RVA

Dearest family and friends of mine,

Real quick I'm changing the way I'm sending out my emails. I'll send y'all my weekly instead of adding it to the blog. If there are any objections please let me know.

So this week was full of mixed emotions. First part of the week finishing packing and saying Goodbye to a bunch of awesome members in the Garrisonville ward. I will remember this ward and the people here, who are great to the missionaries. I am however excited to tell you about my new assignment. Remember about two weeks ago I told you that I got a transfer hint? Yes sir indeed it is come to pass. The prophecy given to me by President Smith has been fulfilled by my new assignment to serve in... drum roll please........ Downtown Richmond! Second part of this prophecy was me becoming companions with a prior companion. Elder Ellsworth. The only reason that this was been able to happen is because Elder Ellsworth departs from the mission April 21. So I've been given the exclusive honor to kill this missionary off. Along with me and Elder Ellsworth, the companionship we have been given a third companion, The most legendary Elder Woods. We live with two other Elders named Elder Morris and Elder Larson, who serve in the southern half of the branch.

Downtown Richmond is definitely the most interesting place I've ever served in. I arrived to our apartment on Wednesday, we unpacked and got ready to go out and experience our first taste of the greater Richmond area. Most of the proselyting in this area is done by street contacting. We've been out a couple times trying to find new people, since the area is lacking a little. People here freaking wacko man, one of the first people we met started rapping to us. A little vulgar, but it was sweet none the less. Most of the people we run into are VCU students on their way to class. We still contact them, but there are YSA elders, so we try to focus on some of the areas where the working class lives. Being with a prior comp is strange because we already know eachothers teaching styles, however it's fun to be in a trio because we testify like mad. 

The crime rate in Richmond is pretty high. In fact, there's been about 18 homicides so far in 2017. Because of that statistic it's a rule for the missionaries serving Richmond to be in by dark so they are out of danger from all the gang activity. So the first days we were here we went proselytizing in the government housing area or the hood as some people call it. Usually the ghetto is probably a place you would like to stay away from. In fact, when we were knocking doors, we saw an officer of the law putting up a subpoena and then hurrying away. I asked him what he thought of the area, and he subsequently told us that we were braver to be there than he was. The Lord is truly on our side as far as the work is concerned in Richmond. A couple of the prior Elders have been near shootings, drug deals, or pretty much everything else that that you can imagine. It's all happened in he slums of Richmond. However through all these events we've always seem to be protected. Been told by mission president as long as we are obedient and diligent to keeping the mission rules we will be safe as we hasten the work of the Lord in Richmond.

We had the wonderful opportunity this weekend to hear from the general authorities of the church! We attended general conference from the Grace Road building in Richmond, which is a converted business complex. Saturday sessions it was just elders, and on Sunday we had other members of the branch come and watch it. One of my favorite talks given was by Elder Ronald A. Rasband. That talk was straight fire. Anyway if you didn't pay attention to that talk, go back and read it! 

Love y'all so much! Richmond is the city of art so everytime I see a sweet mural I'll put up a pose and snap a pic! Talk to you soon!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

New companionship: a trio

Fwd: Elder Gibbons

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Arla Gibbons <gibbons.arla@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 29, 2017 at 8:32 PM
Subject: Fwd: Elder Gibbons
To: Paul Gibbons <gibbons.paul@gmail.com>

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Kenneth Traveller <kdtraveller@gmail.com>
Date: March 29, 2017 at 6:59:32 PM MDT
To: Arla Gibbons <gibbons.arla@gmail.com>
Subject: Elder Gibbons

I saw Elder Gibbons for a few minutes at the transfer meeting today. It was good to see him. He is doing great.  I can't remember where he is going, but his new companion is Elder Elsworth. The photo is us pointing to the hitch cover he got for my truck when he was in Fredericksburg. 

Ken Traveller 

I'm getting transferred!

Hola Familia, so today we are going to Fredericksburg to go bowling.
Hopefully I'll have some internet there so I could email. This week
was great! But I'll try to give you a quick synopsis of my week here
in Garrisonville. I think I should let y'all know I did get a call to
get transferred! So I'm excited about it and also pretty sad that I'm
leaving Garrisonville. So I'll be able to say goodbye to some people
here before I leave.

This week we did the normal Garrisonville stuff. We biked everywhere
and did a lot of finding. We didn't find anyone new this week, but we
did get a lot of return appointments. Unfortunately we didn't have any
of those return appointments want us back. But that's normal
missionary work!

On Tuesday we had an exchange with the ZL's we both went to their area
and we worked over there for the day. I'd say the exchange went really
well. Elder Eames is a great guy. They have an investigator that we
taught that actually got baptized on Saturday. Tuesday was a great
day.

Wednesday we did a lot of finding. We had like all of our appointments
fall through. We did get new Ward Missionaries though so we had a
correlation meeting at the end of the night with them.

Thursday we had a great lesson with the Coppas. So I should clear
something up, cause there was a lot of confusion. Sister Coppa is a
returning member and we are working with Steven, her husband to get
him closer to the gospel. She is awesome and we love going over there.
You can see the change that has taken place in her life and she has
really loved being welcomed back into the gospel.

Friday we had a lesson with Keith about him and his progression. He
thinks that whenever we see over there it counts as church soo we
talked to him more and hopefully he will continue to realize that
church is more important and eventually he will come.

Anyway that was my week! Thanks for all the love and support! I'll let
you know next week where I go! Adios

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Lemonade and Snow

Dearest Familly of mine. This week was pretty quick like the last couple weeks so I'll try to give ya a rundown of my week as best as I can:

Monday we had a grand ol time doing the same thing we do every pday. Shopping, library, sports. We need to be more creative with how we use our preparation days.

Tuesday we woke up to snow. And it was freezing. Like literally 20° outside. So we bundled up and went out! it was tough in the snow because it wasnt like Utah snow, it was like icy and wet. We stayed pretty busy that day with the teaching appointments and such, but the snow made it pretty bad. 

Wednesday was the worst weather wise. We woke up and it was like 15°. Not only the cold but the wind was howling.. Ah so since there was still snow on the ground we had to walk everywhere. We had a service project at the Library which took a little bit longer than normal, but we got all our work done, bundled up and headed back out! We had a couple appointments but we had most of them fall through sooo since it was so cold no one was outside, we had to tract. We knocked for about an hour and my hands were so cold when we were done. I thought this day couldn't get any worse, BUT luckily we had a great night. We went out with a newly called ward missionary and we taught this guy named Edwin. We focused on the Book of Mormon and he had so many questions about it. We answered all of them and he said he would continue to read! He also said he was going to try and make it to church, but unfortunately didn't get there on Sunday. We walked out of that lesson with huge smiles on our faces and thought that the night would end on that high note, but we had another great lesson! This time with a part member family named the Coppas. We had a fantastic lesson with them and it was super spiritual. Sister Coppa was able to make it to church last sunday, but this Sunday she came! Not just for the first hour but for all three! She loved it. So that was a huge progress for her! 

Thursday we had the Bible Study. We had a couple people come and it was a fun class. We taught and we had a lot of participation! After the Bible Study we had an awesome lesson with an investigator and we taught him again about the Book of Mormon. This week has just been all about that book! 

The rest of the week we had taught and had lessons left and right. We were most busy last night with like three appointments right on top of each other. So that was fun.

For some reason this scripture has come up a ton lately. Matthew 7:12 "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets."

Anyway family I had a great week! Hope you did too. I'm glad Grandpa and the family got to enjoy the nice weather. Perfect way to welcome spring. Thanks for the emails! Love you!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Gonna get snow tonight

Our awesome district

I have a love/hate relationship with VA's weather. The entire month of
February I'm talking like 70° avg. and now it's gonna snow tonight!
I'm so confused.

Anyway this week was dope! Sorry it's going to be a short email, I
don't have a lot of writing time today.

The beginning of the week we had a really good lesson with this family
who has been investigating the church for about 40 yrs. They've had a
bunch of missionaries in the past but haven't made any real progress.
So we went over there and just pushed prayer with them. They said they
haven't prayed together since they got married. It was really
spiritual and they agreed to pray. Hopefully they make some progress.
They've also been working with the Senior couple in the area so we are
hopeful!

This week was full of knocking and street contacting. We talked to a
bunch of people and this one girl we met gave us a huge bag of rice
crispy treats. We talked to her about her mission and she told us that
she was once a missionary. We talked to her about her mission and she
served for her faith in Northern Africa. It was totally different than
what our missions are.

Anyway we taught a couple of really good lessons this week. During one
of those lessons the Sisters in our district called us and one of
their investigators decided to get baptized outta the blue! It was
crazy. So we were on our way to interview her, and then we got a call
that she had to be interviewed by President. So we continued our work
and got another call later on. The Sisters asked me if I could come
play the piano with them while they practiced a song with eachother
for the baptism. When I got their the song was a lot more difficult
than I had thought. So instead of playing it we sang with them. They
asked us if we could sing at the baptism so of course we said yes. We
sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessings at her baptism and it was
awesome. Such a good song and loved it. Loved it so much that she
started clapping afterwards! So she'll have to work on that a little..

We had a bunch of cool experiences this week and one of them being my
interview with President. We talked about a lot plus my future area! I
can't give any hints away but just know that I'm so incredibly excited
for it. Anyway you'll be able to find out in 3 weeks!

We had a cool miracle at church. No investigators but we did have two
less actives come! We taught them both and after Sacrament meeting we
saw them and we were shocked! It was so cool to see them! And they
were both so happy. Anyway it was a cool experience.

Sounds like everyone back home is doing well! It sounds like it's
warmer there than here! We got a chance to watch the face to face
event with President Eyring and Elder Holland. It's a great face to
face and highly recommend watching it.

Have a great week! Talk to you next week!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

G-villa on wheels 🚲

Btw Joseph got baptized! I started teaching him out in Rivanna. So cool that I was able to go out to his baptism. I surprised them which was even cooler

Hello!

Sorry this email will be short, I really haven't had a lot of time to
write today. This week was great though! I'll try to break it down the
best I can but it was really all over the place.

So near the beginning of the week we started finding a ton of people.
Did a lot of walking and knocking. Nothing new for G-ville though. We
found a couple people who are just ready for the gospel. Though we did
break up tracting by some appointments throughout the week. We saw
this guy named Keith, who has a huge drinking problem. But after we
started teaching him regularly he has cut back on the alcohol! It's
neat so talk to him when he's sober because he is actually a really
smart dude! However the last lesson we had with him this week was not
a great because he was plastered. You could smell how drunk he was. We
tried to teach him but he couldn't hold the Book of Mormon straight.
We committed him to not drink the next time we taught him! So
hopefully he will continue to be sober when we teach him.

We taught Natalie this week again and she still has so much potential!
We had another lesson with her at the church and this time we brought
a girl her own age to the lesson. We also brought Bro Cozzens. This
dude was critical in the lesson because he started connecting the Book
of Mormon to things in her life that I wouldn't have ever said. It was
cool to watch him teach.

After some really good lessons this week there was a lot of knocking.
We were walking.. until Saturday when I had a giant box show up on my
door! Yes a bike came! Thank you so much pops! I assembled it right
away and immediately started using it! It is so nice not to walk
everywhere...

Anyway thought I would share this scripture with y'all in D&C 82:10
"I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what
I say, ye have no promise."

Be obedient. It's easy, and you get mega blessings from it.

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Hailstorms and distant explosions

So I can't remember how much I've actually talked about my area, but
I'll fill you in. There is a Military base that borders our ward.
Throughout the week you'll hear gunfire and helicopters occasionally.
But this week was different. We were doing our studies and we felt the
house shake! It was awesome. It lasted all day and supposedly they are
dropping bombs on the base. So idk kinda cool fun fact for y'all.

This week was awesome! We didn't have much planned, but a lot turned
out. We started the week out with a Church tour! It was with a new
investigator that we found two weeks ago named Natalie. She came to
the church and we taught her the restoration after showing her the
church. She loved it and told us that she wanted to start coming! She
had a field hockey tournament this week so she wasn't able to make it
yesterday but this week she will!

Soo this entire week was really nice weather. In fact I spent most of
it without a jacket! The average this week was 65°! So we were out
enjoying the weather and we had a storm roll in later in the week. No
big deal, just some giant freaking hail stones! Like Legit hail!
luckily we were in the church when it struck and we were shielded from
it, but it came down hard. It gave cars and homes dents and even tore
up the siding of our home! It was intense. But fun. Virginia weather
is confusing.

Anyway we went through the week trying to balance teaching
appointments and finding opportunities. We had a couple cool return
appointments, including one family names Edwin. We taught him the
restoration and he said he was super interested in coming to church.
So there is some potential there! It was a good week and we were super
productive throughout the week.

Elder Griffin is getting broken in to the area, and from us walking
around everywhere he's been able to pick up the area real quick. So
there hasn't been a delay which has been good! We've met a lot of new
people and we've had a ton of cool appointments.

Moroni 7:47 "But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth
forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall
be well with him."

Love ya guys and talk to you soon!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Week 7 in Garrisonville!

Sorry this is gonna be short, but I am limited on time!

This week was good. We got transfers and I got a new Elder, Elder Griffin. He's from Blackfoot Idaho and loves potatoes.

This week we had a ton of meetings. In and out of our suits, but it was good because I felt like I learned a ton. We also had Stake Conference this week which was this particular stakes first Stake Conference! So it was exciting because we got to see how they're adjusting. To me watching a new Stake is funny, because they had a lot of other Stake leaders there setting goals and being engaged with the congregation. Yep. During the adult session, there were microphones passed around so that people in the congregation could set goals for the Stake. It was interesting, but thankfully Sunday was normal. 

This week we did a ton of finding. Since I'm leading the area, I've decided that I'd like to enlarge our teaching pool. So we've been doing a bunch of knocking and street contacting. We weren't too successful, but we did get an opportunity to meet a bunch of really cool people! One person we knocked into was interested, but halfway through the lesson her dad walked into the room and totally anti'd her. It was sad to see her lose interest. But we persevered and continued the work! 

Anyway, today we got an opportunity to go see some sights in stafford! It was fun because we included the entire district. We went on this hike around Government island. It was super warm today like 70°. 

Ephesians 6:13 "Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."

Love you guys! Have a great week and talk to you soon!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Valentine's Day, and close calls

Another week down for the count. This one was crazy though! We got
transfer calls on Saturday and Elder Knight is leaving and I will be
staying in G-Ville! I was hoping that I would stay so I guess that
prayer was answered. Let me tell y'all about my week.

Our Monday was awesome, we had a Zone activity and I sent the pictures
already so you won't get those today, but it was fun! We went to
Chatham Manor and got some good zone pics, then we walked on the
grounds again. After that we all went to the Boscobel Building and
played some sports for a minute. We emailed and chilled for the rest
of the day, it was a ton of fun.

Our week was pretty straight forward. We had the same routine
throughout the week and it was pretty normal. We would usually walk
the first portion of the day then hop on bikes for the rest of the
day. Although I've had more close calls on my bike this week than the
rest of the transfer! We were headed to a quick teaching appointment
and out of nowhere this white BMW cuts me off and I was so close to
gettin nailed haha. But luckily the brakes are pretty much the only
thing that work on my bike so I was able to slow down before I got
clipped. It was sketch. The next close call was when we were biking
through an apartment complex and a car runs though a stop sign. I
didn't see him either cause of the parked cars, but I heard him slam
on his brakes and it woke me up real quick! Anyway I'll move on.

We had a couple cool miracles this week though! The first on was that
we are starting to find some really solid investigators. The work is
slowly picking back up! The first investigator we found was from
knocking a formers house. She came out and was hardcore southern
baptist. She is a "stalwart member of the body of Christ" in her own
words. She is a whacko but she's prepared. If we start teaching her
and if she gets serious about it, than we're going to have to jump
some pretty big hurdles with the Word of Wisdom..

The next investigator we found was a girl named Natalie! She is 18 and
finishing up high school now. She loves our message, so much that
while we were teaching her she ran inside to get a coat so she
wouldn't freeze! She has a lot of potential, and she almost even came
to church! We told the young women about her and all of them are super
excited to meet her!

Yesterday we met this cool dude named Joe. We were knocking and he let
us in immediately. He's from Haiti, but came to America and made it
big. He's super humble though. He loves God, and we sat with him for
an hour talking about the blessings that would come to him by listing
to to the teachings of the Book of Mormon. He said the closing prayer
and said he would love to attend church in the future, but he's coming
to the Bible study!

Oh yeah the Bible study? Huge success this last week. We had 4
investigators there! Over all there were 18 people there excluding
missionaries. It was such a big turnout! The sisters taught the class
and they did a great job. Almost everyone we talked to afterwards told
us that they were going to come back! It's really taking off in the
ward. One of the investigators that was brought to the study was
someone we didn't meet before so we are hopefully going to teach him
in the future. It was a cool miracle.

Alma 37:47 "And now, my son, see that ye take care of these sacred
things, yea, see that ye look to God and live. Go unto this people and
declare the word, and be sober. My son, farewell."

Love you guys! Have a great week and I'll talk to ya soon!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Fastest week on my mission right here

This week flew, wow. But I have a lot to write about so that's good!
I'll start from the beginning if you'll bear with me.

So I'll start with a cool Genealogy miracle! We had dinner at the
Blakes home, and when we sat down and waited for her (the wife) to
bring the rest of the food out, she was asking us where we were from.
So I told her I was from logan. She's like "oh cool I had a ton of
family out that way. In fact they owned a lot of land after logan was
established". (So I'm thinking to myself, that's cool cause my family
did also). She asked me "yeah, actually my family has a Park out there
called Gibbons Park. Do you know where that is?"
Of course at his point I'm confused because I'm used to people knowing
my name cause of my tag. So I looked at her confused like and
responded with, "yes, I know where that's at.. that's a remnant on my
G-Grandpas land!" So after I told her my name was Elder Gibbons, you
could see the connections that happened haha. Anyway at dinner she
Facetimed her mom, who is serving a mission in Brazil. Her Name is
Diane. Her husband is Wayne. So Her father was Reed Gibbons, who is
Rays Brother. She said she knows Ray and Amy and all about the farm!
Anyway. It was really cool to see what a small world this earth is..
so I ate at my cousins house!

Okay the rest of this week was a blur, tbh I have to use my Journal as
a reference because I can't remember anything it seems like. Anyway
around the middle of the week we were doing service at the library and
I ran into a member in the Fredericksburg ward. So I ran up and said
hi and started talking to him. But I could sense something was off
with him. He told us how he left the church because of some Anti
Mormon rhetoric he was exposed to. We sat down and started talking to
him about what he found and how it effected his testimony. A lot of
the stuff he told us was familiar to me because they were all in the
CES letters. He wasn't preaching anti to us, in fact he was showing
remorse. He told us that he wants to go back to church so bad, but his
wife won't let him. He still holds onto his temple recommend because
it reminded him of everything he had to change for the better to get
it. So we basically told him to get off the internet and get back to
scripture. It was a super sad conversation because he was one of the
members that took care of the missionaries in the ward. Not only that,
but their 18 yr old was preparing himself for a mission.

On a better note, we had the Bible study! It was awesome! The first
class was a little rough because we didn't really know how to teach
it. But halfway through the class we started reading out of John, to
our surprise people actually started to chime into the discussion! So
we had 3 members there, 2 less actives, 2 recent converts and 1
investigator! So we read out of John 1 and talked about the Saviors
premortal existence. We had a discussion on how Jesus Christ is the
Light of the World. Such a cool experience! In the future now that we
know how we want to structure the lessons I think we'll have more
people there!

Love you all so much. Thanks for your support and letters! I'll try
and reply to you later today!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Knocking and more knocking

This week was quick. We spent most of it knocking.. which is not a bad
thing it's just tiring.. and this email is gonna be short also!

So near the beginning of the week we started reaching out to the less
actives in the ward, which turned out to be pretty successful! We are
starting a bible study class this week so we are trying to get all the
part members to the class as we can! So we contacted pretty much all
the less actives in the area and gave them an invite. The class starts
this week! Which I'm pumped about. We already have 2 investigators
that want to come, and the Sisters have a couple that are coming also!
But the cool thing is to see how thrilled the ward is to have a bible
study. We ate at a couple families homes, and every family told us how
excited they are for it! So I'm really hoping it will be a success for
the ward.

We spent the entirety of the last week knocking doors. We probably
knocked for 6 hours a day, and probably only had one return
appointment. So that was discouraging, but we have to keep it up to
get those new investigators!

In the middle of the week we had a worldwide mission conference and
the council that we got from that was awesome. We also were given a
new schedule! So now I can get a full nights rest. Anyway there was a
ton in the broadcast that was awesome.

Sorry again this email is short, and sorry I failed to wish Samantha a
happy birthday.. anyway I love y'all! Talk to ya soon!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Fwd: 🏂❄️

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Caleb Gibbons <cgibbons@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 1:26 PM
Subject: 🏂❄️
To: Dad <gibbons.paul@gmail.com>, Arla Gibbons <gibbons.arla@gmail.com>


So here's something cool that happened this week. We had interviews
with the mission president and he said in his interview, that every
missionary can bring their own spice to the area. So that stuck with
me because I thought that the only kind of missionary work here was
tracting. So I was thinking about it all day Wednesday and then
Thursday we got a chance to weekly plan. And I flipped open preach my
gospel to see if it suggests any other ways to find new investigators.
Then I don't know what it was but all the sudden I felt like we needed
to start a bible study. The more I thought about it the more it made
sense. So I talked to my comp about it and he loved it. The following
night we went to the ward mission leader and presented our idea to
him. He suggested some small tweaks but he was so excited about it.
The next day we decided to involve the rest of the district, because
all the wards are pretty close to each other. We held an informal
district meeting and the entire district was super pumped about it! So
that same night, he bishop was cleaning the church. We stopped and
quickly pitched it to him. He also loved it! So Saturday we pretty
much finalized everything for the Bible study class, and the Brother
that came out on exchanges with us was apart of public affairs. So we
went over to his house and now he is going to write an article about
it in the paper. He said it was perfect timing, because the stake
needed something to put in the paper. Sunday rolled around and we had
ward council. We presented our plan to them and sure enough, everyone
loved it. So we go through church and the stake president comes up to
us because he wants to know what we are doing. At first we thought he
wanted to shut it down, but he was hyped. We told us that he felt like
this is inspired. They were actually having a stake correlation
meeting after church, and he wanted to know what it was so he could
council with the other bishops and ward mission leaders.

So I'm trying to be humble about this entire situation, but I really
feel like this is what the work here needs. I'm hoping and praying
that this will actually work. If it doesn't, I'll find something else.
If it does, then I know God threw that idea into my head. It's weird
how just a small little seed of an idea, can eventually turn into a
stake wide activity. It is still just boggling my mind the involvement
and excitement from everyone. After church we had a couple people come
up to us and give us advice. We also had the teachers tell us the best
way to teach non-members. Anyway, that was my week.

Love ya.

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Tropical January🌤🌦

This week was so cool. I don't know where to begin and I don't think
this letter will be all that long. So I'll start from the beginning:
District meeting. Our district is awesome and we had a sweet district
meeting. That was on Tuesday. Wednesday I had an opportunity to go
finding with Elder Jensen. It was different cause I was in his area,
and because I'm so use to the work in G-ville it threw me off. So we
went contacting and found a couple people. The last person we found
was a Muslim.. and a combative one. He started asking questions about
Christianity in general. So we did get a little heated with that one.
That's the first real antagonistic person I've met up here..

The rest of the week was awesome. We didn't teach as much as I
would've liked to.. But we did find two investigators that seem pretty
solid. Hopefully we can start teaching them. The work is pretty much
all finding in G-ville. So we've been coming up with new methods of
finding that hopefully will help the work. One thing in particular we
are both pretty excited about. We are going to be starting a bible
study class! So that will be fun to see how that works out.

Sorry this one is short! We didn't really have much going on!
Yesterday there was a shooting nearby, that was exciting! We were
trying to get to an appointment and there were so many cops around.
They wouldn't let us into the complex. So that was cool.

This scripture in Alma 36 stuck out to me this last week:
"25 Yea, and now behold, O my son, the Lord doth give me exceedingly
great joy in the fruit of my labors;

26 For because of the word which he has imparted unto me, behold, many
have been born of God, and have tasted as I have tasted, and have seen
eye to eye as I have seen; therefore they do know of these things of
which I have spoken, as I do know; and the knowledge which I have is
of God."

I love you all! Have a great week!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Fwd: Elder Gibbons

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Arla Gibbons <gibbons.arla@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jan 22, 2017 at 5:57 PM
Subject: Fwd: Elder Gibbons
To: Paul Gibbons <gibbons.paul@gmail.com>, gibbons.paul.letters2caleb@blogger.com

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Kenneth Traveller <kdtraveller@gmail.com>
Date: January 13, 2017 at 10:09:34 PM MST
To: Arla Gibbons <gibbons.arla@gmail.com>
Subject: Elder Gibbons

Elder Gibbons had a Zone Conference in Fredericksburg today.  I was able to visit with him after the Conference.   He looks great and had a special glow about him.  He seemed very content and happy, and is excited about planned baptism.   He is about 15 miles north of us but is in a different Stake.  It was sure good to see him.

Ken Traveller 

Re: Chante got dunked!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

> On Jan 16, 2017, at 10:46 AM, Caleb Gibbons <cgibbons@myldsmail.net> wrote:
>
> This week was awesome.. we had.. a Baptism!
>
> Okay well before I get to that I'll share a part of my week with you.
> The beginning of the week we were working very close with Chante to
> get her ready for her baptism. We taught her everyday leading up to
> it, and in just this week you could see that she was getting more
> converted everyday. In one lesson I asked her to share her testimony
> about the Book of Mormon. It was alright, but it sounded like a wrote
> one that all the kids bore in fast and testimony meeting. So after
> that lesson we asked her to read a couple chapters though out the Book
> of Mormon. She read and we met with her the day before her baptism.
> When she was getting her clothing you could see just how happy and how
> ready she was to get baptized. We were leaving the church and I asked
> her to share her testimony to us and a member that we were with,
> almost instantly she started getting teary eyed and told us that she
> was in the best, happiest place she had ever been in her entire life.
> She told us that the Book of Mormon gave that to her. So we read a
> couple more scripture and waited for the following day!
>
> So Finally Saturday rolled around and we had to go to the church early
> to fill the font and make preparations for the baptism. While the font
> was getting filled up we had a quick correlation meeting with our ward
> mission leader. We were nearing the baptism and we were worried that
> no one would show up. Mormon standard time was real. No one got to the
> baptism until 10 minutes before it. Chante showed up and we took a
> quick picture but then we had to run in and start the service. It was
> such a good baptismal service. The entire program was youth in the
> ward. It was really special for her. Just before the baptism, all the
> young women went up and sung "When I am Baptized". The spirit was so
> thick in the air you could reach out and touch it. And there wasn't
> one dry eye in the audience.
>
> I think this was a very special day for her. She was telling us about
> how she was ready to get baptized and how she had her doubts. But when
> she was dunked she came out of the water with a giant smile on her
> face!
>
> Anyway, it was a great week for us here in garrisonville. We caught a
> break and had another day that was 75° so that was a huge blessing!
> But I love it here and I know that I'm suppose to be serving here.
>
> I love you all and hope you week was awesome! Talk to you soon!
>
> ~Elder Caleb Gibbons
> <noname.txt>
> <image1.JPG>
> <image2.JPG>

Chante got dunked!

This week was awesome.. we had.. a Baptism!

Okay well before I get to that I'll share a part of my week with you.
The beginning of the week we were working very close with Chante to
get her ready for her baptism. We taught her everyday leading up to
it, and in just this week you could see that she was getting more
converted everyday. In one lesson I asked her to share her testimony
about the Book of Mormon. It was alright, but it sounded like a wrote
one that all the kids bore in fast and testimony meeting. So after
that lesson we asked her to read a couple chapters though out the Book
of Mormon. She read and we met with her the day before her baptism.
When she was getting her clothing you could see just how happy and how
ready she was to get baptized. We were leaving the church and I asked
her to share her testimony to us and a member that we were with,
almost instantly she started getting teary eyed and told us that she
was in the best, happiest place she had ever been in her entire life.
She told us that the Book of Mormon gave that to her. So we read a
couple more scripture and waited for the following day!

So Finally Saturday rolled around and we had to go to the church early
to fill the font and make preparations for the baptism. While the font
was getting filled up we had a quick correlation meeting with our ward
mission leader. We were nearing the baptism and we were worried that
no one would show up. Mormon standard time was real. No one got to the
baptism until 10 minutes before it. Chante showed up and we took a
quick picture but then we had to run in and start the service. It was
such a good baptismal service. The entire program was youth in the
ward. It was really special for her. Just before the baptism, all the
young women went up and sung "When I am Baptized". The spirit was so
thick in the air you could reach out and touch it. And there wasn't
one dry eye in the audience.

I think this was a very special day for her. She was telling us about
how she was ready to get baptized and how she had her doubts. But when
she was dunked she came out of the water with a giant smile on her
face!

Anyway, it was a great week for us here in garrisonville. We caught a
break and had another day that was 75° so that was a huge blessing!
But I love it here and I know that I'm suppose to be serving here.

I love you all and hope you week was awesome! Talk to you soon!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Pictures

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

2017 Already?

Can you believe it's January? What a trip.. Anyway this letter is
gonna be short.. sorry in advance!

This last week with the holidays and everything was crazy! We had to
drive everywhere.. so our mileage was shot but we did a lot of
teaching. The first half of the week we were working mainly up north
in Ruther Glen. We taught a bunch of less actives and investigators.
One lesson in particular was very odd for us, we had a less active
invite us over and we taught her and her kids about the restoration.
We invited her to church and she accepted and told us pretty much
everything that she needed to confess to the bishop. That's always
awkward, but we set an appointment up with her and the bishop to talk.

We were suppose to have like 8 investigators come to church but only 2
showed up.. we had rides set up for all of them and we were so pumped!
Then most of them told us that they weren't coming.. so that was a
huge bummer, but it was alright because I was saying goodbye to a lot
of the members in the ward.. oh yeah btw I got a call on Saturday
telling me I'm being transferred! So I'm pumped for that and the new
area!

Jacob 4:6 "Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many
revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses
we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we
truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or
the mountains, or the waves of the sea."

Sorry again this is a short email! If you email me I'll try to respond
but we'll be doing a lot today!

Love y'all!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons