Lots Happening!

Whoo!

Still haven't gotten Mom's update, so I'll just reply to this one.

Man. Tons of stuff has happened. I better get typing so I can get everything out on time!

First off: I dunno how many have heard (or if I already commented, lulz), but there's gonna be a leadership position for the Sisters! It's called a Sister Training Leader. Whoa!

Second is that we BAPTIZED LAST WEEK! My companion and I are running around like crazy in the rain so we can get the many references we're receiving out of the house and into the water (in the baptismal font, that is!). We've had a nice love-hate relationship with water this last week. Water reserves going low at home...so we go bathe in the chapel. Go back home from the chapel...and the rain drenches us. This week has been pretty dang wet! Actually....it's been the wettest week I've ever had on the mission. Every day we've been taking a pounding from the water, but luckily everybody here's got a towel we can sit on when we teach. I've been actually shivering from cold this week. Northeastern Brazil, and I'm shivering...who'da thought, huh? At least there's água in the baptismal font. That's all we really need!

The best part is that we've lined up the next few weeks with super firm people to get baptized. I'm really excited, because now we're gonna break some personal records of mine. AND one of the lunches we have in the area plays Ray Conniff the entire time...so life is just grand. After listening to so much reggae and forró (which is an interesting musical phenomenon I'll have to explain some other time), it was SO strange to hear big band music from y'alls time...but now's no time to be trunky! There's work to do! If you guys can, pray for Deriel, who we've got marked to be baptized this week - he's an interesting lad who just turned 18. He's a little lost but really likes the church, and has several friends here doing their best to help him along the way. I just hope we'll be able to work with his family too - we're still trying to meet them in the first place!

Mom, I've been thinking about you a lot lately. People here comment that you're beautiful in the pictures you sent me, and I wonder how the stress level has been since you're making the employment changes. Excited for Texas? Take lots of pictures, I want to see the South again! ;)

Dad, I thought you'd like a talk a friend of mine sent me. I think you and Mom will especially appreciate it, with the perspective of an adult and return missionary. It has cast a new light on my mission, reading and understanding principles of faith, forgiveness, and grace. I'm learning to incorporate this understanding in my teaching, and I'm feeling the Spirit more. It's wonderful. :)

Shawn, I didn't forget your birthday! I'll see if I can't make something for you to remember. You'll learn soon that the missionary who focuses is a missionary always pressed to find free time where nothing meaningful happens...Dad's lectures about priorities hit the nail on the head. I hope that next year I'll be able to take a more active part of your learning and brotherly support, and that for now you're enjoying the company of your friends. Those memories are what you're gonna keep from UCAS! Always remember that people are the most important thing. I love you, dude!

Them's the news for now. Looks like it'll be a P-Day in the rain today...but it'll be great. I love the sensations of the rain, and it'll be good for mixing things up a bit. I hope y'all are doing well, and that your travels are safe! Tell Rob and Craig I said hi, and that if they need a translator to work with Petrobras...they know where I live. ;)

Tchau!
-Erich

Life is Good

Opa. The internet here suuuuuuucks, and in spite of my computer experience I'm here standing with no time to write the freaking blog!

Am I gonna have to take time writing letters just to update the blog? D:

Yeah. But life is great. We're gonna baptize this week. And we've got more on the way! I'm making the first plunge after a while holding district meetings again.

Piano...(Mom inserted text from a letter here) Heh, I miss those times when I just sat back and played to my heart's content. Sacrificing everything but the thoughts of how to play the next notes was always really satisfying.

I never felt like that great of a teacher before the mission. The mission helped me a lot with teaching technique and the necessities of somebody learning something new, but there's so many Elders around me that do such a better job that sometimes I wonder if teaching is something that I'm just blessed to be capable of doing during the mission. But we'll see just how much of the mission blessings I retain, I suppose.

From the looks of things, I'm gonna be getting to know the areas that are in my district pretty well so I can help people out...so yeah. I get to run around in two thirds of the city of Arapiraca now! It'll be fun.

BlarghifonlyIcouldsendphotos! Gotta run AGAIN. But I love y'all, and appreciate the letters and emails I get from everyone. Don't forget to write!

 

Alright, I'm just gonna write the short skinny for now. There's no time for anything today! Man, I thought the computer in the office was a bit slow...here, this lan house makes my inner nerd ragey. Especially since it significantly limits my capacity to communicate electronically! Rawr! But it's alright. I'll survive. I'm more worried right now about getting all of the blog post banged out! Last week was quite the race. It wasn't anything like the transfers I've ever handled, because frankly I didn't handle it...I left the office with E. Mullins running the show! Unfortunately, we weren't able to get Raiane, Edvânia, and Ketle into the water. We literally did everything we could...but for now I'm counting on E. Mullins and the new financial secretary, E. Nocko, to get 'em there. For now, there's not much I can do, though I CAN call E. Mullins every day and annoy him about it...don't think I will. I'm in Verdes Campos now because God needs me here now, so the best I can do is focus on the people around me.

Ohwait. Yeah, Verdes Campos is my area, which is a division of the area in the city of Arapiraca. I know I won't have time for everything, so I'll get the new facts in:

Zone: Arapiraca

Located about 3 hours inward from Maceió, second-largest city in Alagoas. Once known as the tobacco capital of Alagoas, now the industry is growing, and there's talk of switching the capital from Maceió to Arapiraca.

I don't blame 'em! This place is great. It's colder at night, it's got less humidity, and there's a definite increase in the general education of the population here. The ward I'm in, Verdes Campos, is a freaking strong unit that's about ready to get busted in half by a division that's gonna happen soon. The Zone leaders will go to a new ward...and I get to handle remainder as the LD. Right now, I live with 3 Elders:

- E. Michaileh (Mee-shai-lee). New comp! He's from Curitiba. Like...REALLY from Curitiba, he came straight from there because he's got an interesting story. He served in Japan in 2011 for a year, but because of some illness he had to go back home. He got home, went to college for a year (because the term there is annual), and went and got engaged (?!)...then he came back to his mission! Talk about determination to serve, huh? He's really determined to do his part. He's still adjusting to the rapid change he underwent in lifestyle, but we've got a pretty strong foundation for a good companionship. Now I just gotta worry about the rest of the district...hoo boy. Life changes fast!

- E. Prado. Remember this guy, from Siqueira Campos?! I'm living with him, exactly 1 year after I first started living with him again. Things change, and this guy has really grown spiritually. He's the most serious dude I know. And he also kicks some serious missionary butt, and likewise his companion...

- E. Ginatto, with whom I've already lived, is also with us! Memories of Itabaiana are recounted as we make a few here. E. Ginatto is also super focused, and he and his comp are excellent examples of knuckling under and making things happen. 

Welp...yeah. That's all I've got time for. I might have to write a letter that my parents would transcribe to get all the cool stories out of my area, but we'll have to see about it. For now, life is great! I have no idea how getting photos uploaded on the mission is gonna work out, so don't expect any for now...but life be good!  Don't forget to write, y'all, and keep yourselves in touch!

Love,
-Erich

Changing and a Brave Lady

Hey everyone!

This last week has been an enormous headache, but the mini-P-Day I'm having made life grand. I'm happy to hear y'all are doing well despite my absence! 

My story for the week comes from a small lady named Josefa Célia, who passed through here to beg for help. Sister Josefa Célia is a very strong individual. In spite of being abandoned at birth, severe malnutrition and the inability to use her legs, Josefa fought to have everything she owned in her life. She lives in Aracaju, and came to Maceió to try to scrape out a new living. She was lost, and had no idea where to turn because she had literally dedicated everything to getting here by bus.

We happened upon her by chance, because normally we don't leave the office rooms to do what we need to here, but we were running through the office building lobby because of some errands. President was able to help her, and we ended up teaching her a missionary lesson that she gobbled up. She told us that the new knowledge of God we had given her would be of immense help to her, and that she wanted to get to know the Church better..."...pois eu sei que não foi coincidência que tô aqui!" (Because I know it's not a coincidence I'm here!")

Sometimes, I wonder how the world would be better if everybody took Josefa's attitude. The whole of Josefa's funds when she came to Maceió ought to have been less than R$50, which is about the equivalent of $25 in USD. Most of that money was dedicated to a one-way trip to Maceió, away from all she'd known so she could find something better. How many people are willing to just...ditch everything so they can find something better? How many of us sit back and decide to be satisfied with what we've got, just because it's easier to stick with it? How many of us sacrifice quality for the sake of convenience, because we decide that while the effort to make our lives better would probably be worth it, it just isn't worth it to US?

I'm grateful for Josefa's inspirational example to us this last week. It's been something to think about as the transfer, which shall be another radical change in my immediate lifestyle, comes to a close here. As I type I'm looking at my clock nervously, so I can know how much time I've got left to do everything I need to make the office better than I left it. But I know that all this is happening because I decided to make a similar sacrifice. I'm no less anxious for it, though! Now that I'm leaving the office, I'm going back to full-time baptism-seeking. It's going to be a blast! I'm excited to send y'all all the new things I'll be learning about being a Christlike example, like I perceive Josefa, who've I've included as a photo below, gave to us: (Please scroll down.)

And now...time's up! As a parting shot, I shall always include my usual bit about writing: DON'T FORGET TO WRIIIITE! I love your correspondences, and I share the things that you write with friends and investigators so they can be strengthened too. I love y'all, and look forward to the day that I will be able to apply what I'm learning on my mission to the lives of those I love. Keeping loving, keep blessing!

-Elder Gubler

We've got a family lined up!

This last week went by fast. Wow. My brain's trying to cope with the fact that it's going to be resuming a complete missionary focus. But it'll be good - a change is as good as a rest, right? And in the meantime, it's not over - I've still got about 18ish pages of documentation to bang out and get into a little notebook. It'll be great. And now the transfer's rapidly approaching!

We had some really funny investigators this week. We taught one girl, Priscila, way out in the sticks that was sitting and talking with some relatives on the street, whose mom was preparing dinner inside while we taught. Her mom comes out hooting and hollering for everybody to come inside, and the investigator says this:

"Mãe! Cala a boca! Pare de atrapalhar, tô escutando mensageiros de Deus!"

"Mom! Shut up! Stop getting in the way, I'm listening to messengers of God!"

She actually wasn't trying to be offensive, but she indicated her excitement to hear our message. I'm sure there's better ways to phrase the importance of our message than "Shut up!", but there you have it. Wish I had more 20 more enthused investigators like that, but I think that's every missionary's lament. But actually...that's where we've got the best news of all. We've got a family lined up for this week!

I'm really, truly joyful for the success that our message has had with this one family we're teaching.

We're now working with a family of 3 that'll super firm and excited to get baptized, and it looks like they'll be bringing more relatives from the woodworks here soon. I probably won't be around to help with the others that are coming to Macieó, but seeing the progress of the leadership in the family has given me a new perspective on how God works with those who are willing. The irony is that we're getting to know the area the best in the last 3 weeks of work - the members are really helping us out here, and I'm glad to leave Farol stronger than I found it. If I'm lucky, I might just be transferred as a normal missionary to Farol. I doubt it, since a rather large ripple in the leadership's gonna happen here shortly, but a guy can dream, right?

I'm always excited for changes, because on the mission they mean a new phase of life. Like, literally. The whole environment and experience changes. If I'm lucky, I'll be hitting the road for Sergipe - if not, it's because I'm needed somewhere else. Letters will take a few weeks longer to get to me now, but I love y'all, and still want 'em! Don't forget to write!

-Erich