December 31, 2012

HELLO FAMILY,

Since I talked to you all on Tuesday, I feel like there really isn’t much to say but the BIG NEWS for the email is definitely TRANSFERS and I told you on the Skype call that I thought I was gonna stay for sure but then when I did a division with the Zone Leaders I was asking them what they thought and well they said I’m going to be a ZONE LEADER too so then I have been panicking since Friday trying to figure out if I really was gonna be a ZONE LEADER or not.  I may have been praying more for the not and well...prayers are answered!  The transfer came this morning at like 10:30 so it was late and super nerve wrecking waiting for it but I survived and got a call from the President at like 10 asking me to be a trainer and it was EXACTLY what I wanted to happen! I’m not leaving, and I get to TRAIN!!! :) WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Now I’m hoping I get an American so I can not only help him with his Portuguese but because it’s always fun to mess around with the new Americans, hehe I won’t be mean! But anyways so I am freaking pumped about that! I have always wanted to train and never wanted to be ZONE LEADER so prayers are definitely answered.  If one day in the future I am SUPPOSED to ZONE LEADER of course I’ll accept it but personally if I could have it my way, I would train for the rest of my mission. I’m gonna train with Elder _____ so that should be sweet! My district is now gonna have 2 newbies so well see how that turns out.  Either way I’m super anxious for the transfer and am for sure bummed that _____ is gonna leave but I’m glad it’s not me.

This week was a little rough because it was the week of Christmas so no one was here and if people were here, they were with family and didn’t want to talk to us but we still worked our butts off and ended up getting in some solid lessons and finding some new people to teach for the next transfer.  On Wednesday as usual we had our district meeting and after my training we gave out or "secret friend" presents. We all picked a name of someone in the district and gave a present from 10-15 reais and well I ended up spending 20 after you guys told me to spend money on Brazilians so I got Elder ____ some Q-típs (inside joke), farofa (which is this flour stuff that Elder _____ put on rice and beans and its actually super good) and then a sweet hot wheels so over all I spent the most out of everybody and what did I get as my present, Elder ____ gave me a baby rubix cube on a key chain for 2 reais.  FREAKING Americans are always so cheap. so that was the greatest.  Thursday was just a day of knocking doors and trying to contact contacts and well nothing went down and we only talked to one guy so that wasn’t the best day either but Friday we did a division with the ZONE LEADERSs and I did an interview for a girl in their area and well she was super ready! She just needed to take out all of her piercings and well they left that for me to handle but after a little pushing I got her to take those out.  For the rest of that day everything fell too.  We did get one lesson in with a SUPER humble lady that lived in almost a cardboard house but still had a huge flat screen TV but anyways it was a super good lesson because she connected all the dots herself, the apostasy and the need for a restoration to the Book of Mormon. That is the best way to teach, let them teach themselves. On Saturday some highlights were our lesson with ____ ____ because her newest doubt/excuse out of baptism was that she didn’t want to be baptized in a font because the sins of the other people that were already baptized there stay there.... so we watched finding faith in Christ a little 20 minute movie about His life but we watched because I remembered there was a part that showed his baptism and someone was baptized before Christ and they are in a dammed off part of the river and well it may not be doctrinal but that helped. I know that ____ ____ will be baptized; it’s just a matter of time! I have tried everything I can think of so frankly it’s just patience and trust in the Lord at this point. Then we had some other really good lessons that day too and that night we had a little pizza party at a members because we didn’t know which one of us was gonna leave but it was pretty great except for the fact that me and three other people got sick after, still not sure it was worth it.

Well that wraps up the week! Yesterday we just said goodbye to everyone and today we will say goodbye to the other half that we didn’t hit yesterday, gotta love transfers! But well I love you all! I hope new years is sick back at home but just know that the fireworks here will probably be a little crazier... vida loka.  Keep the emails coming, I’ll be waiting for these letters but either way I love you all! Thanks for everything and I’ll talk to you next week and tell you all about my first (of hopefully many) newbie.

COM AMOR E CARINHO

ELDER GUBLER