Hello all family and friends!!
The snow has been absolutely gruesome here, but will now be short lived with the rain starting yesterday and today. We got about two feet of snow starting on Sunday and going straight through to Friday.
So no sense in beating around the bush. There are a whole lot of changes going on right now. We have transfers coming up today, meaning every missionary in the mission has the chance to move and or change companions or stay. We got a special call on Tuesday however from President where he personally told us how we are moving. I am going to be staying in Kranj for another two months (length of a transfer), and am going to be training a brand new missionary to Slovenia like I was 4 months ago! Also, Elder Bateman, my current companion, is going to go to Zagreb to be one of President's two assistants!! He is really bummed about that because he sees Slovenia as his home and has been here for 16 months, and now to go to Zagreb, despite all the new things he will get to do, is to leave behind practically his identity for the past year and a half. But he'll do great I'm sure. He'll learn Croatian pretty fast, and will be back in Slovenia for at least the day once or twice a month.
And so, he and I are going to Zagreb tomorrow morning super early. If you're up at 11pm central time Monday night, know that I'm boarding a train to Zagreb right now somewhere around the world. I'll be in Zagreb all day Tuesday as that's when the new missionaries should be arriving, and then for most of Wednesday as that's when we will know who exactly my new companion will be and we'll do some training things from President and his two assistants. It's going to be strange to know that that assistant was my companion only a month or two ago.
So it's going to be incredibly exciting.
This week, we met with a man we've met with a few times in the past who hasn't really shown much interest. He had met with missionaries like us A LONG time ago (like 2003?), was recontacted in mid 2010 before missionaries were pulled out of Kranj, and then we recontacted him sometime last October or November. We hadn't met with him since before the holidays started as his interest level wasn't that high, but we called him last week and set up with him, and we had an absolutely AMAZING lesson with him. He clearly understood our purpose in helping him come to a knowledge of God's truth and his own peace of mind, and the Spirit was strong testifying of this truth. He committed to praying about where God's path was and reading the Book of Mormon to see if it was true and the story we shared about it's coming forth was truly inspired.
It goes to show that even when people don't really seem to express interest in what you are doing or saying, even the second or third time, that not all is lost.There only needs to be a perfect inspired moment of understanding to spark a level of interest. And as we go about our work, to not lose faith in the fact that this moment can spark at any time. Rather to continue enduring and strive to do our best to work with God to bring this spark in others lives. If we give up hope and faith, and thus stop working towards our goals, we will not progress. And our purpose, which as a missionary is God's purpose, will come to pass through other means, and we will not have the opportunity to be a part of that joy and experience we could have had.
I hope everyone is warm and safe at home, and hope there isn't too much white powder of death (snow)(Goes to show how much you take on your companions personality the longer you're with them. That totally sounds like something Elder Bateman would say) on the ground.
-Starešina Benson
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