Saturday, June 20, 2015

BAPTISM! :) Letter from June 15, 2015

OKAY PEOPLE. I got, like, 6 letters this week! It was seriously the best thing that's ever happened to me! It was definitely an answer to prayers. I was feeling so down the night before- just crying to Heavenly Father about how I needed a pick-me-up... and then the mailbox was FULL the next day! It was the best surprise in the world.
Mom, I especially loved your card with the words from Elder Christofferson. I really needed to hear that. I realized that I've been looking inward "I, I, I" and I need to look outward more- more towards the people that we're teaching. I've been trying to do that more often.

We went with Brother Byrne on a hike up to a hill above his house 




It hit 101 degrees...

We were caught in a cattle drive in Sweet! 
We went tracting this week. We met a Lutheran pastor in the park.... That was interesting. And we met a guy named Brayden who was super interested (we gave him a Book of Mormon and got a return appointment) and then we went back and he wasn't there... Yep. BUT we also met a 15 year old girl named Jordyn who is less-active AND she's totally interested in going back! So we're going to try and get the girls her age to fellowship her. 
APRIL AND TOM WERE BAPTIZED THIS WEEKEND!!! It was wonderful. Enough people came that we were able to hold the service in the chapel. It was a really great baptism! The spirit was so incredibly strong. All of the missionaries that taught them (that are still in the mission) were able to attend. It was GREAT! 





Sister Gubler



Sister Gubler and Sister Colby


Saturday, June 13, 2015

June 8, 2015

APRIL AND TOM ARE GETTING BAPTIZED! 
They quit smoking cold turkey last week. They're getting their baptismal interview on Tuesday night. I am so excited for them! They've been taking the lessons for about a year... it's been a long time comin'! Everyone here in Emmett pretty much knows them so we're hoping for a full house. :)

Gospel Essential (a.k.a. Gospel Deep Doctrine)
Okay... in Gospel principles classes (notice I said PRINCIPLES) the missionaries always joke around about when members accidentally bring up deep doctrine. Except for this time I ACTUALLY HAPPENED! The teacher talked about kolob, the 7 arch angels, the apocrapha, the book of enoch, god's time, the geography of Moses and Egypt, different kinds of angels (physical, spiritual, etc), and about the holy ghost getting a body... Yeah. It was interesting. I was appalled. 
And if we say anything about the teaching style to the ward mission leader, he freaks out on us. Super defensive. Yeah. It was an interesting Sunday in Emmett. 

16 MONTH MARK
I can't believe I've hit 16 months. This is insane. Yep. That's pretty much all I have to say about that one. Hahahahaha

Zone Conference- Ti-Wi's.   Well, I sang in zone conference again. I don't think I've ever not sang in one. haha! But yeah. And we also got "black boxes" in our cars. (They're officially known as Ti-Wi's) They monitor our driving and make sure that we're not speeding, driving recklessly, or leaving the mission boundaries. 





Sooo... this is our "workout or else" motto... And when they were putting the black boxes in our cars Brother Sweet wrote on it. We don't know who he is... but it was funny.



Photos from zone conference....


Sister Fox and Sister Pritchard


Sister Miller and I 


                                                                 Elder Haws 

 Elder Riddle and Elder Rogers 
Elder Payne and Elder Rogers



Looking for People to Teach.... YEP. Our teaching pool is dryin' up. Tracting it is! Maybe I'll actually have some stories for next week.

Sorry my emails have been so lame. We've literally been doing the same exact thing every week. Every day. So there's nothing new to report.


District Service
Mom... Oh my gosh! I laughed so hard! You're really asking me about cute centerpieces? We pretty much just eat outside most of the time (bbq) or they just have the tables set up with the butter, salt and pepper, and water. hahahaha We're pretty lame. 

Sister Gubler

Sister Clark is going home at the end of this transfer! 


June 1, 2015

Hey Family! 
Zone Conference

I really don't have much to say for this week. Our district did a ton of service together this week. We helped a family pack up and clean their house as they're planning on moving to Maine. They have 11 kids, so they had a lot to deal with. But it was fun. And it also reminded me of just how much I never want to move everrrr againnn. haha! 


I had a twinkie for, like, the first time ever. Haha. That was interesting. I can't say that they're my favorite. 


We were taught how to do spray paint art. That was pretty awesome. A kid in Garden Valley taught us how. :) I'll have to show the boys when I get home. 





We did some more service for Tracy... But it didn't rain this time! So we didn't get stuck in the mud again ;) 
Yeahhhh.... This week was pretty slow. Sorry for the lame email...

Sister Gubler    
YAY!!!! Paige, Damon, and Jody were all baptized!!! :) (People I taught in Elgin!)



                                         Our beds and our view at the house we stayed at in Garden Valley...




Weekly! Letter from May 25, 2015




Hello Family!

Today is the start of a new transfer. Sister Colby and I are staying here in Emmett- there haven't been too many changes to our district this transfer. That's actually really nice because this is the first district that I've really clicked with. #finallyhavefriends






April and Tom- They have a new baptismal date for June 13th. They're really struggling to overcome their addictions. But we're confident that they're going to be able to make it. April is really pushing for it (and she's SO ready) and is going to get baptized on that day whether Tom is ready or not. They're an awesome couple. They're more active than most of the people in the ward! haha!

Shawn and Casey- We're still teaching them... Same old, same old. They're coming to church every week and reading their scriptures. That's really what's helping them to progress the most: church, prayer, and scriptures (primary answers!).

Tony- We met Tony in Horseshoe Bend this week. His religion is "House of Yahway". It's an ancient Hebrew religion... I really don't know that much about it. But we spent time talking to him about his religion and the last days. It was quite an interesting conversation. But he invited us back! Soooo, you never know.

Brandon- Also in Horseshoe Bend. We didn't meet him, but we met his wife. She said that he had a TON of questions and would be happy to meet with us! Yay! So hopefully we'll be able to meet up with him this week.

Amanda- Oh goodness. How to even explain this one? We went over to her house with Sister Hansen (the RS President in the Horseshoe Bend Branch) to see about how we could help Amanda with a potential food order. Well... let's just say... I found some marijuana. Oh gosh. That was an interesting conversation. At the end of our visit, Sister Hansen (being the bomb missionary that she is) asked Amanda if she had ever read the Book of Mormon. Amanda responded that she had studied religion in college and "knew everything about the Mormons". Ahhhh, Riiiight. She went on about the Book of Mormon and how it was about 2 brothers moving to Utah and one created the Christian religion and one created the Mormon religion.... *sigh*  Well, after some more exchanging, we set up a time to come back this week and clear up all of that false information. Hopefully that will go well!

Mike and Mary- They're a part member family. Mike isn't a member, but has taken the lessons before and we've been trying to get back in to teach them. But so far, we've only been able to do service for them. This week, they asked us to come over and help them pull weeds for a garden. We were pulling weeds when this HUGE storm came rolling in. It POURED rain for a straight hour while we were pulling... As soon as we were done, the rain stopped, and Mike asked us if we could come and teach him the discussions! YAY! Miracle.

Tristan- We saw Tristan again... And he's not really putting forth the effort to get the answers that he says that he wants. He told us that he prayed to know if God was there, but that he didn't get an answer. But we explained to him that if he's not reading scriptures, praying regularly, coming to church, then he's not showing Heavenly Father that he's willing to act on the message that he receives.

Chris- We taught Chris the restoration this week. It was a GREAT lesson! It was the first time that I've quoted the first vision in... over a year. Haha. It's been a long time. I don't know why- I guess my comps have always taken that part or something. But the spirit was SO strong! Chris committed to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it was true :)

Bobby- Bobby has been really hard to get a hold of. We've started teaching his sons (Gabe and Colton) and the boys really want to progress and come to church... but Bobby just isn't very motivated to do anything. It's a real struggle.

Sister Pritchard made me my "trunky planner"... hahaha My second to last planner!! D:  
And this is a picture of me after doing service in the pouring rain.


Sister Gubler

Weekly Fun :) Letter from May 18, 2015

Hello Family! :)
Monday- I got my "pre-trunk's" in the mail! Crazzzzy. That's a bright yellow paper that you fill out, and submit to the mission office, so that they can get your flight information. It was...surreal. Just weird.Our zone had a barbecue as well! That was really fun to be a part of. We played volleyball and kickball. Good times.  



Tuesday- Horseshoe Bend is still Horseshoe Bend. We're not teaching anyone there yet. We did talk to a guy named Floyd though. And he seemed pretty interested in talking to us about the gospel. We'll go back and talk to him tomorrow. It was pretty rainy this week, and at about8:45 a LOUD siren went off in Horseshoe Bend... It sounded like a tornado siren (in fact, I think it was). Both Sister Colby and I were pretty freaked out by the whole situation, so we headed home through the POURING rain... apparently it was an "Intense Storm" siren.

Wednesday- Oh, Garden Valley. We're still working on finding people to teach there as well.We also met a woman named Brandi that was a former investigator. She invited us to come back and teach her. So hopefully that will start soon!
Thursday- We spent Thursday in Sweet. We were set to have a lesson with a new investigator, Chris, but when we got to his house he wasn't home... and wouldn't be home until the next day. We were pretty upset about that. But then we decided to go and visit another investigator, Tristan. We taught him about the Restoration- and he asked a TON of questions. Questions about the priesthood, temples, prayer, who God is, etc. He was so genuine in his asking. We're still waiting for him to really get on his knees and pray to know if everything is true. And he knows that he needs to as well. 




Friday- Craziest day of my mission. Life or death. Ha! I'm totally kidding. It wasn't that bad. But kinda. ;) We had our district meeting that morning, and then we all got together for a district service project. We were helping a man named Tracy to load drift wood into the back of his truck- to which he led us to the top of a HUGE hill to do so. It had been raining the entire day, and the ground was insanely muddy. Tracy pointed us in the direction to drive down the mountain, so all three of our jeeps started in a line. But as we traveled, we found that this was going to be more treacherous than we thought. We were on a narrow road: a cliff on one side and a river on the other. So there wasn't much wiggle room. As we drove, the jeeps began to slide from side to side- almost going into the river! We jumped out of the cars and started to push them back onto the road. We stopped the cars and everyone got out to assess the situation. The mud was literally up to our ankles. We spent a good 20-30 minutes discussing the pro's and con's of turning around and going down the huge hill that we had climbed, going forward towards an unknown path, calling someone, just doing it ourselves, etc. After saying a prayer and asking for protection, we continuedslowly forward.... It took us about an hour to get out of the mud. It was insane. And our cars were trashed after that... but nothing bad happened. What a miracle. And I caught the whole experience on camera. ;) So, it wasn't that bad. Ha! 




Saturday and Sunday- We spent our time in Emmett. April and Tom are still working on preparing for baptism. They'll get there soon! They're working on quitting smoking- they've come a long way! Now it's just the waiting game, trying to be patient. Shawn and Casey are another couple that we're working with. They've been taking the lessons and they're progressing well. They're in the process of getting married and praying to receive that witness that everything is true. Hopefully they can recognize their answers soon. We've really been praying for them. We're trying to find new investigators there in Butte as well. We're doing a lot of work.
Sister Gubler

15 MONTHS! Letter from May 11, 2015


HEYYYY! I just have to say, skyping home on Sunday was the BEST thing ever. 

We taught a total of 26 lessons this week. #bestweekever #newrecord     


We've really been working hard and going non-stop. It's insane- but completely amazing. I love doing the Lord's work. I love feeling exhausted at the end of the day because I was using all of my energy to help God's children. Best feeling ever.




I can't believe that I've reached 15 months. It's really a weird feeling. Now other missionaries are coming up to me and saying, "Sister Gubler, you've been out a while. Can you give me some advice?" And I just keep thinking, "I'm still a greenie! Why are you asking me?!" I'm really starting to get annoyed with people saying, "Oh! You're going home soon!" I've started with coming back with, "Oh, no, I'll be a missionary forever. Every member a missionary!" 

Oh gosh... I really don't know how to describe this week. So this will have to do for now! haha Sorry! Questions are always appreciate to help this old mind know what to talk about ;)

Sister Gubler