Česká republika - Week 7 Olomouc (some names changed for privacy)

PHEASANT!!!

On Tuesday, our water heater wasn't working the best. So, Sestra Peterson and I took freezing cold showers and then we called our landlords who came up and fixed with no problem. We literally have the best landlords ever! They also cleaned our shower while we were there and they're planning on redoing our kitchen sometime this week I think! Anyway, we went out contacting later on in the afternoon and Sestra Peterson found this family that knew my counselor from when I went to Zion's Camp in the summer of 2014. How cool is that?! So we talked, and in the end they weren't super interested but we think that the next time they meet with missionaries the'll be just a little more prepared!

On Wednesday we basically went to Poland... We were literally 20 minutes away from the border in a little town called Hanušovice. 

We were on our way to our lesson with Tomáš in Šumperk, but then it turned out that our train was changing tracks and didn't end up going to Šumperk, so they dropped us off at the smallest train stop ever in Ruda nad Moravou where we ended up waiting for an hour! 

And then , we got on the wrong train... the one going away from Šumperk... hahahaha Needless to say, we had quite the interesting day! 

We stayed there for a while and then finally made our way to Šumperk after a lot of freaking out from my companion who just felt really bad for having brought me on this accidental adventure hahahaha. 

On our way home though we had more problems. Our train took an hour long stop in a random city - this was not supposed to happen and we got home an hour later than expected. We were so tired by the end of the day that on our way home, some funny stuff happened. We made a stop at a place called Bohdíkov and when it was announced I jokingly turned to my companion and asked ''Did they just say Home Depot?'' And then when we made that hour long stop, as the train was starting back up before it started moving, I saw a man get to the train station and said ''This is not the train you are looking for'' and I may have done the Star Wars hand gesture to go along with the reference... :)

​On Friday, we had interviews with President Pohořelický which were super great as alwas and way insightful... personally. However all the while our toilet at home was broken. And toilets here are not the same! You can't take off the back part of the toilet to see what's going on with the flusher! So we had to hand-pur water into the toilet after each use hahahaha and Sestra Peterson swung in with the sass when we got home and it still wasn't fixed, she came to me while I was studying and goes ''I'm really glad he hasn't come yet!'' ​And then, we talked about some medical stuff because Sestra Peterson was getting sick and she is going to be a nurse when she returns from the misśion and we brought Star Wars back... ''This, is the nurse you are looking for''. So, that was last week!

Today, we went to the hospital in town because Sestra Taylor's sickness didn't go away. Turns out she has a virus in the upper respiratory tube and the doctor told her to rest because you can't take anything to get rid of a virus... So that was fun!...

Anyway, this week, Sestra Peterson and I were talking and I told her that so far this has probably been the transfer that's the hardest, but also one of the most satisfying and it was really cool because she talked about how she felt the same way about this transfer and her past two and how really, the harder ones allow for the most growth and that is just such a satisfying feeling!

I love you all!! I hope you have a wonderful week and a great start up of school! Love Learning!!!

​Čau!​

​Mám vás ráda!!!!!​

Česká republika - Week 6 Olomouc (some names changed for privacy)

So life is pretty great here in Olomouc! Our investigator Sámot came to church yesterday! And... he loved it!!! The night before church we talked with him about why church is so important and we talked about Sacrament, and just 3 Nephi 18 in general. And then, after Sacrament meeting he told us that everything just felt so nice at church, the people, the sincerity, the love aimed at everyone in the talks. It was great! And not only that, he stayed all three hours, plus he commented in both classes! I love it when people do that because you just get so much more instruction that way. I'm telling you, church is wonderful, the spirit felt there is beautiful! On top of all of this, guess what he did? He sang in our branch choir with us! What is this?!?! hahahahaha

On Tuesday of last week we had zone training! We went to Prague and I got to see a total of four of my MTC peoples there! (Starší Wutzke of course, Starší Andrus, and the Starší who are killin' it together, Satrší Gubler and Kevern!) And I got to see my last companion, Sestra Taylor! Training was way great! We were challenged to read 17 pages from the Kniha Mormonova/Book of Mormon every day in whichever language we want, outside of our personal studies, and we were asked to write down how we came to know that the Book is true and, we're studying about the Light of Christ. It's way great! I love the Book of Mormon so so sooo much! It just helps so much in life!

This week we went panelaking quite a bit, which is basically when we go to apartment buildings... there's a lot... and ring on each person's zvolnek/doorbell from outside the building. We get rejected a lot but this last time we went, there were two instances of people coming out to tell us their problem with us. One lady was okay... she just told her we were wasting our time because no one wants to hear our message... but then we found out that her mom who is such a cute little granny is actually a Christian! The other lady who came out though got upset with us, she was fuUunNy! She talked about how we were bothering people (even though we only talk to people for like 10 seconds before they tell us they aren't interested and hang up) and how she wasn't feeling well and how she was going to call the cops on us and all these things - don't worry we were legal and we had our legal papers for any instances like that - but then we just decided to leave because this lady was just getting worked up so we told her to have a nice day, and she said it back to us three times sounding more and more upset as she said it! I don't know what to do with people like that sometimes... getting upset over nothing hahahaha oh well!

Alright Imma end this off with today! Today we went on the ''tour de kosteles'', basically two of our YSAs, Sara and Terka (Tereza) brought us out to check out all of the main Catholic churches here in the city, it was pretty cool. I just love the architecture of Gothic churches so much and the stained glass mmmm beautiful! The paintings though.... they could maybe be a little less dreary :)

Anyway....

I love you all so much and wish for you to have a wonderful week!

Finish up the summer nicely! Because Fall's comin'!!!!! I'm so excited!!!!!!

Česká republika - Week 5 Olomouc (some names changed for privacy)

 On Tuesday we met with Sámot who is quite the interesting guy. Sestra Peterson met him while on exchange the other week and he has a baptismal date, and he truly seems ready! We're so excited for him because he's just such a spiritual person! Literally between their first lesson and the second one (my first) he read the introduction to the Book of Mormon plus ten chapters! Later on in the lesson, he talked to us about how people have their agency in this world and that a lot of them just don't follow the teachings of Christ of their own free will because thy have agency and he compared it to Laman and Lemuel from the Book of Mormon. He's way cool. He loves the gospel and is very upfront with us. For example, we told him that Jesus Christ was perfect and he straight up told us that he didn't believe that because everybody has hard times in life. We then explained that Christ is perfect because he is sinless, and then we continued because he understood and believed! And then just the other day, we asked him if he prayed about what we told him and he just said that he is and he sees how what we're teaching him relates to his life. It's great...

Sorry this week's info is a little short, but I hope you all have a wonderful week and a great rest of your summer!!!

Love you all as always! Mám vás ráda!!!!!! (I love you!!!!!!)

Česká republika - Week 4 Olomouc (some names changed for privacy)

Where to begin?!

On Wednesday I guess! On Wednesday we met with one of our investigators, Kedár, the scary looking one from my e-mail last week!And, we had a great lesson... I think... He was a little hard to understand since he sounded like he was mixing Czech with Slovak and German, but Sestra Peterson and I bore our testimonies and tried hard to explain faith and its importance... Next time we're going to have the Olomouc Starší, Starší Plewe and Zapalač help teach with us so that we can understand everything Kedár tries asking us.

Then on Thursday we got drenched as we were starting a chalk display with the Olomouc Starší... Starší Plewe said ''It might miss us'' as the dark grey clouds and wind are blowing in our direction... that didn't happen... so we went to the church building and dried off while making phone calls to potential investigators. Then we had game night to which a bunch of people came! We were honestly a little surprised, in a good way. We started off with just the missionaries plus the STLs (Sister Training Leaders) and two members, and then at least six more people showed up! And at the end of it all Starší Plewe shared a spiritual message. 

The next day we had our day of exchange with the STLs. I was on exchange with Sestra Valentine and Sestra Peterson was with Sestra Brown! It was so much fun. Sestrý Peterson and Brown went out of town to go and teach a former investigator named Sámot and he now has a baptismal date! He seems like an interesting guy from the way they described him (barefoot with an orange cowboy hat, and friends with every single person in the town) but still way cool! I'm excited to teach him this week! Sestra Valentine and I went out and contacted a lot! And then we had finding with the Starší from Olomouc and Prostějov (Starší Cardon and Wutzke) which was... drumroll... contacting! ¨But it was different. It was good. We went off for an hour and could only talk for 10 seconds and then we had to let the other companion talk and back and forth it went and then at the end of that hour we switched companions and we did the same thing, so for an hour, I was companions with Sestra Brown on my exchange with Sestra Valentine hahaha! But it was good, we almost set up lessons with three people, and Sestrý Brown and Peterson actually got us one new investigator out of it! 

On Saturday we had service at the Sležarovi's house (a family in the ward who the father of the family used to be the branch president here forever ago). We were digging out the floor of this house that they bought and it was good... other than the fact that I may have hit my foot while using the pick-axe to break up the dirt a little... so now I have a bruise... nothing bad though :) Then we ate guláš that Sestra Sležarová made and zuchinni bread that she made! It was so amazing!

Yesterday, we saw a little miracle. We went tracting with the Olomouc elders after church and choir and we didn't get any tracting down because the sky decided to pour on us as we huddled under some trees for protection because Starší Plewe's umbrella broke and the rest of us forgot to bring ours.... But we were going to go and tract some specific people that the elders had found last week including this one YSA lady who might have interest. And as it was pouring, we saw her, running towards us (for excercise) and she stopped to say hello and meet us sestrý who we hope will meet with us at some point, maybe next Sunday! We'll see! Everything happens for a reason! Including missing our bus twice while it's pouring rain outside :)

Today we played SQUASH!!!!!! Basically my favorite sport ever! It was fun! So P-Day was fun <3

Anyway I love you all!!! I hope you have a great week! I know I had one! The weather here is killer right now! So humid and sooo hot... but other than that... AMAZING WEEK!!!!!!!!

Mám vás ráda!!!!!!!

Česká republika - Week 3 Olomouc (some names changed for privacy)

So I haven't been everywhere but this week has!!! We started it off with being contacted by a lady while Starší Wutzke, Starší Cardon, Sara, and my companion and I were trying to figure out what we wanted to do for dinner, if anything. We decided against it and started taking pictures by this statue of a turtle; then, a lady came up to us and said that she and her boyfriend wanted to talk to us about our beliefs. It was way cool! We just kind of sat there and talked with them until we had to get home. Unfortunately they don't live here, but missions are for planting seeds, so hopefully we opened up their minds to who we are as Latter-Day Saints and what we stand for!

We also had the zone leaders come here on exchanges at the beginning of the week and we did a singing display all together! In which the elders didn't really want to sing sooo, I ended up singing a lot and contacting some.

And, we got a new greenie in our district!!! His name is Starší Zapalač! Sorry I don't have any pictures of him yet, but I'm sure we'll have some pictures as a district by next week!!!

Beginner's English lesson that the elders in prostÄ›jov had had with their english class...  

This week, a lot of our lessons didn't go through with people, so Sestra Peterson and I did lots of contacting! And it was funny because Sestra Peterson has lots of funny stories under her belt and she was telling me one of her stories when we see a man walking towards us and she stops and says:

 ''Hold on a sec, I'm going to contact this scary looking guy''. This ''guy'' named Kedár, had around 5 piercings in each ear and some tattoos, but that just goes to show how the gospel is meant for everyone! We literally talked to him for about 40 minutes and we're going to meet with him on Wednesday. We're excited!

Here is a picture with one of our super sweet investigators; Anaj...

I know that so much can be learned from the Lord's plan for each and every one of us and that anyone can know God's will for them through prayer. Prayer is a communication with our loving Heavenly Father and He loves us with all His heart!

I love you all!

Have an amazing week!