Chalk, happiness, and reconections

Hello family and friends!!!

 

The weather in Slovenia has gotten a bit... wetter this week. The spring storms have arrived in full force. Yesterday, really just all of a sudden, it came out of nowhere and just poured for some 20 minutes with thunder and lightening before slowing down and stopping, only to start all over again two hours later. And because it was such nice weather in the morning when we left the apartment, I didn't have an umbrella, and Elder Burdette only had his small emergency umbrella!!

 

But otherwise we are planning to go to a mountain lake today called Bohinj. Even though it is still really cloudy weather and occasionally raining, it should be a great time. :-)

 

This week has been a great day otherwise as well. On Saturday we had another chalk activity in the city park. On a main walkway from the parking lot, we drew out the whole plan of Happiness, or in other words the plan that explains where we came from, why and how we are here, and where we go after this life, explaining how God is all fair despite different circumstances. It is a plan of hope and happiness, we are not lost or without purpose ever in this life. I had the opportunity while drawing to talk to a man who was walking by and teach him the whole plan. He has Parkinson's, and so was curious why bad things happen in the world. I explained that we all have our own trials. There is not a single person without them, but they are all different. Some people have health issues, others have family problems, still others with drugs, and still others have other circumstances created from the free choices of other people such as war and social issues. There is not a person without problems. But as long as we are humble, we can still learn and be happy through the trials. Our purpose here is that we learn to be better than the day before, the goal being the bright day when all will be restored to its perfect frame without pain or weakness. But the world now is not the garden of Eden. He was grateful for the conversation.

 

Otherwise we finally had contact with two of the people we teach yesterday for the first time in weeks. The first was one of our English class students who disappeared after getting a new job, but randomly called us after church had ended and invited us over to his place. It was great to see him again. The other was a person who had been meeting with missionaries some 6 years ago, but had had little contact for the last few years. She had been on plan for baptism, but issues came up which were not able to be overcome. We finally were able to meet with her and it was wonderful.

 

Everything is otherwise going well, if a bit wet. I hope everyone home is well and healthy. Have a great week! I know schools are ending soon. You can do it!!!

 

-Starešina Benson

chalk drawing with half the missionaries and the senior couple, the Thompson's

 i was in charge of drawing the predzemeljsko življenje, (pre-earth life)

Easter and Bosnians

Hello all fam and friends!!!!!!!

 

This week has been an interesting week. I feel like Easter just kind of creeped up on me from out of nowhere, and now it is over, but it was great!!! Tonight we are having a big Easter concert at church. I'll be singing a solo, consider the Lilies translated (perfectly finally) into Slovene, and we missionaries will be singing v Kristusa Verujem (I believe in Christ). It is going to be great!

 

Yesterday was a great day. We had a lot of people in church yesterday which was great. Afterwards we went to a member's house in the middle of nowhere and had a great traditional Slovene Easter dinner with them and the other Elders, Elder Lyman and Simon. It was great. We had an AMAZING Slovene salad and homemade mushroom soup with mushrooms they had gathered from the forest. Then the real meal, with ham (representing the body of Christ), horseradish (representing the nails/suffering), and hard boiled eggs (representing the tears). The eggs were dyed of course with different plant shapes on them. We also had Austrian schnitzel, chicken wings, rice, and potatoes. It was amazing! Then we had for dessert, a white cake with fruit and gelatin on the top, a blueberry cream in the center, and potica!! Potica is a traditional Slovene dessert they eat for Easter and Christmas. It's a bread, with either a poppy seed filling, or a walnut filling, that's wrapped into a spiral. It is amazing! It was a great day!

 

Otherwise, the work this week has been interesting. We had en exchange with the assistants in Zagreb which was exciting. Elder McAllister came up to Ljubljana to spend the day with me, and I'm pretty sure we found all the Croatian speaking people in our area. We had a great experience at the end of the day where we were sitting on some steps preparing some things to quickly advertise for English class before heading home for the night. So as we were sitting there, and a guy walked by us down the stairs saying, "Zdravo dječki!", meaning "Hello boys!"..... in Croatian .I told him that. Then, as we were finishing up, we started talking to a girl who wasn't too interested, but as we were finished talking to her, the same guy walked by again! We quickly stopped him before he got too far away and had a great conversation with him. He lived nearby, but was otherwise from Bosnia. We ironically gave him a copy of the Croatian book of Mormon though which Elder McAllister had on him, and he asked us three times to call him when he gets back to Slovenia in two weeks.

 

Otherwise all is well. I hope you all have a great week!!!

-Starešina Benson

Sun and Families :-)

Hello all! Živijo živijo!!

 

Spring is here and it is absolutely beautiful today!!! The highs are getting into the seventies and nice and sunny. There was a bit of rain this week, but nothing too crazy.

 

The work is moving ahead. The less active we are working with is doing really well. We invited her to a lesson we had this week, and she was amazing! She shared the rock solid testimony of God's love and how scripture (particularly the Book of Mormon) has helped her in her life. She is doing well, and came to church this Sunday again, second time in a row.

 

Also, our teenage friend is doing well. We taught him some of the commandments this last week and he accepted them all. He also says he recognizes when he breaks or broke commandments that he feels a lot different. He is progressing. We are basically still working with him as if he was preparing to be baptized even though his mom has said no for him to be baptized.

 

On Thursday, we went by to go teach him, planning to meet his mom as well. So we arrived and he said we should actually go and sit on a bench outside his apartment. So we went over, and soon his 9 year old sister came down and we started talking with her as well. Then soon after that his 20 year old cousin came over and sat with us and we started teaching her. Then his mom came and went, and some 10 minutes later his 13 year old sister and her best friend came over and sat down with us and we started teaching them all! it was great. We taught the nature of who is God, as our Heavenly Father and that he wants to hear from us, then teaching them how to pray. I also shared my story of how God had personally communicated with me and called me to serve a mission. We then prayed at the end and they all discribed that they were feeling the Holy Spirit, and explained that that means God is with us, and all we have shared is true. They are a great family and really want to be together. They may have tough situations, but I know this gospel can and will help and strengthen them now in this life, and if they follow it, enable them to be together for eternity.

 

Great things are happening here. This next week looks like it is going to be amazing! I hope everyone has a great Easter weekend!

Much love from sunny Slovenija!!

-Starešina Benson

Crazy Busy, Crazy Good, and a Return

Hello all family and friends!!!

 

This week has been really really really really busy, and really really really really good. We had zone conference this week for all the Slovene missionaries, and my first zone conference that I have lead and taught since I have been zone leader. It was really good, if not a bit busy and stressful. We had Indian food for lunch. Super good. Elder Burdette and I meanwhile taught about our personal conversion and the language of faith. What is the language of faith? Looking on life and the events that happen with hope, that everything will turn out alright, which it will. We can never become depressed or negative, because it is in that moment that we will have lost, even if the finish is still a while in front of us. This is to have faith. Perfect example? Look at the response to the task in the Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 3:5+7. How do the brothers Laman and Lamuel respond in verse 5? How does it show their lack of faith and hope? How does Nephi respond in verse 7? How does it show his faith? If we despair at the beginning, we will despair at the end. But if we have faith, we will come off conqueror at the end.

 

Otherwise this week, last Sunday, as mentioned, we went to surprise a less active member and were an answer to her prayers. On Wednesday, we met with her again with a family whom she knows really well from church, and then on Sunday morning we met with her at 9am on the street corner and went to church together!! It was the first time in over a year she has been to church, and the first time really in 6 years since she has been serious about wanting to come back!!! Great things are happening!!!! She had a great time and was embraced by countless numbers of her friends at church, and had a good time.

 

Also this week, our 15 year old friend really wants to be baptized, but he can't because his mother is not allowing him to. However, we met with her for the first time this week and taught her and his little sister. His mother was so glad to see us, and literally told us, ˝Dobi se z njim!! Večkrat na teden!˝ or in other words, ˝Meet with him!! Multiple times a week!˝ She loves us, just doesn't understand the importance of covenants, but we hope to continue to teach them, and that the Lord can soften her heart. At the end we taught them how to pray, and everyone in the family felt the spirit.

 

The work is going ahead. I am actually quite surprised how much work we had to do this last week, with Zone Conference added in. It was a really great week, and looking forward to another good one to come!!

 

I hope everyone at home has a great time, and that we look forward with faith and hope to a brighter future of what WILL be!!!!

 

Lep pozdrav in se slišamo nasljedni teden!!

-Starešina Benson

Unusual, but Miraculous

Živijo, Živijo, Živijo!!!

 

The sun is out, the weather is warm (a scorching 65-75 degrees), the birds are out singing, the trees leafing out, and flowers popping out everywhere. Slovenija is undoubtedly BEAUTIFUL!! Able to see the alps from the kitchen window today? Yep. Still snow on the tops? Yep. Another great spring week coming up? Yep.

 

This week has been quite good, and a quite strange week. It started Tuesday with an exchange with Celje, where I went back after 3 months to go serve in Celje for a day and a half with Elder Hunt. It was quite great, and is interesting how much of my influence is still in Celje. I felt like I had hardly left going back to see the members and the apartment. It was great seeing some of the people I had taught there as well, being able to further strengthen them and really see some miracles that had happened there since I had left.

 

Then on Thursday Elder Burdette and I headed down to Zagreb to a leadership meeting which was absolutely wonderful. This week, on Thursday we have a zone conference with all of the Slovene missionaries and i am REALLY excited for it!! It is going to be great!!!!

 

Then Friday we went and did service for a less active member which was really great. After the ice storm during February which destroyed a lot of trees across Slovenija, he had a lot of work for us to do, cutting broken branches, cutting them down to firewood size, and mulching the small ones. He then took us home, dropping Elder Burdette and I off about a 5 minute walk from our apartment, and here is where the evidence is that the Lord places his missionaries exactly where they need to be.

 

As we were walking home from where he dropped us off, we came to a major intersection and waited at the light. While waiting though, we saw someone on the opposite side of the street stop at the light as well on a bike. We looked closely and realized it was our 15 year old investigator whom we had lost contact with in the last week!! He waved at us and when the light changed he rode over to us. We talked and set up to go see him after we got changed back into missionary clothes.

 

The following lesson we had with him was amazing, one of the best we had had in weeks. He knows and remembers a lot of the doctrine we have taught him, prays often, and believes it all, but we discovered he wasn't really putting in much effort to read the word. So we discussed the significance of reading, and just opened up the Book of Mormon and began reading with him. It was a great experience and the spirit was strong, and he recognized it. He also committed to come to church on Sunday, came, and had an excellent experience.

 

We then set up with him for Saturday, the following morning, where we would all go together to his 17 year old friend's home to go find him. In the last month, after a great experience with him, his friend completely disappeared, his phone not working, and we didn't know where he lived. But the following morning we went to his door, us three, and knocked. No one was home, but we will go try again earlier in the morning tomorrow.

 

Otherwise, then Saturday we had an interesting experience of a group finding activity with the Ljubljana district. We all went to the city park, Tivoli, and made a chalk drawing asking, ˝Kako lahko najdemo resnično srečo?˝, meaning ˝How can we find true happiness?˝ We then talked with people who walked by, and had some great conversations.

 

Then Sunday, we had a really special opportunity and experience. Yesterday was the 23rd baptismal anniversary of the first member baptized in Slovenija who hasn't been to church in a long time, whom we know and have met before. Last week, we made a quick card and had a bunch of the Ljubljana members sign it, wishing her well, and then yesterday, on her anniversary, we baked a little cake and went by her place, and she was home!!!

 

She was so happy and excited, saying she had been praying all day for someone to come help her, especially for someone to come to give her a blessing. She figured she would have to come to church to get a blessing, but then we came and knocked on her door!!! She was so surprised and so happy!! She recognizes the things she has done in her life, and what she needs to do to go forwards, and has our help for it. Also, she is going to be moving to Zagreb within a few weeks, so we came exactly at the right moment. We committed her to come to church this Sunday before she leaves, and we will all go together.

 

While this week has been unusual, it has been excellent, and the Lord is obviously the one who is in charge. Great things are happening. here's to another upcoming great and inspired for me, and for you! Enjoy general conference!

 

-Starešina Benson

Small acts of kindness

Hello all, fam and friends!

 

The weather in Slovenia has been outright wonderful this week. Up to seventy degrees F, sunny, and flowers blooming all over the place... until Sunday. It started raining in Sunday, and it poured, and is still raining today, but it is good. Hopefully the next few weeks will be sunny again and then it can rain for a day or two. I would be completely happy with that. We need rain every now and again, at least to selfishly clean up the air so I can see the alps from my kitchen window again. ;-)

 

Otherwise, we have a great new person we are meeting with from Macedonija whom we know through English Class. He has come to three spiritual thoughts / institutes, and we were finally able to meet with him this week for a lesson after the spiritual thought on Tuesday. He has been living in Slovenia for awhile, and speaks great Slovene as his wife is Slovene, and has a 5 year old daughter. He grew up in a completely atheist family in Jugoslavija where there was no such thing as faith. However, when he started going to college, he became curious about different faiths and started investigating different ones, including Hare Krishna, through which he developed a faith in God. Then, he graduated as an archaeologist and began working in the field in Macedonija. One of the places he worked at was near a Russian orthodox monastery where a sect of Russian monks who had been exiled because of Stalin's regime were staying. He got to know them very well and began learning from them as well, and developed a faith in Christ through them. However, he has a deep dislike for churches, and very clearly can see the apostasy. However, since he has moved to Slovenija, he has not been able to find an outlet  for, as he puts it, ˝living water˝, and so is very grateful for being able to meet with us. We are very excited for him and hope and have faith that he can progress.  Otherwise the week has been fine. Elder Burdette, myself, and the Thompsons, the new senior couple in Ljubljana, went with a member family on Wednesday to visit a member who lives about a 2 hour drive from Ljubljana. She used to be an incredibly active member, until she was suddenly struck with a degenerative neural or muscular disease which now has her confined to a wheelchair and unable to talk. She was so happy to see us. The moment she came out of the elevator and saw us she broke down crying and began embracing the members and grabbing our hands. We had a good hour long chat with her before we had to leave, having gotten her address to send her mail, and the phone number of her daughter. This for me was the definition of pure religion in James, that ˝Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.˝

It is all about the small things we do for others that matter. Think about it, and find some small act of kindness you can do for someone this week, and I promise your week will be 5 times better than it would have been because of that.

 

Otherwise, hope you all have a great week!!

-Starešina Benson

A Frightening Checkpoint, and You're Valuable!

Good, morning, afternoon, or evening friends and family (all depending on you of course and when you are reading this ;-)  )!

 

Spring has definitely sprung in Slovenija. The flowers which herald the coming of spring are fading out to the grass. Leaves are bursting out of the trees slowly, and I'm pretty sure I haven't seen a cloud in nearly a week now. The temperature should hit 70 F for the first time in months and months today. But, as we are in Europe and not America, we have a different day light savings time, so were not ˝springing ahead˝ for another two weeks.

 

Otherwise, while the trees are beginning to burst out and the sun has been pouring out its life giving power for the last week, this week we had an incredibly enriching week for the whole district. The big event of course was district conference for all of Slovenija to gather on Saturday night and Sunday morning, and a very special guest, Elder Kearon who is the first councilor for the European area presidency from the first quorum of the seventy. He was also one who came and did a mission tour back last March if I remember right. I might have also mentioned all of this last week as well, but the weeks now feel like months long, so I can hardly remember what I said last week.

 

On a more sad note, I made a very very very very very very very very sad realization this week on Wednesday. So, little Slovene lesson. Slovene is a case language like Russian, and one of the cases changes the ending of a noun and its adjective if it is in a quantity of 5 or more. So once I had been in Slovenija for 5 months, I could say I had been there already for pet mesecev (five months), and I have been saying that for the last year, maybe more...... until now. I came to the dark realization, that I can no longer say that when someone asks me how much time I have left to be here, because I only have štiri meseci (four months) left. Absolutely terrifying.

 

Also, this week we are switching up for transfers. The exciting changes of where I am going? Nowhere. And my companion Elder Burdette? Nowhere. No changes with the zone leaders. But the whole rest of Sloveinja is changing except for 1 other companionship, the Elders in Maribor. But another terrifying thing? I only have one more transfer change left on my mission. so just 2 transfers left... at all. Because Elder Burdette and I are staying together as well, I can pretty clearly see my mission to the end as well now. I will (most likely) be staying in Ljubljana Moste to the end, as I will be with Elder Burdette the next 9 weeks, then I will have to train a new zone leader for my last transfer.... and then... that's..... it................................................................................................................................

 

But the work is marching forward. I sang a song for District Conference, which I found out I was doing the day before. Odrešenikova Ljubezen... not sure what the proper English title is... our savior's love? Something like that.  But the conference was great. It all focused on D&C 18, that the ˝worth of souls is great in the sight of God˝. We truly are beloved. God knows and understands us perfectly, better than we do ourselves, and we need to try and look at every other person in the same way he looks at them. The value of each person is so remarkable and unfathomable. More and more in the material world, we devalue people to simply objects, good for something or good for nothing, but this is an illusion. Each and every person is valuable without end. And capable of miracles every day. Do not forget this with yourself, and with your friends and strangers.

 

Have a great warm week!

Well wishes from Slovenija!

-Starešina Benson