Winter Storm Jonas

First, y'all got a blank email from me on Saturday and I apologize.. But this email is the one that counts. I'm sending it to everyone in my little black book. I thought I'd tell everyone about my experiences out here so far! So listen up cause it's gonna be good.

When I first got to Virginia we met the Pres and his AP's in baggage claim waiting for us. We spent the night at the mission home and got trainings the next day. After we got our iPads and all of our other various trainings we met our trainers and split (I got such a good trainer Elder Hudmasterflex). I was fortuned enough to end up in Fredericksburg. When we got to our apartment our dinner was already waiting for us. Let me just say... People in Virginia know how to eat. We got fed fried chicken, corn, rice and all that good stuff. I'm on a bike though so all that Virginia weight is being fought! So it took me about a week to get into the routine of mission life, and I have to say it wasn't really a huge shock to me as I thought it was going to be. I got introduced to all of our investigators in about that weeks time. The neighboring elders are the coolest people on earth, we go to lunch with them a lot.. Watch out msf.. And thank goodness for Zone Leader Exchanges. They provided me with some serious insight on how to find, teach and love.

I love missionary work. It is completely different than how I imagined. You start developing a love for the people you teach and it makes you want to share the gospel even more. I want to share an experience but there are far to many to choose from so I'll share the most recent one. We were actually at dinner with a family from the ward. We bonded super well with them and their kids. After we shared our thought and said goodbye we were driving home with the father, when out of the blue he said, "you probably don't know this about me but I'm actually not a member.." Awe man Elder Hudson and I were speechless! "Yeah I've seen all three of my kids get baptized and I haven't been baptized, but I think I'm ready now." (Did I not say missionary work is the bomb?) So we started teaching him and his entire family is flying in next month to see him get baptized! I mean this is just one of many... There are so many that I could list off but I'm not in the mood to keep typing. Another thing that I love about the mission is studying! I look forward to my morning studies I don't know about the rest of y'all. I love it.

Reminder to all those serving: You are surrounded by people. People who will support you and people who will tear you down. Love both even when it's hard to love. My advice to you is don't let those bad people get to you! I've had some super negative confrontations with people that hate missionaries, but I try to not let it get to me. Sometimes it does, but remember you aren't standing alone. People fight the fight with you and love you along the way. Love everyone who wants to be loved and everyone who doesn't!

Hope everyone is holding on and teaching strong.

- Elder Caleb Gibbons


*We got some wicked snow here in Virginia and we were stuck inside so we had a lot of free time on Saturday. Made me miss Utah. Also a picture of my comp and my district.

First Transfer

A lot of things out here are moving way to fast. The first transfer is over and my 2 month mark is just around the corner. I'll sum up this last week as best as I can! On Monday we had another cold one with the wind chill around 5°. And the cold here is a lot different than the cold in Utah. We ended up hanging out with the zone leaders and the neighboring elders. We visited as many people as we could before the storm rolled in for the weekend. Oh and by the way we got a lot of snow out here! So I'm not to sure how I feel about Virginia snow. I went out to enjoy the snow like you would in Utah, and it's the most hard packed stuff ever. It sucks. No way I will ever ski on the east coast... We were suppose to use the snow as an opportunity to serve others with snow removal, however we are right in the middle of a 3 sq mile apartment garden. AND to add to the difficulty of trekking through the snow to go shovel driveways, we didn't have shovels. So I thought it was always awkward to knock on the door and ask them if we could shovel their driveway with their own shovels. The other thing
that was awkward is people asked us what we charged even after we explained that we were missionaries. We got a lot of shoveling done on Sunday when it stopped snowing and the sun came out. We actually helped dig cars out of the snow. That was fun to see everyone try to get out before we got to them. We ended up shoveling snow for 6 hours.. And Elder Hudson is starting to feel the soreness.

I'm glad everyone is over the sickness. I don't enjoy being sick. And take some pictures of the cruise next week and get them too me! Oh and I almost forgot. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMANTHA!! You'll be getting a birthday gift from me in the mail pretty soon.

Well I think that's all for now! Stay warm and be safe! Much love!

- Elder Caleb Gibbons

Fwd: Virginia Snow

From: "Kenneth Traveller" <kdtraveller@gmail.com>
Date: Jan 24, 2016 2:27 PM
Subject: Virginia Snow
To: "Arla Gibbons" <gibbons.arla@gmail.com>
Cc:

Elder Gibbons made it through his first Virginia Snow storm.  We spent the day shoveling out the  needy.  The storm left us with 18 inches. He is a hard worker and says his health problem is better. 

One more concluding thought

Yes I did buy a bike on the discover, sorry I forgot to mention that. Also thanks for the spiritual thoughts they mean a lot! Some thing else pretty cool, when I had return and report I told president that I was running into a lot of Latinos. So he gave me and Elder Hudson 30 minutes to study a language in the morning, Elder Hudson doesn't really want to learn anything right now because he goes home in a month, but I am and I'm getting a Spanish name tag in the mail. Also, could you make sure that everyone is emailing my lds email? I found out that grandpa emailed my regular one and so did Jacob. Thanks for all your support! Love you tons.

- Elder Caleb Gibbons

On Jan 17, 2016, at 11:01 PM, Paul Gibbons <gibbons.paul@gmail.com> wrote:

Caleb:

Just want you to know that I think about you a lot and I'm really proud of the way you're approaching your mission.  Keep it up.

Also, I assume that the charge on your discover card was for your bike?  Let me know.

One of the things that has strengthened my testimony through the years has been the spirit bearing witness to me whenever I read or hear stories about the Prophet Joseph Smith.  Moroni told him that his name would be had for good or evil throughout the world.  In my case, it's been for good.  Spend the time to learn about him.  He was an incredible man and prophet.

Mom is really sick tonight.  I just hope that the flu bug doesn't find me.  Here's wishing.  I love you,

Dad

January 18, 2016

Almost one transfer out! And I'm still loving it. This past week was a pretty slow week for us. On Sunday, however, we went over to a members home and had dinner. We bonded with the family and after we gave them a spiritual thought the dad drove us home. On the way home he said, "Hey guys, I don't know if you know this or not but I'm actually not a member." Elder Hudson and I were speechless.. We've seen this guy and his family at church every week and he's not a member? So we started talking to him and we realized that he married into the church 17 years ago, and after he was married he started going to church and just started to make it a routine. He never really thought baptism was a necessity until his kids were baptized. So then he started to read the Book of Mormon and praying more. And after we gave his family the spiritual thought he had enough courage to tell us that he wanted to take lessons from us and get baptized as soon as he could. Super cool experiences just keep coming..

We were tracting in an area that's usually notorious for drug use, and we ran into a lady who was willing to let us in. After the first lesson she started shooting questions. And very deep doctrine questions... Some of these questions we had no idea of how to even begin answering. So we told her we would come back with some answers. After her discussion we ran into a guy named Dave who wanted us to come by later on in the week. He gave us his apartment number and his cell. Well anyway Margaret (the lady we ran into earlier) texted us later that week and said "I don't want to take discussions with you guys any more." Well it wasn't really anything new to us, but we were sad to see her leave. So Thursday night we were driving around with a member and I kept thinking of her and how to get her back with the missionaries. So I suggested running into s grocery store and getting her a gift to let her know we were thinking of her. On the way over to her place, we thought we should stop by Dave's house, and give a quick restoration lesson. So we knocked on the door and another girl opens it. Her name was Lakia. We asked for Dave and he wasn't there, he was at his moms house. Lakia and Dave were siblings, and Margaret was their mom! So we talked to Lakia and got her super interested and she told us to come back when she wasn't so busy. We ran over to Margarets house and sure enough to ran into Dave. We ended up giving Margaret the gift and taught them both a quick and very powerful lesson. She told us that she was grateful that we didn't give up on her.

Cool experiences like those keep coming! We've been trying to get more and more people set on date for baptism and it is working! However I'm definitely starting to feel the stress of missionary work. So I'm working on it right now, trying to figure out what's stressing me out, but I think I'm starting to get over it. My companion suggested taking long hot showers but I don't believe that will help me (He takes the longest showers ever). But I'll figure it out and get over it. Well that's all for this week! I hope all is well and the sickness goes away... That's not fun that is happening. We got our first snow of the year yesterday in Virginia, so that was definitely fun! And there is rumor that we may get a car..... So keep that in your prayers because we need one! And no I will not hit any deer with the mission car. Stay warm, stay healthy and stay safe. Love you lots!

- Elder Caleb Gibbons

January 11, 2016

Well I have a lot to write about but so little time to write it all! I hope all is well over there in Utah. I'll share a quick experience and then I have to go. This last week we had to go to return and report, which is basically a see how you're doing type of thing for the trainees, we had a chance to go street contacting out in Richmond. So I was able to be companions with an Elder I came out with.we were walking the streets of VCU and went to a park called Monroe Park. And if I can sum it up it was basically homeless housing. So we walked through and met some cool people but no one was really that interested. Now we ran into three guys on a bench all sharing a cigarette. We started to talk to them and immediately one of the guys started yelling at us, saying we are a cult, we worship Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon is a fake book, and all of this basically made up garbage. My companion fought back with him for about 5 minutes while I didn't want to hang around all anymore. Finally we brought up church. I said "why don't you come to our church and see for yourself that we
don't do any of those things?" He laughed and replied saying if he did he would be cursed and all that nonsense. So finally I said. "You're hearing it out of the horses mouth and you don't want to listen that's fine, but we have other people that want to listen to us." Shook their hands and left. So I guess it was kind of an eye opener that some people are really really close minded. And in those situations I don't want to waste time when there isn't even a slight chance that he'll listen to us.

Missionary work is tough, but so worth it. We have 3 people on date for baptism and more coming. So that was just a small highlight of things that happened to me this week. We are still working hard as ever and hope that all is well back home. I love you all very much and will write you next week.

Love from your Elder,

- Elder Caleb Gibbons

Caleb's Letter to Adam