Dear Family,
Sorry that I did not write this last Monday, but our P-day was changed to today, because President Irwin felt that it would be good for all of us to have Thanksgiving off instead of having to work through a holiday that we are all so familiar with.
So, this last week and a half have been amazing. First off, last Monday, we got back in contact with Hoang, our baptismal date. He went to Poland again (he just got back from being there for a month to renew his visa) so that he could buy products for his little store. When he got back he texted us and told us that he was in Poland again and we were very confused because we did not know where he had gone and we, to tell the truth, were thinking that he just disappeared. There are many stories of missionaries giving people baptismal commitments and it going very well, but then the person disappears and they have no more contact with them. However, with Hoang, he came back and gave us a call and told us that he wanted to meet the next day, and we were very happy to oblige. At the meeting, we started with whether he still wanted to be baptized or not, and he said yes and actually asked if he could be baptized sooner. That threw both of us off. I found myself second guessing myself on what the definition of the word "dřive" means in Czech, but surely enough, it does mean "sooner." We had a really good lesson and we learned that he has read the restoration pamphlet many times, and it is really easy to see. The book is a little worn out. We teach him from the pamphlets because we have them in Vietnamese and we have a pretty good language barrier between us even though he does speak Czech. We then pulled out a baptismal calendar, which we made that day, and showed him that he had to be to church at least three times before he could be baptized, and that just put his date one week closer. He understood that and now he has a real desire to come to church. We asked him if he believed that President Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet, and he said yes after a little bit of thinking. I am finding so much of these things with Hoang to be very similar with Denisa - just lay out the doctrine and they believe it because they trust in the things that we tell them so whole-heartedly. Also, this time, there is a language barrier like last time! Yay.
Then Hoang came to church that Sunday. Even though he was a little late, he came in and sat with Elder Rhodes, and stayed for both hours (we only have two hours - sacrament and then an alternating hour between Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood) and tried really hard to understand what was going on and follow the lessons in the scriptures. We have a Vietnamese Bible and Book of Mormon at the building, so he used those. He loved it, but unfortunately he said that he had to leave right after.
Later we had another lesson with him and we met him at his house. There we really focused on how he feels when he prays. He told us that he feels good and he has a hope that everything will be better. He also said that he feels the same way when he reads the scriptures and comes to church. He said that he feels good and knows that everything will be better. He said that a few times. Later, after the lesson, we asked him to pray twice a day, once in the morning and once at night and he said immediately, "I have to. I have to." We just love this man so much. When you see a brother or sister start to take the steps toward following our savior, there is nothing more rewarding.
Then another blessing that we saw was a lesson we set up for Monday (this last Monday) at 11:00 am, which happens to be our study time, but we decided that a lesson is more important. We set up to wait at a tram stop that is near our apartment and then walk to some place to talk. So, we show up to the tram stop about ten minutes early and we began waiting. A while into our wait, a tram pulled up and people loaded off as usual, and one man in particular was looking at us very closely while he passed us. I said hello, and then he looked very closely at my badge and said, "Starší Monk," and then looked at Elder Rhodes and read his badge too. We said yes and asked for his name as well. He told us his name and then said that he was a member. That is not something that you hear too often. He was an older man, and we asked just a little about him, and found out that he was the former branch president here in Plzen. That blew us away. Well, we got his name and where he lived and we told him that we would stop by his place some day during the week. This Thursday, we went and met him. Turns out that he joined the church just thirteen years ago and was president for six to seven years after that. He then became the branch clerk, but stopped coming to church because he has problems with his prostate and wet himself during church one week and, as you can expect, embarrassed him and the members quite a bit. We were very surprised to see that he is extremely strong in the church still and keeps up on all the news about new members and other things. We are going to bring him sacrament this week and will probably start doing that once every two weeks. The lesson that we were waiting for that morning, did show up and turned out to be very good too, but we had to call him after 11:00 and found out that he had slept in. It is just so cool to see that the Lord puts people in our paths, investigators or less actives. The Lord knows his people and watches out for them.
One last little thing. About two weeks ago, I was on a small exchange with Elder McGowan and we found a really awesome lady named Petra. She said that she did not have time at the moment but would have time the next week on Tuesday. We told her that we would call her on Monday to set up and she said okay. So when I called her on Monday, she did not pick up, but afterward, I got the feeling that I should send her a text. A few minutes after I did, we got a text back from her, and she said that she would not be able to meet with us on Tuesday, because she was in the hospital and was waiting for surgery. I immediately responded and asked if anything was wrong and what the operation would be for. She wrote back and said that she was getting a kidney transplant and that she wanted us to pray for her. We told her that we would and we would be looking forward to meeting with her after she got better. We have not heard from her since after the operation, but I am sure that she is fine and that we will be meeting in the near future.
The Lord is with us. How can we forget that? Coming on the mission has really opened my eyes and helped me realize that the Lord DOES know his people and he does love every single one of us. I cannot even imagine trying to do this work alone. The Lord really does lead us and show us what we need to be doing, IF we will listen, be faithful and do what he commands of us.
I love you all and pray for your safety,
Starší Monk