Monday, November 28, 2011

Merida Mexico temple

Naomi's Dad's baptism

November 28, 2011 letter

Dear Family,

We didn`t do anything for Thanksgiving, but tonight I am going to make that lasagna you sent me a few months ago.  I`d like another package.  A pair of black pants from Mr. Macs would be nice.  They should still have my record on file with my sizes and style.  Also, send all of the bags of jerky you can.  Before I didn`t care too much for it, but now it's what I'm craving.  Another Elder gave me a bag of pork jerky.  I ate 3 big pieces, but decided that I had better share it with my companion and a member from the ward (he was very happy to receive it).  Also, I sure could use about 4 nice ties.  Right now I have 4 ties that I use, and they are getting a little bit faded.  I talked to the assistants, and they said we can`t use skype.  I still haven`t had time to read the pages you sent me in portuguese, italian, and german.  
 
This week went pretty well.  We taught 21 lessons, and we had a baptism (the dad of the girl we baptized 2 weeks ago).  Now all of the family are members, but the other kids are all inactive.  We are going to try and help them get active again.  The family that we dumped out the beer with is doing great.  The husband has been to church twice and yesterday was the 5th or 6th time for the wife.  Her kids participated in the pirmary program.  She even went out and bought a tie for the son.  All we are waiting for is a birth certificate so that they can get married.  It should be coming soon.  This week we started teaching a 15 year old that we had taught a few weeks ago with his uncle.  All week he was really quiet and wasn`t answering too well when we asked him questions, but after going to church and the baptism, he really started talking a lot and I could see a big change in him.  He was even excited  about going to seminary, even though he didn`t go today.  I think we are going to have at least 4 baptisms before Christmas, and maybe more.  On Friday we had a great zone conference.  The 1st counselor in the mission talked to us.  I had no idea that mission presidents had counselors.  

Can you find out how many lessons and contacts Jared Hammer is having per week?  I`m curious about how it is in Europe.  Spencer Gubler says his dad taught 2 lessons in his entire mission.  And also, how often did you teach in Japan?
Well its time to go.

Love,
Elder Gubler

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

One year accomplished

Lunch time with Elder Gubler

November 21, 2011 letter

Dear Family,

Well I`m glad to hear that mom and dad got back safely.  Elder Gubler was really jealous to hear that they went there.  Thanks for sending the chapters I asked for.  My feet don`t hurt at all, they just have spots on them.  It cost me 500 pesos to go to the hospital and another 700 for the medicine.  I paid with a little bit of my money and a little bit of the money the mission sends to me.  I sent in the reciepts and they are going to pay me back for everything.  

I got a card from mom`s parents wishing me a happy hump day.  I can`t believe how fast everything has gone by.  The members that we ate lunch with gave me a little piece of cheese cake to celebrate.  

Well this past week was pretty great.  I taught 22 lessons, more than I have taught in any other week.  We had 5 people go to church.  We should be having a baptism this week of the dad that was in the picture I sent 2 weeks ago.  We were going to have  his baptism on Saturday, but he had too much going on that day.  The other family, that I sent a picture of, all went to church.  Once they get married we can baptize them.  We also found 2 golden investigators.  The first one we found Tuesday.  He drinks, but he has read through 1st Nephi and went to church yesterday.  He works everyday 8am to 8pm except for Tuesday, so we teach him every night around 8:45 before we go back to the house.  He talked to his boss and is entering to work at 7 on Sundays so that he can go to sacrament meeting.  The other investigator lives in Telchaquillo.  Yesterday we taught her for the first time.  She has already been to church 4 times.  We almost got her to accpet to be baptized this Sunday, but she wants to wait because she wants a special white dress made for her for her baptism, so we are going to have it on the 18th.

About a week ago the weather had been nice and cool (to the point that I was using a sweater in the house), but these last few days have been really hot.  Yesterday we had what I hope to be the final rain for the year.  From December to June we shouldn`t be seeing much of anything.  My umbrella that supposedly has a life time guaranty doesn`t work anymore.    

Thanks.

Love,
Elder Gubler

November 14, 2011 letter

Dear Family,

Well I can`t believe its been a year now.  Only 1 more to go.  I got to go to the hospital last week that I went to with Elder Spencer Gubler, but this time I went with my companion and I was the patient.  Don`t worry, everything is fine.  I`ve had some little brown spots on my feet for a while and I went to get them checked out.  There is something going on with the micro veins on my feet and the red blood cells are causing the spots on my feet.  I got some pills and some cream and it should be gone within a month.  It came from all of the walking and the weather here.

Hopefully we will be seeing a baptism this week of the father of the girl that we baptized last week.  And I hope to see a few more in the future as well.  We went to Telchaquillo to visit someone that has already been to church 2 or 3 times, so we went all the way out there only to find that she wasn`t there.  Once we start the lessons, she should be baptized fairly quickly. 

While you`re in Europe, if you happen to be by a distribution center, could you get me a copy of the Book of Mormon in German?  We had some training 2 weeks ago and President Salinas talked to us about the great opportunity we have here in the field to learn another language.  It is now a rule that all Latin Americans study English every day.  He mentioned a native Elder that is learning English and now is learning Italian.  I figured that if I`m here, I might as well learn German.  Also, could you copy and paste 1 Nephi 1 and 2 (in German) in your next letter?  Thanks.

Love,
Elder Gubler

Monday, November 7, 2011

Naomi's baptism

November 7, 2011 letter

Dear Family,

I got to baptize Naomi on Saturday and confirm her on Sunday.  Her mom and siblings are members.  The only one left is her dad.  He told us that he didn`t feel ready.  Hopefully he will be ready soon.  We lost the best investigator I´ve had because she has to work on Sundays.  If she doesn`t work Sunday mornings, she can go to church and be baptized.  Of all the investigators we`ve had, we`ll probably get 2 more baptisms this month.  We are going to try and find more investigators.  I saw Elder Smith twice, and will be seeing him at the zone conferences.  He is in the zone right next to us, and his area includes part of Kanasin.  He doesn`t know Brother Watkins that well.  I think he is a nephew of Sister Watkins.  I`m almost done with a program so that I can go to the temple with President Salinas.  Elder Gubler already finished it, but still hasn`t gone, so maybe we can go together.  Has Braun Kimball already gotten back from his mission?  He is in New Zealand, but I can`t remember when he left. 

We had daylight savings last week.  Of course, I had no idea it had arrived.  On Saturday night, I decided we were going to leave the house a little bit earlier so we wouldn`t have to worry as much about being late to church.  One of the things that takes time in the morning is heating up water to bath with.  I decided that I would set an alarm for 6:17 so I could plug in the hot water heater, fall back asleep, and wake up with the cell phone alarm at 6:30, ready to get in the shower.  During the night the cell phone automatically set back an hour, but the alarm set for 6:17 didn`t.  I woke up at 5:02 (cell phone time) and was relieved that I still had over an hour before the alarm would go off.  I fell back asleep, and was suddenly woken up by the alarm set for 6:17.  I felt that the hour and fifteen minutes had gone by really quickly.  I plugged in the water heater, and went back to sleep.  I woke up again about 28 minutes later, and seeing the time on the phone at 5:45.  I got really worried because I thought I had woken up late (against the rules) and on top of that couldn`t figure out why the phone would change back an hour.  I rushed to get ready, and my companion and I got to church, exactly an hour early.  We figured out what happened when we saw that nobody else was there.  I won`t forget next year. 

Love,
Elder Gubler