June 20, 2011 letter

Dear Family

Rainy season has finally started (it was supposed to start in May).  There is more humidity now.  The weather reports are pretty accurate.  We only wear our suits during church.  Usually when it rains, it doesn´t last very long.  The umbrella I have works great.  Almost all of our contacting is done in the street as we walk by people.  My companion has mentioned doing an activity with our district where we set something up and talk to people.  Taxis cost usually 15 or 20 pesos.  If it's really far, it's 25.  We´ve only taken the bus one time.  Taxis are a lot more efficient and not much more expensive.  We don´t go to the restaurantes because we have members make us food every day.  On Fridays we go to a member's that has a restaurant, but it's basically the same thing as the food the members give us.  This last week we had a great activity.  It starts out just like the trip to Hawaii activity we did for mutual, but instead of getting hijacked, you crash and get to see the three kingdoms of glory.  We finished the activity by watching the end of  The Testaments.  Several people were crying at the end.  I´m glad my letter got to Grandma and Grandpa.  Did you ever get my nice jeans and sweatshirt from Amanda?  Sorry to cut this letter short.  My times up.  Happy Father's day

Love,

Elder Gubler

June 13, 2011 letter

Dear Family,

Thursday was our last day to use bikes.  Our number of contacts has really dropped because we use bikes all of the time.  We got a call from the zone leaders and an AP and are no longer using the bikes.  It was good timing because we left them in the house of our mission leader the night before.  Since then our contacts have significantly increased.  On friday we got positive responses from almost all of the contacts.  We now travel in taxi more often, which is a great opportunity to talk with the drivers.  Most of the drivers accept a return visit.  The humidity is fairly high at times.  Not very many houses have AC.  Our house has a great cooler.  It helps a lot, especially because our house is hotter inside than outside.  Some people have citrus trees, and usually its lime.  My first converts have  a lot of citrus trees.  I think they are mostly orange.  A family told me that in an area in Yucatan, they have tons of orange trees.  It haven´t paid any attention to the avacados, but I´ll take a look next time.  Efforts improving means that the numbers of lessons, contacts, baptismal dates, church attendees are improving.  Every pday we email our president with the numbers and a message.  I finally got the pictures today from Rachel, Kimi, and Lora after nearly a month.  I sent a package of Elder Vickery´s to his family and threw in some letters to Grandma and Grandpa Gubler and Lisa Mann.  Could you check if they ever got them?  I got the addresses for the other missions today.  Thanks.  If you run into Elder Wiscombe from Davis, CA in Budapest, tell him I say high.  We were in the same group at Fresno EFY.  He left the MTC the week before I got there.  With Mike Lane gone, I think dad is going to be appointed the next Mayor.  I forwarded an email to you that I sent to Lora regarding an important chapter in Gubler Family history.  Make sure you read it to the family. 

Love,

Elder Gubler

Elder Gubler with Branch Mission Leader

Bump on Elder Gubler's leg

June 6, 2011 letter

Dear Family,

Elder Portillo has been on his mission for 21 months.  He has 11 weeks left.  The new Elder in my district is Elder Calvert from Salt Lake.  He is really nice.  He left the MTC the week after I got there.  Hopefully we'll get to do some exchanges soon.  As far as listening, my Spanish is improving.  I'm not sure about pronunciation.  I've included a picture of the ward mission leader and I.  His family is really nice.  He should be getting his mission call in a month or 2.  There is also a picture of the nice little bump on my leg from when I fell off my bike.  This last week our efforts have improved, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.  We have an investigator that is almost ready for baptism, but she leaves on sundays to buy more inventory for her store, so we still haven't baptized her.  I learned a good lesson this last week about why we should obey the word of wisdom.  We had an investigator that we were teaching about 2 months ago.  He had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, started praying with his family, stopped doing drugs, and had the desire to repent.  A few days later he got drunk, and he and his wife separated.  He moved in with his parents, but we could never get an appointment with him because he was hardly there.  My guess is that he got involved in drugs again.  We passed by last week, and found out that he is now in prison with a 15 year sentance.  He could have had all the blessings of the gospel, but he decided to drink one night and now has lost his family and is in jail.  I hope the missionaries find him again.  Tell Kimi happy birthday for me.

Love,

Elder Gubler

May 30, 2011 letter

Dear Family,

I´m still in Champotón.  Elder Portillo is still my companion.  We are getting a new Elder in our district.   I think he´s American, but he still hasn´t arrived yet so I don´t know.  Right now we are waiting in Escarcega for him to arrive.  The boy we baptized 2 weeks ago is named Eduardo.  He works with the 1st counselor, former branch president, and mission leader.  They brought him to church, we taught him, and he was baptized.  The other converts are doing ok.  The older lady that I baptized is going to church with her 2 grandchildren.  Her daughter got a job and works on sunday, so we are going to see if she can get sundays off.  The other boy that we baptized 2 months ago goes to church for the most part.  We are teaching his mom and hopefully we´ll baptize her a week from Saturday.  Also, we are going to start teaching his brother. 

This last week hasn´t been too good.  My companion and I have gotten a little lazy.  We are going to work harder this week.  We didn´t visit the tourist place 2 weeks ago.  It closed before we got there.  We´ll see if we can go next week.  Last Monday we mailed a huge box to my companion´s house so he wouldn´t have to travel with as many things when he finishes his mission.  I rode with the box on my handlebars.  While we were riding, I hit a little bit of sand, lost control, and fell off.  I got a nice little bump on my leg.  Suprisingly, my shirt wasn´t the least bit dirty.  While I was brushing off, a drunk rode up in his bike.  Just as I was about to tell him we didn´t have time to talk, he asked where we were taking the box and then strapped it to his bike.  We rode with him there and I visited with him while my companion shipped it.  He didn´t ask for any money.  I wrote down the address of the church and gave it to him.  Hopefully we´ll see him again when he´s sober.

 

Love, Elder Gubler

May 23, 2011 letter

Dear family,

 

How is everyone?  I hope everyone is ready for summer.  The weather here is getting hotter and more humid.  We traveled to Campeche for a zone conference this past week.  It was really great.  We watched a talk from Elder Holland that he gave in the MTC when I was there.  He talked about the things that missionaries don´t do very well, why we have Preach My Gospel, the importance of his and our mission, and that we need to love the people.  This past week we didn't have any baptisms, but we are going to see if we can have a baptism on the 31st.  The goal for the mission this month is to baptize in 2 of the 4 weeks of May. 

I forgot to write in last week's letter about my companion´s ipod getting stolen.  On Sundays we study after lunch.  We arrived at the house, opened the door and put our bikes away.  There were a lot of ants in the other room of the house so I started sweeping them out.  My companion was in the bathroom, so the front room was empty with the door open.  While I was sweeping I could feel that the wind shifted.  I walked into the front room to check what happened.  Everything appeared normal.  I looked out the front door and saw someone running about 2 blocks away.  I looked around, checked that my wallet was there, and figured it had shifted as the person was running by.  I went back to sweeping, and then went to the bathroom.  While I was in the bathroom I remembered that my companion's ipod was on the table in the front room.  It all clicked.  I finished in the bathroom, went and asked my companion where his ipod was.  He looked at the table, under a book, and then said he didn't know.  We got on our bikes and rode for a couple of blocks to see if we could find the person.  We were unsuccessful.  Well, I hope that whoever buys the ipod listens to the hymns and becomes converted. 

I figured out how you can get a fair exchange with your money when you come to get me.  The first counselor and his brother want tents and water purifiers.  You can bring them with you when you come and they can buy them from you here.  Could you also check into some hunting supplies?  They want a whistle that attracts peacocks, and also one that attracts wild pigs.  I´m not sure if these exist or not.  I do know that they make these for ducks.  Maybe dad can ask Steve Koch if they sell those.  Well, that's it for this week.

Love,

Elder Gubler