Dec 12 Letter

Time is certainly flying. I don't know how else to really put it? It seems like years
since I sat on the couch and watched sports center till I couldn’t keep my eyes
open, or even forever since I had that really, really good heavenly bread cheese/
meat open sandwich combo dad made me as my last supper haha. But at
the same time it feels like yesterday I was working on the dock with good ol
slicer ( Kelly adds: that’s Connor Tice) and fooling around up in big sky country
(speaking of! I met a guy this week, a Czech, who has been to Montana. He
was listing where he had been and I was like cool cool COOL and then after a
butchered American pronunciation [but completely correct Czechly] of Missoula
I said HEY I live close to there! it was great reminiscing. he goes fly fishing up
there! oh fly fishing :) another thing to do when I have more preparation days
(aka after the mission haha?)) anywhos!

We tracked into this HUGE ponnilok, something like 40 places in this one super
high and connected to another one so we'll for sure be back there continuing
next week haha, but I finally got a good view of the surrounding landscape!
Lovely little place. Ostrava is pretty spread out for how big/still not huge feeling
sometimes? But there are some "mountains" off in the distance some old
factories around that are all old looking and such.

I can call home for 45 min on Christmas. Hopefully you'll get an email about it
otherwise that's all I can remember haha. Funny story about Christmas. Czechs
don’t believe in God (that’s terribly stereotypical) but instead of Santa bringing
presents little baby Jesus does! That's just kinda comical I think. The lights are
up all around the namestis and stromicheks (American spelling) are all around.
It’s great.

A few experiences to send to yall:
heard my first "oh beer isn't alcohol!" hmmmm..... interesting.
had my first Czech pickle at a members house the other day. It was amazing.
(but Greg your gma's are still probably the best haha)
had a little thing called Vanochky (American spelling) its really good bread that
kinda has Christmas in the name but is sold all year round which is GREAT
cause its delicious!

I still have days where I get outside and am shocked to read something and it be
in Czech. One of those, “oh yeah remember you’re in Europe” moments. haha
I am getting to the point where I am talking to people for the second time on
trams and streets and such! Time to learn the Czech word for coincidence so I

can tell Czechs I don't believe in them and they need to hear the gospel
I started asking people what’s most important to them, common responses:
health and family! WONDERFUL but they still drink and smoke... haha goodness
me

alright awesome lesson story time!
Elder Gabrielsen and I are teaching a guy named Marek, we teach him in English
(using Czech for key vocab words) he wants to practice English so we talk about
the gospel with him and it's working like a charm! We had such a great lesson
with him this week! oh my goodness it was good. He is such a great guy and
pretty dang funny too! He likes the Book of Mormon (which is fantastic) because
he can see the things from it in his life. OF COURSE it's great tho. He comes
to each lesson with so many questions its great! realized this week I love being
asked questions. But that's another story…

It's time for the other story! We had a great day Saturday which was capped with
a lesson with two new people we're meeting with! I talked to him while we were
singing out on the namesti (super cold but i was all wrapped up so i was a okay).
He came with his girlfriend and they asked us how we came to believe in God.
It was a perfect opportunity to bear my testimony about eternal families (the first
little bit of the gospel that I knew). It was a great lesson and the spirit was so
strong! We gave them copies of the October Liahona magazine about the Book
of Mormon cause they had questions about prophets. Great thing about that
issue is it has the words of all kinds of prophets in it! super!

Another amazing thing happened on Saturday, we got a call from one of our
guys we were going to meet with a first time canceling, or rescheduling rather,
only to get a call a few minutes later that he could meet! (thanks for the prayers
everybody on Saturday especially haha) we had such a great lesson and he is
just super ready for the book of mormon. He said with the bible he can just open
it and the answer to his problem is right there! I was thinking I should ask him to
read Alma 32 cuz the same thing happens to me! I opened the Book of Mormon
and boom Alma 32 was right there. I didn't need to be told by the holy ghost a 3rd
time so I asked him to read it. We'll see how that goes this week I guess! I’ll be
holding my thumbs like crazy! haha

Czech phrase o the week: horska draha literally mountain track, means roller
coaster haha like missionary work

Thanks so much for all the emails and such :) i sure do love yall!

Dean

Dreaming in Czech (11/23/11)

November 23, 2011

FAMILY!

wow! so much has happened. firstly i apologize. normally we email on Mondays i promise even though you've only received one email from me on a Monday. our preparation day was changed for thanksgiving. :D secondly: can you send me easy potato recipes. i realized i don't really know how to cook potatoes, but we have a nice nice kitchen (oven, stove w/4! burners :D) and micro and such i just don't know what kinda such to get. slash when i go grocery shopping i can't read any of the labels! hahaha but don't worry. that certainly hasnt' kept me from eating. the food here is pretty dang good. i had my first fried cheese. and needless to say i was not disappointed :) tee hee. but on to the work!

thirdly it's thanksgiving. and since i'm all the way over in the Czech Republic i decided you have to send me all what you say at the table you are thankful for and i'll send what i would say haha (this homework is due by Monday so i can read it) I am thankful for... wow. so many things. family is probably the top. followed closely by the gospel. followed somewhat less closely by the MTC's Czech program (otherwise i'd go nuts out here not being able to speak to anybody! haha) family! i'm thankful that i was surrounded by loving people and such great examples. The gospel for me is so family oriented, so i would say it's been a blessing to be teaching some of the people i'm teaching because i get to recognize moreso the other parts of the gospel. so at the table i would probably say family. slash emailing. cause i love all your emails. they are HILARIOUS. and informative. like.. like.. that awesome baked French toast. the perfect blend of tons of stuff that you just get super happy while eating haha.

nextly there is not enough time to say everything so probably it will leak to next weeks (only in 4 days i think haha) but just know the work is, right now, best compared to a roller coaster. except a really exciting one becuase i haven't had any lows hahahaha ex: i got confused for somebody from the Czech Republic after saying some sentence to a Czech person (that made my week) but then trakting later that day i said hi and a few other things, and the guy at the door said nothing in Czech, rather immediately called his daughter who spoke English.... so it's two sides. yesterday, i set up my first appointment with somebody on the street completely in czech with no help from my companion. it was amazing. kinda crazy actually. i don't know how to describe it. then later last night i started talking to someone else and just blacked completely. it was kinda bad/embarrassing? but we had a great laugh about it later haha. Czech is starting to sound natural to me (i hear English and it's like whoa! then i hear Czech on the tram and it sounds normal i guess? i dunno how much sense that makes)

I HAD MY FIRST DREAM IN CZECh. that was prolly too much hype. but it was kinda a big deal for me cause i hear that's kinda a big step when learning a language? no? it was kinda silly though i was at some sporting event back home and i hear people saying děkují and prosím and i was like hey! that's Czech! why do you speak Czech?! nobody here

…

sorry i sent that last one becuase some flashing thing came up and told me i had a few seconds left but i guess it was a false alarm. but yeah. it was a cool dream haha then i woke up and realized i had much much Czech still to learn haha. in other news the best golf course in the Czech Republic is 30 min away. how do i know this? may have to wait for next week cause i have no time now haha. but i will write much more in a few days, til then, dobrou chut!

elder stimpson

Can You Decipher the Czech Code?

DEAN'S FIRST LETTER FROM CZECH

so im in the czech rep on a wild czech keyboard goodnesss gracious. we don´t have much time becuase i guess zou have to be a student or registered or something. but it was absolutelz fantastic to talk to zall on the phone and wow is it nuts here exclamation point. i will learn how to tzpe on these dang things i promise. but mz companion is awesome. elder gabrielsen. hes been here two transfers and his cyech is awesome and hes helping me contact and such. can i understand much cyech question mark no. but have i said things while were contacting question mark. zes. and it§s ywesome whoooo oh goodness. its reallz awesome here and i will certainlz remember everzthing to saz next time when we have more time to tzpe and such and ill also send zou more pictures. OH im serving in ostrava. it§s beautiful slash industrial. i havent seen all of it but i hear thez speak super fast cyech here so im gonna get reallz good fast i hope hahahahaha oh goodness. anzwhos its super nuts here. were alreadz having success. we spent some time contacting in the naměstí and got some numbers and set up some lessons super big smilez face. i promise ill figure out the stinking whatever thezre called on theses kezboards. goodness me. its reallz nice here and this week we have district conference so ill get to see good ol elder durrant from bzu. thatll be a blast exclamaition point. OH elder gleue is also in ostrava. we have quite a zoung district. im green elder gleue is green. mz trainter is in his 3rd transfer and elder gleues trainer is actuallz prettz old. but in the other companionship one elder has been out just under a zear and the other is in his second transfer. oh man am i excited to start teaching exclamation point.

grannz thanks so much for the ties exclamation point. thez were perfect exclamation point. how did zou know i had no purple ties question mark. and uncle pat thanks for the goodies. we had a nice leaving feast with them and thez were much appreciated.

anzwhos sorrz i dont have to long but i will write more next week for sure and send some pictures also exclamation mark oh zes. it§s gonna be awesome exclamation point.

til then i sure do love zall¨

starší stimpson

Dean Arrived!

Greetings from the Czech/Slovak Mission Office!

Elder Stimpson has arrived safely in Prague with a smile on his face! We are sending a picture of him and President and Sister David Irwin. He will be taken on a tour near the Mission Home and then finally allowed to sleep. He shall be one sleepy young man! This will speedily allow him to acclimatize to our time zone.

Tomorrow Elder Stimpson shall meet his Trainer and begin loving the people of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We are glad he is finally here. We shall take good care of him and the Lord will watch over and protect him.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

Sister Diane Bohne

Czech/Slovak Mission

Executive Secretary

2013061@ldschurch.org

Leaving for Prague (odejde do Praha)

Dean leaves tomorrow for Praha (Prague). I know he must be eager to go to the land he has been called to serve in, after studying Czech for the past 9 weeks. Today, President Clark called to tell me that his son-in-law, who teaches Czech at the MTC, said:

"Elder Stimpson is one of the strongest missionaries we have EVER had. I had the chance to see him and listen to him give a discussion and he is one of the most fluent Elders we've seen in a long, long time! He's doing just great with the language.
"Elder Stimpson is so sharp. Everyone who works with him thinks he is just phenomenal!
He is really outstanding."

If you'd like to write to Dean, his address will be (98 cents postage):

Církev Ježíše Krista Svatých Posledních Dnů

Elder Dean Stimpson

Milady Horákové 85/95

170 00 Praha 7 - Holešovice

Czech Republic – Europe

Dean leaves this Monday, November 7, 2011 for Prague. Here is the scoop on sending mail:

Mail to the Czech Republic (rules of the US Postal Service DO NOT apply to the Czech Postal Service).

It is best if missionaries receive letters and packages at the Mission Home in the name of the Church instead of the Mission. Friends and family should use the following address:

Církev Ježíše Krista Svatých Posledních Dnů
Starsi Stimpson
Banedniho 1 (accent on i)
Praha 6 160 00
Czech Republic - Europe

~ Tell your family and friends to put the name of the Church on the FIRST line and then the Missionary's name on the SECOND line. If not addressed correctly, it most likely will not be delivered to the mission office. The postal service will not forward mail. Mail will be delivered to the missionary two or three times a month outside the Prague Zone. In the Prague Zone you can usually get mail as it arrives. The Mission President will bring your mail to you when he comes for interviews or conferences if you are in other areas.

~ Regulations have also changed regarding the value of packages mailed from the United States. The total value of the package should be approximately $28.00.

It is difficult to claim packages that are sent as follows:
• Fed-Ex, UPS or DHL
• Insured
• Valued with a high dollar amount
• Complicated or high value contents

If we receive a package as listed above, it may be delayed for a month or more! There will probably be a duty charged for at least the amount of the value of the contents, or it may never be delivered.

~ It is best to send packages regular air mail or in a Priority Flat rate International box or envelope that you purchase at the post office. Keep it simple. We receive most packages within a couple of weeks and in good shape if they are labeled and sent properly. Boxes for missionaries arrive several times a week.

If you want to get your packages in a timely manner, make sure your friends and family do not insure or declare a value of more than $28.00!

***Missionaries write to their families each week. They should limit correspondence with others. Missionaries may communicate with their family by email, according to approved guidelines. Use only myldsmail.net, the filtered service established by the Church. Use email only on preparation day. (Missionary Handbook)

Halfway Through the MTC

October 4, 2011
Dear Family,
…
I had probably the coolest teaching experience of my life this past week.
I asked some questions of our investigator and got a good idea of his life and some idea of what he could use. I flipped open the Book of Mormon to 3 Nephi 12:48 and knew right then that he needed to hear it. I started speaking and to be honest I couldn't tell you what I said cause I'm pretty sure I blacked out haha.

I compared the scripture in 3rd Nephi with the similar one in Matthew 5 "be ye therefore perfect" and just explained to him that our Heavenly Father expects us to do our best. Referencing the 3rd Nephi scripture I explained to him that Heavenly Father doesn't expect him to be perfect today, tomorrow, in 5 years or even in 50 years. He expects us to make continual changes in our lives for the better and work to strive to be like him. And that only Heavenly Father and ourselves know when we are trying our best. Having that experience only made me want to study the scriptures and gain insights even more! It was amazing having words that flowed from my mouth. I felt like I was flying.

In other news the more I learn Czech the more I figure out how careful I need to be while speaking. For example, the words for sacrifice and lunch are quite similar: oběd and oběť. I’m pretty sure in a lesson I explained that Jesus made and lunch for us. And afterward asked the class if they would like to go to sacrifice.... haha. I'm sure those experiences will only increase as I figure out more words.

…Love, Elder Stimpson

How to Send a Christmas Package to Dean

Mail packages early!  Please write "Silver Bells" on the outside of the package and then we will know that the package is for Christmas.  Address all packages:

Cirkev Jezise Krista Svatych Poslednich Dnu

Badeniho 1

160 00 Praha 6

CZECH REPUBLIC

On the bottom right hand corner of the package please write “1216” (the number that we assigned to Elder Stimpson).

 Regulations regarding the value of packages mailed from outside of the European Union:

(1)The total value of the items within the package must be LESS THAN 28 DOLLARS.  If you need to send more than that amount, split it into separate packages.

(2)The number you write on the box that declares the value of the items contained, must be LESS THAN 28 DOLLARS

(3) Make sure that you DO NOT write the value of anything in the box as 0 dollars. Everything has value.

If we have to claim a package from UPS, FedEx, or insured mail it may be delayed for a month or more, there will probably be a duty charged, or it may never be delivered.    It is best to send packages regular air mail or in a Priority Flat rate International box or envelope that you purchase at the post office. We receive most packages within a couple of weeks and in good shape if they are labeled and sent properly.

If you want to get your packages in a timely manner, make sure your friends and family follow the above regulations and rules!

                                    

Videt, Vedet

Hello Family!

This week flew by. I think most of them are going to, but this one went by especially fast. It's amazing how long the days seem getting up at 6:30 (still waiting for my body to get used to that :)) but how fast the weeks fly by! had a new bunch of elders come in this week! one of whom is from Lethbridge! so look for some Cook's with a 22 or so yr old mish out here! i think he's going to North Carolina or something.

The devotionals this week were great...learned about paying tithing and obedience. It's amazing how many times tithing pops up in the old and new testaments. it's great. and obedience is like a well-located fastball. You know it's coming but it get's ya every time (and by get's ya i mean i learn something new every time : ) )! In the form of language this past week my companion and I taught a native Czech in the TRC (where we basically teach RM's [since nobody speaks Czech :)] ) It was amazing! incredibly fast speaker but somehow we still understood and were able to get the spirit and teach he and his bud a few things about the BOM! He's playing hockey at BYU so i had to tell him that i love hockey, began playing on my move to MT, it was just a huge blast and now i want to have a Czech pday so i can play hockey with them :) Other cool things as far as the language goes. I don't know if I've told you before but i had another experience confusing "to know" and "to see" in Czech this past week. vídět and vědět. they are so stinkin close and i thought our investigator was wondering why she couldn't see the holy ghost but was rather wondering how she could know she was feeling the holy ghost. good fun! haha but that paled in comparison (well kinda... teehee) to an unnamed person in the district who, in a prayer one day, asked God to bless us to overcome life's many cookies. rather than life's many challenges :) another elder in the district and i love the word for cookie so we often promise them as blessings when we are practicing conversing in Czech druing class. "if you pray everyday i will bless you with cookies" (we took a little liberties with the subject of a few sentences and i think we made some real good material haha)

Good to hear about ASU and Brock. i sat back in class on Saturday and thought to myself, whoa! my fam is in slc... then i realized i was getting of task and had to get back to reading more Czech haha. I have been seeing a ton of people around which is just a blast becuase we're all learning different languages! a bunch of guys from the hall are here so it's great catchin up with them, and Matt Anderson, whom ya'll know, got here a week or two ago so it's been great seein him around too! only wish i had gym with him so we could play soccer and bball together haha. I'll be sending some pictures home soon. i'm just figuring out the details of getting them and such. And sorry today's email is kinda short but they keyboard was set to Spanish keys again and this time i actually know how to change it so i did. then realized i didn't, so i tried. then my comp helped me so i got it hahah. anywho's teaching went pretty dang well this week. as of Monday morning i am now the senior companion... i don't really know what that means in the MTC cause we split the work and decision making pretty dang well haha. This past lesson while my comp was talking i felt like i should say something in particular about what he was saying. And two seconds later he said exactly what was on my mind. it was awesome. really fun to see how we're progressing. OOOOH one pretty funny thing.

so when we study language it's on this program called TALL: tech. assisted lang. learning? i think? but we record ourselves and can then play it back and critique ourselves! so elder gleue and i (pronounced gloi-yay) were recording ourselves and then i yawned.... so i recorded the yawn by accident. but since theyre contagious he yawned, and recorded that by accident too. and after listening to them over and over we probably made ourselves yawn close to 25 times. no joke. it was awesome. our teacher even came over wonder what the commotion was, and as a result, she yawned too! hahahaha


times up but i love ya'll and can't wait to hear how everything is!

Elder STimpson

Dean's First Email home

Excerpts from Dean's first email (Sept 13, 2011):

WOW! Where to begin.  SO much has happened. Czech is awesome. …

My companion is awesome, way cool guy, like 6'8" or so, so naturally we make the perfect companionship cause if we're ever in a crowd I ask him if he can see our district or to stand up so they can see him! haha

I got called as district leader! :D that's kinda neat… The other elders in my district are awesome (2 other Czechs and 2 Slovaks) and the sisters are amazing. They’re so motivated and cheerful all the time! It's amazing. Czech is super neat. The district is gonna start speaking only Czech Sunday so I'll have to let you know how that goes for the next email.

Wearing the name tag is so cool! especially since now I can read the Czech haha …

I love you guys! a TON! it became very very clear that I wouldn't be here or doing well at all without what ya'll  have done for me.

My companion and I are teaching our first "progressive investigator" Stepan (pronounced ShTYEPan, so naturally I have way too much fun saying his name) and we are learning Czech kinda well?  the first lesson was crazy but by now we're becoming much much better at adjusting the words we know to fit his needs.

I don't really know what Czech to say for ya'll but I guess my favorite words are spolecnik (with an accent over the c that I don't have the time to look for) which means companion and then Do toho! which I think means let's go!  Czech is soooo cool.

Czech hymns are awesome. We sang ‘Master the Tempest is Raging’ the other night in the room and it was pretty dang rough! That song is tough enough in English but when tempo is cut in half to allow for reading a language we've only heard for 5 days it becomes uber tough. but wow. I sure do love it here, tons of cool people all here for the right reasons.

Dean's Send Off

Elder Stimpson entered the Missionary Training Center today in Provo, Ut.  After a few quick goodbyes he was introduced to an energetic bunch of missionaries and off he went.  What a great way to start off.  The last face he gave us was one of excitement - all smiles!  As ever - our upbeat Dean.

Dean thought it would be a good idea for his family to keep a blog as a way for his friends and extended family to keep up with him while he's away.  We will be posting pictures he sends along with letters and updates he gives us from week to week.  Please bookmark this page and check back often.  You can write Elder Stimpson at this address for the next 8 weeks before he departs to Prague. He would love to hear from you.

You can also write him a free 'same day' letter at DearElder.com - use the information below as reference when you get there.


Elder Dean  Stimpson
MTC Mailbox # 111
CZE-PRA 1107
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793


(once in Prague)
Mailing address after mid-November:

Elder Dean Stimpson
Czech Prague Mission
Milady Horákové 85/95
170 00 Praha 7
Czech Republic

A fitting and a meeting

A few days before Dean departed we went to get a new suit for him.  He was advised to bring one suit for the next two years.  We ended up at Nordstrom in Salt Lake City.  Having selected the suit, we went in with Dean to the alterations area, and the tailor showed up a few minutes later.  He asked Dean, with a thick accent (sounded like Russian): "Would you like cuffs, or no?"
We asked him where he is from, he said, "Prague."

We were speechless! Here it is - one of the first of God's "tender mercies" to Dean, the missionary: putting in his path a gentleman who used to live in Czech, and whose sisters still do. Our conversation with him was very interesting!