Slovensko - Week 1 in Trenčín (some names changed for privacy)

Me and my new companion; Sestra Sister Sawyer

Trenčín is literally so cute! It's just this little town close to the Czech/Slovak border and there's a castle right in the middle of town which we're probably going to end up seeing, hopefully, next week! But don't worry, I took some pictures of the outside of it from the center of town looking up at the hill it's located on...

This week I got to meet all of our members! Our branch has about four active consistent members. The branch president and his wife, the Vaclavoví, his mom Sister Alžběta (that's her first name so that her daughter-in-law and her names' don't get mixed up), and Sister Křižanová. Plus the missionaries who double the branch, Elders Siikavaara and Goddard, and Sister Sawyer and I. But, this last Sunday (...yesterday...) We also had another member at our branch because there was a Relief Society skype activity to kind of lay out what would be going in the year. And there was another man who came who will be living in Trenčín for the next three months or so.

We meet on the 2nd floor of this building for church.

 

During the week we went to the Vaclavoví's house twice - once to visit their mom, and once to visit them -. And I got to meet Sister Křižanová at our weekly English class. We also did tons of service here. 

We help this man called Lovap at his restaurant sometimes, stacking wood and this week we also took down his Christmas tree and watered his plants. Then we also did some service for someone else by helping them clean out an apartment they recently bought and then they made us palacinky and bramboraky! Kind o like crepes and potato pancakes! So nice!

We found one person this last week whom we're going to meet with hopefully tonight. His name is Yrral and he's from Prague. He also happens o be a pantomime! hahahaha... He told us that we have good hearts so he'd be willing to meet with. He also really liked that our work is all voluntary. 

I hope you all have an amazing week! Čau!

Mám vás rada!

Also, I basically adopted a cat. For ten minutes while we were waiting for a bus. hahaha

Enjoy the pictures!

Ahojt'e!

Česká republika - Week 10 Brno

Lunch at an Indian restaurant

So, this last week was interesting to say the least. Sestra miller and I have had our schedule full, meeting up with our amazing investigators.  Then on our P-day (prep day) we went to IKEA!!!! (that's not the interesting part yet) And enjoyed some Swedish meatballs and walked around and commented on the room set-ups... literally, our district in Brno was just so artsy... we were room critics that day. It was so much fun! 

I will really miss my wonderful Brno companion; Sestra Miller.....

We received the exciting news! On Saturday, we got transfer calls and we knew where my companion is going but when it was my turn we were completely shocked! We thought I would stay in Brno, but no! They blinded out the sisters' area and blinded in another companionship! And they sent me off to Trenčín which is where Sister Pulley spent her first three transfers! I'm way excited to be here In Slovakia!!!! My new companion is Sestra Sawyer, she's from California, she's super nice, and she came into the mission two transfers after me. I'm so excited for our transfer together! It's going to be great!

There are mountains all around! There's a castle right in the middle of town basically! And more around town from what I hear. And in our district are Starší Siikavara... not really sure how to spell his name yet, and his brand new companion from the MTC (who I haven't met yet), and that's it!

Trenčín (postcard)

I literally love these countries so much!🇨🇿️🇸🇰️ I have two biggish suitcases... and getting them on and off of trains is not super easy but people just see little sister missionaries struggling and they come over and ask if they can help. That's just so kind! I love this mission!!!

I'll see if I can get the pictures uploaded... but it might take some time so I don't know if I'll be able to send all of the pictures I wanted to this week. Sorry! The internet isn't being the kindest at the moment...

I love you all so much! Have an amazing week!

Mám vás ráda!

Snow in Brno this week!

Samosas!

Česká republika - Week 9 Brno (some names changed for privacy)

So, this last week on the 11th my MTC group and I all hit our year mark! We officially all met on exactly that day one year ago... and... we had training that day! Which meant that I got to see Sister Pulley who is now STL!!! and Sister Ludlow, and Elders Petersen (who gave some of us some chocolate to celebrate!), Wutzke, and Gubler! So I got to see a decent amount of original mission friends! So much fun!

Sestra Ludlow, Sestra Sadler, Sestra Pulley

Sestra Dance, Sestra Sadler and President Pohořelický (mission President) photo bombing :)

And then this week we also did two chalk displays. The first was about the Plan of Salvation using the word love. Way cool! The L leads from pre-Earth life to Earth which is the O and then the V goes down at death and rises to Resurrection, and finally the E has three points pointing out to the three kingdoms of glory! And the other chalk display was the world with the world Love written in it in Czech. However we let some children use our chalk and they made our world a little more colorful hahaha   .

Láska = Love

​On Saturday we had sports night and played Florbal or Floorball - everything is spelt phoenetically in Czech - ​and I might have gotten bruised, let's just say that it's a pretty intense and competitive sport here in Europe and I'm not super good at it 

And then last night we ate dinner at the DeVries who are this Dutch/Czech married couple in our ward here. They fed us some good turkey, potatoes and green beans! And we shared a spiritual thought from President Russell M. Nelson!s talk about the Book of Mormon and asked everyone what their lives would be like without the Book of Mormon and how their life has changed or is better because of the Book of Mormon. It was so nice! I love going over conference talks!

I love you all! Have an amazing week!

Česká republika - Week 8 Brno (some names changed for privacy)

Writing emails on Monday! No other pics of me this week, so here is a last minute one :)

Last week on P-day we also went to another art gallery! Some of the paintings were really weird and kind of sad and political, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures of those, and some were fun and interesting and left undone on purpose. I got pictures of those ones :)

On Tuesday we had a lesson with Anasko who is literally the cutest little seventeen year old Ukrainian I know! And on top of that, she comes from the same town in Ukraine as one of our recent converts who just converted his entire family and then baptized them! Way cool! Back to Anasko though, when we gave her a Ukrainian Book of Mormon and she asked us if she could buy it hahahaha. No. It's free :) I just love Europeans!

https://www.mormon.org/free-book-of-mormon

We also met this really cool Nigerian named Nomolos who came to church on Sunday and seemed to really like it! We had two Ghanaian members here and one of them actually served his mission in Nigeria so they talked and became friends I think! Nomolos told him that he would see him next week so that's pretty cool :)

And then yesterday night we went to the Walmsleys (New Zealander family in our ward) house for dinner where we had roasted potatoes and carrots, a salad with some kind of caramelized nut in it, pulled pork and babovka! (a marbled Czech cake)! Then we had a spiritual thought that the kids really like about wearing the armor of God and fighting against the temptation's of Satan!

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

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

Happy New Year!!!

Two Thousand Eighteen!!! Our little century is growing up so fast! It's already eighteen years old! hahahaha

Anyway, not much happened this past week. We did lots of contacting and tracting which was fun. We actually found a girl named Ale who we'll be visiting tomorrow! And, we got quite a few phone numbers from people who said that they could probably meet after the New Year, so we're excited!

Also last P-Day, we went to an art gallery, which we're hoping to do again this week! But it was way fun, we saw lots of Gothic time period art which was cool. Lots of it was religious... Catholic... But it's still beautiful art that depicts stories from the Bible or history from their church. I love art!!!! So I took lots of pictures :)

When the New Year rolled around there were lots of fireworks that could be heard... I didn't see very many, especially since our home is basically surrounded by panelaks (apartment buildings). We were given the opportunity to wake  up for 15 minutes at midnight, but decided that we would rather have sleep and enjoy it.

Have a wonderful week, look for the good in everyone and enjoy the New Year!!!

I love you all so much!!! Mám vás ráda!

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

Last P-day, Sister Miller and I wandered around town a little, getting some last-minute Christmas souvenirs before all of the trhy - stands (Christmas market) - closed down. And I got to try the punch that literally everybody drinks... don't worry, I had the children's kind... the non-alcoholic kind :) It was really good and appley.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we had our ''Christmas'' training... in Bratislava! Slovakia! I finally entered the other country that's a part of this mission! It was such a wonderful training that focused a lot on Jesus Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. And there was fun and games involved as well. Plus we did a Czech Christmas tradition and watched a fairy tale called Tři Oříšky pro Popelku or in other words, Three Nuts (hazelnuts?) for Cinderella. I really enjoyed it a lot! 

This week we did a chalk display about Christmas and the light we can bring to the world through Jesus Christ and following His example and on Saturday we actually found a girl named Anasko who is from Ukraine and came to church the next day then celebrated Czech Christmas dinner with us. Czech Christmas is on the 24th of December and after church we went to the Walmsley's for lunch - they are a sweet family in our ward from New Zealand who have two young children - a girl and a boy.

Then for dinner we went to the Řezačoví's and had a typical Czech Christmas! We started off by eating fish soup, then carp and potato salad, along with some non-alcoholic champagne... We then went on a walk while Ježíšek left presents under the Christmas tree. Ježišek is baby Jesus who leaves presents for all of the good children and parents - people... He even left some for the missionaries and our new friend Anasko. We got the Czech Cinderella fairy tale movie, chocolate milk mix, some oplatky which are wafers that come from the spa cities of the Czech Republic, and a new white scarf! They were just such a sweet family. 

We also did a few more traditions like peeling an apple and throwing the peel behind us to see the initials that our future spouse will have, then we cut the apple in half to see if there would be a star or a cross - the star means a good year - the cross... not so much. All of us got stars. Then we threw one of our shoes over and behind us to see if we would stay or not- Sestra Miller and I are both staying hahaha. I loved it! And then we also did this thing where we melted some kind of metal then poured it into cold water and whatever shape it took meant something different would happen in the year... I think mine was a rose which meant lasting friendships or something like that. It was just such a fun Christmas!

Then on the typical Christmas that... Americans... - me - are used to, on the 25th. I made a quiche for breakfast, and two sweet cheese bread roles that were way good, then we opened presents from our families which was super sweet! We went and visited some of our members. And then we went to the church building to skype our families and make dinner! So much fun!!!! 

I love you all so much and hope you have an amazing week, and a great new year! 

By the way, next week we'll be e-mailing on Tuesday. Then our P-days will resume to Mondays. :)