Letters Home

Well another week has gone by. I cant belive how fast time moves. I was super happy to get your box of {xmas}stuff. Thanks a lot and I loved the pictures and letters. It was great to read about all of my friends and what they are doing. What great missionaries. I can feel their testimonies so strong and especially when Elder Rau mentioned that God offers forgivness to all. I read a talk not too long ago that was pretty profound. It was about the Atonment (possibly the most profound of all things). It was talking about how every organism or in other words intelgence, no matter its size or age, has characteristics and well....it is a really long talk but in shorter words it made me think a lot about that grand sacrifice. It talks about how when he died all the world and universe moaned for the death of its creator. It was really interesting. Anyways well Carman did not feel ready for her baptism quite yet so we are waiting another two weeks but she is pregressing great. As for chrismas well I am going to go over to the presidents for dinner. Now for the interesting stuff.....haha no not real interesting but something like that. Well I think at the end of the change ( six more weeks) I will be leaving the offices. President mentioned it to some other elders and I think that it is coming. After all I have been here for longer than just about any other secretary and feel that I have done a good job. However like always it will never be enough. Ok well I love you all and hope all goes well. Make sure to say high to everyone for me.

Love,
Elder Mckibben

Pictures

Letters Home

November 14, 2008

So this last week I got called out Friday to go to Zamora, Morelia, and Uruapan. An all day drive. It was crazy. The offices are making me old really fast. We returned saturday at about 10:00 at night. On the way back there was a really bad wreck a little ways ahead of us and one of the cars was on fire. Great stories of the road. I also found dunken donuts on the way.
Also like I wrote to Megan. I translated for an hour this last week at a meeting from Spanish to English. That was hard but now I have found something that I think would be fun to do. If you want the whole story ask Megan because I sent it to her.
Now for my favorite part. This last Sunday Lourdes got baptized and now has the goal to be sealed with her husband in year. That would be so cool if she moved up there with him and then I could go see their sealing in Washington afterwards. Anyways that made my week and now we are working with her kids. In my other letter I will send you pictures. and also a X-am list hmmmm haha. I love you all a ton and Ill see you in no time

Elder McKibben

Letters Home

November 13, 2008

Letter to Megan:

Ok you know what my great story was for today? Ok well there are actually two. I will save the best for last. So the first is that this last week there was an important meeting and Elder Carlos ( a 70) was there. President was up front with him and there were a ton of bishops and leaders in the seats. Well a couple of those leader are from Aijijic, which is a place here in Jalisco where there are a ton of Americans and a large percent of them do not speak Spanish (don’t know why they want to be here but ya) So I got to sit next to one of them for an hour and translate. Possibly one of the hardest things I have done. I can understand everything they say in Spanish but to translate it and listen at the same time is really hard. I think I lied a lot haha. Actually afterwards the other missionary that was translating told me that he had to make a lot of stuff up haha so that made me feel a little better. But I now want to better my capability to do it. The other great news is we had a baptism. Lourdes got baptized this last week. It was awesome. We are now working with her kids. I was so happy. The Lord really blessed us.Ok well that’s all.
Love You!

Elder Mckibben

How to get letters to Jesse

I apologies to everyone that today I posted Jesse's letter for the previous 3 weeks. I'm quite a slacker I know...

Since so many people have been having problems with the pouch service my mom has a new idea. If you want you can send all letters for Jesse to my parents house. My mom will then send a envelope each month with letters from everyone. This way they will get to Elder Mckibben and you don't have to worry about folding the letter the right way and all of that.

Please send all letters for Jesse to :

Elder Mckibben
ICO The Mckibben Family
400 W. Sheridan Circle
Nibbley, UT 84321

Letters Home

October 30, 2008

Hey family,

Well I am kind of busy and do not have a lot of time right now (like always). Actually we have a district meeting today and afterwards I get to do a baptismal interview. That is one of my favorite things to do because you can really see the changes that people have taken. Right now I have two families that are progressing or parts of the families are progressing. We have a few baptismal dates. I think if we exercise a lot of faith we could have about 5 baptisms or more in this month. Our goal is to have 15 baptisms by the end of the month.You know what? I am starting to get old. The mission sometimes just takes it out of you. Everyone one has been telling me that I have a bunch of wrinkles and bags under my eyes and I never really sleep well anymore. I feel fine just always tired, however I know that the Lord gives us strength when we are in the right cause and we ask for it. So I read a testimony that Pres. Packer gave in a testimony meeting. I am not sure if it is true or not, but it sounded like a warning call. He said that hard times were coming and that the youth will be forced to learn to live without all the things they have been so used to using. He said that we are seeing a financial crisis that we have not seen since the great depression. Actually that is what I am hearing from everyone right now. So my next question would be how is everything going over there? I do not know how it works out but actually the American dollar has more value here almost everyday. It has stayed at about 10 to 11 pesos per dollar for just about ever and in the last 2 months has jumped to 15. So now every dollar is worth 15 pesos basically. Pretty cool huh. So you all got another Dog. That is cool however I am not a fan of the big dogs but maybe he´ll grow on my when I get back. Hey you know what. My trainer is going to be going home this change. Crazy huh. His name is elder Bradshaw. I can not believe how time flies.

Ok now a couple stories. Well the other day my companion elder Padilla and I were walking and we passed one of the giant blow up air castles that kids jump around in. They are really popular here. Anyways everyone was jumping around in it and we heard a pop. The outside corner had blew out. However nobody noticed so we just kept walking by while watching it. Sure enough it started to deflate and everyone started getting pushed down. It was so funny however I think that maybe it is funnier to see than to hear about.

The other day we were driving to an appointment in a bus and as Sean now knows the bus drivers are crazy yet extremely skilled and can come within inches of things at high speeds. Well this time the bus driver was even more crazy and driving extremely fast and hit the side of a car. We were fine but a girl that was standing flew really far. It was actually also really funny.

This last week I did another Road trip to Colima. It was fun but we got a lost a lot this time. I did not get to sleep until one in the morning. What a crazy experience. I have now visited just about every place in the mission. There is only one zone that I have yet to visit, that being Ácambaro. I do not know when we will go there. I have to say however that Colima is my favorite drive, Very beautiful. Well I think I am now ready to drive in any place in the world. I have basically mastered México traffic. Ok well that is all.

Elder Mckibben~

also Elder Mckibben wanted me to post this on his blog:

¨Por fin me he dado cuenta que todos se han cansado de escribirme por que yo nunca puedo responder sin embargo voy a intentarlo más.

Pictures

Letters Home

October 23, 2008

Buenos días,

Well another week has gone by. It seems like time just keeps going faster and faster. I cant belive it. Time is going by so so fast. Sometimes I think it should slow down a little. At this rate I will be home next week. However there is still so much that I have to do. I kind of feel bad because we have not baptized in a really long time. I do not understand. We have worked really hard but we just do not see the blessings yet. Sometimes I think the Lord is trying our faith. Well I am not sure how much longer I will be in the offices, I think about 2 more months or maybe less. To be honest I am ready to leave the offices I think. They are great and I like them and everything but I just want to work more in the field. Well I love the Gospel and know that it is true. I love all of you and will see you in no time at all.

Elder Mckibben

Letters Home

October 16th, 2008

Hello Family,

Well another week has gone by. I cant belive it. It just all seems to junk together and is one quick time. I actually am starting to think that one day I am just going to wake up and be 80. Well the work goes on. We have a few baptisimal dates for some people but we need to exercise more faith and work even harder.I feel like there is always so much more that we can do. I remember thinking not to long ago that no matter how much we do it will never be enough. There will always be more. So you are thinking about getting another dog. That I think would be pretty good. I miss sparky and his style. Well I think I always have funny stories but some times I just do not have time to write them. I also do not have very many knew pictures. So I will work a bit harder so that this next time I will have more to tell you all. But for now I love you all so so so much.

Elder McKibben

Letters Home

October 9, 2008

Hello Family,

Well I did get my[birthday] box that you sent me. Thanks so much. I loved it however I must admit that hardly any of the Black liquorish made it into my mouth. One of the assistants (Bárcenas) and I discovered that when you throw them at some one they really really sting. Ya so that basically turned into a morning exercise one day haha. However I really enjoyed everything. Especially all the letters from my friends. It is so funny to read how much alike some of the places are to here where I am. As for pouch I wondered why all of the sudden people stopped writing me. Well pouch still exists and everything maybe they are just getting more picky about what can cross and what not. Ya I can not believe I am 20 years old. I have now left the teens. and I almost have 1 year in the mission. Well I just thought I would tell you a little bit about what happened today. Today I got up because all of my companions were singing happy birth day. Then the AP´s gave my a present. I opened it and it had a sticky not that told me to go look under the bed in the other room. So I went and looked and there was another sticky note. Well one by one I went through the whole house until it led me out to a patio that we have. It is a little hard to explain but this patio is room that has four walls but no top. Or in other words it is a room in the house that's walls extend up three floors and then there is no ceiling. Well the hunt ended in this room. What I did not realize was that all the other elders left and only Barcenas and one other were with me. While I was reading the card out there they shut the door and locked me out. Then all the other elders which had gone up top poured 5 buckets of water on me. Actually it was really funny.

Well I love you all and the work goes on,
Elder McKibben

Happy Birthday!

Today is Elder Mckibben's 20th birthday! Wow this is the first time Elder Mckibben has beenout of the country for his birthday. It's hard to believe he is no longer a teenager. He will come back a grown man and I'm not sure if I am ready for that :\ It's a good thing we have another year! ~Jesse and Megan a quite a few years ago~

~A complete goof~

~Elder Mckibben with his older brother Jared at the Portland Temple. This is the day he took out his endowments~

Elder Mckibben's last Christmas home

In Elder Mckibben's recent years it become very difficult to capture a serious picture of him....but then again he was always good for a laugh!

~Elder Mckibben with his good friends Elder Grow (also taken at the Temple) ~

Letters Home

Septmber 25th, 2008

Hey family
Well it sounds like life is hard for a lot of people. However I know that it goes on. This week was a very hard week. Comparable to the first weeks that I was in the field. A lot of things happened. I cannot explain all of them but it was a very long hard week. I am tired in a lot of ways. I have seen a lot of things that bug me. So many missionaries that just have so many problems. We all do. Some one once said that if you want proof that the church is true just look at the missionaries. If the church was not true they would have destroyed it by now haha. In a lot of ways that is true. You will meet some of the best missionaries in the world. People that are inspired and follow impressions. Then you will find others that are struggling so much. I am sorry to hear that some of the people in Bend are struggling. I hear that the USA is having a lot of problems. Well I should not focus myself on things like that too much. I hope all those people do better. I know that God is watching over us. I know that he is are great father. That he knows everyone one of us so well. That he loves us enough to send his only begotten son of whom I bear testimony that he is the Great Jehovah. God of the old testament and the Jesus Christ of the new. I testify that there is only one organization upon the earth that has the keys to fulfill saving ordinances. Give my love to every one in Bend. Tell all the C5 that the language comes. Sometimes it is difficult but study it. Speak it. Love it. And dominate it.

Pictures

~Sorry Elder Mckibben doesn't always send an explanation of his pictures!~

Letters Home

September 11, 2008

Hey family,

Well at this rate I think I will be home tomorrow or at least that's what it seems like. Life goes by so fast, and even faster here in las oficinas.Right now I am a little tired because my body did not get to sleep a lot last night do to the fact that we have 12 Americans coming in today, which means lots of work. Well I also went on another road trip to Zamora. It was a good road trip. I am starting to like driving in Mexico because if you want to do something you just do it and everyone makes room. For your sake I wont give anymore details haha. So we have a couple people that are progressing right now. One is Billy Conner. He´s from the USA and speaks perfect English and Spanish. He is a really good Man and wants to learn more. I have been thinking a lot about the adventures that I had with the YM in are ward. When I think about such things I get an overwhelming feeling of gratitude. What great people I have known. Well that is it for now. Oh and I do not know if I told you about my new companion. His name is Elder Padilla. He is a chilango haha and we always make jokes about it. He has about 7 months in the mission. Ok well I love all of you a lot. Ok well tell everyone that I love them and miss them but the time moves to fast.

Elder McKibben.

Pictures

~Elder Mckibben said this is a "big fish" his companion and him caught.~

~Elder Mckibben on the coast~

~The Garcia Family~

Letters Home

September 5th, 2008

Hey Family,

This last week I did not have time to write you guys. We went to the temple and had to do a lot of things. It was my fault. Anyways that is cool that you went hunting with Jared Dad. I hope you really had a good time. Well I have good news and bad news. First the bad news. Our family the Garcia's are falling and I think that we are going to have to drop them. I cant not explain the pain that it is going to cause but I can feel it coming. They are not keeping their commitments. Please pray for us and them. However on a positive note. Right now we have a little problem in the offices. Only one person is certified to drive in the crazy traffic here. That's right, your son. That however is not the good news. The good news is that I get to go on some cool trips. Today I went to Colima, and a part of it called Manzanillo. It is really really hot there. However we got to go to the ocean. And it was our P day so we got to spend a little bit of time there.I love you all a ton. Here are the pictures.

Elder McKibben

Letters Home

Hello Family,

Well another week has almost gone by. Funny thing happened today. I received a list of all the Elder waiting in the MTC. And behold there was Sean haha. From knowing, what I know about are missionaries that are waiting I am guessing Sean could have another couple weeks in the Utah mission. But he will get to Peru sooner or later. What a great guy. Well I had a couple funny experiences this last week. First off I was walking and contacting and contacted this old man that was walking.I said buenas Tardes and he then yelled grabbed my hand and began to shake with great force then he hugged me and began to scream, buenas tardes ¿cómo está? after about 10 seconds of this I was a little shook up and tried to restart the conversation but when I said again, I am elder mck....and he screamed again and started the whole thing over again however this time I had learned his tactic. So when he began to scream and tried to hug me, I hugged back with all my strength and yelled too. At this point my companion was on the other side watching us thinking that we were crazy hahah. But it was funny because after this time I yelled ¡Again! but he had had enough and did not want to do it hahaha. My other story was that we were walking along the street and in this one yard I quite possibly looked upon one of the ugliest dogs on the planet. I am going to send it to you but be careful because I do not know if you want to see something so nasty. Ok, what else? So we are still working with the Garcia family and I hope everything goes through with them. It looks like they will not be being baptized this week but it is still possible, so we are going to fast and see. They are really cool. Such a great family. I am meaning to send a picture of them but I got to get around to it. I hope the Grows are doing ok. Sometimes the Lord really allows some tests of faith to come along.But we just have to keep the gloves on and keep the good fight. Hey speaking of the fight, I got my mitts for boxing. Thanks a lot. Everyone here is surprised how fast I hit. But I got to work on my power. Well I think that is about it from LAS OFICINAS. Oh also. Dad I do not know if you remember but in the church there is a program they use to do just about everything. When ever you were counting money there was always a program on the computer in the church I do not know what it is called in English, but in Spanish is called MLS and now we are using it a lot and I am becoming quite the expert with it. How about that.Anyways I love you all a ton.
Elder McKibben

Pictures

~The Ugly Dog~ ~ Elder Torres~

~Elder Mckibben~

Letters Home

Elder Mckibben wrote me (Megan) today so I thought I would go ahead and share some of his letter with everyone.

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Hey Guys,

Well I got some really cool pictures for you today. And some good stories but I do not have a lot of time. One picture that I would send you but it turned out bad is a pictures of nest of a humming birds. They are so sweet. It is funny that you should mention that everyone is noticing that I don't write, because today I made the effort and wrote about five people, including brother Layton haha. Anyways I am glad you got a cool blog so that I do not have to write every single person however I think that people have had enough with me not writing back because now I never get letters hmmmm well...I will work on that. {this is a guilt trip for all your readers, i repeat big fat guilt trip :) }

Hey that is so cool that you threw out a bunch of movies. Those thing are worthless just about always. Better to grab a book, and yet even better...grab a book (maybe a blue one) and go preach the gospel with it.Ok well enough is enough. Right now I am in Guadalajara again and we are teaching a family of six. They are the Garcias. What a sweet family. We are also working hard in the offices. The other day I had to wait in a polacio (?) federal for two hours to register an American. 2 hours for one American and now we have a group of 13 Americans coming in. I do not even want to think about how much time I will spend in that place when I get to do there paper work hahaha just kidding.


Hey I wanted to send you a picture when I solved the Rubik's Cube. Sometimes in the offices my eyes get tired of looking at a monitor so I started using a Rubik's cube to focus on something else. It took days but finally I solved it and now I can do it in about 3 min.

Pictures

Letters Home

August 7, 2008

Hey family,

Today was a good day. It was my first day that I went to Federal Polacio with some other elders to do some visa stuff. Everything is going pretty good. Actually I am very excited, because we have a family that has been progressing really good. I can't even explain how good I feel when I am around them. There are 6 in the family. The dad and mom are Fernando, and Marialena, and the kids are Cristian, Luis, Maria, and Fatima. Fatima is the yougest and is 8 years old. It was so cool because we were praying the other day and the father Fernando gave the last prayer and we all could feel the spirit so so strong. Please prayer for us. I love you all so much and will talk to you all in a week.

Love ya all Elder McKibblles and Bitts

Testimony

El evanjelio de Jesucristo me ha bendecido en una manera que uno no puede explicar con estas cosas pequeñas que llamamos palabras.
Yo testifico que realmente hay un Dios. El Padre de todo el mundo, que nos ama más que lo que podemos comprender en esta vida. Por este amor, Él nos ha dado a su hijo amado en la carne Jesus el Cristo, para salvarnos de nosotros mismos. Él es el Cristo, fue el Cristo, y será para siempre, a esta verdad eterna he dedicado mi vida.
Sé por los sentimientos que he sentido, que Dios ha llamado a otro profeta en nuestros días. Y que el senor empezó esta dipensación llamando al profeta José Smith. Testifico de estas con confianza y lo hago en el nombre del hijo Jescristo amen

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I went ahead and translated Elder Mckibben's testimony through google translater and for the most part I think it makes sense. Anyways enjoy....
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The Gospel of Jesus Christ has blessed me in a way that one can not explain these things we call small words. I testified that really there is a God. Father of the whole world that loves us more than we can understand in this life. For this love, he has given us his beloved son in the flesh Jesus Christ to save us from ourselves. He is the Christ, was the Christ, and will be forever, to this eternal truth I have devoted my life. I know from the feelings that I felt that God has called another prophet today. And that he began this dispensation by calling the prophet Joseph Smith. I witness these things with confidence and I do so in the name of his beloved son Jesus Christ amen

Letters Home

July 31, 2008

Ok so what’s new.....well right now we have a family of four, two and three, that we are teaching, and one other guy. I hope all goes well with this family. They have an 8 girl that I think could be baptized in a second she is so smart for her age. Well I like my position right now because I get to see and talk with the president more then just about anyone in the mission except the AP´s. President and I were going over his schedule the other day and I cannot believe how busy he is. Imagine this for example, he is always traveling, always talking on the phone while he is traveling, and reading papers while he is talking. So at the least he is triple tasking, he just needs a piece of gum and he could be quadruple (who knows how you spell that) tasking. hahaha. But really he does so much and never has a break. This week that is coming up he will be at a zone conference almost every day and about 10 hours of interviews everyday and that’s if every interview is only 15 minutes. What a guy I know. Think about how many people complain about church calling that require getting up early or taking time out of the week. Sometimes president doesn’t sleep at night. Anyways I am learning a lot, I just have to work really hard to keep on track because it is really easy to become a frito in the offices. Anyways I love you. Hey I am going to give you my testimony in Spanish so Megan can put it on this blog. Thanks and love you all a ton.

Addresses for Writing

Here are the addresses for Elder Mckibben:

Elder Mckibben's Adrress:

Mexico Guadalajara South Mission
Calle Aguamanna #3292
Colonia Reciencial Victoria
Zapopan, Jalisco 45089

The puch service address:

Elder Mckibben
Mexico Guadalajara South Mission
POB 3150
Salt Lake City, Ut 84138-0150
U.S.A

Note on the pouch service only post cards or single sheet letter folded twice, tape on end, write address on back this is so they can make sure it is only a letter, if you do it any other way it will be returned to you.

Pictures

Letters Home

July 24, 2007

Hey Family,

Well today is my p-day and no I have not received my box. I am still waiting and am a little worried that it not going to show up. I hope it does. I really want to start working out in the morning. Well ya, I am the secretary to the president. I take care of all the arrivals and departures for the missionaries. That includes visas, passports, and a bunch of paper work. I also change the changes or in other words I move all the missionaries around on the big board. I also do a lot of the affairs for the president like send him important e-mails and even check his e-mail sometimes. But the funnest thing of all is I get to call all the parents of the missionaries and the stake presidents so I get to have a lot of fun with that. My companion is Elder Clark. He is the financial secretary one of the hardest jobs. Or in other words one of the jobs that requires more work. One night we were up till three o clock in the morning. In the offices will still have rules but we can change a lot of them in accordance with needs. The president really trusts us a lot. We still go a and knock on doors but it is really hard to do it because we are so busy. I have 13 Americans leaving this month and 13 coming in so I have a ton of computer work. Its hard. But of all the missionaries I am one of the ones that talk with president most so I get to learn a lot of how he works.What else......well ya we get to go to the temple I am not sure if I told you in the last email that we went. It is a really neat temple. We also went to outback steak house with the president. SHHHWWEEEEETTTT¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡! That's cool everything is going well for Elder Simpson. I got a letter the other day from brother Layton. I feel bad because I never write back. I have not written a letter in almost 7 months, actually I have written a bunch but I never put them in the mail.Ok well give everyone my love. I love you guys and will see you in no time.

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In reference to working out and a package Elder Mckibben has been waiting for his mom to send his boxing gear so him and his companion can "work out". My mom did send it the other day ($140 shipping) and it came back! Apparently my dad had sent Elder Mckibben some beef jerky. Well just for your information you cannot mail meat across the border to Mexico. Needless to say the package got returned to my mom. I don't think she will be spending any more money trying to send it down to Mexico. But if anyone is heading that way let us know haha.

MTC

Elder Mckibben entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah on November 7, 2007. His first night there one of his roommates disappeared in the middle of the night. Apparently the Elder wasn't quite ready for his mission. How's that for reassurance? Elder Mckibben felt that he struggled with the language while in the MTC but now that he is in the field he is doing much better with his Spanish. Just a couple of weeks after Elder Mckibben got to Mexico he became very ill. Apparently he ate some food from one of the street vendors. Had he known it was actually a mission no no he wouldn't have touched the food. His eating food from a street vendor resulted in his hospitalization and an IV. He just got some sort of a stomach virus but he recovered in just a couple of days and will think twice next time before eating off the streets.

What it's about...

I have decided to start this web page so that friends and family across the lands can follow Elder Mckibben (Jesse) on his mission. I am not promising anything fancy. I also can't promise Elder Mckibben will write too much for me to post. I am lucky to get an email with 3 or 4 lines every couple of weeks. However I will do my best to help everyone keep posted on the missionary experiences and such. I would encourage all family and friends to feel free to leave your comments. We are also happy to pass along any comments to Elder Mckibben. We also encourage writing him all the letters you wish. Enjoy!