"Guys . . . I Want a Castle"

 Ahoj, everyone in weather above freezing! Let's see. Co se stalo tento týden? On Tuesday we had zone conference in Slovakia. The elders were noce to us and took a train so the APs could drive us, so we didn't have to wake up way early this time. The conference was way good. We touched on a lot of different aspects of missionary work, and I learned a lot. I definitely have a lot of things I need to improve on when it comes to being an effective missionary. After the conference, we were gonna take a bus home, but we didnt realize until we got to the bus that it was a private bus. With private buses, you need your passport if you're crossing the border. Some of us didn't have our passports, so we weren't allowed on the bus. Luckily there was a train leaving soon after that, so we booked it and sped walked 2km to the train station so we could make it on time. We got there just in time to find out that the train was delayed 30 minutes. All that exercise for nothing. Škoda.

Even though it was an exhausting night, we made it home to Brno, and we even made it in time to have dinner with one of our favorite members. That definitely made the night worth it. One of our favorite families from the ward moved back to New Zealand this week. The husband left later in the week, so we got together with him and a few other people from the ward and had dinner together. The members here are such incredible people. They're just so good. It was so much fun to just sit and have dinner and talk with them. Good people and good food are the best combination. This week they kicked off all the Christmas celebrations. We went to one of the main náměstí with a few members and an investigator and watched them light the huge Christmas tree to kick off Christmas. After that we walked around and looked at the trhy (Christmas Markets that line the naměstí). They had a huge life sized nativity carved out of wood. It was pretty impressive. Apparently there was an elephant there when Christ was born. Who knew? Christmas here is so cool. So many cool traditions. I'm excited to get to experience it more in the next few weeks. We played floor ball with the elders and one of our English students. I suck at it, but it's such a fun game. Halfway through playing, Sister Scott got tripped and wrecked her knee and face. The Czech paused the game long enough to clean up the blood and then he goes "Okay. You're fine. Let's keep playing." Probably the most Czech thing I've heard all week next to "I'm grateful God created ice hockey" hahaha. I freaking love Czechs. 

We went to a Czech performance this week that the kids of a less active family were performing in. It was so cool. They had traditional Czech costumes, and they were doing traditional Czech dancing and singing. It was way good. We were mesmerized the whole time. I fall in love with Czech culture more and more every day. (Sorry, Mom. I might never come home.) For pday we went to Lednice Castle. The castles and churches here are incredible. So gorgeous. Fun fact: in Czech "Lednice" means "Fridge." It definitely lived up to its name, cause there was white stuff falling from the sky the whole time. We may or may not have had a snowball fight. I may or may not have creamed Sestra Scott. Good times.

Spiritual Thought: I've been feeling so blessed lately to be a missionary. It's such a privilege. I just keep thinking about how one day I'm gonna put the nametag on for the last time. And one day I'm gonna take the nametag off and not put it back on again. Time is going by so fast, and it freaks me out haha. I'm so grateful for this time I have to be set apart as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Every day I get to wake up and just spend the day loving others and serving them. I have the opportunity to be in a foreign country trying to learn a new language so that I can share the good news of the gospel with others. It's the best. I love being a missionary so much. Sorry my emails are kinda all over the place haha. I'm too lazy to make them sound good. I hope everyone has the best week and that everyone is doing the Light the World challenge every day. If you aren't doing it, start doing it and I can promise you you'll have the best week. If you don't know what it is, check out www.comeuntochrist.org/light-the-world to find out. Love you all! Thanks for all the prayers and support! Life is good. 

Sestra Lewis