Oh how glorious and bright 06/14/16

YO.!.

Hi every body.. What a week it has been! I hope everyone who isn't serving a mission is enjoying their first week of summer. I have been doing my best to refrain from singing the High School Musical song whenever someone talks about summer. haha the temptation is real.  I for one have been grateful for the cooler temps this week, we had some glorious overcast days and that was a blessing indeed.

MIRACLES! I am constantly amazed at how mindful Heavenly Father is of his kids. We were able to accomplish so much this week and had 5 progressing investigators at church on Sunday. 5!! 

I nearly wept.

I am super happy because we are teaching a woman named Lupe and her son Juanito. She has been an investigator on our board all transfer but we haven't been focusing on her as much.. due to the needs of other gators who were progressing faster. HOWEVER... This week we visited Lupe and she committed to come to church.. (for reals reals reals) and bring her son.She soaked up everything and thoroughly enjoyed herself. In Gospel Principles class they talked about baptism and afterwards she leaned over  and said; "How great that we talked about baptism because that is what I want to do!" Yayayaya! So The Spirit has been giving us all sorts of positive feelings with Lupe and her son. Juanito loved primary and told is mom that he couldn't believe that three hours had passed by so fast! My heart wanted to burst I was so glad. 

Hopefully things continue to go well with Lupe and Juanito, we plan on working hard with them to meet their baptism goal on the 10th of July. WHooP!

I just want to insert here that I am absolutely in LOVE with the Book of Mormon. 

I can't describe adequately what that book has come to mean to me on my mission. I know that it is true, and that it is the word of God. Every time I read it, I can literally feel my mind being filled with it's light. I can't wait to give Mormon a big hug someday and tell him thanks for being such a great prophet. He is pretty darn great.

Well I hope everyone has a solid week and good times are had. 

Much love from Riverside Cal. To each of you. 

Stay Safe&God Speed. 

Love, Hermana Tobler

Out "cold" 6/6/16

Howdy Erryjuannn!

This week has been an adventure to say the least and I loved almost every minute. Haha.. 

So first off, we had an interesting lesson with Fernie ( our most dedicated progressing investigator) and things aren't turning out as we hoped. With out going into too much unwanted detail... We found out that he is a clothing designer and that we might have to start being more explicit about following commandments such as the L.O.C. and the W. O. W. That's always fun. Hopefully he sees what needs to happen and changes his life. 

Thursday afternoon was a bit of a "chiller" when our freezer door fell on my head. Let me explain.

We have one of those basic refrigerators with a freezer above and a fridge below. I was putting some things away in the bottom part of the fridge while the freezer part was open. After I finished, I stood up really quickly and by doing so, the force of my head ripped the door completely off it's hinges and it came crashing down on me. Yayyy..! Aside from some dazed confusion, I thought I was fine and continued to go about the work. However, due to the increasing discomfort and soreness, my comps made me call the nurse and the nurse called mission medical and mission medical decided that I was concussed so I had to go to the E.R. as soon as possible. 

I spent Friday night in the Emergency Room with everyone and their hamster only to find out that I was not concussed but I had damaged a lot of the muscles in my neck. So now I am taking medicine that helps with the pain in my head and neck, but also causes me to be perpetually drowsy and dizzy. YAS. 

So since that little incident, our days have been pretty mellow and low key. I am feeling a little better everyday so hopefully I will be at 100% soon. 

The mission is such a great place to learn and grow. There are so many lessons that I learn everyday just by being here. I wish time wouldn't fly so fast! I hit my 8 month mark this week and I am not ready for the down hill slope that is rapidly approaching. 

I love you all and I hope you are all enjoying your first week of summer. Here we are hanging out in the triple digits so please enjoy your lakes and pools for me. 

Stay Safe&God Speed.

LOVE, Hermana Tobler

Bible bashes don't do jack 5/30/16

Hi Everyone!!

It sounds like everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day weekend, I hope you are all BBQing and spending time with all your loved ones.

So this week was so busy, we got so much done and I LOVE the trio life. Y'all would be shocked how much more we can do with 3 missionaries working together. I love it. 

However, this week, we had a lesson with an investigator who (to put it nicely) is a closed door. He is one of those people who smiles sweetly and says "aww you're so cute when you're wrong". I can usually handle that kind of treatment from an old lady but coming from a relatively young man, it was just rude. I found myself deflecting Book of Mormon accusations and defending myself with testimony and simple truths. Unfortunately, when people want to dump their Bible on you, there isn't much more that you can do besides hold on to your Book of Mormon and gasp for air! 

I am so grateful that we have the scriptures to use and learn from. The Bible is so great, it's stuffed with doctrine and contains a beautiful record of our Savior. The Book of Mormon is amazing because it makes the Bible CLEAR and I just feel so enlightened after reading it. The best part is that they BOTH testify and of Christ. I can't think of anything better. 

On a happier, we have been teaching a man named Fernando. We call him Fern. Or Fernie. Between ourselves of course. He is SO GREAT. He has such a strong desire to learn and grow. He is literally a sponge and is soaking up EVERYTHING. I love teaching him. I feel bad for him sometimes because he is so smart and he feels like he needs to know as much as the members. Pobrecito. 

Well!! That's it for this week friends, hope y'all have a good one!

Stay Safe & God Speed.

Love, Hermana Tobler

Man and House of God 5/23/16

DIIISSS WEEEKKKK...

I met an Apostle of de Lord.. And visited His Temple!

Elder Cristofferson came and visited our mission and it was just grand. He is A LOT funnier than I would have ever anticipated and gave an enlightening address. We were able to ask him lots of questions and learn some neat stuff. He shook each missionary's hand and looked into our souls. I almost died. It was pretty spesh.

The Temple is always a good idea. I feel like it has a way of smoothing out all of our worries and concerns
​and replacing everything with fortitude and a strength to keep going. I am grateful that we have the opportunity to visit a little piece of Heaven on Earth. 

SOOO Jurupa Valley. We actually cover 3 cities. 

1. Mira Loma- farm country/mini Mexico. Love it. 

2. Eastvale- land of the wealthies

3. Jurupa- middle ground of both ML and EV. 

The ward covers a lot of cities and we have such great people here. We were so blessed to have 4 of our investigators at church this week and I am loving working with such a helpful ward. I cant say enough about a ward that is willing to do good things for the missionaries

We all jump 5/17/16

I truly feel that jumping into missionary work can be compared to jumping out of an airplane. Some of us jump and quickly grab on to clouds, skyscrapers, or birds to stop our fall. These obstacles make it harder to lose yourself on the journey down. I feel like every missionary is at a different point in their dissent in to the work. Those that fall the fastest and the deepest have the richest experiences and grow immensely. Meanwhile, the others that are slowing their fall are impeding their own progress and ultimately not learning as much as they can. My hope is that every missionary lets themselves fall freely and never stop getting deeper and deeper into the work.

I am learning so much right now on my mission. My trio here in Jurupa is proving to be a big learning experience and I am so excited to see how the Lord's will will play out. 

I hope everyone is doing well and having a great week. I hope my analogy to missionary work made sense- it seemed a lot clearer in my brain.

Love you all!

Be Safe&God Speed.

Love, Hermana Tobler

JeRuPa BaBy! 5/9/16

iHola amigos y familia!

I hope everyone enojoyed their Mothers Day celebrations as much as I did. I had the pleasure of speaking with my beautiful life giver and it was just wonderful. I have no doubt that I am here because of her. Gracias Mama por todo. <3

UPDATES! So... The time has come for me to leave my cradle and depart into the unknown world of Riverside County. I will be serving in a tiny little valley called Jerupa just West of Riverside. YAY! I am super excited because I will be serving in a TRIO. What???? But actually that means that we will be able to get even more work done together so I am thrilled about it. 

So this week I had a pretty spectacular experience. 

I have written about one of my dearly beloved investigators a few times. His name is Gerardo. Leaving him will be the hardest part about leaving Moreno Valley but I know he is in good hands. Anyway, we had my last lesson with him earlier this week and it was just a miraculous experience. 

So Gerardo is wonderful, he is progressing so quickly. He is friends with the whole ward and he comes to church EVERY SUNDAY plus reads his scriptures and folletos diligently. He prays morning and night in his own way and has such a great desire to learn more. The most difficult thing this transfer has been getting him to pray for us as a group and in the way that our Savior has instructed us. We spent the entirety of our lesson stressing the importance of prayer and how we NEED this relationship with our Heavenly Father. The spirit was so strong and I could feel the great love that Heavenly Father has for his son Gerardo. 

Finally, at the end of the lesson, we asked him to say the closing prayer and he said... NO..

UGHHGHG.... Hermano! We just spent the past hour testifying and teaching about this!

No, we didnt say that exactly but we sure tried to help him see how important it is to pray. With a sigh of defeat, I said the closing prayer. 

Almost immediately after I finished, Hermano Gerardo began talking. It took us a minute to realize it but HE WAS PRAYING! His prayer was so beautiful, simple and heartfelt. The spirit in the room intensified. I almost cried as I listened to this man make a big step in the right direction. JOY!

What a miracle. I love this man, and I am totally going to return to my beloved Moreno Valley for his baptism. I am thankful for the opportunity that I had to teach this darling man. My life is better because of him. 

Thank you all for your continual love and support. I will talk to you all again next week!

Stay Safe & God Speed.

Love, Hermana Tobler

Gerardo con migo a la Iglesia!!

Moreno 1/2 zone family photo. The Elder in the center looks very happy. no se por que.

Last Day in MoVal!!

With a side of spiritual.... 5/2/16

My apologies up front for the overly detailed letter last week. I thought I might as well make a dramatic story out of a boring week. 

ANYways! This week has been more of a spiritual journey and I have been learning a lot more about myself and how missionary work is basically the best thing ever. Who would have thought that busting your buns for the good of others would bring you the greatest and most equisite happiness. Not to mention, help you understand the greatest questions of your heart and see the world through Heaven's eyes. What the what? Why is Heavenly Father so nice to us? I feel like as humans we are just so difficult and silly- but God still loves us to death and no matter what, has a plan for us. I love that about Him. I have found great joy in testifying of my Savior and our father's love for each of us. I hope that some particle of that truth will touch the hearts of all that I meet and they will feel it. 

Miracles are real on the mission. Spanish has been an stormy battle for most of my mission I have recently been seeing some light poking through the clouds. It has been absolutely amazing and humbling to feel the spirit work through me and help these people. 

This week my companion and I planned to do splits so that we could get more done. I was paired with a lovely recent convert whom I adore but does not speak much English. We found ourselves sitting in the living room of a 60 year old woman and her 25 year old son. I was SO NERVOUS! This wasn't my first split, but I honestly felt like I was on a little English island and I had to jump into the scary Spanish ocean. With a prayer in my heart, I cannon-balled in. I am happy to say that my experience in that lesson was wonderful, and the spirit was there. I felt words come out of my mouth that I hardly knew and yet, they made sense. By no means was my communication perfect, but they understood, and they Spirit was strong. That is all that mattered. 

I feel so humbled to be a part of this beautiful work. I know that Heavenly Father works in ways that mysterious but are the best for his children. I am grateful that I can feel the flames of the refiners fire every day here on my mission, and that I am being CHANGED for the better. I wish there was some way that I could fully explain my joy and gratitude. This week I hit 7 months and though it is difficult, I wouldn't have it any other way. 

I love each and every one of you with my whole heart. I hope you all have a fantastic week.

Love&Blessings

Stay Safe&God Speed

Con amor, Hermana Tobler

Mis hermanitas <3