Lep Pozdrav (Beautiful Greetings) all family and friends and others!
The weather in Celje has been a bit... dark... and cloudy... and wet... and cold.... but the week has been very interesting.
To begin, we had a missionary from a different mission come in to Celje on Monday night whom we met. He was having visa problems, and so had to leave briefly to correct the problem before heading back the next day after it was all resolved.
We also are seeing a lot of progress with the less active members we visit with. ALL three of them at least came to the chapel this Sunday, the 8 year long member coming for the second Sunday in Celje in a row, and this time bringing his girlfriend with him. For one, it was the first time in a few months (she came twice to Ljubljana back in October, but before then it has been awhile). Then for the third, he has been doing really well, reading the scriptures and praying every day, and has finally decided to come to church, at least came to the church yesterday. It was a great Sunday.
Plus, we had another success with home teaching (the program in the church where different members visit each other once a month and care for their physical and spiritual well being.) We had a lesson with one of our great members who recently was released from his calling and so did not have very many responsibilities to fulfill. But, we talked about his vision for the branch, and thus his desire to help other people. We talked about the people he home taught, and identified two of whom he could focus on, one an active member whom he lives close to, and another, a less active who he was good friends with. We invited him to set up with the active member and we would go with him to visit her, and then he said he would get in contact with his less active friend, see how he is doing, ask if we could come on a visit with him, and invite him to church. On Friday night, we saw him and he said he planned to go to his LA friend the next day on Saturday and invite him. Then, when we see him Sunday morning before church, he said tat he went to his place and had a good chat with him, and said that he said he would come to church if it was nice weather. A little bit of a weak excuse and promise, but we'll see. Then, about 20 minutes later, a man I had never met before walked into the chapel, and all the members suddenly jumped up (not too different from how it was last week when out 8 yr LA friend came to church for the first time in Celje) and cried his name, hugged him, chatted with him, and welcomed him back. He came! And we didn't even have to talk to him, his own home teacher invited him back. Goes to show that this work isn't just for the missionaries, but for every single member of the church, and we ALL can have success.
Beyond this, we also had a miracle this week with one of our strongest families here in Celje. We had set up on Tuesday a visit with their son who is a great member with some problems whom we meet with fairly regularly. And so, we went over there with a nice lesson prepared for him, and as we walk in, we see his mom and another woman I have never seen sitting at the kitchen table. We immediately begin talking, and soon find out this woman is the best friend of the mom. We introduce ourselves, and before too long we are in a discussion about the godhead. She expressed a lot of interest, but is cautious that she wants to go at her own pace which is of course fair. But she has the same goal as we do, for her to strengthen her faith.
This week we also had a really great incident. On Wednesday morning, our landlady came in to our apartment with a mechanic to clean out the hard water sediment of the hot water heater in our bathroom. It was all well (just no hot water that previous night of course, it had to cool down for him to work on it), but he was still working when we had to go out, so we left them there. We go through a very long, very busy, and very successful day, and came home right around the time we had to be at home (we have to be home by 9:30 every night, no exceptions usually). Also, we knew we had to get to bed pretty much immediately that night because we had to go down to Ljubljana the next morning, the train leaving at 6:50, meaning we would have to wake up 30 minutes early at 6 to make it on time. And so, we get home, exhausted, and ready to take a quick shower and get to try and make up for the 30 minutes of lost sleep, and as I'm turning the key in our door I hear something and say, ˝Strange, it sounds like there is water running in our apartment....˝ It sounded like someone had left the shower on. We get inside, and open the door to the bathroom to find water ALL OVER the floor and bathroom.
What had happened was that he had to take out a pipe that connected from the wall to the water heater to work, and one of those pipes had become frayed when he tried putting it back in, and so when he turned the water back on and left, as it refilled the water heater, water began spraying everywhere out the connection of the pipe, all over the bathroom. When we had finally gotten home, it had probably been spraying for a few hours at least. So we call our landlady back, telling her, ˝Voda je vseposod v kopalnici!!!˝, meaning, ˝Water is everywhere in the bathroom!˝, she said she was coming immediately. And so, in the time we are waiting for her, we figure out how to turn the water to our apartment off to stop it from spraying everywhere, and mop up the floor of water, and begin waiting for her. 45 minutes to an hour later, she arrives, looks at it, says she will call the man to fix it tomorrow, and leaves. It was all fixed the next day while we were in Ljubljana, but to say the least we did not get our 30 extra minutes of sleep, nor a shower that night.
And so that has been the most exciting parts of our week. Fairly fun and exciting and successful if I say so myself, except the weather and some of our plans falling through. But it has been a great week. Thanksgiving is coming up, and so the challenge of finding an American pie pan begins. I hope you all enjoy your week and have a great lead into the holidays!!!
-Starešina Benson
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