10/24/16 letter

Hola

This week was pretty good. We had pretty good luck and ended up with 26 member present lessons. Unfortunately, very few of those were with our most progressing people. But we found some cool new people, so that's good. 9 new investigators. We have a lot of people in our area that are close to baptism, but have big things impeding them like marriage or word of wisdom or doubts, so we don't have anyone on date for baptism right now, but hopefully that changes soon. 

At church, our investigator, Emilio, came for the first time and loved it. Gospel principles was about eternal marriage and he is super excited to be married in the temple someday. He said "I need to find a wife that can go to the temple with me." 

On Monday, we did an awesome family home evening at the house of la familia Muñoz. Our investigators Manuel (came to church too), Maribel, and this guy Nico that we met and invited literally 5 minutes before it started came as well as Ivan. After the noche de hogar, we asked Nico if he'd be interested in learning more and he was like "actually yea." 

We found these cool new people, Alejandro and Cynthia. We street contacted a guy named Jorge while he was working on his car and he invited us back for Sunday afternoon. When we came back, he wasn't there, but we met the family that he's living with, which is Alejandro and Cynthia. We had an awesome lesson with them about the restoration and it turns out that Alejandro had a Mormon friend in Mexico that taught him a lot about our church. He had so many questions about the Book of Mormon and Moroni and the golden plates. Without us even inviting him, he was like "yeah I'll see you at church on Sunday." They live right by the church. 

And our investigator, Alfredo, who was supposed to get baptized on Saturday but didn't come to church or read in the Book of Mormon, read in the Book of Mormon this week and said he felt really good when he did and then he said he had a really good day because of it. 

Have a great week! 

Love,

Hermana Gubler

Horsing around!

Beef jerky

10/17/16 letter

Hola,

This week was really busy and a little bit stressful. On Saturday, we went to the Mesa Visitors Center with Manuel and all the sisters that serve in the visitors center were busy with other groups, so I got to be the tour guide for our group and one other group that come in from Sonora, Mexico, so that was fun.

On Sunday, Ivan got the Aaronic priesthood and he should be getting his temple recommend this week. He also spoke at the New Convert Devotional in Tempe. He was an hour late and came literally one minute before he went up to the pulpit. I went up there and translated for him and he did great even though he was super nervous. He just shared his testimony and conversion story. It was cool, he said "I know this church is true" with a lot of power and boldness.

Ivan is scared because his kids don't really want to come to church right now, but during our lesson on Friday, he said "I'll just have to read the scriptures and pray with them and that will help."

On Tuesday, we had a surprise MLC, so I went to Tempe with the zone leaders and we received a training about helping our investigators through every step in conversion. We started out with a scavenger hunt that turned into an object lesson and my team won!

On Wednesday, we went through the baptismal interview questions with our investigator, Shantal, to see where she was at, and she got them all perfectly right. Unfortunately, her husband is super active in another church and won't let her come.

On Saturday, we went out for raspados (Mexican snow cones with fruit, ice cream, and sweetened condensed milk) with two ward members and then went one splits and that was really fun.

I have lots of pictures to send, so I'll write more in the descriptions of the pictures.

Hope you have a great week. Not the best church attendance this week as far as investigators go, but hopefully this week is better.

Love,

Hermana Gubler

Ivan's baptism

Exchanges

Sis. Irizarry's Farewell

10/10/16 letter

Hola,

This week was an interesting one to say the least. Ivan got baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday and was so happy! In the water, he had the biggest smile on his face ever. I played guitar for the special musical number, gave a talk, lead the music, and gave a presentation while he was changing, so it was a little stressful, but everything worked out perfectly. And he got a phone call that night that he got a stable, good paying job, so he was immediately able to see the blessings of following the example of Jesus Christ.

On Thursday, we had zone conference in Mesa and at lunch, President Christensen pulled me aside. He told me I'm the toughest sister in the mission and that he needed my help. He told me that on Friday morning, I will become companions with Sister Bound and that Hermana Irizarry will be sent to Mesa. She's an English speaking sister, but president said that right now I'm the only one that can be her companion, so he switched her to my Spanish area. She's been out for almost 3 months, so I will finish her 2nd half training as well as teach her Spanish.

She's never had a Spanish class in her life and doesn't understand it at all, so it's been interesting. I'm currently doing the work of two missionaries in that I teach the lessons, put in the lesson reports, make all phone calls, send all messages, etc. because all those things require Spanish, but it's all turned out really well. I think this whole change has helped her a lot. We're getting along really well and having lots of fun together. She's from Chicago by the way. Hermana Irizarry was really sad to leave though.

On Saturday, Gladys Knight came to Arizona to do a concert and missionaries in our mission could go if they brought an investigator.

It's a good missionary tool in that she talks all about her conversion to the church. I didn't go because we couldn't find any Hispanics in our area that knew who she was, but President let Sister Bound go because she had plans to go in her last area. So I just did splits for the day with a couple of members and got everything ready for the baptism.

On Sunday, it was the primary program. If you think those things are cute and funny in English, you should watch one in Spanish. It was awesome! So mom, if you want good ideas for the upcoming one in our ward, talk to the Spanish ward.

Our investigator, Manuel came to church for the first time and loved it. We found him a couple weeks ago and he's a lot like Ivan. We found him while he was drinking, but he's completely stopped and ready to change his life. He doesn't have a baptismal date yet, but I think he'll accept one soon. He said he doesn't ever want to fall again and so he wants to build his foundation on Christ enough before his baptism so that he's ready to endure to the end.

On Monday, we did a family home evening at the church with a bunch of ward members. It was really fun. And Wednesday, I did exchanges with Hermana Madriz, from Venezuela. It was way fun! Afterward, she told me I'm her dream companion and that she hopes she can be my companion before I leave.

Oh and also on Saturday, this cool kid Renee got baptized. His grandma, Maria Ortiz, got baptized with me when I was in Aguila ward.

I got to go to the baptism and teach the restoration while he was changing. I told everyone that when I was teaching Maria (who didn't have any family support) I told her that her good example would influence the rest of her family. And now her grandson is baptized. So that was really cool.

Have a great week.

Love,

Hermana Gubler

Dinner with Hermana Nieto

10/3/16 letter

Hola,

This week was great! It was one of those weeks where everyone answered the door and we had 24 member present lessons. Ivan came to the Sunday morning session of general conference and really liked it. All the Spanish wards in the stake were watching it at our building, and afterwards, we all ate pozole. It was fun to see a lot of the ward members from Aguila, where I used to serve.

After eating pozole, we had a lesson with Ivan and he accepted to be baptized this Saturday! When we invited him, he was like well yeah, we've already waited an extra month. Everything is worked out with his living situation. The mom of his kids, with whom he was living took the kids and left on Monday. She's now living in northern Phoenix and Ivan will have the kids on weekends, meaning he can take them to church now and he no longer has any complications with the law of chastity. He's super excited to get baptized.

We also put Ailin (20) and Alfredo (13) on date this week. Their mom is an eternigator (eternal investigator), but Ailin and Alfredo have always been around for the lessons and they really like church. Their mom said they don't have to wait for her to get baptized. So hopefully if they continue coming to church these next few weeks and read and pray everyday, they'll be ready for baptism and more importantly, enduring to the end. We made a baptismal calendar to help them, which is basically a prayer, reading, and church attendance chart with doctrines still to be taught that help them see that they're ready for baptism.

I LOVED general conference! I loved how President Uchtdorf said that if we were truly grateful for the restored gospel in our lives, we would never tire of going to church or reading the scriptures. I also loved Elder Stevenson's talk about making the Book of Mormon the keystone of our testimony. [You can watch/listen to General Conference at www.lds.org] Our investigator, Shantal came to the Saturday morning session and really liked it too. She knows everything is true, but her husband won't let her come to church on Sundays or be baptized, but she could at least come on Saturday.

A cool technology miracle that happened this week was that we were able to have a lesson with Ana over FaceTime. Ana was in our area about 3 months ago and was progressing really well and going to church, but she moved out of our area and into a house with a family that won't let missionaries come by. But we are still able to teach her through technology.

Love,

Hermana Gubler