Hello, Hello, Hello!!!

Hello Hello Hello, family!

So here I am, writing you from a little internet cafe in Olomouc. This town is absolutely beautiful. I love it. It's a very pedestrian town, and there are so many people out walking around to talk to! It's way fun. Anyways, so much to tell you about this week! But first, to answer some questions I can tell you're dying to know haha:

Transfers here work this way - we get a call from either the APs or President Irwin 2 days before transfers telling us where we're going, who we'll be with, etc. Then, on Transfer day, we wake up and get to our new city as soon as possible. We just go straight there, no big meeting or conference in between. Just get there and start working. Keep the work moving forward!!!

Starsi Ingalls and I get along great. We have a lot of fun together walking around the city and joking around in between contacts or appointments. We made no-bakes last night and enjoyed those for a "midnight" (more like 9:30 haha) snack and for breakfast. Got to use the vanilla too - yum! I love my new town - the branch is very similar in size to Plzen, with an average of 20-30 members a week. But what I love is how concerned the Branch President is about missionary work. He has a correlation meeting with us every Sunday to talk about what our investigators need and how he can help. He is way cool.

There are two companionships here in Olomouc - us and the zone leaders for the Olomouc Zone. Starsi Ingalls is the district leader, and the other companionship (Starsi Rhodes and Peterson) are the Zone Leaders. They're awesome. I'm definitely the baby here in Olomouc - all of them have 3 or less transfers left on their missions. But they're so cool and we all get along great. (BTW, Starsi Rhodes was Starsi Medonich's trainer in Ostrava - little fun fact haha)

Yes, the ties here are awesome! While Starsi Rhodes and Ingalls played tennis this morning, Starsi Peterson and I went to get haircuts and I bought my first Olomouc tie! It's way cool - it's blue and kind of goldish, way nice, and when you tie it, it has a different colored knot than the rest of the tie. Super cool - gotta love ties - our only piece of clothing we can change haha.

I loved the part when you talked about watching a slideshow in the family room of my first batch of photos. Wish I coulda been there to REALLY explain all of them (even my epic descriptions on paper don't do the pictures justice). I guess that'll just have to wait until after the mission, though. But what a fun time that will be! Tell everyone there that I love them so much and think of them often (but not too often haha). 

K, so now for a couple stories from this week! It was awesome!

We had a lesson last week with one of our investigators with baptismal dates who we are teaching right now. He is from Slovakia, and is so cool. He is like 34 or something, and is just this big, awesome guy. When he speaks, he reminds me of a Slovakian Godfather, and Starsi Ingalls and I joke that he is the leader for the Slovak Mafia in Olomouc haha (it doesn't really exist, don't worry Marmee haha). Anyway, apparently he watched the Restoration film in Slovak a week before I came, and the next meeting he came and said he wanted to get baptized as soon as possible. He is just so cool. So we're working with him - he has a problem with coming to church, because he works on Sundays. But we're hoping the Lord will provide a way for him to come. The mission rule is that investigators have to come to Sacrament meeting at LEAST 3 times before they can get baptized. He hasn't come yet, so we're going to have to postpone his date (was on the 24 of this month), but we're still working with him. We're also working with a couple of his family members who work and live with them, one in particular being a 21 year old guy who is just so cool and nice. He came and played soccer with us for sports night last Saturday, and we're hoping that he'll follow the desire of his uncle and accept a baptismal date soon.

We've also continued to work with our other investigator, who is just a funny man. We found a definite concern with the gospel last week, though, when we introduced the word of wisdom - apparently he smokes 80 cigarettes a day. Yeah - 80 a day. So that'll definitely be a challenge for him to quit, but with God, all things are possible, right? So we've continued teaching him - he has definite faith in Christ, and tells us all the time how grateful he is "za tu moudrost" that he gets from the Holy Ghost. He also loves telling us, when we talk about the Holy Ghost, "Hodně pracuju Duchem Svátým". Yesterday, we almost just laughed in the lesson because of how much he was saying it. When he talked, he kind of mumbles a little and it just makes us smile. He has such good desires, though, and we continue to prepare him for baptism.

K, so now for my FAVORITE story of the week:

So last Wednesday, I had the coolest contact of my mission. So it was in the late morning and Starsi Ingalls and I were just heading out to go do some contacting, and we weren't having a lot of success. So Starsi Ingalls suggested that we take a couple unusual routes to Dolni Namesti, the lower town square. So there we were, winding through the streets, and we talked to a couple people - nothing. So we kept going, and talked to these two young laska girls (laska girl is a nickname we give girls we contact who we can tell gave us their number for a reason other than that they're dying to hear about the restored gospel haha), and were just kinda bummed. We decided that we would head back toward the apartment for lunch and try more after eating. As we were walking, I was still stopping as many people as I could to try to talk to them. Nothing.

Nothing, that is, until ........

I saw him standing next to a big statue in the middle of Dolni Namesti. There wasn't a big light over his head saying "CONTACT ME!", but I was talking to everyone else, so I ran over with Starsi Ingalls and introduced ourselves. We got into conversation and came to find out that just the night before, his girlfriend had tried to commit suicide. He was with his friends when he got what sounded like a goodbye text from her, so he ran over to her apartment and found her having just eaten a bunch of pills and rat poison. He called the ambulance and got there in time to save her. But he told us he just doesn't know what to do or think. His girlfriend had become a Nihilist, which he said basically means she had no belief in any higher power and no hope to live for. She had family and financial problems, and is in a really hard spot right now. But as we talked with him, he told us that he believes in God because there has to be something there to give us hope. He was so overwhelmed. He called a psychologist to try to get some counseling, but they told him the earliest appointment he could set up would be in a month. He was just overwhelmed.

We testified to him from the bottom of our hearts that the Kniha Mormonova (luckily I had one on me - thank you Holy Ghost for not letting me leave my bag at home!) can help and give hope, happiness, and purpose for him and his girlfriend. We gave him the KM with Alma 34 bookmarked, and exchanged contact info to meet up and talk later on. We talked for a good 25 minutes.

After he left, Starsi Ingalls and I just walked back to our apartment in awe. We both knew we were truly led by the Spirit to him. Everything from taking back roads, to talking to everyone, even on the way back to lunch when it's tempting to just hurry back and eat, put us in his path. We have already had one lesson with him, and he is just so cool. He is 26 and speaks perfect English and Czech. He is also a PhD candidate right now in Political Science, wants to teach because he thinks helping others is more important than money, and wants to stay in Olomouc. He is just SO cool! We saw him again riding his bike on our way here to the internet cafe, and he stopped and talked for a bit. He's visited his girlfriend in the hospital, and she seems to at least be ok physically. We have another meeting set up with him tomorrow.

You know, earlier in the week I was actually a little bummed. I had just left Plzen, and just felt like I needed to be there to look after all our investigators and members there. I was wondering why I was sent here to Olomouc - then we met this young man. I am DEFINITELY here for a reason. I know that, and consider myself blessed and lucky to be serving here in Olomouc.

I love you all, and think of you daily. It's weird to think that, even across the world, life goes on in Granite Bay. It feels so far away, but when I read your emails and letters (thank you thank you thank you for those!!!), I get a glimpse of what's going on. I like that.

But the work moves on in Olomouc! I know that this is the Lord's work, and that the message that I have the privilege to share is the message that can change hearts and lives for the better. It is the doctrine upon which eternity is based. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve these good people, and in so doing, serve my Lord and my God.

Until next week - 

S laskou,

Starsi Mullen