Week 61 - posting up in the church

Hi guys another catch up email wooooo - only two more and then we are all caught up!!! 

This week was for March 13th-19th so enjoy

We started off the week amazingly by spending our Pday at the coast. We went to Piran and that was so fun. We went to an area where we were right by the ocean and we got to dip our feet in. Then we walked along the cliffs all the way to the city center and walked and wandered around the tiny streets. I could have wandered the streets for hours. The weather was also perfect which was amazing and of course we had to get some pizza and ice cream. They had lavender ice cream so you know I just had to get some.  ;)

Rocks :) 

group photo in Piran

Piran ft. castle in the background

Piran center

 lavender ice cream :,)

I don't remember everything from this week but I know I biked a lot because I have a lot of pictures of me biking haha. I love it. 

bike pic

anoutha bike pic

We did have exchanges with Celje this week. Which is so fun! Sestra Voigt and I took the train up to Celje and then Sestra McConkie and I came back. But the cool part was on the way to Celje! We use a Harry Potter train. And I think I've talked about this before but the Harry Potter train isn't obviously the real Harry Potter train but it has the separate compartments.

The Harry Potter train!!!!

 It is so good to talk to people because it feels more natural when you are forced into a small room haha. When we walked in all of the compartments were occupied and so we walked into this one compartment inside with just a woman in it. We weren't super sure in the beginning if she spoke English or she spoke Slovene so we kind of waited it out a bit until the ticket person came. Once they did come it was pretty obvious that she was from Slovenia and so we started up a conversation. It was really cool! Obviously we talked about why we're here and everything. But we actually talked a lot about reflexology because she had just gotten acupuncture done which I studied all about in high school anf college! Later on the topic turned into more about faith and what she believes in. She talked a lot about angels and so that was really cool because my personal angel (aka Sestra Voigt) took out her Book of Mormon and shared some really cool verses about angels with the woman. And the woman really loved it and it was just cool to see her read the verses and be like oh my gosh wow this completely applies to me. Sadly she had to go soon after but we gave her a Book of Mormon and a pass along card so that she can contact us. She kept trying to pay for it haha and we were like bro noooo. After she left, she came back a little bit later came back and said "Hey like look at this river. I hope when you look at the river you think about me and I know when I look at this river I'll think about you guys too and your light and your sweetness because I can see it" (paraphrased lol). That was so so so so cool. After she left 3 ladies came into our compartment. Neither of them knew each other and before long we started talking and chatting. Of course as always "why are you here? how are you speaking slovene?" etc  etc etc. They were all so funny and super sweet. They all openly talked about faith and in the end we got all of their contacts. AND THEN!!!! On the way back Sestra McConkie and I talked to the couple across from us. They were also super sweet and and they said that if they had time they would join the English class in Celje. Woooo!!

Exchanges in general was a lot of fun. We got tacos for lunch and it was so good. 

taccooossss

There's really only one fairly decent Mexican place here and it's close to where I live right now so that's a score but we went there and ate some really good food and came back and I don't know if I talked about him before but we've been teaching this one kid English for service. We essentially just meet up and walk around the city while talking English. We will correct his English and essentially just chat for an hour while walking around the city. It is so fun. He's really cool. He's in his teens and from Moscow but hes living here for the  moment. He's so funny. He says the most sophisticated words and then says that he doesn't know English? Are you kidding me bruh what?!?! Haha too good. So we walked around with him and saw a random donkey on the streets.

Also later this week our branch held a district wide dance where everyone from Slovenia was invited to come to the church and they would put on a dance,  have food, drinks, fun activities, etc. Well the weren't allowed to go. :( I understand but it also sucks because I love dances. It's ok though it's ok. We were at the church anyways because we helped set up up everything and then when all of the music started playing, we went downstairs. It wasn't too bad though because some people came down and chatted with us. We stayed until after the activity was over and then helped clean up. It was funny to be in the building for the dance and hear the music but not be able to go upstairs and dance and party but hey, you know Sestra Voigt and I had our own party downstairs by ourselves!

The next day we had a fun experience when the front door was left unlocked and we didn't have anyone to lock it back up because the elders that had the key to the front door were in Bosnia for  exchanges. That meant that someone had to be in the church at all times until they got back later that night around like 8pm. So we spent the entire day switching back and forth between the companionships so a companioship was in the church at all times. Sestra Voigt and I spent at least 6 hours in the church buidling and waited until 9pm when they finally arrived. :,) That was a looooong day

stuck in the church for hours

Well, I don't remember anything else from the week but I know it was fun! Love you alllll!!! 

Ice cream count: 1 woooooooooo!!!

Week 60 - zone conferencceee

look at me grinding these emails out!! wooo! This one is for March 6th - 12th and was a blast. 

- Started off the week with a bang at ikeaaaa! Wooo! It is safe to say that getting lost in an ikea is a universal thing regardless of the location. I tried my first ikea meatballs and they were alright. Def not my favorite thing but hey they're iconic 

 ikea pday with the meatballs 

- we also finally set up our accounts for the city bikes and bought helmets so the streets of Ljubljana are not ready for us. They better watch out hahahaha I love biking. 

first time on the bikes!!

- oh and I finally bought my token slovene stuffed animal at primark - he is an elephant named slon (elephant in slovene). I like to think I am pretty creative with names ;)

my new stuffed animal slon <3

- we also had lunch with the other sisters and made this really cool ukrainian dish from scratch. essentially you made dough and a mashed potato mix with hebrs and them you roll out the dough and put the mashed potato mixture in to then be boiled. it was actually really good! 

yummy ukrainian lunch with the sisters

- we also went to krnaj and visited one of our members in the senior home with one of our other members. That was super sweet to have the other member with us because they hadn't seen each other in a really long time. and afterwards we went with the member that came with us to go buy supplies for a young women's activity on saturday. We are making jewelry!! Woooo!!

- since this week was zone conference a lot of our time went for preparing for what we would present on with the zl's. we kept bouncing back and forth and finally settled on an idea (will be told later - no spoilers allowed even though I am talking about it in the very next paragraph haha)

- zone conference! it was really good! President and sister Field were actually in Bosnia with APs so we were the ones on zoom but all of the presentations were good. The ZLs and us topic was on full sending things. It is really easy to hide behind your fears and stay in your comfort zone so our presentation was about how to get into that send it mindset. Our invitation was for everyone to do one thing that day that got them out of their comfort zone. Scary, I know! But it has been really really good, especially for me because... later in the day I had a chance to practice it!

pre zone conference selfie

- Sestra Voigt and I wanted to bike back home but the problem is we never know how many bikes will be at the station so we pull up and wow there are three! Perfect! Sestra Voigt gets her bike and I am going to get one when two girls show up and even though I was there first and was already about to click on a bike, when the girl asked in broken english if I needed the bike, I just decided to give it to her. A bus was coming in a bit so we had a couple minutes to just sit there awkwardly while they struggled with the seat and so I decided to go over and help them again and found out that they were from Ukraine! We exchanged a couple of words and then our bus came and so we had to go. Well when the bus dropped us off, I still wanted to bike someplace so Sestra Voigt and I got a bike and literally rode like up and down the street. It was nothing but I guess it was God's timing because right when we got to the station the girls were there again! We ended up talking to each other for at least 30 mintues and got their contacts. They were so so so nice. What a cool miracle!

these dogs scare me - "it is not a hate thing, it is a fear thing" - me 

Bike selfieeee

another bike selfieeee 

- On Saturday we had the young women's activity where we all made jewerly. Some of the girls just sang the entire Hamilton soundtrack which was such a throwback to my middle school days (shoutout to Mantha). One of the girls ade us all earings that matched out eyes which were cool. 

Overall a solid week!

Bike selfie count: 10 

Week 58 & 59 - the icons are back

Helllloooo - here is another catchup email and I am combining the two weeks because I don't remember what happened haha so woooo! We are going on off pictures for now 

my flag :)

February 20th - March 5th

- first of all I said goodbye to Channy which was so sad. but it is okay because we are going to be crashing on each other's couches every other weekend ;)

 

Channy <3

Our goodbye selfie 

- and then my round two time with Sestra Voigt started woooooo! For the rest of the pday we just played pickleball and spikeball in the park while watching a gorgeous sunset. Vibes

A funny pic of s voigt and I on a call 

- We also had the worst pizza of my entire life - we ordered a kebab pizza which is usually lifechanging amazing but this one was lacking in every way. It literally had pickles on it. And now I am not a pickle hater but let me clarify. These pickles were sweet. Nah man. The worst pizza ever. -394938832939824/10 do not recommend.  

worst pizza ever like ever ever 

We got back into contact with Aleš who is a guy I taught back with Sestra Hancock and had a really great lesson with him. He is just so funny too and sometimes says the most out of pocket things but hey it keeps us on our toes. 

- We also went to the local graveyard and took pictures of the headstones to upload online so people can find their relatives easier. That was a lot of fun. 

in the graveyard

- the next pday we all went bowwwlliinnnggg - now I consider myself pretty good at bowling but I guess it didn't reflect because I got the least amount of points.......... anyways it was still a blast

Bowlliinnnggg

- we also did service at Deni's with all of the little kids and ew helped them write letters in english to their family members. it was so cute

- we also had exchanges this week! I went with Sestra Matuschek and it was the best exchange I have ever been on. We did so much and it was so fun!! We went out to eat at this yummy pasta place and studied in the library and then Sestra Matuschek was like okay let's leave a Book of Mormon in the library and so we did and it was so fun!! 

 leaving the Book of Mormon in the library

Exchange with s matuschek,

games in the park

I don't know the context of this picture

We also had a lesson with Aleš that went really really well and THEN we went to a language cafe event with the other sisters and that was just so so so so so much fun. Seriously. I LOVED IT! She is so cool

- We also spent a good chunk of time on Saturday cleaning the church with all of the other missionaries 

I am sure we did so so so much more but my memory sucks haha so this is whatcha get. Also shoutout to my brother Keldon!! He had a birthday on the 2nd. Happy birthday Keldon woooooo!!!