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
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
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!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
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
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
Sunday, October 2, 2011
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.
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