15 February 2016 - Week 16

Hello Everyone! Elder Gilbert and Elder Hyde are busy working hard and he asked me to update you this week :) Johnny sounds good and upbeat in his emails but I think he is ready for a transfer. He and Elder Hyde are sill getting along great. I think they have both found a forever friend and we are so grateful! I asked how the work is going and he said it is going well, just very difficult. He still loves the people but finds it frustrating to have such important information to share and no one seems receptive. Anyway, he has been living in a small town for three months now and feels ready for something bigger - we have all told him to be careful what he wishes for :) The big news this week is that we finally got his new bike shipped off to him! He has a wonderful bike there, but soon discovered it was not the right kind of bike for the terrain there. He found a used bike on Craig's List in Chandler, Arizona and we all (Mom, Dad, Deb, and Buddy) trooped up there and brought it back to Tucson. The local bike shop has given her a tune up, a new wheel and tubes, pedals, and they feel good she is ready to go. Johnny should receive her sometime next week and has promised to name her - the previous owner was very sad to see her go and we have promised to keep in touch :) Anyway, hope everyone has a great week - thanks as always for your letters, emails, packages, and prayers for our sweet Elder - we appreciate you!!

8 February 2016 - Week 15

So this week has been kind of crazy! We have had some really cool experiences lately. So missionaries have been here forever in this little town and it has been tracted out! So we are trying to work on the outskirts of town.On Friday we biked over 15 miles. Elder Hyde and I were biking out there and we had a terrible mood. We were all irritated because we don't have a car "we shouldn't have to bike this far. Why do they have 2 sets of missionary's here, it doesn't make sense!" but then we get a call from this little kid from the hood, who's 13 who we have been teaching. He calls us up and told us that he skipped school and wants to know what we are up to. We tell him were going to this trailer park to try and talk to some people. He wants to come with us. He shows up with his little bike, backpack, slacks, no socks, dress shoes, white shirt and tie. He rides 6 miles with us! And he has sickle cell so he can't really run or bike very well and gets winded easily. So my companion and I take turns pulling him behind us on our bikes. I know for a fact that this was Heavenly Father telling us "we have nothing to complain about!" We are so blessed! And his school ended up having a lock-down that day because of an intruder. Just stuff like that happens to us every day! The other day we were going to teach a lesson to our barber, and we had the time of the lesson written down in out planner for 10 in the morning. So we headed over there and she says "Oh i thought you were coming at 1" We were confused and just said "oh sorry I guess we got the time of the appointment wrong" (which never really happens, we are good about our planning) but we were able to still have the lesson right then at 10.  Then on our way back we are biking home and we see an old lady who had fallen on her porch and couldn't get up. So we hopped off our bikes real fast and ran over to her and we were able to help her up into her house. But I don't know how long she was laying there because she was exhausted! She was almost about to pass out! But we were able to help her! But now if we had gotten our lesson appointment right, we wouldn't have been there on that street at that time to help her. There are just crazy things like that, that happen everyday to us. If it's one thing that I have learned on my mission, it's just be your self, dig deep and work hard, Heavenly Father has a plan for everything and it will all work out.

​So we have been playing basketball about once a week for a couple weeks now. Through the weeks from about the beginning of January it started with just Elder Hyde and I. Then our district started to come so we had about 6 missionaries. Then some youth of the ward started to come and we had about 8 or 9. Then on Friday we show up to the church and there were about 30 people there! Kids from the high school the youth invited, Less active members, random people form the hood and trailer parks we invited to come out. It was awesome! We were able to talk and meet a lot of people!!

We are just working hard and things are kind of starting to come together. We have completed the 1st week of our P90X! And we are eating well and just grinding! 

Thank you so much for buying the bike! I'm exited! And my legs will be very appreciative! They are a little tired of dirt roads on that road bike.....

Thanks for all the support from all the family and friends! Love you guys -Elder Gilbert #15

1 February 2016 - Week 14

So these past few weeks have been crazy!! So last Monday we went up to Jasper Alabama. That's where Elder Hyde used to be, and Jasper is awesome! The people there are so nice! The members are awesome! We just spent the whole day and visited as many families as we could! Then a baptism for someone that Elder Hyde used to teach. It was crazy! And i was super sick for all of it :( That's what happens when it's like 80 degrees one day and the next it's in the 30's and raining, then the next it's 40's with 100% humidity. But it's whatever.

We had interviews with President Hanks and mine went really well! He's such a cool guy, I'm really sad that he goes home in June.

It's been kind of a hard couple of weeks because everyone is getting to go home and is super trunky. It's crazy, everyone I know in the mission will be gone in about 4 months. Elder Hyde only has 3 more to go. He is really stressed about getting school and life figured out. But Sister Hall (one of the sisters here in Wetumpka) is going home Wednesday! She has served her 18 months. Then Elder Detrich (he is in my district in Alex city) is going home as well.

We have also been working really hard these past couple weeks - we have been taking the car up to some of the little towns that are in our area like Tallassee, Eclectic, and Elmore.

We helped the Moore's move last week. They are one of my fav families here. They are so cute! They are super young, Stanley is 21 and Madeline is 22. They will be married for a full year in March! They were kinda less active but we have got them comin back to church and we are working on getting them to the temple in March! Maddy just gave me Insanity! It's these work out dvds like p90x but way harder! I'm super stoked! But I need to get into better shape before I can even start them! So Elder Hyde and I are hitting the p90x hard.

Transfer calls were Saturday and Elder Hyde and I are both staying here in Wetumpka for another month! Which is good, we work well together and have fun and can do a lot more work here. But I will probably leave next transfer.

Love and thanks to everyone. Have a great week! Elder Gilbert

25 January 2016 - Week 13

Hey guys, so we are going up to Jasper Alabama on Monday for a baptism for someone that Elder Hyde used to teach. And hopefully we will be able to go through Tuscaloosa to get there!!  But because we are going up there Monday, I probably wont get a chance to send an email :/ Hope everyone has a great week!

Note from the Missionary's Mom: we have gotten so spoiled hearing from him every week! I don't like it when we don't. :P 

92 weeks to go... :D

19 January 2016 - Week 12 - NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!! ROLL TIDE!!!

(Pday was pushed to Tuesday this week, due to MLK Day)

So this has been a crazy couple of weeks! The Alabama football team won the national championship so that's a huge deal down here! There is roll tide stuff everywhere!

I got to play a cello yesterday! So that was super fun!

We went to a mall in Montgomery and there is a ice rink inside the mall! I was going to skate but the don't have hockey skates so it wasn't really worth breaking the rules to skate when they didn't even have hockey skates so i didn't skate.

Elder Hyde and I have been working really hard. We have found a couple of really solid and promising families. We are teaching this woman who has 9 kids, some adopted some not. One of her kids is Kavosiey Smoke. Smoke is a sophomore football running back in high school and he already has offers to Alabama, Florida State, and anywhere he wants. He's in the top 10 recruits in the nation, and were are starting to try and teach him. His mom came to church for over a year in  Pratville and was just never baptized so she shows a lot of promise.

Thanks to everyone and thanks for the prayers   -  Elder Gilbert

Some Alabama scenery for Grandma

30" rims!

Yes, it's still raining

More scenery

The kind of houses we knock on sometimes

We found a road grader :P

11 January 2016 - Week 11

Elder Gilbert says hello to everyone! He is doing well and still working hard in Alabama. The weather has been a challenge and he isn't sad that the weather alarm has not needed to warn them about a tornado lately - if it never needs to go off again, Elder Gilbert says that would be just fine with him! He continues to figure out how to stay dry and still get the work done. He says he is hungry all the time but that he has plenty of food (no care packages needed, but thank you anyway!) - he is really hoping he is in a growth spurt and plans to return from his mission at 6' tall - everyone keep a smile and happy thought for him on that wish :D He and Elder Hyde have continued with their motto "Work Hard, Play Hard" and that seems to be working well for them - they remain friends and keep studying and riding their bikes, reaching out to people - he says they ride somewhere between 12-15 miles a day. He asks that I thank you all for your happy thoughts prayers on his behalf - he loves and appreciates you all, as does his Mom - have a great week! :D

Elders Lovest, Gilbert, and Butterfield

Friends since the MTC!

4 January 2016 - Week 10

So this has been a crazy couple of weeks! Elder Hyde and I are getting along great. We are basically the same person! He is from Las Cruses New Mexico and played soccer and football. It has been raining a lot out here and riding a bike in the rain is awesome! You stay completely dry!

So there are pics out there of missionaries in these 3rd world countries like Cambodia trekking through water with there pants hiked up. So I didn't know this

but it floods in Alabama.

The food down here is so good! Alligator is awesome! Jumbalia is amazing and shrimp gumbo is good to!

We went up to Alex city and spent new years up there with the other guys in our district. I can neither confirm nor deny if we watched the Alabama game or not, but all i can say is that it was an awesome game and i cant wait for the 11th! Roll Tide!! lol sometimes it sucks that Alabama is so good because it makes all the merchandise so expensive lol.

I got to go fishing today for the first time since I've been out! Didn't catch a thing but maybe next Monday!

Thank you to everyone who sent me Christmas Cards! Thanks for all the support! -Elder Gilbert

Store Contacting at Walmart! (because there is only one store in this little town:P)