This week has been wonderful! It's a little scary because Elder Bown went home this last week, and that's really brought some realization to me of how fast the end is coming. So, the trend in our area this transfer has been that we set up tons of meetings, and then no one comes, but this week has been different! It's great.
So, at the beginning of this transfer, Elder Bown had set up a meeting with some guy that he didn't know, because he was just a potential in the phone (his name's Vladimir), and when we came to the place where we had arranged to meet, this man walked up to us kind of weird and greeted us, and so we took it to be him. Kinda strange, but whatever. We took him to a cafe and sat down and spoke with him. We tried to talk about the Book of Mormon and prayer, but the conversation got kind of taken over by him trying to let us know what he believes too. It was a really strange meeting, where nothing really happened, so we didn't call him back. Then a month later, Elder Bown accidentally called him again, and set up with him again. So we took him somewhere else, so we didn't have the distractions of a cafe, and used the restoration pamphlet so that we could keep some control on the lesson. It went fairly well, and he thumbed through the pamphlet many times and glanced at things. Then I asked him what he'd be doing on Sunday (I thought, "why not."). He put his hand on my shoulder and shook me a little bit, in a good way, and said, "aha, I already know what you're hinting at." He then told us that he can't promise anything. Then he continued to try and teach us the things that he believes. However, Sunday rolls around, and fifteen minutes before church starts, we get a text from him saying, "Hey, I'm going to be a little late, but I'm coming." That threw us all for a loop. He walked in about ten minutes after it started and Elder Gabrielsen sat with him and walked him through everything. He ended up staying for all three hours. After second hour, he told me that he knew one of the members here, but he didn't remember from where. He then went up and spoke with him and they remembered that they had worked at the same firm seventeen years ago. This particular member has been a member his entire life and he was one of the ones that kept the church alive here in the Czech Republic during communism. Then later, after third hour, he told me that he recognized another member! They spoke for a while and they couldn't remember from where, but they both agreed that they knew each other. Then this last week, we had another meeting with him, I wasn't there because I was on an exchange with Elder Dietrich, but Elder Gabrielsen was at the meeting. There they spoke about baptism and committed him. He accepted, and then he was quiet. Elder Uremovich told me that he thought he was having doubts about what he said, so he began to explain more about it to try and ease his mind about it, but he butted in and said, "I already said yes, don't worry about it." So that was very surprising. He also came again to church this week. He said that he didn't know if he'd be in town, but if he was he'd come, and he came! Once again, he came in just a little late, and we weren't expecting him, so neither of us were waiting for him, but he came in and sat down by himself and loved it once again. He stayed for all three hours and at the end of the third hour, he told me that he knew the teacher who taught third hour too (this week it was another teacher). He then told me that when he had come to church last week, he knew so many people that he took it as a sign from God that this is the church he's supposed to be a part of. That's way cool. We're going to meet with him twice this next week and really try and get him going strong.
Then also, there's this kid that Elder Gabrielsen spoke with alone while he was on another exchange with Elder Bailey, and he got his number and we finally got a meeting set up with him. The lesson was actually on the same day that Elder Uremovich and Gabrielsen gave Vladimir his date, and they gave this kid a date too! His name is Patrik. He seems really cool. Elder Gabrielsen is really excited for him and I'm really excited to meet him. Yesterday, Elder Gabrielsen sent him a text asking if he'd have any time this week. Then he texted us a little later (at 9:00pm) and said he was sorry that he's texting so late, but he just back from a trip to Austria. He then asked if we could meet "tomorrow" which is today. We said yes, and then he started apologizing because he remembered that it was our free day. I don't know how he knows it's our free day, but that's okay. We got the meeting set up with him anyway, so I'm finally going to be able to meet him!
Also, this last week, there was a wedding here in Brno. It was between a member from Bratislava (capital of Slovakia) and a member from Prague. They're going to be living here so that they can go to school. I was at the building quite a bit to help prepare the building, and they also asked me to do some music for the wedding, so I was there all day on Saturday. The wedding was really fun, and some of the traditions afterward were pretty funny. One of them, they put a horse yoke around each of their necks, and then tied them together with something that looked like dental floss and then gave some symbolic explanation of it all, but I couldn't hear it. And once they took those off, one member began congratulating them and then took a dish and threw it on the ground. Then someone behind the couple handed them a dustpan and they had to clean it up. Then once they were nearly done cleaning, a member from Slovakia (who also just got married a few months ago) ran in and broke another dish and ran out laughing/giggling. Someone was saying, "You can't do that!" but she just said, "Oh, c'mon, they do that in Slovakia." And once they were nearly done cleaning that one, a member from Olomouc ran in and broke another one. It was pretty funny because each "extra" time was not supposed to happen. Someone explained to me afterward that the more shards there are, the more happiness they're going to have in their marriage and also them cleaning it up together is them learning to work together.
I can't believe how time is flying. Things are finally turning up and I'm going to try and keep pushing it right up to the end. I love you all and hope you're doing wonderfultastic!
Much love, and see you all soon,
Starší Monk