Dear Family,
First things first. Sorry that I didn't write you yesterday. I was in Prague all day with Elder Ingalls because he was getting his visa renewed. We got up and caught a bus at 7:20, sat there for three hours to get to Prague, got there around 10:00ish and then walked around for a while. Went to the building, stopped at Tesco (kind of like Costco) to get something to eat, stayed at the building, for multiple hours, and then they finally left to do the visa stuff. Then President wanted me and Elder Bracken (someone else's companion) to get out of the building, perhaps because we were being distracting, and so he sent us out to enjoy a day in Prague with two of the sister missionaries. It's weird being around sisters again after so long, however it was fun: we sat outside shops while they ran in and bought things.
Then later Elder Ingalls and I ran to the bus station to try and catch one bus, but we missed it by about five minutes and had to wait for another hour and a half for the next one to come. Turns out that the bus running from Prague to Trebic only leaves every two hours. Figure that. So we ate at Burger King in the meantime, and caught a 6:20 bus back home and got there around 9:00. Both of us were about to die, because the bus was really hot and really bumpy. So, that was my day in Prague (8 hours in Prague - 6 hours on a bus to and from Prague)! Yay.
Anyway, next things. This last week was interesting. It seems like everything that could have fallen through, did fall through, except for our meetings with less actives. They all met with us. Our teaching pool basically all got dropped this week because I hadn't met with them the entire transfer and didn't even know who they were, so we finally got around to dropping them. The ones that we didn't drop all had excuses to not meet with us. Our baptismal date from last week, Martin, got really really flakey; he always has some excuse to not meet with us and a few times even picked up the phone really sassily. That didn't rub me right, but whatever. He's on hardcore probation and he lost his baptismal date. We'll see what happens with him.
Here's a fun little story. This last week was Elder Ingalls' one year mark on the mission (not in country - that's next transfer) and so like most missionaries, he wanted to go out to eat somewhere special. I was on an exchange in Jihlava with Elder Bailey, but we caught a train down so that we could eat with Elders Vivona and Ingalls. So, there's a pizza restaurant here in Trebic that's pretty good and Elder Ingalls loves it. So he said that he wanted to go there for lunch. I reminded him that we were already going to be there later in the day with the seminary class (because we had a test on The Doctrine and Covenants thus far a week or two ago and everyone who passed was going to get pizza). He said that he knew but wanted to go there anyway. He was being kind of silly about it and just wanted to show off how many times he could eat pizza in one day. So we went there, we all got pizzas, and then later that day when we came back, the waitress lady kinda looked at us like we're crazy, but had the look of, "oh well." Elder Ingalls got the same pizza he always gets, pepperoni, and I knew that I couldn't handle another pizza in the same day, so I got a salad. The entire seminary class made a little fun of me, but I just told them that we had already been there that day. Elder Ingalls got about half-way through his pizza, and looked at me and then at the pizza as to say, "what have I gotten myself into?" My salad wasn't very good, either.
So Elder Ingalls and I went through this entire week without any lessons; however, we were setting lessons up, they weren't coming; calling to say they couldn't meet, etc. In our other time, we'd go out and contact. I remember one hour of contacting. It was Saturday at 2:00pm. It was pretty cold (perhaps -1, -2 degrees celcius; about 28-30 degrees Fahrenheit) and it was snowing a little bit and the wind was blowing, but we felt that we should go out contacting nonetheless. So we headed out, and the city was completely dead. Not a soul. So we start walking around, wanting to talk to anyone and everyone. At the end of the hour, we came back home because our ears were cold and we had talked to two people. Two. That's it. So, figured that's not the best use of our time.
Later that same Saturday, we called up one of our other investigators, her name is Dana. She's 50 years old and she's living with her 60 year old boyfriend and she's working on her Bachelors degree. Why not? We called her up and said that we made American brownies and that we wanted to stop by and give her some. She told us that she'd have time later that evening and that we could stop by when we had time. So we made up a batch of brownies and headed to her house. We had a fairly good lesson with her and her boyfriend (he's hilarious by the way - crazy old Czech man). We invited them to church, and with a little hesitation, they accepted, and then they were really determined about it. I think it's because I told them that I had a talk and she really loves missionaries. They've been investigating for about a year and half now and have been to church only once. The last time they came they were really surprised by how irreverent people were and so they've been using that experience as an excuse to not come again.
Come the next day, they show up to church. I turn to Elder Ingalls and said, "Is it weird that we have more people to church than we had lessons this week?" He smirked and went back to playing the piano. Then after church, we went and helped Ari (our Mongolian lady investigator) with something. She was going to Brno to stay there for about four days because her living conditions here in Trebic are really bad-- the heating isn't working correctly. Sometimes it works and sometimes doesn't so she can't open the windows because she wants to keep the heat that they have, and in return, her apartment is really humid and unbearable.
So we helped her push her stroller up the hill (she has a 2 year old son named Od or Jaromir - Od is his Mongolian name and Jaromir is his Czech) to get to the train station. Then we went to Dana's home to have lunch. It is really nice not having a missionary meal for once in a while. Afterward, we spoke with her and Jirka (her boyfriend) and some really important concerns came up. She said that if it weren't for this concern, she would already be baptized. Well, that's good to know. Anyway, we spoke about that, and you can see she's been thinking and suffering over this problem for a while. We'll see how we can try and fix it.
That's about it for this week. I won't be writing emails next week on Monday because it's already transfers again! So that means P-day is going to be that Wednesday, so expect emails then. :)
I love you all and hope you're all safe and well.
Starší Monk
First things first. Sorry that I didn't write you yesterday. I was in Prague all day with Elder Ingalls because he was getting his visa renewed. We got up and caught a bus at 7:20, sat there for three hours to get to Prague, got there around 10:00ish and then walked around for a while. Went to the building, stopped at Tesco (kind of like Costco) to get something to eat, stayed at the building, for multiple hours, and then they finally left to do the visa stuff. Then President wanted me and Elder Bracken (someone else's companion) to get out of the building, perhaps because we were being distracting, and so he sent us out to enjoy a day in Prague with two of the sister missionaries. It's weird being around sisters again after so long, however it was fun: we sat outside shops while they ran in and bought things.
Then later Elder Ingalls and I ran to the bus station to try and catch one bus, but we missed it by about five minutes and had to wait for another hour and a half for the next one to come. Turns out that the bus running from Prague to Trebic only leaves every two hours. Figure that. So we ate at Burger King in the meantime, and caught a 6:20 bus back home and got there around 9:00. Both of us were about to die, because the bus was really hot and really bumpy. So, that was my day in Prague (8 hours in Prague - 6 hours on a bus to and from Prague)! Yay.
Anyway, next things. This last week was interesting. It seems like everything that could have fallen through, did fall through, except for our meetings with less actives. They all met with us. Our teaching pool basically all got dropped this week because I hadn't met with them the entire transfer and didn't even know who they were, so we finally got around to dropping them. The ones that we didn't drop all had excuses to not meet with us. Our baptismal date from last week, Martin, got really really flakey; he always has some excuse to not meet with us and a few times even picked up the phone really sassily. That didn't rub me right, but whatever. He's on hardcore probation and he lost his baptismal date. We'll see what happens with him.
Here's a fun little story. This last week was Elder Ingalls' one year mark on the mission (not in country - that's next transfer) and so like most missionaries, he wanted to go out to eat somewhere special. I was on an exchange in Jihlava with Elder Bailey, but we caught a train down so that we could eat with Elders Vivona and Ingalls. So, there's a pizza restaurant here in Trebic that's pretty good and Elder Ingalls loves it. So he said that he wanted to go there for lunch. I reminded him that we were already going to be there later in the day with the seminary class (because we had a test on The Doctrine and Covenants thus far a week or two ago and everyone who passed was going to get pizza). He said that he knew but wanted to go there anyway. He was being kind of silly about it and just wanted to show off how many times he could eat pizza in one day. So we went there, we all got pizzas, and then later that day when we came back, the waitress lady kinda looked at us like we're crazy, but had the look of, "oh well." Elder Ingalls got the same pizza he always gets, pepperoni, and I knew that I couldn't handle another pizza in the same day, so I got a salad. The entire seminary class made a little fun of me, but I just told them that we had already been there that day. Elder Ingalls got about half-way through his pizza, and looked at me and then at the pizza as to say, "what have I gotten myself into?" My salad wasn't very good, either.
So Elder Ingalls and I went through this entire week without any lessons; however, we were setting lessons up, they weren't coming; calling to say they couldn't meet, etc. In our other time, we'd go out and contact. I remember one hour of contacting. It was Saturday at 2:00pm. It was pretty cold (perhaps -1, -2 degrees celcius; about 28-30 degrees Fahrenheit) and it was snowing a little bit and the wind was blowing, but we felt that we should go out contacting nonetheless. So we headed out, and the city was completely dead. Not a soul. So we start walking around, wanting to talk to anyone and everyone. At the end of the hour, we came back home because our ears were cold and we had talked to two people. Two. That's it. So, figured that's not the best use of our time.
Later that same Saturday, we called up one of our other investigators, her name is Dana. She's 50 years old and she's living with her 60 year old boyfriend and she's working on her Bachelors degree. Why not? We called her up and said that we made American brownies and that we wanted to stop by and give her some. She told us that she'd have time later that evening and that we could stop by when we had time. So we made up a batch of brownies and headed to her house. We had a fairly good lesson with her and her boyfriend (he's hilarious by the way - crazy old Czech man). We invited them to church, and with a little hesitation, they accepted, and then they were really determined about it. I think it's because I told them that I had a talk and she really loves missionaries. They've been investigating for about a year and half now and have been to church only once. The last time they came they were really surprised by how irreverent people were and so they've been using that experience as an excuse to not come again.
Come the next day, they show up to church. I turn to Elder Ingalls and said, "Is it weird that we have more people to church than we had lessons this week?" He smirked and went back to playing the piano. Then after church, we went and helped Ari (our Mongolian lady investigator) with something. She was going to Brno to stay there for about four days because her living conditions here in Trebic are really bad-- the heating isn't working correctly. Sometimes it works and sometimes doesn't so she can't open the windows because she wants to keep the heat that they have, and in return, her apartment is really humid and unbearable.
So we helped her push her stroller up the hill (she has a 2 year old son named Od or Jaromir - Od is his Mongolian name and Jaromir is his Czech) to get to the train station. Then we went to Dana's home to have lunch. It is really nice not having a missionary meal for once in a while. Afterward, we spoke with her and Jirka (her boyfriend) and some really important concerns came up. She said that if it weren't for this concern, she would already be baptized. Well, that's good to know. Anyway, we spoke about that, and you can see she's been thinking and suffering over this problem for a while. We'll see how we can try and fix it.
That's about it for this week. I won't be writing emails next week on Monday because it's already transfers again! So that means P-day is going to be that Wednesday, so expect emails then. :)
I love you all and hope you're all safe and well.
Starší Monk