May 22 2017

This week has been super cool. Elder Wutzke is a total genius. He did speech and debate before his mission, and he is one of the best. Due to him still being in his second transfer, he is still learning the basics in czech. Technicaly he is still in training, but he is learning quickly. He doesn't like sauce on food, and the other day we were having a lesson at our recent Convert's house, and she gave us chicken wraps. tortillas, chicken strips, sliced vegetables, and sauce. I ate mine happily, and we finished our lesson about temples. When we left their house, I was feeling great. Then Elder Wutzke said to me, "You know what?" "what?" I replied. "Did you see me gaging?" he asked me. "Uh... no." I said, "were you choking?!" "no" he said, "I litterally couldn't eat that, it was sooooo gross." I thought about that for a second, and he explained that he hates sauces on foods like that. I just started laughing, then I told him, "I liked it." and he made a sick face. we walked for a few minutes and then he said, "I'm actually really surprized that I actually ate that." I just couldn't keep from laughing... there I was during that lesson, enjoying what I percieved as a good meal, and I have litterally no idea that 6 inches from me was my companion who was litterally having one of the most intense internal battles of his mission life ever, between him and a chicken wrap... As I imagined this scene, I just started laughing, and we decided that we would go to a local convenient store so that Elder Wutzke could buy something to get the taste out of his mouth. As we were walking, we spied a blind man accross the street. we immediately recognized him as a less active who we had been planning on visiting. This guy is a less active, blind, one armed, melchizedek priesthood holder, who will talk your ear off. we approached him, I was doing most of the talking because Elder Wutzke was still feeling a little queezy, and I reached up, touched this guy's hand to show him that we wanted to shake his hand, we shook hands, he started talking to us and we started setting up with him. During this whole 30 second conversation, Elder Wutzke came up alongside me, although he was still remaining mostly quiet. This Brother, felt a bush next to us with his blind-stick, and he spit in the bush, or tried to. He ended up spitting just 2-3 inches from Elder Wutzke's hand, still showering little droplets all over Elder Wutzke's left arm. This guy, of course, was totally clueless of what he had just done, thinking that maybe Elder Wutzke was standing on the other side of me or something, but he just continued his conversation as if nothing happened. I remember when he spit, I just looked at Elder wutzke's face, and then I considered what he had already just gone though just 5 minutes earlier, and I had to turn away because I just about burst out laughing right there, and when I turned back, Elder Wutzke was standing there with the biggest smile on his face trying to not laugh either. Meanwhile this Less-Active just kept on talking, and if he could see he would have seen us just standing there almost curling over from laughter, but we were silent, trying soooo hard not to laugh, and he just kep talking to us as if nothing happened. We set up with him, and walked away. When we walked away for a couple steps, we couldn't handle it anymore, and we just burst out laughing. Super funny. This last transfer of my mission is going to be really fun, I can tell that the Lord is going to help us to do great things, and He's helping me to prepare for my return home. ----------------- This last week though, in terms of missionary work, has been super hard and super stressfull. As the Elders Quorum Prezident, I have the responsibility to assign lessons for Priesthood every sunday. I also have been trying to get Home teaching organized, and I was asked to give a talk, and we've been planning a huge activity here in Olomouc for all the YSA(young single adults) in the area. On TOP of this, I needed to plan district meeting, as well as work on our normal missionary work. I was swamped this last week with stuff to do, and I was stressed. I actually have been quite frustrated due to it, and easily irritated. But, as it always does, things work out, and the Lord helps us to do what we otherwise cannot do on our own. When the rubber met the road, I gave a successful talk about Service, We taught Priesthood Quorum about Looking Unto Christ, and we planned more of our activity, and we prepared some district things which needed to be taken care of. It was so much work, but it worked out great, and everything came together when it needed to. No doubt an answer to my prayers on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as I was preparing for these things. I wanted to deligate some things to Elder Wutzke, however due to him being new in the Olomouc Branch, it would have been dificult for him to do what we were planning, but he helped me as much as he could. I have been so busy with missionary work that I have found it hard to find time for personal scriptures study. Of course I study things for lessons, for talks, for district meetings, however that much needed personal scripture study time has been so often taken from me this week, and I feel a deep sense of spiritual huger that I will strive to find time to feed this week. I love you all, and I've been seeing how the Lord has been blessing all of you at home. I have seen how many of my friends, and my family have been blessed of the Lord, and are doing very well. I am so grateful for the Opportunity to serve a mission. It is the best experience of my life, and I know that It is preparing me for future things, to be a more prepared future husband and father. I want to continue to strive to draw closer to the Savior for the rest of my life. He is there, and He did restore the Gospel through Joseph Smith Jr., The prophet of the Restoration. God has been there with me every step of the way. He has allowed me to go though hard times, and to experience rejection, and to suffer both body and spirit, moreso than I could have ever imagined, although mostly spiritually. It is an honor to have this opportunity to come to know the Savior in such a way as to walk with Him, at least a few steps, on that road to Golgotha. I have felt the power of the Atonement in my life, I know that it is real. I still struggle to understand how Jesus Christ can forgive us of our sins, but I understand that He does. I am so grateful to know that I am a child of God. The word "child" in this sense teaches me, that I am like a child in Heavenly Father's eyes. He picks up so many pieces that I can never pick up on my own. He simply asks for my willingness, and my obedience. He knows that I am so often subject to the follies of mortality, but His love does not cease when I make a mistake. Our Branch President has asked me to teach next week about Elder Razband's talk last conference. He talked about sheep. I encourage you all to go read that talk, and then think about yourself as that sheep. I will do so too. I love you all! and I'll talk to you again next week!

May 15 2017

The Transfer today was good, no one got lost. I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve with Elder Jensen, he's a great missionary, and a good friend. I look forward to this Transfer. I'm looking forward to doing a lot of work with home teaching, and we will try and strive for referrals. Yesterday, at church, Brother Š stood up and said, "From the Presidency of the Czech Republic's stake, Elder Plewe was called as the first counselor of the Olomouc Branch..." But when he spoke, I heard Brother Š say, "From the Presidency of the of the Czech Republic Stake, Elder Plewe was called the Branch President..." And then I thought it was some surprise, and I said to myself, "Well, good, I trust it's from the Lord ..." And we all sustained him. Then I was the second person to bear my testimony, and I stood up, walked to the pulpit, and said, "Brothers and Sisters, I'm glad I can be here, and it's also a surprise for me that we have the opportunity to have a new Branch President, Elder Plewe." Then I bore my testimony and sat down. And then, (it was so funny) Brother Š stood up again and said, "I do not know if I have heard correctly, but I will say correctly that Elder Plewe is the COUNSELOR of the President." And then sat down. The whole congregation laughed... I was the one they were laughing at... I was also laughing, it was super funny! It was a good experience, and I know this is the mistake I'll remember for a long time! So, it's a good story, and you can tell others if you want, it's just funny! Ha-Ha! With love, Elder Dean

May 2 2017

This week has been really good. President Pohořelický came to Prostějov to have interviews with me and Elder Jensen. During my interview, He told me that I should make some goals for the last transfer of my mission. and I'm excited to say that I have these goals picked out, and I will strive for them. Lately I have been striving to become closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I love our Savior, and our Heavenly Father. At the core, that is why I do everything that I do. Though junk and distractions may occasionally get in the way of even ME seeing/feeling that love, It doesn't change the fact that it is there. Yesterday was a state holiday, the czechs wanted a day off of work, so the state said, "lets have a holiday!" so they had one. Litterally that is why they had this holiday... anyway, President Pohořelický had asked the mission to plan a vylet (trip) with the members from our Branches/Wards and to spend the day with them. So as a District, and with two members, and two of their non members friends, we went on a fun hike to some ruins of some old structure, and then we hiked through the forest to the Zoo here in Olomouc. The Zoo was so packed, with families and kids and people on dates and just the whole thing was packed. We had a good time in the zoo, and then we took a bus back into Olomouc's center and we had lunch. I sent some pictures that were taken from one of our Member's phones. Her name is Sára(Sarah) and she's really cool, speaks perfect english, all the youth here speak perfect English. Today, Elder Jensen and I went to an antique shop looking for old Czechoslovakian watches called "Prim"s. These are really cool, and we found some watches today that we both liked in one shop here in Prostějov. We started talking to the guy, found out his name is Radek. He is a believer and he thinks that we're doing good work here in the Czech Republic. We got to know him a little bit, and he asked us a few questions about what we're doing here and where we're from. We told him that we're here as missionaries from our Church, and that we just love sharing the Gospel with people, and that we're from the US. Then we thought we would leave, to go check out some other shops before making a decision for which one we would buy for Elder Jensen, and then I asked Radek, "how much are these two?" These were the ones that we liked. He looked at them, and then back at us and said, "you just take those two watches for memories." We were shocked... He had just given us 40 dollars worth of antique watches! We were pumped, and I jumped on the oportunity and asked, "Radek! You are so cool! is there anything we can do for you?" He responded, "no, you guys just have a good day." I looked him in the eyes and said, "Radek, if there is one thing we can offer you, it is the most valuable thing we have, and it is our message about the Gospel. Would you like us to come share our message with you and your family?" He responded, "I would love for you to come, I'll need to confirm with my daughter first though, she has 6 kids ya know... she's busy." (that made me do a backflip inside) and then I asked him, "can we call you, so that you have our number and we'll have yours, and we'll set up either tonight or tomorrow?" "sure" he said, and we exchanged numbers. This guy is super cool, we'll see what comes of it. ---------------- So talking more about my plan for my last transfer. I want to focus wholeheartedly on the Savior. I will study the Savior. I will testify of the Savior. I will come closer to the Savior. I will inclrease my love for the Savior. I will walk with the Savior. I have set a code of conduct, that I will strive to live by, following the Greatest two commandments to Love God, and Love your Neighbor as thyself: 1. Serve God 2. Serve my fellow men 3. Serve myself Particularly stressing the idea, of putting God first, and Other People before myself. This morning, I was thinking about the Savior and about Heavenly Father. I was thinking about how I recently have been praying more for charity, how I have been telling Heavenly Father that I love Him, and that I want to come closer to Him. As we were listening to some of Elder Jensen's music this morning, I felt the spirit confirm to me that Heavenly Father loves me. It was, at that moment, something that I had been praying for, a moment when I actually felt the Father's love for me, and the Savior's love for me. Yesterday was also one of our members' Birthday, and while at the zoo, we saw two guys go into an exhibit and pet a little kangaroo. They came out, and we had just been talking about how we should try to get let in too. When the men came out, we were all scared to ask, but we all wanted to let Terka(birthdaygirl) have a chance to do it too. I went up and said, "can this girl go in and see the kangaroo too? it's her birthday, and we would all stay out here, but can she just go?" The man looked at our group and said, "well If it's her birthday..." and then he let her go in. We were all so happy to see her get to to that on her birthday, and I was so happy that she was happy. now... how does this relate back... I felt joy from doing something for somebody else, and I felt joy in seeing their joy. This morning I remembered this moment, and I felt like Heavenly Father has this same joy, only greater, when we are happy. He is happy when we, his children are happy and his hand. He loves us, and he doesn't want us to be sad, upset, scared, or unhappy, especially with Him... He created us to have joy! I was overcome this morning from feeling the spirit bear record of this truth, which is different than simply "knowing" it in our minds. I found myself on my knees thanking my Heavenly Father for His Love, and His Wisdom over all things. I sometimes find myself fearing God... Fearing His Wrath, Fearing His demand for Justice, sometimes leading me into spiritual rebelion within the depths of my soul, and a hard heart. But the Lord's power, can soften our hearts, and can calm the storms inside us. He wants to forgive, and He wants to enable us... We never need to fear His judgement, because His judgement is not the World's judgement. "Go ye therefore and learn what that meaneth." I bear testimony that our Savior is loving, peaceful, and quick to forgive when we are sincere and when we want to come to Him. I bear testimony that He lives, and he is infinitely Patient with us. He does not turn His eyes from us when we are hardhearted... He watches, and waits for us to come to the understanding that we need His help. When He has the opportunity to lift us when we want His help, our Love for Him grows as we see to what extent He is willing to go to show us that He loves you, and all of us. He lives, and We have the amazing and wonderful oportunity, privilege, and blessing to learn of Him, and to be comforted, healed, and converted. He is my light, my rock, and my Salvation. May we learn to joyfully sing praises to His holy name, In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ​

April 24 2017

So this week has been a good week. We're still struggling to find the elect people here in Prostějov. They're here for sure, but we're not sure what the Lord wants us to do with this area. This week Elder Plewe and I went on an exchange here in Prostějov, while Elder Jensen went to Olomouc to spend a day with Elder Chapple. Elder Plewe and I decided that we were going to go down to a small village called Kojetín wherein we talked to several people who were interesting but had no interest. We even ran into an Islamic/Jew from England (don't ask me how that happened) who was talking to us about religious problems around the world... I was not interested in his discussion, but we kept talking, trying to find some way to bring in the message of the Restoration, but he was not having it. We met a cool family, had a good discussion with them about the gospel, we were super excited to set up a meeting with them, and then at the last minute she said, "yeah, I'm not actually interested at all." so that was too bad. We then met probably the most interesting person of all. An older woman who answered her door, we started talking to her by saying, "hello sister, we are the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." She looked at us funny, and asked us if we knew each other. We talked for a few seconds before she turned to us and said, "guys, you should come see the true faith. in my congregation we have the gift of tonges, and people are healed." She bore her testimony about her church, and it really took me by surprise. I looked over at Elder Plewe who was not having any of it, and simply tried to tell her about the Restoration. I however was hurt... and I felt my testimony shake. For some reason, a Tesimony-like approach against our faith was something that I had never run into before, and I was hut because I didn't have anything that I could throw back at this woman... other than my own testimony which in this particular moment, for some reason, was not as strong as hers. the rest of the day seemed just like a blur, I remember just feeling so upset and confused and frustrated. Even the next day and the day after I couldn't get it out of my mind, or get the thorn out of my heart. I went into our study room yesterday and knelt down, and told Heavenly Father that I wanted to hear His opinion, and that I wanted Him to talk to me through the Book of Mormon. I got up from praying, went into our bedroom, and I opened up the Book of Mormon to a random page. I started reading just where my eyes landed. I read: Alma 32: 24 And now, my beloved brethren, as ye have desired to know of me what ye shall do because ye are afflicted and cast out— Alma 32: 26 Now, as I said concerning faith—that it was not a perfect knowledge—even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety at first, unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge. Alma 32:27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire‍ to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words. I was reminded that I have Faith, not Knowledge... but that is not a bad thing, I believe that the Church is true, I don't have a perfect knowledge, otherwise I wouldn't have had any problem whatsoever with what this woman said. I talked to president Pohořelický who told me that I should renew/revive my testimony. I read my patriarchal Blessing, and I agree that the Lord probably wants me to revamp my testimony. I thought that as a missionary, who is going home in 2 months, I had the strongest testimony ever, but what is funny, the last couple of days, I have been asking Heavenly Father to help me come closer to Him. But as I have been drawing closer to Him, and to His Son, He has shown unto me one of my Weaknesses, a weakness that I previously had not known about. Ether 12:27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their aweakness. I bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my cgrace is sufficient for all men that dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make eweak things become strong unto them. I don't know everything, but I do know that the Lord has a plan, and He wants to help prepare us for trials and things that will be hard for us in the Future. I am grateful for a Heavenly Father, who shows unto me my weaknesses as I come unto Him. As we come unto Him, He will show unto us our weakness, but He will make our weak things become strong unto us. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. S Láskou, Starší Dean

April 18 2017

So first things first, I just want to apologize to my family for not emailing yesterday. The entire Czech Republic was shut down today, and we were told to push our Preparation Days to the day after. That means today. This last week has been a good one. I must say that spending Easter in another country, as a missionary, has helped me to understand at least a little better, why we have Easter. On Thursday, the Czechs celebrated the beginning of the Easter season. Due to the large number of Catholic believers, and due to the Catholic church being one of the only churches in the Czech Republic, the Czechs celebrated Green Thursday, Good Friday, (something) Saturday, and Easter Sunday. Each of these days leading up to Easter is to remind the people celebrating about why we have easter. Each day is associated with several things leading up to the Savior's crucifixion, burial, and Resurrection. I didn't have the opportunity to participate in any of the catholic traditions, nor did I want to, and all the things we did participate in were with our members. But it is good to see that the Czech people, even though they claim to be extremely atheist, they are actually quite religious. I recently began thinking more about the Savior. During district meeting, we silently studied the scriptures and at the end, we had a testimony meeting. Each member of the district bore his or her testimony of the Savior. I was surprised to find that I was having a difficult time remembering my testimony of the Savior. I of course know that it is there, I know that I have one, but when I bore my testimony, it was more of me just saying what I know, but I wasn't really feeling it. I have since thought more about where my testimony is, and what I need to do to strengthen it, and keep it, and be constantly improving and never regressing. I took time to look back and think of as many times as I could remember when the Savior stood by me, and I knew it. I could think of many. I also thought of times when I felt like my relationship with the Savior, and with my Heavenly Father were the strongest. I realized that those times when my relationship with my Heavenly Father was the strongest, were on my mission. I remember a talk from a recent General Conference, wherein we're asked, "can you remember when you felt to sing the song of redeeming love, and can you feel so now?" I have been asking myself, "can I feel so now?" I am sad to say that I have not been feeling that strong desire to sing that song of Redeeming Love recently, but I am happy that I have come to the realization that I want to sing it more. I want to be closer to my Heavenly Father, and to my Savior. I want to feel like they are my friends, that I can go to them whenever, and about whatever. I remember while I was in CBud, I was challenged to pray every night, out loud. to just speak to my Heavenly Father, and to just talk to Him. I remember how I did that, and how much it helped me. I want to do that again, and I want to work towards being able to sing the songs of praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation once again with a full heart, and with an eye single to the Glory of God. Yesterday, Monday, our whole district got together, and we all gathered in Prostejov, where we visited the home of each member. We all met up in the morning, because the Czech tradition is for all the men to leave the house Easter Monday morning, and to go to visit other people, neighbors, friends, family, and to get candy for the kids. Kind of like trick or treating for us. The other part of this Czech Easter tradition is for the men to carry these vine whips made out of willow branches, and upon arriving at the home of another person, would whip the women below the waist with the willow branches, supposing to symbolize the living willow branches giving life and youth to the women. Interesting... But that is the tradition, and I remember calling the Mission President, "So President, uh... what are we, and what aren't we allowed to participate in for Easter?" He simply just said, "no whiping, stay away from large groups of people, there are going to be a looottt of drunk people." So we traveled around as a district, four Elders and two Sisters so the Sisters were safe with us while out walking around town. We visited the home of Every Active member in Prostejov, and they were all supposed to be surprise visits, but for some reason, 90 percent of the members were expecting us to visit them! We visited the Matlovi first. they gave us some super pretty painted Czech Eggs, hollowed out, and good for decoration. Then we visited a young member who usually lives in Prague, however she was home with her parents for the weekend so that was good. Then we visited the Slezarovi, he used to be the branch president, and they are the family with three kids who all have red hair. they are soooo cool. Then we visited the branch president's home, and his wife was not feeling too well, so we just dropped by and said hello. At each member's home, we sang, and read scriptures about the savior. I just want to end this email by saying that I am so grateful for a Father in Heaven, who is willing to reach out to me and say, "my son, I love you, and I wish not for you to be any more distant from me than you now are, and I want for us to have a lasting and more powerful relationship, one that will carry you through the trials that are soon to come in your life. I have led you, and I do lead you, but I am not a God of fear, I am your loving Heavenly Father, and you are my son." I am so happy that my Heavenly Father sees fit for me to see at this time, that I need to have a stronger relationship with Him, and with His son. Just as an ending thought... I was reading in the new Testament today. I came across a verse talking about the Wise man, who built his house upon a rock. On this occasion, some words sprang out this time that were more express than others. The words were to this effect: "This shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock, and the rains came, and the winds came, and the waters came and [they] beat upon the house, but it did stand, because it was founded upon a rock. " Now... I was thinking about this, and I realized that my relationship with my Heavenly Father is not weak, so much as I am just being "beat upon" constantly by the adversary, but I have somewhat forgotten that relationship. and now I have realized that, and now I can work on it, and I am so grateful for that. I love you all, and I know that the Savior lives. He IS REAL. Anybody who is feeling like they are not good enough, or anybody who may feel like their relationship with their Heavenly Father is not as good as it should be, or anybody who may feel like they are the only people who struggle with these type of things, Please take comfort, and know, that there is a missionary over here, who is doing the Lord's work every single day, and still sometimes has a hard time feeling the Lord near... I don't say this to discourage you, but to remind us all, that we live in a life of Trial, and we are to learn Patience and Faith on the Lord. He is there, He walks with us, and He offers us Peace... Sometimes we need to just get out of ourselves, and come to Him. Praying alone sometimes is not enough. He expects a lot more out of us. We are His Children after all... He expects a change of Heart, not just a change of Behavior. The Lord will never discourage you, don't suppose that which is evil to be of the Lord, for none of those attributes are of Him. He will encourage and uplift, inspire and comfort. If you have desires to do good, and to be the Son or Daughter of God that you truly are, THAT is good enough to come to Him, the Savior, and to begin to let Him change you. I continue to sin, I end up kicking myself nearly every single day, and I find myself pleading with the Lord for forgiveness... If you find yourself repenting due to fear, stop it, re-evaluate, and then repent out of love, not out of fear. Listen to conference, and learn more about this principle if you are confused. I love you all, and I will send some pictures now. s Laskou, Starsi Dean

April 10, 2017

In response to some peoplerson asking a lot of questions... I'll include some basic area information for all of you who are trying to picture what is happening over here. So... We are in a decent size town southwest of Olomouc. we attend church in Olomouc at 9:00am every Thursday (no just kidding, jasně on Sunday). The branch consists of about 15 Active Members, who are super cool. The Branch President is President D, who just recently got married to somebody from Uherské Hradiště. It is cool actually, his name is O D, and he was actually my Branch Mission Leader while I was in Jihlava, and I got to be super good friends with him, and then while I was in UH, I got to go to his wedding, and then he and his wife moved to Olomouc because they knew that Olomouc was in desparate need of a new branch president, previously it was a missionary serving as the branch president. Now O is my Branch President and so I've been able to hang out with him essentially my whole mission, he's grown, and I have grown too. Here in Prostějov, we are doing well. We just met some cool young guys who are dancers, they teach young people how to dance (breakdance), and they met with us, and they are all super interested in the Restoration. We met with them so far once, and they all felt the spirit super strong. we were trying to call the main guy yesterday and stuff, but he didn't answer, we then met him by chance (not really) on our way to the train station today on our way to Olomouc for P-Day. These are the same kids for whom we called down the Powers of Heaven to assist us in meeting up with them. We actually didn't see him this morning as we were walking to the train station, but he saw us, and it was him who actually stopped us. We set up to meet on Wednesday. In prostějov we now have an office, however the only thing in our office is a Television, and two chairs... litterally, it is super funny. We have a wad of reciepts that we'll be reimbursing with the mission office, probably about 200 dollars worth of material that we've needed to buy for our area. For Easter, the Market has officially been set up for Prostějov, and there was a huge concert on the Town Square yesterday, as we got off the train and headed back into the center of town, to go home, we heard an enormous amount of noise coming from the town square, we walked through the center of town to see hundreds of people yelling at the top of their lungs in excitement for the Easter festivals to begin. In a beautiful city like Prostějov, and in Olomouc, we're bound to have some good markets. S Láskou, Starší Dean

April 3, 2017

It's been a good week. I was suprised to see that this week, the Adversary was trying to make me doubt my testimony of the authenticity of this Chruch being Jesus Christ's church. I had been reading Our Heretige, and as I was reading I came accross the part that talked about Brigham Young becoming the next prophet after Joseph. I found it strange how he became the prophet, and I found myself wondering whether or not Brigham actually had the same authority that Joseph Smith had as the prophet. I was really bugged by it, reading about how Signey Rigdon, who was a member of the first presidency, apostosized, and claimed that he was to be the next prophet. I was bothered by the situation, and I felt like the saints had simply gone for the most likely correct answer instead of having recieved devine inspiration that "yes, Brigham Young is the next prophet". I talked to my companion about it, and he told me that the church was true, and that I need not worry. It continued to bug me. Now, I had experienced these type of feelings and doubts before, I knew that they are not all too uncommon. The Lord kept a steady watch as I took the situation and went forward with what I wanted to KNOW to be true, but was at that moment unsure of. I remembered spiritual experiences which I had had in the past, confirming to myself that Yes, there is the God in Heaven, and a Savior of the World. K... so that was out of the way... hardest bit of information. Next, the legitamacy of the church being led by a living prophet. I knew that if the Gospel is true, I would be able to pray about it, and receive an answer. I went to church, I listened intently to the testimonies, and I had a spiritual confirmation that the church Is true. It was very subtle, because the Lord knows that I already have a big testimony, but in His infinite mercy and love, he gave me the prick in my heart that I needed to know, without a perfect knowledge, that yes, this church is in fact led by God, and His apostles and Prophet are His chosen representatives. I love that. I cannot wait for Conference, we will all see it next weekend... for those of you who are asking the same question that I answer the same way every six months... I will be watching conference in Czech, I will be listening in English using headphones so that we can be i the same room as the members while they are watching it. I am super excited to see it, I will be praying to have my testimony strengthened, and to have my Armor of God equiped. I have a testimony now... that even the strongest people in the Gospel, still sometimes get hit in a chink in their armor, because satan is very clever, and he knows where our weak spots are. .......... Last night, Elder Jensen and I were visiting a Recent Convert and her son, and in the middle of the meeting, we get a call from President Pohořelický. I said, "It's the mission president, can I take this?" They let me take the call, I answered and President said, (translated) "Elder Dean! how are you?!" "Good, what can I do for you President?" "Elder Dean, where are you from!?" "I'm from Utah" "yeah but what city!?" "Eagle Mountian." I told him. "is that by Saratoga Springs???" he asked me. "yes..." I told him. "Did you hear? They are going to build a temple in Saratoga Springs!!" I was so suprized at the fact that he had called me, and the fact that he told me that I was going to have a temple in my home town (pretty much), that I just said, "That's awesome, thanks for letting me know President!" He then hung up, and after realizing the reality of what he said, I texted him back that night truly thanking him for this news that he simply couldn't wait to tell me. I realized that a Temple... a House of the Lord, means so much to my Mission President, and he, among hundreds of other faithful latter day saints are looking forward, so intently for the news of a temple in the Czech Republic. Years and Years they go by, waiting for the day that a temple will be announced in the Czech... The Saints here are like the saints at the beginning of the Church's early history. they are working towards building a house of their God, and this is their one Goal... can you imagine? Living without the temple, and without the convenience of the Ordinances at hand... Waiting and waiting for the Lord to extend His love, and to build up a temple for you and your family and friends. Some of your loved ones are getting older, and they cannot travel far to attend temple worship, and this makes the Ordinances nearly impossible for them to get. with Eternity on the line, you look forward for nothing more, than a temple, and to be able to do precious Saving ordinances therein... President called me, and informed me... Elder Dean... my dear missionary... I have the best news for you, The Lord is giving you... a temple... wherein you will be able to worship, and it is to be close by, and your family, and your family's families will be able to worship there... isn't that amazing?! In the mean time, my mission President and hundreds of faithful latter day saints will look forward for the day when they too will be able to say, "We are going to have a Temple!" I feel an enormous sense of urgency, to help everyone I know to understand the Significance of A temple... don't take it for granted... You have no idea what this means to people over here... How selfless, of my mission president, to congratulate me for the temple in my city, when he, has been waiting for years and years and years... to simply attend the temple in his own country. We don't realize how blessed we are. I love you all, and I know that this work is true, I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and I know that we are led by a prophet today, and that prophet IS led by the Lord and Savior. This is His church. I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. S Láskou, Starší Dean

March 27, 2017

So, this week's email is going to be kind of short, but I have a cool story for you. So three days ago, the Zone Leaders came down to Prostějov to go on an exchange with us. We had previously been having some problems finding people to teach. The Zone Leaders had a goal to find four new investigators, two each companionship. And we agreed that we'd strive to achieve that. I was to spend the day with Elder Hymas, and Eldre Jensen was to spend the day with Elder Smith. We went out and Elder Hymas and I tracted, while the other Elders were off doing something else. We were out tracting for a couple hours, and nobody was interested. It was getting late, and we started coming home. As we were approaching the center of town, where we live, we met a family, and they were opposed to our message, but then we just started testifying, "Look... We know that you don't trust churches, but that is what is so cool about our message, YOU DON'T NEED TO TRUST US, you can go to God in Prayer, and you can ask Him yourselves! and when you do, you will know that our message is true, you don't have to take it from us." Then suddenly, both of the parents suddenly just kind of... clicked, and the wife said, "what about thrusday at 5:45?" We're going to call them tomorrow and confirm our meeting. Right before meeting this family, we met two young guys named J, and R. They are dancers, and we told them that we would love to share our message with them, and they agreed to meet up. We decided on a time, we would meet by the movie theater in town on Sunday at 2:00pm. I figured that we would be able to make it back from church in time, so we agreed. We forgot to get their phone numbers... The next day (friday), our branch president called asking us to participate in Branch council the next day. Eldre Jensen and I were not sure how we were going to make it work, and we knew that we were technically supposed to go to the appointment rather than the Branch council according to our missionary rules, but we also both felt like it was important for us to be there at Branch Council. As we were sitting there Saturday morning discussing this, I had the prompting to go and pray, to call down the powers of Heaven to assist us. I got up from my desk, went into the bedroom, closed the door, and knelt down. I waited, pondering about whether or not this was according to God's will... I felt okay, no spirit telling me not to... "Heavenly Father, I am praying, because we need to meet with these people, J and R... I call down the powers of Heaven to allow us to run into them again, and allow us to set up for another time, and I do this as a servant of Jesus Christ, and I do so in His name, Amen." I then asked Elder Jensen to also personally pray that we could find these guys, and he did of course... And then we went out and worked as normal. That day we did not see them, I figured that perhaps we didn't need to, and so I wasn't too worried about it. We went to Branch Council the next day (yesterday), and then after church, we came back to Prostějov, and then we went throughout the plan that we had for that particular day, and as we were coming home last night after tracting, We were passing by the door of a building, and right as we were walking past the door, litterally right as we were walking passed the door, J and R both walked out together... We were super happy to see them, it may have startled them to see just how happy we were... we apologized for not making our appointment, they said that they were there where they said that they would be, but that we didn't show up... they were with their group of friends though, and they already had on plan to be there regardless of whether or not we would have shown up though so it was all cool. We got Juri and Radek's phone number, and then we said that we'd shoot for Tuesday (tomorrow). That night (last night) I thanked Heavenly Father for His willingness to answer the prayer of His not-so-faithful servant, and ever flaky servant, and I was personally amazed and Humbled to see that Heavenly Father would lend us His power upon our asking for it. I know that the promise in the scriptures is true, that if we ask the Father for anything, that is right, with faith in Jesus Christ, It will be given unto us. Love you all! S Láskou, Starší Dean

March 20.2017

This first week has been really rough, we have a brand new appartment, and the people who set it up forgot to install the washing machine. So we didn't have a washing machine for like the first four days, then I got fet up with the whole situation and we brought it into the kitchen, and hooked it up to our kitchen sink. So we had a working washing machine for one day, then The part where the pipe connects to the wall started leaking whenever water went down the drain. And we had water all over our floor. I used my two towels to wipe it up... then was thrilled to realize that THAT meant that I now don't have any clean towels... We've aleady talked to the mission office, and they are talking to the landlord, so we'll see what happens. As for now we're unable to use our kitchen sink, so we wash our dishes in the bathtub... and we have a washing machine sitting in the middle of our kitchen floor, and today (monday) I'm sitting here in the Olomouc Library emailing, we have three bags full of dirty laundry that we brought here so that we can wash our clothes at the Senior Couples' house, then today, after we wash them, we're going to carry our wet clothes home in plastic bags, onto a train, and then we're going to walk home from the train station... Last night, Elder Jensen and I called Presidente Pohořelický, and asked him what his plans were for this area, and President told us that he thinks it would be a good idea if we had some type of office here to teach in and to do english in and stuff. So today, actually just about 30 minutes ago, President called and told us that tomorrow morning we'll be meeting a real estate guy who will show us a place, and President told us that we are to to look at it, and then we are to decide if it is the right office for us. We'll see what happens tomorrow. :) Church yesterday was great, Elder Jensen and I were able to teach Priesthood, and we taught about Daughters of God from the Teachings of the Prophets Gordon B Hinkley. We have some really cool members, and there is a family here who has three kids, and all of the kids have red hair like their mom. The whole family gave talks yesterday, it was wonderful, and the members alone brought two investigators to church... There is a girl who goes to school here, but she lives in Slovakia, and she has been meeting with the missionaries here for just a few weeks, and she already talks and acts like she's a member here, and she already reffers to everyone as Brother and Sister so-and-so. Prostějov is really really pretty, and the bells chime three times ever 15 minutes, and it sounds really cool. It's a small town, and it is cool to see how the Lord has deliberately sent me to several specific places here in the Czech Republic so that I could know very specific people. I just met a sister here who knows some of my favorite members in České Budějovice, and she is origionally from Uherské Hradiště. The Lord sends me where I am supposed to be. I hope and pray that He will help me know that I am supposed to do in this area.

New Area! Transfer 10 March 13,2017

Well it's official that I only have 4 months left on my mission. I can barely believe it, it has gone by soooo fast. This last weekend one of the Zlin missionaries' Investigators got baptized, his name is Josef, and he is the first person baptized from Zlin in over 3 years! Josef has a really cool story, he is that kid who had the dream of the building with the name of the church on it, and he saw a man come out of the building and he said, "This is a good Chruch." Josef's confirmation on sunday was really good too. =----------------- So we got our transfer calls. We were sitting at our desks on Saturday preparing to do our Weekly Planning Session, and as I was praying to start us off, the phone rang, and I got up, looked at the phone, I saw that President was calling, and then I knelt back down, told Heavenly Father that We would resume the prayer in a minute, and then ended the prayer. We answered the phone, Elder Vickers put it on speaker so we could all talk to each other. Elder Vickers will stay in Uherske Hradiste and he will train a new missionary. so that is super cool! But in that phone call, President spoke to me first, and he told me that I would be opening up a completely new area, a small city called Prostejov near Olomouc. President told me that my companion will be Elder Jensen, and that I will be the district Leader there. The mission has been hearing about this rumored area opening up for a few months now, but nobody had any idea who would open it, and now I will be there with Elder Jensen. I'm sitting in Sister Bowen's (a senior missionary couple) house right now in Olomouc, on her apple laptop, sitting on their couch. This small city, Prostejov, is part of the Olomouc Branch, and so the Olomouc District just got larger, there are going to be six missionaries in Olomouc, and two in Prostejov. That means there will be 8 missionaries in this district (including the senior couple). I am super excited to get started in this area, I think it's going to have it's challenges though because I'm going to be quite a ways away from 70 percent of the district, my companion and I will be alone in prostejov, we don't even have an office there, there is no place for us to meet inside with our investigators, we'll just have to use members' homes I suppose. The Lord is throwing me into an adventure here, and I know that it is going to be awesome! ------- Uherske Hradiste is an amazing place, I know that the Lord has big plans for UH, and the members there truly have my heart. It will be hard to leave them. I have recently been hoping for some type of confirmation that I have done what the Lord needed me to do in UH, I wanted to know that I had fulfilled my calling, and The Lord answered my prayer. I'll explain... Yesterday at church, everybody was anxious to know what was happening with the transfers. People kept coming to me asking, "are you leaving?". I just told everybody that they will see when it's announced. I was not sure how everybody was going to react, and then church started. After Josef's Confirmation, and after the sacrament, the bishop's counselor who conducted asked the departing missionaries to come and bear their testimonies. The room was quiet. I was sitting on the second to front row next to our investigator who we had brought to church. I turned around in my chair to see if Sister Wilson would get up, then I turned forward again. Then I stood up to go bear my testimony. As I stood up, I heard several gasps from behind me. I stood at the pulpit and bore my testimony, and expressed my love and appreciation for the members and for the opportunity to serve in UH. I was surprised to see several people tearing up to see that I was leaving. "Had I really made that big of an impact on people here?" I silently asked myself. Over the pulpit I explained where I was to go, and with whom I would be serving, and those details. The conducting counselor got up after Sister Wilson and I did, and he told me over the pulpit that I will have a place on their refrigerator, everyone laughed. And after sacrament meeting was over, Everybody wanted to talk to me, and suddenly several members where asking me if I had time to come over for dinner one last time or to come over to lunch or if they would have time to say goodbye that next day, monday. One particular sister, a mother, came and told me that I had helped her so much personally, and that she was going to miss me. I'm so grateful that the Lord allowed me to serve in Uherske Hradiste for 6 months. I learned so much and I truly learned what it means to love the people. I will now do my absolute best to bless this new area, and the members here. The Lord qualifies those whom he calls. I'll definitely need that help this transfer. I asked the Lord to bless me with some responsibility so that I could serve Him more, and he gave me more that I was asking for. now I just need to not get prideful about this. THAT will be the hardest thing this transfer I think, but there will definitely be many things to humble me this transfer too no doubt. Love you all, here are some pictures. S laskou, Starsi Dean

March 6,2017

This week, we fed ducks as a district, we visited the Palkovi family, Elder Stacey and I went on an exchange in Zlín, and we had Missionary Night in Zlín as well. We had a powerful Fast and Testimony meeting, and we missed a bus stop and had to walk on an open road through the czech countryside back to town because we accidentally missed our stop, and forgot to get off the bus. Here are some pictures, I'll probably send some videos too. Love you all. This next week could potentially be my last week in Uherské Hradiště, because on Saturday we get our transfer calls, and I have already been here for 6 months, that is a long time for a missionary to be in one place. chances are, I'm leaving UH, and I'll go die somewhere (missionary death = go home) where I've never been before... perhaps I'll go to Oloumoc or to Prague or perhaps even to Slovakia. Wherever the Lord sends me, there I will go, and I will serve Him with all my Heart, Might, Mind and Strength for these last four months! I know that the Lord lives and that He directs His work. By small and simple things, are large things brought to pass I read this week in the Book of Mormon... That is definitely true. Anybody who is thinking about going on a mission, and you know who you are if I'm talking to you, that's anybody who is thinking about serving a mission... Stop thinking about it, and just make a dicision. The longer you wait to decide, the more power the devil will have in making that dicision for you. If you have ears to hear, hear. I love you all, S Láskou, Starší Dean!

Feb. 27, 2017

The mission is honestly the most unexpectable experience ever... I wouldn't even be able to tell you why. You just get torn appart and build up, and then torn appart again, and then built up again several times a week, and in a myriad of differend ways. now... I realize that I may not be staying in Uherské Hradiště for much longer. I just was thinking about this yesterday and today. I found myself asking myself... "have I done everything that the Lord wanted me to do in this area?" I began thinking about the last six months... It blew my mind that in 2.5 weeks... it will have been six months since I left České Budějovice. I began to think about it. Then I remembered how I was prompted on the train coming over here six months ago, I was prompted by The Spirit to do everything that I possibly could to follow the will of the Lord, to serve others, and to make this area as strong as I possibly could. I remember how I felt when I first got here. I was pumped, I was so excited to get started, and We felt very inspired to work closely with the memebrs. I remember the first couple weeks were very difficult, I was very worried about the direction we were trying to take the missionary work in, and I was very uncertain about what the future held. As I remembered just how scared I was, just how many tears I shed for this area, I realized that It has all lead to this moment. Where I am sitting here, five months later, and seeing that the Ward we have is stronger than ever before. Well, first of all, it's a ward now, it was just a branch when I got here. The Members here are amazing, and we have since helped each of them in at least one way or another. I can tell a story about each of the members here, and I hope that I will be able to remember these people for the rest of my life. {Mom note: He mentions a bunch of members who are very dear to him, but I have opted out of sharing names} I'll explain some more familes here in my next email... but... "it sufficeth me to say that" I love these memebrs. I truly Love them so much. I find so much strength when I think of them, and their lives, and their children, and their friends, and their circumstances... I cannot even imagine what life would have been like during communism. To live in a time when you don't know who's on your side, who is your enemy, who is going to turn you in to the Government, who is truly interested in christ or not... Meeting in secret every week to worship, not knowing if you'll ever live to see the day when the Iron curtain of Communism would fall, and the Church would be able to function properly again. Knowing that you're living in the last days, and thinking to yourself, "We're in it for the long Haul, through hell on earth, to heaven above" these people are saints...! Talking about pioneers yesterday in Church, a member of the Stake High Council came and was talking about the story of John Rowe Moyle... As he stood up in sacrament meeting and started talking about John, I leaned over to brother Pálka who was sitting next to me and I told him, "That John Rowe Moyle guy is my great great great great grandfather." Brother Pálka looked at me with an impressed look on his face... nodding. That stake high counselor told John Moyle's story, about how he walked to the temple ever week on a wooden leg, and then he ended his talk. Bishop got up, and said, "now we'll hear from brother Pálka." Brother Pálká got up, walked passed me, stood up there at the pulpit and said, "Our Brother Dean informed me during Brother Řezak's talk that John Moyle is his great great great great grandfather..." The whole congregation of about 65 people just gasped, apparently this statement made the whole situation real for everyone. I love you all, I'll talk to you again next week. Take care! S Láskou, Starší Connor Dean

Feb,13, 2017

I just want to talk about the Savior. I am a very imperfect man, I see that every day, I face temptation to do stupid things, to get angry, to say silly things, and the list goes on and on. I am not sinless, and I find myself repenting daily. But I know that we have a Savior, and I know that He did not suffer for 80 percent of my sins, nor did he suffer for 99 percent of my sins, but he suffered because of and for me, 100 percent of my sins. I, just like every other human being who has ever or will ever be born on this earth, will eventually be brought back into the presence of the Father, and there I will stand. Whether I stand with or without spot will depend entirely on my willingness to allow the Savior to change me, and to clense me. The Atonement appears difficult to understand sometimes, but when understood correctly, even an 8 year old can understand it well enough to apply it's principles in his/her life. This week was pretty cool. We were teaching english in the chappel on Wednesday, and then after english, we tried to set up a meeting with one of our students, and he was being pretty resistent to our invitation to talk about the Gospel. Within a few minutes of everybody leaving the chappel except us and our friend, we heard the back doors of the building open and in walked our mission president. President Pohořelický was in UH on Wednesday because he needed to have a meeting with his councelors, one of which is a member here in the UH ward. President had also told us that he would be attending our District Meeting the following day (thursday) so that was cool to find out that he would actually be staying the night in a hotel somewhere in UH so that he could come to our District meeting the next day. District meeting went well that next day. President interviewed all of us. I was excited to talk to president about some recent personal revelation. After district meeting was over that day, the other missionaries in my district started telling me about how President had talked about me during their interviews. Apparently President is very pleased with the changes in missionary work that I've been pushing for over the last 5 months, and he wants us all to bring these changes to the rest of the mission. I am very excited about this, and I know that it will bring the mission in an entirely new and better direction. That is, focusing on Member work more than Personal missionary work only among the missionaries. On Saturday the Relief Society had a Chocolate Day, where they made dozens of chocolates and gave them to friends and stuff. Elder Vickers and I stratigicly entered the chappel and just the right time to get some chocolates for ourselves. We hid some chocolate above some things on a high shelf for later, but when we came over to them on Sunday, somebody had found them and had opened them and had eaten them! It was so sad! Probably the deacons... gotta love them... hey at least we have deacons, that's a blessing that many places out here in the czech republic don't have. Well, I realized that every single pair of my pants are destroyed, they all have holes in the bottom, except for one pair, thank goodness, and so I bought an extra pair of pants today, European... 400Kč... that seems like a lot... yeah that's only 20 bucks. they're nice though. Love you all, and I'll talk to you next week! S Láskou, Starší Dean

Feb, 7, 2017

Fear doesn't come from God. my companion just said that now, and I felt like I needed to say that here. Today we had a meeting with our less active members the S family. They are actually just a mother and son, the step father is never present at these visits because he (from the records in the areabook) doesn't like the church. L and his mom are really cool. L has ginger hair and is 11 (still not baptized), and Sister S is becoming more and more active in the church. L will probably be baptized soon (remember the Lord's timing). We went over there today and we had family night. It was probably the first family night that they had ever had before, and we prayed, shared some spiritual experiences that each of us have had in our lives, and then we had rootbeer floats (without the rootbeer). The Zlín Elders (Elder Stacey and Elder Backman) were supposed to go to the American Candy Store in zlín and buy some rootbeers for us this morning but they forgot. So we made our rootbeer floats work using Kofola instead of Rootbeer. (což je škoda). But sharing spiritual experiences was fun. We each talked about times in our lives when we have felt or just simply known that Heavenly Father was involved. I told some stories from my mission experience about finding lost objects. It was a good visit. This upcoming Saturday, the Releif Society is having a "čokoládový večer" (chocolate night). That caught my attention when that was said over the pulpit yesterday, Elder Vickers and I quickly talked to the relief society president and made sure that we would have part in this Chocolate Night, because who wouldn't!? The recent changes to missionary work have honestly not changed too many things in our missionary work. The rest of the world has always followed a very strict schedule in terms of missinoary work. Waking up at 6:30am, then doing personal study at 8:00am, Companionship study at 9:00am, Language study at 10:00am, and then lunch for an hour. We were then expected to procelyte from 11:00am until 6:00pm where we were supposed to have dinner for an hour, then we were expected to procelyte from 7:00pm until 9:00pm when we would plan for the next day. The funny thing is, our mission has never been run this strictly... our day looked more like this: 6:30am wake up 8:00am - 9:00pm do the following things at SOME point during the day: - Personal study - Companionship study - Language study - Lunch - Proselyting - Dinner 9:00pm was planning time every night, planning for the next day. Now the NEW schedule is different for every mission. the new schedule makes life for other missions a lot more free, but ours stays exactly the same, only now we have daily planning in the morning instead of the evening. Really funny actually. Anyway, Love you all, and I'll email again next week! S Láskou, Starší Dean

January 30, 2017

So apparently there's a big broadcast that we have yet to see about missionary work. The Prague zone has seen the broadcast already, and apparently there are some big big changes coming to missionary work. I am so grateful to be here in my mission. I have so many blessings. I was in a public restroom today and I looked around at the dirt and the grime and the smell of smoke and the world around me. The other day Elder Vickers and I found a drunk man who fell over twise, he told us, "I know that you are good boys, I know... I know." and even though the world around me is often low and sad, and broken, the Lord shows me that I have been brought to hights that the world could never bring a person to. I litterally have just strived to be obedient and good in my life, and in my imperfection, the effort has gotten me to serve a mission, to love the Lord, to have a wonderful relationship with my parents, to love my siblings, to accept callings, and to do much much more. I am so grateful that the Lord has brought me so far. Today, Elder Vickers, Sister Demann, and Sister Wilson and I took a bus to Malenovice in an attempt to get to Kroměřiž, a city not to far from UH and Zlín. We were trying to get there so that we could meet up with the Zlín elders so that we could go czech out a new city for fun. Take some pictures and stuff, but our bus connections were terrible, and we ended up just getting stuck in Malenovice. So that was an adventure today haha. Tomorrow we have training in Brno. It'll be the longest training we've ever had, it will go until 5:00pm, which is crazy because we normally end around 3 and so that means that we'll wake up, leave on a bus, have training, hop on a bus back to UH, and then go to bed. What a crazy day. We met with a member a few days ago. Brother G sat down in the church building with us, and we shared a spiritual thought with him. We asked him to think of somebody who he feels would need to receive this message of the restoration. He had a name, R. We asked this fine Brother about his friend R, who, he told us, was alone, getting older, and needs a friend. We got some more information. We asked brother G whether or not he thinks that R would accept the message of the restoration of the Gospel. He told us that he did not believe R would accept the gospel. "Still a couple years" he told us. Well, we met with R a couple days later, and brother G went with us. When we first met him, we didn't talk about the Gospel at all. We just got to know him a little. He likes airplanes. When we came for a second visit, it was just Elder Vickers and I. And we learned that R can tell you anything about the stars and about NASA and about rockets. He feels alone in his life, his two daughters live in other countries, and his one daughter that still lives here in the czech republic doesn't really talk to him. R has an old radio receiver set up in his house that he used to talk to people during communism and that he learned to use to tap into radio signals from around the world, and through which he would talk to people most of the time they were from people speaking in different languages. R was entertained with this for years, it was something that allowed him to talk to people... at least to talk to total strangers who were communicating over radio-waves. But as R got older, so did the world, and as things like the Internet came out, and the world moved on, his friends on this radio world would over time silently and quietly dissapear into the static. As he turned on the old device for us we heard as he changed the channels, over and over he would search for people, turning the dials. Anybody who would at least talk to him. just static. When we came for a second visit, Brother G was not with us. We felt that we wanted to try to talk about the Gospel with him. We had been praying that his heard would be softened. R told us, "I would like to try faith, and I want you to teach me." We have since been teaching him, he will be coming to church next week. I love you all, and I know that the Chruch is true. I know that the Lord's elect are here. S láskou, Starší Dean

January 16, 2017

This week has been something new, of course this is the way it is at the begining of every transfer, getting used to a new companion, new tallents and new abilities, new challenges, new strengths, new hopes, new plans, new expectations, and new miracles. I think that change is kind of hard for me, I was really sad when Elder Geier left. He's been a really influential person for me my entire mission. Also, the sister missionaries from my MTC Group are officially gone and at home. That means that only the Elders from my group are still here, and that means, according to the mission culture, that I am officially "old". I cannot believe how fast time flies, I saw missionaries not to long ago giving their departing testimonies, and before I know it I'll be standing up there at some zone training giving my departing testimony to these wonderful Elders and Sisters, undoubtedly the most intensely powerful group of missionaries I could ever serve around. This week I talked to President Pohořelický about how I was feeling as a missionary, I told him about my concerns about how I was uncertain about the future and about how I was not sure what the Lord wants me to do for the rest of my mission. I expressed the feelings that I had always had goals in my life that lead me to be good, and to more forward in the strength of the Lord, but as I progressively accomplished these goals, I had less and less of them to do. I had a goal to become a teacher when I was a decon, I had a goal to become a priest, to become an Elder, to obtain the Melchizedek Priesthood, to go to the Temple, to Go on a Missoin... of course there is still to be sealed in the Temple, and to have a family. But these were goals that lead to my greatest goal, to return to Heavenly Father with my Family forever. Now that I am on my mission, most of those goals are complete, but I found myself beginning to worry because I was not sure where my life was going to lead me after all of these essential things are done. Presidente brought to my attention an important detail... I will be sealed in the temple before I'm 25 probably... then what... I thought about that... I would have no goals like that to work towards after 25... I would have to live from 25 to, I dunno, 95 years old without a vision of what I would do or be working towards other than the goal to die clean and worthy... I have since thought about my life after the mission, not to get distracted from my missionary work, but instead to confirm to myself, why I am serving as a missionary. I would encourage everyone to think about their life as well. Have you achieved your life goals? Have your goals changed with time? Are you working towards something now? I love you all, and I will have more info on things that are happening here with Investigators and stuff next week. Love you all, S láskou, Starší Dean

January 9, 2017

The previous transfer is over, and Elder Geier is going home. He has been a very important figure for me my entire mission, being there from the very beginning. This last transfer with him has been a complete honor. I must say that I was hoping that I would be able to train a new missionary this transfer, but when my beloved follow-up-trainer, Elder Page called (he's assistant to the president now) he told me that I would be staying here in Uherské Hradiště and that I would be serving with Elder Vickers, who is one transfer younger than me. I have met him before, and he's sitting next to me now talking to the sisters at another table. Elder Vickers is awesome, He knows czech really well, and I've heard that he knows how to cook really well. He is an experienced missionary, and I will be using his powerful testimony this transfer as a support. My companions have always been such rocks, powerful, strong priesthood holders. Firm in the faith, and doubtless in their persuit to keep the commandments and follow the Savior. I already admire Elder Vickers a lot, I know that I will learn a lot from him. Sister Demann will also be coming to serve in UH this transfer. She served in my district when I was in CBud for my first transfer there. She is so funny and always makes us laugh. She'll bring a lot of light into this transfer. I miss you all, and I apoligize that I am not sending any pictures this week. I will send more pictures next week along with some descriptions of what our plans are for this transfer. I only have 3 transfers left... that is hard for me to realize. I love my mission even though it is kicking my butt. seriously it is the hardest thing I've ever loved to do. I do know however when the rubber meets the road, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the Savior of the World. I know that His Atonement is Complete, and is an Infinite Atonement. I love you all, S Láskou, Starší Dean

January 2 2017

This week was nuts, I think that we didn't do hardly any missionary work this week. So the entire mission came together on Wednesday to meet at the Hotel in the middle of the czech countryside called Štamberk Hotel, which is owned by a memeber of the church, and we, as an entire mission, stayed there until Friday Afternoon! We went because President Pohořelický had planned several changes to the mission, and he wanted us all to be together so that we could learn about and accept the changes. These changes are not anything that most of you at home would understand, but for the sake of explianing, President changed the way that we measure "other lessons" and "new investigators" as well as he changed the "Standards" which are the numbers that we strive to achieve each week to measure our effectiveness as a mission. Each of the mornings we were there, we played floorball (hokey) for our morning workout, I can still hear the sound of us all walking out fo the gym at 7:00 after playing and then a random elder comes runing back all excited yelling, "we've got an extra 15 minutes!" and then a stampeed of Elders cramming back into the gym to play some more floorball. It was really fun! I remember it felt like we were all back in the Mtc for 3 days, not allowed to leave, strictly told to be in our living quarters at a certain time every night. We even had cafeteria food again... czech cafeteria food, but regardless... We had a Talent Show, and Each of the 4 zones were alotted 30 minutes to perform. In our zone we had Elder Johnson from my District get up and play some Jazz on the piano. My Companion turned to me and said, "we're singing Důvěra" (so Důvěra translates to Trust, and it is a song that is only found in the really really old czech hymn books from the time of communism. Here in UH we luckily have a large archive of old czech church material here so we found it. The reason it is so cool, is because the song Důvěra, is actually the song "Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy" in English, which is not found in the new czech hymnals. It's a treasure that we found here, and no other missionary has this song in czech but us.) so we sang Důvěra, and everyone loved it. On the way home, the sisters in our district lost their phone in Brno. So now we're wiating for them to get a new phone. But on our way home, we stopped in Brno again and Elder Geier and I went to the mall and Bought new suits. I have pictures, I'll send them. Dad you'll probably laugh. Still no news about Ipads, maybe we won't get them while I'm on my mission, bummer. M's Baptism was awesome, He was baptized by our Ward Mission Leader, the same man who let us skype at his house. Elder Geier Confirmed him, and I was able to help. We were told to be inside by 6:00pm on the 31st, and to be inside by 8:00pm on the 1st. There were a lot of fireworks and not to mention a lot of drunk people out and about on new year's eve. But we got to see some from our appartment window. (man, we're so wierd in the world's eyes) Something funny that happened at Štamberk, A sister missinary was playing pool, and President was playing with her. She Bet President that she could beat him, and she said, "if I win, you tell me where I'm going next transfer." (we're not supposed to know until this next Saturday). . . She WON, and president took her into another room and she came out smiling. . . she had received her Transfer Call early because she won the bet... Good grief. The rest of us have to wait. I love you all and I can't wait to see what this new year holds for all of us... I got out of the shower this morning just laughing at the fact that Trump is president... LOL.