Jacob P. Gubler

Jacob P. Gubler

Sunday, March 11, 2012

February 28, 2012

Sorry the email is late! I’m alive and I’m fine so no worrying mom! Yesterday is usually our P-day but since we went to the temple today we worked all day yesterday and tried to have P-day today but literally just barely got back from the temple so it was kind of an all-day adventure! Dad it really is comforting to hear that other people do struggle too. I know Brazil is one of the more successful missions in the world but learning a language, and putting everything into investigators plus walking up massive hills all day really gets tough sometime and the thought of other people not teaching lessons for weeks makes me feel a little stuck up, because that would be pretty tough.  Apparently God knew that I’m not man enough to handle that so he sent me to Brazil where the people are prepared for me but it really is all work it when you get a good day or even one good appointment! But thank heavens we had a few great appointments and good news, we have our first baptism next Sunday at 3! :) wooooooohooooo baby!!  That's what makes it all worth it right there, really actually bringing people unto Christ and His true church. But if you remember last week I think I talked about Natani, the girl who we wanted to get baptized this week but she drank coffee so we have to wait another week but we finished teaching her all the lessons and everything is good to go! :) Her boyfriend, a Priest in the ward will baptize and confirm her which will be really cool and will for sure help her stay active in the Church so even if we were a little tad bit bummed about that it will make it more special for them. Cute right? 

But oh also I had quite the experience this week! We were looking through all the Ensigns and Liahonas we have in our apartment for pictures to put on out planners...it sounds really dumb everyone does it and it looks really cool! I put a pic of the SLC temple and El Salvador and I think it looks pretty great but I was just sifting through a 2000 conference address and flipped past someone I recognized so I flipped back and who was it? Patricia P Pinegar with her talk "Paz, Esperança, e Orientação"!! needless to say I was pretty pumped about that so I may have ripped it out and ill work on translating it :) 

Also this week our Ala de Inglês (which we have Thursdays and Saturdays) had some solid turn out! On Thursday we have a solid 8 people show up which is the most I’ve had since we’ve been here and on Saturdays I solo taught! Definitely a good week for that even if we did only have 3 people on Saturday, they are the most experience people in our class so we practiced real life situations and stuff like that and one of the kids is a member but the other two girls aren’t so I taught the first lesson in English too which was really cool to be able to do with Brazilians and really actually have them understand and oh it was just nice to be able to teach in English!  Being able to actually say exactly what I wanted to say was amazing but I’m so used to teaching the first lesson in Portuguese that a few times I would slip some Portuguese words in there :) 

A few more random things for the week! We saw an BMW M5 just chilling on the streets of Inamar! Sadly I didn’t have my camera with me and we probably won’t ever see it again.  Gotta love those drug dealers that have got WAY too nice cars to be living in the favellas of Brazil!  Also got my first haircut in the field and its awful of course but we all saw that once coming because I’m not the biggest fan of haircuts.  Also I think it is finally happening.... I’m putting on weight!! :) I really have never eaten/ate this much food in my life! I am hungry all the time and even thought Elder Pedersen says that I look exactly the same and I do but apparently all those beans and rice are going straight to my hips because the pants are getting really, really tight.  I get a nice waistband line on my belly so I think it finally could happen and now that it may actually be possible for me to gain weight I’m getting a little nervous because them none of my pants will fit.  But back to some spiritual stuff, I had my first solo invite to a baptism this week with Bruno and we got a new investigator who adores us seems really interested.  Her name is Sherli and is the niece of Monique.  I don’t know if I’ve told you about her but we ended up spending three hours at her house one day because her daughter is a riot and she had a TON of questions so the lesson itself took some time and patience for that matter.  But then after that she wouldn’t let us leave without making lunch so we are keeping our fingers crossed for her! Her daughter Stephanie has epilepsy and had an attach this week so we went to go visit her in the hospital and it was the biggest pain ever because they would only let one of us go up at a time for some reason but we can’t leave each other so she was running all over the place talking to bosses and bosses until she got us up.  She is kind of stubborn if you can’t tell but her excuse and explanation as to why we needed to stay together was that I didn’t know Portuguese so I couldn’t be left alone which is essentially true but I got a kick out of it!  Brazilians just think Americans are insane. This week we did a baptism interview for Vila Noguira one for the areas in our district because Elder Pedersen is DL but Elder Barbosa took me around while Elder Pedersen was doing the interview and was essentially showing off the fact that he knew an American.  It was kind of mega awkward because I would just stand there and he would say have you ever seen an American before?  Well I’ve got one here and then he presents me like I’m an animal.  Oh you gotta love Brazil but I really do love it here!  Start saving up now so we can either come back for the World Cup or the Olympics but I’ll let you guys makes the final decision. But that is essentially it for the week! Going to the temple today was so nice because man I got dependent on that place in the CTM so it was kind of a shock to my system to just stop going every week even if it only was for three weeks.  I think that is about it.  Mom you are gonna love this, I’m not 100% sure yet but Elder Pedersen says that we can and he did skype on Christmas!  He said he didn’t think we could on Mother’s Day but I’ll look into that get back to you :) 

In closing we got to go because it’s getting late but I love you all, I pray for you all individually and think of you all every day!  I hope all is well and remember my love and the love of the Savior. You are all the greatest and are such good examples. 

Eu amo todos de vocês! 
Com tudo de meu coração, 
ELDER GUBLER

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