Week 14 Liberec -- movie sets

This week was a long week! It was busy and full. This week at district meeting we talked about being a consecrated missionary. There is a talk that president has given us and it is one of my favorites here. We talked about lots of different parts of it. How we are consecrated and hoe we can improve! It was lots of fun! We also did my first chalk display here in Liberec. I had to go get a permit for it and it worked out to be Easter week so we got to draw about Jesus and it turned out to be really nice! that night we also went back to a neighborhood we had tracted to someone that told us to come back a week later. They let us in and fed us. We had a great conversation they just couldn't see god in the same way we see him. It was really cool lesson but they didn't have any more interest. This week i have thought a lot about Joseph and Jesus! these two men are so connected in my testimony. Either they are both true or both wrong. I know that Jesus is the Christ and our savior and that Joseph really did see him and restore his church. Tomorrow we will be in Prague for training and I ordered Teachings of the Prophet Joseph smith so i am excited to get that!

We did a pretty cool tabling display this week as well! We took a TV down on the street, ran an extension cord to it and then played the Alleluia video again and again. It was great! But it was kind of like the staff of Moses! People would sometimes jerk there head away when they realized what it was. It was kind of funny. This week scripture stories were coming a live all around us!

Wednesday night we had English and my companion taught them surfer slang. He has quite the vocabulary! Then we jumped on a bus headed to Hradec Kralove for exchanges. They were pretty fun! I was with Elder Peterson. We had prayed and received revelation to look for a YSA man with a red shirt. At about 11 in the morning we are on a bridge walking. there is a path below us and a guy out for a jog, in a red shirt... We hesitated and then took off! It was a good 3 or 4 minute sprint until we could catch up to him and he thought it was awesome. WE had a good conversation but it seemed like that was going to be it all until one of us said something and he changed in a snap. "No maybe we can meet, I think i am different, maybe it could help me" It was so cool to see! Pretty nuts! He set up with them! We also this week have felt that we need to be in a different part of Liberec. Actually a different city. There is a city right next to us that is connected by trams called Jablonec. We are going to be spending more time there over the next few weeks. There is someone there to baptize. We went on Friday and it was awesome!

I have been in the Czech Republic for 7 months! Some of the highlights of this week also include all of the Easter markets on the namesti. We had some great food! I also bought Czech pants! They are awesome and everyone here wears them!

Easter Sunday was one of the best days of my mission! We had a good sacrament meeting and we actually had a visitor from Switzerland. It was our branch presidents companion from his mission. He gave a talk.. In German and president Translated it into Czech. It was crazy to realize that i understood everything. German sounded crazy and then there was the nice familiar sound that i understood. It turns out that his companion is married to Elder Prohazka (my trainer) sister! So I got to meet here too which was cool! Then we went and visited all of the members in Liberec. We had 11 total and saw every single one! It was an awesome day and we learned a ton from the members! We also got stuff to make our own whips! that is the tradition here. First Easter is on Monday and all the men make whips and hit the woman so they can be young and the women give them candy! This morning people were everywhere with Pomlasky (whips) it was pretty funny! All of the toddlers have them too and the dads take them around. the sisters had to be careful! they only got hit a few times!

Also on the main town square they are shooting a film! they have huge sets going up and fake facades and big trucks! It is pretty cool! ill attach some pictures! Other than that not much going on tomorrow back to Prague and then working hard! I hope you all have a great week! Love you!




Someone's pants have been worn out!



braiding his whip of pussywillow stems -- a bizarre Easter tradition



the finished product



Scenes from the movie set that has taken over the town center


it is so weird to see all the signs replaced with English signs

Week 13 - Liberec

This week has been a great week! I forgot to mention but a few weeks ago I finished the Book of Mormon in Czech! That was pretty cool. It is true. Some of the coolest things this week were getting new hymnbooks! We have had some interesting things and this week, real church approved and professional translated songs are here! There are so cool! One other funny story from last week reminded me of dad. We talked to a lady on the street who said we already had enough people but I responded there's room for more! Reminded me of the haunted mansion!

Anyways this week started good on Tuesday with District meeting. I trained about being diligent and we talked about things that may distract us and how to overcome them. It went pretty well! This week we had a lesson with that family. We invited them to the building and they accepted. WE were able to teach with a member and it was really good. They may not have too much interest anymore but we are able to weed things out. On Wednesday we also picked up our custom stamp that we use to stamp all our cards! It is pretty awesome!

On Wednesday president called... Last week was a rougher week in the mission as far as numbers went so I got to talk with him for about 15 minutes about things to do and we counseled together which was really good. We put a big focus the rest of the week on church. Sadly no one came but we are doing our part and have a lot of ideas to try over the coming weeks! One of the things he said was to make sure your working hard because we want to, need to, and should not just because that's what we do. Which was a cool principle to think about. It can be easy to sometimes go out and just get to work and do it hard and diligently but lose that focus. It has to be smart work. We did this week however have a less active at church. He lives about an hour away and we went to visit him . We had the best visit with him I have ever had. Most of the time he is pretty depressed and he is not too happy. But he was different this time and we had a great visit and followed it up with him coming to church! This week also we went to a certain neighborhood 3 times. Every time on the way home we met someone who became a new investigator. It is a magical bus! Sadly none of them showed up to their lessons. This week has really shown that people are beginning to know us on buses! Some for good and some for bad. 2 this week on the way home we got on to the bus and people greeted us like old friends and we had great conversations with them. It is cool to feel that people are on our side. The greatest was one man was not happy with us let us now. He started to raise his voice a little. All we had said was Dobry den, which is a greeting. Then this lady behind him stuck her tongue out and rolled her eyes as he was yelling at us. Another lady shook her head at him. It was awesome to feel that people were on our side! IT was pretty funny!

Also this week had one of the funniest tracting stories! We went tracting Sunday night. On the second house this old guy who looked like Santa clause comes out and gives us this key to a little hut about 10 meters back in his yard and tells us to go wait for him. We go in and it's a total man cave! IT was awesome! When he comes out he turns on this heater and is wearing an army outfit and brings three nonalcoholic beers. It was pretty funny to say the least. we taught him parts of the restoration and had a prayer with him and he liked to talk. It was pretty hilarious! It will be a better story in person! Other than that I hope things are going well! Love you all and miss you! Have a great week!

S laskou

Week 12 in Liberec

This week was busy for lots of reasons and lots of good things happened! And some interesting things! On Monday we met a guy we had just put on baptismal date on Saturday. His Brother had a really hurt hand as we shook it pretty hard and almost put him in tears. When we asked what happened he reaches in his back pants and pulls out a gun. Just to show us! It was interesting but we have decided to just let that one go for now! Pretty crazy and we were on the busiest street in the city. We also got to play some squash on Monday- always good!

Tuesday we started the travels for the week. I had my final visa work in Prague and I am legal. I have my residence card and am good to stay until August 2, 2017. Right after that we went on exchanges with the AP's. Elder Needham and I were together and just went contacting for 5 hours. It was a blast, We also did some tracting and it was cool to see some different approaches. My favorite thing that I learned was him introducing us as teachers. It sometimes seemed to change people's reactions. Wednesday morning we were up early and headed to Brno. 9 of us traveled together in the mission van. It was for follow up training with our greenies. It was pretty fun. Lots of traffic and we ended up going down a one lane road that became a dead end. It was a 300 meter backing up job. President however was 2 hours late to training. They gave their training pretty quickly because others had trains to catch. While the assistants drove some people to the train station we had a Q and A with president. It was pretty fun. WE talked about a stake, studies and then I asked him about transfers! IT was pretty cool. HE has an app that he uses and has lots of information about all of us and then he moves people and prays and moves people and prays and then usually about 3 times until he feels it's right. He decided to show how it worked to move people and he grabbed my little Picture and drug it all the way over to Kosice the furthest place away in Slovakia! I also found out this week that our ancestors are from a little place just above Kocice! Pretty crazy! We'll see what happens!

District meeting this week i talked about the purpose of companions and how we can use our companionships better. IT was really good and we had a good discussion about testifying and switching off more since 2 of them are greenies. We had an interesting lesson with a Muslim man again this week. They had there general conference when we were there and he showed it to us.

Some other good things from the week! We got kicked off the bus once. The bus driver didn't like us talking to people. We had already talked to everyone though! On Saturday and Sunday we had district conference in Prague so we were gone a lot again. on Saturday president shared a scripture from D&C 107 about quorums. A few weeks ago he told us how when he was dating sister mcConkie he shared that verse with her and said we could be a quorum. I think that's the greatest pick up line yet.

Before traveling to Prague on Saturday we met two of the coolest kids. They were about 19 and had just gotten news that there little sister or something a small baby would probably die. WE shared the plan of salvation and it was super cool!

Anyway, in Prague for the priesthood session and adult session on Saturday. Someone thought it would be a good idea if I translated. I translated half of the adult session. President McConkies talk and two others. They didn't ask me to do it again on Sunday... But it went alright. I had a lot of fun and it was quite the challenge. President told the story again about our new mission president and it was so cool to feel the spirit testify again that he is the right one. The conference was visited by Elder Mendoza of the area seventy and he gave a very interesting talk about stakes. There is an application in with the first presidency for a stake to be here. We will see what happens. IT was a fun week but lots of travel. We were not allowed to stay in Prague on Saturday night so we traveled to and from both days. On the way back to Prague Sunday morning I was sitting next to a little kid in our branch and i started to do something with my watch. A guy next to me saw me and proceeded to teach me about my watch. He was actually the coolest guy and we ended up talking for the entire bus ride. He taught me a lot of things and made some pretty funny jokes as well. IT was a really great week. This week we have at it and will be here the whole week. We are ready to work hard and get moving. I hope things are going well! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Hanis

Week 11 in Liberec -- new companion

Man this was a full week! As I mentioned last week i was in Prague from Monday until Wednesday and it didn't disappoint! It was quite the leap day. We had FHE there in Prague and they have a huge YSA it was such a fun night to meet all of those members there! After that I was with the office elders to teach a lesson when the Assistants ran in telling them their apartment was flooding. It had started to snow and had turned into a blizzard. The five of us took off to their apartment. As we waited on the steps (the office elders were already in their apartment) One of the AP's who got to Prague in the morning got  a call from president. Turns out it was the assistants apartment flooding... So we raced back to the church building and hopped in their car with a 15 minute drive there. We arrived about 8:45 and the neighbors down stairs were livid! So we raced up and to make a long story short the water boiler had broken. This neighbor was not too happy but we got it all cleaned up and it was still leaking by about 10:30. We had a bucket under it and we needed to change it. So every thirty minutes through the night we had an alarm go off to change it. All 5 of us slept there and it was quite the night.

Then came Tuesday. I was in the office in the morning and had a question about free masons so I went and talked to president for about 30 minutes. He is the coolest. WE had a great conversation and I learned a ton. Nothing better than getting to talk to president. Then we contacted and at 5 we had a meeting at the McConkies house for all of the trainers. It was a really fun meeting and after wards had diner. 3 of the other trainers were from my MTC group as well so it was a really fun meal and just got to talk with president and sister mconckie and all the missionaries. After diner we had permission to be out until 9:30 and go walk around Prague. Elder Stacy from My MTC group took off and saw all of Prague like we did on our first day in the country. It was a pretty fun night!

Wednesday morning we had the meeting to pick up our greenies . It was pretty fun! My new companion is Elder Collins from California. He is a pretty cool guy and went to byu for a year already. He is a really good missionary. As we traveled to the bus station we talked with a woman who gave us her number but got off without giving us her name so he stuck his head out yelling after her at the top of his lungs. Our first day in Liberec we set up 6 lessons for the next day and he did 2 of them on his own. It was pretty crazy!

As for other stories this week, we met a really interesting guy who told us that Jesus was a guy sent back in time to fulfill the role that people created for someone named Jesus.... You can't tell me Joseph isn't a prophet! We also had a really cool meeting with a Muslim man. It was really interesting and he believes almost identical to us. He believes another prophet was called in the 1800's it was really interesting.

We also had a really cool meeting with a guy we met a few weeks ago. He accepted everything but didn't want to make a change in his life. During the lesson though I learned so much from the spirit. It was pretty cool. 

One of the other good ones was from my companion at church. The branch president asked him a question in English and he just could not understand. He responded in Czech that he didn't understand and it happened three times! IT was awesome!

Another good one was when he didn't understand and he asked the investigator a question He said, "So you're not going to pray because you don't want to receive an answer from god?"  It was awesome. We are having a lot of fun

Sunday was a good day but we had a lot of opposition! We got assigned seats on a bus once. Two other people yelled at us and stared us down. We had some interesting contacts. That means this week is going to be a good week!

Speaking of this week! Tomorrow we are going to Prague for my visa work(last one) and then have exchanges with the APs. On Wednesday we are going to Brno for new missionary training and on Saturday and Sunday we will be in Prague again for district conference! Lots of things going on! Have a great week! Love you all!

Week 10 in Liberec

Ahoj! Greetings from... Prague! I am currently emailing from Prague... But i am staying in liberec. I am actually training! So my companion left today for olomouc and i didn't have a companion since our greenies don't get here until Wednesday. I am pretty pumped and it is going to be pretty fun! This week has been a pretty awesome week.

This week we started planning every thirty minutes of our time exactly where we will be and it seemed to make a difference. This week more than ever people on the street told us they could see something different in us. One said we had a fire in our eyes. It is cool to see that people can actually notice! Also on Tuesday for the first time in my mission someone who we set up a lesson with but didn't have their number came! Pretty cool! It was actually interesting. I ended up forgetting the keys to the church building so we had started talking outside when a member showed up (without keys) but she ended up teaching the whole lesson. It was really cool to see how things happen for a reason.

The highlight of the week was Wednesday! We had training in Prague and it was one of the coolest meetings. President had a killer training! It was about Joseph Smith. However as he started his presentation a picture of a man and woman came up on the screen.. Jan Pohořelicky and His wife.. They are our new mission president. He is a Czech! He lives in Trebic and is the ward mission leader there. It was the coolest spirit for us to feel that this is right. The Czechs now will have there own person at the head of the church. It is so cool and he is the right one for this country. President told us that in December he was in Brno and got out of his car in the parking lot and saw Jan he said he had the thought come that he would be the new mission president. Later that day he had a meeting with Jan and jan told him "President i just got a call from president Nelson of the Quorum of the 12 apostles and he wants to meet with me! How did the lord find me here in a little town in the Czech republic" IT was so cool and that just got things going. President went on to give his defense of the prophet Joseph. Joseph smith is a prophet of good. Period. IT was the coolest training. " If he was a fraud why invite people to replicate his experience" He talked about all of the experiences that he had with other people. It was the most powerful training. We are all here as missionaries because we had an experience with the Book of Mormon and Joseph smith. When we testify of Joseph we testify of Jesus Christ. Joseph took God out of the Box. It was the coolest meeting. Later Sister McConkie also gave a great training on Body language and the assistants trained on using baptismal calendars
We got home from Prague Wednesday night and my companion got a little sick... Think of Shads story in the corn field! So we got to go home for the night. Thursday was a good day and we found a cool family tracting, however he is a photographer and there house was very interesting.. We will leave it at that.Friday we had out culture night and saw Alice in wonderland. It was a ballet. It was interesting! But fun! Saturday we had a really good day. Invited back to that same families house and then had a good visit with a member and transfer calls!

Sunday was a good last day. We had a really good meeting and then branch council . We had fasted with in investigator who accepted a baptismal date and It was a solid end to the transfer. Now i am in Prague with the office elders. Tomorrow we have a meeting with president and we pick up our greenies on Wednesday! I am pumped and this week will be a lot of fun!

Love you all
Starsi Hanisz

Week 9 - Liberec -- a busy week!

Like i mentioned last week we were in Prague on Monday and also Friday of this past week! That means we missed a good portion of time in our area but none the less it was a good week.
We started on Tuesday with district meeting. We talked about testimony and i read all of the quotes dad has sent me on testimony. I also had each of the people talk about something relating to testimony. The young sister missionary about being a new missionary. My companion about 2x2 and the other sister shared her dads conversion story. It was really cool and we ended with a testimony meeting.This mission means everything to me.

While in Prague on Monday we got mail! Thanks Shad for the package! It was fun and some things i needed as well! Also i got a bunch of talks from dad which related almost exactly to this one investigator we had. This week we had warmer weather but on Wednesday it started to snow, and snow, and snow. We went to the student housing in the morning to contact. There was a small hill going up to it. We got there and watched as cars would go up and then slide all the way back down. We contacted for an hour through the snow and it turned into a real dangerous situation. Cars would come up or down and completely lose traction spinning and slamming into poles and other cars! We offered to help some people and it was awesome! However the highlight was when we tried to go down the hill ourselves. My companion fell and could not get up and then a car started to come down the hill... We finally got him out of the way and they drove past us giving us not very nice looks. And then we see that heavenly father has a sense of humor. There car started spinning all the way down and come to a nice stop. They had no injuries or anything but were just a little embarrassed, We offered to help them and they said no go help this other guy first. They thought it would be a good idea to come help as well. They took one step out of the car and the made the other 30 feet to where we stood on there butts sliding along the ice right to our feet. They were more than embarrassed they had laughed at us/ It was pretty funny!
The cool family we were so excited about last week did not want to meet with us anymore. They met us outside there gate and gave us the Book of Mormon back. Then on Friday we were back in Prague and i got to go contact for three hours with Elder Stacy from my MTC group. We had a blast! It was really fun to be with him. Saturday we had 4 lessons set up and all of them fell through and it just rained and was cold.. Wasn't the funnest afternoon but we made it through! Sunday we did some tracting and ended up tracting into the same guy my companion contacted on the bus there. He let us in and we got to teach the restoration! Sunday night we had dinner with the Hanzalovi, the branch president here. It was almost like we were missionaries in America! It was quite the meal and the night. All of the food was organic and amazing! We had a really yummy Swedish dish with meatballs and mashed potatoes. It was so fun and they are the coolest couple. They have one little boy too! We were full! Today we had a fun pday and we went to the spot where Germany Poland and the Czech republic meet with one of the members. It was pretty fun! Other than that not too much going on! This is the last week of the transfer so we will see what happens on Saturday. We also have training on Wednesday and culture night on Friday! Have a great week! Love you all!