Hi hi hi hi hi everyone!!! If you read anything from my email please read the part underneath the highlights.
Monday 7/18:
Today was pretty fun! We did a hike with the other missionaries to the top of one of the mountains here in Celje. It was really cool and super fun. My tan lines got worse though haha.
Velenje lake :)
After the other missionaries headed home, Sestra Chandler and I hung out inside for a bit and then randomly went out to a bookstore so I could find Harry Potter in Slovene (woo!). We walked out into the center and there was a whole festival going on!! People were dancing in traditional dress with the traditional music playing. They were playing traditional games.
Us with the firefighter mascot (he looks more like a roman soldier haha)
There were booths everywhere with food and free stuff from all of these different countries in Europe so we got to eat and get a bunch of free stuff.
THEN. We went towards where the stage was set up and LPS and Slovene band (my favorite to say the least) were RIGHT THERE. Um what the heck. They were practicing for their concert later so I got to hear 10 seconds of their playing haha it was awesome. Sadly we had to be back inside before curfew and they played right when curfew started so I just had to strain to hear them from our window.
Post ribs dinner . very very very good
Tuesday 7/19:
Today was a slower day but also a good catch up day. We were able to check things off of our to-do list that had been there for a bit. To spice things up we had lunch at a place called koper pizza. It was pretty good! Not too bad. I think my favorite thing that we did today was we studied at the library and found a whole bunch of movies in slovene. There was Barbie, Megamind, Teletubbies, Shaun the Sheep, and so much more. It was so fun to see the translations for everything haha. The rest of the day was spent getting back into contact with people from the past.
Barbie in Slovene
Wednesday 7/20:
This was a fun day. One of the members in Ljubljana came to visit so he could see where the church in Celje was in case he wanted to come for church on time. He was such a funny character. He has a lisp which a slovene lisp is literally the best thing ever. It made it a bit harder to understand but it was so fun. He brought his sister along and we toured the church with them. We had district council over zoom afterwards. That was pretty interesting. Later, we met up with a sweet girl that we had met at a service opportunity for drinks. She was super nice and bought us drinks. I learned that pomegranate schweppes is fire. Then later we went to Velenje to meet with Luigi!!! That was really good. We walked around the lake again and just had really good gospel discussions. We have really high hopes for him.
Thursday 7/21:
We had a call with a friend in the morning. She moved from Slovenia to London right now (jealous) so it was good to catch up with her. Today we got SLUSHIES!!!! I had no clue that we had them here but lo and behold!! It was really good.
We did our studies in the library again today which was good. We tried walking around to give away a Book of Mormon to someone but literally no one was out. It was a ghost town. Everyone was at a stadium just outside of Celje for the fire fighter competitions. So that was sad. No one showed up to english class too, but it was okay because we just caught up with the Barrus'. To cheer ourselves up we got ice cream from this really fun ice cream truck that was shaped like a christmas ornament ball. I don't know how else to describe it haha. But we got ice cream and it was half raspberry + pop rocks and + wafer chunks. So good. So so so good.
Friday 7/22:
We had a lesson with Srečko in the morning and that went so well. He essentially said that he was willing to be baptized but couldn't commit to a date just yet because he had specific health appointments that he had to schedule. Please pray for him that he will be able to keep up this desire. We went whiteboarding later in the afternoon and it was so so so so so so hot. I was dying. We asked the question "What are you thankful for" and ended up talking to a couple people, but a lot of people weren't out in the city which was sad. Later we met up with Milka's daughter (the miracle moment from last week) to help her redo her balcony. It was probably high 90's with high high humidity while we were painting and sanding the balcony. That was really good. I got to cuddle with her cats which was amazing despite sneezing every three seconds from allergies. Another cool thing was we saw that she still had her Book of Mormon out so that was a good sign. Afterwards the city had a big celebration where every country in Europe did a performance with a song or traditional dance.
Cool hedge art they have in the city
We put our dinner time towards that and got some really really yummy pulled pork while watching the performances. They had more traditional Slovene dances and games which was super fun to watch. I have learned that when you listen to traditional Slovene music you literally cannot be sad haha.
Yummy pulled pork, potatoes, and coleslaw dinner while watching the performances
Saturday 7/23:
Today was 103°. Are you kidding me. 103° + intense humidity = death. Thankfully we weren't outside too much today. We had interviews with the mission president which went great! Later on we went up to team teach a really cool woman that the elders were teaching. It went pretty well and we were all able to teach her about faith, repentance, and how to pray in a personal way. Afterwards we went and visited one of our members and that was really good. We were able to have a really good conversation just about how God is aware of our trials, needs, and wants.
Ice cream: 3 wooo
Highlights:
- every day there was something fun going on which was cool
- got a slushy which I didn't even think we had here
- there were pop rocks in the ice cream!!!!
- we got to experience a bunch of Slovene culture this week
- we had some fire lessons with our friends and we are excited to see how it goes
This week was honestly really hard. I struggled quite a bit with a lot of things but one of the biggest things that I have learned is said in Mosiah 23:20-22.
20 And it came to pass that they did multiply and prosper exceedingly in the land of Helam; and they built a city, which they called the city of Helam.
21 Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.
22 Nevertheless—whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day. Yea, and thus it was with this people.
There will be many times where we will be doing what God asks of us. We will be praying, reading our scriptures, following the commandments, and so much more but feel like we are being tried. Trust me I felt like that this week. God recognizes our efforts, He really does, but like in verse 21 "nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people, yea, he trieth their patience and their faith". God doesn't give us trials and hardships just to punish us. It may seem like it. But God gives us trials for us to grow and to show our trust in Him. He gives us trials so we can change. So we can have experience. It sucks sometimes, well, most of the time haha, but trust that God is molding you into a better version of yourself. All we need to do is continue trusting in Him and let Him change us. 
Cool picture of the sun one morning
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