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