Sickness and Reality

Pozdrav!!

This week has been a good week. It all started of course with New Years eve last Monday, which was a little bit insane. We had some trouble getting back to Kranj from our day in Ljubljana as apparently new years eve is a holiday of holidays, so not even the holiday buses were running on the night. After waiting a few hours though, it finally came. But that night waiting was crazy. So there are no firework laws in Slovenia, so anyone, no matter where they are, can light off fireworks. Not just the small kinds but the big kinds also, anywhere, including in the middle of the capital Ljubljana. So it sounded a bit like a war zone Monday night with an explosion going off every few seconds somewhere, but you got to see a lot of free fireworks! That and midnight is supposed to be absolutely insane as everyone lights their own grand finale all at the same time. Unfortunately though, I fell asleep before hand and slept straight through it. But I'm definitely not fireworks starved. There have been fireworks going off since Christmas eve, all the way to last night.

The big drama of this week however was that my companion, Elder Bateman got really sick on Wednesday night. He spent most of the night in the bathroom, and then the next day recovering. We had to cancel on some of the people we had set to meet with, but I guess everyone needs one of those experiences every two years..... (hopefully not me!! :-/) He's still feeling under the weather and recovering, but now with the new year over, we've set up with a whole lot more people for this week too. It should be a fantastic week!

The great story of this week however was with a friend of a member here. He's a younger guy, my age, and his friend who is in the church, brought him at the end of November to hear Elvi, who had just come back from his mission in Utah, give a fireside, or a presentation, about his experiences from his mission after church. He enjoyed himself at church, and was interested to hear more about what we believe. Unfortunately, he's a busy person, and so we weren’t able to meet up until this week, after Elder Bateman had started to recover thankfully. 

And he is incredible. He said he wants to know what is truth, and how to know who in all the religious circles is correct. He recognized that truth is things as they really are, and so there can not be multiple realities of truth which contradict each other. Also, he doesn't want to be like so many of the people you see walking around, who say they are Catholic, or orthodox, or christian, but don't really know what they actually believe. He is sincerely searching for answers from God as to what is truth, and to have a certain knowledge of it. One of the things he said he also likes about us is how certain we are of what we believe, that we say we KNOW what we believe, not simply think it is right, or is just what some person told us or is something we read out of a book and sounds good. 

He has truly come across a great realization, that things in this world are as they are, and there can only be one truth. Just as if it is raining, that is how it really is, it happened, and is a simple truth. The realities of God are the same. If, for example, God is, He speaks to us today, and particular events in the past (such as Moses, the ministry and Atonement of Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith's first vision) really happened, then we know more about the simple truth and reality of us and our relationship to Divinity. 

I am looking forward to this week and wish everyone back home a happy and safe week this week!

Do naslednjiča! (Until the next time!)

-Starešina Benson