14 March 2016 - Week 20

Hey everyone! Good week! We had an investigator get baptized! On Friday! So HA! TAKE THAT BEN! It's so sick that you send bap pics every week! Im a little jealous! lol It's crazy how last year your mish got 2,000! This year mine got 300! lol and we thought that was good! lol Baptists are suborn!!! But anyway Larry got baptized on Friday! We met him 2 weeks ago! He was just a sponge! He soked up everything we told him! Then I confirmed him yesterday! I was so nervous! I thought giving a regular blessing was intense but then to do it in front of the whole congergation when I have only been here 2 weeks and don't even know everyone! But it went well. Then someone who was giving a talk didn't show up to church. So I randomly hear "Then we will hear from Elder Gilbert with his testimony" so that was fun. So they heard from a lot Sunday lol

We went to the temple on Tuesday. Always an amazing experience! But yeah we are just working hard! Trying to get the new workout schedule going. I've started to wake up at 5 so that's fun. But yeah thanks for all the support form everyone! I love hearing from everyone! Love you all. -Elder Gilbert

7 March 2016 - Week 19

   Good week! We have an investigator named Larry who is getting baptized on Friday the 11th! I'm really excited for him. He is a great guy and is just a sponge about the gospel! He just soaks everything up we tell him. He is an awesome guy in a not so awesome chapter in his life and is looking for a restart. He has been to church twice now and has loved it. He took notes in all 3 hours yesterday.
   This area is really cool! So far its going well we are getting fed almost every-other day so that's good. Right next to Alabaster is Pelham and Pelham is where the ice arena is that the Alabama club team plays!! Then the announcer for the Alabama team is a member in my ward! He is from Toronto! So I actually got to speak hockey!!!! Then we were in a thrift shop the other day (they are everywhere out here) and I found 2 hockey sticks! 5 bucks each!! They are old school wood sticks but they have a decent curve! Best 10 bucks I have ever spent! So I have added sick handling to my work out routine!

   I found a Hatch! There is a Brother Hatch in my ward! He is from the colonies and is related to all the Hatches back home! All the brothers are his cousins or something I think they have the same grandpa (who just passed away a couple of months ago) But its awesome! He knows all the colony families like the Romneys and the Whettens! Small world!

   Then the bishop lived in El Paso! He is military and lived there for several years! He was there in like '97 or something. But he would run McKelligan canyon every morning!!!! What!! So yeah, he even knew who the Buzzards were and everything! So yeah this area is super weird for me! Like in the thrift shop I met a lady who grew up in El Paso! She went to Andres high school! We talked about Chicos and everything it was awesome! I ended up giving her a Book of Mormon! 

   But yeah this area is really cool, There are actually stores! We are going to a huge mall today in Birmingham, well in Hoover, called the galleria (like the one in Dallas) so yeah. I miss everyone! Wish I could just bring everyone up here and show everyone everything! Thank you for all the letters! Keep them coming!! 

   Love, - Elder Gilbert

29 February 2016 - Week 18 - New Address!!!

This week has been the crazyist of my whole mission! So on Tuesday Elder Hyde emailed his mom saying he had some heart stuff going on (he has had 2 heart surgery's in the past) then the next day Pres Hanks calls us and says that he is going home! And that I'm moving areas! So we pack up our apt in like 2 hours and go up and stay in Alex city, the next morning we drive up to Birmingham for a doctor's apt to make sure Hyde is well enough to fly. Then we head back down to Wetumpka, just for the night. The next day we drive up through Tuscaloosa so i could get to see the campus (ROLL TIDE!!!) on our way to Jasper which was Hyde's fav area. We spend the day visiting tons of people and then stay the night in Lorna. Then Sat morning we wake up and drive to the mission office in Hoover and Hyde has his exit interview with Pres Hanks and I get my new comp and Hyde leaves with Pres to the airport. So now Elder Mkhwanazi and Elder Curtis and I are in a trio. The 3 of us go and spend the night in Alabaster and then head back up to Jasper for a baptism for someone that Elders Hyde and Curtis taught. Then we drove to Hoover and stayed with the AP's. In the morning we head to the mission office to send Elder Curtis home. He tore his meniscus in his knee on Thanksgiving and his going home for surgery then will come back out when he is healed. But so Elder Curtis has his exit interview with Pres Hanks and then Elder Mkhwanazi and i head back to Alabaster. So that's where we are now and will be for awhile. Elder Mkhwanazi (mmm-qua-na-zi) is form south Africa, speaks zoolo and is 6'6"! Alabaster is a super rich suburb of Birmingham so it will be a lot different from Wetumpka. So yeah its been a crazy few days - I have lost 2 comps in 3 days. But I'm trying to just roll with the punches.

Thanks for all the letters form everyone!! Love you guys! -Elder Gilbet

22 February 2016 - Week 17

Sorry it has been so long for me to email! So today has been crazy!!! We woke up at 6 today... To Go Fishing!!! We went to lake Jordan but didn't catch anything, then on the way home we stopped at this little pond and I caught my first fish in Alabama and my first real bass!

Then we went to Pratville for a Zone Activity. We had a huge Nerf gun war! It was crazy! I took some video, i will try and find a way to be able to send it to you! Then we had dinner over at the bishops house then biked a lot in the rain to get to the church.

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

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