Miracles! Nov. 2nd, 2015

Celebrating my halfway mark!  Time is starting to fly! October 28th!

Draga Družina, 

    This week was a miracle week, this next one will be a miracle week as well. On October 31, our mission is celebrating the 30 anniversary of the dedication of Yugoslavia for the preaching of the gospel! What an amazing blessing it is to see what has happened in just thirty years and to see the potential that these beautiful countries have. It is such a blessing to be a part of the work at this stage, and to be able to tell people amazing truths that they have never had to opportunity to hear. It is such a priviledge. This past week I had the opportunity to go and do exchanges with Sister Higgins in Maribor. We taught a member together, taught English class, were actually quite busy with lessons...it was amazing! 

    But the best part is the sweet girl that we had the opportunity to teach together. Sister Christensen and I found her right before I left, she is the one who came to church the next day for general conference and then the following evening to family home evening right before I left. Their first lesson with her, she accepted a baptismal date. God has prepared people. When we first met her and talked to her on a bench we asked her how she would feel to know that God has more of his words for us? Her answer, 'I hoped that he would.' She was searching and when we taught her, I saw the light of the gospel in her eyes. It was amazing to see the spirit so alive in her. We taught her the plan of salvation and answered all her questions, testified, and at the end we asked her to pray to know if this really is God's plan for us. She said that she would, but that she somehow already knows it is true and knows this is God's plan for her. THE BEST WORDS EVER! I was just so humbled to be able to teach her again and see her progress. 

   Her follow up question for us, was how she could get her family to believe while they are all on earth so they could all be in the celestial kingdom together. She is actively preparing for baptism and an amazing young woman who is going to build the church here in Slovenia! 

  We also have another exchange this week (Sister Duffy and I actually do not have as much time together as we thought . . .haha) with Ljubljana. I will be staying in Kranj and Sister Robertson will be serving here with me! Yay for serving once more with my trainer! It will be great and miracles will happen. 

  I pray that we all constantly seek for personal revelation and live our lives the way we should when we know the gospel is true and that God has a perfect plan for us. I know He does and that Jesus Christ is our Savior. He is the way back home and it is a blessing to be able to teach that to these amazing people. I love and pray for you all. Have an amazing week.

 Sestra Rhodes

Bishopric social where we all wrote a note to each missionary in the ward on a poster and sent it!

BBC LIVE! Oct. 19th, 2015

Dobro Jutro vsem! 

So to get right down to things... this week was crazy! I am still doing some Kranj adjusting and we are searching our faces off for prepared people. It is a very small city so we will sometimes do 'group finding'. Drawing the plan of salvation in chalk, or singing in the center of the city, or a variety of things to get people to stop. Well last night I talked to a suuuuper cool girl who was walking her dog and niece around and it was great to give out another book of mormon (feels like it has been too long) and we are meeting again this week. Other miracles ...the awesome girl we found in Maribor right before I left, is on baptismal date! She is so prepared and I get to go back to Maribor to do exchanges and will get to teach her with Sister Higgins. I am really grateful and it will be a fun exchange! 

So the last week we had the best zone conference ever. Elder Charles from the 70 and his wife came and did all the instructing. It was fun, entertaining, and the spirit was SO strong. Plus, they are from London. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to their accents for 5 hours (plus another 3 for mlc on Sat.) It was like a spiritual BBC...live. Though i hear a lot of English, most of the time it is in a variety of accents, so to hear American English is now actually quite weird. 

Elder Charles talked to us about reaching heavenward, taking the time to feel the holy ghost and receive his guidance. It was amazing to hear their stories as they were mission presidents in the Greece, Athens mission, and as I listened I had the greatest feeling of gratitude come over me. I have the opportunity to serve in this country in its early (or he called it the emerging) stages of the gospel. The miracles are so present and working with the members is working with pioneers. The restoration for these people is so recent. This next week we will be celebrating the dedication of Yugoslavia for the preaching of the gospel and all the members and missionaries will be doing a service activity and making kits to help the Refugees in this area. It is an amazing work and I am very happy and grateful to have this learning opportunity. The church is true. I love you all and pray for you all too! Have an amazing week and reach heavenward! 

Oh yes, we also have a baptism this weekend. The Elders have been teaching this man from the Netherlands who found the gospel online, through the tabernacle choir and referred himself online...twice. Most all of the baptisms lately have been online searchers and there is another amazing aspect of how fast the work can move! Make sure all your facebook pages are awesome and representing the Lord and his church! Love you all! 

xoxoxo

Sestra Rhodes 

 Had a little kill time in Zagreb before our bus, so we got to see a
 bit of the city after mlc.

Sestra Duffy and me

Cut these out of the friend magazine...picking Christlike attributes to help us prepare to be better missionaries! 

Visiting Lubj castle before we leave.

Selfie of our leaders training session.

The Kranj Life! Oct. 12, 2015

Živjo Family!

 

Glad to hear all is well and everyone is enjoying the fall season! We are enjoying it too. :) Lots of chestnuts roasting on open fires...literally and we thought we'd start of the transfer with.... a . . . tv interview for national tv Slovenia. No big deal. This very kind woman and her camera crew came to the church and interviewed the Elders and then the sisters asking us questions like 'what does the book of mormon mean to you and do you have any favorite passages....or.... what would you tell people who are still searching for their purpose in life....do people here understand your purpose and accept you?' So she asked, we smiled and answered. Sestra Duffy even got teary. It was an amazing opportunity and I pray that some of the people who watch it will be touched and that the Lord can use it in some way to bring people to the knowledge of the gospel. There was even a boom mic. And my personal favorite part? It was all in Slovene. Very, very very far from perfect Slovene, but people are touched when we hear them trying to learn their language and am I so grateful for that opportunity! Then..they brought their camera crew to the center of the town and we did our thing what we do for a lot of time daily, we stopped people on the streets and talked to them about the gospel. The presence of a camera though was really weird. So that is one crazy thing that happened in the first week of my new area!

The second amazing thing....the branch here! I have not been to 3 hours of church in over 6 months...but they have all three hours here in Kranj and it is all run by locals! We had an awesome correlation meeting with the branch president and I found a lot of good missionary energy there at church and am very excited to work with the members here in Kranj to do missionary work. We even got to go into primary for 5 minutes to give a presentation to the two kids on missionary work. It was so much fun.

My new comp is also great. Music is one of the many things we have in common and it has been fun singing around the apartment and on the streets. (You do what you can to get people to talk to you... Still working on dragging a piano out there... :)

And to top all that off, we ran into a lady the other day who was really interested in coming to church but never did because her boyfriend did not allow it. However, we ran into her and she informed us that they are no longer together....that means, she came to church! It was a miracle and we are going to start teaching her this week along with a couple other people who seem really awesome. The amazing girl we found in Maribor right before I left also went to church again...two weeks in a row! So the work is picking up adn it will continue even more this week as we have zone conference with Elder Charles and his wife.

So all is well here and I am just praying that I can work hard enough and be humble enough to ask for things and have the faith to watch them happen. We should all think about our prayers. We had a cool meeting (prep for our interview) with the district president and he told us something awesome. He said, 'the battle is won every morning and every night in prayer.' The rest stems off of that. I know it is true and that prayer is a gift and we should use it as intended. None of this ordering pizza business and then hanging up. :)

Thanks for all your support and I love and pray for you all. Enjoy the football and crisp weather!

 

lep pozdrav,

Sestra Rhodes  

Where is Kranj, Slovenia? The Alps above Ljubljana.

City Plaza in town.

Reminds me of Timp at home!

All Is Well! Vse je prav! CONFERENCE SUNDAY! Oct. 5th, 2015

The Maribor district before we split up...and our Sunday morning crew for conference.

Me, Tina, Sestra C., Patricija, and Sister Arsjenuk

Beautiful Maribor!

Živjo!! (That is how they say hello in . . . Kranj!) Yes, that is where I am getting transferred. My very first Sunday in the mission field was here in Maribor for general conference, and my last one in Maribor, a quick 6 months later, general conference round 2. There are a lot of people here who I love and it is hard to say goodbye, but I am looking forward to the future! Kranj is a small little town and as a different dialect. (As does about every village) I will be moving tomorrow and serving with Sister Duffy from Washington! This will be her second transfer and we will be Sister Training Leaders together. We just did exchanges together and she was super awesome and ready to work, so I have a really great feeling about this next transfer. As sad as I am to leave, I am grateful for change to help push me a little harder. (Aside from getting used to new light switches in a new place...if you know how to find your light switches when it is dark...you are adequately adjusted.) Aside from that...one more big change: we had an investigator come to church to watch conference with us on Sunday!!! Even cooler? We met her on Saturday night. She is probably one of the most prepared people I have met on my mission and we are having family night with her at a members house tonight before I leave. That night we found her was a miracle...we had another lesson fall through and were pretty bummed, until a random old friend we met out of the blue, texted us if we had time to get together that night and we did! He has been reading the book of mormon a lot and is really searching for answers.

So amazing to meet the people that are looking and even better to be able to promise them that they WILL find what they are looking for in the church of Jesus Christ  of latter day saints.

We have only seen one session of general conference, so I look forward to seeing some more and have such an appreciation and love for all the apostles and our dear prophet. Also...if I ever get called to speak in public for the church...I am pulling a deep southern accent....that was very enjoyable, and a great talk. :)

Random fact: Banana bread does not exist over here, but Slovene's looooove it. It is the easiest thing to make ever and they always eat it up so fast. Also...it is the season of chestnuts! I have been singing about those at christmas time for years, but not until I came to Slovenia, did I try them. They have them roasting in big barrels on a few corners and everyone loves them.

Well, the work is going forward and I am planning on going with it! I am so grateful for the joy and true happiness that this gospel gives us and pray for you all. Bodite močni! Stay strong and enjoy the crisp fall air. :) 

zljubeznijo,

Sestra Rhodes  

Running trail in Maribor

Last Run before transfer!

Amazing and genuine investigator. I will miss her and her cute son! 

Apartment in Maribor. Going home to it for the last time!

Good-bye to the Fidlers!

Some of the coolest people on the planet. Our branch mission leaders. Looove them.

Half of our crazy English class.

Vreme se spreminja - Sept. 28th, 2015

Dobro Jutro Family!

We officially hear about transfers this week and I am a little nervous for what could happen. 6 months in Maribor...so we will see what happens. Sister Christensen and I are really excited to work hard this last week of transfers. The weather has officially turned to fall. It has been really wet and getting out the coats again. As far as this week...we had another exchange and I went to Kranj with Sister Duffy. It is her first transfer and she has a lot of energy for missionary work and it was great to work with her. She also was a voice major at byu and sings like an angel. So....it was really great to have some fun singin time together during dinner times. We also saw some miracles over exchanges. I have only been to Kranj and worked there once before, but Heavenly Father led us right to a girl who I met last time I was there. They had lost contact with her because she went on vacation and we were going in for lunch when we decided to go talk to two more people who we had passed. SHE WAS ONE OF THEM! IT was amazing to see how the Lord led us to her and she is still willing to get together.

We also went tracting and sat down with this old man and his daughter and about half way through the lesson he goes to a back room and gets a giant box (about printer size) and shows us what was inside.... an ancient Slovene bible, the size of 4 quads stacked ontop of eachother and the length of a cookie sheet. The slovene was also old and he can barely read it because it is in its 'original' form. It was CRAZY! He let us take a picture too, I will send it next week. I felt like I was in an ancient Slovene museum.

Also last week on transfers tracting, we coaxed a run away dog back into its fence with a bag of beef jerky. (The first and only time I have ever had that on hand while trackting...Sister Nydeggar got it in a package that very day.) Pretty inspired purpose.

We also had a super sweet member feed us a delicious meal after our english/slovene lesson with her. She is the kindest woman with a testimony of stone and I always love seeing her. There are not many members in maribor, about 6 that come to church, but they sure are amazing people.

We also had a really great sacrament meeting yesterday and after studying the sacrament this week I was amazing to feel the truth that we can truly enjoy and feel the saviors love during the sacrament if we have been preparing throughout the week. Let us all prepare for conference as well!! I am so pumped! Go tell random people that God has called a prophet, every day and you will be amazed at how excited you are to hear from them!!! haha. :)

Have an amazing week! I love and pray for you all!

xoxo

Sestra Rhodes

Ljubljana and Back! Sept. 21st, 2015

Zdravo spet!

Čas leti!! Time is flying over here. We find out about transfers in just over a week and I am a little nervous. I have been in Maribor for 6 months! Crazy. I love this place and I fear if I ever have to move I will not understand the different dialects. But, come what may and love it. :)

This last week was great. We had zone conference in Ljubljana, then switched companions for exchanges and Sister Nydegger came to Maribor with me for a day and a half, then we went back to Ljubljana for District Conference. So exchanges first: We went out to tract in that outside city again and had a lesson with a family out there! It was pretty dark and we were about to head home, but we decided to go back to this one house (who had previously invited us to come back) and we had about 15 minutes with them. We got to know them a little and prayed with them and though it wasnt the best of lessons...the best part...they said we could come back to share more! This family actually just moved into the area about a month ago, and the original family we were teaching moved out. The Lord works in mysterious ways, but I am really hoping for these guys! They were super awesome and I cant wait to go back this weekend!

District Conference was also awesome. It is all the members in Slovenia (who can afford to come) come to Ljubljana and President Grant comes and we heard some amazing talks, felt the spirit together, snacked together, and praised in song together! I love being around the members. They are pioneers and they make my faith stronger just by seeing their faithfulness despite the low numbers of members around them. It was a really great meeting and we had a push for missionary work via the internet. It is interesting to see how missionary work is changing because of the capablities of sharing the gospel through the internet!

So one more exchange with the sisters in Kranj this week and a lot of work to do here in Maribor. Here is to another good week wherever you are in the world right now! I love you all!

Sestra Rhodes

ps, we have been studying and practicing teaching people how to pray lately and I am constantly reminded how important it is and how we can always be giving it a better effort. The book 'Every Member a Missionary' has a great chapter on teaching prayer and I invite all of you to read it and think about how your prayers are going! IT has helped me a TON! xoxo

Sestra Nydegger and me rockin the florals. 

Stumbled upon this while tracting! 

čivabčiči (cheevabcheechee) - Sept. 14th, 2015

	6:09 AM (2 hours ago)
Pozdravljeni!

Great to hear from you all and how life is going. Life here is still on the move. Slovenia is really picking up and there are quite a few people on date for baptism!! Not in Maribor...yet. But our zone as a whole is really seeing blessings and people are prepared here. Some highlights of this week: Two member meals??? We went and helped a member wash her walls in her apartment (which is about all the people that can fit in there. It is the smallest apartment and hardly any space to live in...yet she gives everything, including a meal to the two sister missionaries.) She is such a sweet member and taller than I! How great is that? There are actually quite a few tall people over here. The second member meal was at our branch mission leaders house. His wife is from Austria and she made a beautiful austrian meal for all the missionaries. So spoiled! I look up to the members so much and cherish the time I get with them! 

We also had a really successful picnic on Saturday! We invited all the members and aaaall our investigators from the time I have been here and before. We had practically an entire Elders quorum there! They played American football and then we all played frisbee together, bbq of Slovenian food (civabcici...which is actually bosnian sausage sendvič things), and great people. The BEST part...there is a teenage kid and his family who live in maribor. Sestra Robertson and I met them right when I got here and we have stayed friends on the street. We see them a lot and we had been praying for their teenage boy who showed some interest. Well, when we went to play in the park...we saw their whole family! He came and played with us and even came back to the bbq site to get some food. THEN (it gets better) he asked if it would be weird if he could come ot church??? Haha. Oh yes. It would probably be weird for you. But we will rejoice!!! AND EVEN BETTER .... HE CAME!!! He is only 15 and a half but such a great kid and the Elders are starting to teach him this week. That whole family is on their way to the temple I tell you. 

We also met a super awesome mom from Brazil who set up to meet with us again and just wants to teach her family how to be strong together and even said she is thinking maybe she has to change in order to teach them the right way...sounds like a dream of a lesson coming up! We get to teach her on Tuesday and I am really excited. 

So that is the quick update. Sister Christensen and I just have a few weeks left of this transfers .... time is FLYING! So we have really got to work hard and see some miracles over here in maribor. Warning: awesome things coming up in next weeks email. 

Love you all and pray that you hold strong to what you know! 

xoxoxo

Sestra Rhodes