December 27 letter

Dear Momma - 
 

As far as wild stuff i figured since we talked two days ago i would mostly send some pictures today. so i sent a bunch. but! something AMAZING happened yesterday! the carolling was simply amazing. it was great to see the light of Christ come back into these peoples' faces as they listened to the carols. That may have been the best gift of all. BUT!

even wilder! we were walking through the namesti and elder lisonbee said hi to someone (dobry den) (it's just what we do) and the guy turned around and said, "Dobry Den!? what's that supposed to mean!" turns out he's from the states! haha it was nice to chat. he knows a little about us. was impressed and respected our decisions to come out here and teach people about christianity, and to avoid getting deep into any politics, left him with a card and said, if we can help with anything, give us a call. by the time we got to the other side of the namesti, he had run up to us and had something for us to help with! (that never happens hahah) he asked us to go sing to his girlfriend (a czech), who could say no to that! haha so we went. it was just amazing. sang to her a few carols. of course she was feeling the Holy Ghost like mad! so 1. she didn't notice our nasty accents, and 2. wanted to give us money and really anything she could. we got their address and are really excited to visit them in the future. she was getting kind of emotional as we were singing. but at this time of year who doesn't thinking about the Savior.

love ya'll tons.

Time to fly!

lovelovelove

elder stimpson

Pics: me and the penguins. not quite the same as the ones at the boston aquarium... but i'll take what i can get haha.The MTC group I came out with. At a member's house.

December 10 Letter

What a week! it's amazing firstly pictures a few more of the namesti- a nativity scene and a flying angel. that's right A FLYING ANGEL! so when reading moroni 9 or mormon 7 (or a chapter near there, no time to double check haha) it's legit. angels are real. on a more serious note, angels are real even when all of them don't come flying from a tower (ironically called the black tower) and serenely descend (zipline) across the namesti sprinkling magical-silver-good-luck-dust. but in this particular instance, the angel previously mentioned was doing all of the above mentioned acts. it was a nice little cultural event, that was just good fun.

In other news this week was fantastic. I don't know that i have ever had a week with such a wide array of everything! we had just about everything one can encounter in a week, this past week. i'll share just a few of the highlights:

on monday after emailing we just had a really good time teaching lessons. it was a great start to the week, and one of the meetings was with a man who will be preparing for a baptism on the 29th! white Christmas now takes on dual meanings haha

moving on rather breifly to give a recap before going into greater detail, on tuesday we taught about 5 first lessons. it was nuts. but really cool at the same time. we had a very wide range of lessons, from people who were super super attentive and just ready to go, to other lessons where about halfway through the guy we were meeting with realized that we were not catholics... don't really know what to say to that... and at the time we also didn't really know what to say, other than, no, we are not. we're from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. he's a way cool guy, and, although he did, after realizing we weren't catholic, say "well, i'm not so sure i should be here?" is looking forward to coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon! (sorry if the last sentence's structure is poor... my english is going down the pipes. it's baaad.)

This week was a little different cause the sisters went to prauge for a specialized training for the new missionaries, which meant district meeting was on a different day. it was a real blast, however, and this next week's is going to be even better! (i can honestly say i've never felt this good about a district meeting on a monday for the entire duration of my mission. i don't know what is up...) In food news, i had an indian dish that burned (with spice not heat, don't worry i still have my tastebuds ;), not only most of my mouth and throaht, but it honestly felt like a barbeque in my insides. i had tried a "spicy dish" there and wasn't impressed at all (it tasted fantastic, just spicy here is a very different level than taco bell or flaming hot cheetos) so i decided to try the "really spicey dish"... i realized something was up when it was served on a platter that came with a candle underneath, heating it, and also maintaining it's spicey hotness. goodness me. learning experience. on the bright side at least i had some complimenting come from the cashier, when, upon saying what i'd ordered, he replied, "oooh, strong man" now i can say that having the receipt with that quote on it, is worth whatever my digestive tract was feeling on wednesday.

we've seen some really cool teaching experiences lately with asking questions. it's amazing how much a question can teach, completely on it's own. we're all trying to work on better question asking, and it's really showing in our teaching. i just love it. As with all teaching skills, the best example is the Savior. I couldn't be more happy for his example. This past week the testimony of the Book of Mormon grew. also prayer. and the realization that by living the gospel we can become very very successful people. temporally and spiritually. not that i didn't know that earlier, but it always helps to have reminders :)

in other news everything else is great! plan on another tape for christmas and something in the mail either by christmas or new years (we'll see how the holiday mail is haha)

love ya'll tons! especially you momma!!!

got your mail this past week! i'll write back asap. love love love

elderstimpson

December 4th Letter

attached is a picture on the namesti, it looks completely diff now (there was a tree-lighting over the weekend) pictures of that will be coming next week :)

CHRISTMASSSSSS!!!!!

 (we say that very often now, thusly the subject)

wow. time flies. i'll work on getting a bigger email next week with more day to day details. but up to this point just know that the district caught on fire this week. it's amazing. really cool to witness. i feel really proud of them. we're seeing a ton of success and are having way too much fun.

love ya tons and tons.

elderstimpon

November 26 letter

wow! what a week! and best part, CHRISTMAS!!!! (elder hansen and i are having way too much fun in the christmas spirit. way too much fun. elder lisonbee was hesitant before thanksgiving, but now he has joined in the fun :) lets be honest, one of the many purposes of thanksgiving (along with initiating the winter coat phenomenon (i'm going to see if it happens this year haha) also letting us know when to start celebrating christmas. but it was so early this year that, that threw me off, and then in the czech rep, thanksgiving isn't a holiday, so they just start whenever they feel like it. the decorations are up around town (i'll try to get some pictures) and christmas is nearly in full swing. fun fact-i don't know if you remember, but instead of santa here they have jezisek, pronounced... that's a toughie actually. it's like ye-shee (but with a more z sound) and then shek at the end. like shrek but without the "r". and a popular song here is "uz se zase tesime na jeziska" which, translated, is we're already looking forward to little jesus. or something along those lines. i'm no good at translating.

anywho's that's tons and tons of fun. we're just pumped for christmas.

some amazing stuff happened this week- on the train of running into people that we don't normally run into- we found a guy that we've been trying to set up with for along time (he's about to be a branch president) when we were out doing some finding this past week. it's tough to describe in detail, but pretty much the Lord can be as specific as to tell us what street to go on and when to do so. it's awesome.  we had quite a few first lessons this week with people, which was wonderful because we got to practice our teaching with elder hansen a lot! i just love threesomes. aside from having way too much fun, we're also working super hard, which is great :)

thanksgiving was great. i think i said some of what we had already. but it was some indian chicken and bread (delicious) and some czech desserts (you really can't go wrong). and then in the spirit of america we had some cranberry juice (that is one of the few "american" items sold at the grocery store during "american week..." apparently we just eat sweet popcorn, chicken, oven pizza's, and drink cranberry juice and milkshakes..... while that's not entirely false... i do get a nice laugh out of the stereotypical national foods. (i had a sesame seed bar... really just strait sesame seeds and a lil honey turned into a granola bar.. and apparently it's greek! go figure!)

as far as the spirit goes, this week was amazing. we had, at family home evening, the commitment to strengthen our testimony of the restoration. so a saturday of preparation and prayers was spent, and sunday was a beautiful day. it's just amazing. it started with the sacrament (there is a picture of the first vision at the back of the chapel/multipurpose room where we have the sacrament) just one of those powerful moments where you pick up your head from a prayer or reading something, see a picture, and then get that warm/fiery/amazing feeling inside and you just start smiling (or i did... which was good). that was really cool, but then it just came back to the simplicity of our testimony and all of the simple, wonderful truths that the restoration brought back, like the real identity of God and all kinds of great stuff. it's wonderful.

time to fly

November 19 Letter

pictures: fredy is a liquidator. i dunno if you can see the pictures but it litterally says it will destroy everything. from hair to nails to food to pets (it actually has a picture of a dog on it! WHAAAA it's nuts!) to hands to anything and everything. needless to say whatever was in the tub drain is no longer there hahaha

the other is a picture from a big shaky bridge here. it's super fun. it was from last week (sorry if i sent it already) and i can't tell if i'm making a funny face-i apologize if it's too nuts ;)

SO president threw us for another curveball, transfer week was a little differnet, which for missionary work is wonderful (we can really hit the ground running (and we certainly will) rather then losing a week between getting ready to leave and then getting back settled in. the big news regarding transfers is.....

it'll be christmas in ceske budejovice! :D i'm stinking excited. elder lisonbee is staying (that was pretty set. he is branch president after all haha) and... both the sisters are staying. (sister sears for all transfer, and sister bean only for a few weeks, she wasn't quite ready to head home :). in other news! we're getting new missionaries here as well! elder hansen is coming from ostrava- he's my companion from brno two transfers back, and the sisters are getting a sister fresh from the training center. it's been so long since i've been around greenies i mean new missionaries. goodness me. elder hansen is already here. we've got a few lessons today, so like i said, we're hitting the ground running.the sisters are going to prague tomorrow to pick upthe new sister, and the district meetings begin on thursday! it's really great. we're looking forward to it! it's going to be the best transfer to this point for sure.

in other news, as far as last week goes, we had some really killer lessons. and really cool stuff happen! we got in touch with a few people with whom we'd lost contact, which was a relief and a blessing.

we had a training in prague this past week which was great! it's going to be nuts traveling up there this upcoming transfer becuase there will be 3 of us staying over at the office elders, who are two elders that i was serving around in ostrava! (elder clyde, love the guy, and elder knapp, he's just great) so that'll be something to look forward too. the training was great. we learned a lot about understanding. and we also heard the mormon message about sanctifying ourselves, from elder holland. it was a great conference. and we took away some really great stuff. i'm just really looking forward to this transfer. and the best aprt is that it's already here! i don't even have to wait another two days haha

sunday was maybe one of the most spiritual sundays in a very long time. we heard a talk from a member from Hradec Kralove (kinda like a high councelor kinda thing but at the branch level, i dunno what that's called.) but he gave a wonderful talk about how to endure to the end. he had one example that i really enjoyed, how some group of people, i can't remember who or where, would go to great lengths to have visions or guidiance or something, and by great lengths they took drugs or had some wild rituals... to be honest i didn't really understand the great lengths... cause it was many words i don't understand. needless to say that they had to do some things that are wild. while, with the gift of the Holy Ghost, we are entitled to personal revelation as long as we remain worthy of it! what a great blessing! it was great. then he sait some really motivating things that were just straitforward and blunt. he pretty much just said, start today. change today and start making and keeping covenants with God, today. one thought that he shared that i really really liked (it's so true) was that "the goal of our life is not to get baptized and just come here to church every sunday" which while it is a great thing to do (necessary, even) isn't the limit of our vision. he really emphasized the temple (which we love as missionaries :) and how there are so many things that we can enjoy after baptism, how the gospel really is a way of life that is increasingly rewarding as we continue and increase. it was great. can't write the rest of the notes i took.

then we had preisthood, which i was really lucky to teach :) it was chapter 20 in the G. A. smith manual. it was just great and i could really feel the spirit guiding the lesson and teaching the students. just wonderful.

anywho's i could write all day about the spiritual experiences that are happening. but shortly said, miracles are happening. martin (a guy from my first transfer if you remember :) got in touch with missionaries in prague!!!!! so i'm really keeping my fingers crossed that he can start meeting with them and start feeling more of the Holy Ghost. it's amazing how much feeling the presence of the HOly Ghost means. i'm still learning about all the good stuff :) goodness me. anywho's with all the rambling i've done today i think we know why i don't have htis much time to normally write hahaha cause i get nowwhere. sure do love ya'll tons (we're planning on a trip to hluboka super soon, so you can acutally be jealous now haha)

love YOU momma. i sent a package last pday. lemme know when it gets there. has a tape. variety of chocolate- muzete mit cokoladovou ochutnavku (you can have a chocolate tasting :) and many ties. sorry about the ties. but i had to get rid of them without throwing them away haha. oih and also some letters in there. i hope the pile isn't super huge of htoest. i just don't know what else to do with them. i can't carry themn around but don't wanna just toss them. i am open to ideas! haha

love you tons and tons momma.

all the way to the otherside of the moon and back.

elderstimpson

November 5th Letter

time is flying. literally. but to be honest don't know if flying even cuts it anymore.

 

attached is a picture of the burgers... and our comp jackets. we about died after eating them. and aside from my somewhat traditional (i don't want to call it a tradition cause it's bad and i don't do it regularly enough for it to be traditional) chocolate tasting we ate nothing for the rest of the day hahaha :/ (it'll be a while before we go back for that one haha) goodness me.

 

 

 

otherwise this past week was just amazing! wow! firstly we just got into contact today with a member with whom we had previously lost all contact :/ so that was a great blessing and elder lisonbee and i are really looking forward to getting back into contact with her and getting her back into the branch!

 

it's seems like a year ago we were prague for visas. but yeah that happened. it was a blast. and we'll be back in two weeks for a training haha so yeah. speaking of the future! we'll prolly go to hluboka next week for preparation day. so google it and then be super jealous (but not to the point of envy, that's bad) cause from what i've seen/heard it's like a disney castle, except real.

 

this past week was just nuts. super nuts! we were watching president monsons talk during lunch on wednesday (we finally got to the sunday morning session in english haha... only one or two more meals of movie watching and we'll be done! haha.. .them we can start over! hahaha) but seriously i love general conference. but yeah. we were watching presidnetm monson's talk and i decide i need to journal better (more prayers being answered, goodness do those happen often!), and also that i need to notice more promptings... during the talk we get a ring on the door (this normally doesn't happen) by some people that want to come in and talk.... we had some things to do right after lunch so i was worried to say yes, so we instead set up another time with them... we shut the door and i realized i had blown it! we were watching a talk pretty much all about listening to promptings of the spirit, and a prompting comes and literally rings the doorbell, pretty much did everything except verbally saying, "hello, i'm a prompting of the spirit, teach me the restored gospel." the good news is that as real as promptings of the spirit are, repentance is also real. so upon seeing that they had gotten around the corner and not wanting to actually chase them down (that'll be a little much) we just called them and said that our plans had changed and that we could meet with them. which was nice cause it gave us time to plan for them and get some russian stuff from the drawer. (they asked if we spoke russian. which eather means that they speak it, or thought that we were from russia, which is a step up from england/america [there is an accent heirarchy and england/america is at the bottom. then poland. then slovakia. then czech]. right now i'm still at america. but i did get an "armenia" once. no idea where that came from.

 

in other news just everything is going great! something else really cool and quick was that we ran into some really cool people at the kolejs (pronounced coal- eh's. like a canadian eh. kinda. except with a czech accent i guess). or dorms rather, at the university here. it was really really cool. and elder lisonbee and i are really looking forward to the lessons we'll have with them in the future! :)

 

otherwise momma please do NOT send me any warm stuff. i love you past the sky (olivia is a cutie!) and as soon as i need anything. i will write it down and send it to you. till then i have more than enough stuff and yeah. after helping a member move last week i'm back in the "get-rid-of-all-my-stuff" mode. so the garbages around our place are full haha.

 

anywho's love ya tons and tons!

elderstimpson

October 29th Letter

this week was nuts. so so so much stuff.

lenka is doing better and better with reading daily! which is awesome. she's just great. really loves reading and learning about the gospel. a real blessing to be teaching her.

the end of the week was the most nuts 4 days ever. starting thursday night we went to prague for a training on friday amazing training. i'd send you the notes if i had them. goodness me it was great. like general conference all over again! friday night got back for some lessons, then saturday helped a member move (it was raining buckets :D hahahahah goodness gracious. then we had a halloween party which was really really great. had plenty of people there and they really enjoyed themselves! it was super wild. just nuts. not enough time to talk all about it haha. sunday had church. then went back to prague for visas! which went well. so now we're back in cbud for the day and have a lesson super soon so i have to go. sorry for the wildly short email. i'll get more next week. but till then have tons of fun momma. hope this week goes really really well. (elder lisonbee and i have a great looking week ahead of us :)

we did have a really cool experience that i'll write quickly about. as missionaries we baptize people. which means we invite people to be baptized. we had one guy who we were a little worried to invite because from what we knew about him he is super active in his church, (he's a great guy i love him to death) but we were gonna pull out all the stops. The assistants gave us a commitment to present people with a calendar to set goals and things to prepare for baptism, which was another step up for this guy too. needless to say we were nervously excited for this lesson. then came the big day. we practiced the heck out of it during studies, and the lesson came around and it went super super well! we even got some really good concerns and questions from him to address in later lessons. basically we got blessed like crazy for being obedient even when we were somewhat nervous about being bolder. and another lesson taken, my companion is the man. love him

love ya tons momma can't wait to hear from ya next week!

til then (the vanocka looked delicious :)

lovelovelove

elderstimpson

October 22 letter

this week was nuts. quick highlights: new people like crazy. zone leaders came down for an exchange. huge progress with our investigators. million dollar questions like crazy! and last but not least, even more greatness to look forward too this week! :D

yeah. so firstly. the picture is of the library where we email. everytime i walk past the boulder and say to myself, wow! that is a big rock! (in czech of course, so it's jejda! to je opravdu velky kamen!) it's good fun. also the first picture after my haircut today. there are few things as dear to a missionary as a place where you can get a nice, cheap, quick haircut. it's the simple things in life :)

anywhos back to the week!

first amazing question was after english a guy we've been meeting with, who is an absolute stud, toward the end of a lesson focused on God being our Heavenly Father, asked us "what is prayer?" we've invited him to pray probably close to 5 times now... but he's all the sudden interested in it now that he understands what kind of relationship we have with God. just like in the bible dictionary- something like, (poorly quoted) "when we understand our relationship with God, prayer becomes a natural action." so true.

the next million dollar questions came yesterday. one of our investigators who has not been making huge progress asked us how he could know if the book of mormon was true (it makes missionaries smile hearing that question). so we've got great plans for him now! and in a first lesson yesterday this young couple contacted while on exchanges asked what it takes to be a member of the church. uhhhh well meet with us a few times so you can learn some commandments and basic doctrines. and a dip in the baptismal font and receiving the Holy Ghost later and then your done! haha no. we didn't say that. although wild funny responses came into my mind. it was a nice opportunity to testify of baptism and what it is. it was a really really cool lesson. we're pretty pumped for where there will go :)

the zone leaders came down for a day which was a real pleasure. they're really cool guys! PS one of them (elder osterloh) knows president fisher! from MT. he had a picture of him and i said, hold on! i know that guy! haha it was awesome. so tell the fishers hello! had a really great time with them teaching and finding and studying and all kinds of stuff. it was a blast. really learned a lot about leadership in general from them. it's weird moving zones cause you get a whole different look with new zone leaders and it's just a different identity and everything. great fun :) haha

in other news elder lisonbee may have stumbled upon the biggest burger i've seen in a while. plan on a picture of that next week... we're going to fast and then feast or maybe skip the fast and just feast :D hahahahaha

love ya'll tons. ceske budejovice is wonderful. really really love it here!!!

going to prague on friday for training then on monday for visas so it'll be a wild time! (i don't know about emailing on monday. it ought to happen but not sure yet. we'll see. love love love
elder stimpson

October 15 letter

 















I really feel like we emailed just yesterday. which is not terribly true but almost. anywho's. i'm gonna dive right into it.

starting from the beginning.

wednesday was a great day. we had a really nice district meeting and a stinking busy day. we had a few lessons on plan... taught none of the planned lessons ( a little sad, but those were taught the next day or the day after) but our day was filled with lessons that just kinda came up! i sure do love when people are spontaneous. Favorably spontaneous that is. :)

Thursday was an absolute blur. wow. i'll have to look at the journal for that one and get back to ya :)

friday was really really cool. we had a first lesson with a new kid, who reads stories like nobodies business. czech is normally pretty monotoned except for around punctuations... commas go a little up. periods go down. and question marks go way up. well this kid was like a roller coaster. and also studied the bible, so after reading a verse very intensely would pause and give a few good.... mmmmm's and oooooo's. he's a stud. we're excited to keep meeting with him the only problem is that he is only in town for a little while longer and then going back home to znojmo (a beautiful town, so i hear, south of brno, very far away.. well as far as czechs are concerned it's the other side of the country! but in MT terms it's closer than helena and just a lil farther than missoula) i love MT :)

THEN CONFERENCE.

best conference ever. can't say much more than that. we were blessed in that we watched it in czech (while i can understand the gospel somewhat well in czech... the stories and large verbs used by some apostles *cough* elder christofferson *cough* (he's my favorite, that's the only reason i'm calling him out. and cause last conference he gave a "translate that" {we listen to conference as we work out in the mornings and always laugh as the translator translates that, then chuckles a little bit... cause otherwise the translation is wonderful czech. and by wonderful czech i mean incredibly tuned to one note. :)  but yeah.) (i've lost track of how many parentheses i've used i'm sorry). anywho's i really enjoyed conference! the spirit hit me like a brick wall from the very beginning and i really enjoyed every second of it. some people said it was long (the members here are hilarious when they talk about the video [one old lady here calls it that, teehee] :)  but it was amazing i was not tired during any of it! i need to be a missionary during conference more often that's all i can say.

it was full of revelation here as i'm sure it was for all of you, fam. basically i'm grateful that our home was a place where living the gospel was easy. and i'm grateful that we have the guidance of our leaders to remind us of our commitments. it was just lovely.

oh goodness it was great. this week is looking stinking awesome too!! :D

sure do love ya'll!

elderstimpson (specially you momma!)

October 9 Letter

pictures: the first is the path elder lisonbee and i were on in tabor. went to visit some people that we hadn't heard from in ages... it was nuts. super super fun though! Haha  Number 2 may be from the train to prague (for visas)
3 is me in the jacket you got me for my bday (thanks oodles. it's awesome) in front of prague.

so the week! wow.  where to begin!
we had great lessons saw great things, but i guess i'll start with the most recent.
we went to prague for visas! went into the kostel inside of prague castle, and.... ran into a mormon couple from richmond, VA! what are the odds! haha so we got to hear about the wild conference, the announcement (don't know what to think yet, except how tough it is going to be not to name the first 18 yr old in the mission, "kid" hahaha) and about elder uchtdorfs talk. (they really like it) they also got a picture with us, so if elder lisonbee and i pop up on hte itnernet somewhere or on facebook or whatever. that's why. also we'll be going back there soon for me to get the litlte card visa guy. so that means in 3 weeks or so the emailing may be strange again.

in other news we met an american here! he's been here for two years with his wife as missionaries for another church! they plan on staying here for a long time and trying to help establish christian values. imagine ammon, with a wife, a kid, and another on the way, except without the book of mormon, and what comes to mind is this guy. i dunno if he could knock off some arms though... we'll see haha he's interested in why we move around so much because in their case it really wouldn't work...

also! wow! a lady we've been meeting with for a while is starting to recognize feeling the holy ghost, which is the coolest part of conversion. oh man. she's been doing really great and is overcoming a lot. it's a great blessing to be able to help her come closer to christ.

on the street once this week we ran into a college kid, introduced the book of mormon and told him about it, and he was like, "well how much does it cost???" so we told him, free. he than said, well what do i have to do to get it?!?! i almost made up something like, do a backflip, or 50 pushups or something. but luckily we were speaking czech, so we set up a meeting. he's a really cool kid so i'm excited to see how it goes this week.

thanks oodles for the bday cards and the post card momma. you're the best. love ya tons.
there really isn't enough time to write all the miracles that we see, but yeah. i'll write em in my journal... so just a lil patience is recquired :)

love ya oodles and oodles!!!
elder stimpson

October 1 Letter

wow. yet another week. some wild stuff happened. and it all started last monday!

we had a lesson with a woman who is just great. she's growing a lot spiritually. but yeah. last weekend was rough for her (we didn't know why, she didn't come to church and we weren't in contact) it was rough. then we tried her monday evening, elder lisonbee called and she was actually super close to the building! (she doesn't work close or live close so it was really completely by chance)... so we met. she told us what happened and to make 20 min of conversation into one sentence, pictures and momentos of her childhood were thrown away by someone. it was one of those things that i couldn't really grasp at first and didn't really know what to do... but then i remembered my family! (and i also thaught of ammon when his buddies are all worried cause something bad is about to happen but ammon is just pumped cause he's got a plan and is really excited to see the spirit at work [i can't remember if that's exactly how the story goes... but it's somewhere in mosiah i think?]) but i was reminded to every week emailing-last week in particular, and laur's email about eternal fam's. ooh. i just got pumped! elder lisonbee and i started testifying and teaching like crazy and it was just a wonderful meeting. you could've cut the spirit with a knife it was so thick.

in other news there is a town around here somewhere, that when pronounced, sounds like the mexican place chichenice... i dont' know how to spell it. haha but elder lisonbee and i were looking at where some membres live outside of town and found this place :) there are some castles around too! oh man we're pumped.

we had a training this week which was wonderful. one of the picturs is from the train on the way back. it was a really cool ride :) and trainings are just great! spent the night with the office elders (one elder i don't know too well, and another who was in ostrava my 3rd transfer there) it was just a blast. elder lisonbee and i found the coolest ties in the world. and everybody was complimentin em. (elder lisonbee has wonderful taste in ties if i may say so.) unfortunately that means the picture i sent a week or two ago is already out of date... as i have since acquired more ties...

this week is looking packed like crazy. wow. it's gonna be nuts. i'll work on more pictures so i can type less but say more. til then, love ya'll tons and tons. miracles are happing like crazy, so many that they can't be contained in this 1 hr of emailing. but know that theyre happening. daily, if not even more often :)

love love love ya momma
Elder Stimpson

September 24 Letter

big stuff that happened this week:

i am learning how to understand a bohemian accent... i will say it is different. if brno was the South in culture, then Ceske Budejovice (goodness that is tough to type!) is the south in accent. i'll leave it at that :) (the people here are fantastic as well. no worries there :)  it's super funny, normally people here think that none of their friends believe (cause very few people here discuss religion to any extent) so asking for referrals is a task to prepare for... with that being said. with the past week, literally, everybody that we have met has said, "i have some friends that share my beliefs/think the same way i do/would also be interested in the Book of Mormon/would like to learn english/etc." it's next to unbelievable. but it's wonderful. :) literally everybody. it makes teaching the masses a lot easier when they come in masses rather than having to gather them ourselves :)

sorry no pictures of the city (much easier to type than the full name :) but those will be coming. till then, it's beautifuL! wow! maybe the most beautiful city around. i just love it.

as far as the questions go, it's wonderful here. the first week has absolutely flown by! wow! it's been a ton of pounding the pavement lately, but that just means that next week is full of goodness and lessons :) the teaching that we plan a little more for haha. it's great though. i got to give a talk on sunday about the importance of keeping commandments. it was decent. i used many scriptures :) haha

my birthday was quite enjoyable. had some vanocka for lunch and svickova for dinner at the "best hotel in the czech republic" named the budwies.... and yes. budwieser beer does come from here. i'm not gonna say i joked about induldging when i turned 21... but lets be honest that joke has to be made some time (don't worry momma i'm not gonna get into any wild stuff)

i'll try to write more stories to send to yall

but till then sure do love ya momma

tell gpa happy late brithday.
lovelovelove
elderstimpson

Transfer to Bohemia

so. i'm not going to talk too much about transfers because odds are you heard most of that from the martins.
i also recorded a tape so ya'll will be getting that in due time.
wow.
wow.
wow.
first: pics. the shoe line up. i left the old guys in brno...... but don't worry dad i got the soles out ;)
the other is a good last one of me and elder stradling with a solid member who we taught with/learned with a lot :)
another is me and my junk in the car of the train... i got lazy packing (it was a lil rushed haha) so it took up more room than i like to. that and i'm pretty sure i have a gagillion ties.... maybe two gagillion.

but story time!

so as far as wild czech stuff goes, the czech way to say cobble stones is something along the lines of little-kitten-heads. so that made walking on them that much more fun.... just playing. it was just funny :) ALSO the way to say "i have two left feet" in czech-as in i can't dance (we met someone the other day who was into dance) is i have two left legs. or knees. or it could actually be feet. their anatomical terms are very general... i would hate to be a doctor here! (my leg hurts..... okay... could you be a little more specific?)

but yeah! another transfer down and wow did it go by super fast!!!!!!!!!!!!
it was an amazing week all together. really really great lessons. helping a lot of people make progress. wild business. wild getting lost-ness. wild finding out where we are-ness. i talked about a bulk of the weekend on the tape, so i'll spare you the boring details. i will say i got called for transfers during the prayer at polar bear (the name of our czech class). so my reaction to where i was going was very quite... elder durrant (the assistant who called) after telling me where I was going said.... hello? elder stimpson? you're going to Ceske Budejovice (ded guhm that is tough to spell! (i'll get the muscle memory down in no time :) hello? elder stimpson? to which i finally whispered- "diky! we're praying right now" ... it was pretty funny because an investigator of ours was there helping us with our pronounciation (bless him) so he got a first hand account of the wildness of transfers!

as far as the new district goes. i know next to nothing about cbud (much easier to type). but i'll stick to the long form :)
1. it's officially bohemia. i'm now on the other side of the country. the people here sing when they talk (or so i hear) and speak slower. hello better understanding! :D but that also means that they don't understand me as easily... ya win some ya lose some :)
2. There are really cool sites around! there is a famous photographer here who makes books about the czech republic... and very few cities have there own book to themselves... i think prague. maybe brno. karlovy vary maybe? ostrava definitely not (but i think it's a beautiful place nonetheless) but ceske budejovice has it's own. which means preparation days here are going to be killer! :) i'm excited. that's all i'll say about that.
3. that's about it.

i gotta get going to a lesson! we're teaching the last 5 ten commandments :) (good thing i know the hand signals... cause i didn't get to study them this morning (becuase of the poor packing i did last night :/ oops!

love ya'll tons!!!\
caucau
elderstimpson

September 10 letter

so all these are pictures of food :)

one is the food i just ate (when ya'll come i already know the restaurant we are going too. it's delicious. and one of us is getting this. it's a ton of food. we just finished a fast so i ate it all.... i don't recommend that part hahaha)

another is elder stradling and I with the sisters celebrating the year mark. we made halusky. it was really good and a really fun time.

the last is part of my choco collection... only part :) i forgot some in the fridge and i found a new flavor today so i had to get it :)

i'll send some more in the next email

in other food news we made hand-made milkshakes last p-day with the district. it was delicious! milk and ice cream. super simple but incredibly tasty. nothing makes a preparation day like milkshakes and watching the restoration film :) teehee

as far as this week goes: it was awesome!

we had a great lesson at the end of preparation day with some new people (they are reading in the book of mormon and really enjoy religious books) we had a great first lesson with them last week and have another meeting this week! we're super pumped. the only downside is that one is an artist, with a show coming up (so he's busy enough). but it's really worked out perfectly. it's just been miracle after miracle with those two. everything is just falling into line as if there was someone in charge... hmmmm funny having that thought while being a missionary! everything we do is for some reason or another. and it really does all build up to great events.

District meeting was really great. we focused on LOVE. becuase that's what it's all about, right? without quoting the beetles, I emphasized love as much as possible this past district meeting. and have been trying to think about it more and more as of late. it's interesting that sometimes we show love without thinking about it at all. our last dist meeting of the transfer is coming up, which is quite scary. i'm not ready for it. but it's going to come anyway (tomorrow. as if that's not soon enough) so i'm going to love it when it comes and have faith that the spirit will tell the missionaries what they need to hear rather than it coming out of my mouth.. goodness mee! haha

it was just a great week. a few more highlights:

we started a stop smoking program with a kid. his desire isn't super strong so we'll see how it goes on his end, but stopping smoking is not easy. but it is pretty stinking cool to see how the program works. i had never really done it before. he'll be coming to english tomorrow so we'll see how that goes.

thursday was prolly one of the most spiritual days in a while. we had a few lessons that were just crammed with the spirit. it was pretty cool to be a part of. and nothing really motivates you to get the spirit more than getting the spirit a little. sorry if that doesn't make sense. 

we went to sports day this week (with a member kid here who wants to go on a mission, we just got to get him consistent at church first :/ it was a blast though! we played soccer and basketball, the shot came back after a time. and i don't have much to say other than i am certainly not in the same shape that i used to be in, and my legs may be feeling it a little bit still... it was a blast though. just a blast. goodness me.

the awesome part of sunday was the talks. we heard from many young men/women this past sunday, which was really really cool. many of them had gone to the temple with their family this past week (it was like half the branch went. killer. :) it was just cool to feel the spirit of their testimonies. but the capstone was something that a young man said who's leaving on his mission in a week. his talk was full of jokes or funnies, and scriptures (i love the kid. it was great). but toward the end we got his testimony which was no doubt the highlight. he said, among other gems, "it's (the mission) is something i will look back on for the rest of my life."

it was a great sunday. we had a family there from india.. only half of them speak english. let me just say that teaching them is a real treat :) i love it.

I'm learning tons and tons every week, and if there was one thing that stuck out this week it was the importance of attitude. and today has only emphasized (sp?) it. goodness me. life really is all about how we take things.

sure do love ya'll 

(especially you momma)

p.s. i got the packages ya'll sent :D diky! a ton! the shirts are great. fit wonderfully. and the candy/stickers/pens are very much appreciated. the district loves them :) and i love them too! goodness. it really is all about love.

love ya'll again!

momma, you're the best!!!!

September 3 letter

WOW! THIS WEEK FLEW BY! BUT NOT JUST THIS WEEK! ELDER STRADLING AND I REALIZED WE ONLY HAVE ONE MORE PREPARATION DAY LEFT IN THE TRANSFER!!! EEP

sorry for the all caps. but yeah. i'll have to get better at typing now cause the time will be much more hectic hahah :)

anywho's! this week was wild! and awesome! it was quite possibly one of the best district meetings ever. i was very proud of it. in the good way, though :) we learned about how to create good relationships between ourselves and those with whom we come in contact. it was very enlightening. english class was also super super awesome again! the girl who got contacted in a bus came back! (but she went into a more advanced class.. she shoulda been there to start with we just got lucky for the extra student haha) i just gotta keep praying she'll come back again so we can start teaching her the restored gospel! :) goodness. otherwise it was the biggest english class that i've seen in ages! we had oodles of students in all of the classes, and had a really great spiritual thought as well about parenting from 1N1:1. it was nice :)

On wednesday we went over to one families for dinner- and it was just a great experience. the part that stuck out the most was them asking us what stuck out about our parents, or what made us decide to stick with living the gospel (they are converts so have yet to have that perspective really) and for both of us it was the examples of our family. it was pretty intense. there is a pretty strong spirit when speaking about families. and this evening was no exception.

we had some pretty wild days. as far as not having very much time to fool around. and by fool around i mean we had to fly around everywhere and couldn't really afford to miss our trams! goodness me.

sunday was super super awesome. the testimonies were amazing, and the spirit was just powerful. I didn't want to leave. then elder's quorum was also stinking powerful. I've come to really enjoy sundays as a great time to be uplifted by the spirit and learn some good czech while i'm at it! :)

sure do love ya momma and i'll get more organized for next week as far as getting more too ya. so don't worry about writing more or less for your emails next week. 

the most powerful point of the week was probably one particular lesson we had. the guy came a little late so we only had 15 minutes to really meet. we had planned to talk about the plan of salvation- but he hadn't read 2N2 so we started to read it with him. we met this kid a few weeks ago on the street and it has been really amazing to see his progress since that point! the meeting, much like church this sunday, was like a spiritual wall. or like a 15 minute ride down that one wild water slide at the atlantis hotel that i was too chicken to go down... someday i will conquer it! hahaha but back to the lesson. it was really neat reading with him, being able to really pick at the scriptures while reading with an investigator and the member that was there was loving it! she said 2N2 was her favorite chapter so we were all just having a ball. she pulled out some colored pencils and would start marking after we read a verse and talked a little bit about it and what it meant. i will say in the 15 minutes we didn't read the whole chapter. i think to about verse 4 or 5 (the whole chapter would certainly take much MUCH more time to digest to a deeper extent) It was just really great. it was "the vision" as we call it here in Brno. We've got a vision and we love to refer to it :) elder stradling and I have a bit of a quote wall going, and one of the first ones up there (even dating back to my second transfer in its inception) was "it's the vision starsi!" it's very important to have a vision-and to refer back to the member visit (sorry pres, you don't get to see that part of the letter) my vision is coming from members of my family :) It's become clear to me this week that the family is the center of God's plan for us. It is the reason of our coming to this earth and the reason of our existence and experiences that we gain. I am eternally grateful to God for the family he has given me. not only here in the mission field, in Brno, in the church, but most especially my family in america/canada.... we're kinda spread out :) momma- you and dad are the start of it. I couldn't have asked for better examples of dedication to the gospel. i love you tons and tons. dare i say to the moon and back :) (of course we know the moon is not nearly far enough to describe the love in our family)

sure do love ya and can't wait to hear how this week goes for ya!

love

elder stimpson

August 27 - a week in the life

Monday:Today was enlightening. it was great. did all kinds of great stuff! got some new shoes (they are awesome and comfortable. (dad would approve). :) and then we had a district gathering together at the building! we were writing letters and in people's pamatniks (like a yearbook for a mission. it's completely genious. i'm a fan).. then elder strobel suggested we take the new basketball hoop for a test run... before you could count to 10 the whole district was out there. it was a great time... just super hot. but very well worth it. we spent FHE at the branch president's house which was just awesome. he's got three kids who are all hilarious. the oldest is 9? the youngest 1 yr and 3 months. he's stinking cute goodness me. it was tons of fun going over there, and i learned tons of czech from them too!!! wow! haha it was great.

the enlightening part of the day was when we were around center and i was approached by a lady selling (or giving away rather) free cokes! chilled no less! (very few things here are chilled haha) but she approached us, made eye contact, and opened the coke all at the same time. it was impossible to say no to! and while it may seem like a small instance it was cool becuase it just clicked with me that we need to do good things for people (give them cokes) but also let them know that what we are doing is for them and not for someone else. i guess that we are being personal? something like that. but yeah it was a good day. and the coke was delicious haha

Tuesday: tuesday was wonderful. had some really great lessons. those just went well. learned some great stuff about the plan of salvation- a kid we're meeting with has wonderful questions about it, which means elder stradling and i are having a great time studying for the lessons :) the wild part of the day was most certainly english class! for the last few weeks we've had very few students. (only in our class, the other classes are doing great. i think it's becuase the range of our class is kinda in the lower middle range. and people are either beginners, or they know enough to be in the advanced class. but this week was different! a guy came who had a great time a few weeks ago, a member who is def smart enough to be in the advanced class (but she decided to check it out i guess), and a girl who i contacted in a bus a few weeks ago! it was nuts! she showed up a little early- so we gave her a building tour with sister martin (it was a miracle) i didn't recognize her at first becuase when i contacted her she was wearing huge sunglasses, HUGE hahaha. it was a really fun class though. and the spiritual thought was amazing! just cause we had people from all different religious backgrounds and all over the spectrum. it was a great experience (read mos. 2:41, beautiful verse). and it was just cool to see something happen that had been coming together for the past few weeks. really really neat. :)

Wednesday: summed in one word, today was dandy. we had some elders stay the night from slovakia which is always a pleasure! and the highlight of the day. well one of them, was certainly training. it was amazing. The assitants, zone leaders and all did a great job and it was super motivating. we did get to watch a short film: the quest for a go-getter. it's about a guy named bill something i can't remember his name. but the guy is a stud. and it's an intense movie. many many many relations to life and to missionary work and all kinds of other things in life. certainly something we'll be quoting for a long time! :) the rest of the day was great. we had studies-becoming more and more uplifting. and then we had a lesson with a member here who is just hilarious. It was great. I really enjoy teaching with elder Stradling. He cares about people a ton and it is just really clear in how he approaches his teaching.

Thursday: Thursday was wild. I don't think one thing went according to plan. and by that i mean, we planned for the day, then realized we had oodles of things to do other than what we had planned for. But it was a great day. we had a meeting with someone who we hadn't seen in a few weeks, which was just a pleasure. She's just awesome; been studying in the Book of Mormon (even has a notebook for it) and  has an everincreasing testimony of Prayer. We were talking about prayer often, and I said, Ideally we could just pray all day long without stopping (thinking of Enos and his killer experience with a long prayer:), but that it's just incredibly tough to do so. and she said that, while it would be tough, when  we  praye it's like our mind is on a higher level of thinking and concentration, and if we could keep it on such a level for a day, it'd be amazing! (reminds me of a lesson during the exchange with elder Mullen, when  we talked about focusing thoughts on God and Jesus Christ and the gospel. And the guy we were teaching said  that if he could keep focused on prayer and things like the gospel, which enlighten us, he would be the most successful  businessn man in brno! haha) we had another lesson with a  great lady we've been  meeting with for a while now. the wild news is that she may be moving for 4 months! it was nuts. She's still not sure if she has to or not, but it was an intense lesson about the final pieces of the plan of salvation and then recognizing answers to prayer. it was great. We both are really hoping she'll be able to stay in Brno. After that we started cooking some stroganof, got a call that a meeting was going on at the church that we needed to be at, so we made the strogy and tossed it in the fridge. and then came back later to finish it. If I may say Elder Stradling and I know how  to make strogy. :)

FRIDAY: Friday was wild. The time is absolutely flying by. I don't know why. but it seems like yesterday was monday and sunday and saturday all at the same time. It was a great day though. even from the morning! We had a lesson before lunch with a guy who yesterday told us to meet him on a bench outside our place because he wanted a Book of Mormon :) So we went out a little earlier cause we were feeling that Heavenly Father just wanted us to get out of the place early to find some people... I had a feeling we should go left from the door (the lesson was to the right. I just didn't want to be super early! haha) but upon our walking to the left we ran into a member who we hadn't seen in a while and had been meaning to contact for even longer. haha It was a cool experience. The rest of the day was just a continuation of that greatness. We had some more great lessons (just love teaching with Elder Stradling) and went to a dinner appointment at this super awesome member's place. She is just the nicest lady! Made really good food, but everytime we would say that it tasted good, she would just say, "you're nice, i know." As if we were just saying it :) goodness me. The rest of the night was pretty rainy, but luckily we had a long bus ride ahead of us and as long as we were outside the rain held up! he he he

Saturday: wow was today beautiful. we went to center with some of the youth and taught people about the plan of salvation! it was so great. we got the whole thing drawn out on the sidewalk :) it looked amazing, goodness me. it was just a good time. the rest of the day was filled with lessons and the massive planning session (i feel like we are always doing that thing) and in the evening we had our czech class, which is just a blast. It's just a great time whenever the district can get together. We're like one big family!

Sunday: Today was wonderful. The morning was effective. and even though we missed our bus, thanks to the end of construction on mendlovo namesti (named after the very late gregor mendel, a local!) we got to church on time. which was wonderful. the Talks were all great. I translated today for Elder Martin, which made me realize that translating is a specific language skill that does not come too easily  to me. while expressing myself in either language is not much of a problem, i certainly can work on my translating.. to say the least. After church the adventure began! We went hunting out in this part of town way way way far away for a referral. it was wild. we were going all over the place talking with people left and right and not finding this address anywhere haha. After some time it was time to head back home (still hadn't found the house) so we found the closest tram stop (another adventure) and headed back. It was a little disappointing not finding the address, especially considering we're both eagle scouts (we had the map, but the compass we were lacking. that's gotta be why it was tough! haha), but coming back in the tram I started talking to this one kid who had talked with missionaries in the past, but never actually met with them. Then he told me he had 20 minutes right then if we had anytime to meet. 9 times out of ten the answer to this question is yes. :) so we taught him on a bench around where we live! It was cool and a nice testimony builder in working hard all day long. It was really cool because we just happened to have an extra Book of Mormon, and this kid was excited to get one. it just worked out very well :)

Czeching in from Brno

Hello!  Thought you might enjoy a picture of YOUR missionary.  This was taken Friday at the spot on the namesti where we do "finding"....singing as 3 of the group do the contacts.  That day was pretty successful...I think they ended up with 6 new telephone numbers.  These missionaries work HARD every day, and occasionally they get a good payoff...today was one of those days.  I think there were 7 investigators at church!  They get compliments for their Czech language facility and are ALWAYS working to improve.  These are the best of the best, and we love them.  We know you do, too.  Thanks for sharing them with us.

Our best to your families,

Starsi and Sestra Martinova

 "Petanque" like we played back in high school French class!

 Elder Stradling and I with Petrov in the back.

we were in the dungeonssssss it was intense. i guess spilberk is known for being a torture house haha :/ goodness me. it was a fun lil trip though! :)

August 13

... SO. it all started on exchanges... of course. exchanges are always magical times. Elder Bahr and I were on our way to a lesson with a guy who has a baptismal date…

and we were talking to all kinds of people on the tram on the way to the building. We got off the tram at the stop for the building and upon our getting of the tram we heard an "excuse me" behind us. We turned around... mostly because not many people on the street contact us. and it was in English. So upon our turning around we saw about a 26 or so year old woman, who asked if we were Mormons. (that has been a recurring question hahaha) we said yes, and she said that she really appreciated what our church does in the community. :) at first I was taken aback.... I mean. I know members do tons of service and all kinds of great things, but I wasn't sure that anyone else knew this. Haha

Elder Bahr and I were speechless with how well things worked out next. …

She came to game night later that day, sports day and played some volleyball with us, and then to church on Sunday, and she's coming to FHE tonight... upon hearing we were having FHE she asked, "oh, can I bake something to bring?" YES PLEASE hahaha it's just great. oh man. the day just continued on that level and it was great.

Needless to say thank you for the prayers-they're working. :) and very appreciated.

Church on Sunday was amazing... in fact the entire week was just amazing. it's like the nba playoffs on steriods. Every day/night something amazing is happening in BRNO. The district is all doing fantastic and seeing miracles as well. It's just a real blessing to be in the Lord's work right now.

sure do love ya momma and really just love you. i don't know any more words to say

love

elderstimpson

August 5 : Sunday Excerpt

Sunday:

 

I can't think of an English word to describe today. but it was good. the morning was great. caught the early bus which was fate because we met Jan (guy we've meet with a few weeks now) at the stop by the church! he was there crazy early, it was awesome! we sat in the chapel for a long time before the main meeting started, elder mullen (he's a hero of mine) played the piano and just set a very reverent mood for the meeting. turns out just before the meeting somebody else came who we weren't really sure if she would make it or not (she's looking after a nephew who's about 2 or so), but she came! it was the coolest thing! i love surprises! the rest of church was just great. there was a huge YSA conference in hungary this past week so we were blessed with a few testimonies of youth that had gone on that. the testimonies were amazing. They contained stories that were interesting and had a valuable lesson. I believe everybody enjoyed it! it was a stinkin good sacrament meeting. the other meetings were also quite enlightening! one guy has come for a few weeks to church from syria, we were talking about ordinances and what they are, and he added something that I hadn't really thought about very deeply: that anytime we come before God (be it in prayer or otherwise) that we should cleanse ourselves (physically, mentally, or spiritually) by some means. it was some good food for thought for the rest of the day! lunch at the Martins was fantastic, as was to be expected; they spent much of last week in hungary for the YSA conference so it was great to have them back! later on we had a lesson with a family from India. They are so great. They met with missionaries a few months ago, but becuase of travel and work hadn't met them in a while. It was a great meeting where we focused on Jesus Christ and how essential he is to God's plan. it was a great meeting. the Martin's came (they knew them from a few months ago) and were great. they're just awesome. call in's on sunday were FUN. potentially one of the most fun call sessions of recent memory. being a missionary is just too much fun. amen. :)

July 30 : Weekend Edition

Friday: Today was a training day! we had the Assistants and the zone leaders and Prezident as our guests here in Brno. minus the zone leaders they're here normally. And we had our "specialized Training." don't know where the name came from, but they are awesome!! just about the entire MTC group was there becuase it was for Brno Zone (brno and bratislava) and Olomouc Zone (olomouc, ostrava, and zlin). one of the trainings was about studying more effectively, which i'm pretty excited to start applying. We also learned about the Book of Mormon, and the role that it plays in our work. The leadership we have here is just stacked. they're like an allstar team! later in the day we were out talking to people and ran into one guy who had seen the south park episode about Mormons (an amazing number of younger people have!) He had no idea that we were a real religion; we showed him the book of mormon, and he said, "oh wow! it's real!" :) we talked more about it and why we went on missions. He had a beatles shirt on, so i told him that the gospel was like a really good song. In that, we heard this wonderful music and now we want to share it with everybody!

Saturday: Wow saturdays. every saturday i ask myself where the week has gone, today being no exception. we had our massive planning session (we tried a wild new way that was passed down from elder stradling's follow up trainer) it was nice! I'm always a fan of trying new things to figure out what is nice and efficient. needless to say the rest of saturday was amazing. exciting things that happened: elder stradling and i contacted forrest gump. but seriously. it was forrest gump after running accross america. hair, beard, look. everything. we saw him the first time far away from us going in another direction, and i told elder stradling that my eyes were deceiving me... then about 20 min later our paths crossed! destiny! haha we, later, had dinner at a really tasty hotel restaurant where some pretty stinking amazing svickova is sold. is it on par with sister renata's... of course not. but was it terribly tasty, ano! :)  tonight was our czech learning class, quite enjoyable. czech is stinking tough. that's all i've got to say about that.

Sunday: whoaaaaaa. today was great! great morning! talked with a guy from armenia on the bus (how often can one say that?). church was fantastic! funny story: last week it was brought up that any elder in the church should be able to, whenever called upon, to give a solid talk on a gospel topic for 10 minutes. well... i got called upon. haha for some reason or another there was some open time in sacrament meeting. the weird part was that the new missionaries also introduced themselves today... so they all went up. and then i went up (not to introduce myself, but to bear testimony, being called upon to do so) and have a lil testimony that was all over the place. :) i read moroni 6:4-6, 8. i love those verses. needless to say they wont call on me to go up and speak anytime soon :) he he he. just playing it wasn't a complete plane wreck... more like a nice tumble down a mountain. something that is thrilling at the time but nothing that you would like to repeat anytime soon. otherwise church was fantastic! a  guy who we've been teaching was able to come (he's a doctor and doing post-grad work so time is a huge factor), and he really enjoyed it! stayed for the entire time and even at the end said, "you know, 3 hours isn't enough time for this kinda stuff." :) he's great. on the tram back from church i talked with a guy who came to believe in God becuase he had hit rock bottom in life. Which brings me to another thing i really enjoy about our relationship with God, we can be in any walk of life, and still have an incredibly strong relationship with him. the rest of the day was nice. i really love studies on sunday. a nice chance to look back at the week and see the progress made. it's just fun. and then call ins! it's a real pleasure to be able to talk to the companionships every week. i just love em! goodness.


love ya tons momma!!!
elder stimpson

July 23 : Two weeks worth

Monday: monday was wild for a few reasons

1. we still had no phone... so we had no communication with the district whatsoever for a while, which only proved to be unforturnate when we got the phone and realized that the rest of the district was meeting on the other side of town for a district vilet. we jumped on the bus and made it, though. it was so wild! we went down into these crypts... bodies from who knows when. it was pretty neat! haha there was all kinds of wild history down there, i can't even begin, forgive me.

2. the emailing place was once again closed! it was a nightmare! the only good thing was that the new location is right next to a lovely tie shop so elder hansen and i made it a fruitful trip even without the emailing home. :) i got a killer tie. and a tie for the temple (am i looking forward to it already... maybe :) haha)

3.FHE was awesome! the spiritual thought at the end was great. it was given by a member here who got back from his mission about 8 months ago or so and it was great. all about christlike attributes- which we've been studying as a mission for the last transfer or so (it's my favorite part of studies! well studies are all awesome. it's kinda just a whole time of favorites.) and the commitment that he gave us was to ask God in prayer how we can become more christlike. it's a genious idea, becuase no matter where we are we can all improve, and who better to ask than Heavenly Father! it was a great thing to do and since i'm writing this a few days in the future i can say, it worked! haha

Wednesday: WHERE TO BEGIN. wednesday... we had a lesson in the morning with a woman that we met a few weeks ago, lined up a meeting and it went great! she was very willing to try things out which is always nice for us, becuase pretty much all we do is invite people to do things! :D she had never thought of prayer really as a conversation with God (reminds me of the line in elder scott's talk, the supernal gift of prayer, "He has created numberless cosmos and populated them with worlds, yet you and I can talk with Him personally, and He will ever answer" a few more lessons on wednesday, sorry this is now super super super hindsight. it was great though. good hard work and seeing the spirit start to work on people's lives!

Thursday: Today was just awesome!!! wow. this is all in super hindsight so i apologize for the rushed nature. we had a really really really cool lesson with pavlina about Jesus Christ and why he is important to us. It was just super cool. It was a great reminder to me of the scriptures and how important they are. we litteraly did nothing but talk about scriptures. and she totally understood everything. The spirit was definitely there, and it was just really cool to feel it. we were teaching with a really cool member here (the same who visits the older member with us who has the killer singing voice) And she did a great job of testifying very simply and really helping pavlina understand the heart of the matter. The best/most wild part of the thursday was outreach, the young single adult activity here on thursdays. it was no doubt one of the best ones ever. it wasn't because there were tons of people there (even though there were) and it wasn't becuase we had a wildly intense game of ping pong (even though that definitely happened), but the coolest part was hearing the members teach this one student who came. He was curious about what we believe, and was sitting with a few members who were doing a wonderful job of teaching/explaining that we believe in Jesus. Luckily i was able to play some jenga with a few people within earshot of them. It just hit me how one of the fruits of the gospel is forgiveness. it's something as a missionary i don't think about to much becuase we don't really do things that normal people do. but the members did a great job of explaining the atonement and how when we live according to the gospel we don't have to feel any of the gguilt or shame that would otherwise beset us in our lives. beautifully simple.

Friday: A day of miracles. wow. firstly we had district lunch and district finding. lunch was at this really cool place that vasek, a member here, referred us to (delicious. only another testament to seeking referrals) :) delicious food. and he had all these food coupony thingies from work (it honestly looks like fancy monopoly money but it actually has monotary (sp?) value! amazing!) so he paid for us! hooray! :) we followed lunch with our weekly district finding, the singing for which we are becoming increasingly known. it was nice. the miracles began from then, we had a first lesson with a referral from pavlina! it was a really neat lesson, but the best part was undoubtedly (sp?) hearing pavlina get to testify of all the things she liked about the church and the Book of Mormon. it was just neat... but that wasn't even the best part! the biggest miracle of the day happened right before the branch council meeting. elder hansen and i decided to walk the long way around the building to get some fresh air when we saw, near the entrance, a guy just hanging out. he approached us and said, "are you guys mormons?" We said yes, and we proceded to have a nice talk about what we believe and the book of mormon and such. it was something we hadn't planned on at all but it turned out to be a huge miracle. we felt pretty cool afterward :)

Friday: Friday was a pretty sweet day. We got to go singing, which is just a pleasure every time. I swear people arer starting to almost plan on us being out there. Many of the people i talked with talked about recognizing us from weeks before, and how we sing nicely. :) It was a goodsounding group of missinaries! later in the day we visited a member who is just great. it was oodles of fun. We went with another member who had the lesson planned from a thought by President Uchtdorfs message for this month, I think? about having eternal perspective. and not just celebrating the start or end of a a year (school or calendar or whatever), but also the middle, or the during. It was really cool. Especially as a missionary nearly halfway through (AAAAHHHHHH time is flying) I felt like it was as much for my companion and I (he's in the same group) as for the member.

One interesting that happened (it was pretty stinking hilarious) was talking with this older man later in the day. he was throwing stuff away, so we offered to help him. He was a very funny guy, and in letting us know how we can convince more people of our message he said, "you have to know how to talk and have to talk so fast that people don't have time to think about what you are saying." i laughed on the inside, firstly, becuase my czech is terrible. i wouldn't believe a word i heard myself say if the words weren't about the gospel. Secondly, silence in lessons is so incredibly important. It lets the spirit talk! and thank heavens becuase the Spirit speaks amazing czech! it was pertty neat.

Sunday: Sunday was a little wilder. church was great. I'm starting to understand the words a little better, so aside from just feeling the spirit of the meeting, I'm also understanding the stories and some jokes, too! It's great! I love church even more now! haha  Lunch at the martins was delicious. I'm definitely way too spoiled getting to stay here two transfers :] the wild thing that happened, however, was this: we had a lesson later that day at the building, so we decided to do our studies there also rather than travel home and have to travel all the way back. so we were studying at the building, when all of the sudden we hear the door to the building open... (we weren't expecting anyone by this time) We went out, and it was a guy who is meeting with another missionary companionship here. He had missed coming to church, but decided he would come to the building anyway becuase he didn't have their correct number to call them. he had a few questions for us (it was all stuff that had been talked about at church, it's funny how things work out like that) and the meanwhile we called the other companionship so they could come on down to the building. It was pretty neat knowing that even little things like studying at the building were being lead by the Lord. The rest of the night was just an average amazing sunday. talked with some really cool people on the buses on the way back; there are a surprising number of people out at 7 on sundays! oodles were out and the buses were pretty stinkin full! i was amazed. call ins went well. the district is just amazing and the zone leaders are great. i really couldn't ask for much more!