December 10, 2012

So as you all know we went to the temple this week on Tuesday and it was FANTASTIC!  It had been like six months since I have been because I was in the Baixada but man I love that place. Just feeling the difference once you step through the front door is amazing. On funny note, I totally lost my temple recommend so I showed up nice and early to get interviewed by the President before our session but he said he had already talked to the guy and he would really interview me after but when I got up the front desk guy apparently the president hadn’t talked to him so I had to wait for him to come out and pass me off.  But other than that it was AMAZING!!! I got to see missionaries from my good old CTM district which is always great!  After the temple and lunch, we just took to the bus home and p-day was already over plus our LAN houses didn’t have internet, hence me emailing on Wednesday! That was also the day that I got my packages which I LOVED and may already be flying through the candy.  This week was EXTREMELY hot!  I don’t even want to know how hot it is in the Baixada because if Sao Paulo is this hot the beach is nice and HUMID! Thank heavens I’m not still down there.  We found some sweet news this week but unfortunately and as usual, no one went to church; still the big issue here; it’s one thing for someone to accept a baptismal date but it’s a whole other thing to get them to actually show up to church!  But well, we’re doing our part so he HAS to do His!  Just hold strong and the elects will come running to us.  But let’s jump back to Friday, the day that marked a year in the field!  We did a division with another companionship because there is a kid that has the same time as me so we worked our butts off all day, found some new people to teach, knocked tons of doors. We cranked out TONS of contact and then when we got home it was party time!  We got ourselves an amazing good calabresa and broccoli pizza (sounds kind of weird but broccoli pizza here is good), ate some chocolate from my package, wrote on and then burned some shirts.  I didn’t have any shirts that ware wrecked enough to burn but my companion already has some pretty sketchy ones so I gave him one of mine and then burned one of his that had these sketchy stains on it,  gotta love the mish.  The Elder that I did splits with gave me a cute little "return with honor" ring to celebrate our year because he literally gets at least two HUGE packages from his family every month..... man his family must love him.  But let’s just say it was a great day but it really hit me HARD that the mission passes by WAY too fast I am loving my time here! I love you all and can’t wait to see everyone on skype for Christmas!  Keep the emails and letters coming and enjoy the pics.   

um abração e beijinhos!

ELDER GUBLER

December 5, 2012

The big highlight of the week is our gospel investigator I’m pretty sure I talk about how she had this crazy dream when she was 11 and saw inside the temple and learned about angel Moroni and all this crazy stuff but then her catholic preacher at the time said that it didn’t exist but she always calls us "angels of Moroni".  Well this week was even better with her! On Tuesday it was POURING rain when we left in the morning and my companions umbrella broke because of the wind and then we saw her walking in the pouring rain without an umbrella so we go and talk to her and I give her my umbrella and say not to worry about it because "God would bless us with some sun" and well she doubted it at first because the news said it was gonna rain all day but well after a little prayer, what do you know it was nice and sunny before we even got to our first appointment and well we found this out after but she said that she prayed and did a little "test" to see if we are really representatives of Christ so she said that IF we are, God would stop the rain and well BAM the rain stopped! So let’s just say she ate that right up and called us prophets and all this good stuff and then on Friday we had our weekly appointment with her where we just talked all about the crazy answers she has gotten and how she needs to follow her answers getting baptized but she still thinks her baptism was good so we talked a lot about that too and it was just a super good lesson! She even said I have fire in my eyes at one part, I’m assuming in a good way! But it was so good that I ended up marking her baptismal interview the next day so the ZLs came and interviewed her while we taught her son and his little friends! It has been 3 weeks since we’ve been trying to meet her son but no success until now! Her preacher of her gospel church said that since her son listens to music "he’s gonna go to hell" so needless to say her son wasn’t the biggest fan of preachers after that so we had to really break him down to get him to let us talk to him but it worked and we taught a sweet lesson and broke the ice pretty nicely too.  But onto the real highlight of the week, Sunday! As you all know it was fast and testimony meeting and well who went up to bear their testimony, our investigator…oh Gloria.  It was pretty great I’m not gonna lie! Even though it was super "gospely" and she stayed up there for 15 minutes, she really has a great testimony about the church! She talked all about the angel Moroni dream, my sun "prophesy", and the spirit she feels in the church! :) something pretty funny though she always calls me "elde" and my companion "ferrais" so she threw that out there a couple times and instead of saying "missionários" she said "missionieros" and well it really was a pretty sweet testimony meeting even if my heart may have been pounding the whole time.  Oh and she is already visiting people with us and introducing her friends and after her testimony, she said if her son comes to church she'll for sure get baptized so here in a couple weeks, get ready for a nice white Christmas.  We found some WAY good news this week too, for my training for district meeting, I talked about making covenants instead of goals and well we are already seeing the difference that is making because this last week was absolutely great! Instead of trying to do our and the Lords part, we decided to focus on just doing our part 100% but well I love you all!! I got the thanksgiving package today and loved it! From home and from tar bear but well the week that I got tons of emails was the week we don’t really have any time to respond so I’ll respond to Grandma and Grandpa next week but everyone keep your eyes open because I sent our Christmas card home this week so in a couple weeks that should be showing up!  One more time, I love you all, I love this mission and I love this church! Keep the letters/emails coming but always remember letter > email.

um abração e beijos,

ELDER GUBLER

Thanksgiving Dinner

November 26, 2012

Last week for P-day we played basketball for four hours in insane Brazilian sun and well I didn’t really think that one through too well and I got FRIED!  It was MEGA hot the whole week besides today and yesterday, getting burnt on top of a burn is always fun but this week was full of TONS of contacts, knocking doors and finding new people to teach. Essentially all of our people from last transfer stopped progressing and one of them actually got baptized in some other church, didn’t see that one coming! But it’s a new transfer so we did a little cleanup of the people that we are teaching and were gonna find us some elects baby!  We found some sick people and hopefully in a couple week well have a little água.

We had our first district meeting for this transfer but we only had two people leave the zone so not much changed! Also on Wednesday we had a nice bible bash with some Jehovah’s Witness guy saying how anyone who supports politics will be "destroyed" (i.e. Mitt Romney and apparently our whole church) but I got him pretty good because everyone here has to vote because its required so if our church is gonna be destroyed so is all of Brazil buddy boy.  Wednesday was a day full of contacts and contacts and contacts and well we even went back and visited investigators for the first time in like two weeks and well they still don’t want to give up coffee so if you want to let some gross drink mess with your salvation so be it but were doing our part!

Thursday it was a day of everything falling but I made sure to stay nice and happy and grateful because hey the harder the mish is the more blessing I’ll be getting right?  We went with some members to a little pizza place and well there was my thanksgiving feast, not bad at all if you ask me!

Friday was quite the day because GET THIS, we went to go teach our gospel lady and when we got there she said she was already feeling something different so we got excited and used that for our advantage of course but she said how she thought it was "the angel Moroni" at her door, (her exact words!!!!) ANGEL MORONI.... so I’m like what the heck, that definitely JUST our church that has an angel Moroni so I ask her where she has heard that name and she goes off to tell us how she had a dream when she was 11 and she was in some "fancy church" where everything was "white and expensive" and there were people "being baptized" so I freak out and we show her a pic of the temple and then on Sunday at church I found a pic of the baptismal font and the celestial room at the temple and she said that was where she was so that is kind of super insanely cool especially because she really likes our church but she LOVES her church and she still thinks her "baptism of the spirit" was valid but don’t worry here in a little bit she being getting baptized and then even going through the temple to see the font for herself.  That night we went to a college and sang Christmas hymns and did some contacts then Saturday, normal super busy day! English class had some solid people, lunch was great, got some lessons in, tons of contacts and had the ward talent show that night and well like no one was doing anything and they had the music of Coldplay so they made me sing that I sang that Shrek hallelujah song with a kid in the ward. 

Sunday was pretty great too even though we left super early to get everyone to come to church and no one came but hold strong and it will all work out.  Another highlight of Sunday we had our usual English lesson with a couple in the ward and we had an American food party after that was killer good! Hamburgers, french fries, and KILLER good chocolate and banana crepes! I know you already sent me my Christmas package, but if you send me another one anytime soon, I’ve had some requests of syrup so send some of that if possible! Well that wraps up the week! I love you all! Get the letters coming, say your prayers and read your scrips!

ELDER GUBLER