It's Christmas Woooo

Wow. I cannot believe that it is Christmas already. Well it was,
yesterday. Thanks everyone for talking to me when I called home! That
was fun.

Well because of the call I feel like I don't have anything to write
bout. But I'll try! So if y'all don't know, there is a major flu virus
going around. Like something fierce. We were warned by our mission to
carry some hand sanitizer and practice safe hygiene. But the day after
they told us that, I had already caught it. It was rough. The first
night of the sickness I didn't sleep one bit. It really messed me up,
and I'm still trying to recover from that. Although the majority of
the sickness went away around Thursday, we still went out and taught
some of our investigators. Luckily I had my Pocket sized hand
sanitizer on me and used it ferociously before every visit. So I feel
confident that none of my investigators caught it!

We taught a couple lessons the last little bit of the week, then
Christmas eve hit.. Everything missionary work related ceased. All of
our appointments simultaneously dropped and we were completely unable
to visit anyone. So we focused on members. We visited some less
actives and that was great.

Christmas eve and Christmas all we did was eat. Breakfast, Lunch and
Dinner. We ate and ate and ate. But Christmas did come! And Church was
awesome! We had so many members singing and playing musical
instruments.. It was great, we also sang in the choir cause why not?
After church we called home! And then we had Dinner again..

btw... THANK YOU ALL for all the christmas cards y'all sent! It was so
fun to read all the letters and feel your support. It means a lot to
me!

Love you all and until next week-

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Christmas Week🎄

Okay so I am totally pumped for my second Christmas away from home,
but I do miss all the family traditions that we always had! This last
week we were super busy, but we didn't teach as much as I would've
liked to. It was a strange week for sure.

Monday we went shopping, ate lunch with the spanish elders and played
sports. It was a fun pday but over way to fast. After we finished our
pday we had to head up north for dinner.

The first half of the week was pretty normal, we caught up with some
old investigators, which was nice! We had an exchange Wed-Thur and we
didn't get a chance to teach on the exchange. We had meetings and an
activity we had to help with... So it was a busy day. Thursday was
interesting because we had interviews. It's always a strange day
because a lot of new policies and rules get thrown into your work to
help correct us (or neighboring elders.) My interview was great and
simple. My companions not so much. After interviews we went home and
waited for the spanish elders to tell us what we needed to change, or
what they needed to change. The new policy was that we can no longer
eat dinner together at members homes, which throws a whole lot off.
They won't be able to attend any of our ward functions or sacrament
meeting. I think it's needed though, that trio is really struggling.
He almost had to break them up.

Anyway on to more uplifting news: This last month, we got permission
to use skype, facetime and imessage to communicate with investigators.
Thursday night we had a really neat experience with video
conferencing. We visited the home and taught Fedya, who mainly speaks
arabic. We've been visiting with her for the last couple weeks and
haven't had much progression because of the language barrier. However
we were able to use FaceTime this last week and have a member, who
speaks arabic, call into the lesson and teach her. There was a part
when we did lose connection, but the lesson went very well! It was
especially cool, because I thought that she never smiled, or at least
didn't know how to, but after the lesson she was laughing and smiling!
It was a complete change of demeanor. After we let Brother Carter go,
we had a prayer with her and you could definitely feel the spirit
there. She told us after the prayer she will read and pray! So all in
all it was a great experience/lesson using FaceTime!

We had some investigators come to the ward christmas party! They were
able to make some new friends and we almost got them to come to
church! It was a really fun christmas party.

Anyway that was about it for the week. Today is zone pday and I'll be
with my ipad in the church sooo if anyone wants to write me a
christmas email I'd be able to reply to it!

Love ya Mucho and see you in 6 Days!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Pics

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Rain, bitter cold, then more rain..

Yup it's beginning to look like Christmas, but it's brutally cold also.

So this last week has been busy; complete opposite from last week. We
taught a ton, but it was up in Ruther Glen... It is a serious strain
on our miles.. Anyway! Here's a rundown of my week over here in cold
VA.

Monday was Pday and it was a Zone activity. After that we drove back
up north and went to dinner with a member, who had an investigator
there! He was actually an old investigator, so we helped him gain some
of his fire back and challenged him to read the book of mormon with
this family! We also challenged him to come to church but he didn't
make it.

So we've been seeing this guy very rarely, but his name is Michael
Fox. We taught him when I first got here with Ellsworth, but after
that haven't seen him, then all of the sudden he's at church? We
didn't notice him at first, in fact I forgot his name. But when we
talked to him we figured out he was actually interesting in coming to
church now. A couple members in the ward have been visiting him and
his wife (who is a member) for a while now and I guess all that home
teaching payed off! During priesthood, he stood up and introduced
himself. He said that he's been hesitant to come to church, then one
day he woke up and wanted to come. It's kinda funny how that works.

The rest of the week we visited some new investigators! Although for
some reason we lost their teaching records.. so we had to go in and re
enter all the lessons which took a ton of time. And it was only with
the new investigators?

Jacob 1:19 "And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon
us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own
heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence;
wherefore, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon
our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and
we would not be found spotless at the last day."

Love all you guys! Email me if you get a chance today! I'd love to
hear from you all!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons


~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Fwd: Pics

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Caleb Gibbons <cgibbons@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Dec 5, 2016 at 6:46 AM
Subject: Pics
To: Dad <gibbons.paul@gmail.com>, Arla Gibbons <gibbons.arla@gmail.com>, jgibbons@myldsmail.net, gibbons.paul.calebemails@blogger.com

Holiday Seasons 🎅🏻🎄

I'll be honest, this week was slower than the rest. Scotchtown is an
interesting place, you'll be teaching and teaching and then, it all
stops... strange...

Pday we decided to go bowling, which I was excited for, until I
remembered I couldn't bowl. First game I got like a 70? Yeah pretty
bad.. but I had fun and we were able to hang out with the Spanish
elders.

The beginning of the week we focused on less active members. The ward
has been wanting us to go check on these people for some time now, so
we got an opportunity to do so. We basically spent the entire day
running around and trying to find people! We were somewhat
unsuccessful. We did however meet another lady who didn't even know
there was a church near to her! So hopefully we can get her to come
back to church. The best part about less active work, is that people
are nice to you. Compared to tracting where you generally get
uninterested, grumpy people. So it's refreshing just to talk to nice
people once in a while.

We spent about the first two days of the week doing less active work
and we had a miracle of sorts. We drove up to bowling green for an
appointment with an old investigator. We got gas and for some reason I
drove to bowling green, which we normally don't do. But I pulled up my
map and went to the first less actives house I saw, David Paul. We
rode up to a junk yard and knocked on the abandoned house anyway. We
were about to give up and we heard a truck coming down the road. She
pulled up infront of the house and didn't see us at first, then we
caught her attention. Her name was Traci and she was Paul's Mother in
law. We talked to her and found out that she was coming down to feed
the dogs, which she normally doesn't do at 3 in the afternoon (not to
mention that her dogs have already been fed). She was probably one of
the nicest people I've ever met. She told us about the hard time that
Paul was going through and said that we were a godsend. She gave us
his address and I knew that we had to go see him. So when we were
saying goodbye to Traci, she told us that she wanted us to come back!
It was so out of the blue! And she said that her daughters would love
to hear our message as well. A MIRACLE. So we thanked her and set up
an appointment for this coming week, and headed over to Paul's real
address. It was over in a small small town named Sparta. At this point
in our day we were about 30 miles away from home. We found his little
house behind 2 miles of a gravel road and met him. He started telling
us about the things that had happened to him. I won't devulge in this
email, kinda personal, but he did say that he prayed for the first
time in years that afternoon, around the same time we were getting
gas. This entire experience was super humbling for me personally. We
literally were watching how Heavenly Father moved us around. I know we
are servants and tools for God, especially when his children are in a
faith crisis. I don't even have words to describe the entire
experience, but it was awesome and I hope I can keep having them!

The rest of the week we had a bunch of meetings.. I also made a health
contract with one of the members in our ward. It's like a 30 day
health challenge type thing. Hopefully it will work for me! Anyway
I'll share a scripture now

Moroni 7:37 "Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that
miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and
minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto
the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain."

I love faith, I think you all know that.. anyway keep on keepin on, I
love y'all very much! Talk to you soon!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons