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