"Deer Lips Are Less Scary Than Horse Lips"

Ahojky!

It was an insane week. Like really good. A lot of miracles went down this week. God is so good. 

We had MLC (mission leadership council) in Brno. We basically just talk about how the mission is doing and suggest ways we can improve. It's a good time. 

We had exchanges with the Plzeň sestry. I always learn so much from exchanges, and it's fun to get to spend the day with the other missionaries. While on exchanges we had a volleyball night and met up with a few people from Facebook to play volleyball. I suck at volleyball, but it was super fun. Plus the people we met were super cool. 

We met with this lady from Facebook. Originally we planned to meet up to practice Czech together. She's not originally from here. So we meet up, and she was pretty cool. About 5 minutes into the conversation, she goes "I saw that you're a missionary. What does that mean?" THE GOLDEN QUESTION. We told her we're here to teach people about how God is our Heavenly Father and how we can find purpose on life. She goes "I could use that. What do you believe is the purpose of life?" That led to an impromptu conversation about the Plan of Salvation and us setting up to teach her more. Dang God is so good. 

Then Sunday came. We messaged this other lady that we were teaching a little bit last transfer. We last minute invited her to church. She goes "díky za pozvání," and we left it at that. Well church starts and I look over and all of a sudden I see her sitting there. She came to church! And she stayed the whole time. And we set up to start teaching her English and the Gospel. Miracle after miracle. 

Final miracle is that I remembered that a few months ago we went to a senior missionary couples apartment (they dont live there anymore) and I saw some jello from America. I remembered I had it this week, so I made some jello. Haven't had jello in so long. Jello makes life better. 

For pday, we finally got to meet up with the C-Bud elders. We went to a place called Konopiště in Benešov about an hour from Prague. We went to a castle and just walked around a lake and a rose garden. Also a few deers ate from my hand. They have super soft lips in case anyone was wondering. 

Spiritual Thought:

I saw a quote today. "I'll make better mistakes tomorrow." It kinda hit me. I think that's my new favorite quote. We all make mistakes. I feel like our whole lives are just made up of bad mistakes and better mistakes. But the point is to learn from those mistakes and make better mistakes tomorrow. It's okay to make mistakes. It's okay to not be perfect. As long as we're trying and improving bit by bit, His grace will fill in the gaps. 

I don't know what we did to get so blessed this week, but I'm just grateful. God sees our effort. He appreciates it. Even though it's not perfect effort, He makes it enough. Have a great week! And make some jello. I promise you'll have a better day after eating some. 

Sestra Lewis

"USA USA USA"

No čau!

Vítej to another weekly email. This week kinda flew by. That scares me a little. The weeks are going too fast. 

This is something that happened last week, but I forgot to write about it haha. The mission got some new cars, so we had to go help pick them up. I got in the car, turned it on, and it had less than 10km on it. I drove a 2020 i30 with less than 10km straight off the lot in Prague. I think we're spoiled or something. 

We met up with these 2 members and one of their sisters. They're from the Phillipines, and they took us out to eat. We had Korean BBQ with them. I forgot how much Filipino women can eat hahaha. We had a huge buffet and then food just kept coming out. They ordered so much. It was dang good though. 

We threw a 4th of July party. Some members and random peeps from Facebook came. We just played American sports and then ate some American food. It was super chill. A lot of fun. We met some really cool people. We've learned that sports is a solid way to meet new people. 

Speaking of that, we've had a lot of success with Facebook this week. We posted on a group asking if anyone wanted to meet up and play sports and practice Czech or English. We've got a lot of responses, and people are wanting to meet up with us. It's pretty sweet. I've had to block a few creepers, but other than that it's been super good. I'm excited. It's always so good when we have success with stuff we do on Facebook. Gives us a little motivation. 

We had exchanges again this week. I love exchanges. 

We're finally meeting in person for church again! The way they're doing it in Prague is they're having 2 different meetings, one for English and one for Czech. We went to the Czech one and met a few of the members. One gave us some freshly picked cherries. Those are a big thing here this time of year. Also it was cool to be able to have actually conversations with people I met a year ago when I was here. Back then I was a greenie and had zero clue what they were saying. Now I still only get part of what they say, but it's enough to be able to communicate and have a conversation. It's pretty cool to see the progress. 

I also got my first Baťas this week. Baťa is a shoe brand here. The owner of the company has a pretty sick story. But not only did I get the shoes I've been wanting for months, when I went through to get them they were almost half off. Tender mercies

Duchovní Myšlenka:

"We are a spiritual people, believing in spiritual principles: that first and foremost we are to use the Spirit in solving problems and receiving revelations that will guide our feet."

One of the best things I've learned so far on my mission is how to listen to the Spirit. We literally have a member of the Godhead right there with us to give us answers and guide us. We need to learn how He speaks to us and how to use Him in solving our problems. 

Love you all! Freaking love the Czech Republic and all the people here. Thanks for all the prayers and support. Have the best week!

Sestra Lewis

  

"Castles and SkipBo"

Zdravím všem!

Dang it was a long week. Really long. 

We started out the week by saying goodbye to some of the missionaries who went home. It was super tender, but also way sad. I'm gonna miss them so dang much. I hate goodbyes. Especially cause the peeps in this mission have become some of my best friends.

We've been losing missionaries, but we haven't been getting any missionaries in. So the mission just keeps getting smaller. We're just hoping to eventually get new missionaries in sometime soon. It's a blessing how many of us are still left though. We're so lucky compared to some of the other missions. 

There's been a huge push to figure out Facebook and how to do missionary work with that. So right now most of the work we do is using Facebook. There are some missionaries assigned as social media specialists to help create ads and stuff and to help train the rest of us on how to use Facebook. It's been cool to see how missionary work has changed. 

We met up with a few new people this week as well as a member family. We're trying to focus on helping returning members and developing a relationship with the members this transfer. Since we haven't been able to meet for church, we don't really know any of the members. We've got some good goals for the transfer. I'm excited. 

I got to see the Rollins this week! They're my favorite senior couple. They were in my district a few transfers ago, and they're basically my mission grandparents. It was so good to see them and catch up a little. Since they serve in Slovakia I never get to see them anymore. 

Overall it's been a typical first week of the transfer. Just trying to get into the groove of things and get focused. It's gonna be a good transfer. We're hoping to get a lot of work done. 

For pday Sis Stilson and I went to a park near our house. We saw the main part and then were walking and went down a random path and found these cool rock tunnels. Then we went down another path and found this hidden Koi pond. It was pretty sick. And then we met up with our district and went to Vyšehrad, a church/castle thing by our house. We played frisbee/catch/SkipBo next to the castle. Those are the best kind of pdays. 

Spiritual Thought:

We had the opportunity a few times this week to do Come, Follow Me with a few people. We talked a lot about sacrificing and how when we make sacrifices God blesses us and those around us. It turned into us all just recognizing the blessings God has given us. It was way cool to see how people's whole attitude changed as they started being grateful for the blessings they see in their lives. In the words of Sister Stilson, when you're grateful for something, it gets better. 

Not sure how many people actually read my emails anymore haha. I just write these for you, Mom! But I'm grateful for the support and for the prayers. God's still in charge of this work, and it's still happening. 

Sestra Lewis