Dear Family,
So, this last week has been another pretty normal week in terms of how things are going. Instead of just leaving it at that, I should probably tell you a story, shouldn't I? It seems like it's been a while since I've written a story out for you.
Last Monday, we finally didn't have a lesson that evening (we've basically had a lesson every Monday evening this transfer) and Elder Ingalls has been telling me that every Monday evening that he's been tracting, they've been let in and taught someone. That's pretty good odds to me. I've only been let in twice on my mission before I came to Trebic, and we've already been let in once. So why not?
We started walking around, trying to find where the Lord needed us at the moment, and we made it just about all the way out of town. We finally decided on a Panelak and started tracting after we made a few calls to set a couple of meetings up later in the week. For the most part, pretty normal tracting. One man, without pants on mind you, opened up his door, looked at us, I said "Dobrý Večer" and he responded "Na shledanou" and shut the door almost immediately. Fairly normal. There was one door that was really cool. It was basically all wood and the surrounding area was also wood, when the rest of the floor is tile and concrete like just about every other panelak in the country, and a really nice old man came and answered the door. We spoke to him for a moment, and he told us that they were leaving. We asked him if we could come back later in the week, he said that Friday at 6:00 would be good, so we said okay and that we'd be back. We then continued on.
Sometimes tracting can get really boring and degrading, so Elder Ingalls and I make conversation, sometimes silly, just so we can keep ourselves smiling even though every door is rejecting us. On one floor, Elder Ingalls asks me if I've ever contacted a Muslim. I said no and rang the doorbell. Perhaps a second later, the door behind us on the other side of the hall opens up, and so we peek behind ourselves to see who it is and what's going. There was a little girl standing there at the open door. I said hello and asked if her parents were home. She turned around kind of confused, and then a lady from the other room inside peeked her head around so she could see who it was. I then started talking with her and then she cut me off and said, in English, "If you speak English come here, come in." We both looked at each other very confused, but went in anyway. As we walked in, I felt like we walked into a Mideastern room. It was kind of weird and cool at the same time. Anyway, we went in, took our shoes off, and sat down. She was smoking, and the entire house smelled like incense, but we didn't mind much; we've smelled much worse in peoples' homes before.
We sat and began speaking with her. She asked us what we were doing and what she could do for us. We said that we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that we speak to people about Jesus Christ etc. She didn't have much interest and told us that she was Muslim. I looked at Elder Ingalls and he could see that I just wanted to say, "Irony..." Through the conversation, we found out that she speaks ten or eleven languages like Russian, Czech, Slovak, English, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew and a whole slew of others. When she heard me speak Czech, she was really surprised because, at least she said, that my ř was really good.
The conversation went really pretty well with her: we explained the Book of Mormon, we spoke about prophets (which according to Elder Ingalls, she cringed every time that we said prophet because she believes that only Muhammad was a prophet), and we taught prayer. She was hesitant about prayer at the end, but she agreed to next time we come over, we can talk about prayer, she can teach us her prayer, and we'll teach her ours. I'm not usually one to really like the whole you teach me and I'll teach you, but in this case it seemed fitting. Then we just spoke for a little while, and we spoke about music, and it came out that I play violin. She just about died when I said that. She then asked if I'd bring my violin and play for her some time. I of course agreed. She told me that she'd wear her best night gown and light the candles just for me to play violin. Don't worry, she's a little larger woman... rather, a much larger woman. I'm sure I don't want her to wear her night gown. That could be awkward. Once we got out, we realzied that we had been in there for forty minutes with her. We'll see what goes on with her. One cool thing, at least, with her was the entire time she was asking how she could help us. We'll find something for her to do. :)
Also, this last Thursday, we were in Jihlava with the other elders for the entire day. We had district meeting and did a lot of finding. It was fun to be with them. Then they came down to Trebic with us, and we had an awesome day. We got one member lesson, three other lessons, two RCLAs (recent convert/less active lessons) and three potentials. Overall, that's a really awesome day. That would even average out to two really good days. Also, on Saturday, we went to Jihlava to see a baptism of an eight year old girl from a member family. It's the first baptism that I've been to since Libor Jelinek's. It was good to be there and feel the spirit of baptism again. We don't really have a font or anything close around here, so we went to a hotel in Jihlava and rented out their jacuzzi for two hours and had it there. It was pretty funny, but it doesn't really matter where you do it, as long as you have enough water to put the person under, right?
This week was pretty good. Overall, our numbers went down, but things have been going good. We're starting to get this area onto some stable feet and get it ready to take off. The members have recently taken an interest in mission work, because for probably the first time in a long time, they've taught with us.
Other than that, we've been having really nice weather. Today, actually, is gorgeous. Blue skies, probably around 10 degrees (Celsius). Really nice day. I just hope that the weather lasts. All the Czechs are telling us that there's going to be at least one more freeze before the weather starts going up for good. We'll see.
I love you all, hope you're doing great! I'm doing fine here.
S Laskou (With Love),
Starší Monk