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!