Monday, November 19, 2012

And if you thought last week was amazing...

This week has been even more so!

This last Wednesday, we had a whole Zone meeting in Ljubljana with President Rowe, so all the missionaries in Slovenia were down for that. It was a great meeting, where we discussed explaining simply our purpose as missionaries, the meaning and importance of baptism, and how all of that relates to missionary work.

Then, that night we got back to Kranj and went back by our wonderful Legenda who wants to return and her friend. They were tired after work, but were excited to see us. We began discussing the restoration of the fullness of the gospel and she runs out and grabs a whole other stack of memories to review as we discuss Christ's ministry, the great apostasy (or, in Slovene, the great fall) of the early church, and the restoration of Christ's full gospel, with her friend. At the end of it, we discussed baptism a little and what it means, and he committed to being baptized in December if God confirms to him what we share is true! It's so exciting to see the faith of other people as they begin to rely more and more on the Lord for understanding as to what to do in their lives. I know from experience this direction leads to far better paths than we could do on our own.

Then, the next day, we went to go cut more firewood for one of our older member ladies in Kranj. Afterwards we had lunch (she always serves interesting food. It's not bad usually, just interesting. Gorjenska, the name of the state Kranj is in, farm food. Hardy, filling, and quite... interesting.) and a short lesson about missionary work as we had learned the day before from President Rowe.

About probably 7/8 through, her doorbell rings though, and she says, ˝Oh! My friend is here. I don't think she's really interested, but we can try doing a little missionary work still.˝ About five minutes later, her friend comes in an begins a large gospel discussion with us. Since, her friend has agreed to meet with us again and to see for herself if our message is true. Absolutely amazing how much the Lord softens others hearts if they are introduced to the gospel through a friend and not some strange foreign kids wearing white shirts and ties on the street.

Then the next day (yeah that's right, this is all in the space of day by day). We had been trying to get in contact with a person who had met with missionaries before in the past, but lives in the absolute middle of nowhere mountain Slovenia. We finally got in contact with him, and made it out by a series of bus transfers and him picking us up in a small town to get to his place. He's a super awesome guy. An amazing musician, has had his own band, and can learn a song in probably 5 minutes of playing it, and is almost building his own house by himself, is super prepared through past spiritual experiences to receive the gospel. The only big problem really is he lives in the middle of nowhere. And so, after a great (and long) visit, we had to get back close to Kranj to meet with a member family. Problem? the last bus left 10 minutes ago, and there won't be another for 3 hours.

There... might... have been hitchhiking involved... from a former

Missionary English class student....

Also! English class was started this week. We have about 10-15 students, a majority older women, all sincerely wanting to learn English to be able to use it in America. I am teaching the middle and advanced classes, and so my lessons have mostly involved having discussions about a variety of topics in English. It's quite fun though, and am looking forward to each class.

Possible highlights for next week? Thanksgiving of course, and... French in Slovenia? We'll see. Also, today is transfers. Elder Hardy and I are staying in Kranj for another two months. Elder Burdette's companion up in Maribor is finishing his two year mission today, and so he will have a new companion, and because we will have an odd number of missionaries in Slovenia, a Croatian missionary is coming up. We'll see how well that works with the language. The only change in the Ljubljana missionaries, is one of the sisters is exchanging with a sister in Celje. And that is all.

I hope everyone has a fantastic, safe, Thanksgiving week full of turkey and thankfulness.

Much love

-Starešina Benson

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