First off, thanks you all for the amazing postage Christmas! I honestly wasn't expecting the amount of gifts I received. But it means alot! And the cards have been great. Elder Hudson makes a comment about the large family I have every time he goes to the fridge because of the amount of christmas cards I have stuck to it. But thank you all it really does mean a lot!
This week in Virginia was strange. Fredericksburg is a hard enough community already to tract in because no one is ever home during the day. Everyone works. But this week was particularly hard because everyone was gone to go visit families. But that didn't stop us from tracting.. We went to a neighborhood about 2 miles away and tracted in the rain for about 2 hours. The unusual thing about Virginia right now is that the temperature is around 70°. So that made being soaked less miserable. We didn't get any new investigators though. Then we had a couple appointments to keep but other than that our week was slow. We spent the majority of it studying and planning for the up coming weeks. We ate at the Chong's house for Christmas eve and they are native Hawaiians so needless to say we got fed very well. We got a chance to skype at their house and it was really nice to see everyone.
Christmas day was also very fun! Around 6:00 am the Zone Leaders came and woke us up and we went over to their apartment for breakfast and for gifts. Oh and I wanna say my secret santa was Sydney! Both ties are awesome and and my new favorites. Elder Hudson loves his new shirt! (Pictures below) We went around the room and all said stuff we like about the other elders, I only have my video but I'll share it. After breakfast we were invited to the Jett's for dinner, but it turned out to be an all day event spending time with them and getting to know their family. But over the course of the week, both me and elder Hudson gained weight. We are making resolutions to start pushing ourselves harder in morning workouts.
I read the Book of Mormon in the MTC, but I'll admit I didn't get much out of it so I'm trying to read it again. One scripture that stood out to me this week was 2 Nephi 31:20. It reads:
"Ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and love for god and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."
Even though we tracted in the rain and got no new investigators I still feel like we are winning. From the point of the natural man that would be considered a loss. But I'm learning to think a different way out here. We are working our way to an investigator that Heavenly Father has been preparing for us. It doesn't matter that we got soaked and shut down on multiple doorsteps, it matters that we are pressing forward with a steadfastness in Christ, and that we have hope. The time will come when Heavenly Father meets us with his children that need to hear the word.
I love you all so much and hope that all is well! I wrote this email in a rush so there may be typos, but hopefully you'll understand! Have fun with your week off and enjoy the snow. I know I'm enjoying the short-sleeve weather out here. 'Till we meet again...
- Elder Caleb Gibbons
All the elders opening gifts.
Brother Traveller's house. We call him santa because, well he is santa. So I guess you can call this santa's house.
The basement is dedicated to Elvis Pressley. Mrs. Clause loves collecting vintage items from the Elvis period.
They have a rootbeer bar in their basement. And every once and a while they'll have the elders over for rootbeer floats.
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