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