Church bulletin

Camel proselytizing

1/25/16 letter

Hello family,

This week has been awesome! It started out with a pday activity to a camel farm (I wonder who suggested that?) which was super fun...except they didn't have any llamas. They had a bunch of sheep, goats, emus, zebras, etc. and it was awesome! 

At members' houses this week, we got fed carne asada 3 times, so it was pretty much the greatest week ever. In Casa Grande and Maricopa, I only got carne asada 1 time in each even though I requested it to all the members, multiple times. The members in Yuma are so excited to have sister missionaries, so they all want to make us special food. 

Sorry to always just write about food, but we also have enough oranges, lemons, and grapefruit to last us a lifetime in our kitchen. All the members have citrus trees because citrus grows really well in the climate here and they always give us a bag full of citrus to take home whenever we come over for dinner. However, I have yet to taste an orange that tastes as good as dads. 

On Wednesday, there was a broadcast for all the missionaries all over the world (hasn't been done in over 10 years). Elder Oaks, Bednar, Anderson, Clayton, and many more spoke about "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts." It was really good and I learned a lot of good things about always testifying of the Savior and His gospel. 

On Sunday, Hermana Lambert and I were assigned to speak in church. I spoke about simplifying the gospel in our lives and making sure we have our testimonies set on the basic truths of the gospel. I spoke about 4 questions that Elder Corbridge of the 70 talked about at a stake conference broadcast in October: Is there a God? Is Jesus Christ the Savior of the world? Was Joseph Smith a prophet? And Is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints the kingdom of God on the Earth? I spoke about how if we have testimonies of these four primary questions, we will have a testimony of everything else in the gospel. I was surprised at how well my talk turned out considering the fact that I didn't have a whole lot of time to work on it. My Spanish has improved a lot since being in Yuma. I get to use it all the time because most of the investigators and members don't speak any English at all. 

One of our investigators in named Irma. She is on date to be baptized March 5. She's super awesome. She lives in the foothills (about 20 minutes outside the main city of Yuma) right next to the chapel out there. One Sunday in November, she just randomly walked to the church building and has been going every week since then as well as attending all of the activities during the week such as Zumba class. The only problem is that the ward that meets in the foothills building is an English ward and Irma doesn't speak/understand and English. Luckily, the relief society president lived in Honduras for 2 years for the Peace Corp and has been able to do a little bit of translating during church. We were able to find a ride for Irma to come to the Spanish branch this week and she loved it. She told us that on Sundays, she wants to go to the English ward in the foothills in the morning, then come to the Spanish branch at 1. 

We were able to have 13 member present lessons this week, which is the most I've ever had (in other areas, it's been about 6 or 7 on a good week). The members here are so willing to come out with us and they are all so nice. 

I can't wait to see what this next week brings.

Love,

Hermana Gubler

I Need Thee Every Hour

1/18/16 letter

Hola,

Another great week here in Yuma. I can't believe I've been out for 6 months already; I feel like I just started. The time flies! 

On Wednesday, we had zone conference, so President and Sister Toone came down for that. We received lots of trainings about how to simplify our teaching and focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was President Toone's birthday, so we got him a lemon pie, a big party hat, guaraches (sandals from Mexico made from car tires), and a picture frame filled with sand from the sand dunes and the picture I sent home last week of our zone with the giant "happy b-day" written in the sand. President Toone loves Yuma, so we thought it was pretty funny that he would schedule Yuma zone conference for his birthday. 

Hermana Lambert and I have found and taught 13 new investigators in the last 2 weeks, which is insanely awesome! Usually the entire mission gets 100-150 new investigators a week. This week, so many people have been placed in our path. One cool experience was with a woman named Iresma. We received a referral from a member in our branch to go visit her brother in Winterhaven, California (Like 2 minutes away from Yuma and still in our area). She didn't know his exact address, but she gave us more or less of an explanation along the lines of "turn right at the gas station and it's the second house on the left." (I've gotten a lot of random Spanish explanations of how to get places while on my mission because nobody ever knows the address of anything. An example of an average direction explanation is "go down the street by the tan house, turn left at the big cactus, go past the bump in the road, turn right by the little white dog, and it's the house with rocks in the yard." Now imagine trying to understand all that in Spanish, while trying to navigate a new city...but it's always an adventure.) So we tried the house which we thought was the second house on the left, but it was the wrong one. However, the lady who answered the door was Iresma and she is super awesome. She accepted a Book of Mormon and we're going back to teach her tonight. She wasn't hesitant at all and she seemed really interested in what we had to say. I'm excited to see what happens tonight. 

On Monday night, Hermana Lambert and I did a family home evening at the house of a recent convert family. They invited lots of their friends and people from the branch. Everyone who was there was either a non-member or a convert. We taught an awesome lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end) and how it is the only way we can find happiness in this life and return to live with God again. Our branch is doing a temple trip at then end of the month to the new Tijuana temple, so we were able to talk about how going to the temple is part of enduring to the end and we challenged the recent converts to obtain a temple recommend so they can go. (I'm still working on convincing President Toone to let us go to Tijuana, but it's not going so well)

I'm glad you liked the Facebook video of me playing the guitar. I borrowed the guitar from a member so we could sing that song for a special musical number at a baptism on Saturday for the YSA. 

I hope you all have a good week.

Love,

Hermana Gubler

Make a Run for the Border

Sand Dunes with jammies

1/11/16 letter

Another great week! Yuma is so awesome and so much fun! There's so much work here and so many people to teach. We had 29 lessons (most I've had so far on my mission) this week and found 6 new investigators. Also, every pday here is going to be the best because there are so many things to do.

Last Monday, all the sisters in the zone (6 of us) went border shopping down in San Luis, Arizona. It was so much fun! On the way there, we drove along the big fence that separates the United States and Mexico. We stopped and reached through the fence and touched the ground, so "technically" I got to be in Mexico while on my mission.

While in San Luis, I bought 2 new skirts for super cheap, so that was cool. On the way back, we stopped for carne asada and al pastor quesadillas and those were really good.

This morning for pday, our zone drove out to California (still part of our area) and went to these really cool sand dunes. I'll send some pictures, but they were so cool! We played kickball, rugby, and a couple other games in the sand and it was so fun. I'm excited to see what other pday activities lie ahead.

The members here are really nice and they make really good Mexican food. In Maricopa, the members were pretty Americanized and we got a lot of pasta, so it's really nice to get good, authentic food every day.

Every Tuesday night, Hermana Lambert and I teach a Book of Mormon class for recent converts and investigators. We had our first one this week and it turned out pretty good.

The Elders who were here before us weren't really teaching anyone who was progressing a ton, so Hermana Lambert and I are starting from scratch a little bit, but it's fun and it's giving us lots of motivation to work hard.

I love it down here in Yuma and I feel like I'm on an adventure every day while doing the Lord's work.

Love,

Hermana Gubler

Eva's baptism

FHE with Aracely

1/4/16 letter

Happy año nuevo,

Today I'm writing to you from Yuma, Arizona! My apartment is literally 2 miles from the California border and 5 miles from the Mexico border. It's so awesome!!! Yuma is seriously the promised land of the Tempe mission and everyone wants to come here. We're about a 4 hour drive from Tempe, so we're just kind of in our own little secluded corner of the mission. We just Skype into transfer meetings and if we need anything, the mission office comes to us instead of us going to them. There haven't been sisters in Yuma in over 6 months. Last transfer, a companionship of English sisters were sent down here and this transfer, myself and 3 other sisters replaced the Elders in the Spanish branch. I got a call late Tuesday night saying that myself and Hermana Rodríguez were leaving Maricopa. In my head I was guessing where I was going to go and my dream was for them to open up a Spanish sisters area in Yuma...and here I am. Hermana Rodríguez get transferred to Phoenix.  

My new companion is Hermana Lambert from Lehi, Utah. She came out a transfer after me and was Hermana Cloward's MTC companion in Mexico. So if I had gone on my mission when my initial mission call said, August 26 to the Mexico MTC, I would have been there with both of them. Hermana Lambert is super awesome and nice and we're going to have lots of fun and do good missionary work together. We live in a tiny apartment with Hermana Kiel from Washington, who goes home at the end of the transfer, and Hermana Allred from Colorado who I lived with in Casa Grande and who came out the same time as me. The four of us are all serving in the Spanish branch here in Yuma as we each have part of the stake that we cover. My area is part of the town of Yuma, plus most of the outlying desert. It even covers part of California, so I have my dream of going in my home state during my mission. (Now all I have to do is get into Mexico somehow) The other sisters cover the other half of the town of Yuma plus the YSA branch. I'm soooooooo excited for my new area and to explore the other parts of Arizona. Today for pday, all the sisters are going to San Luis, a little town on the Mexico/Arizona border, to do some border shopping. 

The Spanish branch here is super awesome and the members are all really nice. My Spanish is going to get really good here because most of the members/investigators don't speak a word of English. Also, Hermana Lambert and I set a goal to speak as much Spanish to each other as we can. In Maricopa, it was really hard to find Spanish speakers to teach, so this is a nice change of pace. 

So since, neither Hermana Lambert nor I have never served here before, it's called white washing. It's definitely an adventure to figure out who everyone is that the elders were teaching before and where they live. Yesterday, we had a lesson with a guy named Rafael and he accepted a baptismal date for February 13! 

The only downside to getting transferred to Yuma was that I didn't get to go to Eva's baptism on Saturday. If I had gotten transferred anywhere else in the mission, I would have been close enough to Maricopa to get permission to attend the baptism. But since I'm over 3 hours away, I just skyped into the baptism. (I'll attach a picture of me on the Skype screen with Eva) Aracely, who I taught in Maricopa is getting baptized in a couple of weeks, so I should get to skype into that baptism as well. 

I love it here and I'm so excited to teach the people here and experience the culture of being so close to Mexico. 

Love,

Hermana Gubler

Maricopa zone

Chocolate con churros

Christmas activity

12/27/15 letter

Happy almost new year! But I don't think I'll be staying up until midnight for this one.

It was really good to talk to you all on Christmas. I'm glad Eddy's having fun with his new drone toy. This week wasn't super eventful as far as missionary work goes because most of the people we teach were out of town or had family visiting so they didn't want us to come over.

On Wednesday, it was about 8:40, and we still had time to contact one more person before we went home. This whole Christmas season, I had been wanting to Christmas carol as a way to tract and this was my last chance because we weren't allowed to proselyte on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. We drove past a house and I was like "let's go carol to them!" My companions thought I was crazy, but we did it anyway. We sang Silent Night...and let's just say it was super awkward. An 11 year old girl opened the door and just kind of stared at us wondering why we were singing on her doorstep. After our tone-deaf singing ended and it was a silent night again, we were able to share a message about putting the Christ back in CHRISTmas with the 11 year old, her 13 year old brother, their grandma, and their uncle who walked in at the end.

They accepted a return appointment, so we came back on Saturday. This time, both the parents, the kids, the uncle, and the grandma were there, AND they all sat down and listened to us. At the end of an awesome lesson, we invited them to be baptized...and it turns out that the uncle was baptized in Mexico when he was 9 or 10 and the parents were both baptized in Phoenix at about that same age. After their baptisms, none of them really ever went to church again, so they really don't remember anything about the gospel. They actually showed up to church on Sunday and we have a return appointment set for Tuesday. So that's the fruit of my Christmas caroling.

On Christmas Eve, we did missionary work until 5:00, then had permission to eat at a member's home until 7:00. We were invited to the house of the first counselor in the branch presidency and had really good ham, potatoes, corn, beans, pozole, salsa, flan, etc.

Their whole extended family was there, so there were about 30 of us eating in the house. President Toone gave the missionaries permission to just kind of chill for the rest of the night after 7:00, so when we got back to our house, Hermana Cloward, Rodriguez, and I went on a walk around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights, then went to bed early.

Christmas morning, we did an hour of personal study then went to weekly planning. During personal study, I read Luke 2 and thought of all the years we acted out the Nativity on Christmas Eve. We do weekly planning every Friday morning and we basically sit down and plan for 3 hours and even though it's useful, it's pretty boring and not fun. I thought the mission would move weekly planning to Saturday in order to make it a merrier Christmas...but that didn't happen. But after weekly planning, I got to Skype home, so that made the day a lot better. It was really fun to talk to you all. After that, we came home and watched some of the Thomas S. Monson biography before I fell asleep.

After my much needed nap, we had dinner with the Robles family who got baptized this year. We ate the best carne asada tacos I've ever had and cake. After dinner, we got together as a district and watched Lion King and played some games.

Transfers are this Thursday, so we'll see what happens there; if we'll stay in a trio or if one of us is leaving.

Have a good week and try to stay awake past 11:56.

Love,

Hermana Gubler