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,

Week 8 - Bratislava, Slovakia CHRISTMAS!

Well it has been quite the week!  Like i said last week we were in Kosice and we made it to Siba and found Hanis's. There was some snow and we walked through the cemetery and saw lots of familiar names! We then spent an hour with Andrea a Martin Hanis. IT was pretty cool! Tuesday we were in Kosice on an exchange for the morning. I was with Elder Arens who had been in the MTC with me, had to go home for a little bit and just got back a few months ago! That Was pretty cool! We had a good exchange and got to help one lady in her yard. That afternoon we set out to Brno (a six hour car ride). On the way i had a call in MLC. We got some more things figured out and we had a good night. Wednesday we had our Christmas training. In the morning we all went to the town square and sang a few songs. There were about 40 missionaries and we got some good crowds! 

Training was great! we, the sister training leaders, the other zone leaders, and the assistants and president all gave a training. IT was more of a spiritual thought though. IT was a really great meeting. My companion and i talked about Jesus Christ and his titles. WE talked about him being foreordained to what he would do. And we related that to us as missionaries being foreordained and we will accomplish that which has been promised. We just have to hold on! It was a fun day. 

Thursday, a lot of missionaries had stayed in Bratislava so we did a big service project cleaning up a park and had our Christmas concert. Someone we are kind of teaching came and sang. He and his wife are opera singers. I may have missed a little ;) Finally came Christmas eve which is the big day here but starts the three day Holiday. Our guidelines on the 24 were that we could visit people until about 2 in the afternoon but on the 24,25 and 26 no tracting or things like that. We had some great visits and brought banana bread with us. At 2 we made lunch for a member and went over and spent about two hours with him because he was alone and then we went to another members after that and had a classic Slovak Christmas without carp. It was a great day! ON Sunday we had an hour church, visited a less active and skyped! Yesterday everything was still closed so we did some service and a member invited us over for lunch and we had a lesson with the girl from Thailand. She came and said so I've been thinking about the purpose of life. What do you think? It was a great lesson!

This week is also full of some traveling and new things. We are excited to see how it goes. I love you all and wish you a happy new year.

S Laskou,

Starsi Hanis

Week 7 - Bratislava, Slovakia

Well there are always a few surprises in the week. This week was no different! I'll begin by saying that we are emailing from Kosice and I will come back to that! As I said last week we got new beds and shelves and got that all finished. Wednesday we had a good English class and we had mutual after decorating sugar cookies. We started an exchange after and I was with Elder Whitney. They are the other elders here in Bratislava. We had a good exchange, a lot of contacting but found some really cool people and then that night we started an exchange with Missionaries from Nitra. This time i was with Elder Dixon. We had a good night and in the morning we had to leave our apartment because the day before I got a call from my companion that plumbers and our landlord had been at our apartment and starting Friday morning we weren't going to be able to be there. So Friday morning we packed up all of the things we will need until Wednesday and we had a good exchange. We drew the hashtag for the Christmas video again all around the city and then had a good night. we taught the Book of Mormon class that night about 3 Nephi 1 and the Saviors birth. We stayed the night with the other elders.

Saturday was a great day. We studied a little and headed to the building for a lesson and we were ahead of schedule so we got off the tram early and started talking to people on the way. Then we got behind schedule and were hurrying when we saw a Dad with three young sons. We stopped him and talked to him about Christmas  and about family prayer. He said thanks and when we asked if we could come over and share a message he said yes! Fast forward to Sunday he returned our call and said we could come at 1. They actually live about 200 meters from the building. They let us come in and they sat there three kids down, they fed us and we met his wife and we taught them the restoration. So Cool! it was a miracle. It works to talk to every father with a kid! Sometimes it just takes a year! It was awesome!

Saturday we finished planning for our week and had game night and then Sunday we had church. It was the primary program with the missionaries singing all the songs ;) And then we went to that family and then to a family in the branch for lunch which was so great! They played lots of Christmas music! And then we set out on the road for a big week! When we found out we couldn't be in our apartment we had to change some plans around. We had planned for the elders form Kosice to come to bratislva before training to have an exchange but we called president and decided to come to kosice Sunday, spend the night and have pday here so we can go to Siba! Were gonna go visit where our ancestors came from! I am way excited!

Tomorrow we will be here until about 2 and we will drive all the way to Brno and be there Wednesday, we will come home and have two days until the Christmas day here and it will be a weird couple of days! We are excited for Christmas! Lots of things happening! We can Light the world. I know that Christ is the light and we can follow his example. Merry Christmas!

Love Elder Hanis