"We Got Played So Good!"

AHOJ!

This week was a pretty good one, so get ready for a heck of a long email. 

Random Moments From This Week:

They've been cleaning out the church building here and throwing out everything that they don't need. One thing about Czechs is they don't like to throw things away, so they just collect random things. So the ward rented a huge dumpster to throw everything away, and they had an elders quorum activity where they just got rid of as much stuff as they could. We were wondering why they just made it an elders quorum activity, but we found out when Sunday came around. We looked outside and all the Relief Society sisters were outside taking things out of the trash to take home hahaha. Gotta love Czechs.

On Tuesday the STLs had a leadership conference in Brno, so I got to go on an exchange with the sisters in Brno for a day. It was so much fun. I loved it so much. I haven't laughed so hard in such a long time. While we were there a senior couple in our mission came and did an escape room with us, and that was way fun. That day was probably the highlight of my week. Such a cool city, such a cool district. 

On Saturday we went to do service for this member. He owns this piece of land, and he's building this underground smart greenhouse. It sounds way cool. Every week the missionaries go and help him dig the hole for it. When I stand in the deepest part it's up to my eyes. It was so much fun, and I'm stoked to see how it all turns out.

Sunday was wild. There was some Doterra conference going on in Prague, so there were a ton of Americans at church. You walked into the chapel and all you smelled was essential oils haha. Anyway...the Sunday school lesson was on the Book of Mormon. After the lesson this girl tapped Sis. Curtis on the shoulder and asked her for one. Sis. Curtis started talking to the girl and her boyfriend. They said they're from Russia and they heard about the church through some event, so they were super curious. They're on vacation in Prague and decided to come to church. Then they asked if we could teach them right then and there. We got a Russian member in the ward to talk to them and become friends with them. And then we invited them to an inspiration night that we have every Sunday. We were so stoked. They came, and they sit down. The dude looks at us and goes "actually I was born in the states." We start trying to guess where, and finally he goes "I was born in Utah. I actually grew up there. So I actually know all about the church. Actually...I'm a member. I just wanted to see what it was like to be an investigator." FREAKING TURD. Dang we were so mad. BUT his girlfriend is actually from Russia and is not a member. She's golden. We asked her if she had any questions about church and she goes "Just tell me everything. Right now." She was so cool. We still haven't quite forgiven her boyfriend, but they were both cool so it's chill. 

This week we tried a new finding idea that I'm pretty stoked to keep using. We went around and told people that we're from America and are learning Czech. Then we asked them if we could read something and have them correct our pronunciation. We whipped out the Book of Mormon and read our favorite verses. It's a natural way to introduce the Book of Mormon while also getting some language practice in. I'm excited to see how effective it is. 

Today for pday we went on a výlet with our district and Sis. Johnson's district. We went to Kutná Hora and went to the bone church there. I've been wanting to go to it since I first heard about it before the mission. Basically in the 1300s this dude made a church out of human bones. It was insane but so cool. People are whack sometimes haha. It was chill seeing Sestra Johnson again. We may or may not have taken some awkward family photos together. #dreamteam

Spiritual Thought Time:

I found a talk this week and I highly recommend everyone go listen to/read it. It's "The Dual Aspects of Prayer" by Francis M Gibbons in the October 1991 General Conference. Basically he talks about how prayer is one of our greatest defenses against the adversary. It's an amazing talk and totally changed my perspective on prayer. Highly recommend it

"In his wisdom and mercy, God has provided a channel of communication between him and his children on earth that Satan, our common enemy, cannot invade. This is the channel of secret prayer. The significance of this...is profound, for by this means we are able to communicate with our Heavenly Father in secrecy, confident that the adversary cannot intrude." -Francis M Gibbons

Love you all, and I hope you have the best week! 

Sestra Lewis

She says they live in Babylon. :)

"Brno District Escape Room"

Posted by Bro. Dransfield, a Senior Missionary serving in Brylee's mission.  

GREAT day in Brno! We watched the Brno District solve the Escape Room activity in record time! They really worked together. Sestra Dransfield and I also attended a leadership training in the same building. Both events ended at the same time, so all missionaries got together for the mission song as well as some photos at the end that I will share with all of you. Can you spot your missionary? They are so wonderful to be around! We love each one of them! Also....enjoy the video. Bringing joy to these missionaries is the best calling in the world!

"2 Slovaks and A Czech Walk Into Prauge"

Ahoj!

So this week was pretty eventful. I was transferred! There was a sister who's Czech, and she was Visa waiting in Slovakia. This week she left for the states, so they moved her companion to Jičín and transferred me to Prague. So now I'm in a trio with the STLs. It's been so whack haha. Definitely not how I pictured any part of my transfer going, let alone my first transfer, but we're just going with the flow. 

Both of the STLs are Slovak speaking, and so many people in Prague speak English, so basically I'm all on my own trying to learn Czech haha. It's good though cause it motivates me to study harder and talk to more people. 

There's also a ton of Americans in the ward here. There's this one lady that visits America every other month and brings back a ton of American snacks. Every week the missionaries bring a bucket to her house and she fills it with American snacks. It's so chill.

We also went to a mental hospital this week to teach a lesson. By far one of the coolest things I've done on the mission so far haha. It was so much fun. I felt like I was back working in memory care again. I loved it. 

Overall I'm doing a lot better. Heavenly Father knows exactly what we need, and He's there for us when we ask Him for help. Sometimes we don't know why we go through the things we do, but when we rely on Him everything works out. 

This is probably the shortest email I've ever written haha. Hopefully I'll have more to talk about next week. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers! I hope everyone has a great week!

Sestra Lewis

"2019 or 1400?"

Ahoj!

We're back with another email of random things that happened during the week here in Jičín.

So Jičín is know as Město Pohádky (The City of Fairytales). Every year they have this big Fairytale festival. So this week there's been a ton of people here, and they've had this huge carnival and shops and concerts going on. And since our apartment is right off the main naměstí, we basically had a free ticket to the concert every night. We just had to open our window and the sweet sound of Czech music filled our apartment. We also got a free fireworks show one night this week, or as a Czech dude called it "fire in the sky." Perfect view outside our window. It was also so cool cause we'd be walking down the street and all of a sudden there'd just be a random dude dressed as a king walking down the street with a princess and a ton of knights in shining armor walking behind him with swords. Literally felt like I was in the Medieval Ages.  

Another day this week we were using Google Maps to try and find the address of this house that we got from the area book, and it took us on a little hike through the forest. It's times like those that I'm reminded that I'm living in the Czech Republic haha.

The craziest thing happened this week. There was this dude sitting on a bench, so I went up and talked to him. I told him I'm from America and he goes "Oh. Half my family lives in Arizona." WHAT?! Small world. 

Also...weird culture thing. As we've been walking around we've noticed that kids do a weird thing when they greet their friends. They don't just wave and say hi. They flip each other off. So you'll just be sitting there and all of a sudden you'll see these little kids flipping each other off. Definitely takes some getting used to. 

Alright. Now for some spiritual time:

This week has been hard. This whole transfer has been hard. But I'm learning to just accept the fact that sometimes things are just hard and that's okay. I'm just trusting that it's all part of Heavenly Father's plan and that eventually it will get better. But if there's one thing that I've learned it's that Heavenly Father is always there for us. He's with us every step of the way, and we've got Him and people on both sides of the veil cheering us on!

"Above all, never lose faith in your Father in Heaven, who loves you more than you can comprehend. . .Trust in God. Hold on in His love. Know that one day the dawn will break brightly and all shadows of mortality will flee."  -Jeffrey R. Holland

I love you all and I'm so grateful for all of your love and support! Have the best week! 

Sestra Lewis

P.S. If you want to be pumped up every morning when you wake up, just set your alarm tone to the Incredibles theme song. Works every time! :)

"Wait. It Can Get Colder Than 60 Degrees?!"

Dobrý den! Ahoj! Nazdar!

This week was so long, but pretty good. It was super busy. 

We've been looking for a lot of service opportunities lately. Specifically we wanted to find a charity, but Jičín is tiny, so we weren't having much luck. But then we were walking down the street in some random part of town, and I saw a charity bin on the side of the rode. We looked it up on Facebook and sent them a message, and they asked to meet with us. We're gonna start teaching their workers English and maybe help them with their beehives/honey business. Seems pretty chill. I'm super stoked. It was definitely a small miracle from this week. 

The people here are my favorite part about serving so far. They're incredible. They're always giving us food, and they're so willing to help us out when we need it. We have one investigator that is so cool. He always brings us food, and he basically stocked our fridge this week. He also came into our lesson the other day with an English Scripture quad (Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price). He bought it himself and is using it to try and learn more English. He's so chill. 

The highlight of the week was Saturday. We had the Wallace Toronto Project. Wallace Toronto was an old mission president in this mission. He's a huge part of the history of the mission. There's a foundation called the Wallace Toronto Foundation, and every year they plan a huge service project in the Czech Republic or Slovakia. All the missionaries in the zone, former missionaries from this mission, former mission presidents of this mission, members, investigators and a ton of other random people from the states come to it every year. It's such a cool experience. This year it was in Liberec. We woke up at 4:30am, and went to catch a train. There was a mix up, so we missed our train. We ended up running to catch another one, and 3 trains and 3 hours later we got to Liberec at 8. I officially feel like a Czech/Slovak missionary cause I had to run for a train haha. For our part of the project we scrubbed and painted a fence at some museum. It was so cool to get to hang out with some of the missionaries in the zone and get to know everyone. It was freezing though. It started raining halfway through, so we were all super cold and wet. It made for some good memories though. 

It's been super cold and wet the past few days. I love the rain, but I'm not a big fan of the cold. It's only September. It should be at least 95 degrees outside, not 55. My Arizona blood was not made for this. I might not survive the winter. 

We went on a výlet today to this huge estate/mansion. So much fun and so surreal. The weather was gorgeous
and it was just a perfect day. I've decided that my new favorite thing is riding trains through the Czech countryside while it's raining. I can't even describe how insanely gorgeous it is. I miss the smell of AZ rain, but man...the Czech Republic is 10 times more gorgeous during rainy weather. 

Now that you made it through my random thoughts about this week, let's get spiritual. 

We had progressive training this week in Prague. It's basically just a training for all the new missionaries that talks about the mission and what to expect. During the training Sister Gehring gave a super cool lesson about the power of our thoughts. She talked about how our circumstance doesn't change, however, we can change our thoughts. She gave the example of learning Czech. Our circumstance is learning Czech. If our thought about it is that we can't learn Czech, then we're gonna start feeling discouraged and unmotivated. Feelings lead to actions. Those feelings lead to not studying, slacking off, etc. That then leads to the result of not learning Czech. However, if our thought is that with God we can learn Czech, then that leads to feelings of motivation and excitement. Those feelings lead to more studying and immersing yourself in the language, which leads to learning Czech. The circumstance didn't change. In both situations there's the problem of learning Czech. However, the thought can change, and your thoughts correlate directly with the result you get. It reminded me of a talk, "Grateful In Any Circumstance," that President Uchtdorf gave in April 2014 General Conference. 

"Could I suggest that we see gratitude as a disposition, a way of life that stands independent of our current situation? In other words, I’m suggesting that instead of being thankful for things, we focus on being thankful in our circumstances—whatever they may be...Being grateful in times of distress does not mean that we are pleased with our circumstances. It does mean that through the eyes of faith we look beyond our present-day challenges." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Sorry for the super long and not too exciting email. Hopefully they'll get more exciting as time goes on haha. I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Sestra Lewis

She says this is Angel Moroni's Czech cousin. :)

Pres. Nelson said that time is running out, so now they are making the Angel Moroni's run.