No letter but new bikes

Dear Readers,

No e-mail was received this week, only a reply to his parents letter.  Here is an interesting side note from Elder Benson this week.

Twyla Benson "Mom"

Elder Simon and I bought bikes last month at the police auction, mine for €25! And then I had to get all the things for it, a helmet mainly.   In total it has been probably €80.

We are using the bikes A LOT. They are absolutely wonderful and save so much time! We live in Nova Vas (an area in Celje to the north of center) and before it was a 30 minute walk to church every Sunday, and another 30 minute walk back home. Now it is only about 10 minutes each way. Saves a ton, TON of time. Elder Simon however didn't buy as good a bike I think though. His gears aren't working right now and will have to take it into a shop soon to get it fixed. Until then he's stuck in like 2nd gear perpetually.

Such is life as a missionary.

-Starešina Benson

Note

Heyo all družina in prijatelji!!

 

I hope everything is well at home. From what I hear it has been raining a ton in Texas, which is ironic since it has been perfectly clear skies here in Slovenija for the most part this week. I think the weather is just going to be whatever is opposite here as in Texas. Then again, I don't know if Texas will win on the rain side if that's the case since it rains so much in Slovenia.

 

This week has been an incredibly busy week with a whole lot of I don't know what. We had a Zone conference on Thursday so I got to meet all the new sisters in Slovenia, Sister Kovač in Maribor and Sister Fugal in Ljubljana (Sister Porter of course in Celje I already know). Our investigator who was on date for baptism this Saturday went for 11 days without smoking before he gave in again. We all came to the conclusion to meet with him again maybe in a few months when he feels he will have the strength and stronger desire to quit smoking and be baptized. I went on an exchange with Elder Mills on Friday and did service for an older member of the branch cutting her lawn. It was a lot of work, but we will probably get another service opportunity out of it as her neighbor asked if we could help him in 10 or so days with his lawn as well.

 

This next week looks like it is going to be a whole lot of talking to everyone finding new people to visit. It is going to be so much fun!! Also, this Friday is the last day of school for the high schoolers and I think exams are ending on Friday as well for the college people, which means, as rumor has it, that Celje is about to become a ghost town as everyone goes to the coast.

 

I don't really have any cool stories I can think of today, so here are a few pictures to make up for it instead from last p-day. Notice Sister Legro's Rocking Slovenia flag t-shirt. We went to the university of Maribor building with the member we were with that day and everyone was staring at her. Way to stick out even when we're not wearing nice clothes!!

 

LP

-Starešina Benson

To be lifted up

Lep Pozrav moja družina, prijatelji, in najljubši-

 

Hope all is well and warm as well back home. This week has taken a turn for the warmer, still wet, and really strange weather. The good news about thunderstorms with the sun shining? Rainbows! I've seen probably three of them this week. But still, it's really eerie for it to be pouring and it to be completely sunny with thunder in the background. The summer storms typically only last about an hour, though, before it stops and the wonderful humidity kicks in.

 

This week has been a busy week of preparing for this week. This week we start English class sign ups again, and we're having an informational meeting to start a stop smoking program. We'll see what kind of response we get, it should be interesting. Because we have the sisters here this time, we have done x2 the amount of fliers as last time.

 

The person we meet with right now who is set for a baptism in two weeks is on his 10th day having not smoked!! That is amazing progress and is the furthest he's come since ever meeting with missionaries in the last, at least 5 years, maybe, if not ever? But of course this is the longest he's gone, because there is nothing longer than being a non-smoker for the rest of your life and eternity, right?

 

Also, good story from this week is that as we were passing out fliers for English class and the Stop Smoking Program in a neighborhood called Ostrožno, we started talking to a guy who was sitting parked in his driveway getting ready to leave. We explained we were here passing out fliers for English class, and he started asking about our church, if we had any brochures about faith we could give him. we gave him one we had on us about the restoration, and he explained he was friends with the branch president here in Celje. We invited him to come to church and set up with him for tonight. We will see what comes of him.

 

Also, one of the less actives I mentioned last week who we had a strange time contacting him, actually met with us last week! It went! It turns out he was one of the first members ever to join the church in Celje, being baptized in 1991! He was still very interested, and we discussed how to do missionary work and maybe methods we could use to improve it. However, he has a difficult family situation which prevents him from doing much of anything besides be at home and work, much less go to church. However, we will work with him to ease his problems. It is amazing how much lives can fall apart so quickly when someone leaves the gospel. Equally amazing I think however, is how quickly they can be rebuilt and healed once principles of the gospel, such as love, forgiveness, patience, and repentance, are applied as well. This is the true miracle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It isn't that it is a bandage to support people, but it changes people to be better such that they can lift and support themselves out of the trials and difficulties of life.

 

Hope all is well and warm as well at home. Life is great! Here are a few more pics for y'all, maybe I can get one of our new sister in Cleje, Sister Porter today. We're going hiking in the mountains today for P-day. Should be fun.

 

Še naprej in uživaj vse!

Miracles Everywhere!

Zdravo moji najljubši ljudje doma!

 

This week has been another absolutely miraculous week. The person we meet with who has been off and on with his baptism date is now on day 4 being off of smoking, the longest I've been with him. Also, two of the people who are ˝semi-active˝ or in other words are around but not incredibly involved or regular, both came this Sunday, one of them the second time in a row after not having come for well over 3 months. And we have established contact with two new members who haven't come in a long long time and have/will set up with them before too long.

 

Also, we found a new person to work with this week totally by the inspiration and well intentions of the members here in Celje. On Wednesday, we had been asked if we could help one of the members ˝saw and cut˝ wood. So we accepted and showed up at the other member's house where it was at, expecting to pick up an ax like I had many a time in Kranj to cut firewood. We soon discovered however that not all was as I had assumed it would be. We went around the house of the member's neighbor to find piles and piles of abandoned wood, majority of which used to be furniture. And, with a chainsaw and screw drivers, began removing the metal from the wood and sawing the boards into fire pit safe pieces.

 

As we worked, one of the members we were working with showed me an older woman who I didn't know who was helping us, and told me that this all was for her. She also told me that she had just lost her husband ten days ago. Noting the information, I assured her we would talk to her. Some 3 hours later, we finished for the day and she invite us and the member who had invited us to have lunch with her. Over lunch, we discussed her challenges and trials with the recent passing of her late husband, and discussed how the gospel provides tools for our lives to bring us peace, even in the times of our utmost turmoil.

 

She gladly accepted what we gave her and told her, and mentioned as lunch was coming to an end that we were guided by God, that where ever He needs us, we go, and today we had to be at her home. Unfortunately for us, she lives in the Sister's area, but I trust they will care for her well.

 

Also, we have had an... interesting series of events transpire to setting up a time to meet with a less active member we still haven't met tomorrow. He hasn't been to church in at least... 5-10 years. We will see how it goes tomorrow.

 

In other news it is strangely cold again here in Slovenia. Who would have thought it would be in the 50's to 60's in June now. I've had to wear my winter jacket a few times this week!! It snowed on the tops of the higher hills outside of Celje Saturday night, Sunday morning. And rain. rain every where every day (except today!! :-D) But still, everyone keeps saying it is strange strange weather.

 

Hope everyone is warm, even maybe hot if you have that opportunity at home. What I wouldn't give for nice sunny weather. None the less, let the miracles keep flowing!

 

-Starešina Benson

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

Be at Peace, Have Faith. It's Truth

Lep Pozdrav družina in prijatelji!

First, I want to mention that there is not a lot of time today because we are on our way up to Maribor for P-Day, and we might go to some waterfalls in Croatia today if we can get permission from President Rowe to leave Slovenia. This week is gearing up to be absolutely amazing. On Wednesday we have a Zone conference with all of Slovenia and Croatia combined in Zagreb, and we will be having a special guest for the Zone Conference, Elder Kearen of the Quorum of the Seventy. He spoke in Priesthood session I think a few conferences back about being stung by a scorpion. He is from England and has an English accent. It should be a great day. A few of the missionaries in Slovenia (us included) are going down to Zagreb the night before and sleep over there so we don't have to wake up early and rush the next day.

This week I probably had one of the top spiritual visits (lessons) of my mission so far. We met with the investigator last night who currently has reset his baptismal date to the beginning of June (from middle of may) and has problems with quiting smoking. He has been off and on smoking over the last few weeks, and so we had planned to go over a 12 step spiritual based stop smoking program with him yesterday. However, we soon discovered as the lesson began that the Lord wanted the lesson to go a different direction.

Through a series of questions starting with why exactly again he had the desire to be baptized and the wish to quit smoking, we re hit the concern that he felt as if he hadn't felt the Holy Ghost for some 10 years, despite having met with the missionaries often within that time.Despite doing all the things the missionaries had asked (praying, reading the scriptures, coming to church, he felt as if it was impossible for the Holy Ghost to visit him). He had no idea how he would describe the Holy Ghost.  He felt as if the things we shared were true, that Christ had a possibility to be a savior, that the Bible might be from God, as well as the Book of Mormon, but ultimately all this was based on the testimonies of others and not of his own. The only thing he knew 100% was that God exists.

And so, we began discussing the Holy Ghost. Who is the holy ghost and His relationship with God? What is his role? (3 Nephi 11:32) What can we do over time to have his fruits (Alma 32:28) (Patience, love, long suffering, meekness, joy, etc Galatians 5:22) in our lives, and what, step by step do we have to do to have Him come to us and answer our concerns and calm our troubled hearts? (Moroni 10 :3-5)  As we went through these scriptures sentence by sentence, word by word, pausing frequently to expound the meaning and application to him in his life, he began to better understand more fully, who, why, and how we have the Holy Ghost in our lives.

At the end, despite having gone way over the usual time of a lesson (sorry for being a little late for the mother's day call mom! This is why)  We discussed who he knows as God, his actual Father who has all power and lives in heaven. Then we invited him simply, to ask these things, and then pause during and/or after the prayer and listen. Listen to God.

And so we did. He offered the most sincere, grateful, heartfelt and personal prayer I have ever hear him give, and then, after the close, silence. We sit, reverently, watching for the promptings and feelings of the Holy Ghost to come to us. After a minute and a half or so of silence, he speaks up saying, ˝You wouldn't believe this, but I think I just felt the Holy Ghost.˝ He then described in his own way, undeniably, the power of the Holy Ghost in his heart. The best way he could describe this indescribable feeling? ˝It felt like I had just smoked two cigarettes!˝  Oh man. But progress!!

This experience was truly a testimony to me to have more faith in the promise of Moroni. That God and His Spirit really are real and work in the lives of others all the time. Also it was a testimony of the power of immediately applying what we had been teaching (especially simple, simple, simple, teaching), and seeing the miracles happen, despite the doubt you might have had. That we need to have faith in what we teach, and apply it in our own lives as well to strengthen our own spiritual power such that we can strengthen others. And most importantly, a testimony again that God is real. He speaks to us today through His Spirit. Jesus is the Christ, and the fully restored gospel of Jesus Christ is here on the earth again.

I hope everyone at home is well, and would practice daily what you yourself teach and preach and believe, whatsoever that may be. We can only grow stronger through use.

Much love-

-Starešina Benson

Refiner's Fire

Zdravo vsi družina in prijatelji!

 

The last few days large thunderstorms have been rolling through the mission, bringing lots of rain and cooler weather. They are actually the first thunderstorms I have seen in Slovenia, so it is a good experience. Also it makes me glad that I learned the words for storm and thunder months ago before I needed to actually use them.

 

This week the big success of the work is with one of the people we work with, whom we inherited months ago from the Sisters when they left Celje. She had largely already come to know the truthfulness of the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ we share, but is prevented from baptism because she needs to get married first (a challenge which is proving to be a refiner's fire). None the less, we have been working with her to not lose her fire and light of the gospel through enduring the challenges she must face. Her fire in the gospel shown bright on Sunday as she came to the pulpit and bore a strong, sincere testimony, to which the Spirit accompanied to testify of its truth. I have little doubt she will join the community of the saints one day soon, and be an ever stronger member here in Celje.

 

Largely, I have found that the more opposition, whether from others or from self, they and we must endure to become active members of the restored gospel, the stronger we become once we finally overcome our challenges and enter the waters of baptism. And still after that, if opposition still exists, if we endure it, they continue to become ever stronger and resilient in the faith. I have seen this especially when I was in Kranj, that it was a true sacrifice of time, and for some, money, to travel the 30 minute to hour long trip each way to church each Sunday. This dedication and action, and their very presence, showed and still strengthened their resolve to the gospel of Christ and increased love and dedication to the Savior.

 

Each of us has our own unique challenges and circumstances with which we must each overcome, and it is my wish that we would all use them as opportunities to become ever stronger, instead of letting them pull us down and make us weaker.

 

Much love and care to each of you across the large ocean!

-Starešina Benson