Addresses for contacting Elder Monk

Elder Monk is leaving the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on Monday, December 14. He will not receive mail at the MTC after Friday, December 11. Please do not send mail through http://www.dearelder.com/ after 12:00 (noon) on Friday. He will not receive it.

From now on, the best way to contact Elder Monk is by email. His email address is andrew.monk@myldsmail.net.

Physical mail should be sent to the mission office. The office staff will deliver it to him wherever he may be assigned. We've been advised that packages must be addressed exactly as follows in order to ensure delivery. Andy's name must be on the second line, with the church name on the first line, or mission office staff will not be allowed to sign for the package. Furthermore, the customs declaration form must be filled out completely and accurately.  Nothing may have a value of $0.  The total value of the package must not be more than $28 (US).  Letters are not so strict.

Církev Ježíše Krista Svatých posledních dnů
Starší Andrew Monk
Milady Horákové 85/95
170 00 Praha 7 – Holešovice
Česká Republika – Evropa

If you have questions, you may contact Andy's parents at monkr63@hotmail.com.

Last P-Day in the MTC

Dear Family,

Well, it's finally here. Well, as close to "it" as you'll hear from me. I'm going to be leaving for the Czech Republic this coming Monday! It's so crazy! My dad sent me a Dear Elder yesterday making assumptions that I'm very excited to be leaving, but also kind of dreading getting there because I won't know how to say anything. That is true. Both statements are true. The longer that I stay here, the more bored I get because it seems that I'm just studying the same things over and over and it's just a constant stream of busy work: memorize vocabulary and mark scriptures. It's not bad, in fact I like it alot, but I'd much rather be doing something else; perhaps, what missionaries do! Another thing I'd like to point out that's happened to me - I can't sit still and not do something. It drives me nuts. Of course I still zone out every now and then, but just sitting, consciously not doing anything... I get antsy. That's a good thing, but it's a good and bad thing from the Lord.

Anyway, I'd like to just share a few thoughts that I've had from being here at the MTC. My dad said to me one time, "Just because you're going on a mission doesn't mean you'll be a different person." Dad, I'd like to tell you that you're wrong. I have been changed in Christ, and I can feel it. Before coming on the mission, you and mother would talk about me not having enough ambition to do things but I've found out that the reason for being so was because I didn't define a clear-cut purpose that I really wanted to work toward. Christ truly does change people. He has changed me, and I know that He will change the people of the Czech Republic that will listen to His words. Jesus Christ is constant in our lives and because of that, none of us will ever have to be alone. Cast your burdens upon Him and He will help you change. That is the purpose; the reason we are on Earth. We are here to prepare to meet God. Part of that preparation is becoming clean through Christ. We, as imperfect as we are, can always become clean because of the infinite atonement that Christ performed on our behalf. There is no trouble, pain or sin that is too great for the power of the atonement to overcome. I know it. It has worked in my life and it is too strong to deny. I implore every one of you who feels the burden of despair, either from stress, sin or just from every day wear and tear to cast your burdens upon Christ. He has already paid the price and He wants us to take advantage of His sacrifice. If we did not, it would be as a prideful child turning from the help of his Older Brother who has already experienced it and wants to help each of us become perfect, even as our Father.

My testimony has grown far more than I could have ever believed; however, I know that I am still among the weakest of God's children. God truly does call us in our weaknesses to help us become strong. God, as our all-knowing Father, knows the exact things that will profit us the most. Many times they are the things that we do not want because we know that they are hard. I want to tell you that these things that come upon us are for our own good. God knows that if we endure them well we will be strengthened by them and will have taken the next difficult step on the way to Eternal Life.

One such difficult step for me was realizing that once I had this purpose that I was so set on fulfilling, I would become very narrow minded. I wouldn't be understanding to my companions sometimes. Many times, I would have to take a step back and tell myself that these little things that I was getting upset about weren't so bad. One time, we were supposed to have interviews on Sunday morning right at seven o'clock. So I was very intent on being on time to that. It turned out that we were four minutes late and I knew we'd be late because we left the residence hall at seven. This ticked me off because I wouldn't achieve my goal that I had made. But then I took a step back and thought, "Is four minutes really that big of a deal?" Turns out that nothing was lost because of those four minutes, but I also did learn that we need to try to do our best. As long as we do that, the power of the atonement will cover the rest of our sins and shortcomings because our pefect Redeemer knows each of our abilities and knows how far we can go, and that is all that He will ask of us. Jesus Christ knows that I have my weaknesses and He also knows my strenghts. I love the atonement because through it, Jesus Christ knows me perfectly, and thus, He is the perfect Judge.

I'm not sure what else to say at this point. I am very thankful for all of you who are supporting me on my mission because I know that the Lord, Jesus Christ, blesses the lives of individuals through the actions of others. I know that Christ is acting through you to bless my life. I don't know if I'd have the strength to go from day to day without the constant love and encouraging words that you send me.

The other day, I had a very random and strange thought pop into my head. It was about the number of people that I'd baptize on my mission. I got a very distinct and clear number and frankly, it scared me. So that night I prayed to know if this number was correct and the answer scared me even more. I know now that I'm going to have to work very, very hard on my mission to accomplish this goal that the Lord has set for me.

I love you all very much and know that we will all be blessed through our Lord, Jesus Christ,

Starsi Monk

Is it a bad thing that it's December?

Dear Family,

So, today being December first, I began to think: I'm going to be in the CZECH REPUBLIC in a matter of just thirteen days. Is that crazy or what? Yes, very crazy. I was going to write "Very Crazy" in Czech, but I don't know the word for crazy.

Anyway, I got a few Dear Elders from you this past week asking if I was sick this past week and couldn't go and write emails. The answer is: No. I wrote up the entire thing last week and my timer was down to one minute and then my screen flashed and logged me out of the mail, however my timer was still going. So I panicked and logged back on and my email was completely gone. So, I wrote a snail mail to my dad basically saying everything that I wrote in the email, but condensed because my hand hurt. Anyway, I guess my dad hasn't gotten the letter yet. I'm sure when he gets it, he'll type it in here. (Actually, he may have gotten it and has already typed it in and I just don't know cause I can't read the blog :D. So in other words, I'm writing up this long explanation for no apparent reason). I'm glad you guys like to hear me rant about nothing.

So this past week was-- Woah! Aside moment! I just got an email from my dad that said he put the letter into the blog. I swear it wasn't there when I logged on and now it is. It's dated 11/30 at 10:52pm. Way to go MTC mail system!-- was pretty normal.

The RC was awesome this week. I talked to, check this, ONE person. However, we spoke for an hour and a half. It was over chat so it was a little more understandable. He told me that he had seen the missionaries once and they gave him a Book of Mormon and he read it and prayed about it. Then, here we go, he said that the answer he got pointed him toward Islam. How that happened, I don't know. How can reading the Book of Mormon lead you to Islam? Ne vím (I do not know). Anyway, he told me that he had been to mormon.org a few times and had been treated badly by some of the other elders. I'm sure that these elders weren't meaning to treat him badly, but he did have hard questions. I found myself reaching into deep doctrinal answers to answer him, but he seemed to take it very well. It was quite awesome.

We spoke for an hour and a half and I thought that I should talk to him again, so we spent ten minutes trying to figure out when we could meet again. We decided that this Saturday he'll try and get on again so that we can chat. I'm really looking forward to speaking with him again. At one point, we were talking about the after-life and how we can live with God one day, and he asked, "Is there a way that I can have this and still be Muslim?" Sadly, I had to tell him no, but this also told me that he wants to have the blessings our Heavenly Father has for him. I think that if I keep trying with him, he'll begin to build his faith in Christ and come to His church. I also challenged him to meet with the missionaries again, and he accepted. It was super-cool. I know that being in the field is going to be awesome.

Another thing, yesterday during our MDT time, I asked my teacher, Brother Cardon, if I could have just fifteen minutes to practice speaking Czech with him and he agreed. We went into another room and we just began talking about my day, in Czech of course, and I think that we had a pretty good conversation. I said most of what I wanted to say and he would reply back. It wasn't as stressful as the "schuzkas" where they'll say, "Ne rozumím" (I do not understand) if you speak English. Every now and then I'd come to a word that I didn't know and he'd help me by giving me the word. It was pretty awesome. I learned a few new words that are really going to facilitate normal conversation, and at the end I asked him how my Czech was. He said that it was really good and that I shouldn't be worried about going to the Czech Republic; however, I still am. How could I not be?

Anyway, I love you all and thank you for the continued support that I get from you all. OK, I'm going to use my last eight minutes and try and write a small testimony in Czech. =\

Múj milujici rodine, miluju vás vždy. Každy jeden vás jste nejdúležitý na mi. Vím že, Ježíš Kristus je náše spasitel. Vím že, On zemřil pro náše hřichy. Skrze On, vím že, múžeme být čistý pro krev zemi. Miluju moje vykupitel, Ježíše Krista.

That comes out to: My loving family, I love you all. Every one of you are of utmost importance to me. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know that He died for our sins. Through Him, I know that we can be clean from the blood of the world. I love my redeemer, Jesus Christ.

I love you all very very much and I hope you can feel that love in your lives from the people around you. I know that the Lord blesses us in our every day lives. Miracles do happen.

Open your eyes and see the blessings. I pray for you all,
Starší Monk

November 24, 2009 letter

Dear Family,

Sorry there wasn't any post this last Tuesday. We only get thirty minutes on the computer and I was typing my email when it logged me off with one minute left! So I logged back in and I still only had that one minute, but the the entire email was gone. So I have to write it all by hand, send it home and ask my poor father to type it up.

So this last week, Heavenly Father decided to show me what a great sense of humor He has. Last time, I told you that I was staying healthy. Well, the next day I woke up with a very bad sore throat. This sore throat has been harrassing me for the entire week. I wake up every day to a different situation with it. Recently, it's moved up into my tonsils and has hung out there for a few days. It hurts really badly to yawn. I went to the clinic about it and the nurse there said that I didn't have swine flu, but she felt like she should see if there was something else wrong. So she checked my temperature and my ears and a few other things. Then she checked by throat. Whe she looked at it, she said, "Wow, that's an impressively red throat!" Not like I couldn't feel it. Anyway, she gave me some salt and cups to clean my throat out with. It's actually been helping. I nearly lost my voice completely a few times this week though.

Anyway, another fun little thing that's happened this week is that we taught in the TRC in Czech. First, I need to tell you that we always have this one native Czech woman names Kajě come in. She's from Brno which is in Eastern Czech Republic, otherwise called Moravia; Western Czech is called Bohemia. People in Bohemia generally speak slower and people in Moravia speak faster. So by the transitive property, Kajě speaks fast and it is very true. Now back to the story. We had planned out our lesson, had divided up the lesson so that Starší Jones wouldn't end up speaking because Starší Horvath and I are too uncomfortable with the language and would just stay quiet. Anyway, we began the lesson and it was going well and then it came to my part of the lesson. So I began and while I was talking about prophets, Kajě asked a question. It basically flew right over my head, so I said, "Prosin?" ("Excuse me?") She said the question a little slower. This happened again and again about five times until I understood the question. I kept getting tripped up over the word, "všechno" in one of its forms meaning "all/everything." Gah! So I finally got it and answered her question. Her question was, "Can all of us return to be in the presense of God?" Simple enough question, but not when you don't understand the vocabulary. So I got out of my portion of the lesson with minor bumps and scrapes. Kajě was nice enough to correct my case endings about every ten seconds. She also decided to throw about two more questions at me, but they went much better.

Not much else happened this week. Just teaching our teachers a lot in czech. Yesterday, we had a lesson (lekce, if you want to know it in Czech) or schůzka (the Czech word for appointment) to Brother Cardon, and my brain had just about turned out for the night or something because my Czech was terrible. Anyway, I guess I have room for improvement.

I hope you have a wonderful (úžasný) Thanksgiving. Pray for all the missionaries because they don't get to have a day off for Thanksgiving. However, I know that every one of them is extremely thankful to be serving the Lord at this time in "their" section of the world.

I love you all very much and wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Starší Monk

I am scared :(

Dear Family,

This last week I had the "half way point" day where I realized that the MTC time is going to end. It was a frightening realization. To think that I'm going to be out there speaking to people in a language that I'm going to have absolutely no fluency in... That's terrifying. By the way, if i get some of my "i"s and "y"s backwards, it's because I've been writing Czech too long. There are some consonants that can't be followed by an "i" so they use the "y." Little grammar lesson for you.

So this week I have to write like the wind. I only have twenty-eight minutes left and I have a lot to say. Well... there's alot that's bouncing around in my head. First off, thank you to everyone who wrote me - I received ALL of the letters yesterday. I'm not sure how that happened, but I guess the MTC was doing something weird. Seriously, I didn't get mail all week (even though we checked every day) and then yesterday... BAM! Mail galore. Anyway, thank you. It took me thirty minutes to read all of it, and that's not only because I'm slow at reading.

Let me get a few little things said before I dive into the big stuff: Ricky, my loving "Dear John" brother. I must say I found that letter quite disturbing, even for you, but on the other hand, a lot of the missionaries here got a kick out of learning that I have a brother who's weird enough to write something like that. Also, a few guys read it and thought that it was a real Dear John and one was like, "I'm so sorry. I can't see why the other Elders are laughing." That was until he got to the end and saw it was from a guy. Bahaha.

Next, Daddy: yes my companions are sick. Starsi Horvath has been coughing since he came to the MTC and hasn't stopped since. However I think it's just because of the dry weather. At one point, he was legitimately sick though, but that only lasted about two days and those two days were spent mostly in the dorm so he could sleep it off. Starsi Jones is feeling quite under the weather. These past few days he's had a really nasty head cold and hasn't quite been himself. I'm sure that he'll get over it in the next few days. As for me, I'm as healthy as ever. Except for the fact that the other day in gym, while playing four square (which is AWESOME-ly competitive), I twisted my ankle. So I've been hobbling around for the past three days or so. Today it feels much better. The only thing about it is that it's got this really annoying achey feeling all up my calf (probably mispelled; I meant the muscle in the leg if you can't figure it out). That's about it with me health-wise.

Next thing, Mommy: I hope you enjoyed your birthday card. I spent a whole ten to twenty minutes writing it (which is an awful long time to spend writing a letter here at the MTC).

Next, Michelley: I'll write you as soon as I can. Don't think I've forgotten you :-). But tell your disturbing brother that I'm debating whether to write him back or not. *rubs chin*

Now time for the fun stuff. This past week we've been doing SYL as much as we can every day. SYL stands for "Speak Your Language." You get to make a really nifty post-it note that sticks to your name tag that basically says that you can't speak English. Mine said, "Dnes je Česká Den!" which means "today is Czech day!" or another one was "Nemluvím anglicky; mluvím česky." which means "I do not speak English; I speak Czech." Anyway, those are super fun, but I find that if I don't do it 100% all day, then I stop about the first time that I do speak English. Also this last week, we started teaching the lessons in Czech which I must say is Super-Hard. Yes, it is Capitalized and Hyphenated. Oh my word! I never thought that my brain would explode as badly as it did. Thinking about where the lesson's going, thinking about the investigator's needs, thinking about pertinent scriptures to use, thinking about GRAMMAR! GAH. The pain is rushing back to me. Actually, I just stuttered like an idiot and slowly put sentences together. I think it would take me an average of ten to fifteen seconds to put a sentence like, "God is our father." together. Then our teacher decided to be mean to me and said that he didn't understand the verse that I gave him. Uh oh... It was the one in Abraham 3 where God is talking to Abraham, telling him that his seed will be blessed through the gospel and priesthood. That was interesting trying to answer those. Eventually we got past that and (oh by the way, I forgot to tell you that this was from our first teaching experience; sorry for the aside) we started talking about something else. At the end we got him to let us come back again next week, but he asked where we would meet. I was sure that I'd be able to answer a simple question like that. So I said, "Is it here good?" which basically means, "Is here fine?" I said, in Czech, "To je tam, dobře?" He looked at me like I was crazy; I had no idea why. There was no possible way that I could have screwed up such a simple sentence. So, thinking that I was right, I kept saying it. He kept looking confused and asked me, "Yes, where?" and so I said it again. Finally he figured out what I was trying to say and told me that it was fine to me, "here." In Czech he told me that what I was saying was, "It is there, good?" So it was no wonder that he was asking where. Hooray for my first language mistake where no one understands me. I'm sure it'll happen plenty more.

Now, a little more serious topic. Our companionship has been having a little bit of trouble this last week. As we've gone about out studies and classes, I've sensed that there was some tension and I didn't know how to resolve it. It seemed that Starsi Horvath didn't like me very much and wasn't willing to tell me that he can't stand me. So I thought that I'd just deal with it. Then the day that we had our first lesson in Czech, in our companionship study before the lesson, we were trying to plan out the lesson in Czech. I was at the board writing down sentences in Czech and saw that Starsi Horvath wasn't participating. So I asked him what we could say for the topic we were on. He said that whatever we said was fine. I kept after him and he said, "I don't care." I kept after him and gave him a sentence and tried to have him translate it. He told me, "slovník" which is "dictionary" in Czech. Basically, this was the fight, quite mild for any fight I've ever seen, but way more than any missionaries should be having. Our teacher came back in and stopped us and said that we needed to take a walk. We didn't really talk on the walk, but Brother Cardon tried to say things that were aside from the problem to get us to talk. He was pointing out how the name for November in Czech literally comes out to "leaf fall." Anyway, when we got back to the classroom, he spoke for a little while and then told us that we needed to have a companionship inventory. That's where we all just say what's on our mind and don't have any bad feelings toward anyone. We also talk about what we can do better and what others can do better. It turned out that Starsi Horvath was just feeling overwhelmed and it was nothing that I was doing. Anyway, that was the end of that and we all came away feeling much much better. (We talked for nearly an hour and a half).

Phew... we've had a little more butting heads, but we've resolved them with companionship inventories and I must say, we all feel amazing when we come out of them. I know that I do.

Hmm... there's a missionary here from the Czech Republic who's going to be serving in Wisconsin. He's really awesome. His name is Elder Kraus. This guy is massive. Probably two or two and a half feet across. However, he's a little bit shorter than I am-- like five inches shorter. Anyway, he's awesome but we don't get to see him very often or for very long. Whenever I see him I say, "dobrý den!" and he says "čao!" Kind of a funny exchange, but that's about all the time we have to talk together. "Dobrý den" means "good day," and "čao" means (take a wild guess) "ciao." It's even pronounced the same.

In the TRC, a place we go on Thursdays of every week and interact with volunteers who speak Czech, we have a language section which starting this week is the entire thing-- both contacting and lesson. Every single week we've been there, we've had a native Czech sister who's name is Kaya. She's awesome, but her English isn't very good and it's really hard to understand her because she talks so fast. So I guess I know what I'm getting into (a little bit).

Anyway, my time is up, keep writing to me: it really boosts my spirits. Starsi Horvath loved all the letters he got from all of you yesterday.

Love you all and pray for you always,
Starsi Monk