Dear Family,
Well, the end of last week was kind of weird and sucky, to say the least. However, this week was much much better :D. Basically, last Monday, after our P-day was officially over (which is at 6:00 pm), we went to a meeting with a guy named Petr Šico (Shee-tso) and we had a really awesome lesson with him. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and the pre-earth life. He said that he had never even heard of such a thing, but that it was very interesting to him. Anyway, we had a great meeting with him, and he had some very good/difficult questions for us. It's not that we didn't know the answers, it was just whether we could tell him or not because they were very deep doctrinal questions. We got out of that lesson feeling really good and said that this week would be the same - it'd continue to be awesome - and it was.
Denisa's back and we taught her every day. She's still going super strong and she's going to be an amazing member. Recently, when we'd just talk about what we have for the day, she'll text us throughout the day and ask us how that meeting or whatever went. One time, we told her that we were going to sister Boržutová's house and afterward she texted and asked what she fed us. She's so awesome. Anyway, last week she got back from Germany. She had gone shopping with at least one of her sisters (she has nine/ten [devět/deset] siblings) there and got me a scarf and Elder Price a sweater. She said now we have no excuse to seem cold to her. Before, every time she'd see us she'd ask me where my scarf was. I'd tell her that it was at home. To be honest, it wasn't that cold to me but it bothered her that I wasn't wearing one, so she got me one so that I had no excuse not to wear it. Then she asked Elder Price what he wanted and he had been looking for a sweater of some kind, so she got him one. It's such a cool scarf. It's black, gray and purple! It's so cool.
My English class is going really well. Basically, it looked like English classes weren't doing so hot before I got here; the first week there were like three or four people for Elder Price's class and the same for mine (I teach advanced so I don't have to speak Czech, and he teaches beginners), but this last week there were nine people! Oh my word. I must say, however, classes go much better when there are more people. This last English class we spoke about prepositional phrases vs. infinitive phrases. Basically, they already know the grammar and come for the conversation portion, but it's still good to go over a little bit of grammar. This next week (tomorrow), I'm hoping to have twelve people because we got a few people who said they'd come. Very awesome.
This week we really tried to get a lot of member lessons and also more new investigators. The new investigators part didn't go so well... we got none. We had a few meetings, like four or five, all with potentials, but all of them canceled or changed their time to some time next week, so we're still very hopeful for them. But then there was one girl from the other elders that we got. Basically, they had contacted her, taught her once, and then that was it. So we got a meeting set up with her and she's really awesome. We asked her to meet us outside Mekač (the slang form for McDonald's, like saying "Mickey D's") and when she got there she asked where we were going. We told her that we couldn't go to a few places because we couldn't be alone with a girl and she seemed a little surprised with that but was fine. So we ended up going to a little restaurant and no one was there because it was 3:00 pm. We sat and just talked. Basically the last elders had been a little intense with just teaching but we wanted to see who she was so that we could really teach to her needs. I think that it went really well. We spoke about ourselves and where we're from, what we're doing here as missionaries, and just a little more small talk. At one point toward the beginning, she said that it's kind of awkward with me just sitting there not saying anything but she knew it was because I didn't know how to speak very well. She was very very nice. At one point when I was trying to speak, she was actually on the edge of her seat trying to see what I'd say. It's like suspense that I can't control! The words just don't come out fast enough, but they really don't go into my head fast enough. My understanding is going much better. I can probably understand a maximum of 50% when I'm concentrating really hard. After she told Elder Price that it was awkward that I wasn't speaking, she called me a "chudak" (hudak - poor fellow/guy). Haha... I'm feeling really good about her and I think that she has a lot of potential. We have another meeting set up with her and I'm very excited for it. Oh, by the way, her name is Marina. :P
Then for my last thing, I have some awesome news! We've been meeting with Denisa every day and she's doing wonderfully. She's coming along toward baptism with great strength. I'm not having any doubts that this baptism will go easily and smoothly. Her baptism is going to be this Saturday (the 13th which is also one of her favorite numbers) and then the next day we're going to have a Stake Conference type thing. We don't really have any stakes here so it's called District Conference. Anyway, yesterday when we were meeting with her, kind of randomly while she was talking to Elder Price, she turned to me and said, "Monku!" (that's how she calls me and a few other people. I think it's kind of a vocative case that you use with little kids because I should be Monke) and she asked me if I'd baptize her this Saturday! How cool is that? I'm really excited. We had been trying really hard to get a member to baptize her because then she'd have a constant connection with someone in the branch, but I'm no less excited to do it.
Anyway, my time is nearly up. Love you all and hope that you can feel the blessings that our Father in Heaven has for each and every one of us. I know that He loves you and that He shows us through the small things, but when the big things come, they help us realize that he always has His hand in everything.
I love you all very much and thank you for your support.
Starší Monk