I think it was Dr Phil that talked about how we all have a small number of pivotal moments in our lives and a few people that had a special impact. One of my missionary companions, Barbara Gibb, was one of those people in my life!
On Friday I got an email from Sister Gibb. She's from Utah, now lives in California, and has relatives here. One of her uncles passed away and she emailed to say she was coming up for the funeral. I picked her up late Saturday night. It was so fun to go to the airport and to see her! It's been 20 years since I left on my mission (I can't believe that!) but in many ways it seems like yesterday. She said I looked the same and I figured she looked the same too - until we got looking at my photo album and realized how much we've changed! It was fun to visit with her and learn about each other's husbands and children and the things we're each pursuing. She came to church with us on Sunday. I felt like we should go teach a YW lesson together or something! Funny how strong the pull is to roles we had!
Sister Gibb was my second companion. I had been out a month and got tranferred to a new area and asked to train. I always felt like we were training each other more than me being the one sharing wisdom. We were both new missionaries and didn't know to do anything other than what we'd been asked to do.
I learned so much when we served together! Here are a few things that come to mind right away:
* You don't have to do anything really above and beyond to be incredibly blessed....just have simple discipline and simply work. When we were companions we did what we were asked to do. We tracted what the mission president said we should tract. We approached missionary work the way he said to do it. We got up on time. We went to bed on time. We worked every day....and we had amazing success.
* I learned to trust myself in following the spirit. I remember one day teaching a discussion to Sonia. She was interested. She was sincere. But she just wasn't getting it. Finally Sister Gibb embarked on a topic that was not in the prescribed discussions. I had been thinking we should talk about the same thing, but didn't suggest it because it just didn't make sense. We didn't discuss it ahead of time - she just started in on the topic while we were teaching - and suddenly everything came together for Sonia. She didn't get baptized when we were there and I didn't hear of her getting baptized later - but I learned a lot about following the spirit while we taught Sonia.
* I learned that miracles can happen. For a while it seemed like we worked and worked and worked and nothing seemed to bring results. Following the advise of our District Leader we decided to pray that people that were prepared would find us....and that next Sunday Belinda came to church. It turned out it was a weekend where we weren't at that building (Stake Conference or General Conference or something like that) but a clerk had showed up to the building to do some work. Belinda came in and asked if she could just sit in the chapel and pray. He invited her in and left her to pray. He also got her number and passed the information along to us - and in no time Belinda was baptized.
On Friday I got an email from Sister Gibb. She's from Utah, now lives in California, and has relatives here. One of her uncles passed away and she emailed to say she was coming up for the funeral. I picked her up late Saturday night. It was so fun to go to the airport and to see her! It's been 20 years since I left on my mission (I can't believe that!) but in many ways it seems like yesterday. She said I looked the same and I figured she looked the same too - until we got looking at my photo album and realized how much we've changed! It was fun to visit with her and learn about each other's husbands and children and the things we're each pursuing. She came to church with us on Sunday. I felt like we should go teach a YW lesson together or something! Funny how strong the pull is to roles we had!
Sister Gibb was my second companion. I had been out a month and got tranferred to a new area and asked to train. I always felt like we were training each other more than me being the one sharing wisdom. We were both new missionaries and didn't know to do anything other than what we'd been asked to do.
I learned so much when we served together! Here are a few things that come to mind right away:
* You don't have to do anything really above and beyond to be incredibly blessed....just have simple discipline and simply work. When we were companions we did what we were asked to do. We tracted what the mission president said we should tract. We approached missionary work the way he said to do it. We got up on time. We went to bed on time. We worked every day....and we had amazing success.
* I learned to trust myself in following the spirit. I remember one day teaching a discussion to Sonia. She was interested. She was sincere. But she just wasn't getting it. Finally Sister Gibb embarked on a topic that was not in the prescribed discussions. I had been thinking we should talk about the same thing, but didn't suggest it because it just didn't make sense. We didn't discuss it ahead of time - she just started in on the topic while we were teaching - and suddenly everything came together for Sonia. She didn't get baptized when we were there and I didn't hear of her getting baptized later - but I learned a lot about following the spirit while we taught Sonia.
* I learned that miracles can happen. For a while it seemed like we worked and worked and worked and nothing seemed to bring results. Following the advise of our District Leader we decided to pray that people that were prepared would find us....and that next Sunday Belinda came to church. It turned out it was a weekend where we weren't at that building (Stake Conference or General Conference or something like that) but a clerk had showed up to the building to do some work. Belinda came in and asked if she could just sit in the chapel and pray. He invited her in and left her to pray. He also got her number and passed the information along to us - and in no time Belinda was baptized.
1 comment:
My goodness - I always thought you looked like your Dad's side of the family, but when I looked at the top picture of you - I really thought it was your mom, not you. You sure do look like your mom in that picture.
Auntie Shirley
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