Halloween 👻

This week was sooo great! I have to keep it short because we have
plans up in Rutherglen..

Monday we got to hang out with the other elders which was a huge
relief because it feels like Ellsworth and I are all alone in
Ashland.. well later in the day we went up to Rutherglen and had
dinner with a family called the Millers.. their children are straight
crazy. We had a fun dinner with their family and later on we decided
that Sister Miller and The both of us are gonna sing in sacrament
meeting in a couple weeks so that will be the second time in this area
that I will have sung in sacrament meeting.. wish me luck I guess!

Okay so this week we had a bunch of crazy weird miracles that I
haven't had since Fredericksburg, I guess they only happen in places
where there is a lot of apartments. So there is this guy that works
security 🚨 at Lake Caroline that we always see and he hasn't been
very nice to the missionaries in the past. He hasn't been very warm to
us either but we were knocking a bunch of townhouses and literally the
first door we knock on was his house. So we laughed and asked if he
would want to hear our message, he paused and then said "sure why not"
so we taught him the Resto and he was actually really interested. He
was asking a bunch of questions and even told us about his neighbors
who could use the gospel. It was really weird and cool at the same
time! But that's how missionary miracles work!

Anyway we also had a bunch of service this week and it included
chopping wood and moving members out. We moved the Walkers out of
their house on Saturday as well as the Blackwells. These two families
are awesome and we will miss them greatly.. anyway we moved the
Blackwell family in like 20 minutes but then the walkers took about 6
hours😂 soo our day on Saturday was pretty full.. but we did get a
chance to attend the ward Halloween party! It was a blast! We also had
like 14 investigators there, which was crazy.. it was great for us and
it was great for them as well. There are like 3 families that are
powerhouse to the max that fellowshipped all of them. They all said
they had a blast and loved the ward. Unfortunately we only had 3 show
up to church the following day.. but it was still great! One of the
investigators told us that it was the first time they had a dry party
in like 10 years, and they said that it was more fun then all of them
combined! Ahh that was such a good feeling. It meant a lot to us.

Anyway family, we also got other great news on Saturday.. we asked
Sister Walsh if we could teach Early morning seminary on Fridays and
she said yes! We are both so pumped!

Love you all and sorry this one is short! I'll try to reply to all of
you individually if I can! Love you!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

The anti is real

This week was just about the most normal week ever. We are losing
investigators and are having a hard time finding more. We spend most
of the week tracting, luckily we have a couple people who are getting
more interested. Out of the 40 or so people we have taught we have
return appointments with about 5.. if that gives you an idea about how
interested people are in our message. This area has a lot of anti
material going around. We ran into another proselytizing faith while
tracting and they went to all the doors after us and told everyone
that we were lying and we were a false church.. soo I'm learning a lot
about forgiveness right now..

We had a district meeting on Wednesday and we talked about how to
teach like the savior. We had a great training about humility by one
of the elders! It made me think about nephi and his humility. So I
brought it up and we got into a discussion about how nephi used his
humility. So we set a goal to strive to emulate nephi's love and
humility towards his people. It was an interesting district meeting.

This week we had a lot of service also. We went up to a members house
clear up in the middle of our area and helped her move out. While we
were doing so we started talking to her roommate about the gospel. She
hasn't really been into religion but she said she would start a bible
study with the member and possibly come to church! Later in the week
we had more service cutting trees down and turning it into firewood. I
didn't know people still had wood burning ovens, but some people out
here rely only on wood burning furnaces! So I felt good when we
finished loading up the trailer with it. We also had an Eagle Scout
project by one of the youth and it was quite the turnout! We had like
30 people there and we got it done in half the time he was expecting.
It was awesome!

Sunday was the primary program in our ward.. aww man it was straight
fire. Our ward attendance was doubled because of it and we had a
chance to meet the rest of the part member families! Anyway the
program was awesome and we know a lot of the youth in the ward so we
tried to get most of them to wave at us. We got one girl named liberty
who waved at us during her talk and she turned around to her teachers
and said "look it's the missionaries!"😂

This week was awesome and the mission gets better everyday. I've been
studying out of the doctrine and covenants lately and for some reason
I've really began to like the book. One of the most enlightening
scriptures I've found so far was in D&C 45:
"3 Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading
your cause before him--
4 Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no
sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which
was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be
glorified;
5 Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name,
that they may come unto me and have everlasting life."

Jesus Christ is our loving savior. And I know that for a fact. I love
the mission because it's gives me an opportunity to strengthen my own
testimony as well as have other come into the fold. I have the unique
privilege to aid my fellow brethren to help them see the light and
walk closer to Christ.

I love you all so very much,

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Smells like fall

Okay this week was awesome. We had a recent set of elders move in to our old apartment and I know one of them. They are pretty chill elders and I'm pumped that we won't be lonely this transfer! Anyway they moved in and we took them to dinner with us. It's a interesting situation, they don't have any ward members up here and they aren't in our ward, so we have to help them with food. Anyway my week was great!

We started Monday with a bunch of finding. We tracted most of the day with no success, but we did reunite with an old investigator. She wants to come back to church and start over with the lessons. So that day was a success! Tuesday we got a referral from church head quarters, we went over to give them a Book of Mormon and when we met them they told us their story! It's super cool, they were passing through Utah and decided to dine in slc at the Joseph smith memorial building, afterwards the sister missionaries gave them a tour of temple square, they were very interested! So when we contacted them, they said that they have been reading the Book of Mormon and were interested in more discussions. So that was the highlight of the week!

The rest of the week we had dinners and more less active contacting. On Friday we went up to rutherglen and talked to jimmy and Tina again. It was great 👍 but they are slowing down and not keeping many of our commitments.. so we are working with their fellowship family to help them keep the invitations we have given them. Sorry nothing else too exciting happened this week. We need to continue finding more investigators! 

Matthew 7:

"7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."

Love you guys and hope you are having a great week! Have fun in Taiwan I guess, kinda weird and sudden but hope it will be a blast for all of you! 

~Elder Gibbons

Transfers: moving time..

Well these last six weeks have been a total blur! But I did receive news that I am staying in scotchtown! (But the subject was not misleading) The only call we got was to let us know that we are getting a new apartment. Which we already moved in and settled. Anyway! This week was slow...

We spent the first two days of the week up in ruther glen teaching a family up there. They committed to come to church, but the didn't make it, so we will be teaching them more and hopefully get a way for them to make it down to church with us! So on Tuesday we got a call to let us know that we were going to be getting a new apartment. We packed up that night and we spent the majority of the next day moving into that new apartment. It's not great, it's really cramped and our neighbors are really obnoxious.. but our last house wasn't the biggest either so we got use to it real quick. The only con is that we are lacking a washing machine.. so we have to actually go to a laundry mat to do laundry on monday! That's a first for me... 

We worked out in Montpelier the following day trying to contact less actives. It made me depressed because these people have totally turned away from the church. About half of the people we reach out to want to remove their records from the church. I guess agency is a B. Anyway we had exchanges the following day and just ended up tracting all day in Ashland town homes. It wasn't a successful day but we ran into this guy who asked if we knew Jason Pyne. At first I thought he said Jason Pond and I flipped out because who doesn't Jason know right? 😂 but no he said Jason Pyne, another less active in our ward. 

On Saturday we had interviews with President Smith. The interview itself was alright, it could've gone better, but nevertheless the advice he gave me will come in handy this next transfer.

So I forgot to tell y'all, but I had a trunky moment last week.. I ate at the only Cafe Rio in Virginia! Oh man it brought back so many memories! It was super funny because all of the members out here rave about cafe rio, and we have the luxury of having one just down the street from us! But it was awesome.

I was reading this week out of Doctrine and Covenants... one of my favorite scriptures in D&C is in section 58 verse 27: 

"Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;"

Love you all so very much! Thanks for all of your support and hope this fall will be great! It's starting to cool down over here after the hurricane rains, which were crazy btw.. 

~Elder Gibbons