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.