Dracula's Castle

A couple quick things from this week:)

1. We totally (accidentally) made someone crash their bike in a massive puddle, but dont worry he was really nice about it concerning the situation and we felt really bad 

2. President Rucker and the APs came and visited! After 2 weeks of quarantine by himself here in romania, president Rucker is able to tour the country and cities. He and the APs stopped by on Saturday. we had interviews, all went to lunch, talked with some members, and it was an all-around good time.

3. Took a little field trip to Bucuresti to get sister berrett's retainer fixed. I miss bucharest a bit. 

4. I am growing to love pitesti more and more everyday. Not gonna lie, it was not a first love type of situation, when I first got here, but I'd say I grow to love it more here everyday (thank you heavenly father for helping me out in that department) 

5. Still trying to find some people to teach, but we are not getting discouraged! Just keeping going with faith.

6. Member highlight- Robert. Seriously one of the funniest guys I have ever met, he has super long curly hair and he is an actor. His most recent gig is in Rapunzel. He is a recent convert, has one of the strongest testimonies, and is just the life of the party over here in pitesti. 

7. Hope you all remember my invitation last week and are still working on a spiritual gift! I've been working on how to hear the holy Ghost a bit better in my life. Let me know how it is going. 

8. I wish you could tell you more about our p day adventure today (Dracula's Castle), but sadly I don't have time to write about it, but stay tuned for next week. 

Love you all:)

who let the dogs out

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

american pride

After getting out of quarantine this week, Sora Berrett decided that we were going to go out and try to find some of our members. We headed out towards Sora Maria's house, a member who before even meeting us was so excited that we were here in pitesti, that she called us everyday since we arrived! She lives about and hour outside of pitesti so we needed to take a MAXI TAXI out to her little house in the middle of a cute lil village. She was so cute and so so happy to see us. Her house was only about 6×6 feet and only one room, but she was so welcoming and had a little lunch for us. A missionary a couple years ago gave her american flag and she has been obsessed with america ever since. (See attached pics)

who let the dogs out

There are 3 little stray dogs that live right next to our house and follow us around everywere we go. I think it is because we gave them some hot dogs as we were walking home one day and now they are just our best friends.

neighbors

We have seen our neighbors a couple times, but really haven't had a good opportunity to speak with them. We were leaving to go on a run one night, and ran into them as they were going on a walk! They were so sweet and invited us over to dinner and were super interested and curious on why we were here. Little blessings!

paste fericit

Since most romanians are orthodox and follow a different yearly calendar than the one that we have in this United states, easter for everyone here in romania was this past week! Not complaining that I was able to celebrate easter twice and just so grateful for the reason behind easter, whether it is celebrated in april or may. As Paul says in Corinthians 15:22, "22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." I know that christ lives and because He lives we too will be able to live again. I love the doctrine of resurrection and have loved studying it more in depth these past few weeks. Isus a înviat! Adevărat a înviat! 

Hope everyone has a great week:)

sora T

PITESTI

Hello everyone:)) this week was full of LOTS of change, but has overall been a good week.

Last monday, I left Sibiu and took a 6 hr train ride to buchurest where I stayed the night with some of the sisters there. On Tuesday morning we went back to the train station bright and early to meet the new missionaries! I met my newbie comp sora Berrett and she is seriously the sweetest and I am so lucky!

We left bucharest and took another train towards our new area, Pitesti. 

MIRACLE OF THE WEEK- traveling with all your luggage for 18 months over trains in romania, is kind of not the easiest, especially when you and your companion have 6 suitcases in total and you dont know your new area or where your apartment even is.. so I was pretty stressed out about how that was going to work out. However, the APs, the only missionaries with a car in the whole mission, offered to drive our luggage over in their car and drop it off at our apartment, so we didn't have to travel with any of it. 

I know it sounds super small, but it was a major blessing and I was so grateful for them and that help.

I would say the city of Pitesti is like Bucharest's younger brother. We haven't seen too much of the city yet (yay quarantine again, because Sora Berrett just got into the country) but from what I have seen it is actually really big and just a smaller bucharest. It's definitely not as picturesque as Sibiu, and is a little bit rougher around the edges, but I have heard that the members here are amazing and we are so excited to meet them. 

Since we are "whitewashing", we have spent the whole week just trying to find people to teach and kind of get our bearings a bit on everything here.

The lord qualifies who he calls! We have got a lot of work to do here in Pitesti and this past week I have been wondering alot about why the lord has trusted me to train a newbie, come to this new city as the only missionaries here, and go about doing His work. And not gonna lie I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I do know the Lord is magnifying my efforts and he magnifies all of our efforts. Sora Berrett and I are offering our humble 5 loaves and 2 fishes and he is taking what we are offering and hopefully helping it feed thousands. 

Love you lots 

Sora Tobler 

a bbq without a BBQ

still in sibiu:)))).... but I am headed on a train to buchurest this afternoon to meet with my little new trainee and we'll be headed out to pitesti. 

I'm slightly nervous about whitewashing a new area with a newbie, but it'll definitely be a good learning experience.

But let's get down to what happened in my last week in the prettiest city in Romania-

-last time meeting with our 14 year old member maria and making pizza and crepes with her. We talked to her about kicking up her instagram a bit, she has been reposting good uplifting content ever since we talked with her about it. Let's use our platforms to spread light!!

-did another service project at a 200 year old house. We are helping with the renovations and still have a loooonng way to go. One of our members came to help us out and it was fun to get to talk to her for a bit.

-Alexandra is praying about a baptism date!!! I'm sad that I wont be here, to finish up the rest of lessons with her, but I'm so excited to see how she progresses from afar. 

-had a ward BBQ (kind of). We planned a ward get together earlier this week and our branch president bought us all the Romanian bbq essentials (meat, a loaf of bread, chips, and pepsi) and then told us that he and his wife actually wouldn't be able to make. The elders (who were going to grill the meat at the bbq) got put into quarantine right before the event, so we were left without anyone to actually bbq at the bbq. I'm sure we would have done a stellar job, but sora sorensen and I made the executive decision to forgo that aspect. 2 people ended up showing up and it was a decently good time as we ate the bread and chips that we had. 

GOD LOVES US AND ALWAYS WILL LOVE US. we come as we are, but we shouldn't expect to leave as we are. He is proud of us and all that we have accomplished thus far in our lives, but he is not satisfied yet. We still have lots of work to do!! Let's keep refining and changing ourselves everyday to be more like our savior Jesus Christ. 

What's something small that you can change this week?:)

Talk to you next week!

Sora Tobler 

two simple girls who love god

Yay for a good week! Wow time flies. 

I've just been living up my last 2 weeks in sibiu. (My new trainee has to quarantine in hungary for these next 2 weeks, so I wont be leaving sora Sorensen and sibiu until she gets here).

We had a major snow storm earlier this week and ngl I was kinda done with the weather, but the real answer to my prayers was that all the snow basically ended up melting the next day.

Friends update: 

Finally met with Cosmina face to face at the church. We gave her a church tour which went pretty well. She offered to give us a tour of her church down the street after we finished (we didn't even know she was going to another church, so that was kind of a surprise). 

Alexandra is still the cutest and we have 2-3 lessons with her every week. She is progressing so well!! The only problem is she lives about 3 hours outside of sibiu, and we are the closest branch to her (our area is kind of massive) we're just going to cross that bridge when we come to it.

DENISA. GOLDEN. literally already a member with the strongest testimony. She also lives with her husband and 2 daughters a little outside of town, and it is sometimes hard for them to get to church, but I played the "I got transferred and am leaving soon card" to make sure they came to church this week. I was kinda disappointed when they didn't show up until the last 2 minutes when they rolled in! Yay we talked for about an hour afterwards. 

We also had a service project this week which was way fun. Us and the Elders worked in this 200 year old abandoned house, that they are working to renovate and make a museum. We shoveled a caved-in floor and scraped off paint from the walls, and it was overall a good time. 

One of my favorite talks at conference this past week was presidents Nelson's talk about faith. He talked about some members in the Pacific Islands who were preparing for a large event outside, and the weather was horrible and wouldn't stop raining. Members fasted and prayed so that the rain would stop and in some of the islands It did, they had to have faith that the rain would stop. One of the islands the rain did not stop. They had to have faith to endure the rain even when it wasnt stopping. Sometimes we dont also get what we want and have to have faith to endure our trials until the blessings come.

Have faith and hope you have a great week! 

Sora Tobler

 

the easter bunny came

happy Easter and conference weekend:)

Romania actually doesn't celebrate Easter until May, but it just means that I'll be able to celebrate it twice. 

We got transfer calls this week, and I am sad to say that I am leaving Sibiu this next transfer:(  I'm going to be opening up a brand new area for sisters and training a newbie! not gonna lie, I'm kind of stressed about it, but it should be an adventure. Luckily I still have 2 final weeks left in Sibiu, because the new missionaries need to quarantine for 2 weeks in Hungary before arriving in Romania. 

Our girls cosmin and alexandra are THRIVING. we had great lessons with both of them this week and they are both praying about baptism. I'm kind of sad that I won't be here for the baptisms, but it's all good. 

General Conference was SO GOOD. after talking to lots of people this week about conference and our prophet and hearing a bunch of different opinions, I am just so thankful for a living prophet and apostles that speak to us!!

Love you all:)

Sora Tobler

 

halfway?!?!?

 Wow wow we are half way there? How have I already been a missionary for 9 months? 

As a quick update:

We are in quarantine again because one of our friends was sick.

Had an exchange this week.

Our friend Ade is still doing pretty well! We had to set some standards with her the other day we we told her that we couldn't babysit her 1 year old daughter, but other than that she is doing well.

For 9 months here are 9 things I have learned so far-

1. You never have 2 really bad days in a row. The past 9 months have been been full of their fair share of some rough days, but I can confidently say that the day following is also a bit better than the previous. 

2. I actually like running ! Waking up at 6:30 is still hard lol but I actually quite enjoy a morning run

3. The lord hears our prayers! The power of prayer is so so true and I cant even count the number of times that I have witnessed the power of prayer at work here in my mission.

4. I'm convinced that romania has the best bakeries and pastries hands down. Chocolate covrigs from a shop called luca are the best snack/desert ever. No one can convince me otherwise.

5. We are all Gods children. Doesnt matter if your from Romania, Arizona, or under a rock. God loves us all

6. The lord works Miracles every day all around us. Big/small. Just got to open our eyes 

7. I really took my car for granted. Public transportation is great and allllll....... butttt.... I kind miss my car ngl

8. The gift of tongues! Exists!!! If you told me 9 months ago I would be able to understand and be able to speak (decent) romania I would have laughed.

9. The work of the lord rolls forward despite a global pandemic or anything for that matter. So grateful that I can play a small part in his great plan. 

I could keep going, but for the length of this email and for the asthetic of it being 9 things for 9 months I will stop there.

Love you all. See you in 9 months ;))

Sora Tobler