October 24, 2013

I’m officially almost down to a month left on the mission (it’s REALLY starting to set in that I’m going to have to go home and I don’t like it one bit. But well instead of thinking about that, I’m just trying to soak up every last little minute and well this last week was pretty eventful! I’m pretty sure I already talked about the wedding of _____ and _____ on the 9th but I just don’t think words can describe how happy I am for them and how much I’m going to miss that family. I’m pretty sure their youngest kid _____ is just going to come home with me so hopes that’s okay.  This whole "bye.. see ya who knows when" things is going to SUCK because yeah I want to come back next year but I doubt that I’ll go down because of school and lack of cash so realistically I have no idea when I’m going to see all these people again. Yeah, goodbyes just always kind of stink. But well on a happier note.... we took p-day this week and we went to Pico do Jaraguá which is the highest point in São Paulo! When there is some decent weather and the pollution isn’t too bad you can see everything but the day we when it was a tad bit cloudy and pollution was pretty sketchy also. But either way it was nice to just get away from the office and do a little "passeando" and then after we got done checking that out we hit up some legit place of the Corinthians which is my favorite soccer team and that was pretty rad! I got some free stickers because we went _____ and _____ (as usual :) our recent convert and a guy from the ward) and well _____ always tells everyone how I’m American and how I’m Corinthiando and well people LOVE it and always give me free stuff.  Gotta love special treatment! Then for lunch we went to this MASSIVE fruit market place that is by 25 de Março (the china town of São Paulo and we ate some crazy fruits that I have never seen in my live, saw just about EVERY part of the cow for sale (and yes I mean EVERYTHING hahahaha), ate the São Paulo famous bologn sandwich and the cod little fried tort-ish thing, both of which were way good and well then back to the office. But it was quite the day! It always stinks to get back to the office though because it’s like real life settles back in and you have to catch up on everything and it’s just great. So hence we never taking p-days but well since I’ve only got like 4 weeks left there are still some places I want to check out so the goal is to take p-day every week from here on out.  Flashing back to Saturday and Sunday, on Saturday I spent like three hours doing baptismal interview and just making goals with some kids and that had some stuff to work on before baptism and well that took some TIME and then on Sunday we had _____ BAPTISM BABY which turned out to be quite the day.  The water got cut in our chapel because get this the church didn’t pay the bills hahahaha classic. So we went to the stake center and did the baptism there so there wasn’t as many people as I wanted or as there would have been if it was at our chapel but we had a solid group that went with us and I decided that since we have four kids in our ward that all have mission calls and are leaving within the next two months, I want to have them all baptize before they left and so one hadn’t baptized in forever so we had him baptize _____ and well it was just a great day.  Oh and flashing forward to yesterday, the fourth kid in our Ward got his call and he is going to JAPAN!  I didn’t see that one coming seeing as the other 3 staying in Brazil but well he leaves on the 21st of January and goes to Provo MTC so how sick would that be if I see him there.  We’re going to try and meet up but well that’s kind of it for right now.  Enjoy my email that is all over the place.  I’ll send some pics too.  The guy that took the pic at Pico do Jaraguá had us do some crazy poses; he really liked taking pics apparently.  Love to you all.

Elder Gubler

November 8, 2013

So this week was kind of madness so hence the delay.... and I don’t have much time because we our casal missionário (I don’t know what you call them in English... elderly missionaries) are leaving today!! I honestly don’t know what we are going to do without them!  They are the greatest and have saved me plenty of times! It’s a good thing I will only have to know what it’s like without them for 6 weeks but well let’s move onto the last week or so.  I never remember what I tell you all and what I don’t because I always email on different days but so last week we had a guy from the church office building come and do an inspection on the office and how everything is going and well I found out that this last month I was the executive secretary that spent the least in all of Brazil!  How’s that for being frugal?  Well he took is out to lunch and said that we could eat wherever we wanted and it was "on the mission" so we all went to a LEGIT all you can eat type place that is way fancy!  There was everything from sushi, to Brazilian barbeque to crepes and well I don’t think I have eaten that much food in a LOOOONNNG time!  I ate some raw squid which actually wasn’t that bad! It was kind of weird seeing the little tentacles and everything but só vai right?  And well we had another sister that had to go home because of health issue so that sucked to have to send her off... that is already the third that I’ve had to buy emergency flights for them to go home and bleh…not too fun.  And she almost missed her flight too so that was quite the day... some other big stories, I took a group to the federal police station and well that was QUITE the day!  We snuck some sisters in which was a lot easier to get them in that out.  It was _____ b-day who is my hook up with all the federal police stuff and well luckily had some peanut butter with me just to suck up a little because I had no idea it was his b-day but well it ended up working out pretty well!  The fingerprint ladies and I sang happy birthday to him in English and everything, super funny!  I wish I would have been able to film it but well you can’t take out cameras there.  And then I got some fines too because 2 missionaries arrived in the field from the MTC with 30 day limit that they have to go to the federal police station passed... oh joy. But the church office building is going to pay it for us because it wasn’t our fault!  And then more fun stories about that same day, we used to buy some gross take out for all the missionaries to eat "lunch" in the office but well I can’t handle that take out anymore so everyone paid some personal money and we took them to sweet tomatoes (yeah the one from the states) and well everyone that works there knows us and we already get a discount because we eat there like 2 times a week and well I still don’t really know why this happened but they brought out a cake with a sparkler on it and gave it to me... hahahahah they think I’m like the boss of the missionaries and well I got nice and red and everyone sang, fun stuff!  I think we officially made the VIP status in the restaurant.  One more thing about that day, I spent R$1435 in one day!  I’m going to have to spend a LOT more next week when I take another 12 people to the federal police station.... some good news about the work, we marked _____ and _____ wedding today at the Cartório and it worked out about as well as it could have!  They let me be a witness which they usually don’t because I’m not Brazilian, we marked the wedding for the 7th of November which is SUPER fast because it usually takes over a month to be able to mark and I was stressing that I wasn’t going to be here anymore for their wedding and baptism so now I won’t have to stay an extra week.  And more good news, instead of spending R$355, we marked it for FREE!  I know TONS of people that work there because I got there at least twice a week to get authenticated copies of stuff for visas and well it’s all the people you know because they really hooked us up this time!  I’m SUPER, SUPER pumped for them because I love this family more than anything. They really are amazing and seeing their growth in the gospel over the last couple months that we have known them has been amazing!! I really love this family and want to come back down next year for their sealing!  I don’t want to have to leave all these amazing people behind.... we also have a super sweet older lady that is going to be baptized this Sunday and we are super excited about that because we thought she lived with another man who isn’t her husband since she has been a widow for over years and well she doesn’t consider the guy her hubby, they are honestly just like friends and we thought they lived in the same house and even though there is nothing going on between them we didn’t know what to do about that but we found out this week that he has his own little house under hers!  He sleeps there and has his own little bathroom and TV so Pres said she is good to go and can get baptized this Sunday as long as everything goes alright with her baptismal interview which will be tonight and then we have _____ who we have been working with for some time now who says his GF wants him to wait for them two to get baptized together but the kid is beyond ready so we are going to see if we can get him baptized and get him the Priesthood so he can baptize his girlfriend.  The Lord is truly blessing us with amazing people to work with! It’s going to be way hard to have to leave all of them though.  But well there is a rundown of some recent highlights, love you all! See you soon!

Elder Gubler

November 1, 2013

So here is the deal...... my emails will probably stink from here on out because the next couple of weeks are going to be super busy and I figure I can tell you all the same stories a lot better in person so just hold strong!  But we took p-day today and hit up Avenida Paulista and 25 _____ and I dropped some cash and tried to hunt down some stuff for everyone but well........ no success...... good news though, I did find a couple classy ties.  We had three mission wide zone conferences this week which was TONS of work but well that will be the last time I’m going to have to do all that again! We are going to have _____ and ______ interviews for baptism tonight so that they can get married and baptized on Saturday!  Keep them in your prayers so everything goes smoothly.  We are also teaching ______ cousin who came from another state to live with them and so we are teaching him and he is going to get interviewed too because he is progressing quite nicely!  Unfortunately he won’t be able to be baptized on Saturday with _____ and _____ because he has only been to church once but if the interview goes well and he goes to church on Sunday we are thinking about doing it then.  That is essentially it for this week! I love you all tons! Keep the emails coming and I’ll see you soon!

Elder Gubler

October 3, 2013

Frankly I can believe it either that ill be home in less than 2 months.....can I stay just one more transfer?   Even wanting to I can’t because of the visa but I can’t wait to hear about Michael!   Onto my week...a few random stories for the week, on Sunday we had bbq baby back ribs and it was probably the GREASTEST thing I have yet to eat here.  Then on Tuesday we took p-day and went the Bantã institute which had 3 little museums, one of microbiology, one of snakes and another or some other thing that we never found.  We went with some members and then after that we hit up some arcade place to waste time because we were planning on going to the crime museum too which sounded actually super sick but well turns out it is closed and the police department just is too lazy to tell anyone or to bother putting that on the internet so that didn’t end up going through so then we ate some lunch and back to the office, not a bad day!  It’s nice to just get out of the office for a while even though there is always a nice little mess for us to resolve whenever we get back.  That night we had 3 young men get their mission calls so there was a little party at one of their houses and we hit that up and well they are all going to stay here in Brazil!   One is going to Recife, another to Natal and the last one to Salvador. All 3 missions are SUPER hot so they will all be coming back nice and burnt but I’m excited for the 3 of them!   They leave the first week of January, it was kind of super weird seeing them opening up the callings though because I flashed back to when I opened mine and just all the emotions and well it’s CRAZY to think that I’m already almost done.  But well before I get all choked up... they are all going to do a great job and I can’t wait until Michael gets his call.   Well to be completely honest that is kind of it for the week.... I guess it wasn’t as eventful as I thought.  We have transfers on Tuesday and 27 new missionaries are going to be showing up and none are leaving so here we go! We’ve been hunting down houses and getting all the phones ready to go so let’s hope everything all works out!  But well I love you all. Thanks for all that you do for me! See you soon.

Elder Gubler

September 26, 2013

This week has been nice and crazy and well it’s just going to get crazier because we have 25 missionaries that are going to be arriving for the next transfer which is in a week.  But at the same time I’m hoping that tons come on this one because this will be last transfer here and I don’t want to leave the next executive secretary with 40 some odd missionaries that arrive his first transfer as executive secretary.  We still have a little over 50 in the states after these that will coming this transfer but well let’s get onto my week! So on Tuesday the other half of the mish went to the temple, since we went through a session last week we couldn’t go again but we had to stop in at the church office building which is right next so we went with Pres and Sister Tanner and hit some crazy São Paulo traffic but after a couple hours we made there got everything worked out there and ate lunch at the super sick Brazilian Rodizio place right next to the temple with all the people that passed through the temple but while we were there, I saw Elder ______ my companion in Bertioga!   He is from the north part of Brazil but after he got home he lived in Praia Grande and turns out he just decided to stop in at the temple so that was cool to be able to talk to him!  That night I gave all the stuff I wanted Bishop to take but it turned out being too much so I had to leave the book so he is just going to take tons of soccer jerseys and stuff like that!  About yesterday, I took two Sisters to the federal police station and the guy from the MTC who always goes when mission secretaries go ended up not being able to go but well it worked out super smoothly and we got out of there at record breaking time but then we had got to the Recieta federal to pick up the package of an Elder from Chile because the government was holding it hostage but it was nice and far away and so we show up there and they almost wouldn’t let me take it but I made him sign a document saying that I could and all this stuff and well we got that all figured out but then a guy had to take a look at it to make sure there was nothing too expensive in it and he didn’t get in until 12 so we went got a bus and hunted down a Cartorio to get authenticated copies of the federal police station stuff and then we went back to the Reciete federal got the package and were on our way back to the office and well we didn’t get back until like 1:30 and we left home at 6:15.... and then we got back, ate lunch got some office stuff done and then we went with Pres and Sister Tanner back to Santo Andre because Pres let me go back (which he almost NEVER lets people do...) to baptize _____ the father of the family that I baptized and well that was amazing!!! It took us over 2 hours to get there (on the way back it took 28 mins) because we hit more insano STOPPED traffic... but we finally made it even though the water was freezing and I was beyond exhausted by that point, that was the most amazing baptism for me. To be able to see all those amazing people back in Santo Andre was great especially seeing as I didn’t even really get to say goodbye because I was emergency transfer to the office and to be able complete that family was perfect. Seeing how much the gospel has changed them is amazing. I just love this mission. I cannot say that enough and I don’t know if 2 months is going to be enough.... if I could stay one more transfer I would but you all got lucky because my visa expires... haha but well I have got tons of stuff to do to get ready for transfers coming up.... today was supposed to be p-day but well I doubt we will have pday this week....:( I WANNA SLEEP.... but frankly I should just soak up this whole being super tired thing because I only have 2 months of it left.  Love you all. Love the Gospel and we are all so unbelievable blessed to know the Gospel have it and its blessings in our lives.

Elder Gubler