Monday, January 30, 2017

Week 13 - Bratislava, Slovakia

Another good week in the books. January is almost over but the cold is not. We have some fresh snow to start the new week. On Tuesday of last week we challenged our zone to spend in total an hour praying on tuesday and specifically to pray for each missionary by name. It was a good experience and at the end of the week there were two more people with a baptismal date in our zone. We had a lesson with a recent convert that night and talked about the plan of salvation again.
 
We started an exchange that night and i was with elder Bednar. He and i were in the MTC together more than a year and a half ago. In the MTC we actually taught each other as investigators. We have come a long ways. In the mtc our mutual understanding of Czech and Slovak was almost nothing. I don't think we ever understood each other and now we talked the whole time in our languages. We had a really fun exchange and have had very similar missions and experiences. I in one country and he in the other. We met some great people. Tuesday night we met a really cool couple. We talked about church and the restoration. They said they would come to church but unfortunately didn't come... We had a really fun exchange and taught really well. Wednesday we went to a homeless shelter which we actually visited last p day. We picked up lots of clothes and brought it back for a service project which we did on saturday sorting them out. We had a cool experience with one guy we were talking to in a tram. It came to his stop and he had to get off and we were trying to set up a meeting and as the doors were closing (he had already got off) he jumped back on and said he could go another stop! The holy ghost is powerful!
 
Friday we met a guy who had stopped riding his bike to watch some birds just as we got there. We had a really spiritual conversation with him about the restoration and about the purpose of life. And that night we got to go with all of the missionaries to our branch presidents house for dinner! They are awesome! it felt like coming home. We had a roast! Its been a long time! It was so good!
 
Saturday we had a lesson with the guy we met last week in a tram. We had a good lesson with him and he definitely felt the holy ghost. We had just gotten through talking about the first vision and the spirit was really strong and he didn't know what he was feeling so he tried to start changing the subject, and asked three of the same questions about our lives and then he said he left laundry at home and had to go. It was pretty evident that he was feeling something. It was pretty fun!
 
Sunday was a great sunday. I only had to translate two of the hours but we taught the other one. We visited a member and had a nice visit. After we met a clown! Just a guy but that's his job. He showed us some pictures and it was pretty cool! After the district president was passing through and wanted a book of Mormon so we raced across town and gave him a book of Mormon to give to someone and then met a really strong catholic. We had a really good conversation and in the end she accepted a book of Mormon and said she would read it. There were some great moments!
 
Its been a great week and hope things are well
S laskou,
Starsi Hanis




We bought 18 liters of kofola last week!


This is actually what most of the city looks like. This buidlings cover the cities here!



Every house has big fences around them!



We found some sweet vests in the clothes for the homeless!



This is halusky. Its the famous slovak dish. The best way to describe it is like Maccaroni and cheese but the noodles are potato kinda things with unpastureized sheep cheese and a block of bacon! Pretty great

Monday, January 23, 2017

Week 12 Bratislava, Slovakia

Well this week has flown by! As i mentioned last week Our senior couple just got back from having to go home for a few weeks and it has been a good first week! On Tuesday we headed to Prague in the morning. We had a meeting with president and one of his counselors about member missionary work in Slovakia. We are planning a fireside for members in each branch about how we can do better! It'll be exciting! After that starting at 2 we had MLC at presidents home. It was very effective and we got a lot of things done for the beginning of the year! We had some great conversations and some cool experiences in seeing a quorum come together. We had dinner at their house and 4 of us actually slept at the phorelickys house! We had interviews with president that night and just got to talk and sit with them.!
In the morning we took a run down across Charles Bridge! (The Big Famous bridge in Prague) No one was there! We got home and president and his wife were making breakfast for us! That was pretty awesome! It was like being at home almost! Cant say i slept the greatest but it was fun! We finished MLC and then headed on home and got home around 7 or 8 and we had missionaries from Nitra coming for an exchange. I was with Elder McCallister who has only been here one week! It was a fun exchange! Pretty cold but good things! 

We went tracting to a small vesnice and there were a few people that said we could return. I thought it would be great with elder McCallister! Well the first guy we knocked and kind of angry he tells us we had already been there! We kindly reminded him that he said we could return. He said "Well yeah in a year! or two or three! Not in two days.." It had been a week! Pretty funny We were able to have a first lesson back at the building with someone. Which went well. Saturday we had to go to trencin for a baptismal interview. We went in the morning and did some finding with them before the interview. 

On a tram on the way home i started talking to a guy and he said he had no interest. So i asked him who he knew and he said sorry i don't understand Czech just Slovak. Turns out he was from Canada but his parents were Slovak. But he still didn't really have interest and said i should talk to someone else. So i did. I talked to a few other people and then made eye contact with that guy and he motioned for me to come back. He ended up wanting to meet! So we are excited to meet with him this week! It has been a good week! Lots of other things that i don't have time to mention! But i have you all have a great week! Love you


Monday, January 16, 2017

Week 11 Bratislava, Slovakia

IT has been a chilly week but not the worst! We have had lots of snow and ice! The coolest it got was -12 It was a great first week of the transfer. Tuesday we still had elder Cahoon with us before we got up early wednesday morning and took him to the train station to head to Prague and then home. 

Tuesday was a good day. We had a few lessons on plan that went pretty well. One was a first lesson for the most part and it was kind of all over the place. The guy had a a lot of interesting ideas. But he ended up coming to church on Sunday and had a great experience. The members took him in and he called it a big energy that was there! For mutual this week we played foursquare and made donuts which turned out pretty well. Thursday we had a lesson with a guy and he has been around the church for a while but we were able to set a lot better expectations so we hope we can also teach his family this week! President was in town after and came to district meeting and lunch with us! Always good to be around him. 

Friday morning it was sunny and blue skies and we went outside and within 30 minutes it had turned into a big snow storm and snowed the rest of the day! A few fun stories from the week include my companion getting kissed on the temple by a drunk guy, Me trying to learn stick shift.. As well as never being more tired. Personal study this week was the hardest ever. I tried a lot of things this week to stay awake. I drank tea and fell asleep.. I chewed gum and fell asleep while chewing gum. Never been more tired! I even fell asleep at my desk after planning while reading preach my gospel. That hasn't happened yet!

On Saturday at game night i got to play ping pong with this man from Vietnam. Oh man was he good! We played for an hour straight! He taught me a lot and we had some pretty good rallies by the end! Shad probably doesn't stand a chance against me anymore! Sunday was a nice day. We got to go to the Russians family house for dinner which is always a great experience! So nice to be there and our senior couple from Australia got back after having to go home for a few health things! We also had some good tracting!
This transfer we have a challenge from President Pohorelicky to read all of PMG as a mission. So we started that this week! Sunday i also gave a talk in church about finding and losing and i talked about a certain 50 mile hike which was fun! IT has been a good week and hope things find you all well! Love ya!




Monday, January 9, 2017

Week 10 Bratislava, Slovakia

Well as i mentioned last week my companion was sick. Last Monday it didn't take long until i had a good fever and was pretty miserable too. I didn't feel too great all week but worked anyway and we had an interesting week!
 
For one i have never sneezed so much in my entire life. I could even beat dad! We met some really interesting guys this week. One guy on the street talked a lot about polygamy and never liked our answers. Even from the bible! We had an interesting lesson with a man who is a very strong Catholic. There were some funny moments about things being from the bible! On wednesday our plan fell through and we had thirty minutes. WE decided to try and go visit a member which was about 15 minutes away. It was the craziest thirty minutes, We got on a tram, gave someone a book of Mormon, taught another lady, visited the member and found another person on the way back.
 
on Thursday we had our culture night for the transfer. We went to the museum and it was about propaganda during the holocaust here in Slovakia. It was pretty interesting. It was the stuff that no one really talks about. Learned a lot. We had a lesson with a deaf member which is always fun trying to communicated and had our last exchanges. It was freezing!! But we ended up finding a cool guy. He had met missionaries before and wanted to talk to us. His girlfriend had just broken up with him and been kind of lonely and needed help moving! Pretty cool to run into him.
 
Saturday was the coldest day! At 11 in the morning it was -10 c and the wind was blowing enough to hold you up if you leaned over! It was crazy. Some members took us on a hike in a forest which was fun and then we had game night. I played the best game of chess ever and beat this less active member. He let out the best gasp as he lost. hopefully hell start coming more!
 
Sunday was an interesting day all of our plans fell through but we ended up visiting someone with the sacrament . Visiting a potential investigator, singing, giving someone a blessing.
 
Today is transfers! Elder cahoon is out of here back to Utah on Thursday and my new companion is elder Mueller. Still zone leaders. He is from Washington and went to the naval academy before his mission. It should be a fun transfer if we don't freeze. Hope you have a great week!



Monday, January 2, 2017

Week 9 - Bratislava, Slovakia HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well the last week of the year was a full week! With p-day on Tuesday.  It was a little strange. But on Wednesday, we had to get up at 3:30 am to go wait at the foreign police for some missionaries. I drove and on the way got pulled over.. They just wanted to check my breath and then they left. Phew! We got there and we appeared to be the first ones there and then some random people showed up and stated that they had been there before. Basically it is just a pretty interesting system there. The whole story will have to wait for another day. 
We had permission from president to go home at 6:30 and sleep a little to not be as exhausted which was nice. Wednesday at 12 all of the missionaries arrived from Slovakia to head to the Czech republic for a mission conference. We followed the bus in the car because there weren't enough seats for everyone. We ended up arriving at the place at 15:30 and the bus got there at 19:00. IT was a long day. We had dinner and some announcements and a fireside about Jerusalem. We went to bed and got up and played sports and went for a run through the country side. We had training in the morning, WE discussed a number of things which will change a few things in the new year and are changing standards soon which will be good changes! 

After training,  president had us change into casual clothes and we had a talent/variety show for two hours which was pretty fun! We had a kind of stomp thing we did as a district. There were some pretty funny things done. President and Sister pohorelicti also prepared a fear factor thing for us all.  I got something which i think was blood sausage. Pretty gross. And to end the night, they showed us a Czech fairytale movie which was really fun! The next day we had sports again and then had testimonies for departing missionaries. Our sisters are already finishing pretty crazy. Also three of my companions are dying. 

We left that morning straight to Trencin. There i did a baptismal interview before coming home Friday night. Saturday we had a good day and had to be inside by 4. Fireworks had already started going off everywhere. We went to bed and weren't even planning on getting up at midnight but at midnight it felt as if the war had started. Right outside our window were so many fireworks going off. Our whole building was shaking that it even woke me up.

Sunday we woke up and my companion was pretty sick and i had a cold. We had to stay home from church and i got a lot of scripture reading done. Today we went to the doctor for my companion and he should be on the mend. This is the last week of the transfer! Hope you all have a great new year! 
Love ya,