Feb 29 2016

Okay, so I am officially in my 4th transfer, wow, I cannot believe that I have been gone for a little over 7 months! We had our Brno Conference on Monday, and it was awesome! We had an Area Seventy member come talk to us, and while we were there, the most exciting thing, was when President McConkie Announced to us, who the next Mission President is going to be. Now... when I was thinking about us getting a new mission Presidnet, I was thinking about it being another mormon guy from Utah, but oh how it suprized us when the picture pulled up, and especially for me, and my district. This new Mission President, his name is Jan Pohořilitcky, and His wife is named Pavalina, and they are going to take over the mission when President McConkie steps down. They are Czech. Very Rarely in church history has a mission president actually been native to the nation overwhich he prosides, and so that was already making history right there... But to make it even more crazy, this mission... THIS MISSION doesn't even have a STAKE here yet, and they are calling a native Czech to be the mission President! Now I am going to make it even crazier... My district in Jihlava, was over two cities: Jihlava, and Třebič. Jan and his wife live in TŘEBIČ, and they are currently the Branch Mission Leaders there in Třebič. My district knows these two, and they truly are the coolest people! Just last monday we went Bowling with our district and the Pohořilitcky family went bowling with us! They knew this whooooollleee time, and they were just going bowling with thier missionaries, and we had no idea that a week later, we would find out that they are going to be out next mission Presidents. Incredible! Well, after that craziness happened... Saturday happened, and then saturday night we recieved out Transfer calls. I remember we were walking across the Naměstí and it was getting dark. It must have been somewhere around 6:00pm, and we were walking up towards the church building, and then Elder Oviatt gets the phone call. He answers, and talks to whoever is on the other line, and then he hands the phone to me. I realized that I was speaking to President McConkie, rather than one of his Assistants. I recieved the news that on Monday morning (today), that I was to transfer to Česke Budějovice, a City city in the Prague Zone of the mission. Česke Budějovice is on the south west side of the Czech Republic. The branch here in Incredibly small, and only about 5 or 6 members attend Sacrament meeting each week. (or so I'm told). President McConkie made sure to let me know that if we were to succeed here this transfer, we're going to need to put in ¨110 percent¨. President then informed me that I was going to be Follow Up Training Elder Pickett, and that I was also going to be the District Leader. President told me that I will likely be called to be a Councilor in the Branch Presidency while I'm here, due to the lack of members. I am sitting here in Česke Budějovice now, and I'm going to be in a trio for the next couple days, because Elder Pickett's Trainer is still here, and he's dying (his mission is over), so he's going to be here with us until Thursday, and then on Thursday, his Parents are coming to pick him up from his mission. I think it's going to be a very cool experience to be able to see a missionary reuniting with his parents after two years of selfless service.

Feb 22 2016

Ah... I am so happy that I am serving a mission. Sometimes I wonder why I love it so much, even when I am in tears wondering if there's any hope left... and then the next day I remember, "hey... I love it here" It truly is the strangest phenomenon that happens out here, It's like I've got multiple personalities or something haha. So this week, we had some interesting things happen. And I want my siblings to pay particular attention to these stories. Earlier this week, my companion, Elder Oviatt and I were out in front of the Church Building here in Jihlava, and we were talking to people on the Naměstí (town square). We stood on a box and yelled, "Repent! Repent!". No just kidding we didn't actually do that... Although my trainer would be one to tell you that I actually kind of did that a little during my first transfer... but anyway we were out on the main square talking to as many people as we could, and we were inviting them to come to our building so that we could give them a tour. As we were talking to people and inviting them to come see our building, I remember that I had just finished a contact, and the person I was talking to had walked away, and I was looking around for the next person to talk to, and then I heard a voice coming from behind me, "hey man what are you doing!?" I turned around and there was a man in a blue coat looking right at me and talking to me. He walked over to me very confidently and said, "oh wait, you are not the same person, what is your name? Dean... okay. Dean I am here to tell you about Christ." at this point I was already quite confused... he continued, "I come from Florida man, that is why I speak english!" This man proceeded to give me the lowdown on how I needed to proclaim the name of Jesus to recieve Jesus into my heart and after that I would be saved. He went on to tell me that If I did not recieve Jesus, then after death there would come a time when I will stand before Jesus, and I will say 'But Lord, I served you for two years in the Czech Republic, can't I come too?' and then Jesus will say, 'No Dean, I never knew you Dean, Leave me!' This man told me all about how he had been "born again" and how I needed to Proclaim Jesus to be saved. I'll be completely Honest, It kind of Scared me. Here was a man, being completely honest with me about how he had recieved some type of spiritual witness about how Christ had entered into his heart, and that he was now a true Servant of Christ. He was telling me this with a confidence that I only dream for as a missionary. He was whiping the floor with me! Everything he was saying, was true... Every bit of it. Christ is our savior, we cannot be saved by any other way than by Christ. We need to accept Him as our Savior, we need to be good people, we need to help others find out about Jesus. We need to search the holy writ, and study it for the blessing of ourselves as well as the lives of others. Everything he said was true... and It scared me... here was another man, telling me things that I already knew, and he was doing it, with Power. at Least, the Power that his own confidence and his own strength gave him. I was scared... naturally, doubt began to seep into my heart. why? What if THIS man has the truth? What if what I am doing is for Nothing? This man, then leaned in, gave me a hug, told me that it's going to be amazing what happens when I pray and accept Jesus, and then Walked away. "I have already accepted Jesus" was my thought. well... I think the thing that scared me the most, was the fact that this man, was telling the truth, but that he was from a different Church! 98 percent of the things he was saying were true! I resolved within myself that This church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is the true church, and I went forward with that, only as a hope for a while afterwards. Then just Yesterday, Sunday, after church... we were walking again around town, and we decided to walk towards the Semitary (I dunno how to spell that). And while we were walking there, We ran into him again, although this time, my companion was by my side. We talked for about 10 more minutes and he said the exact same things that he said to me before. This exchange was a bit different though, because I decided to be open to what he was saying this time, and to really trust it's truth. I listened... and when something was true, I simply accepted it, because it is true. and when something he said wasn't I kept it in my mind to remind me and back me up in my testimony that OUR church is the true one. but I kept my words to myself, and listened. After some time, I was confident again, and realized, that yes... it IS in fact possible for other people to have truth, but the beauty of the Gospel, is that WE have the FULNESS of the truth. We told him that we really admired him in his efforts to help the Czech People to accept their savior. He expressed to us that he had recieved a spiritual witness that he needed to go to the Czech Republic, (he was born in the Czech, afterward he moved to Florida), and he decided to go because he wanted to "serve God". Elder Oviatt and I both felt that we needed to tell him about the Book of mormon. so we tried to tell him about it. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with it saying, "I will only read and study from the LIVING word." Elder Oviatt then shared a spiritual experience that he had with recieving personal revelation though the Book of Mormon, and the spirit was definitely present. "I'm sorry, but I do not believe you." he told us. As Elder Oviatt testified about the Book of Mormon, I saw the Confidence and the earthly power that this man had, fall, so much that he began to be defensive. And elder Oviatt concluded with the cherry on top by saying, at the end of talking about his spiritual experience, "And believe it or not, It came from the Book of Mormon." The Look in this man's eyes suggested to me that he knew that he had felt something, and that it was true, but it brought to him a great sense of discomfort. He eventually told us that he didn't have very much time and had to leave, and when he left, and walked away, Elder Oviatt and I both felt like we needed to talk to him about the Book of Mormon more. "other sheep I have which are not of this fold" elder Oviatt said to himself... I whipped out my new small Quad that I had recieved from Orders from the mission, and I grabbed the little black Book of Mormon and then the little black New testament. and we started thumbing through those cheap pages. When Elder Oviatt had managed to find each of the pieces of Scripture in both the New Testament, as well as the Book of Mormon, I Put my finger in between the Pages in 3 Nephi 14, closed the book in my hand and we ran after the man. Never had I felt such a feeling of runing after a man, with the spirit whispering to each of us, "this book is true, this book is true, and he needs what you have." While we were runing we were impressed to share Moroni's promise with him first, and so when we caught up, I whipped open to Moroni 10:3-5 and asked him if he could just read ONE thing, and he said, "no". I pleaded that we could at least read it to him, and he said nothing, and then I read it. After he heard those verses, he agreed completely, and then we told him about the 'other sheep', and told him about how it spoke about these people in the americas. We flipped open my Book of Mormon to the page I was holding in 3 Nephi 14, and told him, "These are Christ's words too, He came and spoke to these people too" Then he got really defensive and said, "are you trying to tell me that Christ visited the United States?!" "Yes!" I said, "After his resurection!" to which he responded, "I am done, Cau" and then he walked away. elder Oviatt and I just walked down the Street quietly for the next couple of minutes. I was frustrated, but at the same time, I felt a peace that the Spirit was telling us that we had done exactly what we were supposed to do, and that Everything was going to be fine. Elder Oviatt later confirmed to me that He also was feeling this peace at the time, and that it is not important who will baptize that man, but that we can know that we helped him get that much closer. This has been a crazy week. as a side note, we had a mini film festival... a member here had the idea, and along with the sister missionaries here in Jihlava, we all 5 coordinated and set up this mini film festival wherin we invited members to bring their friends and that we would watch the resortation film as well as several mormon messages which had been translated into czech. The day finally came this week on Saturday, and we had prepared for like 50 people to show up, and only 4 people came who were not members. škoda... But the cool thing is, I think these people, the four who came, really felt that these messages were true or at least something about them was true. One of the women who came will likely become a new investigator soon. well, that's all for now. Love you guys, and I'll talk to you next week! Elder Dean

Feb 15 2016

This week has been a good one, We had the opportunity to teach a family with eight children. The mother has been attending our English classes for quite some time now, and we have had dinner over at their home once in the past. We officially had our first lesson, and it was... a disaster... It started out well though. She had invited us to attend her church's meeting, so Elder Oviatt and I found ourselves standing in the back of a Roman Catholic costel, attending Mass on Saturday night. I was genuinely suprized though... I went in, expecting to feel a deep sense of apostasy and darkness... it was dininitely out of place, but the spirit was actually present in some ways during their service. I felt the spirit whisper to me... "There are people here, who Love Me, and who just want to do the right thing, and they hold tight to the truths that they DO have. I love them." We stood through their meeting, and listened to their chants and their symbolic worship, and realized, these people are not too far... they are just worshiping without proper authority, and they only are searching to follow those things, which they feel are true. There is Goodness in worshiping God, and these people know that. they are missing parts, but they are not bad people. These were my thoughts throughout their service. ________________________________________________________________________________ Now, here's a recap on the week and things I've been learing lately. I am pleased to say that I have had some learning experiences over the last two weeks, and the Lord is continuously helping me to remember the reasons why I am serving a mission. Last night, I was listening to the EFY song, Arise and Shine. This song has become one of my favorites, and while I was listening to it last night, I remembered that in my first transfer, Elder Boyce and I would listen to EFY songs on occasion, and that there was a time during my first Transfer that I was having a hard time, and during this time, we listened to this song. This song brought so much rememberance to me as to why exactly I am here. Elder Boyce and I found ourselves singing the courus of this song at the top of our lungs on many occasions, after a hard contact, or even just after a hard day. I am so greatful for the Lord's myriad of tender mercies that he so willingly pours out upon his children. Before my mission, for years I prayed that the Lord would send me somewhere hard, so that I would be able to come closer to Him. I sit here, now fully aware, of just how honored I am to be here. This mission has brought with it difficulties that I never could have imagined. I find that my testimony is beaten upon every single day, I find that my faith is tried all the time, I am blown away just how hard the adversary tries to influence me to sin, or to doubt, or to just give up. Never in my life have I had the frightening feelings that I have here sometimes, of doubt as to whether or not this church is indeed true. But also, never have I felt so close to my Savior, and to my Father in Heaven. I am reminded of their Love, of their kindness and of their mercy. How often I find myself wondering, "Is my Heavenly Father pleased, with me?" The other day I looked around and saw people differently. I realized that it is absolutely fascinating that our Heavenly Father and our Savior love these people so much, even when they are outwardly opposing them, AND their servants. They LOVE them, more than we can comprehend. We are asked simply to share that love of our Heavenly Father, with His children here. I concluded that there is just something that we don't understand when we get frustrated when people don't want to listen. There is something that Heavenly Father sees and knows, that we don't seem to see or know. God is reaching out to these people even when they may or may not be reaching out to Him... Of course He is pleased with us. If anything, ANY effort we make to come closer to Him must fill Him with joy. "Come unto me, that I may Heal you" Christ says. Wow. That is just amazing. I still have a ton to learn, but I have come closer to my Savior out here on my mission than ever before. and I am so greatful for the opportunity that we have as His missionaries, to recieve just a taste of the pains, aflictions, and opposition that our Savior undoubtedly faced during His life, Because it is this small taste that has and is allowing me to love the Savior more now than ever before. I love this mission. I am so happy that I am here. I am indeed Greatful for my trials. Hey, I love you all. Please take some time to just think about the atonement and what it means for you.

Feb 8 2016

This week has been a good one, we started out on Monday by going to a really old castle looking thing... and I got a ton of stuff on my camera, but unfortunately this week I left my camera backa at the apprtment. škoda, On Wednesday we had District Meeting in Třebič, a city not too far from Jihlava, and it is the other city included in my disctict. The sisters and Elder Oviatt and I traveled by train to Třebíč and as we were approaching the Church building's front door in Třebíč I recieved a call from the Třebíč Elders and they said, "where are you?" "we just got here" I told them. "no where are you? We're right here." they said. "We just walked in the door, we're here in the Building. You're at the wrong door." I said. Then Elder Stacy said, "No we're litterally just standing right here, in front of the Blue building on the Naměsti." And then I realized... "uh... how bout you talk to Elder Oviatt." and I handed the Phone to my companion (the district leader). what had happened was, while we were traveling to Třebíč, The Třebíč Elders had been traveling to Jihlava! so our trains had litterally just passed right next to each other going opposite directions, and we had both arrived at the other city's church building's front doors at the exact same time... Long story short, the Třebič Elders eventually came back to Třebíč and we had District meeting there. Later that same day (wednesday), we started our exchange, and Elder Carlson and I came back to Jihlava while Elder Oviatt and Elder Stacy stayed in Třebíč for the night. We had a good Exchange and we found a cool man named Prokob, he's about our age and he's interested in Learning more about the message of the Restoration. Unfortunately we have not been able to get into contact with him, and so we're still working on that. On Friday, we had a lesson early in the morning with a new investigator. His family let us into their home and gave us some Czech jelly-filled rolls and some fruit tea (at our request), and then our investigator's parents just would not shut up... litterally they grabbed an ensyclopedia and started telling us about mormons... and we just sat there and listen to them ramble on in czech while I was trying to talk to our Investigator about the Book of Mormon. It was so much talking that I began to think that they were deliberately not allowing us to talk and stopping us from sharing our message. I was getting frustrated and then we decided to leave... when we decided to leave, they expressed their thankfulness that we came over and asked if we could come again... to which we responded, "NO!" . . . . no just kidding of course we said we could... andthen they told us that their son could drive us home. Finally we were able to talk to him about our message in the quietness of a car on the road, and we were able to explain to him the importance of meeting and then we even mentioned coming to church, and he said, "sure I'll try to come". Little did we expect, when on Sunday morning we recieved a call from him, where he asked, "where can I find your building? I'm here and I'm looking for it, where is it?" I ran out of the Chapple right before the meeting was about to start and ran downstairs, and explained the location of our church building. He came around the corner and elder Oviatt and I told him that we were happy that he had decided to come and that we were about to start. He sat through the entire Sacrament meeting, and it just so happened to be a Fast and Testimony meeting that one of our Investigators decided to attend, and so he was able to hear many of the members bear their testimonies about how they know that the church is true. Truly a cool experience. we had somebody at church, and that is cool. Now we just need to continue to work with him and get him working towards baptism. Now I want to share my testimony with you about my mission. The members here are incredible. We sat down the other day and had a short Book of Mormon read with one of the senior members here in Jihlava, and when we concluded, he shared with us his testimony that trials are really just blessings in hiding. they truly are as well, because we have our trials so that we can know what it means to have joy. I was thinking about this long and hard over the week, and I realized something that I think is incredible. In This mission, we have the opportunity to experience rejection, trial, temptation, stubbornness, stiff necks, hard hearts, patience, brokenness, feeling alone, feeling weak, feeling unqualified, and feeling like it's not worth it at times... and I thought long and hard about what this wise member had said, about how trials are blessings in hiding... and I realized that thanks to this mission, I am closer to my Savior than I have ever been in my entire life. As His missionaries, we are able to understand, only in small part, the pains, the rejection, and the feelings that our Savior felt during His ministry. I sometimes ask myself, "why do we have to endure this?" and then I realize, that we are becoming something so much greater than we could ever have imagined. before my mission, I could care less if I was out serving the Lord and talking to people all day... but now, it is my no. 1 priority, to share the Gospel. How crazy is that... the Lord has taken me, and thus far has grown within me a desire to become more like him and to never want to stop feeling his spirit. and through my trials, I am able to find a fulness of joy, even unto the sheding of tears in the knowledge that I Know that my Redeemer lives, that though the world may be far from him, he is never far from us, and that though the mountains shall depart and the hills shall be removed, his kindness... His love, and his infinite and Eternal mercy shall not depart from me. nor shall it depart from those people here who he loves so much. they may not konw him, but he loves them. as his servants he only asks that we share that love with these beautiful people. Because He knows their struggles and their pains, and He wants them to know, that he is here, and he Lives, and his hand is stretched out still, even unto the sheding of his own tears... Our Savior lives. I love my mission, it is the hardest thing I have ever had to do but I love my trials, they have helped me to come so much closer to the Savior. I Love these people, because I love my God. I cannot believe just how patient He is with me. I am so blessed. This is my testimony, and I know that it is true, and I bear witness of the divinity of the Son of the Living God, and I know that He lives. And He is NOT still, but he is active in each and every one of our lives. we need only open our hearts to him. That is why mom, I have chosen the scripture 1 Nephi 2:16 as my scripture that I want you to give to Bishop. That is my testimony, in the Sacred name of Jesus Christ, the Great Phsycian, as the scriptures call him, Amen. Elder Dean

Feb. 1 2016

This week has been good. Elder Oviatt and I went to Prague on Thursday on an exchange with the Assistants to the President, and It was fun. Friday morning we woke up, the 4 of us (ap's and Elder Oviat and I) and we went for one of the hardest runs I have ever run. The first part is downhill, and that lasts for about 5 minutes, and then suddnely we hit these stairs and we run UP these stairs, for like 5 minutes of just straight stairs, and the AP's run these stairs almost every morning, and so for Elder Oviatt and I, it was a real killer. I think we need to be runing more. Elder Oviatt and I sometimes have a hard time geting up in the morning to go running. While we were on this exchange, President McConkie interviewed me and Elder Oviatt. I was brought into his office and saw his cluttered desk and said, "hey, I am so glad that I'm not the only one who has a cluttered desk." to which he replied, "yeah, I need to clean up soon." during our interview I expressed some concerns I had with the missionary work. President helped me to remember that we need to build our faith to find, and to baptize. "This is a Baptizing mission" he told me. He reminded me about 1 Nephi chapter 2, where Nephi prays, and his heart is "softened". Nephi also has a good balance of being able to say, "I am young... nevertheless, I am large in Stature" and being able to acknoledge his weaknesses but also being able to be gratefull for the strength that he does have. I have not baptized yet in this mission... and I allow myself to wonder sometimes if I ever will. But President affirms, that this mission is NOT a mission for planting seeds... We are a Baptizing mission. I guess I don't have enough Faith to baptize. So often, I talk to people and I just know from passed experiences that they are going to say "no". and then I ask, with as much conviction as I can muster, and I ask, "will you ask God if these things are true? I know that He will answer you." just to hear, "no". I am trying to figure this out right now. we had a particularly hard day yesterday. Every single person for like 5 hours openly and angrily opposed us. I don't know why this is so hard... I don't know why I have not been able to baptize. I don't know why... or what I'm doing wrong. But I know that the Church is true... I know that Joseph Smith was and is the Prophet of the Restoration. I believe that I am supposed to be here... I believe that this mission will bring more Joy into my life than I have ever experienced... I believe those things. and I hope those things. But for now, I suppose I just will have to hang on for those beliefs to become a sure knowledge. But I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. We can Pray to our Father in Heaven and He hears us and He does answer us. and in those times when we don't feel like we have an answer, it's because he's carving out a place in our hearts for him to put those answers. because our hearts are often too hard to accept the answer when we first ask for it. I have a testimony of this thing. Have a good week, and rememebr that it's better to pray for service opportunities, than it is to pray for the servants. Elder Dean

Jan 25 2016

This week has been trying for me. I have been studying the scriptures more, and I have see the hand of the Lord in our lives, and I have recieved answers to prayer, but this week I've been struggling with feeling like I am not doing enough, and that I need to be working harder. But truly all is well, the Savior is merciful and I find comfort knowing that repentance to things, big and small, is always available, and it is how we can become who our Father in Heaven and our Savior want us to become. This week we had our Training, and we had the opportunity to see a worldwide Missionary broadcast Training, with an overhanging theme of Teaching Repentance, and Baptizing Converts. This is an interesting concept because we usually think of Baptism as being part of the converting process, but that is just the thing, how can you expect to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ unless you are first converted to the basic principles of the Gospel? You can't, otherwise the baptism is in vain. I have also been studying my patriarchal blessing. I have a goal to create a plan for who I want to be by the end of my mission. This plan will be achieved, you know how I know? because I'm making sure that it is what Heavenly Father has on plan for me. Czech this... I started planning my goal by saying that I want to be Exactly who my Father in Heaven wants me to be. That is my Goal. If I am to figure out the Path that My Heavenly Father wants me to take to get there, I need to first understand what he Expects of me. My first thoughts about this immidiately turned me to my Patriarchal Blessing. In my PB, I realized that there is a pattern. This pattern is that whenever a blessing is promised, it is conditional upon a commandment within my Patriarchal Blessing. For Example, If I am told that I will be able to recieve Spiritual Guidance, I can look and see what I need to do to qualify for that spiritual guidance. see? pretty simple right? So I follow this pattern, and I made a list of things That I am promised, and then I made a list of things that I need to do to achomplish these things. Another thing talked about in Blessings, are spiritual gifts that are inately ours as gifts from our Heavenly Father. These gifts are to help us, but no doubt, they are also for the intent of helping God's other children. These gifts may include things such as, "you will find that the Gospel comes easy to you" or "you will be a teacher" or something like that. To me they seem to be stated as a complete sentance without ties to other parts of the blessing. These gifts are important in making my goal for the end result of my mission, because If I can create a goal that is consistent with my spiritual gifts and allows me to use them, I will be able to successfully walk the path the Heavenly Father has already Planned for us to walk. I am excited to complete this study because I have just started it about 2 days ago, and it should be finished in a day or two. We'll see where it takes me. ________________________________ So, during communism, the members here in the Czech Republic were issolated from the rest of the church in a sense, and were really kind of Cut off from the Revelation that comes from a living prophet. But the Saints here were dilligent throughout the cold winter and they came together to make things work out as best they could. One man, decided that He would do everything he could to keep the church alive, and he created Yoga camps, where people, members and friends would secretly meet together and practice Yoga, but at the same time, they would share the Gospel. Many of the people who attended these camps were converted to the Gospel, and they became members as soon as the wall of communism was lifted. The amazing thing... The Saints here are the ones who need to be brought into heaven first. There are several members who, throughout communism, saved their money, their 10 percent, throughout all of communism, and they saved it, in cash, and then when the church finially came back into the Czech Republic, they finally could give it all to the church. There is one story I heard of some missionaries (although I cannot remember when exactly this was)... some missionaries who were tracting or contacting one day, and they met this old woman, and when they started talking to her she suddenly got excited and said, "are you mormon missionaries?" to which the missionaries said, "yes" and she gave them a huge glass jar full of money... she had saved her tithing for all those years, without the church available to her, she stayed converted. It blows my mind. I have a hard time staying converted sometimes just because I don't understand the Atonement and here these members are, going through apostasy and they are still remaining faithful. After Communism was lifted, the church had to actually come back in to reestablish the leadership of the church because they had been separated for so long. Incredible. tak jo... Já mám vás rád.