April 25 2016

Okay so this week has been great! The Mission is undergoing it's last push with President and Sister McConkie as the mission Presidents. Next Transfer is their Last two months in the mission, and we (all the missionaries) are beginning to feel the hole that we'll soon have in each of our hearts. On Monday last week, we went on a really cool Hiking Trip with J, our friend from English Class. He took us up a "mountain" while it was raining, into the Czech forests... it seriously looks like we're in Narnia out here! on Tuesday, We recieved a text message from the Zone Leaders that President McConkie wanted us to pray at 5:00pm that day, for the entire mission, so we did, and then that Evening, we had a lesson with our Investigator V. President C (District President of Bohemia) was there with us, to help us teach. V has been having some questions about "receiving answers" and the like, and during the lesson we were trying to determine what we could best tell him, and then President C asked if he could say something. Elder Pickett and I said Of Course, and then President Chrdla proceeded to elaborate on the nature of prayer and understanding and recognizing answers. He then told Vojtěch about the fact that Answers don't always come in a ball of fire, and in fact, most of the time they are us reflecting on past experiences, past times when we have felt the Holy Ghost. As President C was elaborating this to V, V said, "To dava smysl" (that makes sense) and we just felt the spirit enter the room. After letting the spirit speak to each of us in silence for a few seconds, Elder Pickett asked V, (in czech of course) "V, your baptismal date is coming up for the 7th of May. Do you feel like you're prepared to be Baptized?" To which he thought for a moment and then said, "Probably yes." The spirit filled the room, and for the first time in my entire mission, I realized... that this is the closest we've ever been to helping somebody get closer to christ through Baptism. I am so Excited to see this happen, and we're going to make it happen. On Wednesday, we had our last District Meeting of the Transfer. I procrastinated planning of the meeting... again... and the assignments were given the night before and the day of to my district... oops. Guess we'll see if I get another Chance next transfer to try again. Wednesday night, we visited our Investigator G (speaks English). He had invited us to come over to his home for a Prayer Meeting. He's of the Ba-hi Faith, and they have their prayers in books which they read. They believe in the bible, as well as Every other book out there, and they believe that every "prophet" taught the same things... Jesus taught the same things as Muhammad they claim. We visited his home and met some other Ba-Hi members, and they did their little prayers in the circle, and then it got to Me and Elder Pickett... I just turned and Looked at Elder Pickett and said, "I'll pray." so I Prayed... the way WE pray of course... nobody fear. During that Prayer meeting, our investigator turned to us and asked, "So how can we recognize that Joseph Smith was a Prophet?" We then started talking about the Church, and about Modern Revelation, we read from the Book of Mormon. The entire group was suddenly fixated on us, and we were receiving questions, good, genuine questions from every person. We sat there comfortably as we explained about the church, and the teachings of Jesus Christ. It was actually quite funny really, we were using the Book of Mormon Introduction to answer 90 percent of their questions. At several points in the meeting, we were asked about certain scriptures in the Bible, scriptures that we already study and knew. It's fascinating really just how true and simple the Gospel is. It's the world that makes things Complicated. On Thursday, we Had our Kulturní Večer (Culture Night), and we had another English student show us around CBud, in a tour of all of the historical sights. We learned about the City and its rivalry with neighboring cities during the dark ages, and we learned about how it once was a heavily fortified city, with 2 City walls around the city, with only 3 heavily fortified Gates. We went up into the Black Tower, the big tall tower in České Budějovice, and got an amazing view of the city. I am going to have some good video after my mission thanks to this Go Pro... Then, after our Tour of CBud, we went to the Fil Harmony, (a place for concerts), and we asked them, "are there any extra seats for us to see the Orchestra?" To which the people replied, no, but just go ahead and you can stand in the back. So we got to go see the Orchestra play, a professional Orchestra play for free. haha! On Saturday we had a good day of weekly planning and had a Party with our Member O. She's the same woman whom we visited and Elder Pickett had given her a blessing. "when we were there, she had prepared some Chlebíčky (sandwhiches without the top piece of bread), and she told us to sit down and eat... so the four of us, the sisters and us, sat down, and we ate... and we talked... then we wanted to play cards, so O called her Brother, and he brought in the Oldest cards I have ever seen in my entire life. These things were Ancient... I mean, they had Roman Numerals on these things, they were fading, and they had different dimensions than your average card deck today. These things looked like they had been dug up out of some tomb somewhere, and we managed to play a Matching Game, as well as Uno with them... I'll include a picture. On Sunday, (yesterday), I conducted Sacrament meeting for the 2nd time. This time went well, except for one talk during Sacrament Meeting, the member who was speaking asked a question to the congregation and one of the sister's investigators raised his hand and answered the Question... Oh the things you do as a Czech Slovak Missionary... hahaha! Today, we went to an antique store and elder Pickett and I each Bought 50 year old Prim Watches. The brand Prim is a Czech Brand, and they have old watches that were made here, back when this was CzechoSlovakia, and the watches are windup, and they still work. It was about 550Kč, or about 20 USD. It's a super cool Souvenir, and they still work that is sooo cool! This week's been awesome, and I am feeling the affects of prayers on the other side of the world. I love you guys, Thanks! Čau! Starší Dean