So yes, the subject box is written a little different - it's written in the Praha accent! They tend to pronounce an "-y" at the end of words as more of an "-ej" and I just love it. So yes, a little insight into the Prague way of speaking!
I'm excited to be emailing you and can only imagine how truly excited you must be to be going to Boston! Wow, what fun - please give my best to Christers and Jenna and little Landon. How amazing that he is growing so much. I thoroughly look forward to seeing him and getting to know him. And it sounds like he'll have a couple fun toys to play with there! Please give him a big missionary handshake from his favorite missionary uncle!
Life in Praha is amazing. Elder Coleman and I are getting along great and have a blast with each other in the service of the Lord. After emailing today we are going to teach a wonderful family in the branch. They are from America and live here for work and we look forward to introducing them. Another investigator is amazing and we are very excited to teach him again. He has such wonderful questions and is really seeking, which makes it a dream to teach him. After our lesson we are going to Můstek (Moo-steck), the big shopping part of the center to go backpack and suit shopping to hopefully find matching suits. Then later on tonight we are going to visit a Ukranian family in the branch. We are excited to visit them and look forward to a wonderful day.
So before I continue, I thought I'd answer some questions!
1) How were your investigators this week? Any new news there? - Yes! We have been so blessed with people to teach this last week and it is wonderful. I think I told you in the last email about one of our investigators, and we met with him again yesterday. We are now using a baptismal calendar to plan all he needs to do to be prepared for baptism. We can tell he has a burden on his spirit from things he's done in the past and it is so amazing to testify to him that he can leave all the pain behind with baptism. It fills me, and hopefully him, with great hope. In our lesson with him, the member who brought him to church bore the sweetest testimony where he just said "listen to them - can't you see how much they care about you? This is God's way of reaching out to you and helping you." It was a sweet experience and it was so amazing to see the love and concern he had for his friend.
We haven't met with another one before today, so I'll give you an update next week!
We also had a great lesson with 2 new investigators. I spoke with one of them on the metro a couple weeks ago and we finally set up a meeting and he brought his younger brother. They are fantastic and we are meeting them again on Monday.
2) How are you liking your new apartment? Good digs? - Oh my, it is so nice. This last week we bought some new furniture (dining table, chairs, 2 desks) from IKEA and put it together and it is so nice. We're still clearing out all the cardboard and trash from putting the furniture together and after we do so I'll take some pics to send probably next week. But it's so nice! The only minor bummer is apparently the floors aren't very insulated, because this morning we found out that our excercise in the morning (jumping jacks, etc) was keeping the person below us awake! Oh no! We apologized and now have to find another place/way to get in our 20 minutes of cardio every morning during the winter months when it'll be too cold to go outside. So we'll see!
3) How will you get general conference there? Is it delayed like last time? We will miss having you, especially at Priesthood. - Yup, we'll get it all a week later. The translation department translates it all during the week and sends out DVDs with all the sessions to the branches in the week so we can watch them. I'm excited for it! I'll miss you both at Priesthood, but have a steak or something in my honor and I'll take a raincheck.
4) Did you get our package this week? Hopefully if not it will be there soon. - I did, and wow, thanks so much! (Elder Coleman and President Irwin also thank you so much! haha) I wrote a message in the front of the Brent Topp book and took it to Brno on Wednesday, so the member who asked for it should get it on Sunday. Thanks so much!
So now for some extraordinary experiences this week:
So yesterday we had a quite interesting first! We went to dinner with this man from Afghanistan at his house. Elder Coleman met him at the visa office where he was getting it renewed and we went over to talk and share a message. It was one of the coolest dinner appointments I've ever had. After getting to know him a bit, he went to get dinner. He gave us a traditional Afghani dinner experience - He spread newspaper on the floor and brought out a pan of baked chicken and potatoes that looked delicious. Along with that he set down a bowl of plain white yogurt for each of us, along with a big bag of bread and a green salad in the middle. The only utensil we had was a spoon for the yogurt...and our hands! So he showed us how to break off a piece of the bread and just reach in and grab a piece of chicken off the bone, along with some potatoe, and just eat it all. Even the salad we ate with our hands. It was quite the experience and very fun. (pictures attached) Afterwards we had a discussion about religion and he told us all about Islam and we told him about the Book of Mormon. We invited him to church and he said he'd come in a month after he returns from a trip to visit his family in Pakistan. He was a very nice man and it was a wonderful experience.
OK, so best for last is our experience on Tuesday night! We had arranged with a member family to come and visit them and share a spiritual thought and they were thrilled! The dad is the first counsellor in the Branch Presidency and his wife is Relief Society president, and they are super solid and have a beautiful family of 3 daughters. But we got there (it's about a 35 minute drive) and found out that the last time missionaries had visited them was over 10 years ago! Wow - we felt so blessed to bring the spirit of missionary work back into their home and they were so happy to have us there and told us they were looking forward to our visit the whole day. As they started gathering their family together, the brother told us that one of their daughter's friends was here and that he'd join us for the spiritual thought. We were so surprise and thrilled and about a minute later we met a young man who is probably about 16 years old and we shared our lesson with them all about the steps of the Doctrine of Christ (Faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end). It was a wonderful lesson and they were very engaged. At the end of the lesson we asked if anyone had any questions and the friend piped up - "Back when you talked about repentance, how can you repent of something that you can't totally fix yourself?" It was such an amazing question and led into a discussion of the Atonement of Christ. We invited him to learn more and we swapped numbers, the family is bringing him to church tomorrow, and we're meeting with him next week. Wow - he is such a cool kid. The most amazing thing for me was just how natural it all worked out. There was no uncomfortability from the family about sharing the gospel, they just invited this friend to come and see for himself and learn, and he accepted. That is how missionary work works the best. I love the members here and their amazing willingness and excitement to do missionary work. Never be afraid of inviting somebody, be it to dinner with the missionaries or to church or to any other activity. It shouldn't be anything intimidating, just an invitation from friend to friend. Don't be afraid to invite, and for all who read this email who are not members, don't be afraid to accept an invitation. I have found the greatest happiness in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The invitation of the church, as Bishop Causse said, is "Come and see." It's beautifully simple.
So I will have to leave it at that. How grateful I am for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and that through the Atonement we can make right those things that we can't fix alone. I love you all and pray for you daily. Have fun together in Boston.
No comments:
Post a Comment