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