We got to have 4 sister missionaries over for dinner tonight.  It was so great!  I love feeding the sisters!  We have 2 sets in our ward, one set of English speaking missionaries and one set of Chinese speaking.  They are all so much fun, and listening to them banter back and forth with each other, chat with my girls, volunteer to help in the kitchen, and offer spiritual thoughts takes me back the 20+ years to my own mission.  I loved getting to know the families in Slovenia.  The branches were small, but felt so much like a family.  I always knew I was comfortable, safe, and most of all loved whenever we spent dinner time with the members there.  I hope the sisters here feel the same, and I pray as my son goes about doing the work, that he feels that safety net of Christlike love as well.

Even with the incredible support we had, there were definitely times of self-doubt, and criticism.  I rarely had the answers I felt I needed and it wasn’t long before I realized that missionary work was hard, emotionally and physically taxing, and at times, completely confusing.  I once told my son that missionary work is about 70% hard work, 20% tons of fun, and 5% pure joy.  That 5% made up for everything else.  When I didn’t have the answers, I had to learn to rely on the Lord, search the scriptures, and pray pray pray.  Sometimes, we still just needed a break.  Thank goodness for p-days!

4 Oct 1995

Hello, well let’s see if I can remember all the way back to this morning.  Oh yeah, ok. We had an appointment with Maja this morning. It went pretty well, except for I couldn’t speak worth beans.  We met at the church and the other sisters came and Brother Majc happened to stop by as well, so at least she met some more people.  I don’t know, we just need to keep contact with her. Really, she’s cool though. Then we came home and I don’t know what was wrong with me, but for some reason, I threw a tantrum.  Ok, not exactly, but my self-esteem was way down. I really need to work with the language. Well my day wasn’t that exciting, so I’m not going to recite the rest of it, except Sister Mix is talking to Jelka right now and they got hit by a drunk driver last night.  Now Mateja is in the hospital for whiplash and they both have neck braces. Sad.

5 Oct 1995

Wow, what a day!  We had a correlation and DDM.  It was ok without a branch mission leader.  No, it’s just weird because Mitja moved. Now Matjaz is, but he hasn’t been set apart yet.

6 Oct 1995

Ok, I’m back.  I couldn’t finish last night because we were updating the contact book.  Talk about being filled with follow-ups next week. I think my head is spinning just thinking about it, especially because I’ll have a new companion.  Well, we went over and visited with Maja yesterday. It was cool. She’s coming and I think we really need to work with her lots. She’s never had a religious basis, so she doesn’t understand a lot, but she catches on after a while, and she said she won’t give up.  Cool! I’m kind of scared to give her a 4th. I mean, I know she can commit, but that’s a lot to give up all at once. It is possible, and I know she can do it but that’s a lot for anyone (Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity). We did some final shopping/contacting yesterday for Sister Mix.  It was pretty fun. I bought this huge flag. I’m gonna make it into a quilt. Then I also found a loose cobblestone from the streets of downtown Ljubljana. So, I picked that up and I’ll use it for a bookend. Sister Mix got all kinds of cool stuff. It was fun.

Then we had FHE.  It wasn’t very well planned, but it was really fun.  We had a short story that Elder Tingey gave. Then we played pictionary.  I was drawing at the same time as Matjaz and lost twice. So now, I guess I owe him a Sadni Kup (fruit cup).  Oh well. After that we went to the Dijaski Dom to try and find Irena Frakelj. Yay! She was there. So we taught her a first discussion.  It was really cool. She’s already really religious and seems really nice. I think she’s only like 16. We have another appointment with her on Tuesday before English class.  

We are going to visit Mateja today and then Jelka at work.  They are both ok, or at least alive after being hit by the drunk driver.  Mateja broke some vertebra and has to stay in bed for a while. Jelka is in a neck brace, but at least she is able to get around.

7 Oct 1995

We used today as P-day.  Boy did I need it! All 4 sisters in Ljubljana went up to Bled and Bohinj.  It was so gorgeous! Wow! The weather was perfect and the leaves were changed.

When we got back, we had a meeting with Ivan.  Interesting.