Dear Family,
This past week has been quite unique in terms of what kind of events we have had. (Also, I feel that I should warn you that if I get my "y"s and "z"s backwards, it is because I cannot change this keyboard into English - it is stuck in Czech. Also, I cannot use any contractions because there is no such thing as an apostrophe in Czech. Consider yourselves warned!)
So I will start by letting you know why I am writing today instead of last Monday. The APs have been seeing that every transfer week, the effectiveness of the work has gone down, clearly because missionaries are getting excited about going to their new areas and are not focusing on the work, but instead about saying goodbye to all the people from the area. Also, it does not make much sense to have a P-day on Monday and then have a transfer day on Wednesday, which usually gets almost completely wasted. So, they have started doing something new and they are talking to individual people who are moving (to them only) on Monday evening or Tuesday morning and telling them where they will be going. They are told to contact their new areas to see who their new companion will be and to arrange travel. Then on Wednesday the entire mission has a P-day and transfers together.
I actually think that it is a good idea and that it will increase effectiveness during transfer weeks. So I should probably let you know that I have been moved! I got a call on Monday night and Elder Anderson told me that I would be moving to Plzeň. Look for it on a map - it is on the opposite side of Prague from Olomouc. I got on the train this morning at 6:30 and arrived in Prague at 8:30. Then changed to a train that left at 9:00 and got into Plzeň at almost 11:00. I am already off to a pretty long day. Despite this, I am not really tired and I am very excited to be working here with Elder Rhodes. Also, the other companionship here will be Elder McGowan and Elder Horvath - yes, I have already served around both of them. Elder McGowan in Olomouc and Elder Horvath in the MTC. They have already had one transfer together and they are doing very well. I cannot say that there were any fun stories about exchanging this time. It all went pretty smoothly except for the fact that I brought the phone from Olomouc with me on the train. Yeah, that was a mistake. In the morning the ZLs in Olomouc came to drop me off at the train station. They called to tell us that they were already at our apartment so I picked up and said okay and then dropped the phone in my pocket without thinking. After I was on the train and it had left the station, I got a call from the others Elders who were quite surprised when I picked up! I think that they called it to try and find it at the apartment. Surprise! So I have to put it into a paded envelope and send it back to them ASAP.
Also this last week we had a mission conference and it was with Elder Pearson from the Quorum of the Seventy. It was amazing. Spiritual slam on all of us that were there. I cannot begin to tell you how much I felt like I was not fulfilling my duties as a missionary and how much I wanted to do better. I guess that the Holy Ghost taught me pretty well through that meeting. Elder Pearson told us that he was going to be as bold as he could and he definitely did. He spoke a lot about how people can see whether someone has the Holy Ghost or not by how the spirit in each one of us will recognize it or not. When we do not have that spirit, people do not feel the importance of our message or do not care, but when they can feel the Spirit and see it, then they are different and they progress. He made it very clear to me that the Holy Ghost is an essential part of missionary work even to the point that it does not matter what we say or do as long as we have and are following the Spirit. In reality, we are not here to convince people, we are not here to find people - the only thing that we are here to do is to turn ourselves over to the Lord 100% and then he guides and leads us and does the work for us. The hard part is having the Spirit enough so that we are led all the time and that we always have that connection with God through the Holy Ghost. It was truly amazing. I do not think that he really said anything new, but everything made so much more sense and it seems that everything was unfolded just a little more and I comprehended just that much more of how helpless I am in the work and how grateful I need to be that I can be just a part of it all.
Aside from that, I can tell you about two contacts that we had this last week, and then one from two weeks ago that I forgot to tell you about before.
The first one from this week was a guy that we found in a park right after we had been having a really rough morning. He was a nicer looking guy - suit, nice big long jacket, suitcase - and did not look like he had a whole lot of time. We stopped him anyway. As we started talking, he was really friendly and we asked him if he had just a little bit of time that we could sit down and talk for a minute. He said that he had thirty minutes, and we said that we only had ten (we really did have to get somewhere), but we sat on a bench nonetheless and kept talking some more. He had really good questions and said that he had spoken with our colleagues before, but he had never had a lot of time. He said that he wanted to speak with us and he was interested in what we have to say but he figured instead of trying to track us down, he knew that we would contact him again. So we got his number and set up a meeting for the next day. The next day he did not come to the meeting, but when we called him, his boss that he had to stay at work longer and that he could not come. He then set up with us again for the next day and said that he would still like to meet with us. The next day, in the morning, he texted us and said that he did not know if he was going to be able to make it, but he would let us know as the time came nearer. As the time came nearer, he sent us a text saying that his boss was again holding him at work and that he was not going to be able to make it. That is the last that I have heard from him, but I anticipate that the other elders will get him rolling. He is going to be awesome. By the way, his name is Honza - which is the Czech equivalent of Johnny.
Then our other contact was actually yesterday. It was another person in the park and we started talking to him. Elder Pearson did a little bit of an awkward move to speak with him, but he did not seem to mind. As we began speaking we could see that he was really interested in the things that we were saying and he kept asking really good questions which all led perfectly into gospel topics. We kept referring back to the principles to answer his questions and he seemed to just eat it up. We ended up speaking with him for about 25 minutes, which is not terribly long, but it is still long enough to take notice. At the end he told us that after he finished his class, he was thinking about whether he needed to go back home or go to the library, and he decided to go to the library. While he was on his way there, he met us. He said that he does not believe in coincidences - he knew that God had put us together and that he knows that we have something for him. It is too bad that I am leaving and I will not be able to see the progression of Daniel - that is his name.
Now the contact a few weeks ago. We were walking around the town hall on the town square and a guy on the bench yelled out to us and said, "Hey boys! I have your next person right here! She has interest!" The woman looked very confused and very uncomfortable next to him, and he seemed quite drunk. We came up to the man and played along with it for a little bit, and then Elder Pearson looked at the lady and asked if she knew the guy. She said that she did not so we just kept up the conversation with the guy and let the poor lady escape. I figured it is better to leave a person with something than just leave them with nothing and I had the feeling that we should leave him with a Book of Mormon. So we sat down with him and he just wanted to talk. I do not think that he cared too much for listening. Anyway, we worked our way around to the Book of Mormon and he asked if he could have it. I told him of course and asked him to read some of it later that day. Then he told me that he could not just take it for free, but he had to give me something in return for it! So, he opened his backpack, this entire time I am trying to refuse whatever it is he wanted to give me, and he took out two books and handed them to me. One is about some random guy who he claims to be his army commander and the other was an old interactive calendar (I think it was 2001). Then he started pulling out a ton of candy that the various people from different political campaigns were giving out (city and regional votes were going on). He then took my backpack and started shoving all the candy and books into it and other random things that he had. I just sat there and acted very grateful for what he was giving me. I was more confused and regretful that we had sat down with this guy than grateful (which is probably not good) and once he finished with that, he wanted me to sign the Book of Mormon for him so he could remember when he got it and from whom it was. Then he asked if he could use my pen and I thought, "sure why not?" and he finished signing it with his own signature. The he told me that he was stealing my pen and put it into his coat and handed me a cardboard pen from one of the political campaigns in exchange for it. What could I say? Nothing really, so I just let it go. So, Dad, that was the pen that I asked the refills for. Do not worry about sending refills now.
The work is great and the blessings are abounding around us. Can we recognize them? I know that for me, for a very long time I could not because I was looking for what I wanted instead of what the Lord was giving me.
I love you all very much,
Starší Monk