Trainer Elder Monk...

Dear Family,

Well, I can tell you that everything went perfectly to and from Prague when I went to pick up my greenie. That all started on Tuesday when we went to buy train tickets to and from Prague. When I got there I didn't want to have to spend all morning on the train just getting to Prague, so I wanted to book a Pendolino (fastest train in the Czech Republic - only goes about 80mph which is kinda lame if you think about it), but the lady told me that the Pendolino was already full for the next morning when I wanted to take it. So I ended up buying a normal train ticket for 5:05 in the morning, arriving in Prague about 8:15. That was pretty painful, but wasn't too bad beacuse I didn't have to transfer anywhere - straight line. Also, I booked two seats on the Pendolino on the way back, so at least we wouldn't be on the train all night after I picked him up.

So the next day, I wake up at 4:00 so I can start to get ready and make sure that I have everything. Got up, showered, and then got my companions up at about 4:30. We got to the train station right on time, and I got on the train, and then it pulled away less than two minutes later. So we cut that kind of close, but now the only thing that was on my mind was trying to find my way from the train station in Prague to the building. Elder McGowan served the first six months of his mission there and now he's in Olomouc with us, so he reassured me that it's not that bad. He told me the different metros I'd have to get on and stuff and I was still freaking out about it because I've only been in Prague twice before this (once on the orchestra tour and once as a greenie) and both times I wasn't really paying attention because I didn't have to.

So the way that things worked out, I had to be at the building by 9:30 because that's when they were going to start the trainer's meeting and stuff like that and my train got into Prague about 8:15, so I had some good time to get lost and find out where I was going before I had to be there. Perfect. So I get to the train station in Prague, and I just follow the crowd because I figure they're going to the exit, most of them. When I got to the exit, I found the metro entrance. How fortunate! So I bought my pass, went down, and realized probably a little slower than I would have liked, that the metro is pretty idiot-proof as long as you read Czech. So, I felt kind of dumb that it took me so long, but that's okay! Turns out, I made it to the building very very easily and there was no problem at all. I got there about 8:45 and I had time to spare. So I go into the building and there I just hung out with the other trainers and office elders until we had the meetings.

In the meetings we talked about our responsibility as trainers and a few things that we can do and not do so that we do a good job. President told us that Elder Perry himself told him that the trainers are the most important position in the mission because they set the foundation for the next generation of missionaries' missions. That was a little scary to think about and to think that I would be doing that for some poor missionary.

Then at noon we went up to President's apartment (they live on the top floor of the mission office) and there we had the meeting where we got our greenies. I had spoken with a few of the greenies already and I was prepared to take any of them, except of course the sister. President pulled me up first and introduced me and where I'm serving and then he looked at his sheet to see who was going to be with me and my name didn't have a missionary next to it. That was a little perplexing. The thing was, one missionary stayed in the MTC because he had broken his foot when he jumped down five steps of stairs to open the door for a sister missionary, but landed on it wrong and fractured it in two places. So because of this, President got thrown off and just forgot to put someone down with me. That's okay, they figured it out after about a minute or two and they called up Elder Page to be my greenie. He was probably the only one that I hadn't thought about being MY greenie, but we're getting along wonderfully.

After the rest of the ceremony we had lunch, I ran around the mission home getting things together and then we set off to catch our 3:30 train. The thing, however, was it was only about 1:00. President had told me to not book anything before 3:00 because he never knows exactly how long these meetings will last. Also, I was worried about getting lost on the way back because I'm really good at getting lost, but we had no problems once again and we got to the train station with plenty of time. We actually ended up waiting about an hour and fifteen minutes. That was okay. We stood outside the train station and spoke Czech, got to know each other a little, and I had him go buy his own water at one of the stores, just for a little bit of Czech practice. Really, you don't need to be able to speak Czech to do that but I think just giving him that little bit of confidence was good.

When we got back into Olomouc, we dropped our stuff off at the house and went out into the city immediately and worked the náměstí and spoke to a few people. I think that it's amazing how much the Lord blesses us when we're put into positions of more responsibility. Just the difference from Tuesday to Wednesday was astronomical. On Wednesday, I was understanding just about everything that people were saying and Czech is just falling off my tongue so well. I have no idea how that is - besides the blessing of our Heavenly Father, of course. It's crazy.

Afterward, we headed over to an investigator lady's house and we had a lesson with her. She's not a super-strong investigator but she is more than willing to meet with us whenever we set up to go there. We went over and I had Elder Page try and speak as much as he could and I could see a few times that he was struggling but that's the best thing that I can let him do - struggle and when he can't do anymore, step in and carry the contact or lesson. The lesson with the lady was pretty good and she actually listened a lot more than she usually does because Elder Page didn't really speak amazing Czech and so she had to listen more carefully. That's a really cool blessing that we saw.

Besides this, our investigator pool is very shallow right now and by that I mean just about non-existant. So, we have lots of finding on the plan every day, and I'm really enjoying it because we have amazing weather finally. I'm having Elder Page start just about all the contacts and that's helping him alot.

Elder Page is really awesome. He's a little quiet and not so comfortable with speaking to people, but he's really smart and he's already making lots of headway on the language. Every time that I correct him on a language thing, he takes it and changes it and that's the end of that language mistake. He's going to make lots of amazing progress with the language this first transfer. Another thing, even though he's not comfortable speaking with people, he's very willing to speak to people if I point them out. We're going to see some amazing things this transfer and we're both very very excited for them. A little something, he looks a lot like Jared Smith and, now that I think about it, he acts alot like him too. I've already asked him if he's related but he doesn't know. That'd be a little interesting tidbit to figure out.

Anyway, I love you all very much, and I know that I got to and from Prague without problems because of the direction of the Lord. I also know that I am speaking and understanding the language so well because of the responsibility that I accepted to train a greenie and He's blessing me for that. I started reading the Book of Mormon again today (I read it all the way through last transfer). You know that 1 Nephi 3:7 is a favorite of members of the church, because it's so applicable to life. Go and read it and then think about it. I'm sure that it's very familiar to each of you and you'll know exactly what it says when you read the first few words, but today it hit me with new meaning. It told me that even if we don't have the ability to do the task at first but we accept the task with faith that the Lord will help us with it, He will give us the gifts and blessings that we need, even in expounding our abilities miraculously, over night if needs be, so that we can accomplish the task that he has commanded of us.

I love you all very much and I love hearing from you. It's good to know that you're all still in good health and that you're all doing well. I pray for you all and I hope that each of you are coming closer to our Father in Heaven as you strive to do what He wants.

With much love,
Starší Monk

Elder James Page and Elder Andrew Monk
June 23, 2010

Sister Slovacek, Elder Andrew Monk, President Slovacek
June 23, 2010

Baptism and Transfers! (Křest a Střidání!)

Dear Family,

This week had been truly amazing. We've seen blessings all around and I am very excited for the future. I'll tell you our transfer assignments at the end, like I did last time. :P

This last week we were supposed to have two baptisms, but one of them, Pavel, was taught the Law of Tithing as one of his last lessons before his baptism. He didn't come to church that week and the whole week leading up to the baptism we didn't see him for three or four days and he wasn't picking up his phone. One day, while we were planning, I had the thought that we needed to go out finding for an hour right after studies and before we had lunch. So we did so, and as we crossed the street about one minute from our house, Elder Kreitzer and I saw Pavel as he ducked into a store nearby. Elder McGowan didn't see him, but he believed us and we followed him. We went in too and waited by the entrance where he couldn't see us. He probably saw us and ran away so we would pass because he came back out pretty fast. When he came out, we spoke to him and we brought him to the town square and Elder McGowan spoke to him for about 30-40 minutes. Turns out that he didn't like the idea of giving 10% of his money to the church and said that the real church of Christ wouldn't require something like that. He also went out and bought a book by a pope and another by some guy about how nobody can force us to follow the "commandments of God." Pavel had taken a pretty hard hit by Satan. Anyway, this meeting was before the baptism, so we were going to try and revive him so that he could have his baptism at a later date, and so we got him to come to our building the next day, and there Elder McGowan and Elder Kreitzer slammed him really hard with the Spirit, as said by McGowan, but Pavel still told them that he didn't want to meet anymore, but that he was grateful that we had showed him that God does exist and that it is important to find Him.

Other than that, the man from our area, Olomouc South, got baptized and it was gorgeous. The place that we went to was a little lake out in the forest, and I have to say, it was really breathtaking. Libor was baptized by our branch president, and they've become really good friends. The branch president used to be homeless but because of the gospel he flipped his life around and he now has a house, a family, and a new life. Libor is really taking a lot from him. Also, Libor was confirmed this Sunday, also by president, and he wants to get the Aaronic Priesthood this next Sunday. I'm so insanely happy for him. One sad thing, however, is that Elder Kreitzer won't be here to see him get the Aaronic Priesthood, but he was really happy to see his first baptism on the mission. I have to say, it was very awesome. One thing that we forgot to tell Libor is how he would be baptized. We read the part about the prayer and how the ordinance is to be done from 3 Nephi 12, but we forgot to tell him how his hands would be and that he could hold his nose when he went under, so he came back out and started spitting water everywhere. It was funny. But now Libor really has a new glow about him and he's already a new person. On Sunday, Libor brought a friend to church, and we're meeting with both of them today! So Libor is already doing mission work and is really enthused about being a part of this noble cause. Also, after the meeting on Sunday, I asked him how he felt during the confirmation, and he said, "Well, it was a special feeling," and I told him that that was the Holy Ghost, and then he continued to tell me that, "It felt like my chest was on fire." It's so cool to see someone get that kind of spiritual witness right from the beginning. I just hope that he will take these feelings and run with them and never slow down. We're brainstorming with the branch president to see what kind of calling he needs and right now we're thinking of some kind of teaching position, because we feel that he needs to share his testimony a lot. Libor is doing so incredibly awesome.

So, this week is transfers, and I got a call from president this morning where he told me what I'm going to be doing this next transfer. So, I guess that I did something right this transfer because I'm going to be training here in Olomouc. On Wednesday I have to go to Prague to pick up my greenie. It turns out that I'll to be the second oldest trainer. There are six greenies coming in and one is a sister. The oldest trainer, besides the sister, is only one transfer "older" than I am, so these greenies are getting very young trainers. Three of them are only third transfer missionaries (I'm starting my fourth transfer). I'll let you know what my new companion's name is next week, because I don't know yet!

I'd just like to say that this transfer has really humbled me. I used to think that I was humble but then I came on the mission and it seems that every single transfer I'm being humbled more and more because I am never good enough and I realize more and more that I need to call upon the Lord. This transfer I think that I've prayed longer, more often and harder than I ever have in my life and I still don't think that I'm praying enough. However, to get enough praying done, I wouldn't have time to get any work done so I guess that I need to find some kind of balance. Interesting... Anyway, I'd just like to say that the Lord blesses those who ask him for help and then do everything in their power to make that help worth it. Being the perfect father that he is, he won't give everything to us right off the bat: he requires all the energies and efforts we can render, and then he will take that and multiply it a hundred fold, but we must first do everything from our capacities. I am really surprised and really sad that I'm learning more here on the mission than I am teaching, but I guess I just have to live by the statement (can't remember who it's by), "While you're on the mission, you're the Lord's investigator."

I love you all very much and pray for you every day.
Starší Monk

Elder Nathaniel Kreitzer, Olomouc Branch President, Libor Jelínek,
Elder Andrew Monk, Elder Sean McGowan
June 18, 2010

Baptism of Libor Jelinek
June 18, 2010; Olomouc, Czech Republic

Threesome again!?!

Dear Family,

As you can see from the title, I'm in a threesome again. That's some interesting news isn't it? Let's step through the series of events that led up to this. Well, last Monday after we finished everything for our P-day, we were hanging out at the building for a little bit before we went back home to get ready to go out working, and I got a call on my phone and saw that it was from President. I immediately started thinking to myself, "Uh oh, what'd I do?" Anyway, I picked up and said hello and with the big booming voice that he always speaks in, President said, "Well hello, who am I speaking with?" I told him that it was me and he continued, "Well, how are you doing Elder?" We went off like that for a moment, and then he finally asked me where the other elders were, and I said that they were right there with us. I then asked him if he wanted to speak with them, and he said yes, and to also ask them why they hadn't been answering their phone. I went over to Elder Anderson and handed him the phone and President asked him why he wasn't answering, and he told him that he didn't have the phone on him, and that he must have left it somewhere or in the car on accident. Anyway, they spoke on the phone for a while, and toward the end Elder Anderson was laughing almost hysterically in the way that people do when they're really stressed about something. When he got off, he told us that he had to be in Prague the next day! He was moving to Prague to be the new AP because Elder Hatch has to go home two weeks early so that he could start school. Jejda (kreiky). ***(by the way, the guy next to me looks an awful lot like brother Lysenko, the shorter Lysenko because I can't remember if he's the older or the younger and I already can't remember anyone's name - by the way, where is their heritage from?)*** So that night we had to go home and get stuff together and head over to the other elders' apartment so that in the morning when Elder Anderson would leave, Elder McGowan wouldn't be alone. So basically what's happened is Olomouc (our entire district) has turned into one threesome companionship and it's crazy.

The only thing that I'm not really liking about the threesome right now is that we're teaching all the lessons from both areas as one companionship, so we've lost just about all of our finding time. We're not allowed to split up and have two of us go finding while the other teaches the lesson, because that would be against the rules, so all our finding time, just about, has gone out the window. Interesting.

This week we're really excited for Libor Jelínek and Pavel Golař, both of whom have baptisms coming up this Friday! Pavel is from the other area, and Libor from ours. One thing that was really cool is that Libor came to Family Home Evening and when he came in, he sat down and said to me in English, "I'm excited for this Friday." I asked him why, just playing around, and he said, "Because I have baptism!" That was really cool. To see someone who wants to be doing so much to progress in the gospel and to want to be baptized because they see the importance of it. Libor has been accepting things right and left, and we've only run into a little problem with the Word of Wisdom with wine and alcohol, but he decided to live it anyway. The only problem that he had with it is that Jesus Christ drank wine, and why are we "trying to be more perfect than Jesus Christ?" We explained it to him, and he didn't seem really excited about it, but he accepted anyway, and recently he's been showing lots of progress and keeps telling us about how he didn't have his daily coffee and other such things.

Also, we already know that Satan likes to work on those that have baptismal dates, and even those who start to work with us, but the thing that is most fascinating to me is how Satan attacks people. For Libor, since he's homeless, he has a big camping backpack that has everything he owns in it and one night while he was sleeping in his tent (yes he sleeps in a tent - one time we asked him where he sleeps and he said, "Under a tent, like the Jews while they were in the wilderness), his backpack was stolen and he lost everything. When he came to his next meeting, he said that everything that he lost wasn't that big of a problem, but he seemed the most sad about losing his Book of Mormon. We assured him that it was okay, and we gave him a new one. So now, after ever meeting, he leaves his Book of Mormon at the building, so it can't get stolen again.

Another example of how Satan works on people is that he gets other people to do bad things so that we lose a little bit of focus. One of the investigators from the other elders' area, named PJ who's a big 19 year-old Mongolian guy, had his restaurant in Prague broken into Saturday night / Sunday morning. He texted the other elders and said that he wouldn't be coming to church because he had to go to Prague to clean it all up. PJ has a baptismal date, and that's why Satan's working on him so badly. PJ has told us that he's probably going to sell his restaurant so he can focus on the gospel. He's also told the missionaries that he wants to study at BYU and serve a mission because he only wants to preach the gospel. PJ is really awesome, and Satan knows that and that's why he's working so hard for him to stay away from us.

A little fun story that I can tell you is that one morning, while we were all sleeping, I guess around 5:30 in the morning, Elder McGowan was woken up by me praying out loud in Czech. He said that he sat up to look at me. Supposedly I was kneeling next to my bed praying out loud in Czech for like five minutes. Elder McGowan said that I was speaking quite loudly also. I don't really remember this. I do remember praying but only enough to know that I was doing it. I didn't know why I was praying, I didn't know what I was praying for, I don't even remember starting or finishing. Something weird about it was that I remembered a few times that I stopped talking, I told myself, "I need to keep praying," so I did. Also, even afterward, I got back into bed and supposedly continued to talk for another while before I finally got completely back to sleep. I wonder if that counts toward our SOL (Speak Our Language) hours for the week. Probably not.

Well, today's a crazy P-day, and because of certain meetings that we need to get to, it's cut down and we have to start working by 3:00 today instead of 6:00. So, time is short, but when is it not? I'm so surprised that this transfer is nearly over! This is the last full week and the day after tomorrow (pozitří) is my six month marker in the country! My oh my how time flies. Anyway, I love you all and hope that you are all doing well.

Praying for you and missing you all,
Starší Monk

Fwd: Consecration Week (Posvěcení Týden)

Dear Family,

This week's been really cool. A few weeks ago at zone conference, we were challenged by President to have a week where the entire mission would consecrate themselves to the Lord and think of only the work. Well, I must say that I really enjoyed it because we saw amazing blessings wrought upon us because of it.

It all started last week on Sunday when we had call-ins so we could tell the Zone Leaders what our numbers were for the week and just to kind of evaluate the week. Well, during that, Elder Anderson challenged us to do a few things. First, he wanted us to read pages six and seven in Preach My Gospel about the Restoration and how that's the strongest message that we can give people. As we did that this week, we saw a substantial increase in interest from the people and how our message was taken. It got me thinking: if the Restoration and the Book of Mormon are true, then everything else we've been learning/teaching is true. Everything is contingent upon these two simple things, but if you get down to the core of it, if the Book of Mormon is true, then the Restoration must be true. So really, the Book of Mormon has so much significance to us and our knowledge about God and what we're doing. Everything relies on her (oh no... Czech does that, where if the object you're talking about is feminine, you refer to it as "her" -- thus I said that). Then the other thing that Elder Anderson challenged us to do was to call a member for every single lesson that we set up, because this entire transfer we've been having problems getting member lessons. So this week, we did just that, and we got 6 member lessons! That's six times the number that we've gotten this entire transfer. That's a little bit terrible, but also, it's great to show me that these things are possible. I just had it in my mind that it's harder than it really is, but I've seen that when you have a real interest in the person that you're asking them to come teach, then they really catch on to the fire you have and do what they can to come and help. The members here are so hungry to help in the work and we just have to call them and they just eat it up.

But as I said, this week has been full of blessings. Last Saturday while we were waiting outside our building for someone to come to their meeting, a homeless man came up to us and just stood there and was trying to just make small talk. He was a pretty clean-cut and well-kept for being a homeless man, but you could still tell he was homeless. But anyway, we didn't really want to talk to him so we just kind of stood there and spoke with him not to be rude or awkward, but he just stayed and kept talking with us. Then we invited him to church the next day in attempt to have him leave us alone, and he said that he'd come. Well, next day comes. I was sitting with a different investigator, but Elder Kreitzer sat next to him and spoke with him during the meeting and afterward. After church, Elder Kreitzer told me that we had a meeting with him the next day and so I was like, "Okay, pretty cool. We got a meeting with a homeless guy." Well, to be short, that meeting was awesome. We couldn't find the Restoration video that we wanted, so we ended up watching it in Russian (and may I just say right now, I can understand Russian because of my Czech... it's way cool) and after that we had a really good discussion with him and set up another meeting for Wednesday, two days later. Well, the next day, on Tuesday, we saw our friend on the street and we decided to bring him into the building and teach him the third lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even more luckily, Brother Dvořak was at the building and we taught with him. The meeting was very powerful and Jelinek (the homeless guy's name) already understood everything and was adding to the lesson. He taught me that we needed to be baptized by immersion and that the Catholics are doing it wrong. He also said that it was written in the Gospel of Matthew that we needed to be baptized by immersion. Anyway, that lesson we gave him a baptismal challenge, he accepted and he's going strong on toward baptism. Then the next day, we taught him the first lesson about the Restoration and again, he was teaching us instead of us teaching him. He told us that the Pope is just a normal person and that Jesus Christ didn't call any popes while he was on Earth, why would we do that today? Basically, each lesson we've had with him has gotten better and better, and he continues to amaze us. He's already accepted to live the laws of tithing, the fast, and Word of Wisdom. We're extremely excited for him.

I'm sorry, but I'm really low on time. I know that these blessings have only come from one source, and that's our Heavenly Father. The reason that we've seen so many this week is because we opened up ourselves to receive the many blessings that He has for us, and we were grateful enough to see them, big or small. I ask all of you to open yourselves up as well, so that you can see the hand of the Lord every single day of our lives.

I love you all very much and pray for you.
Starší Monk

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