It seems that the longer that I'm on the mission, the more that everything becomes the same. Don't you feel that way sometimes with everyday life? It's kind of weird. I remember once before the mission, or at the beginning of the mission, that I heard, "You spend the first year learning the language, and then the second year on how to be a missionary... and then you go home once you have it all figured out." Yeah, feeling kind of like that right now. The other day we were at a member's home and we were showing her our pictures, and I realized that it had been a long time since I had looked through my pictures. When we did, I felt really weird. You know when you look at someone else's pictures and you don't feel like you really have any attachment to the people you're looking at? I had a strange degree of the same feeling. I still knew everyone, but I just felt like they were friends that I hadn't seen in a long time and didn't really have any contact with. Weird. I know that's going to change really fast, but that's how it is for the time being.
Anyway, we had kind of a fun experience with an old lady this last week. Elder Gabrielsen, about two weeks ago, contacted an older lady on a tram when we were going somewhere, and she told him that she had already met with missionaries in the past and she immediately gave him her number, full name and where she lives. That was strange. Then she told him that she'd love for us to come over some time. So I called her and she was very nice, and we arranged to come over for lunch. So, when we arrived at her home, which is on the complete other side of Brno from where we live, which took about forty minutes to get to by tram, she let us in and we found out that she had her sister-in-law there with her. They made it sound like they're always together. Anyway, before we began eating, they said that they like to pray beforehand, so they taught us the prayer that they were going to say, but they said that you don't just say it; it needs to be sung. So they told us the words, and then they sang the prayer. It was really funny and cute. Then they brought out the soup and we at it, then she brought out the goulaš and we ate it, and then she brought out the dessert and we ate it, and we thought that was the end. Then she brought out some more of the dessert and when we finished it, she brought out another tray/dish of it and told us to eat it all. My word. It was a lot. Anyway, back to them and not the food. They're both evangelical and they're just the sweetest old ladies. They told us that they had met with sister missionaries in the past, about five or six years ago, and that whenever they'd come over, they would always have a message to give, and then they'd write down an assignment to read from the Book of Mormon down on a piece of paper for them to read, and then they'd be quizzed on it the next time that they came over. It was really cute, because at the end, she pointed at Elder Gabrielsen and told him that he has to give her an assignment from the Book of Mormon and that he had to write it down on a piece of paper, just like the sisters did before. They also wanted to take us on a walk through the woods to see some wild pigs that they have. She said that they're just small ones, but we just didn't have the time for it. I think that they wanted to keep us for at least a few hours. My word, these women just liked to talk and reminisce about when the missionaries would visit them. We didn't get a message in, so I told them that next time we would have a small message that we would like to give them next time, and they agreed to that.
Also, this last week we had a strange little exchange between the three elders' areas this last week, because we're all having a little bit of a hard time finding new investigators, so we decided to shake it up and get some new enthusiasm among eachother. I went off with Elder Pearson, the one that I follow-up trained in Olomouc (he's my zone leader now here in Brno), and we had a really great time. We met this one man in a park next to a cathedral named Martin. He's going through a lot of hard stuff right now, and he's just really doubtful about what can and can't be, but he really sat and listened to what we had to say, and it was probably the best bench lesson that I've had in a long time. I could feel my love for this man growing and I just wanted so badly to give him the assurance of the gospel. We gave him the reason to meet with us, we promised blessings, told him a piece of the message, and told him how, even though we have hard times, we can make it through happily thanks to the gospel. He made it sound, with his inflections, like it was too good to be true and that he didn't really believe it, but we challenged him to meet with us again and he can begin trying it out for himself. He accepted it and I'm really excited to see what goes on with him. He's not going to be in my area, because I was working for the zone leader area at the time, but I should see him around.
Other than that, it's been a lot of the same. We're still setting up between fifteen to eighteen lessons a week, and if they would all come, they'd almost all be new investigators. However, only between two to five of them actually come. It's really disappointing, but we're doing what we can and that's all that the Lord is expecting of us.
I love you all and I'm happy to hear that things are going well. Rely on the Lord, there's no better way. Love,
Starší Monk
Starší Monk