Transfer 8: December 27,2016

This Christmas has been awesome. I remember last year when I was still fairly new in the mission field, and I was in Jihlava. At that time we were experiencing some tough times with the missionary work there, we didn't have any progressing investigators that entire transfer, and we just worked, and worked, and it felt quite dark at that time. I remember that we visited one of the Sister Missionaries' investigators for Christmas dinner. That dinner was interesting, we had our Christmas carp, carp soup and carp filets, and the classic Czech potato salad. The Carp that year was terrible, I've got to be honest, it sucked... I was not looking forward to more carp this year. But it was really good this year. On the 18th this year, it was the Sunday before Christmas, a less active and her son came to church, and immediately we jumped on the opportunity and asked if we could come over and visit before Christmas, she said yes, so on Thursday the 22nd, we went to her house and taught her and her son about gratitude and the Holy Ghost, and about Baptism. We invited her son, who is 11, to be baptized after his mother bore her testimony of her baptism. The boy told his mother, "I've never heard your baptism story before." the boy agreed to be baptized. We'll be working with them soon. On Friday the 23rd, Elder Geier and I visited a very active family here, we just dropped in to say hi, we just wanted to ask if we could read a verse with them, and they told us to come inside. We went in and the two sons (ages 14 and 18) told us to come see their Christmas tree. "Nice! Where'd you steal if from?" I asked. they just laughed because many Czech people just go into the forests and cut down their own Christmas trees, even though it's illegal, but the K clarified that they did not steal it... this year. So we shared a verse with them and then the parents looked at each other and whispered something, then sister K said, (in english) "We have gifts for you." she walked into the other room and came out with two small wrapped presents. We opened them, and they were some really cool Czech ties! I got a purple one and it looks awesome! On Saturday the 24th we visited the K, another very active member family here in UH. We visited them in the morning and they gave us a ton of "cukrovi" or little baked sweets, there's not a good work that accurately translates into English. We went with the Sister Missionaries and the Sisters taught the lesson. Saturday afternoon, Elder Geier and I went to visit the bishop's family. We had been personally invited by them to spend our Christmas with them. We took a train from UH to Bujkovice, a small town just outside of UH, and we went to their house for Christmas dinner. Christmas dinner was awesome, we had carp again, and potato salad, and a TON of Cukrovi. There were 7 us of at the dinner, but as a Czech tradition they prepared an eighth plate and utinsles that remained empty at the table. This tradition is old, and goes back many years for Czechs, and they do it in case of visitors, who may wander in, and the extra plate is prepared to give the visitor a place at the table. The carp was cooked really well. Bishop clarified that Christmas carp is clean and good, but if people eat carp during the middle of the year, it usually stinks and tastes terrible. I must have had a bad carp last year. But Christmas carp taste better because they are raised cleaner, eating only good things and pupposly being grown to to eaten. They cooked the carp by covering it in bread crumbs and then deep frying it, classic here in CZ. But then bishop gave us the lowdown on how to eat carp, because many people have to go to hospitals every year from eating carp bones on Christmas. He taught us how to look for the bones, and how to chew the food so that we could feel them in our mouths so that we could remove them with our fingers. It's so cool what they do here! Then Sister D got up from the table and went into the other room. Suddenly we all heard a quiet bell, like a jingle bell, coming from the living room. Bishop's son said, "dad I heard something!" then bishop said, "I wonder if Ježíšek (baby Jesus) came." We got up from the table, walked into the other room, and there under their Christmas tree were some presents for everyone that "baby Jesus" had brought. We all sat down, bishop was up with his smartphone trying to get angles on everything from every direction with his camera. Then everyone settled down. Their son, his name is m, is 11, and he was up bringing everyone their presents, looking at the names on the wrapping paper and then giving them to the other members of his family. Then he brought one to Elder Geier, and then to me, a nice surprise, I guessed that we'd be getting more ties, I was right. The other members of their family opened their gifts one at a time, and everyone appreciated what "baby Jesus" had brought them. It was the exact same feeling that we have at home, on Christmas morning, when everyone is just excited. At one point during dinner, Bishop looked out the window and just got all excited, "We have a white Christmas!" (in english) he said to everyone. Suddenly all 7 of us were at the window looking out from the 3rd or 4th floor where they lived, and we saw it snowing, and everyone was just so happy about that! After everyone had opened their gifts and were grateful (lesson to be learned here for some of us), bishop and his daughter hoped in their car with Elder Geier and I and they took us back to UH. We got home around 9:30pm. On Sunday the 25th, we only had 1 hour of church. Bishop talked a little about our wonderful visit at their house the night before, and bishop cracked a joke over the pulpit about how Elder Geier had accidentally said, "The food was cooked with Christmas Beer" when he wanted to say, "the food was cooked with Christmas Magic" the night before in the car on the way home. A wonderful Sister in the ward gave a talk about the feeling of Christmas, and how we need to keep it our whole lives, and not loose it when we're adults. Then we visited the W(ActiveMemberFamily) for lunch, all 6 of us missionaries in our district were there. we had chicken shnitsl (řízek) and more cukrovi. Then we visited the P (ActiveMemberFamily) for dinner, and then had more cukrovi, and I almost died because my stomach was soooo full of food after meal appointments one after the other, and then Brother P gave us a ride to Brother S house where Elder Geier and I Skyped home. . . . Then we had more carp with Brother S... ...................................................... Then, on Monday the 26th, M Z was baptized in a pool that we reserved at 15:00 by M S, and was afterwards confirmed in the chapel by Elder Geier. We had a testimony meeting after his confirmation, and I was one of the last to get up. I shared my testimony and said, "byv povolan božím prorokem, svědčím o tom, že tato Cirkev je Cirkev Ježíše Krista." (Having been called by God's Prophet, I testify that this Church is the Church of Jesus Christ). Then M Zgot up and bore HIS testimony, and it was awesome! and he actually concluded "I say this as a testimony, int he name of Jesus Christ, Amen."! WAY COOL! Afterwards, Sister K came up to me and said, in english, "thank you for your testimony." I told her, "thanks" and then she said, "no really, every time you speak, I feel it, and it is very powerful." ............................................................ I am so happy to be serving in this area, and the strength that the Lord gives us and the blessings tha we have are without measure, but I've found that we often are only able to see them when we come to the lord and say, "Heavenly Father, I just want to do the right thing, I don't know what it is, but please just tell me what to do, and I'll do it." It's only when we purposefully soften our own hearts and plead for the Lord's help in doing so that we can come to feel the joy the scriptures talk about, and the joy that the Gospel promises. God truly does have the best plan, if you truly believe that, you will be willing to do anything that He tells you in your prayers. I love you all, and wish you a happy new year. Tomorrow we'll all be heading to Prague for the mission conference. Till next year! S Láskou, Starší Dean