Baptism of Jaime David Balam Carillo (Marcos' uncle)

Mayan architecture

Breadfruit for lunch again?

Mayan staircase

Polly Want a Cracker?

May 28, 2012 letter

Dear Family,

 

This week went by well.  We didn`t have the 6 baptisms because nobody got their blood tests, but we did have a baptism.  It's the uncle of Marcos that I baptized in Kanasin.  His wife and kids are all members and his daughter is on her mission.  He had been taught by the missionaries before, but he never showed up for his baptismal interview.  He is only here about 1 or 2 days every 3 weeks.  We taught him 3 weeks ago and put a date for the 26th, thinking that he would be coming by on weekends, but he never showed up.  Yesterday after church his daughter came up to us to tell us that he was home.  I talked to the branch president and he went with us to go see him.  We invited him to be baptized that day.  He was planning on leaving again at 6:00 p.m., but he said he could wait.  We made some calls to plan the baptism, and we tried to find some white pants, but nobody had the right size.  The only member in the district with some pants was traveling and couldn`t get back until 9:30.  We borrowed a belt and gave him some pants a size too small.  It worked out.   Hopefully this week the other 6 baptisms should happen. 

The rain here stopped.  It was only a storm that was passing through.  The rain should start again in June. Last Monday we went to a store that sells Maya art.  They have some pretty cool structures outside so we took some pictures and looked around.  I sent some pictures of that.  My group is going home at the scheduled time on Nov. 26th.  They only end early if it's Christmas.  We are all done with the temple, interviews, and dinner on the 29th.  I`ll let you know in the next week or 2 when to meet up with me. 

 

Love,

Elder Gubler

May 21, 2012 letter

Dear Family,

It sounds like everyone had a good weekend at the beach and Disneyland.  Which beach did the orchestra go to?  Last week when we called, I let another Elder use some of my phone calling credit because he called from the other meeting house and his parents didn`t have the number.  Of the video`s you cleaned out, make sure you don`t throw away any of the old pioneer movies.  I want to watch them when I get home.  I have a little collection of church movies here.  I bought the dvds of Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Mormon segments that they made about 20 years ago.  I also have a video they made in 2000 of the first presidency and the 12. 

Is the Walmart in the old Costco building like the one on 198 or is it just a grocery store? You can find my BYU friends on facebook under my friend group ``BYU``  It has a list of the profiles from BYU. 

This week, if everything works out, we should have 6 baptisms.  The mechanic and his wife, Miguel and Laydi, have to get married this week.  Laydi has 2 sons that will also be baptized.  Also, the other couple, Jorge and Victoria, are going to try again this week to get married. The rainy season is back.  Its been raining pretty hard a few days this week.  We´ll be looking for more investigators this week.

Love,

Elder Gubler

May 14, 2012 letter

Dear Family,

 

It was nice to talk to you last night.  Today I talked to the secretary to find out when we go home.  He is going to ask President Salinas next Monday. 

This last week went by well.  We had another great zone conference on Wednesday.  We ate with some members after we got back to Ticul.  There was way too much salt in the food.  Every bite just tasted like salt.  About 8:00 I started feeling it in my stomach.  I couldn´t sleep because it hurt.  I threw up 4 times between 11:00 and 1:00, and after that I could sleep.  It was during that time that I noticed the blood spot in my eye.  I´ll send a picture in another email. 

When we go to Chapab, we leave our bikes in the house of the other missionaries.  When we got back from Chapab, they decided to play a joke.  There is a window in the door of their house.  If the window is left open, you can open the door.  We got there and they came up to us with a worried look on their face.  They asked us if we had just barely gotten back.  They looked worried.  We got to the house and they said that the window was open when they got there.  I got scared and they opened the door.  Our helmets where thrown on the floor and the bikes were gone.  I felt bad because I thought maybe I had left the window opened and that it was my falt.  I felt a little better when I noticed that their DVD player was still there and was relieved to see that it hadn´t been stolen.  There was a note on the floor.  My companion picked it up and it said ´Ha ha sus bicis estan arriba´´ (your bikes are upstairs) I, however misread it and thought that it said that our visas where expired.  That made me a little upset, thinking that the person that had stolen the bikes was making fun of us.  Then after the other missionaries were laughing I realized that it was a joke.  After that we went to an activity for the branch.  We played a giant version of Shutes and Ladders on the basketball court.  There was a pretty good turnout.  The kids of the mechanic showed up.  Also, an inactive member that we contacted that week and his wife went. 

In the zone conference they told us that starting in August we would be using mormon.org to create a profile and during the week chat to people about the church.  There is and will be a lot of curiosity about Mitt Romney.  Some sister missionaries where on an island by Cancun.  Some Jewish people asked if Mitt was from their church and then wanted to know what we believe.  In addition to this, the missionary discussions are on the site and after we teach an investigator about a principle, we send them to mormon.org to watch related videos (like people that overcame problems with the Word of Wisdom and share their testimony).

When you go on my facebook to put the notice about me having 6 months left, be sure to mention the blog with the same wall post.  Also, can you look at my list of friends from BYU and let me know who is on missions and where?  Thanks.

Love,

Elder Gubler. 

Dear family,

The couple [which we have been teaching] still hasn´t gotten married.  They were going to go Friday morning for their blood samples (the only thing they are missing) , but they woke up and had a flat tire on their trike, so they worked for a few hours to get some money and then took it to get it fixed, but there were other people waiting, and by the time they finished it was too late.  We talked to them and they said they would be going this morning at 6:30, so we´ll see.  On Saturday we contacted a family in a mechanic shop.  As soon as we said "hi" they offered us some of their breakfast.  We taught them and the parents accepted a baptismal date.  In the evening we took the husband and the kids on a church tour.  They didn´t make it to church on time, but we went to look for them after the sacrament.  I went with one of the members to pass by their house.  I found out that this member was a companion with Kavika Marcelino from the Visalia 2nd ward when they served in Tampico, Mexico.  The family made it for the last part of sacrament meeting and stayed till the end of church.  I played the piano for the sacrament hymn and the closing hymn.  In the evening we taught a guy that went to church that day.  His wife is a member but he isn´t.  Marcos, my convert from Kanasin, is his nephew.  His dad and the guy we taught are brothers.  I showed pictures to him and his daughter, who had never seen her cousins. 

Today we played basketball for 2 hours with the other companionship from Ticul. 

Call me at 8:00 my time for Mothers Day.  019979720661.  Do a test call this week.

Love,

Elder Gubler

Squirtgun art

Cartoon about bathtub

Bathtub picture

April 30, 2012 letter

Dear Family,

The other missionary [in the picture I sent last week] is Elder Schang from Layton.  He came on the mission the same time as me, and we stayed at his house several nights when we couldn`t get back to Kanasin in time after district meetings.  The picture [of the baptism I sent last week] is of Fernando.  His last name is Tun Yah.  I also sent a picture of the motorcycles at church.  On the right side is a moto taxi.  I haven`t heard anything about the couple from Kanasin.  When I left the wife was going to Church, but David hadn`t been for a while because of work.  My half of Kanasin was closed for a few weeks, but its open again.  I`ll send a letter to them someday.  When we got off the bus at Cancun, we were given a sandwhich, cookies, and a juicebox.  We were given explicit instructions to not order any food while in Cancun.  After the conference, we ate Little Cesar`s before getting back on the bus. 

I attached a picture of a campaign add of a guy running for Governor of Mexico.  Thousands of those stickers have been made.  Its the size of the back window of a car.  It has a lot of holes poked in it so that you can see out your mirror.  Maybe you can make some of those if dad gets a lot of donations when he runs again.  I got the sticker from some members to put on the back of the Honda.  We had transfers yesterday.  Elder Taylor and I are still here.  One of the missionaries from the other area [of Ticul] went to Escarcega, so we are with his companion until tomorrow when he gets a new missionary. 

Fernando is doing great.  He went to church yesterday with a white shirt and tie.  We didn`t have any investigators in church yesterday, but we have some good people that we are teaching right now.  On Saturday we found an old guy that knew the first missionaries that arrived in Ticul in the 60`s.  He has some interesting stories.  He was friends with a guy that took over some of Albert Einstein`s projects.  If the couple [we are teaching] gets married this week they will be baptized, but if not we will stop teaching them until they get married.  Their names are Jorge and Victoria.

 

Love,

Elder Gubler