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