A Turn to the Better

Dear Family,

I heard that there was a hurricane on the East Coast, but Suzie told me that you're all well and fine.  I'm glad of that.  I remembered hearing from people around town telling me that there was a hurricane heading for the Northeast and telling me that it would hit New York.  I didn't know whether to believe them or to not let it bother me.  I decided to leave it in the Lord's hands.  It seems that it's turned out for the best.

So, a little about this last week.  This has been the miracle week of my mission.  It seemed that finally, when at the beginning of the transfer that everything that could go wrong did go wrong, now everything that could go right did go right.  It was a truly amazing week.  First off, we had something that has only happened a few times in my mission: we had at least one lesson every single day of the week and more than half of the week we had at least two (we totaled up at the end of the week at twelve).

So, a kind of crazy story about something that happened this week.  Almost two weeks ago now, we contacted this couple on the street close to the town square  We spoke for just a few minutes but they didn't really seem to have any interest.  They then told us that they were going to catch a bus, and we told them that we were too (and we actually were - we were just contacting on the way) and found out they were going to the same place, so, perhaps against their will, we followed them and continued to speak with them.  The girl was really quiet, but I tried to get her involved as well.  They really didn't seem to have any interest, but kept asking questions because they didn't want to make a scene and tell us to go away, so perhaps they were asking the questions just keep a friendly conversation.  At the end when we parted from each other, we gave them both contact cards and thought that was that, however, a few days later we got a really random text.  It was from an unknown number and all it was was a smiley face ":)".  That really confused us because were off to a meeting and we didn't have time to reply, so we left it for a little later.  When I finally got around to texting back, I sent something to the effect of: "Hi.  How are you?  Who are you?"  I got back that it was "Aneta" and that we had met the previous Friday.  I didn't remember any Aneta and so I just played along and asked if she'd like to meet with us.  She said yes, and so we set something up and we didn't really know what to think.  So, come the meeting, we get to the place (meetings where you don't know who you're meeting with are the worst because you just stand there looking at everyone really strangely/friendly in such a way to say, "are you my friend that I'm waiting for?") and start waiting, but we didn't wait long before this girl starts walking up to us.  Then I recognized her, though I still didn't remember where we'd met.  But recognized her.  We took her over and sat down and had a decent lesson.  She's way quiet, still, but said that she wanted to meet because she was curious in learning more.  Okay, I can deal with that.  So we taught her and gave her a Book of Mormon, and set up for another lesson.  She came to the next meeting too.  That lesson went better, but still way quiet.  Then we invited her to come to family home evening (an activity put on by the senior couple for young adults) and she agreed to come to that.  Elder Gabrielsen reminded me after the first lesson that she was the girl with the guy that we contacted on that road, and it blew my mind.  I really didn't think that anything came of that conversation, but I guess something did!

Also, with Laďa, he's still doing well and going strong to baptism.  He prayed the other day in a lesson with us and in his prayer, said that he's looking forward and is excited for his baptism.  He also came with us to a baptism that happened in Třebíč!  Yes, there was one there.  Laďa really liked it and knows a little more for sure what he's getting himself into, but really he's so set on it that I doubt anything is going to keep him back from it.

Anyway, back to that baptism in Třebíč: Ari Kanitrova got baptized!  She's the Mongolian lady that I taught back then.  She was so happy to see me.  They asked me to play a small musical number at the baptism and I said that it wouldn't be a problem, but the night before, on the way home, I remembered that I had left the violin at the church building, so that meant that we'd have to get up early, go to the building, pick up the violin, come back the way we came to the train station, buy the tickets, and then get on the train.  From our house to the building can be a good forty minute excursion if you catch the trams just right, so we had to get up quite early because our train was at 7:45.  Anyway, we made that just fine and made out train just fine.  We got to Třebíč, and then, when we were down in the valley (the train station is up on the hill above Třebíč) Elder Bracken asked, "Where's the violin?"  I had left the violin on the train.  Elder Gabrielsen and I ran back up the hill (it was a four to six minute run straight up hill) to train station to find that the train had already left.  We had been gone for a good ten minutes, so it didn't surprise me.  We got in contact with some people there and they contacted the train and found the violin and put it on the next train back to Třebíč, but it was going to be after we had to be at the baptism, so we had the baptism without my musical number, but instead we missionaries sang it.  The baptism was beautiful.  I'll add a picture.  Afterward, I went and picked up the violin and went and saw Dana again.  She's doing fine, but she's got a whole new pile of problems.

That was a fun little excursion in Třebíč.  That's only the second convert baptism in Třebíč in five years.  I can gladly say that I am really happy for them.

Yesterday we had a conference here in Brno, so that's why we didn't get to have p-day or emailing, and thus I'm writing today.  We went on a vylet (small trip) to a castle near by named Pernštýn.  It was pretty cool, but, what can I say, it was a pretty typical castle, but probably better than the castle was being with the district just to hang out.  That was what I really liked.

I can't believe that it's already my last p-day and that I'll be seeing you all in a week, but it's true.  I'll just work as hard as I can now, and be glad to see you when I get there.  I'll be satisfied that I have done everything that I could have.  I love you all.  Here are some pictures.

Love, 

Starší Monk

PS - P 0890 is Ari and Elder Bracken

P 0875 is where the baptism was outside of Třebíč

p 0301 is our district, Bara, Lad'a and Kaja

p 0308 is me in the dungeon of Pernštýn

Finally, Something Different!

Dear Family,

This week has been wonderful!  It's a little scary because Elder Bown went home this last week, and that's really brought some realization to me of how fast the end is coming.  So, the trend in our area this transfer has been that we set up tons of meetings, and then no one comes, but this week has been different!  It's great.

So, at the beginning of this transfer, Elder Bown had set up a meeting with some guy that he didn't know, because he was just a potential in the phone (his name's Vladimir), and when we came to the place where we had arranged to meet, this man walked up to us kind of weird and greeted us, and so we took it to be him.  Kinda strange, but whatever.  We took him to a cafe and sat down and spoke with him.  We tried to talk about the Book of Mormon and prayer, but the conversation got kind of taken over by him trying to let us know what he believes too.  It was a really strange meeting, where nothing really happened, so we didn't call him back.  Then a month later, Elder Bown accidentally called him again, and set up with him again.  So we took him somewhere else, so we didn't have the distractions of a cafe, and used the restoration pamphlet so that we could keep some control on the lesson.  It went fairly well, and he thumbed through the pamphlet many times and glanced at things.  Then I asked him what he'd be doing on Sunday (I thought, "why not.").  He put his hand on my shoulder and shook me a little bit, in a good way, and said, "aha, I already know what you're hinting at."  He then told us that he can't promise anything.  Then he continued to try and teach us the things that he believes.  However, Sunday rolls around, and fifteen minutes before church starts, we get a text from him saying, "Hey, I'm going to be a little late, but I'm coming."  That threw us all for a loop.  He walked in about ten minutes after it started and Elder Gabrielsen sat with him and walked him through everything.  He ended up staying for all three hours.  After second hour, he told me that he knew one of the members here, but he didn't remember from where.  He then went up and spoke with him and they remembered that they had worked at the same firm seventeen years ago.  This particular member has been a member his entire life and he was one of the ones that kept the church alive here in the Czech Republic during communism.  Then later, after third hour, he told me that he recognized another member!  They spoke for a while and they couldn't remember from where, but they both agreed that they knew each other.  Then this last week, we had another meeting with him, I wasn't there because I was on an exchange with Elder Dietrich, but Elder Gabrielsen was at the meeting.  There they spoke about baptism and committed him.  He accepted, and then he was quiet.  Elder Uremovich told me that he thought he was having doubts about what he said, so he began to explain more about it to try and ease his mind about it, but he butted in and said, "I already said yes, don't worry about it."  So that was very surprising.  He also came again to church this week.  He said that he didn't know if he'd be in town, but if he was he'd come, and he came!  Once again, he came in just a little late, and we weren't expecting him, so neither of us were waiting for him, but he came in and sat down by himself and loved it once again.  He stayed for all three hours and at the end of the third hour, he told me that he knew the teacher who taught third hour too (this week it was another teacher).  He then told me that when he had come to church last week, he knew so many people that he took it as a sign from God that this is the church he's supposed to be a part of.  That's way cool.  We're going to meet with him twice this next week and really try and get him going strong.

Then also, there's this kid that Elder Gabrielsen spoke with alone while he was on another exchange with Elder Bailey, and he got his number and we finally got a meeting set up with him.  The lesson was actually on the same day that Elder Uremovich and Gabrielsen gave Vladimir his date, and they gave this kid a date too!  His name is Patrik.  He seems really cool.  Elder Gabrielsen is really excited for him and I'm really excited to meet him.  Yesterday, Elder Gabrielsen sent him a text asking if he'd have any time this week.  Then he texted us a little later (at 9:00pm) and said he was sorry that he's texting so late, but he just back from a trip to Austria.  He then asked if we could meet "tomorrow" which is today.  We said yes, and then he started apologizing because he remembered that it was our free day.  I don't know how he knows it's our free day, but that's okay.  We got the meeting set up with him anyway, so I'm finally going to be able to meet him!

Also, this last week, there was a wedding here in Brno.  It was between a member from Bratislava (capital of Slovakia) and a member from Prague.  They're going to be living here so that they can go to school.  I was at the building quite a bit to help prepare the building, and they also asked me to do some music for the wedding, so I was there all day on Saturday.  The wedding was really fun, and some of the traditions afterward were pretty funny.  One of them, they put a horse yoke around each of their necks, and then tied them together with something that looked like dental floss and then gave some symbolic explanation of it all, but I couldn't hear it.  And once they took those off, one member began congratulating them and then took a dish and threw it on the ground.  Then someone behind the couple handed them a dustpan and they had to clean it up.  Then once they were nearly done cleaning, a member from Slovakia (who also just got married a few months ago) ran in and broke another dish and ran out laughing/giggling.  Someone was saying, "You can't do that!" but she just said, "Oh, c'mon, they do that in Slovakia."  And once they were nearly done cleaning that one, a member from Olomouc ran in and broke another one.  It was pretty funny because each "extra" time was not supposed to happen.  Someone explained to me afterward that the more shards there are, the more happiness they're going to have in their marriage and also them cleaning it up together is them learning to work together.

I can't believe how time is flying.  Things are finally turning up and I'm going to try and keep pushing it right up to the end.  I love you all and hope you're doing wonderfultastic!

Much love, and see you all soon,

Starší Monk

Areas Served

Even More of the Same

Dear Family,

It seems that the longer that I'm on the mission, the more that everything becomes the same.  Don't you feel that way sometimes with everyday life?  It's kind of weird.  I remember once before the mission, or at the beginning of the mission, that I heard, "You spend the first year learning the language, and then the second year on how to be a missionary... and then you go home once you have it all figured out."  Yeah, feeling kind of like that right now.  The other day we were at a member's home and we were showing her our pictures, and I realized that it had been a long time since I had looked through my pictures.  When we did, I felt really weird.  You know when you look at someone else's pictures and you don't feel like you really have any attachment to the people you're looking at?  I had a strange degree of the same feeling.  I still knew everyone, but I just felt like they were friends that I hadn't seen in a long time and didn't really have any contact with.  Weird.  I know that's going to change really fast, but that's how it is for the time being.

Anyway, we had kind of a fun experience with an old lady this last week.  Elder Gabrielsen, about two weeks ago, contacted an older lady on a tram when we were going somewhere, and she told him that she had already met with missionaries in the past and she immediately gave him her number, full name and where she lives.  That was strange.  Then she told him that she'd love for us to come over some time.  So I called her and she was very nice, and we arranged to come over for lunch.  So, when we arrived at her home, which is on the complete other side of Brno from where we live, which took about forty minutes to get to by tram, she let us in and we found out that she had her sister-in-law there with her.  They made it sound like they're always together.  Anyway, before we began eating, they said that they like to pray beforehand, so they taught us the prayer that they were going to say, but they said that you don't just say it; it needs to be sung.  So they told us the words, and then they sang the prayer.  It was really funny and cute.  Then they brought out the soup and we at it, then she brought out the goulaš and we ate it, and then she brought out the dessert and we ate it, and we thought that was the end.  Then she brought out some more of the dessert and when we finished it, she brought out another tray/dish of it and told us to eat it all.  My word.  It was a lot.  Anyway, back to them and not the food.  They're both evangelical and they're just the sweetest old ladies.  They told us that they had met with sister missionaries in the past, about five or six years ago, and that whenever they'd come over, they would always have a message to give, and then they'd write down an assignment to read from the Book of Mormon down on a piece of paper for them to read, and then they'd be quizzed on it the next time that they came over.  It was really cute, because at the end, she pointed at Elder Gabrielsen and told him that he has to give her an assignment from the Book of Mormon and that he had to write it down on a piece of paper, just like the sisters did before.  They also wanted to take us on a walk through the woods to see some wild pigs that they have.  She said that they're just small ones, but we just didn't have the time for it.  I think that they wanted to keep us for at least a few hours.  My word, these women just liked to talk and reminisce about when the missionaries would visit them.  We didn't get a message in, so I told them that next time we would have a small message that we would like to give them next time, and they agreed to that.

Also, this last week we had a strange little exchange between the three elders' areas this last week, because we're all having a little bit of a hard time finding new investigators, so we decided to shake it up and get some new enthusiasm among eachother.  I went off with Elder Pearson, the one that I follow-up trained in Olomouc (he's my zone leader now here in Brno), and we had a really great time.  We met this one man in a park next to a cathedral named Martin.  He's going through a lot of hard stuff right now, and he's just really doubtful about what can and can't be, but he really sat and listened to what we had to say, and it was probably the best bench lesson that I've had in a long time.  I could feel my love for this man growing and I just wanted so badly to give him the assurance of the gospel.  We gave him the reason to meet with us, we promised blessings, told him a piece of the message, and told him how, even though we have hard times, we can make it through happily thanks to the gospel.  He made it sound, with his inflections, like it was too good to be true and that he didn't really believe it, but we challenged him to meet with us again and he can begin trying it out for himself.  He accepted it and I'm really excited to see what goes on with him.  He's not going to be in my area, because I was working for the zone leader area at the time, but I should see him around.

Other than that, it's been a lot of the same.  We're still setting up between fifteen to eighteen lessons a week, and if they would all come, they'd almost all be new investigators.  However, only between two to five of them actually come.  It's really disappointing, but we're doing what we can and that's all that the Lord is expecting of us.

I love you all and I'm happy to hear that things are going well.  Rely on the Lord, there's no better way.  Love,
Starší Monk

Things Are Starting to Wrap Up

Dear Family,

So, as most of you already know, I'm going to be coming home early from my mission.  Ricky's going on his mission in October and if I stayed until the end of my mission, I would be coming home at the beginning of November.  My mission here is actually a twenty-five month mission so I would have missed him by one month.  That would have been a bit of a bummer.  However, if my mission wasn't a twenty-five month mission, then I would be coming home the fourteenth of October and would have missed him by like one week.  That would be more disappointing.  Anyway, I say this because time is finally starting to creep up on me.  It's been strange working through the mission.  At the beginning you look at it and say, "I have my entire mission ahead of me," and then the entire time you're in the middle, you say, "I've still got time," and then it seems that the end just creeps up on you and it's there before you even know it!

The work is going the same here.  Every week we're setting up between fifteen to twenty different lessons, and all of them would become new investigators if they'd come, but we get between one and five people who actually come to their meetings.  So, it's being a little bit of a bummer right now.  We don't have much of a teaching pool to work with, but we're doing well.

One cool thing that happened this last week is that we've been meeting with this one man named Vit, who comes to meetings and just talks the entire time-- not really saying much about the gospel or really letting us get a few words so that we can try and at least teach something about the gospel.  Anyway, our second-to-last meeting we gave him the commitment to talk to someone that he knows about us and see if they'd have interest in meeting with us as well.  Well, he came to his meeting this last week and we talked about the normal stuff for a while and to be truthful, I wasn't really paying much attention, even though I should have been.  Then he started talking about how he did his "homework."  He said that he had five or six families in mind that he wants to invite to visit with us.  He said that two really would be promising so he went and talked to them, and they said that they would be interested in speaking with us.  As for the other four, he may speak to them.  Hopefully.  Also, before that meeting, he and his wife had some free time-- the kids were off somewhere-- so he threw in the Restoration video and watched it with her.  He said that she really liked it and that she reacted well to it.  My thoughts are that he's not making progress now because he wants to wait until his wife is on board with him to really start taking what we have seriously.  I can't really complain about that too much.  He kept saying that he has to win lots of small battles until he can start winning the war.  He said that his wife had some bad experiences with religion in the past, so now she has prejudices against any religion and doesn't really want to take or try anything.

Also this last week we met with a guy named Stanislav.  He's a really funny old guy.  Elder Bown met him on a tram one night while we were going home and they started talking a lot. When they got off the tram, they kept talking for a while and since that day, about two weeks ago, he would take that same tram home trying to see Elder Bown again.  Finally, this last week, they met again and we got a meeting set up with him.  The meeting was really funny and actually really good at the same time.  He came to the building and we took him in and showed him around.  He really liked it and said that it's modern, but mainly that it was clean.  He liked that.  Then we sat down and he kept telling us stories about his life, but then whenever we'd butt in and start talking about the gospel, he'd stop and listen very closely.  We gave him a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet.  The entire time he was treating us like we were his grandkids: patting us on the knee, patting our face when ever he'd make a joke atd.  He said that he'd come to church, but he didn't come for some reason.  He also doesn't have a phone, so we can't call him and see what's up, but we have his address, so we're going to have to try and find it some time.  He's a really sweet old man.  I hope that we find him.

Other than that, there were a few other little things that were cool, but it would take too long to write them all out.  So, as for the "starting to wrap up" comment, there are things that are going to be happening very soon and they're just making me think again about how little time I really have.  (Perhaps one, glancing at the blog and seeing a countdown timer.  Thanks dad. :P)  Things are going well, and I just hope that I'm going to be able to sprint all the way to the end of my mission.

I love you all very much, hope everything's going fine.

Starší Monk

PS - These are my beautiful companions (left - Elder Gabrielsen; right - Elder Bown).

Branching Out

Dear Family,

This week has had some pretty cool little blessings.  About a week and a half ago, we spoke with Brother Čaňo (the second councilor in the branch presidency) about meeting with him and his family (him, his son and his less active daughter) so that we could teach them the lessons, because we're not teaching very much.  He agreed but said that probably not the week that I asked him because his kids would be off at some camp or something, but he would love to have us over the next week.  So we called him this last week and set something up on Friday.  Elder Bown ran off with Elder Uremovich to go to a lesson because Elder Dietrich was sick, so Elder Gabrielsen and I went off alone.  Just he and his son were there.  He said that his daughter had ran off to grandma's house before he even came home.  No matter.  We asked them to act like they were investigators and that they didn't know about our message, and we taught the first lesson.  It was a very good first lesson in which Elder Gabrielsen took a big part.  He taught "God is our Loving Heavenly Father," "Gospel Blesses Families," and then some of Dispensations and then handed it off to me and then later he quoted the first vision and taught a large chunk of the restoration.  Brother Čaňo was asking lots of questions like he was an investigator, and it was really good for our practice.  I even made Elder Gabrielsen answer many of the questions.  After the lesson/practice, Brother Čaňo said that he really liked it and that he'd really like for us to come over again some time.  He also said that he would invite his mother over and we could teach her exactly the way that we just taught them.  She's not a member, and he said that she hasn't ever met with the missionaries.  He did say, however, that he wouldn't be able to set up that meeting or have us over for three or four weeks because he's going to Sweden either yesterday evening or today.  Then we asked him if he knew any other members who he thought could benefit from hearing the lessons, like we shared with him.  He thought about it for a second, and referred us to a member who's been a little less active, and who's wife is not a member, but is perfectly fine with listening to gospel topics whenever he goes over and speaks with them.  It was just such a cool thing to see that we went over, had him pretend to be an investigator, taught the lesson and then afterward, he could see that we wanted to help him.  Yes, we came over to practice teaching, but we also came to strengthen him, and he saw that.  We didn't really even ask for referrals, but instead, he saw that it was a good thing and that he recognized people that he wanted to share it with.  This was probably the best member visit that I've had, perhaps because we also told him that we wanted to come and teach, not eat dinner.  That always helps.  I got to know Brother Čaňo a lot better as well.  I heard about his conversion story, and how when he read the Book of Mormon, he said that it was what he was looking for.  That sparked a question in me.  I asked him then, "When you first met the missionaries, did you know that you were looking for something?"  He told me that he didn't and that he was grateful that the missionaries had started meeting with him and that they gave him the Book of Mormon.  I'm really excited to keep meeting with other members, because I know that members have much more potential than they know as far as it comes to missionary work.

Another thing this last that was a little out of the ordinary was that on Tuesday, Elder Bown got a call from President Irwin during district meeting, so he left the room to answer it, but soon came back and handed me the phone.  So, I left the room and started speaking with President.  He started by asking me what I was doing a little bit later in the day, and I said not much.  He said, "Great, then I'd like you to be at the building to do some translating work for us."  Well.  It turned out that they're trying to institute a new program here in the Czech Republic and they had a meeting consisting President Irwin, two officials from the church, a senior couple from Jihlava, the first councilor in the branch presidency of Brno, and me.  Basically I was there for the councilor, because he was the only Czech at the meeting.  President told me that he speaks English and understands quite well, but just in case he doesn't catch something or he doesn't know how to say something, I'd be there to do that translating.  The meeting turned out to be about an hour and a half, and through the entire meeting, I had to translate two questions from Czech into English.  He understood the rest and could express himself how he wanted.  I came out of it with a little bit of a headache because the entire time I was translating everything into Czech in my head just to keep up in case he asked me what something meant.  He didn't, but I was prepared.  I actually learned a few new words, but I'm not really sure how often I'll use them.

Other than that, it's been the same old work.  I love it and we're doing great.  We actually came up with a game this last week for contacting people on public transportation - which by the way is really hard.  We call it "futbal," or in English, "football."  Basically, while we're waiting for the tram or bus to come, we decide who's going to be pointing out someone for the other to contact.  That way we're not picking our own person to talk to.  When the tram or bus comes up, then we all pick someone for the other and then we get on.  So that it's a game where we're working together instead of against each other, we only get the point if all of us talk to our designated person.  That also motivates us to talk to our person because we don't want to be the one responsible for being the one that didn't do it.  Then we decided that we could get an extra point if one of us talks to another person on top of the one that was pointed out for them.  It's the little things that keep us focused on the bigger picture.

This week has been really rewarding, even though we don't see a whole lot of outward results all the time.  I love my companions.  They're both fantastic.  I love you all and hope that everything is going well for you and that you're keeping up on your reading and praying!  It's important.

Love you all,

Starší Monk