September 12, 2013

So it was a pretty eventful last week here in Brazil.  I know the last couples months on the mission are always memorable because its seems like you notice the small miracles and stuff you didn’t catch at the beginning but I also feel like there is quite a bit more random stuff happening too.  Last Saturday we painted a recent convert's house for 5 hours but I got pretty good if I don’t say so myself and the house turned out sick and doing service projects here is super hard so it was nice to be able to rock some shorts and do a little service!  Then that night we watched a Christian movie with _____ (one of our recent converts and some members) about a man that tried to sue the devil because he was life is "too hard" and it was a way good movie! We watched because we are gonna pass it in the ward as a ward missionary work activity and I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be a hit!  We are really getting somewhere with the ward now, everyone wants to do visits with us.  But we had a sick FHE at the Bishops house on Monday, he gave us 2 boxes of candy each and bought pizza.  On Sunday we were teaching this family a mom and her 27 year old son about the Book of Mormon and its purpose and we were talking about what "fullness of the gospel" means and to make a long story short, the lady made a comment that didn’t make like any sense so her son just started laughing and was like "that isn’t even what they asked" and they both just start cracking up.  It was actually pretty funny because her comment had NOTHING to do with anything but they just kept on laughing and laughing and laughing and me and comp just here on the couch and then I realize that the lady was coughing more than laughing so I look over at her and I realize that she was totally chocking and as soon as I looked over at her she starting drooling and was turning like purplish and starting seizing a little so I like flew from the couch and went to try and lift her up to do the Heimlich so I realized there was no way I was gonna lift her up so I just start hitting her back and after like 5 time she just like gasped and came to and was like totally confused and starting asking what happened and all this stuff.  Come to find out that she said she saw "the light" and was going towards and she like saw herself like some sort of an out of body experience and she said she thought she was dead but well good thing she didn’t die in front of us because I don’t know how well I would have taken that but anyways pretty sure it was me that almost went to the hospital after because my heart rate was so high but well everything worked out in the long run.  But pretty sure I don’t think I’ll be forgetting that lesson anytime soon.  Then on Tuesday we had a mission leadership meeting which was SUPER good but its kind of super weird because since we are the oldest group in the mission right so the APs made me and another kid from our group participate in their practice and then I got to do a nice little practice in front of everyone.  I’m getting better at this whole public speaking thing and well that is essentially it! Today we are gonna take p-day and go hit up São Paulo.  I’m pretty sure I’ve already mentioned this but I started an international money collection and we are gonna hit up avenida paulista which is the most famous street in Brazil and there is a guy that has coins from ALL over the world! A member got some for me from Israel and Spain and all these south American countries but I want to check this place out for myself and my comp Elder _____ wants to hit up some nerd store called geek etc so that should be great.  But oh speaking of money, do you think you can send me like 15 one dollar bills because I want to give some to a couple missionaries and some members and everyone is always asking for them so it you could send me that ASAP it would be GREAT but well I think that is essentially it for this week, I love you all, I love the mission and I love my Lord.

Elder Gubler

September 6, 2013

Well I am SUPER crazy busy as usual! Yesterday was probably the craziest day I have had in months!  I woke up 5:30 to take 7 people to the federal police station including Pres and Sister Tanner and well on the way there we had a sister get stolen on the train and an Elder puked and that was before we even got to the best part. Then once we got there, since no one from the church office building knew how to finish the Presidents visa process they told what they thought I would need and well come to find out here was another fine I needed to pay so I had to run around and get that paid and help another new mission secretary from another mission and they made some people retake their pictures because sometime the accept people smiling and a gray background and sometime you can smile and the background has to be PERFECTLY white and their can’t be a shadow on you face so we had 2 people that had to retake pics and man it was just a BLAST let me tell ya. I just LOVE that place. It’s always super organized and everything. but we all survived and only one sister didn’t make it through because her paperwork was wrong so I’m gonna have to send that to the US Consulate here in Brazil for them to figure that out and then we got back and I went to get some authenticated copies of everything and then at like 3 we finally went to lunch and I ate WAY too much because I felt super hungry but my stomach was tiny and then we painted part of a house and then we went back to the office until 6 and then taught some lessons that night. The day is going down in books and there is just a little sample of my life but other than that, Wednesday we had a division and had some super good lessons and the ward is really noticing out work now so we are really getting somewhere! The couple we are teaching is gonna get married as soon as we can get all the papers ready but it’s gonna cost R$250 reais to get all the stuff we need and well the ward is taking FOREVER to decide it they can pay it or not so if it takes much longer I’m just gonna pay just FYI it would end up being like 120 dollars.  _____ got confirmed on Sunday and she asked me to confirm her and well it has been a WHILE since I’ve confirmed someone so I was oddly nervous and it was kind of hilarious because my hand and my knees were like uncontrollably shaking.  I you couldn’t tell from my voice that I was nervous and as soon as I started I was fine but I was just shaking for some reason, super funny and everyone keeps on giving me crap for it. Gotta love the mission  and one more fun detail our stake got its named changed from Sao Paulo west to São Paulo Sul which make a ton more sense because west had nothing to do with the area or the mission but now our stake has the same name as the mission, aí sim!  A few other things, _____ our other super firm investigator is gonna get baptized on the 21st and so she is progressing super well too and a super weird fact, we had zone meeting this week and the zone leader was like "why don’t we ask the veteran in the zone" and then looked at me and I totally thought he was talking about someone else but then I realized that I’m officially the oldest in our zone. It’s really starting to hit now... and I hate it... I remember when I was super new in the mission and hearing the people that only had 2 months left was always super weird and well now that’s me.... time is weird. But well I love you all! Hope everything is going good back at home! I always pray for all of you, thanks for the support and I’ll see ya soon ;)

Elder Gubler

August 30, 2013

So the good news is that I survived, the bad news is that I kind of almost died on Wednesday. After two days of almost no sleep my body just about gave out and I got a nice little cold and just had the greatest body aches ever, fun stuff. But luckily Sister Tanner is the greatest ever and she made me a care package of all the meds I would need, and cinnamon rolls and natural juice.  Well after following her instructions and FINALLY getting some sleep I feel WORLDS better. As Aladdin well stated, "a whole new world".  But about the week, the transfers went pretty smoothly, like they were going oddly smoothly because there is almost always something that is forgotten or not done right or something like that but I double checked like everything on Monday night so no materials or slideshows or newby packets were forgotten but something big did kind of go a little wrong. We have a member of the church that always does our lunches for us and well she did last week and I marked with her husband to do another lunch for us on Tuesday for the transfers and so I call her on Monday morning at like 10:30 just to confirm that everything was good to go but when I call her I’m like "hey is everything good to go for today?" and she was like "what’s today?". Great sign right, so come to find out that her hubby was at the beach and had forgotten to tell her that he marked with me so then the blood pressure went up and I went into game mode because I have an hour and a half to get a lunch together. So I call Elder and Sister _____ who are the missionary couple in our mission and they go off to the market to get stuff to make sandwiches so yeah we made sandwiches and fruit and cupcakes, SÓ VAI.  I did feel pretty bad for the new missionaries though because their first lunch in brazil fell through, welcome to the mission.  Other than that TINY detail, it was a SUPER busy day of running around from Presidents house to the office to the chapel to the office to the cartorio and well welcome to my life.  Some other fun news, I sent the last big group of Americans home before my group, super weird. I’m sending a pic of the group but this next transfer, the only people leaving are our missionary couple which is gonna be SUPER without them because they have saved me multiple time.  Fun fact they are from St George so I plan on visiting them because I like them.  But the other big news which is pretty big new is THE BAPTISM OF ______, after 15 some odd years!  Great day and it was a SUPER spiritual baptismal meeting. It was really packed because she invited some friends that are and some that aren’t members of the church and since her mom and two daughters are all members they all bore their testimony and they were plenty of tears and it was just amazing. Here in a year they will be able to get sealed and I’m SUPER excited for them because I really love that family and frankly I love the gospel and the amazing opportunity I have to be able to share the gospel with others. Michael get ready big boy because there is nothing better. Beats an iPhone out of the water any day but well I think that’s gonna have to wrap up my letter for right now! I love you all, thanks for all the support, remember who you are, the importance of the small things and that the gospel is perfect.

Elder Gubler

Missão Brasil São Paulo Sul

Secretário da Missão

August 23, 2013

It has been kind of super crazy around here lately because transfers are this next Tuesday.  I’m just super-duper excited let me tell ya, transfers are kind of madness around here, we don’t ever sleep and there is just so much crap to do and to make that all better, my computer has been FREAKING out lately, I can’t print anything or even access my network on any other computers so Dad if you have any tips please fill me in here.  Luckily Elder _____ is a computer genius because pretty sure we would just be kind of done if he wasn’t here! But about the week so far, Saturday was kind of way sad because a Sister had to go home because she was having migraines like crazy on the mission and that was kind of hard to have to call her family and Stake President and everything to let them know what was going to happen and it was really weird because she was supposed to go home with our group so that was kind of rough and we had another sister that got released on Friday because she had been in the hospital for 3 days at that point.... and they were both SUPER great sisters like I was talking to the President and he said they were going to be the next sister leaders for the mission but well I know they did everything they could here and they both put up with some awful pain for way too long.  On a happier note, Sunday I had the best baptismal interview I have had on my mission. It’s been a while since I’ve cried but well this time I couldn’t hold out. Right as church was about to start we got a call from the Sisters that aren’t even in my District and they said they had two emergency interviews to do so me and one of the Zone Leaders grabbed a bus and we were off to their chapel and well it was a Brother and a Sister and they boy was mentally challenged but a great kid and wanted to be baptized more than anything! But his sister was still not sure about baptism. She didn’t feel ready yet and well I was the one that interviewed her and it was amazing. I love the mission. Seeing and feeling Heavenly Father work through you is one of the most amazing things ever. It was an amazing experience to be able to feel exactly what I needed to say to help her really feel fully prepared for baptism. She was more than ready but just a little unsure if she would stay strong and all that stuff and well it was just an amazing interview. It’s amazing to see all the promises in D&C come true. The words truly are just put into your mouth because frankly for this I was a little nervous because the Sisters were talking about her before and her worries and all that stuff and well frankly I was hoping to interview the kid but well I’m so glad that God's will was done and not mine because I was not only able to help a wonderful child of God be baptized but frankly I was able to learn plenty with her as well. Then we finally got back to our area at like 1:00 so I missed all of church and lunch for that matter but I’d say it was all worth it :) and plus that night I ate myself SICK... like really sick. It’s been quite some time since I’ve eaten that much food, we went to go visit a less active family that aren’t all members and well they ended up buying pizza and they got a broccoli one (sounds gross but its SOOOO unbelievable good) which just happens to be one of my favs so I ate way too much there and then we had forgotten the appointment with a recent active that we had marked where she made pancake as in like American style. She made normal ones with chocolate sauce because syrup is a rarity and then she made ones where she made them like with tomatoes and oregano and bits of ham and it was way good and then she also made homemade ice cream so yeah... needless to say I ate WAY too much. I need it because I’m getting super skinny again, as in like just as skinny as I was when I came.  So I was happy that I was finally getting up to a good weight and now it’s all gone. Monday was also pretty epic, we ended up breaking a air freshener battle and it was right before our meeting with President so we were all nice and good smelling and I may have taped one of the APs to a chair. The office may be making me a tad bit crazy or crazier I should say.  Tuesday was a day of errands, I went to transfer money from Argentina cash to reais, FINALLY paid the dentist I went to like 3 months ago....oops, got some test results for missionaries, got some authenticated copies of stuff, and ate some pizza hut. Busy but pretty solid day. I may have gotten some pounds (as in like money from England) because I decided I’m going to start a collection of international money! A recent convert gave me TONS of sick way ancient Brazilian cash and I bill from Iran and I have some from Argentina and Chile and New Zealand and some coming from china... not bad for a start right?  I’m making the international connections baby! But other than that I have just been running all over the office trying to get everything ready for the oldies that are leaving and also for the newbies that are coming, we are losing 16 missionaries and only getting 11 so that means another three areas are going to close...great right?  On the plus side we have six Americans coming, the down side we still have 50 some odd in the states...this transfer we were supposed to get like 30 if everyone would have actually gotten their visas! So that is kind of really hard because we don’t know WHEN all these people are going to show up which is making getting houses hard and phones and furniture and areas and just everything kind of tough but hey well take these 11 and make do with what we got! Yesterday was Nova Força which is the meeting that all the newbies have after the finish their 1st transfer on the mission and I really like this last group! Some promising people! It was kind of a super busy meeting because I was running all over place getting copies of stuff, trying to figure out medical issues of people (we have another sister that is have HUGE issues with her knees....she may have to go home as well but we gave her a blessing and we are still waiting on the Doctors recommendation, let’s hope she doesn’t have to go as well because I really like her...) and phone issues and well I didn’t eat lunch until everyone left.  Man I miss being a regular missionary and just being able to enjoy all the mission meetings.  But well that is kind of it, we are going to have _____ baptism this Sunday and she is SUPER, SUPER pumped and so are we and so is the ward! So let’s hope that all works out smoothly! She has already been interviewed and is inviting all of her non-member friends to come watch too so essentially that’s just gold for us.  And about transfers I’m 98% sure my comp is leaving so I’m gonna be comps with Elder _____ who I was with for a while in Cidade Vargas, I don’t remember if you remember that but I love the kid!   Well on that note, I’m OUT. Love you all!! Hope you can all survive being back in school! The church is true, I love the mission, and I love my Lord.

Elder Gubler

Missão Brasil São Paulo Sul

Secretário da Missão

 

August 14, 2013

This week has been SUPER, SUPER busy so far but kind of nice because I really have hardly been in the office the whole week. We had our zone conference on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we had the zone conference for the other half of the mission and I had to make sure that everything went smoothly with that and then yesterday we took p-day and went to the soccer museum with an investigator and some members and that was SICK and then we went to a HUGE famous park in São Paulo and we rented bikes and rode around for an hour which was amazingly nice. We got SUPER lucky too because Pres never lets anyone use bikes like never. But well I guess there are some bonuses for being in the office and always solving his problems ;) but I didn’t realize how great riding a bike is. I may get into that when I get back and I can’t wait to give dad's dirt bike a little spin.  But speaking of President Tanner, his daughter and her family are here in Brazil just kind of checking out all the sights and soaking up everything and well I was talking to them and I don’t remember the families last name but I know one of grandchildren of President and Sister whose name is Jane plays on Anna Pinegar (as is like Steve and Lisa’s Anna) so we chatted about that for quite a while and of course they know Grandma and Grandpa and it was super fun to be able to talk to some people from back home!  And another story that I just remembered right now is that this last week when I went to the federal police station there was another mission there too and I met a Sister Steig that had just gotten her visa and she came from the states and well get this, she knows Lauren or Sister Hagemeyer, super small world right! They apparently met in the MTC in Provo and they both got their visas at the same time so they came down here together as well, cool story right!  And well about our ward and investigators, we are really getting the area to move again! when I first got here it was golden and we got three baptisms and then that was kind of it because we baptized the investigators that they had that were progressing and well we finally have another solid group coming together again! We don’t have enough time to visit everyone so we are starting to get more help from the ward as well.  We had a couple and their three kids come to church and they are progressing super well, we have _____ who is also progressing like crazy and keeping all the commandments, she essentially is a missionary because she taught her boyfriend about everything and they read the Book of Mormon together and are keeping the law of chastity it’s just hard because he lives in Sorocaba which is a city like three hours away and so every single weekend she goes to spend with him so she hasn’t come to church yet and they we have _____ who never ceases to impress me and who is more than ready for baptism!  The ward is SUPER excited for her baptism too because she has been many times before and her Mom and her tw2 daughters are members for something like 17 years now and well her time just finally showed up and we are super excited for her! She’s gonna get baptized next week and then we have a couple other couples and families that are coming along quite nicely as well :) its game time baby!! But well I think that essentially wraps up the week!

com amor,

 

Elder Gubler

 

August 6, 2013

Here is a quick little rundown of some highlights of me week.  On Friday, we went to the zoo and they had this safari thing inside the zoo that was kind of expensive but so cool!! :) I feel like a child again, we went in some camo van for like 5 other people and just drove through the jungle feeding ostriches and deer (yes they have deer in the zoo here, I thought that was super funny) and the monkeys were jumping on the roof and I got face to face with a zebra and it was just super sick, good times.  That kind of made up for the last three weeks that we didn’t take p-day and then next week we are gonna go to the biggest soccer museum in South America with an investigator and her family and turns out that President and Sister Tanner have one of their kids and some grandkids coming down to brazil next week and they were thinking about going as well so we may go with them too.  I can never remember what I talked about in last week’s emails because I send my email on a different day every single week, essentially whenever I have some free time.  But some other fun stuff, we re-made our mission card this week and so I redesigned the thing and it got here yesterday and it turned out SUPER sick. And now we are gonna make some legit baptismal invitations as well! The mission is really changing like crazy lately, we have some many ideas that we are finally putting in to play and it’s really turning out pretty great! About our area though, things are getting a little rough in our area right now...we have some people with tons with potential and with baptismal dates but our issue right now is getting people to come to church.  We have _____ who goes to her boyfriend’s house every weekend because he lives in another city but she stayed here this weekend so she could come to church and well despite her dog waking the whole street up, me calling her every 30 minutes and ringing her doorbell non-stop, she didn’t come to church.  She is progressing really well though and we still haven’t met her boyfriend yet but she is gonna talk about chastity with him and is already keeping the word of wisdom!   The gospel truly changes lives and our other investigator that never ceases to impress me is _____ the Mom of member that was never baptized because she liked to drink and didn’t want to give that up, well something changed and she is SUPER firm right now! She is gonna be interviewed for baptism this weekend and then as soon as her friend comes back from Colorado she is gonna be baptized! For right now it’s marked for the 24th but he may get back even earlier than that, fingers crossed.  That is actually who we are gonna go to the soccer museum with next week, they are the GREATEST. I love that family!  Well I’m pretty sure that covers everything for right now! I’m gonna have to take President and Sister back the federal police station this next week and then they will be good to go for 5 years! But I love you family! I love each and every one of you! Thank you for everything that you have each individually done for me.

 

Elder Gubler