grade know who I am. They went absolutely nuts when I started to play jazz music. Jazz is not a part of Brasil's culture and so nobody knows how to play it. Micheal said that I play better then most of the other drummers.

(Don't worry it has a spiritual side too) We ended up coming back the next day and teaching the restoration to everyone who lives in the house. None where SUPER interested, but at the end of the day I played the drum set for the first time in a year and a half and three people heard of the restored gospel. That was a win-win tender mercy situation.

But, that is basically it for this week. 

Amo, Elder Nolan Gibb

Missionary Council Training with our Zone, District and Sister Leaders in the South

The Training was an All Day Training, 9-6.  We begin promptly at 9 am, we had lunch, then the afternoon begins at 2 - 7 pm.  We finish with Pizza for dinner.

 

October 13, 2014 in Camp Grande

Bom Dia,

Tell Grandma Benson  Happy Birthday for me! I miss Grandpa Purple.

Congrats for Brother Thomas.

Electrical problems, could be worse. At least you have electricity. 

The missionaries in the apartment forgot to pay the electric bill and so we were paying for it. (Figuratively and literally) For 1 week this transfer we were without energy in our house for 4 days. That was 4 days of cold showers in the morning. 4 days without cold water to drink; 4 days of sleeping without a fan; 4 days of coming home in the dark. All of the food in our refrigerator went bad, ants and cockroaches started to infest our food. 

The office Elders (who are normal missionaries ages 20ish) drag their feet when there is a problem so it took 4 days to turn back on.

And it could even be worse then that, you could be without water.

This time, the missionaries that were in the apartment before us forgot to pay the water bill, so we were paying for it. (Figuratively and literally)

For another 4 days we were without water. We had a bunch of 2-liter soda bottles in the fridge that helped. 

That was 4 days without taking a real shower, I took my "showers" with a 2-liter bottle. 4 days without flushing the toilet or washing our hands. Elder Duncan's #2 stayed in the Toilet for 3 days, in the heat; 4 days without dishes. Bugs had started to move in our sink and in our shower. It was not fun.

I finally had to call the water company and solve the problem myself because our Financial Secretary wouldn't do it. 

Electrical Problems in general happen alot here. The of the day causes the breakers to trip faster then normal, the quality of the wiring jobs and the wire them selves are not fantastic.

Good Job Uncle Scott. Kick Cancer's butt..

Campo Grande is super awesome. Its a lot cleaner and not as hot as Cuia-burn. The mission Scripture is Job 30:30.

Campo grande has mangoes growing in the street and all that cool stuff. Its got the colorful tropical birds flying around .

Here is a picture of an Owl that I upset by going to close to it's nest. At the park.

We can surf any church website. There are actually lots of things I like about Brazil. I don't really have a Favorite thing. They have lots of tasty candy. They also have a lot of fruits that the US doesn't have. The cultures is pretty cool, language is awesome. Soccer is cool. The nature here is pretty cool. People are super layed back. (which has its advantages and disadvantages)

Today we went to a park in the Center of Campo Grande, it was pretty cool. After we went to Burger King, Where I payed 20,50 for a whopper combo meal. Tasted basically identical to the whopper in the states. The restaurant basically looks the same too. Just a bit newer.

Coracões, Elder Nolan Gibb

Waiting for the Bus to Ponta Pora

Thank you Sister Dennis for the photo

Being transferred to Ponta Porã.

I have not received my package yet. Elder Watchman has been waiting for a package since I got to the area. And still has not received it. And if it does get to the mission Office I probably will not receive it until another Transfer, considering I am being transferred to Ponta Porã. It is the most southern area in the Mission. I have to take a big bus to get there. The bus ride is 18 hours. Looking on  the LDS maps my area is touching the Border of Paraguay. I leave on the bus at 8 tonight and I will arrive there at 2:30 the next day. I found out I was going to Ponta Porã last night at like 10 o clock.

My new companion will be Elder Albuquerque, a Brasilian. SO that will be good for my Portuguese.