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!