quick trip to Germany

Wow, what a week. I went to the temple in Germany!

To start from the beginning of the week, this past p-day we went on a beautiful hike in Romania that was seriously the prettiest thing I have ever seen.

Wednesday we headed out on a train to Bucharest to meet with all the missionaries that were heading to Germany. There was 6 of us missionaries total from Romania. We took a flight to Frankfurt and not gonna lie,  it was weird to be at an airport again, but not to be going home.  After a long day of traveling, we finally got to the Frankfurt temple late Wednesday night. The Temple Presidency gave us a special tour and they were seriously the coolest. Also mega miracle, one of the sisters lost her passport the day we were supposed to leave, and she wasn't able to come with us, butttt the next day she was able to get an emergency passport in a matter of 2 hours and fly to Germany by herself and still go through the temple!!

Thursday was the day we finally got to go through the temple!!! It was such a good day and we were all so happy that after a YEAR of being out on my mission, we finally were able to go to the temple with our Mission President & his wife.

We also did baptisms later that day and it was overall just a great day and experience! All the German church members from the surrounding area also cooked us tons of amazing food for every single one of our meals there. 

On Friday we were able to go through the temple one more time, and then we headed out to do some sightseeing in Frankfurt before we had to catch our flight back to Romania. 

Overall it was an amazing week and I am so grateful for the beautiful opportunity that we had to finally go.:)

"And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this House armed with Thy power, and that Thy name may be upon them, and Thy glory be round about them, and Thine angels have charge over them;"

--Doctrine & Covenants Section 109:22 

Hope everyone has a great week:))

Sora Tobler

Sunt in ROMANIA

 Well, this week was an eventful one let me tell you... so sorry if this long lol

Friday, we finally got out of quarantine (thank goodness) and we were able to GO OUTSIDE. After living in Budapest for almost 3 weeks, I actually got to see where i've been living, kinda crazy. President and Sister Rucker took us all to this really cool restaurant for lunch and it was probs some of the best food i've ever had (or maybe my standards were just very low, because the quarantine food we were eating was not all that great haha). After that, we all went to the mission home/office and found out about the "mission impossible" expedition that had been concocted to get us to Romania on Monday (burner phones, official documents, and important instructions included lol). I also found out that once I got to Romania, I'll be serving Bucharest, the capital, with Sister Bauco! 

very excited about that.

Saturday, was our p-day and we got to see the city some more and ate sushi for dinner (so that was great). We also went on a run Saturday morning and saw the SWEETEST THING: 

At like 6:45 in the morning, we saw this teenage boy walking along the river by himself, placing burgers by the all homeless people that were sleeping there. It made my heart very happy.

Monday, we woke up at 5:00 am to get to the train station, and catch our 18-hr train ride at 7:10am. The border crossings on both the Hungary and Romanian side were smoother than we all expected which was nice. 

About 7 hrs in to what was supposed to be a direct train ride to Bucharest, the train conductor guy came around to tell us that the line was actually ending in like 10 mins and that to get to Bucharest, we needed to hop off, catch a bus, ride it for 30 mins to another train station, and then catch a new train to Bucharest... between his broken english and our pretty nonexistant romanian we were all very confused and stressed. Luckily, this really nice guy who spoke English (who we ended up giving a book of mormon to) and the train conductor guy, helped us out and helped us carry all our luggage off the train and direct us to the bus that we barely caught haha. After the bus ride in the middle of nowhere, we finally got to the second train station and with the help of a couple really sweet romanian grandpas and the English speaking guy, we got onto our second train lol. 

While we were passing this really pretty lake, the old man sitting next to me started going off about how on the other side of the lake was Serbia, and how the lake was formed by one of Romania's communist dictators, and how life was during communism haha ngl my vocabulary about communist history is pretty minimal so....at least I think that is what he was talking about.

We finally pulled into the Bucharest train station at 2:00 am in the morning and met some of the missionaries serving here! It was a long day, but there were so many miracles along the way, and I know the only reason we got here is with the Lord's help:)

Vă iubim!!!!!

Sora Tobler

(pic 3 is of an old man on the train explaining to me Romanian History hahaha)

A Real Page Turner

 Buna ziua toata lumea!

Hmm let's see... still quarantined in an apartment in Hungary! It's ok though, because we are able to go outside of friday!! I miss the sun very much haha and I can't wait to actually feel it again at the end of this week:))) I am so so excited to get back to doing actual missionary work after this weird 2 week little vacation.

We watched one of the branches hold their testimony over zoom yesterday and it was actually the sweetest thing. I was able to understand most of it (kinda) and it was really neat to see how pure the peoples testimonies are here. It just reminded me of how simple the Gospel of Jesus Christ really is.

We have been helping to teach lessons with other companionships in Romania over zoom once a day. One of the days, we taught a 15 yr old girl named Patricia. There was tons of noise and distractions  for a majority of the lesson, but right when we got all started bearing our testimonies of Joseph Smith, everything was silent and the spirit was so so strong. Just a little miracle from God right there, if I do say so myself.

Sister Rucker and her family dropped us off Burgers and Fries for dinner Saturday night! It was a nice little treat!

We had a mission wide fast on Sunday for the Romanian borders to open up and that us 9 missionaries here in Hungary will get to go to Romania soon, so that was really cool.

I was reading in 1 Nephi this week and came across this verse in chapter 21: 

"But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not."

It has been hard for me sometimes not to feel like the Lord has forgotten about me, as I have been stuck in this tiny apartment in Budapest, trying to learn Romanian. And although it is sometimes hard for me to see, I know that God has actually never left me and has been by my side the whole time:)) I invite you all to look a little harder for the hand of God in your lives this week!!!

Sora Tobler 

BUNAAA - Budapest, Hungary

 Buna:)

Hope everyone is doing well!

I finally made it to Hungary, after 2 days of traveling earlier this week. I am now quarantining in an apartment in Budapest for about 2 weeks and then probably staying in Hungary for a while, since Romanias borders are still closed

Some other things

1 milka chocolate bars slap

2 traveling internationally during corona time is NOT the move

3 my new comp is sora mcafee from my mtc district <33

4 i don't like apartments with no AC

5 president and sister rucker are seriously the coolest

6 be very careful when lighting gas ovens with a match!!!

7 felt the spirit SOO strong in one of our lessons this week:)

Plz email me! i would love to hear from you all

Ciao ciao

Sora Tobler 

done :) - Home MTC

 Buna :))) 

This week was crazy. I can’t believe I am done with the mtc (never thought this day would come haha), but WOW time flew. Home mtc was such a unique experience and I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to learn and grow from home.

While I am very excited to be finished, I am also very sad to be saying goodbye to my district, companions, and teachers! I have learned so much from my companions and district, and I can’t wait to see them in Romania eventually :,). Also, my teachers were seriously the best and were 3 amazing examples to me. 

One perk of home mtc is that I can basically do my classes from anywhere. I drove with my family to California on Wednesday and finished my last 2 days of mtc there. 

If there is one thing I learned it is that Jesus Christ is EVERYTHING. He is our savior, our friend, and there for us no matter what. 

I leave for Georgia Tuesday morning!!! yay! Kinda scared for what the humidity there is gonna do to my hair lol but you know what can you do 

Hope everyone has a great week

ciao ciao

- Sister Tobler (probably won’t be going by Sora Tobler anymore unless the people in Atlanta speak Romanian that I am not aware of)

cALiForNia

district!

lil sisters

Week 4 - Home MTC

 Buna:)

Just another week at the home MTC for the books. Nothing super exciting happened this week...

It was fun being able to spend 4th of July with my family another year. My sisters and I drove to Scottsdale and watched some pretty sick fireworks.

On Tuesday, I watched the weekly missionary devotional and it was REALLY good. It was pretty much everything I needed to hear. Elder Martino spoke a little about how our what we want to do won't always be what the lord has in store for us. I really needed to hear that this past week as I definitely had some different plans than what the lord had planned for me.

My companions and I taught our second TRC in Romanian and it went pretty well. I definitely was able to understand a lot more than I did our last lesson, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. 

I have been running every morning since I have started the MTC, and while I still don't particularly like running, I'm starting to not dislike it as much!! Also I think I've pretty much adjusted to the mission schedule and think I've gotten used to waking up at an unnaturally early hour and going to bed at practically sunset haha

Here is one of my favorite quotes from this week. "...Fear not. Be of good cheer. For the future is as bright as your faith." - Thomas S. Monson

:)

Sora Tobler

week 2:))) - Home MTC

 Buna ziua!! 

Hope everyone had a good week:)

Not going to lie, this last week was kind of rough for me. At the start of the week, more often than not, I found myself asking why in the world I had chosen to do this, and how it would have been so much easier for me to have not decided to serve a mission. Although it's only the second week, I was getting pretty discouraged with myself and was getting pretty stressed about everything. I was studying in Mosiah 7:33 and came across this verse that says, "But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage." I know that serving a mission won't be easy, but I know that as I serve, trust in God, and turn to Him, I'll be able to get through the hardest days.

Anyways.... the rest of the week was good!! We had our first 2 TRCs this week, which was pretty exciting. Our first one went pretty well and our second one was alright. Although our second TRC didn't go nearly as well as we wanted it to, it was a great learning experience for my companions and I. 

My district all got together twice this week outside of class to play Romanian Jeopardy over zoom which was really fun. It has been fun to get to know everyone better and see everyone open up to each other a bit more haha. One day during class, we were guessing how tall we thought everyone was in real life and it was pretty interesting and comical to see what everyone thought. Apparently I give off strong 5'5"-5'6" vibes, which I mean is only slightly taller than I actually am, but I was pretty happy about that.  

I had two workshops this week that were pretty interesting. During my second workshop, I saw a very familiar face which was pretty fun and made me happy:)

I'm still waiting to get my reassignment, if I even get a reassignment, and am trying my very hardest to have patience and not focus too much on that. It's pretty crazy that I'm already 1/3 of the way through home MTC though.

I would love to hear from everyone! Feel free to email me whenever!

Ciao Ciao!

Sora Tobler

Weekly comp pic

Quick study break with my brother Jackson

District!!

My sister Ellison found this fake missionary tag that her primary teacher gave her forever ago haha

week 1!!! kinda - Home MTC

 Buna Ziua!!

Today is my first p day and I guess my first week of classes are over (even though I only started on Wednesday lol)

I have 6 hours of class a day, but they honestly aren't that bad and don't seem that long. There are 4 Vârstniculs (elders) and 3 Soras (sisters) in my class. 2 of the Vârstniculs in my class are going to the Kiev, Ukraine mission and the rest of us are going to România. 

I already love my companions so much!! Sora McAfee and Sora Gunn are seriously the coolest and I couldn't have gotten more lucky. Sora McAfee is from South Jordan, Utah and Sora Gunn is from Santa Clara, Utah.

On Friday afternoon, while Sora McAfee, Sora Gunn, and I were trying to have companion study, my wifi was being super wack and kept cutting in and out for about a half hour. We had kinda given up on it working, but then said a prayer, and zoom worked for the rest of our meeting!! Just a quick lil testament of the power of prayer for ya haha

I have already learned so much Lingua Romană in the past few days and am super excited to keep learning more:))

Home mtc is actually kinda great and I really appreciate being able to sleep in my own, very comfortable bed, and being able to eat Taco Bell

Hope everyone is doing well and has a good week:)

La revedere!!

Ciao!

Sora Tobler