"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.

"Chocolate Milk and Beach Volleyball"

Ahoj!

This last week was exhausting as heck, but it was also so good. I'll tell a few random things from this week, and then I'll get into the details of Thursday-Saturday. 

So there's this super cute old man that comes to our English class. Usually it's just him and this other dude. Well this last week it was only him who showed up. We had a nice long conversation with him, and he told us he makes sure that he comes to English every single week because then he knows we'll never be alone during English. This man is literally my favorite. So adorable. 

I love learning all the little things about Czech culture. They have name days here, which is basically like a second birthday. Each day there's a certain name celebrated, so if you have that name, then everyone wishes you a happy name day and you get presents and stuff. It's super cool. Another weird Czech thing...they eat cough drops like candy. I've been given so many cough drops because they just hand them out like it's candy. So weird.

GUYS I FOUND NESQUIK CHOCOLATE MILK POWDER AT THE STORE! I literally almost cried right there in the store. It made me so happy. Highlight of my week right there. 

Alright now onto the most exhausting days of my mission so far. I'm just gonna give a rundown of each day.

Thursday:

So Thursday we headed to Prague for zone conference. It was so fun to see some of my mtc peeps again and to meet some of the other missionaries. Pres. and Sis. Gehring basically just roasted all the missionaries the whole time. It was so great. Love them so much. I also learned a lot, and it was so nice to get a little spiritual boost. After training we stayed in Prague for exchanges with the STLs. 

Friday:

So Friday I was on exchanges all day. It was cool to see how the missionaries work in Prague. It's so different than in Jičín. We taught 2 lessons. The first dude was so cool. He was from England, and when he came in he was just so happy. He kept telling us he was just so excited to learn about the Gospel and that he's never been more excited for anything in his life. Also...homeboy said Gospel Library is the most used app on his phone. He's so chill. For our next lesson, we went to a city on the outskirts of Prague, and it ended up just turning into a beekeeping lesson haha. The dude is a beekeeper and he gave us a whole lesson on what to do if we get stung by a bee. Apparently our nametags are perfect for getting a stinger out if we're ever stung by a bee. Probably the most useful tip I've learned so far haha. After spending all day in Prague, we headed back to Jičín. The bus was PACKED, so guess who stood for the entire hour and a half bus ride? I was basically dying the last 20 minutes, but it's chill. I survived. After conference and exchanges we've got a few ideas for what we can do to move the work along in Jičín. I'm stoked to start trying to implement some of our ideas. Jičín is just way different than a lot of cities, so we have to get creative. 

Saturday: 

Get ready to hear about the best finding experience ever. So there's been a huge push in the mission to find better ways to find. We're trying to focus on meeting people where they're at and getting to know them then bringing up the gospel in a way that meets their specific needs. So the elders in our district found an amateur beach volleyball tournament, and we all went to it. We literally just played beach volleyball all day, and it sounds so unproductive, but it was so cool. We met so many super cool people, and they were all friends with us by the end. We got a few of their numbers, and now when they see the missionaries on the street they'll see them as normal people and they'll be more willing to talk to them. It was probably the most effective way of finding we've used so far. There really is power in getting to know people and letting them know you genuinely care about them. 

Whelp if you made it this far I'm impressed. I keep telling myself I'm gonna keep the emails short, but they just get longer and longer every week...and less coherent. But I want to thank everyone for your prayers. I always thought it was weird growing up when missionaries said they could feel everyone's prayers. It never made sense to me, but it's a real thing. This week I've felt everyone's prayers so much, and I'm so grateful for that. 

This week I'm just grateful for a Heavenly Father who is there for us every step of the way. He's always right there with us  and He's got our back. We just have to reach out to Him, and He'll be there. My favorite part about being a missionary is teaching that truth to people. God cares about us, He cares about our lives, and He cares about even the tiniest little things that might seem insignificant to most people but that are important to us. He just wants us to be happy, and as we reach out to Him, He'll give us so much joy. 

I love you all, and I hope you have a great week! Remember God loves you!!

Sestra Lewis

Communist Sirens

                                                                            

This converts to about $1.69 in the U.S.

"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

"Refreshments or Five Course Meal?"

Ahoj!

So we left the MTC Monday morning and got the Czech Republic on Tuesday afternoon. We were all so stoked to leave and finally get to the field. Our first day in Prague they took us on a Prague Walk and gave us a tour of the city. It was crazy actually being in the place we've heard so much about. The next day we got our area and trainer. I'm in Jičín with Sestra Jarvis (more on that later #teaser). 3 out of our 5 elders got sent to Slovakia right off the bat. So they spent 9 weeks learning Czech, and now they're in a country that speaks Slovak. They'll do great though. 

Mějte se hezky, Sestro Johnson! I'm gonna miss our comp studies that turned into either ranting about how our teacher hated us or watching the worms and snails, our deep doctrine discussions, our residence hall spikeball games, and everyone freaking out about how unified our companionship was. You're gonna kill it in Pardubice!

Now for the real reason y'all are on my email list...the Czech Republic!

My new comp is Sestra Jarvis. Not gonna lie this first week has been really rough. Jičín is tiny, which is cool, but I dont understand anyone and all I have is my comp to talk to. It's super lonely and has been way tough. But it'll get better. Our apartment is attached to the clock tower, which is kinda cool. The members here are way chill. They're super helpful and super awesome. I can't wait to understand them so I can be their best friends. The Czech translation for the church happens here in Jičín, so there's a lot of ward members who speak English as well as Czech. So I've been able to talk to a few of them which has been way cool. 

Some things I've noticed/learned so far:

-If you say the English word for "peaches" it's a really bad word in Czech. Good thing the Czech word for peaches was one of the first words I learned in the MTC (Shoutout to Starší O'barr)

-Candy in the bishop's office is a worldwide thing

-When Czechs have refreshments at church events, they bring out a full on meal

-Czechs have a hard time keeping commitments, and they have the weirdest excuses (Russian girlfriends that may or may not exist that keep them from committing, not wanting to give up the tradition of drinking beer with certain foods, etc)

Overall it's been a pretty intense week. A lot of ups and downs. But I've noticed that the quote "forget yourself and go to work" really does work. The times when I've had the most fun so far are when we're out finding and talking to other people, when I can forget about how hard things are and just help others. This gospel is so true, and it's worth every hard time if it means that people are coming closer to Christ. 

Love you all! Have the best week!

Sestra Lewis

P.S. Whenever people read my name tag, they automatically say "Levis." So Sestra Lettuce is back and better than ever hahaha!