One more P-day as a Missionary!

Whoa. Only two more weeks of mission updates from E. Gubler? Awfetch.

Yeah. I'm feeling love from my family! It's good to see y'all're anxious to have me back. I'm honestly trying my best not to think about it. Mom, can I ask you spare the nitty gritty details about home until I see you at the airport? I agree we need to talk about things like flights, college, family matters, but...I'm sure there will be plenty of time to catch up on the things that aren't time-sensitive once the missionary badge has come off. I promise to converse with you about anything you wish...once I finally see you in the Maceió airport. ;) (–-In Mom’s self-defense, I was updating Erich on small things like a new 7-11 on the corner… Oh well.)

To quote President Gonzaga's response to my last email: "O seu Pai pode ficar trunky... voce não." - "Your Dad can get trunky...not you." I laughed.

This last week was a gigantic, work-loaded rush. We've been going after everybody who was in our teaching group this last week...and we juggled splits and interviews, including a last-minute one in Tobias Barreto. It was hectic, but everything got done in order. We almost completed all of our goals! I feel like I'm finally getting it. We'll see how that works this next week. I am very happy, very satisfied, but also a little pensive, because our constant, firm followup with everybody resulted in a very polarized teaching group...with everybody either getting baptized, or everybody literally running away. 

Is this normal in the US? I don't remember seeing anybody belting it in the other direction because they didn't want to talk to the missionaries. But it happens rather frequently here on this mission, it's not just with us. It's a heart sinker, but on the bright side there's no lack of cheer from the members we've been working with. We just gotta use our head to make our time efficient, and get more people in the water. Right now, there's two discouraged investigators that still have the potential to be baptized...but they didn't even go to church this last week. It's gonna be a strange week. We've got more splits, another Zone Conference, training by President on the weekend for the local leadership, aaaaaaaaaaand...well, I'll remember the other stuff as it comes along.

Oh hey. Backing up a bit...That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the Lagarto branch has another family within its fold! We got Viviane, Dafne, and Eric in the water, and all confirmed! They're super happy to finally be disciples of Christ, and now they're working to get a gospel man into the family!

-insert photo here-

....yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah, I didn't get the photo yet. But we took one! I just got to get it from the members, I had completely forgotten my camera the day of the baptism.

Anyway. That's all, folks! Not much else to say for now, though my studies were very enjoyable. I hope to send something of spiritual worth to those of you to whom I still owe letters. I hope that you're above all managing to overcome the many challenges God trusts you with. Stay firm, stay strong, and stay hopeful!

I love y'all,

-Erich

Peace

Welp

This last week was actually a ton of work and a ton of fun. There's a ton of things I'd like to talk about, but in short we didn't get anybody in the water...BUT there's 5 baptisms lined up for this week, and they're all pretty solid. FETCH YEAH

I believe the most valuable thing I can send for now are some thoughts from my studies this last week:

Peace has been an immensely interesting corner of the gospel to study. On www.lds.org, the section on peace has the following first paragraph:

In the scriptures, peace can mean either freedom from conflict and turmoil or the inner calm and comfort born of the Spirit that God gives to his faithful Saints.

Many times, when one thinks of peace, one thinks of the lack of conflict that the world thinks of. However...the kind the gospel offers, which is a personal peace, an inner calm that allows one to make spiritual decisions and create an innermost shelter from turbulence. E. Cook had a great discourse about personal peace in the April conference this year, in which he described the effect that personal peace had on the lives of faithful saints and in other stories as he lived his life. I've no time to sum up what he said, and thus I suggest to my readers that they go to the link. In short, personal peace allows us the strength to overcome the natural man. It allows us to have an abiding joy that does not fade, and that will help us to endure all things.

I know that this is true, and that personal peace is something observable. One of the members of the district presidency, President Oliveira, in whose branch I served a year and a half ago, is one of the greatest examples I've seen of personal peace. Stepping into his home, I felt a calm similar to the calm I always felt as I stepped into the Provo Temple both before and after I started my mission. It's not because the house is completely free from decay or from disorganization, or because he might live in a quiet part of Itabaiana. It was because his life was dedicated to the Lord. He had nothing except what could be used to teach the gospel. Almost all of the books, DVDs, and pictures in his house were Church materials. It wasn't just his house, either. When you talk to him in person, I feel that same peace. He's one of my role models here on the mission, Whenever he wasn't working or talking to his family, he was out trying to get things done in the Lagarto District, many times taking chunks of time from the first two so it could happen.

The reason I'm thinking of him now is because I saw him this last week, and shook his hand once again as he passed by on Sunday to have meetings with the local leadership. I hope that one day, I shall be able to radiate that same peace, so others will notice the difference the Church has made in my life. I remember that Pres. Gonçalves, one of the counselors in the São Paulo MTC, said that he was baptized in the Church because of the peace he felt from an Apostle when he first visited the Church. I imagine he wasn't the only one either...but I remember the Spirit he felt as Pres. Gonçalves shared that story with us. It helped me, and this that Apostle indirectly still has fruits by transmitting the peace of the gospel. Incredible, huh?

But yeah, I'll stop there for now. There's many things I could say, but there's never enough time! I hope that y'all are well, and that you'll remember to shoot off a quick email - there's only 3 more!(?!?!!) My family's doing its darndest to kill me with trunkiness, but I won't let 'em - I love this area and the work too much to do that. I feel a peace as I think about what I must do to help the investigators I love get into the water. I hoping to get every single one into the water this week...but it'll only happen for sure if we go out there and do our part!

Até a próxima! Love,

-Erich

Goals

I learned a lot about goals and plans this last week. I learned something interesting about how it works. I always make the plans first, plotting out how the day will go, and THEN we make the goals. It made for a good check for whether our plans were actually working out, and I always found good success in applying it. If we failed something, then we needed to merely execute the plans better. If everything went well, we completed our daily goals. Whoohoo!

What I learned was that that's actually completely wrong.

Because goals should come before the plans. That's how one exercises faith, is planning on completing a goal whose path to completion you can't necessarily see in the beginning. It forces you to think, forces you to be creative, and with spiritual goals it forces you to use faith. By making the goals according to the plans, I've circumvented this important part of exercising faith for a long time! Man, I wish somebody would have taught me this one before! Perhaps I should have thought about the Joseph Smith story better...however, we took the opportunity to pass these basic principles of goals and planning to our zone, and we had them as a practice replan the WHOLE day. I actually think this is something that is lacking on my whole mission here, so I'm gonna give President buzzing in the ear in a little bit here.

In the meantime, the new planning method made us REALLY bust our butts. We even got somebody into the water this week! Her name's Rafaela, and she's gonna be a baby project for the next good while because she's had a rather hectic teaching curriculum, after being passed back and forth between a few cities and missionary areas.

We're trying to help somebody else get into the water too this week, but there's a lot of things that need to be taught and despite several attempts we've yet to contact her mother. I'm mainly looking forward to developing the new habits I'll need to adapt to the new principles I've learned...we've got a whole new week, brand new goals (realistic and challenging, hopefully), and a lot more time and energy. I want these goals completed! They're gonna be my life's focus for this next week, so...yeah, this is why I've merely a single scripture to share this week:

http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/103.30-34

Scroll until the highlighted part.

Don't forget to write, I love y'all!

-Erich

Don't be alarmed by a post from my profile on Facebook - President let us use the widget on the missionary panel. But...that's about it. I have no idea what's been going on on Facebook still. :P

Lagarto!..almost home sweet home!

Lagarto!...almost home sweet home! :D

WHOOHOO!

This week was great. A lot of stuff got changed up in the zone, and everybody that came in is full of fire and curious to get to know probably the most famous zone on the mission. It's tons of fun to get everybody on their way, since every district is a different city. We're learning just how much faster people with some serious gas could get the work done, and we're analyzing better how we can do the work now.

For now, not much has changed. We're determined to get everybody baptizing soon. I'm feeling a very strong desire to finish strong. It's stressful, but fulfilling as I know that I'm doing all I know how. I'm happy to have learned everything I have to give it my all in this one last stretch...and let the Lord make my "all" even greater the whole while. He's prepared me my entire mission for this transfer! I'm gonna do my best to make it the best!

Scripture of the week: 3 Nephi 18:28-32. I added this reference onto my patriarchal blessing.

All the same...I'm just happy it's Monday. ;) I'm gonna be doing a lot of napping on the bus...let's see if it'll happen or not.

Don't forget to write! I love y'all, and appreciate the many correspondences I received this last week! Expect a response in a couple of weeks here!

Love,

-Erich

This is a sad picture, really.  I guess Brazil still has some 3rd world elements remaining.  I'll bet this river looks prettier than it smells.  Mexico has some open sewage too.  I'm guessing lots of places do.  This picture was posted by another Elder's mom.