Baptism!

Woah this week was so fun! So the beginning of the week was us cramming a weeks worth of stuff in a few days. We were able to go to a selo with one of the members which is basically like a village kind of thing. It was so beautiful and he has a way cool home! We were helping him set up his camera to join on zoom and stuff. He was inactive and just recently started to come back and wants to overcome addictions and such and its amazing being able to work with him. He is so cool. We also got to see the president of Serbia too! That was a very coincidental run-in hahah, but very cool experience!

Outside of that, we came to Sarajevo for Davids baptism! It was so cool, it was just him and the missionaries in person and a bunch of people joined online. I conducted the meeting which was fun and such a cool experience. He has such a strong testimony of Christ and his story of finding Christ is incredible. I am so happy for him and hearing him explain how he got to where he is now was such a cool experience.

But preparing for the baptism was also so fun. We had to assemble the font then sleep at the church to supervise it while it was filled. It has been such a fun time to be with the missionaries here, they are both such studs. 

After the baptism we had a 1 meter long palačinke (like a crepe) and it was so delicious.

Today we went to Srebrenica. It is a area in Bosnia where over 8000 Muslims were killed in a warehouse. They have a memorial there and it really puts life into perspective. While here, we got to visit a widow whos husband and sons were killed in Srebrenica. She was so sweet and kind. It is very devastating to be where the event happened but it helps me to appreciate life. I am learning so much about these wonderful people and the examples they are to me. 

Wowza week

 Okay this week was crazy, the beginning was just cleaning and getting ready for transfers. Saying goodbye to members and friends was quick and sad but its all good ill probably be able to see them again. So the week really began on Wednesday hahha, i picked up my trainee and he is a stud! His name is Elder Titus, he's literally a cowboy and knows how to cook real well and understands the language well too. We are going to have a ton of fun this transfer. 

The fun started with getting his white card visa stuff. We had to print off his passport stuff but the printer was out of ink and trying to go to a store and order an ink cartridge for a printer in Bosnian was a fun time hahah. When we finally got that and went to immigration, we had to go through this whole process of documents and IDs and stuff and that was also fun in the language. Its a bummer we don't learn these things in the mtc (just kidding it'd be impossible to cover all these things). But the fun doesn't stop there. Our apartment in Banja Luka is having problems with the outlets because like half of them work. So like for our fridge we had to plug it into an extension cord that leads to the bathroom haha. That call with the landlady and trying to explain what an outlet is without the words "outlet" and "plug" and such was hilarious. You all would have died watching me try that, but we got it figured out so the landlady should come fix it. We also had to fix the wifi at the church which was another fun conversation to try hahah. Basically i have learned a lot of new vocab and we still had a ton of fun, its nice to be able to talk more with people, it makes me feel like I'm actually making friends.

The only bummer was our pday turned into a workday just with casual clothes. We weekly planned, fixed the church wifi, did member welfare and finance, and visited members. So we got like 3 ish hours of actual pday time. We still got time to call home and man is it nice to be able to do that. Everyone reading this, love your family and friends (and yourself too), they are the best things in life!

Good news! Baptism is this Saturday and we get to go to Sarajevo to help set up and watch it! I am so excited for that. Please just pray everything goes well.

That's about all thank you all!

 

 

Exciting Week

Okay so, first thing is we got someone on a baptismal date! He is from Egypt and has an incredible story of coming to Christ. He has had to flee his home for have a Christian faith which is like very much not allowed where he is from (and he has been deported and illegally arrested and tortured multiple times). He has been getting taught again by the senior missionary and we kinda just came in at the end and assigned a date and now we will teach him until his baptism. 

Next big thing is we had transfer announcements. So the next transfer I am going to be going to Banja Luka and reopening it as an area. Plus I am training! So that will be a ton of fun. I am still pretty nervous but I'm sure we will survive hahah. I am going to be District Leader and 2nd counselor in the Branch Presidency there too but to be honest that doesn't really mean anything different or special. Its just going to be super weird not having someone to lean on for language and stuff now, but its gonna be a very quick way to learn hahah! 

Last we went to Mostar and what a beautiful city! I'll send pictures of it but a little fun thing about it: its known for the bridge in it which in Bosnian to say bridge is "most", so it's literally in the name. But its cool because on one side of the bridge is mainly Islamic stuff like mosques and such and on the other side its a lot of Christian and some Orthodox stuff too. So its a cool clash of cultures! 

Anyway I hope y'all are doing awesome!

Elder Gubler

Bosnia

Okay so this week was pretty fun! We went to Banja Luka again and had a fun meeting with members. A little argument broke out while trying to resolve some issues but we got it resolved a bit so hopefully things chill out.

Besides that we had General Conference which is awesome! I'm sure everyone hears how conference is different as a missionary like literally a million times. I think it's because we all pay a lil more attention now, not as many naps. So, funny how when we pay attention we actually learn more. I promise you don't have to be a missionary to learn something from conference. That is not the point of them. Y'all should give them a listen, I loved this April's conference!

Besides that we went on a cool hike today and I wore short sleeves and it felt soooo good. Getting out and about is literally the best feeling. 

Language is coming along and I hope to keep getting chances to speak it more and improve. We taught institute this week and I was able to add some stuff which feels good but of course I feel like I could add more. So i will keep trying to learn and practice when I can.

 

Have a great week!

Elder Gubler