Faith, Agency and Opposition

Hello dear family,

It's been a slow week here in Plzen... We kontakt really cool people and get their numbers and even set up times to meet, but they stillllll don't come... FRUSTRATING!!!! But it's okay. We are just going to keep calling :) 

My district leader is really awesome. He told us in our last district meeting that faith is like a ladder. We climb and climb and when we get to the top and there are no rungs left then that is when our faith is truly tested and we have to hope that God is going to add more to our ladder. He also told us that we need to focus this week on giving people a reason to come back and meet with us. We went on mini-exchanges with him this week and he said to think of it like being in the mall... when salespeople come up to you in the mall and start going off on how this new lotion is going to help you so much and you should try it and blah blah blah then most of the time you are like, no thanks I'm not looking for lotion, I wasn't even thinking about lotion and I don't need it right now, OR you are like no, thanks I have my own lotion, I don't need your lotion. BUT if we start off by giving people background and really focus on making them WANT it so bad that they can't think of a reason not to take the dang lotion, then we will be successfull. :)   He also said to focus on people that we can relate to and that we really really really want to teach and once we find those people to grab on and don't let go. And he said if you can't think of people that you want to teach, or if we are having a hard time finding people that we want to teach then we need to change ourselves. That has been really hard for me thus far on my mission.

CHANGE. Ugh. It's the best worst thing ever. It hurts to evaluate yourself and realize that sometimes what you thought was enough isn't. It's not a very good feeling, but then once you can fix the problem and you are able to grow, then it's the best feeling in the world. 

This week we had a really cool experience testing the ladders of our faith. We tried to go and visit a less-active but they weren't home. BUT the events leading up to us finding out they weren't home are what tested our faith. First we had to find out where she lived because she lived in an apartment building that is surrounded by other apartment buildings and the numbers on the buildings are sometimes really hard to find so we walked down this row of apartment buildings looking for the number 65. We got to the end of the row and their was no 65. It ended with 63, so we went to the next row, but is started with 67, so we had to go back to the first row and we kept walking until we found this random building that wasn't really on a street but was just kind of in the middle of all the other buildings and it was... 53 so by that point we were thinking that 65 didn't even exist, but we kept walking straight up the street and looked up and there was 65. That was the easy part. Once we got to the building, we looked at the zvolnek (which is where you ring people to let you in to the building) but her name wasn't there, but a girl came up and opened the door and asked what we wanted, but just as she asked a man came out of the door and saw who we were and pushed us out of the door and said something mean in Czech and walked out of the building. I still think that could have been the ladies husband, I'm not sure... But then we really didn't know what to do so we just started ringing people asking them to let us in. It was terrible. I got through 5 people telling me know and the whole time my companion was saying that we needed to go but I just keep ringing. I'm not even sure why. Finally this man with a really scary dog that barked and jumped on me, opened the door for us and we asked if he knew where the women we were looking for lived and he yelled at us that she lived upstairs so we walked all the way to the top floor of this building and then we looked at the buzzers up their and their was on that had her name on it so we rung it and NOBODY ANSWERED! Then we looked at all the doors on the floor, there were 6 and 2 of them didn't have names on them, so I thought, you know we made it this far so we knocked on the first door... no answer. (the whole time I was praying please don't yell at me, please don't yell at me, I will start crying if you yell at me) Then we knocked on the second door... no answer. So then we went back downstairs and left a letter in the mailbox telling her that we tried to visit and leaving our information. I know it might not sound like a lot, but I was scared out of my mind to do this. But I know that even though the woman wasn't home and we didn't miraculously find someone prepared that I am showing God that I am willing to do what it takes to find his lost sheep and I think that's what he wants. Plus we can always go back and see if she is home on another day now that we know she lives there. Next time we will even take the next step and trakt her building... even though there are scary mean people there... It will be great! hahah

It was a good week. I hope you read the above story because it's funny and applicable to your lives and if you care about me you will read my long e-mails too... hahahah

love you all and hope you are having miracles of your own

s laskou

Sestra Bruno (Franny) 

TRAKTOVANI...

This week was INTENSE. We had a mindblowingly crazy spiritually uplifting zone conference. Our mission president changed a lot of the things... Then we had interviews with him and he asked if I would do whatever he asked and I said YES! I'm really excited to start doing everything I can to find people. One of the biggest pieces of advice he gave was to have in mind who we need before we go finding, and plan accordingly. The church in this part of the vineyard needs some extra TLC... we are so close to getting a stake. I WANT IT TO BE THIS YEAR. And we need families and strong priesthood holders. So we are thinking outside of the box and we are doing things that scare us. LIKE TRAKTING. I know I might sound like a horrible missionary to some of you who have served... like everyone in our family... but we don't do trakting really in the Czech Republic. Well... we do it's just really scary because the way that Czech houses were build is crazy. There is a front door, but you can't get to the front door with out ringing people the peoples zvolnek, then they have to come out and open the gate that is locked before you can even think about getting to the front door. Even with houses. EVERY HOUSE/APARTMENT BUILDING/SHACK/ANY LIVING ACCOMODATION has one. So there is no way to knock the door and people are just not super nice when you knock on their door. BUT Holla at 'cha girls. We got over our fear and we trakted. We are starting small... one hour a day of trakting and we are starting with houses and not humongous ponaloks (apartment buildings that were built during communism that are super scary and people threaten to call the police on you and yell at you). Baby steps. WE ARE BEING BRAVE AND WE ARE BEING BOLD because these people need it! People need us to tell them that their lives aren't ok without the gospel. They need the message that we are talking about! And we desperately need them to be our branch builders here in Plzen so that we can get a stake in the Czech Republic. It was actually pretty good. We talked to some really nice people, and we talked to some really not so nice people and we had one man who basically kicked us out of the neighborhood... that's okay, we'll get 'em next time. 

We also talked in training about becoming Czech... figuring out what they like, how they act and then using that to talk to people. I'm going to try to be better at that. I really want to embrace this culture. I want people to think that I'm Czech! It's gonna take some work.... hah Also we watched the Mormon Message "The Curren (sp?) Bush" The Lord is really the gardener in our lives and I really want to focus on being the person that the Lord wants me to become. Which is hard. Sometimes I don't know exactly what the Big Guy wants from me, but I'm working on that too. It's gonna be a good week. 

Wishing you health and happiness

s laskou

Sestra Bruno

That Awkward After-Christmas-Time-where-people-are-waiting-for-New-Year's-and-still-don't-want-to-meet with you

Hey Fam!

It was so nice to talk to all of you on Christmas! Seriously. It made my year!!!! Things I learned: 

MY FAMILY IS CRAZY (in a good way) all the other missionaries could hear everything we were saying and I was in a different room with the door closed... hahaha. 

I miss you all more than I expected to!

I wouldn't be the missionary I am without all of you!!!

That being said, Thank you... And stop promising me to random strangers in Brazil and utah singles wards. 

It was an amazing Christmas!!!! We started off with a visit from my girl Marketa from Prague. It was a great visit. Then we spent Christmas Eve visiting members and showing them a 5 minute film then bearing our testimony of Jesus Christ. It was amazing. We have wonderful members in this part of God's vineyard. The members in Plzen are just so friendly and genuinely pray for the missionaries success. It is a beautiful thing. Then for Christmas Eve dinner all the missionaries got invited to a members house. She made us... get this... Fried Chicken and potato salad... Traditional Czech christmas food. I thought that was funny since I am used to fried chicken and potato salad but prepared in a whole different way. A little bit of southern comfort for me during my Christmas in the Czech Republic. It was pretty funny. Then we had millions of things called sucrovy which are just these tiny christmas cookies. Every cookie tastes different though. It's crazy. I'll have to send pictures. We literally eat thousands of these things. Needless to say I am F-A-T. I have a New Year's Resolution to give up milka bars (the chocolate here). 

Then for Christmas we visited a hospital and sang to this man. It was so cute. He asked where we were from and we told him America and he was shocked that we had come all the way from America to sing for him on Christmas. Then he wished us health so that we wouldn't end up in the hospital like him. It was really cute. He sang along to the carols we sang... it was awesome. Then we had lunch with our district. And dinner with some members who didn't have family to go home to.

The day after Christmas was probably the funniest because we went around singing at places where we thought people would be, but Plzen is pretty small and so there was no one out. We were basically singing to ourselves. It was definitely an experience that I will never forget. I have never sung so much in my life for an audience as I have on my mission... I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. hahhaha. 

The holidays were so wonderful but I am really excited for everything to go back to normal and to get back to normal missionary work. I have souls to save here! hahaha. But really I am super excited for what the New Year will bring. It is truly a time to reflect on how to improve and change and get better (as is every new day that comes) because "a marvelous work is about to come forth among the Children of men" and I get to be apart of it! #STOKED 

I miss you all so so so much! Have Fun at Annika's wedding!!!! Do the stanky leg for me!

s laskou

Sestro Bruno

VESELE VANOCE

Hey fam!

This week was really good. We had interviews with President. It really helped. So much. My mission president is really THE BEST person ever. I told him how I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing and I don't understand anything and he told me about when he served in Plzen and it was the same time of year as when I am here. He said that he was trained by someone who had only been on their mission for 4 months and they had no idea what they were doing either and they still found people who are still members today. It's amazing. They are super strong members too. He said that we would find the people who would be willing to meet with us no matter what. No matter how much Czech we spoke, no matter how good our people skills were, no matter what. I can tell that's true. It's so amazing how the Lord works and I can really feel his hand in the work that we are doing as missionaries. It has to be him because there is no way that people would listen to my Czech if the Holy Ghost wasn't working with them.

For Christmas I don't think we are going to have time to e-mail next monday because we will be in Prague so I will just tell you what the plans are I guess. I'm still confused what we do... but we can only call after 6 and my companion is going to call her family at 7 so I am going to call at 8 pm here. I think that will be 2 pm on the east coast and 12 pm MST???? I'm not sure. Also I guess you are suppose to call me so our number is 420.775.474.340 at 8 pm our time. We have 45 minutes to talk. So 8 p.m. my time on Christmas Day (the 25th)

Christmas Eve is the really big Holiday here in the CR and so a lot of member are going out of town and things like that but it should still be a pretty good Christmas. On the 24th a member from Prague is going to come down and visit us and I'm so excited! She is the best. I am really excited for my first (and probably only) Czech Christmas.

If anyone is on right now and has questions let me know because I don't know exactly how this is suppose to work... Or if I should change the time??? I don't know

Changing All of Our Natural Habits

Dearest Family,

A big ahoj hoj from Plzen.

 After being here for a week I am realizing that I am one of those missionaries that is just meant to plant seeds. I got here only to find out that there are absolutely no investigators in this area. (This area has only been opened for 4 transfers so as long as I have been a missionary) YES. So after having a mini-panic attack because I am the senior companion (I'm suppose to know what I'm doing and I don't AT ALL) and praying a whole ton... I came up with the solution. Kontakting. It's so fun. Really I love it. It reminds me of two transfers ago when we opened Namesti Miru in Prague. We didn't have anyone during those transfers and now we have solid investigators and one even with a baptismal date. We will find the elect here in Plzen too. Already last week we saw a lot of success and we have a ton of potential, we just need to get people to meet with us... the problem every missionary has...  But really starting at ground zero just makes me realize that there is so much room to grow and to change and that's why we are here as people on the earth. To learn and grow. So I can't wait to grow-up in Plzen. It's going to be SUPER. Sister Jackson is really good. She is so sweet and really dedicated to the work. If anybody has anytime this week they should write to her because she is kind of having a hard time with her family and just missionary life. It would be really really nice and I think that she would really appreciate it.

This week in personal study I have a goal to focus on CONVERSION. What does it mean to be converted? I was reading in the Topical Guide today and one of the Synonyms for conversion was change. I thought that was interesting. The more I read the more I discovered that when we are converted we change all of our natural habits, everything that the world tells us to do to become Godly. True conversion. It's so hard. Sometimes I really don't want to do what needs to be done. REALLY don't want to. But I know that every time I do something that scares me, or is really really hard, that I am coming a little closer to being like God. It's a good feeling. So I hope that everyone will try to do something this week that scares them, but helps them come closer to Jesus Christ. For me it is kontakting people on public transportation. It scares me so bad, but it shows God that I have faith and trust him. 

I love you all so so much and hope that everything is good!!!

s laskou

Sestra Bruno

Plzen Bound

Hey fam,

My p-days are switched to Monday because I got transferred to Plzen!!!! My companion's name is Sister Jackson. She is 1 transfer behind me so we are just a bunch of newbies still... well I guess I'm not really a newbie anymore but it feels like I am!!! 

I'm really excited to be in Plzen. President has been really worried about this area lately, so I'm glad that he trusts me enough to send me here. I am really hoping to see miracles and do some good work here!!! I don't really have a lot to say so I will write more next week once I know what I am doing!!!!!

7 Simple Words

Happy--- We met with Angie!!! She is amazing. We weren't able to meet with her last week because she cancelled the lesson. It was weird because we haven't gone a week without seeing her since we first met her almost 3 months ago. So she came on Thursday and explained why she missed. She told us that her psychiatrist told her that she needs to be independent and not to be really cautious when she meets with us so that she doesn't get tricked into anything... Then she googled Mormons and the Book of Mormon and was really overwhelmed and didn't want to meet with us. All I could think was NO!!! No no no. Please don't tell us you don't want to meet anymore. BUT she came on Thursday and we talked about her concerns and she is doing a lot better. We talked about transfers and how one of us will most likely be leaving and she invited us over to her apartment for dinner!!! She is so amazing.

Sad--- We had studies/interviews with President and he basically told me that I am leaving Prague... sadddd day

Crazy--- Night kontakting. I am learning to love it. It gets dark here at 4:30 p.m. It is insane. Since we are a new area there is not much else to do but kontakting and believe me, you meet some pretty interesting people.

Glad--- We had a lesson with Jaro (which translated means Spring) he told us that he feels different when he meets with us (THANK YOU HOLY GHOST!!!) And after the lesson the member that we had there talked to us for 30 minutes about how prepared he was and said that anytime we had a lesson with him to call and he would come and teach with us.

Far--- We went on exchanges to Ostrava... a 4 hour train ride there, 4 hours back. Blah.

Close--- Sister Bateman and I are practically related. That's what it feels like anyway... and after 4 months, I guess that's how it should be :)

Gross--- Metro P.D.A. It still grosses me out. I know I am in Europe but come on people!!!! Get a room. Actually don't. Meet with us, learn about the temple, and have an eternal family! I mean come on.

It was a good week! I have learned so much about myself these last two transfers. My faith has grown so much. Every day I get a little closer to being truly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was reading this week in The Acts... Right after Jesus Christ has appeared to Peter and told him that if he loved him then he would feed his sheep. Then Peter goes on to run the church and he is just a powerhouse! It made me wonder, what happened between the end of The Book of John and The Book of The Acts. What happened to Peter? What did he do? What did he feel? Because before he doubted. He didn't have enough faith to walk on water, he denied Christ, he went back to fish. Christ constantly had to reprimand and revise... he did so lovingly but still. But the last time Christ appeared, the last time he asked "do you love me?" changed Peter. I hope that on my mission the same thing will happen to me. I have experienced the reprimanding and revision but I hope that by the end I can say that I am a truly converted disciple of Jesus Christ and even after my mission continue to be his disciple!

3 Nefi 5:13 "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life"

This work is wonderful. I'm so glad I'm here! Have a beautiful, wonderful, happy, smiley, week!!!

I'm thankful for you all!! HappyThanksgiving!!! 

s laskou

sestrabruno