It's Simply, who you are

Zdravo all family and friends!!!

 

This week has been an amazing week. One of the top highlights of the week was on Wednesday, we had a Zone Conference in Zagreb for all of Slovenia and Croatia, where Elder Kearon of the European Presidency, of the Quorum of the Seventy came and spoke. It was an amazing experience. He is actually a convent to the church as well, and I felt a particular brotherhood with him as the conference went on and we had the opportunity to interact.

 

One of the main principles he taught is not to focus on what you need to do specifically, to do a particular thing better (ex. become a better teacher, or to become a better finder), but rather, focus on the characteristics of people who do these things well, and work to become better at those characteristics. It is not about how you do what you do, rather it is who you are, which then results in how you do what you do well or not. For example, if I want to be a better, or in other words a great teacher, I need to build my patience, my creativity, my simplicity, and most importantly my love for the people I am teaching.

 

On simplicity as well, he made an excellent point that often, people who have been religious for a long time tend to develop a language of expressing particular things, which actually masks the understanding of what we are describing. Take the feelings and ˝presence˝ (there's one of those words) of the Holy Ghost. We tend to use words like charity, inspiration, fire, to explain it, but what do these words actually mean, especially to someone feeling these things for the first time? Absolutely nothing. We instead need to think deeply about how to simply explain the things perhaps many of us have experienced and grown accustomed to experiencing. How instead to explain the Holy Ghost? Peace. Power. Good. Happy. Strong. Confident. Love.

 

This week we are seeing amazing things happening in Celje. People whom we have been working with for a little bit becoming interested in learning the gospel, and people we have been working with for a long time receiving undeniable evidence from God that the things which we share are true. It is a true blessing to be able to play a part in seeing people form and build testimonies. A true blessing.

 

I hear things are heating up in Texas. The weather here has been up and down. It's cool in the mornings, then heats up until a storm rolls through, then cools down after that until the next morning.

 

I hope all is well.

 

Much love and care-

-Starešina Benson

PS: Transfers are this week. I have no clue what is going to happen, if I will stay in Celje or not or if Elder Simon will stay in Celje or not. Anything could really happen. We'll see!

 

-Starešina Benson