This week... well, where do I start..? I suppose I should just start, by saying that Everything is fine, I'm doing well, I am doing fine spiritually, and the area is doing fine as well. We started out this week by visiting the Museum here in CBud on Monday. It was 110 Crowns or something like that, which is about 5 dollars in US currency. The Museum was cool, I got some pictures of some of the things in there, and we learned about the history of the city, České Budějovice. I'll include some pictures in this email. on Tuesday, Elder Pickett and I went in to talk to the City about doing things like Tabling (when we have a table out on the street somewhere and we have BOM's and stuff set up for people to see). We walked into the main City building where they do all the big stuff, and we went upstairs, and went into some offices. They told us to go to another part of the building, and so we went there and when we got inside, we told the lady at the desk, (through our broken Czech) "we want to talk to your boss, we want to have a table out on the main square and talk to people about our church. Can we talk to the man in charge?" The lady replied with, "no" But then the guy actually walked in from the other room and asked, "what do you need?" (in czech of course) "we want to ask if we can have a table on the main Square or on the streets here to tell people about our church." He told us that we needed to talk to some other people in the building who were designated to deal with those issues so we went there, but they were not working that day, so we're going back another day. On Tuesday night (now here's where my week got interesting), I was getting ready for bed, and I felt some ichiness in my body that I did not like... long story short... I had worms. I called Sister McConkie (we're supposed to call her whenever we have a medical issue or question), and I asked, "Hello Sister McConkie, you don't need to be worried, I'm fine, but I want to ask... What am I supposed to do if I have worms?" I'm not going to go into detail, basically I had worms in my waste... and sister McConkie told me that I was going to talk to a Doctor in Germany. So this Doctor called a few minutes later and asked me a few questions about these "little critters"(as he called them), and basically I needed to set up an appointment to see the doctors in Prague... So I talked to Sister McConkie again, and then called the doctor's office in Prague, and then luckily I was able to talk to them in English. I couldnt't get in that day, so I was simply going to need to go to bed, and then go in the day after. The thing about traveling to Prague from CBud, is... well... it takes 2.5 hours by Train... luckily, we already had on plan to go to Prague that next day, because we had Zone Conference (training). So Longer story short, We went to Prague the next morning, had an awesome training by President McConkie and the Zone Leaders, and then Elder Pickett and I Started our Exchanges with the Assistants (assistants to the president). Shortly after Training had ended, Elder Pickett and I had our transferly Interviews with President McConkie. My interview went well, and then all the missionaries in Prague (I think that's 6 of us) went and did a singing display on some random street corner. After some more finding, we finally went to the doctor's office, and I sat down, and the doctor asked me what was wrong. I explained, "I've got pinworms" The doctor looked suprized to see that I seemed to know what I was talking about. He then asked me, "Do you have Proof?" ............................. After describing to him what I had seen, he eventually said, "I'll believe you this time, but next time something like this happens, you should bring proof with you." (yeah right: I thought) The doctor thumbed through this old book that looked like a dictionary and then said, "I'm going to give you (some pill), and it says here (in the book he was reading) that I should only give you six" (that seemed trustworthy) ................................................... So then, by this time it was geting late, probably about 7:30pm, and he handed me a prescription, we then left the office, and went to the most sketchy Pharmacy I had Ever seen. I'll include a picture of it here in the email too. ........................................ Later that Night, from the APs' Appartment, Sister McConkie called to confirm that Everything was going well. I told her the name of the pills I had recieved, and she confirmed with the doctor in Germany that the pills I had were the correct ones, with the correct amounts. they were. ....................................... After our Exchange with the APs, Elder Pickett and I headed back into CBud. When We got here, we started contacting about Family History, and found some pretty cool people right off the train. (Friday) ............................... Then the NEXT interesting happened... On Saturday, while Elder Pickett and I were going to visit a less Active member here in CBud, we were running because we were late, and our lesson just before had gone overtime. So while we were running, we came around a corner in this neighborhood, and up the road a ways on the sidewalk was a young girl walking her dog coming in the opposite direction. We eventually caught up to them and Elder Pickett ran passed them without a problem. Then I ran passed them, and the dog suddenly jumped out at me and bit me, ripping my white shirt, and through my garments creating a hole about the size of two tennis balls, and just barely scratching me, took a little skin but there was almost no bleeding at all, and I stopped and said to her, "Hele! To Nejde, musim mluvit s někim o tom! muj Košile je zničeno, a mám krev!" which is, "hey! That's not okay, I must speak with somebody about that! My Shirt is Destroyed, and I have blood!" (that's the literal translation). I actually spoke very calmly with her, seriously you could ask my companion, but she was just not understanding that THIS IS NOT OKAY! I really wasn't bleeding but it technically had breached my skin, so there was need for concern. She must have been no more than 14 or 13, and she simply just shrugged her shoulders and started walking away. "Hele! ja musim mluvit s vašim rodičem!" (hey, I need to speak with your parent) and we started to follow her. she still was persistant to get away, and she kept walking. Eventually I stopped to get a better look at the wound, and she went around a street corner... I glanced at my left hip, and then I told my companion, "We've gotta follow her!" We took off running in her direction and we too turned the corner that she had turned onto, and she had simply disappeared. we looked for her for the next couple of minutes, and then called Sister McConkie... "hello Sister McConkie, It's Elder Dean again."..... .............................................. After getting home that night, the Same doctor from Germany called me again, joking, "Elder Dean, I must say, I was hoping that I wouln't have to talk to you again this week." I explained what happened and long story short... We called a member here in CBud who just happens to be a Doctor. This member is also the District President of Bohemia for the entire church here, and he came to a street by our appartment where we were, and he said, "let's go to your appartment so I can see it" I told him,"that's against mission rules, members cannot be in our appartments." to which he said, "I'm a doctor, but I'll call President McConkie just to make sure." so we got permission from President McConkie, who also talked to me on this member's phone and President McConkie told me, "Hey Elder Dean, it seems that you're just having an interesting week aren't you. Hey listen, President Hrdla (that's the member) is going to take you to the hospital to get it formally looked at, when you get home, text me." so after this member came inside, he looked at it and quickly said, "it's not a big deal, you don't need to go to the Hospital to get it looked at. Do you still want to go? it's not nessesary." I told him, "I understand that it's not nessesary, but President McConkie asked me to do it, so I'll go." We then went to the hospital here in CBud, and President Hrdla drove away saying, "text me when you get home so I know you got home safe" By this time of night it must have been 10:15pm. Elder Pickett and I walked into the Hospital, and saw a few red signs in Czech... that's helpful... we saw a red line on the floor, and decided to follow it. We eventually were led to a small lobby with a bunch of chairs, and there were a few people milling around. We stood there for a few minutes, then a door opened somewhere and a man walked out, we stopped him, he was clearly not working at the hospital, rather he must have been a patient, and we tried to explain that we need to talk to somebody. he said, "do you speak English?" to which we replied quickly, "yes" "What's wrong?" he asked. I told him in English, "I got bit by a dog." and he quickly whips around and says the same thing in Czech, to which the nurse looks at us and waves me over. I walk intot this place, there's a yellow chair. "Sedi" (sit) she told me. Next thing I knew, 3 people, a nurse, another nurse and a doctor were asking me about what happened, and about my insurance. I whipped out every thing that they could possibly need, insurance card, identity and residence card, everything. they said I was good, and then they cleaned it by simply rubing some alchohol on my side. stung a bit. The Doctor was super cool, a young guy that must have been only about 25 or 26, and he spoke pretty good english. After all was said and done, he told me that they only wanted me to pay the minimum... 37 crowns... I can officially say that I went to the Czech Emergency Room, for $1.5... wish it was that much in the United States!? haha that's awesome. Well... here I sit, telling you all about my week, I'm completely well, the only downer is that I lost a perfectly good white shirt, and we never taught our Less Active member. "Škoda" is what they say here. It's equivelant in English is probably, "pity". Then today, Monday, we just visited a super cool Castle called Hluboka. I'll send some pictures as well. Love you all, seriously Don't worry, it's just another interesting story to tell here from the Czech Slovak Mission. Seriously, don't get worried, all is well. no injuries, no worms (as far as I know, we'll see in a week or two). Love you all, Take care of yourselves, and čau! Elder Dean