Missionary Experience of Joseph Edward Gubler, Sr.

MISSIONARY EXPERIENCE OF JOSEPH EDWARD GUBLER, SR.

Written by his granddaughter, Helen Gubler Squire

(As told to me by my parents, Joseph Edward and Thora Wilson Gubler, 1977)

This spiritual missionary experience of my grandfather, Joseph Edward Gubler, Sr., happened while he was in the mission field while traveling without purse or script in Mississippi. This experience happened near the end of his mission in the year 1906 and was told to my grandmother and to my father, who was eleven years of age when grandfather returned home.

This experience bears record to the truthfulness of the scripture found in Doctrine and Covenants Section 24 Verse 18, "And thou shalt take no purse or script, neither staves, neither two coats, for the church shall give unto thee in the very hour what thou needest for food and for raiment and for shoes and for money and for script."

My grandfather and his companion had been traveling for several days in the farming country where the homes were few and far between and they had many rejections and doors slammed in their faces and had been unable to obtain any shelter or food and nourishment of any kind. They were very weak and discouraged since they were tracting in an area in Mississippi which was very hostile and bitter towards the Church.

As they were walking down one of these country lanes, my grandfather and his companion went down into some bushes by the side of the road and knelt down and proceeded to pour out their hearts to the Lord, explaining their need for nourishment and telling the Lord of their desire to serve Him, but explained that the were very weak and were in desperate need of food to give them strength to go on. They then arose and as they came onto the road, they noticed a white object in the middle of the road. When they got to it, they picked it up and found it to be a warm loaf of bread wrapped in a white dish towel. He said, "I don’t ever remember anything tasting so good!" They gave praise to their Heavenly Father for this miracle and went on with renewed hope and vigor!

Grandfather had packed the dish towel in his suitcase and after returning home, my Grandmother, Mary Amelia Hunt Gubler, began unpacking for him. When she came across the dish towel, she exclaimed. "Joe, where did you get this dish towel?" He then related this account to her. Grandmother then related this story: "I had baked several loaves of bread that day and had taken them out of the oven and placed the loaves on the window sill to cool with the dish towel covering them to keep the flies off the bread. I then went out on some errands and upon returning noticed that a loaf of bread, along with the dish towel, was missing. I thought someone had come along who had need of bread, and since I was not home, had gone ahead and taken it and would return the dishtowel later and explain their need. I then put it out of my mind and never thought any more about it until now, two months later, having found the same dishtowel in your suitcase."

As a postscript to this, while we (DuWayne and Helen Squire) were on one of our trips down to LaVerkin, we attended a fast and testimony meeting where I, Helen Gubler Squire, stood and bore witness to this experience of my Grandfather. After I sat down, a stranger stood up and related that he was from a town in Idaho and was on vacation and wanted to attend sacrament meeting. They happened to be in the area so they had joined their war. He went on to say how thankful he was to have attended the LaVerkin Ward meeting because, he said, his father was Joseph E. Gubler’s companion when this incident occurred. He said he had heard his father tell this story several times. This was yet another witness to this missionary miracle.