I'm a true farmer now! October 13, 2014 letter

Hellllllllloooo one and all!

I would just like to announce that: I RODE IN A COMBINE TODAY! (If that's even how you spell it... Awkward.) But they've been finishing up harvest around here and a member of the ward let us tag along. It was LEGIT. Pictures to follow. Amazing time. (The people here in Parma just laugh at me for my excitement- whatever. haha) I don't know if you'll be able to see me inside though... My companion was taking the pictures and she was pretty far away.

Soooo... I totally had hives all up and down my arms for 2 weeks. WEIRD. That's never happened before. It's safe to say that it was kinda freakin' me out. But they're gone now!!! So it's all good! Hopefully that doesn't happen again. (Sister Miller always blames our water... Kristey (from the ward) always claims that I have ebola. haha! Ebola is the answer to every symptom!)

Okay- so- you'd be amazed at how many people like to give marriage advice to us missionaries. Or try to set us up with people. (Happened once in Kuna, and this old non-member guy here is trying to set one of us up with his neighbor. haha!) Anywayssss... Some of the advice that they give us:

1. Don't marry negative people. They never change. And they only get more negative with age. 

2. Glue in your dentures- if you don't, you might end up biting your husband on the lips.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I'll just leave you with those two. ;) Those are the safest. ;) Those have been some pretty interesting moments on my mission. 

We taught Elsie this week! She's amazing. She's expressed her desire to be baptized, but we're still trying to help her as she gains a stronger testimony of the gospel. We want to make sure that if she's baptized that she stays active! (There's always so many baptisms, but not a lot of retention. Hence why we do so much work with less actives in this area.) Hopefully she'll be set for baptism next month. Elsie also attended a Relief Society party that was on Friday night. It was soooo much fun! The ward members were great about introducing themselves to her and making her feel welcome. (As missionaries, we're always SO grateful when that happens! Our worst nightmare is that we'll bring an investigator to a party or to church and no one will say anything to them.)

We found a new potential investigatorrrrrr. Woot woot! Her name is Ribbon. She's the bomb. The first time that we visited her, she didn't let us in and just talked to her for a few minutes at the doorstep. The second time we went over (it was seriously a moment from The District 2) her daughter was outside so we said, "Winnie, hiiii!" and, well, we got in!! And it turns out that she spent some time growing up in Salmon! WHAT?! I asked her if she knew any Tolman's- sure enough, she was friends with Josh in high school! We sat and talked about Salmon for a longggg time. And she invited us to come back! Woot woot! Thank goodness for the Tolman family, right?! :D

We've been struggling with gaining member trust in this area since I first got here. It's been rough. I've spent the last 4.5 months doing service for the members, visiting them, giving FHE's and other lessons,  and trying to help them with their missionary work. It just feels like nothing is really working. Well, just recently, some Spanish speaking Elder's came to work in our area (one of which is related to me distantly- thought that was cool- but that's not important right now) and the members just LOVE them!!! They're getting referrals up the wazoo and they have a great chunk of investigators to teach! They've only been working in the area for 2 weeks!!! And they were asked to speak in our ward's sacrament meeting (which I still haven't been asked to do and it's been 4.5 months). Yeahhhh... I seriously wanted to PUNCH A WALL! (I think I've developed an anger problem on my mission... Aren't missions supposed to make you more rational?? I have a lot to work on. haha.) But it's frustrating when you've been here for so long and no matter how hard you try, how much you do, how nice you are... you still don't get the support that you need. It's definitely been a test of my patience. 

Well, I've come to the realization that (maybe, just maybe) the fruits of our labors will not be seen by our own eyes... but these other Elder's will reap the fruits of our labors. That made me feel a little better. After all, there will be some who sow and some who reap, but the reward for both is the same. This is not a competitive work. It's a team effort. 

We went tracting in a little town called Vale on Saturday. That was a BLAST! I have developed a LOVE for tracting! (Although, tracting in my own area is somewhat frightening... but I love tracting other missionaries areas.) We found them a new investigator- Kristen. Cool girl. She has friends that are LDS, so that was a quick ice breaker. :)Tracting is where all of the funny stories come from anyways. ;)

Welllllllllllllll, not much more to say. I'm afraid I've talked myself out. But there are pictures to come! And sorry if the pictures don't work this week- we came to the church to email instead of the library.

Sister Gubler