"God Sent Me an Old Lady"

Ahoj everyone! 

 

Dang it feels like I've been here a month, but it hasn't even been 2 weeks. This week was better than last week. It's still way hard and I'm still adjusting to everything, but it's been better. All the adjustments have wrecked me. 

 

Let's see...what went on this week? Get ready for a massive email. 

 

Probably the most eventful thing happened at a member's house. It was honestly a miracle. I ate my entire meal. Everything. I know. Hold the applause. Everyone is so shocked by how little I eat haha. My district leader loves it though cause he gets to eat everything I dont finish haha. Also, to everyone who said I was gonna go to a place where they eat everything with their hands (since I eat everything with a fork): you were wrong! The people here eat everything with a fork and a knife. Everything. It's great. No more weird looks or judgments when I eat a doughnut with a fork haha. Also, everyone here eats icecream. There's icecream shops everywhere. And the buses all have specific stickers saying that icecream isn't allowed on the bus. It's so funny.

 

Jičín is super tiny and a lot of the people already know who we are and they aren't interested. It's really hard to find people. And sometimes people will meet with us just to mock us and waste our time. It's rough. We have about 180 people on the ward list, but only about 30 show up to church. So this transfer we're focusing on just becoming friends with all the less active people. We want to remind them of why they got baptised in the first place, and hopefully we can help them get their testimonies back. We did get a new investigator this week though. He was contacted by the missionaries years ago, and we found him on a list of potential people from a few years ago. We met with him, and he's so cool. He basically told us he's meeting with us because he has half faith and he wants to know how he can strengthen his faith and get a stronger relationship with God. We're so stoked because he's so ready to hear the Gospel. 

 

As far as the language goes it's still pretty nonexistent. I'm over the shock of hearing people speak Czech, so I'm beginning to understand a little more, but I'm still nowhere near being able to have a conversation with someone. People keep telling me I have really good pronunciation so that's cool. The bishop told me I pronounce things like I was born in the Czech Republic, but I'm pretty sure he was just saying that. The members are so helpful. I'll be saying a prayer or teaching something and if I forget a word they'll lean over and whisper it in my ear and help me out. They're some of the most genuine and kind people I've ever met. 

 

Now for one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. So there's this old lady in the ward who loves feeding the missionaries. She feeds them every Sunday. The problem is that she's such a crazy old lady. This lady is legendary in the mission. When I found out I was going to Jičín, one of the other trainers found me and warned me about her house.  So we go for dinner, and she piles food on your plate (and it's not the best food). When you finish that she comes out with a second course, again piling it on your plate. And the whole time she's serving it her nose is dripping. I was terrified it was gonna go into the food. And then she just sits there and talks and talks and talks about random stuff while you try to eat as much as you can. We had to get super creative about getting rid of the food. Her water was amazing though. It was such a weird experience, but it was also super entertaining haha.

 

Today for pday we got together with the district (we're all in 3 different cities so we don't see them a ton), and we went and hiked up to a castle. It was pretty chill. The castle ended up being closed, so we didn't get to actually walk inside it, but it was still cool. All the walking gave me a chance to soak in the fact that I'm walking the streets of the Czech Republic as a missionary. It still doesn't feel real sometimes. 

 

Some tender mercies from this week:

So I've been having a super hard time adjusting to everything and having a rough companion just adds to the adjustment. I've been praying for Heavenly Father to just give me some little things to be grateful for. There were a few this week. 

 

1. On our first day in Prague I lost my rings in the hotel that we stayed in. I was super bummed about it and just kept praying that I would get them back. I got a call this week saying that they found them and are holding them for me!

2. We went to the Bishop's house for dinner. They live out in the country, and it was raining and foggy and just gorgeous. I was in awe with how beautiful it was. Definitely a reminder of God's love for me.

3. On an especially rough day I was praying so hard for something little to be grateful for. As we were out talking to people I saw this old lady walking down the street. I love old people with all my heart, so I went up to talk to her. She ended up being the cutest little old Czech lady, and talking to her turned my whole day around. 

 

God is so good. I know there's so much I'm supposed to be learning from this transfer. It's so so hard, but He's there for me every step of the way, and He's got my back. Even though it's so brutal and so difficult, I have 100% trust in Him and that this is where He needs me to be. He loves us so much, and we can turn to Him whenever we need Him. He cares about even the tiniest things, we just have to reach out and talk to Him. 

 

Love you all!

Sestra Lewis