Elders Germaine, Gubler and Eddy

Elders Barton, Gubler and Rowley

Elders Gubler and Asencio

August 27, 2012 letter

Dear Family,

This week started out well but everything went a little downhill each day.  On Sunday we got to church early, due to the fact that we didn`t have any investigators to pass by.  Church started, and a member showed up with our investigator that she is fellowshipping.  During Sunday School, a member introduced me to a mom and daughter that have been going for several weeks to a different ward in the same building.  They live in our area and yesterday we started teaching them, and we are going to do a F.H.E. with them tonight.  Also, a less active showed up to church with his non-member wife, so hopefully we should start teaching them this week. 

Legal question for Dad: Can your firm send divorce papers here for a couple in Mexico, or would it have to be done by a firm in Mexico?  The wife needs to get divorced from her former spouse so that she can get married and baptized.  I`ve seen it done for a couple that got married in Mexico and then the husband went to the U.S.  and sent the papers from there. 

We only go on splits if we have too many appointments, but we always are glad if a member can go with us to the visits.  Thank you for putting the money on my card. 

Enjoy the pictures.  I`ll send more next week also.

Love,

Elder Gubler

Elders Gubler and Martinez

August 20, 2012 letter

Dear Family,

 

Everything is going well here in Cancun.  Elder Martinez is a great companion.  Last week we went to Costco.  This time my card did work.  I tried some samples, walked around the store, and comtemplated the things I would buy.  In the end I settled with a gallon of 2% milk, a double box of chocolate Cheerios, and a package of M&M´s which I shared in our FHE that night.  The milk was wonderful, especially after drinking boxed milk for the last 1.5 years.  The food stand was closed because they were changing the floor, but we are going back today.  The member that took us last week wants to buy a camera there, and is moving this week, so today was his last chance to go. 

The family that we are teaching is doing great.  They should be getting baptized the following week.  We found a couple more families this week, but they didn´t go to church.  That´s one of the difficulties, getting people to go to church. 

Can you send me the address for my blog so that I can give it to some of the members?  A few weeks ago some random kid that I don´t know sent me an email saying that he is leaving for his mission in Merida in November and that he enjoys reading my blog.  Can you please transfer $70 in my Wells Fargo.  I´ll send another email with pictures. 

 

Love,

Elder Gubler

August 13, 2012 letter

Dear Family,

 

We heard about the hurricane last week.  Everybody here is up to date on the alerts.  Last Monday they started saying that it wasn´t going to hit.  All that we got here was a lot of water, and the wind was really strong one of the nights.  Now they are saying that another one is going to come, but its nice and sunny here again.  Up until Hurricane Ernesto, there wasn´t any rain since I got here.  It makes things a lot easier.  I got rained on quite a bit in Ticul and Champotón.  

On Tuesday night at 10:30, I got a phonecall from the Zone Leaders.  They had special transfers for us again.  Elder Asencio went to Merida, and an Elder that was in Merida came here.  His name is Elder Martinez.  He´s 21.  He´s going to finish in October.  I knew him when I was in Kanasin.  When we didn´t make it back from district meetings on time, we stayed in his house.  I´m really happy to be with him.  He is from Mexico City.  His uncle served as a bishop, and that´s how his family was introduced to the gospel.  His family was baptized when he was 12.  He started his mission in Chetumal, Quintana Roo, and has spent most of his time in Merida.  He took my place after I left Champoton and baptized 3 of the people that I had been teaching.

Elder Ascencio is from San Luis Potosi, in the north eastern part of Mexico.  He´s 20 and has been out for a year.  He spent the first year in Playa del Carmen and Cancun.  He was with Elder Velasco before he came to Palmas 2. 

I´ve heard of the service rule, but here we just look for opportunities throughout the week.  Every once in a while when we find something, we usually wake up to do it early in the morning.  In Visalia, the missionaries would go to ´Make a difference Day´  There is a missionary here that started his mission in Las Vegas.  He got put in the ´dead area´of the mission.  It´s one of the nicer parts, and there the missionaries aren´t allowed to contact.  They can only teach referals.  There they were encouraged to participate in all the community service projects there were.  They even did p-day things during the week, such as washing their clothes, just so that they would have something to do if there weren´t any teaching appointments.  

Here we get a breeze from time to time, but not as much as in Champoton.  I really like working with the people here.  Some of them know a few words in english, but they aren´t anywhere near fluent.  We went to down town this week to drop off the mission mail.  I saw a few tourists there, including a nice couple from Idaho.  They asked me which bus they should take.

I´ll send some pictures next week.

Love,

Elder Gubler

August 6, 2012

Dear Family,

This weeks hasn`t been too great, but yesterday we found a nice family to teach. On Friday we found the mom sitting on a bench and we helped her take her bags to the house. We returned yesterday to teach them. The dad worked in Santa Ana, CA 20 years ago and listened to the missionaries there. The mom was interested to learn more. The son is 15 and is studying to be an airplane mechanic.

Our next baptism should be a guy named Juan Carlos (Charly). He`s a nice, funny guy. If you`d like, we can have dinner with him before we fly out. This week we went to his house and found him putting together a nice patio set like the one at dad`s office. I told him about the time when I put it together, and then found out at the end that I had missed a piece, and had to take it completely apart to put the piece on. I noticed that he forgot the same piece, and corrected the mistake.

We are also teaching a couple that grew up in LA and Orange County. The wife is a member, and the husband was baptized in Tijuana , but didn`t get confirmed, so we are teaching him again and he is going to get baptized once they get married. They have invited us 3 times to dinner since I got here (Carls Jr, BBQ, and Italian food).  I`ll answer the rest of the questions next week.

You can have Amanda check my BYU account to see if there are any emails or instructions. You can find my username and password in my scuba binder, its red and has a white diagonal line. It's in my bedroom bookshelf. Put it back when you're done. Someone said that Mack Wilberg died, is that true?  (Editor's note: I checked on the internet, this appears to just be a rumor!)

Love,

Elder Gubler