Saturday, May 28, 2016

Saturday May 28, Week 5 in BRNO "the windows of heaven"

As the subject states this week has been a great week! We are being blessed here! Last Sunday was the first Sunday in a ward. We don't have a bishop yet but it was still exciting! On Monday we had training here in Brno. All the missionaries in Slovakia and our zone were here. It was pretty great!! We trained on Church and how to bring investigators with us. It was great and then president Trained on the spirit and it was a really good training also with sister McConkie who trained on unity. It was great to be with them. We have one more training with them... On the 28 of June President Pohořelícky will have the keys and the phone and will be our mission president. We have a training with president McConkie the week before and then also with president pohorelicky on the 2 of July. Lots of things are happening!

This week we had two great lessons with our investigator bronislav. We taught him the law of chastity and word of wisdom and he accepted a baptismal date finally! My companion in explaining the law of chastity said that it means we don't have any sexual relations outside of... Religion. The words for Marriage and religion sound similar and it was so hilarious! good times! Things have been going so well in our area. We are finding people who are prepared more than ever. WE have taught 7 member present lessons with 3 more on plan. More than ever before and things are just going great! We had a super cool lesson with another guy last night. He has absolutely no religious background! It was really interesting. When i say no religious background i mean absolutely nothing at all.

Our land lord is named Gad Which sometimes makes for some funny jokes because you say it in Czech how we say in English god. so we live in the apartment under Gad. But He came down on Tuesday after planning because he could smell what we had made for dinner. I had made burgers with Lipton onion soup (speaking of i could use more of that) He smelled it upstairs! Pretty funny but ended up talking to us until almost 10:25,

On Thursday we had an exchange with olomouc. I was with Elder Cardon and we had a great exchange. We went out Wednesday night and some guys were playing basketball so we told them we would play if we could teach them. Played and had some great conversations for about 10 minutes! We extended some baptismal dates on the streets and even got a hug from this guy we taught! We also found a really cool mom who we are meeting with tomorrow! It should be great!

The last couple things that happened this week is that last night we got on a bus and there are two kids there... With a water polo ball. I went up and talked to them! They play here. Pretty cool! Today we played squash this morning. We met a guy on the street who wanted to teach us so he invited us and he taught us how to play better! Lots of fun! we then did a service project with the branch and it was great! Other than that not too much! This week will be another busy one! Love you all!





more cereal because it was on sale


a new restaurant we want to try


a zip line we found!

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Saturday May 21 - Week 4 in BRNO and Saturday p-days

Well first things first we have p-day on Saturday and it will probably be like this for a while. Last Monday we got a call from president and we had an emergency transfer. Elder Croney and I are still together as zone leaders but now we are in a three some with elder Chapple. Elder Chapple is working in the family history archive here in Brno so it has a unique set of things in order to enable that. One is p day on Saturday! The second is that we get up at 6 so we can have studies because we have to drop elder Chapple off at 1030 every day at the archive and then pick him up at 5. That adds a unique challenge to planning. It has been an interesting week. Especially on exchanges!

On Monday of last week Elder Croney and I bought new grammar books and it has really helped us study Czech better! IT has made language study a lot more effective! On Tuesday we had a birthday lunch from dad at the american restaurant. We had A&W root beer, onion rings and burgers. It was delicious!!

This week the windows of heaven have been open and we have found tons of cool people! We have about 15 people that are set up or super solid potentials. That has been really cool! Our investigator with a baptismal date is doing really well. WE taught about the law of chastity and his only question was what other commandments. It was pretty fun! We had exchanges with UH this week and brought them both to Brno. I was with Elder Swink. We had a great exchange and taught like crazy
On Friday we also met two super cool people. One knew a member and said she really saw a difference after he joined the church. She said she would maybe want it and that she would give it a try. We also met a really cool guy from Tanzania. We will see how it all goes. This morning we also went on a vylet with the branch and it was a really cool place. It had a library with books from the 11th century and we saw the first kralická bible that was printed ( the same one we use now) This week will be a busy week! We have training on Monday and we are training about church and we will have exchanges later in the week! That's about it from here! The weather is getting warmer! Hope you all have a great week!




Prague from last week




The vylet

Monday, May 16, 2016

Week 3 in BRNO - THE CZECH REPUBLIC STAKE

This week was quite the week! Sunday lived up to everything. There is a stake in the Czech republic. Martin Pilka was called as the stake president with Michal Hanzal (the branch president from liberec) and Roman Cadeni from Brno were called as counselors. Radovan Canek was also called as a patriarch. It was amazing! I will come back to it

On Monday our favorite cereal was on sale and we bought about 12 bags for the rest of the transfer! Tuesday we found an american restaurant and got a blooming onion... not what we expected. It was a whole onion just grilled... It was interesting! 

Thursday we had mission leadership council and it was pretty fun! WE talked about all the logistics for the weekend and how we could help usher and those things. It was pretty cool. President would burst into tears about every 10 minutes. He has given his entire missions to this! It was awesome! The best part is almost always the Jesus thought. President just makes Jesus relatable and personable. It was really cool! It was from Luke about Jesus forgiving a sinner. On the way home from MLC we stopped in Jihlava and went on an exchange. I stayed in Jihlava with elder cook and we had a good exchange. And then came Saturday. It was a pretty crazy day. WE got to the church building in Prague and it was full of all the families waiting to go to the hotel where we had the meeting and it was electric! People were excited! We got to the hotel and it was just crazy! It was so much fun! There were all the members from ostrava nad liberec and coming up to me! Tons of old missionaries were here including Elder Prohazka. It was so cool. We were ushering and got to talk to everyone and then we got to the room and every missionary was standing at the back because that many members had come. President Uchdorf gave a great talk that night about a lot of different things and a lot about defending the gospel. Some examples he talked about the reality of the gospel that it answers the most difficult questions simply which is a sign of truth. He talked a little about the four different accounts of the first vision and related it to mathew mark luke and john. 4 audiences of course they are different! HE said "We use the third account, now whats for lunch!" He talked about the seer stone. Man created an iphone does a lot of what a seer stone can do. Now imagine what God can do! When they decided on the stake he said he had to come here. He said he feels like he is Czech. He also talked about the celestial language was German in heaven.. But that the man at the gates speaks Czech! It was awesome. WE stayed in Prague Saturday night. and then Sunday came. WE were at the yellow palace and greeted everyone outside. It was so fun and then we had the conference. And all the missionaries were standing and they started the business and established 6 wards. One in ostrava! When president got to announcing plzen he broke down because that is where he started his mission when there were only 200 members in the whole country. It was a spirit filled event. The stake presidency was announced. high priest were announced. I met our mission president and he was ordained a high priest. WE talked to members and had a great time. It was a highlight day!  

It was a amazing. It was one of the best experiences to get to see them all and feel it. It was a memorable day! I love you all and hope you have a great week! I will probably be emailing on Saturday of this week as well! 

Monday, May 9, 2016

Mothers Day, President Uctdorf and more!

It was great to get to talk to you guys yesterday and it was a lot of fun! There was actually one thing i forgot to mention and that was the story of our apartment. But first like i mentioned on Saturday and Sunday we have a special conference of the church and President Uctdorf will be coming to organize the first stake in the Czech republic! We are so excited!!! its going to be awesome!

This week has been awesome! WE met the coolest people and we have been so busy! We me the coolest guy who wants to be baptized. Came to church in a suit and white shirt and tie and it is awesome! we also met a really cool girl. We were inviting people to English when we came across a a girl crying. We taught her right there and had a second meeting the next day with a member. The members here are awesome! we have a church building! And it is a huge branch soon to be ward! It is so cool and so much fun! Sunday was an awesome day! We had a fun sacrament, and then some meetings and then skyping! It was great and a good week! 

But the story of our apartment! So during communism the church was banned here. The kept it alive by doing yoga and then doing a spiritual hour at the end and people who showed interest they would invite to read the book of mormon. Every person they invited was baptized in the middle of the night. But our apartment is the apartment that they started the classes in. Our land lord is the guy that kept the church going. HE is so cool. He gave a super cool talk on Sunday about patriarchs. This morning during studies i found an old history he had written about the church and it is so cool to read! These members here are something else. He didn't have the priesthood for a while and was still leading and teaching about the church for the first little bit! 
Today was a weird birthday but its been great! I loved telling people i was 18 it astonished them even more! But we had lunch with the sisters and went to a castle which is a church and it is on a hill right in the center of the city. We got to go up in the towers too! IT was so fun!
Anyways that's about it! I love you guys and will let you know how things go next week!!!!


Monday, May 2, 2016

Transfering out -- week 19 in Liberec -- the LAST week

Well first things first we had transfers ! I am in Brno now and am a zone leader with Elder Croney. Brno is the only place here with a church building and has a super big branch. I am pretty excited! The biggest news though is that on the 14 and 15 of May, we will be having a special conference of the church in the Czech Republic. It will be historic is all they can tell us. The work is moving forward here and it is so exciting!

Back to this week, my last week in liberec was awesome! I love the members and the people there! They are the greatest! On Wednesday we had a training and it was really good. The goal was on how to baptize. The Assistants trained on our heart might mind and strength and putting everything from home on a shelf. Sister McConkie then talked about our potential and it was so good. She talked about a violinist who performed in a subway stop. When she is the most successful violinist. It was so cool! President then trained on teaching and it was a great day! On Thursday we woke up and we had snow on the ground... But it has been a gorgeous week! We had a meeting with our investigator who was at church and had a great lesson about repentance and baptism. He didn't accept a date though. We were doing some contacting on Friday and cops walked past us and then came back. I actually knew the two of them and had met them last transfer. They asked me "You still enjoy doing this?" It was pretty funny! Absolutely! This is the best!

On Friday we went tracting and started to walk back after because we didn't have a bus for an hour. On the way a car pulls over and stops. They were from Poland and had been driving around for two hours lost. We pulled out our map and were definitely the answer to their prayer. On Saturday we went and did service tracting again and we had great results again! It was awesome! I mowed a huge lawn. Take Amber's and double it. We had a lot of fun and the guy took us out to lunch and said we could return and share a message! We also got transfer calls! On Sunday was my last day in liberec we had a great fast Sunday and then went to a members house and she taught us to make svickova. Other than that not too much else. I am excited for this transfer and that conference in two week! I will talk to you guys on Sunday! Love ya!




Liberec!  I'll miss this city!


Milos, a great guy in Liberec.



Thanks Shad for the cake!