Sunday, March 17, 2013

January 7, 2012

My investigators, well God's investigators, are so great. I love them. They are all so up and down. One of our investigators is going out of town for 2 weeks. In missionary world, that is a long time with no face to face contact! A transfer is only 6 weeks! But he is reading and studying many things. His wife is so gung-ho about the gospel that she is already talking about being sealed and he is still trying to find out whether God and Jesus are separate beings! We need to give him milk before meat. Spiritually he needs to be taught slower than she wants. Change and conversion is a process, not an event. 
 
B is funny because she doesn't want to be a mormon, but she has no clear understanding of what we believe. We try to teach her something and she goes off on a tangent, or disagrees. But she is great and so kind hearted.
The sister we got from a referral is a sweetheart. She called us at 1 in the morning because she was lonely. I felt bad that I was so deep in sleep that I didn't hear it ring. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. She agrees with most of it but doesn't think she can do it. Doesn't believe she can repent. She has zero self-confidence. We say, "We know you can do this. Christ will help you." "I can't do it. I think I'm Satan. I can't find peace. I'm so depressed all the time." "You're not Satan. You are a daughter of God, who loves you and wants you to realize your importance to Him. He has a plan for you." "You think so?" She is a sweet soul who needs friends and needs the gospel. We ARE going to clean her house the next time we go over there. It smells like hair. Dog hair, cat hair, people hair, old hair, you name it. I feel bad that she doesn't have the energy to do it herself. She feels so terrible and like a sinner because she is "slothful". Her heart is so humble. The thing with her is she is not in our area. She is in a different city, so we can't really invite a member from our ward to go with us. We need someone from her ward to fellowship her.
 
I love baptisms! They make my soul burst with joy! For "except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). And it must be done by God's authority. I hope you call that recent convert girl. Talk to her and help her feel included and loved. Sometimes when people get baptized, they get lost in the fold. Don't let that happen to her.
 
G got offended by an opinion that he asked for about a money issue. Dumb. It is sad to see people walk away from Christ's church just because of a small offense by an imperfect person. Yes, it may have hurt G, but he should not base our entire church off of one opinion. I pray that his heart will soften for later.
 
Well, I best be going.
 
-Sister Zibetti

December 31, 2012

It was so nice to talk with all of you last week! My companion and I talked about our experiences after. She asked if it distracts me to talk with my family and I said, "Suprisingly no. It actually motivates me to do better!" It's strange. It's like seeing you reminds me of part of the reason I came out here. To serve and teach others so they can have a loving family in the Gospel like I do. So thank you for your motivation!
 
We are teaching S. His wife was less active for 20 years and is recently starting to come back. They got married 2 years ago. They had both been divorced previously. S is coming to church and he has many questions. Some of the doctrines he doesn't yet agree with. It's a good thing that the Spirit is actually real, and that Moroni's challenge in the Book of Mormon actually works. There actually is a God and He truly is our loving Father in Heaven and wants us to find joy, and He has set up a way for us to find that joy and it is though His Son Jesus Christ.
 
We met with B again to do some service. She is great. She keeps hearing the "meat" of the gospel before the "milk". She thinks it is blasphemous that we believe that we can become like God one day. We need to teach her the basics before the deep doctrinal things. She is very open with her feelings so that is good. It helps when people are honest, then we can better help them. It might take some time with her. The truth is, we can become like God. That is why we left the pre-mortal existence in the first place! Because we weren't like him. We didn't have a body that was glorified, perfected and full of knowledge and we wanted one.
 
We met with a referral. Her dog is super creepy. Probably possessed by a bad spirit. But Barbara is very nice. She wants to stay Catholic, but sincerely asks us how to come closer to Christ. We tell her the ways and she doesn't agree. We told her to pray to know the truth. She also believes in the Eucherist-where they think it is literally the body and blood of Christ which they are partaking of. We will teach her the Restoration and she doesn't have to agree. But at least she has been taught and in the next life, she can accept it when her mind is not hindered otherwise. We will work on being her friend. She is lonely and innocent and needs the truth.
 
G dropped us. It never feels good when an Investigator says they don't want to meet anymore. It actually inflicts pain upon my heart. But I know that God is in the details of all of His Children's lives. He has a perfect view of the big picture and the timing of everything for each individual. I trust that his ways are not my ways and that I must rely upon His knowledge and not my own limited view. 
 
Well, I've discovered that if it is not one thing in missionary work that is going wrong, it is another. Satan has a way of weasling his way into everything. I pray for strength and guidance from the Spirit, then things go well. I think that is the same in life. Just don't allow Satan in. Tell him, "Get thee hence!"
 
I hope you have all set some new personal goals for 2013!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is going to be a good year. Make goals in the eternal perspective, not in just a yearly perspective. Ask Heavenly Father to review your goals with you and revelation will not be hindered.
 
Choose the right when a choice is placed before you.
 
-Sister Zibetti
 
PS I got to see the D.C. VC! It felt good to be back in a Visitor Center for a bit. :)

December 24, 2012

Hello family! Happy Christmas!
I love being a missionary. It is awesome; full of awe! I received a new companion!
My new companion is Sister Anderson! I love her! She has 11 weeks left. Crazy! She served in Gainesville once before! Rarely do missionaries go back to the place they already served. This is her second Christmas here in Gville. So she knows a lot. I am excited to serve with her.
 
 
I spoke in church yesterday about the birth of Christ and "good tidings of great joy"! People told me different things, which is good I guess because hopefully it was done by the spirit and each received what they needed. T, an investigator, said it was a very calming talk, a member from the Bishopbric said it was spot on, B, an investigator, said it was very informative and more geared towards children. One sister said, "You tell stories so well! I have the attention span of a 5 year old but you got me to listen the whole time. I want you to come over to my house and share stories like that with me more!" Haha! I'm not sure if that was a compliment or not haha. :) I was nervous because it was Christmas and the youth speaker didn't show. (She was a recent convert who was supposed to speak. We helped her with her talk and she had it ready but didn't show. I think she got scared. That's okay though. I hope she doesn't feel like she can't show her face anymore. We still love her.) Bishop Eliason was the other speaker and there were only 2 musical numbers. I did my best to follow the spirit, teach doctrine and share personal experiences. I covered Luke 2 and 3 Ne. 1.
 
-Sister Zibetti

December 17, 2012

We had a great lesson with a fellow this week! His wife has been less active for 18 years, but read the BoM and came back to church. Now we are meeting with her husband. He is so great. He is a lawyer and travels a lot. We had a good lesson with him about God's love for us and the importance of Prophets. He said about prophets, "I don't buy it". yet... We are praying. We will take everything slow and sure. The spirit is there, and that's all that counts. His wife tries to explain a lot, and sometimes the conversation gets intense. We are doing out best to keep it all under control. I am relying fully on the spirit.
 
He invited us to dinner after a lesson. Ha! We went to this place called Volcano! It's soo cool! They have a lava stone that can stay very hot for a very long time. The waitress brings out your slab of meat on the heated up lava stone and you cook it yourself! I got steak and alligator! I'm not sure if I'm a bad cook, or if I'm allergic to alligator, but I got really sick afterwards. haha! Maybe I'm allergic to lava stone.
 
We met with a former investigator. He is so kind! He has COPD. He use to smoke. He attends a baptist church currently. We are trying to teach him about prophets. Joseph Smith was REALLY a Prophet! Why don't people believe in modern revelation? It makes so much sense. I need to be more patient.
 
We had a lesson with a lady. She said there is one more step that she needs to take before her baptism. She just doesn't know what yet. She knows she wants to get baptized, just not yet. She is becoming an "eternal investigator". She is great though! She comes to church, well sacrament meeting, a lot. We want to have a lesson with her with President Riggs!
 
The Lord is blessing us with lessons. I am praying that these lessons will result in a conversion! That is what the Lord wants and it is possible. We just need to do it!
 
I love Gainesville, I love my mission, I love the people I meet, I love my leaders, I love my companion, I love the Lord.
There are struggles, but Heavenly Father always helps me through them.
 
We have had 2 lovely Christmas Devotionals. One with the whole mission and one with our stake. Both good and powerful.

I love you! I am doing my best to stay patient. Thank you for your prayers.
 
-Your sister in the Gospel
Sister Zibetti

December 11, 2012

A young man from my ward here just got his mission call to Trevor's EXACT same mission! California Anaheim. Reports to MTC Feb. 27th. I gave him the home phone and asked him to call Trev to chat haha. So you might get a random phone call. I didn't know Trevor's cell #.
 
It sure sounds like you guys have been very busy lately. Trevor! Awesome job making beautiful frames. Ya know, Christ's earthly father was Joseph, a carpenter and Jesus probably learned much about how to make beautiful carvings and things from wood. You are just like him!
 
For Christmas, as of right now, if I stay in Gainesville, I will try to do as much service as possible. Then we are having Christmas dinner with a Recent Convert. I LOVE her! She is divorced and has twin boys. She just found out that the lawyer and her ex-husband did some tricky stuff with the holiday contract and he has the boys both Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day. She was expecting to have them at least on of the days. So it is really sad, but we will be there to celebrate with her! Her first Christmas as a member of the Church! She's amazing!
 
Yes on Preparation day we get to get together with other missionaries. It is wonderful. They are all going through the same things as I am, at different stages, so it is nice to be able to talk and gain instruction from one another.
 
Well, I have used all my time. I'm sorry I didn't share much from this week. Yesterday we had a half mission conference where Elder Packer of the 70, President Packers son, came to speak to us. It was AMAZING! So our Preparation day got changed to today.
 One of my favorite scriptures is from 2Ne. 31:12 "Follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do". -Jesus Christ. So as you follow Christ, and others follows you, you lead her to Christ. Yeah, forcing someone to do something will never last. We were talking about Faith the size of a grain of a mustard seed can move mountains and Elder Packer said, "I don't know that a mountain has agency, but a person does!" So, even if our faith an intentions are strong, it can not impede on a person's agency. Agency is a higher law.
 
Well I best be off.
 
-Sister Zibetti

December 3, 2012

 It has not yet snowed here. Just some light rain. Many from our ward have been going up on the weekends to help in the Relief Efforts from Storm Sandy. I have an amazing ward and stake. I want to go up and help! But I don't think that'd be the best option to help out the Gainesville area.

I met an investigator! He has been investigating the church for quite a while. He is a Federal Air Marshal, which means he sits on airplanes armed and disguised, ready to protect specific people throughout the flight. He is very busy. He showed me his gun collection. It was exciting! The boys would love to know that he has 10 guns in his house. M16, glok and sniper being the three I liked the most. Although, I do wish there was no need for guns in the world, he has some pretty cool ones. He let me test shoot the sniper rifle. You barely have to pull the trigger for it to shoot. It is a mechanism that allows for more accurate and quick release of the bullet.
Anyway, he has a big heart and would give you the shirt off of his back if you needed it. I can't wait to teach him more. He thought I looked familiar. People tend to think that around me...I'm not sure why. I just tell people it is because we knew each other before this life. Usually they laugh, but at least it gets them thinking.
 
Well I love you! I hope everything is going well! I am working hard on longsuffering. My mission president is having me study it.
 
We should get a large influx of sisters in January. I might be training. That scares me quite a bit. There is so much I do not know how to do.
 
I must be off, not much time.
-Sister Zibetti

November 26, 2012

To Trevor: I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU! That is where my MTC Companion Sister Tagge went. ASL speaking! (Anaheim CA mission)  AWWWWWWWWWWWWE T!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How do you feel? This is going to be perfect for you. I was thinking about you the other day. People need humor in the world and you are the perfect one to give it. They need your humor with the Gospel incorporated. They need your happiness. Especially in Anaheim California! This is fantastic! Woah! We both will have been in the MTC in the same month when you go! Which Temple? Prepare for that too. It is God's House.  
There is an Elder here who's from that mission! He just told me that is his home ward mission. He is so excited for you! His words were: "That's a hard mission. Especially the Placentia Zone." "Why?" I asked. "Because there's not a lot of success. But it is the funnest mission." I asked if there are a lot of Polys in your mission and he said, "They are in Cypress and West Covina, so yeah".  But with faith in Jesus Christ, you can move mountains. It doesn't matter what he says. Another person could tell you it is the most successful mission on earth! It is all about how you view it. Your attitude will make all the difference. They seriously need an Elder Zibetti there! Being obedient to mission rules brings success. AND one of my favorite lines in Preach My Gospel is: "your success as a missionary is measured by your COMMITMENT to find, teach and baptize the elect." So truly, God will measure your success by YOUR commitment. Not your companions' and not your baptism rate. Plus who knows....you could have 100 baptisms! Who knows? It doesn't matter. I don't have any baptisms yet, I am still working hard, but the only number I am truly going to count is myself and how converted I am becoming to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This week has been a tough one, but a good one. We found a lot of Potential investigators. One lady opened the door and a dog was barking so loud. She looked troubled. I said, "We are missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We know your neighbors." (who are members of our ward.) She said, "Now is not a really good time. I have to shower and go to work really fast." She was trying to calm the dog and talk at the same time. She let the dog go outside and it jumped licked us, and as soon as she let it go, the tears started to flow. She just cried. she said, "You can come back next week, just earlier." We said okay and as she was closing the door I said, "Just know that you are loved and thought of..." she nodded and the door went 'click'. It felt like the perfect thing to say and what she needed to hear. I love her. We will see if she lets us in next week. 

We had Sister Jeppsen with us today. SHE IS INCREDIBLE! She talked to everyone and was very sincere. I learned a lot from her.

Yesterday after church we planned to visit people who said we could come at a specific time and they weren't home. So we tried someone else; not there. Then I suggested a bunch of people and my companion didn't want to, but she went along with me. We decided to follow up with a man who we gave a BOM to a week or so ago who was very open, the ethiopian man. He called his wife over to the door and she explained that they are Orthodox Catholic and they are not looking to switch their religion. I couldn't take it anymore. My eyes started to well up with tears and my lip was shaking and trembling. I stared at her, determined not to look at the man because I knew he was staring at me, watching the emotion on my face. I said in a very controlled voice to the man, with the most sincere look I could muster, "Well, I hope that you read the book." I did the best I could to smile. The wife started talking again about something how added books are not good. I wasn't listening. We left their porch and got to the car. By this time, my tears were flowing. It took a while for my comp to notice. She felt bad and asked what was wrong, "I just want people to teach who are progressing" I said through my tears. She sang me an awesome song to help lift my spirits. I am not really a big cry-er. But this was the straw that broke the camels back. I know the Lord was very aware of me in my hour of need and I felt his love. 
I am better now and trying to work harder.
Mom, thank you so much for all of those quotes. They were perfect timing and of perfect relevance to everything I needed to read and hear and feel. And the one from Kylen as well. Thank you so much for searching for those and writing them and making copies for the other missionaries. I know they will love getting those quotes. 
Thanksgiving was awesome! We helped another church serve Thanksgiving meal. There were more volunteers than patrons. It was funny. But we created a good bond I think and left a good impression. Then we had Thanksgiving dinner at the Eagans. I love them. It was awkward at first. They have a son and his wife who are not members. It was good to talk with them. Then their daughter's boyfriend announced that he is going to be baptized in January! The daughter has 2 kids already and needs a father. It is so great! Broken families can be fixed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
I am plugging along! I love it. Days are up and down but it is all worth every effort.
A recent convert shared his conversion story at a mission home fireside last night, at which I played the piano. The Lord really does know me and helps me conquer all.

Pictures from VA

We found a random piano in the street. I couldn't resist.

Sister Hanson and Sister Zibetti in the Storm
DC Temple


November 19, 2012

Hello! WOW!!!!!!!! Lots of exciting news this week! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOoOOoooooOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOoooooo
oooooOOOOOO ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited to hear about Trevor's mission call!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ah!
Trevor, if I could only offer one thing of advice to prepare for your mission, it would be: practice talking to people. Start up conversations with random strangers. That is what you will be doing a lot and trying to get to a topic about religion and the restoration and the Savior, is not always easy, and love them as the Savior would/does.
If I could say another thing it's be: gain a testimony. What do you know for yourself and how can you share it with unshaken faith?
I hope the call comes soon! No matter where it is, just know, there are investigators, companions, ward members and strangers waiting to be blessed by Elder Trevor Zibetti!
 
For Thanksgiving we have been invited to the Eagan's home! They have nonmember family members who will be there, which is a good thing! Then I think we'll be tracting! haha! visiting investigators.


This week, our toilet flooded. Haha! It was super nasty. So...sister Hanson and I had a feces fiesta! We cleaned it all up. And as crazy as this sounds, it brought my companion and I closer together in unity. We were working hard together and laughing at how we kept gagging. The Lord works in mysterious ways. But I am so grateful that He did this for us. We are able to be more and more open with each other.


We had a great lesson with a new investigator! She is the most servicefull lady I've ever met! She brings her kids with her just about everywhere and they love her to pieces. It is like she's already a member, but not baptized. She doesn't fully understand a lot of our concepts, but is still striving to learn and understand more. We challenged her to have a consistent prayer and study with her family each day. She said she knew she needed to start doing that more. The Spirit directed us to challenge that. She also said she'd be baptized on Dec 17th if she finds out these things are true. Yay!
Things are going really well. I need to be more diligent and hard-working. I can feel the prayers and blessings from you all. Thank you for being a righteous family; one who follows the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. Have a great Thanksgiving! Tell all there that I am grateful for them.