January 12th Letter

i lost track of weeks so it is know time to keep track of transfers haha but firstly granny super happy you had a good birthday! sorry i dont have oodles of time so ill get to the very meat of it.

thanks for all the stories everybody! i love hearing all of them. great to hear from you GOUP :) and everybody know that at about 10:30 pm in the czech republik ya'll are all gettin prayed for!

cool news: elder gabrielsen and i met a polish guy the other week so we sent a referral to poland! that was pretty exciting.

this week i apologize for not having a crazy long email but ill write a little bit of my testimony of the book of mormon. It is amazing how much power that book has! it is the keystone of our religion for good reason. for a long time i had only heard apostles and prophets talk about the power of the book of mormon, and aside from my personal testimony, i hadn't much more experience in the matter. but recently in lessons and in personal studies ive recognized the real power that comes from reading it. It is the most important part of my relationship with my savior. I have a firm testimony that when we read the book of mormon with an open heart and are willing to act on what we read that we will feel the power of the Holy Ghost. Ive really noticed out here that some people who were completely against god or religion completely have their hearts softened by the book of mormon. Others who already believe have come to even greater knowledge and love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through its pages. I have learned more and more that we can honestly turn to any page in the book of mormon and gain answers and specific guidance for our lives if we honestly seek it.

p.s. transfers happened and I’m still in ostrava but i changed housing and elder gleue and i are follow up training each other. i was in "dubina" (a little part of ostrava) and now I’m in poruba (a diff part of ostrava). it was a fast move though haha we've been together a day now and it def still feels like a dream.... prolly will for the next two months hahaha i am so excited for this chance to serve God and don’t worry I’m taking advantage of every minute

love love love

elder stimpson

“Celebrating new years as any Stimpson would :) nice ice cream and as close to martinellis as I could get in the Czech Rep haha”

 The Galicek (gal ee check) or in plural (referring to all of them gal eechk oh vee) Awesome family: son served mission in Spokane! The mom is the sweetest lady and the dad has been investigating for probably 20 years (but he's getting baptized soon haha)