Dear Family,
Like the title says, I don't really have much to say this week. This last week was our "bring investigators to church" week and the challenge was to bring two people to church per companionship. The mission got 63 people to church out of the mission-wide goal of 70. Not quite our goal, but still very awesome. In Zlin we had two people come to church, but it was a bit of a miracle.
First, let me talk a little about Kristina. She's a Roman lady (gypsy - they're called Romans here - perhaps because they're from Romania? Nevím) and she's been investigating the church for a long while. She's had a baptismal date in the past and then she was dropped because she wasn't making any progress and she didn't really understand then things the missionaries were talking to her about. Like, she'd hear everything and she'd understand the words (rozumět) but she wouldn't understand the concepts (chápat). It would seem like everything would be in one ear and then back out the other by the next week or the next lesson. So, after she was dropped, she went on her way and lived life without the church, and then SHE recontacted the missionaries one day when she saw them on the naměstí. So the missionaries started teaching her and she started coming to church every sunday, but she had the same problem.
With Elder Price and me, she seemed to be making progress. She'd say that she started to feel something different. We interpreted that as she was beginning to like visiting us and she liked the things we were teaching her. So we gave her a baptismal date hoping that she'd progress enough to eventually be worthy of baptism and then she could continue to progress like the rest of us so we can live one day with our Heavenly Father. Well, Elder Price left and then I got two new companions. Elder Thompson and Mills are very gung-ho about trying to root out the people who aren't going to progress very fast and find the elect. So they saw that Kristina had a baptismal date and said, "Ok, she's going to be awesome. Let's meet with her and see how she's doing." They knew that she'd need some work, but it turned out that she was far behind where they thought she was. So we decided to have a week where we'd meet with her every day for thirty minutes and see how short powerful meetings would go. We met with her the first time and it turned aggressive. It wasn't ugly or anything, but it wasn't a very nice lesson either. Then the next lesson she came thirty minutes late and I had to teach both the English classes while Elder Thompson and Mills went and had our meeting with Kristina. They said that in the lesson she specifically said that she was Catholic and didn't see the reason why she needed to change. Things continued to go downhill until the end of our meeting on Wednesday when she asked if she had to come the next day. We told her that she didn't have to do anything that she didn't want to. So it turned out that the next day she didn't come to her meeting, and from her member friend on Sunday, we found out that she had told her to not come to the meeting either. Then on Sunday, she didn't come to church for the first time since I've come to Zlín. That was very surprising. So at this point, we don't have a baptismal date for her anymore. She kind of dropped herself.
Then this past week we started teaching this one guy from our "finding week" named Vojta. At the first meeting he told us that he's only curious about what we believe and that if we have more promising people, we should talk to them more. Little did he know, he was showing all the signs of being interested. So we kept teaching him, and he continues to get more and more interested and curious. He likes to speak English with us because he doesn't get many opportunities to speak because here in the Czech Republic all the people who can "speak" English sound like they're half brain-dead. So we meet with him in English and this last meeting we invited him to come to church. He was a little hesitant but he eventually accepted-- but only because he was curious about what our meetings are like. Little did he know that that curiosity is from God.
So, church. This week was all about bringing investigators to church and the goal was two per companionship and we made it. So, Sunday rolls around, and we're hoping that Tomaš will show up because he hadn't come the past three weeks, and then this past week made four weeks he's missed. Don't know what's happening with him. He used to come every single week, but now he's basically fallen off the side of the earth. We waited and then a man from our English class came. He's an elderly man named Bohumir. He used to be an investigator, but he just loves his alcohol far too much. He's told the missionaries that at one time he made 500 liters of wine and then drank it all himself. Crazy. Then later while we were waiting outside for Vojta to show up and he did right as we were about to walk back inside because we thought that he wasn't going to come. So he showed up and then he sat next to his member friend - Ondřej Běliček (he came to the last meeting where we asked him to come to church, but he doesn't understand English, so he looked a little like me when I first arrived in the country - completely zoned out). Then about ten minutes into the meeting, Kristina arrived! I guess she just needed a week to cool off, but it was amazing. I made sure to talk to her and smile at her as much as possible to make her know that there were no hard feelings. We weren't being mean to her on purpose, it's just that sometimes as missionaries, we don't know the language well enough to be subtle with people. So between Vojta, Bohumir and Kristina, who both really aren't investigators so we counted them as one investigator coming to church, we made our goal!
I just think that it was an amazing miracle that Kristina, for whatever reason she has, keeps having the desire to continue coming back to us. Perhaps something will happen with her in the future. I hope that something does. She's a great person, a little closed off, but still a great person. She's not the person you look at and say she's a kingdom builder, but I know she has some talents that the Lord can use for building up the Kingdom. I hope that missionary who can touch her heart comes along soon so that she will not stay away from the church any longer than she has to.
I know the blessings are there, we just need to open our eyes, look around, and realize that everything that we see is not ours, it's our Heavenly Father's. Be grateful for everything and ask for nothing more than what we need after we have done everything we can for ourselves. The Lord will bless us in that time, and I know that he loves us dearly. I send you my love and hope you all know that.
Much love,
Starší Monk