Week 13 in Brno

24 December 2013 So this email is going to be really short because we only have a half an hour. But it was totally worth it because we had a total miracle happen on the way here, which is why we have no email time. yay. But to make a it short, we were planning on dropping by this inactive's house later today but on the bus to email I suddenly realized that the stop we were at was right by her house and I felt like we should go right then. I was like this is crazy...but we'll do it just in case. Because we'd already stopped by like 4 times last transfer and she was never home. But we went anyways, she was home, let us in, was super excited to see us (she hugged us right away and I've never even met her) and we were able to share our Christmas video, sing with her, get her phone number and we have an appointment to come back on Friday :) aaaaah I'm so happy about it. Total Christmas miracle! But yesterday we had a mission conference in prague, it was sooo much fun to see everybody. And President is amazing as usual. We had a slideshow from the whole year, a talent show and then we spent an hour and a half talking about the Christmas story. It was awesome. And it was good to see all the elders who are going home at the end of the transfer, cause most of them aren't in my zone so I won't get to see them again, and I actually know all of them this time. Oh yeah and last week we got two of our investigators on date for baptism :) And one of them says he loves meeting with us and wants to meet more often, and he asked to see the font and was asking questions about how it works. Ahhh so great. And we managed to get the number of the missionaries in Italy for Diego cause he's going home for Christmas and he wants to go to church there! Good things are happening. I just love Brno so much. And the members are just amazing. Other really quick thing, we had our traditional Czech Christmas dinner on Sunday at the Rezacovi's house. SO COOL. They served us carp, which wasn't actually that bad (it wasn't really that good either, but I survived. And managed not to swallow any bones. So that was good). My favorite part though, was that they explained to us all the Czech Christmas traditions and we got to do them! So much fun. They put a fish scale under your plate and then you put it in your wallet and it's supposed to bring you luck, make little boats out of walnut shells and light a candle in them and whoever's lasts the longest has the longest life....there were a ton and they were so cool. I'll probably just tell you about it more tomorrow cause I'm running out of time. Oh and we went carolling/tracting to invite people to the Christmas Concert which turned out super well. I'm totally an alto now haha. It's been pretty fun. Today we are going out to visit more people with the Christmas video and I'm super excited about it, and then we are going to have dinner together as a district. Christmas on a mission is the best, we just get to bear our testimonies about Christ all day long :) So excited to talk to you guys tomorrow!!! love you soooo much!!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 12 in Brno

16 Dec 2013 Ahoj! This week was pretty good. Nothing too crazy happened, a lot of people won't set up with us because it's right before Christmas and they have to bake things. (Czechs bake sooo much at Christmas) Which is lame, but what can you do? Last night though the Branch President invited us and some of the elders over for dinner and Christmas caroling! He's from England, so they go carolling every year even though they live here. So that was really fun to get to know their family better, they have 4 kids and the oldest is Brigit's age, we sang the alto part together :) She's so cute. The branch president was talking about how important it is for people to be taught in their homes, because if the missionaries don't teach them there often they don't want home teachers to come in later. I never really thought about that, we do most of our lessons at the church because most Czechs don't want us to come to their houses. But it was a good point, we are going to try and do that more. Oh yeah and then we started talking about kinder eggs and star wars, and the mom was talking about how it was banned when she was growing up, along with disney movies, which I didn't know. I never thought about the entertainment side of it. So they knew that those movies existed, but couldn't get ahold of them. I'm sure you guys already knew that, but it was surprise to me. I felt like it helped me understand a little bit more about what life was like for them before the wall came down. Anyways...so then we went carolling. I didn't realize how important carolling was for it to feel like Christmas until I didn't have it. So that was awesome. It was also quite funny because if you bring Czechs anything they have to give you something back. So all we did was sing one song, and everyone was bringing out their Christmas goodies/chocolate/money (yep they tried to pay us) and thanking us profusely haha. It was pretty nice to be welcomed in! Czechs are so nice.. We are going to try and go carolling as a district this week, I'm excited to do that. We're also singing a ton this week again cause the branch has a Christmas concert and we are going to do extra singing displays. So much fun. I'm finally almost better after like a month of being sick so hopefully my voice will hold out! I really don't have that much else to say...nothing really happened this week. We have one investigator on date, he's from the Congo and is super cool, and our other ones are ok, we just haven't seen some in a while cause of Christmas. We did have a really good lesson with Honza on Sunday, so that was a relief. For some reason I was really stressed out about it, but we just ended up reading 2 Ne 2 with him and having a good discussion--I love how the gospel just makes sense! So that was about it.... Sorry this letter is kind of lame, really nothing happened. I'm sooo excited for next week, I can't wait. This one's probably going to go by super slow just because of the anticipation. oh well. We go to Prague next Monday for the mission conference, and we get our presents :) I'm trying to talk to people about Christmas on the trams, and I'm getting a little better at small talk--I never realized how terrible I am at it haha. Well now I'm just rambling :) love you!!! super excited to see your faces next week! Sestra Cooper P.S. Oh, something else cool about Czech culture, they do advent candles here. So for the last 4 Sundays before Christmas you light a candle every week to count down to it :)

Week 11 in Brno

9 Dec 2013 Ahoj! I LOVE MY MISSION. That's all there is to say. This week wasn't even really that spectacular, but it's still just awesome. And we've made it a goal to talk to at least one person on every tram, and surprisingly it wasn't even that hard, I just have to make myself do it. And I felt sooo much better about my day. It was like a night and day difference. Crazy. I think I've maybe been blessed with an overabundance of enthusiasm because my trainee was kind of disappointed that we got no numbers when we contacted this week. I just told her about all the miracles I've seen and got even more excited. But hey I'll take it! Plus I realized that I've almost been out a year, and funnily enough going back to BYU now scares me more than staying on my mission. How did that happen?? But Sister Senkane went to BYU so she was talking about it and I realized that I am soooo far away from that world now--it was so weird. Just the things that used to matter so much don't at all. I just started laughing cause I suddenly remembered that this time last year I was stressing about selling my contract, and I'm pretty sure mom you asked me if it was something I would care about in a year....and for the life of me I can't even remember how it worked out, only that it did. So funny. Really the only things that matter to me right now are my family and friends and the gospel. How blessed am I that I have the chance to be so removed from distractions that I can say that! Missions are just the best. Training has been really fun so far. Sister Senkane is from Latvia so I'm getting to use all my anthropology skills haha. It's been so fascinating. The church is even smaller there than in the Czech Republic but her family has a returned missionary and almost two out. She went to BYU for two years so her English is really good and her Czech is too. And she's a super hard worker, so we are just going to go to work! For the first half of the week I was in Prague with the other two sisters who are training, that was so fun. We taught a couple of lessons together and it was so neat because we had never taught together before, but we all know our stuff well enough that we could just switch off and go by the Spirit and they both ended up being super good lessons! Plus I got to go to FHE there and say hi to all the members I knew my first transfer. That was so fun--the YSAs have already grown a lot! And Alexandra was like, wow you can speak Czech now! hahaha. In terms of the work we have a really cool new investigator! His name is Luc and he's from the Congo. They taught him in 2009. It was pretty funny cause he was like, why do you guys always talk about the Book of Mormon, I want to know how to be saved! And then he asked how he can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost :) Oh yeah and he speaks French, Russian and English and both of us speak French and Sister Senkane speaks Russian. So fun. It was really cool because I realized that two of our current investigators I had called the same night last transfer when we only had like a half hour til planning. But I wanted to make sure I used all of our working hours, so I called formers that night. And now we are meeting with two of them! Diligence pays off! Oh yeah and then our investigator Diego? He had kind of dropped off the planet for a few weeks cause he's been working a ton, but then Pavla told us he was talking to her at work and wanted to know if he really needs to be baptized again! And then he showed up to church and said he's been reading and praying and we were able to introduce him to the District President who grew up Catholic, and that was super good for him. And THEN, the Branch president talked about Mary in his talk and Diego LOVES her. So it was so perfect, tender mercies are the best! I can't believe it snowed that much at home!! It snowed this week but only like an inch and then rained the next day so it's all gone. I think we swapped haha. We got invited over for a traditional Czech Christmas Eve on the Sunday afternoon before Christmas, so I'm excited about that. The Rezac family invited ALL of the missionaries in Brno (4 companionships and a senior couple). That is so much food! haha.I think we get to try the dreaded carp. But it's going to be great. love you soooo much! Sestra Cooper

Week 10 in Brno

Ahoj! 2 Dec 2013 I'm TRAINING this transfer. aaaaaah. So I'm emailing from Prague, I'll be in a trio with the two other trainers for the next two days and then we get our greenies on Wednesday!! I'm excited but a little nervous at the same time. We were figuring Sister Schoen would leave and me and Sister Steglich would stay but they both left! Crazy. It's a lot of responsibility, but at the same time I'm really excited to be able to work as hard as I want to, and get her all excited about missionary work :) We are going to baptize!! President is really pushing us all to raise our vision and believe in miracles and they are totally happening---the mission had 6 baptisms on Saturday! Super cool. When he called me to tell me I was training he told me to set up as many lessons as I could for this week so that the greenie will just hit the ground running and raise her vision too. I'm so excited, I have 8 lessons set up I think. We had a miracle of our own on Friday--it was just me and Sister Steglich because Sister Schoen was in Prague for visa stuff. And we had planned to go get lunch in the namesti so that we could see the Christmas markets just in case either of us left cause that was the first day they opened and I wanted to get Christmas presents. So we were planning on being there at 2, but our lesson ran long and we didn't get there til 3. But right as we got there I noticed that an unknown number had called us during the lesson, so I called him back, and it was a potential Sister Steglich had contacted at the beginning of the transfer. He was like hi, I have time right now, can we meet in the centrum? So we told him we were already in the namesti, and he came and met us there. So in the middle of the Christmas markets I had halusky (the Slovak version of mac and cheese--it's potatoes sort of like gnocchi and sausage and zeli and is sooo good) for lunch and we taught a quick lesson on God and prayer and he is soooo prepared!!! Me and Sister Steglich just kept looking at each other in disbelief. And he has two twenty-year old daughters that he might bring to English. The only reason he hadn't met earlier is because he works outside of Brno and doesn't get home until 7 every night. Complete miracle. We have another lesson set up with him on Wednesday. It just strengthened my testimony so much. I thought we had only planned to go because I wanted to see the markets, but the Lord clearly had a hand in that. Amazing. I still can't believe it. Thursday we had Thanksgiving at the senior couple's house, it was good but your cooking is way better mom haha. I missed the sweet potatoes. It was fun but didn't feel like Thanksgiving at all. But that's ok. For English class we taught them about Thanksgiving--they were so fascinated and kept asking all these questions haha. It is really hard to explain the pilgrim story in Czech, let alone what jello and pie are. haha good times. We had them all go around and say something they were thankful for in English. It was pretty cute. Wednesday we had exchanges, that was really fun. Sister Barney is awesome at contacting (she's the one going to Slovakia this transfer) and so it was really fun to contact with her. We were talking to people about family history and we got 5 numbers between the five of us (cause her companion had to come too) so that was awesome. Oh and yesterday we had really good second lesson with this former named Honza. He's studying philosophy so his lessons are kind of intense, but he is such a sincere person, he's really looking for truth. So he agreed to listen to the lessons and really ponders them--we taught him about the Restoration yesterday. Vasek taught with us and he was sooo helpful. But it was really neat because I think Honza was surprised that we could actually answer all of his questions. With philosophy everything is unsure. So we'll see how that goes! He still doesn't want to try praying but he's getting closer. I'm really excited about him, sometimes I like teaching people like him better than the people who just accept everything but don't really think about it, because I know that if he decides to be baptized then he's in for good you know? Well that's about it I think, I'm really excited for this next transfer, our district is getting so many good elders, we are just going to tear it up! I can't wait. And I'm really excited to meet my greenie :) Miracles are going to happen in Brno! love you all!! Sestra Cooper

Week 9 in Brno

25 Nov 2013 aaaah this is the last week of the transfer....and last week was CRAZY. So many things happened, I don't even know where to start. We had our concert on Wednesday, and that was really good to finally have it done. It was so stressful! We were kind of disappointed because we only had 70 people come, including members and missionaries, and we had talked to soooo many people on the street. But we were talking about it in training the next day and President helped us see how much it built trust with the members. It went really well and they saw the effort we put into it, so hopefully they will invite friends to the next one. It really did help us to bond with them. And we did get the numbers of some of our English students who came, so hopefully we will be able to teach them. We'll see. I ended up singing in 3 of the songs, so that was fun but I think it made me sick, cause we sang sooo much last week in the cold at all the singing displays. Hopefully it doesn't last too long. Training was amazing as usual. We talked a lot more about Christmas plans, how to teach more member lessons and how to plan, so that was helpful. And then President talked about the Czech holidays that happened this week--Nov 20-22, 1989 is when the Communists finally gave up control to Vaclav Havel. And he talked about how the members of the church met during Communism and everything, it was pretty interesting. And then there were a bunch of departing testimonies from the huge group of elders going home. I love them cause they always talk about what they've learned and there is a lot of wisdom in that. It's so strange because most of the missionaries I knew have gone home, everyone else is younger. I'm starting to be in one of the older sister groups. So weird. Sister Jones stayed with us again, so fun. But she pointed out that we only have 4 transfers left....I may have freaked out a little at that haha. Let's see....what else happened. We had really good lessons with Draha and Diego and a new guy named Honza. We asked both Diego and Draha to pray about being baptized, both were Catholic growing up, but not really practicing. But it was ridiculous because both lessons were interrupted soooo much. Opposition! During Draha's literally right as the question came out of my mouth her phone went off, someone had set off the alarm at her house....and then 15 minutes later when that was finally over, the branch president stuck his head in and started talking to the member who was teaching with us, and the doorknob fell off the door again... haha. But she said she'd think about it. And then with Diego's lesson there were a bunch of kids in the classroom next door just screaming. We were trying to watch the Restoration movie with him in Italian. So once they finally stopped it was quiet right up until the first vision part....when someone started vacuuming. haha we were like really?? But the lesson went super well, we all kind of bonded over it, we just talked about how the church is like one big family and he really loves that part of it. Oh and then it felt like we were on the District, because at one point he asked "what do I need to do to follow Jesus Christ?" and "So you are saying that my baptism wasn't valid?" haha it was verbatim. (Yes I've gotten to the point where I can quote the whole District haha. That's what happens!) And then he asked for a reading recommendation! I'm so excited to keep teaching him. Our new investigator is really hesitant to believe in anything, but he is willing to listen to the lessons, so we'll see with him! This week should be good, we have exchanges on Tuesday, Thanksgiving on Thursday---which won't really be any different except the senior couple is going to feed us and we get 2 hours instead of one. It will be weird though cause it's an American holiday so no one else will be celebrating it. But that will be fun. And then transfer calls!! I'm pretty sure I'm staying but you never know. This next transfer is going to be crazy since the sister training leaders have both been in for 2 transfers and someone's probably going to Slovakia, and two people will be training. So we'll see what happens! Oh--I'm waiting to send your Christmas presents until after Friday cause that's when the Christmas markets start!! So I hope it will still get there before Christmas. Hopefully I can find something good there, they are supposed to be even better than the Easter ones. The stalls are already set up and so is the giant Christmas tree :) It's supposed to snow any day now, it's gotten pretty cold. love you!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 8 in Brno

Ahoj! 18 Nov 2013 aaah I can't believe the transfer's already over. Ridiculous. The next two weeks are going to be crazy too, we have our concert on Wednesday night and then training on Thursday, and then the next week is Thanksgiving! Crazy. We get two hours for Thanksgiving dinner, so that will be nice. This week was kind of a blur....we did 3 singing displays to advertise for the concert so that was fun and freezing and my voice is going haha. We've been singing soooo much. And we're doing the musical number for the baptism on Sunday too, yay! But it was awesome, we've given out over 1000 flyers. So we'll see how many people actually show up! Prague just did one and had 100 potentials come. So I'm excited for that, we've gotten pretty much everything organized and together, just have to tweak the program a bit! It's going to be awesome, and hopefully we will get a bunch of new investigators for it. What else happened....we had an amazing impromptu lesson with our investigator Draha! That was so cool. We had invited her to the Relief Society clothing swap but somehow it started before so by the time she got there it was over, so we were scrambling to figure out what to teach. We ended up teaching the first half of the plan of salvation and watching Finding Faith in Christ, but the entire thing was so guided by the Spirit--I don't know that I've really had a lesson like that before. I knew exactly what I was supposed to say and how to relate it to her. And my companions were on the exact same page. So cool. We were all tearing up at the end. So that was amazing, she's progressing really well. And we had a good impromptu lesson with our Mongolian investigators too--a father and his son. It's really hard to communicate with them but they know French too (so I really need to relearn it....) and we had a member that spoke French in the lesson with us. It's pretty funny cause everyone in the district is teaching a Mongolian right now, Sister Schoen is convinced that it's a sign and that they will all get baptized and then they'll have their own branch! haha. We are trying to work out a skype schedule with the Mongolian elders cause the time difference is really hard. hahaha oh yeah and my companion accidently dyed her hair bright red last night.... that was pretty funny. She dyed it back this morning but she was freaking out about it. good times.... I think that is about it.... oh wait I had a really good personal study yesterday! That was cool. I was studying the Ten Virgins parable in an Ensign and it was talking about how olive oil was used for all sorts of things back then, food, a condiment, healing wounds, etc. And so then I started thinking about how Gethsemene means olive press and how it can be a symbol for the atonement, and then realized that all of the uses of olive oil can be how the atonement works in our lives spiritually. It was really cool. love you!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 7 in Brno? I can't keep track anymore haha

11 NOV 2013 Hi!!! We heard about our Christmas plans and I GET TO SKYPE YOU. hahah I'm sooo excited. I miss being able to just tell you everything. I know it's been almost a year but sometimes I still want to call you and tell you how excited I am about stuff. The rest of the holidays are going to be super awesome too. So the 23rd we have a mission conference so I get to see everyone I haven't seen in forever, and I'm pretty sure they will pass out the Christmas presents then too. And then on the 24th we go around and teach as many 5 min lessons about Christ as we can--to members, investigators, anyone who will listen to us. Then Christmas Day we go and do 3 hours of service with a member, so we can go carolling or something, and then spend the rest of the day with our district and skyping :) We only have 45 min of course, but I'm so excited. And THEN, on the 26th we do singing displays all over the city as a district :) It's going to be so great. And then on New Year's Eve we have to be home by 5 cause everyone will be drunk and we get to watch disney movies. haha. I can't wait. President McConkie is a genius--he didn't like that in the past they watched movies on Christmas, but he knew that everyone loved it so he just moved it to New Years and made sure Christmas was still about Christ! President McConkie is amazing mom, don't worry. I honestly think that part of the reason I am in this mission is because of him. It's such a blessing. And he respects the sisters and doesn't play favorites at all. In one of my interviews he was telling me that at an Area training one of the other mission presidents asked him how the sisters in his mission were, like they were going to be a problem, and he said are you kidding? I've never had a problem with any of them and they lead the mission! haha. Seriously he understands the gospel soooo well and his wife and family are amazing too.(haha mom my companions say that you look like Sister McConkie and she really does remind me of you :) She is awesome. At the end of every training President spends the last 15 minutes talking about one of Christ's titles in the New Testament--last time it was the Great Physician, I learned so much. I really wanted to tell you about it Dad. And he is so wise, seriously everything that comes out of his mouth is so helpful. (Dad-I think about you quoting o be wise aaallll the time). We rode down with him from Prague cause he was coming to Brno anyways and on the 2 1/2 hour car ride he went through all of our investigators with us, how they are progressing and where we are stuck and we came up with lesson plans for their next lessons. We actually tried one of them this week and it was so inspired. She's from Equador, and her mom is a member, but she's living here, and hasn't really been progressing, she's scared to come to church too. So he suggested that we relate the gospel to her mom--and ask if we can just teach her 4 lessons (since she's latin and already has a lot of faith we can teach her a lot more at once)--the same exact lessons her mom learned and then during the 5th lesson have a heart to heart with her about what she's learned and if she believes that it's true. So we talked about this plan with her, and she loved it, AND it turned out to be her mom's birthday that day anyways so she was already thinking about her. Can you say inspired?? And then she said she wanted to learn about the plan of salvation so I whipped out my pictures that I always have in my bag and we had an amazing lesson, completely by the spirit. So we called President after and told him about it and he was really excited. This week really was fantastic. The branch had a bonfire night activity cause the branch president is British (remember remember the 5th of November), and it was super cool. We had 4 investigators show up and Draha just loved it, met a bunch a members and everything. And then they had real fireworks too! It felt like 4th of July haha. And then two little girls got baptized on Sunday and we got to sing at that, that was fun. (I've done more musical numbers on my mission than my whole life haha) They are totally adorable, I'll send a picture. Their parents totally involved us and we got to teach them a couple lessons the last couple weeks, it was so fun. And our investigator Diego came to that and I think he really liked it. I had a really good personal study in Psalms of all places the other day too. I was just letting my fear hold me back from talking to people, and I realized that and repented, and it made such a huge difference. My attitude got way better and now I'm all excited to share the gospel again. Plus I had a lot of tender mercies this week--we had 4 people independently (members and investigators) tell us that they see the light in our eyes, and that when we speak we have the spirit and that it will make a difference when we talk to people. That was so good to hear, because sometimes I really don't feel like we are. So that was really nice. The Branch here is super awesome, it feels like a ward family, it's so nice. Well that pretty much sums it up. We have some pretty awesome progressing investigators now, so I'm hoping that I get to stay next transfer and help them make it to baptism. We'll see! I realized the other day that I've had a baptism in every area so far. Pretty crazy huh? But we are supposed to expect miracles so I want to keep the streak going :) I'll do my best! love you!!!!! Sestra Cooper P.S. Oh yeah and we are teaching this old lady who's husband was famous in the 60s in Hollywood apparently. I'd never heard of him, but his name is Eduard Ingris if you want to look it up. She's pretty cool, we've only had one meeting with her and she mostly just talked about him, he knew all sorts of people, including Hemingway!

Week 6 in Brno

4 Nov 2013 Cau! This week was kind of weird. The first half went by super fast cause we had to go to Prague again for Sister Stegich's visa and then we had Zone Conference. But then the second half took forever. Zone Conference was really fun cause it was all of the Slovak missionaries too, so I got to see Sister Jones and Belibi Minya. That was neat cause I haven't seen them since my first transfer. Sister Jones and her companion stayed at our apartment the night before, and it was so fun to talk to her--we have way more in common than I do with my companions. So that helped. And training was amazing of course, it always seems to be exactly what I needed help with and I always come away with more enthusiasm for the work and excited to try all the new ideas. So that was good. It was weird to have Halloween in Europe though, I saw exactly one Halloween display...the day after haha. It really didn't feel like it. I also can't believe it's November, I don't know what happened, the other day I started writing March on a record and I was like wait a second..... haha. The time just doesn't seem real. We are having a concert in 3 weeks that I'm excited about. We are teaching the first lesson through music! So each missionary companionship will teach one principle and then we have 2 songs for each of them. So we are going to try and get the members excited about it and involved so that it's a less intimidating way for them to invite friends to learn about the church. Plus all the members here are ridiculously talented, so it should be really good. We are just still working out the logisitics of it all, but I'm excited. President McConkie has awesome ideas--some of the other cities have already done it and they were really successful. As far as the week went we had a ton of lessons cancel, 6/6 one day. But it happens. A lot of our investigators got sick so they just dropped off the planet for a little bit. Hopefully we are able to meet with them this next week--cause we do have like 7 now, which is amazing. We are going to try to give 4 of them baptismal dates this week, so we'll see how that goes! After this week we only have 3 weeks left of the transfer though, so that's super weird. I did hear that President might be sending a Czech sister to Slovakia so that we don't have trios in both countries, so that will be interesting. I would love to serve there at some point...but at the same time things are just getting started here and I would hate to leave so soon. So good thing I don't decide right? I'm hoping we get to do a Thanksgiving dinner with the district--I think the senior couple might do it, that would be really nice. Because of course none of the members will celebrate it! Can't believe it's so soon. We had a first lesson with a referral who is a young woman, her mom's a member and she's been coming to church, efy, seminary and yws for a year but never got baptized! And she's super adorable, I am so excited to teach her. She really just wants to make sure that it's the right decision to get baptized and to get a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It was really neat cause as I was teaching her the first vision and testifying about it I just felt my testimony get stronger and I'm so grateful for it. And my testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown a lot this week as well. I just opened up to Helaman randomly and I'm just so surprised every time how spot on everything is. It just seems to describe our day perfectly. And I knew that before, but it never really sunk in. Plus I feel like I can identify better with the prophets when they describe sorrowing over the people's sins---I feel that when people choose not to listen or make decisions that I know will make them unhappy. I'm just so incredibly grateful for this gospel--it brings me so much joy, and I just wish that others would give it a chance--just to try it, and see if it doesn't make a difference in their life too. Love you all soooooo much. Sestra Cooper P.S. Cool fact about Czech that I think I forgot to tell you--it used to have z's like Polish until Jan Hus, and then they shorted them to the accent marks, like the hacek. Interesting huh? So Polish is really quite similar, it just looks different.

Week 5 in Brno

28 OCT 2013 Ahoj vsichni! Well this last week was soooo much better. We instituted comp inventory every night and that made a huge difference. I love both of my companions but man trios are hard haha. I wish someone had warned me! Oh well, we've kind of figured it out now, and things are going a lot smoother. Plus we found a bunch of new investigators last week!!! Which was super awesome. I'm convinced that Heavenly Father was just waiting for us to get our feet under us and then he just opened the floodgates. We are teaching this really cool guy named Diego, he's from Italy but speaks fluent French, and some English, can't remember if I already told you about him or not? oh well. But we had a really good first lesson with him, and he seems to be pretty solid. It was funny though cause he would start to ask a question in English, and then switch to French, and then I'd respond back in English cause I can't remember my French grammar (it comes out Czech)...and he was reading from an Italian pamphlet and Book of Mormon. And sometimes we accidently started speaking in Czech and he looked at us like we were crazy. Gotta love Europe!! Oh yeah and I bought a bunkbed! haha. So I'm not sleeping on the couch anymore. yay! Good thing I'm careful with my money or we wouldn't have had enough. But funny story...so we get to Ikea last Monday, and the first bed we see is perfect. So we booked through the rest of the store got to the warehouse, and it wasn't there. So we tracked down someone, and tried to explain what we wanted in Czech, and it turns out I wrote the wrong number down. So we finally got the bed, and realized that it was really long...and the zone leader's car is a little skoda....and no one in Europe owns a truck. So Sister Schoen called them and was like, abort mission there is no way it's going to fit. But they came anyways and measured it and it was just barely shorter than the whole car. So they were like, it'll probably fit....you can just buy it. haha. And they actually managed to fit the whole thing in--I'm not doing the story justice cause it was hilarious--I'll send a picture. Basically it was like Mr Incredible in his little car hunched over. hahaha. So then I put the whole thing together by myself and took apart the other broken bed, so our apartment is finally back to normal! That was fun. Sorry this is a lame email, I really can't remember what happened this week. Lots of lessons. Which was awesome. We are going to Prague again tonight cause Sister Steglich has visa stuff this time. And then we have training on Wednesday, and the whole Slovakian zone is coming too, which I'm super excited about, haven't seen them since my first transfer. For Halloween we are going to go visit a graveyard at lunch, and then we're having a halloween-themed district dinner on Sunday. So that'll be fun. that's about it.... Oh yeah I'm almost halfway through the Old Testament! And I am loving it. Yeah there are some crazy/disturbing stories, but you just have to get through them to find the gems. So I've developed a love for the Bible now, which is awesome. I feel like I'll be able to answer questions a lot better now, the more I read it the stronger my testimony of the Restoration gets. It's awesome. love you all!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 4 in Brno

21 Oct 2013 Ahoj! I'm not really sure what to say about this week, we're working hard. We got some referrals, which was cool, and we have a lot of potentials that say they want to meet with us, it's just a matter of them actually showing up/answering their phones. But oh well. We got to go on a hike with one of them in Saturday, and that was absolutely beautiful, cause it was all the fall leaves. I'd better enjoy it while I can though cause the snow is supposed to start in 2 weeks....And the branch has started a Christmas choir, so we get to be in that, that was fun. Church yesterday was super productive, we had our investigator actually show up, and he's Russian. So it was super cool cause a member got up to speak and she's Russian too, so he got to hear it in his own language :) He understands Czech fairly well cause they are pretty similar, but that was a small tender mercy. And then I was talking to a YSA, and he had brought his roommate to church, and said his other roommate has been asking lots of questions about our church as well :) So we got two referrals! That was awesome. He's from Taiwan and served his mission there, and he's studying music here so he's going to help us with the concert we are going to put on in November too! I'm excited for that. Last p-day was really fun, we went to Spilberk, the castle that's in the middle of the city on a huge hill, and then Sister Steglich bought a guitar, we all got scarves, and then we tracked down The Candy Store, which sells American food. That was super exciting haha, I got goldfish, jelly beans and rootbeer-- so we had rootbeer floats the other night!! It's been so long since I've had American stuff haha. That was happy. Today we are going to IKEA to buy a bunk bed, cause we only have one bed, the other one broke, and now there are three of us. So we'll see how that goes. Hopefully the zone leaders will be able to drive there to pick it up, cause they have a car. Otherwise it will be us lugging it by ourselves onto trams and buses and up and down stairs.....which will be a bit of a nightmare. So we'll see. I'm sorry to hear about Grandpa, gah I wish I could have been there to help!!! I'm glad that everything went as smoothly as it could have. I miss you all so much. I'm so grateful that we all know without a doubt that we will see him again. The gospel is so amazing. I just feel my testimony getting deeper and deeper the longer I'm out here--it's way more that I could have imagined, so I know that it's worth it. love you all soooo much. Hug Grandma for me. Sestra Cooper

Week 3 in Brno

14 OCT 2013 Ahoj! Well I'm definitely feeling better than last week, but this week was just kind of ridiculous. We had the worst train-wreck of a first lesson I've ever had on Monday and so that just kind of made my self-confidence die, and working with three people is really hard so there's been drama with that...but we're getting better. Found some new potentials and we've gotten a lot of referrals lately, so that's been exciting. There's one who's a yw and has been coming to church with her mom, and she went to efy and everything this summer, and I guess the other yw have been talking to her about getting baptized and she's thinking about it. So we should have our first lesson with her this week, and i'm excited about that. And another one came to conference and sports day this weekend, he's italian. (He speaks fluent French, but not very much English so I'm trying to remember my french...haha. It's a struggle, but at least I still understand everything) So we will finally have some people to teach, yay! And we did a how-to-start family history presentation that actually went really well, and it made contacting people on the street way less awkward when we could just invite them to an event at the beginning. So that was cool. (I'd love to see that family history stuff you are working on mom! it sounds awesome.) We are going to organize a concert soon and try to get more potentials there. One of the other cities did it and basically taught the first lesson through songs, and musical numbers and got new investigators out of it. Super cool right? Oh but the other ridiculous thing...I don't know what it is with me and getting sick/eaten alive here but it seems to happen way more than normal. We had a pigeon's nest outside our bedroom window that they knocked down, but apparently when you do that the bird mites go looking for something else to bite, and since i had the bed by the window the next day I woke up with more than 100 bites all over... So I've been sleeping on the couch all week while we've sprayed the bedroom with raid and aired it out just in case... So that was disgusting and kind of miserable, but we've gotten rid of them at least. So progress? Hopefully we'll move back into the bedroom in the next couple of days. And I found some good running shoes so we've started running again, and that felt amazing. anyways....we also went to prague again, and I officially have my visa now, so that's finally done. President McConkie was in Brno so we got to ride back with him, that was cool to just talk to him cause we never really see him except for trainings. And Conference was amazing of course. I think every talk was just so good. I loved Elder Hollands, Dube, Hales, Bednar, Ochoa....basically all of them. I can't wait to study them. There really is such a sense of the Lord's hastening His work, which is a little scary, I felt like a lot of them talked about how the world is just getting darker and darker, and how there is such a divide between those who are converted and those who aren't. There seems to be less and less middle ground. And it really does feel like Satan is throwing a tantrum like you said mom. Yuck. But at the same time, the gospel is so amazing, I can't believe we have more than 15 million members now!! That's crazy. Conference had me thinking about the future a lot, so I'm trying to not think about next year and how I have no idea what I'm doing with my life... Besides, I know that the Lord is in control, and that he will guide me when I make big decisions. It's still a long ways away, but at the same time transfers go by so fast, and I'm almost halfway done. So weird. Anyways. Well today should be fun cause I think I have a cool idea for Christmas presents for you guys assuming it works out and we are going to another castle with the whole district. So I'm excited about that. I can't believe it's almost Halloween! October just started.... love you!!!!! So. much. Sestra Cooper P.S. I finally saw a hedgehog! haha. And apparently I have a slovak accent when I speak Czech, I probably already told you that, but I thought it was funny.

Week 2 in Brno

7 oct 2013 Cau, Well I was doing fine until I sat down to email....I think the stress of this last week has caught up to me, and I've felt like I have to be the strong one for both of my companions. Both of them have kind of had a hard transition, so I've been trying to be the one that has faith and is optimistic and pushing us on, and comforting them. But I got sick AGAIN, and my cough won't go away, so I've been kind of miserable all week. Finally got to organize half the apartment yesterday though, which helped, it was such a mess I couldn't figure out what materials we even had. So that will help a little. I just really miss you right now. And I know that my friends are probably busy but no one but you guys have written me for a couple transfers now, which is lame. I know I shouldn't care, or take it personally, but it does hurt a little bit. I think I'm just extra sensitive because I don't really know any missionaries in Moravia--all of my friends are on the other side of the country. And the elders in my district here like to make feminist jokes and such, which is just annoying. I'm sorry this is such a downer, I think it just all caught up to me, and I feel like if I lose it in front of them then my companions will too-gah. I'm just feeling kind of alone right now. But I know that it's not about me, yadda yadda.... And I am working hard of course. I'll be fine, we're so busy there really isn't that much time to think about myself anyways. Well on the bright side the members here are great, and I really do like Brno. We have a really good YSA group, and people actually stop when you talk to them on the street. All of the people they taught last transfer have kind of disappeared, so we are basically starting from scratch, but we have a meeting with an old potential from C Bud (that I referred to myself haha) tonight and she sounded super cool on the phone, so that's exciting. We are teaching a family history introduction night on Wednesday so we are going to contact on that for the next few days to try and find some new people to teach, and then after that we are going to focus on inviting people to Conference, since we watch it a week late. I can't wait for it, I think I really need that spiritual boost. Can't believe it's been 6 months since the last one though! That was my second week in the country. Kind of crazy. The days just seem so incredibly long, but then I look back and I'm almost halfway done with my mission, and I don't know what happened! Well I don't really know what else to say about this week, it's all just kind of a blur. I just feel like I need to just be so much better, more effective, more bold, just everything. I know I shouldn't be such a perfectionist, but I could just be so much better. Gah. It probably doesn't help that I haven't had a real P-day for 3 weeks. I am excited about this transfer, it's just going to be a lot of work. But I'm really glad that I feel like I left C Bud a lot better than it was when I got there, so I'm determined to do the same thing here. I like contacting better in a trio, teaching is kind of hard to get used to, but we'll get there in the end. We are going up to Prague again on Friday for my last visa appointment, which will be good to get done. And I'm going to try and find some good tennis shoes today, I hate shopping as a missionary it's so stressful. Gah. Oh well. It'll be fine. love you!!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 1 in Brno! 30 Sept 2013

Ahoj! I'm surprised we had time to email today but I do! I'm now in Brno in a trio! I'm with Sister Steglich and follow-up training Sister Schoen. Should be an adventure, I just got here a couple of hours ago. It's weird cause they are both 20 so I feel a lot older haha. And the greenie is the only one who knows the city, so she has to remember where everything is. But that's ok. The apartment is really nice, a lot better than C Bud's and we have FHE tonight, so that should be cool. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone in C Bud, I was there for 4 months! Which is the longest I've been anywhere, so it was kind of strange to leave. I had to get up and bear my testimony yesterday in sacrament meeting and I thought I would be fine, and I got up there and just started crying. I hate that! gah. But I really do love them all so much. It was hard to say goodbye. I was really grateful that I was there to see Constantin pass the sacrament for the first time though :) That was really neat to see how far he has come in the last 4 months. And the branch is finally getting going, we were going to actually have a real branch council soon! Oh well, I guess I did my part and now I need to be here. I'm really excited to be here, though, Brno is a lot bigger so it will be nice to have a bigger branch. As much as I loved the little one, it's kind of a relief to not be in charge of Relief Society and Young Womens haha. And Brno has a lot of students, so I'm excited to find some new cool investigators. Plus we have a big district so I get to do singing displays again :) I don't really know what to say about last week, we travelled so much. Twice to Prague and back. But we did get to go to Michal's performance, that was super cool. He's a professional violinist and plays for the opera, so we got permission to go :) It was Tosca, I've never seen an opera before, but the music was so good. So I was pleasantly surprised :) Other than that, nothing really happened. I made enchildas for district lunch yesterday and they were soooo good. Oh but can you send me your sauce recipe mom? The sauce here is more like salsa. Yesterday was a blur of packing, so not much to say there, except we went to the Chrdlovi for dinner, that was really nice. This morning on the superlong bus ride I was kind of reflecting on what I've learned from the different areas I've served in, and my different companions, and I decided that C Bud taught me how to have charity, how to really love people, and to see them how Christ does. I just cringe when I think about how I was before my mission. I know I didn't do anything bad, but I could have done so much more good, if I had learned how to serve others -what you guys tried to teach me my whole life! haha. I'm just so grateful that I have the chance to learn that now. The power of the gospel to transform us is just absolutely amazing. I feel like I can relate to what you were talking about mom, about being more converted, that's exactly how I feel as well. It's amazing. Well I think that's about it, love you all!!!

Week 18 in C Bud 23 Sept 2013

Nazdar! Well I can't believe transfers are next week already. aaah. I feel like I just blinked and the transfer is already over. So if you don't get an email that's why. I think I'm probably leaving, but you never know! We'll see. I really don't know what to say about last week, it went by super fast, and I don't think anything really happened.... oh wait. We have a full-fledged branch now, Constantin got the priesthood, my visa went through, and we've been sick all week, so it's kind of a blur of tiredness. Just a cold though, so that was good. We tried to sleep during lunches and go to bed right after planning. Yesterday was exciting though, because Elder Greener has two counselors now, and we have a primary president, should be getting a relief society one and elders quorum soon which will be nice, so that we don't have to do yw and everything else too! But our chapel has been full for the last couple of weeks, so we have to look for a new building! That is an amazing problem to have. It's funny cause I think we aren't making any progress, and then I remember that we had 8 people at church, if that, when I first got here 4 months ago. So that's pretty amazing that we are averaging like 25 every week now. It finally feels like a real branch :) President was telling us this morning that the Lord is just going to open the floodgates now that we have somewhere to fellowship new converts :) So that was an exciting thought. It's so hard to find people to teach in C Bud, but maybe it just had to wait until there was somewhere to bring them, and now we'll start finding people. We did meet some pretty cool people tracting this week, so that was fun. We'll see what happens there. It was really nice cause the 1st counselor in the mission presidency and his wife came down to organize the presidency (Tmejovi) and they are so cool. I love it when I meet active members who have been in the church for 20 years, it gives me hope. Because most of the branch is recent converts. But she taught relief society and is so cool, it was so nice to have someone ask how we are doing in a motherly way haha. Made me miss you mom! There's just nothing quite like it. what else....we went out to Trebon to find a less active, that was cool cause the town still has it's medieval wall with a moat around it :) He still lives there too, and we found his house, so it was good to confirm his address. haha Czech addresses are ridiculous, his number was 148, but it was after 145 and 135, they make no sense. Basically you just have to wander around and go both directions until you find it. We had a couple miracles happen with less actives actually, we were calling old potentials, and one of them is the son of an inactive, the son is catholic, and not interested, but super nice, and he gave us his dad's new number! So that was awesome, most people wouldn't. Our senior couple are just super excited that they get to help with that, and are super helpful with that cause they have a car and a lot of them live far out. I think that's about it...I found quinoa so I made that this week, super good. haha that was exciting. We have training on Thursday, so we are coming back up to Prague, and then I have to come back again in two weeks for more visa stuff...so lots of train rides. I'm still reading the Bible, and I'm really enjoying Deuteronomy actually. Deut. 4:29-31 is really beautiful, about how the Lord will never forget us, and the second we turn back to Him, He is always right there, ready to bless, and uplift us. So I was thinking about that this week. I'm so imperfect and do so many things wrong, but somehow He trusts me enough to represent Him. And so in my small way I get to be a tool in His hands and help other people come back to Him as well. love you!!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 17 in C Bud

16 Sept 2013 Ahoj! Well this week went by pretty fast, we only have one normal week of the transfer left cause next week we go to Prague twice--I have to get fingerprinted for my visa and then we have training! And we were in Prague yesterday as well for District Conference. So a ton of travel lately. District Conference was so good though I loved it. And I got to see Vaclav and Martin Novak again! That was sooo fun because I can actually communicate with them now, I absolutely loved it. Martin's still an investigator, but he's so great, he'll make it eventually. It was so funny cause he was telling me that he's growing out his beard again cause people always think he's a student even though he's had a real job for like 10 years haha. So I was like, yeah I have the same problem, people always think I'm 18, and he was like what? you aren't 18?? hahaha no Martin, I'm not. And it was all in Czech of course. Ah beautiful. And I understood almost all of the Conference as well, which was super exciting, cause the last time I was in church in Prague I just tried not to fall asleep. This time I actually got things out of it :) It was super cool cause they had a bunch of little talks by youth and young adults, one was about to leave on a mission, the others preparing, and then a woman got up and talked about how her husband patiently waited 8 years for her to get baptized and how they were recently sealed in the Temple. It was so cool because I just felt an overwhelming love for these people. The church really is growing here, even if it seems to be so incredibly slow to me. And I just love them so much--I know missionaries always say that, but I don't think I realized how much I really would feel it, you know? It's an incredible gift. Sister McConkie gave a talk on siblings--apparently there is an article in Times magazine called the new science of siblings, and she quoted it--they were saying that our siblings are our true partners for life, because spouses come into the picture comparatively late and parents leave earlier, but our siblings are with us for the whole journey. (It sounds like a really interesting study.) So she talked about how siblings sometimes fight, or disagree, but at the end of the day always forgive each other, because we are family. So then she compared it to how we are all siblings in the church, and how we need to love each other like family, and forgive each other like family. Ah it was so good. And it made me miss you guys, but in a good way, if that makes sense. Because I know that I'll be such a better sister when I get home because of what I'm learning here. Other things...we went on a road trip on Saturday with the senior couple to find inactives, and we actually had way more success than I thought we were going to. We went up past Tabor, which is like an hour and a half away (our area is huge) and one of the families let us in, and were so friendly! It was such a nice surprise to be welcomed haha, usually they just don't answer or say they don't have time. But they said they would totally come to church if they lived closer, but it's just such a long way. And then we tracked down another member in a different town, who also answered the door and gave us her contact info :) I was so excited. So we are going to start visiting them once a month I think. It was awesome. Oh and the elders had a miracle happen to them too, Elder Greener wanted to get some books bound, and Gita (a member) said she had a friend who did them, so last week they went to this shop to get them done, and at the end, they found out that her friend is no less than one of the inactives no one has been able to get ahold of, and she said they can start visiting her :) Total divine intervention! And then yesterday on the train back from Prague the same member happened to get on the same car as us so I got to meet her too! And we had members traveling back with us, so they all said hi, and exchanged phone numbers :) Not a coincidence. The branch is growing!! Even though we only have 1 investigator.... but that's ok. We are working hard and that's all that matters. love you!!! Sestra Cooper

week 16 in C BUD...aaaaah

9 Sep 2013 Ahoj! I freaked out yesterday during weekly planning when I realized we only have 3 weeks left of the transfer. Can't believe it, it goes by so fast! We've got District Conference in Prague this Sunday and then the next week Constantin and our returning member get the priesthood (!!) and then we've got training in Prague and transfers. Oh yeah and we have another investigator with a baptismal date for that week too. So we'll see how that goes, should be pretty busy. It's really cool because our vision for the transfer included 1 baptism or someone progressing towards it, and a less-active returning and getting the priesthood, even though at the time we had like no investigators and it didn't look possible. (we still have like no new investigators...but that's ok!) God is a God of miracles and they are totally happening :) Annica that is awesome that you had a baptism the same day! so fun. Wow orange water, gross. Good thing you checked! Constantin did get baptized on Saturday :) It was pretty small cause not a lot of people could come up to Prague, but the spirit was so strong and he is so happy. So neat to be a part of it. We got him a shirt and tie as a present, and he was so excited haha. So great. It was cool too, cause Sister Bateman, who is our sister training leader is in Prague, she was there for his 2nd lesson a year ago as a greenie and she got to see him get baptized :) The office elders filled up the font for us, which was good, cause we wouldn't have had time. Other things....we went out to Prachatice, Sedlec and Plastovice to find less actives with the senior couple this week. That was really nice to be able to make some progress on that, cause they have a car. So that was fun, the only one we taught was one that we've visited before, the other two have moved, but that was good to know. It was fun seeing this tiny old villages, they are so pretty, and a nice change from the city. I think we are going to make it a weekly thing, we're going to visit some more on Saturday. Our area is gigantic, it goes to the German border and all the way up to Plzen, so for some of them it's an hour drive to get there. But that was fun. We're trying to keep them busy cause they don't really have anything to do. I'm glad my package made it! I was worried about that. I'm glad only one of them broke, i'll just have to get some more next Easter. The keychain is from Indonesia, Charlah gave it to me. The old testament manual would be helpful, but I don't think I can lug around anymore books for transfers haha. We have one in Czech at the church, not that that is very helpful. But I have been learning a lot, even though Leviticus is kind of painful haha. All these things I never knew were in there! Like one of our investigators said Mosiah 29 (about the judges) seemed too modern to be true, and then I was reading Exodus and Moses does the same thing! And one of our returning members was freaked out that the temple font has 12 oxen--but Solomon has the exact same thing in his temple. Totally cool. haha we would finally get a snuggly dog when I'm not there! go figure. but that's awesome. We were watching the district today in comp study and just laughing about how it would be if they filmed it in our mission. Cause they are like, "we did all we could to just get a baptism, and it didn't happen." Ours is more like "the whole district did all we could to find just one new investigator to teach this week and we still have no one!" haha. (that's actually true for this week...) And our apartment....haha the top of the toilet is broken so we have to leave the window open 24/7 or it stinks, and the toilet seat falls off, our freezer eats our food alive even though we just cleaned it out and our clothes drying rack is duct-taped in 4 places and still collapsing so we have it propped up with weights. Oh yeah and my bed is two pea-green box-beds from the 70s stacked on top of each other with a mattress on top, and my nightstand is an ironing board hahahaha. Can you imagine them filming that?? we were just cracking up. Gotta love it. But the funny thing is that I just love it here. It really makes no sense. Blessings! I wish I could describe it better, what it's actually like, I feel like I can only tell you like a tenth of everything that happens, if that. Love you sooooo much!!! Sestra Cooper

week 15 in C Bud

Ahoj! 2 Sep 2013 Well this week was a week of miracles. Constantin is getting baptized on Saturday!! I can't even believe it. He's changed so much in the last 2 weeks. It was so cool cause we had a lesson with him this week, and he's been reading the Doctrine and Covenants (he's already read the BoM, Lorenzo Snow manual, True to the Faith...) and it was so funny cause he whips out these verses and was like, why didn't you use these on me before?? This one says I need to be baptized and this one says I shouldn't ask God for a sign! haha. It was great. The Spirit taught him what he needed to hear, and what we weren't able to get across. And he's gotten more and more solid by the day, passed his interview and he's all set! He wants it to be in Prague so we are going up there on Saturday :) I'm just grateful to be a part of it. We got to meet his family over Skype cause they are in Romania, and his wife and oldest son are reading in the Book of Mormon :) He wants to start up a group big enough in his little town to have missionaries come one day. And Ctibor decided he wants to work toward getting the priesthood, and Olina came to church!!! She was baptized last year and we've been trying to get her to church the entire time I've been here. So she finally came when we stopped by to wake her up! That was exciting. Oh and Michal accepted a baptismal date too, so that was good. Me and Sister Regnier taught Family Home Evening about how to bear your testimony, but nobody really came, so now we are teaching it in Sunday School this week cause Fast Sundays always just make us cringe. Yesterday we had one complaining about how no one helps her with her problems, one was a history lesson about Napoleon and Hitler and who knows what else....haha yeah they get pretty interesting. I understand just enough to cringe, but not all of it. So that should be good, we are hoping that helps, cause it's really sad when you are secretly glad when your investigators don't come to church because you are afraid they'll get scared off. I taught Relief Society again, and it actually went fairly well. A member who had left the church a couple years ago was down here on vacation for a couple weeks (she lives in Prague) and she stayed :) It was her first time at church since she left, and she said she really liked the lesson, so I was really happy about that. I've had some pretty interesting discussions with her, it was really cool to meet her. It was the chapter on with God all things are possible. We are going over to the senior couple's apartment tonight to plan when we will go out to visit the less actives that are further away, because they have a car. So I'm excited to get that going, we could only do so much when we have to take buses. Well I think that's about it, Ctibor brought us a Roma specialty for lunch on Saturday, stuffed cabbage I think is how you'd translate it, it was really good. And there was an end of summer street party going on during dinner on Friday, so I got to have some paella. It was good but I think yours is better mom :) I just love European street markets, so much culture! We don't get to do stuff like that very often, so that was fun. love you soooo much!!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 14 in C Bud

27 Aug 2013 Ahoj! This week was crazy. So many things happened, I don't even know where to start. First of all we had an AMAZING first lesson with Zuzka, she is the most prepared person I have ever met. It was so cute, she was like, wow, I really want to read this book, can I borrow it or something? haha. She is like 26, speaks perfect English, and guess what she studied in college?? sociocultural anthropology. aaaah it was so much fun to bond with her. She was telling me about her thesis project and it sounds fascinating. Oh yeah and she accepted the baptismal invitation, we are giving her a date on Wednesday :) I'm so excited about her. And this week we also managed to give a date to Constantin, who has been investigating for like a year. We ended up having a group lesson with the elders (they teach him Czech) and he really responded well to Elder Bahr, finally just admitted he's just scared. So we'll see what happens, it's for september 7th. And Michal's coming back this week too! So things are looking up. We prayed about our baptismal date goal for August and felt like we should go for 3 even though we had like no investigators at the time, and now it's looking like it might happen. So that's exciting. Oh yeah, cute story: we went to Ctibor's panalak to teach him and as we were leaving this group of little boys came up to us and were like, do you speak English? Can you teach us how to pray? it was adorable. I'm going to start putting the modlitba (how to pray) cards in my bag so we can give them one next time. On Friday we had training in Prague which was amazing. President McConkie just blows my mind every time. He is so great. And he trusts us so much. He gave us a bunch of new finding ideas, he wants us to get creative. We are allowed to go on cultural vylets now with members and nonmembers, once every 2-4 weeks, which I'm super excited about. I've been wanting to understand Czech culture better since I got here, but didn't really have a way to do it. So because of the new rule we got to go mushroom hunting with Brother Sir on Saturday, it's so Czech. They love mushroom hunting, they call it their national hobby. I loved it, it was actually really fun. And it really helped us gain more trust with him too, which we needed, which was more of the point. The only downside was that almost all of us got ticks on our legs...oops. haha. It was my second one, I think I forgot to tell you about the one my first transfer. So I didn't freak out as much this time and got it out just fine haha. Gross. Me and Sister Regnier decided we are buying tick spray the next time we go into a Czech forest. It was actually pretty funny, yesterday we were talking about how well we get along, and both of us were worried when we heard we were going to be together haha. Guess first impressions in the MTC were wrong! She was like, I thought you were like perfect or something, but you are actually really fun! haha great....apparently everyone still thinks I'm intimidating when they first meet me. Oh well, I feel like I've changed so much since the MTC anyways. It will be interesting to see what you think when I get home. What else...I gave another talk on Sunday, used Elder Bednar's definitions of testimony vs conversion. No idea if my Czech was intelligible or not, because no one said anything about it. So I hope it helped someone, I learned a lot preparing it at least. We had 26 people at church, even more than last week :) And the senior couple finally got their visa so they are coming on Wednesday. oh yeah another thing, they've banned backpacks. We can only wear them on P-day or for service, when we aren't in proselyting clothes. I'm quite bummed actually because I love mine and use it every day. So I have to go buy a bigger messenger bag today, because my little one is just too small. So that's a pain. But I understand why, they don't look very professional, hopefully it won't be too hard to find a good one. love you sooo much, Sestra Cooper

Week 13 in C Bud

Cau! Holy cow the transfer is almost halfway over. Crazy!!! I can't believe it. Who knows what will happen, I'll probably be leaving. It feels like I"ve been here forever and that I will just stay forever too haha. This week had even lower numbers than last week, cause even our less-actives dogged, but it was actually a lot of fun. Even though we contacted SOOO much and got no meetings out of it. But the cool thing was that I finally learned to love contacting. I've hated it my entire mission haha. But this week I really just dove in and felt so much joy from talking to people on the street. We got 6 numbers, which was really good (2 of them dogged and the other 3 aren't answering their phones). But we did a chalk display on Lannova street, which ended up being really fun, I'll send a picture. The elders drew a world map and Lehi's journey with the Bible in the old world and the Book of Mormon on the new, and then we contacted on the Book of Mormon. It was so fun. And I met a really cool girl named Zuzka, I was telling her about the Book of Mormon and how it's evidence that our message is true, and she said how can I know? So I read Moroni's promise with her, and without me even having to explain it (most people get confused with the Spirit part) she said, oh ok, so I'll feel that it's right in my heart (!!!!) So cool. So I called her on Sunday, and she didn't answer, and I was like, great, there goes the last of the numbers we had. But then she texted, remembered my name, and said she wants to meet on Tuesday!!! aaaaah I was so happy. It was the best. I'm really excited about her. And she's young! Yesterday was just a really good day, we had 23 people at church!! hallelujah. 3 of them were Dutch tourists, but still. (I got to translate during Elder Bahr's talk...aaaah. But I can understand missionary Czech so it was fine. Native speakers I still have some trouble). AND CTIBOR STAYED FOR THE SECOND HOUR. haha. I've been trying to get him to stay for so many weeks. One of the members invited him, and he was like, why not? So he's almost active :) Still working on the whole priesthood thing, but that's ok. I taught Relief Society/YW and it was a disaster haha. The youth curriculum does not work for adults apparently! (Gita wasn't paying attention, Vondrackova never does, and then we had the elder's Russian investigator who doesn't really speak Czech. Johi was wonderful though--the Chrdlovi's 16 yr old) I think we are just going to teach YW every other week during Sunday School until the senior couple gets here--they are stuck in the MTC waiting for their visas, so they still aren't here. Oh yeah and I did a lot better at asking for referrals, that's been one of my goals the past few weeks, I remembered in every single lesson this week :) (granted there were only like 4 of them...but still.) What else happened...we got our other English student to pray at the end of the lesson! And we had a branch bbq again, that was fun, we bonded with Johi. This week we have A LOT of contacting again. Since we still have no investigators. But are doing another district finding activity, this time we are going to set up a board that says something like, what questions do you have for God? and then have people write down their questions and their number. So we'll see how that goes. And then we have training on Friday, which will be fun, I always love going back up to Prague. And it's on finding this time, which we need a lot of help with so I'm excited. Our sister training leader gets to do something this time, with president's wife. It's really nice to have one finally--she calls us every Sunday night to check in. Our zone had a goal of 22 new investigators this last week (2 per companionship is standards), and everyone was supposed to send out a text when they found one, or had some miracle happen with finding. It was cool at first, but after working so hard all week and getting nothing it was kind of rubbing it in haha. But Sister Bateman's area is suffering too, and she feels the same way, so that made us feel better. Numbers don't mean a thing right? The zone ended up getting 20, which I guess is better than we've had in a long time, so that was cool. Just wish we could have contributed to it. Elder Greener is super good about encouraging us though (I think it's a talent of his), he was telling me that he had 2 transfers in Prague when literally the only lesson they taught a week was English. Then they had 2 baptisms, and then the area died again. So he was talking about how it's just the Lord's timing, and how it's not that we are doing something wrong--it just happens. So that helped a lot too. Plus I just keep telling myself something that one of the speakers said in the MTC--when Ammon was baptising thousands, Aaron was in prison. Kind of like what you were talking about in your email Dad. It's been really interesting too, my last two companions have commented on how much they enjoy learning from me in comp study, how I have so much "world and spiritual knowledge". I have never seen my love of learning as a talent before, but I guess it is. I'm just glad that they don't feel like I'm always talking their ears off haha. So that was cool. I've already read the whole missionary library, daughters in my kingdom and all of the Ensigns in our apartment during breakfast and nights (because of course I read the scriptures during personal study, and it's nice to read something else)...I think I'm going to start on the church handbook, because I am technically the Relief Society president right? Maybe I should know what's in it haha. And I'm working on reading the Book of Mormon out loud in Czech, almost done with 1st Nephi! Oh yeah and I saw that the missionary numbers are up to 75,000?? So cool. Sestra Cooper NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

week 12? mozna... i can't remember haha. in C Bud

Ahoj! 12 Aug 2013 Well I really don't have that much to say about this week. It was kind of really terrible. (so i guess we were in the same boat mom, sorry!) All of our investigators disappeared again, and we didn't have any luck finding new ones. Literally all of our investigators but Constantin are gone, and he's not progressing. They are either out of town, or not answering their phones/door. It wasn't quite the lowest numbers week I've had, but really close. If it weren't for the less-active lessons it would have been. So that was really discouraging, I was feeling pretty down on Friday, and just struggling to keep the faith. I have faith in God of course, but when it comes to people not being flaky...that is another story. Agency gets me every time!! But things got better on the weekend, Ctibor came to church again, that's number 3! it would have been 4 but he ran into a slightly apostate member on his way who told him not to come. I'm still mad about that, pretty sure it's just cause he's (the other member) racist. Super lame. But Ctibor came this Sunday, and is doing really well. AND the Chrdlovi are back!!! They are an awesome family who have been living in England for the last 2 years, so they all speak perfect English (the 5 year old sounds like a Brit, it's so cute). They are totally active, involved and know how a real ward functions and they love helping the missionaries, so I am so excited about that. They have a 16 year old girl who is awesome too, so I might even get to teach some YW lessons again :) my favorite. We are all going to their house for dinner on Tuesday, and the senior couple gets here tomorrow too!! I decided that last week was just Satan throwing a tantrum because the work is just going to explode now :) I'm excited for the miracles. I really do feel like I'm in C Bud to help the less-actives. That's really the only area where I've seen any sort of progress. Plus last night I remembered that in my setting-apart blessing President Barnes said that I would see people convert to the gospel, but it would be just as important, if not more important to activate those who have fallen away. I feel like I'm seeing that happen. So that's been pretty neat. Oh and yesterday's personal study was really cool. I was studying my patriarchal blessing and just kind of pondering things, how hard it was to leave on my mission and how great it will feel to come home (exactly a year left this week--crazy) after giving my all for a year and a half. So then I started thinking about premortal life, how hard it must have been to leave, and how amazing it will be to return home. So then I was thinking about why anyone would have chosen to reject the plan of salvation--it seems pretty unbelievable, when Heavenly Father and Christ were right in front of us. (I was reading President Uchtdorf's talk from the YW general conference too). But then I had an epiphany that it was fear. That's what holds back anyone from progressing in the gospel, whether that's being baptized, or being fully converted, or what. With Satan's plan there was no risk of failure. Of course that meant no growth as well. All of the experiences in life that mean the most are experiences of growth--which means that sometimes they are really hard. Life is about walking by faith, and fear is the opposite of faith. So when we let fear hold us back, then we can't progress and walk by faith, like we are meant to. The Spirit is so cool :) We are going to Hluboka castle today for P-day, assuming the Elders figured out how to get there haha. So I'm excited about that, apparently it's the best castle in South Bohemia! So that'll be fun. love you!!! Sestra Cooper

week 11 in C Bud

Ahoj! 5 Aug 2013 This week was kind of crazy, like usual. My birthday was really fun, we went up the black tower at lunch, because it's right by the church and I'lve been wanting to go up it since my first day (it was built in the 1500s). Pretty awesome. And we got mcflurries :) Oh and I did get your package in time mom, forgot to tell you that last week. And I got my hair cut! halleujah. Sister Regnier is awesome, we are getting along great, she's really easy to talk to. Elder Bahr stayed too, but Elder Greener is the new branch president. He's super enthusastic so that's been really good for our district. And the senior couple gets here next week!! Can't wait. What else happened...oh I finished my first language level!! finally. It took foooreeever, had to memorize so much sklonovani (the cases) But I was really happy about that. Oh and we got 15 lessons this week, which was the highest I've gotten in C Bud, so that was exciting too. Our investigator Michal is progressing so well, but he leaves for another month this week. Which is really lame. But I think he might make it to baptism, he wants to be baptized, he just doesn't feel like he understands things well enough yet, which makes sense. I feel like I've really connected with him though, he's a professional violinist, and he's so sweet. So that was neat to see his progress. And we had a really good lesson at English as well, George was the only one there, and he says he doesn't believe in God, but he's been asking more and more questions during the spiritual thought :) That was exciting. And Jarda's back!! miracle of miracles. We met with him, and he was totally closed at the beginning of the lesson, basically like, I appreciate what you are doing, but it's not for me. And then Sister Regnier shared her dad's conversion story, and how grateful she is that he gave the sisters a chance, and by the end he agreed to pray! I ended up teaching the whole Restoration too even though we didn't have it on plan. And he wants to meet with us again! (He's moving to Qatar in a month....but I'm hoping that that doesn't happen.) Our new investigator Angela was so cool, and then we taught her on Sunday and she got super closed--Sister Regnier thinks it's because she has realized it might be true and got scared. But she said we can still meet with her, so we'll see. This week was kind of the opposite of the last couple, we had really good progress with our investigators, but the less-actives freaked out. And Constantin, who isn't a member but is more active than most of them. So that was lame. One started smoking again, both bailed at coming to church, and Constantin started drinking coffee again. (Because the previous sisters said they would send him postcards when they got home and then didn't...he concluded that we are all liars, and the church isn't true. But the Book of Mormon still is.) Gah. So that was rough. Oh yeah and then that kid that hit on Sister Hicken last week was being ridiculous yesterday, he does not take a hint. So we asked the elders to tell him to back off, we'll see if that works, it's getting really obnoxious. Well I think that is about it...we had another family history activity, and a lot more people came this time, so that was neat. Oh yeah and I taught Relief Society. I do feel more responsibility for the sisters now actually, which is interesting. We had two come on Sunday, so we really need to find some more women. I'm learning a lot about people being here in C Bud. I feel like I'm continuing to learn more about myself, how important it is to be grateful for the things I have, how grateful I am to have a work ethic and to have a supportive family back home, and what attributes matter most to me. It's amazing how much personal growth comes when I spend all day every day thinking about others. It's so true that when we lose ourselves in the work, we find ourselves! Love you!! Sestra Cooper

week 10 in C Bud

29 Jul 2013 Ahoj vsichny!! Well as you can see I am still in Ceske Budejovice! I was so happy that I get to stay. Sister Hicken left for Hradec Kralove this morning and my new companion is Sister Regnier. Yep another one from my MTC group haha. But I'm excited, this transfer is going to be awesome. We built up our area so good last transfer, I'm really excited to see what can actually happen now! This week was kind of crazy. We went to Prague twice, for visa stuff and Mission Conference, it was so great to see everybody. We went to Karelstejin again to the place where Elder Witsoe dedicated Czechoslovakia in 1929 because it was the 84th anniversary. So we had a meeting there, sang the same hymns they did, and then had some testimonies and President read some of the promises Elder Witsoe gave when he dedicated the lands. One was that this mission would open the door to the gospel being preached in other Eastern European countries, so President talked about how we are blessing people beyond our mission when we serve. I had actually just had an experience about that two days before. We were on the train back from Prague the first time, and there were two ladies in our compartment. One of them kept glancing over at us, and I felt like I should talk to her, but I didn't know how, and felt like it was awkward with the other lady. So instead of just pushing it away like I was tempted to do, I started praying that I would know what to say and that the other lady would leave. So after she looked up at me for the umpteeneth time I finally gathered up enough courage to ask her how she knew english (she had asked us to shut the door in English). And right at that moment the other lady got up and left. We ended up having a really cool conversation for the next hour, she's Russian and lives around the corner from the elders in her city, so she recognized our tags. And she'd been given a Book of Mormon in English before, but she never got around to reading it (she didn't want a Russian one). So I was able to testify to her about why I am on a mission, and why the Book of Mormon is so amazing, and how it's blessed my life. I'm sure I'll never see her again, but I'm so glad that I prayed to know how to follow that prompting--for some reason that's the first time it's ever occurred to me to ask for help haha. It was a really cool experience. (The other apostolic promise was that the Spirit of Elijiah would bless the people's hearts to be open to the gospel. So that was really cool especially because we just started up that bi-weekly family history activity!) Other things this week...We have a super cool new investigator...and she's a woman! hallelujah. We only teach men haha. But her name is Angela and she contacted us when we were doing building tours--she's a former and when we had our first meeting with her, she told us that she's been praying to find more peace in her life, and that we are the answer to her prayer!!!! aaah it was so great to teach someone who actually wants to learn. Oh and the other miracle this week--Ctibor came to church AGAIN, stayed for the second hour, and said that he's going to come again next week. I'M SO EXCITED. We have worked so hard with him, I was telling Sister Hicken the other day that when we come out of a lesson with him I feel like I'm walking out of a battle haha. Between the trying to understand his Czech, waging war on his apostate ideas and trying to get him to understand that he has worth and that we need him back in the branch, it's a lot of work haha. BUT SO WORTH IT. aaah I'm so excited. And we get the senior couple in 2 weeks! The branch is finally starting to move. Oh, funny story from Saturday--the elders invited a boy they met on the street to polar bear (don't ask me why, he's young, and not even Czech, he's from Ukraine.) Anyways. So we are walking home with the elders like we always do, and this kid is talking to my companion, I'm about 5 feet in front of them. And then all of the sudden he starts hitting on her, talking about the sunset and wanting to go on a walk and to know where we live. So I went back and rescued her just in time haha. I literally pulled her away while telling him nashledanou (goodbye) several times while he kept trying to talk to her. And then we walked home the opposite way so that he wouldn't follow us home haha. We were just like whaa? Apparently we are just naive? didn't even cross our minds, we don't have to worry about that as missionaries right? hahaha I felt so dumb. But it was really funny. And then he came to church the next day and kept trying to talk to her....so good thing there were transfers haha. She's safe. Well that is about it I think! I'm the new Relief Society president by default, unless the senior couple gets to do it, which would be such a relief. But we'll see what happens. We had one woman at church last week, which is up from 0. So progress! Oh yeah and it's my birthday tomorrow. Crazy!! 22 sounds soo old :) love you all!!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 8 in C Bud

Ahoj! I am emailing from Prague actually, cause we had to come up today to get our visas renewed-it took forever...but that's out of the way. We are coming back on Wednesday because we have a mission conference!! So I'm excited about that. We are doing something special apparently, we have to wear tights (in the middle of july, ick. I have to go buy some nylons) and we are meeting at the train station instead of the building, so that will be interesting! I'm excited for that. This week was full of more adventures....haha it is C Bud after all. We taught a super awesome potential that was contacted back in 2007, and he actually seems to want to learn and try things, so that was really refreshing. We had a family history activity for the branch, that went pretty well, we're excited to get more members involved. We went tracting by one of our sister's houses out in Srubec on Thursday, and ended up teaching a lesson to this guy that we contacted about a month ago in the park. He used to come to English like 10 years ago I guess. Unfortunately he's not interested in the gospel--when he invited us in I asked if his wife was home, and he was like, i haven't seen her for 40 years! But I'm looking for another one....it's possible no? hahaha ewwww. So we taught him in his front yard, and I now know what beer smells like haha. So that was pretty funny. We stopped by the sister's house even though she was still supposed to be gone, but she was home and just didn't tell us cause she was busy. And we found out she smokes too....so lots of work to do there. What else...Jarda tried to drop us but I convinced him to agree to one more meeting. And there were absolutely no women in church on Sunday, so instead of me teaching Relief Society like I planned we got to go to Priesthood! Can't say that will ever happen again haha. But! Ctibor came to church and I was SOOOO happy! aah it was the best. He's the less-active who's Roma and doesn't have the priesthood. We taught him this week and at one point I pointed out that he was already in the chapel at that moment, so what was the difference to come on Sunday? haha. But we also testified that he needs to come to church in order to make his decision about the priesthood (he gave himself a deadline to either decide to work towards it or to never come again). His Roma traditions are holding him back, because for the Roma priests are considered holy and he doesn't think he's worthy. But he didn't used to take the sacrament for that same reason, and he did on Sunday! So that was really exciting. And one of the talks was absolutely perfect for him, so I was so happy about that. Transfers are in a week! aah it's crazy. I really don't want to leave, everything is finally coming together after an entire transfer of hard work--it would be really nice to actually see some fruits from that. But we'll see what happens I guess. Sister Donaldson thinking I'm going to train...haha. That would be an adventure. I think it would be kind of fun, I basically do most of the czech now anyways. I just want to stay here. Well sorry this email is kind of disjointed! I think that's about it though, can't really think of anything else to say, just a normal week. I guess if you don't hear from me on Monday it means that I got transferred! s laskou! Sestra Cooper

Week 7 in C Bud

Ahoj! I learned this week that ahoj is actually a latin acronym it stands for ad honorem jesu I think. So it is the same as the sailor's greeting, just english speakers changed it to a y. Cool huh? The things I learn while teaching English haha. Well I don't really know what to say about this week. Just a lot of work, like usual. Our investigator Jarda flat out refused a baptismal date and he's still refusing to try to pray too because he's "waiting for a sign." So we'll see how that goes...It's so frustrating to have to respect people's agency haha. It must be so heart wrenching for Heavenly Father to watch us make stupid mistakes and refuse to let him help us, thinking that our way is better. We gave a lot of building tours this week, and gave out 2 Book of Mormons, I've never done that before, so that was cool. I had to give another talk in sacrament, this time about family history. We are trying to start up a family history how-to activity every other week for the branch, so we are doing that on Wednesday. Since me and Sister Hicken are the only ones who've ever done it (the elders haven't and all the other members with experience are inactive) that means we get to try to explain it in Czech. Yay! That will be interesting haha. I'm jealous of all your family history work mom!! I would love to be helping. Can't believe we had a castle! So cool. You should send me the story if there is one! So anyways...We are really hoping people show up. It's summer so everyone's always gone. We had 5 members at church this week--I think it's actually going down now. We are working so hard to try to get people to come back and they just won't put in the work! I'm seriously so glad that you and dad taught me to work--thank you so much. I know I hated chores at the time, but man it's just so hard to watch people who have never worked a day in their life complain that their life is so hard, but they won't do anything about it--not even coming to church for 2 hours once a week. It's awful to watch. But, we had branch council this week (we go because we are the relief society, primary and young womens) and started the branch mission plan, so that raised my spirits a bit. Just have to keep the vision. I've been thinking a lot about what you said mom about being a trailblazer--I'm certainly trying! But we are making progress with one of our less-actives. She's actually been coming to church, usually misses sacrament meeting but is there for the 2nd hour. She's in her 70s with no family, and when I met her she was very bitter, always complaining or judging someone and just generally unpleasant to be around. But we've managed to persuade to her to meet with us after FHE on Fridays (basically we just kick everyone else out and start teaching her so she can't leave--she would never set up for a time with us). But we've taught her 3 weeks in a row now--this last lesson we read from the last Relief Society talk about an older single woman and how she was not alone, because she is a daughter of God and she is part of his family. But she really responded, and has been so much more kind, and has started putting down her walls--she just needed to feel loved. So that was really neat. We are going to start personal progress with her this week to help her start on the path to the Temple. So that was one of the moments where I felt like we are actually making a difference here. We have a lot more lessons on plan this next week so hopefully it will be better. It's so true that a teaching missionary is a happy missionary--President Irwin used to say that all the time. This last week we just did a LOT of contacting, which is still meaningful, but it's not the same, especially cause we didn't get any numbers. The two girls we gave Book of Mormons to didn't want to give us their numbers. It's just hard sometimes to study the gospel so much and feel my testimony being so strengthened, and have people not even give us a second glance. I know that this message would completely change their life if they would just try it! The rewards so outweigh the effort it takes. I know I shouldn't be counting...but I can't help it. Can't believe I've been out 6 months. It's gone by so fast but so slow at the same time. Yet it feels like my mission is just going to last forever, the days are so long. This transfer's almost over. And next week we are going to Prague on Monday for visa renewal stuff and then back again on Wednesday for training so it will go by fast. I found out it's all the missionaries in the Czech Republic, not just the two normal zones, so I'm excited to see what we do. President told the sisters to wear good shoes and it's pioneer day...so that will be interesting haha. tak jo, I think that is everything. love you soooo much! Sestra Cooper P.S. I keep forgetting to tell you this--everyone here always comments on how nice our teeth are haha. It's pretty funny/awkward, because what do you say to that? Thanks...it was the result of 5 years of having metal in my mouth, glad to know it payed off...haha.

Week 6 in C Bud

Ahoj! There isn't much to say for this week...nothing really happened. All 3 of our progressing investigators are out of town and the other 2 won't answer their phones and the new one dogged another appointment...so...we didn't teach too many lessons haha. But that's ok. They should start coming back this week, so that will be good. Constantin went to church in Romania though and loved it, so that was pretty awesome. He would get baptized tomorrow but he's just worried about having to go back to Romania and then having no support there, he wants his whole family to get baptized at the same time. But it turns out there are inactive families in his town, so who knows! We are hoping it helps him have the faith to just do it. We taught some less actives, did a LOT of contacting this week too. 4 hours of it on Friday--we got 1 appointment with a number and another number out of it. So that was good, hopefully we can actually meet with them! One of them is Japanese, her name is Fujiko and she's a student here. Super cool. So I'm hoping we get to teach her and then we can refer her to the missionaries in Japan when she goes home in a month. Oh yeah, and I called Vlasta, that less active I told you about last week? She's been reading in the Book of Mormon, and she's coming back for a couple days soon and wants to meet! aaah I was so happy. I think she might make it. We taught a first lesson this week, and it was really cool, because as I was teaching I realized I was so so happy. It's amazing the joy that comes from missionary work. Sister Hicken commented on it later too, she said that she could just see the joy emanating from me and I was really myself as we were teaching. It was so cool--I'm finally starting to feel comfortable enough with Czech that I can start to express my personality. aaah I loved it. Of course when people talk about not-church things I still have no idea what they are saying haha. But still. Progress is progress! I was reading one of the conference talks this morning, I think it's called being accepted of the Lord? Anyways, it made me reflect on this transfer. There are only 3 weeks left (aahh) so I was thinking about what we've accomplished in those 6 weeks. As far as our numbers go, it doesn't really look like much. But we are slowly increasing, I guess our area is the best it's been in who knows how long, even if it's not quite where I want it to be! We don't have anyone close to baptism, and none of our less actives have even come to church. So for all intents and purposes you'd think I would feel pretty discouraged. But the funny thing is that I don't! I'm so happy. I've learned a lot, we are working hard, and people have their agency. I feel like the Lord is happy with our work and that's really the only thing that matters. Yes, it would be nice to see that we've actually made a difference in someone's life, but I'm learning to be patient with the Lord's timing, and to trust that our work is not in vain. I think training helped a lot with that. President McConkie is awesome. And so is his family. They have kids that are 15, 13, 9 and 7. We got to meet them all, and President has so much faith. It was incredible. He served here from 1990-1992, right when they opened the mission after communism, and he's actually known every single mission president since, because he was doing humanitarian work here. So cool. He was part of the Miracle of Slovakia, and told us the coolest story. I think you already heard the gist of it, how they were trying to get the church recognized in Slovakia in 2006? At first they hired professional signature gatherers, and they only got 176 names in a week (they needed 10,000 total). So then they sent all the missionaries out for 3 days. President McConkie was there and was telling us about a Czech greenie, who had only been in the country for 2 weeks before getting sent to Slovakia to gather signatures. The only thing he could say in Slovak was "I believe in God, in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost". So that's what he did. He prayed to be able to bear his testimony with power. And President saw him do this, this one lady was asking him all sorts of questions which he didn't understand a word of, and all he could do was say his testimony over and over. And she signed it, even though she had no idea what it was for, and she had to write her address and the equivalent of her social security number on it. And in one day this greenie gathered 205 signatures, more than any of the other missionaries. All together they got the 10,000 that they needed. Total miracle. But basically President's training was on bearing testimony with power, it was really inspiring. I think I had gotten into the trap of seeing C Bud as kind of a dead end area--but he really raised my vision. He asked me if I had the faith to find a family that will jump start the branch growing again. And I had to think about it. So I've really been working on my faith, and fasted for that this week. I think I'm going to stay here for next transfer, things are finally starting to get going, I'd be pretty sad to leave. Sister Hicken is hoping she'll stay for a 3rd transfer too, we work really well together. but we'll see I guess! love you!!!! Sestra Cooper