YSA trip to Croatia

This past weekend I was able to go to Croatia and visit the Adriatic Sea with the Young Single Adult group here in Slovenia! It was such an amazing experience! All of the Single Adults here are converts and most of them are the only members in their families, and so it was fun to see the support that they are to each other. They were all very close and it was fun to be a part of and to learn from such a strong group of people! It took about 3 hours to get there, but on the way we would get out and take a lot of pictures and enjoy the gorgeous mountains and scenery. We then got to the Sea and I have never seen such gorgeous water! The water was white, green and blue! It was incredible! We then had a fireside on the Sea and then walked around the little city of Basnik and had dinner together. It was such an amazing day and I learned so much from them and their stories.

We then were able to all watch Conference together because all of the Branches in Slovenia met at our building, and so it was fun to spend the entire weekend with them!

End of Pre-Season!

Well we are finally entering into our last week of Pre-Season! My coach has tried to schedule as many games as he can to give us the experience that we need as a new team before our Season starts. This past week we played 9 games!!! I did not think that he was serious by telling us how many games we had, but he was and I have never been so tired in my life. By the last game I was not getting off the ground because of how tired my legs were. I hardly get off the ground anyways, so this was really bad! We are now 13-0 and ranked 2nd in Slovenia, so not too bad at all! Right now Maribor is #1 and we play them next weekend, and so I am excited to see how we match up against them. They have many of the Slovenian National Team players on their team, so it will be fun to play against them!

I am beginning to understand more and more what people are saying. It is fun to be able to learn some of the Slovene language, even though I am laughed at because of how terrible I am at it! The food is great, the people are so sweet, and the country is gorgeous, so I can't complain at all!

The branch that I am going to is absolutely amazing and I am learning so much from the members here and the sacrifices that they are going through to be the only members of the church in their families! It is truly humbling to be around them!! They radiate with goodness! They are working towards building the church in Slovenia from a Branch to a Stake in less than 5 years, so it is so neat to be a part of amazing missionary work that is taking place right now!

3-0!!!

We have now started into Pre-Season and so far our record is 3-0!! We are playing really well and becoming much more familiar with each other and how everyone plays. The game is totally different from how Americans play, so I am still trying to get used to the European style, but so far I am absolutely loving every second of my experience here! Here is a picture of my team, even though most of them are not smiling, they are such nice girls!

I made the team!!

So this past week I found out that I made the team here in Kamnik!! My tryouts were for about a week and a half, and I finally found out that I made it and I am so excited! I absolutely love it here and they treat me so well, and so I am excited to spend the next 7 months here! The girls have been very nice to invite me out to do things with them. Last Saturday we were able to go to the main city, Ljubljana, and it was a lot of fun! They took me and we had pizza for lunch and then they took me to another little place for dessert. I thought that most Europeans just like ice cream, gelato, but the Slovenes actually like cakes/pies, and so they took me to a dessert place and we all had cakes! They were delicious! I was not able to translate everything to the waiter, and so I told him that I love chocolate and so he said that he would bring me his favorite chocolate dish, and it was amazing!

Right now we are still in pre-season and we have started playing games to get us ready for the League to start. We beat an American team who came two weeks ago and then we beat another team, who is in the top division here, so I was pretty excited! My team has a lot of really good girls and it is very fun to play with them!

I have started to learn some of the language also, which makes it easier when my coach is yelling at me, so that I know what he is saying!

So, Ciao!

Ljubljana

Sunday I was able to go to the cute branch in Ljubljana and go to church there.  It was amazing to see the members and the strength that they had, they are truly pioneers in Slovenia!  The chapel that we went to church in is the only chapel in Slovenia, the rest of the branches just meet in members homes.  One of the families in my branch were the first members of the church in Slovenia and so it is pretty amazing to see how far the church has come in Slovenia!  The members were so kind and welcoming to me and it truly felt like a home away from home.  Right when I entered the church, I felt that I was with family.  The Senior Sister Missionaries and the Sister and Elder Missionaries serving in the ward were so kind and helped me get to where I needed to go.  The ward is in Slovenian, but they have headsets for all of the English speakers.  After church the sisters invited me to go to lunch with them at their home, and so hopefully if it works, I will show you some pictures from after church and then from Kamnik where I am staying.  

Ciao!

Hello Slovenia!

I finally made it to Kamnik, Slovenia after a long day of traveling.  It is absolutely gorgeous here!  Kamnik is a little city outside of the capitol Ljubljana.  (Don't ask me how to say that because I have asked about 5 people and I haven't got it right yet.)  I met my coaches right when I got here and they are very kind.  My head coach does not know English, which could actually be a good thing because I won't be able to know what he is saying if he is yelling at me.  I was thinking that I would have the day off and get to know the city of Kamnik better, but the coach told me that we have a 4 hour practice tonight!!!  Oh wow!  So I guess there is no complaining about jet lag, it is time to get down to business!  Wish me luck!:)