Heya, Rodino! Thanks for your wonderful email!!! I love hearing about little fun experiences at home, like you love hearing about the little experiences here in Czech. I loved what you wrote about the temple - that sounds like a very sweet experience you got to share with those people we love so much from our ward. What a blessing our ward is! The love and support I felt from Granite Bay 2nd Ward is something that continues to stay with me. I got a letter from Brother Smith this week, which reminded me of all those good times in Priest's quorum. Dad, if you could, be sure to greet the priesthood of GB2 for me. Tell them that I am so grateful for their worthiness and power and willingness to serve and do what's right. They're truly amazing, and I count it an unspeakable blessing to have grown up in such an environment.
Things are going great here in Olomouc! Last week was both awesome and a little disappointing - we had 14 member lessons on plan, and unfortunately 9 of them fell through...yeah, kind of a bummer...but the 5 we had were awesome! We just picked up a new investigator last Wednesday. She is way cool. We were contacting on the upper town square (Horni Namesti), and Starsi Ingalls was going to do calls while I contacted solo (what a blessing of the gift of tongues! I've gotten to the point now in the language that I have no qualms about contacting people alone. It's truly a blessing!). So just as he was about to go, he told me to go contact this girl walking across the namesti. I said GREAT and starting going right away, and didn't hear his second comment of "wait, she looks a little too young, maybe you shouldn't contact her..." because I was already walking over. I stopped her and started talking, and it was so cool. She is 18 (not too young...thank goodness haha...) and studies English, and is Vietnamese. She lives and studies here in Olomouc, so also speaks flawless Czech. She is so smart! We talked for a little while just below this giant statue on the namesti and exchanged contact info to meet later on. We had a lesson later in the week which was so cool. She identifies herself with a branch of Buddhism, but is just SO open to try new things and to learn. She is awesome. During the lesson we had with her, we talked and testified of God, since she doesn't believe in God right now (she believes in a higher power or force, but not that it is a being like God), then Starsi Ingalls asked her "If God existed, and if you could ask Him, the creator of everything, any one question you wanted, what would be your question?" She thought about it for a good while, and said it was a really good question. After pondering for a bit, she replied with this - "I guess I would ask him why we are here, like what the point is of being here." Wow. How cool is that? We instantly bore testimony that God has answers to her questions, as does the Book of Mormon. We read with her Alma 34:32, about this life being the time to prepare to meet God. She told us "It seems too simple." We replied "Does it have to be complicated?" The gears were definitely turning in her head - I could see it. She told us that she had never thought about it that way before, and she was really interested. We challenged her to pray to know if God is there and to read from the Vietnamese Book of Mormon we gave her. It was so cool. We have another meeting this Wednesday, which I am way excited for. I can testify that the Book of Mormon, combined with prayer, really does provide answers to the questions of the soul.
Another way fun thing that happened this week was that we welcomed a Senior Missionary couple to Olomouc! That's right - there are now 6 missionaries in Olomouc! Their names are the Erbovi (the Erb's - little Czech thing, names change their endings depending on the situation - for instance, to said "the Mullen family" you say "Mullenovi", and to say "Sister Mullen" you say "Sestra Mullenova" - kinda random fun fact about Czech haha), and they're awesome! They are from Pleasant Grove, and have already served 2 missions before together (one in Utah, one in Sweden). On Saturday, Starsi Ingalls and I greeted them, along with President and Sister Irwin and Hans, a Church Educational System department head for Europe (the Erbovi are the official CES couple now for the Czech/Slovak mission). It was way fun to talk with them and to get to know them. They are so prepared to be here from all I can tell, and have been studying Czech for 4 months already, which is awesome! We already have a plan to teach a couple lessons with them this week, which will be a blast.
Church yesterday was awesome - I got the opportunity to finally meet the Branch Presidents wife. She is just so nice! She speaks English perfectly, having lived in the states for a bit, and she gave me a really cool compliment - that I am such an enthusiastic missionary and speak Czech really well. That felt really good. There are times when I definitely feel like I do NOT speak Czech well, haha, such as after a failed contact or something, but then there are other times when I am just in awe of the power of the gift of tongues that I and my fellow missionaries have received here. I am speaking Czech - how crazy is that?!?!? Haha.
We are also continuing to work with our investigators. One of them is still so cool, and we're going to extend the baptismal commitment this week. We challenged him last lesson to pray to know if Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw, and he said he would. I think the major roadblock with him is going to get him to feel the truthfulness of the Gospel. He is so smart, and I think he just needs to get what we've been teaching out of his head and into his heart. We pray that will happen. Another investigator is doing well - we had to postpone his baptismal date because he's not coming to church because of work, and he was sick last week. But he said he'd come this Sunday, so we'll see what happens. We also have been teaching his nephew, who is way cool. He is 22 years old. He's from Slovakia, and has a wife and a couple kids back home. But he is so cool and such an awesome, humble guy. Last meeting, both of them accepted a baptismal date for October 22 - now we just need to start getting them to church every Sunday! It is way fun to teach them, though.
So I talked with Starsi Egger last night, and apparently the Praha District has their conference in Praha on the 24/25 of this month, so our investigator is actually getting baptized on the week after, October 1. I am really excited for him, and even though I won't be there in person, my thoughts and spirit will definitely be with him as he makes that first covenant with our Father in Heaven. I am so happy for him!
Also, we had an awesome conference/training in Brno last Thursday! It was so much fun and a total inspiration. It was a blast for me to be able to see some more of my MTC brothers who I haven't been able to see because they were in a different zone. So it was a blast for me to reconnect with Starsi Medonich, Gabrielsen, and Smith. Also, we had some amazing trainings on what the real focus of missionary work is. We watched a movie which was really inspirational called "the Quest for a Go-Getter". It's a fictional story of Billy Peck, and really inspired me to work even harder to bring people unto Christ. If you get the chance, try to find and watch it. It's definitely worth your time. We also talked a lot about what our real goal is for the people we teach. President Irwin put it this way, taking some material from Elder Oaks - (I'm paraphrasing) "Our goal as missionaries isn't only to inspire others to live better lives. That is a wonderful thing to do, but that is what every person in this world can do. As missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we offer something more. We are opening the doors of the Celestial Kingdom to God's children, and that comes only to obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ - Faith, repentance, baptism by immersion, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." Wow. WOW. It was a spiritually eye opening thought - with every contact, my goal is to open the gates of the highest kingdom of Heaven to that person. It's humbling for me, and it takes a lotta love, which I am trying to develop more and more each day. It's a tender mercy - the love I feel here. Each person we are teaching, each person I contact, whether they want to listen or not, each member of this small but strong branch of Zion - I love them. I love them so much.
So all is well here. As far as packages go, I am definitely still good on Vanilla - the 2 bottles you sent will probably last me a while. Thanks for the Pens, too! I got the package last Thursday at the conference, and I was on my LAST pen! So good timing haha! Not quite sure what I'd like...hmmmmm...ooh, one random idea - could you send a box of the really good Betty Crocker brownie mix? You can't get it here, and the mixes they do have are nasty. Czechs don't like sugar as much as us haha. So yeah, that's one thing that I'd like. Also, if you could, I'd really like some return address labels with the new mission home address if you could. It can kind of be a pain writing it all out every time. I'm not sure if that'll be entirely possible because of the symbols (haceks, carkas, krouzeks, etc), but maybe you can look into it. So yeah...and pictures! I love pictures of home and of you guys and of Landon and such and such.
Know that I love you and pray for you often. The work I am doing here is truly a privilege to do and a blessing for me and for each person with whom I can share the glorious message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Until Next week,
S laskou,
Starsi Mullen
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