Skyping at Christmas and 28 December - Week 9

Hello to everyone!

Skyping with Elder Gilbert on Christmas day was amazing!! It was so great to see him and hear his voice. He is doing great and loving the work. He specifically asked that I thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, notes, emails and gifts - he says it's y'all that help keep him going! :) He and his new companion Elder Hyde are doing well and still getting along great - remember Elder Hyde is from Las Cruces? How awesome is that?? They have made an agreement to work hard and play hard - music to a mom's ears :D Elder Hyde is the District Leader and not much new has been happening, so they have decided to kind of start over in their area - they are going to clean up the records and go back through all the paperwork, making sure no one has fallen through the cracks. Then they are hitting the streets! Johnny says they bike ride somewhere between 10-12 miles a day - he loves his Ecco shoes!! Anyway, it was so wonderful to get to see and hear him - can't wait for Mother's Day :D

On Monday we emailed a bit, but we both were pretty low key - in case anyone reading this doesn't already know, we have moved to Tucson (!) and are almost done unpacking  boxes - hooray! Johnny says it has been raining a ton in Wetumpka and it limits the work they are able to accomplish, which they find a little frustrating. He is also getting a little tired of the weather radio going off, but is grateful for the heads up and even more grateful no actual tornadoes have come very close! Anyway, he says hello to everyone :D Oh, I asked him how we at home can help better support the missionaries in our ward. He asks that the members make every effort to go with the missionaries to help teach - they are being taught that people stay active MUCH more often when they have local ward members helping with the initial teaching. Every Member a Missionary, right??

Love to you all and Happy New Year!!!

It floods here...

We got some rain.

21 December 2015 - Week 8

So on Wednesday we drove up to Birmingham for transfer meeting and Elder Bullock is out. He is now in Ensley. It is in Birmingham and its like the scariest place in the mission.  He says he hears gunshots like every night, but he is doing what he is supposed to do so we pray he will be alright. I'm still in Wetumpka and my new comp is Elder Hyde. He is from Las Cruces. lol Yepp His family owns the dairy farms right there in cowtown. So he grew up on the farm and he is super chill. We are like the same person just 2 years apart. He only has 4 months left. He is a Texas A&M fan lol. We should get him some tech stuff! But he is really cool. We both understand that we need to work hard and play hard. He loves to fish! Just bought a pole and rod! So we will go out on the Coosa later today. We have decided to work out hard, so with my sups and his p90x we are going to hit it hard. We just bought salad stuff:/ and a pull-up bar. This transfer is really long (7 weeks) so we are hitting the grind. We already have some new investigators that we met a few days ago and they came to church yesterday! Elder Hyde is District Leader so it is cool to see first hand what that is like. We are trying getting some basketball games started. Elder Hyde is a soccer player. He was going to go play in college but broke his leg sooo that's not happening but he still plays and has his cleats out here! This transfer is going to be awesome.

From John's Mom - sorry the message is so short this week and no pictures - much of his time was spent working on skype information so I can talk to him on Christmas Day!! I can't wait!!!!! Then also they were planning on fishing right after sending a few emails... :D

Merry Christmas To All!!! 

Staying in Wetumpka!! 14 December 2015 - Week 7

So I'm staying in Wetumpka!!! And Elder Bullock is being transferred, so I will have a new companion on Wednesday. I have learned so much from Elder Bullock - I will miss him! So this week was crazy! on the 12th was '"Christmas on the Coosa" which is a huge festival thing down town, they do a huge parade! (like our Franklin homecoming one) but for Christmas! then there are lots of shops and food! like in little tents and there was a boat parade! where Santa water-skies!! with fireworks and everything! it was crazy! Grandma Theora, i thought about you the whole time! After my mission, you and i have a date to Christmas on the Coosa!

oh we had a talent show at the Christmas party and Elders Van Dyke, Posadas, Richter, Kitner and I 

sang "Country Roads" lol

Also this week I asked Elder Gilbert to give us an idea of what a typical day is like - here is his response :)

ok so on a normal missionary day (if there is such a thing) we wake up at 6:30 and work out, shower get dressed and ready for the day and breakfast, then from 8-9 is personal study, that's where i try to get my 9 pages a day read, and do my tabb things and study talks, one hour is really not enough! but then form 9-10 is companion study, that;s usually where i ask bullock all these crazy stuff like about kolob and stuff, I'm really starting to love that deep doctrine stuff but then he tells me "dude basics" you don't need to know that stuff to be a missionary, I'm like i know but it's awesome! then from 10-11 we do this "first 12 weeks" program thing that teaches me how to be a missionary, look up scriptures and watch videos n stuff. then we finally get out of the apartment and go teach people if we have set lessons (most people say,come back Thursday) so that's when we just try and see everyone. We have lunch around 1 and dinner is usually at 6 and sometimes it's with a family. then we usually go to Walmart and try to store-contact which is super awkward but whatever it/s the only place we can find people. Then were back to our app at 9 and in bed by 10:30. crazy random things happen everyday!, like we were riding our bikes and this guy is just chillin' outside smoking and he waves us over. In my head head i was like "great this guy us going to give us a hard time or yell at us or something" so we pull over and start talking to this guy. He noticed that Elder Bullock didn't have any lights on his bike (like I do). So this guy pulls out his wallet and gave elder bullock 30 bucks and tells him to go buy a light. Then he goes on to explain that he only has 9 months to live because of cancer. He just wanted to help us out and thanked us for all that we do. Crazy stuff like that happens all the time!

Bamboo in Alabama!!??

7 December 2015 - Week 6

So this week was a crazy week. Well its just been a crazy month! We made the pens on Monday, then on Tuesday we drove up to Birmingham (about an hour away) with our Zone Leaders and stayed the night with the APs. (Assistants to the President, like the highest up you can go as a missionary) we're pretty close to them they are really cool guys! Elder Van Dyke is like pro at basketball! He played at University of Utah and is going back to play after his mission! Papa look him up (Parker Van Dyke) and keep an eye on him! I'm pretty sure he will try and go pro. He was looking at UofA to go play basketball there but Utah gave him a better deal. The other AP Elder Posates is from Honduras! He's really cool and super nice! So we stayed the night there (we do that a lot when we go to Birmingham) and we played basketball that night. Then on Wednesday we went to the temple! It was really cool. It's kinda small, it's about the same size and it reminded me a lot of the Juarez temple! Then Wednesday night we stayed with the Zone Leaders in Prattville and had an exchange (when you switch companions for a day) all day Thursday. It was really cool to be able to work and hangout with Elder R - I've learned a lot from him so far! Oh and Elder R and i have made a commitment, we are reading B.O.M. (Book Of Mormon) in 1 transfer (6 weeks). So we are reading 9 pages a day. Today is the first day so idk (Mom Note: this is short for "I don't know") how its going to go yet!

me in between elder richter and elder kettner our zone leaders

Mom and Margie you guys better be working-out!! I have gotten really close to one of our recent converts and his name is K. K is ex-military like 3 tours or something crazy and ex-bodybuilder! He works or knows somebody that owns a supplement company so he gave me a whole garbage bag full of supplements! I'm soooo excited!!! Kelly just received the Aaronic Priesthood and passed the sacrament on Sunday! I think he will Bless it next Sunday!  So I started my workouts today! Mom and Margie you guys better start if you haven't!

Papa I thought of you yesterday, (thank you for making me practice that stupid thing) I did my first anointing yesterday and there was no practice time, i just had to do it, and yes the name was kinda crazy. 

So last night was the Christmas devotional from the 1st presidency, idk if you guys were able to watch it but it was really cool! Elders Bednar and Uchtdorf are amazing as always! Grandma Theora i thought about you - so i think we have every Ensign ever made! You would love our collection in our apartment. we have them from 1979 every issue all the way to 2015! 

Oh sometime during the week, I cant remember when, Elder B and I helped this guy chop down banana trees in his yard! It was crazy! (Mom Note: he sent a short video of this - I will try to paste it into the blog but I'm not sure if it will work - Fingers crossed!)

But all is well from Alabama! Thank you everyone for all the birthday and Christmas stuff - it all will be eaten and used! Talk to you guys later, -Elder Gilbert

 fake snow :)

30 November 2015 - Week 5

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER GILBERT!!

So this past week has been crazy! So last Monday we went down to Montgomery and had a multi-zone activity, we all played football and then went over to Brother M's house. He is like the biggest lawyer in Montgomery, he is like an old Harvey Specter! He payed for all of us to eat a thanksgiving meal in his amazing (office) house, This house was built in 1888 and he completely restored it! It was amazing! So for dinner instead of a traditional turkey we had alligator and craw-fish! It was so good!! I have videos of the house and dinner but they are too big to email, we need to look into like google drive or something so we can send bigger stuff to each other.

So for real thanksgiving we were invited over to the bishops and his family. They are so awesome! There were like 5 or 7 kids there it was crazy and a lot of people and food! Then after dinner we went outside and played soccer with all the kids. It was really cool!

So I keep saying this but its just so true, Southern Hospitality is a Real Thing! We literally crashed a thanksgiving dinner! We were just riding our bikes down the street and we were like "dude i bet we could get a another dinner" so we pull up  to a house with a lot of cars in front and there are some guys out front and we start talking to them and they invite us in and we had another thanksgiving dinner! This family was so funny and awesome! We ate dinner to the song "Hit the Quan" playing on the TV while they took turns dancing! It was so crazy!

So something funny happened on Saturday. So Saturday was the iron bowl (Alabama vs. Auburn) and we walk up and knock on this house and this huge white guy answers, and says "WHAT DO YOU WANT" we were like "uhh Ober told us to stop by" and this guy is like "NO YOUR BAD LUCK BECAUSE AUBURN JUST SCORED" and just slammed the door! I guess auburn had just scored right before we knocked on his door, but it was so funny!

Oh Grandma Theora - I found your (fixer upper)!! haha

So today we were talking to our neighbor and he is a super nice old guy! And he makes pens out of wood and sells them! So we were talking about it and we ended up making our own pens! It was so cool! We started from scratch with just a block of wood and like 4 hours later we had a pen! And he took us to lunch! It was one of the coolest and most unique and unexpected birthday gifts! And I'm pretty sure he didn't even know it was my birthday!

Oh - watch this video - it's cool!

#ASaviorIsBorn

https://www.mormon.org/christmas

Oh and I saw a house burn down!! It was crazy!! See the giant burn hole in the roof!!!?

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes and packages! It's been an awesome birthday!

A final note from Elder Gilbert's Mom - thanks to you all for responding so quickly to John's cry for food! He says so many people sent him food boxes and gift cards he is doing great now and figuring some things out - thanks to you all!! And a shout out to Uncle Bown and Wikipedia:

 "The name Wetumpka is a historic Creek place word meaning "rumbling waters", supposedly a description of the sound of the nearby Coosa River as the water falls over the rapids of the Devil's Staircase. It could be heard for miles before the construction of dams.”

:)