Dear Family,
There's not a whole lot to say about the area this week, but I can tell you that we are going to see some cool things happen this next week, so you'll have to wait for next week to hear some good stories (I hope). Really, there's not much I can talk about this week, besides zone conference which I'm going to talk about in a second, because we didn't really have any lessons, we don't really have any investigators, and Libor is back on the map, but I already told you that last week. Little sad, but I guess we're all going to have a week or two like this every now and then, huh?
Actually, we did get one new investigator, but we found him like a week ago. We met with him again this week. He's this old guy who's very smart and very atheist. If I had to pick one word for him, I'd say skeptical. In the contact he kept saying that he didn't want to argue but everything that he'd say would come out as if he thought he was being attacked and he kind of made it into an argument. That doesn't make too much sense to me. So I had called him on Saturday, the Saturday before I wrote you this last time, and he said that it was the weekend and that Monday and Tuesday would be holidays, so he still had free time and that he didn't want to think about that kind of stuff so I should call him back on Wednesday. That made me a little afraid of him, that he would be so stubborn and stuck up to say that he can't even think about setting up a meeting when it's holiday or even weekend! So I called him the next Wednesday and got something set up, and he came to the meeting and everything that we'd say would come back in a very skeptical manner and I was very confused on what I had to say. How are you supposed to teach someone who is completely devoid of all faith? This man wasn't atheist, he was denying anything and everything that he couldn't see. He'd probably deny that Prague exists because he couldn't see it right then. Then to make it even stranger, we learned that he's a theoretical physicist. I didn't know where to go with this guy so we watched the restoration video and afterward, he seemed stumped because he could feel the Holy Ghost and couldn't explain it, so he thought for a moment on how he could come back to being skeptical again. I don't know where to go with this guy, but I gave him a Book of Mormon and he said that he'd read it just so he could learn more about us. So that's our new investigator for the week.
So, as of the first of July, we have had a new mission president, President and Sister Irwin. He's a delightful little British man and his wife is also very British. I love them to death already. They served here in the Czech Republic and while they were serving, they were told to go home and to wait for their assignment as mission president and wife. They already knew where they were going to go even though they weren't technically supposed to. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf couldn't really contain his excitement when he was interviewing them. Turns out that he has a really deep gratitude and love for this mission in particular. Perhaps because he was born in this country. Anyway, I had spoken with President Irwin before he came out to be our new president. He "died" as a missionary during my greenie transfer and so I saw him at zone conferences and spoke with him just a few times then. At this most recent zone conference he shared with us a few things that the Brethren are planning on changing as far as missionary work goes, and they're quite different in terms as far as what the president does; our work will stay pretty much the same. I don't know what particularly I can tell you about these changes, so I won't. :P
I can see that the rest of my mission with President Irwin is going to be amazing, and I'm looking forward to it with great anticipation. I'm also looking forward to a much better next week! I can't say that I'd really care if I didn't have another week like this last one ever again.
Not much to say, but I know that as long as we're doing exactly what the Lord wants us to be doing, then we will all be blessed tremendously, and if we're not, then we have some dire emergency to change. I can just say that the times that I was strictly obedient to what the Lord wanted, that is when I saw His hand the most. Life is short and there is lots to do, so without His help, it is completely and utterly impossible to live the way that He wants.
Do your best! I love and miss you all muches,
Starší Monk
Monday, July 12, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Fourth of July and Drama! (Čtvrtý Červenca a Drama!)
Dear Family,
Well, first off, the reason I'm writing on Wednesday and not on Monday: this Monday was a Czech holiday, and then Tuesday was as well. So it being the Czech Republic, everything closes down on the holidays. Guess that's good, unless you want to speak with your family! I suppose they don't know that though, so I'll let it slide. I can't remember what Monday was, but I think that Tuesday was the day that Jan Hus was burned by the Catholic church for fighting against them in the Hussite wars. Jan Hus was a Czech man, so they love him here, and he has a holiday. I must say, holidays are the worst. Nobody, no... no one is in the towns on holidays. It's even worse than weekends. All the people that we saw on Monday and Tuesday were tourists, and it was rainy. Terrible combination.
In other news, after church on Sunday, the other elders came over to our house and we had a fourth of July celebration! Basically, we got Czech sausages (which kind of resembled hot dogs) and rohliky (kind of the Czech staple of life - basically a long roll of bread) and tried to make hot dogs. It was interesting. We did, however, succeed on one front: we got Coke in cans! That was very exciting. All the soda in this country is in glass bottles, and they're fun, but cans are better. We also tried to make chicken fingers, and they weren't too bad either, except for the fact that we had to clean it up after and fried foods without a deep frier are terrible. So that was the extent of our fourth of July festivities, but what can we do? We're not allowed to buy fireworks.
So, as for the drama part of this week, where can I begin? Let's start with Libor, the guy who was just baptized. We saw him on Monday, and we were supposed to have a meeting with him on Tuesday, and he's never missed a meeting, but this week he did. He didn't come to his Tuesday meeting. Then for the rest of the week, we didn't see him on the street selling his magazines like we always do, so we knew something was up. We thought that perhaps he was on the trip to the temple with the rest of the members, but on Friday (the day after they got back) I called up President Šlezar and asked if Libor had gone with them. He told me that he wasn't there. This only made me more worried about him. We continued about the week, just worrying and wondering what happened to him. A few times, I had the idea that perhaps he died... seriously. He's not that old, he's just 57, but he does live outside, and other such things. Before this week, we'd probably see him about four or five times a day outside of our meetings, so it really worried me as soon as he completely fell off the face of the map. Well, then Sunday rolls around and Wlastik (Vlastik) shows up and says that he saw Libor and that when he saw Wlastic, he turned and walked the other way. That made me really confused. I started getting ideas of him going "anti," or other possibilities. I didn't want to think that it could be true, but I decided that if I saw him on the street, I'd run after him to find out what it was. Luckily, on Monday, Laďa called us up and said that he saw Libor and he stopped to talk with him, and that the both of them were waiting to speak with us, so Elder Page and I ran to the center to meet with them. Turns out that Libor had just gone to Ostrava for the week to see his father and see how he was doing, and that he had forgotten to tell us. Nothing big at all. Turns out that Libor is just as strong as ever, and he's reading three chapters in the Book of Mormon a day, and he started Mosiah a few days ago when we met with him. We've met with him a few times since then (Monday evening and Tuesday) and he's still way solid.
I wish that I could say that this was all the drama that I had this last week, but I can't. So our other drama story for this week is that Laďa, one of the members here, is always having a really hard time with money and he can't seem to find a job, ever. He's also got four kids, and is trying to get a job and a place to live of his own so he can have custody of them. So, he's been going to basically anywhere he can to get money, and he just about always spends it in really dumb ways. Basically he doesn't know how to manage money correctly at all. So on Saturday, I got a call from Laďa asking me about how someone goes about leaving the church and other such stuff. I then called him out and asked him if he was planning on leaving and he basically said that he was planning on it. I was pretty confused, wondering why he would say something like that, because he's been really solid in the church depsite some really dumb mistakes he's made in the past. The thing was, he wouldn't tell me why he was deciding on leaving. He just kept telling me that he had to, but he didn't want to. Very confused, I called the zone leaders and told them and they were very confused as well. They called me back after a little while and asked me to call a few district leaders and ask them to ask their districts to pray for Laďa so he doesn't do something stupid. Another plus that we had, was that it was fast Sunday coming up so we asked them to fast for him as well. When I spoke with Laďa, he said that he didn't think he was going to come to church, other than to just speak with President about leaving. Good thing came about the next day: Lada came to church and stayed for the entire time. Weird thing, however, he bore his testimony in church and told the members that it's been one year to the day since he had been baptized, and that he couldn't stay-- that he had to leave. That was way weird... wish he hadn't done that. Despite that, he stayed for the entire three hours and at the end he had a little talk with Preisdent, and he came out really upset saying things like, "I can't believe I've believed in these fairytales." That was scary and he kept telling me that he was going to leave, that he couldn't stay. I went to President afterward to see what was going on and if everything would be okay. He seemed unsure, but hopeful, as I should have been as well.
So Laďa came to church, but made the decision that he'd leave the church. Later that day, after our fourth of July festivities, I checked my phone and saw that Laďa had called so I called him back and he told me that I needed to call back in five minutes. So I waited and called him after five and he said that he needed another five minutes so I waited again. This time while I was waiting, I got a call from President and he told me that he just finished talking with Laďa and that he called to apologize for being rash and that he was just really afraid of the possibilities that were weighing on him. Then I called Laďa because it had been a little more than five minutes and spoke to him and he basically told me the same thing, so I thought that everything was okay. So that night I followed up with the districts that I had called the day before and told them that our prayers had worked and that we needed to continue praying for him to make sure that he stays solid in his decision and to help him find some comfort in what he's doing.
Then the next day when Laďa called us about Libor, we went to see what was going on. Basically, Libor was completely fine and I used that time to see what was up with Libor. After I found out that everything was fine, I had Elder Page practice Czech with him because he knows a little English and he's really nice and patient. I went in to talk with Laďa, and finally got to the bottom of the problem and found out what was going on. So the story goes like this:
Laďa, because he's always looking for money, borrowed money (3000Kč) from some guy, who turns out to be part of a mob or something and the guy wanted the money back that day and was threatening to kill Laďa or hurt his children if he didn't pay it back. That's a little thing that I don't get, because 3000 Kč is just $150. Is that much money really worth killing over? Anyway, this is where it gets interesting. So, one place that Lada found that he could get the money to pay this guy back is from his old Catholic priest who said he'd give him the money if he'd come back to his kostel (cathedral/church) and deny his affiliation with the church. That's really black tactics if you ask me. So, Laďa not being so smart, saw this as the only way out of this predicament.
So when we went to meet him on Monday, he had a piece fo paper that he had written saying that he can't stay part of the church and basically apologizing. Gah! He was asking me questions like, "Can you come back to the church after you leave it?" I kept telling him that you can, but you have to repent a lot for leaving in the first place. He also kept handing me that piece of paper and then taking it back almost immediately. Finally, he took the paper and ripped it up, quite to my surprise, and he looked relieved. I asked what he was going to do next, and he told me that he didn't know. We left the building for our meeting with Libor later that evening and were walking with Laďa toward our house so we could get changed for work (because it was our P-day and we were still in normal clothes) and Laďa commenced making calls. Basically, the way that I see it, once Laďa made the decision to not leave the church, Heavenly Father blessed him with a way out of this trouble for the time being. He found a cousin who lives far away who is willing to give him the 3000 Kč if he can find a way to come get it. Laďa was very very relieved to find a way to pay the man back and not have to leave the church. As for right now, Lada is trying to find a way that he can get the money to get there, which will cost about 270 Kč ($13).
Something that I've learned from this is to just hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, because when we have hope, we also have faith, and faith is the driving factor of everything around us. Without faith, we have nothing. When I prayed for both of these amazing members, I was very hopeful that something good would result, and so far, both of them are back on track and doing well. I never had a super strong testimony of prayer, but this week has really bolstered its importance in my mind - without prayer, we had no relationship with God, and without some kind of relationship with Him, we are only as powerful as the dust of the earth.
I love you all, and I hope that you can all learn as much from these experiences as I have. Pray in faith and be hopeful.
Starší Monk
Well, first off, the reason I'm writing on Wednesday and not on Monday: this Monday was a Czech holiday, and then Tuesday was as well. So it being the Czech Republic, everything closes down on the holidays. Guess that's good, unless you want to speak with your family! I suppose they don't know that though, so I'll let it slide. I can't remember what Monday was, but I think that Tuesday was the day that Jan Hus was burned by the Catholic church for fighting against them in the Hussite wars. Jan Hus was a Czech man, so they love him here, and he has a holiday. I must say, holidays are the worst. Nobody, no... no one is in the towns on holidays. It's even worse than weekends. All the people that we saw on Monday and Tuesday were tourists, and it was rainy. Terrible combination.
In other news, after church on Sunday, the other elders came over to our house and we had a fourth of July celebration! Basically, we got Czech sausages (which kind of resembled hot dogs) and rohliky (kind of the Czech staple of life - basically a long roll of bread) and tried to make hot dogs. It was interesting. We did, however, succeed on one front: we got Coke in cans! That was very exciting. All the soda in this country is in glass bottles, and they're fun, but cans are better. We also tried to make chicken fingers, and they weren't too bad either, except for the fact that we had to clean it up after and fried foods without a deep frier are terrible. So that was the extent of our fourth of July festivities, but what can we do? We're not allowed to buy fireworks.
So, as for the drama part of this week, where can I begin? Let's start with Libor, the guy who was just baptized. We saw him on Monday, and we were supposed to have a meeting with him on Tuesday, and he's never missed a meeting, but this week he did. He didn't come to his Tuesday meeting. Then for the rest of the week, we didn't see him on the street selling his magazines like we always do, so we knew something was up. We thought that perhaps he was on the trip to the temple with the rest of the members, but on Friday (the day after they got back) I called up President Šlezar and asked if Libor had gone with them. He told me that he wasn't there. This only made me more worried about him. We continued about the week, just worrying and wondering what happened to him. A few times, I had the idea that perhaps he died... seriously. He's not that old, he's just 57, but he does live outside, and other such things. Before this week, we'd probably see him about four or five times a day outside of our meetings, so it really worried me as soon as he completely fell off the face of the map. Well, then Sunday rolls around and Wlastik (Vlastik) shows up and says that he saw Libor and that when he saw Wlastic, he turned and walked the other way. That made me really confused. I started getting ideas of him going "anti," or other possibilities. I didn't want to think that it could be true, but I decided that if I saw him on the street, I'd run after him to find out what it was. Luckily, on Monday, Laďa called us up and said that he saw Libor and he stopped to talk with him, and that the both of them were waiting to speak with us, so Elder Page and I ran to the center to meet with them. Turns out that Libor had just gone to Ostrava for the week to see his father and see how he was doing, and that he had forgotten to tell us. Nothing big at all. Turns out that Libor is just as strong as ever, and he's reading three chapters in the Book of Mormon a day, and he started Mosiah a few days ago when we met with him. We've met with him a few times since then (Monday evening and Tuesday) and he's still way solid.
I wish that I could say that this was all the drama that I had this last week, but I can't. So our other drama story for this week is that Laďa, one of the members here, is always having a really hard time with money and he can't seem to find a job, ever. He's also got four kids, and is trying to get a job and a place to live of his own so he can have custody of them. So, he's been going to basically anywhere he can to get money, and he just about always spends it in really dumb ways. Basically he doesn't know how to manage money correctly at all. So on Saturday, I got a call from Laďa asking me about how someone goes about leaving the church and other such stuff. I then called him out and asked him if he was planning on leaving and he basically said that he was planning on it. I was pretty confused, wondering why he would say something like that, because he's been really solid in the church depsite some really dumb mistakes he's made in the past. The thing was, he wouldn't tell me why he was deciding on leaving. He just kept telling me that he had to, but he didn't want to. Very confused, I called the zone leaders and told them and they were very confused as well. They called me back after a little while and asked me to call a few district leaders and ask them to ask their districts to pray for Laďa so he doesn't do something stupid. Another plus that we had, was that it was fast Sunday coming up so we asked them to fast for him as well. When I spoke with Laďa, he said that he didn't think he was going to come to church, other than to just speak with President about leaving. Good thing came about the next day: Lada came to church and stayed for the entire time. Weird thing, however, he bore his testimony in church and told the members that it's been one year to the day since he had been baptized, and that he couldn't stay-- that he had to leave. That was way weird... wish he hadn't done that. Despite that, he stayed for the entire three hours and at the end he had a little talk with Preisdent, and he came out really upset saying things like, "I can't believe I've believed in these fairytales." That was scary and he kept telling me that he was going to leave, that he couldn't stay. I went to President afterward to see what was going on and if everything would be okay. He seemed unsure, but hopeful, as I should have been as well.
So Laďa came to church, but made the decision that he'd leave the church. Later that day, after our fourth of July festivities, I checked my phone and saw that Laďa had called so I called him back and he told me that I needed to call back in five minutes. So I waited and called him after five and he said that he needed another five minutes so I waited again. This time while I was waiting, I got a call from President and he told me that he just finished talking with Laďa and that he called to apologize for being rash and that he was just really afraid of the possibilities that were weighing on him. Then I called Laďa because it had been a little more than five minutes and spoke to him and he basically told me the same thing, so I thought that everything was okay. So that night I followed up with the districts that I had called the day before and told them that our prayers had worked and that we needed to continue praying for him to make sure that he stays solid in his decision and to help him find some comfort in what he's doing.
Then the next day when Laďa called us about Libor, we went to see what was going on. Basically, Libor was completely fine and I used that time to see what was up with Libor. After I found out that everything was fine, I had Elder Page practice Czech with him because he knows a little English and he's really nice and patient. I went in to talk with Laďa, and finally got to the bottom of the problem and found out what was going on. So the story goes like this:
Laďa, because he's always looking for money, borrowed money (3000Kč) from some guy, who turns out to be part of a mob or something and the guy wanted the money back that day and was threatening to kill Laďa or hurt his children if he didn't pay it back. That's a little thing that I don't get, because 3000 Kč is just $150. Is that much money really worth killing over? Anyway, this is where it gets interesting. So, one place that Lada found that he could get the money to pay this guy back is from his old Catholic priest who said he'd give him the money if he'd come back to his kostel (cathedral/church) and deny his affiliation with the church. That's really black tactics if you ask me. So, Laďa not being so smart, saw this as the only way out of this predicament.
So when we went to meet him on Monday, he had a piece fo paper that he had written saying that he can't stay part of the church and basically apologizing. Gah! He was asking me questions like, "Can you come back to the church after you leave it?" I kept telling him that you can, but you have to repent a lot for leaving in the first place. He also kept handing me that piece of paper and then taking it back almost immediately. Finally, he took the paper and ripped it up, quite to my surprise, and he looked relieved. I asked what he was going to do next, and he told me that he didn't know. We left the building for our meeting with Libor later that evening and were walking with Laďa toward our house so we could get changed for work (because it was our P-day and we were still in normal clothes) and Laďa commenced making calls. Basically, the way that I see it, once Laďa made the decision to not leave the church, Heavenly Father blessed him with a way out of this trouble for the time being. He found a cousin who lives far away who is willing to give him the 3000 Kč if he can find a way to come get it. Laďa was very very relieved to find a way to pay the man back and not have to leave the church. As for right now, Lada is trying to find a way that he can get the money to get there, which will cost about 270 Kč ($13).
Something that I've learned from this is to just hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, because when we have hope, we also have faith, and faith is the driving factor of everything around us. Without faith, we have nothing. When I prayed for both of these amazing members, I was very hopeful that something good would result, and so far, both of them are back on track and doing well. I never had a super strong testimony of prayer, but this week has really bolstered its importance in my mind - without prayer, we had no relationship with God, and without some kind of relationship with Him, we are only as powerful as the dust of the earth.
I love you all, and I hope that you can all learn as much from these experiences as I have. Pray in faith and be hopeful.
Starší Monk
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Pictures from Zlín
Elder Thompson, Elder Monk, Elder Mills
and friends
Eating this, it's no wonder Andy's gained weight
(see previous picture).
Church members are happy people.
Olomouc, Czech Republic
Monday, June 28, 2010
Trainer Elder Monk...
Dear Family,
Well, I can tell you that everything went perfectly to and from Prague when I went to pick up my greenie. That all started on Tuesday when we went to buy train tickets to and from Prague. When I got there I didn't want to have to spend all morning on the train just getting to Prague, so I wanted to book a Pendolino (fastest train in the Czech Republic - only goes about 80mph which is kinda lame if you think about it), but the lady told me that the Pendolino was already full for the next morning when I wanted to take it. So I ended up buying a normal train ticket for 5:05 in the morning, arriving in Prague about 8:15. That was pretty painful, but wasn't too bad beacuse I didn't have to transfer anywhere - straight line. Also, I booked two seats on the Pendolino on the way back, so at least we wouldn't be on the train all night after I picked him up.
So the next day, I wake up at 4:00 so I can start to get ready and make sure that I have everything. Got up, showered, and then got my companions up at about 4:30. We got to the train station right on time, and I got on the train, and then it pulled away less than two minutes later. So we cut that kind of close, but now the only thing that was on my mind was trying to find my way from the train station in Prague to the building. Elder McGowan served the first six months of his mission there and now he's in Olomouc with us, so he reassured me that it's not that bad. He told me the different metros I'd have to get on and stuff and I was still freaking out about it because I've only been in Prague twice before this (once on the orchestra tour and once as a greenie) and both times I wasn't really paying attention because I didn't have to.
So the way that things worked out, I had to be at the building by 9:30 because that's when they were going to start the trainer's meeting and stuff like that and my train got into Prague about 8:15, so I had some good time to get lost and find out where I was going before I had to be there. Perfect. So I get to the train station in Prague, and I just follow the crowd because I figure they're going to the exit, most of them. When I got to the exit, I found the metro entrance. How fortunate! So I bought my pass, went down, and realized probably a little slower than I would have liked, that the metro is pretty idiot-proof as long as you read Czech. So, I felt kind of dumb that it took me so long, but that's okay! Turns out, I made it to the building very very easily and there was no problem at all. I got there about 8:45 and I had time to spare. So I go into the building and there I just hung out with the other trainers and office elders until we had the meetings.
In the meetings we talked about our responsibility as trainers and a few things that we can do and not do so that we do a good job. President told us that Elder Perry himself told him that the trainers are the most important position in the mission because they set the foundation for the next generation of missionaries' missions. That was a little scary to think about and to think that I would be doing that for some poor missionary.
Then at noon we went up to President's apartment (they live on the top floor of the mission office) and there we had the meeting where we got our greenies. I had spoken with a few of the greenies already and I was prepared to take any of them, except of course the sister. President pulled me up first and introduced me and where I'm serving and then he looked at his sheet to see who was going to be with me and my name didn't have a missionary next to it. That was a little perplexing. The thing was, one missionary stayed in the MTC because he had broken his foot when he jumped down five steps of stairs to open the door for a sister missionary, but landed on it wrong and fractured it in two places. So because of this, President got thrown off and just forgot to put someone down with me. That's okay, they figured it out after about a minute or two and they called up Elder Page to be my greenie. He was probably the only one that I hadn't thought about being MY greenie, but we're getting along wonderfully.
After the rest of the ceremony we had lunch, I ran around the mission home getting things together and then we set off to catch our 3:30 train. The thing, however, was it was only about 1:00. President had told me to not book anything before 3:00 because he never knows exactly how long these meetings will last. Also, I was worried about getting lost on the way back because I'm really good at getting lost, but we had no problems once again and we got to the train station with plenty of time. We actually ended up waiting about an hour and fifteen minutes. That was okay. We stood outside the train station and spoke Czech, got to know each other a little, and I had him go buy his own water at one of the stores, just for a little bit of Czech practice. Really, you don't need to be able to speak Czech to do that but I think just giving him that little bit of confidence was good.
When we got back into Olomouc, we dropped our stuff off at the house and went out into the city immediately and worked the náměstí and spoke to a few people. I think that it's amazing how much the Lord blesses us when we're put into positions of more responsibility. Just the difference from Tuesday to Wednesday was astronomical. On Wednesday, I was understanding just about everything that people were saying and Czech is just falling off my tongue so well. I have no idea how that is - besides the blessing of our Heavenly Father, of course. It's crazy.
Afterward, we headed over to an investigator lady's house and we had a lesson with her. She's not a super-strong investigator but she is more than willing to meet with us whenever we set up to go there. We went over and I had Elder Page try and speak as much as he could and I could see a few times that he was struggling but that's the best thing that I can let him do - struggle and when he can't do anymore, step in and carry the contact or lesson. The lesson with the lady was pretty good and she actually listened a lot more than she usually does because Elder Page didn't really speak amazing Czech and so she had to listen more carefully. That's a really cool blessing that we saw.
Besides this, our investigator pool is very shallow right now and by that I mean just about non-existant. So, we have lots of finding on the plan every day, and I'm really enjoying it because we have amazing weather finally. I'm having Elder Page start just about all the contacts and that's helping him alot.
Elder Page is really awesome. He's a little quiet and not so comfortable with speaking to people, but he's really smart and he's already making lots of headway on the language. Every time that I correct him on a language thing, he takes it and changes it and that's the end of that language mistake. He's going to make lots of amazing progress with the language this first transfer. Another thing, even though he's not comfortable speaking with people, he's very willing to speak to people if I point them out. We're going to see some amazing things this transfer and we're both very very excited for them. A little something, he looks a lot like Jared Smith and, now that I think about it, he acts alot like him too. I've already asked him if he's related but he doesn't know. That'd be a little interesting tidbit to figure out.
Anyway, I love you all very much, and I know that I got to and from Prague without problems because of the direction of the Lord. I also know that I am speaking and understanding the language so well because of the responsibility that I accepted to train a greenie and He's blessing me for that. I started reading the Book of Mormon again today (I read it all the way through last transfer). You know that 1 Nephi 3:7 is a favorite of members of the church, because it's so applicable to life. Go and read it and then think about it. I'm sure that it's very familiar to each of you and you'll know exactly what it says when you read the first few words, but today it hit me with new meaning. It told me that even if we don't have the ability to do the task at first but we accept the task with faith that the Lord will help us with it, He will give us the gifts and blessings that we need, even in expounding our abilities miraculously, over night if needs be, so that we can accomplish the task that he has commanded of us.
I love you all very much and I love hearing from you. It's good to know that you're all still in good health and that you're all doing well. I pray for you all and I hope that each of you are coming closer to our Father in Heaven as you strive to do what He wants.
With much love,
Starší Monk
Well, I can tell you that everything went perfectly to and from Prague when I went to pick up my greenie. That all started on Tuesday when we went to buy train tickets to and from Prague. When I got there I didn't want to have to spend all morning on the train just getting to Prague, so I wanted to book a Pendolino (fastest train in the Czech Republic - only goes about 80mph which is kinda lame if you think about it), but the lady told me that the Pendolino was already full for the next morning when I wanted to take it. So I ended up buying a normal train ticket for 5:05 in the morning, arriving in Prague about 8:15. That was pretty painful, but wasn't too bad beacuse I didn't have to transfer anywhere - straight line. Also, I booked two seats on the Pendolino on the way back, so at least we wouldn't be on the train all night after I picked him up.
So the next day, I wake up at 4:00 so I can start to get ready and make sure that I have everything. Got up, showered, and then got my companions up at about 4:30. We got to the train station right on time, and I got on the train, and then it pulled away less than two minutes later. So we cut that kind of close, but now the only thing that was on my mind was trying to find my way from the train station in Prague to the building. Elder McGowan served the first six months of his mission there and now he's in Olomouc with us, so he reassured me that it's not that bad. He told me the different metros I'd have to get on and stuff and I was still freaking out about it because I've only been in Prague twice before this (once on the orchestra tour and once as a greenie) and both times I wasn't really paying attention because I didn't have to.
So the way that things worked out, I had to be at the building by 9:30 because that's when they were going to start the trainer's meeting and stuff like that and my train got into Prague about 8:15, so I had some good time to get lost and find out where I was going before I had to be there. Perfect. So I get to the train station in Prague, and I just follow the crowd because I figure they're going to the exit, most of them. When I got to the exit, I found the metro entrance. How fortunate! So I bought my pass, went down, and realized probably a little slower than I would have liked, that the metro is pretty idiot-proof as long as you read Czech. So, I felt kind of dumb that it took me so long, but that's okay! Turns out, I made it to the building very very easily and there was no problem at all. I got there about 8:45 and I had time to spare. So I go into the building and there I just hung out with the other trainers and office elders until we had the meetings.
In the meetings we talked about our responsibility as trainers and a few things that we can do and not do so that we do a good job. President told us that Elder Perry himself told him that the trainers are the most important position in the mission because they set the foundation for the next generation of missionaries' missions. That was a little scary to think about and to think that I would be doing that for some poor missionary.
Then at noon we went up to President's apartment (they live on the top floor of the mission office) and there we had the meeting where we got our greenies. I had spoken with a few of the greenies already and I was prepared to take any of them, except of course the sister. President pulled me up first and introduced me and where I'm serving and then he looked at his sheet to see who was going to be with me and my name didn't have a missionary next to it. That was a little perplexing. The thing was, one missionary stayed in the MTC because he had broken his foot when he jumped down five steps of stairs to open the door for a sister missionary, but landed on it wrong and fractured it in two places. So because of this, President got thrown off and just forgot to put someone down with me. That's okay, they figured it out after about a minute or two and they called up Elder Page to be my greenie. He was probably the only one that I hadn't thought about being MY greenie, but we're getting along wonderfully.
After the rest of the ceremony we had lunch, I ran around the mission home getting things together and then we set off to catch our 3:30 train. The thing, however, was it was only about 1:00. President had told me to not book anything before 3:00 because he never knows exactly how long these meetings will last. Also, I was worried about getting lost on the way back because I'm really good at getting lost, but we had no problems once again and we got to the train station with plenty of time. We actually ended up waiting about an hour and fifteen minutes. That was okay. We stood outside the train station and spoke Czech, got to know each other a little, and I had him go buy his own water at one of the stores, just for a little bit of Czech practice. Really, you don't need to be able to speak Czech to do that but I think just giving him that little bit of confidence was good.
When we got back into Olomouc, we dropped our stuff off at the house and went out into the city immediately and worked the náměstí and spoke to a few people. I think that it's amazing how much the Lord blesses us when we're put into positions of more responsibility. Just the difference from Tuesday to Wednesday was astronomical. On Wednesday, I was understanding just about everything that people were saying and Czech is just falling off my tongue so well. I have no idea how that is - besides the blessing of our Heavenly Father, of course. It's crazy.
Afterward, we headed over to an investigator lady's house and we had a lesson with her. She's not a super-strong investigator but she is more than willing to meet with us whenever we set up to go there. We went over and I had Elder Page try and speak as much as he could and I could see a few times that he was struggling but that's the best thing that I can let him do - struggle and when he can't do anymore, step in and carry the contact or lesson. The lesson with the lady was pretty good and she actually listened a lot more than she usually does because Elder Page didn't really speak amazing Czech and so she had to listen more carefully. That's a really cool blessing that we saw.
Besides this, our investigator pool is very shallow right now and by that I mean just about non-existant. So, we have lots of finding on the plan every day, and I'm really enjoying it because we have amazing weather finally. I'm having Elder Page start just about all the contacts and that's helping him alot.
Elder Page is really awesome. He's a little quiet and not so comfortable with speaking to people, but he's really smart and he's already making lots of headway on the language. Every time that I correct him on a language thing, he takes it and changes it and that's the end of that language mistake. He's going to make lots of amazing progress with the language this first transfer. Another thing, even though he's not comfortable speaking with people, he's very willing to speak to people if I point them out. We're going to see some amazing things this transfer and we're both very very excited for them. A little something, he looks a lot like Jared Smith and, now that I think about it, he acts alot like him too. I've already asked him if he's related but he doesn't know. That'd be a little interesting tidbit to figure out.
Anyway, I love you all very much, and I know that I got to and from Prague without problems because of the direction of the Lord. I also know that I am speaking and understanding the language so well because of the responsibility that I accepted to train a greenie and He's blessing me for that. I started reading the Book of Mormon again today (I read it all the way through last transfer). You know that 1 Nephi 3:7 is a favorite of members of the church, because it's so applicable to life. Go and read it and then think about it. I'm sure that it's very familiar to each of you and you'll know exactly what it says when you read the first few words, but today it hit me with new meaning. It told me that even if we don't have the ability to do the task at first but we accept the task with faith that the Lord will help us with it, He will give us the gifts and blessings that we need, even in expounding our abilities miraculously, over night if needs be, so that we can accomplish the task that he has commanded of us.
I love you all very much and I love hearing from you. It's good to know that you're all still in good health and that you're all doing well. I pray for you all and I hope that each of you are coming closer to our Father in Heaven as you strive to do what He wants.
With much love,
Starší Monk
Elder James Page and Elder Andrew Monk
June 23, 2010
Sister Slovacek, Elder Andrew Monk, President Slovacek
June 23, 2010
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