Book of Norman

This week was full of service. We started it off with a zone
conference where we said goodbye to our mission president. We get
president smith on July 1. I'm looking forward to the changes that he
will bring to the mission and I'm also looking forward to getting to
know him personally. The rest of the week was full of service. We
moved people in and out, worked on Ed Creasy's farm with the horses.
We hit our mileage in the car so we started walking everywhere. It
sucks because it takes us about an hour to get to a place that is 3
miles away... We get our miles renewed at the beginning of the month.
(Seven month mark this week..)

We went up to Carters mountain to get some peaches. And talk about the view!!

A funny experience was that we had a member take us down to
Scottsville, VA. Down there it is a totally different place from the
rest of fluvana. We worked in that area for about 5 hours and got no
results.. The people are baptist and set in their ways I guess. It
also doesn't help that we are taller than everyone we meet. Sometimes
I think we scare everyone.

We were sharing a message with one recent convert in the ward, Edna.
She is a funny little lady and has a super thick drawl. Anyway. She
kept talking about how she started to read the Book of Norman again.
My companion isn't use to the drawl so he kept lookin at the member we
brought with us funny. I noticed it so I decided I would mess with him
a little. I started talking in a slight drawl and started talking
about the Book of Norman as another testament of Jesus Christ. Edna
didn't notice but the member did. He chuckled but my companion didn't
really know what was going on. Then I turned to my companion to try
and include him a little and I said "Elder what's your thoughts on
this Book of Norman?"
He replied. "Well I think you're talking about the Book of Mormon but
you keep saying it weird."
We all got a good laugh but he didn't think it was funny.

Anyway that was our week. As missionary work goes, there is always an
interesting experience around the bend. Hope everyone is all well! And
I hope you liked your father day gift!

Love you all~

- Elder Caleb Gibbons

I'm training today?

This week was full of funny experiences here and there. The first one
was we were able to teach one of our potential investigators we've
been trying to get in touch with. And we didn't have any more Book of
Mormons... So we were stressing out for a while and he said oh that's
okay I'll just order one.. Well if you know the church system, when
somebody orders a Book of Mormon they order a pair of missionaries as
well. Haha so the next day we get a referral and it was him! It was a
funny thing that happened. But we were able to take a Book of Mormon
back to him and share more about it.

The next day we had a district meeting that both Elder Nielsen and I
forgot about. So we bust into Charlottesville at the last minute and
barely made it. The best part about that was that I was supposed to
give a training? So I questioned that logic for a while but I did end
up training. It was the weirdest, shortest, most under spoken training
I've ever given. I had literally no time to prepare hahahaha.

The last part of the week were slammed full of service. For Thursday
to Saturday we barely got into pross clothes. But it was good back
breaking work! The first service was with Eddie Creasy, and we go to
his house and help him with his horses. They are the most beautiful
horses you'll ever see. But he has back problems so we help him with
the more stressing work. After that we went to an investigators house
to do more service. We helped him clean out rocks from his flag pole.
He was super grateful and took us out for some bbq! So it was worth
it!

On Friday we exchanged with the district leader and I worked in the
Spanish area. I always enjoy going to that area because it gives me a
totally different perspective on missionary work. I can hardly
understand what is being said but the message is still the same. We
taught a couple people and went tracting for the rest of the time. One
thing I do like about being an English missionary is that I can do
door approaches better than Spanish elders. Haha just kidding, but I
have been getting better at door approaches. Ummm then we went to play
soccer with some of their investigators and that was a blast! Super
fun.

So then we exchanged back on Saturday. Saturday morning we helped an
investigator move into the area. Haha without having us 4 missionaries
and Brother Allred there, they would've been unloading that truck for
hours.. It took us 30 minutes! So that was pretty cool and we got a
new investigator!

We had stake conference as well this week. It was a neat experience to
have a general authority there to talk and give discussions. Can't
remember his name but he gave some really neat talks.

Anyway! Love all of y'all and hope that it isn't too weird having
another kid gone.

- Elder Caleb Gibbons

Pics

- Elder Caleb Gibbons

Chicken tacos and chicken adobo

Hey family. This week was pretty sporadic. We started the week off
with saying goodbye to Elder Galloway. This week was transfers so I
did get a new companion. His name is Elder Nielsen. He's a good guy
and is new to the rural area of Rivanna. Hopefully he likes it. We
taught an awesome lesson this week with a potential investigator named
Rich. He was a super cool dude and loves the missionaries. Later in
the week we went to a luau with the ward and it was super fun. I
honestly don't have much to talk about this week? But I had a good
week transitioning to a new elder.

Read Matthew 5:44-45. Coolest thing ever.

Anyway let me know what's new!

Love ya

- Elder Caleb Gibbons

Video from Transfer Week

Fwd: Transfers!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Caleb Gibbons <cgibbons@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 10:33 AM
Subject: Transfers!
To: Dad <gibbons.paul@gmail.com>, Arla Gibbons <gibbons.arla@gmail.com>, gibbons.paul.calebemails@blogger.com


Okay so first of all I am staying out here for at least another
transfer! So if you want to send me anything feel free!

This week was a lot better. We had an awesome P-day with the other
elders in the zone. We ate some tacos at Brother Allreds house and
then went to play some sports. This week was a lot better than last
week. After P-day ended we ran to visit some people and had a really
good lesson with one of our investigators named Tony. It was an
awesome lesson! One of the things I've struggled with this transfer is
teaching in unity. My companion and I really struggled with that but
we figured it out and started having really good lessons.

The rest of the week we had a ton of fun visiting families and sharing
thoughts with members. This one member was eager to play a game of
basketball and when we started playing we realized how hot and humid
it was. But it was a lot of fun to play with him. Then the next day we
taught a lot and did some service for a member. He has some beautiful
horses and we got to help him clean his stable and feed the horses. It
was funny though, because it was suppose to storm, but while we were
helping him clean out the horse pies it didn't rain a bit, then right
when the last shovel went into the tractor, it started pouring! It was
so funny.

So we had zone meeting this last week and everyone was just eager to
get transfer calls, but it was pretty funny listening to everyones
training. On the way we found a turtle and just decided to take it to
zone meeting. Everyone was pretty pumped that we had a visitor, but it
was funny to see the everyones face when we told them that we had a
turtle.

Anyway thanks for your love and support! I really don't like typing
all that much on these ipads but I try my hardest for you guys.

Hope all is well

Love~
- Elder Caleb Gibbons