Šťastný vikend vám všichni přeji!

March 3, 2012

Šťastný vikend vám všichni přeji! This week has been pretty good - (I'm getting better at typing in Czech too haha - one of the side effects of the office) and I'm excited to be able to tell you about it! Yes, I'm holding up good. How could I be doing bad when I'm a missionary of the Lord.

Oh my, Landon is so cute! Christers and Jenna sent me some pics and videos of him that I can watch on the office computers. That is so sweet that he folds his arms. It's a very interesting culture here. First of all, religion is kind of not the biggest thing here, but we established that a long time ago haha. Most kids never even think of religion because the parents haven't really either. The overriding problem I see with many of the younger generation isn't atheism - it's apathy. We've tried contacting kids around late high-school age and so many of them are just so indifferent to it all. We ask them what the purpose of life is sometimes and the overriding answers: work, have a family, be healthy. We usually grab onto the goal of having a family and try to get them to contemplate the idea of an eternal family, but it's just so hard for people to grasp on the street. I sometimes just wish I could implant the truth about eternity into their heads to give them a vision of what we're talking about, but technology isn't that advanced yet (maybe that'll be a new feature of the iPhone 5 haha). So we're working on finding the elect who will catch a glimpse of eternity, be curious, accept it and defy the stereotype. 

Some answers for the week:

  1.  Were you able to go the baptism with your recent convert and his friend?  The baptism was apparently postponed because of some understanding issues. Kind of a bummer - but I hope that she'll continue to learn and prepare for a later date!

2.  Did you get your software package yet?  Yes, I did! I'm gonna try installing it today - thank you so much, and thank Josh for me. Tell him that it will be put to good use and we'll be sure to only let it enhance the work here, not detract - I actually have our first assignment that I'll use it for already! They want to buy ad space in the tramvaj in Brno for institute, so I'm going to make an ad for that. 

3. Were you able to connect with your other contacts?  Yes! I actually just talked with him and we're going back next Tuesday! I'm excited to see them and talk with them again, and we're going to invite them to the Elder Christofferson conference. Exciting stuff!

4.  We heard Elder Christofferson is coming?  Will you have any special responsibilities with regards to his visit or the meetings?  We don't know how your internet access is but if possible his special witness testimony is posted on you tube and prob lds.org and is very well done.  It talks about gaining his testimony.  Very cool!!   Yes, he is coming! I'm so excited to hear from him. I know that he is truly a man called of God as a special witness of Him and His Son, Jesus Christ. 

5.  We are putting together your Easter box.  Any special requests...candy or otherwise?  Would you like some more boxes of sees?  How bout girlscout cookies?  They are out now...what flavors do you want?   Ooh, I'd love some Girl Scout cookies! My favorites are thin mints, samoas, and tagalongs (although I think they stopped making the samoas...sad...) But yeah, I'd love some! Another thing I'd love, if you can, is a CD with all of Cori's songs that focus on the gospel or the Savior (including the ones from her unplugged sea trek CD) - I'd love to have a CD of hers that has just all of those songs that remind me of home but still focus me on the work I'm doing to pop in at nights or in the morning. I love listening to her music! Love you, Aunt Cori!

So now for a couple stories from this week - Last saturday we went to the bone church in Kutná Hora, which was UNBELIEVABLE!!! I'll send some pics. 

We started meeting with a new referral this week, and he is just so awesome! He was a referral from a member in the branch that he invited to FHE after we met with Milan and we invited him to invite someone to the Elder Christofferson conference. But he is an awesome guy - we had 2 meetings with him this week. He came to the first meeting apologizing for not having read too much in the Book of Mormon - he only read through 2 Nefi chapter 5. We were REALLY disappointed haha. He's really bright and has an awesome desire to learn. The second lesson came as a surprise. We were sitting in the office when we got a phone call saying he was at the building. So we went across the street and talked with him - he wanted to talk because he said he thought about what we taught him a lot and he doesn't want to get baptized right now for a couple reasons, but feels like he gets a lot and will get a lot out of meeting with us, so he's going to keep meeting. We told him a bit more about baptism (we had only really introduced it and invited him in the first lesson), and told him that that is our goal as he learns  - for him to apply it into action. He accepted it really well and we told him that we were going to continue inviting him to baptism not because we're trying to force him, but because we want to invite him to partake of something that we know from experience is just so good. He told us that he feels very good around us and we had a nice kneeling prayer at the end. We have another meeting with him on Monday, which I'm excited for. He's awesome - member referrals are where it is at!!! Keep being awesome member missionaries.

 I just count my blessings every day. Any day that I have that I think is hard, I just wake up the next morning and count my blessings and marvel at how lucky I am. I love you all so much and am infinitely grateful for your support and for the power of the gospel in our lives.

Hope you have a wonderful day and week (and sweet dreams if this wakes you up as you sleep haha). I love you all so much,

S láskou, 

Starší Mullen