Tripanionship in Maricopa

Lost in AZ desert

Farewell Casa Grande

11/23/15 letter

So today I'm writing you from Maricopa, Arizona. Transfers were on Thursday and I found out late Wednesday morning that I was leaving Casa Grande. Pretty much the entire mission stayed the same for transfers. The group of missionaries that was supposed to go home on January 1, is now going home December 18 because the church travel department didn't want a bunch of conflicts with flights and everything for the holidays. So the only changes were the missionaries going home, the missionaries coming in, and changes to make accommodations for the missionaries leaving on December 18. The reason I was transferred is because Hermana Sedgwick is training one of the missionaries that just arrived. We found out Wednesday at about 9 a.m.

that Hermana Sedgwick was training, so we knew one of us was leaving. At the time, we didn't know that basically the entire mission was staying the same for transfers, so we thought for sure that Hermana Sedgwick was going to leave and I was going to stay since she's been in Casa Grande for 6 months. We got a text at about 11:30 a.m. that the whole zone was staying the same except myself and one other elder who were being transferred. It kind of threw me for a loop because I wasn't anticipating leaving at all. I was pretty sad to be leaving Casa Grande and Hermana Sedgwick and I are heartbroken that we're not companions anymore.

 So Maricopa! I'm in a trio with Hermana Jensen from Indiana and Hermana Cloward from Grantsville, Utah. Hermana Jensen is one of the missionaries going home on the 18th. The transfer ends on December 31, so when Hermana Jensen leaves, I'll finish second half training Hermana Cloward for the last couple of weeks. They're both really nice sisters and great missionaries. The Maricopa zone is completely the same as last transfer besides the addition of myself and a brand new missionary to replace an Elder who just finished his mission. Our area for the Spanish branch is the whole city of Maricopa plus the surrounding desert. Our zone has all of Maricopa plus Ajo and Gila Bend, which are 2 small towns in the middle of nowhere. The sisters serving in each of those areas have to skype in to most of our district meetings and weekly plannings, so we don't get to see them very often. Since it's such a far drive for them, when they do come to Maricopa for zone conferences and things like that, they drive up the night before and sleep at our house so that will be fun. We live in a really nice house [1484 square feet built in 2013] with a set of English speaking sisters. My new address is 41188 W Barcelona Dr. Maricopa, Az 85138

Before leaving Casa Grande, on Wednesday, we had a lesson with Myrna where we had planned to teach the Word of Wisdom. Before we even started the lesson, she told us about her friend from work who is a member that showed her LDS.org and how to find General Conference and stuff like that. Thanks to her friend's awesome member missionary work, Myrna had listened to multiple conference talks and loved them, printed out others that she is reading and marking, printed out the Articles of Faith [13 basic beliefs of our church] and was reading them, and already knew all about the Word of Wisdom and has been living it ever since her friend told her about it! It was awesome! Myrna is getting baptized this Saturday and I should be able to get permission to attend. I'm so excited for her because she has completely changed her life and is so ready to be baptized.

The Spanish branch in Maricopa is awesome! The members are super helpful with everything missionary related. We had 2 investigators at church on Sunday and literally everyone at church introduced themselves to them and offered to sit by them.

There's a few people in the branch that don't speak Spanish (if their spouse speaks Spanish and is more comfortable attending in Spanish or they received a calling in the Primary or youth programs which are in

English) so during Sacrament meeting, Sister Jensen translates into English over headsets. On Sunday, one of the speakers from the Stake gave a talk in English and we didn't know before hand that she would be speaking English, so all the headsets were passed out to those receiving English translation. When she started speaking, Hermana Jensen and I frantically went and sat next to the members that only speak Spanish and translated for them. I wasn't expecting to be doing translation and I'm sure I said some things that didn't make sense, but overall, it wasn't that terrible. It was kind of fun to see how much my Spanish has improved and how quickly I was able to speak Spanish in order to keep up with the speaker.

Out of time for writing today, but have a good Thanksgiving.

Love,

Hermana Gubler

Selfie

Denise's baptism

11/16/15 letter

This week was awesome! We taught 26 lessons!

On Monday night, we did a Noche De Hogar (family home evening) with a part member family. Estela was baptized a couple years ago, but her husband, Isidro, doesn't come to church because he plays in a soccer league on Sunday's. We're also teaching Isidro's brother and his family. Their names are Caren and Alejandro and they just arrived from Mexico a few months ago.

They have a baby and a 2 year old who are both super cute. Caren came to the noche de hogar as well as a family from our branch who's getting sealed in the temple next week and a recent convert, Ernesto. So with everyone and their kids, there were probably 13 or 14 people there. It was super fun. We did a lesson on Sabbath day observance where I shared experiences about me not doing homework or playing sports on Sundays, then ate food, played games, and chatted.

On Saturday, Denise got baptized into the Spanish branch. She lives in the other Hermana's area, so they taught her, but we know her really well. She and her husband, Miguel are at church every week, then after church the 4 Hermanas, Miguel, Denise, and their daughter Kenya go to an assisted living home and sing and read from the Book of Mormon with a member and his wife who live there. Also, they invite us to dinner all the time, which we love because they make the BEST Mexican food. I love their family so much! Miguel got baptized about a month ago because he started meeting with the missionaries before Denise. It was awesome because he was able to baptize her. The baptismal service was super nice. I was so happy for Denise and I was smiling literally the whole time. Hermanas Mellor, Allred, Sedgwick and I sang "El Viaje Largo," a song that Denise picked out that was written about Esther.

The first and last lines are "Ha sido largo el viaje pero al fin llegué"

(it's been a long journey, but I've finally arrived) When we sang it, Denise and Miguel were both crying. The spirit was super strong. Miguel and Denise are really excited to be sealed as a family in a year. [Joined together for time and eternity in the Temple] On Sunday, we had dinner at their house and it felt like there was a different spirit there than the other times we've gone, now that they've both changed their lives and been baptized. Also, Denise grew up in Fresno, so that's cool.

There were 4 convert baptisms from our zone this weekend. 3 on Saturday and one on Friday. We invited Myrna to the one on Friday because she had to work Saturday. Her daughter was throwing a fit at home, so she got there in time for the closing prayer and song, but that was ok. We were able to show her the baptismal font and give her a church tour. She loved all the pictures of Christ on the walls and she felt the spirit really strong in the chapel and told us she felt peaceful and really excited to be baptized. We had an awesome lesson on the Sacrament and the Priesthood in the chapel and it was a really nice environment. On Saturday morning, we went to her house and taught her the 10 Commandments. She loved them and told us she's going to ask her boss for Sunday's off so she can keep the Sabbath Day holy. At church on Sunday, when she introduced herself in Relief Society, she said she loves the Book of Mormon and that she knows that this is the place for her and that she's super excited to be baptized. It was her first week at church and she said she loved it and that it was the first time she's ever been able to sit through a church service without getting bored.

Susi was able to come to all 3 hours of church for the first time and she really liked it too. Susi's mom is Estela's best friend, so Susi came to Sacrament Meeting 3 or 4 times with Estela before we started teaching her.

Missionary work is so much easier when members are doing member missionary work. In Relief Society on Sunday, the lesson was on member missionary work and it was awesome! All the sisters made paper name tags with their name and "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" on it, so they could be like the full time missionaries with name tags.

I love how much people like missionaries and how much free food we get. On Wednesday, we were invited to lunch at Jimmy Johns with a recent convert. We showed up 20 minutes late, and he showed up 20 minutes after that. While we were waiting for him, a member from Gilbert came up to us and said "I'm buying your lunch today." We weren't sure yet if our recent convert was going to show up, so we accepted. After ordering a sandwich, he asked the cashier "did they order chips?" and handed us chips, then asked the cashier "did they order cookies?" then handed us cookies. We had a nice conversation with him and thanked him profusely. Then our recent convert showed up and was so apologetic thinking that we had bought our own food, but we assured him it was ok. On Friday during weekly planning, a couple of people in the YSA [young single adult] branch texted us and invited us to Chick-fil-A for lunch, so that was awesome too. Also the guy I talked about a couple weeks ago who worked at a Mariscos restaurant gave us a ton of delicious fish tacos when we went by to teach him.

Our zone is in a competition for who can ask for the most referrals because we're supposed to ask everyone for referrals [opportunities to teach friends of church members]. Usually, we forget to ask, or will maybe ask 1 or 2 a day, but with my competitiveness, Hermana Sedgwick and I asked for 24 on Saturday and 8 on Sunday. We're definitely in the lead.

Transfers are this Thursday. I hope Hermana Sedgwick and I stay together, but she's already been in Casa Grande for 6 months, so we'll see what happens.

I love being a missionary,

Love,

Hermana Gubler

11/9/15 letter

Hola,

This week was pretty average. Nothing too exciting to tell about. Last night was the monthly mission presidents devotional in Mesa. Usually it's in Tempe at the ASU Institute building, but this month it was at the Mesa Community College institute building. Two recent converts spoke. One named Javier who was really cool and had a super awesome conversion story. The other was a chief from an Indian reservation in Yuma. He skyped in along with a congregation watching from Yuma.

Hermana Sedgwick sang a solo of "Be Still My Soul" at the devotional and it was so good! She has a really pretty voice.

Also yesterday was stake conference. It was a broadcast from Salt Lake to all the stakes in AZ, NM, TX, OK, and NV. Elders Robbins, Corbridge, and Oaks spoke along with sister Linda Reeves. One of our investigators, Susi (on date for Dec. 5) came with her 3 kids and said she liked it.

Monday was Hermana Sedgwick's birthday, so for pday [preparation day], we went to a park and had cake and played games. We had a water balloon fight and played kickball. I wrote Hermana Sedgwick a song on the guitar for her birthday. It was super cheesy and not that good, but she said she loved it.

It's starting to get "cold" and Hermana Sedgwick and I are always freezing. It's like 75 degrees everyday, but we got so used to the heat, that now we're cold.

We had a super cool lesson this week with Myrna, who's on date for Nov. 28. She said she used to chase missionaries off of her property or not open the door to them, but she said the day we came, something told her to let us in. She said that now that she's been meeting with us, her life has completely changed and her attitude and outlook on life has changed. It was a cool testimony for me to know that when someone rejects us, maybe someday they'll be another set of missionaries like for Myrna.

Sorry, not a ton of time to write today. But I love missionary life and I'm having a great time doing the Lord's work.

Love,

Hermana Gubler

Halloween costumes

11/2/15 letter

Hola,

For Halloween, Hermana Sedgwick and I had the idea to dress up like each other. So we wore each other's clothes, shoes, watches, name tags, backpacks, glasses, and did our hair like the other one usually does. (she wore my clip) With our costumes, it was a given that we had to act like each other all day (when appropriate), so we said each other's one liners and responded to the other missionaries like we were each other. It was super fun.

Saturday was such an awesome day. On Saturday morning, we had a lesson with one of our new investigators named Susi. She was a referral from a member of the branch [small congregation] and has attended Sacrament Meeting 4 times with her, but we recently got in contact with her and just started teaching her this week. On Tuesday, we invited her to pray morning and night. She said she's been doing that and that it has made a huge difference. She said she feels closer to God and that she has more peace in her life and is able to sleep better. We had an awesome lesson on the Restoration. After teaching about Prophets, she said she felt like crying. At the end of the lesson, we asked her if she would be baptized on December 5th and she said yes!
After the lesson, someone being taught by other missionaries in our zone got baptized and the Elders asked Hermana Sedgwick and I to play the piano and conduct the music. It was a really nice baptism.
After the baptism, our whole zone went to Sonic for lunch since they were offering $0.50 corn dogs for Halloween.

Our mission president didn't want us out doing missionary work on Halloween night, so he approved our whole mission to go to the Mesa Temple. He said we could go anytime during the day that worked best with our schedule, so our zone took off for Mesa after a late lunch and got the the temple for the 3:30 session. After the session, we went to Chik-fil-a with some of the missionaries in Chandler zone who were at the same session as us, then drove back to Casa Grande.

On Thursday, we went on exchanges. Hermana Mellor came into my area and Hermana Sedgwick went into their area with Hermana Allred. Hermana Mellor and I had a set lesson for 9:00 am on Thursday morning (a lot earlier than usual lessons. We're usually studying in the apartment until at least 11:00). So we went to the lesson, but the lady wasn't there. As missionaries, we always have backups, so we tried an investigator named Myrna, who we haven't been able to contact in a month. She was home and we had an awesome lesson with her where we taught the first half of the Plan of Salvation, our purpose on the Earth, and the Atonement. Hermana Mellor asked her how she would feel to be able to start over, completely free of sin, guilt, and shame. Myrna said she would want that more than anything. I asked her if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and she said yes! We put her on date for Nov 28.

We now have 3 people with baptismal dates and about 4 more who are getting really close. Our other person on date is named Jose Luis. Hermana Sedgwick and Mellor put him on date last week on exchanges.

On Wednesday, we had zone conference combine with Maricopa Zone, so we drove there for that. We were there from around 8 until 2 with 40 minutes of driving time on both ends. The relief society in Maricopa made us a nice lunch with bread bowls and soup, salad, and ice cream cake. Almost all of the sisters from Casa Grande and Maricopa purposefully matched with their companions. 

On Friday, our Spanish branch combined with an English ward for a Halloween party. Myrna came with her mom and 3 year old daughter. Also, a family we're teaching-- Jaime and Maira + 3 kids came and had a good time. We also had a lot of less active church members there. There was dinner, games, trunk or treating, cotton candy, popcorn, and lots of fun. It was good for our investigators to be able to meet members and make friends.

I'm finally allowed to use Facebook for online proselyting, so I'll be posting periodically gospel related messages. I can message people in our area and teach them between visits. I can only respond to people who live in my area, so if you send me a Facebook message, don't expect me to respond. The Tempe mission is the only one in the world right now that is using Facebook. Church headquarters has asked all the other missions to stop because they weren't using it effectively.

This week was awesome! I hit my 2 month mark of being in Arizona, put 2 people on date, and had 2 much fun. I love being a missionary.

Love,
Hermana Gubler