Oct 31, 2016 - Great Week

This has been such a great week, it started with being able to teach English. We had two people there, and the spiritual thought about the Plan of Salvation was an amazing way to end it. One of the students has so many questions, but will only talk with us after English, so we usually talk for about an hour or so about it all.  Its so amazing how the spirit works. Always being with us, doing all the teaching, helping the people understand and accept the things we teach them. This week we had a goal to really focus on teaching by the spirit, and as we did, we saw so many times and situations where the spirit taught the lesson, building the testimonies of the investigators and ours.

Today we were able to have a small Halloween party, mainly we carved pumpkins and made pizza. The caramel for the apples burnt, but its okay, caramel gets stuck in my teeth anyways haha.  

Also, on Tuesday, we had the opportunity to go to Prague for a zone training. We learned so much about how we can help our friends to Christ, by going with them, and showing them the way. President had a great example about how sometimes we go upriver over rapids and big rocks. Sometimes we are scared, but when we go first and show them the way, and help them every step, the start to be able to trust us and then do things we ask, and all the little things start to come together, and then we are upstream to calm water, a beautiful little pond, but one of the important things, is that they need to see the pond, and the blessings that await them there. 

We also learned about how we can use members to teach with us. We were showed a couple of cool websites to invite members to make cool memes, about their favorite scripture verse or quote by apostles. Its on pixels.com and picmonkey.com. There you can find some cool pictures and edit them and share them on social media to set a great example of how the gospel helps you. I encourage all of you to take a loot at it and try it out. It's amazing how fast social media spreads and the example it has on people. 

We had a member from Taiwan, ( I think that's how you spell it) come to visit us in Hradec Kralove. He is so cool. His name is Mark, and studied in Ostrava a couple years ago and came back to visit and wanted to go around and see all the towns that the church is. Well, he was here in Hradec and it was very cool to go contacting with him and get to know him a little bit. It was very cool listening to his testimony and hearing about how he met the missionaries and how his testimony has grown in his two years as a member. I know that the gospel changes lives, and that God loves us all. thank you for all of your prayers and support, have a great week. 

Oct 24, 2016 - Miracles Everywhere

Recording from Blake

This has been a great week. I chose the heading Miracles Everywhere because we have been blessed so much this week. Of course we have miracles all the time as missionaries, when we do our best and work our hardest, God always blesses us. However, this week we really wanted to prove to God that we were ready to do everything in our power to keep the miracles that he gives us alive and going. It might not make sense at first, but what we wanted to do is see the miracles, and then take them and run with them. We know we can never do enough to deserve miracles from God, but he gives us miracles as much as he can. He wants to bless us, he wants to help us, and when he know that we will do our part, he always blesses us more and more because we are prepared and willing to work with him.

This week, we contacted a lady on the street, who didn't have much interest about the Gospel, but had interest in our English class. Well, she showed up on Tuesday, and at the end when we share our spiritual thought, we talked about the first article of faith, which is that we believe in God the Eternal Father, in Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. It was something very new to her. Just the Idea that they are three different people was totally new to her. She said she knows that something exists and that lots of people believe that its God/Jesus Christ. Lots of people think they are the same person. It was so great to be able to speak with her and help her understand that we have a Loving Father in Heaven, and that He sent His son Jesus Christ down to the earth, and that he atoned and died for us, and that we can know all of these things for ourselves, by the power of the Holy Ghost. 

On Thursday we were invited to present a family home evening thought at the Bishops house. It was an amazing family home evening, we had a ton of fun and were able to share a spiritual thought about how we can stand as an example at all times, and how we can let our light shine for all. 

We saw miracles all week, and we did our best to always recognize them. Especially the small things, like how God always puts us and other people where we need to be. I know that God is always here for us, and that his hands are in the work. It's so amazing to be here representing Jesus Christ, and loving and serving my brothers and sisters. I encourage all of you to continue being good examples for all around, for everybody to see you. Thank you for everything you do, have a great week. 

Oct 17, 2016 - Great week here in H.K.

Recording from Blake

Mission Newsletter - Get's one every week


This has been another great week! We are always so blessed to see the lords hands in our work. We recently have seen two of our former investigators while we were on the streets contacting people, both were total miracles, and one of them even set up to meet again! We are way excited to meet with her next Sunday, it should be great. Sadly, the other one didn't have interest, and so we will give him a while before we try again. Sometimes, we need the opportunity to find salvation 1, or 2 or 500 times before we accept it, but we want to make sure its always there so when God has prepared his children, they know where to go to find it.

For district meeting this week, we talked a lot about why missionaries work hard, and what their motive is. One thing we really centered it on, is working hard because these people need the gospel, not work hard because its something that we should just do. Of course, we always need to give our best, but I have personally noticed, that when my heart is in it for the right reasons, it is always a better day for me personally, and for others around us. I took the challenge personally, and have really been focusing on working hard because I want the people around us to have the gospel, to have the truth and light of Christ. When I do this, I notice so many promptings of the spirit always telling me what to say, leading and guiding out conversations and lessons, its such an amazing experience and I have totally changed the way I go about missionary work. 

Today, we had the awesome opportunity to make some great Czech food, one of our members was so nice and taught us how to make fruit dumplings, and some great potato and mushroom soup! It was way good!  here are some pictures of that, sorry about the shortness of the E-mail, kind of ran out of time without realizing it haha have a great week. 

Oct 10, 2016 - Recordings and Conferenc

Recording 1 from Blake

Recording 2 from Blake

Wow, Conference was amazing

Well, like the title has, I absolutely loved conference. It couldn't have came at a perfect time for us as well. Most of our mission (including almost my whole district) is sick, so to be able to have 8 hours reserved to sit down and rest, and spiritually reload for times to come was truly a tender mercy for us all. One of my favorite talks was the very first one given by President Uchtdorf. For those of you that don't know, he was here a while ago and was able to establish the first stake in the Czech Republic, and I was able to help assist in him returning to his small home when he lived in Ostrava. While he was there, I had the opportunity to meet him and talk with him some, it was truly an experience I will never forget. 

One of the things I love most about his talk, is that it applies to us all, the young and the old. We are never to young to help others understand what we know about Jesus Christ, even though I'm told that almost daily, that I'm to young to tell a full grown man how to live, I know that it's not coming from us, but that its coming from God, and that we are simply his messengers, his helpers, helping bring the message to every one of God's children. I could not be more grateful for the opportunity that I personally have to do that. 

Well everybody, fall is coming, that means the cold and the ice is sweeping in and wanting to take us down a level before the holidays bring us up. I encourage and challenge all of you to always look for the small ways in how we can always have Joy. There was an amazing conference talk focused on joy, and how we can have it and the ways we can always invite it into our lives. Never forget that's why we are here, and that it's on us weather we want to only endure life, or enjoy it as we go. 

Thank you for all your prayers and E-mails, I love hearing from you, have a great week. 

Here's some pictures of a small trip we went on today with a member, we were able to see some old bunkers made in the 1930s and the beautiful Czech mountains.