Week 30 - Ljubljana Zabava

 Welcome back welcome back! Another amazing week here in Celje! 

Monday 8/1:

Today we had our pday in Ljubljana with all of the other missionaries. It was soooo fun! We went to a random field and played kickball all together. I made it home every time ;). 

Pday with everyone in Ljubljana!!

I also have never felt more tired and sweaty hahaha. It was a really hot day but we recovered by getting pizza at Pop's Pizza (the best pizza in Ljubljana). Which was heavenly. The rest of the day was filled with travel, talking to the fam, and writing the weekly email. Overall a really fun day with the other missionaries. 

Tuesday 8/2:

On our way to the library for our studies, we ran into Mirko!!!!!!! So so so fun. He was on his bike just passing by. We all went and got ice cream together which was so precious. He is just such a sweet old man. I love him. 

Ice cream with Mirko :,)

Later on we went and visited Milka with some cookies. She was amazing as always. I am almost done with crocheting a bag. She is going to help me finish it off with the straps soon. Later on we met up with Milka's granddaughter who is so cool. We went to a mall and got SLUSHIES!!! WHAT??!?! So freaking cool. I love slushies.

Slushies :D

 Then we sat and just talked all about life and religion with her. It was sooo cool and fun. Especially because it was her BIRTHDAY (Milka told us) and she totally was chill with just spending a couple hours with the missionaries haha. I love it. She even helped us buy all of our groceries for the week and then walked the 20 minutes home CARRYING the heavy groceries with us. What an absolute angel. She is so cool and we see a lot of potential with her. 

Wednesday 8/3:

We had district council in Celje today which was good. It was our last district council with Elder Poulos before he leaves to go home!! We ate lunch at that yummy Chinese/Japanese place. The waiters recognized us hahaha. 

Wok N' Roll ;)

Later on in the day, we met up with a new guy who was interested in getting to know what God's plan for us is. We were able to meet up with him, give him a Book of Mormon and pamphlet about God's plan for us, and then invite him to church. He said he would try to come so that was cool! In the evening we were going to have a lesson with Luigi but something came up on his end. We were still about to have a call with David though who is one of our members in Maribor. 

Thursday 8/4:

In the morning we taught that guy how to play the piano again which will probably become a weekly occurrence haha. Later in the day we practiced a song with one of the members here in Celje for a musical number. We are learning how to sing The Lord is My Shepherd. Which is an absolutely beautiful song based off of Psalms chapter 23. Which is a fire fire fire chapter. Please read it. Later that evening we had a zoom call with our entire mission where we heard the departing missionaries' testimonies. It was bitter sweet because the missionaries who were leaving all gave really great advice and testified strongly about how they have seen God help them in their lives and so much more.  

Friday 8/5:

Today we had exchanges!!!! Sestra Chandler went with Sestra Hart in Celje and I went with Sestra Voigt in Ljubljanaaaaaa!! Woooo!! It was really fun. We had our studies by the river and later on met up with Sestra Williams and Buehner for lunch! We got pizza again with was alright but then I got a yummy cheesecake to balance it out. And ice cream. ;)

 Lunch in Ljubljana with all of the Sestri!

 For the rest of the day, Sestra Voigt and I had two calls. One with this really sweet woman in Africa. One day she texted Sestra Voigt randomly asking to know more about the church. She is being taught by missionaries that live in her area, but every once in a while they have a call to catch up. It was so cool to have this call because she essentially taught us hahaha. We talked about the importance of following specific commandments and she was like yeah of course we need to follow them because God asked us to!! We will receive so many blessings if we do! Um yes absolutely I agree!!! Haha so so so cool. Then we had a call with a member in Ljubljana and she remembered me all the way back from an activity I went to during my FIRST WEEK in Slovenia!! So cool! She was super sweet and cool. After the calls Sestra Voigt and I sat out from the balcony and watched as the sun went down as we did other work. It was so nice and then for our exercise time we just decided to go up to the Ljubljana castle and finish watching the sunset! It was so cool and beautiful. 

Sunset from the Ljubljana castle

Ljubljana castle ft. Sestra Voigt

Ljubljana castle

The coolest thing though was to be able to be back with Sestra Voigt for a little bit and see how much we have changed since the mtc. I have seen so much personal growth since then and that was only 4 months ago. What. So crazy. It was cool to see how much she has grown too. I can't wait to see how we will continue to grow in the future. 

Saturday 8/6:

We travelled back to Celje in the morning which was nice. The majority of the rest of the day was studies and then planning our next week. But we did have dinner with one of the families here in Celje. They are really cool! She is an amazing cook and everytime we go, you have to be rolled out of the house hahaha. She cooked us this really amazing veal soup with mashed potatoes and yummy yummy bread. It was so so so good. 

 ROOTBEEEEERRRRRR WOOOOOOOO

Sunday 8/7:

The highlight of my week, not going to lie. Today was just an absolutely amazing day. Because today was the first Sunday of the month, that meant that it was fast and testimony meeting where anyone can get up and share their testimony.  So many people bore their testimony and the Spirit was just so so so strong. I just felt overcome with love for every single person in the room. AND!!! Our new friend came!! He said he absolutely loved it and wanted to come again next week!!  

Sunset from the balcony

Ice cream count: 2 

Highlights:

- one of our members brought us A&W Rootbeer and Sour Patch Kids (both of which we do not have in Slovenia)

- the Barrus' fed us tacos 

- I ate a yummy strawberry cheesecake

- Wok N' Roll opened back up after being closed for a month 

- Sestra Chandler and I translated slovene memes 

- I found a bunch of disney songs in slovene