(Note:  We are removing names and replacing them with letters and dashes for privacy sake)

Dobry den, rodino!

I'm so excited to be emailing you again! It is so exciting for me to fill you in on my week here in Plzen - I wish I could tell you everything about my day every day, but unfortunately that just can't happen. Boo. But I can fill you in on some highlights!

First, a little more about my trainer - he is from Innsbrook Austria (we think the same ones the Gallachers knew), and comes from a family of 5 brothers and 1 sister. He's an elder with a really good heart and has really good desires to grow this area. This is only his 3rd transfer in the Czech Republic, so he's picked up on the language and the gist of the work really fast. It's pretty impressive, and I hope that I will be able to be at the point he is by the end of my 2nd transfer! He studied Jazz Piano at a university before he came here - crazy right? - and is really good. I definitely have a lot to learn from him this transfer.

Our apartment is in a panelak, and is actually pretty nice! We did have to do a MAJOR cleanup when we got here, though - we're still in the process of finishing that...haha. My bed is actually pretty good - I sleep with my pillow and comforter every night, and we have a little floor fan that I position right next to me, so I'm sleeping just fine! Thank you for sending off the recipes - my tummy thanks you too! We cook actually most days - or we go to a potraveny (convenience store) to get some quick food. We also eat in restaurants a few days a week. Also, we eat at a member's house once a week as a district. She's so nice, and wants to teach Marmee how to make ovocne knedliky when you come to visit after my mission! Haha - the people here are so awesome.

We live about 30 minutes from the Church building and around 20 minutes from the city....yeah...so we do a lot of tram contacting every day. It's a little scary, but it's like jumping into a cold pool every time - really scary at first, but as soon as you get talking, you get used to it (like you get used to the water). My problem is that I've always gotten into a cold pool one little step at a time haha. It's really challenging me to just go in and do it. But it's so good.

Now for a little bit about this week in particular - unfortunately, we've pretty much lost all contact with our investigators from last week...it's pretty sad. They haven't answered any phone calls or texts, and aren't at home when we try to stop by. Dang - it's really hard to see people start to see the light of the spirit, then retreat back away from it. But we have been hard at work to find new people to teach. We've found a lot of new potentials, and have set up meeting with a bunch of them. A couple cool people in particular we've been teaching:

J--- is a younger gal from Poland who is only here for another 1.5 weeks or so. But we contacted her on the street, and have been teaching her. She said that she was atheist, but feels like there has been a hole in her heart for some time that she wants to be filled. She wants to believe in something, but doesn't believe in God just yet. We challenged her to read Alma 32 from the Book of Mormon and pray about whether God exists and to feel His love, and I pray that she will receive an answer. Our goal with her is to get a really solid referral to pass onto the Polish Mission.

I---- is a really cool man we met on Saturday. We had just tried to visit another family, but they didn't answer their door - so we started walking back to the tram stop and I---- was sitting on a bench across from his car, listening to Bulgarian folk music. We almost walked right by him - but at the last second I stopped and contacted him. He invited us to sit down, and we proceeded to basically teach the entire first lesson. It was so cool, and he was very accepting of the message and fascinated with the Book of Mormon. He is from Bulgaria, and is Eastern Orthodox, I think. But after we talked, we invited him to church. He also asked how much the Book of Mormon was so that he could buy it - we gladly told him with a huge smile on our faces that it was free. Then, yesterday, we arrived at the church building 15 minutes early to see I----talking with our branch president, President H.  Wow! How cool is that!? He stayed for church, talked for a little bit afterwards - we saw him again today in Namesti republiky and set up a follow up meeting for Wednesday. What an awesome opportunity to teach someone so willing to be taught!

Another cool experience happened yesterday - after church, we were finishing up our studies and I was feeling pretty unproductive - our companionship study hadn't been the most effective, and I just had the impression that we needed to just get out of the apartment for a little bit. So we prayed and went contacting on the street just outside our panelak. in those 30 minutes we contacted, we received 1 address, 2 phone numbers, and 2 follow-up meetings. How crazy is that? And the coolest part for me was how we got the numbers - there were two younger guys (prob early twenties) walking together and talking. Usually, we try to contact people who are alone, because they're usually more likely to listen. But again, at the last minute, I contacted these 2 guys. The contact almost finished when they said they weren't believers and started walking away - but I quickly asked them if they believed in something, which they said they did, just not God or Christ (this is a pretty common belief). We ended up talking for a little bit longer, and they  gave me both their numbers and we have a meeting set up for next Saturday when they get back from vacation in Liberec.

The spirit truly is with us as missionaries, and how grateful I am for that! We're trying to work with members to get referrals - that really is the best way to do missionary work. Please pray for our branch here. They're really good people.

I love you all so much, and can't wait to hear from you next week!

S laskou,
Starsi Mullen

ps - not sure on the package thing...pictures and letters always make my day, though!