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) ;)

krazy week

Quite a crazy week if I do say so myself! Sora Taylor and I were all over the place! 

-wednesday we were in bucuresti for a "return and report" training and presented on love and the love of christ to all our missionaries! It was SO GOOD, and probably one of our best presentations yet. I'm so thankful that the spirit was there and able to speak through us

-Thursday we were quite frazzled and had to present at mission leadership conference as well, this presentation was not as good, and was super humbling for us! We got a lot of hard questions asked to us, and the discussion we led was slightly de-railed, but ya know, you win some you lose some, and it was quite a learning experience for us!

-friday we took a little day trip to sora taylor's old area so she could get her second dose of the vaccine! 2.5 hours one way on the train with a little 1 hour break, and then 2.5 hours back! At least the view from the train was quite gorgeous with lots of fall leaves

-conference with our branch! We had the cutest little get-together/activity with our branch before we all watched conference together Saturday night. Because of the time difference we watched the saturday morning session translated live in Romanian with our members at 7:00 Saturday night! We put together a little jeopardy game to play with everyone beforehand and ordered some KFC. KFC is a big deal here and it was quite the hit

-Our golden friend Naomi watched conference on Sunday with her family  mega miracle for us that they even watched it, and even better, they said they LOVED IT. please pray for Naomi and her family and that she and her family will continue to open their hearts to the restored gospel!! We need your prayers!!

While I loved all of conference and the things that were said, I have been trying to focus a lot more on how I feel while watching conference/listening to the prophets and apostles of the Lord speak. As I listen not only with my ears, but with my heart, I'm able receive revelation and inspiration for myself and the holy ghost is able to speak to me. 

I challenge you to listen again to general conference, focusing not necessarily on what you hear but what you feel. I can promise that the holy ghost will speak to you:))

I want to hear what you got out of conference:) 

email me about your favorite talk or something something you learned! 

Sora Tobler 

Ghost Stories

-my new comp is sora Taylor! She is fun and so funny and I am so excited for this transfer!

-p-day we went to our local princess castle and took some last p-day pictures as a companionship, and took a stroll around the castle grounds.

-Wednesday was transfer day, and unfortunately our train didn't leave until later in the day, which meant that we spent the whole day waiting for the train. Our sweet 100-year old member, mihai, told us he could meet us at the train station to help us with our luggage, even though we were not sure how much of a help he could be, bless him.

-alsooo on Wednesday, the APs called me telling me that I would be staying in bucarest with my new comp sora Taylor for a couple days to do some meetings and meet with President and sister Rucker who were in town. They also told sora Taylor and I that we were going to dinner with them and President and sister Rucker at the JW Marriott in București whichhh was quite the experience, let me tell you.

-we did some presentations for new missionaries coming into the country, and it was so fun to be around their new missionary spirit!! Makes me want to recommit and be just as happy and excited about the work as they are.

-Almost missed our train back to ploiesti because we were stuck in the line at Subway, don't fret though, we made the train, my sandwich was very good, and we met a cute new friend named Vera sitting across from us on the train.

-Being the very skilled mathematician that I am, I realized all the ads that we were currently running would go WAYYY over what we actually have in our budget to spend, this means we had to emergency stop some of our ads and posts that we were running which is unfortunate, but you know, what can you do?!!

I have a question for you all this week and feel free to email me your response! What do you do every day that requires you to exercise your faith? 

love you all:))

sora tobler

Castle and a Talent Show

Bună bună bună. 

Can't believe I am writing yet another email. The weeks are seriously flying by so so fast. Some great little memories from this week:

-on p-day we went to a castle. An actual princess castle and I seriously felt like I was in one of the Princess Diary movies. It was a very good time, and a p-day very well spent.

-our 9 year old friend Alex is still so excited to be baptized and we love our lessons with him. We played a very riveting board game about the plan of salvation with him and his family in our last lesson and it was quite fun.

-a random lady reached out to me on facebook asking if someone named Ryan Tobler was my uncle. He had served in on of the US military bases here in Romania with his family and had apparently made a very good impression on this one lady. And while I can confidently tell you that I don't have any uncles named Ryan Tobler, through him I have started talking to this cute little Romanian lady! 

-since my new calling as media leader, we are in lots of meetings. And this past week we met with someone in salt lake who was giving us a nice rundown on some of our media stats. We have received over 3,000 referrals through just some of the stuff we have been posting on Facebook and instagram the past couple of months and we are one of the leading missions! The work just keeps moving forward.

-we had a fun district activity this week at an assisted living home. We put on a cute little music talent show for them and it was actually kind of the best. They started singing and clapping, and some of them even started crying and it was so sweet. They also served us a great big Romanian lunch afterwards and it was a good day. 

-went to bucuresti for an exchange and to also to record a song!! Two other Elders and I have a music project in the works and it is some pretty exciting stuff. 

One of my favorite questions that I have been asking myself lately is, "what would I do if I had more faith?" 

It has totally changed how I have been going about every day, and how I have been doing the work. I have seen MIRACLES as I exercise more faith in everything I do. 

Ask yourself this question this week and see how much more you can do as you exercise faith and have more faith! 

Vă iubim!!

Sora Tobler