Visiting the pueblo of Telchaquillo

LDS Chapel in Telchaquillo

Zebu/Cebu

Water tanks on roof tops

September 26, 2011 letter

Dear Family,

I´ll explain the water here.  All of the houses have toilets, showers, and sinks.  The difference here is that the water isn`t pressurized.  On top of every house there is a watertank.  When there is enough pressure the water can go up from the ground line into the tank on the roof.  All of the water sources inside the house come from tank.  If there isn`t water in the tank, there isn`t water in the house. There is a ground line and all of the houses have faucets outside that almost always have water.  When there isn`t enough water pressure to fill the tank, we go outside and fill up buckets from the faucet to bathe and flush the toilet.  We just dump the water directly in the toilet to flush and stand in the shower with a bucket to shower.  Some people buy electric water pumps so that they can fill their tank when there isn`t enough pressure.  In Champoton we didn't have any pressure for a few weeks so our tank never filled.  The owner installed a pump, and after that we always had water.  Here in Kanasin, the problem is that there is water in the tank on top, but somewhere along the way the water isn`t making it to the toilet, shower, and sink.  The owner is coming by to check out the pipes.  The houses here don`t have washing machine hookups.  All you need is an outlet and a hose to use your washingmachine.  

We haven`t had any investigatores that are progressing.  We went to a pueblo last week.  There is an extension of our ward in that pueblo (Telchaquillo).  There are a few people that have gone a couple of times.  We have 3 investigatores there right now and there are several more references that we are going to find.  We only go there when there are references.  There is a rule here that we can't use sunglasses.  If I could, I would.  I found a nice pair of polarized glasses for about $20.  They normally start around $100 in the United States.  

Every month the RS president makes a list of families for us to eat with.  I like it a lot better because it gives us some variety.  There is a lady that has a little restaurante in her house.  When a family doesn`t want to cook for us, they pay the lady and she makes us lunch.  It's really good.  We usually get to go with her 4 or 5 times a month.  My companion and I make our own food. All he eats is cereal.  This month I`ve been eating cereal, yogurt, and mandarines.  I`d like to start cooking better breakfasts.  This next month Im going to start waking up 10 minutes early to give me more time.  I can get 2 lbs of bacon for $10 from the store close by.  

We are going to be seeing the Sunday morning session of conference, and if we bring investigatores we can watch the other sessions with them.  Hopefully they have a room to broadcast in English for us.  

I hope everyone had a good time in St. George.  Grandma and Grandpa look pretty good. 

Don`t forget to pay tithing on my birthday money.  And can you put another $200 in my Wells Fargo account.  It's getting low and I don`t want them to close it.  

Love, 

Elder Gubler

Recent picture

September 19, 2011 letter

Dear Family,

Sorry, my first letter didn´t go through and it didn´t get saved.  I'm not having the best of luck with the weekly letters.  I´ll explain next week about the water.  There aren´t very many apartments as far as I have seen.  I think most if not all of the missionaries have houses here.  We had our baptism last week.  Her name is Pascuala.  We found her family one day while we were lost.  Some of her siblings were baptized about a year and a half ago, but she didn´t get baptized.  We taught her, and yesterday her brother and sister in law went to church.  Hopefully we can get the rest of them active again.  We have been finding lots of investigatores, but none of them are progressing.  I´ve sent some pictures that you can use for the christmas card.  I also sent one with Elder Gubler, but I don´t think it turned out as good.  I think it would be better to use the picture of us that I sent about 5 weeks ago, and you can include one of the pictures of just me.  I also sent a picture of my eye.  Can you have one of the optomotrists in the stake take a look at it?  Elder Abarca and a member here said that it looks like I have ptirigion (carnosity)  that results from too much glare from the reflection of the sun.  They recommended that I get some type of polycarbonate put on my glasses.  They said it would prevent the sun from harming my eyes.  Can you see what their opinion is on this? 

Love,

Elder Gubler

September 12, 2011 letter

Dear Family,

 

Elder Abarca goes home first week of October.  He's 21 and is from Morelos, about 2 hours south of Mexico City.  We have been getting tons of investigators.  The people here are a lot more accepting.  We have a baptism planned for Thursday.  We have 1 other investigator that went to church on Sunday, but we`ll see what happens with her.  I haven`t been to any of the English classes yet.  I don´t even know if anybody goes.  I don`t know which other Elders have Costco cards.  Mine doesn`t work here because they have a different system, but they said I can get a guest pass when I come.  There´s a member that took us to Sam`s Club.  I'm still using the magic tricks.  The kids in the ward really like them and are always soliciting.  We have been bathing with buckets since I`ve gotten here.  All of the houses have an outside water source that they can use.  We get about 1500 pesos a month, the equivilant of about $140.  Of that, we can spend 600 for food, 300 in transport, and 600 for cleaning and bathing supplies.  I weighed myself 2 weeks ago.  I'm down to 163, 28 lbs. more than mom.  I was about 188 in the MTC.  The food in Kanasin is a lot better, and my face doesn`t look as thin now.  Sorry I have to go.  We lost a lot of time today.  I`ll send a longer letter next week. 

Love,

Elder Gubler

Letter from Elder Ballard

August 31,2011

Dear Brother and Sister Gubler:

Thank you so much for your letter of August 17 reminding me of meeting you years ago at the Fresno Temple Dedication.  I must admit that Elder Gubler still "looks like a great missionary." What a wonderful experience for him to be able to work with another handsome Elder Gubler as they serve the people in the Mexico Merida Mission.

The next time you write to him, please let him know I am proud of him.  There is nothing he could be doing right now that is more important for him than this service as a missionary.

Warm personal regards,

M. Russell Ballard

(editor's note: Elder Ballard's kind note was written in response to a letter from a proud missionary mother)

Kanasin District missionaries

Speargun shopping at the mall

Buffet heaven

Other Elder Gubler's spaghetti trick

September 6, 2011 letter

Dear Family,

Sorry this letter is late.  Our day was packed yesterday.  We woke up at 5:00, got ready, cleaned the house, went to a member's home to wash, took a bus to Merida, walked to the temple, and there met up with the bishop and a member who took us to Costco.  At Costco we met up with Elder Gubler and Elder Aguirre and we shopped around for an hour.  I bought a huge bag of pancake mix, and a box of Frosted mini wheats.  From there we went to Sam's club, and then to a huge mall, and then to a buffet.  We got back, unloaded everything from the trip, and went to write.  The place where we went to write was full, and we didn`t have time to find another place, so we headed off to Merida and planned to write before the district meeting.  We got there, but they didn`t have any internet service.  It was pouring rain, so we couldn`t find another place.  We waited there until our meeting started. 

We are in the process of finding a new house to live in.  We have to find 3, and the secretaries decide which one we live in.  So far we have only found 1.  Elder Abarca is the one with glasses in the group photo.  The one with the short brown hair is Elder Morgan.  He was in Champoton for 9 months and he was my companion here for a week before he went home.  I got the packages yesterday.  The zone leaders had picked them up last Tuesday.  The powdered drinks were damp, so I threw them out, and there were some ants in the bars with peanuts, but I ate them anyway.  Thankyou for the CDs.  How were you able to get all of those songs?  Did you find them all on iTunes?  The backpack is perfect.  Its so much better than a shoulder bag.  I would love to have some spending money for Costco for my birthday.  They have tons of great stuff there.  Elder Gubler is just a regular senior companion now. I think he`ll stay here until he finishes.  Our district is the 4 of us in Kanasin and 2 in Merida.  The district leader is in Merida.  Well that's all I have time for this week.  I sent some photos.  ( the last picture is Elder Gubler putting spagetti up his nose and out his mouth)

Love,

Elder Gubler