Gram is not doing so well

August 12, 2012

 

Ahoj, Rodino!

So this week was absolutely amazing! We taught so much and made a lot of progress with our investigators, which is such a blessing. Elder Gabrielsen and I are truly seeing lots of little miracles in this work.

 

Thank you for the update about Gram - I will be praying for her and all of you at home. I've come to realize that prayer is a lot more about changing us than pleading for Heavenly Father to somehow change His mind. I know that whatever he has in store for my Gram is exactly what needs to happen, and my prayers are just to help my will to become His (see "Prayer" in the bible dictionary, it's wonderful!). But how I do love that Gram! Please give her a hug and kiss from her favorite handsome brute of a grandson.

 

And Chris and Jenna, how fun to hear you enjoyed yourself! How I do love game nights - so much joy and fun to be had in our families. Congrats, Christers, on your 4 also! You so totally rock, and I am so lucky to call you and Jenna my siblings. Elder Gabrielsen and I have started contacting more on families and I carry around the family portrait of all of us in central park to show people. Everyone says that we look like twins, that Jenna is beautiful and that Landon is so cute. I have to agree!

 

So anyways, here are some quick answers:

 

1) What are you loving to eat lately? Do you still go to restaurants for lunch? - With Elder Gabrielsen I am eating a lot more "natural" and we enjoy cooking - we make lots of vegetables and occasionally I'll pan fry up some chicken or ground beef with some spices. Like I said, you can get almost everything here in the supermarkets (our favorites are Kaufland, Tesco, and Billa) and it is delicious. We occasionally will go to a restaurant for lunch or dinner, but most times to save time we will just go to Billa, which is across the street from the building, and pick up some fresh bread, yogurt, deli meat, cheese, and fruits and make a dinner out of that. Yummers!

 

2) How does the Brno branch differ from Prague or is it very similar in strength? Are there any Americans in your branch? - It is very similar in strength, there are lots of absolutely amazing families, but strangely only a couple Americans (I can think of 2 off the top of my head), so I guess it is a more purely Czech branch. It is wonderful!

 

3) Are you the only two elders assigned to the Brno branch? Where do the others in your zone go to church? - No, sorry for not explaining earlier, but Brno is the second biggest city in the mission! There are 4 companionships in Brno (3 elder comps and a trio of sisters), along with the Martinovi, so we are quite large and have a blast together! Bratislava is the same, all of the missionaries in the district in the same city and going to the same branch. Go Brno zone!

 

4) What will you be teaching about next in Zone Conference? - We will be teaching more about how to make teaching become a mindset, since oftentimes when street contacting missionaries will just try to set up meetings instead of just teaching the person the gospel right on the spot! So we're gonna plan a good training based on Preach My Gospel and hope it will go well.

 

5) What have you done on your p days the last couple of weeks? Any pictures? - Sorry, I haven't been as good at taking pictures at random times - in the white handbook it tells us to avoid taking pictures in proselyting clothes to avoid looking like a tourist, so I haven't been taking very many. But I'll try to snapshot a few cool moments to send home!

 

6) Obviously, how are your investigators coming along and is the baptism still on? - So our investigators are doing great! One of them is doing so great and is going on all cylinders to learn about the gospel, so to speak. He came to church for all 3 hours yesterday and loved it, so we're super excited for him. We're looking forward to another great week with him and pray that he will continue to receive answers to his prayers. We also will be having a lesson with two other investigators tonight after Family Home Evening, or Rodinny Domaci Vecer (road-dean-ee Dome-ah-tsee Vech-air), which we're really looking forward to! Other than that, we had some wonderful first lessons with new investigators last week, so we're super excited. We taught 18 lessons last week and this week we're going for even more. The work is moving in Brno!

Thanks again for all your love. I received 5 letters in a bundle recently from Marmee and Tata, along with the box - thank you thank you thank you! And what a cool pen, Tata! It's absolutely beautiful.

 

I know that the gospel is true and that Heavenly Father is mindful of all of us. How wonderful it is to be one of his missionaries!

 

I love you will all my heart and look forward to writing next week.

 

S laskou,

Starsi Mullen