Week 71 - tan lines and fun times

Heeelllooooooooooooo!!! How is everyone? Thungs are lovely over here in the land of Slovenia (here's my monthly reminder that I am not in Slovakia haha). This week was another fun one - it was soooo nice and sunny outside so we spent every minute we could soaking up the sun. 

Some highlightssss

- one of the charity/organizations we work with had a cooking activity where we all got together and made a yummy chicken pasta and dessert. That was super fun and it was cool to hangout with them. Since both Sestra Stutzman and I are new, it was a good chance to introduce ourselves and what we do here. We were able to answer a lot of gospel questions which was fire. 

- we are still doing a lot of english classes for Ukrainian kids, adults, and Slovene adults. It has been going pretty good. We taught some of the Ukrainian kids all of the different ways to say hello and goodbye (ex. What's poppin? What up? Peace out! Aight imma dip! Etc) so funny. 

Lavender ice cream gang

- we went and worked on a farm for like 5 hours. It was so much fun and it seems like we are going to go at least once a week to help. This is the coolest family ever and it is just so cool because we can also talk to them about the gospel. I got the most wicked sunburn but then I tried the old balkan trick where you put plain yogurt on the burn and after a bit it wasn't red anymore! Crazy, huh? But hey! It worked! And it was so good to do some physical service 

Working on the farm with the Maribor elders

Farm gang 

With the farm gang again 

- we had a branch picnic which was super sweet. A couple people came and so we just chilled and chatted for a bit. The branch president's wife told us how they met and their love story which was super entertaining  I love them so much. 

Game night getting intense

The Ukrainian elders + the Wilkersons + us 

Lunch @ the Wilkersons 

- we also got to go down to Ljubljana really fast to go to one of the younger kids' baptism. It was super sweet to see all of the members again. Haha I keep seeing them and so it's funny because they keep saying, "wait why are you here I thought you moved to Celje?" Haha what can ya do? 

- On Sunday it was super precious to be back. I had forgotten how small it was and how many things depended on us. It was interesting to just be reminded of that but also cool to see everyone who came. There were some intense deja vu moments going on when the wifi connection with Maribor cut out haha. Good to see that not much has changed with the bad wifi.  

View from Celje castle 

Me 

Also some big news - some of you already know but sadly my family will be moving  they are going to be moving this week back west to Vegas. Crazy, huh? I'm sad that I won't be going home to Connecticut but hey Vegas is cool too haha. I'll def come back to visit though so no worries 

Ice cream count: 2 :(

Lavender ice cream 

Week 70 - this is true

Hello my lovely people! Today was another insane but good week! Transfers were on Monday but my new companion wasn't arriving until Wednesday afternoon so Sestra McConkie and I posted up together for those three days until our news comes got here. It was soooooo freaking sad to say goodbye to Sestra Williams and Hancock - they are some of my favorite people ever. Love you both. 

This weekend we had an insanely incredible, special, once in a lifetime, unique, and every other word with that emotion experience. Elder Bednar, one of the two apostles came and visited our mission. Now, there has not been a visit from a general authority since 2010 and that was 13 years ago so this was a big deal. This meant that on Sunday, all of the members from Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Croatia would have the chance to meet up together and hear from a living apostle. Is that not the coolest thing in the world????? And another cool thing was all of the missionaries got to come early on Saturday and have a personal conference with him. I will explain more about both days specifically later. You don't want to miss out on it. Fr

our goodbye to Sestra Williams and Hancock :,(

Anyways let's start at the start of the week! After lugging my luggage all over the place we finally just decided to go to Kranj and have an adventure! We met with Mehtab and that, as always was such a hoot. He is hilarious. And of course we had to get the amazing kebab and the guy was so nice. He was from Macedonia and so he taught me us all of the words of the ingredients in Macedonian. So cool. And then we discovered the best drink to grace the earth. It was in the library (my favorite library ever in slovenia and I guess the world honestly) vending machine and was a bezeg lemonade. I am obsessed with it now. 

The lemonade (I am drooling just thinking abt it)

On Tuesday we were going to go visit one of my favorite members because for some reason the wind decided to become viscious and start a bora (look it up haha) so it was too dangerous to go visit her. I genuinely sobbed and yes, I have the pictures to prove it. I really really really hope I can say goodbye to her before I go. Ugh I am so mad at the dumb wind but what can you do. Later on in the day we went to Celje to help teach a class of Ukrainian kids. It was fun and by the end of this, I am going to be able to speak some Ukrainian. Oh and we also went and saw Lea play basketball again for the national team in slovenia! She is so so so cool. They played against Hungary and of course my first night back in Celje we had to get Stari Pisker. Man I missed those ribs and it was so so so scrumptious. 

We spent the night in Celje and then in the morning went back to Ljubljana to move Sestra Hancock in and pick up our new companions. Well we got a little distracted shopping and eating McDonald's because they arrived EARLY and were just sitting around until one of the other missionary companionships randomly found them. Lol awkward haha. What a welcome to Slovenia haha. The rest of the day was just traveling back, unpacking, organizing, and cleaning. 

my cutie comp

The next day we helped with the adult english class for the older ukrainians/slovenes. That was good! The lady I was teaching english told me that I was like sunshine :,) tears and because the Wilkerson's are amazing we had lunch with them and the other elders (who are assigned to speak/learn ukrainian). It was so good. One of the goals for today was to get Sestra Stutzman registered so she didn't get kicked out of the country. Well, I thought I was an expert so I went to the place I went to when I first got here and was trying to figure all of that out and well it just not working out. The guy kept saying that he can't register her because she doesn't have a visa and I'm over here being like bro she literally just got here yesterday how could she have a visa. Well turns out I went to the wrong buidling hahaha. I went to the place where you get your visa work done and not the police station. my b my b We sent a distress signal to the Wilkersons and got it all figured out. The police guy was funny. He saw that my visa was going to expire in a month or so (aka before I go home) and said "I am just going to do this" while putting his hands in front of his eyes hahaha. 

Friday we went to Maribor for district council and it was really good! We went to Jack and Joes afterwards and it was sooo good. I didn't get the pizza burger this time but Sestra Stutzman did and it got the stamp of approval from her. 

The Jack and Joe's burger

We then met up with Hana who is a girl I met a year ago in an english summer camp. She is so so so cool. We got a yummy oreo cinnamon roll and slushies!! Woooooooo!! 

Hana + slushy + oreo cinnamon roll

We also had another english class that night which was the typical one that I have done in the past in the church. The same two people came as always :,) They have my heart. I love them both so much and find it so cool how they just keep coming. They are both literally fluent but they keep coming. After this english class we lead a bible group class online with the elders and only one of our members joined but hey that was okay. She is hilarious. 

Saturday was a whole blast and a half. We got to the church over an hour and a half early which was such a good idea because that meant we could chat with all of our missionary buddies. It was soo good to see everyone again. Especially my mtc group, Sestra Wendt, Sestra King, Sestra Mefford, and Starešina Walters. So fun. 

SESTRA WENDTTTTTT 

The actual conference itself was amazing. We were encouraged to not write down any of the words that were spoken by him or others, but instead what the Holy Ghost was teaching us. I thought that was so cool because then that way we can pay less attention to making sure you have perfect notes of everything the person said, but instead you have notes of the specific things the Spirit has taught you. I don't remember everything that was talked about in the conference, but if you look in my notes, you will see written three separate times the words, "this is true". As I have gotten closer and closer to the end, it is easy for the thoughts of doubt to creep in and tell you to doubt everything. Doubt why you came. Doubt what you are doing. Doubt why you are staying. Those three simple words along with the feelings I felt that day are more than enough to chase away any inkling of doubt. I can say with a surety that God answers prayers. He answers them in a specific way and timing for us personally. Those three words were a confirmation to a prayer. To a question. 

Buckle up because Sunday was even cooler. A big part of why it was cool was because I got to see all of the members from Ljubljana and Celje and it was like a big family reunion. Hugs were thrown all over the place and it was so precious. But the actually conference itself was so amazing and yet again another testiment of the truthfulness of everything. I would say so much more but I think this email is turning into a novel now haha. Anyways, it was an amazing first week of the transfer. My comp is the sweetest. 

Icecream count: 2 + 1 slushy 

Times said the phrase "when I was here a year ago": 48

Week 69 - back to the place where it all began

Hello everyone!! This is a fun email because we got transfer news!!!! Now keep in mind this is my LAST transfer. Isn't that absolutely insane? Now I'll tell you the transfer news later, we gotta start in the beginning. ;)

Okay so I forgot to talk about this last week but last Sunday we had one of the coolest things ever happen. The entire byu womens soccer team and their familes were at church and so we had a whopping 116 people at church. That is insane because usually we are in the 30s/40s for attendance so over two times the amount of people. We had to bring extra chairs and whatnot. It was just so cool to see so many people and really testified to me that one day that chapel will be filled every Sunday. Not just this one. 

Here are some highlights:

- the Celje sisters came down for pday and we got yummy food and met with our buddy Alenka (love her)

Alenkaaaa <3

- finally got to meet with our famous basketball player Lea - she is so cool and we already planned a cross country road trip with her in the States 

- went over to Teja and Nalu's house and it was so so so funny. Nalu basically told me I looked like this one movie character (Bedanec) which I find completely untrue and then they female-ized the name and have started calling me Bedanka hahaha. I'll include a pic of Bedanec for reference 

The guy I look like according to Nalu. Thank you Nalu for saying I look like bedanec

the sweetest text ever from Teja - I will always be their Bedanka :,)

- helped in the botanical garden and I found my favorite plant of all time. It's called the Cotula hispida in Latin but it is literally so soft. It is so weird but I want it all over my yard because it is so nice.

My fav plant 

- we also went with the other sisters to visit Tina again. I swear I never laugh harder than when I am there. I truly love visiting them. And not just because of their dogs Walter and Felicia. They genuinely are the sweetest people ever. And yes I did have an allergic reaction but who cares. 

- for our last district council we got kebab pizza and it was so fire

Smithy and I

- we went to Kranj and visited with one of the member families there. They are the sweetest and it was so cool because usually they just start talking to us in english but they kept going in Slovene which was so fun. It def was cool to be able to keep having the same conversation you would have in english but in slovene. Guys I've improved so much!! Woooo!! 

- transfer calls!!! okay so this was completely unexpected. Essentially I am whitewashing and training in my first area Celje!!! I totally did not expect to go back but I am so excited. It will be so cool to see all of the members again and see how the area changed. I am very sad though because I finally got close and comfortable with all of the members and our friends here. I also won't have a good chance to say goodbye to everyone. But hey, I'll go where the Lord wants me. 

Crying after transfer announcements ft. Smith and Voigt

Crying again this time ft. smith and non-alcoholic beer

- We met with our friend Omar again and it was so fun. He had so many questions and it was just a genuinely good interaction with him. He invited us to go on a four day sailing trip in Croatia with him and his coworkers. It was so tempting. he even said that it would be the perfect teaching opportunity for us because where would the people go? Swim back? hahahaha so funny

- We had a lesson with Alain and one of the members that speaks french joined and was able to translate and help teach him. It was a really good lesson. We talked about the doctrine of Christ but more specifically, baptism. He had a lot of really good questions. 

Tacoooosss

- We were supposed to have another lesson but they cancelled so we just chatted with one of the members who came to clean the church. She brought Jota for us to eat and it was actually pretty good. I have a love hate with Jota but this one was a good experience.

- On Friday I went to my last english lesson with Karlina. She is the sweetest old grandma who is trying to learn english so she can talk to her family members but she said the sweetest things to me when I told her I was leaving. I don't remember all of the words but I remember the feeling and wow. So sweet.

- We got to visit one of my favorite members, Iva, and that was so good. She has just one of the most precious souls ever. I really am so thankful to have gotten so close with her. I really am going to miss her so much ugh. 

Iva :,,,,,,) tears Iove this woman 

- We also met up with the other sisters for a last dinner together and to talk about who is getting who/technical stuff for the next transfer. While we were finishing up eating, our friend Mehtab just walked into the restaurant and it was so funny we all starting yelling and hugging haha. We had actually tried to plan a meetup with him earlier in the day so we could say goodbye but he ended up just randomly showing up. God's timing is amazing.  

Sisters :) 

- This Sunday was so bittersweat for me. I literally did not want to leave. I spent a lot of the time talking with the members and telling them I was leaving to go to Celje. The branch president snuck me some twizlers from america and then told me that "american candy sucks" hahahaha. Some of the little girls that I got really close with were so sweet and kept brushing my hair, playing with me, looking through my bag, holding my hands, hugging me, and telling me how much they were going to miss me. Bro I don't even know how I didn't burst into tears right then and there. I am so thankful for my time in Ljubljana. I really have loved it here and cherish every single moment I spent among the people. 

my fav fountain in Ljubljana

I am so excited for this next chapter but am so sad to close this last one. Someone mail me more tissues, my supply is running out really fast. :,(

Week 68 - coolest experience ever

Hi guys!!!!! This week was pretty cool! I had one of the coolest experiences ever happen to me on Tuesday so stay in tune for that! :)

Pday was super fun! We went to Vintgar and Bled which were absolutely g o r g e u o s!!! I have always wanted to go to Vintgar but never had a chance to so this was amazzziinnnggg! We also walked around Lake Bled and got some ice cream (woooo!). It was so fun. 

Selfie in vintgar (peep the amazing color of the water!)

Vintgar again

A waterfall/cool bridge in Vintgar

Ice cream at Lake Bled (6/10 - not too bad)

Lake Bled selfie!

Tuesday was an amazing day! First off we had a lesson online with Alain and that was really cool because two of our members joined who could speak french. This helped a lot because Alain understands a good amount of English but it can still be hard for him to express himself/understand everything. The lesson went really really good and he said he was interested in learning more so wooooooooo!!!! 

We also got a referral where a person filled out one of our ads for us to contact them so I called her and she was like yo what i don't remember this I'm not interested. BUT THEN! Like an hour later she called me back and was like wait a minute I actually am interested and so we had a 30 minute lesson on the spot and talked about our purpose here on Earth and where we came from. She was super sweet and around our age so that was even cooler. We hope to keep in contact with her. 

Ice cream #2 (Hazelnut from McDonalds and very mid)

Anyways enough waiting here is the coolest thing that has ever happened to me on my mission thus far. We went to go visit one of our members who is in the hospital (i've mentioned her in past emails) and she is the sweetest person ever. She had asked us beforehand to bring two copies of the Book of Mormon so she could give it to two people who wanted it. So we go but it is rainging which means we can't walk around but instead have to go to this pavillion thing. A lot of people are already there but we end up just sitting at one of the tables. Well after a bit, one of the girls that Iva wanted to give the Book of Mormon to showed up and was so excited that we were there. She kept inviting us over to her house for lunch and dinner and was so excited. She wanted us to write something in the Book of Mormon for her and was just so excited that we came. Well there were three people sitting across from us and obviously they get curious. One woman started speaking to us in english because she had been an english teacher. So we were chatting with her and then the guy next to her brought the conversation back to slovene and asked us if we had a message to share with them. And boy do we have a message for them!! So we ended up sharing Mosiah 24:14 (my favorite verse) and talked about the context of the scripture and it was just so so so cool because we were able to share that sripture which talks a lot about peace and our burdens being lifted to a group of people who are struggling. Sadly, they had to leave early because of dinner but they said they wanted to do this again. So next time when we go back, we will bring more copies of the Book of Mormon :) such a cool experience because the spirit underneath that pavillion was unlike anything I had ever felt. UGH SO AMAZING!!!!

Onto the rest of the week. Sestra Smith and I finally got to work in the botanical garden and it was so fun. We spent the entire morning weeding and making the different plant sections look pretty. It was so fun. I can't wait to do it again :)

Working in the botanical garden ;)

A snail! Or slug? I don't know the difference

We spent some more time in the hospital on Friday and found out that everything is okay so woooo! Also my mtc teacher Brat Kunzler came back on a visit so we got to see him and say hi.

On Saturday they had a city-wide walk to walk around a specific path in Ljubljana. This path is where the old fence had been when Ljubljana was essentially being controlled and in lockdown by whoever was ruling at that time. But every year they do a big walk to celebrate when the wall was taken down. It was so much fun. We walked a good portion of it with a member family. At one of the check points instead of giving you water or juice, we got alcohol free beer. It was so funny. 

Open kitchen in center woo

The weather this week has been amazing! It has been mid 70's basically all week! Wooooo! 

I'm going to start a new count for the random tourists who recognize us on the street because they are members too. Since summer is coming there will def be a lot of them. The count won't count how many people just the interaction itself. 

Tourist member interactions: 4

Ice cream count: 3 !!!!!

Love you all!!

Week 67 - bikes are back

Hellllooooo everyone!! This week was crazy! First of all congrats to my brother Keldon and his now WIFE Maria for getting MARRIED on FRIDAY!!! That was so insane. I got special permission to watch them walk out of the temple and it was fun to see all of my family members and friends too. Haha every second I got passed to a new person. It was so cool but it trunked me out of my mind (translation: it made me sad and miss home haha). I am so happy for Keldon and Maria and can't wait to 9th wheel when I get home. 

zooming in

my framed face

Anywayyyss so this week we had interviews with President and Sister Field on Monday! Those were great. We just hung around in the church and played games pretty much the whole time. Oh and one of the past sisters came and visited which was fun too. 

Tuesday was a Rollercoaster of a day. We started it off by spending 3 hours at the hospital bc Sestra Smith's eyes were bugging. She's okay though. 

Hospital selfie

But apparently today all of the farmers from all over Slovenia came to the city in their tractors to protest the unfair payment they are receiving. So all day the streets were lined with tractors just blaring their horns and waving flags. Well that also meant that the roads were blocked off and none of the busses were able to run very well. And so guess what that meant... BIKES 

 

Bike selfiieess

OK I'm trying out this voice text go back go back no OK whatever so I don't have much time and so I am using this voice to text option and can I see.How do I end a sentence OK? So I think I just need to talk very clearly and hopefully it will understand what I'm saying.

OK I hope you guys can decipher what I'm trying to say. But here are some other fun things that we did this week. And so I don't like that. It doesn't add a. Oh wait oh no understand anyways. We also met up with our friend Tisa for dinner and that was so fun and.  

Dinner with Tisa

We of course rode bikes because of course. You can't not ride bikes and this was also the day where we had no public transportation because of the farmer's protesting. We also on the way back got ice cream because I was craving a slushy and they don't have those and so I had to get.  Ice cream to fill that void in my heart

 I forgot to take a picture of the ice cream until it was almost gone 

On Wednesday we had a really great lesson with our friend Alain and that was honestly really great. We went to tivoli which is a park in Ljubljana and sat on a park bench. The weather was so beautiful and it was just so perfect because then we watched the first vision In French and that was especially cool because I have seen that video in English and slovene and now in French and every time I watch that video I feel the spirit and it was really cool to see him be able to hear the story in his own language and also feel the spirit and feel the truthfulness of it.

On Thursday we had exchanges and I was with sister Hancock again which was so fun and such a throwback. 

Our favorite spot on the bus

We started off by having breakfast with Stephanie no not Stephanie oh my gosh with Alejandra and that was super great. She made a delicious amazing inscriptions breakfast. I wonder if it translated scrumptious right dang it. It didn't it said inscriptions it's OK anyways?  Because she is moving to Germany and so we had a good bye breakfast with her and her roommate. Who is the sweetest person on the Earth? But so that was really really good and it was good to talk with her and say. Goodbye to her for maybe not one last time I hope not she might be back before I go home.  She's awesome.

We met we met up with our friend Estefania and actually ended up talking. A lot about what we believe and we talked a lot about the word Of wisdom and then we went to go Teach our friend Daniel English and had to wait for forever because today was a holiday which means that nothing is open and the busses come less frequently but then. After waiting for 30 minutes or so we got a text from Daniel saying that because it's a holiday the place we will not meet today essentially.  And so to celebrate or I guess to? I don't know fill our time a little bit. We decided to go get ice cream which of course is a must and that was so much fun. We tried a new ice cream place and it was mid. But Hey you never know until you try it.

Ice cream with Sestra Hancock!!

And also we were craving food that night and didn't know what to get and so we just ordered chicken fingers and made homemade ranch dressing because. They don't have it here and then just ate chicken fingers and fries and homemade ranch dressing which is so fun well it was so fun

The chicken fingers :,)

I feel like this voice to text method is so funny so good luck trying to decipher this. But? We exchanged back on Friday and sister Smith and I went and visited one of our members. Saša and that was so fun I don't know why but it is putting all the text together.  No anyways I don't understand this anywayres we went and visited him and his family and it was so sweet they gave us a lot of cookies and sweet things and they have 3 cats and we almost missed all of our busses to get there and to get back which was super fun because we love the. Memories of running full speed to get the bus.

We also on Saturday went and helped Sestra Chandler's family members move which was really really cool because they are some of my favorite people in the entire world. And we went up to Kranj and helped them move their stuff from the apartment on the 3rd floor to the 2nd into a bigger apartment and that was so much fun. Just to help and talk to them and joke around with them is definitely a highlight of my mission.

And then on sunday I actually Spoke in church and that's always scary but Hey what what are you gonna do. This is actually a really cool thing but before Sunday. I was trying to figure out OK who should I invite? What should I do? Who can I tell about this and sister Smith told me to invite one of my friends I found on Facebook. Who I had just met for the 1st time in person that last or last Sunday and this is the one that we played volleyball with and who is super super. Nice and so we invited him and it was so cool. He came in and he just had so many questions for us and he couldn't say the whole time but he sent a message afterwards saying Hey thank you. So much for inviting me. I really am interested in learning more about what you guys believe and so hopefully. We can meet up this week and talk more about that which I'm super super super excited for.

Spot the sisters

Also on Sunday we went and visited Tina and I talked about her before she has the 2 dogs Felicia and Walter who are the craziest dogs ever. Than my favorite dog's minus or besides from beside? How do I say that freeze again besides from is it besides them? I don't know anyways.  I don't love them more than my dog basically. But we went and visited them for the 1st time in a long time since Christmas time. And that was so fun. I had some lovely severe allergic reactions all over my arms and it was so fun though definitely we'll go back soon

Walter 

Also after that this is the other sisters and us decided to go to finding activity. Where it was this big bonfire that was supposed to? Be. At? The top. Of the table and so we. Planned on? Going and we hiked up the mountain and were there only. To find out that the bonfire doesn't start for another 3 and a 1/2 hours pretty much so we didn't want to go home obviously and so we. Tried talking to people but it was super loud and you couldn't hear anyone and so we.  Decided to just stay for a little bit longer and enjoy the fun festivities which was super funny.

Our bonfire flop but a bop

Anyways I think that is it! this is so funny. I really hope you guys can understand what i'ver. I think I'm going to go through and fix the names but all of the other stuff. You have to decipher for yourself and good luck. Please let me know or please respond to this email if there are any funny things or if you need help understanding what I meant.  Ha ha.

Ice cream count: 3

Bike ride pictures: 12