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
