see you soon!

some pictures from my last full week here in romania 

1. My favorite ward sisters 

2. Sora Taylor with an unappetizing plate of sarmalele (a traditional romanian dish I have yet grown to like)

3. Diana!!! One of my forever life-long friends made here

4. Santa with a book of Mormon

5. A fun district activity outside on the streets advertising light the world! 

These past 18 months have been the hardest and most fulfilling of my life. I would not trade this time for anything, and am so grateful for how much I have grown closer to my Savior Jesus Christ. My heart is so full of love for Christ, the forever friends I have made here, the strong members who have been such great examples to me, and friends and family back home who have supported me from across oceans. 

I can't think of a better way I would have wanted to spend this time of my life, and I will be forever grateful for the sacred experiences I have had. I know our Savior lives. 

This is His church and He directs it. 

He loves me, He loves you, and He loves each and every one of us. 

See you soon:)

Sora Tobler

Happy Romanian Independence Day!

My goodness this past week FLEW. First things first, I LOVE ROMANIA, and I must say that the people here do have my heart:,). I will forever cherish the relationships and lifelong friendships I was able to make here. The members have been such great examples to me, and I am so thankful for their influence in my life. 

The first of December is Romania's independence day !!

This country has had a pretty rocky history, and it is so amazing to see their hope for a better future and the peoples' pride in their country. We had a great little ward activity with some traditional music, dance, and food. Sora Taylor and I even wore our matching Romanian shirts and our members were quite thrilled about it. 

We started running some Christmas/Christ ads this week, and they are going SO WELL. Crazy how people are signing up to have the missionaries come over to their house and share the Christmas story of Christ's birth. So so grateful for technology and that we can use it as a tool to further God's work. 

All the Christmas lights turned on around the city and it is beautiful  crazy how a little bit of lights can make a world of difference and change a not-super-cute-city into a little winter wonderland haha speaking of light.... LIGHT THE WORLD WITH LOVE started this month!! So grateful for this initiative and the opportunity we have this Christmas season to spread the love of Jesus Christ  

what a better time to develop christ-like love, and light up the lives of those around us. I invite you all to take a look at the "light the world" calender and participate! If you don't have it, don't worry because I attached it to this email;) 

Love you all and can't wait to see you all soon:)))

Sora Tobler 

a surprise baptism

Thanks to all who sent me a picture in response to last week's email:) glad to hear that everyone is doing well.

I hope last week you were able to look for and find the joy in everyday, here are just a few moments from my week.

-country-wide conference: all the missionaries in Romania gathered together in Bucharest for a conference and it was quite the time 

- our sweet old member Sora Savu talked our ear off at her house for about 2 hours and towards the end of our visit whipped out a cute little box to show us all the kidney stones she has ever had and told us the story behind each one!  (she must have forgotten that she already showed me her kidney stones a couple weeks ago at church!) I couldn't help but smile 

- we made Cafe Rio style chicken burritos the other night and they were maybe the best meal I have had all year.

- a reel I made on Instagram is still getting 4 or 5 likes a day and I am able to start conversations with every single one of those people! 

- we have been planning for "light the world" these past couple of weeks and I am excited for it to be December so we can start rolling out some of these new projects 

And to end, the cutest story you will ever hear:

Eni is from Albania (where my dear brother Jackson served) and always saw the missionaries on the street of the city where he was living there, but never had a chance to talk with them/ wasn't really interested. Eni then moved to Romania, where he started going to college and met Maria. Maria and Eni started dating and Maria randomly met the sister missionaries in her area on fb after sets of missionaries Maria started taking the lessons officially and decided she wanted to get baptized. Eni (who used to be an atheist) also started taking the discussions with Maria and started to know of the truthfulness of the restored Gospel. After some time Eni also decided he wanted to get baptized, but wanted it to be a surprise for Maria. They were married officially on Friday and Maria's baptismal day was Saturday! After Maria was done changing into her baptismal clothes and taking some pictures ENI WALKS OUT DRESSED IN WHITE ALSO AND MARIA IS SO SUPRISED. she started crying. it was probably one of the sweetest moments I have seen on my mission so far :,) and I will send you the video so that you can see for yourself!!

GOD is GOOD

Sora Tobler

 

men are that they might have joy

long time no talk:)) 

still in romania. But can you believe it?!?!! I'll be coming home in 4 weeks:,) 

These past couple of weeks have been so good and I have been able to feel so much Joy. 

I love being missionary and I love seeing how much Joy the gospel brings my life and the lives of others. 

"25 Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." 

God wants us to have JOY. 

I find Joy in my Savior, the beauties of the earth, my friends here in Romania and at home, my family, music, the scriptures, good food, smiles, and the list goes on and on...

Life is joyful if we make it so.

Try to look for the Joy this week;)

Love you all and see you soon

Sora Tobler 

(PS if you still read my emails 17 months later, send me a picture of something you did this week) ;)

how much wood could a woodchuck chuck?

many miracles and good things these past 2 weeks:)))

-baptism in brasov!!! A cute little girl in sora taylor's old area got baptized and we were able to go!

-I am in a trio now! The trio life has been quite an adjustment, but I am learning a lot and we are getting along.

-the miracle of the lost laptop! We lost our laptop on the train and it was MIRACOUSLY WAITING FOR US at the train station an hour after we left it. 

-baptism in pitesti! There was a baptism in my old area pitesti, and it was the cutest!  Alexandra had the sweetest testimony and the spirt was so strong there! 

-delegation! As the media leaders, we have LOTS to do and with our new trio situation we absorbed a whole new area, and now we are even more busy. Which is amazing, but we are struggling to stay on top of it all, so we came up with a nice delegation plan of media to help ourselves out a bit and give other missionaries some responsibilities! 

-wood chopping! I'd call my self a lumberjack now. We had a district activity where we were able to help a member out by chopping A LOT of wood at his house to help him prepare for winter.

-our new friend Andreea! We actually just had a lesson with her today, and she is GOLDEN and the sweetest! She is a mom with three kids and we are so excited to keep teaching her!

-it is sunny and the weather has been quite perfect this past week! 

I have been thinking a lot lately about this quote from Brad Wilcox's talk from this most recent conference, "God loves us as we are, but He also loves us too much to leave us this way."

Life is about change. This gospel is about change. Repentance is about change. I am so grateful for the changes I have experienced in my time so far as a missionary. I am grateful for the love God has for me, that he helps me through experiences and challenges to change and become more like Him. I am excited keep growing and progressing and changing for the rest of my life. 

What is one thing you can change this week?

Sora Tobler:)