March 7, 2011 letter

Dear family,

I spoke in Sacrament meeting on my third Sunday here on the topic of faith.  It went well.  I think they understood what I was saying.  The baptism had to be postponed because the boy isn't quite ready.  We'll have to have it in 2 weeks.  We haven't had anytime to have fun on pday because our entire day is packed with studying, washing, buying, and traveling to the district meetings.  But after today that is all going to change.  With the new transfer coming up I was hoping that Elder Vickery [Ed’s companion] could become the new District Leader so that we wouldn't have to travel almost 2 hours to get to the meetings.  He told me that wouldn't happen because they usually choose a DL from the same area.  Last night we got a call telling us that we would remain companions in Champoton, and that the new DL is my companion, Elder Vickery.  I was very excited to hear this.  This now opens up tons of time in our pday.  In the past we would have to leave at about 2:40 in order to make it to our meeting on time.  Now we just have to ride our bikes for 10 minutes to the chapel and be there by 6:00.  We don't have to hire anyone for food.  Every day of the week, except pday, there is a different family that is assigned to make us lunch at arround 2:00.  The list of families is changed about every 3 months I think.  Most of our meals are very delicious and very filling.  We take care of breakfst and dinner ourselves.  We eat bananas, milk, and usually oats and a few cookies for breakfast.  When we get back at night, I usually have oats or cookies and milk.

Laundry process:

(we do this in our little patio outside)

1. fill a bucket with water and pour a little bit of soap in it

2. swish it arround ( we use a 2 liter bottle on a broom stick)
3. scrub the clothes on a cement basin that has bumps

4. wring clothes

5. drop in a bucket of water and fabric softener

6. hang up to dry on a line
It takes about 1.5-2 hours

We can use the machine of a member if we want.  Last week we did, so we could have time to get haircuts.  This is the process for our area.  The area where I did a split is different.  They have a member that washes and folds their clothes.  They also go to the branch president everyday for lunch.  In the house that we spent the night in Merida, they have a washing machine.

This past week has been better.  We have done more contacts, and taught more lessons,  but we are having some slow times because the investigators are having trouble keeping their commitments.  But we have found a new person that so far is progressing.  We were trying to find the house of a man that, according to his wife, was posessed.  Instead we found a nice 22 year old man.  We taught the restoration, he accepted a baptism date for the 26th, and he showed up to church with his mom and stayed for all 3 hours.  He told us that he read the pamphlet that we left him and he accepted a return visit.  I think if we can get him to read the Book of Mormon he'll keep progressing.  The other guy that we are focusing on did his reading in the Book of Mormon and showed up to our English class, but not to church.  We also found some old investigators this week.  Apparently they had been taught by some sister missionaries (it’s been a while since we've had sister missionaries) and after they got transfered that was the end.  Hopefully we can get them to continue progressing.  That's about all I have for this week. 

Love,

Elder Gubler