Christmas Week (Vánoční Týden)

Dear Family,

There's not a whole lot to talk about from this last week. We had quite a few P-days in a row, as I explained last week, and so we had lots of time. It was very strange actually, not doing anything. Even though that's what I mainly did before the mission. It felt really weird going back to that kind of feel for a bit. One day, we were playing a card game called "Bang!" (kind of like "Cowboys and Indians" in card form - really pretty fun) and we'd play one round, look at the clock, play another round, look at the clock again, be surprised that basically no time had passed, play another round, etc... One day we were looking at the clock almost every fifteen to thirty minutes for a few hours.

On Thursday, however, we went to the Christmas conference that I mentioned last week, and it was really good. In the morning half, all the districts got to do a performance of whatever they wanted. We had everything from singing spiritual songs to Czech Prague mission's 12 days of Christmas and a video of missionary work in Košice (it was really funny - and was meant to be). Then we split the entire conference into three groups and went to different parts of Prague and did singing street displays. Ours was really good. We were on Můstek. People by the dozens were stopping, taking pictures, listening, and most importantly, getting contacted by missionaries. I think that it was really successful. I sang for about thirty minutes and then went out contacting and actually spoke to some really cool people. Singing really brought the Spirit. Sadly, one of the groups had a protest come by while they were singing. They were protesting the cruel killing and eating of carp for Christmas (that's a Czech tradition). They protested by taking normal Christmas carols and changing the words toward their cause. The missionaries from that group said that it kind of destroyed it. That's too bad. At least ours was good. :D

Other than that, we did a lot of sitting around, watched a Czech fairytale or two, visited members (mostly all were earlier on in the week because they already had plans for Christmas with their families) and stared at each other. We basically spent the entire four days we had free together with the other missionaries. We had a pretty good time, despite our boredom. :-)

On Christmas we opened our presents, and I have a picture of my present opened! It's a tradition in our family to take a picture of the person sitting on the couch with all their gifts around them, so I thought, why not this year too? I love my present.

Hope you all had a 'wonderfultastic' Christmas! Have an even more wonderful new year.

Starší Monk

Christmas!

Dear Family,

Sorry that I'm writing a little late. On Monday we were told to work so that we could have Christmas off. Actually this week we have four p-days because Czechs have Christmas the day before until the day after (all together three days) so people wouldn't be out on the town, nothing would be open, and people would not be very likely to want to listen to us if we came tracting. So, that's how that's going.

We're going to Prague tomorrow for a Christmas Mission Conference. I'm excited to see everyone.

It's just a few days before Christmas and I figured, instead of telling some of the stories from our work here, because there really hasn't been anything huge, but that's not to say we haven't been seeing miracles. Instead I want to give you all my Christmas testimony (also because I don't have a lot of time).

I came on the mission because I knew that it was the right thing to do and I had a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of our Savior, Jesus Christ, but sadly, only recently have I really started to realize what that all means for me; why it applies to me and why it's important for me. We've been spending some time reading Alma 7:10-14 and talking about the importance of the birth of Christ, but we know that he was prophesied because of the things that He would do. I've found out that the Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life for me. Every rejection that I get here, every time that someone tells me to go back to America, every time that someone slams a door in my face, every single time that someone tells me that they don't have time, I know that the Lord Jesus Christ felt every single one of them through his infinite atonement. At the root of Christmas lies the love of God. He loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten son so that we could all live and not perish. What a great blessing and gift is that? Isn't that something to rejoice about? I know that there are people here who are waiting for that message. They want, need and are yearning to find this message, whether or not they know it right now and this is the solution. I love Christ and I know that every single hardship is worth it. He loves me. At Christmas, we have the wonderful opportunity to sit and have some time to think about how Christ gave us the ultimate gift: the gift of life through the one that He gave for us. It is wonderful. I want you all as a family to pick a song, preferably a slow one, and sing it together. Thrive in the spirit of song. Know that the composers and writers were inspired in the Spirit of Christ to write the melodies and texts that can touch us to the soul. I love being a representative of Christ, because I get to carry his name on my jacket; that everyone can see that I am devoted to Christ and that I know him. I have found Christ and His gospel. We can all live again, just as He did. He laid down his life, but took it up again! Glory in it. He loved us enough to take up His life so that we could live through His life.

I love you all and wish you all a wonderful Christmas.
Srdečně,
Starší Monk

Sending Hoang Off :(

Dear Family,

This last week has been kind of crazy.  Hoang has still been sick just about all week, but we've made things work, despite that.  We got a little forceful with Hoang one time.  He was telling us that he was feeling sick and that we would meet the next day, and so we told him that was fine and that we'd be at his house at 7:00pm.  A few minutes later we got a phone call from Hoang.  I picked up and said hi, and he asked if we could come earlier, like 3:00pm or 4:00pm.  That was pretty cool.  We went over and taught him a lesson and then gave him a blessing so that he could get better faster.  As the week progressed on, we could see that he was getting better and we think that he was almost completely better before he left yesterday.

This week we taught him the restoration (the Joseph Smith story, the Book of Mormon and Praying to know it's true), the entire third lesson, priesthood authority, word of wisdom, tithing, chastity, studying the scriptures and how to donate tithing and fast offerings.  Hoang  is just so awesome.  He accepted everything, hands down, without asking questions.  It was just like Denisa all over again.  When we were teaching Denisa, whever she would ask why, we'd just tell her it's because it's a commandment from God and that if we lived by it, He would help us.  It was the exact same with Hoang.  We would just tell him that it was a commandment before we'd talk about what it was, and then he would accept without asking.

When we taught him about tithing, we had him read the section out of Preach my Gospel in vietnamese about it, and after he read it, he looked up at us smiling and said, "I agree everything."  Just the way he was smiling, you could tell that light was entering into his life and that he really knew that these things would help him.  There's nothing that you can replace those kinds of feelings of satisfaction and joy with; just knowing that you're helping one of your brothers or sisters come back unto our Father in Heaven.  It has no price.  As we continued talking about tithing, after this, we could see that he didn't completely understand it, but he had already committed to it in his heart.  We started talking about on what money of ours we need to pay tithing.  He was a little confused, but he just told us that the missionaries in Vietnam would explain it better because they'll be able to speak his langauge and tell him the way that he needs to hear.

We also gave him the study program that we've been making for a long time now, so that he will have something to learn and read with his family while he's in Vietnam.  We split up all the principles from the first three lessons (restoration, plan of salvation and gospel of Jesus Christ) and gave them one to read every other day, and also threw in the commandments where we thought they'd work the best.  So, by the end of his stay in Vietnam, his family will have learned all the material together, and they'll be completely prepared to be baptized.  We put so much time and prayer into that program, and we know that Hoang could see it.  He was extremely excited, and wanted to read every single one with them.  You could just see that he had such a desire to share these things with his family.  It was far too cool.

Also, this last week, we were in Prague for a conference and we spoke to President about Hoang going to Vietnam and how we don't know what the church is like there; whether there's meetings, members, missionaries, anything!  So President got on it, called up the church, found out where the missionaries were, got their number, got the church building's address and gave them to us.  We took the information and showed it to Hoang at one of our meetings, and he looked at it and said, "What's this?"  We told him that that is where the church is in Vietnam.  He was very surprised and excited.  He then told us that the address was just ten kilometers away from where he lived!  He then gave us his information and we gave that to president to give the missionaries in Vietnam.

Hoang is so prepared and ready to go to Vietnam and share the gospel with his family.  We were thinking about how it would be so awesome, but also a little bit of a downer if he got baptized there.  We would love to be at his baptism, but we know that it's important for something this important to not be procrastinated.  We are just glad that we're working on the same team as the missionaries in Vietnam.  This'll be one of the stories that they go home talking about.  Some man who's been living in the Czech Republic comes home for Christmas, finds the missionaries, tells them he wants to be baptized because he knows that everything is true, and that he has a wife and two daughters who can all be baptized and that he'll help them come unto the waters of baptism!  How awesome is this work!  Hoang said that he'd keep in contact with us, and we know that he will.  He's going to be gone for about two and a half months.  That's a long time, but I know he'll be there in good hands, rooting his family firmly into the gospel.

I love you all and hope that you will all be having a wonderful and pleasant Christmas,
Starší Monk

Fwd: Hoang! Our Main Man! (Hoange! Naš Hlavní Muž!)

Dear Family,

This last week has been... interesting. It snowed all last week and a half of the week before that, so the snow is here, and it's here to stay. That has made contacting difficult, and just getting places a little bit of a mess. Yeah, the snow clean-up crews in this country probably could be better. All the roads and walk ways are full of slush. So we're walking through slush and snow all day. It's good, however, that the snow is fairly dry, so the slush isn't wet enough to make a big mess. :D

Anyway, update on Hoang. We already knew that he was going to go back to Vietnam to be with his family for a while, but we didn't know when it was going to be. That was the reason why he wanted to be baptized as soon as possible. So, this last week when we met with him on Tuesday, he told us that he was going to be leaving on the twelfth. He then asked us if he could be baptized on the eleventh so that he could be baptized before he went home. We then taught him really quickly that baptism and confirmation are inseparably connected and that if he were to be baptized on the eleventh and then leave the twelfth, he would leave without receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. He understood and agreed that he would be baptized when he came back. Then we asked him how long he would be in Vietnam and he told us that he would be there for two months! That surprised us and took us a little bit back, but we were sure that there was a reason why. We then told him that we had a lot of information that we still wanted to give to him before he left, and that we would need to meet three times both weeks before he left. He agreed and we mapped out three times both weeks that we could meet according to his work schedule. That meeting with Hoang was amazing. We finished up the second lesson and asked him if he believed if it was all true. Without really even batting an eyelash, he agreed and said that he believes it is true. The thing that I've seen with Hoang is that he speaks extremely little, but understands much more than we may think. He's also really honest. When he says that he believes, that means, for me at least, that he knows it is true and that he already has the starting, at least, of a testimony of that given topic. When we teach him things, he already knows them because we've already given him the pamphlets in Vietnamese, and I'm sure that he's already read each of them at least five to ten times each. They all look worn out and thoroughly studied.

Later that week when our next meeting with Hoang was coming up, we called him to set up a time when we could meet, and he sounded terrible. Turns out that Hoang is sick! He was really sorry that he couldn't meet with us and he told us a few times that he's coughing really badly, even though we could hear, and that we would meet the next day. The next day we called him again, and he was still sick, and even sounded worse. He then told us that he would try really hard to meet us the next day (Saturday). The next day came and he called us and said that he was still really sick and that his entire body hurt and that he hasn't been doing anything except lying down, sleeping, and reading the Book of Mormon. He then promised us that even though he was sick, he would come to church because he knows that it's a commandment and that he needs to come. So later that day, while we were going to sports night, we met up with a member, named Vraťa and walked with us to the gym. He's about our age and really solid in the church. We've taught Hoang with him twice so we told him about Hoang's condition, but also about his determination to come to church. Vraťa said, "He's only physically sick, but spiritually he's healthy." How true that is, but unfortunately the next day about thirty minutes before church stared, we got a text from Hoang saying that he was still really sick and that he was sorry that he couldn't come to church. I have the text attached.

Today we met with Hoang. He's still pretty sick, but looking much better. He said that he's not going to be working this week so that he can get better before he goes home, so that should help us meet with him some more. When we met with him today, we spoke about authority and the priesthood. We spoke about how it was given to Joseph Smith and that through the priesthood, the church is organized and lead by the Prophet. We then spoke about revelation and how the prophet receives revelation for the church, but we can receive personal revelation too, through the Holy Ghost. We tied that back into needing to be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost so that we can receive our own revelation. We then spoke about the Word of Wisdom and how that helps us stay worthy of having the Holy Ghost and stay clean and healthy. That appealed to Hoang, at this point in time, and when we spoke about it, he accepted it all. He did look a little worried when he read the part in preach my gospel about Word of Wisdom, looked up and asked if it means that we can't eat certain kinds of meat. We cleared that and told him the main points of the Word of Wisdom, and he accepted it all. He told us that he only drinks occasionally and that will be easy to quit, and that he already quit smoking two years ago. The only thing that seems to be any bit of a problem is that he drinks tea, but he understands that we don't drink green and black tea, and he agreed to it.

At one point in the lesson, Hoang said something really cool. When we were talking about the priesthood, we told him that as missionaries, we have the priesthood and that we even have the higher priesthood, that was restored to Joseph Smith. He then said to us, "I don't understand everything, I don't know everything, but I believe everything that you tell me." Just that kind of faith and trust in our words has to be because he feels the Holy Ghost. Every meeting, we feel guided, we feel like we learn things, and we feel like he comes closer to his Heavenly Father. It is amazing to see the progress that he is making, and I know that while he is in Vietnam, he will help his own family come unto the gospel of Jesus Christ and become a family in eternity. Right now, Elder Rhodes and I are putting a lot of time into a study plan for him and his family that will take up the nine weeks while he's gone, because we're not very sure if there are missionaries or even branches in Vietnam! Recently we've found out that there are service missionaries and that they do have branches, but they're under the table. So we've told President Irwin about this, and he's working on finding the missionaries in Vietnam and getting Hoang in contact with them.

It's going to be a pity not having Hoang here with us, but we know that he will come back and that he'll be just as prepared as ever to make his covenants with the Lord. Perhaps he'll even come back baptized! That'd be a surprise.

I love you all and hope that you're enjoying your winters!

Starší Monk

Here's a picture of us with Hoang at his home.

The text that Hoang sent us before church. It says, in really broken Czech, "I am still sick, I cannot sit, I am really tired and that's why today I can't come. I hope that the Holy Ghost will understand for me. We'll see tomorrow if I am better, we will get together. I'll call tomorrow by phone. Bye friend."

Here's a funny text that we got from Hoang. It's in really broken Czech as well, "I got home at 9:30. Thank you, I will read the Book of Mormon (which was written in Vietnamese) whenever I have free time so I can understand more. I hope everything will be better for us. Have yourself well well. Say hi to Monk. I Huy Hoang." I love that last part. Whenever he picks up the phone he says, I Huy Hoang. It makes no sense, but he always says it. :)

Thanksgiving and Hoang

Dear Family,

What can I say to you since I wrote last Thursday? There's not really a whole lot, but we did have a Thanksgiving and another meeting with Hoang. So, I guess I'll tell you about those.

Last week at church, we spoke to one of the members here in Plzen who is from Britain and we kind of invited ourselves out to his house for Thanksgiving dinner, because last time that we were there for service, he kind of half-intentionally invited us, so we jumped on the opportunity and invited ourselves. He was okay with it and we planned to go over to his place back in the country and do some more service for him in exchange for the dinner. So, on Friday, he came past the other elders' place to pick us all up and then drove us out to his house (which is about an hour outside of Plzen by car). When we got there, we got right to work. Elder McGowan and I cleaned up some of his rooms, where he's had the heaters replaced, and in turn, some of the walls had to be cut and other such stuff, so we were vacuuming up sheetrock and other stuff, and then putting the rooms back into order. After that we went and cleaned windows! Yay. Elder Rhodes cleaned all the snow off the driveway with a little John Deere with a hand operated plow, and Brother Smith and Elder Horvath prepared the food. At one point Brother Smith had to go do another chore for a while and was going to return to put some food on to cook so that it would be ready in time to eat, but Elder Horvath put it on to cook before he was supposed to. When Brother Smith came back and found that the brussel sprouts were on the stove, he started freaking out and saying things like, "He ruined my dinner!" He was pretty angry for a while, and we didn't know what was going to happen. The best part of it was, was that Elder Horvath, after he had done that, went into the other room and started playing piano, so while Brother Smith was freaking out, Elder Horvath was being completely oblivious, playing on the piano. Oh gosh. The food turned out fine, Brother Smith cooled off and Elder Horvath didn't die. :) Dinner was amazing and there was more than plenty to eat. I sincerely thought that I was going to die from over-eating. Probably the liter or so that I drank of ginger ale didn't help much. That was amazing.

Then on Saturday, we had a meeting with Hoang. The meeting before, we gave him the pamphlet about the Plan of Salvation and asked him to read it and think about it, and that we would begin talking about it at the next meeting. When we all got together, we asked him if he read the pamphlet, and he said that he read it several times. Once we started talking about it, it was apparent that he had and that he knew what was in it. We ended up talking about the pre-Earth life, Earth life and Spirit World. We actually got quite deep into the pre-Earth life and talked a little about the war in heaven and how Satan was a son of God who rebelled against God and the Plan of Salvation. We talked about how on Earth, we were going to be tested and how God gives us commandments so we don't follow the temptations of Satan. We also talked about how God helps us when we follow the commandments by giving us blessings. We then talked about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. We printed out the entire section in Preach My Gospel about commandments and we had him read the section on the Sabbath day. After he read it, he said that he understood and that he agreed with it. We asked him if he worked on Sundays, and he said that sometimes he does. Then we committed him to try and arrange his work schedule so that he won't have to work Sundays, and he said that he would. I then told him that keeping the Sabbath Day holy means to come to church every single Sunday for the rest of his life, and I actually even said to him, even until death. He said that he understood that. Then we committed him to live that commandment and he began to say that he would, but then changed and said that he must/has to. He then came to church the next day and he actually got there before just about all the members! He sat there patiently and had all the members greet him as they came in. I told a few of the key members that he has a baptismal date, and one in particular went over and said a really hearty hello, and after church went and said goodbye to him when Hoang said that he was leaving. I think that Hoang is really liking church, and Elder Rhodes has been sitting with him and leading him through the meetings and says that he's understanding and loving it all. We're going to try and get a lesson with President Holub (president of the branch here) this next week so he can see if he thinks that Hoang is ready or not, and see what his say is on it. Other than that, the only problems that I'm seeing with Hoang are: one, that there's still the language barrier, and I don't know how much of the information he's actually getting (I completely believe that he is accepting everything that we're telling him and that he will continue to believe) and two, that there won't be enough time to teach him everything before his baptismal date. We're sitting here at two weeks to his date, and we still have so much information to cover. It's just such a problem that he has so little time, and he's giving it to us when he has it, but it's not looking like enough. We're going to need a miracle, but we'll just keep working as hard as we can for him.

Other than that, there's not really much that's happened. Today I had to go to Prague to get my visa renewed and that was a scary thing because that means that I've been on the mission for a year, and I've heard that the second half goes faster than the first. I'm not sure if I'm ready to come home. Gah, there's just so much I still want to do, and it seems like there's just no time. However, the work goes on, and as Alma says in Alma 29, why should I wish to do more than the Lord has alotted me? I am content, and I will do what He commands me.

I love you all, and pray for you to all be warm this Christmas season. Looks like we'll be having a white Christmas here in Plzen,
Starší Monk

Just So Much Amazing!

Dear Family,

Sorry that I did not write this last Monday, but our P-day was changed to today, because President Irwin felt that it would be good for all of us to have Thanksgiving off instead of having to work through a holiday that we are all so familiar with.

So, this last week and a half have been amazing. First off, last Monday, we got back in contact with Hoang, our baptismal date. He went to Poland again (he just got back from being there for a month to renew his visa) so that he could buy products for his little store. When he got back he texted us and told us that he was in Poland again and we were very confused because we did not know where he had gone and we, to tell the truth, were thinking that he just disappeared. There are many stories of missionaries giving people baptismal commitments and it going very well, but then the person disappears and they have no more contact with them. However, with Hoang, he came back and gave us a call and told us that he wanted to meet the next day, and we were very happy to oblige. At the meeting, we started with whether he still wanted to be baptized or not, and he said yes and actually asked if he could be baptized sooner. That threw both of us off. I found myself second guessing myself on what the definition of the word "dřive" means in Czech, but surely enough, it does mean "sooner." We had a really good lesson and we learned that he has read the restoration pamphlet many times, and it is really easy to see. The book is a little worn out. We teach him from the pamphlets because we have them in Vietnamese and we have a pretty good language barrier between us even though he does speak Czech. We then pulled out a baptismal calendar, which we made that day, and showed him that he had to be to church at least three times before he could be baptized, and that just put his date one week closer. He understood that and now he has a real desire to come to church. We asked him if he believed that President Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet, and he said yes after a little bit of thinking. I am finding so much of these things with Hoang to be very similar with Denisa - just lay out the doctrine and they believe it because they trust in the things that we tell them so whole-heartedly. Also, this time, there is a language barrier like last time! Yay.

Then Hoang came to church that Sunday. Even though he was a little late, he came in and sat with Elder Rhodes, and stayed for both hours (we only have two hours - sacrament and then an alternating hour between Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood) and tried really hard to understand what was going on and follow the lessons in the scriptures. We have a Vietnamese Bible and Book of Mormon at the building, so he used those. He loved it, but unfortunately he said that he had to leave right after.

Later we had another lesson with him and we met him at his house. There we really focused on how he feels when he prays. He told us that he feels good and he has a hope that everything will be better. He also said that he feels the same way when he reads the scriptures and comes to church. He said that he feels good and knows that everything will be better. He said that a few times. Later, after the lesson, we asked him to pray twice a day, once in the morning and once at night and he said immediately, "I have to. I have to." We just love this man so much. When you see a brother or sister start to take the steps toward following our savior, there is nothing more rewarding.

Then another blessing that we saw was a lesson we set up for Monday (this last Monday) at 11:00 am, which happens to be our study time, but we decided that a lesson is more important. We set up to wait at a tram stop that is near our apartment and then walk to some place to talk. So, we show up to the tram stop about ten minutes early and we began waiting. A while into our wait, a tram pulled up and people loaded off as usual, and one man in particular was looking at us very closely while he passed us. I said hello, and then he looked very closely at my badge and said, "Starší Monk," and then looked at Elder Rhodes and read his badge too. We said yes and asked for his name as well. He told us his name and then said that he was a member. That is not something that you hear too often. He was an older man, and we asked just a little about him, and found out that he was the former branch president here in Plzen. That blew us away. Well, we got his name and where he lived and we told him that we would stop by his place some day during the week. This Thursday, we went and met him. Turns out that he joined the church just thirteen years ago and was president for six to seven years after that. He then became the branch clerk, but stopped coming to church because he has problems with his prostate and wet himself during church one week and, as you can expect, embarrassed him and the members quite a bit. We were very surprised to see that he is extremely strong in the church still and keeps up on all the news about new members and other things. We are going to bring him sacrament this week and will probably start doing that once every two weeks. The lesson that we were waiting for that morning, did show up and turned out to be very good too, but we had to call him after 11:00 and found out that he had slept in. It is just so cool to see that the Lord puts people in our paths, investigators or less actives. The Lord knows his people and watches out for them.

One last little thing. About two weeks ago, I was on a small exchange with Elder McGowan and we found a really awesome lady named Petra. She said that she did not have time at the moment but would have time the next week on Tuesday. We told her that we would call her on Monday to set up and she said okay. So when I called her on Monday, she did not pick up, but afterward, I got the feeling that I should send her a text. A few minutes after I did, we got a text back from her, and she said that she would not be able to meet with us on Tuesday, because she was in the hospital and was waiting for surgery. I immediately responded and asked if anything was wrong and what the operation would be for. She wrote back and said that she was getting a kidney transplant and that she wanted us to pray for her. We told her that we would and we would be looking forward to meeting with her after she got better. We have not heard from her since after the operation, but I am sure that she is fine and that we will be meeting in the near future.

The Lord is with us. How can we forget that? Coming on the mission has really opened my eyes and helped me realize that the Lord DOES know his people and he does love every single one of us. I cannot even imagine trying to do this work alone. The Lord really does lead us and show us what we need to be doing, IF we will listen, be faithful and do what he commands of us.

I love you all and pray for your safety,

Starší Monk

Patience and Hope

Dear Family,

So this last week while we were sitting in our large planning session (the planning that we do every Friday just so we can evaluate where we stand in the work and see what we are going to do for the next week). We took the white board and erased the entire thing and rewrote it all. We quickly found out that we do not have any baptismal dates (we have not had contact with Hoang since our meeting with him when he asked when he could be baptized), we do not have any progressing investigators, and all the investigators that we have are few and relatively new, thus one of the reasons that they are perhaps not progressing. Then we have our potential investigator pool. We have about ten or eleven names that we have rallied up this transfer so far (three weeks - I cannot believe that it has been that long already) most of which we are quite excited about. I just told you this so that you have a little look into the missionary work here in the Czech Republic. My mission has been this kind of numbers for about the last six or seven months. At some points we would not even have investigators or sometimes even potentials. It has taught me a really good lesson in patience and hope, even in the face of what may seem like failure. So if you ever wonder why I do not send home any really cool stories about amazing meetings that we have and then the next week I tell you more about that same person it is probably because something happened with them (not to be discouraging or negative).

Anyway! Despite these things, we are looking forward to a really cool week where we have really cool and awesome potential! We already have five meetings set up on the plan and they are looking very solid, but we will see whether they come or not.

We had a few cool things happen this last week. One was on Thursday and while I was with Elder McGowan - we were on a small exchange. We were out on the town square trying to talk to someone. We spoke to a few people who, some politely and some impolitely, told us that they do not have interest. Then we started talking with this one lady named Petra. She was hurrying a little bit, but we told her that we did not want to keep her long and just wanted to share a brief message with her that we knew could change and help her life. As we began speaking with her, she opened up a lot and told us that she was a believer, and started believing because of an illness (we did not ask why or what kind). We spoke to her about the Book of Mormon and that through it we can come to know Jesus Christ and God better in our own lives and that they will help us in times of need. We could see that something in her countenance changed and she was touched by our words. We asked if she would have some time to meet later, and she thought about when she would have time (you can really see which people actually think through their schedules and those who do not and she really did). She told us that she would have time on next Tuesday and we said great. We exchanged numbers so that we could arrange something more concrete later and the next day I texted her saying that we were really glad that we could meet and that we were looking forward to meeting on Tuesday and also asked if I could call her on Monday. She texted back about ten minutes later (which is amazing! usually people do not text back at all...) and said that we could call on Monday and that she was looking forward to meeting on Tuesday as well! So sweet. We will be calling her a little later today.

Then the next day, the zone leaders came down from Prague and they were with Elder McGowan and Horvath. They did mostly tracting that day and at the end of the day we had a district flood (where the entire district gets together to find together), but the zone leaders decided to take the entire group together to go tracting. While we were out tracting, Elder Rhodes and Elder Weser got locked INTO a panelak and at the last door had to ask the person to let them out. Elder McGowan and Anderson went to another place, and I am not quite sure how much success they had. Then Elder Horvath and I were together and we were ringing through one of the intercoms and just trying to get in. I had faith that we would get in though. At one of the buzzers, I did something a little differently. The lady picked up and I said, "can you let us in?" then she asked who I was and I told her my name and that I was here as a missionary and that I would like to talk to her. She asked, "with me?" I assured her and said yes. Then she told me that the door downstairs was bolt locked and would have to come down and unlock it. I then asked her if she would be so kind as to do that. She then told me to wait a second and hung up. I was a little confused because I have never made a intercom contact that way, but I was certain that it was good and that she was coming down to let us in. A few minutes later, an older lady (probably in her late fifties early sixties and still in good shape) came down to the door and let us in. Then she invited us up to her home where we had a really nice time talking about the gospel and the Book of Mormon. She said that it was really important to believe and that we should talk to more young people. At the end of it all, we had taught her a lesson and prayed with her, got her number, set up a return appointment, gave her a Book of Mormon and committed her to read some from it. She wants to come to church and she also wants her grandson to hear our message! What a miracle!

I only have a few minutes left, but I want to say that if we are patient and hopeful, having faith in Christ, everything will be taken care of and the Lord will watch over us.

I love you all and hope that these blog posts help you at least a little bit,
Starší Monk

Elder Monk in Olomouc

Time Goes On (Čas Pokračuje)

Dear Family,

Right now, I cannot really remember anything from this past week. That is a little sad, but also it may be due to the fact that the computers here at this Internet cafe are driving me nuts and we just did service almost all day on about five hours of sleep.

The service was really fun. There is a man here in our branch who is from England and lives here. His wife is Czech and she has been following him around for the past howevermany years, and now she says that it is his turn to follow her around - so they live in a town about an hour and a half out of Plzen, but Plzen is the closest branch that they can come to. Anyway, he has served in the church before for some time and as part of his callings he has been ordained a high priest - one of the four in the Czech Republic. So, he has been talking to the missionaries for some time now about coming out to his house to do some service, which included digging up large areas for a garden (he has 10) and putting in manure for fertilizing. While Elder McGowan and Elder Rhodes worked on that, Elder Horvath and I went and worked on some other chores. We got to move a rock pile behind his garage so we could move some wood into that place so that we could rip up the brick pathway next to his house so he could have some people come in and use a trench digger to put in a pipe for something (not really sure what the pipe was for). Elder Horvath and I got those jobs done in about an hour and a half and then for the next few hours we went and worked on the garden with the other elders. By the end, my arms were feeling really weak. It is not that I was feeling tired or fatigued, but instead that I just could not pull the shovel out of the ground sometimes. It probably did not help that the ground was wet and damp because the past few days it has been raining and murky. Despite that, we were all really glad that we could get out and do some service finally! It just seems that no one wants help here. It is really strange sometimes that we do not have opportunities to serve, but I am really glad that we got to this day.

Also another thing this last week that was really cool was that we had a lesson with a lady named Beckova before our English class on Tuesday. She has been meeting with the missionaries for a while but it was my first time meeting her. So this time, I felt that the lesson went really well and that I really got to know where she stands as far as being baptized. I had been told that she already lives all the commandments that we tell her and she had already been living them even before we met her. For example: she hates drinking. She says that it is poison and that people here make up excuses to drink even though they know that it is bad for them. Half way through the meeting with her, Elder Rhodes had to go and take another meeting that we had, and so I stayed with Beckova and spoke with her some more. It seemed to go really well and I didn't feel that there was anything really special about it - except for the fact that she does not want to be baptized into our church even though she already knows that it is true. She loves our church and hates the Catholic church (the one that she is baptized in) - she just wants more time to know that it is the thing that she needs to do. That seems pretty understandable. Then at the end of the lesson she ran off to the tram just ten minutes before English class started. She said that she would be back. I went in and helped Elder Rhodes with the other lesson for a little bit and then after we finished with that one, Elder Rhodes told me that that lesson was probably the first time that Beckova had been completely understood in a long time because past missionaries who have met with her did not have the greatest language abilities. That was really cool. I told Elder Rhodes about the things that I learned and he said that he did not know those things, even though it seemed to me that she had already told the missionaries quite a few times.

Anyway, when she returned, she came back with two daughters of her good friend (they called her grandma) and left them there for English. The girls are right about our ages, 20 and 22, and Beckova talked about them - that they were very good girls and that they do not drink and other things that she knows are bad. I was in the other English class, so I did not get to know them very well, but they seemed very nice. I said "hi" after class, and got to know them a little bit. However, I think that Beckova was telling them strange things, like we are nice boys from America and that they should try and do something fun with us. So after English they invited us to a movie and were very disappointed when we told them that we could not go but that we would love to see them again at some of our other activities, like game night, and even "a private meeting with them where we would talk about Jesus Christ and our message of Him." They agreed to both, but we still have not met with them privately yet, but we will this week!

I am sorry that I do not really have any great stories this week, and I wish that I could at least remember some more but I left my planner at home, so I can not even look through that to see what we did! However, this last Sunday was amazing because I really came into the fast with a specific want of feeling the Holy Ghost and hearing his guidance more in my life and during the work. At Sacrament meeting, I really did feel that comfort and understanding that I did have that companionship of the Holy Ghost and I know that my fast was answered. I think what was different about this prayer from others was that I went in and I had an out loud prayer beforehand. Out loud prayers make all of the difference to me. When I pray quietly, I get distracted and I lose concentration, but when I pray out loud, I can hear the direction of the Holy Ghost so I can know what I need to pray for, and then as I say what he dictates to me, I can really make sure for me the blessings that God already is willing to give (Bible Dictionary "Prayer" p. 547? - I suggest reading this part on prayer because it has completely changed how I pray). God hears prayers, but when they are not answered, it is because we are praying out of the selfishness of our hearts and not to do the will of the Father but try to change the will of the Father. This is not possible! We must pray with the direction of the Holy Ghost for prayer to be the most effective. I have learned this after praying to the wall far too many times.

I love you all and challenge you to try praying with the direction of the Holy Ghost and I know that things will be different and that you will see a difference almost immediately,

Starší Monk

First Half Week in Plzeň

Dear Family,

This week, even though I got here on Wednesday, has been amazing. On Wednesday night, we went out contacting people on the town square, and we found a guy named Vladmir. He's a man from Ukraine and he's just so humble. He can only speak Ukrainian and I can only speak Czech, so there is a little bit of a language barrier, but between the two of us we understand enough that we can communicate well. We found out that he's here working away from his family and that he's from a little more humble circumstances - we don't think that he's living very comfortably. We got his number and told him that we'd like to meet with him later and give him a Book of Mormon in Ukrainian. He said that it didn't matter because he can read and understand just about anything Slavik, but we thought it would be best to give him a Ukrainian Book of Mormon. We called him later and set up a meeting with him on the town square where we met after he finished work on Friday. When he came, we asked him if we could go to our building which was a couple stops down the tram, or we could go into a cafe. He denied both of them and just said that we could sit down on a bench on the town square. I could see that he was going to get cold quickly because he didn't have a very good coat on, so we decided to give him a quick lesson. We gave him the Book of Mormon and told him about the background and a little about Joseph Smith and that we would talk more about him. At the end we spoke a little about prayer and asked him if he could try that and come to church the next day. Arranging for him to come to church was a little difficult because of the language barrier, but he said that he would come. He didn't end up coming to church, but we have another meeting set up with him today at the same place and at about the same time. This man is so prepared and so humble. I know that we're going to be hearing more about Vladmir.

When I came into the area, Elder Rhodes told me about each of their investigators and potentials. He told me about one man named Hoang, a Vietnamese man, who was in Poland renewing his visa for the Czech Republic. Elder Rhodes also told me that he was in Poland for three times longer than he had promised but Hoang was still making weekly calls telling them about him staying longer and keeping them updated on the situation. While we were at a Halloween Party (that we organized and put together on Thursday) Hoang called. I picked up and he told me something but I couldn't really understand him. Basically what I got was that he'd be in Poland some time longer and that he didn't know when he'd get back. Then on Saturday, we saw Hoang on the town square! He came up to us and asked us if we could meet the next day (Sunday). We said definitely and set up for the evening. Then next day when we were coming back into town after studies, he called us and said that he had something to do later that evening and was wondering if we could come and meet him right away at the building. So we ran over there and he got there just a few minutes before we did. Luckily the other elders were at the building and they let him in and spoke with him for a little while. When we finally got there and settled, he pulled out a restoration pamphlet and started asking a question about one of the terms/definitions at the back. I didn't know how to answer because he didn't know what it was and I certainly didn't know what it was because it was written in Vietnamese. I said that we'd clear that up, but we'd like to start with a prayer first. After the prayer, we asked him about his reading and praying and made sure there weren't any questions about anything besides the definitions. He didn't understand my question when I asked him that, and from that point, I knew that I would have to speak Czech slowly and very simply. I had never had to speak Czech slowly. That was a new challenge. After that, we didn't blow off his question about the definitions, but said that we'd come back to it. Then we went into the lesson about how we can fulfill our purpose here in life better by following Jesus Christ through baptism. He didn't have his Vietnamese Book of Mormon with him, but luckily we had one at the building, so we got that for him. We started by reading Alma 34:32 - about the purpose in life, and that people have a "work" to perform while alive. We asked him what kinds of works he things those are. He didn't know, so we opened to 2 Nephi 31:4-9 - this part speaks about Jesus Christ being baptized and that all people need to do it. We then started talking about the importance of Jesus Christ being baptized and that it is important for every one of us to be baptized as well. Then we went into the way that we need to be baptized. We opened up to 3 Nephi 11:23-26 - Here Jesus Christ himself explains how we need to be baptized. After Hoang read this, he pointed to verse 26 and said, "This, this is it. When can I do this?" That was one of the most amazing times of my mission. We immediately told him that we wanted, and the Lord wanted, him to be baptized on the 18th of December. Without even hesitating, he accepted and then we began to bear more testimony about it. He even told us that it is important to go under the water and then come back up out of the water. Then we told him that we'd like him to come to church on Sunday and told him that it would be at 9:30. He asked if we were still going to have one that evening, and unfortunately we had to tell him that it would be the next week in the morning. He agreed that we could meet a few times during the week and that he really wants to come to church next week. This man is so prepared and I just hope that the language barrier doesn't create too much of a problem.

Other than these, there have been other miracles, like seeing investigators who don't have (working) phones and jumping off the tram to go and set up with them. It just seems that everything here in Plzeň just seems to work. Elder Rhodes and I are getting along very well and I cannot see any foreseeable problems.

I love you all. Sometimes the Lord seeth it fit to try our patience. If you are having a tough time, keep praying, reading the scriptures, attending church and be faithful in hope and patience and the Lord will answer and help us. I read the Joseph Smith History yesterday and I noticed that it was right at the moment when Joseph was about to give in to the evil power that overwhelmed him that he was saved from that power. Just push that little bit further and hold on that little bit longer and the Lord will consecrate our performances for our good.

Lots of Love and Prayers,

Starší Monk

The stuff that I got from the guy who took my pen.

At the train station right before I got on the train to Prague. I was tired. That may explain the strange face that I have on.

Transfer to Plzen

Here is a map showing the relative locations of Olomouc and Plzeň.

Mission Conference and Transfers!

Dear Family,

This past week has been quite unique in terms of what kind of events we have had. (Also, I feel that I should warn you that if I get my "y"s and "z"s backwards, it is because I cannot change this keyboard into English - it is stuck in Czech. Also, I cannot use any contractions because there is no such thing as an apostrophe in Czech. Consider yourselves warned!)

So I will start by letting you know why I am writing today instead of last Monday. The APs have been seeing that every transfer week, the effectiveness of the work has gone down, clearly because missionaries are getting excited about going to their new areas and are not focusing on the work, but instead about saying goodbye to all the people from the area. Also, it does not make much sense to have a P-day on Monday and then have a transfer day on Wednesday, which usually gets almost completely wasted. So, they have started doing something new and they are talking to individual people who are moving (to them only) on Monday evening or Tuesday morning and telling them where they will be going. They are told to contact their new areas to see who their new companion will be and to arrange travel. Then on Wednesday the entire mission has a P-day and transfers together.

I actually think that it is a good idea and that it will increase effectiveness during transfer weeks. So I should probably let you know that I have been moved! I got a call on Monday night and Elder Anderson told me that I would be moving to Plzeň. Look for it on a map - it is on the opposite side of Prague from Olomouc. I got on the train this morning at 6:30 and arrived in Prague at 8:30. Then changed to a train that left at 9:00 and got into Plzeň at almost 11:00. I am already off to a pretty long day. Despite this, I am not really tired and I am very excited to be working here with Elder Rhodes. Also, the other companionship here will be Elder McGowan and Elder Horvath - yes, I have already served around both of them. Elder McGowan in Olomouc and Elder Horvath in the MTC. They have already had one transfer together and they are doing very well. I cannot say that there were any fun stories about exchanging this time. It all went pretty smoothly except for the fact that I brought the phone from Olomouc with me on the train. Yeah, that was a mistake. In the morning the ZLs in Olomouc came to drop me off at the train station. They called to tell us that they were already at our apartment so I picked up and said okay and then dropped the phone in my pocket without thinking. After I was on the train and it had left the station, I got a call from the others Elders who were quite surprised when I picked up! I think that they called it to try and find it at the apartment. Surprise! So I have to put it into a paded envelope and send it back to them ASAP.

Also this last week we had a mission conference and it was with Elder Pearson from the Quorum of the Seventy. It was amazing. Spiritual slam on all of us that were there. I cannot begin to tell you how much I felt like I was not fulfilling my duties as a missionary and how much I wanted to do better. I guess that the Holy Ghost taught me pretty well through that meeting. Elder Pearson told us that he was going to be as bold as he could and he definitely did. He spoke a lot about how people can see whether someone has the Holy Ghost or not by how the spirit in each one of us will recognize it or not. When we do not have that spirit, people do not feel the importance of our message or do not care, but when they can feel the Spirit and see it, then they are different and they progress. He made it very clear to me that the Holy Ghost is an essential part of missionary work even to the point that it does not matter what we say or do as long as we have and are following the Spirit. In reality, we are not here to convince people, we are not here to find people - the only thing that we are here to do is to turn ourselves over to the Lord 100% and then he guides and leads us and does the work for us. The hard part is having the Spirit enough so that we are led all the time and that we always have that connection with God through the Holy Ghost. It was truly amazing. I do not think that he really said anything new, but everything made so much more sense and it seems that everything was unfolded just a little more and I comprehended just that much more of how helpless I am in the work and how grateful I need to be that I can be just a part of it all.

Aside from that, I can tell you about two contacts that we had this last week, and then one from two weeks ago that I forgot to tell you about before.

The first one from this week was a guy that we found in a park right after we had been having a really rough morning. He was a nicer looking guy - suit, nice big long jacket, suitcase - and did not look like he had a whole lot of time. We stopped him anyway. As we started talking, he was really friendly and we asked him if he had just a little bit of time that we could sit down and talk for a minute. He said that he had thirty minutes, and we said that we only had ten (we really did have to get somewhere), but we sat on a bench nonetheless and kept talking some more. He had really good questions and said that he had spoken with our colleagues before, but he had never had a lot of time. He said that he wanted to speak with us and he was interested in what we have to say but he figured instead of trying to track us down, he knew that we would contact him again. So we got his number and set up a meeting for the next day. The next day he did not come to the meeting, but when we called him, his boss that he had to stay at work longer and that he could not come. He then set up with us again for the next day and said that he would still like to meet with us. The next day, in the morning, he texted us and said that he did not know if he was going to be able to make it, but he would let us know as the time came nearer. As the time came nearer, he sent us a text saying that his boss was again holding him at work and that he was not going to be able to make it. That is the last that I have heard from him, but I anticipate that the other elders will get him rolling. He is going to be awesome. By the way, his name is Honza - which is the Czech equivalent of Johnny.

Then our other contact was actually yesterday. It was another person in the park and we started talking to him. Elder Pearson did a little bit of an awkward move to speak with him, but he did not seem to mind. As we began speaking we could see that he was really interested in the things that we were saying and he kept asking really good questions which all led perfectly into gospel topics. We kept referring back to the principles to answer his questions and he seemed to just eat it up. We ended up speaking with him for about 25 minutes, which is not terribly long, but it is still long enough to take notice. At the end he told us that after he finished his class, he was thinking about whether he needed to go back home or go to the library, and he decided to go to the library. While he was on his way there, he met us. He said that he does not believe in coincidences - he knew that God had put us together and that he knows that we have something for him. It is too bad that I am leaving and I will not be able to see the progression of Daniel - that is his name.

Now the contact a few weeks ago. We were walking around the town hall on the town square and a guy on the bench yelled out to us and said, "Hey boys! I have your next person right here! She has interest!" The woman looked very confused and very uncomfortable next to him, and he seemed quite drunk. We came up to the man and played along with it for a little bit, and then Elder Pearson looked at the lady and asked if she knew the guy. She said that she did not so we just kept up the conversation with the guy and let the poor lady escape. I figured it is better to leave a person with something than just leave them with nothing and I had the feeling that we should leave him with a Book of Mormon. So we sat down with him and he just wanted to talk. I do not think that he cared too much for listening. Anyway, we worked our way around to the Book of Mormon and he asked if he could have it. I told him of course and asked him to read some of it later that day. Then he told me that he could not just take it for free, but he had to give me something in return for it! So, he opened his backpack, this entire time I am trying to refuse whatever it is he wanted to give me, and he took out two books and handed them to me. One is about some random guy who he claims to be his army commander and the other was an old interactive calendar (I think it was 2001). Then he started pulling out a ton of candy that the various people from different political campaigns were giving out (city and regional votes were going on). He then took my backpack and started shoving all the candy and books into it and other random things that he had. I just sat there and acted very grateful for what he was giving me. I was more confused and regretful that we had sat down with this guy than grateful (which is probably not good) and once he finished with that, he wanted me to sign the Book of Mormon for him so he could remember when he got it and from whom it was. Then he asked if he could use my pen and I thought, "sure why not?" and he finished signing it with his own signature. The he told me that he was stealing my pen and put it into his coat and handed me a cardboard pen from one of the political campaigns in exchange for it. What could I say? Nothing really, so I just let it go. So, Dad, that was the pen that I asked the refills for. Do not worry about sending refills now.

The work is great and the blessings are abounding around us. Can we recognize them? I know that for me, for a very long time I could not because I was looking for what I wanted instead of what the Lord was giving me.

I love you all very much,
Starší Monk

It's Really Cold! Is it Autumn Already?

Dear Family,

There were a few interesting little things that I'd like to tell you about this week. First off, I think that a few weeks ago I wrote you and told you about a man named Standa. We met him in the park when it was raining. He said that he didn't have anyone to talk to about religion and we met with him the next day. Then on that Sunday, he came to church. Well, on Tuesday during our companionship study, we got a call from Brother Zatloukal. I picked up and he sounded extremely happy, which isn't terribly strange, so I didn't make much of it. I asked him how he was doing and then he asked me what we were doing on Thursday. I opened up my planner and saw we had nothing on schedule. I told him nothing. He said, "Great, then I'll see you at the building at 4:00pm." I was a little confused and asked why we were going to the building at 4:00pm and he told me that he had called Standa and set up a lesson with him, based on their schedules and seeing when they had time! That was amazing. That's how missionary work is supposed to go, at least if I had it my way. You find the person (or even better - get a referral) and you get the meeting set up, you invite the member, and then after that, they set everything up and just invite you to it so you can teach! It was really awesome. It's too bad that I was on an exchange with Elder Tall that day, but the two Elder Pearsons said that it was really good. Elder Pearson (the older one from Olomouc North) said that whenever they'd get stumped on what to say, Brother Zatloukal would take over and keep it really solid with testimony and experiences. I wish I had been there. It sounds like the meeting went perfectly because they got Standa to commit to praying and they found out that he had read thirteen chapters of 1 Nephi. They didn't say he had any issues. Things are looking good on that front, except for the fact that he's a little bit sketchy on coming to church. He had promised that he'd come to church this week, and when we turned up at his home this Sunday to bring him, a lady (perhaps his wife?) came to the window and said that he wasn't home. Let's hope that something changes and he starts coming to church more.

Other than that, we've been doing a lot of finding. We have one other investigator that we're really meeting with regularly, and he's a really interesting case. Perhaps I'll tell you more about him when I have more time. His name is Vit.

We found this one guy this last week. We were coming up around a corner in the park and we saw him and I greeted him with a warm hello and started talking to him. He responded much the same and before I could really say anything, he was telling me that we could go and sit down on a bench. I was very confused. He's a very big man. Probably around 230 lbs of muscle and fairly tall. As we were walking to the bench, he said that we probably wanted to talk about religion and faith, and we responded, yes. We began talking and he was very open to everything that we were saying. We also found out that he speaks very good English, so we began talking to him in English for our sakes. Basically the entire time that we were sitting there, we were just answering questions, and listening to him talk about his ideas on religion. He's personally Catholic, but is extremely open to other religions and thinks that they're all right, as long as they help you live a good life. I don't think he was quite as interested in hearing our message as he was in hearing our opinions. By the end of the conversation, we got his number and told him that we'd love to meet with him again and that he could bring friends if he'd like! He was a little reluctant to give us his number, but he thought it over and gave it to us. We both came out of the contact quite exhausted and thinking, "What are we going to do next time?" We kept our heads up and our hopes high, thinking that something could come of this contact (you get them every now and then - I've probably had about three or four of the sort). We called him two days later and before I could really say why I was calling, he said, "Yeah, I suppose you want to meet and talk some more. Do you have time tonight?" We looked at our plan, and we didn't really have time. I told him that and he was a little put off, but said okay and I said that I'd call him back again later. I called him in another two days, on Friday, and he wanted to meet in the afternoon again, but we again didn't have time, so he asked if we'd have time on Saturday around 3:00pm and I told him that that would be perfect. He then told me that he'd probably bring his girlfriend and his buddy. Oh boy. On Saturday we showed up at the place that we had decided and he came up to us with his girlfriend. We began talking, and we suggested that we go to our building, which was probably about thirty seconds walking distance from where we were, but they were quite insistant that we go to this little tea house that they know. After some more of their insisting, we went and might I say, it was pretty legit. The music there was a little distracting, but it was nice none the less. Where we sat we had to take our shoes off and then walk up to this little indoor patio. Anyway, we had a very interesting Q and A session with them, but the entire time we were trying to get little principles and hooks out so we could teach them. The girlfriend was picking up on them and I think that she wanted to hear more, but Petr (the guy we originally met) kept steering away (I think intentionally). The friend was very athiest and couldn't have cared less what we were talking about (he showed up at the tea house after we arrived). At the end, we gave Iveta (the girlfriend) and Pavel (the friend) each a Book of Mormon and a chapter to read together. We then invited them to church, and before I even finished the invitation, Petr started giving this excuse for why they probably wouldn't be able to make it - that she would be going back to her home town and that they wouldn't have time to make it, but the best part was that as soon as he started saying this, she looked at him like, "What are you saying!" I told them that it would start at 9:00am and then they said that maybe they'd be able to make it. She seemed really awesome. Sadly we didn't get her number, but I'm sure that we'll meet again somehow. At one point in the meeting, I bore testimony about the Book of Mormon and how it can change the world if everyone would believe in it, and she said something to the effect that it was a really nice testiomony of how the world can be. I think that she's prepared and the Lord won't let her slip through our fingers too long.

I'm just about out of time, but I'll share this one last story with you - it's a funny one. It happened last night. We were out tracting panelaky (big apartment like buildings) and we were ringing through the buzzer trying to get someone to let us into the building. I had just rung about three names and then I rang the fourth. An old lady picked up the buzzer and I said that we were here as volunteer missionaries from America and that we wanted to speak with her about the Book of Mormon. She then said, "Jaci Američani?" ("What kind of Americans?") That caught me off guard, and so I said missionaries again and she said that she didn't really have interest and I said thank you and she hung up. So I went to ring the next one, and a few seconds later the same old lady came on the buzzer again! I thought I pressed the next one. I told her that I think the buzzer was broken but I don't think she heard/understood me and she was a little confused herself. We had a little strange conversation trying to iron out the problem accross the buzzer and then she hung up again after saying good bye. Then I made sure that I pressed the next one and not the same one, but alas! the same old lady picked up. She got on and said, "What do you want?" sounding a little scared and intimidated "Just tell me what you want and I'll let you in!" I told her that I was sorry and that the buzzer was broken. She then told me again that she'd let me in if I told her what I wanted. I told her I wanted to speak with her and quickly she retorted, "Where?" Now I was confused, and said, "Where? At your place," and then she got even more scared and said, "No no no no, you can't come up to my place," and she said her little feeble good bye and hung up the phone. We left that panelak because I was afraid that I'd ring that poor old lady's apartment again. I know that I pressed the three consecutive buzzers and not the same one THREE times.

I love you all very much. I hope you have fun reading these blogs. I have fun writing them and reminising about the past week. This one wasn't as successful as I would have hoped, but all things are in the Lord and His ways will not be frustrated. I am glad to be a part of this work. I pray for you all and hope that all is well.

Love, your missionary,
Starší Monk

Sometimes I think I'm a Finding Machine! (Občas si myslím že jsem nachazení nastroj!)

Dear Family,

This last week was a week of awesome contacts! Of course I'd love to teach lessons and see people making progress toward baptism, but when we don't have that, at least we're having really good contacts with people. Last week we had two lessons and both of them we really solid. Something that I've seen in the mission very recently is that we're not focusing so much on getting high numbers as we are on getting real numbers. Missionaries used to get twenty, thirty and sometimes even close to fifty lessons, but at the end of the week, they could look at it and see that they had no contacts or that none of those people were meeting with them anymore. We've really taken a big step toward making real numbers instead of fluff. Also something else that we've enacted (that's been in the white handbook, but no one followed until now) is wearing proselyting clothes and having a full three hours of studies on P-day. We've already seen some blessings from that - mainly for me, feeling like I'm not changing who I am for P-day and then feeling out of place again when I change back into missionary clothes.

Since I don't have a lot of other news, let me tell you about one or two of our contacts that we had this week.

On Tuesday we had two really cool contacts. The first one was a man named Petr and we met him when we had just walked out of the building after making goals and praying. We had only walked up the sidewalk on the square a little way when we talked to a young guy. He was probably in his mid to late twenties and we started by asking him about his beliefs. He said that he was a believer, but didn't really know what exactly exists above us. He said that he's a "Catholic," but only says that because that's what he finds to come the closest to what he believes personally. We told him that he could come to know exactly what is above us and that we could gain a relationship with Him through the Book of Mormon. I then asked him if he had a little bit of time and if he'd like to come to our building and talk some more about the book. He agreed and we went there and had a really in depth lesson about the Book of Mormon - everything from where it comes from, how it was written, why it was written and how we can use it. At the end we had a kneeling prayer and we felt really good about it. We then switched numbers and arranged to meet again the next day, but unfortunately he didn't come. We're not sure why, but he hasn't picked up his phone or answered texts. Sadly, I can't say that this is the first, second, third or even ninth time that this has happened. It's happened many times. I just hope that I planted a good enough seed within him, that next time he will be even more prepared to hear the message.

Then later, I think it was even the next hour block, we went out and on the same town square and we spoke to another man. He was really humble and soft spoken. His name was Roman and we found out that he works night shifts (from 1800 to 0600 - sorry for the military time; I've gotten kind of used to it 'cause they use it a lot here). We asked him what he believes and he said that he believes in a God who created everything. Literally, that's what he said. That was really cool. We talked to him for a little bit about how we can come to know who God is better and gain a relationship with Him through the Book of Mormon and he seemed quite interested in it, but he was also a little hesitant because he works nights and sleeps during the day (we happened to catch him on the way to work) and he didn't think that it would really work out too well. We exchanged numbers and asked him to call us when he has a little time and we'd set something up. Of course, I'm still sending him little text messages and reminders to let him know that we still exist and that we still want to speak with him. We also saw him the next day on his way to work again and he looked very tired and depressed - quite similar to the way when we first met him. I hope that he calls us.

Then on Wednesday, we had made a goal to go out and in the next hour we would get a number and a person that would set up a meeting with us. We prayed and went out with the goal in mind and went to the park (the pictures attached are from this park) and contacted this one kid. He turned out to be really cool and spoke English. As we spoke with him we found out his name was Ludvik and that he studied in Olomouc. As conversation progressed, he asked us what we were doing in the Czech Republic and we told him but then he even asked us what our purpose was here. That morning we had just had a conference of our zone in Olomouc and we had been talking about our purpose as missionaries and how it applies to the Doctrine of Christ (2 Nephi 31 if any of you want to read it - it's very good). Elder Pearson basically recited our purpose from "Preach My Gospel" to him and he seemed to really think about it. We spoke about the Book of Mormon and how we could find out personally why we're here and also how he could build a relationship with God through it. His countenance changed a little and he seemed to be a little more interested. We ended up exchanging numbers and set up a meeting for Monday (today in a few hours) and he seemed really interested to come.

We also have been trying to work harder on talking to couples more this week. For some reason, they're much harder to contact. On Friday evening, I think it was right before we were about to go home, we were walking up a street that's connected to the main square, and Elder Pearson contacted two guys, obviously friends, who looked like they were just having a good time. When Elder Pearson stopped them, one stopped and looked intrigued but the other had planned on blowing us off and kept walking but stopped because his friend wasn't following him. He then looked up at the sky, slouched and did a kind of pout thing, probably thinking, "Why is he talking to these guys?" We spoke to the one guy for a few seconds, and then I looked at the other guy and asked him what he thought about the subject. He, knowing that he was being pulled into the conversation and without resorting to being very rude, couldn't get out of it, came over and started talking with us. By the end, I felt like they were pretty comfortable with us and we had taught them a little bit. They knew why we were here as missionaries, and they were actually a little interested in our message. We gave them pass along cards and asked them to call us when they would have a little time and we'd get together and talk some more. This was probably my favorite contact of the week, just because of that one guy (Tomaš) who didn't particularly want to talk to us probably found some interest by the end and saw that we were just normal people.

Last one, I promise (maybe). On Saturday, we were out finding, and we weren't seeing a whole lot of success. Saturdays aren't super busy like they are in America. Actually, they're kind of dead. Anyway, we were out and about and weren't talking to a whole bunch of people but Elder Pearson got the feeling that we needed to go to this one really obscure park and so we walked over there and there was nothing. You could stand in one place at the entrance and see the entire park and there was nobody there. Then he figured that we were there and we weren't there by chance so we decided to take this one path that's a little way off but also pretty isolated. The path winds down along the side of the river and it's really gorgeous, but I haven't had any good experiences contacting there but he had the feeling so we followed it. As we got on this path it was like we found everyone. Well, we saw at least ten people. As we started walking down this path we spoke to this one old lady and her granddaughter and she turned out to be really awesome. She said that she was Catholic and that she thinks that it's a pity that there aren't more people who are believers. We told her about the Book of Mormon and that we know that if everyone accepted the Book of Mormon we would have a better world. We also told her that she could understand the Bible and God better through reading in the Book of Mormon. She really seemed to like the thought of that. She asked us where she could buy a copy of the book, and then we told her that we give them out for free but we only ask that we can meet with people so we can talk about what's in it and how we can apply these things. She said of course and that it only makes sense. We asked her for her number and she gave us one and then she said, "Wait, there's a better number. I always have this other one with me," and then she gave me this other number. We've got a meeting set up with her tomorrow and we've already texted her about it and she responded back three minutes later. That's very awesome. We have lots of hopes for her (Věra).

It seems to me sometimes that we have many awesome contacts like this on the mission and we get so hopeful and even start to love the people but then when they don't go through, or they miss their lessons, that's when I start to become discouraged. I've made a cool little discovery for myself this last week. We need to love the people and be sad when they don't make the progress that we know will lead them to eternal happiness, but we shouldn't get discouraged when this happens because then our hope is in danger of fading and then our faith will follow. Without faith, we have nothing. I'm still trying to enact and work on this, but sometimes it seems very hard to keep these feelings separate.

I can only begin to see how much I'm learning on my mission, but I know that looking in hindsight, I will be able to see much more. I just want to make sure that I'm making the most of my mission, and I think that I'm doing fairly well turning myself over to the Lord.

Love you all, and hope that all is well with each one of you.

Starší Monk

Konečně, Já si citím jako Misionař. :)

Dear Family,

This week was much better, I must say. We still didn't get a whole ton of lessons or anything of that sort, but each day seemed to have it's own special miracle. On Monday we had a meeting with a man named Vít and he's crazy. He's studying to be a lawyer and speaks English but it just seems that he gets so excited to speak to someone in English that his mind flies a million miles and his mouth has a hard time keeping up. He doesn't stutter, but he finds himself stumbling across his thoughts quite a lot of the time. I think that the only way that I can really explain him is that he's seems to be a little hyperactive and very happy all the time. We've spoken to him about the Book of Mormon and about praying and he's agreed and is doing both of them. We met with him twice this week, once on Monday and the other on Friday. We also seem to be talking a lot about the nature of God and how he's righteous and perfectly just, and then as soon as you say that he gets really philosophical. He agrees with what we're saying, but he also thinks that he has to get really deep by asking things like, "what is justice?" He's a funny guy and we like him a lot. We are steering conversation with him pretty well, but it just seems he takes between ten to fifteen minutes to explain anything that he wants to say, and you can see that that can become a problem. At least he likes to meet with us and he likes what he hears from us! Elder Pearson keeps saying, "well, he hasn't said anything contrary to what we're teaching, yet." So finally we have a progressing investigator! YAY!

Then on Tuesday we went out and were working around the town, but it was raining and there really wasn't anyone around town, but we stuck it out and kept working. While we were on the town square, there was one guy there and we went up to talk to him but we could see that he was probably a tourist and when he turned around so that his umbrella wasn't facing towards us, we saw that he was also Chinese. We spoke to him anyway and he spoke perfect English. We spoke to him for a second and asked where he was from. He said Shanghai and that they had a vacation in China so they let them go out to somewhere. He said that he was here with a couple of friends and that they were off somewhere else and that he had to go and catch them, but he asked where we were from and asked why we were here. We told him that we were Americans and that we were here as missionaries. He thought that was really cool and said that it was a problem in China that they don't really have religion. Then he said he had to run and so he did, kind of abruptly. We looked at each other and were kind of like, "Okay, that was interesting. Let's go around that corner there and keep working." As we walked toward the corner, we heard him behind us calling after us. We turned around and he was hurrying toward us and then asked if he could get a picture of us. He said that he wanted to get pictures of all the interesting people he met. Sure, why not? He took our picture, thanked us and then left again. Now we were even more entertained by the entire situation. After that we kept working and about an hour later, we were going through a hall that goes back to the town hall, and guess who we see. Yes, it was our little Chinese man and this time he had two women with him and said that these were his friends. He said that he had already told them about us and that he showed them the picture of us. We got talking about found out that they work for Intel and that one of the women was actually a recruiter. I had told them before that I wanted to study computer engineering and that peaked their interest. I told them that I wouldn't be able to talk to them for about two years, but they said that was okay. So... that was very interesting. They took our emails and we took theirs. I have no idea what's going to come of that if anything, but it makes for a good little spirit booster. :D

Then on Wednesday, it was raining more and we weren't really getting anything around the town. We decided to stop and pray and seek the guidance of the Spirit about what we should do. When I say that it was raining, I mean it had been raining for about two days now so nobody wanted to be outside, but I got the feeling that we needed to go to the park. Why? I wasn't sure why, but we headed in that direction. When we got to the park, there was one man walking down the path in our direction and Elder Pearson said, "perfect, just us," and then contacted him. He was really awesome. We found out that his name is Standa and said that he wasn't a believer, but as we testified of the Book of Mormon, you could see that something was turning in his head. We testified of the Book of Mormon and we spoke about how he could find out for himself. At the end of the contact, I asked why he had any interest about these things (I don't usually ask questions like this - but every time that I have, I've gotten a good response) and he said that he doesn't have anyone to talk with about spiritual matters. So we set up for the next day and we invited Brother Zatloukal to come and I must say, it was an awesome lesson. Brother Zatloukal immediately friendshipped this man and bore really awesome testimony about how the Book of Mormon helped him get through the tough time of when his wife was sick and then of when she died. I know that Standa felt the Spirit, even if he didn't know what it was. Then Brother Zatloukal asked him to come to church and he accepted (I had asked Brother Zatloukal to do that before Standa showed up). The meeting was short, powerful and simple. I wish that every one could be the same way.

However, despite these good meetings, you have to have your share of bad meetings. About two weeks ago we found a really cool potential girl named Kristina and we had kept a little contact with her through text messages and she was really awesome. Finally on Friday, we met up with her, and I have no idea why, but I couldn't carry a lesson/conversation to save my life and Elder Pearson said that he couldn't speak Czech nearly at all. I don't know what our problem was, but just about the entire lesson was a giant train wreck. She didn't seem engaged, we didn't seem to be giving good/solid teachings and overall I think it was just kind of creepy. At the end, we saved it a little bit just by switching back into BRT (build a relationship of trust - having conversation), but I'm afraid that the lesson beforehand may have ruined our relationship. We gave her a commitment and she accepted, so we're praying and hoping that she does it and feels something special and wants to meet with us again, despite this lesson. Luckily, later that night, we had a lesson with Vít and that went very well.

Saturday we had a really fun trip with the branch. Standa was supposed to come, but couldn't make it, so we ended up going alone with the branch and a few eternal investigators. But then on Sunday, we had a bunch of really cool blessings. On Saturday evening, we called Standa and told him that the branch missed him and that they were still looking forward to him coming to church the next day. We asked him for his home address so we could stop by his place and pick him up and so he gave it to us. Turns out that he lives just down the road from us! That made that easy. So we went to his place in the morning to pick him up and we didn't know what his last name was so we didn't know who to ring on the buzzer. We tried remembering, but just couldn't. So we started ringing people and they'd come to their windows to talk to us, because there was no intercom, and we'd ask if Standa lived there and a few said that they didn't know who that was, but finally one old lady said that it was that Navratilovi. We rang them and a lady came to the window, and we asked if Standa lived there and she said yes, and then closed the window and we figured she had gone to get him. Then the old lady came to her window again and asked if I had spoken to them yet, and I told her yes. Then she disappeared into her house again. (I just thought it was funny that she came to check up on us.) About ten minutes later, Standa came down and told us that he had been out a little later than he had wanted the night before (three in the morning) and that he probably would have slept through church if we hadn't come to pick him up. He came to church and had a pretty good time and the branch didn't really know how to react, because it's been such a long time since anyone has come to church it seems, but all went well.

There are so many more stories that I could tell you from this week, but I think that this letter is long enough. I hope you can all see that when we turn ourselves over to the Lord instead of resisting, He truly turns us into Himself so that others can see that there is something different about us: that we are followers of Christ. I loved this week and I hope that you have fun reading about it. Next week will be just as awesome, if not better! I love you all so very much and hope that you can all see the hand of the Lord in your own individual lives.

Much Love,
Starší Monk

PS - on the trip with the branch, there were mushrooms everywhere! The ones on the tree are good for eating, but the branch kept warning me against the red ones. I'm sure they were thinking something along the lines, "These silly missionaries. They don't know their mushrooms!" Czechs love going and hunting for mushrooms.

  

Jen DVĚ lekci? (Only TWO lessons?)

Dear Family,

So this last week has been a little interesting. It seems that ever since the first of September up until now, schools are all starting at different times. It seems that just about everyone that we talk to says that they just started school and that they're trying to get used to their schedule. That seems a little odd, but I know that all the universities and schools are starting at different times. It's also a little fun to walk around that town square and see the five groups of kids just walking around because just about every class gets at least one field trip (or walk around the town) about once a week. What do they do in their school systems here? I guess it's good to let them get out and get some fresh air. Perhaps that's their reasoning.

Anyway, as I said, this week has been interesting. Over the course of the week we only taught two lessons, but we had about seven or eight other potential lessons. We ended up not counting these because we didn't pray with them at the end, and they weren't really interested. The cool thing, however, is that the two lessons we did have were really solid. I think that both of them will make real progress.

Our first lesson of the week was on Friday (we had lessons set up throughout the week, but the people didn't show, so we just went out and worked some more) and it was right after we sat down in the park to talk about what we were doing "wrong." I stopped Elder Pearson because I was getting frustrated that we weren't seeing any success. I was being a little bit silly because I wanted something tangible or some kind of number to make me feel like I was being a good missionary. Elder Pearson started recounting to me all the super-solid potentials we had found and how they wanted us to call them on a specific day next week and set up for the next day. I guess that I was getting a little frustrated with how the work was going, and trusting in my own hand and wanting my own timing instead of the Lord's. We had a little bit of an extensive talk, but sometimes when you are not feeling good, it's probably better that you don't go and try and talk to people about how they can be happy when it's pretty apparent that you are not happy yourself. So we had this talk, we said a prayer and Elder Pearson picked a guy who was on a different bench on a different path directly in front of us. I must say that I was a little reluctant to get up and go talk to him, but I knew that the only way that I was going to get feeling better was to get to work. So I got up and went with him.

As we started talking to this guy, he stopped us a few sentences in and said that we could speak English; he's from Bulgaria and he doesn't speak the best Czech as well. So we sat down on the bench with this guy and we taught him a really cool lesson about prayer. He told us at the beginning that he wasn't a believer, but as the conversation continued, he opened up and said that he had been a believer but about two years back he got terribly sick which caused him to be a little handicapped and he couldn't believe that God would let that happen to him. He said that he'd been living a good life and he wasn't doing anything bad to anyone. Why would the Lord let that happen to him? We both bore really good testimony that these things happen to us to test us and to see if we will be faithful to him through all our opposition. I also told him that if he would give God another chance and read in the Book of Mormon, he would gain his own witness and would find that purpose and faith again in his life. He tried wiggling his way out of it quite a few times, but as we continued to bear solid testimony and give him the reasons, he agreed to each commitment that we would give him. I think it's because, he knew that what we were saying was right and that God really did want him to be doing these things, but he was just a little bitter and unhappy about what kinds of things happened to him. He said that he wanted to see about finding the Book of Mormon online, but we said that he wouldn't be able to find it in Bulgarian on the Internet and that we could give him his own copy for free in Bulgarian - it would just take some time for us to get one from Prague. So he agreed to give us his phone number so we could call him when we get it, and he also agreed to pray at least one time before we meet with him. We told him that if he prayed, he would get some kind of answer. He seemed very hesitant about this because he hasn't prayed in a long time, but we talked about it more and he finally agreed. It was very cool to see how someone will change if they feel the Spirit and know that the things we're talking to them about are for their good and that we're only doing these things because God wants us to have these blessings from Him.

The other lesson that we had was with some guys from Nepal. We found one of them about a week or two back, but he said that he worked at a restaurant and that he doesn't have a lot of time. So we continued to call him a little and to see when he had time. Then one day when we called he said that he'd have time on Sunday because that's their free day. We said great and set up a time and place with him and asked him to bring his friend along. The two of them work at the same restaurant and the first (Man - yes that's his name) had told us that his friend (Buddah - yes that's also his name) speaks better English than him, so he'd probably come along too. So on Sunday we got together on the town square and said hi and gave them a little banana bread (we had some left over from the linger-longer, or "fat Sunday" as they call it here, so we decided to give them some) and then they told us that they had to go because they had a meeting and that it would take about thirty minutes to an hour. I was a little skeptical of this because he said this pretty quick after we said that we were here from a church. So we showed them where our building is and then they headed off. Elder Pearson was still very hopeful about these two, so we went to the building and cleaned a little bit hoping that they'd be back in about thirty minutes, but after that, we figured that we had better go out and work. Let me say... this may have been one of the worst finding blocks of my life, not in terms of reception, but in terms of conditions. It was Sunday, it was about 6:45, it was very dark, it was raining and it had been raining all day so everything was soaked. We figured that if we wanted the blessings of the Lord, we had to show Him first that we're willing to go and do the work that we've been called here to do and then He'd bless us. So we went out despite all these horrible conditions. We tried talking to a few people, but there was just nobody out. However, about twenty minutes into the finding block, we got a call. It was Buddah! He asked if we were still at the building and if we could still meet. We said that we could be there in two minutes, and they both showed up within five minutes of when we got back. So, our actual meeting with them was for 5:00pm but we actually ended up meeting with them at 7:00pm. We took them up to the building and they looked around and were very impressed with how pretty it is. They really liked the meeting room and they loved the paintings. We spoke to them a little about what each room was used for and Buddah (the one that speaks better English, and the one who really ended up doing most of the talking) asked our church meets. He was a little put off to find out that we had already had it that day. We went into the multipurpose room and taught them a lesson about the Book of Mormon and talked about what it was, but quite a few times throughout Buddah kept asking about the church meeting like how long it is, when it starts, who comes etc. Man was engaged, but quietly. Sometimes while I was talking I'd look at Man and just watch him and I could see that the cogs were turning in his mind. Whether it was to comprehend what I was saying or whether something else was going on, I don't know, but I do know that he was listening. We gave them a Book of Mormon in Hindi and asked them to begin reading in it and they agreed. They also agreed to try praying at least one time before we met again, and they also agreed to come to church the next week even though it's a little early for them. At the restaurant which they work at, supposedly Saturday is their busiest day and they don't usually get home and to bed until about 1:30am. I must say that the lesson went very well and I think we spoke simply enough that the things didn't really go over their heads. We began walking home with them after the lesson and they came with us because we were in the same direction and we found out that they live about one minute from the building! Even more perfect for getting them to church.

This week, even though we didn't have the gigantic blessings that we'd like to see. We know that He works here and that all things are in His own timing. We can both see that this next week is bursting with potential and we're very hopeful and excited to see what will come of it. Man and Buddah are definitely going to make some progress and our Bulgarian friend (Nikola or Nick for short) will make progress, but will need that slow loving support that comes from the gospel.

I love you all very much and hope that all is well with each of you. Don't be stubborn like me. Let the Lord change you. Let Him work your life and live so that He can do this. I know that this is the greatest way to live-- and the most rewarding.

Love you all,

Starší Monk