La Grande 3,4, and Elgin. December 8, 2014

This last week was amazing and yet it was a test of our faith- that's for sure. 

Well, my birthday happened. Thanks for the birthday wishes and for the gifts. I really appreciate it! It was nice to know that I was being thought of. That night, the ward had their Relief Society Christmas party where they sang to one of the ladies in the ward who also had a birthday that day. Halfway through the dinner, I had gotten up to get something when Kristey yelled out, "It's her birthday! It's her birthday!" After which everyone sang to me... (Most uncomfortable thing ever.) Everyone started asking me, "Why didn't you tell me it was your birthday?! I would have made you a cake or something! You should have came over today!" yeahhhh... Cause I'm going to wear a big neon sign on my face that says "birthday girl" on it. :P I was content with just skipping the entire celebration. haha! Anywayyyyy...  21. This year will be good.

We got followed and chased by some goats this week. That was pretty exciting..

We had walked over to Mariah and Dallas's trailer (Dallas's parents, who live next door, own 2 BIG goats) and when we were walking back to our car the goats decided to follow us the ENTIRE way. Man, that was a battle! And one of them had just one horn that he decided that he liked to hit me with. Grrr. I will NEVER get goats. NEVER. Haha! We tried everything- throwing rocks and sticks near them, honking our car horn, chasing them, waving our arms at them, yelling... They were determined to come home with us!! But once we just decided to get in the car and drive away, they ended up meandering on back home. Yeah. We wasted a good hour dealing with those goats. haha

Mariah and Dallas have moved to Spokane. Sad to see them go. I'm praying that they stay active while they're there. Angel just told us that she's moving to Nampa on January 3rd, so we'll be losing her. Hansen (another recent convert) also said that she was moving to Nampa this week. So, there so goes all of our recent converts from Parma 2nd Ward... And we had to drop all of our investigators pretty much... Richard and Rocky just weren't progressing. Anna pretty much just told us off. Penny told us to stop asking her to come to church- so we'll just continue to read scriptures with her. Elsie hasn't come to church in 3 months, and yet wants to be baptized in December, so that'll obviously be postponed. So... Yeah. That was a huge bummer. Why did everyone have to move/drop us/be dropped in the same week?! And all the last week of the transfer?! The Lord is apparently opening up the teaching pool for other things. Then we found out that our area is going to be combined with the other Parma Ward for the next transfer. So now the missionaries will be covering both the Parma 1st and 2nd Wards. The Lord was preparing us for the change. The work should pick up more now. (Why do we question the Lord's plans? haha! He knows what he's doing.)

When I told Penny I was leaving, she started to bawl. My heart went out to her. Sometimes I forget how our investigators and the members must feel when we need to leave. Normally I just pack up my things, say a quick goodbye, and then leave. But not everyone is as good with goodbye's as I am.  She started apologizing for not coming to church and not doing the things that I wanted her to do and just cried and cried. I gave her a big hug and told her (quite sternly), "You do NOT do things because I ask you to. You do them because you KNOW that's what the LORD asks of you. And you KNOW that it's what YOU want to do to become closer to Him." I hope that she will return to church one day and be baptized.

My poor Patti (a ward missionary) bore her testimony in church on my last Sunday. She is such a sweetheart. I will miss her so much. 

I'll miss everyone- I've loved hearing their conversion stories and hearing about their missionary work. I hope to be able to keep in touch with everyone.

Sister Miller, Patti and I

With Patti Barch

With Liz Rohrbacher 

With Lloyce- from Mississippi

With Carol Howard

The day before transfers, we opened up President Hinckley's book "Stand for Something" (I think that's what it's called- oh well) and read what he had to say for December 8th (Transfer Day).... "DO NOT DESPAIR" with the scripture D&C 122:7. GGRRRRREAT. haha! 

Sister Gubler celebrated her 10th month mark on her birthday!

We were freaking out. haha! The book is like a fortune cookie. And my birthday was also my 10 month mark

(yup, double digits)- but we were so busy that I wasn't able to get a picture until the end of the day. Surprise, surprise. haha

Jessica is leaving on her mission TODAY for Spain

Yummy brownie as my going away dessert

Today is transfer day! I've been transferred to La Grande, OR and, oh boy, am I feeling overwhelmed! We're shotgunning this area- which means that we're both coming in fresh and new to the area. We're covering the La Grande 3rd and 4th Wards and the Elgin Ward. Soo... that's 2 more wards than what I'm used to. And we're also living in the city- well, as city as the Idaho Nampa Mission gets. My companion is Sister Broadhead and she's from AZ. She's been out for 13 months. She is super chatty when it comes to talking to members and non-members alike, so this will be interesting to have 2 talkative people working together. haha! I have a good feeling about this transfer. Well, once I get myself settled in of course. The first week is always rough... Why could transfers be on Saturday! Then I could just go to church and meet everyone the next day! AH! Oh well. I'll work with what I have.

We're living in a duplex (in an apartment by ourselves) and next door is a lady who introduced herself to us as "Grandma Pam". She's Christian through and through- a very kind woman- always reminding us to "give our thanks to God during [our] ministry". I like her. She's got some spunk! She sat outside waiting for us to show up and then proceeded to tell us her entire life story. It felt nice to be welcomed. "And if you ever need anything, I'm right next door. I'm a woman of wisdom!" Nice! She told us that she has a Book of Mormon and that she's met each of the missionaries and the Bishop before... We're wondering what the rest of the story is... Why isn't she baptized?! I'll ask her tonight.

It'll be an adjustment for me to be living in the city and in our own place... It always makes me feel better to know that there's an older couple there to protect us. But, I guess I'll get used to it. And whelp, there's a time change over here, which is totally strange for me. I feel like I'm so far away from everything. We're a good 4 hours away from Nampa- at least. And the only Sister Missionaries in... who knows how far. LONELYYY!!! 

Tonight will be full of unpacking and getting ourselves organized for this week. This area used to be covered by the Sister Training Leaders, but we're guessing that they moved them somewhere else. Needless to say, they already have some appointments set for us! Thank goodness! That gives us something to start out with. Hopefully I can find my way around as I drive in the mess of cars and traffic. (Man. The city is stressing me out. I need to move to the country for the rest of my life. haha) I'm going to need lots of prayers for this first week. 

 Just send my mail to the mission office. That might just be easier for the rest of my mission. I'll get to me eventually. I'll only take 2-3 days more than usual. 

Sister Gubler

Do you like my new haircut?

Letter from December 1, 2014: Thanksgiving Week

What a rough morning... I've been sick since Thanksgiving, so I woke up sounding like a man. During our companion study we saw that it was snowing. I slipped on the snow on the way out of the house and hurt my ankle. We got to the church to email and only one computer is connected to the internet, so now we're taking turns. Man... it's going to be a rough day. haha! A rough day FULL OF ADVENTURE! We still have to drive to Ontario to go grocery shopping. *sigh*

Thank you for the turkey thing! (I don't know what it's called... haha) Unfortunately, it was broken by the time it got here... but we just taped it to the dashboard of our car. So it's still fulfilling it's purpose! :) And I got the letters :) Thanks so much for those! Feelin' the love, feelin' the love. :)

I got the CD's too! Thanks SO MUCH! I'm loving them! I got them this morning before I read your emails.... soooo... sorry I didn't save them for my birthday. haha! But I love them :)

And I SO appreciate the gifts that Paige and Shannon brought! I'm sorry that I wasn't there to meet them! But we've already been devouring the snacks they sent. :) It was so nice of them to do that for us!

Thanksgiving was good. We were invited to spend it with the Montague's. They have 2 missionaries out right now, so we pretty much just took their places at the table. :) But yeah, it was just the 3 of them and us. It was AWESOME. 

Brother Montague reminds me of Dad SO MUCH... haha The humor and the clothes and everything. Needless to say, I felt at home there. :) They were supposed to have a lot of family over to join us, but as soon as they found out that the missionaries were coming over and that they would have to live under "missionary rules" for the day, they decided not to come.... Sister Miller and I felt so bad about that. But the Montague's seemed happy to have a small Thanksgiving dinner with just us.





After eating with them, we spent the rest of the day wandering around Parma trying to find other families to see. This proved more difficult than we thought... Every house had their tv's on and a ton of family over... And, well, we really only walked in, said hello, felt a lack of welcome, and then left. hahaha! I'm just praying that we'll get a few more invitations to come over on Christmas. XD

The Thueson's set up a little Christmas tree in our basement for us to decorate. So, it's feeling a little more Christmas-y in our little dark apartment space. :) 

With me being sick, we didn't get to do much this week- unfortunately. But we had to drop a lot of our investigators (Richard, Rocky, and Anna- and Matthew is gone to job core) because they just weren't progressing. We're still teaching Elsie and Penny, although they really aren't progressing much either. Elsie is supposed to get baptized December 13, but she hasn't attended church for the last 3 months... sooo... Yeah. We'll probably postpone that one. And Penny had a goal of coming to church on December 7th, but she told us the other day that she wasn't going to come. Sooooo... I was a little mad about that. Ohh, people's agency!!! I'm CONFIDENT that the Lord will fill our teaching pool back up again.

I went on splits for the first time ever this week! That was pretty sweet. We took Jessica and Keilee Spencer. Jessica reports to the MTC in Spain next Monday and her sister is a Senior in high school (she also wants to serve a mission). I took Keilee with me and we went TRACTING. Whoohoo! (I seriously love tracting. It's the best.) And, guess what! WE FOUND 2 NEW INVESTIGATORS!!! YUS. *party dance* Evidence that the Lord IS preparing people. Right there. We go back to see one of them tomorrow, so hopefully that lesson works out.

Have you seen the December Ensign?? And the 10 PASS ALONG CARDS inside?! YES, FRIEND! Those are for YOU! Welcome to missionary life! 

We've started tracting every day and passing those cards out. We have 250 to pass out by Christmas day. Think we can do it? I think YES! (Seeing as there's probably only 250 non-member families in our area...) 




I love this gospel. I feel like I don't share my testimony enough in these emails I send each week... But I hope that you all can feel that as you read what I write. This gospel has changed my life. Through Jesus Christ is the ONLY way that we can all receive true and everlasting happiness! I love you all!    

Sister Gubler