Dear Family,
There's been a lot that's happened this last week. I'm just going to talk about two.
First off, this last week, our focus for Awesome April was the contacting day on the twentieth. That day we were supposed to commit the entire day, if possible, to finding. As it turned out, we had two appointments set up that day, but we made sure that they were later in the day so that they would interfere with the finding day as little as possible, because prime finding time is more during the day.
One fun story from the finding, we were out walking around talking to people and we were walking along the path next to the river and we saw some JWs talking to a couple girls on a bench. Elder Vomocil wanted to just stick a contact card in their hand and keep walking, but was just being a little silly, but wanted to talk to the girls. We ended up passing them by and felt a little put off that we didn't talk to them. We continued our lap and the next time that we walked past the same place, the JWs were gone. The girls were still sitting there but we passed them again. We kept going and Elder Vomocil kept saying that he wanted to talk to them, but we just hadn't yet. We ended up passing them another time at the same bench. This time we continued on and he was really determined to speak with them if he saw them again. As we were crossing the bridge going to the path, we saw the girls walking on the bridge, going the same direction as us. We followed them a way and we were planning on going up some stairs to the park up above on the hill. As we got to the stairs, the girls, whom we wanted to talk with and who were in front of us, took the stairs! Instead of being really creepy and weird, we continued straight and got some ice cream and then went up the stairs. The girls didn't make very quick progress up the stairs, because once we got to the top, they were only a little ways in front of us. Now we felt like stalkers. So we followed them and they went into a little off-shoot part of the park and sat down and we continued down the park to talk to some people, a few of whom were interested in coming to English class and then made our way back up the park to that little off-shoot so that we could talk with them. We finally went up and started talking with them. We told them that we were talking to people about Christ, and they said that they had already spoken with someone about that earlier. We started talking and they were pretty interested. When we offered them a pamphlet about the Restoration, they said, "Oh, well, we'll take that and you can take these," offering us the Watch Towers that the JWs gave them, "maybe they'll be interesting to you. Really what you're saying is more interesting." We ended up exchanging numbers and hopefully we'll be able to meet and speak with them more later. One of them is only here once or twice a year but the other is studying here in Trebic. They're both from a small town in southeastern Moravia. We walked away and Elder Vomocil felt like we had done what we were supposed to.
Then on Sunday, we had Easter Sunday and had a special sacrament meeting - basically I played violin with all the hymns and then I had a solo piece between the speakers. All the members really liked that. Then came the special Czech Easter tradition on Monday. (That's why I'm emailing today - everything was closed yesterday due to holiday.) Here in the Czech Republic, for Easter, the guys prepare whips made of intertwined willow branches the day before and then on Easter, before noon, the guys go around whipping the girls on the bottom saying a little poem. Basically they do this because the willow whip is supposedly used to transfer fertility to the woman and the poem basically goes along to say the same thing:
"Hody hody doprovody,
dejte vejce malování,
nedáte-li malování,
dejte aspoň bilý,
slepička vám snese jiný."
"Feasts Feasts and entourages,
give me colored eggs,
if you don't give colored,
at least give white,
and the hen will bear you something else."
Basically, on Sunday, all the members were asking if we were going to visit and whip them. We said of course and then they asked if we had a whip. We forgot to buy one... and they all acted like it was the end of the world! Then remembered that there was one at the house from last year so we told them that it was alright. Well... you have to get all the whipping done before noon or else the women can pour water on you. I don't particularly know why, but that's the tradition. We left the house at eight o'clock and didn't finish whipping until four, because we had to walk all over Trebic and everyone wanted us to stay and eat and talk. Luckily no one poured water on us. Some of them were pretty funny, and others were really funny and awkward. Oh, also, the girls are supposed to run away while the guys are whipping them, but most of the time they're too "awkwarded out" to run, so they just stand there and take it. He-he. I attached a video of me doing the first one to President Pohořelický's fifteen year old daughter. Yeah... that was way awkward. I don't know if you can watch the video, but if you can, you'll know a little of how fun this tradition is.
Other than that, this week has been good. We've been working hard and we've been seeing blessings. I love you all and I'm looking forward to talking to you on Mother's Day, which I guess is right after transfers! Oh NO. Last phone call home of the mission. That makes me feel old.
Love you all tons,
Starší Monk