Dear Family,
This week's been really cool. A few weeks ago at zone conference, we were challenged by President to have a week where the entire mission would consecrate themselves to the Lord and think of only the work. Well, I must say that I really enjoyed it because we saw amazing blessings wrought upon us because of it.
It all started last week on Sunday when we had call-ins so we could tell the Zone Leaders what our numbers were for the week and just to kind of evaluate the week. Well, during that, Elder Anderson challenged us to do a few things. First, he wanted us to read pages six and seven in Preach My Gospel about the Restoration and how that's the strongest message that we can give people. As we did that this week, we saw a substantial increase in interest from the people and how our message was taken. It got me thinking: if the Restoration and the Book of Mormon are true, then everything else we've been learning/teaching is true. Everything is contingent upon these two simple things, but if you get down to the core of it, if the Book of Mormon is true, then the Restoration must be true. So really, the Book of Mormon has so much significance to us and our knowledge about God and what we're doing. Everything relies on her (oh no... Czech does that, where if the object you're talking about is feminine, you refer to it as "her" -- thus I said that). Then the other thing that Elder Anderson challenged us to do was to call a member for every single lesson that we set up, because this entire transfer we've been having problems getting member lessons. So this week, we did just that, and we got 6 member lessons! That's six times the number that we've gotten this entire transfer. That's a little bit terrible, but also, it's great to show me that these things are possible. I just had it in my mind that it's harder than it really is, but I've seen that when you have a real interest in the person that you're asking them to come teach, then they really catch on to the fire you have and do what they can to come and help. The members here are so hungry to help in the work and we just have to call them and they just eat it up.
But as I said, this week has been full of blessings. Last Saturday while we were waiting outside our building for someone to come to their meeting, a homeless man came up to us and just stood there and was trying to just make small talk. He was a pretty clean-cut and well-kept for being a homeless man, but you could still tell he was homeless. But anyway, we didn't really want to talk to him so we just kind of stood there and spoke with him not to be rude or awkward, but he just stayed and kept talking with us. Then we invited him to church the next day in attempt to have him leave us alone, and he said that he'd come. Well, next day comes. I was sitting with a different investigator, but Elder Kreitzer sat next to him and spoke with him during the meeting and afterward. After church, Elder Kreitzer told me that we had a meeting with him the next day and so I was like, "Okay, pretty cool. We got a meeting with a homeless guy." Well, to be short, that meeting was awesome. We couldn't find the Restoration video that we wanted, so we ended up watching it in Russian (and may I just say right now, I can understand Russian because of my Czech... it's way cool) and after that we had a really good discussion with him and set up another meeting for Wednesday, two days later. Well, the next day, on Tuesday, we saw our friend on the street and we decided to bring him into the building and teach him the third lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even more luckily, Brother Dvořak was at the building and we taught with him. The meeting was very powerful and Jelinek (the homeless guy's name) already understood everything and was adding to the lesson. He taught me that we needed to be baptized by immersion and that the Catholics are doing it wrong. He also said that it was written in the Gospel of Matthew that we needed to be baptized by immersion. Anyway, that lesson we gave him a baptismal challenge, he accepted and he's going strong on toward baptism. Then the next day, we taught him the first lesson about the Restoration and again, he was teaching us instead of us teaching him. He told us that the Pope is just a normal person and that Jesus Christ didn't call any popes while he was on Earth, why would we do that today? Basically, each lesson we've had with him has gotten better and better, and he continues to amaze us. He's already accepted to live the laws of tithing, the fast, and Word of Wisdom. We're extremely excited for him.
I'm sorry, but I'm really low on time. I know that these blessings have only come from one source, and that's our Heavenly Father. The reason that we've seen so many this week is because we opened up ourselves to receive the many blessings that He has for us, and we were grateful enough to see them, big or small. I ask all of you to open yourselves up as well, so that you can see the hand of the Lord every single day of our lives.
I love you all very much and pray for you.
Starší Monk
This week's been really cool. A few weeks ago at zone conference, we were challenged by President to have a week where the entire mission would consecrate themselves to the Lord and think of only the work. Well, I must say that I really enjoyed it because we saw amazing blessings wrought upon us because of it.
It all started last week on Sunday when we had call-ins so we could tell the Zone Leaders what our numbers were for the week and just to kind of evaluate the week. Well, during that, Elder Anderson challenged us to do a few things. First, he wanted us to read pages six and seven in Preach My Gospel about the Restoration and how that's the strongest message that we can give people. As we did that this week, we saw a substantial increase in interest from the people and how our message was taken. It got me thinking: if the Restoration and the Book of Mormon are true, then everything else we've been learning/teaching is true. Everything is contingent upon these two simple things, but if you get down to the core of it, if the Book of Mormon is true, then the Restoration must be true. So really, the Book of Mormon has so much significance to us and our knowledge about God and what we're doing. Everything relies on her (oh no... Czech does that, where if the object you're talking about is feminine, you refer to it as "her" -- thus I said that). Then the other thing that Elder Anderson challenged us to do was to call a member for every single lesson that we set up, because this entire transfer we've been having problems getting member lessons. So this week, we did just that, and we got 6 member lessons! That's six times the number that we've gotten this entire transfer. That's a little bit terrible, but also, it's great to show me that these things are possible. I just had it in my mind that it's harder than it really is, but I've seen that when you have a real interest in the person that you're asking them to come teach, then they really catch on to the fire you have and do what they can to come and help. The members here are so hungry to help in the work and we just have to call them and they just eat it up.
But as I said, this week has been full of blessings. Last Saturday while we were waiting outside our building for someone to come to their meeting, a homeless man came up to us and just stood there and was trying to just make small talk. He was a pretty clean-cut and well-kept for being a homeless man, but you could still tell he was homeless. But anyway, we didn't really want to talk to him so we just kind of stood there and spoke with him not to be rude or awkward, but he just stayed and kept talking with us. Then we invited him to church the next day in attempt to have him leave us alone, and he said that he'd come. Well, next day comes. I was sitting with a different investigator, but Elder Kreitzer sat next to him and spoke with him during the meeting and afterward. After church, Elder Kreitzer told me that we had a meeting with him the next day and so I was like, "Okay, pretty cool. We got a meeting with a homeless guy." Well, to be short, that meeting was awesome. We couldn't find the Restoration video that we wanted, so we ended up watching it in Russian (and may I just say right now, I can understand Russian because of my Czech... it's way cool) and after that we had a really good discussion with him and set up another meeting for Wednesday, two days later. Well, the next day, on Tuesday, we saw our friend on the street and we decided to bring him into the building and teach him the third lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even more luckily, Brother Dvořak was at the building and we taught with him. The meeting was very powerful and Jelinek (the homeless guy's name) already understood everything and was adding to the lesson. He taught me that we needed to be baptized by immersion and that the Catholics are doing it wrong. He also said that it was written in the Gospel of Matthew that we needed to be baptized by immersion. Anyway, that lesson we gave him a baptismal challenge, he accepted and he's going strong on toward baptism. Then the next day, we taught him the first lesson about the Restoration and again, he was teaching us instead of us teaching him. He told us that the Pope is just a normal person and that Jesus Christ didn't call any popes while he was on Earth, why would we do that today? Basically, each lesson we've had with him has gotten better and better, and he continues to amaze us. He's already accepted to live the laws of tithing, the fast, and Word of Wisdom. We're extremely excited for him.
I'm sorry, but I'm really low on time. I know that these blessings have only come from one source, and that's our Heavenly Father. The reason that we've seen so many this week is because we opened up ourselves to receive the many blessings that He has for us, and we were grateful enough to see them, big or small. I ask all of you to open yourselves up as well, so that you can see the hand of the Lord every single day of our lives.
I love you all very much and pray for you.
Starší Monk