Midway through transfers!

Wow this week has flown. I don't know where to begin so I'll start with Monday? Nah Tuesday. On Tuesday we went tracting and had no success. Halfway through tracting in palm leaf, a guy came up to us and said, "y'all Jahovahs witness?" We replied no it's a common mistake, and when he found out we were Mormon he got super angry? He started telling us that we converted his wife and that was when they got divorced. He started yelling random anti material and then we got uncomfortable and left. So later that evening we came back to an appointment and we were met by the leasing people. They told us we couldn't knock anymore. So that was fun. 

Wednesday we went up to the Millers house to have a lunch. Halfway through the lunch, Tina, one of their friends, came by and decided to stay since there was food. So we taught her and she told us she was interested in us coming back! We taught her on Saturday.. I'll get to that later. 

Thursday was non-stop. We had to move a member out of her old trailer into a retirement home. So we spent like 4 hours doing that and got super exhausted. It's surprising to me how much she had in that trailer! So we moved her until dinner, then we had an appointment with the Walkers. This was the first time I met them, so they didn't really associate with me much. We taught them and had ice cream cake at their house. When we were leaving we caught Sis Walker smoking! So we talked to her about it and apparently she's been smoking for a long time. She was just hiding it from the missionaries. So we told her we would help her quit, and along with that we gave her a date to be smoke free. Hopefully she will quit by then..

Friday was weird also. We did service in the morning for a older member in a wheel chair. Afterwards, he decided he would share some of his theories with us. After about an hour of listening to him I asked if we could share a spiritual thought. I shared a scripture about agency and we then talked about the Adam-god theory for another half hour. After that long service, we went over to see Jaclyn. We told her to read the scripture we gave her and watch the video we gave her. She said she was going to Maryland so she would have plenty of time in the car. We haven't heard back from her yet but she said that when she gets her new car, she will be coming back to church.

Saturday was probably the biggest headache for us. We mowed our neighbors lawns and our own. Then we got a text from brother Rhodes demanding that we find his son a ride to Richmond. Confused, we called him and he thought we promised to help get his son into an addiction recovery program.. so we told him we would. We searched and finally found a ride for him, but it was going to be later than he wanted. So we called him and told him what was up and he got super angry at us for not keeping our word. I don't even.. ugh so we come to find out that Justin (his son) had already found a ride down and we didn't even need to look for one. So we called brother Rhodes and he got even more upset that we allowed that to happen? So we went over and talked to him about everything and settle him down. We finally got him calmed down and told him that he needed to chill. We told him how a successful father-son relationship should be and he surprisingly took the advice. 

After that, we went to dinner with the millers to teach Tina and her husband. We had a very interesting discussion with him about god. He considers himself atheist, but seems very agnostic. We talked to him about bible stories, and faith. The entire lesson was so dense with the spirit we asked him to pray. He said he didn't know how and hasn't said a prayer in 15 years. So we told him how it was done and he prayed! So the lesson was a success in our eyes and hopefully he will continue to have spiritual experiences to feel Gods love for him. 

We had a crazy week here in ashland. But it's pretty normal stuff here... thanks for all your letter and support! Love you guys like crazy!

~Elder Gibbons

Email fail

So I had a great email written out but I had to update my iPad and I lost it. Sooo I'm not really in the mood to rewrite it so I'm going to give you the jist of it. 

Sunday Caleb Givens got baptized that was cool. Jaclyn dropped us for some reason. Talked to her about Christ. I still hate cigarettes. Stake fair on Saturday was a huge success for us. We had a lot of investigators there. Saw a bunch of other missionaries serving in the stake. We had a great time. 

Alma 31:

34 "O Lord, wilt thou grant unto us that we may have success in bringing them again unto thee in Christ."

35 "Behold, O Lord, their souls are precious, and many of them are our brethren; therefore, give unto us, O Lord, power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee."

Oh and I shaved my leg with a super sharp knife.

Love y'all, sorry for the weak email...

~Elder Gibbons

Scotchtown smokes

Oh this week was nuts! I don't even know where to begin haha. Oh and
why does Scotchtown smoke? Because literally every one of our
investigators smoke.

So let me give you a little bit of background. We are in a ward that
loves sisters, but doesn't really like elders, because of a past elder
in the area. Two transfers ago the elders replaced the sisters and I
can definitely tell that the ward is still pretty bitter about it. So
our job is not only to be a missionary, but also to befriend the ward.
But this week was crazy! So I'll go day to day.

Monday we didn't do much until the evening. We had dinner with a
member in the evening, then after that we went to an investigators
house and they were just watching the end of Gods not dead 2. So we
caught the last 10 minutes, I know we weren't suppose to, but we were
able to transition it into our lesson afterwards.

Tuesday we got a call from one of our investigators named Jaclyn. She
wanted us to come over and when we pulled up she was smoking. Which
was a bad sign because she had quit a month ago.. We asked what was
wrong and she told us that her car blew up and her rent check didn't
clear and her ex-husband was harassing her for more money. She told us
that her life had started going downhill and she was at an all time
low since she has been meeting with us. So after a short talk with her
about adversity she told us that she wished she never had met the
missionaries. It was awkward for a second, but I told her that we
would look at her car and see if it was fixable or not. That was
pretty much the highlight of Tuesday.

Wednesday we had a Zone conference with a seventy there. His name was
Elder Kapishke and he taught us about unifying our mission. It was
cool because we were able to suck in a lot of info from him all about
missionary work. I need to like forget the last 9 month of the mission
haha. But it was a great conference. It took the majority of the day
so afterwards we ran over and taught one of our investigators called
Derek. He had limited time so we shared a scripture with him and told
him to continue reading the Book of Mormon. But just out of my own
curiosity, I asked about what he thought about baptism. We talked for
a while and he said that he would get baptized the day after he quit
smoking. That was such a cool lesson because his son was there and he
said that if his dad got baptized he would also get baptized! So it
was a great way to end the day.

Thursday we called Jaclyn and she sounded happier? So we asked if we
could meet her at the auto shop and check out her car. So after
looking at it doing some tests, we concluded that her head had cracked
and the engine needed to be replaced. So we made some phone calls for
her and within an hour we had like 3 buyers who wanted it. She was
pumped! So we towed it back to her place. She said she was in a better
mood, because for some reason her tuition check came a month early so
she was able to pay her rent and look for a car. Later on in the day
we went over to another investigators house. Their names are Micheal
and Christina. We taught them the restoration again and the
conversation got a little heated after we started talking about the
law of Moses. We talked about church history and I proved all of them
right with scripture references, but she was still so hard headed. She
pulled out this book called the lost books of the bible. So.. Then it
turned into an argument about how that book is not scripture and it is
not called the bible for a reason. So if you ever read it just keep
that in mind..

Friday we went up north and visited a bunch of potentials and members.
It was a busy day and I was really tired for some reason, but we kept
at it. We went to the Millers house and visited that family and he
told us that they were going to dinner with the rest of the Elders
quorum. So we asked if we could join and he didn't see a problem with
it so we tagged along. When we got to the Walsh's the hamburgers
weren't even on the grill yet so we ended up just playing around with
all the kids. Then he whooped out his dirtbikes and I died I wanted to
ride it so bad. But he wouldn't let us so I asked if we could at least
get a picture on them.

Saturday we were able to sell Jaclyns car! She was so pumped and felt
super indebted to us. We went over afterwards and talked to her about
the Book of Mormon. She was more open to it and told us her deeper
issues with our religion. So after talking about some of her issues I
found out that she doesn't believe in Jesus Christ to be the son of
God. Sooooo I told her that, faith is the first and only way to get to
an answer about the Book of Mormon. We decided that we would give her
a week to read out of the four gospels and pray hard about Jesus
Christ. We promised her that she would be able to recognize that Jesus
is her savior if she prayed and truly desired an answer. So that
update is coming next week!

It sounds like you guys had a great time at lake Powell and am jealous
that you got to go. It's a super fun place to be. I have much more
about the week but can't write it all because I'm lazy.. But I'll give
you a scripture for y'all:

D&C 137:
9: For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works,
according to the desire of their hearts.

Love you a lot and hope all is well! Remember God is good!

~Elder Gibbons

Hello from Scotchtown!

The Allreds who I miss like crazy

the mousers and tom. Favorite roommates in the world.

New comp and my main homie Elder Giddings

Sooo I got transferred this last week and it was pretty crazy. I wanna
give ya run down from when I emailed you last.

So getting transferred out of Rivanna was hard, and I'm still missing
the ward like crazy.. But nevertheless, I did get to say goodbye to
most of the ward members and investigators. After that I basically
packed and said goodbye to the people I lived with. It was hard
because they were straight family to us. So we had a member drive me
and my companion down to transfer meeting at Short Pump in Richmond.
Afterwards I did figure out who and where I'm going to be serving.
Drumroll.. Haha I'm serving in the Scotchtown ward with Elder
Ellsworth!

Okay so I'll start with the area. Scotchtown is an area just above
Richmond, it covers a lot of trailer parks and isn't really a whole
lot to enjoy, but it is a great place nonetheless. So there is a HUGE
different between Rivanna and Scotchtown. First being that the people
here are straight crazies. They are absolutely off their rockers and
it's hilarious. The first person that we taught together was convinced
that in a month, the government was going to be dissolved and marshal
law was going to be established. I think there is something in the
water that makes people this way. So other than the conspiracy
theorists and crazy people who don't know how to drive, the ward
members here are awesome. They are super supportive of missionary work
and are actually really involved! This was was pretty much founded on
one family, the Beazleys. So when they were baptized, they converted
everyone they new. So this ward was basically fueled by them.

Now my companion, Elder Ellsworth, is super cool! He trained one of my
friends from the MTC. I heard he was a great guy and when I heard that
we were being put together I was super excited! So we are killing it
in Scotchtown right now with like 5 on date. Sooo hopefully there will
be some baptisms soon!

Anyway, I'm super excited to be where I am and if I haven't shared
this scripture with you already it is the coolest psalm ever..

Psalms 116:
1 I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
2 Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon
him as long as I live.

I love the lord because I know he is everywhere for me even though I
have faults. I will continue to struggle as long as I shall live and
know that when I fall he will help me back up and get me to where I
need to be.

I love y'all a ton and miss you like crazy! Hope you are having a
great Labor Day weekend!

~Elder Gibbons

Fwd: Soooolid news!

So family I'm pleased to announce that I will be getting transferred!

So I'm running through ice and coals right now.. One because I
freaking love this ward. It's so hard to say goodbye to some of the
members here, but the other because I'm getting a new area and a new
companion!

This week was basically pretty missionary type week. In the beginning
of the week we went into Charlottesville to play some sports and after
the member came and got us I realized I left the keys in the church.
So we didn't have a car for the next two days but it was still fun! We
got it back at district meeting on Tuesday. We didn't do much tracting
because it was mid 100's. In the beginning of the week we taught
Curtis and his wife. His car got hit by lightning so we took him to go
buy another car. We taught Jill some more and I will not be able to be
here for her baptism. I'm sad but it's just the life of a missionary!
We also did a bunch of service in the week for a bunch of our
investigators and also brother Creasy. I love his horses so much! They
are hilarious. The later part of the week we said goodbye to some
members and to our investigators. It's been a good area! And I'll miss
it like crazy but it is time to move on.

I took some pictures with some members and will send them over. I'll
also send some later tonight because I have more people to see. Sorry
for the short texted email! I'll respond to each of you later today.

Love you guy so much!

~Elder Gibbons

Last one is a picture of John one of our investigators. He's stubborn as a mule but such a cool guy. I'll definitely be visiting him when I get back!

Hello family

Well this is probably my last week in Rivanna! This week flew again.
It's crazy how fast time flies when you're working. This week we
taught multiple lessons with Jill. Again she is progressing but has
hold ups. We are working with her to get her married so she can be
baptized. So most likely that won't be when I'm around. I'm sad I'll
miss it but happy that she will finally get baptized.

I honestly am having a hard time remembering anything from this week.
But early on we helped Brother Creasy with a ton of work. We ended up
helping him cut his grass and do a bunch of work on his horses. We
helped out Curtis and got a giant tree cut off of his driveway. He was
super grateful for that. He is slowly getting farther and farther away
from the truth. He has been attending Calvary chapel and he says he is
converted to that church so we probably won't be teaching him much
more.

Later on in the week we helped brother Allred build some bird houses.
Haha we got carried away and I suggested we build a bird condo. So two
hours later we put the vacant signs on the door. It was hilarious.
I'll shoot a picture over.

Sorry I don't have much to write about! I will write all of you
individually to make up for it.

Love yall

~Elder Caleb Gibbons

Truth is evident by the Holy Ghost.

This week flew by! So we started it out with a super fun pday. We
played sports and hung out with the zone. Afterwards we had a service
project and more lessons. Remember that lady that we went to give her
a bible? He name is Jill, and she read the Book of Mormon also and
going to get baptized on August 27! She came to church and told us
that she still has some things that she needs to work out but she is
so close! We talked to her about the word of wisdom and the other laws
of the gospel. She smokes but recently quit cause she wants to get
baptized. After we talked to her and set her on date her husband came
in and we taught him as well. He says he isn't really into the bible
but from what Jill has been telling him about the Book of Mormon he
wants to learn more also! So we are helping him quit smoking by e
cigarettes, because if Jill smells cigarettes she will want to smoke.
So we helped him get set up to stop smoking, and after that he said
that he wants to be nicotine free by her baptismal date! He said that
if he was able to do it then he will read the Book of Mormon and
eventually get baptized as well! Freaky crazy miracles after miracles!
Anyway.. This week flew by and we had a lot of service.

I've realized recently that if investigators are truly looking for the
truth they will get it! It's crazy the difference you have when you
teach someone who actually is wanting to learn the truth. I shared a
scripture with Jill that made total sense to her and she took the
invite we gave to her and she received an answer!

The scripture is D&C 9:8 "But, behold, I say unto you, that you must
study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if
it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you;
therefore, you shall feel that it is right."

The church is true and the power of the Holy Ghost is real! Love you all!

~Elder Caleb Gibbons