Week 24 - Farm Girl

 Hello lovely family and friends and welcome back to another weekly email! I had absolutely no time to send this one last week so you are getting TWO weekly emails. WOOOOOOOOOO!!!! This week was much better than last week and 3/7 of the days were spent on some kind of a farm. What an adventure haha. Lets jump right into it so I can hurry and write my other one rip. 

*Note from future: you will not be getting two emails this week because I am bad at managing time :,( 

Monday 6/20:

Today was so fun. One of the members asked us if we could come to their farm and help out with their hay. We showed up, they took us to a barn filled with hay, handed us some pitchforks and put us to work shoveling all of the hay into a machine of some sort that sucked it up into the room above us. 

Our hard work with the hay

My allergies were going absolutely crazy but it was so much fun. I learned a lot about farming. I think I am ready to own a farm now. We spent a couple hours doing this and it was so fun. I was sneezing the whole time but it was fine because the member told us dumb dad jokes every couple of minutes. They also let us raid their cherry trees and currant bushes. AND THEN they gave us literally 2 whole cartons of fresh eggs. So awesome. I am still picking out hay from my shoes though hahahaha.

My hair post hay

Tuesday 6/21:

Today we went and visited the Fidlers and man it was beautiful. Similar to last time, we worked in her garden, chatted, were given tons of fresh vegetables and herbs, and then were treated to a fire lunch. It was an overcast day which made for the perfect weather. We pulled a bunch of weeds and just chatted. Best vibes ever. And!!!! The cat finally warmed up to me and now I have exactly 57 pictures of the cat on my phone haha. 

The cat :,)

Wednesday 6/22:

We had district council in Maribor which was lovely. We went to a really yummy Italian place afterwards and then got ice cream at Lastovka (the literal best ice cream in all of Slovenia). And then we visited Mirko which was such a blast. For those of you who forgot who that is, he is the sweetest and most adorable old man. He has limited teeth and the biggest heart ever. He also has a horse named Lučka who he gives us loaves of bread to feed her. He also has a whole bunch of cherry trees and it was so funny because he marched right up the ladder and CUT OFF whole branches from the tree to eat the cherries from. When we picked all of the cherries we wanted, we fed Lučka the branch. Hahahaha. So funny. I am not sure if straight tree branches are good for her to eat but Mirko said go ahead sooo... 

Lučka and the cherry branch

he main reason for our visit was to help Mirko with his family history. He has so many photo albums with pictures of his family but because he was never married or had kids, all of his history is in his head. We went through a bunch of pictures and scanned them to upload on Family History with the stories connected. It was such a wholesome experience because he has an amazing memory and told us all about his family members and even all of his family friends. We hope to go back soon and help him preserve his history.  

Thursday 6/23:

This was such an interesting day haha. Wow. To start off, it was Sister Barrus' birthday and she and Elder Barrus were kind enough to drive us to a lesson we had with that one guy who came to church last time. He doesn't live very far from Celje, but he does live in the hills which means a whole 30/40ish minute drive of straight switchbacks and sharp turns. Thank goodness no one got car sick haha. 

Pretty view from our goose chase with Srečko

Well we were literally 3 minutes from our meeting point when we came upon some construction. And it just so happened to be that the literal only road that could get us to him, was under construction and wouldn't be cleared anytime soon. Sestra Chandler got on the phone with him and tried to figure out what to do. I couldn't do much to help haha. We ended up having to drive to three separate locations to attempt to meet with him. It was this whole wild goose chase but finally finally we were able to meet up with him at this beautiful lake. We sat on a bench by the edge of the lake and had the most beautiful conversation ever. He was literally testifying to US about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Keep in mind this is the second time that we have met up with him. The first time was him coming to church so this was insane. He said a bunch of really really cool things and we are excited to see how he progresses. After we got home the rest of the day was pretty chill. 

Friday 6/24:

Today was a fun day too. We went and visited Milka (my Serbian babica who taught me how to crochette) and it was so fun. She helped me more with my bag and we had a really great discussion with her and her son about the church and testimonies. That was really cool. On the way home it poured on us which was so fun. Today we planned a big game night where we invited all of our members and friends to come play board games with us. Before we had a fun little meet up with Luigi and then went to the game night together. The game night was a total success. We had a good amount of people come and it was just such a fun time to bond and laugh over games.  

Saturday 6/25:

Another fire day. Sestra Chandler has a friend up in Maribor from when she was there who invited us and the Maribor elders to cookout at his house. It was honestly so fun. We all brought a bunch of food and had a lot of good conversation. Sestra Chandler's friend straight up made pizzas right then and there for us. They were extraordinary.

The pizza that was heavenly 

 Afterwards the elders and us went whiteboarding. This is where you get a whiteboard (obviously), write down a question, and then go talk to random people. Our question was "Why are you grateful?" It was a little nerve racking at the start, but then it got easier and more fun. The funniest part was we met just as many non-slovenian people as slovene people. We met people from Macedonia, Albania, Spain, Kosovo, Budapest, Germany, Austria, and Bosnia. It was pretty successful. We also got ice cream again at Lastovka. So freaking good.  

Our whiteboard!! :) 

Sunday 6/26:

Today we went to Ljubljana for district conference. District conference is when all of the members in Slovenia meet for church in the Ljubljana church. I got to have a fun reunion with my past comps Sestra Williams and Sestra Voigt. So fun. Here the district president, mission president, mission president's wife, and the president of the European area all speak in church. It was really good! I had a brief glimpse of what motherhood is like because precious 4 year old Adam sat next to me the whole time and I had to entertain him with whatever I had on me. That ended up being all of my jewelry haha. He was decked out with all of my rings, bracelets, and even my necklace. Once he got bored of that I looked into my bag as to what I could possibly entertain him with. What I came up with was four pens and a hair clip. For nearly an entire hour he was entertained with picking up the pens with the hair clip and moving them back and forth from my hand to the chair. So funny. I love kids. After church we had a lesson with Srečko over zoom (the guy from Thursday) and it went very well again. The rest of the day was filled with studies and meetings and then because we had zone conference for the next two days we got to sleepover with Sestra Voigt and Buehner which was so fun.  

Ice cream count: 3

Cows :)

Highlights:

- lavender ice cream is my new favorite ice cream

- I also now like pistachio ice cream which is character development 

- some guy videoed us while whiteboarding so he could put us in a video (I am famous guys)

- a whole bunch a guys from Budapest kept trying to get Sestra Chandler and I to pray that their woman would become pregnant hahaha we did not do that

- Sestra Chandler and I are in the process of translating memes/vines into Slovene and it is so funny

Week 23 - Blueberries Bikes Burek

My first week with my new companion!!!! It was actually really hard if I am being completely honest but in a good way. There are many things that I have already learned about how to speak the language better and even just being a better missionary. Also I have absolutely no time to write this so it is going to be pretty short ahhhhh!!!!

Beautiful view found while exercising one day pt. 1

Beautiful view found while exercising one day pt. 2

Monday 6/13:

Today was pretty good! In the morning we drove to Ljubljana to meet up with all of the other missionaries and change companionships! Crazy!! It is so weird that I will no longer be with Sestra Williams for the next while. After saying goodbye to Sestra Williams (sob) we went back home with my new companion Sestra Chandler!!! WOOOOO!!! The rest of the day was pretty chill. Two of my favorite stores were having a huge sale where everything was 2 euros so we bought a bunch of clothes. The rest of the day was just filled with unpacking and organizing.

Tuesday 6/14:

We had district council today in Celje! Before district council we saw that one lady who lives by the church (the one we helped bring all of her soil to her apartment and then later the one who gave us cookies). She had two huge buckets full of blueberries. Apparently she went into the forest that morning and picked a bunch of wild blueberries for free! We asked if we could go with her next time and she said she was going tomorrow morning at 6am!! So did we go? Absolutely haha (with permission). For lunch we got burek and then ate a birthday cake to celebrate Elder Poulos' birthday that was going to be on Friday. The rest of the day was buisness buisness buisness. Oh and pictures. We took a bunch of pictures for new Facebook profiles.   

Wednesday 6/15:

6am blueberry picking woooooo!! Such an adventure. We barely know this lady but she is taking us into the woods somewhere random to pick wild blueberries. We were there for literal hours. It was actually a really cool experience. There is just something about picking blueberries at 6am. 

Blueberry picking with the sunrise

The woods looked really cool and like something out of Jurassic Park haha. I kept expecting a dinosaur to jump out at any point. 

Our haul (we still have at least 3 pounds left haha)

We ended up picking at least 5 pounds of blueberries haha. We just kept going and going and going and going. Eventually we got home haha. Later on in the day, one of our members who is in charge of VISAs came and we went through the official government building and got my VISA paperwork figured out. 

Thursday 6/16

Today was pretty chill too. We went and visited one of our members (the one who I gave the hearing aid batteries to and taught me how to crochet) and that was so fun. She is such a hoot. She started a pattern for me so I could make a bag. In the middle of our visit we got a nice surprise of torrential rain. She said that she could drive us back to the church because she had to get groceries anyways. Problem 1: she is deaf and fairly blind Problem 2: It is literally raining so hard that the roads are barely visible Problem 3: When I go to buckle up, I realize that there is not a working seatbelt Not so Much a Problem but Definitely Concerning 4: there is just a random microwave chilling in the seat next to me. It was definitely an interesting experience but we made it safely haha. 

Microwave in the car with no seatbelt

Then we practiced a musical number with another one of our members. He also played the soviet union anthem on the piano and then bought us kebap afterwards which was sick haha. No one came to English class because of the rain rip.  

Friday 6/17:

Today we had a massive bike race going on. I am pretty sure it was an international race so lots of the roads were blocked up and there were signs everywhere. We didn't know what time they were supposed to come so we kind of just spent all day outside. We did our studies in a cute little cafe by the river. We bought some cute cake pops which tasted FIRE. 

Cake pops :)

I bought myself some more yarn so I could be like my fellow Slovene babica. We never ended up being able to see the bike race though which was sad but we did have dinner with one of our member families. That was so amazing. She made a whole bunch of food and ugh it was delightful. So so so so so so good. We also just had some really good conversations with them and I could just feel so close to them. Which honestly has been one of my biggest goals coming out here is to get closer to this one family in particular.  

Saturday 6/18  

In the morning we met with another ward family to set up a family history account for Mirko. That was really good and I am so glad we were able to do that for him. It was also really nice of the family to come over and help us. For lunch we met with our friends Maria and Tim (Maria is the one we made cookies with that had none of the supplies or utensils to bake). They took us out to a H E A V E N L Y chinese restaurant where we got some yummy fried rice with chicken and mongolian chicken. They even paid for our food!! And later, they even paid for our ice cream!!!! So freaking cool! We really hope to hang out with them more because they are both super awesome. 

Pretty flowers and Celje

Sunday 6/19:

Happy Fathers Day to everyone who is a father! I am especially grateful for my father and the wonderful example he is to me. I love you Dad!!! Today was great! We had one of our friends come to church and he seemed pretty interested in what we had to say. He was pretty drunk though so haha we hope next time we meet he will be sober lol. 

Spiritual thought:

Even though this week was really hard and I cried 4/7 days and wanted to cry/almost did cry 7/7 of the days, I know that God is molding me into who I need to be. It reminds me of this really awesome video that talks about when we feel like we are being pushed around by God and going through unnecessary trials or hardships. 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2014-06-1360-he-is-building-a-palace?lang=eng 

It also reminds me of the scripture from the Book of Mormon in Ether 12:27

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

I hate being weak. That is one of the things that I struggle with, but one thing that I have learned, especially this week, is that weaknesses are given to us to help us grow and become strong. Like the scripture says, we are given weaknesses to be humble and with this humility, God will make us strong and he will make us into the potential that we are meant to be. I love you all so much!!

Ice cream count: 2 (I have been slacking lately)

Highlights:

- I tried duck for the first time - It was actually pretty good!

- I have become a crocheting expert now because of Milka - I love it 

- We got slovene capri suns from the Waghorns 

Slovene Caprisuns + Golden Hour 

Week 22 - Transfers!!!

Transfers are finally here!! After 12 long weeks! Ahhh!! So crazy. I will be staying in Celje and my new companion will be Sestra Chandler!! She is so cool so I'm super pumped! I am sorry in advance because I am running out of time to write my email so most of the days will be short! We also had a bunch of crazy experiences this week.One of which I made a meme photo album so if you would like to check it out here's the link:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/o77cZYGpsgWGMyHD9

 

Monday 6/6:

I was going to write a super in-depth dramatic retelling of this experience but I have no time so you will just have to see the meme version rip. If you want to know it, just email me and I will send it to you next week. Overall the day was really really nice especially with the weather. A lot of things went wrong, but it was still a fun time. I got to ride a bike, see the ocean, buy a magnet, dip my feet in the water, etc. Overall 9/10 day (minus one point because of everything else that went wrong).

Piran pic #1 - us in front of a cool boat we found

Piran pic #2 - BIKES WOOOO

Piran pic #3 - cool picture of sea

Tuesday 6/7:

It was a pretty chill day today. We just did a bunch of studies and taught Mario in the evening. It was a pretty good lesson. We were able to answer a bunch of his questions. 

Wednesday 6/8:

Such a fun day!!!! We had district council in the morning. Today we saw Mirko, who is the most precious guy ever. He is the old man who has very little teeth, three horses, a dog, two cats, and over 5 acres of land. Last time we visited him I played chess against him which was so fun. This time when we came over it was just as memorable. I made the mistake of telling him I liked cherries (he has about 5 cherry trees) and so he drug out a ladder and just climbed into the tree to pick cherries for us! Hahahahaha. I swear he was over 10 feet off the ground! I was terrified that he would fall, but Mirko is an icon and came down with a whole bucket full. 

Mirko in the tree getting us all cherries (zoom in on my face hahaha)

We also were able to ask him about his family history and help him fill out a family history chart so we can help him start preserving and recording his family history. I love this guy. He could remember his great great grandma's maiden name. What a man. Later on we met up with Milka (the sweet sweet lady who has hearing problems that I gave hearing aid batteries to while she taught us how to crochet). She was so sweet haha. She just gossiped to us about anything and everything. It was so funny. 

Thursday 6/9:

Today was a stressful day because this was when we found out transfer announcements! Up until this evening, we had no clue where we were going and who our next companion was. Before the call we had district council in Maribor which was the very last one of the transfer!! Ahh! To celebrate we ate čevapčiči (chay vawp chee chee) and ice cream. 

 My last Wok N Roll meal with Sestra Williams 

We had English class tonight and only one guy showed up. It was the guy from a long time ago who barged in on our district council, thinking it was English class. We reviewed the alphabet and then taught him more basic stuff like introduction phrases and vocabulary. Good stuff. When it finally got to the call, I was a bundle of nerves. President Field announced that I was going to be staying in Celje and my new companion would be Sestra Chandler!!! WOOOOOOO!!! Sestra Williams is going to Ljubljana and her new companion is Sestra Hart (Sestra Voigt's old comp). Sestra Voigt will stay in Ljubljana with Sestra Chandler's old companion, Sestra Buehner. So exciting!! 

Friday 6/10

Not a whole bunch happened today until the evening. We visited Danitra (she is the one from Bolivia who just had her baby and speaks fairly good but limited English). We rode the bus there and boy was it interesting. A very drunk man sat across the row from us. He immediately noticed our tags and started up a conversation with us. We told him about the church and he was really interested in coming to church on Sunday. He asked to sit by us (with Sestra Williams was next to him and I was across from him). Everything was looking good until he leaned over to Sestra Williams and said something along the lines of "you are very beautiful and your friend over there is very very beautiful". He then proceeded to ask us if we had boyfriends to which we both replied with yes he is in America (shout out to my fake boyfriend for saving me). This didn't really deter him because every couple minutes or so he would make another comment about how beautiful we were or that he was going to get off on our stop and get a drink with us. Thankfully he backed off and we were able to get to our destination safely. Now as far as the visit with Danitra and her mother, it was lovely and honestly everything I needed. They brought us fresh cherries from their cherry tree and also fed us some really really really good Bolivian food and tea. Ugh so good. 

The absolutely amazing Bolivian food we were given 

We were able to have some really good gospel discussions. I felt the Spirit so strongly and she just thanked us over and over for coming over and having these gospel discussions. 

Saturday 6/11:

Today we had a fun picnic in Maribor for our branch!!! It was so good! We had a whole bunch of yummy food and games. A good amount of people showed up which was cool because I finally got to meet some of the Maribor members. It was super fun! We played a lot of fun card games and sports. 

Sunday 6/12:

Another really great Sunday. Sestra Williams and I sang in church again. We sung Where Can I Turn For Peace in Slovene which is such a beautiful song and I would 100% recommend reading the lyrics. The rest of the church service was fire!! After church Sestra Williams and I walked around Celje and took a bunch of photos of each other and just the scenery. Man, I love Celje. It is so pretty. 

One of the candids from our Sunday scroll

We had dinner with the Barrus' and then called our families which was always such a blessing. 

Ice cream count: 3 or 4

Highlights:

- went to the coast

- I dipped my toes in the water 

- Sestra Williams and I played Just Dance again for our exercise

- we got to feed Mirko's horse Lučka bread again 

- we played volleyball with a soccer ball 

Thank you everyone for everything!!!