3 October 2016 - Weeks 46, 47, 48, and 49

Dearest Friends!! Heartfelt apologies for posting fails!! I have many explanations (including an untimely kidney stone - me, not John) but no excuses for not keeping everyone up to date. Elder Gilbert continues to email regularly and I will improve the regularity of the posting on my end! Thank you all so much for your continued prayers and support - we couldn't be doing this without you!! Let me post one email he sent a couple of weeks ago - we are all so proud of Elder Gilbert and all he is learning!! Hugs to all...  Debby


 Good week, I had one of the coolest experiences on my mission so far! So Elder Hix and I are eating dinner at taco bell (right after giving a member a blessing because he just had back surgery) and these guys kinda seemed like they were going to try and bash with us, but we made it a good conversation out of it and we went on our way. Then in the parking lot we get a call from our branch president telling us to go give a sister in our branch a blessing who is in the emergency room because he is out of town in Tuscaloosa. So we drive down the road right away. We get out of the car and we see a helicopter with the door open, Elder Hix and I have a whole conversation about helicopters (because we are goofballs) as we walk into the hospital. We get to the desk and we tell them that we are there to give a member of our church a blessing. Elder Hix knew the guy behind the desk, he has been disk golfing with him, and has tried to teach him. So he knew who we were and what we do. The guy behind the desk said "The rule is only 1 visitor per patient, but I will let you guys go anyway" So we walk down to her room. We walk in and there are about 4 doctors around her all working very fast and precise. Around the room are about 5 people all watching (I think they are from her work). This elderly sister is having heart problems and is being emergency evacuated to Birmingham. The helicopter outside is there for her! The second she sees us she waves us over, fights back the tears, and says "I want the blessing now"! She tells the doctors to stop and I pull out my oil vial on my keys. I lay my shaking hands on her head and anoint her, Elder Hix wastes no time and we give her the most powerful blessing of my life. All of the doctors stop what they are doing and respect the blessing. I have never felt the spirit so strong in my life. The room was dead silent and Elder Hix's voice booms around the room. After we finish, I look up and every person in the room, the 5 nonmembers from her work, 3 nurses, and one of the doctors are crying. The spirit was so strong. As we leave the room the sister says "That's what keeps me going folks". Less than a minute after we leave she is on the helicopter outside heading for Birmingham. It was the most demanding moment of my life for the use of my priesthood. It was an awesome experience. We were able to have the spirit with us because we didn't bash with the guys at taco bell. We were able to get past the desk because Elder Hix has been diligent in the work here in Hamilton and met the guy prior to this experience. We were able to be the mouthpiece for the spirit because we were worthy of it. Because we are doing what we are supposed to and trying to the best of our ability to magnify out calling.
> Then we watched the Alabama game on saturday with a less active member. Lol so that was the highlights of our week.

Elder Gilbert keeps telling us their motto is 

Work Hard, Play Hard!!

5 September 2016 - Week 45

Hello Everyone! Interesting news from Elder Gilbert this week - he and Elder Hix get to stay in Hamilton for 6 more weeks!! They are both excited to be staying together. This will be Elder Hix's last transfer - he goes home in six weeks! So they are happy to have Hix "die" in Hamilton :) The Mission President said there was one condition though... they are adding another Elder for a tri-panionship! Elder Jesson joins them this week and hopefully everything will transition smoothly. I have added a couple more pics from their trip last week - hope everyone has a great weekend!!

29 August 2016 - Week 44

Good crazy week. We had to take our branch mission leader to the hospital last Monday, he was having a heart attack. He is ok now but we spent pretty much all day with him. We had a good district meeting on Friday and after that we went on an exchange. I went with our Zone Leader Elder Forsgren. Who is a body builder.... We worked out on Saturday morning and I realized that I'm playing in a whole different league!! It was really depressing.... I thought I was making real progress and looking good, getting a good physique and then homeboy comes in and I realize I'm playing wiffle ball. He was really able to help me out supplement wise and just a bunch of stuff. This bodybuilding stuff is a whole different world to me. I was just a hockey player lifting for strength, this is very different. Then on Saturday we taught a lesson about the gospel to a deaf person! It was crazy! We taught the whole lesson writing it down in our planners. Hopefully he reads the Book of Mormon. oh yeah I totally for got to tell you. We uhhh kinda broke the rules a little bit and we took a road trip up to Tennessee and went to the Shiloh battle field! It was super cool. It was pretty much the deciding battle in the civil war. So that was supper cool! Ummm yeah idk what else to say, we are just still grinding. I try to send some pics soon.

-Elder John M. Gilbert

22 August 2016 - Week 43

Not a lot of info from Elder Gilbert this week - he emailed briefly and just let us all know he and Elder Hix are doing well. They are keeping busy visiting and serving branch members, tracting, and going to the gym. He says it has been raining a lot and if anyone has a good slow cooker or grill recipe for brisket, please share! He sends his love and thanks to y'all and says to have a great week!

Uh oh - looks like some repairs are needed here!!

15 August 2016 - Week 42

Just a quick note from Elder Gilbert this week:

The members are really starting to trust us and we had a meal appointment everyday last week! And one member asked us to give her less active son a blessing before he leaves to go into the military, so I think they are really starting to trust us - hooray! Thanks and love to everyone   - Elder Gilbert

8 August 2016 - Week 41

Good Week! We saw lots of less actives this week and the members are starting to realize how cool we are and are having us over for dinner a lot more! :D Which is good and bad, its good to get to know the awesome members here but bad for my diet! But the food is just soooooo good! We have still been working out hard and continuing to move forward. A missionary homie that just went home gave me his football cleats! So Elder Hix and I have really been hitting the field hard! Oh funny thing happened the other day, so Elder Hix is a kicker and he is really good, he is going to go try and play college football. So we are at the high school football field and Hix is just kicking bombs! The football players started showing up for practice and within a few minutes we had a crowd of the football players watching Elder Hix kick these 60 yard bombs! We felt so cool! lol but yeah we have been working hard here in Hamilton and are doing great! Love and miss y'all!! -Elder Gilbert

PS - From the Mom :) Elder Gilbert sent a couple of fun videos of their very large brisket purchase and the amazing rain in Hamilton - unfortunately they are too large to allow for posting. I will try to post them on Facebook for everyone - have a great week!!

1 August 2016 - Week 40

Good Crazy Week. Transfers were last week, Elder Hix and I are staying together for a another 6 weeks!! We are super pumped! So we both had a lot of friends going home this transfer, so we decided to go to transfers even if we weren't really supposed to. We go to Birmingham and Elder Hix has never had Chipotle before!! So we get Chipotle for the first time and he loves it! Duh!! Then we go to one of my homies there in Alabaster - Ashley Betkey, she is an awesome cosmetologist and she always hooks me up with amazing hair cuts, she really is an artist! Thanks Ashley!! So we get there Tuesday night to the AP's apartment. Elder Wintz and Baggot are the AP's. Elder Wintz is my mission "Grandpa". He trained Bullock and Bullock trained me, and Elder Wintz just went home. So at the AP's we had the opportunity to partake of the worlds hottest pepper! The Carolina Reaper......dun dun done!!!....We survived! It was terrible but we did!!!!! There is a video on the google drive. We go to transfers and say bye to all the homies going home. Then a little group of us go to guitar center! There are some missionaries that want to be djs! So I was able to show them kinda in a nut shell how to do it, we had a lot of fun! Then we went back to Hamilton and got back to work. We have a couple progressing investigators but not a whole lot going on. Ok so I haven't told y'all about The Ramp yet. "The Ramp" is a cult here in Hamilton. They call it a church or "ministry" but its literally a cult, like Karen Weaton (who I've met) is the (grand dragon basically) she gives these kids pills to "throw up their demons". And these kids come from all over the world for this! Thousands of people. lol like when I read about the great and abominable church in the Bible and Book of Mormon, I think of The Ramp!!! Just super scary stuff. But anyway so we run into "Rampions" everywhere so missionary work is super hard here. But yeah things are going well, Our next 6 week workout started today! We did Chest and Back and we will go back for cardio tonight. But thanks for the continuous letters and emails!! 
Love y'all, -Elder Gilbert