God loves all of us!

Hey mom and dad! 

Well, I cut my hair and I get to stay here in Šiška Ljubljana and train a new sister! So I'm pretty thrilled about that. Lots of changes for the sisters of Slovenija. So..Sister Jennings will go to Kranj and train a new sister. Sister Crosby will come to Ljubljana Center area and train a new sister. And sisters Squires and Baker will go together to Maribor to be a second set of missionaries in the beautiful city! Everyone is pretty thrilled! Elders Mercer and Zimmerman are staying here together. Elder Penrod is going to work with Elder Jensen in Maribor and Elder Loyens is moving to Celje to be with Elder Love. And that's all of us :) 

Good things! I think this next transfer is going to move pretty quickly because I will going to Zagreb three times throughout it. Potentially four if we have summer conference this transfer....that's a lot haha.

I love the picture of the yam! I love them! He is so cute. 

The shepherding is going well! It is just really hard to help people find desire and motivation within themselves. I love the Slovene people and the culture, don't get me wrong, but it is a slow culture. So it's a work in progress. 

We were having a lesson on the lawn of the church Saturday evening because we didn't have anyyone able to come on the lesson with us. And then President Mitja and Sestra Sara Lakner pulled up with their daughter Berry! So we all went inside and they were there to clean the church. We sat down for our lesson. And then I was like..what are we doing? That exhausted couple is cleaning the church with a 7 month old baby and we are sitting here. So we put the gospel into action and helped clean the church. And I think our friend loved it. President Mitja thanked him over the pulpit yesterday in sacrament meeting :)  

Pray that those we are teaching will receive and recognize a witness from the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true because that is what they need in order to have the faith to live the commandments.

We have one friend who is doing well.  She loves the gospel. She loves learning. She loves reading in the Book of Mormon and she loves praying. It's been really neat to be able to teach her and help her and I'm excited to continue with that! 

We were really sad when another friend texted yesterday morning telling us that they weren't going to be able to make it to church. We had planned to go knock on the door and walk together to church :( We are planning to give an invitation to be baptized this week. Pray our friend will recognize the importance of the restoration and receive greater peace in life by living along this path than anything else. Because our Father in Heaven knows better than anyone or anything how to give peace to His children.

We have a friend who tells us that there is not just one path that is correct, but that God loves all of us. Those two statements are actually kind of opposite. Because God loves all of us, He has prepared a way for ALL OF US. And He has given us each the ability to choose for ourselves. 

The elders went out for a visit yesterday to one of my favorite people. We haven't been able to go over there, but maybe this week. 

I'm glad to hear that Joelle's surgery went well this week and that she is in less pain! Tell them I love them the next time you talk with them! 

I am also happy to hear that Sabrina is feeling a little better and that she was at the track meet. How old is Maren? Is she driving?? What is she doing in track? 

Love you! More later probably :)

Steph

The Lord Prepares Us

Hello Liberty Lake

I hope that your spring will come! That it can break through the winter. Our summer is fast approaching which is sad....

I really do love the people of Slovenija. I love them. I don't know that any of them will remember me, but I hope they feel things that they will always remember and that their testimonies and faith are strengthened while I am here. 

We had a pretty neat experience Saturday morning. We went to visit a member. We were all three sitting around her table with just enough room to rest a few things on it. And she was sitting there telling us about how she just wants to do missionary work. She brought a man to church last week and I asked her how she knew him. Guess what she said?? She had met him ON THE BUS 3 years ago. She is amazing and I just felt privileged to be in her home. She waved her hand around her home and told us "it's really not much. I don't need much though. All I want is to make a little more money so that I can go on a mission in a few years." I just wanted to cry. The spirit was so strong as she talked about her strong strong desire to help someone to find the joy that she has felt from living the gospel. It has changed her life in ways she can't explain and she is filled with joy because of it. I am so grateful to know her. 

In other great news, S finally came to church! And really enjoyed it! She was only able to stay for sacrament meeting, but she had a really good experience and was able to feel the spirit very strong. 

Shout out to the stake young women's leaders from when I was in young women's and we did the temple walk from the stake center to the temple. In preparation for the walk, we had spent months memorizing The Living Christ document. Well, I was translating in sacrament meeting yesterday morning and the microphone was broken, so I was having a difficult time hearing the speaker, but I could hear enough to know that he was reading the entire document The Living Christ. So I pulled upon my memory from long ago and with the help of what I could hear, I did an OK job reciting it for the English speakers in the room haha. The Lord prepares us at  young ages to do the things He has in store for us later in life, ne? :) 

In other news, I got attacked by a spider. Sister Jennings and I took a trip down a scary dirt road covered in pot holes through a dark forest...for the second time on our missions and in a different city. Don't ask me how that happened again, because I really don't even know. We had an Easter concert Saturday evening and lots of people came, so that was neat! I sang higher notes than I have ever hit in my life only possible with the help of the spirit, I'm sure :) 

Love, Steph

Change is always good!

Change is always good!  Yes! 3 Slovene SISTERS coming to the mission in a couple weeks. There will be lots of changes up here. That means 3 of the 5 of us will be training and the other two will likely be here in Šiška. Good things! Exciting things! It will be really good to have transfers. Change is always good and helps you find another burst of energy to keep moving forward with enthusiasm. 

That sounds amazing at the baptism with the children singing! If it's possible, you should send me the video of them! I would love to hear it. I would love to go to a baptism. I actually still haven't heard the last session of conference. Well, I have heard part of it. There is nothing organized for us to watch together, so we need to do it today maybe. Unless the elders are in the church, in which case we couldn't be in here, so it would have to wait. It's hard to work out use of computers here in the church and also obey the gender rules and everything. We both just always need to be in the church haha. 

We show the Lord that we want to be used by taking action, even when we're not entirely sure the best action to take. If you continue to show the Lord that you are willing, then He will help and guide you and use you. That's what Nephi did. Even though he couldn't see any solution and his brothers were being the worst, he still showed faith and desire and he acted and the Lord was able to use him for good.  

I am glad that Drew will go to Hungary. I want to go as well. I wish y'all could visit Slovenija. It's beautiful. I actually recommend it. If you are going to be in Hungary, you may as well step your feet into the country. You could visit Ptuj or Maribor or Murska Sobota - a region of the country with a dialect SO different that most Slovenes can't even understand it. 

I really love Sister Melonakos. She has a gift for really seeing people and knowing them and loving them. She is an amazing listener and an amazing question asker. I am so so grateful for her.

In a lesson this week, I just prayed with all my soul that Heavenly Father would help me to have the spirit. I felt more guided by the spirit in that lesson than I ever have before on the mission. I think the difference was that I had laser like focus on our friend and what he was saying. The Lord just helped me to focus on him and respond to him.  We invited him to be baptized when he knows that the Book of Mormon is true and he said he would. 

I went on exchange in Kranj this week with Sisters Crosby and Baker and that was so much fun.  I have not been sleeping well recently which has made everything kind of tough and I kind of hurt my arm exercising the other day.  I really need to serve. In relief society yesterday we discussed what things truly bring us joy and I thought that for me when I can truly turn myself outward away from myself, that is when I have found the most joy.  

 

We had a pretty miraculous Sunday yesterday. We've been working with members to help them do missionary work in whatever way they want to and feel that they can. Two of the women we've been working with brought friends to church yesterday! On top of that, one of our friends stood up in fast and testimony meeting, bore her testimony of the Book of Mormon and how she reads every day and notices a difference when she doesn't read, and then announced that she wants to be baptized. So...that happened haha. It was insane. We had a chapel full of nearly 50 people yesterday. It was UNREAL. Granted, we had two american families there, but still. We had lots of members we don't see very often who came as well as 7 investigators. It was pretty amazing! 

Love you! 

Steph