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

 

 

Fun

 Hahaha don't let the title deceive you, this week may not have been fun. But also don't let these words deceive you, maybe it was fun. Who knows?

Nah we good don't worry. This week wasn't too crazy to be honest. Had a good chunk of meetings and contacting and planning and such. We have just been preparing for activities this coming month for Christmas and such so that's exciting. That is consisting of us working together with a service organization called čisteći medvjedići, which just means Cleaning Bears in Croatian. That one should be ton of fun and I am excited for it.

As for activities we have already done, we had Thanksgiving in Zagreb with majority of the missionaries in Croatia and then the missionaries from Slovenia, which was way fun because we don't get to see them too often. That was a ton of fun to see everyone and such! The only bummer was that it became our new pday so we had to go a like an extra 3 days without a pday (nothing too bad to complain about I know). 

 

Aside from that we did some service out at a Catholic church (on a street called Sveti Duh which literally means Holy Spirit) and it was cool. We helped pass out food to the homeless, plus we got to know the people there a lot better when we had lunch and stuff afterwards. They actually asked us to come back again to help with something else with this other guy who was in charge of this others group that focuses on awareness of those with physical disabilities. His vision was kind of to just have those with disabilities feel that they are no different than others. He was having an event where they would have people in wheelchairs cook this cool meals and such. I think it was such a cool idea and a great group and I was glad I could help out a bit.

While we were there we met these other dudes who were closer to our age volunteering at the church (only during the winter and such) and it was so fun. They were so dazzled by the fact we could speak Croatian. They were like, "so you're actually American? Like no relatives or anything who are from Croatia?" It was awesome, definitely a confidence booster. Plus some of them where from Bosnia, so i was able to bond a lot better with them (mainly over ćevapi hahah), I hope to see them again, we all plan to.

Last thing was we got to support one of our friends from the Cleaning Bears service group in one of his things. He invites us to a play and we were like yeah sure. We thought it was going to be like a high school kind of play. So we buy tickets and such and show up, its literally a full blown opera at a very big theatre place. They were performing "animal farm" which I must say, is a very interesting idea and fascinating opera. It was cool because they did it in english and had translations into Croatian on these screen things, some good language practice. The opera itself did very good at making you feel like you were in it hahah. Anywho that was way fun. 

 

Small note ill add is that it is adventure here in Croatia, so they have Christmas stuff everywhere and it's beautiful. Apparently it's been voted 3 times the best place for Christmas in Europe or something like that.

Today we are going to play soccer at this rented out place and i am so excited, it should be a lot of fun.

Hope yall have a great week! 

Zone Conferences!

 Hello! These past few weeks have literally been so fun! We have been doing zone conferences. So we have had the chance to travel to each of the zones and do presentations. It's so good to see all the missionaries. Like half of them I've never met and met for the first time haha, others I haven't seen for like a whole year so it was so good to see everyone again. 

Recently we have been super busy on pdays and so we kind of lost some pdays but it for sure makes up for it that we get to go to each country and do an activity for zone conference! 

Some of the stuff we have been busy with is helping the new Kiribati  missionaries getting settled in here. Like the Samoans (who just got home actually), they are trying to get home so Croatia is like a pit stop. It's been so fun because they gave us the skirt things (lava lava I think is what they are called) and are teaching us a dance. We are planning on doing a cultural night with them have them make traditional food and teach everyone dances and stuff so it should be a ton of fun! We have also been helping some Russian missionaries come in who will be here for two weeks or so I think. There's like 25 of them.

Besides those we have had some way fun times doing service and stuff! We been helping a member build his house which has been way fun, he sadly broke his back so he just walks and helps as much as he can and literally will randomly just say, "my back is broken. My špinal. I broke my back", love the guy, his name is Krešomir. We also have been cleaning with čisteći medvjedići which has been so fun. We are making good friends with people there. One of which is named Zora who is so nice and full of energy and is so funny and great. 

Zone conferences

Serbia:

* The first one and it was great because my whole mtc group was there except for one person so it was so good to be with everyone, especially the ones I haven't seen since the mtc hahah. For our activity we went to this Castle which is on this beautiful side of a hill and river and on the other side is Romania, pretty crazy. 

Slovenia:

* Super beautiful there, as with Serbia, this was the first time I was there. Slovenian is really interesting, The language sounds sooo hard hahah but talking with people in Croatian we can understand each other. Its was way cool to finally meet a lot of the missionaries there in Slovenia, we dont see them a whole lot. They are so awesome. For our activity we went to this place and took a gondola up to Velika Planina which means big mountain. It was beautiful though, it was up in the Alps and they have this little village hut things that people could rent and spend a couple nights in. We were up there for the day and it was like I was on top of the world. I can now say I have played chess and spikeball on the top of the world. Afterwords we had an exchange which was way fun . We taught English and such it was cool. The situation with covid there is interesting, you have to have proof of vaccination or that you have recovered from covid within the past 6 months or else you cannot enter any buildings.

Croatia

* Croatia was way fun! See all the people here was great as always. For our activity we went to Sljeme, which is this area in the mountains and then walked around, very beautiful especially in the fall. Later in the evening we went to Mirogoj on sve Sveti which is like the day of the dead. We went to the one last year so it was crazy because It was exactly a year later that I was there. It's a graveyard for many of the people who died in the war and they also have Krešomir čosićs grave there and there were candles everywhere and it was beautiful.

Bosnia

* It felt so good to be back here. I love Bosnia so much. It's sad there is some rumors of civil unrest between Republica of Serbia and the Federation so it's a bit sketchy, the missionaries in Banja Luka are now in Sarajevo because of it. And with that in Sarajevo there are floods going on which is sad, it's wiped out some houses in Iliđa which is sad. So keel Bosnia in your prayers. In terms of happy fun stuff we got to check out this cool castle and stuff called vranduk were they had archery inside which we got to do which was so fun. Then we spent time in Sarajevo and Baščaršija which has been amazing. I love this place. The best food by far, it's all local food. Čevapi, punjenje paprike, sarma. Literally all amazing. I got to visit one of my best friends here who is this nice Lady who sells pape (little knitted socks) in Baščaršija. We got to know each other last year when I was here and we took pictures then I came back this year and retook them and it was so nice to see her. She is so nice and was so excited to see me haha, it made me so happy she remembered my name. Her name is Hatidža.

If you remember, we had a friend at American Corner who's name is Miodrag and he is such a cool guy. He's young and just has his whole life figured out and got selected to be a representative of Bosnia for young leaders in Europe and he's going to a conference in Rome for it. But he's going to stop in Zagreb so I'll be able to see him there which will be so sick. Plus he has been having questions about after life and the Godhead so I am soooo excited to talk to him about those. Plus he's gonna check out the temple in Rome. 

Sorry it's so long. Pictures!