Smarty Pants Missionary

This week has been crazy. As in, it is hard to remember everything that happened because it's been crazy.

The highlights of this week were definitely the lessons that we taught. EVERYBODY WE TEACH HAS TO BE THE BIGGEST SMARTY PANTS IN THE WORLD. I think it's pay back for me being the way I was before my mission... aka also a smarty pants. 

We "taught" (I say it like that because it didn't feel like we taught him anything, I think he just thought we were cool and was interested in our church) This man, whose english was perfect, about what we do as missionaries. He is Roman Catholic and it was so interesting because he explained what it means to be Roman Catholic in the Czech Republic. It means that your parents were roman catholic and so by birth you were declared Roman Catholic, you don't have to go to church, you don't have to believe, but you are Roman Catholic. We taught about the Restoration and he said that we were smart and passionate, but that he liked the idea that the Pope prays for his sins and he is forgiven... UGH, and then he said we could e-mail him in September... double UGH. He was so awesome, and I hope we can meet again after he has read in the BOOK OF MORMON.

Then we taught our investigator Karel again. HE IS AWESOME. He is still struggling to believe but we are working with him. HE IS AMAZING. Whether or not he makes it all the way to baptism or not, I just want him to know that God is there. HE IS. ALWAYS. And he always will be.

I got to go on Sister exchanges this week because my companion is the sister training leader so I was companions for the day with my old MTC companion Sister Steglich. IT WAS REALLY FUN. We just contacted together but it was crazy because while we were in the MTC we never thought we would get to walk the streets of Prague together. WAY COOL!

Then we had an amazing training. President McConkie is the best. He taught us about Christ as a shepherd, I hope you can all read John 10 this week and think about how Christ truly is our shepherd and what that means. He leads us and protects us and he is so humbly. It is beautiful. Then he committed us to getting 2 new investigators each week. We are pumped to meet our goals this week. I can hardly wait to start!

I love you all and pray for you

Sestra Bruno

What Will Missionaries Do in 20 Years: Farewell Mission President's Letter to Czech/Slavak Mission Parents

Dear Parents

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your wonderful children.  It has been a privilege for Sister Irwin and I to come to know your son/daughter as a disciple of Christ.  We have felt an instant love for them as soon as we learned of their call, but that love has grown and grown as we have shared experiences of this great work and come to know each other better.  We know that our missionaries arrived in good shape but we also know that if we did not send them home better than they arrived then we would have failed.  Three years ago it was made clear to us by the members of the Quorum of the Twelve that the way they would judge our success as a Mission President and Wife would not be by the number of baptisms we have or whether we create a Stake but rather by what our missionaries would be doing in twenty years time.  That is a wonderful illustration of how important our missionaries are to our leaders.  Our goal, therefore, has been to try to help each missionary grow.  We have tried to help them to not only establish the gospel in these great lands but also to establish the gospel in their own hearts.  We are anxious that they return to you – not having gone through a mission but rather having had the mission gone through them.  

For the rest of our lives we will have an interest in your missionary.  We love them dearly and we will miss them.

President and Sister McConkie will be a great asset to the work of this mission and they will bless the lives of the missionaries.  We know the McConkies and we love them and we know that the missionaries will love them too.

Thank you once again – we are full of admiration for you in all that you have done to have provided us with the best missionaries in the world.

Sincerely – David and Lyn Irwin