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

December 27 letter

Dear Momma - 
 

As far as wild stuff i figured since we talked two days ago i would mostly send some pictures today. so i sent a bunch. but! something AMAZING happened yesterday! the carolling was simply amazing. it was great to see the light of Christ come back into these peoples' faces as they listened to the carols. That may have been the best gift of all. BUT!

even wilder! we were walking through the namesti and elder lisonbee said hi to someone (dobry den) (it's just what we do) and the guy turned around and said, "Dobry Den!? what's that supposed to mean!" turns out he's from the states! haha it was nice to chat. he knows a little about us. was impressed and respected our decisions to come out here and teach people about christianity, and to avoid getting deep into any politics, left him with a card and said, if we can help with anything, give us a call. by the time we got to the other side of the namesti, he had run up to us and had something for us to help with! (that never happens hahah) he asked us to go sing to his girlfriend (a czech), who could say no to that! haha so we went. it was just amazing. sang to her a few carols. of course she was feeling the Holy Ghost like mad! so 1. she didn't notice our nasty accents, and 2. wanted to give us money and really anything she could. we got their address and are really excited to visit them in the future. she was getting kind of emotional as we were singing. but at this time of year who doesn't thinking about the Savior.

love ya'll tons.

Time to fly!

lovelovelove

elder stimpson

Pics: me and the penguins. not quite the same as the ones at the boston aquarium... but i'll take what i can get haha.The MTC group I came out with. At a member's house.

December 10 Letter

What a week! it's amazing firstly pictures a few more of the namesti- a nativity scene and a flying angel. that's right A FLYING ANGEL! so when reading moroni 9 or mormon 7 (or a chapter near there, no time to double check haha) it's legit. angels are real. on a more serious note, angels are real even when all of them don't come flying from a tower (ironically called the black tower) and serenely descend (zipline) across the namesti sprinkling magical-silver-good-luck-dust. but in this particular instance, the angel previously mentioned was doing all of the above mentioned acts. it was a nice little cultural event, that was just good fun.

In other news this week was fantastic. I don't know that i have ever had a week with such a wide array of everything! we had just about everything one can encounter in a week, this past week. i'll share just a few of the highlights:

on monday after emailing we just had a really good time teaching lessons. it was a great start to the week, and one of the meetings was with a man who will be preparing for a baptism on the 29th! white Christmas now takes on dual meanings haha

moving on rather breifly to give a recap before going into greater detail, on tuesday we taught about 5 first lessons. it was nuts. but really cool at the same time. we had a very wide range of lessons, from people who were super super attentive and just ready to go, to other lessons where about halfway through the guy we were meeting with realized that we were not catholics... don't really know what to say to that... and at the time we also didn't really know what to say, other than, no, we are not. we're from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. he's a way cool guy, and, although he did, after realizing we weren't catholic, say "well, i'm not so sure i should be here?" is looking forward to coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon! (sorry if the last sentence's structure is poor... my english is going down the pipes. it's baaad.)

This week was a little different cause the sisters went to prauge for a specialized training for the new missionaries, which meant district meeting was on a different day. it was a real blast, however, and this next week's is going to be even better! (i can honestly say i've never felt this good about a district meeting on a monday for the entire duration of my mission. i don't know what is up...) In food news, i had an indian dish that burned (with spice not heat, don't worry i still have my tastebuds ;), not only most of my mouth and throaht, but it honestly felt like a barbeque in my insides. i had tried a "spicy dish" there and wasn't impressed at all (it tasted fantastic, just spicy here is a very different level than taco bell or flaming hot cheetos) so i decided to try the "really spicey dish"... i realized something was up when it was served on a platter that came with a candle underneath, heating it, and also maintaining it's spicey hotness. goodness me. learning experience. on the bright side at least i had some complimenting come from the cashier, when, upon saying what i'd ordered, he replied, "oooh, strong man" now i can say that having the receipt with that quote on it, is worth whatever my digestive tract was feeling on wednesday.

we've seen some really cool teaching experiences lately with asking questions. it's amazing how much a question can teach, completely on it's own. we're all trying to work on better question asking, and it's really showing in our teaching. i just love it. As with all teaching skills, the best example is the Savior. I couldn't be more happy for his example. This past week the testimony of the Book of Mormon grew. also prayer. and the realization that by living the gospel we can become very very successful people. temporally and spiritually. not that i didn't know that earlier, but it always helps to have reminders :)

in other news everything else is great! plan on another tape for christmas and something in the mail either by christmas or new years (we'll see how the holiday mail is haha)

love ya'll tons! especially you momma!!!

got your mail this past week! i'll write back asap. love love love

elderstimpson

December 4th Letter

attached is a picture on the namesti, it looks completely diff now (there was a tree-lighting over the weekend) pictures of that will be coming next week :)

CHRISTMASSSSSS!!!!!

 (we say that very often now, thusly the subject)

wow. time flies. i'll work on getting a bigger email next week with more day to day details. but up to this point just know that the district caught on fire this week. it's amazing. really cool to witness. i feel really proud of them. we're seeing a ton of success and are having way too much fun.

love ya tons and tons.

elderstimpon