"Nesquik Fixes Everything"

Ahojky!

The yellow fields are starting to bloom all across the country, so it was a great week. Probably gonna be a short email though.

We went to Plzeň for exchanges, so I got to see another city here! I love getting to see all the areas. It was chill cause I got to see Sister Olsen again. I haven't seen her since first transfer. It's been awhile. They have a loft in their apartment, so Sister Draper and I naturally slept the night up there. It made sleeping on couch cushions worth it haha. 

Apparently during the war Plzeň was liberated by Americans. And it's getting close to the anniversary of that date. So in Plzeň they have this huge monument dedicated to the Americans. It had a huge Czech flag and a huge American flag and then lining the street was a bunch of American flags. It was pretty cool to see that. 

We had an amazing lesson with the investigator that we have with a baptismal date. We taught him tithing, and we wanted to be super prepared for it. We went through any of the questions or objections he could have, and we made sure we had a solid answer for each of them. When tried getting a member to teach with us, but every single member we tried to teach with couldn't teach with us. When it came time to teach it, his phone died before we could start the lesson. We called again the next day, and his friend was with him, so we ended up teaching his friend instead. We called for the third time, and he was sitting in his office in a white shirt and tie prepared to hear the lesson. It ended up being a super powerful lesson. He had zero objections. "I understand it all. I accept." He was so stoked to get to pay tithing. Like way happy. It was insane. Another miracle is that normally we teach him in English because we have English speakers teach with us, but since no one was teaching with us we decided to teach it in Czech. There was no problems with understanding. We left that lesson so stoked. That was probably one of the best lessons I've had my whole mission. 

The Gift of Tongues is real, guys. Honestly this last week I've been understanding everything so much better. I was actually able to listen to the Czech broadcasted Sacrament meeting and understand. It's so cool. I love this language. 

The work is still happening. There's been so many miracles from this whole quarantine situation. We've had more time to learn how to use Facebook effectively. People are more willing to talk with us and meet up with us. Even though we miss street contacting, Facebook finding gets rid of the middle man. The point of street contacting is to get their contact. With Facebook we already have their contact. We're able to reach so many more people than we were reaching before. We're learning how to quickly bring up the gospel while also developing a solid friendship. It's such a good experience. God is using this time for good. Missionary work is still happening. Miracles are still happening.

Also the mission nurse prescribed me Nesquik chocolate milk, so I'm thriving. 

Spiritual Thought:

"In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you have help. And you have it on both sides of the veil." -Jeffrey R Holland

I just want to testify that this is true. We have help, both from people here in mortality and from people on the other side of the veil. And even though sometimes we don't see it, there are people surrounding us, helping us get through, pushing us along, guiding us. It's one of the best things. 

Love you guys! Thanks for the support and prayers. Heavenly Father is there for you. He's got your back. You're not alone. 

Sestra Lewis

"Dreams Do Come True"

Zdravím!

It's been an exhausting week, but those kind  of weeks are the best. The transition into a new transfer has actually been pretty smooth. 

It's just been a lot of making goals for the transfer this week. We've got some solid goals to work on, and I'm excited to work on them. One of our goals is to have 5 progressing investigators by the end of the transfer. We already have 2 new potentials from this week, so we're excited about that. 

There's one man that the missionaries have been teaching for awhile. He has a baptism date, so we've just been teaching him the final lessons to get him prepared for that. He's such a cool dude. He's way prepared, and he has such a strong testimony. It's so fun teaching him, and it's so cool to see how accepting he is of everything and how excited he is for baptism. 

I've been trying to figure out Facebook finding a little more. That's our main source of finding new people to teach right now. We've gotten a few good gospel discussions with a few people from that. There's one lady that requested help with English on a language exchange Facebook page. Since us missionaries are all, for the most part, from native English speaking countries, we jump at opportunities like that. It's the perfect segway into gospel discussions. We met with this lady that requested help, and it went so well. She's so cool, and she's such a solid potential. We're building a solid friendship with her, and I'm pretty stoked. Plus she said she'd be willing to take us výlets, so I'm so down for that two. 

The quarantine is over! Now we just have to limit group sizes to 10 people. So that's cool. Downside is the sisters in our apartment had to move back to their areas. Sad day. 

Okay. So I have had two goals for my mission since before my mission even started. The first one, obviously, is to preach the Gospel. The second one is to visit Žižkovská televizní věž. I accomplished that second goal this week, and it was one of the best things to ever happen to me. Žižkov is known to a lot of people as the "baby tower." It has been deemed the ugliest tower in the world. During the war it was used to block radio signals. The best part? It has giant statues of these huge faceless babies crawling all over it. I love it so much. Definitely one of my favorite things I've seen on my mission so far haha. I've literally wanted to see this tower since before I left on my mission, and I finally got to go. I was so dang happy the whole time hahaha. 

For pday we walked around Prague with the APs. We went to Charles' Bridge and walked around Old Town a bit. I saw one of the baby tower babies up close. Man I live in THE coolest place. The Czech Republic has my heart. I'm in awe every time I go outside. After we walked around we went to one of my favorite parks, and we all played Skipbo. It was a pretty dang good pday. 

Spiritual Thought:

"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Luke 19:10

I freaking love this scripture. It perfectly shows the mission of Jesus Christ. He came to save. He came to heal. He came to reclaim. He came to seek. He came to find. He came to serve. He came to love. Christ saves all who are lost. It doesn't matter how lost they are. He's got our backs. We're all lost in our own way, but He finds us. He saves us. He loves us. 

It was a pretty good week. I'm excited for the rest of the transfer. I'm excited to see the miracles that come. Thanks for all the prayers and support! 

Sestra Lewis

"I Saw the Grand Canyon for the First Time in My Life"

Ahojjjj!

It was a pretty chill week. Got some insane news this week. 

We went to the Raj! It was my last time there. I'm gonna miss that place so hard core. It's my favorite place in the Czech Republic. I'm grateful for all the time I got to spend there and for the people I got to spend it with. 

We wrote a district song. The peeps in our district definitely cried listening to it. 

There were a lot of lasts this week. We had our last district council. Sister Ockey and I gave the training on change. It ended up being exactly what I needed. Heavenly Father hit me with a bunch of changes this week

. 

We had transfers this week, and the thing that I least expected to happen happened. I got transferred back to Prague. And I'm STL (Sister Training Leader). My new comp is Sister Draper. It's gonna be a good transfer. A lot of learning and a lot of having to rely on Heavenly Father. I'm excited but also slightly terrified. It's chill though haha. It always works out better than I thought. Also, two elders from my mtc district are in my district again, so I'm stoked for that. 

I left a lot of good things behind-incredible companions, the best district, the best city in the Czech Republic, and the most genuine members. I'm gonna miss the Moravian life (goodbye free soup). I'm gonna miss daily calls with the district. Those people became my family, and UH became my second home. I'm forever grateful for all the amazing people I got to know while serving there (Kamaradovi, Kvasnickovi, Katrnakovi, Eckertovi, Palkovi, Dynkovi, and everyone else). Saying goodbye is sometimes the worst. 

Prague has been great so far. Today we went to Velká Amerika (Great America AKA the Czech Republics version of the Grand Canyon). I literally have been to the Czech Grand Canyon before I've been to the actual Grand Canyon...and I live in AZ. But I've seen the Czech one, so I've basically seen the real one. That's how it works, right? 

Spiritual Thought:

This quote comes from Starší Rollins (the Rollins were the senior couple in my district).

"The sweet happiness that you feel knowing that you're on God's side is just incredible."

Life is confusing. It's hard to know what side to be on sometimes. But theres a distinct difference in how you feel when you're leaning more towards Satan's side than God's side. When you're with God, you get a sweet happiness and peace. Even though there's chaos around you and inside of you, you can always feel peace and happiness knowing you're on His side. 

Have a great week! As always, I love you guys, and I'm grateful for the love and support. Also, Elder Mangum says hi.

Sestra Lewis