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 :)
