First Week in the Czech Republic

Dear Family,

Well, I'm finally here in the Czech Republic. I got to call my family before I got on the plane that headed for Austria. That was fun but I couldn't really find much to say. However, we talked for a good little while. So, we got to the Mission home in Prague at about noon on Tuesday (Uterý) and had lunch with the mission president. Then we had pictures taken and then Sister Slovaček sent the photos to my dad, so maybe he put them on the blog. I'm not sure. Anyway, the president's assistants took us out for a "Prague Walk" and we went to see the city. Sad thing was, I had already seen most of the things they took me to see from my Europe tour two summers ago. But it was still way awesome to see everything when there weren't any tourists! Yay! Anyway, we did that walk and that took quite a while. At about five o'clock, we went out and did contacting for our first time. That was super intense. They basically gave us a phrase or two that we could use to try and talk to people. They gave us "Prosím Vás" (literally: I ask to you/meaning: excuse me) and "Proč máme vanoce?" (Why do we have Christmas?). Anyway, we were out with Elder Williams and Elder Mittanck. Mittanck was with me and Elder Jones and Elder Horváth went with Elder Williams. The entire time I don't think that Elder Mittanck could stop a single person long enough to talk to them. Seemed like only Elder Jones and I could stop them. One guy that I stopped gave us his number so that we could contact him! AWESOME! He said that his family was Catholic so the idea of God wasn't new to him, but he didn't really seem to believe in Catholicism. He seemed pretty interested in what we had to say. Anyway, then we went to this little cafe thing and had dinner. I had Svičkova which was really interesting. Most missionaries are like, "Oh, I love Svičkova" and I didn't really see what was so special about it. Yes, it was good, but why the big deal? Anyway, it was good. Don't get me wrong. Then we went "home." President let us go to bed at seven, when the missionary bedtime is ten thirty!

Then the next morning President woke us up at seven thirty, so we basically slept twelve hours. That morning we had orientational things with the AP's and the president and then we had lunch. We were told that we were going to get our new companions after lunch, so I was anxiously awaiting lunch. At lunch, they had the three greenies line up with the three trainers opposite us. Then President called up Elder Nowland and said where he was and gave a small overview about the area, and then said that Elder Horváth was going to be with him in České Budějovícé. Then he pulled the other two trainers up and talked about each of their areas. Elder Jones was called with Elder McLaughlin and I was called with Elder Price. Elder Jones is going to Ostrava and I'm in Zlín!

It's awesome here. I asked Elder Price how we were going to get back to Zlín, and he told I'll be spoiled because we get a car. Yeah, we have a car. It's a funny little thing called a Škoda Fabia and it's red. Fun little thing. Anyway, he then told me because we're losing ten missionaries and only getting three this transfer, we lost a companionship in Zlín so I get a phone too. Crazy. Also, since we lost a companionship, there are two apartments in Zlín, so we took the larger of the two and it's way nice, except that it looks like it hasn't been cleaned since the church was founded. So we spent most of today cleaning the thing.

The people here are awesome. They have a little bit of a wall around them because they lived through communism and stuff, but once you break through that wall, they're probably the nicest people I've ever met. Yesterday we went to a town called Kroměřiž to give an inactive lady a blessing. She's going in for cancer treatment tomorrow, but we went in and we spoke for a long time, and she was so increadibly nice. At the end of our visit, she gave us each a big box of chocolates. She's so sweet. Also, it looked like she painted her own eggs. Ya know the kinds of eggs that are really stereotypical for Russians where the egg is brown and then it has the brown and white patterns all over it of ropes and flowers and stuff? Yeah. She did those and they were amazing. I only saw a few when we were talking with her, but when we got up to go out the door, I saw that there were boxes and baskets full of these eggs. She's awesome. That's just one example of the people here. They're all so increadibly nice. I love them all to death.

I think that I'm going to get myself into trouble as far as the language goes, because I think my accent is better than my speaking abilities, and far better than my comprehension, because I always say "Dobrý Den" to the members or any other people and they think that I speak better than I do. Then they go off talking a million kilometers a minute and I can't understand anything. It's frightening. So, either I need to dumb down my accent, or really work on the language. I can pick out about one or two words out of every sentence, but sometimes I hear a word and I analyze it and then they're already two sentences down the road. Gah! This language is going to take some getting used to. My speaking is already much better than when I left the MTC just a short week ago. I cannot believe it. It's truly amazing.

As for my companion, we're getting along very very well. He's awesome and I can see why President wanted to get to know us, the greenies, before he assigned us to a trainer. He wanted to find someone who would really match us. Elder Price is in his last transfer and will be going home in a few months. So, in missionary terms, he's my dad (because he's "raising" me), Zlín is where I will be growing up, and I will be killing Elder Price (because I'm his last companion). :)

Anyway, I can now use something other than myldsmail.net for email, and I have more than thirty minutes. Right now I'm at forty-two minutes, and it's going to cost me 28 Kč which is about 2 USD. I have a new email, so if you don't want to pay one dollar to send one piece of (physical) mail to me in the Czech Republic, which would probably take about a week to a week and a half to get here, then you can write me at either monka90@myldsmail.net or at czech.monk90@gmail.com. Either one is good.

Woah, first couple days gone - Crazy!
Love you all,
Starší Monk

Andy's First Area

Elder Price and Elder Monk (in Zlín)

We're hoping this picture wasn't taken in the
missionary apartment. If so, there seems
to be a Word of Wisdom issue...

Prague Arrival pictures

Sister Slovacek, Elder Monk
and President Slovacek

Elder Price and Elder Monk

Elder Horvath, Elder Monk and Elder Jones

Addresses for contacting Elder Monk

Elder Monk is leaving the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on Monday, December 14. He will not receive mail at the MTC after Friday, December 11. Please do not send mail through http://www.dearelder.com/ after 12:00 (noon) on Friday. He will not receive it.

From now on, the best way to contact Elder Monk is by email. His email address is andrew.monk@myldsmail.net.

Physical mail should be sent to the mission office. The office staff will deliver it to him wherever he may be assigned. We've been advised that packages must be addressed exactly as follows in order to ensure delivery. Andy's name must be on the second line, with the church name on the first line, or mission office staff will not be allowed to sign for the package. Furthermore, the customs declaration form must be filled out completely and accurately.  Nothing may have a value of $0.  The total value of the package must not be more than $28 (US).  Letters are not so strict.

Církev Ježíše Krista Svatých posledních dnů
Starší Andrew Monk
Milady Horákové 85/95
170 00 Praha 7 – Holešovice
Česká Republika – Evropa

If you have questions, you may contact Andy's parents at monkr63@hotmail.com.

Last P-Day in the MTC

Dear Family,

Well, it's finally here. Well, as close to "it" as you'll hear from me. I'm going to be leaving for the Czech Republic this coming Monday! It's so crazy! My dad sent me a Dear Elder yesterday making assumptions that I'm very excited to be leaving, but also kind of dreading getting there because I won't know how to say anything. That is true. Both statements are true. The longer that I stay here, the more bored I get because it seems that I'm just studying the same things over and over and it's just a constant stream of busy work: memorize vocabulary and mark scriptures. It's not bad, in fact I like it alot, but I'd much rather be doing something else; perhaps, what missionaries do! Another thing I'd like to point out that's happened to me - I can't sit still and not do something. It drives me nuts. Of course I still zone out every now and then, but just sitting, consciously not doing anything... I get antsy. That's a good thing, but it's a good and bad thing from the Lord.

Anyway, I'd like to just share a few thoughts that I've had from being here at the MTC. My dad said to me one time, "Just because you're going on a mission doesn't mean you'll be a different person." Dad, I'd like to tell you that you're wrong. I have been changed in Christ, and I can feel it. Before coming on the mission, you and mother would talk about me not having enough ambition to do things but I've found out that the reason for being so was because I didn't define a clear-cut purpose that I really wanted to work toward. Christ truly does change people. He has changed me, and I know that He will change the people of the Czech Republic that will listen to His words. Jesus Christ is constant in our lives and because of that, none of us will ever have to be alone. Cast your burdens upon Him and He will help you change. That is the purpose; the reason we are on Earth. We are here to prepare to meet God. Part of that preparation is becoming clean through Christ. We, as imperfect as we are, can always become clean because of the infinite atonement that Christ performed on our behalf. There is no trouble, pain or sin that is too great for the power of the atonement to overcome. I know it. It has worked in my life and it is too strong to deny. I implore every one of you who feels the burden of despair, either from stress, sin or just from every day wear and tear to cast your burdens upon Christ. He has already paid the price and He wants us to take advantage of His sacrifice. If we did not, it would be as a prideful child turning from the help of his Older Brother who has already experienced it and wants to help each of us become perfect, even as our Father.

My testimony has grown far more than I could have ever believed; however, I know that I am still among the weakest of God's children. God truly does call us in our weaknesses to help us become strong. God, as our all-knowing Father, knows the exact things that will profit us the most. Many times they are the things that we do not want because we know that they are hard. I want to tell you that these things that come upon us are for our own good. God knows that if we endure them well we will be strengthened by them and will have taken the next difficult step on the way to Eternal Life.

One such difficult step for me was realizing that once I had this purpose that I was so set on fulfilling, I would become very narrow minded. I wouldn't be understanding to my companions sometimes. Many times, I would have to take a step back and tell myself that these little things that I was getting upset about weren't so bad. One time, we were supposed to have interviews on Sunday morning right at seven o'clock. So I was very intent on being on time to that. It turned out that we were four minutes late and I knew we'd be late because we left the residence hall at seven. This ticked me off because I wouldn't achieve my goal that I had made. But then I took a step back and thought, "Is four minutes really that big of a deal?" Turns out that nothing was lost because of those four minutes, but I also did learn that we need to try to do our best. As long as we do that, the power of the atonement will cover the rest of our sins and shortcomings because our pefect Redeemer knows each of our abilities and knows how far we can go, and that is all that He will ask of us. Jesus Christ knows that I have my weaknesses and He also knows my strenghts. I love the atonement because through it, Jesus Christ knows me perfectly, and thus, He is the perfect Judge.

I'm not sure what else to say at this point. I am very thankful for all of you who are supporting me on my mission because I know that the Lord, Jesus Christ, blesses the lives of individuals through the actions of others. I know that Christ is acting through you to bless my life. I don't know if I'd have the strength to go from day to day without the constant love and encouraging words that you send me.

The other day, I had a very random and strange thought pop into my head. It was about the number of people that I'd baptize on my mission. I got a very distinct and clear number and frankly, it scared me. So that night I prayed to know if this number was correct and the answer scared me even more. I know now that I'm going to have to work very, very hard on my mission to accomplish this goal that the Lord has set for me.

I love you all very much and know that we will all be blessed through our Lord, Jesus Christ,

Starsi Monk

Is it a bad thing that it's December?

Dear Family,

So, today being December first, I began to think: I'm going to be in the CZECH REPUBLIC in a matter of just thirteen days. Is that crazy or what? Yes, very crazy. I was going to write "Very Crazy" in Czech, but I don't know the word for crazy.

Anyway, I got a few Dear Elders from you this past week asking if I was sick this past week and couldn't go and write emails. The answer is: No. I wrote up the entire thing last week and my timer was down to one minute and then my screen flashed and logged me out of the mail, however my timer was still going. So I panicked and logged back on and my email was completely gone. So, I wrote a snail mail to my dad basically saying everything that I wrote in the email, but condensed because my hand hurt. Anyway, I guess my dad hasn't gotten the letter yet. I'm sure when he gets it, he'll type it in here. (Actually, he may have gotten it and has already typed it in and I just don't know cause I can't read the blog :D. So in other words, I'm writing up this long explanation for no apparent reason). I'm glad you guys like to hear me rant about nothing.

So this past week was-- Woah! Aside moment! I just got an email from my dad that said he put the letter into the blog. I swear it wasn't there when I logged on and now it is. It's dated 11/30 at 10:52pm. Way to go MTC mail system!-- was pretty normal.

The RC was awesome this week. I talked to, check this, ONE person. However, we spoke for an hour and a half. It was over chat so it was a little more understandable. He told me that he had seen the missionaries once and they gave him a Book of Mormon and he read it and prayed about it. Then, here we go, he said that the answer he got pointed him toward Islam. How that happened, I don't know. How can reading the Book of Mormon lead you to Islam? Ne vím (I do not know). Anyway, he told me that he had been to mormon.org a few times and had been treated badly by some of the other elders. I'm sure that these elders weren't meaning to treat him badly, but he did have hard questions. I found myself reaching into deep doctrinal answers to answer him, but he seemed to take it very well. It was quite awesome.

We spoke for an hour and a half and I thought that I should talk to him again, so we spent ten minutes trying to figure out when we could meet again. We decided that this Saturday he'll try and get on again so that we can chat. I'm really looking forward to speaking with him again. At one point, we were talking about the after-life and how we can live with God one day, and he asked, "Is there a way that I can have this and still be Muslim?" Sadly, I had to tell him no, but this also told me that he wants to have the blessings our Heavenly Father has for him. I think that if I keep trying with him, he'll begin to build his faith in Christ and come to His church. I also challenged him to meet with the missionaries again, and he accepted. It was super-cool. I know that being in the field is going to be awesome.

Another thing, yesterday during our MDT time, I asked my teacher, Brother Cardon, if I could have just fifteen minutes to practice speaking Czech with him and he agreed. We went into another room and we just began talking about my day, in Czech of course, and I think that we had a pretty good conversation. I said most of what I wanted to say and he would reply back. It wasn't as stressful as the "schuzkas" where they'll say, "Ne rozumím" (I do not understand) if you speak English. Every now and then I'd come to a word that I didn't know and he'd help me by giving me the word. It was pretty awesome. I learned a few new words that are really going to facilitate normal conversation, and at the end I asked him how my Czech was. He said that it was really good and that I shouldn't be worried about going to the Czech Republic; however, I still am. How could I not be?

Anyway, I love you all and thank you for the continued support that I get from you all. OK, I'm going to use my last eight minutes and try and write a small testimony in Czech. =\

Múj milujici rodine, miluju vás vždy. Každy jeden vás jste nejdúležitý na mi. Vím že, Ježíš Kristus je náše spasitel. Vím že, On zemřil pro náše hřichy. Skrze On, vím že, múžeme být čistý pro krev zemi. Miluju moje vykupitel, Ježíše Krista.

That comes out to: My loving family, I love you all. Every one of you are of utmost importance to me. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know that He died for our sins. Through Him, I know that we can be clean from the blood of the world. I love my redeemer, Jesus Christ.

I love you all very very much and I hope you can feel that love in your lives from the people around you. I know that the Lord blesses us in our every day lives. Miracles do happen.

Open your eyes and see the blessings. I pray for you all,
Starší Monk

November 24, 2009 letter

Dear Family,

Sorry there wasn't any post this last Tuesday. We only get thirty minutes on the computer and I was typing my email when it logged me off with one minute left! So I logged back in and I still only had that one minute, but the the entire email was gone. So I have to write it all by hand, send it home and ask my poor father to type it up.

So this last week, Heavenly Father decided to show me what a great sense of humor He has. Last time, I told you that I was staying healthy. Well, the next day I woke up with a very bad sore throat. This sore throat has been harrassing me for the entire week. I wake up every day to a different situation with it. Recently, it's moved up into my tonsils and has hung out there for a few days. It hurts really badly to yawn. I went to the clinic about it and the nurse there said that I didn't have swine flu, but she felt like she should see if there was something else wrong. So she checked my temperature and my ears and a few other things. Then she checked by throat. Whe she looked at it, she said, "Wow, that's an impressively red throat!" Not like I couldn't feel it. Anyway, she gave me some salt and cups to clean my throat out with. It's actually been helping. I nearly lost my voice completely a few times this week though.

Anyway, another fun little thing that's happened this week is that we taught in the TRC in Czech. First, I need to tell you that we always have this one native Czech woman names Kajě come in. She's from Brno which is in Eastern Czech Republic, otherwise called Moravia; Western Czech is called Bohemia. People in Bohemia generally speak slower and people in Moravia speak faster. So by the transitive property, Kajě speaks fast and it is very true. Now back to the story. We had planned out our lesson, had divided up the lesson so that Starší Jones wouldn't end up speaking because Starší Horvath and I are too uncomfortable with the language and would just stay quiet. Anyway, we began the lesson and it was going well and then it came to my part of the lesson. So I began and while I was talking about prophets, Kajě asked a question. It basically flew right over my head, so I said, "Prosin?" ("Excuse me?") She said the question a little slower. This happened again and again about five times until I understood the question. I kept getting tripped up over the word, "všechno" in one of its forms meaning "all/everything." Gah! So I finally got it and answered her question. Her question was, "Can all of us return to be in the presense of God?" Simple enough question, but not when you don't understand the vocabulary. So I got out of my portion of the lesson with minor bumps and scrapes. Kajě was nice enough to correct my case endings about every ten seconds. She also decided to throw about two more questions at me, but they went much better.

Not much else happened this week. Just teaching our teachers a lot in czech. Yesterday, we had a lesson (lekce, if you want to know it in Czech) or schůzka (the Czech word for appointment) to Brother Cardon, and my brain had just about turned out for the night or something because my Czech was terrible. Anyway, I guess I have room for improvement.

I hope you have a wonderful (úžasný) Thanksgiving. Pray for all the missionaries because they don't get to have a day off for Thanksgiving. However, I know that every one of them is extremely thankful to be serving the Lord at this time in "their" section of the world.

I love you all very much and wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Starší Monk

I am scared :(

Dear Family,

This last week I had the "half way point" day where I realized that the MTC time is going to end. It was a frightening realization. To think that I'm going to be out there speaking to people in a language that I'm going to have absolutely no fluency in... That's terrifying. By the way, if i get some of my "i"s and "y"s backwards, it's because I've been writing Czech too long. There are some consonants that can't be followed by an "i" so they use the "y." Little grammar lesson for you.

So this week I have to write like the wind. I only have twenty-eight minutes left and I have a lot to say. Well... there's alot that's bouncing around in my head. First off, thank you to everyone who wrote me - I received ALL of the letters yesterday. I'm not sure how that happened, but I guess the MTC was doing something weird. Seriously, I didn't get mail all week (even though we checked every day) and then yesterday... BAM! Mail galore. Anyway, thank you. It took me thirty minutes to read all of it, and that's not only because I'm slow at reading.

Let me get a few little things said before I dive into the big stuff: Ricky, my loving "Dear John" brother. I must say I found that letter quite disturbing, even for you, but on the other hand, a lot of the missionaries here got a kick out of learning that I have a brother who's weird enough to write something like that. Also, a few guys read it and thought that it was a real Dear John and one was like, "I'm so sorry. I can't see why the other Elders are laughing." That was until he got to the end and saw it was from a guy. Bahaha.

Next, Daddy: yes my companions are sick. Starsi Horvath has been coughing since he came to the MTC and hasn't stopped since. However I think it's just because of the dry weather. At one point, he was legitimately sick though, but that only lasted about two days and those two days were spent mostly in the dorm so he could sleep it off. Starsi Jones is feeling quite under the weather. These past few days he's had a really nasty head cold and hasn't quite been himself. I'm sure that he'll get over it in the next few days. As for me, I'm as healthy as ever. Except for the fact that the other day in gym, while playing four square (which is AWESOME-ly competitive), I twisted my ankle. So I've been hobbling around for the past three days or so. Today it feels much better. The only thing about it is that it's got this really annoying achey feeling all up my calf (probably mispelled; I meant the muscle in the leg if you can't figure it out). That's about it with me health-wise.

Next thing, Mommy: I hope you enjoyed your birthday card. I spent a whole ten to twenty minutes writing it (which is an awful long time to spend writing a letter here at the MTC).

Next, Michelley: I'll write you as soon as I can. Don't think I've forgotten you :-). But tell your disturbing brother that I'm debating whether to write him back or not. *rubs chin*

Now time for the fun stuff. This past week we've been doing SYL as much as we can every day. SYL stands for "Speak Your Language." You get to make a really nifty post-it note that sticks to your name tag that basically says that you can't speak English. Mine said, "Dnes je Česká Den!" which means "today is Czech day!" or another one was "Nemluvím anglicky; mluvím česky." which means "I do not speak English; I speak Czech." Anyway, those are super fun, but I find that if I don't do it 100% all day, then I stop about the first time that I do speak English. Also this last week, we started teaching the lessons in Czech which I must say is Super-Hard. Yes, it is Capitalized and Hyphenated. Oh my word! I never thought that my brain would explode as badly as it did. Thinking about where the lesson's going, thinking about the investigator's needs, thinking about pertinent scriptures to use, thinking about GRAMMAR! GAH. The pain is rushing back to me. Actually, I just stuttered like an idiot and slowly put sentences together. I think it would take me an average of ten to fifteen seconds to put a sentence like, "God is our father." together. Then our teacher decided to be mean to me and said that he didn't understand the verse that I gave him. Uh oh... It was the one in Abraham 3 where God is talking to Abraham, telling him that his seed will be blessed through the gospel and priesthood. That was interesting trying to answer those. Eventually we got past that and (oh by the way, I forgot to tell you that this was from our first teaching experience; sorry for the aside) we started talking about something else. At the end we got him to let us come back again next week, but he asked where we would meet. I was sure that I'd be able to answer a simple question like that. So I said, "Is it here good?" which basically means, "Is here fine?" I said, in Czech, "To je tam, dobře?" He looked at me like I was crazy; I had no idea why. There was no possible way that I could have screwed up such a simple sentence. So, thinking that I was right, I kept saying it. He kept looking confused and asked me, "Yes, where?" and so I said it again. Finally he figured out what I was trying to say and told me that it was fine to me, "here." In Czech he told me that what I was saying was, "It is there, good?" So it was no wonder that he was asking where. Hooray for my first language mistake where no one understands me. I'm sure it'll happen plenty more.

Now, a little more serious topic. Our companionship has been having a little bit of trouble this last week. As we've gone about out studies and classes, I've sensed that there was some tension and I didn't know how to resolve it. It seemed that Starsi Horvath didn't like me very much and wasn't willing to tell me that he can't stand me. So I thought that I'd just deal with it. Then the day that we had our first lesson in Czech, in our companionship study before the lesson, we were trying to plan out the lesson in Czech. I was at the board writing down sentences in Czech and saw that Starsi Horvath wasn't participating. So I asked him what we could say for the topic we were on. He said that whatever we said was fine. I kept after him and he said, "I don't care." I kept after him and gave him a sentence and tried to have him translate it. He told me, "slovník" which is "dictionary" in Czech. Basically, this was the fight, quite mild for any fight I've ever seen, but way more than any missionaries should be having. Our teacher came back in and stopped us and said that we needed to take a walk. We didn't really talk on the walk, but Brother Cardon tried to say things that were aside from the problem to get us to talk. He was pointing out how the name for November in Czech literally comes out to "leaf fall." Anyway, when we got back to the classroom, he spoke for a little while and then told us that we needed to have a companionship inventory. That's where we all just say what's on our mind and don't have any bad feelings toward anyone. We also talk about what we can do better and what others can do better. It turned out that Starsi Horvath was just feeling overwhelmed and it was nothing that I was doing. Anyway, that was the end of that and we all came away feeling much much better. (We talked for nearly an hour and a half).

Phew... we've had a little more butting heads, but we've resolved them with companionship inventories and I must say, we all feel amazing when we come out of them. I know that I do.

Hmm... there's a missionary here from the Czech Republic who's going to be serving in Wisconsin. He's really awesome. His name is Elder Kraus. This guy is massive. Probably two or two and a half feet across. However, he's a little bit shorter than I am-- like five inches shorter. Anyway, he's awesome but we don't get to see him very often or for very long. Whenever I see him I say, "dobrý den!" and he says "čao!" Kind of a funny exchange, but that's about all the time we have to talk together. "Dobrý den" means "good day," and "čao" means (take a wild guess) "ciao." It's even pronounced the same.

In the TRC, a place we go on Thursdays of every week and interact with volunteers who speak Czech, we have a language section which starting this week is the entire thing-- both contacting and lesson. Every single week we've been there, we've had a native Czech sister who's name is Kaya. She's awesome, but her English isn't very good and it's really hard to understand her because she talks so fast. So I guess I know what I'm getting into (a little bit).

Anyway, my time is up, keep writing to me: it really boosts my spirits. Starsi Horvath loved all the letters he got from all of you yesterday.

Love you all and pray for you always,
Starsi Monk

MTC Pictures

Elder Andrew Monk, Elder Kevin Jones
and Elder Janos Horvath at the MTC

Elder Andrew Monk at the MTC

Elder Horvath and Elder Jones

Elder Kevin J. Jones

Elder Janos Horvath

Provo Temple spire and Squaw Peak

What week is this?

Dear Family,

This week has flown by quicker than any of the others have and it's spinning my head like crazy. I looked at Starsi Jones yesterday night and said something that I should have realized sooner: "Ya know, this mission is going to be amazing." The reason that I said that was because at the RC yesterday (which is our scheduled time) I had an amazing experience. I only had two interactions in the entire hour and a half that I was there, but they were both amazing.

The first that I want to tell you about was a man who called in and said he wanted to have one of our free books. I looked at the computer screen and saw that he was talking about the Book of Mormon. He seemed to be in a hurry so I took his information as he pushed it onto me, but something strange was in his voice. It seemed that he wanted to know more, and there was a sincerety to it. So I took all of his information, but I wished that there was more that I could do. I knew of course, that I couldn't because of the situation he was in. He really was in a hurry and he even told me that a few times. So, I took it and had his book sent. I know that this book is going to change his life, just like the millions of other people who have read it with a humble heart trying to know the truth of God.

Then the other interaction was a man who chatted in. I don't remember his name, but I remember calling him Brother Bond. He was very friendly I was very willing to try and help him along. He asked me how he could get in contact with some missionaries in his area, so I was imediately stirred with curiosity as to why he wanted to meet with them. I asked about and found out that he was an inactive member and hadn't been to church in about eight years. He had gotten mixed up in alcohol and tobacco and had been an addict (to what, I don't know). He told me about how he wanted to clean up his life, how he wanted to come back to church, how he wanted to have a spouse that wouldn't cheat on him. The biggest one that hit me was that he said he wanted to come back to church and feel the same way he did when he was growing up. It seemed to me that he wanted to be happy, and I know that the only way that he could be happy is through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. By the end of the conversation I could just sense the gratitude that this man had for me and for what I was doing for him. I just wished that there was more that I could do. I felt so helpless in this entire thing, but I also knew that what I did, no matter how insignificant it seemed to me, was going to change his life. At the end he thanked me for my kindness and the way that I helped him, but I knew that it was not me who was helping him, it was the Lord who told him that he needed to come onto mormon.org and talk to someone about how he could come back to the happiness he once knew.

I know that the Lord is always in our lives but the problem is, we are sometimes walking throught the dark and we cannot see Him there. We just have to reach out our hand and grasp His. I know that the simple leap of faith this man made was stretching his hand and trying to find the Lord's. I know that the missionaries will be able to help him find the Lord and the happiness that he once knew. I know that he will be blessed.

I'm sorry that I am writing a small letter this week, but I am very limited on time today. All of you are in my prayers and I thank you all for your support.

I love you all very much,
Starsi Monk

PS- I thank my ward very much for what they have done about my mission fund. However, now I am endebted to all of them. The Lord has a funny way of blessing you and then once you repay Him for those blessings, He blesses you even more for repaying Him. I feel that He's done this so now I am over my head in debt to my family and to my ward! Oh no! I know that these are blessings from our loving Heavenly Father and I thank Him for them. I also thank our ward members very much. I know that this will be a blessing to me and to my family.

October 29 Letter to Family

Dear Mom, Dad, Ricky and Michelle

I know that all is well at home, but I want you to know that the Lord is in all things. So don't worry about the dark future.

Daddy asked that I would share a little about how MTC life is. So I thought I'd do that while I'm trying to think of other things to say.

I wake up at six in the morning, which I think my body is finally getting used to, and get ready for the day ahead. Up until last night, I've been waking up probably around two to six times a night. Last night, however, I slept all night. We have breakfast at seven, lunch at eleven-thirty and dinner at four-thirty. Then we get home between nine and nine-thirty. We get ready for bed and have lights out at ten-thirty. That's about everything that is the same from day to day.

On Friday mornings, once we get to the classroom at seven-thirty, we spend an hour planning our next week. We have a big calendar that we plan out every minute of every day. A few of the things that we can schedule are personal study (a time where we can study the scriptures on our own), companionship study (we discuss what we studied in personal study and/or prepare the lessons we're going to teach that day, scripture study (where the teacher chooses a question or comment that they heard commonly on their mission and we try to find a scriptural answer for it; this past week we did, "Why do I need to go to church to be saved?" and "God died during the war," meaning tthat a god wouldn't allow something that bad to happen, grammar studies, language study (where you get to study the language on your own), MDT (missionary decided time- get to choose to do something alone or with your companions; Elder Horvath wants to use some every week to play piano), TE (we get to to to a teacher that we sign up for in advance to either practice teaching or try to learn a certain concept or principle), and RC (referral center- a place where you go to take phone calls from people who call in to get free resources from the church, where people's chats from http://www.mormon.org/ go, and where calls are made to people to see if they got the item that they requested.

I think that the RC is my favorite place right now because it is the most like real mission work. This last week, we had an hour and a half. Starsi Jones and I had only done calls to see if people got their items before this and we decided to try chats. Starsi Horvath doesn't feel comfortable with his English enough to try it yet, but I think he'll try this coming week. Anyway, Starsi Jones and I both got about eleven or twelve chats in that time period and about four for each of us actually had interest in the church and its beliefs, or had concerns that they wanted help with.

Two women that I received in chat really stand out in my mind right now. One was a very nice woman named Edna who had a question about where we're going after this life. We talked for a long time about the Plan of Salvation and the Book of Mormon. She was confused about the Book of Mormon but was receptive and I think she finally saw it as a complement to the Bible.

The other woman, whose name I did not get, opened a message with me and I started the conversation. However, I did not get an answer back. At the two-minute marker, I asked my teacher if I should hang up. He told me to say, "hello?" or something. So I did and waited for a moment longer. After three and a half minutes of waiting after she had initiated the conversation, I received a block of text instead of a "hello." It basically outlined that she's married and has two kids, if I remember are two boys of the ages of twenty and twenty-two, and that she loves her family. It then changed tones and talked about how she recently found a friend of hers from back in high school on Facebook, and then the last line that I can't forget, "I don't want to cheat on my family."

At that moment, I realized that I was talking to real people with real problems, but I was also thinking, "I'm not qualified to answer this plea for help." Then the Lord opened my mind and my heard and told me that I am to go and speak to all people despite their backgrounds. I then knew that I had to help this woman in the way I could: through the gospel. I told her that she should read "A Proclamation to the World," after I sent her the link on http://www.mormon.org/. Then I continued to tell her that she knows what to do, but that she should ask the Lord for what to say. She begged for me to pray for her, and that night I did, and I got the overwhelming feeling that I had helped this woman and that she had done the right thing.

The RC is an amazing place, but when I get to the field it's going to be even more real, wonderful and fantastic. I can't even begin to imagine the wonderful work in which I am enlisted.

Vím, že Bůh žije. Vím, že Ježíš Kristus miluje my. Já vím, skrze Ježíše Krista, moje rodina může být spolu navždy. Vím, že Joseph Smith je prorok znovuzrizeni. A vím, že Ježíš Kristus je náš Spasitel.

That roughly comes out to: I know that God lives. I know Jesus Christ loves us. I know that through Jesus Christ my family can be together forever. I know Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration. And I know Jesus Christ is our Savior.

I love you all so much and my love for you has only grown exponentially since I've been here.

I pray for you all and love each one of you,
Starsi Monk

PS- my companions' names are Kevin Jones and Janos Horvath. Pronounced like "Yawn-oh-sh Hoar-vah-t."

PSS- I know that Starsi Horvath loves getting mail just as much as Starsi Jones and me. He even loved the one from you, Dad. He got it and said, "My first one!" very excitedly. His family members are not members of the church with the exception of his little brother who is sixteen. The rest of his family are atheist. I encourage any of you to write to him. I know he'll love it and it'll give him that little boost of spirit.

MTC Week Three! Can you believe it?

Dear Family,

I cannot even begin to imagine how this week flew by so quickly. It feels like just a few days ago when I last had P-day (preparation day; the day when I can do personal mail, email, laundry and other such things.) I can't really say that there was anything super significant about this week. Just alot more learning and I must say, I'm grateful for it.

This last week, our companionship really made some progress. My companionship consists of three members including me, which happens to be the entire Czech group for this transfer (9 weeks). Starsi Horvath has been having a hard time feeling like he could fit in with Starsi Jones and me because we're both American, we both speak fluent English, and just the fact that he is having a hard time coping with being in a strange land for the first time. Despite this, this last week he's really been opening up to us.

He's been sick for a while now, but doesn't show enough symptoms for the clinic to really do anything. They just keep giving him cough syrup, ibuprofen (spelling?) and nasal decongestant. They gave him one Z-pack which is an antibiotic and that seemed to help a little bit, but they never tested him to see what he had. They'd rather have us keep running in there every day to tell them that there IS something wrong. Oh well, I guess it's the same in the world as well.

Well, back to Starsi Horvath's opening up. I think because he doesn't speak English as his first language, and has only been taking it for three years seriously, I think he has to focus very hard to always understand what everyone's saying. I must say though, he speaks quite well. It's just that you'll find him zoning out alot more than he should. He even takes naps during personal study time, MDT time, and other times when he should be studying. I think that he doesn't understand how important the MTC is. He'd rather be out doing missionary work, but doesn't want to invest into doing the preparation. We'll have to show him that preparation is important somehow.

Another thing that he seems to have difficulty with is using scriptures from the Book of Mormon. I can understand this to an extent because he did only join the church three years ago, but he doesn't seem to want to use the Book of Mormon to teach. He uses scriptures, but they're almost always from the book of Matthew or Mark. Those aren't the easiest books to understand all the time, especially when quoting Jesus Christ.

Anyway, concerning this, Starsi Jones and I have spoken many many times about what we should do. We don't want to tell him flat out because that could be more destructive than constructive and we're realizing that telling him indirectly isn't working. So one day I prayed about what we should do and I received the answer that we should tell him the next day. I was quite blown away by this answer, but I thought that if the Lord told me to, I should do it. Anyway, next day came and we went through the entire day but I didn't see a clear opening to tell him. That night, I said my prayer to go to bed and then as Starsi Jones and I were about to crawl into bed, Starsi Horvath asked us if we could talk for a little while. He started off by talking about how he loves having us as companions and how much he is learning from us. He also went on to ask us about what he could do better.

The Lord is so mindful of us and knows how we need to be helped. I know that Starsi Horvath was feeling the Spirit when he asked us to sit and talk for a while. I also know that the Lord understood that I was looking for the opportune time to talk, but also realized that I was too timid to speak, so He had Starsi Horvath start the conversation.

I cannot begin to list all the blessings the Lord has given me while I've been here and how He has blessed my companionship.

I'd like to thank Bishop Larson and Sister Saunders for their kind letters that I received yesterday. Bishop Larson, I know that I can always look toward you for kind words of encouragement. I'll be sure to write you when I manage to find some time. Sister Saunders, I thank you so much for the missionary newsletter that you sent me and that I could read of the good that the other missionaries from our ward are doing. It strengthens my testimony to know that I might be able to be as good as those elders in just a few short weeks.

As for my family, I can't believe that you sent me that picture of me when I was in the CougarEat. I am appalled! Haha, you know I'm joking. I showed it to Starsi Horvath and Jones right when I got it and they both found it quite amusing. Also thank you for the USB SD card converter. The computer recognizes that there is a new device plugged into the computer, but I can't access it because of the computer restrictions. Oh well. I guess you really will have to wait for me to send you an entire card of pictures.

Yesterday my companions and I realized that we've almost been here three weeks and that means we're one third done with the MTC. That, to be honest, scared me a little bit because I don't feel like I've really learned enough Czech. I'm probably going to end up going to the field barely knowing anything. But that's all right. Nearly all the talks we've had here at the MTC are about missionaries who have gone to the field barely knowing their language, or only knowing a few sentences, and still baptizing people. I know that the Lord will bless me as I strive to learn as much as I can.

I guess I lied when I said that I don't really know any Czech. I've started praying only in Czech, and I must say that it's really cool once you can start putting your own thoughts into it instead of short phrases that you've memorized. The teachers here are great because after your prayer, they know that you had a hard time with it and that you know that there was a lot wrong with it, but they just tell you one little thing that'll make it better like, "Starsi Monk, when you want to make 'Starsi Horvath' fourth case (accusitive/direct object), you need to make it 'Starsihu Horvathu.'"

I'm a little scared of tomorrow because we're going to try and teach the first lesson in Czech. I really hope that you can acquire the gift of tongues over night, otherwise, I'm going to not say much. I'll probably add in a "tesi me" every now and then which means "it is pleasing to me." The English equivelant is "oh, cool." Starsi Jones is really the one who holds up conversations for us.

Anyway, my time is coming to an end. I'd like to leave a short testimony in Czech for you all, but I can't type in Czech fast enough.

I love you all and I look forward to hearing from all of you,
Starsi Monk

PS - I'm sure that Starsi Horvath would love to get mail from any of you if you'd like to send him some. He's not really getting any mail because he's outside his home country and his family (besides his younger brother) aren't members. He was excited to get a letter from my dad, and knowing my dad, it probably didn't say much. So I know that anything you write to him, he'll enjoy.

Our address is:
Starsi Monk (or Starsi Horvath)
MTC Mailbox #88
CZE-PRA 1214
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

MTC Week Two!

Dear Family,

Well, here comes and goes yet another week. I cannot believe how fast everything is going by. There's a saying going on around here that says, "Days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days." Sounds stupid, but we have seen that this is true. You get to the end of the day and feel like it sped by, and then you think back to the first thing that you did that day, and you can't believe that it was in the same day because you had done so much.

Already, I can see that the RC (referral center) is one of my favorite places. There I can talk to real people who are trying to find the gospel and answer their questions. This is not to put down my teachers when I have to teach them. They often pretend to be investigators and we have to teach them. It's all good and fun. At the RC, I've found that doing the chats are extremely fun. When people go to mormon.org, they can click the button that says, "click here to speak to a representative." When they click that button, it sends them straight to a missionary who is logged onto the RC client and there they can chat with the person. I have found many people that are trying to find out what we believe, trying to find out answers to questions that they are having, or even some people that turn to us for counsel! Yes, I, of all people, had to try and give advice to people about things as important as what they should do about getting a job when they get laid off. Yeah, that's been interesting. The way that we go about that is trying to turn it toward the gospel and how that can bless their lives and through those blessings, all things will be all right.

Another thing that I have come to love here at the MTC is the thought of me not having to be somewhere else. Unless it's class after lunch. One of our teachers is a real stickler for being on time and has instituted the "Snickers rule." The Snickers rule says that if you are late, you owe the teacher a Snickers bar. However, it's true for the flipside, too. If our teacher is late, he owes each one of us a Snickers bar. One day we ran into class and we only had four or five seconds to spare before we were late but our teacher wasn't there! About twenty or thirty seconds later, our teacher came running in. He said that he was on time because his watch still said it was 12:14. Pah... oh well. Almost had him.

Oh, wow! Snickers tangent. I like having the thought of not needing to be somewhere else. I know that I can relax and just study everything in depth as much as I'd like. I've found things about the scriptures that I had never known before. I've continued to read "Jesus the Christ" and have found very awesome things about the Jesus Christ that I have never even thought about before. Like: who were the pharisees and the scribes? Where did they come from? There's no talk about there needing to be scribes and pharisees in the Bible. It gives a wonderful background on where these class groups within the Jewish culture at that time came from.

One of our teachers, Brother Bott (yes he teaches at BYU), gave us some very helpful advice about memorizing scriptures. He said that whenever you study the scriptures, remember where they are because chances are, that day you will have someone ask you a question that you can answer specifically with those scriptures. He's accumulated so many scriptures, it's hard to comprehend. He'll give a lecture, and in the middle like coming from his own words, he'll blurt out a scripture and then tell you exactly where it is in the scriptures. Sometimes he'll even use quotes from books that the modern-day prophets wrote. He has such a vast knowledge of the scriptures and modern writings of the prophets that it's hard to keep up with him, even when he's telling you where they are. He is definitely a person that I want to be like, so I've been taking his advice seriously, and I've already had the scriptures I've studied put to use.

The other day we had pizza day in the cafeteria, and I wish that they'd never do it again and spare all the poor new missionaries from this horrible experience. The pizza was actually pretty good, but the lines were monstrous. I came to dinner at the usual time and it took me nearly thirty minutes to get through line. This left me with ten minutes to eat and get to class. As you could imagine, we were late for class, and now we owe our teacher Snickers bars. The lines in the cafeteria aren't really ever that bad except for on pizza day because they have each missionary pull off their own pieces of pizza from the box, which doesn't have them completely cut. So each missionary has to rip the two or three pieces that they want from the box. Not a fun experience.

The spirit here at the MTC is nothing short of amazing. You can feel it everywhere and can feel it in everything that you do. The language is coming along very quickly and we can already introduce ourselves, introduce our family, bare a very simple testimony, pray, and contact people. Also, in my scripture study, I'm seeing things that I don't think that I would have ever seen. It takes me about five to eight minutes to read a page of scripture, but that's because I'm reading into each verse and marking them as much/neatly as possible. I have probably marked my scriptures twenty or thirty times as much this last week than I have in my life. It's truly mind boggling. I'm also a little bit glad that I haven't marked my scriptures up before, because I have a marking system that goes completely against the "mark everything red!" method. I bought one of those mechanical scripture marking pencils that has eight different colors. It was expensive, but I'm making it worth it.

I thank all of you who have been writing me and I ask that you continue. I've found that when I get letters from home, I know what's going on and that gives me peace of mind so that I don't have to worry about what is happening. That way I can concentrate during the day instead of daydreaming about what could be happening at home. However, please don't send your emails to my email that is posted on this blog (monka90@myldsmail.net) because I can only access it for thirty minutes once a week. That's barely enough time for me to write this monster of a letter! So, if you'd mind, please send me DearElders. They're completely free and they deliver it to my mailbox the same day. The URL for it is: www.dearelder.com. I love to hear from all of you, and I will write you back if you write me. It's a promise.

I love you all very much and pray for your well-being,
Starsi Monk

First Week at the MTC

Dear Family,

All I can say for this first week at the MTC is that these next two years are going to be extremely rewarding. That is if everything continues to go the way that they are right now.

As for my mission group, there are only three of us, including myself. There is Starsi (Elder, pronounced Star She) Jones who is, I think, twenty one or twenty two years old. He had gone inactive a few years back and went to the University of Oregon. Then this last year, he decided to go to BYU Idaho to see a girl and later decided to take a semester there. He eventually became active again and decided to serve a mission. Then there is Starsi Horvath (Hor Vat) who is from Hungary. He's only been a member of the church for three years and has decided to go on a mission. He is very good at the piano, however, he can't read music quickly. He is more into improv in the baroque style of mainly Bach. He has a very strong testimony through music that he loves to share. Very occasionally he will ask if we can go to the piano for just a few minutes to play the piano, but we have to tell him that we are on a very tight schedule and can't spend the time to do so.

Starsi Jones, even though he was inactive, has a very strong testimony and knowledge of the gospel. I know that he is really going to help our companionship with his knowledge. Starsi Horvath has so much that he wants to tell everyone that sometimes it comes out sounding very disorganized. This especially comes out whenever we're "teaching investigators" who are really our teachers. He gets so excited that he has a hard time focusing on what there is to say. We are all one companionship, but I think that Starsi Horvath has a little bit of a hard time keeping that in his mind. Sometimes Starsi Jones and I will turn around to find that Starsi Horvath has disappeared. We'll search for a little while and then find that he either went to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, or probably his favorite activity: talking to the Hungarian missionaries. Here at the MTC are a few return missionaries from Hungary who taught Starsi Horvath. He takes every opportunity to harrass them by speaking in Hungarian.

The food here at the MTC is exactly like the food at the Cannon Center on BYU Provo campus, so there's not really much to complain about. I haven't really been eating as much as I used to. It just seems like I'm getting fuller faster. I'll usually eat about one plate and perhaps a salad and then I'm done, so you don't have to worry about me coming back forty pounds heavier -- if I continue to eat this way.

The schedule here at the MTC is just like a bat to the face compared to my schedule before coming here, although I do like having every minute of my day planned out before hand, because then I don't have to think, "what shall I do next?" There is lots of language study, which is AWESOME. And dad, no... my pre-MTC language study did not help any. Maybe with the exception with the ch, j, and c. The rest of the pronunciation was basically new. They taught us a grammatically correct phrase here at the MTC that is comprised of only consonants. The sentance is: Strc (stirch) Prst (pirst) Skrz (skirs) Krk (kirk). However, in pronouncing each one, the "ir" is very short and the "r"s are very rolled. The translation of this is "Stick Finger Through Neck." It's a fun little thing to say when you want to show off to some of the Spanish speakers.

Yesterday, we went out into the hallway one at a time and tried holding a five minute conversation with an "investigator," and I have to say, I failed miserably. Basically the conversation was, "Dobry Den" (good day), "Jak se jmenuete" (what is your name), "odkud jste?" (where are you from?), "jsem/jsme misionar/misionari Jezisi Kristu" (I am a missionary/we are missionaries of Jesus Christ), and then that's where I bombed. I didn't know how to ask anything like, "what do you think of Jesus Christ?" or "would you like to know more?" Anyway, our teacher took us back into the classroom and taught us those simple phrases that would potentially help us transition from introduction to getting a contact.

I've seen quite a few Elders here from school, a few of whom are in the photos I have attached. In the photos, Starsi Horvath is the one with the glasses and Starsi Jones is the one without. And if you don't know which one is me, we'll have a long talk after I get back in two years.

Nevermind. There may be no pictures because I only have three and a half more minutes and I can't get these computers to recognize my camera with all the restrictions they put on them. So you'll have to wait until I send a full card of pictures home and my parents upload them.

I just want to say in closing that I have been having the time of my life here. It is a very spiritual place and you can always feel the Spirit in all the things you do. I highly suggest that you read "Jesus the Christ" if you haven't before. I hadn't and I'm only three chapters in and it's amazing to see the Spirit it's imparted to me.

I love you all and am looking forward to hearing from you,
Starsi Monk

Andy's Departure Pictures

Getting ready to go to the airport (Oct 10, 2009)

"The Last ... Breakfast?" (Oct 10, 2009)

Goodbye to Mom (Oct 10, 2009)

Goodbye to Dad (Oct 10, 2009)

On his way... (Oct 10, 2009)

Michelle called from school to say one last goodbye.
(Oct 14, 2009)

"What have I gotten myself into?" (Oct 14, 2009)

Michelle and Andy in Connecticut (Oct 10, 2009)

Andy and Ricky at MTC (Oct 14, 2009)

Suzie and Andy at MTC (Oct 14, 2009)

Ricky, Andy and Michelle in Connecticut. (Oct 10, 2009)

"The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly..."
and Grandma in Connecticut (August 2009)

MTC Address

For anyone who wants to send mail to Andy (oops, I mean Elder Monk) while he's at the MTC, his address is:

Andrew Michael Monk
MTC Mailbox # 88
CZE-PRA 1214
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

He can also get email (printed, sealed in an envelope and delivered to his mail box) through www.dearelder.com.

October 9, 2009

Dear Family,

The time is drawing near and I finally feel that the mission is real. It was the same way when we moved from Texas to Connecticut, but I feel a little more worried about this one: I can actually screw up my mission. Despite these feelings, the local missionaries came to visit me at work, because I had been telling them that I'd like to see them before I leave and they happened to come while I was at work. They said that I am more prepared right now than they were when they left because I am actually in contact with my missionaries! They said that neither of them, Elder Fattelah and Elder Vuyk, hadn't really spoken to their local missionaries, much less knew them well. They pointed out that I had been out with the missionaries on multiple occasions on splits and teaching investigators, one of whom has gotten baptized. I am very proud of Nigel. I hope that I am able to be as good as the missionaries in this area and bring other people unto Christ.

This is the last night I'm going to be spending here in Connecticut, and it turns out to be just a normal day. It just goes to show me that life goes on and will continue to go on even after I leave on this exciting time in my life. I know that I'm going to have an awesome time. I just hope that everyone else will be as happy as I will be these next few years.

Love you all,
Soon to be Elder Monk

Announcement of Farewell

Mission Map

A map of the Czech Prague mission showing areas with missionaries assigned.

First Post: Portrait of Elder Andrew Monk

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