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

Jejda! Co se děje? (What's going on!)

Dear Family,

There's not really a whole lot that I can write about this last week. We didn't really have a lot of time that we could work in our area because on Tuesday we were pretty sick and were told by President and his wife to stay home and get better. President even described it as an assignment. So we stayed home that day and got better and then on Thursday we were in Brno for zone conference.

It's kind of funny, but we were told by President that we wouldn't have zone conferences as often because it's part of the new way that they're going to be running things (zone conferences were supposed to be once every three months or so) but for one reason or another, we've had one every month that President Irwin's been here in the country. I think that's a better rate than we had with President Slovacek - with him we'd have them about four or five times every six months.

This last zone conference we had Elder Teixiera from the First Quorum of the Seventy come and he spoke for nearly the whole time. He's also the president of the Central European missions, possibly Central and Eastern both - I'm not quite sure. Anyway, there was something he said that was really interesting. He said that the most important thing that we're doing as missionaries is teaching; then our second most important job is to get people to church - without that, no one will be baptized. He then went on about the importance of people coming to church and how we're supposed to get them to do that and it basically came down to the fact that missionaries have forgotten the important responsibility to bring people to church - like going out and get them Sunday morning and walk them to church if necessary. He said without that, even some of the elect will not come. Everything that he said made perfect sense and we're working very hard to conform to his vision. If we got it working that way, it would be amazing. He also spoke about referrals and how we can basically get an exponential effect going when we get one really good progressing investigator and then ask them to pray for their families and friends and then get them going and continue to have each of those do the same. He promised that within one month we would have more lessons than we could teach alone and that we'd be calling the branch mission leader for help to teach all the lessons. I'm especially excited for that one.

Other than that, we had some pretty "bipolar" finding this week. Sometimes we'd go out and teach four lessons in one day, and other days we'd go and see nothing. Let me tell you about one really cool contact that we did have this week.

On Friday, we had a pretty good day of finding and it was the day right after zone conference, so we were both fired up and ready to explode on the area and make some things happen. So we went out and worked really hard all day. The first hour of finding, we taught a lesson to a man on a bench but at the end, he said that he didn't really have any interest and that he didn't even want the Book of Mormon. Then the second hour, we had about the same except he accepted the Book of Mormon but also said that he didn't want to set up a follow-up appointment. These two didn't put us down so we kept going and during the next hour, in a rather obscure park, we found a girl and taught her a lesson too but she didn't want to give us her number or a follow-up appointment or a Book of Mormon, but she did take our card, and she said that she'd drop in on church meeting sometime; let's hope that that happens sometime, however we're not getting our hopes up about it too much. So, at this point we were getting a little fed up with teaching people who don't want to do anything! We then sat down and prayed, asking where we needed to go and we decided that we needed to go to a particular park, so we headed in that direction. Right as we entered the park, we approached the first lady that was sitting alone on a bench and began talking to her. She was really nice and we introduced her to the Book of Mormon, read a lot with her and spoke about how the Book of Mormon supports doctrines that we learn from the Bible. She was already Catholic but she said that everything she was reading in the Book of Mormon agreed with her beliefs. We read the entire introduction, 2 Nephi 31 and Moroni 10:3-5 with her. She just seemed to be eating everything up! She was the lesson and the person that we had been waiting for. I also remembered the prompting of Elder Teixiera about being brave and exercising our faith to ask people for referrals instead of closing them off and putting them on a pedestal to protect them from any bad influences that could drive them away from us, so I asked her if she knew anyone that would also be interested in these kinds of things or in the Book of Mormon. She said that she didn't really know anyone, however, as conversation continued, she mentioned that she was married and so I asked her about her husband. She said that he wasn't really a believer but he was looking. So I promised her blessings if she would read the things that she had read with us with him and that he would come to find faith and how they could be stronger because of that faith. She really seemed to like the sound of that, so we got her number and we challenged her to talk to her husband about these things and told her that it would be better if we met with her and her husband together and she agreed right off the bat. She said that she'd talk to her husband on Saturday (the next day) because he was at work all day Friday and then she'd send us a text to see if we could meet on Sunday. It almost seemed too perfect.

Then on Saturday, probably in the afternoon sometime, we sent Alexandra (that's her name) a text asking her if she had read that chapter with her husband. We didn't get anything back. Then Sunday morning we got a text back from her saying that her husband didn't really have any interest in religion and that he doesn't have any time for the things we were talking about. We thought that was okay, and that we'd just keep her going. So we sent her a text recommending Alma 5 to read and we gave a little bit of background and said that we could meet to talk a little bit about it afterward. Then she sent another text saying that her husband didn't want us meeting with her and that she'd just have to perfect her faith on her own at home and the cathedrals. GAH! So, we're a little stumped with this situation but we'll figure something out.

After this had happened, we figured that we had to go and find someone else that was ready to be our hope and dream for the next week. We only had about thirty minutes left to work and so Elder Pearson said that we needed to sit down and pray about where we needed to go. So we sat down, made a few goals about how we could work better (basically Christ-like attributes) and then I told Elder Pearson to pick a place to go and then we'd pray about it. He said that he wanted to go to the town square, so we prayed and didn't feel anything in particular, so we headed off.

On the way, right before we entered the town square, I stopped this one girl who I probably wouldn't have stopped at any other time and we started talking with her. It turns out that she had just barely came into Olomouc but she's going to be studying here. She said that she didn't know anyone and barely knew the city so she said she wasn't running anywhere, so she stood and talked with us for about twenty minutes. That was quite refreshing. So we spoke and talked about the Book of Mormon. We bore really good testimony and promised blessings that she could find things out and that she could find out if God existed. She seemed really open and she said that we could meet sometime when she gets her bearings around the city and her new schedule. Her name is Kristina, and she's kind of our new hope.

That's how things are standing in Olomouc South here in the Czech Republic, but things are really taking a turn and we're feeling that things are going to be great this upcoming week! One thing that we've done is we're really focusing on turning ourselves over to the Lord and being his disciples instead of being people that go around talking about Jesus Christ. We're striving harder to be led, instead of wandering; we're trying harder to testify of Christ, instead of telling people about Christ; and we're trying to live more like Christ, instead of just being here with his name on our suits. I think that this has really made the difference. When we give ourselves completely over to the Lord, He gives us an image of Himself back in return for it. It's only after we make the sacrifice of ourselves, that the Lord can make us more like Him.

I love you all and pray for you. I know that the Lord is among us, but we just need to be faithful and hopeful enough to see His mighty hand in our lives.
Starší Monk

Push and Pull

Dear Family,

This week has been quite interesting - to say the least. We finally had a week where we could just stay and work in Olomouc all week and we were very excited and very sure that some awesome things were going to happen. Well... they did, but as we say in physics - for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. Seems that that applies with spiritual things as well.

On Monday and Tuesday, we didn't really see anything as far as key indicators, but we continued to work hard. Then on Wednesday morning, I got the feeling that we needed to have companionship blessings so that we could get ourselves boosted and ready for the work, so after studies we gave each other blessings and it was a really strong and powerful experience. After that we went out and hit the town hard - we got three bench lessons that day and every one of them accepted a Book of Mormon and a follow up appointment - and that means that we had three new investigators that day. Not too shabby. Actually, that's really awesome.

One of the people that we sat down with was named Filip and he was an interesting contact. We were on the town square and I got the feeling that we needed to go to the wall park (one of the parks in Olomouc - many of the sides are surrounded by the old battlements) and Elder Pearson said that he was getting the same kind of feeling. We realized that it had been a little while since we had been at that park so we figured that it would be a good idea to go and hit it. So we walked to the park and contacted the first guy that was walking out of the park toward us and he didn't really have much interest. Elder Pearson, almost immediately, pointed out a guy who was a little way off on a different path sitting on a bench, and I agreed. As we started getting closer, I said, "I think I've spoken to him before," and I was going to pass, but I thought, "what the heck, I'll go ahead and talk to him." One of the first things that I asked him was if he had spoken with us before, and he said that he hadn't. So we sat down with him and started talking; about why we're here as missionaries, how we can come to find God better in our lives, and the importance of the Book of Mormon. He told us that he was a Catholic but that he didn't feel that his faith in Christ was strong enough and that it wasn't going very well for him. So we promised him that he could find a better connection with God and a better understanding of the way that we need to follow Christ in our lives through the Book of Mormon. He seemed pretty excited to take a Book of Mormon and we had him read just a little bit of the introduction. That turned out really well, and you could almost see a visible change in him as he read it. We then reccomended 2 Nephi 31 to him, prayed and set up for the next day.

The next day, he came and we took him up to the building (might I say that I was ecstatic that he came - we get stood up about 80% of the time) and we taught him a lesson. The lesson was less than perfect and most of the time it felt like we were trying to strong arm our way into his life. For some reason it just didn't have the same impact and meaning as it did the day before. However, when we had him read a little out of 3 Nephi 11 pertaining to baptism, there was a great influence of the Spirit, and sadly, we didn't jump on the opportunity to commit him to baptism because we were afraid of committing him to baptism only fifteen minutes into the lesson. So instead we continued with the lesson and we could tell that the spirit didn't stay that long. We had kind of missed our chance. However, we continued with the lesson and extended him a baptismal commitment at the end and he seemed quite reluctant to the idea. I tried getting him to state his concerns but he was being a little timid and closed off. We tried to end it well, so I asked if he would like to pray - hoping that he'd feel something through praying for himself. Perhaps he did, perhaps he didn't.

Then later that day and also a few times through the next day, we kept seeing him around (turns out he's waiting for his school to start). One time, the day after our meeting at the building, we saw him in the park and felt like we should go and talk to him. So we went up and started talking, just trying to show him that we're normal people and that we're just trying to help him out, instead of being people looking for more baptisms. Then about three minutes into the conversation at an awkward pause, he said, "I've been giving that baptism thing some thought, and I think that it should be a personal thing and I don't think that I'm quite ready yet." We completely agreed with him, and told him that we ask people to be baptized so early because we know how important it is for every one of us and we want people to know our expectations. So now it seems like we're getting off pretty well and things are going okay. We have yet to set up our next meeting and see how things continue, but at least we know that he really thinks about the things we ask him. That's refreshing. Also, when we met with him we found out that he had read 2 Nephi 31, the entire introduction, the three witnesses, the eight witnesses, the Joseph Smith testimony and the first four chapters of 1 Nephi. I think he's looking for something. I really hope that he goes somewhere and that we get something set up with him.

Other than that, we had a really cool bench lesson with a guy on Wednesday - turns out he's a father so we tied the Book of Mormon to him by saying that we can grow closer to our family members through the teachings of Jesus Christ, which we can find in the Book of Mormon. He seemed really interested in improving his family and helping them in any way that he could and we promised him that he could. We had the lesson, set up the next meeting (which was going to be the branch family home evening - we even invited President and his family to come), but he didn't end up coming. Sad thing was, neither did President. Turns out that he was in Brno for "School of the Prophets," so he couldn't make it.

This entire week, I've been having a really hard time concentrating because some time this last week, AP Elder Anderson sent me a text saying that it was time to renew my visa! I just got here, how can it be time to renew it?! So yes, that's bothering me a little, among other things. It seems like I have a lot more on my mind than I should and a lot more than is really needed to get lost in the work. So... that is among my foremost thoughts right now.

Today, Wlastik (Vlastik) took us on a trip to one of the really big cathedrals and it was really cool, however afterward we walked through the hills/mountains/forests for thirty to forty minutes to get to the place where he wanted to have lunch and then we had an hour wait until the bus came to take us back to Olomouc. So, we decided to walk to get to another bus stop. At the next stop we missed by three minutes and would have had to wait for a long time before the next one came, so we ended up walking down the highway for about forty minutes before we got to another bus stop and finally that one came after thirteen minutes. I really think that today we walked a good seven to ten kilometers. Yes, that's a lot. So, our four hour trip (how long Wlastik promised us) ended up being about five or five and a half.

We're going to have zone conference this week, and I'm looking forward to it.

Anyway, interesting week. Hope that all of you are doing well and I hope and pray all the best for you all.
Starší Monk

Svatý Kopečk - the cathedral that we visited with Wlastik

Here I am out front of this massive things,
but inside it's not as large as it looks.

An interesting sign that I saw on the highway back to Olomouc.
"Pozor" means "Caution/Danger" and then it has an upside down car.
What's it warning against? Flipping cars?

Slovenský Týden! (Slovak Week)

Dear Family,

Like I said last week, I was in Slovakia this last week. We left last Monday, even before we finished our P-day, and we went and got on the train to Břeclav which is right on the Czech and Slovak border. Then we got on the train with the elders from Brno and went all the way to Bratislava. I don't know what we were expecting when we got into Bratislava, but we were all really excited to go there because Czech Missionaries just about never get to go to Slovakia - there's just no need. However, surprise surprise, it's about the same as the Czech Republic, except everyone speaks Slovak we all felt like a bunch of second or third transfer missionaries who don't really understand anything and don't know how much people understand us. So that was fun.

We all got split up into different missionary appartments around Bratislava and then we found something to do for dinner and got to bed so we could be at conference the next day by 9:30. There were about five missionaries from the Olomouc Zone (three of us from Olomouc), four from the Brno Zone and I think another five from the Slovakia Zone. So the conference was about 18 people (fourteen leaders and the two aps and President and his wife). We had three places to stay and we were stuck working with only the people in our apartment the entire week so we could keep our things separate.

The first full day that we were there, we had conference until about 4:00 o'clock and then we went out and worked. However, before we went out, we were told that the night before, seven or eight people had been shot and killed near Bratislava, so President wanted to make sure that we wouldn't go out working around there - we weren't going to be anywhere near that. So, the weather was terrible: really cold, strong winds, lots of rain... the whole shabam, so everyone decided to go tracting. I was working with a Slovak elder named Butler and we got along really well. We had some really good doors, but we weren't getting let in at all. Then as we were about to go into another 'panelak,' we got a call from one of the other elders from our apartment. As he was talking on the phone, Elder Butler was getting more and more worried/concerned, asking where they were and telling them to get over to where we were. We got together with them and found out what happened. Basically Elder Rigby and Read were tracting together and as they were coming to the very last floor, they both got the weird feeling that they were going to be kicked out and they even said that to each other, but said it in a silly teasing way like, "wouldn't it be funny if we got kicked out right now?" Well, they knocked on either the second to last or the last door, and a girl came and answered. They were having a good conversation with her and then all of a sudden, a guy walks around the corner and immediately starts yelling at them, telling them to get out. Both Elder Read and Rigby were confused, and started moving away and they got to the door leading outside and it was locked, so the guy who was yelling came over and opened it for them, but continued to be yelling at them. Elder Rigby didn't really understand, but Elder Read said that the guy was saying that he had better never see them again or else he'd shoot them just like the guys who died the day before. We were all really nervous about going anywhere near that area that night as we were going home. Elder Read and Rigby were both pretty shaken up by that.

Then the next day after the conference we went out and worked again and I can't say that I saw anything really amazing, but I felt that I was working well. We had a lot better weather because everyone had prayed for it so we could have a street display, but the Slovak elders chickened out as they'd never done one before and they justified it because it was a holiday of some sort in Slovakia. So we all split up and did contacting again. But the third day, we actually went and did the street display, and I must say, it was probably the most successful street display I've been at. There were many people stopping just to watch and listen and there were always at least four missionaries out contacting people. We were on this really busy street that led to the main square, so there was lots of traffic. I finally got out and started talking with a few people and I even had some young slovak girls ask me to take them back to America with me. After I told them that I was here for two years, they got a little disheartened. That was kind of strange. They, however, were even more disheartened when I told them that I was an hour from New York - I guess they wanted to go there. Another odd thing at the street display was that there was a crazy woman who was screaming at the top of her lungs for like three or four minutes during our singing. The people didn't really seem to care because they had something else to listen to, but man, it was sure distracting. She screamed her lungs out and then left, and came back again a while later and did the same thing again. I also saw an old woman kiss a bronze statue of a girl sitting on the ground a few times... that was weird. I guess every city has their crazies, but that just goes to show you, opposition in all things - so the prepared must be here!

When we finally got back to Olomouc, we felt really fired up from the conference and were ready to go to work. I found myself talking to many more people than I would normally speak to and being much more bold with them as far as my calling is as a missionary - a representative of Jesus Christ.

Remember last transfer when we nearly flooded our house due to a broken toilet? Well, on Saturday during weekly planning, or maybe afterward, I saw Elder Pearson come into the room with a piece of toast and I thought to myself, "that looks good. I'll make myself one." So I went into the kitchen and put in some bread, but I noticed that the little lever wouldn't go down very smoothly- actually, not easily at all. I had to force it down. After I got it down, it occured to me that it woudln't come up easily either, so I just figured that I'd come back into the room and take it out manually after a minute or two. So I went back in the other room and sat down to start speaking with Elder Pearson. A few minutes later, I smelled something and Elder Pearson asked, "is something burning?" I immediately took off for the kitchen because I knew what it was. Yes, just as I had predicted, the toaster didn't pop up and the toast stayed in there, continuing to cook and cook and burn and burn. The whole house, except for the room where we were sitting, was completely filled with smoke and my toast was just a few completely black pieces of charcoal. Sad day. Anyhow, we found out that our smoke detector is not in the most logical place to detect smoke from the kitchen! It is in the back room with us so we're going to move it. So, yes... I nearly flooded that house, and now I've almost burned it down. What will I do next?

The missionary work continues and everything goes faster and faster. I can't believe that next month I will be hitting my one-year mark on the mission. Yes, many of my companions around the mission (especially Elder Page) like pointing out that I'm a really old missionary here in the mission. That's weird. Anyway, I love you all and hope that you enjoy this picture. It's a picture of Elder Page, Pearson (older Pearson) and me at President Šlezar's house.

Much love and prayers,
Starší Monk