Letter September 2

here in this mission (as you already know, but more for others' benefit) we are a little more blessed than most other missions. I can't say exactly why (as with many things in the gospel, 1 Nephi 11:17 or elder Holland's recent talk which you cited last week), but I can say how: we get an extra month. I don't know that I've ever been so thankful for 30 days in my life. But I do know that this will be the best 30 days of my life. 

With that being said. I'll be especially aware of miracles on this borrowed time that is given to us in the mission.

Onto the week!

We met a girl who works in a chocolate shop! She is great! we taught her in the shop, and then got chocolate! she gave us testers of pretty intense chocolate! if we keep teaching there i'm going to have to improve my pallet to appreciate that kinda chocolate! haha Teaching about the restored gospel and eating chocolate, is there a better combination?!? It was a great first lesson! It's amazing to see how the Lord really is preparing the people that we teach. We asked her about her thoughts on prophets and God and she was spot on with everything! It was really great.

We also went out a little early in the morning one day after a run to hit the streets and teach people before they get to work (a new idea introduced by President McConkie) it worked wonderfully! Ran into really successful people on their way to work, exactly as we had planned! haha 

in other news i have found the pardubice branch of the toastmasters international. i don't know much but i do remember something from FHS about them. so we'll have to stop by and see what we can do. i think it's about public speaking? I picture it like a fast and testimony meeting with refreshments (?) but without the gospel :/ but we'll certainly take care of the second part (unless they say we can't then we may just talk about our english class :) i wonder if they speak in czech or english! I'll keep you filled in, momma.

We had an exchange with the elders from HK this past week. a great blast! I can't include all of the details, but I was with elder earl (from SLC) and we had a great time teaching and finding. we ran into a young golfing couple! who had a shirt/jersey for the bruins that was the exact same as the one uncle mike sent me! (except the player had a numbr in the 40's i think... 46? maybe?) it was nuts!

sure do love you momma! working on getting the card activated... i'll let you know next week if it doesn't work. i do have it now though.

lvoe you tons!

elder stimpson

August 19 Letter

Wow! what a week! I don't really know where to begin!

 

we went down to Jihlava on exchanges with elder Prymak (he's great! I'm pretty sure he was the one training me!) I stayed in pardubice, and elder eliason got to go back to trebic with his old companion, elder king! (another one of my favorites!)  IT was a blast of a 24 hours. we found some wonderful things, saw some great miracles. Missions are wonderful!

 

as part of the exchange elder eliason and I gave a little presentation on finding. It was great. a little dry run for the training we have this week! (aH! trainings! I secretly can't wait for it, but we still have a lot of preparation to do before we are ready for it) It was a blast, we both felt really good about it before, during and after. and Elder prymak said to me later it was exactly what he was looking for. I love the gospel!

 

In other news I am getting a crash course of driving in the czech republic. i am very safe! i meant crash course in that we are driving a fair amount lately (we have tons of MOTAB cd's to listen to, so that's taken care of! I love the choir! It is wonderful music) and i may or may not have made a few wrong turns. But thanks to intricate planning, even with a few wrong turns we should stay within our milage limit. yay, planning!

 

We had a great week! tons of lessons, a few wild teaching opportunities, and some great new insights into the scriptures! I've been studying how to get revelation a little lately, and been reading a lot from Joseph smith history and a talk by elder scott (the man knows how to get revelation! well both of them do! :)  I've been learning oodles but a few things have just been having a place to receive revelation, and having the faith to work for it and receive it. I've been seeing a lot of answers to prayers lately, the only trick now is to recognize them as they are happening! instead of when i write about them or ponder about them later.

 

The zone had a great week! It is great to see the big picture!

 

sorry for the short time. i'll write you first next week.

 

i'm studying alma 18 right now for a while so feel free to join if you want to (share insights :)

 

love you tons momma thanks so much for the email!

elder stimpson

 Elder Stimpson and Elder Knapp

July 29 Letter

where to begin! we had such a wild week! lots going on! and it continues into this week! tons of wild things going on!

we taught a hockey player! she's way cool! it was wild though becuase i know none of the words that are used in hockey here (even though i should by now) so it was fun to talk a little bit about it after the lesson. that was fun.

learned this week the power of the gospel! we ran into a few people who were trying to stump elder knapp and i with wild questions or strange doctrines, and we completely stumped them. of course it wasn't us at all, it was the spirit. But it was pretty cool to hear the question, think for a second, and then just be filled with words and just have it flow. what a blessing!

we had a wonderful training on wednesday. we went to the dedication site for the czech mission. it was a very powerful training. President McConkie is great! it was a great time to reflect on my mission, but also the czech mission as a whole. what a history we have here! it is truely amazing! I couldn't be more honored to be a part of it.

the training began an exchange with the assistants, that went into thursday! I was with Elder sewell, from england, 14 siblings! YIPES! haha he's so great and is terribly enthusiastic. he also served in pardubice a few transfers ago, so it was cool to be able to see him return to his area. it was a great time and we saw some good success! elder knapp went to the office, which was just a trial run becuase he is now the new assistant! yay for having connections into the office. of course he's so humble, but he is doing a great job and is certainly ready for the responisibility. i'm just looking forward to having call ins with him! :D haha it will be great!

the rest of the week was great! filled with talking to great people and teaching tons of lessons!

in other news i have a new companion, whom i love already! he was a district leader in the zone last transfer, and elder knapp and i both think very highly of him. he's a great missionary and he's going to do great things here!

our zone is wonderful. and also wonderfully stacked. i like to think of it as an allstar team. i like sports and i also like allstar teams. the entire zone is doing really well and i look forward to the great progress that we'll see this next transfer! it's going to be great!

love you so much momma!
elder stimpson

July 22 Letter

so if the subject didn't give it away we did have a baptism this past week. It was wonderful. President and Sister McConkie came all the way from Prague to see it! They are so great. The service was great, and the confirmation on sunday was also a great experience. Alena bore a little testimony after she was confirmed, and it was possibly the most perfect testimony, if there is a such thing. short and sweet. full of gratitude, and testimony of what she knew was true. It was great, and Elder Knapp and I were beaming with happiness. It was great. the rest of sunday was so great! We learned about spiritual "vyziva".. .which means..... i'm blanking... also they are doing a little reconstruction here which means the internet cafe is now nearly an outdoor location and there is a guy walking on/with a ladder like a pair of stilts (amazing. period. don't worry i would never dream of it.) while he uses a mini jack hammer to get rid of even more wall! goodness me! the jist of the talk was that just like we have different physical needs as far as food goes, that we also have different spiritual needs: church, daily study, general conference, FHE etc. it was a great talk. the members in this branch are amazing! i love them more and more every week.

otherwise we had another exchange this week! i went with elder pearce who is in HK (and being trained by elder stradling in my group!) it was a blast, he's great, really really bold, a hard worker, and makes working fun. We even got to teach a tennis player that elder knapp and I had found and reffered to them! talk about icing on the cake!

nothing else super nuts happened... actually that's not so true. pretty much 3 wild things happen, out of the ordinary, every day. they get recorded, but with time restraints they don't make the weekly email. so i'll run you through a typical day so that you can get a better tast for what it is like in pardubice!

6:29 alarm goes off, we wake up to, for whatever reason (there used to be an english elder here), God save the queen. which I choose to recognize as the tune to a great american song instead "my country tis of thee?"

we pray!, then run around in place for about 20 minutes. running in place has many ups and downs, one of them is that i can memorize scriptures as i do it! what a blessing!

after showering we have a breakfast which is usually a mix of m any cereals. corn flakes, coco ball guys, and musli. a cereal that i don't know to be in america, but it's really good. a chocolate granola kinda guy, with peanuts sprinkled on top. breakfast of champions! haha

we study personally for 1 hour (one of the greatest hours of the day!) then together for 1 hour, shari9ng what we learned, planning for different activities or teaching appt's throughout the day. then language study. czech is beautiful. studying it is quite enjoyable.

then we go out! most of our days are pretty packed with teaching appointments. trying to go into detail there is impossible, but the teaching is really really fun. i really love the people we teach. it's just great fun. 

anywho's time is up again. this week is going to be amazing!

(next week is transfers. what happened?!?!?!?!?) we'll be in prague for a training on wednesday (it's going to be mind-blowing. i don't have words for it, but certainly expect more about it next week ;)

love you tons momma!

elder stimpson

July 15 Letter

Not much more to say! it was a great week. we spent nearly 12 hours in the car getting around everywhere and were still able to teach a new high for us in lessons and help people progress. :) Which makes us both very happy missionaries.

so i'll start from the beginning.

monday was great. we had a day packed of lessons. but as is usual, it went by far to fast. i wish stopping time was a spiritual gift. i don't know if that's a good thing to hope for though. :/ I'll have to be careful what I wish for, and just be smarter with the time that I have.

Tuesday was magical! we drove to jihlava (beautiful town, edler jaynes is there right now) for district meeting and exchanges. the drives here are amazing. we past fields of many different colors of flower. white! purple, and sunflowers! it was great! sadly we are too busy to stop and smell the flowers (pun, somewhat intended, [is that a pun? i feel like my english skills are on a steady decline.] or even take pictures of the beautiful fields, :/ some other time!)  but the district meeting was really fun, Elder Knapp and I gave a little 10 minute peice at the end, and we have adopted many of each others habits already. it's nuts. having a companion is just great! haha it was funny becuase i didn't really notice this until i was on the exchange with the new missionary (elder king, provo native, big golfer :) we talked about the valley becuase somehow he knows tons of stuff about it, ski mountains, lakes, courses, it was a fun exchange [we kept our focus and work up though no worries] :) and he's a great missionary already!) we also got to teach english and someone brought us cherries! it was wonderful. Elder king isn't the biggest cherry eater, and the man who gave them to us said we needed to eat them that day, so i couldn't save any for elder eliason (who was in pardubice with Elder Knapp for the day) :/ which meant that the rest of the evening was filled with cherry eating a pit spitting :) we made french toast for dinner- good combo: french toast, nutella, and cherries. like i said, it was a great exchange. but also becuase we got to teach with a newly baptized member there. she is a machine! baptized maybe two weeks ago but just has a rock solid testimony, already wants to go on a mission. wants a missionary tag already and even secured a missionary daily planner! hahaha it was great. she's already a huge boost to the branch.

in other wild news trebic is also a beautiful city. it's like a bowl from where the apt. is so everything is up hill. really really pretty though.

in other wild news (it's really WILD) on saturday in pardubice we ran into some young men from trebic who were here for a rubix cube competition! i thought 2 minutes was good. the good guy there can to it in 8 seconds! 8 SECONDS. another can do it in 15 with his eyes closed! and yet another in 45 seconds with his feet! HIS FEET! it blew my mind. 

THE rest of the week was a blast. teaching tons and having a blast doing all that we do :) 

we will be having a baptism this week! she's really great and is ready for it. She's really excited, as are the members, as are elder knapp and I. It's going to be a great week getting everything finalized. we also may be looking at an exchange with the assistants this week and another with the elders in Hradec Kralove. should make for another rediculously busy week! :D

dad, we did make gnocci for district lunch on sunday after church. if i may say so it was pretty stinking good. :)

otherwise, i love studying. i love working. i love teaching. we're eating well and getting along like peas and carrots. it's a great time to be in pardubice!

love

elder stimpson

July 7 Letter

wow! what a week!

go america. funny that brady and i look alike. does that mean brady looks like dad? or have i just been gone for so long that people don't remember me? (don't answer the second one.)

don't remember the swarts too much... but that's cool about the mission! i lov emissions! haha i mgith remember them from seeing them but otherwise i don't know.

cool story that elder knapp just reminded me of!

so on saturday we had a particular thing on plan to teach alena, but we decided to change it with fast sunday coming up and all, to teach her about fasting. which was a little bit of inspiration becuase she has a huge decision in her life to make! and what better way to get help  then to fast about it! she realized that the lesson topic was inspired and it helped up realize the same thing. it's always nice when other people recognize and comment on things like that. she's doing really great and gettin ready for a baptism on the 19th. which we need to start planning! haha

love you tons momma!

thanks so much for the email. 

love you tons!

elder stimpson

(i'll work really hard to send the tape today, but it may just get finished and have to wait til next week. we;ll see. we've got about 6 or 7 lessons on plan so we'll see if we have time to send it :/ haha)


JULY 8 Letter

so i am hoping that emailing first before reading with improve the mass of my emails. we'll see.

Wild things that happened this past week. and by wild, of course, i mean amazing. firstly a few side notes.

happy late 4th of july! i love america and we sang lots of songs on the fourth. we had opening and closing hymns to nearly every study/planning session that day. We have the best anthems. although the czech anthem is pretty beautiful. I can't take anything away from that. Otherwise we ate some chocolate chip pancakes using our finely tuned (as of this transfer) pancake making skills. they were so good (especially with the euro chocolate), however the lack of choco chips resulted in large cut up peices of a bar being used. and those peices almost always melted out of the pancake (is there a way anyone knows to avoid that?) so it was more like half chipped pancakes with more of the chocolate taken off of the pan and put on top of htem. in any case they were delicious. and i had some of the batter last night (i cooked if of course) and i'm still alive so i guess it stays well too! :D

In other news Alena is doing great! she is hilarious! wild story, she got marked off grades in school because she said that america freed part of the czech republic (i guess the communists didn't like admitting any of that, it's so wild to live here! it's all i studied, except people here lived it! it's amazing) and aparently she idolized Patton for how awesome he was (who can blame her, he was a great leader), but that also lead to some trouble. pretty much every lesson with her we end up laughing like crazy at some point because of something, and then every lesson she also gets a little emotional with how her testimony is growing. im not much of a crier, but it is pretty cool to see how she is recognizing her growing testimony. 

otherwise. week number two of teaching oodles of lessons. and we have even more planned for this week! it's wonderful.

in cool news we got to meet the McConkies. THEY ARE SO COOL. They are amazing. The kids are great and president and sister McConkie are just wonderful. It's pretty different having an entire family in the mission home (ex. i stepped on a lego when we had lunch after a meeting there-it's been so long since i've stepped on a lego!) :D but it is a real blessing to see president McConkie back in the czech republic! what a blessing. 

i got the package you sent! thanks so much! the district loved it! as did our investigator from moldovia, he was at a loss of words (i think becuase he doesn't know how to describe food in czech yet haha)

we went up to a cool castle last monday- i took some pictures and got some stuff on the tape so no worries. 

everything is going really really well! i'm reading in helaman right now and i think it may be my favorite book in the book of mormon. helaman 5 is amazing. and all the stuff about nephi and his prophesieing (sp?) is remarkable. what a guy. needless to say my study notbook is getting filled up quite quickly (and the one you sent me is getting put to special uses :)

our diet has been modified we've added a few rules and changed a few around so we'll see what kind of results it yields- certainly dont worry about if i'm getting food :) i am:)

the district is doing great! and while the zone didn't have the best week it's seen this transfer, everyone has big plans for this week, which is exciting to say the least. it's such an amazing time to be a missionary!

 love you tons and i'll write more if anything comes to mind :)

love

elder stimpson

July 1 Letter

wow. this week was certainly the best week ever. sorry if i say this every week. but this week it was true. what joys!

firstly after proofreading the last email i realized that much of what i mention is not worth mentioning? any questions? anything ya'll are dieing to know? i am all your's for this time so don't hold back :) (especially you momma!)

WoW! this time just flew by! um i recorded a tape. so i'll try to get that sent soon to make up for the brevity of this guy.

til then thist past week was amazing! we were as busy as we have ever been and are learning more and more each day!

I got to go on exchanges with Elder Stradling (i was with him in brno), Which was an absolute blast. Just a real treat to be with him again and teaching with him.

We have a wildly packed week ahead of us, zone leader meeting on wednesday (road trip to prague!) :D and a training in Hradec Kralove on Friday. it's going to be a great week, and i promise next week i'll get better at the whole time management thing.

momma i love you. sorry this one is short. anything nuts that happned i'll record on the tape :)

love yo tons!!!!!!!!!!
elder stimpson

June 3

What a week! some wild stuff happened. and I apologize, i don't have the most time in the world. I will get better at managing my time. but know this much. Elder knapp and I are having a great time together! WOW! teaching oodles. finding oodles. learning oodles. and eating oodles. oodles of oodles. and last night we made noodles. but enough of that.

 

WHAT A WEEK!

 

we went to prague for a conference, wild traveling there. we talked about the mission and plans for future trainings and all kinds of wild new things. some wild stuff about the mission right now!

1. sister are coming in like crazy. we have quite a few new ones. and if i remember correctly all of them are 19! or under the previous age limit. wild. thank you inspired prophet!

2. everybody and they're momma is training. tons of people. it's so great! lots of young missionaries that are ready to get to work! it's wonderfuL!!!

 

the district we have is wonderful! i miss being a district leader already. but elder stradling is great. i'm learning tons from him and already look forward to our exchange together.

 

stuff that ya'll will like to hear/ interesting things

 

our area is amazing! wow! so pretty! and hradec kralove (where we go to church) is also very pretty! it's really beautiful!

 

this week is going to be super busy! we have tons of lessons planned and are looking forward to every second! it's going to be crazy!

 

we've got some pretty big things planned for this week. so i'll have to let you know how it goes into next week. otherwise i apologize for the shorter email. i'll think of things to write throughout the week, so that next weeks is better. til then, a package ought to arrive this week, hopefully giving you stuff to play with in exchange for the shorter email. i'll work on a tape and getting it sent in the near future. till then love you tons

 

i'm reading in the alma 40's right now (studying them pretty deep) WILD STUFF. I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON! IT'S SO TRUE! ABSOLUTELY SO! we had a lesson a while ago and i was so filled with the spirit that i almost wrote my testimony under the testimony of the 8 witnesses. i decided against it. still not really sure how i feel about it. but wow. it's great. i'm just so happy to read in it every single day. what a blessing! it's wonderful!

 

love you so much!

lvoe you so much
(i had to say it twice for emphasis)

elder stimpson

May 28

package will be sent this week. i don't have a note in there describing the contents..... there are prolly some tickets and other peices of memorabilia, you are welcome to all of those. there ought to be a czech egg (if it doesnt' get destroyed) and some chocolate wrappers (plan on making something of those sometime) and a few ties (dad has rights to all of them) (till i get back of course) :) i'll try to think of what else... nothing comes to mind. but as soon as it does i will let you know.

otherwise. transfers! wow. exciting as always. this could be the best transfer ever. I'm with Elder Knapp! AHHH He's so great. His czech is wonderful, so I'll be getting rid of all the bad habits I've developed over the course of my mission :) his teaching is also great! I was here on an exchange with him last transfer. so that was kinda a foretaste of this transfer I guess! Our area is so great! We are teaching a ton, and sounds like everything else is just really solid. Great area. no worries. otherwise i know nothing about pardubice. i know we go to church in hradec kralove, which is a short train ride away. and that we have a ton of wild adventures ahead of us!

Wild news from this past week! I got moved out of zlin! what's the deal! I am going to really miss those members. it took us all by shock because both elder jaynes and i are leaving, not typical for missionaries to blind in and blind out, but it happens. the area was great though, and was really getting rolling, so I hope that i'll keep that same fire into the next transfer.

last monday we went to an aircraft museum! it was wild! we didn't have tons of time there, but it was really cool to see all the old... aircraft (i can't spell the right planes anymore.... blast!) and a few migs, too! it was a moment to think of President Uchtdorf :) and all the relationships to plains and the gospel. I'll try to send some pictures of that. and maybe some pictures of members from zlin as well!

love you so much!!! i see you sent me an email so i'll try to keep going in a second with some more!@ :)

May 20

PICUtures, 1. both at the zoo? learned tons about the maya in czech. boy was that wild. reading czech about a middle american peoples being an american myself. my head hurt a little :)

2. south america and the book of mormon. no more need be said :) i couldnt't resist. acutally not sure if this loaded for whatever reason. still not used to the whole new how to write emails on thiss guy.

in any case, questions: how big is MT? and how many people live in bigfork? and then how many people live in the flathead valley? people ask me those kinds fo things and i have next to no idea. it's funny. yet bad. so thanks so much!

nextly!~ wow what a week!!!! we had some pretty wild things happen! people met with- a pro soccer player, he's awesome. just great. can'ty wait to start teaching him! :) other peopel, a guy who knew some of the first missionaries ever in zlin, lived in utah, then chicago, and is now doing pretty stinking well for himself in telecommunications. he's also way cool! goodness me. the list goes on. we went' to ostrava for a trainign and had soemt time to go finding there (mavis beacon would destroy me for how many errors i'm making right now). which was amazing!!!! i lvoe ostrava. it was great to be back. see everything. smell everything (it does have a scent. it's beautiful :). and taeven see the members! they had an institute/scripture study class and so i got to see many of them. it was so wonderful. i loved it :)

the training was great. learned too much to include in an email. 

the taraining also meant i got mail-tessa! thanks for the shirt and the necalces! iWOW :) linds- thanks for the package! i can't stop smiling just thinking about how much candy i have at home! haha it's great!and momma! thanks for the letters :) you're great

so! as far as the rest of the week goes i don't have a ton of time but basically the things i learned:

1. The book of mormon is wonderful. teaches us so much about the plan of salvation that we otherwise wouldn't know.

2. We have to live the gospel to get into heaven. no other way.

3. work work work!

4. work work work.

5. make sure you smile a lot

the list continues. but i'm not the biggest fan of huge lists cause then i run out of fingers to remember things on (it's a miracle i haven't forgotten the 10 commandments yet while teachign them)

anywhos this past sunday also got to give a talk about missionary work. I love talks but i always over plan for them! you'd think i owuld figure this out having the same problems with district meetings for who knows how long, but alas, someday i'll get it right. Otherwise i really enjoyed the talk. And I think the members enjoyed it as well, at least I did get a number of smiles (reminds me of that one talk during stake conference... what'd i tell myself- If i can make everyone laugh, I'll consider it a success. without going into detail about how much i don't remember from that talk, this talk was pretty good as well. I just love mssionary work! (that was the topic :) what a wonderful talk! when the branch president gave me the topic i think he probably heard my grin on the other side fot he phone so much that he almost didn't get to finish his sentence :) It was glorious. I'd send you the notes..... but they are very very very very much in outline form. i think it is becuase i don't like to write so much in czech, or maybe i don't like readint eh talk, it could be a nubmer of reasons. but i very well may make some little copy guys and send you it next week ( i think there will be a box coming:)

love you so much momma!!!!

lvoelvoelveo

can i do anything for you? any questions/

lovelvoelvveo9vlveovlevovelveovlevoevlveoveoLOVE

edler stimpson

May 13

his past week was Victory day in the czech republic. it was a nice holiday, back to back weeks of a wednesday holiday! jealous! haha that would make school the best thing ever! like a little break of a weekend in between two normal weekends! goodness me. too good. There were also some wild fireworks on the namesti the other night that starsi jaynes and i watched from our window. it was pretty intense (they were so close!!!) but luckily they ended right before 10:30 so when we went to bed it wasn't tough at all (it's like they knew that we have to go to bed at that time :)

in other news.

this past week was wonderful!

I know we talked about the weather, it's still really nice. not too hot, but i don't need a jacket (and not only because i'm from montana ;). no complaints.

I'm doing great! (hope your doing better momma!) I just love it out here and am trying to make every second count. The members are great, wild stories:

the meeting we had yesterday was with a member, who on a note we had from a previous missionary said, do not contact, very angry and not happy with us or the church. Elder Jaynes and I (mostly Elder Jaynes) (it's a wonderful cycle of boldness because elder jaynes is just crazy bold. and i have to be a good example as his companion, but at the same time his czech is something that he is working on, so i do the more wild phone calls (and yes a phone call with someone who is not the biggest fan of the church falls under that category) ;) which is good because we call some people that I normally would probably leave) not terribly sure if that all made sense. but in the short, it's great that we are both together! he's fantastic. So we got into touch with this man, seemed very nice, but not terribly interested, then somehow we touched him or something but he came to the building yesterday and we have a return appointment on schedule with him! he's great! it was a miracle! the gospel is true :)

other wild stories, another of our meetings was with a man who we met by a river. i'll just tell you the string of events that got us talking to him, because they are wild- we were talking to a mother with a stroller, she had to go, so we left her a card and kept walking along the river, while a few steps down the road there was a man reading a book on a bench. he looked pretty stinking into the book, and i have a rough time interrupting people (i'm working on it? i mean our message is of great importance! haha) but luckily the lady with the stroller caused a biker to go around her on the path, nearly resulting in a bike crash! and while that is normally very bad (no one was hurt) it got the reader up from his book just as we were approaching, so i didn't have to interrupt his reading, because it was interrupted by the tires/breaks/language-not-understood-by-me :/ it was great! he is just a great guy and seems very curious in our personal conversions. It was funny to me how so many little things turned into one meeting that so easily could not have happened.

Anywho's i was just pulled aside by a czech woman who spoke some spanish to me, then german, then a little english but the went back to czech. (really humors me how people do that. it's great. right now i just prefer czech haha but it's great) and she's coming back to copy some papers  for a trip to spain or something along those lines, she pulled me aside for a second to read something, but then i didn't even know what i was supposed to read? she is funny. SO. the time is up, but i look forward to next week eamiling on monday. 

love you so much momma it was great to hear from you!

lovelovelove

elder stimpson

p.s. i talked yesterday about american candy only as something to give to people. i don't need candy to any extent, but we do give things to people like crazy, so that was the thought behind that. but you don't need to send anything. don't run to the post office today becuase i talked about sending something :) that isn't necessary :) love you so much. i wont stop you from sending things however. it's completely up to yall. i've never been happier so don't really worry about anything :)

May 5

( sorry for the wild picture. we walk by it eery day. there is some wild graffite all over zline by the the same guy (most of them are nt'e this violent) ((on the other side of the stream is a can of spriay paint, not a gun or anything. just so you know :/ a little wild. the bigger focus is the ya, momma! :) love you tons!)

4 missionary districts are the best. (having been in them for the past 4 transfers) they're loads of fun, and you get to know everyone really well which is also pretty stinking fun. certainly a big difference from the bigger districts though. it's cool :) i just love it.

intresting about popcorn in the freezer. we may have to try that. we usually have popcorn on sundays when we have call-ins, a nice little tradition :)

i think i sent a letter to isaac. he ought to get it in about a week? i sent it last week. so 10-12 days or so. anyways it's got way too much stuff in it. it really is that simple. be obedient. love the people. and if i can add a 3rd it would be have a little fire (or go do stuff to try it out! we're working that into our philosophy a little right now, so we'll see how it works :)

love you tons momma!

wild about the weddings! i don't know the girls? that is a wild last name though. goodness me. is that one you keep as a middle name or just drop so you don't have to write it all the time (bad joke. :/ it may take a different size font on much of the stuff though :) goodness me). everybody is getting married. at least tice is going to wait for me :) he's had a girlfriend for so long though who knows what's going to happen! goodness me. not worth thinking about. ;)

sounds good about the call! i look forward to it :) it's going to get here so quickly and as usual, fly by, but it'll be good to have another phone conversation (i may have bought a pair of shoes by that time... if it happens i'll tell you all about them. if it hasn't happened, i prolly wont say much. i figure i'm in zlin (bata's home) (pronounce bah-tya) and what better time to buy bata shoes then when i've got tons of shoes that i'm wearing through and such. (also starsi jaynes is way into shoes and we don't have a comp item yet. if you are against me getting another pair of shoes (pls tell me :) firstly. and secondly telepathically tell me. or whatever. i'll make sure they're up to dad's standards. and i'm really not 100 percent sold on the purchase yet myself. but it's quite likely. in any case. i may sit on it another week. enough about that though.

quick news flash of the week- the next training we have is in ostrava! that isn't normal (usually they are in brno (when combined with other zones) or in olomouc (where the zone leaders are) but i get to go home! i'm looking forward to it/just really excited) but i'll writ emroe about that after it happens :)

love you tons momma! i'll write mroe in a bit. thanks so much for the emaiL! i' love hearing from you!!!!

elder stimpson

 

 

April 29

wow. what a week!

first. i need puns. i can't think of any and i figure i'll give everyone homework to email me :)  second, pictures. this weird new way of writing emails has confused me so i'll have to wait to send pictures. sorry. next time :)

love you tons. now into the week!

WHAT A WEEK!  it went by far to fast. in the words of elder jaynes- because we were teaching so dang much. very true. getting into the new area wasn't completely like starting anew, but we did have to find out who is worth meeting with and who's not really progressing (always figuring that one out :)

we were busy. and it didn't help slowing down the time that on friday we spent most of the day in brno (for a training. it was AMAZING. president irwin is great. and the leaders did a great job. it was just a blast.) and on sunday we also spent some time in brno (district conference) it was nuts. nice to see brno again, and show starsi jaynes a big town. he'll see plenty over his mission though. :)

it was just a blast of a week. i don't really know where to begin... so i'll share some things taken from the training and district conference.

firstly. training, wow! we had training with brno zone, slovakia, and olomouc zone. so we had quite a few missionaries there. got to see elder gleue again, always a blast. he's doing great (but going home crazy soon. he got accepting into west point again (no surprise there, he's amazing.) but it's just nuts to think of our group going already! haven't come to grips with it yet. it's too weird to think about. someday i'll get there. at least i hope so, i sure need to! haha) it was nuts at the district conference because all the members who recognized me would say- but you can't have much time left then can you? to which i never lied but was never 100% truthful... that's alright for a missionary? anywho's i don't like to count. still haven't learned the czech months for a reason. i know them, but don't know the order :) so i only every know the one i'm in (for eases sake) and the one ahead (for setting goals with members and investigators) it's great. it was simply a pleasure to see the members! :)

but back to the training- president showed us a quick film about czech history, and wow. it made mention of operation anthropoid.  pretty nuts stuff. and one of those times where you just can't really imagine what it was like. makes me very grateful for freedom, the gospel, and the plan of salvation. it was a pretty powerful one. also very motivating (trainings always are!)

so on to studying this week! boy do the scriptures come to life on a mission! it's been a real blessing to be able to dive into them, and really gain a knowledge of them. especially in my language study i'm working on telling more stories from the scriptures (or at least getting the words that the prophets use in them) which is great, because there are so many! and so many little words to learn. i don't plan on mastering the czech language anytime soon, that's for sure. i just love studying. we're teaching someone right now who has a few concerns about the book of mormon, some more legitimate than others (some i had to hold back just telling him, that's absurd... it's good i don't know how to say that in czech.) :) but just one of them was kind of a "well, tell me what truths have been restored through the book of mormon that were lost through mistranslations or things being removed from the bible." (next piece of homework for all ya'll. think of this answer) i spent about 5 minutes during studies and got a pretty good list :) in any case it has just strengthened my testimony that regardless of what we are told, what we see, what we read, a testimony from the Holy Ghost is more powerful than any of that. So i'm very grateful that I have a testimony. I think of president Monson's talk from a few conferences ago with the story of the man who after listening to a church meeting, said something along the lines of "i would give everything to know that this is true". like king lamoni! (where i am right now in the book of mormon :) it's so intense! ammon is a machine! i mean a wonderful example ;) i got to work on my vocabulary! haha)

sure do love ya momma and am very grateful for you!

Lovelovelove

edlerstimpson

March 11 letter

[Dean's reply to my letter: We had a cool discussion in RS about 'becoming God' or 'becoming like God' and how some people misconstrue our religion in that regard.  XXXXXXX said her granddaughter has a problem with Mormonism because "you think you can be God."  And that offends her.  Fortunately, there are a lot of scriptures in the Bible (which you can point out to believing Christians)  that explain that we can inherit all that God hath, etc.  And Dad said, "I have an easy answer for that: if you believe we are God's children, why would you not believe that he wants us to have all that he has?" And what loving parents wouldn't want to give everything they have to their children, and have their children live with them forever?  Easy! Makes perfect sense!]  

There is a reason that the first point in chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel talks about God being our heavenly father. everything makes sense after we get that relationship down. and if we don’t understand it, then we get problems with the other doctrines and teachings. it is pretty wild to think about however! that's for sure! haha

anywho's on to the week!!!! this week was nuts! it started and ended with wonderful mongolian experiences, which i will dive into describing very quickly. Agii, who's getting baptized on saturday (it snuck up on us! haha), two weeks ago didn't really have a testimony super strong of joseph smith. so we commited her to pray... and the next week without a translator (it was a wild week! hahaha more about that later or some other time though) all we could really get through the language was "i prayed. and felt happy and peace." amen, agii. the gospel is true. game set match. she's super prepared and ready for baptism. teaching her is so great cause she has a wonderful sense of humor and she and her husband sometimes talk things out (sabbath day and such) so ryan, the translator, will give us a rundown sometimes which is a treat. i wish i could speak mongolian!!! but i'm getting there haha i learned a few more words this week! :D she has a really strong testimony though and is so humble and willing to be taught! IT’S GREAT.

at the end of the week we went and taugh a mongolian family that we had tracted into ages ago. they are SO COOL! AND they know some members so it'll be easy to get them into everything. it's so great! that was quite the lesson, though, because we had no translator, and it was just wild to try to convey different things like prayer and the nature of God and what is in the book of mormon. lukily the church has materials in mongolian :) haha it was great though...

otherwise we ran into a few really cool people!!! a volleyball player from canada (stud) but just super busy. great talk with him though and he'll get converted sometime in the future (another connection of having a sister in canada! hahaha) that was great. and one of the other people we met is awesome! he's a student here and studies history. we had a killer talk with him on the street and when we invited him to learn more he said, i've been saying yes to peolpe a lot more lately, so of course! lets meet! it was really cool and he liked the book of mormon a lot! haha

it was great!

anywho's time is up.

sure do love ya'll tons and tons!!!

elder stimpson

March 4th letter

GOODNESS THIS WEEK WAS NUTS. I MAY WRITE IN ALL CAPS, BECUASE TO BE HONEST. THAT WAS THE WEEK. IF THIS HURTS YOUR EYES, AS IT KINDA DOES MINE, I APOLOGIZE AND MAY TURN BACK TO NORMAL CASE. I FEEL LIKE I WILL HAVE MADE MY POINT THAT THIS WEEK WAS AMAZING AFTER ABOUT A PARAGRAPH OF ALL CAPS STUFF....

SO! ITEM NUMBER 1:

WOW! WORDING QUESTIONS IS IMPORTANT! A YOUNGER KID IN THE BRANCH (NOT YET BAPTIZED) HAS BEEN MEETING WITH MISSIONARIES FOR AGES. AND BY AGES I MEAN SINCE BEFORE I KNEW I WOULD BE IN THE CZECH REP. AND HASN'T REALLY WANTED TO GET BAPTIZED FOR ALL THIS TIME. OR HAS BUT THEN HAS DECIDED AGAINST IT. AND OF COURSE TEACHING CHILDREN (TEACHING ANYONE, LETS BE HONEST) TAKES PATIENCE. okay enough with the all caps. it's just silly now. BUT! he has now accepted a date! before Easter! it was great! AND IT HAPPENED IN PASSING IN THE CHURCH BUILDING! it was amazing! the coolest conversation ever, and I'll tell you about in on the tape because it's too intense and time does not allow. basically. when you pray for stuff, God answers. and every once in a while we get lucky and what we think may be just our own selfish desire (so that something we want to happen, happens) turns out not to be selfish at all, and is also shared by the most supreme being in the universe, God. So with that said. It was a good week!

ALSO! MONGOLIAN FOOD IS AMAZING! as is check food. that goes without saying. but we went over to some Mongolian families last night to take the sacrament and teach some lessons (my Mongolian vocab is creeping along. i can now ask how ppl are doing, and say i'm doing well. but if they say anything other than that then i dont' understand. and WOW are their sounds tough! i though the r hacheck was tough. but yeah. goodness me.

by the way how high are the mountains in glacier park? i get asked that very often and can never answer (i should just tell ppl to google it. or start making up an answer... :) rather the first one. :)haha

you talked about small town stuff! and i totally had a small town experience in jicin! where we went for district meeting! i went to get some stuff... some wafer candy stuff that is ridiculously cheap. ridiculously so! haha and i had a great conversation with the guy behind the counter. turns out having a sister in canada is a great in because many czechs flew..... flee... but past tense.... fleed to canada a while ago! so everyone knows someone in canada! including me! haha it's great! it was just really cool and made me think of how you asked me about the small town big town stuff. :)

anywho's i'd write more, but time. and i'll get it on the tape today

love love love love

elder stimpson

February 25 from Liberec

WOW SO LITTLE TIME TO EMAIL!!!

i'll start with most recent. my english may be really bad cause i'm trying to type so fast.

we had district conference. and many members from ceske budejovice were there!!!! it was so great! we got there a little late (funny story in itself haha) but after the conference we were surrounded by the CBud members (including brother sir!). it was so great to see them and to remember all the good times spent with them! It was a real blessing.

Otherwise we learned about a testimony from elder lopes/z (i dunno if it ends with an s or z.... i never took spanish! :/

he taught us about how to gain a testimony (alma 32. what a great chapter!!!)   at the training that we had on wednesday, he gave a great talk/presentation. it was very simple. but at the same time so incredibly deep! he didn't teach too much, but at the same time we learned SOOO much. it was great!

otherwise we had a ton of great experiences that all got written down in the journal, so no worries there :)

in other normal news, volleyball was awesome this week! i tried to jump serve a few times (didn't work out too well.. but i'll practice more haha) otherwise it was a blast. the members really enjoy it- and the other people that come really like it too! (hopefully it can keep me in shape haha)

as far as other things that happened, elder odells brother is going on his mission today! how great! and meanwhile a sister in the branch here gets back from her mission tomorrow! how nuts! she is the daughter and sister of some people we are working with (we're pumped to work with her too! haha)

the work here is just going really really well. the district is great! wow! they're just the best!

love you tons momma! i'll work on printing some pictures to send to you :)

lovelovelove

elderstimpson

February 18 from Liberec

this week was awesome. just to prepare you ahead of time. i can't include it all so i'll certainly be recording the tape today haha

firstly!

mongolian food is delicious-it was a huge mongolian holiday this past week so wish all of our mongolian friends happy saran saar, or

"white moon" elder odell and i are trying to learn mongolian (cause almost half the people we meet with are mongolian :) and up to this point i know about 10 words and can say i eat meat, cake, or little wanton guys in present, past, and future tenses :) impressive? haha just playing. i'm studying humility this week so no worries there- i just have to take advantage of the gift of tongues while i'm blessed and set apart with it right? hahahahaa but in all reality, look up a google video from the travel channel about mongolian food, our branch presidnet was playing it with the family while we were over, i'll have to watch it some other time (in a long time), but  i guess it has all the food that we ate-nuts stuff, but all super super good!

next: zone leader exchanges took place, so i was in pardubice for a day, it was a blast. got to spend some time with the zone leaders (always a pleasure) and learn tons and tons from them. as far as highlights, got to meet some members there, teach some lessons, and try some enchiladas- with, get this dad, refried beans from mexico! what a find! haha i will say that refried beans have never tasted so good. mexican food... well in that case distance had increased my appetite for it haha

but next wild stuff: our skype lesson with one mongolian family went very very well! super nuts part, we start skyping with the MTC teacher, and are a little taken back. he isn't at home, in an office, a computer lab, or any other location that one would expect someone to translate a lesson taught by missionaries.... he was on a weekend vacation, and was translating through skype on his phone, from TIMES SQUARE. add that to my bucket list. it was the coolest thing ever. he's translating our teaching and the investigators responses and in the background are gargantuan skyscrapers and all kinds of random people. he did a great job. it was a blast. he is the man. he's going to send us some mongolian stuff, and i want his address, so i can send him some chocolate as a present, he's great haha

sports night this past week was awesome. we have way too much fun with the members. this week i did a little more tipping than spiking (work smarter not harder, right?) and in games of 3 on 3 tipping can be deadly! hahahahahahaha we may have too much fun with them haha but it's great, and i think the members enjoy having us as well. volleyball players in the fam- any tips or otherwild stuff i should try out?!? :D the gym is a little small for jump serving (i'm still sitting on the fence about trying it though ahah)

president irwin got the valentines card! and called to  thank for it! so thanks! and president says thanks as well! he's great. i really can't say enough about him and what he does. i'm also sure that means that my valentines card is waiting for me in prague, so no worries.

in other news i gave a talk yesterday at church, about missionary work. i used lehi's dream and some quotes from PMG for the meat of the talk. it was pretty nuts, because we found out on saturday that the talks wouldn't be as president hanzal had planned, so we began to put some stuff together (only one of us) and then by sunday morning it came out that the other talks also either couldn't come or whatever. so my little 5-10 minuter got stretched (mixed emotions about stretching talks- i always plan way way way too much, so that was a blessing in disguise, but i always worry about boring the audience.) into a good 20 minutes. i couldn't really understand the branch president when he announced what was going on, that i would give my talk and whateve time was left would be for testimonies... it was nuts. but a complete blast. i'd send you a copy of it... but it's about 20 words long between the title, main idea, and the 3 bullet points i had.... like i said, nuts. way fun though

this week looks awesome!

love ya tons!!!1

time's up :) argh :)

elderstimpson

First Letter from Liberec

firstly. we are teaching a few younger kids.

A. sisters and mother(s)- (anyone this email gets to) what can i do to help the kids focus/ get something out of sacrament meeting? we have done the coloring. it's not too bad. any other ideas? two are about 10 (both boys) and another is a 12 yr old girl. (children of part member families or investigators). 

okay. now for the spiritual stuff ;)

this week was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

in a recent conference, we got a quick presentation from one of the church's translators about the czech republic and slovakia (we're having him teach us some stuff at polar bear this week! i'm looking forward to it to say the least) the history of the nations, and the history of the church in the nations, good stuff :) which prepared us for another big step in the history of the church in this mission, namely, the printing of the book of mormon in slovak! YAY! it was an amazing spirit about the conference. a lot of answered prayers, and it's only going to grow! We have a slovak member here, and a few people we are teaching are also slovak so elder odell and i are looking forward to getting some with equal excitement. :) it was beautiful. tough to explain, especially in email. but look through church news or other things for stuff. (i got some pictures too, still have no idea how to send them on these computers, but i'll get them to you as soon as i do, or i'll print em out and send them the old fashioned way haha)

so on to other items of business! saturday was maybe one of the craziest days of my mission. we had a ton of appointments on plan (barely had time for anything else) (not to mention they were all in straz, a town about 1 hr by bus away) and almost everything got changed! haha it was still an amazing day, and we saw some real miracles, one of which included the MTC teacher who has been translating for us- apparently he was really close with the brother of one of the mongolian members here! small world! all i can say is, i may start to learn a few mongolian phrases :)

in the travel department, the conference was in BRNO, which meant i got to do some reminiscing. we spent the night in prague with elder strobel (lucky enough to have served around him a few times already) and elder story (who has had to clean up the messes i made in ostrava and brno haha, not really messes, i just like to joke because he was District leader in ostrava right after me, and then went to brno as i left haha. awesome guy though! baseball player. what more do i need to say. it was a fun trip) 

the rest of the work is going really well. my studies are constantly improving and i'm just continually more grateful for what i'm learning in them.

time's up but i sure do love yall tons!

February 4 letter

sorry. firstly, no idea how to send pictures. but i'm taking them so don't worry. it'll just be a game of patience haha

otherwise this week was awesome!!! we did all kinds of wild stuff. i don't know where to begin, so i'll start randomly and proceed in a like manner.

firstly, fasting was NUTS. we didn't really have time to have an official "break the fast" on sunday becuase we went on a ton of visits (a combination of tons of stuff) itw as nuts. but in the jist of it i broke the fast with some energy bars eaten while we were running in betweeen catching buses or trams. it was so great thogh! saturday was also equally as nice! we went tracting in a place we aren't usually for a number of reasons that came out of nowhere (of course they seem like that at the time, but then you realize that the Lord just really want you to be there haha) and we found a few families to share the gospel with! one of whom is mongolian! so that lesson will be nuts. i know three words in mongolian, baptism (it's the same :) za=ok and bayrlalaa=thanks! so it'll be very polite, nice discussion about baptism with a lot of pointing, reading, and nodding haha i'm pumped.

in other news edler odell is great!!! he's way fun to work around and just a blast. we may have too much fun together, but i'm still not sure that that is posible, so for tyhe time being we're having just the rigth amount of fun haha :)

the district is doing great! we have some long bus rides ahead of us to talk about our visions for our areas and our goals and plans and such. it's a blast being a district leader, i just feel like i'm learning new stuff that i should've learned ages ago every time. it's nuts haha? :)

we're teaching a number of young kids (one of whom's mothers is recovering from a surgery.) and when we were teaching him his mother was chiming in from the other room with answers and more questions! it was by far the most interesting member lesson i've ever had, and just hiliarious... "who do ask questions to" ... the kid- "heavenly father"   and how do you do it?... prayer... it was great

just a blast of a week! and i'll get better at the emailing thing. i'm making a tape now though to make up for it. and expect a package soN! like today or tomorrow hahaha. anyquiestions just ask

love you tons and tons!!!!
eldestismpson

First Letter from Liberec

WOW. no idea where to begin.

unfortunately i have yet to find out how to send pictures on these new computers... so i'll try to describe this past week as best as possible. and continue to send pictures as i will be able.

firstly! wow the members here are amazing!!!! we had dinner at our branch presidents house on tuesday and it was like going to general conference. i'll explain why. 1. we get in the front door and enter to music and the spoken word playing on his pad thingy (i've bene out of it for so long i don't even know what to call it. i don't know that it was apple though? no idea.) anywho's, that's number 1. and number 2 is probably the more powerful of the two, he is the official translator for the church. so anytime he talks i just picture myself working out in the morning to conference. (not exactly what every runner longs to listen to in order to set their pace... but i'll take what i can get :) and i'm a missionary. the lord blesses us) :) but yeah. he read a scripture and i had to stop myself from laughing because it sounded just like many many of the recordings that we have on the phones! haha his wife, ALSO a translator! they're awesome and it's just a great blessing to be here and be able to work with them! the elders quorum pres also has a very familiar sounding voice, i believe he is also a translator, but i can't be sure. my ear is not fantastic (i have to work on it, any tips?). so they're really awesome. not to mention the branch pres is a chef. so dinner was delicious. but enough about food haha

we are teaching a few mongolian families in a town outside of liberec (thanks to technology. skype is a miracle worker for missionary work, who knew, right?) it was an amazing lesson! we had a returned missionary from utah translating for us (bless him. he is great! and so is his mongolian! wow! not that i speak mongolian... i mean i did learn to say "ok" (za) and "thanks" (bayrlalaa) so i'll be addressing heavenly father and praying in no time ahahaha... but the husband of the investigator kept saying his language was amazing!-something to shoot for for me. it was a very spiritual lesson, and just a great experience. (also the lord takes care of his missionaries. lil anecdote- we were running around all day on saturday. literally running. it was great. but we had no time to really walk around, except for 15 min before our lesson on skype. so we went walking around this town (not super huge but decently sized) and nothing is open, or anywhere. the czech republic opens on saturdays at 10 am and closes at 12... no ideal hours for missionaries haha. meanwhile in this town we are starving (no meals cause that day we didn't have much time at all, at we see in the distance a little bakery! (my favorite! :D but we figure it's closed because it is nearly 4.... but we decided to check it out anyways.... and lo and behold, it closes at 4! se we jumped in and had some delicious baked goods. wow. i'm not gonna say that it could be a problem that our bus will always get there at about 3:40 and the skype lessons start at 4... but we could get to know the bakery lady pretty well in the next few weeks hahaha it's another tender mercy :)

in other news elder odell (my new companion) is the man! he is a very fun missionary to be around. he works very hard at whatever he does. and just has an amazingly fun time doing it! so naturally the work is picking up here like crazy! it's pretty nuts being in a completely new area with someone who hasn't been there either. but the members are helping us a lot and i'm very grateful for the notes the old missionaries left. it is great.

in the sports arena, we have a sports night here (i've been aching for one for sooo long haha) and we play volleyball! you would be proud, momma. a few shanked served and bad passes into the roof (it's a very, very low roof) and i had kinda gotten back into the swing of things! ;) i'm happy to keep building relationships with the members and nonmembers that go there, teach them the gospel, and at the same time get some volleyball skills back up to par haha. next will be the jump serve. there may be 4 feet of space behind the out line so that could be a little tough... but we'll figure something out haha. (p.s. ther was some legit passing, setting and spiking going on! i was impressed.)

everything else is great. the weather is great. the food is delicious. i've been cooking a lot more lately, and i've realized that peas take an incredibly long time to cook. wow. p.s. any wild recipes that you know involving chicken, lentils, beans, or spinach and other veggies that are amazing feel free to send. (simplicity in the recipes is also appreciated haha. and quickness. sorry to have so many qualifications haha)

love ya tons momma!
happy late bday again! i'm sending you a package very very soon (i think today :)

love
elderstimpson

January 21 letter

I'M IN LIBEREC! BACK NORTH IN THE MOUNTAINS HAHAHA. it's great. the apt is AWESOME, HUGE, AND IN A PRIME LOCATION. wow. and the branch is AWESOME. i'll tell you more about the area as i get to know it better. it was tough to leave c bud... and some of the members i will especially miss (not to mention brother sir)  but such is life. and i hear liberec is just awesome! my companion is elder odell. who has also served in c bud. in brno (same area) and in poruba in ostrava (our missions are like mirrors of each other! haha except he has a few more areas and transfers under his belt)

elder hansen stayed in c bud with president (tee hee) lisonbee, and elder hansen will be district leader there. i think i'm district leader here but i've still got to figure that out... i always black out when president calls and only ever hear where i'm going.  :/ our district is wild. liberec has only 2 elders. and the other companionship in the district is a pair of sisters in jicin (which is about an hour away.)  elder odell is a machine. he is enthusiastic, hard working, and just a joy to be around. and the sisters, while i don't know them right now, sound much the same. we've got the best missionaries, what can i say? :)

sure do love ya. i'll send some more pics in a sec.

(letter #2)

wow!!!!

so firstly! ceske budejovice and where i left it. it had snowed oodles! overnight pretty much! most snow in the czech rep. so that made the buses run funny for a while. but other than that it was no problem. mostly it was fun to just see tons and tons of snow. and wow the train ride here was AWESOME. there were some trees that weren't snow covered but were the cool kind where they're a little frosty and frozen. it was amazing. really really pretty. i'll miss ceske budejovice of course, but theres not really too much time to think about it! this transfer is nuts. tons of missionaries are going all over the place. it's fun to be a part of. some big news is that elder gleue is back from slovakia haha. so i'll get to see him again sometime in the future? otherwise all my other companions from the past are doing great things.

one really cool thing that happened this past week was our shoveling adventures! when the snow started to fall.... pour may be a better describing word, we didn't have a great time seeing. and not many people were walking around... so we decided to hits the streets, with the shovels rather than our normal proseliting gear. we shoveled a bunch of sidewalks a few driveways and some other things around our place. it was a blast. took me right back to MT and all the fun we had there haha. goodness me. it was also a nice workout of some particular shoveling muscles that have not been worked to such an extent in a while. namely my left bicep. i can't tell if its my age or just me not having done curls for a while (i do pushups instead haha. i will catch up to dad's 150! hahah) but a good day or two i was feeling the good sore. i miss it :) haha. lvoe ya tons and tons!

sorry no pictures. new computer and i'm having some troubles. next week though!! :) i'll get some of liberec!

love ya tons momma!

elderstimpson

January 14 Letter

so this week was AWESOME

the baptism was  amazing. sorry we don't have much time. there were some complications with the emailing place, and an apostle is coming to town soon! so it's great fun!!!! we had to do a survey with the tour coming up soon.

t

he baptismal service was awesome. the talks were great. elder (branch pres) lisonbee lead it very very well. we sang joseph smith's first prayer and the spirit got really really strong. it was great. sorry this is super short. i'll work on getting more next week :/ i really apologize. i'm writing a letter though that will contain more.

January 7 letter

well the new year is here! which means new resolutions (that i'm still working on) and tons and tons of instances where i write 2012, then have to mark it off and change it to 2013. so now my planner, and diary, and such are full, not only of words to learn in Czech (especially after our field trip today to the fishing school. if that's not it's own specific word group, i don't know what is. goodness gracious. tons of words learned! haha), lessons we plan for, but also of instances i wrote the date, and was forced to change the date. oh well! haha i'm almost done with another pen. kinda exciting! everything I write is about to become more and more important! and taking notes will no longer be relaxing! haha

in other news! today is a big day! but someone came to use the computer. i gota go i'll write more in a bit? or maybe just write ya a hand letter. love ya tons!  sorry for the wild delay :/

elder stimpson

(30 minutes later)

my companions are awesome. and were done already! so today! we went on a wild field trip to a fishing school! they teach those kids everything! net making.... and all kinds of other stuff that i don't know how to translate... but it was awesome needless to say. really really cool.

this past week was also full of cool lessons with people. cool meetings of people on the street. and funny instances where we ran into random people that we've been meaning to run into for quite some time and it finally worked out.

I love being a missionary. I love the schedule we have. I love what we do. I love just about anything and everything there is to love about this work.

sunday was pretty wild, a family came back from where their living for the holidays, so we got invited over for a meal (they're super awesome. def will have to introduce them to ya'll. they're just way cool. all very centered on the gospel, and all speak English so they help a ton with the Czech! haha

one cool thing i've noticed about Czechs lately is that they are incredibly humble! It is really amazing! If you compliment anyone on their English speaking or anything compliment-worthy, they will always turn it into a compliment toward us missionaries. It's amazing. Cause denying a compliment is no good. we don’t like that. but turning a compliment into another compliment is worth it's weight in gold!

anywho's actually time to go now.

we'll be in Prague next week for visa's... WHOOO back again. monday- Prague. tues- back to c. bud. wed- back to Prague for training. then the next week (21st) is transfers! is flying by way too fast!

so i may actually pick up the navy suit iIve been hunting in Prauge. we'll see what time allows. otherwise i'll email most likely on monday but also maybe on tues... it will get doe though.

lovelovelove

elderstimpson