6 Months out

So this week I'll hit my six month mark. Crazy how fast time flies
when you're serving a mission. But this last week wasn't as fun as I
would've hoped for. We have great weeks and bad weeks and sometimes
they suck but you have to hold you're head high as you move through
it.

So to start this week off we had an exchange with the district leader,
and I taught one of our investigators in Spanish, but halfway through
the lesson the district leader said something in Spanish (I don't know
what) but she got offended and dropped us. Which sucked because she
had the most potential out of all our investigators. But it happens..
To end the exchange we are some Mexican food at a awesome restaurant.
But before that I had a canker sore so I was constantly putting
cankaid on it, and I got sick from putting fingers in my mouth. And
the Mexican food made it worse. So I had to work feeling like crap for
the next two days. And it was super disappointing when people heard me
talk and told us to come back when we weren't sick. So the rest of the
week we taught other people and actually had a good lesson at the end
of the week.

But I mean even though we ended the week on a good note, we had to
attend two funerals in our ward this week, and I found out that a
recent convert, in our last ward, her daughter died on Friday and her
funeral is tomorrow. So there's been a lot of people dying around here
for some reason. And I just got the news yesterday that GreatGrandpa
Gibbons passed away on Friday as well. So I'm trying to keep my mind
off of that as much as I can but its hard not to think about.

As far as finding efforts go in Rivanna, we found two new people who
are very willing and able to read from the Book of Mormon and
progress. So we are still working hard and seeing many miracles!

I took some cool pictures on Friday and maybe it was because of how
crowed the gates were up there? Haha but I'm trying to keep my head up
and continue working with a positive attitude!

Love you all and hope that all is well at home.

- Elder Caleb Gibbons

Fwd: President James Monroe

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Kenneth Traveller <kdtraveller@gmail.com>
Date: May 24, 2016 at 10:17:39 PM MDT
To: Arla Gibbons <gibbons.arla@gmail.com>
Subject: President James Monroe

President James Monroe was the fifth President of the U.S.  He was born in Westmoreland County, fought the war under George Washington, studied law with Thomas Jefferson and had a law office in Fredericksburg.  He signed the Monroe Doctrine on the desk in the photo. Also on the plaque notice the name at the bottom. This museum is in Fredericksburg.

Enjoy,

Ken Traveller 

Fwd: George Washington's Birthplace at Pope's Creek

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Kenneth Traveller <kdtraveller@gmail.com>
Date: May 24, 2016 at 10:02:13 PM MDT
To: Arla Gibbons <gibbons.arla@gmail.com>
Subject: George Washington's Birthplace at Pope's Creek

This is about 45 miles east of Fredericksburg still in Westmoreland County.  The Elders were excited to see where our first President was born and also to see the Potomac river. When they stood at the edge of the river they were actually in Maryland and the DC North Mission.

Enjoy

Ken Traveller

Fwd: Stratford Hall

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Kenneth Traveller <kdtraveller@gmail.com>
Date: May 24, 2016 at 9:42:17 PM MDT
To: Arla Gibbons <gibbons.arla@gmail.com>
Subject: Stratford Hall

Sorry it took so long to get these photos to you but we have been visiting our daughter and her family.  They live just south of San Francisco. Had a great time now it is back to reality.

Stratford Hall was a plantation house of four  generations of the Lee family of Virginia. It is the birthplace of General Robert E. Lee and two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  It is about 40 miles east of Fredericksburg in Westmoreland County.

Enjoy,

Ken Traveller

Weeks are blending together...

Well this week was just like the other weeks in my mission. Like I
said in my last email, we had a zone pday last Monday, so this Monday
we are taking it easy... But this week was straight forward! On
Tuesday we went out with a member and visited some people who are
getting super close to baptism. One of them being Samuel, who is a
super solid guy, but works all the time. But we were able to catch him
and have a great lesson out of it. The next day we got some not so
good news, one of the members in the ward who had a heart attack, was
taken off of the ventilator and passed away. It was unfortunate and
the entire ward is pulling together to help the family and friends.
We have an investigator who was super down to read the Book of Mormon
but he decided that the best way for him to learn about it was online.
So the lesson we had with him was basically him trying to prove the
Book of Mormon wrong. We hit a few key points and left the lesson
after hearing our testimonies. I've gotten a lot of that out here in
Rivanna. Unfortunately people now a days are very lazy and don't
actually want to read.. It's happened a lot.
On Friday we had interviews with our mission president and they went
well. He is ready to go home and spend some time with his grand kids.
Although he only has one month left, he is still working very hard. He
is one of the most devoted servant I've ever met.
After the interview we exchanged with the Spanish district leader and
I got to go serve as a Spanish missionary for a day. And let me just
say I got my rear handed to me. They speak so fast and I can only pick
out a little. But they were very friendly and I bore my testimony in
Spanish and also said a prayer! So that exchange was a ton of fun!

Well I hope that this week I will be able to write more, but I hope
all is well and everyone is healthy! Loves you all~

- Elder Caleb Gibbons

Halfway through the transfer!

So this week was pretty straight forward. We had a district meeting
and talked about how we can be consectrated in the work. After that we
worked the rest of the week.

On Thursday we had an incident with one of the members. We gave her a
blessing about two weeks ago when I first got here because she was
complaining about a pressure in her chest. She had been to the
hospital to check it out but the hospital just gave her an antibiotic
because of a misdiagnosis. Anyway she had a massive heart attack on
Thursday and we were asked to go give her a blessing the following
day. She was put into a coma and didn't asked for it but the family
did. We gave her a blessing and said a prayer with the family. It is
such a weird thing when things like that happen to the members out
here. Hope she improves.

So after we had a strange lesson with a less active member, we were
driving home and about half a mile down the road we heard a *thud*.
Then I thought that it could've been my iPad. And when I realized that
it was I felt so stupid. We turned around and looked for it about a
half hour but couldn't find it anywhere. So I said a quick prayer to
myself that I would be able to find it and that it wasn't totally
destroyed. After all we were going about 60 MPH... Well I finally
found it in the middle of the road and to my amazement it was
completely untouched. The glass screen protector was shattered, but
when I peeled it off to see it the screen was damaged, I found that it
hadn't even been scuffed. THAT'S CRAZY! My mind still can't comprehend
what happened! It was a huge blessing that it hadn't even been
touched.

Anyway I hope that all is well at home. During my studies, I was
reading the account of Alma and Zoram. Found in Alma 32:26-28

26 Now, as I said concerning faith--that it was not a perfect
knowledge--even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety
at first, unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge.

27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an
experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even
if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you,
even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion
of my words.

28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place,
that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true
seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that
ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell
within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will
begin to say within yourselves--It must needs be that this is a good
seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul;
yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to
be delicious to me.

Love you all so much! Talk to you next week!

- Elder Caleb Gibbons

Called home!

So this last week we decided to try some potentials. We ran into some
more people who seem solid. Something cool that happened this week was
that we have a younger girl we are teaching and she wants to convert.
However she drinks coffee and doesn't think that it is bad for her.
But this last week when they went to dunking donuts she ordered a
smoothie instead of a coffee. So that was kinda cool to hear about.
Other than that, we had an exchange and I got to go to the UVA campus
and teach people there. We did a ton of street contacting which I
love. It was so easy to talk to people and get their view on religion.
Plus they actually wanted to talk! It was a really neat thing for me
to experience YSA work.

I got to call home yesterday and I enjoyed talking to you guys! Time
is flying for me and it felt like just yesterday when I called you in
December! Good to see you all and hope that everything goes smoothly
these next couple of months!

That's pretty much all for now, I feel like I don't have much to say
because I just saw you guys! So I will talk to you next week!

- Elder Caleb Gibbons

Tacos

- Elder Caleb GibbonsSorry I was super distracted because we are eating some amazing
chicken tacos. Here are some pictures.

Country boy Gibbons

Well I guess in six weeks I'll have to start adding Jacob to the list
for my email. Congrats! I'm so pumped for you! And you're speaking
Spanish so that is pretty sweet too.

So I got moved to an area called Rivanna. It's located in central
Virginia and our area is about 100 miles long. It's huge.. It
definitely is a huge change from Fredericksburg. The ward here is
awesome and the environment is generally friendly, however there is a
huge Catholic influence here and no one wants to talk to us. This
areas work is very slow. Most of the work is tracting which is a drag,
but hopefully we will be able to find someone to bring to the kingdom.
My new companion is a greenie. He is only 3 months out so I have a
small amount of experience on him. In the mission we call it "breaking
in a greenie" when the greenie gets a regular companion instead of a
trainer. Anyway the area needs more work so we are out at 10 and in at
9. It's a lot of work and we will have to keep it up to find people
who are ready for us.

Our new address is:
495 deepwood farm rd
Scottsville, VA 24590

We live in the basement of a members home, who has a farm. It is a
beautiful area and the people upstairs are very friendly. We still
have a car and so that is blessing. We had a cool experience on Friday
when we went to go try a potential investigator. His name was Pat and
when we first pulled into his driveway, he seemed like he was going to
chase us off of his property. We introduced ourselves and he lightened
up. Then the people that he was with came over and told us that they
were members! We started to talk and drew a conversation about
motorcycles. Luckily I knew a thing or two about bikes. But he told us
to come back and we will begin teaching him soon! Other than that we
have no solid investigators. Like I said earlier, we are knocking a
lot and working hard.

That's about it for this week! Next Sunday I will FaceTime you around
6:30 my time, or 4:30 your time. Remember to answer! Because if you
don't I won't be able to call later!

Love you a lot!

- Elder Caleb Gibbons