A Needle in a Haystack

A big hello from Prague!

It is truly beautiful here! Everything is going good. We are in a new area so we haven't been teaching so much, but we did teach one lesson this week! It was way cool because on one of the many full days of kontakting that we had, we stopped in a park for a water break after 4 hours of just straight rejection and I said to Sister Bateman why can't we just find someone who is at least curious about us. Someone who wonders why we are here and why out of the 1.3 billion people in Prague we stopped them? Sister Bateman just being the patient, persistant person that she is said, I don't know. And we kept walking. Then we kept walking and kontakting and after wandering around and getting lost for like 30 minutes we found this guy. It was an empty street and we just stopped him and told him what we tell everyone, we want to talk about God and he asked, Why did you stop me, where are you from, why are you walking down this street? It was so crazy. I didn't even know how to answer. We just said, We don't know, God just wants us to be. So we switched numbers and met with him. He is so nice. HE SMILES SO BIG. That is actually the reason why he met with us I guess, he said that he felt good energy from us because people in the Czech Republic don't smile enough, but we smile all the time. He has some pretty weird ideas about God, so we don't know what to expect, but we are excited.

We have also had some cool experiences kontakting and finding people that have absolutely no interest in our message, but as soon as we are done we ask if there is service we can do for them. Their faces change after that. They are so much more happy and willing to talk to us when they find out we want to serve. My companion was way awesome in comp study she said that we needed to serve more and reminded me that Ammon didn't go to the king and say that he wanted to talk to him about God, first he said that he wanted to be his servant, and then he served him. We don't know what the secret is going to be to get investigators and open the Czech people's hearts, maybe it isn't such a secret but I know that as long I just keep going. That has been the biggest thing I have learned this week. KEEP GOING. Life is so unpredictable and hard and sometimes we wonder, why is this happening to me? I can't handle this, I wasn't prepared for this. Everyone else is seeing success, why can't I? But God has given us THIS life. Your life my life, it's ours. We just have to know and trust that God knows us and he knows what we need. I hope you can feel God's love for you, no matter what is going on right now. I know everyone is having a tough time but God really loves you and the only reason why I tell you that is because I know he loves me! And if he loves me and I love you, well love is just everywhere, that's all.

Keep the faith

S laskou

Sestra Bruno

Opening A New Mission is Scary

BTW Since I am in Prague now, my P-Day is now on Saturday!

Prague is amazing. It is so beautiful and gigantic! Seriously it is so humongous. I'm SCARED! hahaha but it's okay, the Lord is on my side!

Opening an area is tough. We have nothing. No formers, potentials, RCLAs. NOTHING We have been kontakting like crazy. I am talking 6 hours of it every day. But we love it. We actually have our first investigator already! He is sooooo awesome. He has the cutest 3 year old son. We have only taught bench lessons so far, but they have been so good! I said the closing prayer in Czech and I prayed to help us be happy and he loved it. Right after we said amen he thanked me for the prayer. It was a really cool experience. Sister Bateman is the best. She keeps me going even though there are so many time that I just want to sit down and be done! She is so positive and hard working! I'm excited to see what we can make our area in it's first transfer!

s laskou

Sestra Bruno

Spirit Helps in Overcoming Trials

Hey fam.

We had a great week this week. We saw another baptism this past week in our branch. The Elders are really killing it finding people, they have another baptism this week too. WAY AWESOME.

I played the piano for it and I was TERRIBLE, but it's okay, I'm over it. One of the members who just got back from his mission said that we were really lucky because we learn humility in this mission. It's definitely true. I have truly been humbled. I have never felt so spiritually uplifted and stupid all at the same time. hahaha

I have really been working on my faith this week. With God, with myself and with the people. Sometimes faith in your investigators is the hardest thing because you don't have control over them and you have to just hope that they feel the spirit and will come again! It's really hard to have complete trust in God but when you do, you see miracles.

We had the most amazing lesson on faith and repentance with one of our investigators Radek. His family is Catholic, his wife and his son, but he has so many questions. Things don't make sense to him and when we told him we were going to try to help him with his questions he was really interested. We had one of the members of the branch presidency who has a similar story, his wife and children were Catholic and he was too, hardcore, but when he started meeting with the missionaries and getting answers to his questions he knew this was the true church. It was an amazing lesson. I wish I could have tape recorded it so I could watch it over and over again... Even though almost everything I said in Czech was wrong and they had to correct me, the spirit was strong. I know that even if we had recorded it, it wouldn't be the same. The spirit really makes all the difference. I hope you all will strive to feel the spirit sometime this week. It will really help with any trials you have been going through.

Gen---Good luck with the baby this week! I'll be praying.

Michael--- study up on PMG. You'll be glad you did

Everyone else--- I love you all!

Have a good week

s laskou 

Sestra Bruno

Weird Stuff

AHOJJJJJJ

Sometimes it is hard being a missionary when all this crazy historic stuff is happening because I feel like I do not have a clue what is going on.

I heard that elders can wear khakis now?

I also heard that they are opening an all sisters area in Columbia? weird weird and weird

This week was really good. We found a girl named Felina from Ecuador. She is awesome. GUESS WHAT. Her mom was baptized 3 years ago, but she moved here 4 years ago so she knows all about the missionaries but she wasn't there to get taught. It was so amazing because she prayed at the end of our 2nd lesson and she said that she knew that she met us for a reason and that she was really going to try to figure out why. I already love her. She reminds me of Desi sort of. hahahah she is the best. After the lesson S. Woodworth and I just said that we would go through a transfer like this one every time if it meant we could find someone like her every time. I am excited. She still has a lot of concerns but as far as I know, she is ready.

My new mission president is so amazing. He told us about the miracles that we can see on our mission if all we do is tell people our testimony. All we have to say is we know God lives and Jesus Christ is our savior and the Holy Ghost testifies. That's all. Nothing else matters. He is way awesome. I cant wait to see the cool stuff that happens while he is the president. And his family is sooooo awesome. Love them already.

As for this week, I am working on faith. I thought that I came into the mission having so much and knowing so much but I am realizing I still have so much to learn. If you have a chance you should read what the Bible dictionary has to say about having faith. I love when things are explained so simply. Sometimes I think I try to make things really complicated but I am figuring out that the most beautiful part about missionary work is when you can explain a principle of the gospel, in whatever language, with the Holy Ghost present, and have someone understand. Those moments really are miracles. 

I am excited to see what this week brings.

s laskou

Sestra Bruno

Keeping Missionaries in Our Prayers

What´s up y´all?

I´m just chilling... IN THE CZECH REPUBLICK. 

That is still weird to me. 

This week was pretty good. Our District leader challenged us to give out baptismal dates to everyone we were teaching and we did and... nothing. People have a really hard time with commitment. Sister Woodworth and I are having a really hard time getting people to meet with us taky. We don´t really know why some people show up to appointments and others don´t but believe you me, we are going to find out. 

We have one really cool investigator that is so interested in finding truth. I am grateful for him because we finally have a PROGRESSING INVESTIGATOR!!!! Wohooooooo!!! My first... besides Jana who just got baptized. I could not be more excited for him. Even though he hasn´t accepted our invitation for baptism, he is really thinking about it. He is truly looking for the truth. It´s hard to meet with him though because he works so much but he is the nicest, kindest man ever. His name is Radek and he is the best! 

 

Please keep the missionaries in your prayers this week so that we can find more people! And just baptize the world hahaha, but really.

We finally watched that broadcast everyone was talking about. It was way cool. We just got a new mission president so we don´t really know if anything is changing or not, but we will find out soon I guess if anything is. He is so cool. He speaks Czech and he has the cutest family! He came to our branch and talked yesterday and everyone there already loves him! He is going to be great.

I heard from Adam Walker... He gets home in 3 months. WEIRD! 

I can´t believe Michael is endowed... that is even WEIRDER. Is he ready to go on his mish yet? I keep meeting really cool french people, mostly from Africa and Belgium but still he is going to love it.

Has Gen already moved? 

What else is going on?

I love you allllllllll

s laskou 

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

Barriers in Missionary Work

ahoj muje rodina. Jak se mate? Still hard at work here. I still can't believe I have almost been here for a whole month! This week was pretty sad because we had zone conference with President Irwin for the last time. I guess I only knew him for 3 weeks, but he was so awesome. I'm excited for President McConkie to come. He'll be awesome too! One thing I have realized this week is how truly blessed I am. I was born in America. I have a family who respects my free agency and I am a member of the only true church on the earth. FROM birth. God really trusted me to get work done. Yesterday after church we were talking to one of the Priest in our ward. His name is Jiři. I guess his family is originally from Russia and they became members because his father drove a taxi and he used to take missionaries to church. One day the missionaries talked to him about the church and the rest is history. He didn't talk much about his father, I guess something personal happened that he didn't want to talk about... but here is why I want to be more like Jiři. Every Sunday his family wakes up at 5 am and takes an hour bus to come to church. Church doesn't start until 9 am but the bus only goes at certain times so they wait for 3 hours just for church to start. Then when church is over they wait another 3 hours to be able to go home. He comes almost every week because he knows how much the ward needs priests to pass the sacrament. His sister isn't a member and missionaries usually don't visit them because they live so far away. Right now Jiři is 18 but he isn't in school anymore because he has to work and help his mother. (I asked him if he was going to serve a mission, that's how we found all this out) He said he wants to but he doesn't know if he will be able to. I guess he understands 5 different languages: Russian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian and one more that I am forgetting. He is so smart. I just wanted to cry after hearing all this. So many people don't want to hear what we are teaching so it's kind of hard sometimes but now when I remember Jiri and his family and how much they love the church, it gives me hope. There are people here that are willing to sacrafice so much because they know what I know. They know the church is true. One of our investigators, MY FAVORITE ONE, Vojta pretty much dropped us yesterday because his friends found out he was taking the discussions. They told him that he would never get a girlfriend if he became religious and his friends and the thought of a future girlfriend matter a lot to him, just like any normal 19 year old boy. He is leaving for 3 weeks on vacation and while he is gone he said he is going to decide whether or not he will keep meeting with us. I was so sad. Partly because what his friends say is true. It's really hard to date and be a member of the church. You are treated a lot differently. And this doesn't just happen in the Czech Republic, it's everywhere. People just treat you differently and question your morals and you have to just care more about God, but he says he doesn't have enough faith in God yet to do that. We are meeting with him one more time before he leaves and I just hope that the spirit tells him to keep meeting with us, despite what his friends say. I wish I could tell him all about Jiri and what he goes through, but it's so hard to communicate in Czech. He never understands what I am trying to say. I don't know... I guess I'll let you know what happens there. Despite all this I know that there are so many miracles happening here. Anyone that does agree to meet with us is a miracle because there is really no other reason other than the spirit for them to come. I am so grateful that I have the HOLY GHOST. WE had 4 people at church this week. That was a serious miracle! I hope you are finding ways to be missionaries because... it's important!!!! I love you all and hope you are well WE HAVE A BAPTISM TODAY. I AM STOKED s laskou Sestra Bruno