Solved half my own problem, hopefully this will help anyone with the same issue. I found another code to use and mixed and matched with the old code I had so that I could bring in the newest feed from the database but use the styling options from the previous box.
<?php
$args = array( 'numberposts' => 1 );
$lastposts = get_posts( $args );
foreach($lastposts as $post) : setup_postdata($post); ?>
<?php
$_tmp=get_the_excerpt('');
$_tmp=(strlen($_tmp)<250?$_tmp:substr($_tmp,0,250-3)."...");
echo "<p>".nl2br($_tmp); ?>
<p><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>">More...</a></p>
<?php endforeach; ?>
Hope this helps anyone with a similar issue.
