1st letter from Prague

Hi!! Well I guess my area isn't a surprise since they emailed you. I'm in Prague! I heard they try to put the greenies away from Prague, but hey I'm not complaining. I wanted to serve in Prague at least once, so now's my chance! My trainer is Sister Bowler, she was actually supposed to go home last transfer but 4 sisters got extensions because the other sisters wouldn't have been ready to train cause of the language, so they got to stay and train us. She is from Colorado (I guess Idaho is sort of a close guess Dad? haha). She's been the perfect trainer for me, I'm really relieved about that. She totally asks for my input in lessons and everything, she doesn't pull any I'm-the-senior stuff. And she's really good about encouraging me to talk to people, but not pushing me so hard that I panic. So I'm really grateful about that. It's still super surreal that I'm living in Prague. And that I'm a missionary. So weird haha. I'm almost over the jet lag I think, which is good. The first day here was rough, we only got about 2 hours of sleep on the plane and then the APs took us all on a tour of Prague and it was SO COLD. I did have my first Czech meal though, svicova (don't remember how to spell it) it was really good, but heavy, like all Czech food haha. So after that we got to go back to the mission office and go to bed early which was really nice. The next day we went to the foreign police so they could stamp our passports, met our trainers and were off! I did get to unpack in the afternoon, which was nice cause it made me feel way less anxious about everything. Something about unpacking makes me feel more at home. So then we just went to work--sounds like it's different from your first day Dad. I was allowed to go to bed a little early that night, but after that you just try to stay awake haha. Our apartment is beautiful--it's on the 8th floor and it's all hardwood floors and windows, totally modern European looking, but I forgot my memory card reader at home, sorry, so I'll have to send pictures next week. So that night we taught a lesson to a less-active member, and had an FHE for some of the adults in the branch. The member said I must have paid attention in the MTC cause my Czech is really good haha. Of course 'really good' is relative haha. It basically means I can say gospel things in a lesson. I can't really understand people or say anything normal beyond thank you and hello and how are you. But that was still nice to hear, Sister Bowler told me that too, but I figured she was just being nice. Anyways. oh and I met a member from Slovakia that knows Daniel, Marek I think? Thursday I got to kontact for the first time, which was nerve racking--since I can't understand anything they say back to me yet. But Sister Bowler took pity on me and let me start the contact and then she takes over when they say something. But I was proud of myself for trying, since the first day I chickened out. We've also taught a recent convert named Charlah, she's from Indonesia though so we teach her in English, which was really nice for me cause I could understand her! She is amazing, she's 19 and was meeting with the missionaries back in Indonesia and moved to Prague for school, and contacted the mission office when she got here! It was kind of strange to teach in English though. So after that we taught a man whose been investigating for more than a year--he keeps all the commandments and comes to church every week, but he won't get baptized. that was a good lesson but I didn't understand anything because it was at a member's home and they just jabbered away in Czech. It was good though. Yesterday we went to lunch as a district and did a singing display, which means that one half of the companionship sings while the other contacts. They took pity on me and Elder Romrell (he was in my MTC district too) and so I got to contact with Elder Cizek, his companion instead of by myself. We got 1 number at the very end of the hour, which was super exciting cause no one wanted to talk to us, and some just outright ignored us. So we are going to call him tonight, he was from Slovakia, and really nice. Oh and yesterday we also had polar bear (no idea why we call it that, no one seems to know) but that just means district language study. That was fun, and really helpful, and we played a game basically like pictionary telephone at the end, except instead of pictures you translate the sentences between Czech and English. That was pretty hilarious. One of them ended "I eat thoughts" hahaha. Oh I did have a neat experience yesterday. So the day before I felt like I should talk to this lady on the tram but I got too scared and didn't. So the next day I repented and asked for an opportunity to recognize the Spirit cause I keep second-guessing myself. So then yesterday, I felt like we should talk to this lady and worked up the courage to do it. Well Sister Bowler did the talking really, cause I couldn't understand her, but it's the same thing haha. She thought we were a cult or something, but she did take a card. But I don't think it was for her, it was an opportunity for me to learn from. So that was cool. oh and yesterday was Sister Bowler's 24th birthday, so we made a cake last night, that was fun. Prague is beautiful, at least the old district, Prague Castle is the biggest castle in Central Europe, we got to see that on the Prague walk. I don't really see much of the pretty part, at least I haven't so far cause it's not our kontaking area, but we are going to go to the Easter markets today cause it's P-day, so I'm really excited about that. They sell the little painted wooden eggs, and other things like that. Oh and there's a Paul's here!! That French bakery? We were in Andel yesterday for singing so we stopped in and I got a pain au chocolat, don't remember what it is in Czech. Super good. Aah I love French things. There is also a KFC, McDonalds, H&M, basically anything you would ever need. So yeah, I don't have to worry about the water or anything Dad haha. Annica's experience will be way different I think. The few members I've met seem really nice, I'll meet the whole branch of 150 tomorrow, so that will be fun. We have training in 2 weeks so I'll get to see my whole MTC group again, they don't do it the first day cause we are all zombies. So that will be fun. I really do love being a missionary, I just wish my Czech would hurry up and get better!! I understand most of the grammar, it's just remembering to apply it and learning vocab that I need to do, and that's going to take time. I'm so impatient haha. I know it's only been 3 days....but it feels like way longer. Oh and Mom, you can give this email address to everybody, cause that's allowed now. We have an hour to email here, don't know if that is going to change or not, but it's way longer than the MTC! Oh and since I'm in Prague letters and packages will get to me way faster--but make sure my name isn't on the package, the office elders told me why, they have package slips here, and they can't pick up packages if it has our name on it, we have to do it. So if you are 4 hours away by train, then you are out of luck and you don't get your package. So even though I'm in Prague it's just better if my name isn't on it so I can just get it from the office. We are at the church like every day cause we teach our lessons there if it's not at a member's house, so I'll get packages the day they get here. And we run into the mission president and his wife a lot cause they live on the third floor of the church. So that's cool. Well I'm not really sure that there's much else to say, I wish I had my card reader with me!! Oh well. You'll get pictures in a week. Happy Easter! I hope it's a good one, eat a peep for me :). We don't do anything differently I don't think, maybe the branch will do something in church. Oh and we are supposed to avoid getting whipped haha. I think I told you about the Easter whips? But they are braided branches with ribbons on the end and the men go around whacking women with them. Well not really whacking, I think they just tap them. But still. I think the women are supposed to give them candy or something. In Slovakia it's the women who dump water on the men haha. Who knows why. So that's that, but we are banned from doing it cause we are missionaries, which makes sense. Oh and I found out about conference, we get to watch it a week after it happens cause they have to translate it, even though we will be watching it in English. They send DVDs of it. So that will be awesome. Oh we talked to a really weird guy yesterday--well Sister Bowler talked to him, I didn't understand anything he said. But he grabbed her hand and started swirling this crystal thing around and said she had good energy but she wasn't balanced, and wanted to hold her other hand but she wouldn't let him. And then he went on and on for seriously ten minutes, while I just stood there and tried to recognize a word or two haha. So that was interesting. We finally just left, and he said something about us rejecting him so he was going to reject us? I don't know. Sister Bowler told me later what he said. haha. So there are interesting people here haha. Most of them just don't want to talk to us, but some people are nice even though they aren't interested. Tonight we have a first lesson, so that will be good. I hope he is actually interested. Oh and I heard that we will probably visit a castle outside of Prague on a P-day soon, which will be fun. I heard that I will probably be training my 3rd transfer cause we are getting a lot more sisters this year, so that will be interesting. But that's still a long ways away. Well that's about it, and I'm about out of time. Til next week! s laskou!! Sestra Cooper

One week left in the MTC!

Ahoj! Thanks for the package!! Annica sent me one too, and so did Janyse, lots of love this week :) This week was good, very up and down. We had an amazing TRC lesson on Thursday--I felt like I was actually able to sort of speak from my heart in Czech for the first time, and I actually remembered to case some things, which was exciting! And one of the people we taught said that our lesson was an answer to his prayers, which was really nice to hear. But Saturday was pretty discouraging because of the language--we've finished all 42 board displays now (each one is a different grammar principle) and so me and Starsi Howell were practicing putting together just simple sentences using all the grammar we know--and I realized that every single word in a sentence almost will change depending on the sentence--so I kind of freaked out haha. Brother Machado told us he met an American while he was serving that had lived there for 13 years and had given up on learning Czech cause it's so impossible. So in a way it's pretty amazing that we can say anything at all, but that makes it sound pretty daunting! I'm feeling a little better now--I know there is no way I will be able to speak Czech without God's help, so as long as I'm doing my best, He will do the rest. The devotional on Sunday was really good--it was a guy from the Missionary Department like always, but he used rock analogies because there are so many in the scriptures. It was cool cause he said sometimes life is like igneous rock, we are on fire, super excited and everything is going well, but most of the time it's sedimentary. Small acts of faith like layers of sand, and it's hard to see how it is turning into rock. So we can choose to stay a pile of sand, or let the Lord mold and shape us into metamorphic rock-something new, different, and better than what we could ever be on our own. I loved that imagery. And the devotional on Tuesday--he talked about how when Ammon was having success, Aaron was in prison, so we should never compare ourselves to other missionaries--that was cool. And he quoted 1 Thess 2, and talked about how Paul describes what a missionary should be, that was cool too. We got our flight itineraries on Thursday!! That was super exciting, we leave in exactly one week!!! It's going to be awesome. Oh and we can now officially email family, friends and leaders, it was announced in District meeting, so it must be church-wide. So that will be super nice when we get there and don't have to wait for letters once a month. So write me friends!! haha. We are attempting to do SYL all day every day for our last week, so that should be interesting! I really do love the Czech language, it's so pretty. I just have to squish my perfectionist side and be ok with making mistakes. I'm understandable for sure, at least about gospel words--I can't really say very many normal things, but I'm trying to learn some on TALL. It's pretty funny that I can teach a whole lesson in Czech without any notes but I don't know how to buy something haha. I did learn the words for train (vlak) and bus and stuff like that, so that's progress haha. Well that's about it! Oh wait I forgot--one of our "investigators" got "baptized" on Saturday! That was exciting haha. It was pretty neat to feel that happy when it wasn't even real, I can't even imagine how much joy I'll feel when it actually happens :) Our other one wasn't quite ready, but we are done teaching her since it's our last week. She was still progressing though! I'm super excited to go to Prague though, it's going to be awesome. I think most of us are going to buy a Book of Mormon to try and place on the flight over there--it will be fun to talk to people in English, before we get thrown into Czech :) I just love this gospel so much, I can't wait to share it. I'm going to ride that optimistic wave as long as I can haha. s laskou, Sestra Cooper

2 weeks left!

Ahoj! 11 March 2013 There really isn't that much to say from this last week. We do the same things every day, and I'm just waiting till we get to leave haha. Last night's devotional was given by the same guy that spoke our first week, and we recognize all the choristers now-there's the super slow one, the one that looks like Umbridge, the other lady and the choir director haha. I think we've been here too long! We are just waiting and waiting for them to give us our itineraries so we know when we are leaving--hopefully we get them this week. We have to do most of our packing next Monday cause they only give us an hour to pack the week we leave! I'm so excited....I can't stand it. It's taking forever haha. But I am really using my time as efficiently as possible while we wait--trying to get as much Czech crammed into my brain as possible. I was super productive this week I memorized the 1st Vision in Czech, the missionary purpose in Czech and the whole singular case chart, phew. It was good though. Oh and remember that blog I was reading before I left? I got to meet her when she came to TRC, so that was cool! Oh and there are now MORE sisters than elders at the MTC. Crazy huh? I didn't realize how much it had changed until we were watching Bednar's talk from October--there were like 3 rows of sisters in the choir. Now we fill up almost the entire 19M auditorium for Relief Society. It's pretty crazy. Um...what else? Oh Mom you were wondering about the partnering thing--I play a progressing investigator for Starsi Howell to teach and he plays one for me--we teach each other twice a week in addition to our other two "investigators." Something I learned in Sacrament yesterday--God gives us commandments to help us return to Him. Can you imagine if He just said ok, be good people and come back to me, good luck! I really liked that cause I've never really thought of them as blessings before. I knew we received blessings from following them, but I thought that was really neat to think of it that way. Oh and we watched yet another Bednar talk haha. I'm not complaining though, I love it! This time he talked about how he studies the Conference Ensign--it made me feel really guilty for not having one--can you send me one Mom? But he pulls out the doctrine and principles taught about, what you he feels the Spirit is inviting him to do or act on, and which blessings he hopes to recieve from following that prompting. It sounds really simple but it was a really profound talk. Sorry there isn't really anything else to say. Oh Starsi Payne broke his sit-up record again (and dips and pushups) but he did 1700 in 45 min haha. He's crazy. Annnnd that's about it. Oh well. Life is good. I love being a missionary and I can't wait to get out there and serve the Czech people! Sestra Cooper

Letter #6

Ahoj! This week went a lot better, Im happy to say. I learned a ton. There arent really any funny stories- although Starsi Jaynes did accidently wash his whites with an entire box of dryer sheets and stained some of them orange from the cardboard hahahah. That was pretty funny. And I ran into a bunch more people I know from BYU at the TRC on Thursday, thats always fun, but kind of weird. TRC was good because we only go once a week so I can actually see how much progress Ive made with the language. We also did our Language Speaking Assessments last week, its a 7 point fluency scale, and I got a 3 on pronunciation and 4s on everything else, which was exciting, since 2-3 is what they expect. My accent is a lot more Czech now instead of French, which is good. So that was good to see progress! Of course I can only talk about church things, which is slightly pathetic, so Im working on learning more normal vocab. We got new Bulgarians and Polish this week though! That was fun to welcome them to the MTC. There are 7 Bulgarian elders and 6 sisters and 6 elders going to Poland. So we wrote the sisters all notes for their first day, and gave them donuts, so that was fun. That means that my district along with the Croatians are next to leave though!! aaaaah. Im excited but I definitely need to use the three weeks I have left to learn as much Czech as possible, cause it is HARD. I dont write down anything but vocab when we teach lessons now, though, which is really good. My grammar might not be perfect but I can express what I need to, in a way that they can understand most of them time. What else happened...oh Elder Ballard came for the devotional on Tuesday, so that was cool! He gave a really simple message about the gospel, and basically said you can do this. Most of you have been learning about the gospel for your entire lives, and you know a lot. Oh another thing I learned this week: sometimes God lets us fail so that we realize how much we need him. We started teaching each other last week as investigators, and Im partnered with Starsi Howell, but the 2nd lesson went so terribly. He basically said, I dont need religion, so I was like, why are you talking to me then. So I was going to drop him the next lesson, but I felt like I should ask him what trials he was going through right now, which is not really a normal question, but I went with it. And he told me his parents are divorced and that is really hard. So I got to testify that Christ can heal any hurt and that He can bring peace to his life, and hes willing to listen now, so far. So that was pretty cool, the entire lesson was completely by the spirit, I had no idea where I was going to go with it. I think as Ive gotten more confident in my language skills its easy to think that I can just teach by myself, but thats so not the case. The Spirit is the teacher, not me. Yesterday, the devotional was by the Provo Temple president, Robert Daines, and it was so amazing. I learned so much more about the Temple, but Ill write you about that. One thing he did tell us that I liked: he said that the blessing to run and not be weary isnt just a physical blessing, its also a spiritual and emotional one, which means that we are not going to quit. I really liked that, never thought about it that way before. Then after that, we went and watched a talk Elder Bednar gave here in 2009 called the Spirit of Revelation. SO GOOD. He talked about how we shouldnt just sit there and wait for a message from heaven, and worry about whether or not its the Spirit or you. He said over and over, quit worrying about it! You press forward, you be a good boy or good girl, you keep your covenants, you keep the commandments, and your steps will be guided and you will be a tool in His hands. He also related the 20 mark story with Pres. Packer, do you remember that. (it wont let me type question marks...) He said when he handed those 20 marks to him he thought he did it because they might be hungry. But it ended up saving Sister Packers life. He said he didnt recognize it as the Spirit at the time, and didnt know the rest of the story until 20 years later. (interesting side note, the border crossing they got stopped in was Hof, Germany! I was like, hey i know where that is! haha) So his whole point was, as long as you are trying to do your best, the Lord will help you accomplish what He needs you too. oh and my favorite quote: He shouldnt have to be smacking us with the Holy Ghost to get us do something. haha I love Elder Bednar! K im running out of time, love you!!! s laskou, Sestra Cooper