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