Dear Family,
This last week has been really great. It didn't seem like a whole lot happened, but we felt like we did our part and things just kind of fell into place.
On Wednesday, we were out around Trebic talking to people and trying to find that person that's ready to listen to our message. We were probably out for three or four hours and no one had spoken to us yet, but Elder Vomocil pointed out that there was this one girl that he had been seeing around town that day and that he felt like he should speak to her, so he said that if he saw her again, he would speak with her. Well, about five minutes later, there she was, so we pushed our way through a crowd and kind of cut so that we could get in front of her and start talking. It was a little strange, but we didn't let it bother anyone. We started talking and we asked her if she had some time that we could sit down and talk for a bit. She said that she did and so we went over a little way and sat on a bench. She only had about ten minutes before she had to be at a different meeting, but we sat and spoke about what we're doing, what the basics of our message is, and about how we help people come closer to Christ. She said that she wasn't really a believer, but that she knows lots of people around her who are believers, but she didn't know for herself. We exchanged numbers and went on our way, but we felt that we had found our person. Over the next few days, we kept seeing her around, and we'd stop and talk just for a bit. We'd just talk about whatever, but probably the coolest thing is that she wants to meet with us and talk more about our message. She's actually interested! It's also great to see someone who doesn't just see us as a suit. Her name is Lucie.
Then on Friday, we had a pingpong tournament and grill with the branch. Everyone kept warning us about Brother Kutil, and that he wins every year. Now, if you knew Brother Kutil, you would be a little confused as well. He's a really reserved, soft-spoken guy, but very solid in the church, so to hear that he wins the pingpong tournament every year, was a little crazy. Well, they made the bracket, and I worked my way through and got up to the top three. It was between me, Lenka Červeňová and Brother Kutil. I beat Lenka, and then I played Brother Kutil. Oh my word. He is very good, but he would come down to your level and then step it up just one notch so that you would get beat at your own level. I nearly won one set, but it got to a deuce and then he won that. The prize for winning was a home baked cake by Sister Koutková, but every year Brother Kutil just shares his winning cake with everyone.
Then on Saturday we had the baptism! It was just so cool to see an entire family get baptized, parents and two children. There's not a whole lot to say. I got to baptize the mother. I had taught them twice before while I was on exchanges, so I guess they liked me at least a little. A different missionary baptized each member of the family. It was a special experience for President Svoboda (president of the branch in Jihlava) because he was baptized in the same place almost exactly twenty years ago, so he said that he'd never forget the Gunarovi family.
Later Saturday, I did some calling and called some of our investigators to see if they could come to church, even though we hadn't had any meetings with them that week, because they all had pretty legitimate excuses. They were all pretty sure that I would be leaving and so they were really keen on coming to church to at least see me for the last time, so it turned out that we had three people to church without having any lessons during the week. Interesting. We then met with Ari (bet you haven't heard about her in a while) after a long time because she's been taking care of Bayar who had a stroke, and gave her a baptismal date again! She accepted and really wants to go through with it.
Now, we just had transfers. Yes, I did get transfered. I got transfered to Ostrava. My train was supposed to go from Trebic to Brno, and then I would get on a different train from Brno straight to Ostrava, but this morning when I got on my train, the train conductor came around and told me that we would be changing and getting onto a bus in a while that would take us to Brno. Why? I don't know. Well, luckily, the bus got there early and I made my transfer to my next train. Once I got on the train, the conductress came around and told me that we would be transfering to a bus that would only go a little way, and then we'd have to get on a train again, and then that would take us all the way to Ostrava. Oh my word. I have about 150-160 lbs of stuff, and it was not easy to carry around. Luckily enough for me, there was a guy in Brno who was nice enough to help me. We found out quickly that he was going to Ostrava as well, so every time that we changed, he helped me with the lighter of the two bags. I got here on time, but man was it annoying. I was expecting to sleep a little and rest up, but no. Oh well. I made it and I'm alive.
There are some really cool things that look like they're going to go through here in Ostrava. Right now Ostrava seems like the land of milk and honey, so this will be quite the change from other towns that I've been in. I'm really excited.
I love you all a lot and hope that things are going well for you all.
Starší Monk