Elder Jared Gibby February 17, 2010

Jared was excited that they got some snow in Alabama. "YEA!!! we got snow!!!! I was so pumped. It snowed most of Friday and stayed till Saturday afternoon. We got about an inch and a half. That's a lot for Alabama. We had a huge snowball fight with the Ellis family. Elder Scheitinger and I totally dominated, it was hilarious. Then we made a snow man with them. It was a ghetto snow man, with the flat brimmed hat and all. haha. We also had a snowball fight with the Sanford's and made a snowman with them. It was a great day."

Jared didn't get transferred which was nice - maybe he will get to finish out in Bessemer. "YAY!!! I didn't want to go. I want to see the rest of the Ellis family join the church. Leon's baptism is this Saturday his mom decided he should go ahead and get baptized. He was waiting for her to quit smoking but she keeps relapsing. She is extremely addicted to cigarettes. I haven't had an investigator so addicted before. She is down to about 1 every 2-3 days. So she is improving. She just gets stressed out and gets one. It's super tough. She is going to quit though, I know it. Her baptismal date is for March 6th."

"At church on Sunday we had Barbara, Miss Wayne, and Santana come. It was awesome. Three new investigators YAY!! We have a huge teaching pool right now all we gotta do now is just seal the deal with our investigators, commit them to be baptized. We are going to have a lot of success this transfer. The bible study class is a great idea and I think it will attract a lot of people. The work just keeps getting more and more exciting and intense!!! I love it."

"This weekend is going to be sweet. All the young men from the stake are coming to Bessemer and for a couple of hours are going to do the survey in our area. I'm glad we are in the stake center's area. They are expecting around 50 young men. That adds up to about a weeks amount of tracting. whoo hooo!!! We should get a lot of referrals. So we are super excited."

I can't believe that it is almost time for us to fly out there and pick him up. It is so nice having a missionary out that I wish he could stay another year (well, maybe not).

Sterling Scholar

From 2010-02-17 001

Tonight Sarah had her Regional interview for the Sterling Scholar Award. She was awarded the Tooele High School award a couple of months ago. Advancing to regionals she had to prepare and submit a formal portfolio and participate in an interview. She spent quite a bit of time preparing her portfolio and preparing for the interview. She said that she didn't get nervous. We talked about the questions and her responses. My opinion, although I am likely biased, is that she did well in the interview. They will announce the regional winners and runners up tonight at midnight. I guess I am up for the long haul tonight to see how she did. Anyway it turns out it was a great experience for her and I am certainly the proud father.

Elder Jordan Gibby - February 16, 2010

From Jordan Jan 2010

Thank you Mom. What a great Mother, she never misses a holiday!

From Jordan Jan 2010

The rainy season in Brazil - or is this the only season in Brazil?

From Jordan Jan 2010

Brazil has excellent food!

I Can't Believe It

I can't believe that I am sitting here watching the Bachelor. I have been so tired for several weeks that I have given in to watching too much TV. This has resulted in my watching the Bachelor. Oh well, I hope that he ends up with Tenley. I hope he votes off the blonde bimbo this week, although I don't think that he will. Well, here is Jake to make his selection. I guess I will wait to post until I see what he is going to do since he has fallen in love with all three of them. I keep saying that he should be on the show "The Polygamist". So far he has admitted that he could marry any three of them. Tenley gets the first rose as I thought she would. Internet rumors have it that they are already engaged. The second rose goes to Vienna as I thought it would. I can't believe that he would choose the cheap stripper over the much sweeter Gia. I think that is part of the TV production. They need to keep the tension in the show so that stupid viewers like me will keep watching it.

Well, I need to get away from watching dumb shows like this and start working on my house again. I bought the cabinet for the downstairs bathroom. Now I can start tearing the floor out and put the travertine down. It will be nice to have it done. I also bought the paint for the downstairs bedroom. I can work on painting that room this week. Anything to keep me away from this TV trash. Hopefully Gia can find a nice guy now. Now there is no surprise that Tenley will be the pick in the end because there is now way he will pick the trailer trash candidate.

Time for Winter to End

We had a nice day today with warm sunshine. If the lawn hadn't been so wet from melted snow I would have laid out on the lawn on a blanket. I am ready for winter to end and spring to arrive. I've actually been ready for winter to end from the day it started. We didn't play any winter sports this year so winter has essentially consisted of being stuck in the house or Walmart (the only place to go in Tooele when you want to get out of the house). I see a number of my perennials starting to shoot up. I think that the Pasque flowers will start blooming in just a few weeks. I just hope we don't get a bitter cold freeze at this time an damage all the new plants and buds.

Elder Jordan Gibby - February 9, 2010

From Jordan Jan 2010

From Jordan Jan 2010

From Jordan Jan 2010

From Jordan Jan 2010

From Jordan Jan 2010

From Jordan Jan 2010

Elder Jordan Gibby - February 2, 2010

From Jordan Mission

From Jordan Mission

From Jordan Mission

Miracles Do Happen

This past week I found myself in a very difficult situation. It was not something that I had put myself into, but it came upon me. I didn't know how I would ever surmount the problem and I fell into the pit of despair. I was so upset by the situation I found myself in, I couldn't think, I couldn't act. I pretty much just walked in circles and cried. At about 11:30 that night my mind was cleared and I had strong impressions on what I should do. I followed those impressions to the letter and within a day the problem had resolved itself. I was telling my mother about it and she said that at about 11:30 that same night she had called and put my name in the LDS Temple for the prayer roll (they were closed by she left it on the answering machine). I know God listened to the answering machine before the temple worker's did the next day. I knew that this was a direct answer to prayer. I told my children that they had witnessed a modern day miracle. I told them that I had prayed fervently for a resolution. Both my children told me that they had also been praying for the same outcome. It turned into an incredibly spiritual experience.

I read the following passages of scripture from 1 Nephi Chapter 7 that I feel described my experience:

16 And it came to pass that when I, Nephi, had spoken these words unto my brethren, they were angry with me. And it came to pass that they did lay their hands upon me, for behold, they were exceedingly wroth, and they did bind me with cords, for they sought to take away my life, that they might leave me in the wilderness to be devoured by wild beasts.
17 But it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of my brethren; yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I am bound.
18 And it came to pass that when I had said these words, behold, the bands were loosed from off my hands and feet, and I stood before my brethren, and I spake unto them again.

As in the case of Nephi, the Lord did not grant me with strength to strike back, rather he loosed the bands that were around my wrists and feet and freed me from the difficult circumstance I found myself in.

Elder Jared Gibby - February 3, 2010

From Jared Dec 2009

This last picture is of my awesome pizza that I made. We made these when we went to the Kilgore's home for the Alabama football game. It was a lot of fun.

From Jared Dec 2009

One is of the view across the street. That is our ghettofabulous store over there. It gets pretty crazy, trust me.

From Jared Dec 2009

Here is a picture of the blue cup that is outside my study window. There is a little deck on the back of our house. I decided to get a pic by him.