March 14, 2011 letter

Dear Family,

It is a mission rule that we eat 2 bananas every day.  There is quite a bit of food that contains vegetables.  Last Sunday we had a soup of lentils, potatoes, and tons of other vegetables, and slices of cooked plantains.  It was really good.  Watermelon season is coming and I think Elder Vickery said he was going to buy one.  They have this really good fruit here called Tamarindo.  I don't really know how to describe it, but you can look it up on the Internet.  It is really good plain, with chili powder, as a soda, and as a juice.  When I have the opportunity, I have a coconut from a member.  I cut it open, drink the juice, and then eat the flesh.  Ive been losing weight.  I dropped down to the next belt loop, but then I went back up because its more comfortable.  I stretch for about 15 minutes in the morning and then do pushups.  For the first couple of weeks I would put my books into a suitcase and do curls and tricep extensions, but then I stopped doing that when I used my suit case for a companionship exchange.  I’ll have to get back into that habit again.  I do sit ups every couple of days before bed.  I’m having lots of fun.  I’m not sure if we could hire a member [to do our laundry], but it doesn't matter.  As long as we can use their machine I’m happy.  We have more time on pday today :D  After we buy groceries and eat, we are going to go to the ocean and take pictures, and if we have more time we will ride to the top of the hill and get some really good pictures.  And after that if we still have time we are going to the branch president’s to have saborines (basically a homemade popsicle in a plastic bag)   

This week has been great.  At one point we had 9 investigators with a baptismal date.  We have to postpone their dates for at least a week though, because this week was stake conference in Campeche, and none of them went. (you must attend church at least 3 times before you can be baptized)  There is one of them that is doing really good.  He used to be an altar boy for the Catholic church when he was little, then he said he stopped going and lost his faith.  He likes what we  are teaching him and says that he wants to feel good.  He did his reading in the Book of Mormon and said he felt good after it.  There is a mom and her 2 kids in their 20's that we are teaching.  We first started teaching the son.  He showed up to church last week with his mom.  He really surprised us in our last visit when we found out that he has been marking his scriptures as he reads.  Right now we are helping him to stop drinking.  His mom and sister aren't as excited and aren't doing their reading.  We taught a young couple that had a baby 8 days earlier.  The husband has to work on Sundays so it will probably be a while before we can get them baptized.  We taught an older couple but they weren't home when we returned.  The family with the mom who said we represent the true church isn't doing too well.  We have only been able to teach one lesson to the son and his cousin, but at least the son is reading and he was our initial contact.  He wasn't there for our return visit.  The baptism of the 16 year old is happening this Saturday, and his mom joined us during a lesson for the first time.  I found that the best people to contact are dads that are holding babies.  So far they have been nice and accepted a return visit.  That's about it for our teaching pool. 

When we need a haircut, there are lots of barbers.  There is a member that we will visit next time.  I think he has clippers.

Mom asked about the oats and how I prepare them.  I just put milk  on the oats and eat it like cereal.  The water isn't that bad.  You can actually drink quite a bit (I don't) before its a problem.

We changed the list of families that feed us.  I’m a little sad that we lost our former Wednesday and Thursday lunch appointments.  They were always the best.  But our new list is good.  On Friday we had soup with pig skin in it, but it wasn't as bad as the first time (slabs of skin that was really smooth and rubbery)  It was in little pieces and it had some meat on it.  We also had some more skin, but it was fried so it was like eating a greasy potato chip.  She also made a really good garlic sauce.  You should try it (3 egg whites, lemon juice, olive oil, and a clove of garlic.  mix it in the blender until creamy).  Well that’s it for this email. 

Love,

Elder Gubler