Carrillo family and Sis. Medina

11/28/16 letter

Hola, 

This week I found a llama! I've looked for one in all my areas and I've finally found one. On Saturday, Hermana Irizarry and I were setting up for a wedding reception for someone in our ward. It was in a backyard in a neighborhood with a lot of land and a lot of animals. I asked the owner if there were any llamas in the neighborhood and to my surprise he said yes. So we walked as fast as we could to that house and took lots of pictures. I just had to dodge the 2 mean emu's protecting the llama. I've always promised myself that I wouldn't leave my mission until I found a llama, so now I have nothing to worry about with LESS THAN A MONTH left. 

Thanksgiving was fun. It started off with a turkey bowl where I beat all the boys on the football field. At 11:00 we ate with the familia Flores. They didn't know why we celebrate thanksgiving, and I don't know how to say pilgrims or Plymouth in Spanish, so I think they still don't know why we celebrate. We ate sopes which are about as far away from turkey and mashed potatoes as you get, but they were still really good. In the afternoon, we went to dinner with some sisters in an English ward in Gilbert and had a delicious traditional feast. It was also 80 degrees on thanksgiving day, so that was crazy. On Sunday, it rained and now it's really cold here in the low 60s.

On Wednesday, I got to go back to Phoenix for exchanges with Hermana Medina from Sonora, Mexico. She's so cute and we had a lot of fun. She's been out for like 4 weeks, so she caught me up on some pop culture and taught me one of the latest dances. Video to come. While in Phoenix, I got to teach Ivan, so it was fun to see him again. Also, I found out that on Tuesday, this lady I taught in Phoenix named Oralia got baptized. And this Sunday, a guy I found my last week in Phoenix named Alejandro is getting baptized. I wrote about him a few weeks ago in my email. 

Zoila and Joel came to church again. Two weeks in a row now for both of them! We haven't been able to teach Zoila all week though because she is now working 2 jobs and is never home. 

We're also teaching the Avila family that is super interested, but aren't going to come to church until their in laws leave to go back to Mexico at the end of December because their in laws aren't too hyped about them becoming Mormon. 

I'm super excited for Christmas and I love the new church Christmas initiative video and I'm showing it to everyone. #iluminaelmundo

Love,

Hermana Gubler

FHE with Flores family

New apartment and sisters

11/21/16 letter

Hola Family,

This week was really good. In the last 2 weeks, we've found 15 new investigators and things are finally turning around. At church, Zoila, Pablo, and Joel came and really liked it, so that was cool. 

Zoila is one of our new investigators from last week. After church, she said she wants to start coming every week. On Saturday and Sunday, we spent a lot of time at her house helping her make Venezuelan tamales. Well, she was the main one that made them while I washed banana leaves. They were super good. I'll send a picture.

Last Monday, the assistants called hermana Irizarry and I at 12:00 and told us that we were moving apartments and needed to be moved out by 6:00. But I'm pretty happy about it because our last apartment was full of cockroaches and our new one is in Gilbert and is basically luxury. It's super nice. I now live with sister Dozier and Avanceña from Alabama and the Philippines. I'll send pics. The only downside is that we now have a 15 minute drive to our area.

Sunday, I did the Spanish translation at the new convert devotional and our investigators Eladio and Joel came. Joel was crying during one of the talks. 

On Wednesday, I got to do an exchange with Hermana Lambert. It was seriously the best day ever! We were together for 3 transfers in Yuma and then haven't really seen eachother since May, so it was a super fun day. She's such an awesome missionary and we found some cool people and taught some cool lessons. 

On Friday, I got to go to the Phoenix temple (like an hour from here) because Yozelyn's mom called President Christensen and got permission for me to go. Yozelyn leaves on her mission today and her mom did a special chapel session at the temple with all the people she loves. She started crying when she saw me. 

Have a great week. Thanks for the fruit dad. I already finished all the oranges.

Con amor,

Hermana Gubler

11/14/16 letter

This week started out a little rough but it turned out good in the end. It started out with a lot of people cancelling on us or dropping us, but we were able to find 7 new investigators this week. On Saturday, we met this new lady named Zoila and she came to a missionary devotional at the church on Sunday night because she wasn't able to go to church in the morning. So I'm pretty happy about that. Hopefully she can start coming to church. She might be moving, but we're trying to find her a place that's still in our area. She's from Venezuela. 

The devotional we did on Sunday was cool. A member dressed up like a hobo outside the church and then came in halfway through the devotional and sat in the chapel. The theme of the devotional was service. At the end, the "hobo" went up to the front and took off his costume and spoke about how he felt and how people treated him when they came in. We planned it with one of the members and the bishop and 53 people ended up coming and some of the, brought nonmember friends. 

On Thursday, Elder Pearson of the seventy came and spoke to our mission. It was awesome! He came and spoke to the MLC like 3 months ago and that was awesome too. He's the one that gave the stay by the tree talk in general conference. He talked about how on average, it takes someone 7 encounters with the church or missionaries before they accept it. He said that we get lucky when we find a 7, but he said the best missionaries find joy in turning a 1 to a 2. That helped me out a lot because we are finding lots of 1s. 

Yozelyn, a member in Phoenix who leaves on her mission next week, drove to Mesa almost every day this week to come out with us. So we were basically in a trio for most of the week, so that was fun. 

On Friday, we went to the Mesa visitors center with Pablo and he really like it. He also came to church on Sunday, even though it was his 15th birthday. He's super cool.

Also on Friday we had a super good lesson with our investigators Eladio y Joel. It finally clicked for them that the Book of Mormon isn't a story about Joseph Smith. For some reason everyone thinks that. We already had a member at the lesson with us and half way through, another member walked up and said he saw us when he drove by and he wanted to come to the lesson too. His testimony helped them out a lot. 

Thanks for all the pictures from Japan. Looks like you had fun. 

Love,

Hermana Gubler

11/7/16 letter

Hola,

This week was good. I worked harder than I ever have and talked with literally everyone, but there weren't a whole lot of fruits that came from it. A lot of rejections and no one came to church or is progressing very much, but oh well. I promised God on Wednesday that I would get rid of all minor disobedience i.e. starting studies at 8:01, lack of journal writing, etc. and asked him to make miracles happen. And on Thursday, we found a cool new guy named Jose! He has had a rough life and is desperate need of the gospel. He has a lot of interest in learning more so I was pretty excited about that. 

The weather is finally starting to cool down now that it's November. It's been in the 80's all week and should stay that way for a couple more weeks. So that's been really nice. 

This week had día de los muertos, a Mexican holiday where they remember their dead family members and build altar for them. We saw one that said "familia hasta la muerte" which means family until death. The family wasn't interested, so we weren't even able to share with them that families are eternal. 

On Friday, we went to the Mesa temple visitors center with our investigators Eladio and Joel and that was fun. 

Not really a whole lot of news this week, sorry. This is kinda a tough area. People aren't super open. But I'll keep working hard. 

Have a good rest of your time in Japan.

Love,

Hermana Gubler

DI buys!

Montana del Sur members

Mari's family names

Ivan, Miguel, Phoenix temple

10/31/16 letter

Hola,

Today I'm writing to you from...Mesa, Arizona. Transfers were on Wednesday. President Christensen called on Monday night and told Sister Bound and I that we would both be leaving Phoenix and he released me as an STL. Hermana Lambert took my spot in Phoenix, so I'm happy. She'll do a good job there. I'm companions with Hermana Irizarry again. She came to Mesa 3 weeks ago and now I came and joined her. So this is our 3rd transfer together. 

On Tuesday, we went to the temple with Ivan, Mari (baptized in June) (brought family names), Arcadio (baptized a year ago)(brought family names), Miguel (baptized 10 months ago), la family Muñoz (converts of 2 years), Hermano Delgado, and Hermano Hernandez. The spirit was so strong! It was cool to see Ivan in the temple and think "wow! 3 months ago he was drinking and smoking and being mean to his family." 

On Thursday, I was literally dying! I had a fever, headache, congestion, sneezing, etc. but the fever only lasted a day so I was able to go out all day Friday. I was pretty sick on Wednesday, but Thursday morning, I woke up and could barely talk with how bad my throat was. I slept literally all day Thursday, so it turned into about 32 hours strait of sleep. Fun stuff! 

Our area's a little slow, but we'll speed things up real fast. Our Bishop gave us a list of 40 less actives to contact and see if they live there or not and we got that done in 2 days, so hopefully we can have more time for investigators now. Our ward, Liahona 5, covers our entire stake, so that's my area. 

I'm going to explain an example of one of the sacrifices I make in order to teach people. On Friday, after dinner, we went to teach a recent convert, Lilia, and her nonmember husband. They forgot about the lesson and were on their way out to eat tacos when we showed up with our member. They wanted to reschedule the lesson for another day, but they invited us to go with them for the tacos. I was stuffed from dinner, but went anyway so that we could teach them. The tacos were great de barbacoa y asada and so was the lesson. My stomach afterward, not so much.

Today for pday, I got a hair trim and went to DI and got some cool stuff. I live in an apartment with Sister Berezay and Erbaugh who were in my sistrict in Yuma so that super fun. 

 Have fun in Japan.

Love,

Hermana Gubler