What up party people?!?!?! This was an absolute fire week - if you want to read the best part of the week skip to Saturday because wow that day was amazing!!!
Summary (I keep forgetting to do these haha sorry!):
Celebrated Elder Hughes' birthday on pday (his actual bday was Friday tho) and had wings. My first time having wings and it wasn't that bad! We also celebrated Betty's birthday on Tuesday which was super fun! Went on exchanges with Sestra Voigt (mtc companion) on Thursday and Friday in Ljubljana! Our friend Karolina got baptised on Saturday!!
Book of Mormon ft. The Sestre
Monday 5/30:
Today was my Uncle LeRoy's birthday. My uncle passed away last August and this was the first birthday without him. My love goes out to all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, siblings, and parents that had a hard time today. We travelled up to Maribor for Elder Hughes' birthday and that was super fun! He made us all wings with his own homemade buffalo sauce. It was pretty spicy but pretty good!. The sisters from Ljublana came up to surprise the Elders but we later found out that they already knew they were coming haha. We all just hung out and ate wings and cake. On the way back Sestra Williams and I almost missed our stop hahaha. We would have ridden all the way to Ljubljana if Sestra Buehner didn't notice and tell us.
Tuesday 5/31:
Today was Betty's birthday! It was super nice. We went to a nearby lake with her and one of her friends to celebrate. We hung out for a bit more before coming back to Celje. Later on we had an absolute FIRE lesson with Luigi. One of our members joined which was such a big help because he was able to explain things in a different way than us which is always helpful. I really think that Mario is close to being baptized!!! AHHH so so so good!
Pretty sunset
Wednesday 6/1:
We had district council today again! We ate at hood burger and then celebrated Elder Hughes' birthday again with cake. He is spoiled over here. We practiced our musical number with Marko and later had a prayer with the same woman as last week. She is still struggling so keep her in your prayers!! One cool thing that happened is we attended an online training workshop and Elder Burton from my district in the mtc was there too!!! So fun to see him haha. AND another companionship from Sweden was there and one of the elders had the SAME EXACT last name as me! I have never met another LaRose besides who I am related to. So funny.
Thursday 6/2:
Exchange day one!! In the morning Sestra Williams and I took the train to Ljubljana and met up with Sestra Voigt and Hart. Sestra Hart and Williams got into the car and drove to Celje while Sestra Voigt and I stayed in Ljubljana. Two newbies in the big city alone... what could possibly happen ;) haha.
Ice cream w/ Sestra Voigt pt. 1
We were actually pretty busy! Right from the get go we were moving! We mailed a Book of Mormon to a cute lady that Sestra Voigt and Hart had met earlier in the week. We ate lunch at a yummy Wok place!! Went to the main park to meet up with another sweet girl. While we were waiting for the girl, a Hare Krišna man came up to us. We actually had a really interesting conversation with him about the differences between our beliefs. We bonded over the fact that all three of us were missionaries haha. Overall a really interesting experience. A little bit after he left, we met up with the girl and she was so sweet and cool! We talked with her about a bunch of different stuff before we had to go open the church for one of the members there. Afterwards we did some of our studies, went back to the apartment, and had a bunch of meetings.
Friday 6/3:
In the morning we only had time for our studies before hopping back on the train to Celje. The train ride to and from Ljubljana is sooooo pretty. I love it!! The rest of the day was pretty chill.
Ice cream w/ Sestra Voigt pt. 2
We had an amazing meeting with one of the families in our ward. They are SO amazing. We were able to really get to know them all better and talk about so many different things. They gave us a bunch of chocolate which was so good haha.
Saturday 6/4:
What a wonderful day. Do you guys remember that woman who Sestra Williams and I visited in Ptuj where everything went wrong? She was the one who had the cat that wouldn't come out from under my skirt, the seven guinea pigs, the lesson through google translate because of her dialect, the almost miss the bus back, etc etc. Yeah well the Maribor elders have been teaching her and she chose to be baptized today! And again, it was such a beautiful day. Sestra Williams and I hopped on the train to Ljubljana with the Maribor elders and a couple church members in the morning. We invited a lot of people and guess who freaking came. Luigi!!!! That was so cool that he was able to come. The baptismal service was beautiful. We sang songs and a couple people gave talks about baptism and the Holy Ghost and then Karolina was baptized!
Baptism pt. 1
Baptism pt. 2
After Karolina was baptized, Luigi told us that he felt electrified and like there was a special spiritual presence. He said he felt like he got shocked in a good way. AHHHHH This guy is amazing!!!!! We told him that this feeling is the Holy Ghost. And the whole rest of the day he kept asking questions about baptism and what it takes to become a member. He said a lot of phrases like, "if I became a member of your church..." So so so cool. He said he is still praying to know if this church is the true church, but we know that he is getting closer and closer to an answer. Wow, such a lovely day. I also got to see a lot of members from Ljubljana and interact with them as well as the missionaries in Ljubljana. The way back to Celje was really cool too. We rode back on the train with Karolina, her daughter, the Maribor elders, and a couple members from Maribor. Sestra Williams and I sat across from Karolina and her daughter and just chatted the whole way. It has been really cool to see just how much my language has improved. Of course I don't understand every word but I am getting closer and closer. At one point we all pulled out our Books of Mormon and were reading from it together. Such a cool time.
Sunday 6/5:
Once again, another amazing day. Today was fast sunday (every first Sunday of the month we go without food for two meals and pray for something specific - also every fast sunday is when the church service turns into what we call Fast and Testimony meeting. This is where anyone can come up and bear their testimony of whatever they want.) It is always very spiritual and uplifting for me to hear other peoples' testimonies and why they believe what they do. It was also really cool because I was able to understand nearly everything that people said. WOO!
Ice cream count: 3! (better)
Highlights:
- Sestra Williams and I bought matching butterfly bracelets to remind us of each other because transfers are almost over :( :( :( :( :(
- Sestra Williams and I did Just Dance for a workout one morning. I got to dust off my Rasputin dance skills haha
- Got to see Elder Burton (old mtc district buddy) on a zoom workshop!
- Also in the same zoom workshop there was an Elder there named Elder LaRose!!! Neither of us have ever met another LaRose! I did some Facebook stalking but still haven't figured out if we are related on not
- Sestra Voigt and I got Wok together (so so so so so yummy)
- Sestra Voigt and I are now addicted to those "crack the code" number puzzles - go try one right now it is so fun
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