November 22, 2013

-3 John 1:13-14

-2 Timothy 4: 6-7

 

-Moses 7: 63

 

See ya'll in 6 days.

Elder Gubler

November 15, 2013

It’s starting to really settle in now; everyone is making me super trunky not going to lie; members, other missionaries, everyone in my group, yeah it’s almost officially over and well I may be slightly freaking out.  Still no sign of trinkets to get for everyone.  I’ve been searching long and far but NO success so far so don’t expect much. Hopefully just me with my trashed shoes, stained shirt and SICK tie will be enough but well so I’m pretty sure I emailed last week before the wedding and baptism of _____ and _____ and so some details about that, it was super sick!! I really just love that family more than anything and I really is just going to stink to have to say goodbye to everyone.  Most people I’ll be able to stay in contact with through Facebook and Skype and stuff but they are super humble and down to earth and don’t use Facebook so I’m just going to have to stick to the letters I guess.  But so they got married on Saturday morning and me and my comp were the testimonies during the wedding so that was exciting because I got to sign tons of legit paperwork.  Then later that night we had the baptism after the ward Relief Society did where they taught how to make homemade bread! Super sick by the way but so after that we had the baptism and a irmã in the ward made a super sick wedding cake for them too so they were re-born and then we all enjoyed some fresh cooked break and cake :) Pretty grrrrreat day if I don’t say so myself! For this Sunday we are hoping to baptize _____ who is _____ cousin and his is a super sick kid! I gave some dress clothes for this baptism but well nothing fit him because he's alittle short but well it all fit _____ and the guy is now going to be looking like a boss!  Besides that we went to Parque Ibirapueira this morning with some members which is the biggest park in São Paulo and well we just kind of cruised around on bikes and drank coconut juice and hit up some museums there and then got some pastels and caldo de cana from a street fair (I’m trying to just sock up all the Brazilian stuff I can these day) and then bought a massive tug of açaí the fruit ice cream stuff that I LOVE and well here I am, having MAJOR stomach pains and writing y’all. But so yeah, I’m calling it there. You’ll get plenty more stories in 12 days........ but who is counting right? Love you all more than anything, the Church is true and I LOVE being a missionary.

Elder Gubler

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