Tuesday, September 27, 2016
9/26/16 letter
Hola,
This week was pretty good. There's a small chance that
Ivan might go to Salt Lake for conference this weekend and also a small chance
that he might go to jail...He's having some issues as far as immigration goes.
So please pray for him. But if you have any extra conference tickets and could
send them this way before Thursday, that would be great. His friends at church
are planning on maybe going and they invited him, all they need are tickets.
It's so cool how good of friends he has made at church.
The general women's conference was awesome! I loved it.
None of our investigators were able to come, which was sad. And dumb stuff
happened that none of them were able to come to church either, but that's ok.
Hopefully they can all come to general conference next weekend.
On Wednesday, we had MLC (missionary leadership council)
and I got to see Hermana Lambert for the first time since we were companions 5
months ago, so that was really fun. Last transfer, our mission had a big focus
on finding and this transfer we got trained on teaching skills. On Friday, the
zone leaders and I gave a training to the zone about what we learned at MLC.
Yesterday, the member that was supposed to come out with
us forgot what time we were meeting, so we went to his house and had to
distract his giant pitbull while we knocked on the door. He came to two lessons
with us and he said we should get a medal for persistence and that if he hadn't
gotten baptized years ago, he would've gotten baptized with us.
Our investigator, Ailin, and her brother, Alfredo, are
doing really well. They've both been praying about being baptized in October 15
and they said every time they pray, they feel calm about it.
Sorry this is so short. The Internet was being crazy
today and I'm currently trying to find someone who can take Ivan to court
tomorrow.
Have a great week.
Love,
Hermana Gubler
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
9/19/16 letter
Hola,
This week was great! We had 21 member present lessons and
a whole lot of fun. Our ward did a 2 day party to celebrate the 16th of
September (like 4th of July but for Mexico) and a lot of our investigators
came!
Friday night was a dance and dinner and Saturday was a
Kermés (fundraiser where they sold food (free for missionaries)) and a bunch of
folkloric dances from Mexico and Guatemala. They had carne asada tacos,
tostadas, elote, mole, arroz con leche, agua de horchata y jamaica, and a lot
more. It was awesome. Ivan came both days and his kids loved it. Also, our
investigators Armida, Joseph, Angelo, Valeria, and a few more came.
On Monday, we did a family home evening at the church
building and invited investigators and lots of families from the ward. We
taught about the Book of Mormon, then ate food and played fútbol (soccer). It
was way fun and Ivan had tons of fun. Also, this new couple named Araceli and
Alvaro came, but they didn't play soccer.
And on Sunday night, it was the new convert devotional in
Mesa and I did the translation again. So lots of fun stuff this week.
Ivan's doing great. We had a lesson with him after the
fiesta on Saturday and he is awesome. He's already part of the ward basically
and is friends with so many of the hermanos. He goes and plays soccer with them
all the time. Just a few more weeks until he saves up enough money for a new
apartment and he'll get baptized.
Armida came to church on Sunday for the first time and
loved it. We had a lesson after church and taught her the plan of salvation. (I'll
attach pictures) She's still going strong in her Book of Mormon reading in
Alma.
Transfers were this week, so I'll be in Phoenix with Hna
Irizarry for another 6 weeks at least.
I took a lot of pictures this week. I'll write more in
explanation of my pictures.
Have a good week.
Love,
Hermana Gubler
Monday, September 12, 2016
9/12/16 letter
Hola,
This week was so good! Last week, I wrote about the
potential people we were going to teach. This week we taught them and put them
on date!
On Thursday, we taught Cynthia the plan of salvation. She
said that after our first lesson on Sunday, she prayed and asked God if this
was the path he wanted her to take and she said she felt a sensation she had
never felt before and that she knew it was true. She accepted to be baptized
October 1! Up to that point, the day had been horrible. I had been throwing up
and had a high fever and no one was answering their door, but I know the lord
blessed me for still working hard.
Then on Saturday, we met Armida. On the phone, she told
us she had read some of the Book of Mormon. When we met with her, she showed us
her book and she's on Alma chapter 8! She said there were a couple parts she
didn't understand perfectly, so she started it over, otherwise she would be
even further. She went to the Mesa visitors center a week ago with a member
friend and that's where she got the Book of Mormon. She said she feels so good
in this church and wants to stay here. We asked her if she had any questions
before we started the lesson, and the first thing she said was "how do you
do baptisms here?" How soon can I get baptized?" We did the lesson in
the church and right after there was a baptismal service and she stayed to
watch that and she cried during the closing song. She's on date for October 8.
The baptismal service was actually for the Acevedo family
that I taught when I was serving in Aguila ward. It was such a good baptism.
The mom, Liliana, got baptized about 6 months ago and her
husband and kids were finally ready. Hermana Andelin came from Utah for the
baptism so it was fun to see her.
Saturday was a great day. Later that evening, we went to
the temple visitors center in Mesa with Ivan and his kids, Hna Castro and her
kids (her nonmember husband was going to come, but was working late), Hna
Rondon and her kids, and Hno Dominguez. It was crazy, but they all really liked
it.
Thursday night, I didn't sleep at all and on Friday
morning, I had a fever of 101.4. I went to a members house and she made me some
chicken soup and mint tea and I took a nap and I was all better by 1:00. Then I
headed to Tempe for the trainer and trainee meeting and then we taught lessons
the rest of the night.
Have a great week! Too sad about BYU :( we'll beat Utah
next time.
Keep praying for Ivan to get an apartment.
Love,
Hermana Gubler
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
9/5/16 letter
Hola,
This week was kind of up and down. A few people we'd been
teaching for a while told us they didn't want us to come by anymore. But on the
bright side, we got a call this morning from a lady named Armida who went to
the Mesa visitors center last week and found a church in North Phoenix on
Sunday and went. She said she wants to come to church and start meeting with
us! We have an appointment for tomorrow. Also, we met the daughter of a less
active member named Cynthia. She's 13 and just came from Mexico and she's super
interested. We taught her the restoration and she said she's always wanted to
know why there are so many churches and which one is true. She said she was
going to start attending lots of different churches and find which one she felt
the best at. After the lesson she texted us and told us "Y la verdad si
estoy interesada en esto y me siento alegre de que me vengan a dar la palabra
de dios. Estoy muy interesada en esto :)" which translates to "to be
honest, I'm interested in this and I'm happy that you came to bring me the word
of God. I'm very interested in this." We're really excited.
Ivan is still strong as ever in his testimony of the
gospel, but we'll probably have to move his baptism back a week. He's currently
living in the same apartment as the mom of his kids and he was going to move
out on Thursday because they've been facing some major problems for a long time
and he wanted to be obedient to the law of chastity. But he hasn't had work for
2 weeks and didn't get the money in time for the new apartment. He should be
getting a new job on Tuesday and hopefully that works out and he'll get the
money to move. As soon as he moves, he'll be baptized. He also got really sick
this week. He had to get up and go lay on the couch during sacrament meeting.
He's doing great at making friends in the ward; he went and played soccer with
a bunch of the Hermanos this week and he also took his kids to the activities
on Tuesday to learn the dances for and upcoming church activity.
We also had this really cool lesson with our
investigator, Silvia. She was going to get baptized a long time ago, but never
did because she wasn't married to the guy she's lived with for 14 years. She
said a thought came to her mind during the opening prayer that she needs to
tell him that she wants to get married so she can get baptized.
On Friday, I got to meet Gladys Knight's daughter. We had
a meeting with all the missionaries in the valley because Gladys Knight is
coming to do a free concert that is geared toward introducing people to the
gospel. On Saturday, I did exchanges with Hermana Standring and am finally done
with exchanges for the transfer!
Have a great week and keep praying for Ivan.
Love,
Hermana Gubler
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