Čestmír's baptism. He is on the left and Rosťa is on the right.
Elder Betts and me on a hill overlooking Ostrava
Dear Family,
I'll just start by saying that today my district sang happy birthday to me, before we went on our výlet (small sight-seeing trip). Also, President Irwin called me this morning. I picked up and said hi, and he said, "Elder Monk!" and then continued to sing "Happy Birthday" to me almost without pause to let me think what was going on. After that, he wished me a wonderful day and ended the call. He has enough to do, but it was nice of him to call and sing to me.
So, a few things have happened this week: some good and some not so good. All-in-all, it's been a hard week, but I've had harder. I'll start with Renata. She's still doing awesome. We met with her this last week and finished up the Plan of Salvation. She really seems to love learning from us about things. We had assigned her Alma 40-42 to read, and when she came, she had notes and questions written down. Instead of going through all her questions, we just taught her the rest of the Plan of Salvation and afterward she looked at her notes and said, "Oh, you already answered all of them." We were teaching her outside and she was taking notes on a paper that I had drawn the outline for the Plan of Salvation on, and every now and then when she didn't know where it is, she'd say, "Kde je můj Boží plán?" (Where's my God's plan?) She'd always find it. One thing that she told us, however, is that whenever she reads the Book of Mormon, it seems very strict, hard and mean, but when we explain it to her, she feels that it's not mean at all but that it's nice and merciful. She was also a little surprised that she doesn't get out of the chapters what we tell her. She says that it makes sense afterward when we explain it to her, but while she's reading she doesn't understand it that way. We told her that's why we're here. She's doing really well right now. I think that giving her the baptismal date has really changed her around, and also that she can see that we're her friends and that we want only what's best for her.
We also met with Jiri this past week. When we met, we found out that the reason that his ideas about baptism have changed are because his wife, even though she had told him that she doesn't have a problem with it, he can tell that she does, so he doesn't think that it's the best idea to get baptized right now, because it may disrupt their marriage. It's already his second marriage so he really wants to make this one work. So, we pushed back his baptismal date to the second of July. We then spoke with him about how he could speak to his wife about meeting with us so that she can ask us questions instead of looking on the internet, which she's already done and found anti-Mormon material. We brainstormed and then had him practice. He didn't do badly, but he was beating around the bush, so I gave an example, and then asked him to do it again. The second time he did alot better and he was feeling like he could really make it happen. Sadly, later in the week, we got a text from him saying that he and his wife aren't the kinds of people to think about religion. Basically he dropped us. It was really strange, because it didn't sound like him in the text. Elder Betts was saying how it looked like his wife took his phone and wrote us that message just to get us to leave him alone. He said in the text that he and his wife can't really even speak about normal things without getting into an argument, so perhaps he's thinking that this is causing problems that don't need to be there. We haven't been able to meet with him since then, but he said that he'd be open for meeting and talking, but not about religion. We're going to meet alright, but we're going to ask him what's going on.
Then on Thursday we met with a kid named Lukaš, who hasn't met with the missionaries in like four five weeks. When they first met him, he was out of work, worrying about what he was going to do. He didn't have time then because he was looking for a job, but now, he has a job and he doesn't have time because of it. Strange predicament. Anyway, according to Elder Betts, when they met with him before, he didn't seem to have much interest, but this time, he was really open to hearing what we had to say, and actaully, he told us that he wanted to learn more because he thinks that it's a bad thing to live in ignorance. Good way to live. The lesson that we had with him went really well. We asked him if he had prayed at all. He said no and felt pretty bad about it. Then we asked him if he had read from the Book of Mormon. Then he felt really bad and said no again. He told us that he wants to read the Book of Mormon as soon as he as more time, but I suggested that he reads just a chapter a day and then think about it. He really liked that and said that he'd do it. Then at the end, I asked him to pray, and he said that he doesn't know what he'd say, so we walked through a couple things that he would say, and he was still a little shy to try, so we told him to try and practice a few times on his own and then he could do it the next time that we meet. He agreed to that. Basically, from my point of view, it was a golden lesson. He was really open, felt bad for not keeping commitments, friendly, willing to share concerns with us, and he committed to trying things! When I asked him if we could meet again the next week, he said that he'd definitely be able to find a small moment when he could sit down and talk to us. So, I'm really excited for this guy!
Then on Friday we had six lessons on plan, with a possible seven, and two of them were member lessons, but as the day went on, lesson after lesson fell through. One of the lessons was with Patricia (I don't know if I've talked to you about her; I'm sure that I have). She sent us a text saying that she wouldn't be coming, and that she wouldn't be coming to any more meetings with us anymore. She dropped us too! She said that it was really hard for her to say, and you could tell that she really likes us, but something else is there. We're not sure what it is. She sent another text later saying that she can't talk to us right now because she's really sad, but perhaps she just needs a pause, so maybe she'll pick up later again. I certainly hope so, she's really awesome.
Then on Saturday, the sisters' area had a baptism! His name is Čestmír. He's an older man and he's been meeting with the missionaries for a while now. Elder Vomocil had taught him when he was here in Ostrava, which was over a year ago. Čestmír has had a rough time personally and in the church. He's already gotten offended once by a member in Plzen, and it was right after his wife had divorced him, after he moved to Plzen for work and the work was a scam (basically the business is "new" and they work everyone for a month and right before they're supposed to give out paychecks, the business suddenly liquifies and isn't to be found). However, inspite of these things, he was baptized this last Saturday by a newly converted member named Rosťa. It was a really cool experience. The only thing that could have made it better is if Jiri had made it!
This last week was really hard on Elder Betts. Many times he would turn to me and say that this week sucked and would complain that our numbers were bad. I can understand that it's hard for him. It has been hard, but I think that he could look on the bright side: we still have some really cool investigators who, I believe, are really going to make it. I know that life can sometimes be like this. We get caught up on the bad that we forget about the blessings we do have.
This week has been crazy, ups and downs. Oh, and one other thing to add to the ups: Hoang (our investigator from Plzen) wrote me and said that he just got baptized in Vietnam! No effort is ever wasted! The Lord knows everything, and as long as we're keeping our covenants and trying to be a good person, he will never lead us astray; our efforts will always be toward a larger purpose.
I love you all so very much and hope that you're very successful in all of your ventures. I know that I am here in this part of the world. I just hope that I could write more in depth everything that happens here so that you can get the whole scope of missionary life here, but it's just not possible; this'll just have to do.
Much love,
Starší Monk