"Another Week, Another Crypt"

Ahoj!

Jak se máte?! First week of the transfer is done, and it was a long one. Transfers are always crazy cause you have to figure out a new area, new companion, new ward members, new investigators, etc. But it's getting better and I'm getting more comfortable with Brno. 

Not much happened this week. We had a lot of meals with the members and got to know some of them. The missionaries in this district last transfer spent all of the transfer building a really solid relationship with the members. It's awesome. We basically have a meal with a member almost every day. Sometimes twice in one day. The members here are awesome, and I'm stoked to get to know them better. 

The other day (I can't remember which one. All the days blend together haha), we went on a výlet with an investigator to a crypt underneath this huge church. It was filled with human bones and there was this dim lighting going on. Slightly creepy but so cool. 

After that we went and walked around the inside of the church. For being the most atheist country in the world, the Czech Republic has some gorgeous kostely (churches). 

Here's a list of some of the random people we met this week:

•A little Macedonian girl on a bus who speaks perfect English, Czech, and some other language I've never heard of. We asked her about Czech and she goes "Learning Czech is a piece of cake." Thanks for that confidence booster kid haha

•An Italian dude who bought us 5 huge pizzas. He named his stomach and throughout the night his stomach would talk to us and join our conversation

•The most adorable family from New Zealand. I taught their little son a handshake, and he remembered it just in time to move back to New Zealand in about a week. I'm not crying, you're crying.  

•This super cool recent convert from Thailand (shoutout to all the Thai missionaries who were in my zone in the MTC). He goes back to Thailand next week for 2 months. We're sad about that one. 

•This young dude from California who has a weird obsession with Russian women. "I don't know why it's a thing. I just let it be and go with it."

•An old lady in the ward who I had a full conversation in Czech with. Understood everything she was saying and was able to respond. The Gift of Tongues is real, just saying.

So far Brno's been way cool. I'm excited to get to know more people and to build relationships with the members. I'm also stoked to find more people to teach. We have some fun ideas for finding that I'm excited to try. 

Spiritual Thought:

I did a personal study this week focused on happiness. In 2 Nephi 5:27, it says "And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness." There are so many places in the Book of Mormon that talk about happiness. I went through and tried to figure out what made the people happy. In the case of Nephi in 2 Nephi 5, his life was in danger, his brothers threatened to kill him, and he had to flee into the wilderness. He had every reason to be sad and frustrated. But instead of being sad he says they were happy. Why? It's because he didn't lose faith in the Savior. He continued to be obedient and live the Gospel. He went to work building up a city and creating his happiness. He didn't sit there in the wilderness on a tree stump thinking about how hard his life was. He got up and went to work. The same is true in our lives. We don't have to be a slave to our circumstances. We can be happy despite the hard things in our lives as we focus on the Lord, trust in Him, and go to work. 

I hope everyone has a great week! Just remember to trust in the Lord and everything will work out! In the words of a cute old man that we met at stake conference on Sunday, "Good night and very good sleeping."

Sestra Lewis