Staying. October 27, 2014 letter!

Yup. I'm staying in Parma for ANOTHER transfer. This will mean that I'll have been in Parma, ID for 6 monthssssss. Long time for Sister Gubler. Long time. I've pretty much reached the conclusion that there's either a big lesson that I need to learn, or someone that I need to find, OR BOTH! Whatever it is, I hope I learn it/find them fast- cause I'm getting antsy being in one place for this long.... (Dad has raised a girl that constantly needs to move around and have change.)

But this transfer will be good, and probably go by quickly. There's a lot of things happening! Halloween, zone conference, temple trip/halfway mark, a TON of referrals to contact, Thanksgiving, zone meetings, and my birthday (the big 21). Woot woot. Lots o' stuff.

Oh, and Sister Miller is staying here with me.

We had a tracting blitz in our area on Saturday and received a total of 20 referrals! (THAT'S A LOT!) That should keep us busy for the first couple weeks of the transfer. And we're praying that we get some new investigators from it as well. :) From the sounds of it, it seems like there are some golden contacts in there. So, we're praying that something happens!

We helped at a funeral this week- making salads, setting up, putting the food out, making dessert, and cleaning up afterwards. Not too exciting. But it was good to do some service- the person that had passed away didn't really have many friends and/or family. So, we were the only help that the RS president had in making the food for about 20 people.

We had interviews with our mission president this week. Short as always, no longer than 3 minutes. But he asked the GREAT questions that the Sisters always love: How's your area? How are you getting along with your companion? <--- LOVE those questions! Not that I ever have anything to say, but IF I DID, the opportunity is there.

We had a very frustrating Missionary Correlation Meeting with our ward missionaries... One of our ward missionaries just flat out said (about some less actives), "I'm done visiting these people. I don't enjoy their company and they're not going to change. You can still see them, but I'm done with them." WHAAAAAAT?! Oh my goodness. It took everything in my power not to say anything. I tried to explain about how we just need to be patient and loving, that one day they may accept our invitation to come back. I then shared some examples of people from the ward that had been visited for 13+ years before they had come back- but they did! Well, this ward missionary was NOT hearing it. Telling us (S. Miller and I) that we needed to listen to the spirit more about when it came time to drop people. Excuuuuuse meeee? Man. That made me a little angry. (Okay, a "little" is not an accurate word. I was a LOT angry. I repented about that.) But it is just SO HARD to do missionary work when the members and the missionaries are not on the same team! Get your head in the game people! It's impossible to win if more than half of our players are just sitting out on the sidelines!

We volunteered at the community senior center again this week. I was given the responsibility to chop an entire 50 pound bag of onions. Boy, that was killer. But, my eyes didn't even water once. Woot!

The Spanish-speaking Elders over our area spoke in our sacrament meeting yesterday. They gave fabulous talks- and gave us shout outs all throughout (which was wonderful). One of the Elders actually stood up and said, "The Sisters actually quoted to us yesterday about how happy they are to be serving here. And I quote, 'We are so excited to be staying here in Parma- the best area in the mission- for another 6 weeks! We know that the Lord has placed us here for a reason and we couldn't be happier! ...And Elder Halverson and Elder Collet are the best Spanish-speaking missionaries in the mission! We're so happy that they're covering Parma with us!" Yeahhhhhh, okayyyyy. We did NOT say that. hahahaha But it's all good! At least it was a shout out, right? :)

Well... Not much else has happened. It was a rough week for me- emotionally. Can't really explain it. But I'm sure that it will get better soon. This week will be better.

Sister Gubler

Not much new. October 20, 2014 letter!

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

Conference Weekend!

Letter from October 6, 2014

Hello everyone! :)

I FINALLY got around to writing all of the boys a letter. I sent it today, so it should get there in about a week.

It was my 8 month mark yesterday!!! Please excuse how I'm STILL in my pj's in the picture... 

I'm lazy at 7 am  hahaha

One of the weaknesses that I have is being able to defend what I feel is right. For one thing, I HATE debating and arguing. But sometimes I just FEEL that doing something, or seeing someone, is the right thing to do at the time... And it's a hard thing to explain to companions or leaders- especially when you're questioning your productivity. We have been trying to teach Anna again for a long time, but she hasn't really been interested in talking to us about the gospel or hearing anything about The Book of Mormon. It's been frustrating. But I felt that we shouldn't stop contact with her just yet... Feeling that she would come around eventually. We've spent many weeks quilting with her (making scripture book covers and quilts), not even bringing up the gospel except to say, "Did you go to church this weekend?" or "What have you been reading in the Bible lately?" I just, personally, didn't feel that it was time yet... but that we needed to keep visiting with her. WELL! She had us over for dinner on Tuesday night and while there we were able to have a GREAT spiritual discussion! She had Arvin (her foreign exchange student) move in a few weeks ago (he's from Iran and is a strong Muslim) and, since then, she has been really curious and very accepting of hearing other religions!  We were able to share about the three degrees of glory and about judgement. It was awesome! And it was even better to see what was once just a slight spiritual impression turn into a great teaching moment. :)

We did service this week at the church's fruit orchard in Caldwell! We sorted pears for 5 hours... haha! It was actually a lot of fun! We took Hansen (a recent convert) with us and she really enjoyed doing service. :)

We were able to watch "Meet the Mormons" this week! :) Each mission got a screening of the film so that the missionaries could get a preview. And, let me tell ya, it's AMAZING. Such a good movie! You start off laughing your face off and then, by the end, it's such a spiritual experience that you're almost in tears. They did such a great job with it. They originally made the film to go into visitors centers around the U.S., but after putting it into focus groups (made of non-members) 75% of the people said that , from the movie, they would be willing to listen to LDS Missionaries! Isn't that awesome?! It's such a great movie to invite your friends to go and see. :)

General Conference!!! LOVED IT! I can't even pinpoint my favorite part. The entire thing was just great! It was way too short though... Can we have 5 more sessions? ;)

Pictures to come!

Sister Gubler

I got this ring from the Ward Mission Leader in Nampa- to remind me of how great my mission was.

More exchanges! With Sister Thomas (our STL, also one of my favorite people). We found these CRAZY outfits in the back of their closet... haha FASHION SHOW!

The scripture book cover that I made with Anna.

The picture that Ryan send me is safely inside. :)

I saw Sister Sleigher! :D Seriously one of my favorite people :)

Sister Miller and I... This is right before she left to go to the temple!

Exchanges in Nampa for the day- with Sister Anderson (from SC- on the left) and Sister Clemons. We're making pies. :) 

Beware of Pride

Letter from September 29, 2014

FAMILY: Thanks so much for PIYO and the packages this week! I've LOVED them! I've put the stickers to good use already and we listened to the CD in the car on the way here to the library. :) Thank you, thank you!
And, I just have to say, Reid's letter was THE funniest thing I've ever read while on my mission. hahahaha I was cracking up! 
If you could send me some more buttoned sweaters from DownEast (I already have black, brown, and blue)- that would be great! 

What a crazy week! 2 exchanges, tracting, and the General Women's Meeting! I've had a headache all week as well... Hmmm... Wonder why. ;) STRESS. haha!

So.... I tried to go a week without sugar the past 7 days. Yeah. I failed on day 3. haha! It's so hard as a missionary! This old guy gave me a free ice cream cone (the owner of A&W- because his old roommate was a Gubler! YES! Family connections!) and then this other guy in the ward started complaining about how he didn't get dessert because we didn't eat ours.... Awkward. Can't ya'll just support me in my healthy eating choices?! haha! Here's to trying again. 

Another P-Day came and went last week- and I still feel like nothing really got accomplished. We have to do our laundry, email home, write letters, clean our apartment, go shopping in Ontario, go to the post office, have lunch and dinner, AND then our zone expects us to go and hang out with them at the stake center for the day.... And then we still have to be out proselyting at 6 p.m.  AHHH!!! Monday is seriously the most stressful day ever. I never get anything done. So, sorry if I haven't written you in a while or responded to a letter. I'll be better!

I won't give details on this- BUT, it's always a great feeling when you've felt a prompting from the spirit, follow it, and then (several months later) realize why you felt the prompting. (I don't know if that makes sense to anyone... but, yeah, it's an awesome thing.) I have a feeling that that's how I'll feel about my mission when I get home... felt a prompting, followed it, and later find out why it was important.

On Thursday, Sister Miller hit her 9 month mark- so she got to go to the temple! Lucky her! Only 1 more month until it's my turn! :) But, while she was gone, I served with Sister Clemons and Sister Anderson in the Nampa East Stake. It was an awesome day! We baked pies (put my pie-making hands to the test!), taught a couple of lessons, and visited some members. Their ward mission leader is a rock collector, and let me take home a rock and an old ring. (He gives one to each Sister that comes to his home.) He told me that, whenever I look at it, I need to remember how wonderful my mission was and all of the things that I learned there. It was a pretty awesome gift.

We did service for Mariah and Dallas again. But this time we cleared the front of their trailer: throwing away trash, moving large sticks and pieces of wood, and racking back leaves. We made a play area for the kids and even got creative by lining the path to her trailer with sticks and making her and Dallas a driveway lined with sticks as well. It was pretty cute- if I say so myself. haha! After doing that, since we were already in our service clothes, we thought that we'd try to offer service for members of the ward that lived nearby... Ohhh mannn... Haha! This one ward member (a really old guy) starts lecturing us (big time) about how we're "not doing missionary work" and that we're "wasting our time" by doing service for people: "Explain to me how THIS is missionary work!" (which I GLADLY explained with a large smile on my face :D)... And then he proceeds to give us 3 referrals... AND THEN tells us about how he healed himself one time..... Yeah. That was an interesting experience. I just smiled and said, "That's so awesome, Brother! Thank you for sharing these things with us! You are a great missionary! But, sorry, we actually have to get going... Can we say a prayer with you before we leave?" *missionary escape route* haha!

We had another day of exchanges on Friday night- Saturday night. Sister Miller had a couple baptisms in Nampa to attend, so we exchanged with our Sister Training Leaders, and I went to New Plymouth for the day. It was actually an awesome experience, as we worked in Fruitland for the day at our zone tracting blitz. Sister Thomas (my STL) and I both commented on how much we enjoyed working with each other- because we made tracting fun! So many times (depending on your companion, really) tracting can be nothing but AWKWARD. You go to a door and the person looks at you like, "Why are you here? What do you want?" and you're just thinking to yourself, "I'm here to talk to you about the gospellllll... Please invite me inside?... Please?" But really what comes out is: "Hi! What's your name?! My name is Sister Gubler!" And you continue to drag on a pointless conversation that ends with: "Well, hey! Can we share a scripture with you?!" And then they walk away going: "Those Mormons are weird... I just wasted 5 minutes."  Awkward. Just awkward.
But Sister Thomas and I had some great spiritual experiences as we handed out copies of The Book of Mormon, shared scriptures from the Bible, and prayed with people. We were able to find people that were prepared to hear the gospel! And I definitely felt the spirit guiding our words. When you and your companion are working in unity and are really listening to the spirit, you find yourself really having the desire to talk to people and share the gospel with them.

Ohhhh mannn!!! WOMEN'S CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING!!!! I loved Uchtdorf's talk. No one else seemed to get the same message out of it that I did... But the whole time I was listening, the phrase: "Beware of Pride" came into my head. Think about it though! The Lord really does NOT care about what you wear, what you look like, how many friends you have, if you're the smartest one in your class, if you have the best pinterest board, if your house is like a magazine... It really doesn't matter to Him. And He really does know something that we DON'T. The whole conference was so great. Sister Miller and I are going to start memorizing "The Living Christ"- hoping to have it down by December 25. :)

I can't believe it happened... but it did. I forgot my camera again. *face palm fail* So, this weeks pictures will have to come next week! Sorry! :(

Sister Gubler

Slapped in the Face...

Figuratively. (But I almost got ya there, didn't I? haha)

(Letter from September 22, 2014)

"If we are not humble then we will be compelled to be humble." <--- And THAT is the lesson that I have learned this week.

Week one of the transfer with Sister Miller has proven to be a very humbling experience. When I grow up, I want to be just like her. She is the purest definition of missionary: quiet, humble, kind, patient, loving, charitable, exactly obedient, and all around Christlike. 

She came in to the area and she lovingly showed me that I've been doing things incorrectly... my entire mission. WHAT?! I was so devastated. I wasn't aware, but I had not been doing paperwork right or following all mission protocol exactly. I was CRUSHED! I had been disobedient!!! 

"My companion is going to think I'm a complete idiot! She probably thinks I have no idea how to do missionary work! This is terrible! What have I been doing these past 8 months?!" 

I seriously cried- for the first time in a long time. I felt like I had been slapped in the face and fed a HUGE slice of humble pie. (Which, looking back, that was a stupid reason to cry. But still.) I sat her down during companion study and explained my desire to be obedient and do everything exactly right- but that she'd need to help me do it. I hadn't been trained on these things! I just kind of... figured it out on my own. And Sister Miller, being the absolutely Christlike missionary that she is, consoled me and told me that she would teach me. *sigh* I love her. She is amazing. Here goes training!!! haha! 

A member of the ward made us an African dish for dinner (something from his mission)- ugali and egg stew and spinach. Look it up, Google it. Haha. It was... definitely interesting. It just solidified my gratefulness for serving in the United States- that's for sure. That's, by far, the most foreign thing I've eaten on my mission. It totally passed up lamb and uncooked chicken. hahaha

We did a TON of service this week. How I love, love, love service! :) Here in Parma, we've been struggling to develop member/missionary relationships. So we decided that we were going to do service for each and every family in the ward. It'll take a long time- probably span over a couple transfers- but the missionaries in the future will benefit from it! We've already noticed a difference our associations with ward members, in meetings, getting referrals, etc. 

During our service run, we helped Mariah and Dallas clean their trailer that they live in. (Pictures included.) This was the first time that I had ever been in their "house". And, oh my, it was interesting. Their kids are always getting sick and having to go to the hospital- and now I know why. We helped them clean for a total of 2 hours- and managed to make it so that half of their trailer was... sanitary. They both didn't grow up with parents that taught them how (and why it's important) to live clean lives and live in a clean home. We plan on going over there every couple of days to help them do a "quick pick up" and teach a lesson on cleanliness. 

While cleaning, Dallas turned on some church music and after listening for a few minutes said, "I love this music! It makes me want to work!" And I responded with, "That's the Spirit, Dallas!" And then later in the cleaning session, near the end, Dallas said, "I've never lived in something so clean... I don't even know what to do with myself. It's so peaceful!" and again I said, "That's the Spirit, Dallas!" Mariah was THRILLED to live in a clean home (at least for that little while that we were there) and thrilled that she accepted help. We shared D&C 88:119 with them. It was one of the most evident changes in the Spirit that I have felt since being on my mission. As the 2 hours went on, it became stronger and stronger. It was wonderful.

We taught a missionary preparation class at mutual this week for the priests and laurels (as well as our ward missionaries). I LOVE the youth of the church! They're my favorite people. :) We taught them how to talk to their friends about gospel topics- teaching them to summarize their answers into 1-2 sentences when their friends ask about doctrine (they showed us what they learned by performing skits). We also showed a couple mormon messages about missionary work and then bore our testimonies. Overall, it was a good spiritual experience. I think that the youth took to it well and that they'll use what they learned when they're at school.

OH! I HAVE to tell you this! Elder and Sister Short (the senior missionaries that work in the office) have a son that lives in our ward boundaries that is inactive. They had told us about him, and we had been trying to find their son for 2 transfers! But he would either never be home, never answer the door, whatever the case was. I told Sister Miller about our predicament, and we created our transfer goal: "FIND RJ SHORT". Well, that night, we thought that we'd get a jump on it. So we drove to his house and knocked on the front door- and then HE WALKED AROUND THE SIDE OF THE HOUSE! YESSS! WE FOUND HIM! We talked to him for about 30 minutes- he showed us his farm and we invited him to come to church on Sunday. After 1 DAY- we reached our transfer goal. Haha. Looks like we'll need to make a new one. :) And we're so excited to tell Elder and Sister Short that we FINALLY met their son. :)

We had another lesson with the Stewart's. We watched "Finding Faith in Christ" and recommitted them for baptism on October 18th. _____________ is really struggling with quitting smoking- extra prayers would be wonderful. We know he can do it! With Christ, we can do anything! 

We taught 22 total lessons this week! A new record for our area! YES! 

But, again, I am loving my new companion and this new transfer! I'd love to get some letters/emails/pictures from friends at home. :) 

Moroni 10:32
Sister Gubler

This is Patti- she is one of our ward missionaries. :) She likes to think of herself as our "missionary mom". She's seriously the funniest lady on the planet! I learn so much from her.

Staying in Parma!

Letter from September 15, 2014


Transfers happened today- I'm staying in Parma for at least another 6 weeks. 

Sister Pritchard went to Homedale, so I have a new companion (again- this makes comp #6...). I'm just throwing away companions like Krispy Kreme does day old donuts! But my new companion is Sister Miller- 21, from Utah, went 2 years at UVU- and she is great! She came out the transfer before me. New transfers are always a little rough, you have to get used to someone else- it's awkwardness all over again- but after 2 weeks I'm sure that everything will be great. 

I forgot my planner at home... I wasn't thinking this morning. So I'll try my best to remember everything that happened this week. Luckily (for the email), Sister Pritchard was sick and it was a slow week, so there's not much to remember. Haha

On Monday, last p-day, our zone went bowling!!

It. was. AWESOME. Since it was a Monday afternoon, we pretty much had the entire place to ourselves. :) Oh my gosh... I REALLY don't have anything to say about this week... 




We had a ward party on Saturday evening. We played kickball! 

Kristey and Amanda, my favorite people!

I have NEVER seen such a competitive ward... Seriously. It was hilarious. And Sister Pritchard and I were seriously the WORST players on the field. It was super embarrassing. "You can kick... I'm just going to go to the back of the line..." haha Did I talk about the Stewart's committing to live the Word of Wisdom?? Yeah! Well, THEY DID! They're in the process of quitting smoking- some extra prayers for them would be helpful. :) They have been growing so much since hearing about the gospel! Since Sister Pritchard was leaving, the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) was mostly spent visiting all of the members and investigators so that she could say goodbye.
Saying goodbye with the Rohrbacher's:

Nothin' new there... We really didn't have anything exciting happen! :( Bummer.

Sister Gubler

This is the couple that we live with. We went out to breakfast this morning. :)

Welcome to the District---