The Work in Uherske Hradiste

Howdy hey,

so I got transferred... KIDDING. bahaha did I get you??

Sister Roubickova came to UH. It's really cool because she was in my MTC group. We are sooooo excited to serve together!!!!! PUMPED.

This week was amazing. We finally taught our family!!!! They are so awesome. They remind me of what it was like growing up. They're house is crazy and they argue but you can just tell how much they love each other. But the mom doesn't believe vubec. It might be tricky to teach them because everything is so crazy but it's going to be awesome!!!!!!

We also had this amazing experience with this man that I called at the beginning of last transfer. He didn't have any interest but for some reason I told him that we were in a trio and he said that maybe we would see each other on the namesti sometime. One day we were walking along the street and a man started to yell out to us. We were actually pretty freaked out about it but we went over and he talked to us for about 30 minutes. It was the same man I had called and he recognized us because we were in a trio. He still wasn't interested but he said he would come to english. He came to english and sister Graham talked him into meeting with us. When we met with him it was amazing. He is seriously golden. SERIOUSLY. We read the first vision with him and he looked amazed. He said "That is what I think too" He is so cool!!! MIRACLE.

Lukas is still doing great as well. We are teaching him the word of wisdom tonight!!! I'll let you know how it goes.

This transfer I have seen God's hand in the work so much!!! I have seen how God is wise and that everything happens for a reason. I would have never put myself in a trio especially training and with 2 of the most unexpected people but it worked splendidly. We saw the coolest things that could have only happened to us in a trio! God is there. Jesus is our Savior. The church is true! I love being a missionary!!!!

s laskou

Sestra Bruno

I Just Love Talkin' Bout Jesus

Ahojte

So this week was really funny because one of the recent converts we teach started calling me a jižanka. Which means southerner. We taught him how to say the word sasparilla... in a southern accent. It's hilarious.

Anyway on to the good stuff... We are teaching Lukáš. He is doing užasně!!! He's so golden. He came to church on sunday and loved it. We taught him the plan of salvation this week and it was great. It was a little awkward at one point because martin, the friend that referred him taught with us and when we were explaining Christ's role in the plan of salvation, the atonement, Martin said something like "Yeah so everytime you smoke a cigarette, Christ is suffering for your sin" It was very awkward, but also very true. We thought that Lukas was going to be embarrassed but he was so good about it. The spirit was strong and we testified that we can change and become better. It was good. Now we know he knows that smoking isn't good. 

We also taught Radek again. We taught him with President McConkie last week and it was kind of a frustrating lesson, but we went into this lesson just with love and we just got down to business. We asked if he wanted to know if he should get baptized. He was only allowed to say yes or no. He said yes. So we told him we needed a date to help him be prepared. We said we didn't care if it was in 2 months or 2 years but we needed a date. He said that he had talked to members and it took them 3 years to get baptized so we said fine we will mark you for three years. He said that he probably wouldn't need that long, probably just need till the end of the year so we said fine and marked him for December 20th. I know that may seem a little ridiculous but believe me, God was really working with us on that one. We also started over with the restoration and discovered that he doesn't understand the restoration at all... not good. So basically we are starting with ground zero. It's fun. It's a good place to be. We are just so excited because he has been taught for almost a year now and has never accepted a date until now! YE-HAW.

I think you will all be happy to now that we stalked someone this weekend. mwaahahah. My facebook stalking days really paid off. I kid but really. We say that really cool family we met a few weeks ago walking to the grocery store and we followed them in. We saw them by the bread aisle and it just happened that we "needed" bread for the week and just happened to walk by them and run into them. The good news is that their phone was broken and they had been painting their house all week and just finished. They invited us over on Saturday to see it. We have their address and everything now. THE WORTH OF SOULS WAS WORTH FOLLOWING SOMEONE INTO A GROCERY STORE. 

It was a good week. Love you all!!!

s laskou

sestro bruno 

It's Getting Hot

Hello erebody,

Summer is a'comin' and it is getting hot!!! It makes missionary work super fun. 

This week was a good one. We had training. Those are always awesome. Then President came to UH for the branch conference. It was a really good sacrament meeting. Our branch in UH is so close to being able to be a ward. It's insane!!! I just love my mission president. He is so great!

Then we met with Lukas this week. He was a referral from Martin a recent convert here. And now Lukas has a baptismal date for the 21st of June. He is so awesome! He had already read the uvod and the testimonies before our second meeting. He is so golden. It was so cute because it was Sister Frampton's first time ever extending the commitment of baptism and he accepted and she started to cry. She's a great missionary. We are so excited for him!!

Today was a really fun p-day because we went on a vylet with some members and lukas. It was really fun and we hope that he felt at home in the branch!!! 

Baptism is just the best. The sacrament is just the best. We get to feel clean from all of our sins once a week. It's so worth it! Being a member is so worth it!!! 

Love you all,

Sestro Bruno

Shout-outs from Heavenly Father

Hey all,

This week was a good one. I know I say this every week but the members in UH are probably some of the best members I have ever met ever. I just love them!!! And I love UH.

This week we did a lot of fasting and praying. We have really been searching for people to teach, and for things to happen in people's lives that would change their hearts enough to want to meet with us. We had a really cool experience just yesterday. We had just ended our fast and we had trakting on plan. I love trakting, but I don't like it very much. So it was a little hard to go back out after we had had a little break in the apartment, but one of my companions, Sister Graham said that when we don't feel like doing something that is when we should do it. So we went out. 

The first door we trakted into was this little old lady. She had a really hard life. She was 88 years-old and her daughter committed suicide right when she finished high school so the woman had once believed in God but stopped. She said that she was doing everything-- going to church, praying, everything but after her husband died she couldn't believe in a righteous God anymore. It was so sad. She didn't have very much interest in the Gospel, but she asked where we were from and I said South Carolina and she started to laugh. Last Christmas she visited America and went to South Carolina. She started to talk about Charleston and I said YES that's so close to where I'm from and then she said Summerville. I was in shock. I said that is my place. To je muj misto. Her friend that she was visiting lives in Summerville, SC!! In that moment I really knew that Heavenly Father loved me and this lady I was talking to so much!!! She doesn't have much interest in the gospel, but we are going to go back and bring her something next week. She is a special person. We all are!!! I just love that God loves us enough to give us shout-outs from Heaven that show us we aren't alone and he has interest in our lives. 

I also had an epiphany yesterday that someone is getting baptized this transfer. It seems a little strange because we haven't been teaching very many people, but I just know it. UH is so close to being a ward and so close to getting an actual building built here. IT IS SO CLOSE. Someone will be baptized from UH in the next 3 weeks. Just you wait and see.

s laskou

Sestra Bruno

Positive to the End

Hey family-fam,

The UH is just killing it. We had a pretty good week considering all the crazy things that happened. On Wednesday we started teaching Elenka, a members granddaughter. She is a fiesty little ten-year old. AND I LIKE IT. haha But really she is super cute and she acts like an adult. It's hard though because her dad is against faith and had a really hard time letting her go to church so we aren't sure how he will react to her getting baptized. But in the closing prayer she prayed that her dad could gain faith. It was the sweetest thing ever. It just reminded me how blessed I was to grow up in the family and place that I did. 

On that same day while we were at the church building someone came in while we were teaching a lesson and stole one of my companions bag. It was the one that was in her last transfer and they stole her camera(with all the pictures of her mission), her pass, visa, money, cards, DRIVERS LICENSE, etc. It was terrible. It has made doing missionary work harder too because we can't drive the car until I get my driver's license now because there is no way for her to get another one. I hate when people steal. It's not very nice. But she has a really good attitude about it. She said that they stole her bag so they could find the Book of Mormon, read it, and want to get baptized. She's great. 

That was sad, but we just knew that it meant good things were coming. On Friday just two days after we had a lesson with an RCLA and we decided to go on splits. I went with a member and taught Martin in the park and the other sisters went and contacted. It was a really cool lesson... I WAS THE ONLY AMERICAN. (way coool) Anyway while I was teaching the sisters found a family of 6 that were formers that want to meet again. IT WAS SO COOL! Then on Saturday randomly on the members texted us and told us that they decided their 15 year old son needs to learn about the church, so on Sunday we went over for lunch and taught him. It was really cool... I definitely learned that I am still scared of 15 year old boys even though I'm 21. I feel bad for Nikita. They are terrifying. But no seriously he is a really nice boy. It was a really funny meeting because his dad didn't tell him until we were all sitting down that he needed to start the lessons and he said he doesn't care if he gets baptized but that he needs to at least know every thing. We think that he is secretly hoping and praying that he will get baptized because you can just tell every time you are around that family how much they love each other and baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end are the only way they can be together forever. We have high hopes for him. 

It was a great week. Moral of the story... Families are just the best. They are the MOST important organization in the world. hahah They really are. Love my fam...

love,

Sister Bruno

Just Another Day In Paradise

Hellllerrrro my dear dear family,

This week was good. We did a lot of finding. Sometimes it was successful. Sometimes not. But that's missionary work. We did have a cool experience where we had a seminar about mormonism and one of the guys from english stayed and asked us questions about the church. Afterwards he asked about the Book of Mormon and took a copy. We asked if he would have time again next week and he said yes! We are excited because he has already been to church a couple of times and asked our branch president how he could learn more about our church. I guess a missionary in the past got his phone number but it didn't save, but he started coming to english and now we can hopefully start teaching him! Also we have a member whose granddaughter has been coming to church and we set up to meet with her! The member is awesome and the little girls mom is already a member she is just inactive and her dad is against the church but hopefully we can talk to them and we can teach her! The branch here in UH is spectatular. I really want to work harder and be the best missionary I can be for them because they are so great!!! Seriously. They are wonderful! Our branch president is only 27 years old and he has already been branch president for 2 years. He started when he was still in school and barely married. They are a serious power couple! They look like the couple from Tangled because his wife has the most beautiful long blonde hair. I love this branch!

We also went to Brno this week. We had district conference and then had zone conference after. It was a long weekend. But it was awesome because another 70 came to speak to everyone in the district. Elder Jouttenous(sp?) from Finland. He was the nicest man ever! And our training was great because we talked about the power of our call and watched a ted... if you know what those are. I didn't. But I guess they are inspirational podcasts and it was really good. It was this lady who talks about powerstances and how if we do these stances we will feel more confident and how when we are confident and believe in our selves and even just fake like we believe in ourselves until we succeed, then we really can succeed. It was really great. I am really working on these stances. Especially in contacting. I just keep telling myself to "BE BIG" I think it helps :).

Training is going good. Sister Frampton came pre-trained so everything is all good. The trio is great. We are thinking about getting shirts with our faces on them. hahaha kidding... kind of. But really everything is good. I am so lucky to be a missionary!!!!

Love you all! Hope all is well

s laskou

Sestro Bruno

Bittersweet

Hello hello hello,

This week was a bittersweet one for me. I found out that I am leaving plzen :(. It's bittersweet because I will miss Plzen so so so much, but I am also excited to serve in a new area. IT IS GOING TO BE QUITE AN ADVENTURE! I will be serving in Uherske Hradiste you say it ooo-hair-sh-kaa hhh-rad-ish-tee-yuhhhh! (it's a tough one to say) And I will be in a trio. And we will be training... weirddddd. 

Also I found out that my last companion went home because of health conditions. That's why we are in a trio. It was really tough to hear that. I had no idea until president called us and told me what was happening on saturday night. I was basically just shocked. I didn't expect it. So I'm excited I have no idea what to expect so I'll just expect the unexpected I guess. 

This week was pretty great. I had a good birthday. Still can't believe I'm 21. I still feel like I'm 19. But it was good. We went to Indian Food and had district meeting and taught english. Good stuff. Then we had a mormonism seminar and we taught about temples. Which leads me into the coolest part of the week. We stumbled upon the coolest, most prepared man EVER!!!

His name is Jiri. Elder Foster contacted him at the beginning of the transfer in front of the mall on a scooter and couldn't for the life of him set up a meeting, but the man said he would come to english. So he came to our english class and one week we taught a lesson about the book of mormon. During the thought he asked (very loudly) where he could buy one. We told him we gave it for free and got his number. That brings us to this week when we taught about temples. He was visiting Alberta Canada and saw the temple and tried to go inside but they told him that he couldn't! He was so confused why not. This week we had a lesson with us and he is so prepared. We taught the restoration and he agreed with it all. We asked if he would be baptized if he knew it was all true and he said, jasne, obviously. He said he had been coming to english to be around other believers. HE 

LOVES WHAT WE TEACH. He and his four kids and wife are totally going to get baptized!!!

Simona and the girls are doing okay. We taught Law of Chastity... she said it sounds like a fairytale and no one does it... sad day. We don't know what is going on through her head. We haven't seen her since thursday and she cancelled todays lesson, but we have faith that everything will be okay. 

It was just a great week. I love love love Plzen so much. I love the members. I love the city. I love the people. I just have loved this place sooo much. I can't believe it's already time to leave. I just love being a missionary so so so much. I never want it to end! Our mission is on fire right now. We are baptizing more then ever before and I know that the Lord's hand is in our work so much!

I love you all and can't believe how everyone is changing so much. I'm not even going to recognize you anymore! Promise to remember me????

Love yaaa

Sestroooooo