1 Corinthians 1:17

Family.

Friends. 

Random people reading this email.

Greetings to you all.

I actually have pictures to send this week! I know, right? It's been a while. 

I was looking through my old study journals that I'd kept for a couple of years before my mission and I saw something that I really liked. My companion and I have been struggling with feeling like we're using our time wisely. Mainly because we aren't seeing any fruits from our labors. Well- then I remembered the story of Babe Ruth. He's a totally legit guy. For the longest time (until recently- but that doesn't matter), he was rated the #1 player for HOME RUNS. BUT also the #1 for STRIKEOUTS. He was once interviewed and asked "How does it feel to be #1 in Strikeouts? Do you feel like a failure?" And Babe Ruth's answer was awesome. He said, "All of those strikes were SWINGS AT SUCCESS." He's a wise man.
All of our tracting. All of our lessons. All of our talking to people about farming. Those are all swings at success.

Speaking about farming- I could totally run my own farm at this point in my mission. I've learned so much about flood irrigation, siphoning water, mist irrigation, gardening, identifying crops, alternating fields, etc! Man. I feel awesome.
I'm never owning a farm in my life. Not happening. But I SO respect farmers!

Grandpa gave us flowers this week :) Random note- it was so nice of him. :)

I've been getting a couple of responses to my weekly emails- I love this, people! Keep it up! But, as you've probably read in my past letters, we've been having a lot of difficulties in the finding stages of the work. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. What is your ward doing? What are you seeing your missionaries doing? What has brought you success?

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference! Yay! (No one totally awesome came, so don't ask. haha) Not that our mission president and his wife aren't cool... but... yeah. No apostles or anything. But I loved that we talked about how everyone says that a mission is "The Best Two Years of my Life!" No. That's wrong. False. A mission should be the best two years FOR your life.  That's correct. Yes. Truth.

We went on a 5 mile hike with the young women of our ward! That was awesome. Okay, well, it was more of a long distance nature walk. But those are my favorites anyways! Pics included. :) We didn't have any appointments that night and several non-members were going on the hike, so we got permission to go with them! It was wonderful. The whole day it was pouring rain, thunder, lightning, the works. We almost cancelled. But once we got out to Melba, where the hike was at, it was BEAUTIFUL. 

We met with Jackie this week! Finally. :) We sat down and asked her what she wanted to learn (since she's taken the lessons 100 times) and thus had an awesome discussion about the Book of Mormon (in correlation with the Bible) and what the Doctrine and Covenants was. My companion is a history major and she LOVES the Old Testament (yep, she's a genius). So she totally rocked at that discussion. haha! As we tell the members, she gained her testimony through logic and facts and I gained my testimony through emotions and feelings. We work well together. :)

Side note- we worked with the Activity Day girls this week. We made lotions! Loved it. (Man, I miss pinterest and doing crafty things.) But, anyways, the main point of this! After most of the girls left, Sister Bell (their leader) gave us a snack. The most wonderful, unique snack ever.
Strawberries. Sour Cream. Brown Sugar. Try it.
Dip the strawberries in sour cream, then brown sugar, then shove it in your mouth. DELISH.

This week was pretty difficult to find things to do. High School graduation happened on Friday, so everyone and their dog was at parties and ceremonies. So, Friday and Saturday we went PARTY HOPPING!!! haha. It was awesome. We were invited, of course. ;) But we went from member to member, joining the parties, talking to members and non-members, congratulating the youth, taking some food, and PREACHING THE GOSPEL! haha. It was the best.

Sunday was probably one of the best days I've had in a long time.

There was a farewell talk given by one of the young men that just graduated. That was awesome. There's nothing like listening to a farewell talk to help you to remember just why you came out on a mission. You remember that greenie fire you had when you were heading to the MTC- wanting to baptize the world! Thinking that people would line up at the font to be baptized! (Which, I don't know why they don't. Silly people.) And you also remember the lack of fear and rejection that you had. Man. That talk just recharged me. Whoohoo!
It was crazy how blessed these kids are. They had HUGE graduation parties and the chapel was FULL of people to hear him speak. Man. I remember my grad party... Didn't have one. And my farewell talk... that half of my own ward attended. haha! It was funny to talk to my companion about it. (Since we both dealt with families that moved.) Spoiled kids! haha

I taught Relief Society on Elder Bednar's talk, "Bear Up Their Burdens with Ease". I love teaching that lesson. I felt like I was back in my BYU-Idaho days. Man. I miss TEACHING in general. We haven't had many teaching opportunities recently... well... in a few weeks. :P But it will pick up! I even made little hand outs! Not that they were super cute or anything. But, hey, for a missionary, it was pretty awesome. So after I gave the lesson, we went and handed out DVD's with Mormon Messages about the Atonement to less active relief society sisters in the ward. Not that anyone answered the door since they were all out of town... but it was the thought and the effort that counted!

MOM! It's getting super hot here.
Will you send me my half tee's? A lot of white ones.

I think that's all I have to say.

Yep.

I'll be sending a package home soon with books and stuff that I don't want to carry around anymore. :)

Okay love you bye! Pictures to come.

--Sister Gubler