Tuesday, December 22, 2015
12/21/15 letter
So Wednesday around noon, we got a call from the
assistants asking us to come to the mission office as soon as we could. They
asked us to make room in our trunk and if our bike rack was attached. This was
code for "you're getting a new companion." Two sisters are here
visiting for 2 transfers from the temple square mission; Hermana Castillo from
Columbia and Hermana Rodríguez from Seville, Spain. The departing group for
this transfer was going to be leaving on Thursday, so the two temple square
sisters took the spots of Hermana Jensen and the one other Hermana leaving this
transfer. But this still meant that we had about 24 as a quad. Most of the
time, the gospel is preached two by two, and in the circumstances of this last
transfer, three by three. But we got to try it out four by four...it was quite
interesting. They should change the scripture in Matthew 18 to "in the
mouth of two or three or four witnesses every word may be established."
On Thursday we drove up to Tempe to drop off Hermana
Jensen at the mission home at 8:30, and ended up having to stay in Tempe until
about 2:00. There was an 8:30 meeting for the departing group, but then all the
departing missionaries went back to their area until 2:00. Because Maricopa was
too far away to drive there and back, they just had us do our studies in a
nearby church building. After studies, we made a video lesson for an
investigator of the four of us teaching, then headed to Los Reyes de la Torta
for lunch. I'll attach a picture.
Anyway, so finally, we were back regular ol' to trio
life. The three of us teach really well in unity and it's really nice to have
Hermana Rodríguez to help us out with our Spanish. She's awesome. She learned
English in the UK, so she has a total British accent when she speaks English
and a total Spain accent when she speaks Spanish. (all C's and Z's are replaced
with a "th" sound)
Wednesday night, while we were still a quad, we went to
the Mesa Temple lights and visitors center with the Prentice family who got
baptized about 2 months ago and their daughter's friend Ethan, who has been
coming to church and meeting with us. I'll send a picture of that too. (We took
lots of pictures while we were in a quad just because it was so different and
random) Saturday night was awesome! We had our branch Christmas party with
carne asada, chicken, rice, beans, guacamole, posole, tortillas, and everything
else I've ever dreamed about. Eva, who's getting baptized January 2 came and
enjoyed it a lot. Also, Aracely, who we've been teaching for a while, came and
loved it. Our branch is really good at fellowshipping investigators and Aracely
felt so welcomed. It was Aracely's first time to the church, so we gave her a
church tour. We showed her some of the pictures of Christ in the halls, then
went in the chapel and taught her a lesson about the sacrament and baptism. We
invited her to be baptized and she said yes! She told us she wants a change in
her life and a fresh start. She told us about the spirit she can feel every
time we come over and how strongly she felt it around all the members. She's
going to get baptized on January 16th. Her husband was working on Saturday
night, but we're doing an FHE in a members home with them tonight and have a
lesson planned for tomorrow, so hopefully, he accepts a baptismal invitation as
well.
I'll be Facetiming on Christmas Day at 12:30. I won't be
able to make multiple calls to different siblings, but you could pull them up
on a different device and we could talk FaceTime to FaceTime. Do you want me to
FaceTime dad's phone or iPad? If you want the iPad, can you send me his city
email that his IPad is connected to.
I hope you have a good time in the days leading up til
Christmas. I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas Day.
Love,
Hermana Gubler
Thursday, December 17, 2015
12/15/15 letter
Hi,
Sorry I was't able to write on Monday. We were doing our
mission Christmas conference all day, but we got permission to email today.
Christmas Conference was super fun! It officially started
Sunday night in Tempe at the monthly Mission Presidents Devotional, where new
converts share their testimonies and President Toone speaks. Usually,
missionaries only can go if we have an investigator with us and a ride from a
member, but all the missionaries got permission to go to this one, even the
missionaries out in Yuma.
Monday morning, the whole mission met at a big park
across the street from the Gilbert temple and we ran a 5k. It was super
unofficial and no one was timing or anything because missionaries aren't
supposed to get competitive...but if anyone was counting, I was the first
sister to finish. After the 5k, we had a big pancake breakfast in the park with
bacon, sausage, orange juice, etc. The only downer was that it was pouring
rain, but there was a big pavilion that we ate under and it was lots of fun.
After that, we went to a nearby stake center and had a 3 on 3 basketball
competition between zones. It was sooooo fun!
I think I forgot how much I miss playing and watching
competitive sports (the competition got pretty intense). My voice was about 3
octaves lower than usual on Tuesday because my throat was so sore from
screaming and cheering so much during basketball. After that, we had a nice
lunch/dinner and then headed out into the middle of nowhere between Maricopa
and Gila Bend to a church history site where the Mormon Battalion camped one
Christmas. It was about a 2-3 mile hike from the road to get out to the site.
We built a big bonfire and the whole mission sat crowded around for a testimony
meeting. It was super cold even though I was pretty bundled up, but it was a
cool experience. The stars were so clear and pretty. After the testimony
meeting, we all got big cinnamon rolls, then hiked back. I got back to Maricopa
at about 10:20.
On Tuesday morning, our zone went to the Mesa temple for
the 8:30 session, then we headed over to the Gilbert temple for the entire
mission picture. After that, we had a fancy lunch at a nearby stake center with
all the missionaries, stake presidents, and their wives.
There were lots of talents and different musical numbers
shared and Santa Claus even showed up for a little bit.
But now, we're back to regular missionary life.
On Thursday, we had a Relief Society activity in our
branch where we went and sang Christmas carols at a hospice home. Afterward, we
went out to eat at a nice restaurant on the golf course here.
Last Wednesday, we had a special zone training from
President Toone, the Assistants, and a couple other experienced missionaries on
how to apply the Doctrine of Christ (faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance,
Baptism, the reception of the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end)
into everything we teach.
Before the training, I scheduled an interview with
President Toone to recite "The Family, a Proclamation to the World"
which I've been memorizing in Spanish for the last couple of months. At the
mission conference, myself and a couple other missionaries who passed it off
this transfer received a certificate and CTR pin.
Sorry, not a lot of time to write today, but thanks for
the care packages and all the letters and notes from everybody. My companions
are convinced that dad's persimmons were the fruit in the Garden of Eden
because they taste so good.
I'll send some emails with all the pictures from
Christmas conference.
Hermana Sedgwick is in most of them because we hung out
pretty much the entire time.
How's the Christmas decorating coming? I want to see
pictures of the house with Christmas lights and everything.
Love,
Hermana Gubler
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
December 7, 2015 letter
Dear Family,
This week, we had lots of fun. The small, quaint towns of
Ajo and Gila Bend (literally in the middle of nowhere) which are part of our
stake/zone each have a set of sisters serving there. The sisters stayed at our
house a few nights this week and it was super fun. I'll explain why throughout
the course of this email.
On Friday, we went to the Christmas lights on the Mesa
Temple grounds with Eva (getting baptized January 2), a member, and her son.
Eva loved it! Eva's been feeling a little bit down, but on Wednesday, we felt
like we should teach her about family history work and temples.
It was exactly what she needed. She is so excited about
everything now and relates everything we teach her to the celestial kingdom and
family history. She is super excited to do baptisms for the dead for her mom,
aunt, etc. She loved the temple grounds and lights and is so excited to go in
the temple soon after her baptism. We're allowed to go to the Mesa temple
lights as much as we want as long as we have an investigator with us and we can
get a ride from a member and it's an effective use of time. We're going to try
to go again this Thursday with some investigators. The Gila Bend Sisters also
went to the lights on Friday night with their branch and some investigators,
but weren't going to make it home to Gila bend in time, so they spent the night
at our house in Maricopa and made the 45 minute drive to Gila Bend in the
morning. One of the Gila Bend sisters, Sister Tew ran track at UVU before her
mission, so the 2 of us woke up at 6:00 on Saturday morning and ran 4 1/2 miles
which was awesome! I miss running that far and surprisingly, I wasn't super
slow. I've been working my companions up to be able to run farther with me, but
I've only built them up to a little less than 2 miles, so a long run was soooooo
nice.
Saturday was the evening adult session of stake
conference in Maricopa, so the Ajo and Gila Bend sisters drove up for that.
(About a
85 minute drive from Ajo) Then they stayed the night for
the general session on Sunday morning. So staying at our house, we had the 4
sisters from Ajo and Gila Bend, the 3 in my trio, plus the 2 English sisters
who live with us...lets just say it was a party. After stake conference on
Sunday, the gospel principles class in our branch did a potluck and they invited
the Ajo and Gila Bend sisters as well. So we went to that, taught a couple
lessons, then went to watch the first presidency Christmas Devotional at the
Stake Center. The Ajo and Gila Bend sisters stayed the night again on Sunday
night so they could be in Maricopa for pday and go grocery shopping because
there isn't a grocery store in Gila Bend. Also, Sister Tew and I went running
for 4
1/2 miles again this morning.
Noemi came to church on Sunday, but told us she needs to
push her baptism back to December 22 because of some complications, but she's
still super excited to be baptized.
Next Monday, I don't know how much email time I'll get or
which day I'll be emailing on because we're doing Christmas conference that day
with the mission. We're doing a 5k run, talent show, bonfire, and lots of other
fun stuff. So don't be surprised if you don't get a letter this Monday.
Hope you have a great week and enjoy this Christmas
season. Have you put up Christmas lights yet? There's lots of pretty lights on
the houses here.
Love,
Hermana Gubler
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
11/30/15 letter
Dear Family,
HappyThanksgiving!!!
For Thanksgiving, we got permission to play in a turkey
bowl. We played flag football for a couple of hours with some other
missionaries and some members from their wards. It was really fun and the members
we played with were really nice. President Toone didn't want us proselyting on
Thanksgiving day, so it was a pretty chill day.
We played the turkey bowl, went home and showered and
relaxed for a couple of hours, had Thanksgiving dinner, went back home and
relaxed, went to a members house, came back home, planned for the next day,
then I went to bed at 8:30 which was awesome! A lady in our branch invited us
for Thanksgiving dinner at the church building. She put on a nice dinner for
people who didn't have family to eat dinner with.
There were about 16 people there including the 5 Maricopa
sister missionaries, and lots of empty nesters. Pretty traditional food and
cute decorations. After the turkey bowl, we were talking with a couple of the
members we played with who were all related. We found out that one of them was
visiting from California and was the husband of Sister Voyles from the District
2 [movie about missionaries]. I had a minor freak out because she's pretty much
a celebrity in the missionary world. They invited us to come for Thanksgiving
dinner and to meet her, but we told them we already had a dinner planned, so
they invited us to come over that evening. We went and had an awesome 1 1/2
hour visit with them and their family. Sister Voyles was super nice and she
taught us a lot about missionary work and learning the language and stuff.
Saturday, Mirna got baptized and I got permission to go
to Casa Grande to watch the baptism. We got a ride from our branch mission
leader, and Noemi (someone we're teaching in Maricopa preparing to be baptized
on December 8th) and her husband and kids came to watch as well. She wanted to
see what a baptism was like before she gets baptized and there aren't any
planned in Maricopa before her baptism, so she came to Casa Grande. (About a 30
minute drive) The baptismal service was really nice. I gave the talk on baptism
and Hermana Sedgwick gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. One of the Elders from
Casa Grande baptized Mirna. She bore her testimony at the end about how happy
she was and how much her life has changed from meeting with the missionaries.
It was awesome! Mirna talked with Noemi afterward and now Noemi is super
excited to be baptized. It was really nice to see all the people from Casa
Grande again and Hermana Sedgwick and I were soooooooo excited to see each
other.
Saturday night, we went to a house of a lady who was
baptized when she was 8, but never really went to church after that. She wants
us to teach her 2 kids about God, but she's not super interested in learning
more. We went over, but she wasn't home, so we taught her kids, then her
father-in-law, Hugo, who has been living with her for about 2 months. We taught
Hugo the Restoration and he liked it a lot. He nodded his head in agreement to
everything and understood everything we taught about the Priesthood. We asked
him if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and he said
"cómo no?" (Sure, why not?) I asked him if he would prepare to
baptized on January 9 and he said (in Spanish) "yeah, I'll start
preparing." I guess he met with missionaries when he used to live in
California and really liked it, but the missionaries stopped coming by
(probably due to some miscommunication after transfers).
Being in a trio is super nice because there aren't any
restrictions on who we get rides from and what houses we go into. With regular
companionships, they can't go in a car or house without another person of the
same gender. Trios are also super productive because one person can make a
phone call, while the other one records a lesson in area book, and the other
one drives. Our area is the entire Maricopa stake, so we have a car and lots of
allotted miles which is really nice. I wish we could walk more, but our
investigators live too far apart.
My companions have designated me as the fitness coach, so
I come out with the workout every morning. We run a little over a mile (I'm
building them up so they can run farther) then do lots of abs and push-ups.
(Gotta work off the Thanksgiving feast)
I hope you had fun Black Friday shopping and putting up
Christmas decorations. Sounds like you had a pretty good Thanksgiving too.
Love,
Hermana Gubler
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