So I am now serving in….. Indianola Iowa, just a few miles south of Des Moines. I am with a sweet companion. He is Elder Austin from Macon Georgia. It took a while but I have really grown over the last few days to enjoy this guy. He is really loving and a really good missionary. He has been out for 13 months. I have heard that Indianola is a really hard place but I have really been enjoying it. It is strange being out of the city. I am back in a small town and for years the work has been dead here but it is starting to pick up again. We have a lot of investigators. The branch is smaller but not like the German branches Eric is in. We have about 15 active families making about 40-45 active people. Elder Austin is loving and caring and a really good guy and a good teacher. He is a hard worker and I am excited to be working with him. The area is great. There are a lot of really good people here and I am looking forward to the 6+ months that I will be here. It is a town of about 1500 people and then we have the surrounding towns that we work in as well.                 Other than that all I have to stay is Iowa is cold. Usually under 20, and often in the single digits with humidity that cuts through you. It is going to be warming up to about 35-36 next week and I am excited for that. We have had a little bit of snow over the past few days but nothing major.  I am excited to be working here and to be serving my God. I know this church is true and I know that I am here for a reason. I love and thank all of you. -- Elder Jacob Gibson of the Iowa Des Miones mission

Hello everyone, this is going to be a short letter. I will be talking to my family on Wednesday so I won’t have much to add. I am going to be transferred. I will be staying as a district leader but moving to a different place. I will find out where when I get there next week. I am emailing today because the libraries will be closed Monday. This week has been a short one. We had a really big snow storm. 14 inces it is sweet. I love the snow. My companion has never seen this much snow he does not get why it is that I like it. The good part is that because of the storm more people where home the bad party is that because of the snow we could not ride bikes or drive so even though more people where home we had no way to contact them. But that ok. We have spent most of our week working with a man who will be baptized next Saturday. His family still needs some time to progress so we will wait a few weeks and if all goes well he will be able to baptize them. Other than that there are a few people that we are still working with that are just not willing to do what we ask them so we will have to move one soon. We have been meeting some really cool people lately though who we are hoping to be able to start teaching. I know that as they receive this gospel they will be greatly blessed. Not much else has changed. We are surviving the storm and enjoying the chances to help serve people as we shovel their drive ways and clean off their cars. I love you all and I will be writing more when I get to my new area next week.

Merry Christmas..... Almost

This week went by really quickly. It was a good week. We now have a few people working towards baptism. Its strange, I went from teaching mostly people from Burma to teaching mostly people from Africa. The ones from Africa speak a lot better English though. I am enjoying working with them. They are humble and unlike many of the people we talk to, they don’t assume they already know everything there is to know about Mormons. I am enjoying teaching the people here in Iowa and I am excited to continue to meet new people. It is hard to tell that the Christmas season is approaching. Usually you cant see the ground out here because there is too much snow, but this year is extremely mild. I hope we get some moister soon because the farmers really need it. Because next Monday is Christmas eve I don’t yet know if I will get the opportunity to email. I am looking forward to talking to my family next Tuesday. Also know that there is a 99.999999999999999% chance of me being transferred. If you are going to send something directly to my apartment instead of the 8515 address I may not get it if it is sent after Tuesday of this week(that is the 18th). If you send it to the 8515 address it will be forwarded to me. Transfer calls are this Saturday and I will let you know the verdict in my next email. Elder Deering is doing well. He is a good missionary. They call me the trainer but I am learning much more from him then I have ever taught him. I love all of you. I thank you for your Christmas wishes and although I am too poor to send anything to most of you, know that I wish you well and that I care for all of you. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that this church is Gods kingdom once again established on the earth. I hope all of you have an amazing week and a merry Christmas.

my letters will be more intresting starting next week. i will find a way to make that happen. This week as been a really up and down week. A guy who was baptized while I was here is no longer willing to talk to anyone from the church. People who we have been teaching have again disappeared. It has been cold and wet and we have been on bikes. But we have also had many miracles. We have been given more people to teach and more to do. We have had opportunities to serve more people and the spirit has been directing the work for us. I am so glad that I have this precious time to be a missionary. I love it. Although times have been hard the lord has been blessing us. I have been growing to love the people we teach more and more. Although I will not be here to see much of the end results for the work I am doing now I will hear about it and I am excited for what is to come. On that note I am 100% sure that I will be transferred 2 days after Christmas. The post office is closed on Christmas and Christmas Eve. If you want to send me something do it this week or send it to my mission office. 8515 Douglas Ave 50322. So like I said earlier the lord is blessing us here. We have a lot of appointments this week and we are looking forward to setting up a few more. People think that just because they have disappeared they can hide but we have ways to find them. J The Christmas season is a great time to share the restored gospel with all those you meet. It is an exciting time of year. There is free music on Mormon.org/Christmas it is good, get it and share it. We have been using a lot of our time trying to talk to people who for one reason or another have not been to church in a while. I will say there are some angry people out there but the lord has been blessing us in our trials. I love this work so much. It is hard and frustrating and annoying and people mock you and hate you, but it is the most rewarding thing anyone could ever do. I love all of you. This work moves forward, become a part of it in any way you can. I know that this church is true. The Holy Ghost has spoken to me and told me this. I love you all and I thank you all for all of your faith and for your prayers.

This week was great. We were finally able to contact a lady who had just disappeared for a few weeks and she is doing well. We also set a few baptismal dates and we are looking forward to a family being baptized at the end of this month. They are from Liberia. They have family members and friends that are members of the church in Africa and her in Des Moines and all over the rest of the world. We are excited for them and it is amazing to see the changes in their lives. In many ways the work is still slow but it is doing much better. We are working hard and trying every method available to us. There are always disappointments. Some of the people I have worked with have fallen are are starting to fall away. It hurts to see them leave when you know they have had those spiritual witnesses but I also know that I have done all with in my power and within reason to try to help them. Surprisingly it is not that cold here. We are having a really mild winter. I was kind of hoping for an awful winter just so that I could have cool stories to tell but I guess we will just wait and see what happens. If we have a warm winter and a dry summer again it will impact a lot of the people out here. We have had a little bit of frost but no snow yet which is extremely unusual for Iowa. I am still not losing hope that a huge storm will hit us. Other than that things are going well. We are doing our best to work hard and to bring people to Christ. I want you all to know that I know This church is true I know the book of Mormon to be true. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that he really did appear to the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that keeping the commandments brings blessings and that if you follow rules you will be rewarded greatly. I love all of you. If you feel inclined to send me a Christmas present send it usps so it will be forwarded. It is hard for me to get it otherwise (not that I am suggesting that I need presents but ties are always a nice things to have) again I love you all. Have a great week.