July 30, 2012 letter

Dear Family,

 

In Cancun, the beach and resort areas are off limits, but we can see the  rest of down town.  I don´t know why there were special transfers.  It had something to do with the other missionary but I don´t know what.  I left Champoton because the other missionary at that time went home, but here it was just a switching of areas.  This past week were the normal transfers, but I´m  still here with the same companion.  My area in Ticul got closed down, but it should be open again in 6 weeks.  My companion from there came back to his first area in Cancun where he started the mission.  He is in my zone.  The other Elder that I switched with went to Merida.  He has been out for the same time as me.  When we get to 20 months, we get a letter for our return information.  They wanted that information and wanted to know which airport I needed to get to.  I don´t know if Visalia will work, but I put down Fresno.  You should be getting a call some day from the Secretary to make the final plans.  I´m on the opposite end of the resorts.  I haven´t seen any tourists.  Its just the 2 of us in the house.  It has a water heater on the back porch, but it's no good.  I don´t even need it anymore.  I´ll be gone before the cold starts again.  From what I understand, (when my mission is done) we should get to the mission offices on Tuesday, Wednesday we go to the temple and have dinner, and Thursday morning everyone flies out.  Can you check  if my Costco card is still good or if it expired. Morgan Smith's mission got divided into two.  Is he still going to Veracruz? What's the weather like over there (in Visalia?), a few people ask me about it. 

Love,

Elder Gubler

July 23, 2012 letter

Dear Family,

Our address is 1709 b on street Ciniega, in Haciendas del Caribe.  The house is smaller than what we had in Ticul, but its got a smart design so there is room for everything.  Some of the missionaries here have some nice houses.  The Zone Leaders have a full leather furniture set with a couch, love seat, and a chair.  They have a nice wood entertainment center (on which they put their portable DVD player) and a full size fridge.  There are tons of people here.  We have probably one of the most concentrated areas of all of Cancun.  All of the houses are pushed together and really small.  My new companion is Elder Asencio from San Luis Potosi, Mexico.  He´s been out for a year.  My district is our area, the ZL´s and a pueblo about 30 minutes away called Leona Vicario.  I´m in a ward called Palmas.  Its the largest in the stake.  There are 3 stakes in Cancun.  About 50 missionaries.  There are us and another companionship in this ward.  It was split a year ago, and some of the members knew Spencer Gubler.  We have some investigators here, but I haven´t seen much progression.  We´ll probably look for more. 

Sorry I didn´t finish the questions.  I ran out of time.  I´ll answer the rest next week.

Love,

Elder Gubler

July 16, 2012 letter

Dear Family,

Everything is fine now (with my health).  There are vans that leave from Ticul and go to Merida about every 20 minutes.  We got on one of those to get to the hospital.  I was able to sleep for most of the ride.  I told the Taxi driver where to go and I already knew how to do everything because I had been to the hospital before.  After the hospital we went to the mission offices and I got to sleep there in my hammack.  I got up about 10:30. 

On Wednesday (of this past week) we got back to the house at night.  At 10:13 I got a call from the Zone Leaders with special transfers.  I got sent to Cancun.  I packed for a few hours, and got up early to finish packing.  I got on the bus about 8:30 a.m.  I got to the bus station in Merida and bought a ticket for Cancun.  I got to Cancun at about 3:00 p.m.  I met up with my new companion and we went to the area.  It's in the entrance of Cancun coming from Merida, on the northern half.  It's all new houses and apartments within the last 4 years.

This letter is short.  There were some problems with the computer. 

Love, Elder Gubler 

July 9, 2012 letter

Dear Family,

 

Elder Gonzalez and I get along fine.  He likes to give a lot of advice that he has heard from President Salinas, which I like, because I do the same thing.  He has been out 7 months.  He´s 19.  His family are members.  He has an uncle and the gospel has really helped him in his life. 

The families that we have been waiting to get married never did and won`t be getting married anytime soon.  We`re back to 0 in our area and will be looking for more people.  This area is a branch, Champoton is a branch, and Kanasin is a ward. 

I`m glad to hear that Mark Sumida got his Eagle.  I wish I could have been at the dinner.  He came to my conservative club meetings at Redwood.  I think I might have talked to his dad one time about dentistry, but I can`t remember. 

Last week I helped translate some legal papers for a member.  He has a family member in the United States that is the plaintiff in a case and needed some papers signed.  I organized the papers, separated the copies,papercliped them, and put on post-it notes to help them.  It was fun to play the part of a lawyer.

The letters from the youth in the ward arrived in our pouch last Monday, so they got to the offices the week before.  I had a repeat experience of what happened when I took Elder Gubler to the hospital, except this time it happened to me.  I got a little bit dehydrated.  I got to the house on Tuesday night with a head-ache.  About 10:15 I threw up, and did so for every hour until 8:00 a.m.  I called Sister Salinas and she told me what medicine to buy.  I had the othe missionaries bring it to our house.  I took the medicine, but stayed in my hammack until about 3:00.  I started throwing up again at 1:30.  I went to the pharmacy to get checked out, and they gave me some medicine.  I went to a member that is a dentist so that he could inject me.  He let me rest on his bed for a few hours, but I threw up afterwards, so at 8:15 p.m. we called Sister Salinas and she told us to go to Merida.  We went to the same hospital that I took Elder Gubler to.  They gave me some IV to rehydrate me.  I felt so much better afterward.  We got to the mission offices at 3:00 a.m. and the next day got back to Ticul.  All is well now.  I´m going to drink a lot more water.

 

Love,

Elder Gubler

Elder Gubler's district in Ticul

Silliness with Elder Calvert

July 2, 2012 letter

Dear Family,

I'll send you some more information next week about Elder Gonzalez.

This past week we found 4 new investigators. Unfortunatley, none of them made it to church. It's the first time in a while that we haven`t had a single investigator show up. One of them was in another town where he is wanted for drug dealing. Someone recognized him in the city hall and now he`s in jail.  Hopefully he`ll be out soon. He wants to change. He lives with some great members. Yesterday were the elections in Mexico. This was the reason for which everyone else didn't go. Hopefully this week we`ll find more good investigators. Sorry this letter is short. Longer one next week.

Love,

Elder Gubler