Spring Cleaning

Hello all family and friends!!

To start with the usual weather report, I think Spring has finally arrived, a bit later than normal, but finally, it is here. The weather today is going to be up to the 20's C (around 70 F) and there isn't a single cloud in the sky. The flowers which started to bloom well over a month ago now are starting to fill the fields with color, and leaves are returning to the trees. Life is well.

This week, big big changes are coming the Celje, again. Initially, President Rowe, the Mission President pulled sisters out of Celje because there weren't enough Sisters in Slovenia, and so Celje pulled up the slack. However, due to some, recent, events, which have transpired in Maribor, the Maribor sisters are going to be splitting their time now, half in Maribor half in Celje (but more time in Celje ;-)!! It is going to be wonderful. This will be the first time in my mission where I have served in a city with more than one missionary companionship. Kranj was alone, and Celje has been alone for the last 3ish weeks.  But it will be great. We have so many people to meet with now, with us being the only ones here, that I don't know if it's even physically possible. My planner, where we think about what to talk about with people, this week doesn't have enough room to hold all the names and plans! So it is truly a Godsend. Then again, there are missionaries the in the world, even in our own mission who would wish to be so stacked with visits, to not have any other free time. But it will all be good.

This week also, in Celje, we had a missionary return. He's from Celje, born and raised, and came back home after serving an honorable two year mission in South Salt Lake City. He is wonderful and it is a great pick up to the branch here in Cleje. Everyone is incredibly happy to see him home.

This week we met with an older lady who has connections with the branch here in Celje. She is incredibly nice and positive about the church, but seems to be perfectly content sitting in the middle ground of recognizing the church is good, but not that it is something for her in her life. I hope the Lord will direct us and her and help her receive a witness directly from God as to her purpose and path in life, and that the church is more than just a good organization, but rather the means of obtaining eternal joy, life, and happiness with her family.

Hope all is well and warm at home.

Muč luv-

-Starešina Benson

Modern Day Guidance

Pozdrav vsemu!

I hope all is warm and sunny at home. Today is the first day in a long long time I haven't seen any clouds in the sky. It is a very welcome sight. Many of the Slovenes around us say that this Winter has been incredibly long, unusually long, especially long, even if it wasn't too particularly harsh. But lots and lots of snow. The wild flowers started blooming long ago, but with the return of the cold, the trees decided to wait a few more weeks, or a month longer before they began blooming out. Soon however, it should be really nice.

The week in Celje has been a quick one. In many ways I can hardly believe that Monday is already here again. The cherry on the top of the cake however was definitely General Conference this weekend. Every six months, we have the opportunity to hear from living prophets and apostles and their council for our lives. It is a true and real blessing and evidence that the living Church of Christ is here on the earth again. As God gave us living prophets in the old testament, and Christ called apostles to guide his church during his life and especially after, we have this blessing here on the Earth again. The greatest blessing of course is the modern day council we receive from them. In many ways, the works of the ancient prophets and apostles are life changing and altering, while God still speaks to us through them and their words in council.  However, our times today are much different than they were back 2000+ years ago, with much different challenges and concerns. As such we have the guidance from God today for our support and direction for the new and unique challenges we face today.

As such God speaks to us today for our specific needs as well. It is an amazing experience to receive help from God in personal needs we need help with through His living apostles. Without a doubt God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and speaks to his chosen leaders today, as He did before, and will forever. 

Hope all is well and warm at home. Things might have a chance of getting warmer here.

Lep pozdrav,

Starešina Benson

First Impressions

Hello all family and friends!!

Hope all is well in the warm lands of America. Here in Celje/Slovenia, Winter just really doesn't want to go away. If it hasn't been snowing today, it's been raining and windy. But then again, you can't get paradisaical green plants out of nothing right?

The first week has been fine, both super busy and not. Elder Simon has been in charge of most everything since I have no idea where anything is in Celje, who any of the members are, or who are the people they were meeting with. But over all, it is a great place. One of the most amazing things about this branch is how active and integrated some of the members are with each other. It really is a miracle to see brothers and sisters in the gospel spending time with each other and strengthening each other outside of Sunday and gospel related things. The gospel really is not meant to be something you think about only on Sunday, or do out of tradition, but is something which penetrates every part of your life. It influences how you think in a way that the things which are really important, each other, instead of self and materials, become your outlook and priority. It gives peace knowing why we are here, where we are going, and to what source we can look to for help and peace out of our trials and troubles we all, sooner if not later, face. 

But life in Celje really will go on. The people here are great and I believe with all the people we are meeting with now (since we combined Elder Simon's people with the sister's who left Celje last week), Celje will grow. I am grateful for the opportunity to help the children of God here in Celje and know that with the Savior's help and the help of each other, we can do amazing things which before would have seemed impossible. I have faith in this and know that it is possible and will happen.

Hope you all are safe and warm and dry back in the English speaking states.

LP (Lep Pozdrav)(Beautiful Greetings)
-Starešina Benson

Kralj Kranja je preselil

Pozdrav Family and Friends!!

 

So, to start, A LOT has changed in the last week. A LOT.

 

Kralj Kranja je preselil.

Kralj Kranja - Currently in the mission, I am basically the ˝King of Kranj˝ because I have been there the most of any other mission in the entire mission. I love Kranj and the people there so much and have gotten to know them really well.

preselil je - However, ˝he moved˝. I am no longer in Kranj.

 

This week is the beginning of another transfer, which we have ever 9 weeks. With the end of every cycle (with a few exceptions like what happened with me and Elder Bateman) we have the chance of moving to a new area and getting a new companion, staying but getting a new companion, or nothing changing what so ever. I have now experienced both.

 

This last Thursday night, knowing transfers were soon, but not expecting them until Friday, we got a call from the Zone leaders in Ljubljana, telling Elder Wilson that he will be staying in Kranj, while I will be moving tooooo...... Celje!!!!

 

And so , from the point of right now of writing this letter, I am sitting in the Celje library, looking out the window at snow falling in Celje instead of Kranj. Celje is slightly bigger than Kranj, with about 50,000 people instead of 40,000 people. It is another city set at the intersection of two rivers just about in the middle of Slovenia, between Ljubljana and Maribor, and is a bit more industrial and built up. It has its own branch (church) here though! (No more 30 minute car rides to church every Sunday!) And the area has been having a good amount of success in the last few months.

 

Also, another interesting thing with the transfer, is that President Rowe took the Sister companionship out of Celje (before there was one Elder's companionship and one Sister's companionship.) And so, we again have the whole city to ourselves. But this also means we inherit all, ALL of the people the sisters were meeting with also, in addition to all the people the Elders had here before as well. It is going to be a nice and busy transfer!

 

And so my new companion is Elder Simon. He actually came into Slovenia along with Elder Wilson, my last companion and the Elder I trained in Kranj, so he's only been in country for 2 months. He's also, originally from Utah, Bounitful Area, and also, didn't have the opportunity to go to college before coming out, but is planning on going into exercise science. He's a great guy and we should hopefully do miraculous things together here as well.

 

This weekend, Sunday specifically, we District Conference (like Stake Conference) in Slovenia. What that means is that all the members in all of Slovenia came to the Ljubljana church on Sunday and we had a great, amazing meeting. President and Sister Rowe spoke, as well as a general authority from Germany came down. It was an amazing conference and was fantastic to see all the people from Slovenia together in one place.

 

One of the talks given (little sermons you could say) was about how Jesus Christ is like a doctor for our lives. Last Sunday was the day he would have entered triumphantly into Jerusalem for the final week of his life, to glories and praises, of the great Savior he was. But throughout the course of the week, he had to go and experience the pains of all the people of the world, to fully know and be able to prescribe and give the medicine we need in our lives to be emotionally and spiritually healed. He is like the doctor who is helping a person overcome chemotherapy, but instead of the painful procedure being administered to the patient, Jesus experienced the pain, so that we as the patient can be healed without going through the torture of the medicine. That is the miracle of what we call the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This, and the reality that he rose from the dead, proving his work, and that we can rise too if we are humble and come to him is the true significance of Easter.

 

I hope everyone has a strong and restful Easter holiday.

The Best, from Celje-

-Starešina Benson

Help One Another

Hello all family and friends!!!

I won't comment on the weather. It's snowing again right now. But spring is here. Flowers and coming up. But it's snowing. Again.

But everything is well otherwise!! This is the last week of the transfer. A week from today three Slovene missionaries will go home and two new ones will come in. What President is going to do to fill the hole of not having 2 sisters come in instead of one? We will see. Also, today. Today!! Is my six month mark being in Slovenia. It's been a fantastic experience and have had the blessing of meeting so many wonderful people and seeing the opportunity of people changing through the power and Atonement of Jesus Christ to become significantly happier and better people.

I have especially seen this in one of the people we have been meeting with recently. The first time he came to church, he felt something unique, that Spirit of God, which began him on the course to change and happiness. Even the other day when we met with him, he was able to tell story after story after story of how he has become a different person recently, in some cases week to week and day to day. He is better able to be a real, sincere friend to others instead of one who is more concerned about self. But most significantly, his relationship with God is one of the most amazing things which he has grown. From being in a world of acting out of tradition and nothing else to coming to an understanding of who God is, and how to build a real relationship with Him and His Son Jesus Christ, His life has changed. As he has learned to ask and search for help from on high, he has been able to receive, which is more valuable than anything else.

I know this work is real and that God works through many people. Awhile back I compared God to the master Architect, not the architect of buildings, but the architect of people. He knows exactly how each and every person on earth fits into each other's lives in a composition of more incredible complexity than we can even hope to imagine and understand. But as we come to a better understanding of our personal place in God's scheme, the better understanding we have of His overall scheme for everyone. This knowledge and surety is something which cannot be replaced, and has no comparison, and is something I have had the opportunity to experience everyday on my mission so far. I'm grateful that I still have so much time ahead of me to be a help in the lives of others full time.

I hope everyone is well at home. I hear the weather is frightfull..lly warm. 
Enjoy and much love!
-Starešina Benson

Spring is Springing

Hello all family and friends!!

As is the norm I feel like now with these letters, I usually start talking about the weather. SPRING IS STARTING!!!!!!! The snow is mostly melted off the fields now. Just the big clumps are still around which really piled up from the snow plows. It's been a mixture of rain, drizzle, sun, and fog for the past week. And the first flowers of the year popped up yesterday! Not that it doesn't mean that it's still cold. Just that I can take the liner out of my heavy coat now and I don't have to wear my scarf everywhere I go now. (Which is a good thing because I think I left it at some one's house. Oops!!)

This week has also been a great week in terms of work also. We found a bunch of new people who are interested in meeting with us, and a younger kid we've been meeting with is beginning to progress towards baptism. It truly is amazing how, when you do your part and go out and work work work, the Lord shows you just how much He has been working before you even arrived to prepare the people you are meeting to first come into contact with you to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Wilson and I are not alone in this work, but rather there are whole concords of people, and the greatest of all, God involved in this effort as well.

We are promised as missionaries, and you could even say every person in the world is promised this as well, that the field is white, already to harvest, or in other words, that the place of our labor, the place we work, is already prepared for our success. We just have to ˝thurst in your sickle with all your might˝, or work work work, to gather what has already been prepared, or already grown for our benefit.Whether it is missionary work in your personal area, whether it is success in your school or job or recreation, success has been prepared for you before you even started or arrived. All we simply have to do is be a willing instrument and have faith in this promise, and because it comes from God, it WILL be fulfilled because God's promises must be. But rather if we don't look. If we don't endeavor (se truditi in Slovene), if we don't thrust our sickle with our might and only stare at the beautiful potential, there is no chance of having success. True success only comes through the Lord, marginal success comes from our own hard work with out His help and promises.

I've really learned this lesson really well this week, and I hope everyone, regardless of which labor you perform, recognize that the potential we have is greater than we can imagine, and we are guaranteed it if we labor in faith and humility that we are not alone in what we do.

Hope you have a great week. I heard Spring Break is coming up. Enjoy!!

-Starešina Benson

Seeds

Hello all family and friends!!

Hope everyone has been well with the weather changes, school beginning
to ramp up, and work moving on.

Here in Slovenia, the winter is finally starting to lose it's grip.
This week I think I've seen just as much sun as I have in the past 3
months. Its a great thing. Also, the sun is up in the morning now when
elder Wilson and I are waking up nice and early at 6:30 in the morning
(1:30 PM Central time?) The nights are still bone chillingly cold
below freezing, but the days are increasingly and increasingly nice. I
hope this only increases to get better as we move forward through the
year.

This week, we've had a great week of helping people progress to the
Savior Jesus Christ and come to know him more and more. The seeds we
have gathered and prevented from being cast into the cold of winter
are beginning to take seed. As the next few weeks progress, it will be
interesting to see what kind of fruits these seeds we have been
nurturing will manifest into.

Also this week, we reestablished contact with a family who had met
with missionaries a long long time ago and were warmly welcomed into
their home at the first meeting at the door step. They are a good
family and eagerly invited us to come back.

Through the dark of winter (and cold), times can seem as if little is
being done. But as time moves forward, with continued nurture and care
through the winter of our efforts, the seeds gathered from the Fall
can begin to sprout into glorious result. Such is the parable of the
seed of faith in Alma 32: 28-43. As we plant the seeds of faith with
the people we meet, and help them nurture that seed, it will grown
within them to a greater knowledge, peace, and direction in life than
they had had before in life.

This week and the next few will be interesting to see how it all
begins to grow, the plants of spring and the people we meet.

Much care-
Starešina Benson