4/18/16 letter

I had another awesome week this week! So many cool things happened.

Stevie got baptized, I got to go to the Gilbert temple, we had zone conference, and I found out that Elder Holland is coming to speak to our mission next Tuesday! Also, I hit my 9 month mark this last week.

So first, I'll talk about Stevie's baptism. It was awesome! Hermano Mireles (his dad), who was baptized a year ago, was able to baptize him. Hermano Mireles was so nervous and stayed up pretty much all night Friday night praying and memorizing the baptismal prayer. He was relieved to see that we had printed it out and taped it to the glass for him to read. He did awesome though and was sooooo happy. At church on Sunday, he told everyone how proud he was and how strong he felt the spirit in the baptismal font. It was amazing to see how many people showed up to the baptism to support Stevie. Everyone loves him a lot. After the baptism, we asked him how he felt and he said "really good!" We asked him what he felt and he said "I feel good; I feel different." He got confirmed on Sunday and he wore a white shirt and tie and looked great.

On Tuesday, was my first training that I gave as a district leader. It went really well. After district meeting, our zone packed up and drove to Gilbert, about a 3.5 hour drive, to go to the temple. We stopped for food in Gilbert/Chandler and Hermana Lambert and I decided to eat at Costco which was fun, since I haven't been there in over 9 months because none of my areas have had one. The Gilbert temple was so pretty! At Christmas conference, I got to see the outside, but this time, I got to see the inside. Usually our mission goes to the Mesa temple, and the only time missionaries get to go to the Gilbert temple is when they finish their mission, but President Toone made an exception for Yuma zone this time because we never get to go to the temple because we're too far away. President and Sister Toone even came to the same session as us, so we got to see them there. After the temple, we stayed the night with some missionaries in the Chandler zone.

Wednesday morning, we drove to Maricopa for zone conference combined with Casa Grande and Maricopa zones. It was fun to see a lot of the missionaries from my old areas and ask how my old investigators are doing. We finally got back to Yuma around 8:00. It was kind of crazy to be out of our area for 2 days, but we worked hard the rest of the week to catch up on everything.

We found some new investigators last week named Leo (9 years old) and Duvia (17 years old). They are seriously the coolest and are so smart.

They came to church last week and this week and they went to Stevie's baptism on Saturday. Leo said he likes going to our church because he feels "like I'm with my real family." They both want to get baptized, we just need to talk to their mom about a date. She said they can go to church every week, so that's a start.

Sunday in YSA Hermana Lambert and I spoke in church about Jesus' visit to the Americas. We don't have very many investigators for YSA, so the majority of our work is in Spanish. Elder Holland and Lynn G Robins are coming on the 26th to speak to our mission, so we'll drive up to Tempe for that. I'm super excited!

Have a great week.  Love, Hermana Gubler