December 21 2015

So this Christmas is going to be interesting. Today (monday) Elder Page and I and the 2 sisters who are also here in Jíhláva are going to a Christmas party hosted by our Branch at 5:00pm, which for me, is in about 50 minutes. I say that the Branch is hosting it, but the reality is that the Branch President called Elder Page and I last night when it was already dark and asked, "hey, will you talk to the sisters and plan the activities for our Branch Party? it is tomorrow at 5:00. Thanks BYE!" So what's REALY happeneing is Elder Page and the Sisters and I are hosting this "branch" Christmas Party. don't worry I'll get some Pictures. At this party we're going to be including some Czech traditions that we've been learning about during our English Presentations in the School here in Jíhláva. We last did a presentation about Christmas in the US, and compared it to Christmas her in the Czech Republic, and the kids have been telling us about some interesting traditions. We're going to be cutting apples in half, the wrong way, horrizontally, and when you cut an apple like this, it will either have a star shape for the core, or it will have a cross. If the Apple has a star, it is good luck and suggests success and luck in the year to come. If the Core is a Cross, it means that you will die in the upcoming year, so we're bringing apples for the little kids to learn their fates. The other thing we planned for this Party, is that we're going to be doing a nativity with all the kids. Elder Page grabbed a bunch of his ties that he doesn't really care about and we grabbed soem extra bed sheets from our appratment and such, and we'll use those to help the kids dress up and reenact the scenes in the Nativity. We'll make sure to get pictures so don't worry. Also, this is just being thrown together so deon't expect anything too grand. After the Party we'll (the Sisters and Elder Page and I) be going over to the home of one of the Sisters' investigators, and we'll be having dinner there. If the opportunity arrises, I'll try to get some pictures. Tomorrow, Tuesday, We're all (my entire Zone) going to Brno for a Training. I am really excited about this training because this is the training right before Christmas, and we're going to take some time during this training to go out and looks at some of the Czech Culture stuff going on in the bigger city Brno. The bigger cities will have the more elaborate celebrations so that's why we'll be getting to go see some of that before the actual Training starts. Once again, I'll get pitures... maybe even some with me in them. :) haha. Wednesday is the only normal day we have this week, we'll just be doing regular procelyting, unless our plans change which they ALWAYS do. Thursday is obviously Christmas Eve, by mission rules we have to be in our appartments by 5:30pm... this because the Only people who will be out alone walking the streets on Christmas Eve night will be people who are not celebrating christmas, and here in the Czech Republic, that's almost nobody, and so there will only be bad news out onthe streets if we go out and talk to the people there, they're all gonna be drunk. On christmas, we will be working our tails off, we'll be going to an Alzhiemer's center to sing to the patients there, we'll be singing in Czech, and we'll be there for an hour. After which, we'll all go get lunch as a district, and then we'll work out butts off until about 4:00pm when we start our Skype Calls! my call is at 5:00pm here, and Utah is 8 hours behind I think... so it should be about 9:00am in Utah when I skype home. I suggest that you get on the Computer about an hour before that though (family) and DAD, use your phone to check and make sure that you understand the time difference so that our call will actually happen. I don't think we'll be having a christmas dinner on Christmas, but Elder Page and I are going to have a dinner with the Sisters here in Jíhláva on Saturday "boxing day?". So that's the plan for this christmas. I know that you all will have a good christmas too.

December 14 2015

This week has been really cool, I've been learning a lot, and I am going to start keeping a Gospel Study Journal... I probably should have been keeping one of these for quite some time now. But I have not been, and I think that is leading to some stress for me, but I think that when I am able to write stuff down, I will be able to keep better track of my thoughts and my concerns, and I will be able to write down spiritual things that I will be able to turn back to later. Yeah I think this is gonna be a good thing to do... Anyway, this week the city of Jíhláva just set up their Christmas Turchý (small shops) on the main town square. The Turchý sell a variety of fun things for Christmas, and I just know that this is going to be a fun Christmas. We just got a new sister missionary in our city, she has just recieved her Visa, and she is now here in the Czech Republic after having to wait a couple of weeks to get her Visa, she's luckier than a few other missionaries who still have not gotten their Visas. The Members here are great, and I will be skyping home on Christmas day thanks to one of our awesome RCLA (recent convert). He has told us that we'll be able to skype from his home. Czech is coming allong, it's actually not the hardest thing anymore. I am finding that the Lord is helping me to get this language very well, and I have the resources at this point, so that I can almost talk about anything in the Gospel and get the point accross. We had District meeting the other day, and my companion had to practice contacting in English, and we found out that it's actually very hard to contact in English, because our brains are being trained to contact people in Czech. I can already see that my english is being destroyed. the Grammar for English is significantly different, and the Grammar for Czech is completely new, so I'm just having a hard time as it is keeping up with english as well as Czech. For Christmas (Vánoce), We're going to likely spend it with the other missionaries from our District. We'll buy a Carp... yes carp.. the trash fish in America, and we're going to eat it. The Czech people Love their Christmas Carp, and they cook it in many ways. The Czechs eat carp soup, fried carp, baked carp... Elder Page and I have been doing Even more English presentations for the High School over here (střední škola) and we've learned that the Traditional Czech christmas looks like this... Everyone comes together on the 24th of December, and they have a big meal together. This christmas meal consists of Carp, and Potato Salad, and then after the dinner of Carp and Potato Salad, they go into the other room where the christmas tree is and underneath, Ježíšek (baby Jesus) has placed gifts for the Children. Everyone opens their gifts on that Day, our Christmas Eve. Nobody knows what Baby Jesus (Ježíšek) looks like because he's never been seen. And if you were a bad child during the year, then the Devil comes around and puts you in his bag and carries you away to hell. There's a few christmas Traditions that we're likely going to try, the first one is when we Cut an apple, if we see a star in the apple (the core) that means that we're going to have a prosperose year the next year. However if we see a Cross in the core of the Apple, that means that we're going to die. Another interesting Tradition... cut open a walnut, use the shell as a ship, and then put a small candle in the ship and float it in a bowl of water. If the boat sinks, or drifts away from the other family member's boats, that either means that you will go Traveling the next year, or it means that you will die the next year.

December 6 2015

Hey so this week has been crazy too, I've been doing a lot of Learning and there has been a lot of rejection, and there has been a lot of Cold weather, and a lot of Czech, and a lot of not having enough money because I spent it before I got my Monthly Boost. This week we have been not finding very many people who want to talk to us, and We made a discovery last night that we (my companion and I) probably need to take care of the Sheep our Father in Heaven's given to us, before we go out and try to find more. We noticed that our key indicator numbers were shot... we had 0 people at church, 0 people on Baptismal Date, 1 person Progressing, and 0 referals recieved. This week has been very dry in terms of working hard. But amid all of these things. I have been learning so much about my Father in Heaven, and my Savior, and the way that they have prepared this plan for us, to be happy. Let me show you what I mean... I have learned some basic principles while I've been out here this long, and I want to share them. 1. I am serving a mission, BECAUSE I love my Father in Heaven and my Savior. Now I'd like all of you to think about that for a minute and just consider it. I have learned to Love my Heavenly Father so much over the last 18 years, but I never actually acknowledged the simple fact that the ENTIRE REASON I am who I am, Is because I Love my Savior and my Father in Heaven. I realized this one fact after something happened. I was out contacting one day, and I got back that night and I was upset. I was ticked! WHY were people not willing to hear this message??? I am a terrible missionary, was my thought. I was not having success... but then my companion asked me, "Elder Dean, why are you serving a mission?" I thought about it for a minute and then I came to the Conclusion, "I am serving a mission so that I can find people to teach." Then my companion Elder Page said, "is that really why you're serving a mission? really??" I thought about it even more, and then I was blank... I then heard my Companion say, "Elder Dean, I don't know about you, but I am serving a mission because I Love my Heavenly Father." Then It all made sense... If I serve because I Love my Father in Heaven and my Savior, then Everything else falls into place. No matter what happens, I can trust in the fact that I Love them, and that Is why I do what I do. So that is the first principle that I learned thus far on my mission.

November 30 2015

This week Elder Page and I had Exchanges with our District Leader and his companion/greenie. If you have not figured it out by now, I'm no longer the "new missionary". This now falls to Elder Carlson, our district leader's companion. On Wednesday morning the Elders from Třebíč came to Jíhláva, and then we split off for our Exchange. I went to Třebíč with my District Leader, Elder Huffaker, and Elder Page remained in Jíhláva with Elder Huffaker's greenie. "the greenhorn" is what they both call him. (so glad I'm not dealing with that anymore haha!) When I arrived in Třebíč, Elder Huffaker and I went tracting at some houses that he and The Greenhorn had seeded earlier that week. Now when we say "seeded" I mean they took letters (typed/printed letters) into a neighborhood and slipped them into mailboxes and such, and then the plan is that we come around a couple of days later and tract the homes of those places where we "seeded". I found myself in this very european neighborhood, and we just walked around and talked to as many people as would open the doors to us. Which was none... two hours later we had talked to almost every home, and nobody wanted to hear our message, but that's okay. I'll explain more in a minute. After that, we went to a less active member's house and she was awesome. She is this older lady who is slightly less active, and when she saw that I was a semi-"greenhorn" she took it upon herself to make sure that I was confused by the end of our visit, she's so funny. She started asking these questions about temple reccomend interviews. questions like, "if I lie in a temple recomend interview, what's the punishment?" and then when we answered that, she asked questions like, "Why is lying a sin? Everybody lies. Have you ever told a lie Elder?" I had no choice but to answer, "yes, I have told a lie." Then she told us, "well then, lying should not be a sin if we all do it!" I did not know what to say, let alone, HOW to say it! (Czech) I looked to my "wise" district leader for assistance... he just stared at me as if he was confused. I didn't realize until after we had left, that THAT ENTIRE LESSON was focused on confusing me. It was super funny when I realized that. I'm at the point now, where I can usually understand basically what it is that people are saying, however if people try to use ANY bit of sarcasm or hinting to things with language... I cannot grasp anything like that in Czech yet... ah... Uvidíme jestlí Ja budu se lepšit někdy jíndy. Anyway... On Thursday we had the crayiest Thanksgiving... On Monday however, Elder Page and I were searching for food to bring and we couldn't find a turkey, so we eventually found a place where they sold whole turkeys and we saw them... they seriously looked like a joke. they were all wrapped in Red White and Blue plastic, Frozen Solid... but here's the funny part... they each were only like 7 or 8 pounds... so we were debating what we should have done. as missionaries we each have about 6000kč (crowns) to spend each month, and one of these turkeys cost over 350Kč. now... if that doesn't seem like a lot... you're right... that is only about 8 USD... but for us.. with our budjet... that is a lot of crowns! Elder Page just mentioned to each other... "maybe we're gonna have thanksgiving Goose this year." Then we just looked at each other and then there was a pause and then I said, "I dunno... I kinda just wanna drop 600Kč right now on two turkeys." then Immidiately I hear from Elder Page, "done" and I see him to a fake table flip gesture with his hands, and then we walked out of Kaufland with two turkeys. Later on Thursday (thanksgiving), we went to the mall and each of the Elders in our district bought a thanksgiving sweater... it's also gonna be our Christmas sweaters so... looks like I'm not going to be buying another sweater for Christmas thank goodness. then on Friday, Elder Page and I went on Exchanges with the AP's to Prague. The original plan was for me to go to Prague on exchanges with Elder Prohaska from Switserland, and for Elder Page to stay in Jíhláva while the other AP came to Jíhláva to be with him. But that Plan changed when we recieved a call from the AP's when they said, "yeah the plan is changing, you're both coming to Prague this weekend... elder Karielienen (an AP) got a concussion while playing football (american) in the Turkey bowl that we had here in Prague." long story short, we went to Prague for the weekend! Now here I sit, in Jíhláva again after a long P Day of going to Telč. We went to Telč today... look it up, it's too hard to explain Everything and I don't have any more time... if I'm going to send pictures and stuff I need to do so now. Love you all!!!

November 23 2015

This week has been absolutely crazy, and when I say Crazy I mean Cool crazy! Pondělí ( Monday ) - We woke up at 4:30am and caught a Vlák (train) into Prague. We needed to go to Prague because Elder Page had to finish up his Visa work, and now he has his resident card thing so he doesn't have to carry around his Passport everywhere with him like I do right now. A couple of days before we left to Prague, Elder Page had asked me, ¨what do you want to do while we're in Prague?¨ I told him that the ONLY thing that I wanted to see, was President McConkie. I just love the man and his family so much, and I wanted to thank him as well for his amazing help with the Family that we had found on the Naměstí. Elder Page had made it clear, ¨you're not gonna see president.¨ He said this because it was true, President is just such a busy guy that he would likely be in another city or off doing something else that's super ïmportant. When we arrived in Prague, we Traveled to the Mission home and then to the Mission office, which is just directly accross the street from the mission home. When Elder Page and I got there, we went inside and I dropped Elder Page off so that he could work on his Visa stuff, and I went with some other Elders and sisters to go out contacting in Prague while Elder Page took care of his visa work. When me and my small group of missionaries left the office, we saw President McConkie crossing the street coming from the Mission Home, over to the office. When he saw us, he stopped us to say Hi. When he said he had to go I just said, ¨It's really good to see you, President.´ He replied, ¨It's really good to see you too Elder Dean.¨ and that made my day. I did what my companion thought was close to impossible. After that, and after we had gone contacting in the metro underneath Prague for a couple hours, we went to lunch, and then we went and emailed, and then we went home. On Tuesday, we were having a semi-regular day (there's no such thing as a regular day here in Jíhláva) and then we recieved a call from our District Leader, Elder Huffaker, and he told us, ¨Hey, I just had a thought. I met a man near the beginning of my mission in Prague. His name was Phil, and he loves baseball. He said that he was in Prague for work, but now he lives in Jíhláva. will you see if he's in your phone?¨ Elder Page and I found the man he was talking about in our phone under the name, ¨baseball Phil¨. We called him up, and he told us where he worked, we went into the mall where he works and started talking to him. New Investigator, and he's making progress too. Met with him twice already. Středa (Wednesday), we woke up early... Again... and caught a train to Brno, where we had Training. President McConkie had texted us the night before (tuesday) and had told us that he wanted us to have our interviews with him after training. So we had a good training Wednesday morning about what's going to happen during Christmas and such, and then we had our interviews with President. Then we got home that night and I realized that Jeremy Royce was officially becoming Elder Royce and I was just so excited. I need his emial by the way... On čtvrtek (Thursday), we contacted o křtu (about baptism) almost the entire day, and it was cool. And then we prepared for our English presentation that would be the next morning. on Pátek (Friday), we woke up early... again... and took a bus to the Strední Školá (high school) and met up with Bohdán, the teacher who we can contacted into the week before. The name Bohdán litterally translates to ¨gift from God¨ so we treated him as such, and from him we found ourselves standing in front of 3 different classes of young people learning english, each with about 20 to 30 people. The Lord helped us through our presentations and it was a good way to get the church name out there in the world, and now there are young people all over Jíhláva who know that the LDS missionaries have free english courses every tuesday, and that we talk about God. All thanks to the Lord, who sent us a man named Gift From God, or Bohdán for short. Long story short, we're likely going to be going back to the high school to do it again because now more teachers are hearing about us and want us to come back... talk about blessings haha! Sobota (Saturday), was one of the sister's in my district's birthday. Elder Page planned a fun way for us to make apple muffins and such and then we suprized the sisters with them and it was just really fun. Later that day we went tracting and met a man named Jirka, who wants to learn more about the Gospel. Then also on Saturday, I was asked by our Branch Mission Leader, ¨will you speak in church tomorrow?¨.... as missionaries we're not really allowed to say no, so I just said Yes, and then quickly wrote a talk... Nedělé (Sunday), we woke up, went to church, I was prepared to speak and then at the last minute, our Branch Mission Leader came over and said, ¨actually you don't need to speak this week, please next week¨ and I just said, ¨okay I'll do that.¨. After Church ended, a member in our branch asked us if we wanted to come over for lunch. me, with my terrible czech, thought that she had asked, ¨are you going back now for lunch?¨ to which I responded, ¨probably yes¨. which meant that the entire thing in reality had been, ¨would you like to come over for lunch?¨ ¨eh... probably yes¨... talk about a rude missionary, that's me! hahaha. I explained later and we're all good now. Then today so far, Monday agian, I was talking to a lady on the bus and we were talking about how she had visited California and Florida and such, and then when we got off the bus, Elder Page walked over to see how my contact was going and he got there just in time for her to tell me, ¨You cannot have any of the young Czech girls over here, you CANNOT take them away, YOU don't do that, that is NOT GOOD!¨ all of which I was not understanding and was just smiling and nodding just like some stupid american visitor on vacation... ha... yep, so that's what's going on here in Jíhláva right now. Love you all! Mom I have not recieved your 2nd or 3rd package... you said that you sent those but I have only recieved one of them. I got it when I went to Brno to Training, I wouldn't be too concerend about them though, they'll show up somewhere soon, maybe I just didn't see them while in Brno. I have not opened it yet, but I want to because it has my music in it, and I want music hahaha. I'll wait unitl the first of December. Here's a picture of deep fried cheese... that we made.. it was... edible. It's a legit thing here in the Czech Republic though! Love you all! Elder Dean

November 16 2015

This week has been absolutely incredible, I cannot even begin to count all the ways we've been blessed. This week started out well, we bought our groceries on Monday at a different store than usual, then we emailed On Tuesday we found a new investigator, and then we also found an English teacher over here in Jihlava who... well... teaches english. We stopped him and started talking to him in Czech and he immediately asked us, in english, "where are you from?" We replied by telling him that we are from America and that we are here serving missions. Long story short, he wants us to come do a 45 minute presentation about American Culture in his English class next Friday. We agreed and then he told us, "maybe some other teachers will be involved." A couple of days later, we met with him in our Church Building so that we could talk more about what this Presentation would be about and what we were and were not allowed to talk about, and he told us at the end that he had spoken with the headmaster of his school, and he has received permission so that we can come. He also told us that he had mentioned us to the other English Teachers and they were all super interested in having us come and do our presentation in their classes as well. Longer story short, on Friday we're going to the high school here and doing 3 presentations in English for students who are learning English. (blessing) Around the Middle of the week, we were doing building tours, which means we were standing outside our building talking to people and offering to give them a tour of our church building and explain more about what we do each week to worship. I was out on the Namesti out front of our building and I found a Family, a Mother with 3 younger daughters ranging in age from 12 to 7, and I asked them, in Czech, "Hello, we're voulenteers here from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and today we're doing tours of our building, would you like to come and see?" I was pleasantly surprised to see this wonderful mother turn to her children and ask them, "would you like to?" and then for them all to say, "ano (yes)" (miracles... somebody finally said 'yes' ) I lead them to the building only a couple of yards away and let them in where my companion took the lead with his more experienced Czech. We brought them into the building and showed them the paintings on the walls of Christ, and then we got to the last picture. This painting was the one of the First Vision, with Joseph Smith in the foreground and God the Father and Jesus Christ in a pillar of light standing in the air speaking to Joseph. We told them briefly, "this is when God restored the gospel to the earth in today's day" We just left it at that, and then we took them upstairs to the Chapel. When we got into the Chapel, we told them about how we had a meeting each week and told them how it was different than your common catholic costel. which is easy to see because it's actually a warm atmosphere in the chapel. totally different than a catholic costel. we told them that we can feel the Spirit of God when we come into the Chapel, and then we asked them if they'd like to come to Church the following Sunday (yesterday), and the Mother said, again, "ano (yes)". Once again, Elder Page and I were speachless and so we just told her, "okay well our meeting is at 8:30am in the morning." and then she said that she'd come. 2 days later, Elder Page and I wake up Sunday morning, having forgotten that we had branch (stake) conference that weekend. Conference was to start at 10:00am so we were hoping to get an extra hour and a half to prepare in the morning. We woke up and thought, "oh no, we'd better go to the church early and see if that family shows up." so we hurried and got ready and headed over early. At 8:30am we arrived at the church building and it was raining, and lo and behold, outside the locked door, with her 3 young daughters, stood the Mother whom has yet to be nothing but a miracle, standing in the rain. We quickly ran over and started talking to them, and went inside. After getting inside, the eldest daughter, 12 years old, walked over to the First Vision painting and said, "this one's my favorite." Elder Page and I just about died... We then lead them up to the Chapel again, and explained more to them about how this weekend was a bit different than normal because we had Branch Conference. we told them that they're welcome to stay and we'd actually love them to stay, but that it wouldn't start for another 1.5 hours. They decided to stay and wait for the conference. (miracle) Elder Page and I were struggling wondering what WE could do to keep them entertained until conference started... but then the spirit whispered to each of us and we asked the Mother, "would you like to learn more about that painting downstairs?" Still without fail, the reply came, "yes." elder Page and I just about Lost our cool, and then we made a small circle of chairs in the chapel and handed this Mother and her eldest daughter each a Restoration Pamphlet. Then we began to teach them... Lesson one. About half way into the lesson, this wonderful mother told her kids to come over and listen to what it was we were sharing with them, and Elder Page and I just had no idea what to do because they were just so awesome. After the Restoration Lesson, conference started and we all began to watch it. Elder Page and I were concerned that maybe this mother wouldn't want to stay for the entire thing, but no, she did, and the members who had come 5 minutes before conference started helped to keep her kids entertained so that she could completely pay attention to conference. then, at the end of conference, President McConkie spoke in Czech about his testimony that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, and we just knew that the spirit was touching this mother, and her eldest daughter. After everything was over, after a 2 hour conference, we asked if she'd like to learn more, and she said, "yes, and next time I'll bring my oldest child, my son." We're now set up for Friday, and it's gonna be super awesome. within 3 hours we added 3 people to our baptism list of people to focus on this transfer. But now I'm in Prague because elder Page has some Visa work to do we're spending our P-Day in Prague. Super! Just go ahead and share this story with the Ward, go ahead and edit it any way you'd like, mom, to turn it into a letter format. This is the Latest from the Czech Slovak Mission, and from your son, Sincerely, Elder Dean

November 9 2015

holy crap... I've almost already been out for 5 months??? k listen, I am getting to the point where I'm learning to just love it here, and I'm seeing that more and more missionaries are getting emails from their parents about stuff like, "oh wow you've already been serving for 8 months, you'll be hitting your 1 year mark soon!" But dad, I want you and mom to do me a favor, Please never tell me how much time I have left on my mission. Please Please Never tell me how much time I have remaining. I litterally am almost 1/4 of the way through my mission, I don't know if you realize that already or not. But it's getting to the point, where I've had dreams about being just so devistated to leave this place that I just longed for nothing more than to come back. My heart is beginning to take root here in the Czech Republic and I will just hate to leave, and I can see that already. I am so happy to be going through the hardest thing I've ever had to go through, and I wouldn't trade my time here uz(already) for anything. dad, I said at one point during a previous P-Day, "I'm speaking this language." I believe that you mis-understood what I was saying. I said, "I'm speaking this language." But what I meant when I said that, was, "I am litterally understanding people and I am litterally speaking to people in czech." just think about that for one second... I'm speaking a foreign language. try to picture me for just one second in your minds, and then picture me speaking a different language... But I have MUUUUUCCCHHHH more to learn. But the reason I'm able to actually share the Gospel with these wonderful people at this point is because I have been helped by the Lord in so many ways. And the Lord is taking my weaknesses and is shaping me inside this fire to turn me into something that he can use, and this process really hurts, but I've never felt anything like this before. I didn't know it was possible to be so mentally and spiritually exhausted, and then so broken and just lost, and then at the same time, so happy and so close to the Lord... It continues to blow my mind. The other day, Elder Page and I were talking, and we realized that... we have no idea who we are anymore. We just realized... "hey, I have no idea who you are, other than that you're my companion and that you're a really spiritual person." We realized that we litterally have begun to litterally lose ourselves in the service of god, and I freaked out. We spent the next day talking about who we were before our missions and talking about what we liked, and who we were friends with and all that stuff. We're still trying to figure this out... the line between being so completely consecrated to the Lord that you just lose your sense of Identity, and become just... a missionary, and that's all. and then, on the other side of the spectrum, being the people that the Lord called. does that make sense? If the Lord wanted a "missionary" serving here, he could have called anyone and it wouldn't have mattered. But no, the Lord called me, Connor Dean to serve here, and for whatever reason, the Lord wanted me here. that means that I must still be myself. this has become a problem over the last 2 weeks because Elder Page and I litterally sat down on the first day this transfer, and we said, "We are going to consecrate ourselves to the Lord" and so we did, and we only spoke czech to each other, and we saw many miracles, and we saw how the Lord is involved in the work, and it was great. and then We realized that we had nearly forgotten who we were, and we are now really worried about that. So there's a ballance somewhere. The Lord wants us to lose ourselves in Service, but at the same time, we need to be happy, and we can't have every single waking minute of the day be work, work, work, work ,work... the Lord wants us to have time to relax and enjoy each other's company too. or at least I think so. I don't know for certain. we'll figure it out, we always do in some way/shape or form. anyway, I love you and I'm having a great time here. the Lord is teaching me many things. I almost feel like he bumps us onto the correct path, and then we get lost again, and so he bumps us back on again... and so forth.

November 2 2015

This week has been awesome, and Elder Page and I both feel like this Transfer is going to be something memorable. When I started traveling to Jihlava, I was a little scared knowing that I would be traveling by myself and would be having to transfer over to another bus when I arrived first in Brno. (I traveled from zlín to brno, and then to Jíhláva) I was preparing myself to go and do this all by myself, and I was quite nervous. But all of that changed when I arrived in Jihlava. Elder Page is my new companion, and it's actually quite funny now that we're companions because Elder Page was Follow-up-trained by my Trainer. that means that Elder Page spent his 2nd transfer, in Zlín, while I was in the MTC. and then when I went to Zlín for my 1st transfer, Elder Page went to Jihlava for his 3rd transfer. This is funny because my dad(trainer) is Elder Page's StepDad(follow-up-trainer). AND it's even more funny because that means that THIS TRANSFER I'll be serving my 2nd transfer with an Elder that's only been here for 4 months Longer than me! ha! When I first arrived in Jihlava, Elder Page was with Elder Huffaker, an Elder that came in the same group as my trainer, which means that He will be leaving the mission at the End of this THIS NEW transfer. And Elder Page and Elder Huffaker had already had some time serving together, at least to some degree. This meant that they already had some type of relationship due to time working together. However when I arrived at the Jihlava appartment where the Elders are staying, I just felt something stir, and I felt that the Lord has some big things planned for Jihlava this Transfer. This was first confirmed when Elder Page told me that he also was getting the same impression, and we talked about this idea quite a lot. After the first day, Elder Huffaker went back to his city and Elder Page and I were able to officially discuss more thoughouly our impression that something Big's going to happen in Jihlava this Transfer. We talked about our dedication to our mission, and our dedication to our God, and how we wanted, in all things, to consecrate ourselves to God, and that we'd let nothing stand in our way of doing just that. When this concept of consecration to the Lord was proposed to me, I loved it, and decided to make it a top priority, and I'm seeing just how much is involved with "consecrating ourselves to the Lord". Yet at the same time... it's incredibly simple. The simplicity of the concept was not realized for me until on my 2nd day here in Jihlava, Elder Page talked to me about "why" we are obedient. At first this idea of being Obedient was thought of by me as being something that we do because... I thought about it for a minute or two, then said, "because it's the right thing.". Problem was, that was not the answer. I had provided the answer that didn't actually lead back to the source. I was informed by Elder Page that, "The reason I want to be obedient, is because I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior." Suddenly it all made perfect sense. I wanted to be obedient because I love my God, and I love His Son, Jesus Christ. "Yeah!" was my imediate responce. That was indeed why I want to be obedient, and realizing that was a huge thing for me. President McCoknie asked us to send him our vision for this Transfer, here it is. for me. 1. We will consecrate everything that we do, and who we are to the Lord, because we love Him. 2. Members will know how the Lord is in Jihlava. 3. Members will know how they can contibute to the work. 4. Our Branch Mission Leader will Lead the Work here in Jihlava. 5. We will embrace and seek for miracles. I have already seen in many ways how the Lord is helping us to achieve this Transfer vision, and I know that He is here in Jihlava. The other night, Saturday, Elder Page and I were praying to conclude our daily planning. In the prayer, Elder Page asked our Heavenly father for a miracle to see somebody at church the next day. After the prayer, Elder Page explained to me that he had recieved a prompting to ask for a miracle, and so he did. About 20 minutes later, I'm in the restroom, and Elder Page is preparing for bed, and we hear our phone go off. I hear Elder Page walk out into the other room to check the text and then I hear him mumble something though I wasn't able to tell what it was. After I got out of the restroom Elder Page turns around holding the phone with a huge grin and says, "Luboš is coming to church tomorrow." Luboš was one of the people who we were interested in talking to again in Jihlava and we didn't exactly know how we were going to talk to him. However suddenly, Elder Page and I had that problem taken care of, and we could feel and just knew that the Lord was behinds the scenes. The next day, Luboš did come to church, and on top of that, he brought a friend, and that means we succeeded in our goals of geting two people at church. We are very blessed to be serving here in Jihlava together and I can't wait to see what this transfer holds. President and his wife are taking good care of my companion and I as well, and I can just feel Elder Page's and my desire to just do so much for the Lord. As an after note, It sounds like Halloween was fun over there! Here in Jíhláva we had a Halloween Party with the Branch. I was able to meet and get more aquainted with the Members here in this city, and we have a great Branch. We have a family named the Navratiloví, and they are Czech, but they are also living in the states oftentimes due to the Husband's work, and they have, I think they have 5 kids, the oldest is 11 and then the youngest is probably 2. They're just the coolest Rodina(family). tak, miluji vám!

October 26 2015

This week has been great, many small miracles and tender mercies, I am learning lots here. It is all thanks to Conference though, or rather, the Lord, who has helped me understand the simplicity of our purpose as missionaries, and I'm already beginning to see the results of His personal revelation to me. During my entire time here in the mission so far, my experience has been one of learning and difficulty. I felt like God wasn't there, and that I was doing things all on my own sometimes. I of course felt His influence at times, but I was not feeling it "before (my) face, and on (my) right hand and on (my) left..." I just was not feeling it like I expected I would. But Conference has reminded me of so many things that I already know to be true, but I have just been continually falling prey to the Adversary and his cunning devices. He definitely likes to rip us down, and he likes to try to make us forget the things we know to be true. During General Conference I was reminded of several things that I have gained a knowledge of during my childhood, but I had forgotten, or at least, forgotten their meaning lately. Things such as: -God has called me to be a missionary, and He knows I'm weak, and He wants to show me and others that the weak things of the world are what He uses to bring His Gospel to the world. -When I look back on my life thus far, I realize where I am and I re-realize that God has always been there, even in my rough times, I have no need to fear, if I trust in Him. But I found myself asking, "how am I supposed to trust in Him if I don't know where he is in my life?" I found my answer at General Conference when they taught that, as His servants, we need to do our part, and (now this is important) let God do HIS part; which by simple understanding we realize is infinitely larger than anything we can ever do as mortals. But that principle: Trust God to do His part. I found myself asking, "what is God's part, and what is mine?" I realized, through personal revelation and through memories and such, that MY part, as a missionary... is to be a missionary. The Lord doesn't expect US to convince people, that's the spirit's job. We, as missionaries, are supposed to be there, so that the Spirit CAN convince these people. The words of the primary song continue to come to mind, "If the savior stood beside me..." Now when we think or hear about this hymn, we often (or at least I do) tend to think of if as a song to remind us to behave better, or to live a certain way, or to avoid sin. This song reminds us that, yes, the Savior DOES stand by us, and is constantly "nigh", we need only remember that truth. But during Conference, a different meaning came to me. It went something like this: "If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do?" I thought about it, and then answered my thought, "No, I would not. My attitude would be different and I wouldn't need to worry about looking for Him in my life, because He would be Right There in front of me to see!" Then the truth, remember the truth, of the simple hymn came to my mind again, "He is always there" How true... Of Course He is. How could I have not seen it? I see how he's always there in regards to my sins, I know I cannot hide my imperfections from Him. So why, ever, would He not be there to also support us and be there, before our face and on our right hand and on our left? He wouldn't. He's always there to see our imperfections I know that for a fact, but He's not there just to chasten us when we mess up, he's there ALL the time, and often, we just need to Allow Him to do His part. That's what I mainly learned at General Conference this time. I've only begun to learn more about the great plan that God has prepared for us and I'm only beginning to learn about how God prepares us through allowing us to exercise trust in him.

October 19

This week has been really good, I'm continuing to learn a lot each week. This week has been great because I've been focusing on how to use the principles taught in General Conference, and I've found, on more than one occasion, that the principles are helping me live happier. I started out by trying to understand more about this idea of doing MY part, whilst allowing God to do His. I seem to have been trying to pull more weight than God wanted me to. While contacting and such, I was taking it too personally when people rejected what I and/or my companion was/were saying. But I am learning more about this idea that God has a plan and He's at the helm, and "he's going to stay there" as was said in Conference, and I am simply His servant. In other words, I need only do what I'm asked, which is, to be a missionary, and leave the Converting power of The Spirit... to The Spirit. I'm only supposed to be there and act/teach accordingly, so that God can do His part, which is touching the hearts of the people we're talking to. I'm so happy that I have been privileged to serve with Elder Boyce, and I know that I've learned and am continuing to learn so much from him and his example. _____________________________________________________________________ Okay that was my Letter to my Mission President This week and it sums up pretty well my state spiritually at the moment, so now I can talk about some other things that you're likely more interested in hearing about now that you know I'm doing well right now. So my Branch here in Zlin is pretty small, about 20 people show up each sunday, and actually that's maybe even pushing it a little bit. Elder Boyce and I are serving in the Zlin district, and this district also includes the Elders serving the Uherske Hradeeshtye (I typed it so that you can say it how it is typed) the entire district is composed of 5... Elders. In Zlin, there's me and Elder Boyce, and in Uherske Hradeeshtye (UH) there are 3 Elders, Elder Suwyn, Elder Gier, and Elder Croney. Starsi Suwyn is our District leader, and he actually went on an "Exchange" with me last week, which means that he switched places with Elder Boyce for 1 day, and he came and stayed here in Zlin with me for a day. Elder Suwyn and Elder Boyce have been here for about 1 year and 6 months, and Elders Gier and Croney are from the same MTC district and have been here for about 7 months now. their czech is amazing compared to mine but they all have told me that my czech now it better than their's were when they were in their first transfer. The Zlin branch is small, like I said, but we have some of the coolest members. Our Branch President is named, "President V" and he is one of the coolest people. His kids match the "bishop's kids" stereotype PERFECTLY, the two of them are always running around sacrament meeting (in the small room we meet in) and are always getting into Something, but they're some of the coolest kids I've ever met, and they speak AMAZING czech, compared to me hahaha! The Branch President's children are some of the funniest kids ever, the two of them are young and like I said, match the "bishop's kids" stereotype perfectly. The young boy is the older one, he's Eleven, and he's just hilarious! the little girl is younger and she's absolutely brilliant, she's 7. , and she's so funny! Elder Boyce and I were sitting in the classroom in our church building on the saturday when everybody came to watch General conference, we were eating our lunch between sessions, and L was trying to get her older brother to play with her and he was not interested. Her approach to this was to come into the classroom where Elder Boyce and I were eating lunch, and she grabbed a piece of printer paper and a marker, and wrote a "dopis" (letter) to her brother. The letter described, "I was trying to invite you to play with me peacefully, but now, this means war. sincerely, L." Then she ran off to deliver her epistle to her brother who was being difficult because he didn't cooperate and play at her request. Elder boyce and I just laughed as she ran out of the room We're currently teaching a man who is the husband in a part member family. He's not baptized yet, but he comes to church regularly and is reading the scriptures and he's basically what we'd call a "dry mormon" which means that he's simply just not baptized yet. We're working so hard with him because he's got everything going for him! His wife, his daughter, they're both baptized and regularly coming to church too. the only thing holding him back is his other daughter who is opposed to the church. oh yeah btw, Elder boyce and I had a guy yell at us and tell us to go and leave while we were tracting... against our desires, we had to leave the building for our own safety... just a fun little story to tell to those who are interseted, but I'm doing great, so no worries!

October 12 2015

This week has been great, many small miracles and tender mercies, I am learning lots here. It is all thanks to Conference though, or rather, the Lord, who has helped me understand the simplicity of our purpose as missionaries, and I'm already beginning to see the results of His personal revelation to me. During my entire time here in the mission so far, my experience has been one of learning and difficulty. I felt like God wasn't there, and that I was doing things all on my own sometimes. I of course felt His influence at times, but I was not feeling it "before (my) face, and on (my) right hand and on (my) left..." I just was not feeling it like I expected I would. But Conference has reminded me of so many things that I already know to be true, but I have just been continually falling prey to the Adversary and his cunning devices. He definitely likes to rip us down, and he likes to try to make us forget the things we know to be true. During General Conference I was reminded of several things that I have gained a knowledge of during my childhood, but I had forgotten, or at least, forgotten their meaning lately. Things such as: -God has called me to be a missionary, and He knows I'm weak, and He wants to show me and others that the weak things of the world are what He uses to bring His Gospel to the world. -When I look back on my life thus far, I realize where I am and I re-realize that God has always been there, even in my rough times, I have no need to fear, if I trust in Him. But I found myself asking, "how am I supposed to trust in Him if I don't know where he is in my life?" I found my answer at General Conference when they taught that, as His servants, we need to do our part, and (now this is important) let God do HIS part; which by simple understanding we realize is infinitely larger than anything we can ever do as mortals. But that principle: Trust God to do His part. I found myself asking, "what is God's part, and what is mine?" I realized, through personal revelation and through memories and such, that MY part, as a missionary... is to be a missionary. The Lord doesn't expect US to convince people, that's the spirit's job. We, as missionaries, are supposed to be there, so that the Spirit CAN convince these people. The words of the primary song continue to come to mind, "If the savior stood beside me..." Now when we think or hear about this hymn, we often (or at least I do) tend to think of if as a song to remind us to behave better, or to live a certain way, or to avoid sin. This song reminds us that, yes, the Savior DOES stand by us, and is constantly "nigh", we need only remember that truth. But during Conference, a different meaning came to me. It went something like this: "If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do?" I thought about it, and then answered my thought, "No, I would not. My attitude would be different and I wouldn't need to worry about looking for Him in my life, because He would be Right There in front of me to see!" Then the truth, remember the truth, of the simple hymn came to my mind again, "He is always there" How true... Of Course He is. How could I have not seen it? I see how he's always there in regards to my sins, I know I cannot hide my imperfections from Him. So why, ever, would He not be there to also support us and be there, before our face and on our right hand and on our left? He wouldn't. He's always there to see our imperfections I know that for a fact, but He's not there just to chasten us when we mess up, he's there ALL the time, and often, we just need to Allow Him to do His part. That's what I mainly learned at General Conference this time. I've only begun to learn more about the great plan that God has prepared for us and I'm only beginning to learn about how God prepares us through allowing us to exercise trust in him. also, Elder boyce and I I just went to the zoo today for P day, don't have time to explain more but I'll send some pictures. Love you and talk to you next week! Sincerely, Elder Dean

"I am speaking Czech!" October 5 2015

So yeah, I'm having an interesting time lately, and I'll be telling more about what's been happening lately: So this last week we had our first official Training in Brno, a larger city where Elder Boyce and I went to by "auto bus (awtoh boos)" and we met with President McConkie and his wife and they spoke to us, and we met up with some friends from the MTC and such, it was awesome. It was only our zone though, so only about 20 missionaries at the meeting. After training I was blown away to see how scattered my notes were, I'll never be able to read them in the same order I wrote them... but whatever, it's the info that's there that I wanted. After training, our Zone Leaders, Elder Britner, and Elder Kliner came back to Zlin with Elder Boyce and I on Exchanges, so that we could update our mission on the progress in Zlin, as well as get our monthly or whatever interview with our zone leaders. It went well. I was assigned to be with Elder Kliner and we worked well together. When we first arrived in Zlin after coming back from Brno, the 4 of us went to our church building and grabbed a table and some Book of Mormon's and brochures and such and walked out onto the Namesti. The Zone leaders had come to Zlin with a plan in mind and told us, "we're going to get 10 Other Lessons today!" Elder Boyce and I were Shocked... we hardly ever get more than 3, or maybe 4 Other Lessons in a day, and here they were telling us that we were going to get Ten! well... long story short, we all separated individually into the square and we all individually contacted and tried to find the Elect. I walked around, of course, always within site of another Elder, and then we proceded to talk to as many people as was possible... and... Mom and dad, I have to tell you something... I am speaking Czech... I talked to as many people as possible and I found a woman to whom I started talking and told her who we were and what we were doing and why we were here and then I asked her if she believed in God. This older lady told me that, yes, she believes in God. She told me that she is Catholic and that she goes to the Costel every sunday and that she reads the bible and that she is happy. I told her about the book of mormon and such and she was not very interested at all. "ne mam zijem" she said, which is to say, "I don't have intrest." she proceded to tell me that because she's already a believer, she doesnt need any more, and she was convinced that there was no need to continue talking about this further. Then I asked another question, "You're a believer, right?" "yes" she replied then I asked, "if you are a believer, then you'd be willing to do what God asks, right? If God were to reveal new scripture, would you read it?" She thought about it for a second... then she said, "Ano" (yes) Long story short, I gave her a book of mormon, she took it and looked at it and then I asked her, "can I see it for a second?" "yes" she handed the book back to me. I opened the book to Moroni 10 and asked her to read verses 3 through 5 and she did. after that she said that she would read more. I asked for her phone number and she gave it to me and then I asked her to read the Uvod (introduction) and she said, "ne, I'll read the whole thing, call me in 3 days" we did call her 3 days later and she said, "i'm in the hospital, i've had an accident, I'm okay, but I read the book of mormon and I know it's from God." we're going to talk to her more later. Another experience, we were about 20 minutes walk away from our appartment and we were out contacting and tracting and we recieved a call from one of our members, Bro. Mikulanka, and he needed us to come down to the church building quickly so we could unlock the door so that he could get his bike which he had left inside. we started running down the hillside on the coblestone paths and then halfway down, he called us and said, "eh, I don't need your help anymore, thanks!" we stopped running, caught our breath's and looked around, we were on a path in the middle of the woods and we had no idea where we were. I had a thought, "I think God wanted us to be right here right now for some reason" I said. then we looked further down the path and saw a lone man walking up in the opposite direction as us. we talked to him. long story short, he's super interested in God and has been a believer in god for only 3 years and he is anxious to learn more. we talked for over 30 minutes and then gave him a book of mormon. he told us, "do you think that I'm the person who you're supposed to give this book to?!" he was shocked and honored that God would want us to talk to Him! and we looked at each other, (elder boyce and I) and then I said, "why of course, I think you're the ONLY person qualified to recieve this book right now!" longer story short, we will likely be meeting with him in a couple weeks, he's gonna do his best to read it. out of time..... sad... I'll quickly send some pictures. Love you all! Elder Dean

September 28 2015

So this week has been significantly better than last week. I've been going through some learning experiences in regards to the spirit and how The Lord uses us, His missionaries, in His work. I've had several small instances where people have just constantly rejecting us it seemed, and I just was beginning to develop a sense of failure due to not being able to find people. We've been trying to establish appropriate goals for our success as missionaries and we were constantly falling short, and that was very difficult for me. I felt like we were trying to do what was right, and that even though we were trying, we were not having any success! (that was my thought) Well I was wrong... I realized, or rather, re-realized, that the Lord has his own plans for us and for his Father's children. We only see a small piece of the entire picture, which means that we need to just do our best. Also, as a missionary, I almost felt as though we're entitled to success because of our sacred calling, but how wrong I was... or at least my point of view. The missionary truly is a servant of our Father in Heaven, but that doesn't mean that we're angels that have 100% and continual contact and understanding with God. As a matter or fact, the scriptures tell us that the Lord wants men to do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness. The Lord wants us to make decisions for ourselves, and the way it works is that we'll be able to have His spirit to guide us when we're actively making decisions and performing labors based on our own understanding of what is right and wrong. But we're imperfect, and that means that we won't always have the best ideas for what is right and wrong, but that, I believe, is when the spirit will come in and correct our thoughts if we are open to receiving those promptings. Another Thing I've noticed is that when we are feeling down about something, the Adversary loves to take that opportunity to come in and try to break us down even further. The Key is to notice that is is him, and when we notice that it is him, we can tell him to leave us, and we can fill that space in our heart where he's trying to dwell, with things from God, and when we do that, Satan cannot dwell there any longer. I have had experiences with this several times over the last several days and this is what it has been like for me. The Other day, I found myself worrying about something trivial, I can't even remember it now because I've chosen not to, but whatever it was, I was allowing it to bother me, and I wasn't allowing myself to move on. I let the Adversary creep in and I was feeling down and sort of depressed about it, bu about 10 minutes after I had begun to feel this way, I realized that the Adversary was trying to break me down, and I obviously was not happy about that. In the midst of my hour of weakness I was still able to recognize that I was being acted upon by our greatest enemy. I knelt down and began to pray. And I remember telling my Heavenly Father what I was feeling, and I remember telling my Heavenly Father that I would not leave any place in my Heart for the Adversary any longer, and that I would only fill that space with what HE had to put there, and I felt my gloomy feelings begin to go away. But I knew they were going away, that's the funny thing, I had consciously made that decision, to say, "no, I don't have time for you Satan." and if I don't have time for him, then he can't be there. And so Yesterday, when Elder Boyce and I were out contacting/Tracting Ponoloks (the buildings that were built for housing during communism, they look like cubes), while we were out tracting them yesterday, we had decided on a specific goal and it felt like we were not achieving our goal. we were trying to find a young family who wanted to hear and learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ topic, and we were just not finding ANYONE who wanted to hear about it. Elder Boyce was busing ringing the ponolok that we were at... (every ponolok has a small place next to the entrance with the names of every family living in each of the small apartments in that ponolok. Sext to each family name is a button that when pressed, rings a telephone in that particular appartment, and when somebody answers the phone, we can talk to them through a speaker next to the entrance to the building, so often we go "tracting" ponoloks, and just stand in front and call every appartment and speak to whomever picks up the phones or answers.) anyway... Elder Boyce was tracting this ponolok and while he was ringing the separate apartments, I was about 20 meters away, speaking to and stopping people who were just walking by on the cobblestone pathways next to the building. I stopped and talked to a family who told me about somehing, and (through my broken Czech) I understood that they had had some negative experience or SOMETHING with the Book of Mormon, and they were just not interested in out message, but they were patient with my Czech. I continued to try to talk to them and see if I could find any way to get them interested but they were adamant about their decision to move on. This type of contacting happened for the rest of the 45minutes that Elder Boyce was tracting the ponolok. Continuous rejection and people actively telling me, "NO, get out of here!" and other people who actually just waved me away like I was some stray dog or something. I was beginning to develop a habit of people just saying, "no." cause That was all that I knew... ever since coming here, I've never heard a person whom we've contacted say, "yes" it's always been either, "no" or "maybe" or "don't have time" or "don't have intrest" or "don't be mad, but, no" Occasionally we recieve a "maybe" but that's a rare occasion. it was habitual to just accept those responses. Then, right before we were about to pack up and go home, I stopped another woman, who looked just like any other person whom I'd stopped yesterday, and I explained who we were and what we were doing, and I explianed that we have a message about Jesus Christ, and then I asked her, "would you like to learn more?" expecting the standard... i hear... "ano" then I flipped out... "ano" mean (yes). I didn't know how to explain in Czech what I was feeling so I just said, "super!" (which is exactly the same thing in English as "awesome!"). Then I looked over towards where Elder Boyce was and called out, "Starší!"("Elder!") Elder Boyce looked up at me, and I said, "Půjd!" ("come!") he walked over and we began talking to this woman more and then we were shocked to hear that, Yes, she legitimately had interest! She then explained that she didn't have very much time. I was so excited, I just kept looking over at Elder Boyce while we were talking to her. I was just so excited that I whipped out a Book of Mormon, Restoration pamphlet, Plan of Salvation pamphlet, and a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet... there I was holding 4 books, about to hand them all to her, and then Elder Boyce looked at me and asked, "what are you..? Just chose 1..." I took a look at what I was holding and... yes, asking this woman whom we'd known for 2 minutes to keep a commitment like THAT would not be a good way to start. we ended up just giving her a book of mormon, and getting her email address and found out that she lives in another city so we won't be able to teach her. so we're going to send her info to the elders in Olomuc. anyway, that's my funny story that happened Yesterday (sunday) Some other Interesting things that happened this week include: - I helped make, and we ate Halushky ( I spelled that using english so that you can pronounce it correctly) Elder Boyce:Before I forget we also had culture night last week. Thursday night we went to the philharmonic. It was a great concert! We listened to Dvořák, Bruch, and Beethoven; Dvořák and Bruch were my favorite, but especially Bruch was excellent because of the soloist Vadim Gluzman. We saw the opening concert of their 70th concert season so it was a big to-do. Before the beginning of the concert they baptized their new CD by sprinkling some champagne on it. There was a Catholic priest and everything :) Mom:I love that Connor didn't even mention going to the philharmonic.

September 21 2015

This week has been interesting, and I've been having a lot of trials and such, and there've been days this week when I asked myself, again... "Am I really doing what the Lord wants me to be doing?" and, "Am I worthy to be here?" (Everywhere we go over here in Europe there is pictures of people wearing almost no clothing and it's nearly impossible not to see it) Sometimes I feel bad because it's sometimes difficult to get certain things out of my head, and It makes me feel like crap. I've even asked myself this week, "Is God really there, and do I really mean a lot to Him?" I've just gotten into 3rd nephi and I'm reading the ministering of Christ to the Nephites and I'm just not feeling it (the spirit) the way I prayed that I would when I got to this section of the Book of Mormon. I've felt these kinds of feelings: "That's great that God's doing all these amazing, inspiring, miraculous things for these people in this book, but where is He in MY life?" and the like... Yesterday however, while we were walking along a very long and confusing to follow street, looking for a man who we never were able to find, and having had zero lessons yesterday, and having zero's all across the board for our key indicators, I found myself feeling like dirt, and like I was not pleasing my Father in Heaven, and as I sit here, I'm still not sure if he's pleased with me, but I know that He's merciful because while we were walking around for 3 hours, I found myself thinking that I was hungry and thirsty and that I needed something to suck on or I would just lose my patience completely... I thought of the movie Meet the Mormons, and the story of the mother who walked into a gas station and eventually received a blessing from the elders, and she felt that, "God was trying to tell me to, 'hang on, just keep going, you're almost there!' " and I was thinking about that, and then just as I was thinking about this, we passed an older woman walking her bicycle, and surprisingly, she stopped us... "you're mormon's right?" she asked. We replied that, "Ano(yes), my(we) jsme(are) mormoni(Mormons)" we spoke with here for a little while, and she told us about how she actually knows some members of our Branch. she told us that she respects us and asked us if we needed any help. we said that we didn't know if she could help us but that we were looking for an address, and she volunteered to get on her bike and go down the street beyond us and look for the address. we accepted her offer to help us, and then she thanked us and gave us each a hard candy, I got the brown one that tasted like flat root beer. Funny thing was, I had just been thinking that I could use some food, because we had actually not eaten lunch. I again heard the words from the Meet the Mormons movie, "hang on, I'm still here just keep going". We never actually found the man, and so that was a disappointment, but I was slightly reminded that God is there. Earlier that same day (yesterday, sunday) we ended church and a member asked us if we'd come with him to go visit a sick member who has not been to church in a long time due to his sickness. We went out to visit him, and when we got there he was just getting home. no, literally, we got out of the member's car exactly when Rudolf exited the passenger seat of a truck as he was getting home from somewhere. Rudolf is his name. When he saw us, he immediately said, "hey boys"(in english) with a smile. We'd never met Rudolf before but he welcomed us with a warmth that I thought only somebody who I have known for years could have. his lips were blue. Being an old man, and with the Czech people having the culture they do, he told us that his legs were blue too, and then immediately dropped his pants so that we could plainly see that, yes... his legs had become a little blue too. He put his pants back on and then we basically, thought czech and some broken english, and yes my broken czech too... we basically figured out that he wanted a blessing, so we went inside his old garage, which had a big barn door, and when we walked inside, it was clearly both a garage and a barn... and in the corner by the big, rotted wooden door was a recliner chair, where Rudolf sat down and waited for us to give him a blessing. "in Czech?" I asked Starší Boyce. "of course in Czech" he firmly reminded me... I swallowed hard, I don't have much experience with blessings anyway, and now I was supposed to anoint somebody's head with oil, in Czech. Elder Boyce pulled out a card, with instructions in czech for how to anoint somebody with oil. So I used that. it went very well. Elder Boyce gave the blessing after I anointed and afterwards Rudolf stood up and nearly in tears told us both, "thank you" and then gave me the most tender and sincere hug I've ever had from a stranger. This old man, Rudolf Gaba, told us that because of his age and health, he cannot work in his garden. He is the last member in his family who's still alive. his parents, dead, his sister, dead, he doesn't have children, and he's Lost his taste. he can't taste anything, and his heart only has 30 percent oxygen when it's supposed to have 50 percent, so that's why his body is turning blue... long story short, he's gonna die soon. he explained to us that even though he's been unable to go to church, this Church has stayed with him, and then he thanked us, for giving him Hope again. "you give me Hope." is what he told us. After one last hug, and as we walked away, down the street, we didn't look back because it just felt right to end well. then, about 2 minutes after we started walking away, right before we turn the corner on this long street, we here a whistle, and turn around, and he's still standing outside his door, and is watching us walk away,still. when we turn to look at him he waves for the last time, and we wave, then we turn the corner, and we're gone. we went to the train station and then THAT is when we begin our 3 hour journey to find the missing less active member talked about earlier in this email. but I have never felt so much love for a complete stranger. gotta go, this is my weekly email, love you all, Chow! Elder Dean

September 14 2015

Elder Boyce-Overall we feel that things are going well here in Zlín. Elder Dean is still doing well. His Czech is improving, but I'm trying to find more ways to help him get integrated into the conversations that are going on around him because he feels like he gets lost. I'm kind of struggling how to involve him more in that way, but overall he's doing well and growing and he loves our members a lot. We're looking high and low for people on our branch, and we found a couple of people last week that are according to it. We're just trying to keep adding to that!! Elder Dean: we have been experiencing a lot of rejection, and it's hard on the soul. but there is plenty of good news too, and that being, I am still just as lost in the language, well that's not true, i'm learning, slowly, but i'm happy here, I've never felt the Lord so Close and i'm only begining to understand His infinite love. I am so happy to hear about that Family night, and I love hearing how the Lord is blessing my family back home, I pray for you every day. in regards to Jack, I don't know what to say other than just be there for Vikie. How she does need the comforter now more than ever, I'll keep her in my prayers. I'll send some pictures off real quick and i'll answer some of your questions dad... --- - we are not living in a high rise, those pictures were taken from atop a tall buidling overlooking Zlin. our appartment is in the middle of town right next to the big town square, we are on the ground level floor with our door facing north. -the owner of the computer server company is who took us out to lunch today, he is not a memeber, but was at one point a former investigator, which is a fancy way of saying he did not accept the Gospel, but he is not discriminatory against it. -elder boyce and I will watch conference in Engish together in the branch president's office most likely which is on the same floor as the church building floor where the branch comes to have church each week. this building is not owned by the church, but the church rents the 3rd floor, the 1st and 2nd and 4th floors are NOT owned or rented by the church. we will likely watch conference again in Czech with some members a week after we watch it in english. it takes a week to translate or something idk for sure. -no native elders or sisters in this mission. -my companion and I speak czech together whenever we're with somebody else who speaks czech, when it's just us together we typically speak english but that should probably change. -i had the $140 from when I was supposed to use it at the airport for luggage checking, funny thing was the airline decided to check our bags for free so I had the cash on hand, then I converted it. (considered personal funds) -Have not and will not ever go to get fast food with this companion, does not like it.

September 7 2015

Elder Dean is doing well. He's finding out that missionary work (and learning Czech) takes a lot of constant persistence, but he's learning a lot. We're learning a lot together while preparing for our teaching appointments and the other things that we have going each day. His Czech is improving, though he seems to want it to go a little faster. On Saturday we were coming back from an appointment and he felt a little down because he couldn't understand an old man that we were talking to and I told him that at day 10 or 11 in the country he shouldn't be worrying about it (at least not until he gets to day 600 or so...). He's a hard worker and he's already really dedicated to our branch. We've been learning a lot together about the Savior during our studies and it's been great to use that as we teach people during the day. He's also really excited to help the branch get more excited for missionary work.-Elder Boyce wow, I can't believe it's already September, Clayton's birthday is coming up! and so Is my Dad's! heh... so they both missed my birthday cause I was at the MTC, and now i'm missing their birthdays becasue i'm in the mission. guess we'll have to put up with that for now, i'll make it up later. So our appartment is in the middle of town, and each city in the Czech Republic has at least 1 "namesti" which is the same thing as a 'town square'. on these Namesti's they host public events and anyone can gather and sell things or play music or... really, anything. they just need to have a permit to do anything that would draw attention. for example, sometimes we (starsi boyce and I) will go out on the Namesti next to our appartment and will have a table set up with Book of mormon's on it and such, then he'd stay next to the table and contact people while I would walk 20-30 feet away and contact people and try to get them to come over to the table and take a look at what we have to offer. we have stores all over the place over here and it's quite funny because right next to the Namesti there is a McDonalds and a KFC of the opposite side of the Namesti! perhaps i'll have to get a "small fry" one of these days, huh Mom?! We go to this grocery store called KaufLand, which is German for "BuyLand". we just went there today and spent over 1600 crowns! (that's the currency over here) just to give you an idea of just how much a crown is worth, I had about $140 in 20's about an hour and a half ago, I went to the exchange place and turned all $140 into crowns the and conversion gave me a lot of crowns: $140 - converts to about - 3000 Kč we each spend about 1000 crowns a week over here and so that'll give you an idea. we have no trouble walking to the grocery store, about 10 minute walk. the Cobblestone... THERE IS COBBLESTONE E V E R Y W H E R E OVER HERE! it seriously is quite amazing really, we have asphault in the US and instead of asphault they use cobblestone, i'll send you more pictures next week. the branch over here is the Zlin branch, there are about 20 people that come each sunday the church building is on the 2nd floor of a building about 4 minute walk from our appartment. Elder boyce has been here for a year and a half and has 10 baptism under his belt 2 were people that he taught, and after he left they got baptized, so he counts them as his. there are about 80 missionaries total in the Czech Slovak mission, and only 20 of them are in slovakia. anything I need? hmm... my golden toe socks are shrinking... think i need to be more carefull about the temperature at which i wash them. my ear is fine. we currently have... i think 7 investigators but i've only met 2 of them becasue everyone is so busy. have not tried peeing on my ear yet, no... have not ate at a memeber's home yet... we'll see... i'm not sick of the questions but i'm definitely running out of time... we eat chocholate granola with banana slices and apple slices with milk (for me) and yogurt (for elder boyce, he's lactose intollerant). we eat lunch at home 6 out of 7 days of the week. (elder boyce is a good cook). we have a maly (small) washing machine, it's litterally the size of 3 microwaves stacked on top of each other... but it works, sometimes it gets stuck on a cycle and just goes and goes and goes until we stop it hahaha! we went to a resturaunt just the other day and ordered pizza... cause there are pizza places EVERYWHERE over here. have not had any authentic czech food yet though other than the svíčkova which was the meal photos i sent you last week, was really good! we travel Everywhere by foot, but we also take a bus about 1 time each week to go to district meeting. we wake up each morning at 6:30am we have taught a few lessons but nobody is making much progress, the people are very hard hearted over here... just gotta keep looking for the Elect... have not met james bond yet.....

First week in Czech Republic

So my first week here... it's been interesting definitely. I've learned a lot since getting here, and the Lord is testing me it seems. I know that he is there... wow this is driving me crazy, the keyboard is different here in Czech. anyway, this week we arrived in Prague, after flying from Salt lake, to chicago, to London (which took forever by the way), then FINALLY to Prague. When we arrived in prague we met our mission president, President McConkie and his Wife as we exited the airport secure area. as soon as I saw them I knew who they were, not only because they were wearing nice clothing but because I recognized their faces from pictures that I've seen. me and the rest of my MTC district had been wearing the same clothes and had not brushed our teeth or anything since the early morning of the day prior. also, walking around in a suit in europe where it's Hot, and me, being who I am, I sweat a lot. So we got to Prague and were all completely exhausted. we went and met the mission president's family and I must say, their children are some of the coolest kids I've ever met. their youngest child, his name is George, he's just so cool. he's 10 I think and he's just awesome. my instructor in the MTC, Bratr Knapp was actually the one who baptized George. they've got lego's all over their house. so after we met the family we had a quick breakfast of oatmeal and yogurt, and then we went outside and went on our "Prague walk" which is what it's been called forever. we basically went around, got a cool tour of the sites around the Prague Castle and over some of the cool bridges crossing the major river in prague. i'll send some of these pictures with more emails. after our Prague walk, we came back to the mission home and were not surprised to find that we were all almost falling asleep just standing or sitting around. President told us that we should probably go to bed early, and brought us to a hotel and got us each (companionships) a room for the night. it was before president brought us to the hotel when we took the pictures each individually with president and his wife and they sent them to you (mom and dad) that night, after showering in the european shower, and laying down in the small bed (seriously this mattress was like 3' by 6'...) I thought it would be a good idea to start writing in my journal and when I did I found that I just couldn't write... I was so tired that as soon as I would start writing, i'd doze off and Begin drawing a random line across the paper. it's actually quite funny i'll perhaps have to send a picture next week. went to bed that night, woke up after having a good night's sleep, realized where I was... heh... "i'm in Prague... i'm on my mission... this is actually happening..." and other thoughts of the sort. we went back to the mission home. we walked in and sitting around in the living room were a bunch of other missionaries. president had us gather around in front of everyone else in the room and take a seat. he then, after a prayer of course, asked us each to come up one or two at a time and had us stand next to him, he put his arm over our shoulders and proceeded to tell us about the area where we would be assigned to labor. Now real quick... the first day we got to the mission home, President called me aside and interviewed me, he asked me a few questions about how i was doing and what my reason was for coming here and stuff like that. after this interview he asked me to go grab another elder and get him to go talk to him, guess he was doing interviews right there, so I went and got my mtc companion, Elder Chapple to get interviewed. now, that was important because apparently president did that so that he could decide where he wanted to put us, and just as importantly, who would be our trainers. so back in president's living room... he had his arm around me on one side, and my other mtc companion, elder Hanis, he had on his other side, and president was telling us about where we each would be serving. then president told me that I would be serving in Zlín, which is a city near the south/east of the Czech Republic. I had no idea what that meant but I was super excited. then he said that my companion and trainer would be Elder Boyce. Elder Boyce is a great trainer. he's a hard worker, very organized, is very genuine when it comes to talking to people. he puts others before himself, he knows a lot of good dishes to cook, his czech is amazing, he's been out for over 1.5 years, he'll be going home here in about 4 or 5 months, and he's great. after meeting him I was not worried at all about not getting along well with him. we all left, Elder Boyce and I hoped on a bus and headed to the train station with all my luggage. i don't want to have to explain how difficult it was each time we loaded and unloaded my luggage from either a bus or train so just imagine it for me when I tell you what is happening throughout this journey to Zlin (that's a long 'i' btw, i'm just too lazy to type the czech letter, it's too hard). after we got to the train station, we boarded a train to Zlin. on the train, several people sat next to us and I "spoke" to them in czech. we talked with about 3 people on the train and each of them were interested in what we had to say because my czech was so... noticable... and so it opened up the conversation of, "how long have you been learning czech?" and that kind of stuff. needless to say, I didn't understand anything that was going on, and frankly, I still don't, but i'm getting used to being so lost, that there's no point in worrying about getting more lost at this point. so we show up in Zlin and unload my bags into the appartment, and then we went out onto the streets to talk to people. talking was... well i'll just say it's very difficult, not difficult to start cause i KNOW how to begin a conversation, and make Statements, but as soon as people begin talking back to me all i hear is alksdjf alskjdf alsjdfalsjfhghgqauhrgioauwawhojoc mlsfpaowuhtuihgadlfjasdflj????????????????????????????? "ano"... then they walk away... "super" well it's gotten better, I'm able to listen better now than I was 6 days ago. it's hard to see progress in the language but I suppose that I should just not get worried, it's only been 6 days after all. other than the language, i'm doing awesome! it is so pretty here! MOM you should SEEE some of these building and places! so now after a lot of contacting, and seeing JUST HOW DIFFICULT it is to get people INTERSETED in the message we have to share.... something like 60 percent of the people are considered athiest.... we say, "dobry den!" and people say, "ne mam cas" which is basically saying, "good day!" and then "I don't have time" but the Lord is very involved here... me and my companion are the only two people in the entire city, and within 20 miles of this city, who are called representatives of the Lord in proclaiming his work, that is a big responsibility! we have often had slow hours whilst contacting and then just when we're about to give up in our efforts in that area, we meet somebody who is willing to go out of their way, talk to us, and even accept a book of mormon and give us their phonenumbers. we met two people who i'm really excited to talk to more. their names are, Soňa, and Lanka. both of these young women were touched by the spirit when we spoke, and I found my tongue was loosed with them!!! because they both asked us to speak english... but still my tongue was loosed. yeah we'll see how they're doing later. Excerpt from Elder Boyce email:The next morning President McConkie paired us with our companions (mine is Elder Dean from Eagle Mountain, Utah) and then we were on our way. It was an ordeal Wednesday morning because we kept on getting shuffled from place to place to keep us out of sight of the new missionaries. Then there was a big reveal where President paired us together as if it was a game show. We sat in the McConkie's living room with the new missionaries on the front row on the couches with us on some chairs behind them. President called each of the new missionaries up one at a time and started telling them about the city where they're going. The trainers knew instantly who they were going to be with so we were all whispering intently in the back row. Since we got to Zlin we've had a great week, we've been working hard. I met the secret goal from President McConkie and worked hard enough to get Elder Dean to fall asleep in church yesterday from sheer exhaustion :D Elder Dean is a great missionary, he already knows how to be courageous. He contacts whole bus stops of people and the other day leaped up onto a planter to try and talk to about ten people at once. If we lived in the days of preaching on top of soap boxes, he'd get along just fine! He is doing really well in his Czech and yesterday bore a pretty solid testimony at church. He told about when he first came into our chapel he felt really strongly that this is where he's supposed to be. Edit from mom: I love hearing updates from both sides.

He made it...

25 August 2015 Dear Brother & Sister Dean, Elder Connor William Dean has safely arrived in the Czech/Slovak Mission. Sister McConkie and I are impressed with your son and want to thank you for all that you have done in preparing this wonderful young man for his mission. In our estimation he is prepared and ready to ". preach the gospel to every creature that cometh under the sound of .(his) voice." D&C 80:1. Attached is a photograph of Elder Dean which was taken today just after he arrived in Prague. Tomorrow, after a good night's rest, he will be assigned a companion and an area in which to work. You should receive an e-mail from your missionary on P-day (Saturday in Prague and Monday everywhere else). We are confident that the Lord will stand with and bless him as he serves. Your son has accepted a call that will change his life and the lives of those with whom he is serving. These first few months will be full of new and challenging experiences, and your support in the form of encouraging and uplifting letters will help him greatly. Our greatest hope is that each missionary with whom we serve has the kind of mission experience that will establish the foundation for a lifetime of service and discipleship. James W. McConkie Sister Laurel S. McConkie Prezident Česká/Slovenská misie

(Aug 20 2015) Flight Plans! & Ear is healed

So the news is that my ear is fine, I've got a bit of fluid that has dried in my ear canal, and at this point I'm just waiting for it to come out on it's own. But I don't have a Hole in my Eardrum so that's good! I leave on Monday morning... my schedule looks like this: - wake up monday morning and report to the mission office at 2:30am (yes, that early) - arrive at SLA airport and wait until out flight leaves. - our flight leaves at 6:55am and we travel - From: SLA - To: Chicago O'Hare - We arrive in Chicago at 11:12am, then we have a Layover in Chicago for 7 hours... (yep) so that means I'll have plenty of time to call home!!! - Our flight from Chicago leaves at 6:10pm: - From: Chicago O'Hare - To: London Heathrow, England LHR - We land in London at 8:05am THE NEXT DAY (so we fly through the night) -we have about an hour and 45 minute layover in London, then we fly to Prague: - From: London Heathrow, England LHR - To: Prague, Czech Republic PR What's crazy about this is... well, everything about this is crazy but besides Everything... it's crazy that we have to be at the MTC Travel office at 2:30am in the MORNING! that is crazy! so now, to tell you about this week and such: Today, Aug. 20, 2015, Elder Chappel, Elder Hanis, and I went to the Temple for the last time for 2 years. We did an endowment session and it all went very well. After the Endowment, I took some time to pray, and I felt peace knowing that my family and friends... EVERYTHING that I had left behind, would be taken care of, and that I need not worry. I have a mission to complete and I should not fear for anything in regards to my family and friends. And I am continuing even after the Temple, to recieve the thoughts, "Be still, all of my creations are in my hands, and fear not your imperfections and flaws, I have qualified you as a servant unto me, and I will go before your face, and I will be on your right hand, and on your left, and no unhallowed hand shall stop the work from progressing. Have faith, do not waiver in your conviction, and you will have power according to your faith which is in Me. Go now, I will take care of those things that are dear to you, and to you my servant, Thank you, and, I love you." Those are the thought that are coming into my head, and I know they are words from the mouth of the Savior! He lives and is with us even now, and he is with you! my family and friends! because he has comforted me and I know that even now He is pouring out His spirit upon you all! I am ready to serve the Lord. While I was praying in the temple, I promised the Lord that I Pledge my life and existance to Him, and that I trust Him and his plan for us all. Please Attend the Temple, and please know that your Father in Heaven Loves you! More than we have any Idea. In the temple I learned today, that EVERYTHING was created... for the soul purpose of having Joy... think about that for just a second. When the Lord has a plan for us, and I now testify that he does, He will qualify us and refine us into the souls He needs to accomplish His work. After our missions, our mission is not over, and even before our missions, whether we go or not, the Lord has a plan, and he prepares us even when we don't realize that we are being prepared! Please read that quote again from my thoughts, I KNOW that those words are not my own. Even sitting here typing those words, I know that I was guided on what to say. ___________________ Now... DAD, You wanted me to answer some questions regarding some things and I'll answer them below: - Are You OK? - Yes I am Okay, I'm more than Okay. I have never felt the Lord so close other than while baptizing claire. The feeling is the same, but the intensity of it's manifestations changes, because I think the Lord trusts us to always strive to make good decisions, and follow what we know to be right, Even when we don't always feel the spirit as intensely as we would sometimes like to. - What has the Doc. said about your ear? - I'm gonna be fine, I've received many blessings, 3 by priesthood blessings, and others from the Love I know my Father has for me(and each of us). I'm gonna be JUST fine leaving with the others on Monday morning. - Have you had 1-2-3 blessings by now? - Short answer... yes, I've had 3. -Are you still leaving with your group on Monday? - Short answer... yes. -What time do you leave the MTC? - 2:30am or thereabouts - Do you still have the TracFone and has the dumb thing rang again? - haha yes I have it. The Branch presidency found out that what you two did by sending that to me is actually... get this... ALLOWED here at the MTC! So TELL JEREMY and his parents when you get the Chance!!! - Will you have the Phone on Monday? - Yes -Do you have a new prescripion? do we need to pay for it? - I have been given some eardrops and they technically are a prescription but the doctors office was very kind and instead of making me pay for it, just looked for a spare, unused, unoppened, brand new box that they had laying around, and they actually found one, so basically I don't need to pay for anything... I have paid appoximately $28-$32 for this ear issue, which is great considering what I could have ended up paying. - I have no need to buy a card to call from a pay phone because I have the trac phone so no worries dad. Hey I love you all and can't wait to Hear from you agian next week!

(Aug 13 2015)

so this week has been up, good, well... mostly. the only down thing about his week has been my earache. the doctors here have no idea what's up, they think it's an infection however they don't know why it's getting so bad. I've been taking antibiotics and it's been helping... I think... (then my eardrum bursts in the middle of the night) yeah it's difinitly helping.... so today I just got an email from our mission, our whole mission here at the MTC got this email and it explains what to expect when we get to the Czech Republic and such... I'll forward this email to you, MOM and DAD after this email. we skyped again, some people in the Czech republic this week for TRC, which is basically just Home Teaching through skype. our czech is... let's just say that we'll need the Lord to qualify us if we want to expect success in the czech republic within the next couple months. this is my report. (we are supposed to get our flight plans TOMORROW!.

(Aug 6 2015)

This week has been awesome, I have begun to understand that WHENEVER I am having negative feelings towards anything, In ANY type of way, it is because of my OWN selfishness. I was in personal coaching with one my my instructors today, Bratr Knapp asked me what I thought would be good for me to work on. I told him that I feel like I want to be able to Love the people and Love my "investigators" more. I feel like I have a genuine love for the whole of mankind, however I also know that when things seem difficult it is easy for me to think inward and not outward, thus making myself feel worse. It was suggested that I read Moroni Chapter Seven, and on my own time, during Personal Study time, I did just that. As I read, I realized that this section of scripture is speaking directly to every member of the Church who is diligently seeking to do what is right but Just needs some extra help from above... that means ALL OF US. Moroni is telling us about the words of his father Mormon, and confirms to us once again and with great power the fact the Miracles have not ceased Today; angels STILL continue to minister to the children of men. The Lord is not just sitting around, now that his Atonement is Complete, and just waiting for this all to come to an end, HE IS STILL engaged in the work, and HE IS STILL pouring HIS love out unto his people, all the children of God. After confirming this truth, Moroni tells us about Charity, and how it suffers long, believeth all things, and hopeth all things and endureth all things. Charity is not puffed up, Thinketh no evil, and envieth not. Charity is the pure love of Christ, and those found possessing it at The Last Day, it shall be well with him, is what Moroni tells us. The chapter ends by saying that we must Pray with all purpose of heart, pray to our Father who knows all things that we may obtain this Charity, which is the Pure love of Christ. I did that, immediately after reading this chapter and I am so glad that I did so. I believe that The Lord has been preparing me to see and understand this principle of Charity more and more over the last several days and likely for much Longer. The same day that I read this chapter, BEFORE I read the chapter, I went to lunch and was just getting ready to get some of this "delicious" MTC food, and I found myself Looking around at the people in the cafeteria. As I looked, I saw/felt in each of them they were Children of God; that God actually cared about them, and that he knew them, and that He creates all these rules that need to be followed, and has organized this MTC training ground so that we can be prepared to be his servants. I looked and saw so many people with their minds focused on simply getting food. How oblivious we are, all the time, of something that is MUCH greater than any of us can ever truly understand until after this life. And yet, we're supposed to teach that to the other Children of God... how are we supposed to do that? The answer came to me, and I'm still certain that I still don't have all of the answer, but as stated in my Blessing, "you will have that which will be sufficient for you." and for now, This testimony is all that I need, that... I know that Charity is the ONLY way that we can successfully teach our brothers and sisters, we are all struggling with different things, but if we forget ourselves and just Go to Work, we will bless the lives of others, and we will be able to help those who don't know where to find the help they need. I have no doubt in my mind that everyone on the planet is struggling with something that God can, and WANTS to help them with! This is my Testimony of Charity, and I pray every day that I can obtain it, and In doing so, I pray for others more than I pray for myself, which has brought me nothing but joy in regards to that. This is my weekly email, I'm gonna send it to more than just you MOM and DAD, because I feel like I also want Ethan and Chandler to here these words, please forgive me. But I say these things the same way I would say them to you, or to anybody else, including that I Love you, and that I pray for you always. Mom, Dad, thank you for your prayers, your son is beginning to understand once again, why he is here. To all those whom I care about, and especially to those who have given up their son to the Lord for a time, I love you. Elder Dean