This week was blazing hot!!!
Sestra Williams and I chilling (not featured: us sneezing every three seconds from allergies)
Monday 5/9:
Today was Sestra Williams' birthday!!! Our birthday plans were to go to a bunch of stores and treat ourselves. We went and explored all of the stores around our street. It was so fun to go into all of the cute tiny stores and see what they had. We had been wanting to do that for a while. Sestra Voigt and Sestra Hart texted us and told us that a person they had been texting lived in Celje and wanted a Book of Mormon. They asked us to meet her and give her one around 12:30ish and let me tell you this was such an interesting experience. Originally we were going to meet up with her in center, but she texted us saying that center36 had too many people there and that she found the address to our church and would just meet us there. That was understandable because there was a really big festival going on. We walked over to the church and saw a lady standing outside of the building. She wasn't facing us and was kind of just looking for us in the wrong direction. That was a little confusing because she wasn't facing us. We got to her and I asked if she was Maja (the girl we have been texting). She kinda just said hello hello so we introduced ourselves, shook her hand, and then I tried to give her the Book of Mormon. She shook her head, said she didn't have time, and then I guess her friend came by and they walked away together. So uh that was confusing. Turns out that was not Maja and some random lady that was waiting for her friend hahahaha. Too good. We texted the girl and asked her where she was. She said inside the church, but we knew that she couldn't possibly be in our church because it is locked so she must be in the Catholic church across the street.
Text exchange with fake Maja pt. 1
We walked across the street and looked all through the church but did not see her. She sent a text saying that she is in the church with blue carpet (that is the color of our church carpet) but again, our church is locked. We wander around the streets and through random buildings for probably another couple of minutes until we get another text from her. She sent a picture of the inside of our church.
Text exchange with fake Maja pt. 2
What...the...heck. We were so confused. How did this random lady get into our church, especially with it being locked?? We start heading back to our church when we see a group of random people taking a picture in front of our church sign. Now, this does not happen so either these people are making fun of us or they are members from somewhere else. Turns out one of the girls was a missionary here quite a long time ago. We are still anxious to see Maja and get her the Book of Mormon, so we just invited them to come inside. We walk in and all of the lights are out. I am starting to think that this woman lured us here to murder us. I am so scared haha. But I go up the stairs and SURPRISEEEEEE!!!!! It was all of the other missionaries haha. They planned this entire thing as a surprise party for Sestra Williams. They literally made a whole fake FaceBook account. So so so funny. I nearly had a heart attack. We had some yummy desserts and played some games. We also shared our favorite memories of Sestra Williams. I shared about the time when she pushed me into a flower pot. We spent a good amount of time with them and then Sestra Williams and I headed out because we were still on a shopping high. We walked to a shopping mall that was maybe a 20 minute walk or so. That 20 minute walk actually took us maybe 30 minutes or so because we got lost a couple times but it just made it more of an adventure. We shopped for quite a while and when we went outside to go home, realized that it was pouring BUCKETS outside. Of course the jacket that I brought did not have a hood but once again, it made it an adventure. I made a point to jump in every rain puddle. We walked home but made a quick detour at our favorite Thai food restaurant. That place always hits the spot.
Overall it was a really wonderful day filled with yummy food, lovely people, and fun adventures. Happy birthday to my lovely companion :)
Tuesday 5/10:
Today was sooo hot!! We did our studies outside and it was glorious. The birds were chirping, the bees were humming, etc. I definitely got a nice tan out of it. I got ice cream too. Beautiful beautiful day. We went on a really nice walk with Betty and talked to her more about what she believes.
Then we had a call with one of our friends. She is a younger girl and is having a hard time understanding what the Book of Mormon says. We are going to start having more calls where we read the Book of Mormon together and talk about what is confusing. It was really nice! We helped her with some basic questions about the history of the Book of Mormon, how it is structured, and then read a bit with her. The best part was after our call she texted us talking about how she doesn't know why but after the call she started crying because she felt so happy and loved. We told her that what she is feeling is the Holy Ghost confirming that what we are teaching and reading together is true. I am glad we were able to help her recognize the Holy Ghost. :)
Wednesday 5/11:
District councillll woooooo!! We went to Maribor and wow the weather was gorgeous. Usually it has been downcast and rainy every time I've gone to Maribor but today, wow. The sun was SHINING!
After district council we went and had lunch at a place called La Pizzeria and it was amazing. The pizzas were splendid but the best part was they give you these giant scissors to cut the pizza with. I think that is absolutely genius because you get to cut a slice however big you want it to be. I loved it.
District council lunch at the pizza place with massive scissors
Later on after coming home, Sestra Williams and I got some yummy ice cream. The rest of the day was pretty chill. We had one of those training workshops, but other than that nothing too crazy.
Thursday 5/12:
Another beautiful and insanely hot day. It was pretty humid too. The main highlight from today is we went and visited one of our members, Hilda. She is a sweet sweet older woman who has a hard time hearing. She is hilarious. She actually speaks a mixture of Serbo Croatian and Slovene so lots of times you've just gotta roll with it. She hasn't come to church because she has had a hard time hearing. We went over to her house so she could teach us how to crochet. Learning how to crochet in English is hard enough, but learning how to crochet in a mixture of different languages is pretty hard. I could not get the hang of it haha. There were several times where she just took it and did a couple rows and then gave it back. While we were crocheting, I noticed a packet on hearing aids on her desk. I showed her that I had hearing aids and was basically deaf too. She told me about how she wants better hearing aids because hers are very bad and she doesn't have any batteries for them. She showed me them and I am pretty sure they were from the 60s haha. When she showed me that she didn't have batteries, I had a thought to try putting my batteries in her hearing aids. They worked! She put her hearing aid in and I will never forget the look on her face. It was a look of pure joy and wonder. It pierced me right to the core. I remembered that when packing to come here, I packed more batteries than I needed. I packed extra. I didn't know why then, but I do now. It is so I can give them to her. God's timing is one of the most beautiful things to witness. It is like seeing the last piece of a puzzle or a project fit in its designated spot. I know that God perfectly timed this. She invited us to come back again tomorrow and we had to head back for English class. Two people came to English class! Both of them were people that either had not come in a while or it was their first time. That guy from last week who said he wanted to learn English came and then a younger boy who had come a long time ago started coming again. They are both pretty chill. We just talked with them and helped them get better at responding. The younger boy already had amazing English! He wanted to know fancy words so we taught him "baffled", jurisdiction", "
Friday 5/13:
The morning started out with cleaning the catholic school. The worst part was I had to kill three separate spiders and I hate spiders. One of the other ladies there made fun of me and told me I had a "spider phobia" hahahaha. She is right. One of the other main things we did was sweep the courtyard. That was pretty fun but Sestra Williams and I were both dying by the end of it because of allergies. We did some of our studies in the library today which was so nice. Afterwards I got a smoothie and a cake pop while Sestra Williams got ice cream. We then walked to Hilda's house. I know I said I sucked at crocheting yesterday but today something clicked and I got it down! It does not look perfect or very pretty but I am proud of it. I gave Hilda my extra hearing aid batteries and she was so thankful. During our visit she would just stop to tell us that she heard something and it was so sweet because I know how she feels. I know how it feels to put on hearing aids and hear sounds you didn't know existed. We stayed with her for a bit but then we had to leave to get back in time for a meeting. After our workshop we went out to eat with the Barrus' for a birthday dinner (both Sestra Williams and Elder Barrus have birthdays in May) at Stari Pisker which is this really really yummy restaurant in Celje. That was so yummy. When we got back home there was an absolutely beautiful sunset.
Saturday 5/14:
We have heard that natural honey helps with allergies so in the morning, we went to our local market. While there I couldn't resist getting some fresh cherries and strawberries. I also couldn't resist getting some kind of a strawberry shortcake that one guy was selling. It was so good!! We came back home and then got ready to visit our investigator, Luigi in his hometown Velenje. He has been asking us to come visit and walk around the lake for the longest time ever but whenever we try, it rains or one of us had to cancel. But today we were finally able to go and it was absolutely gorgeous. There are three lakes right by each other and we walked around two of them.
Everything was just so green and the air smelled so great! At one point we went and bought ice cream and the ice cream truck man found out we were Americans and so he put some fun little American flags in our ice creams.
We talked to Luigi about prayer and the Book of Mormon. He is progressing very well which makes me happy.
Sunday 5/15:
Today was another beautiful day. At church Hilda came and she gave me a knitted pouch for my phone. So so so so so precious. I love this woman. One of our members was feeling sick so we walked 20ish minutes to his house to give him cookies only to find out that he was not there hahaha. We called and he said to just give the cookies to his mom. The rest of the day was pretty chill and nice. Nice and hot outside.
I hope everyone has an absolutely wonderful week this week. Do not forget to make adventures out of your life. Anything can become an adventure if you find a way to make it fun. I love you all and se vidimo kasneje naslednji teden <3
Ice cream count: 5 (wooooooo!!!)
Highlights:
- on Monday they had a fun festival with booths all over in center. The booths had information about all of the different countries in Europe. I am not sure what it was but it looked like a fun get to know each country fair with music and dancing
- my sandal tan lines are coming in real nice
- I tried Burek for the first time and it was so good
- I had cake for breakfast
- I have become addicted to crocheting
- I had told Luigi that my favorite animal was a beaver but he thought a beaver was a squirrel so when we came across a squirrel he said "Look a beaver!" and that made us all crack up
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