Week 42 - pumpkin pie :,)

wait guys wait. Am I caught up?? No way ain't no way! It has literally been months since I have finally written and sent an email about the week I just had. Let's goooooo!!!! This week as a whole was pretty alright. There were a lot of fun highlights though so I'll focus on them. 

- On Monday Sestra Voigt and I got haircuts!!! Woooooo! I just got a trim and fix my layers but Sestra Voigt got bangs!! WOOOOOO!!! So fun. I love them

Post haircut!!

- Sestra Hancock and I met up with this one girl that I have been trying to meet up with for FOREVER!!! We went out to eat and it was so good to finally meet up in person

- On Wednesday we met up with this new guy. He actually first messaged me on Facebook looking to learn more. So we met up at the park and walked all around just talking about what we believe, how mission works, and whatnot. He is super cook and respectful as well. Oh and he could speak a little but of english and russian! Him and Sestra Hancock got to speak to each other in Russian which was sick

Reading by our river 

- On Thursday Sestra Hancock and I were in charge of English class and we literally just did MadLibs the whole time. It was so fun. I forgot how much I loved them 

- Thursday was stacked because we called through our ENTIRE less active member list to see if we could bring them cookies later in the list. Some of these people had not been contacted for years. Sadly not a lot of them answered back, but we did get two people who were like yes come over! We have a plan to visit a family on Sunday wooo!!

- On Friday we had exchanges wooo! I went with Sestra Voigt while Sestra Hancock and Sestra Williams were together. That was so so so so so so fun. In the morning Sestra Voigt and I had a phone call with a woman who responded to one of our ads. She wanted to know how to forgive. We were able to have a really good conversation about what forgiveness and repentance is. We hope to stay in contact with her. Then we met up with this other girl for some drinks and that was super fun. She nannied in America for a year or so and loved the missionaries there so she came back and wanted to meet the missionaries here. She is super super cool and laidback. 

- Oh and another really really cool thing that Sestra Voigt introduced me to was going to cemeteries and taking pictures of the grave stones. There is an app where you can take pictures of the headstone and upload it online so people in different parts of the world can find their relatives and ancestors. We went to this beautiful cemetery and took a bunch of pictures. This is also a good oportunity to comfort anyone in need of comfort. Whether it is words of love and support or the comforting truth that they will be reunited with their loved ones again. Also cemeteries in Europe are gorgeous. Absolutely stunning. 

The beautiful cemetery 

- Also as part of the exchange Sestra Voigt and I had a "spa night" where we did facemasks and played settlers of catan haha. I won :) 

On our exchange :)

- So do you remember that family that we set up to visit on Sunday? Well we went all the way to their house on a bus (maybe like a 30 to 40 minute bus  ride) and walked all the way through some fields (15 minutes) and all the way to their house only for it to have been the wrong address. We got there and there is a guy outside so we are like Hey yo are you ___? He's like no? So we say okay do you know a ___? He's like no I think you have the wrong address. Rip So we go call our guy again and he is like yeah I haven't lived there for 5 years. I live on the other side of Ljubljana (45 minutes away from us by car). Whelp. We started walking back to the bus station but then Sestra Hancock was like nah we gotta go back and talk to the family. There has got to be a reason why we had to go all the way here. So we go back and thank them for their help and explain the situation about it. Nothing super major happened. We didn't get their contact information, they didn't seem super interested in learning more, but you know what you never know what our little Hi thanks for your help can do

On the way to meetup with the family at the wrong address haha rip 

- Later that day we went and visited a members house (the same one we visited where we pulled out all of the weeds and bushes from their new property and then he fed us homemade pizza cuz he is a literal chef). Well we were going to go over with the other missionaries for pizza. And let me add a bit of context for y'all. So probably two months ago when Sestra Hancock and I both recently moved to Ljubljana we were going to go over to his house as an introduction thing. He asked us what we wanted to eat and we said pizza of course and then he asked what kind of dessert. I said pumpkin pie but then I realized dang that is a lot of work here because they don't have the pumpkin puree here like we do in America. So they would have to buy the pumpkin, cut the pumpkin, scoup out the guts, put the pumpkin in the oven with some water to soften it up, peel off the skin, puree the pumpkin, and then mix in all of the ingredients as well as make the dough. Essentially a LOT of work. We settled on him making brownies instead. Well. Flashforward to today and we walk in. The first thing he says is "Sister LaRose, you owe me big time". Guys. He made a whole pumpkin pie. :,) A WHOLE PUMPKIN PIE are you kidding me. and let me tell you that pumpkin pie was one of the best I have ever had. 1977728428495029274737210382428852983/10. I love my life haha. He even gave me the pumpkin puree so I can make another one for myself!!!!!

the heavenly pumpkin pie 

What a good end of the week. 

Pumpkin pie count: 1 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Week 41 - walkin to church

 Wassuuupp y'all welcome back to another email! This is for October 17-23rd. We are almost caught up guys don't you worry. The explanation for the title is near the end

a new feature we found out we could do on zoom 

- Pday on Monday was fun! We hiked to the top of the mountain/hill thing in the park to the restuarant and ate goulaš with the other sisters - so so so so so so so yummy

The pink church at the top of the park hill that is right next to the fire restaurant

- We also went shopping at a new place and we found out new favorite store. It is called Tedi and it is just like a dollar store but not everything is a dollar sadly. We made some unneccesary but also so necessary purchases. We both got one of those diamond paintings and a bunch of other fun crafts things for super super super cheap

- Also today we did a pretty scary thing and went into center to hand out english flyers to people. We went with two of the other elders hear and made a deal that if we handed out two stacks out of four, we could celebrate and get ice cream. Well I handed out my entire stack. And Sestra Hancock handed out her entire stack. So you know what that means.... ICE CREAM COUNT ON ONE WOOOO 

- The next day we went out to breakfast with Alejandra and it was so good! We went to this really cute place to eat and it was good to get to know her more.

My breakfast :D

- Ooo also on this Tuesday we had a FIRE lesson with Leon. We met up at the church for the first time and while we were waiting for Leon to show up, we saw that one of our members was there. He asked us how missionary work was going and we told him great, we have a lesson in like 2 minutes. He straight up was like alright can I join your lesson and help? Um...... ABSOLUTELY!!!!! When Leon arrived we went around the church to show him around and our member just went OFF which was so helpful. He explained everything that could possibly be explained and just explained it in a way that would have taken forever for me to translate and say haha. It was just so good. And then we read from Alma 32 together (fire fire fire chapter) and he was literally like woah this totally answers my prayers - I have been looking at things too logically and that is not what faith is - woooooooaaahh so so so so so cool that he is learning and growing. so yeah that was amazing.

The bus broke down for a solid 20 minutes rip

- The next day the other sisters and us went and had dinner at the Kralj's. Now this is the mom and dad of my mtc teacher!! How cool. Also I forgot to mention but her dad was the one that joined the lesson yesterday. What a guy so cool. They made amazing amazing amazing food. I ate until I was STUFFED. 

- Also another cool thing on Thursday was we visited another one of the member families here to celebrate because both the wife and Sestra Hancock had birthdays this past week. It was so fun. She made this absolutely scrumptious apple pastry cake thing and zooweemama lovely. 

- We also met with a new girl named Natalija - she responded to one of our Facebook ads and was like yo come to my house! I want to me you! So we did and she gave us tea, cookies, a lollipop, and so much more. She was so sweet and she also had a cat that had the zoomies nearly the whole time which was so funny. We hope that she will continue meeting with us

Breakfast with Alejandra ft. my massive scarf because it was FREEZING

- On Saturday we had another Polynesian dance night! It was super fun! I definitely not very good at it but hey I am learning.  

Pretty view :) 

- Okay here is where the title comes in. So apparently every 3rd Sunday in October they have this massive massive marathon where everything gets shut down. The roads are all cut off and the busses don't go where they usually go. On Friday and Saturday they started closing down the routes but it was just the route to center and so that just added maybe an extra 10 or so minutes to the travel. So Sunday rolls around and we are like alright we don't need to worry it is just ten minutes longer which doesn't affect us that much. Well um. More and more roads are closed and it is looking like we are going to have to be a little late. Maybe 10 minutes but nothing crazy. We get on this one bus and it takes us in the complete OPPOSITE side of the city. Well. Um. We still need to go to church! No buses are coming anytime soon so we decide to walk. Well it is about an hour long walk and it is right alongside the race almost the entire walk. 

The marathoners 

So anyone that may know the missionaries and our church would see Sestra Hancock and I "ditching" church hahahaha. So so so funny. We cheered on the people and just trudged along. Oh and did I mention that it was POURING rain on us? Yeah that too. We ended up pulling up almost an hour late. We literally came in right at the end on the closing talk and hymn. The rest of the day was good too.

Taking a break after having been walking for 30 minutes to the church (in the pouring rain)  

Ice cream count: ONE wooo

a photo of my dog my mama sent me (so freaking cute)

I found this picture of Christ this week and it is now one of my favorites

Week 40 - chestnuts roasting on an open fire

 Buckle up guys because this week was SO FUN!!!! October 10-16.

- Monday was super fun. Sestra Hancock and I just went exploring a whole bunch. We found this really cool thrift store that is one of the weighted ones where like 1 kilo = like 22 euros or something like that. It was also super super cool just in how the store was set up. Sestra Hancock got a fire vintage tracksuit and I got three sick sweaters. 10/10 Also at the store they had a whole giant rock of REAL fur coats. So ofc we did a photoshoot.

The iconic furcoats 

- Tuesday and Wednesday we had exchanges and wow that was so fun. I went with Sestra Williams (my first companion here in Slovenia so THROWBACK) and it was such a blast. She was sick and so we went back to their apartment and she said she would take a nap for about an hour or so to regain her energy. Well uh 7 hours went by hahaha but it was SO FUN because I got to just study the scriptures, catch up on things I've been wanting to do forever, deep clean my messages, deep clean all of my notes, study the language, and so much more. It was such a good catch up day that I didn't even know I needed. When Sestra Williams woke up we went out to McDonalds for dinner where I proceeded to LOSE MY WALLET bruh. My wallet had everything on it (my bus card, my visa, my credit card, my personal card, my train card, etc etc etc) but I wasn't to worried because the mall literally closed right after we were in there. 

WC Selfie

- we went back the next day and lo and behold THERE SHE WAS so we are good

- Wednesday was also Sestra Hancock's bdayyyy wooooooo 

- we all went out to lunch at a yummy Indian restaurant to celebrate and then had district council and then taught Leon a lesson and it went really good and then we went to a meeting at this charity organization to start getting more service opportunities BUT THE BEST PART EVER WAS.... CHESTNUT ROASTING AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Birthday celebration with indian food

- Sestra Williams has a ccol connection back home with this one family here in slovenia and she we went to go roast chestnuts together. Well first we had to go get them! So we just hopped on over into the forest and started picking them up and putting them in a cute little baskets. The outside of the chestnuts are SHARP. I got pricked a bit but it's all for the mems. Anyways we went back to her house and started roasting them and eating them. And man I really like chestnuts hahahaha they also brought out some of the yummiest apples ever + yummy yummy bread + an apple cider type thing that was WOW and then proceeded to tell us all about slovene history. We just chatted and had a wonderful time while eating (aka my FAVORITE thing to do in the WORLD). After out visit we made a quick pitstop at McDonald's for a bday ice cream trip

Chestnut picking

Chestnut roasting and eating with the gang

- the next day we went to BLED!!! Bled is one of the most famous things Slovenia is known for. Go look it up. Well we went to meet up with this sweet lady and her daughter who live in Bled. They were super super nice. I talked to the mom while Sestra Hancock helped her daughter with her english homework haha. English is hard man! Her homework was so hard and I am literally a native english speaker. That was so fun. When we went to get on the bus after out visit, the bus driver was literally like bro I don't drive to Ljubljana. So uh whelp I guess we are stranded for another 30 minutes! Might as well walk around and see the sights. Now from where we were before, we couldn't see the lake, the church, castle, or anything of it but after a 4 or 5 minute walk BOOM it was all right there. SO FREAKING PRETTY like are you kidding me!?!?!?!?!? 

Bleeeedddddddd <3

We actually ended up missing the second bus bc I didn't look at the right time but it was fine because we were walking around and out of nowhere hear "Hi Sisters!" Um WHAT?!?!?!?! We never ever ever ever hear that. We turn around and there is a guy, his wife, his mom, and their adorable babt :,) just walking by. Apparently the guy served his mission in Slovenia 10 or more years ago and was finally coming back. So that was really cool. We did end up making the last bus haha 

Soup :)

- Saturday was SUCH AN ADVENTURE!! Okay so we were going to have a branch picnic which was super exciting because we haven't had one of these in a while. What we didn't realize is how long it would take to get there. It was about over an hour and a half by bus and the bus only left at 10am and 1pm. Picnic starts at 1. hmmmmm. 10am it is. Elder Kjeldson and Elder Owen joined us on our fun journey. Well we all get to the bus station and are waiting. Oo! We see our bus yay! Um well bus goes flying right past us. Bruh. The next one is literally coming at 1pm. So we decide to go to the train station and just get another random bus just close ish to the area and then maybe find some local busses. We do that and get to the town. Well no local busses but what we can do is walk for an hour. Whelp buckle your boots and straighten your tags because that is just what he did and it was so fun. We just walked all throughout the cute countryside for a while hour. 

1hr walk type beat

If there was any song to describe the vibes of that hour long walk it would be "Send Me on My Way" by Rusted Root. The picnic itself was really really really amazing. A good amount of people showed up and we all just ate some amazing food (čevapčiči :D), talked a bunch, and played a bunch. The coolest thing was I was able to talk to a bunch of the members about a common connection we had. My stake president back at home, President Haglund, was actually the branch president in Ljubljana and lived there for three years. All of the members loved him and his family so much so we were able to talk about how cool their family is. So thank you Haglund family for being amazing. Slovenia misses you!

The cat that came and cuddled me while we were waiting for everyone else to come to the picnic :,) tears

- Sunday was really good too! I gave a talk in church! I was asked to give a talk about missionary work and it went really well! I was pretty nervous but you know what send it. My parents watched on zoom which was super sweet because it was literally 4am their time. Later I made some bomb mac and cheese. 

Anyways this week was so amazing 19384938753929284/10

Week 39 - anutha baptism wooo

 Alright this week covers October 3rd - 9th and this one was AMAZINGGGGGGG. WOOOOOOOO!

- on pday all of the missionaries gathered in Maribor and it was such a blast!!!

 

Us in Maribor wooo

- we ate at Jack and Joe's which is a heavenly burger place you can see the picture below and then we got lastovka (best ice cream place in slovenia) and hung out

My burger at Jack and Joes

- on Tuesday we met with a new guy! I also forgot to tell this in my last email but last week Sestra Hancock posted in an expat group looking for service activities and this one lady commented calling us a cult and that we were racist and a bunch of other nasty things. well what was intended to be a chance for us to find ways to serve ended up starting a facebook war in the comments. There were literally over 50 comments from both sides just going hard at each other. It was a little overwhelming ngl but because of that post, I got a message from this guy saying, hey I saw your post and I want to talk and find out more about your beliefs. UMMMMMMM WHAT?!?!?!?! We also got a bunch of other messages from people in our support so that was super nice. Anyways so we met with him today and it just went so well. We were able to get him a Book of Mormon and start a really good conversation. We have plans to meet up more so WOOOOOOOO!!!!!

- The next day all of the missionaries minus the Celje sisters (sorry) went and helped out a less active member cleared some land so he could start building his house. This ended up taking up nearly all say but it was fine because we were pulling out a bunch of bushes, weeds, destroying sheds, and then built a big bonfire. 10/10 would do again. Then he made us his homemade pizza because he is a whole literally chef?!?! and wow that was just mwah amazing

The sisters taking a break from ripping out bushes

- the next day we went back to kranj and wow it was an adventure. 

Beautiful Kranj

Also beautiful Kranj but countryside version

We went to go deliver a book of mormon to a girl who requested it - she also has a cool story but i'll tell it later. While there we just decided to meet up with two other people. One of them was a woman who lived in Celje when I was there! She is Milka's daughter!!!! She is also the one that had the two cats and it was a miracle that we got back into touch with her. Well yes she moved to Kranj now and we were able to meet up with her and just chat. She is still awesome. After that, we went and visited another old lady that lived in a retirement home. She was the sweetest old lady in the world and I couldn't understand a lot but she didn't care she was just so happy to have visitors. She gave us a whole big bag of cranberries and then a squash and a tiny pumpkin that was on her table all because I said they were cute. :,) im crying. Such a sweet soul. Before we caught our bus home we went and got a kebap but it was called a doner (what they are calle din bulgaria and a couple other places) so that is how you know it is good and man it was really really really good. I ate the whole thing and man it was lovely. 

The best kebap I have ever had in my entire life 

- the next day we went whiteboarding in the park with elder kjeldson and elder owen. That was super fun. We asked people what they were thankful for and it went pretty good not gonna lie!! I really liked it. We were able to talk to a couple people from different countries. Sestra Hancock was able to speak to one lady in Russian which was so cool to see!!

Whiteboarding!! We asked "What are you thankful for?"

- On Saturday our friend Jan got baptized!!!!! It was such a beautiful and perfect day. Before the baptism Sestra Hancock and I went out to eat and found a restaurant that served bulgogi (aka the one thing I have been craving for MONTHS)! They also had boba and sushi so I loved it. 

My bulgogi + sushi + boba also Sestra Hancock got a ramen burger (also delicious)

But yeah the baptismal service was just so amazing and the entire building was just filled to the brim with the spirit. A good amount of people came to support which made it even better. Later that evening Sestra Williams and all of the sisters (yes including the Celje sisters this time hahahah) hosted a polynesian dance activity! Sestra Williams was able to show off her culture and a good amount of people showed up! Ngl polynesian dancing is pretty hard but so so so fun!!!

 Polynesian dance night!! (I am the one taking the photo lol)

- This sunday was fast sunday which is always just so amazing and filled with the spirit. before church a man and his wife walked in that were visiting from america. They were doing a tour of all of the countries in Europe. However the man had not been able to play the piano since they started this trip months ago so he asked if he could use it. The other sisters and I just sat in the room and listened to him play for about 20 minutes and it was just so beautiful. He sung as he played and wow it was just such a tender and spiritual moment. I am forever amazed by those who know how to play and instrument because music speaks to the soul. 

Dinner with everyone to break our fast on Sunday 

ice cream from last week bc I forgot: 1

ice cream from this week: 1