a lot has happened dang

 So yeah a lot has happened since the last email I sent. I think its been like three weeks or so. But here his my recap of the previous couple weeks since then.

Okay so the first thing was we had our series of zone conferences which was awesome. Unlike the last time we didn't get to go to Bosnia and Slovenia, rather they came to Zagreb and we did a conference here which was fun. We did get to go to Serbia again which was cool, part of the activities we did (with all of them) was we went out and checked out the city and did some caroling. While in Serbia we went to this one restaurant that was a ton of fun and they had this band performing right next to us so that was cool. Then we also went to the Russian shop (which only comes like once a year) and they sell a ton of Russian stuff. Its crazy how much propaganda there is for Putin and such. But for all the zone conferences, we didn't really do a presentation but rather did role plays in front of everyone. They were fun and we did them in language which was  good time, the one in Serbian was fun as well. I haven't had a whole lot of practice with Serbian but for those who don't know, its pretty the much the same as Croatian but just with small differences in pronunciation, double conjugation, and variation in words. But it was a ton of fun to give it a shot. Aside from that we also got some fun mission shirts and hoodies which I actually like.

We helped a member move wood from a friends house and that was a ton of fun. My companion (Elder Peterson) stepped on a nail and so we got a nice visit to the hospital, there was so much blood it was hilarious (its all good now that's why we joke about it). The guy we were moving wood with is named Aslan and he was very funny. He was focused on perfectly stacking the wood, but more of like just how he wanted it to be stacked and would always say stuff like "had I not been able to beautifully lay the wood this would not have worked." He was such a character I love the guy!

Next big thing was we had been planning this event with the service group with the čisteći medvjedići for a while now and it finally happened! We cleaned at a lake fairly close to the church and then afterwords came and had lunch at the church together. We had like 40 people total and it was so much fun, we met a ton of people and had a great time cleaning. Then at the church we were able to give a tour to a few people (I was giving one to a lady named Zora who is my favorite, she is always laughing and lights up a room). But we gave some of the Book of Mormons and later we're like "sorry we normally sign these and write a note when we give them out". And then they were like "WHAT? I need mine signed!" And we ended up signing and writing personalized notes to like 18 people. It was so much fun, I felt like an author hahah, plus everyone was so excited to get their own copy, twas a great time. Plus we are hoping to meet with some of them again. 

We were taking a lot of missionaries to the airport, those who were going home, so we made a lot of trips there.

We have recently started transfer planning, that's been a ton of fun and very chaotic hahah, its like a huge jigsaw puzzle, even like Sudoku.

We had another event with the Cleaning Bears service group and this was also a great time. We met a bunch of young people who are in college. It was funny, they were also dazzled by us learning Croatian, so we had them guess where they would think we are from if they didn't know we were American and they thought i would be Swedish so that's fun hahah. One of them, her name was Suzanna, found out that I knit and was super excited because she knits too, so we talked a bit about that. And she was also very intrigued by the name Gubler it was funny. But because of that we got her and some friends and we ended up meeting later and had a little knitting group and taught them how to knit, also at the church so we were able to give a good tour and such. One of them who came is named Ozren who is such a cool guy! He has been at a lot of the services but we didn't talk a whole ton so it was good to hang out and talk with him. It really seemed like he's opening up which is awesome, cool guy. 

 

The Cleaning Bears group also got an award from National Geographic and we were part of it so Perica (the guy in charge) brought the award and let us get a picture with it! So it was very cool!

Today we just went to the main kazalište in Zagreb which was AMAZING. Its this big yellow building in Zagreb that you always go by, but finally being able to go inside and actually watch a concert was amazing. It was a Christmas concert and it was incredible and the whole thing was beautiful. We were there with some of our friends which also made it a good time. Inside the building you could see the marks and effects of the earthquake from a while ago. 

In terms of teaching, one of our friends, Zoran, recently told us he doesn't want to be baptized but wants to stay a friend of the church. I am happy he was comfortable enough to tell us that and that he feels welcomed enough to still come to church and such. It's sad though because he still has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and plan of salvation. 
We are still having lessons with my buddy from the American corner in Banja Luka, Miodrag, which are always awesome. He is such a good guy and just has everything figured out. He is super respectful and fun, so I am really enjoying those for sure. 

We also go to meet with some friends who are from Kosovo, they were super cool and it was nice because we were all learning Croatian together so we all could relate on that. some of them were members and brought siblings who were all super nice and fun. They spoke Albanian, so we got to have a quick call with Jonah Pingree (who served in Adriactic South and speaks Albanian) and they were super excited to speak in their tongue, plus one of them already knew him. Shout out to Jonah, thank you!

The wonderful thing now is that it is advent here in the Balkans which is just the decorations and celebration of Christmas in the city, so its all decked up, reminds me of temple square. super fun, learning lots of fun songs and such.

Last night we had a Christmas devotional and it was sooo awesome. We invited a ton of people and a lot of them came from the service groups we are with! This week was Elder Petersons "last" week so we told a bunch of them that and they brought gifts and such, one of them made him a shirt. They were all so nice. One lady, named Zora, she and I planned to act like she couldn't come and suprise my companion when she showed up and it all worked out and it was awesome hahah, plus a few other people had suprise arrivals. The concert was beautiful and it was nice to have all of our friends there.

This has been all over the place but if you read the whole thing, nice and thank you. Hope you have a great week! I'll send pictures in another email.

Elder Gubler