Wow what a great week

 Well, I got the picture of us with President Uchtdorf and President and Sister McConkie, and here is the house where he lived. 

Man, can't believe that this transfer is flying by so fast! It's so crazy. Yesterday we had a great church meeting and learned a lot about hope and how it works with faith. Also about how there aren't any VIP's in the eyes of God, and how he loves all of his children. That really made me think wow, isn't that really great how he does that, He loves all of us more that we can imagine and wants to help us, all we have to do is ask and do our part.

Thursday we went and had training in Praha, and it was so amazing. We learned how to more personally make church invitations and turning it into something so that people understand how important it really is. We also learned how to use all the tools in our tool box, and how we can use all the resources that God has given us to help his children. I love going to training's and learning new things on how we can better help our investigators. 

I am really loving the ward here in Ostrava. We have such amazing members here, so many solid people who love the Gospel. I am here as a missionary teaching people, but I am doing so much learning! It's such an amazing experience to learn from new converts who absolutely love the gospel, even converts of a few years who are just so amazing. 

The work is going well, always busy which is the best thing we can be doing! I love the quote my President Hinckley when he says the most important part of missionary work is work! That is one of my favorite quotes in Preach My gospel. 

Wow, what an amazing week

Here is a picture of when we were standing reserving parking spots for President Uchtdorf.

and one of a beautiful building that I took a while ago... I didn't take any pictures this week.  

So, this was an amazing week. Long and great, full of hard work and adventures. One of the craziest things is that we were able to meet President Uchtdorf! He was in Ostrava because this is where he was born, and the missionaries here were all able to meet him! I don't however, have a picture, but that's okay. I will always remember that experience. My companion and I had the secret mission of setting it up for him, which carried over from Elder Karjalainen. I didn't know about it last transfer, but at the start of this transfer we had to finish everything, and then it all made sense on why Elder Karjalainen took me to random places, and took random pictures and so it was great haha. We were able to get everything set up for him with some amazing miracles and lots of help from God. 

The weather is getting really nice and toasty, which is a blessing. This week we were able to get back in contact with an investigator who lost his phone and so we didn't have contact for several weeks. He is now preparing for baptism again and has already picked a member here who he wants to baptize him. Such an amazing experience. 

We now have a ward here in Ostrava. The new Stake President came on sunday and established the ward here. Our new bishop is so amazing! The Stake President gave a lesson in priesthood about scriptures and why we have them and the blessings of reading them and studying them. It's such a blessing as  a missionary to have an hour each day set aside for us to study scriptures and learn from them.

Not a lot of time today, but there was my week in a nut shell. We are doing great and loving the work. Thank you for all of your prayers. I love you all. 

Wow, what an amazing week

This has truly been an historical time for the church in the Czech Republic. On May 15, 2016, the Czech Republic had a stake established by President Uchtdorf, who by the way, was born right here in Ostrava =). May 15, is also the day of Pentecost, and the same day that John the Baptist restored the Aaronic Priesthood keys to Joseph Smith, and Oliver Cowdrey. We now have 6 wards here, and 7 branches who are all working to wards, and yes Ostrava is a ward. It may not seam like a lot, but now that we have a stake here, we have something huge. A stake patriarch. That means that now all of the Czech people, can get their patriarchal blessings in Czech, and now German or English. The most spiritual part of the whole meeting, was when the called the name of the new patriarch, the whole congregation went still and it was so amazing. They now get to understand what their blessing is while they are getting it. This also means, that the Mission President, is now just the Mission President, not the President of the church in the Czech Republic, but he still is of Slovakia. This week, while we were working and trying to prepare spiritually for the conference, I had an interesting experience I would like to share. While we were contacting, we were telling people that we are sharing a message about Jesus Christ, and then we ask if we can share it with them. All day, we had people tell us no, and it was hard not to get into the ruts of saying okay, and then trying to rescue the contact. One man was standing on the other side of the tram stop across from us, and we yelled to him and told him we were sharing a message, and asked if we could share it with him. Having no faith, I was expecting a no, and I had already picked my next person to contact. To my surprise, he said yeah sure, why not. I couldn't believe my ears, so as we crossed to go talk to him, I asked the spirit to fill my lips as I opened them and testified about our savior, and it did. We weren't able to set up with that man, or even get his number, but I learned so much from that one contact. That was a huge miracle in my eyes and I learned so much from that one contact.

There were so many returned missionaries here at this conference, it was so great to see them all I was able to meet my trainers trainer, which was a really cool experience. I also was able to see Elder Karjalainen again! It was so cool to see him again, its not every transfer when you send your companion home, then see them the next Sunday. All the missionaries who are currently serving in the Czech Republic were at this conference, it was so great to see all of them.    

What an amazing week

 Wow the pictures uploaded weird, so we will start with one on top and one on bottom. This was an amazing week! I got my new companion Elder Tingey from Washington and he is so great. It was hard to say bye to Elder Karjalainen, but he is coming back this weekend for our conference in Praha, which by the way... WE ARE GETTING A STAKE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC! This is such an historic time for the church here. President Uchtdorf will come and establish the first stake here. I am so honored that I have the opportunity to be present for it. 

This week we had the baptism and confirmation of Veronika! I had the amazing opportunity to baptism her in a beautiful river on may 7th. We had a great turn out of people and the members really love her. On Sunday we confirmed her and she was so excited and always smiling. We also had the opportunity to give another new convert, David, the priesthood and ordain him to the office of priest. He is such an amazing boy and a huge example to me. He is now preparing to serve a mission and can't wait until he can go. 

 Thank you for all of your support and prayers, oh and by the way, Happy Mothers Day! I LOVE YOU MOM! 

Transfer week...

YAY! I get to stay in Ostrava! My new companion is Elder Tingey, I think he's from Washington, but I really haven't had a change to talk with him. We picked him up, and contacted people to the library and emailed now so we can make it to our lessons today haha. I'll find out more about him later.

This week was really awesome, we received so many blessings. I really learned how to work hard to the end with Elder Karjalainen, it was his last week, and we worked and worked and worked. Our blessings payed off with finding a new person who is now preparing for baptism, and five invistigators came to church on Sunday. Such a blessing to see so many new faces there on Sunday.

This week we went to Praha for a training. We found out that there will be a special conference for all the members of the Czech Republic! We know this will be a huge historical time for the Czech Republic and I'm so excited to see what it is! I'm so blessed to be able to be a missionary in the Czech Republic at this special time. 

This weekend we will have one of our invistigators get baptized. She is so amazing and has grown to love the Gospel so much. She is such an example to me on how testimonies can grow. Elder Breyman and I found her on a very very cold day at the begenning of January, a day that was so cold, I litterley thought I had lost 6 of my 10 toes. Elder Breyman taught me the importance of working hard, and that the miracles happen when you least expect them. That night, we found this special person who God had prepared to accept the Gospel. I have been blessed to be able to help her understand the Gospel for the past four months. This saturday is a very special day for her, and she has been preparing and is very excited for it. It's so great to be a missionary. 

This is the last week I will be with my companion, Elder Karjalainen. He is heading home to Finland after serving an amazing mission and touching and helping the lives of so many people. I have been blessed to be his companion and learn so much from him. 

This is a picture, drawn during a game night for our branch by David. He was just baptised two weeks ago and has some great talent. 

Here's a picture of two of our invistigators! They are so amazing and such examples to me, as a missionary I am here to teach the Gospel, that's my calling, but wow have I been learning from the people here.