Awesome April!

Dear Family,

We have some really cool things coming up this next month. I don't know if I've told you anything about the "Awesome April" program that we have. At the meeting that we had in Prague last week, President gave us a program that the entire mission is going to be doing each week of April.

Yesterday (Sunday the third) we all fasted for missionary work, especially for the month of April. Then this upcoming Wednesday (the sixth), which will be the 181st anniversary of the church being organized, we're going to have a special contacting day where each companionship is going to try to give out twenty restoration pamphlets and receive ten phone numbers with a follow-up meeting. That's going to be really hard here in Trebic, but we're both really excited for it and we have really high hopes.

Then the next week (the entire week the eleventh through the seventeenth) is going to be focused on members and meeting with them. President and the office elders have put together a trifold brochure with challenges for the members to do-- things like praying every day for missionary work and inviting a friend over to meet the missionaries. The trifold comes with a one month commitment and has twelve different things that they can do. The goal is to have them do all twelve things within the month. It means a lot of work for us because we have to visit them multiple times to follow-up on their progress but at least it gives us something a little new to do!

Then the next week, on Wednesday (the twentieth) will be completely devoted to finding. We're supposed to set up meetings around that day, if at all possible, and leave that day completely open for just finding people.

Then the entire next week (the twenty-fifth through the first of May) we're going to try to have each and every companionship in the entire mission give out one new baptismal date. If that were to happen, the mission would have around forty new baptismal dates! That would be amazing.

Elder Vomocil and I are really excited to start this month. This last week we worked harder than we have before, and we made a lot of laps on Trebic, we spoke to some cool people, we got a few potentials, but nothing too solid. Mainly, our feet hurt but we know that we did our best. We've had really beautiful weather this last week. We had one or two "Texas rainstorms" but nothing too bad. Yesterday the weather was in the high twenties to low thirties Celsius (so like sixties to eighties).

Other than that, we had sports day on Saturday. It's fun to spend time with the youth here. They always raise our spirits.

Love you all. Hope you're all enjoying spring! It's started here too.

Starší Monk

Trudging Through

Dear Family,

It seems yet another week and not a whole lot has happened. Ari has still been in Brno with Bayar. She says that he's doing better, but still can't talk very much and can walk very little with help of a walker. Dana is still swamped with work and school so she hasn't had the energy to meet with us. Other than them, we don't have a teaching pool, but we're still out and about, searching for those that are ready for the gospel.

This last week we had a small meeting in Prague with our zone (no, it wasn't a zone conference but a specialized conference). That started at 9:30 in the morning, so Elder Vomocil and I had to get up at 4:30 to catch a 5:45 bus that would last three hours to get us there in time for the meeting. That gave me a terrible headache. Then afterward, I rushed down with Elder Mills (the same Elder Mills that was in a threesome with me my follow-up trainee transfer) to catch a bus back to Jihlava so we could have exchanges. That bus ride was really miserable too, but only an hour and a half. By this point, my head was killing me.

We went right from the bus station to a meeting with one of their baptismal dates who was really sick. He told us about he tried drinking some coffee to help his throat and that he ended up throwing it up later. He took that as a sign that he needs to keep the Word of Wisdom. We taught him a quick lesson about the priesthood and then gave him a blessing. He was really grateful and we told him that it would work according to his faith. The next day he missed his meeting with us because he was healthy and was up and working somewhere. Guess he has pretty good faith!

Later the same night, after the blessing, we went to an appointment with a family that are all on date. They're the Gunarovi. Last time I was with them, I was on exchange with Elder Bailey and I told them that I play the violin. They asked me to play the next time that I come, so this time, I brought my violin along. I played a few little things for them and they really enjoyed it. We then had a really good lesson about the pre-mortal existence. They didn't get everything all at once, but as we answered their questions, they began to understand. They love having us over, because they can feel the Spirit and they just know that the things we tell them are true.

Then the next day, we had four lessons scheduled. Three of them didn't come, but we met one of the potential investigators they found the week before around town and brought her back to the building and taught her a lesson. Afterward, we went back out looking for someone else. About forty minutes before one of our scheduled meetings, we found this guy named Bohdan. He was really cool. We began telling him about faith. He said he already had faith. We asked what kind and he said Hari-Krishna (or however you spell it). He said that he bought the book just the day before! We then began talking about the Book of Mormon and his eyes lit up! He seemed really interested in talking. He said a few times, "I'm really interested in hearing what you have to say." We then invited him to the building and as we walked into the building, one of the members from Jihlava showed up. We ended up having a member lesson with them, go this number and set up a next appointment. He's way cool. After the lesson, we told him that we had another meeting, and he said that he understood but he'd rather stay with us. That was just so cool.

The rest of the exchange went pretty well. We came back down to Trebic that night and had a sleep over because there weren't anymore trains from Trebic to Jihlava after 8:15, which we couldn't make, so the Jihlava elders had to catch a train back up the next day.

As for Trebic, there's not a whole lot going on. We're working hard, trying to find those who are here. I've heard lots of good things from you about what's going on back home. Glad to hear that we can see the blessings in our lives!

Love you all and take care,
Starší Monk

Call Me Out

Dear Family,

Again, a pretty hard week. It rained nearly all week when last week was at least nice and clear skies, so as such, it was a lot harder to go out and work, but nonetheless, we went out and tried talking to people. There wasn't a huge selection of people to talk to. We couldn't really go tracting, most people would be at work. While we were out, Elder Vomocil would say jokingly, "Take it in Elder, every drop of rain is another minute your wife spends in the gym." He said that his brother's mission would say that. Yes, he served in the Amazon. Yes, they loved working in the rainy season. Just little stuff like that keeps you going sometimes. It's silly and you know that it's not true, but it's fun to think about. Get's your mind off the depressing fact that it's raining a lot, it's annoying, no one's outside, the ones who are outside don't want to talk to you; takový je život (such is life).

We found a couple cool people this last week though, however they didn't show up to their follow-up appointments. Perhaps they just need time to think and "brew" for a while and then they'll be more ready next time they run into missionaries. We also finally caught Ari. She came home from Brno, with Bayar, because they're doing a census here in the Czech Republic, so she came home to be there for that. She's returning sometime today.

Sadly, there's not really a whole lot to write about. I guess I could tell you one interesting story that happened this last week. On Wednesday, we were out contacting, it was raining and we didn't really want to be outside, but we were anyway. We had been contacting and it hadn't gone that badly. We stopped at one point because we were both just kind of dragging, and it was only 2:00 or so. So we made a goal to contact for another thirty minutes and talk to ten people. We knew it would be hard because of how scarce people were at the moment, but we were determined and we set off. Not five minutes later I heard the phone ringing in my pocket, so I took it out to see who was calling. It was a number that we didn't have, so I picked it up, said hello and said that I was Elder Monk. The lady on the other end didn't even say hello and started accusing me of calling her son. We had done callings the day before to try and set up with investigators and less actives, but I didn't remember calling a young boy. I asked her what her son's name was and she said Roman. I certainly didn't call anyone named Roman. This entire time she's just laying into me, letting me have it saying that calling over and over is harassment and that she was going to call the police next time we call because it's illegal. At this point, I was very confused. I kept telling her that I was sorry, but I didn't call any person by that name, but she kept accusing me of calling anyway, she just wouldn't let it go. She said that she was looking at her son's phone and she could say the time and the number that called. Then she also told me that there was another number too who were probably our friends, that was calling him too. She accused me of passing out his number and then harassing him with it. Needless to say, I was extremely confused, but I got the fact that she didn't want us calling her son, so I finally butted my way into the conversation and asked her to send me her son's phone number so I could look through my own phone and delete it if I had it, and also send me the number of the other phone that was calling so I could call them and ask them to delete the number, too. Once she could see that I was confused, but I wanted to help, she completely changed and I could tell that she was just looking out for her son. She was just scared because she didn't know who we were. By the end of the conversation, she was thanking me for being helpful and I kept reassuring her that I would help get it resolved. We said good-bye and hung up. A few minutes later I got a text with her son's phone number asking me to delete it from my own phone and then a minute or two later I got another text with the other number that had been calling. I called that one and it turned out to be the missionaries from Jihlava. They picked up and I asked them if they had called a Roman recently and they said yes. They also said that the lady on the other end threatened to call the police if we called again. This made me curious how she got our number because the kid was only a potential in the Jihlava phone. That didn't matter. I told them to delete the number, and they said that they already did. That was that with them, so after I called the lady back and told her that I got it all resolved and figured out, and that they wouldn't call any more. She was really grateful. I told her that if they called again, for her to call me and I would fix it again. Afterward, needless to say, I didn't have much of a desire to contact people, so we went home and sat there for fifteen minutes or so before going back out into the rain to work some more.

That was our interesting story for the week. I'm glad to hear that all the hardships I'm going through here aren't in vain. At least I'm growing. I definitely learned to think under pressure from that phone call. It was only 8 minutes and it was over the phone! I have a lot to learn still, but I'm learning. :)

Love you all and hope you're all doing well.
Starší Monk

Tough Week

Dear Family,

Well, this may very well be the shortest blog that I write to you. Sadly, There's not really much I can write from this last week. All the lessons that we set up fell through, about five of them - one was even a member lesson. We had four lessons with less actives. Other than that, it's been a pretty tough week to push through. There have been other times on my mission where we've had really hard weeks like this one, I don't think that any of them have been this low, but I would always feel really bad about it. This week is different. I know that we worked hard, we did lots of finding and tried really hard to meet with our investigators. Just everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. Ari, the Mongolian lady that we're working with: her son's father had a stroke and is in the hospital right now, so she left to Brno to take care of him, so she couldn't meet with us. Dana has a ton of school and work as usual, but this last week has really taken a large toll on her so she's been really tired and couldn't meet with us. Other than that, we've been doing our best to find the people here in Trebic who are ready to hear our message. It's been tough, but we don't have any regrets about this last week.

Elder Vomocil has been helping me a lot about feeling good about what we're doing instead of expecting such great things out of the work and then being disappointed and discouraged when it doesn't turn out such. He's helped me look at the Christ-like Attribute of 'hope' differently. It's been helping a lot, and now I'm much happier about what we're doing. It's great to be working with Elder Vomocil; we're always laughing, having a great time, but still at the same time, building each other up and working hard.

I haven't much to say, but I hope that you're all doing well and are safe. If you can see the blessings in your own lives, it gives us the hope and determination to find those who want to see the same kinds of blessings in their own lives here in Trebic - to bring them the same happiness that we all have.

My body aches, my brain is exhausted, but my spirit is hungry to work on. I love working as a missionary. I just wish that I could do it better! That just gives me a higher goal to shoot for, doesn't it? I love you all and hope you're all doing wonderfully.

Much love,
Starší Monk

Half Week After Transfers (Půl Týdne po Střidání)

Dear Family,

There's not a whole lot to say since last time that I wrote you all on Wednesday.  Elder Vomočil and I are getting along great.  I actually enjoy working with someone who's older than I am.  Haven't had that kind of companion since my follow-up transfer (except for the two emergency three-somes I was put into because of people getting moved around two to three weeks before transfers).  It's exciting and I'm really lonving working with him.  We're always laughing.

One thing that I can write you about is that on Friday we went to meet Sister Čermaková, one of the less actives we visit, and we started just talking with her as usual and then she stopped and asked us if we have a message for her.  We said yes and prayed and started reading from the Book of Mormon.  That was cool because she loves to just talk with us, but we can also see that she needs the spiritual help that we can give her, and it was cool to see that she knew it too.  Anyway, earlier that day we had done weekly planning for the next week and we had planned to talk to one of our investigators about fasting, and that's what popped into my head while we were at her house, so we opened up the Book of Mormon and had her read Alma 17:2-3 and she saw that the way that the sons of Mosiah had the spirit of prophecy and revelation by study, praying and fasting.  When she read "fasting" she raised her eyebrows and continued on.  Afterward, I asked her how they had such great gifts, and she responded perfectly along with what we wanted to talk about: she said, "they fasted."  We began talking about that and we challenged her to fast, and she said no right off the bat and explained that she has to eat because she takes various medications which can't be taken on an empty stomach, so we challenged her to a small/mini fast, and jokingly she said, "So only one řizek (schnitzel)."  We laughed, but she knew what we were talking about, and she accepted.  Then we started talking about what we do at church when we have a fast.  She thought for a moment, and said that she didn't know.  I must have asked the question wrong, because when I told her we have a testimony meeting, she said, "Oh, I thought you meant what we do with the food when we fast."  She's a sweet lady.  We then spoke about bearing our testimonies, the blessings that we get, and she got really scared and said that she couldn't do that.  The thing with Sister Čermaková is that she's agoraphobic, and so she doesn't like to leave her comfort zone, in fact it's really hard for her.  She's began coming to church because she knows it's important, but she said that she couldn't do something like that.  We assured her that it would really help her and that it doesn't have to be from her mind.  She could write our her testimony and then read it off at testimony meeting.  We felt like we shouldn't force her, because that could just push her over the edge, so we left it as a suggestion, and so I wrote an idea on the back of a card and left it on her table, and told her, "I wrote something on the back of this card, and you can look at it after we leave, but it's an idea of what you can talk about in your testimony."  We left it at that and just left it up to her.  She knows what she needs to be doing, but right now she just needs the support and love from others to help her get back onto what she knows she needs.  On the card I wrote, "How Jesus Christ has helped/will help me conquer my problems and hardships."  We left it at that, and I had all the faith in the world that she'd pull through.

On Sunday, I was waiting outside the building for people to show up so I could greet them, and five minutes to nine, she pulls up in her car, and I said hello (I was so happy that she came) and went up after her.  I then sat next to her during the meeting.  Before the meeting started, she got my attention and opened her bag and showed me a piece of paper with a whole bunch of things written on it, and she said, "I don't know if I'm going to say it or not."  Nonetheless, I was happy that she had prepared something!  Once the testimonies started, the first pause for longer than ten seconds, she grabbed her bag, ruffled it open and pulled out her piece of paper and walked up to the front.  She was beaming.  President Pohořelický and Brother Fejta, who are usually focused on taking the record of who's at church or whatever they usually do, both looked up and watched her really intently, just so happy that she was giving her testimony.  All the other members were really intent as well.  She wrote her testimony on enduring on the path that she had taken upon herself by being baptized.  She spoke about when she fell away from the church and how she developed agorophobia and how she eventually cut herself from communication of the church.  She told us that she knew the things she needed to be doing and that it's going to be hard but she could do it with the Lord's help.  It was probably the best testimony given that meeting.  After testimony meeting, almost all of the members came up and spoke with her and said that she had a wonderful testimony.  Sister Kutilova and Koutkova sat and talked to her for at least fifteen minutes about how she's so wonderful.  It was so awesome.  That's missionary success.  It wasn't a baptism, but it was a changed heart.

I think that it really helped out the branch too.  President, in branch council, said that her testimony convinced him that people can change back to the church after they've gone away.  He had lost a little bit of faith in that regard because she had been inactive and out of contact for about seven or so years.  It was probably one of the greatest experiences I've had in a long time.

I love being out here and hope that you're all safe and well.  Have a great next week, and I'll do my best to do so as well.
Starší Monk