"The Most Uneventful Week in the History of the MTC"

Ahoj!

Welcome to another week of pretty much nothing exciting happening at the MTC. I literally can't even think of anything that went on. 

The other day the elders in my district were pronouncing all of our names like you would if they were Czech names. They figured out that mine would sound like "Levis," which sounds pretty close to "lettuce." So I'm now stuck with the name "Sestra Lettuce" for the rest of my mission haha. 

I've also gotten another name, but this one comes directly from a Czech person. We have TRCs, which is where we teach member lessons to RMs. One of the people we teach is actually from the Czech Republic. His name is Petr, and he's freaking hilarious. I love lessons with him. Well in the past few lessons with him, it always ends up being Sestra Johnson's turn to pray, so I always point to her when it comes time to pray. Petr thinks that's hilarious, and now he calls me "Sestra šefka," which translates to "Sister Boss" or "Sister Bossy." Thanks, Petr.

Here's a little Czech lesson for you. I'm gonna copy a few sentences from our grammar book just to prove how whack Czech is. 

"Nouns for males are normally masculine. Nouns for females are normally feminine. With some words for animals the gender is clearly specified. Words for the young of animals are usually neuter. For other kinds of nouns you need to learn the gender as you go along. Luckily, most of the time there are some quite good rules about how to guess this. Masculine animate nouns are usually deducible from the meaning. They usually end in a consonant."

So basically Czech is just a language of exceptions. Every time we learn a rule they give us a huge list of exceptions to go along with it. And most of the language is learning it just by listening to how other people speak it and use the concepts. There's pretty much no set rules. When our teachers tell us that a certain concept is "always" how you do it, we have to ask if that's an English always or a Czech always. I'm pretty sure always doesn't exist in the Czech language haha. 

That's literally all I got for this week. Literally the most uneventful week ever. 

Spiritual thought for the week:

So one of the best parts of the week is choir. The choir director, Bro. Eggett, is hilarious, and he always says things that get me thinking and get me so pumped to go out in the field and start sharing the gospel. This week he talked about how we need to be so stoked and happy when sharing the gospel with others. We shouldn't be scared or iffy when telling others, because we have a message that will change their lives for eternity. He said that when we go out and share the gospel we're basically giving out free gold. You wouldn't walk up to someone and apologize for interrupting them and ask if maybe you can give them some free gold. You would be so pumped and stoked to share it with literally anyone you pass by. That's how we should feel about sharing the gospel. We're have free gold, and we should want to share it with anyone and everyone. 

I can't wait to get to the field and start helping the people of the Czech Republic and Slovakia and start spreading this message with them. And even though it's gonna be rough for awhile with the language barrier, I'm so stoked to go all in and do everything I can to learn the language and culture.

Have the best week!

Sestra Lettuce

   

Brylee and her District

Brylee and the Czech District wearing their "Czechs Mix" shirts
that Kelcie made for them.

"Woah, we're halfway there! Woah living on a prayer...or a few hundred!"

Ladies and gentleman your attention please. I'M MORE THAN HALFWAY DONE WITH MY MTC STAY!!! Okay...carry on.

This week has probably been one of the longest weeks at the MTC. Nothing really happened, it just felt super long. I'm pretty sure I've just always lived at the MTC. My life before the MTC is nonexistent. It's only been 5 weeks, but it feels like I've always been here. Time is so weird here. Also, I haven't seen or eaten a vegetable in the whole 5 weeks I've been here, so I'll let you judge the amount of nutrition I'm getting haha

Random moments from this week:

I've realized this week that I know way more ASL than I thought haha. We got a batch of a ton of ASL missionaries this week, and it's so fun to walk up to them and just start signing to them. It confuses the heck out of them. Too good. I guess my 3 years of ASL paid off. And on Tuesday we tried doing a SYL day in the morning where we only speak Czech, but when I didn't know a word instead of switching to English my natural response was to just start signing it haha. 

It rained one day this week, and I definitely had our teacher pause class so that we could go out and play in it. Love me some rain

Probably the most entertaining thing that happened this week shows the lack of entertainment we have here. One of the elders has been sick, so he had a pack of Emergen-C to take. But instead of putting it in water like a normal person, he decided to just down the whole pack of powder. His life flashed before his eyes the moment it started foaming in his mouth. He ended up throwing up because it messed with his stomach so bad haha. 

Here's a little update on the language:

 It's a work in progress haha. I understand all the grammar principles and how the sentences should be pieced together, but actually applying it is another story.  I've started making board games based on the language to play with the district so that we can get quicker at some of the grammar principles.  I've basically just given up on learning how to speak the language here at the MTC, and I'm relying solely on being immersed in the language in the country to learn how to speak it. I can pretty much just testify and pray, but hey...that's all that matters.

Spiritual Moments: 

We have two interested people that we've been teaching these past few weeks, Jana and Michal. We had a lesson with Jana this past week and I barely understood anything that she was saying. It was such a struggle. It was so hard for me, because the best part about teaching people is to just be able to listen to them and to what they need and then adjust the lesson based on their needs. And I can't do that if I don't understand what she's saying. So this week before our lesson with Michal I decided to not focus on the Gift of Tongues so much but to really focus on the Gift of the Interpretation of Tongues. I just prayed that I would be able to understand so that I could help Michal progress. During our lesson I understood pretty much everything that was being said. And then when our teacher gave us our evaluation, he did it all in Czech for the first time, and I understood that too. It's insane how much the Spirit helps us. It's also super cool to see how we started in the same place lesson wise with both Michal and Jana, but the Spirit has guided our lessons and we're now teaching them completely different things, but it's just what they need to hear. I love it. 

I think sometimes we forget that God is in charge. He's in the details of our lives, and He knows what He's doing. He's so ready and willing to give us what we need and help us with what we need help with. Our prayers are answered and by a Heavenly Father who knows us perfectly, loves us perfectly, and wants more than anything for us to be happy. If we just sincerely pray for His help, He'll be right there beside us leading us on.

"I never cease to be amazed by how the Lord can motivate and direct the length and breadth of His kingdom and yet have time to provide inspiration concerning on individual." -Thomas S. Monson

"We have every reason to be optimistic in this world. Tragedy is around, yes. Problems everywhere, yes. But...you can't, you don't, build out of pessimism or cynicism. You look with optimism, work with faith, and things happen." -Gordon B. Hinckley

Sorry for another incredibly long email, but you all signed up for this haha. Love you all!

Sestra Lewis 

"Bribery Is The Best Way To Contact"

Ahoj!

This week's been a pretty sad week. All the missionaries in our zone that were here when we got here left for the field this week. They're going to Thailand and Vietnam. It's crazy how close you can get to people in just 4 weeks. The MTC is not the same without them, and it's definitely a lot less entertaining. I'm so stoked for them though. They're gonna be the best missionaries, and I can't wait to join them in the field!

A ton of random stuff from this week:

We celebrated the Fourth of July! After our last class of the day we all had a religious freedom devotional with our zones and then we got to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. They made us stay up 2 hours past our bedtime. I was so dang tired haha. There was someone that was putting on a firework show right next to the stadium, and honestly it was almost better than the actual Stadium of Fire fireworks. Until someone can prove otherwise, I'm convinced it was President Lesuer and the rest of the MTC presidency haha. 

We got a ton of new senior couples in the MTC this past week. It's literally the best. I love senior couples! They're adorable, and they make my day every day. Ahhh love them. 

People have started referring to our district as "Czechs Mix." It's pretty great. And since our classroom is so small, we have to find a way to entertain ourselves. We started having a reverse parade and throwing candy at people as they walk by. Now people know that our room has candy and random groups of people will stop by throughout the day and visit us to get candy haha. Bribery is the best way to get people to talk to you.

Update on the sketchy elevator: IT BROKE. Shocker. And it won't get fixed for another 4 weeks, so we get to walk up and down 5 flights of stairs multiple times a day. On service days we get to do it while carrying a vacuum. By the end of this 9 weeks, I'm gonna be so in shape. I'm just preparing myself for walking around the Czech Republic. It's probably just payback for not doing any real exercise during exercise time haha. 

Now for the spiritual side of things:

Our old mission president challenged our MTC district to read 20 pages of the Book of Mormon every day. It's something they did in the mission awhile back, and it brought a lot of miracles in the mission. I've took the challenge, and honestly it's so addicting. You have to find random amounts of free time during the day in order to get it done, but it's so rewarding. The Book of Mormon is so powerful, and it's so true. 

We've taught so many lessons this week (some in English and some in Czech). It's probably my favorite part about the MTC. As our investigators progress and develop a relationship with their Heavenly Father it reminds me why I'm on a mission. I love being a missionary. This gospel is so true, and it brings so much happiness to people. Because of Jesus Christ, we always have someone to look to in our trials, and we can get through them every single time.

"You are not alone. Not here. Not now. Not ever." -W. Craig Zwick

Love you all! Hezký Tyden!

Sestra Lewis

                                             

"Cause of Death: The Sketchy Elevator in T2"

Ahoj All!

So this week has been pretty boring. Not much has happened. 

We moved classrooms this week, so now all 8 of us are packed in a super tiny classroom. Let's just say we're getting a lot closer as a district because of it haha. Half the time we ditch our classroom and go steal someone else's classroom, because 3 straight hours packed in a tiny classroom is not very productive. We have a way better view out of our window in this new classroom than we did our old one though, so that's cool. 

Our new classroom is on the 5th floor of an old building. The elevator to get up to it is suuuper sketchy haha. You take one step onto it and the whole thing shakes. When you get 30 people packed onto it at the same time it's definitely a party. We're pretty sure it's gonna kill us one of these times. 

We found a new study spot in the back of the MTC, and no one is ever there. Sometimes a car goes by, and we get to hear a little bit of music from the outside world haha. It's the little things sometimes haha. 

This week we've talked a lot about happiness. We had a devotional on Sunday with the guy in charge of all of the MTCs, and he showed us pictures of people from before and after their missions. You could see a physical difference in their faces. They were way happier after serving the Lord. It's our choice whether or not we're happy, and one of the best ways to be happy is to serve other people.

Overall I just feel really privileged to be a missionary this week. It's such a privilege to be wearing the black tag and representing Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that I finally have the opportunity to share this gospel while wearing Christ's name over my heart. I can't wait to get out into the field and share the good news of the gospel with the Czech and Slovak people! 

Have a great week!

Sestra Lewis