Week 5 in Praha

Ahoj! This week was good. Super busy. We are really excited for next week cause we have 21 lessons planned, which is the mission goal for each companionship to have. So hopefully we make that!! It's a little frustrating cause it depends on members not cancelling/being available and the investigators of course. But we can pray! (We are shooting for 10 member lessons which is really hard, so we'll see how that goes! the rest are less-actives or recent converts. The standard for the mission is 4-6 member lessons a week). We met so many really cool potentials this week, so I'm really excited! I got a number during the singing display, even though my Czech is atrocious, but he basicially was like, oh you talk about Jesus Christ? sure we can meet, here's my number haha. YES. That never happens. And then we met this really cool girl in the park the other day who basically did the same thing, she was like oh you meet with people right, and starts pulling out her planner!! So we got I got my first A#! (Not sure if that's the same missionary slang you used Dad, but it means appointment + a number). She's way cool, so I'm excited for that lesson. It's not all like that of course, some guy totally yelled at Sister Bowler yesterday on the tram and made her cry, he was so mean. All she said was I'm a missionary and he threatened to throw her off the tram or something, I didn't understand it, it was in Czech. But luckily most people just ignore us or say they aren't interested, I haven't gotten yelled at yet. It's all part of it I guess! She was like, oh maybe he's just having a bad day...I wasn't quite so charitable, I wanted to go yell at him haha...working on that...(not that I ever would, you know me haha. I did feel pretty indignant though, why would you be so rude to a perfect stranger?? I will never understand that) We've had some really great things happen to make up for all the rude people though. We got to do a contacting exchange with the ZLs the other day, which was cool cause I got some new ideas to try. (Since we're girls they can't do a real exchange, so we just contact on oppostite sides of the street.) English was really fun this week, Jan (he's a member) brought a friend for the first time, and we ended up giving him a church tour, which counts as a member lesson! It was cool cause they were telling me all about how they moved to New Zealand a couple years ago to rock climb, reminded me of Nick Brown! I think Jan was planning on biking to the temple trip today....which is in Germany haha. He was like, oh it's only 170 km or something...ridiculous. Petr had crazy stories like usual (he's the profession liar, of his own admission haha) But I've gotten used to him now. I actually really like English cause I can actually get to know some Czech people, since we teach the advanced class it's all in English, except the spiritual thought. Oh yeah, I've been wanting to meet our neighbors for a while, so we made chocolate chip cookies and took them to all of them this week! Some weren't home, but the ones we did meet were super nice! It was pretty funny cause Sister Bowler explained it by saying, Hi, we are sort of new here (the sisters have been in our apartment for 3 months) and when you move somewhere new in America you bake things, so we brought you cookies hahaha. It was pretty funny. One lady was like, oh you have to meet my husband! And then she gave us some peanut wafers in exchange haha. Most of them are older couples. This one guy walks his dog a lot, and she absolutely loves us haha, she gets so excited every time! Made me miss Buster. But at least he knows we are nice, if your dog loves somebody, they have to be a least a little bit trustworthy, don't you think? What else...sorry I didn't write very much in my journal this week, and the days all blend together. We went running this morning! That was nice. Today seems to be back to Spring, the last couple days have been really hot. Oh yeah! There's a baptism tonight! It's one of Andel's (one of the other areas in Prague) investigators, she's really cool, from Russia and I think she's 18? Totally solid. So that will be really cool. That's awesome that Ethan got the priesthood, so proud of you bud! Dad I would love historical/cultural stuff about the Czech Republic!! The other missionaries don't really know any cultural things, and it's not like I can just go to the library and get a book :) Thanks! That would be great. Tell Madison congrats for me! Go sister missionaries! That's awesome. I realized this week that I've been on my mission for 3 months. WHAT. haha that's crazy!! I've already been in Prague for a month. It's so weird how time works here. The days take FOREVER, but then you blink and it's been a month. I'm hoping our area doesn't get blinded out (when both of us leave) cause we have so many really solid investigators right now, I would love to stay and see it through. We'll see in 4 weeks I guess! It still feels like my Czech isn't improving, but I was thinking about it, and my first week when someone asked me where I was from, I couldn't even hear the individual words. And now I definitely understand that question, and a lot more. So I guess I am improving, it's just hard to see the progress. Church is kind of a good marker though, cause it's 3 hours of listening to Czech and trying to understand it. I never understood how easy it is to fall asleep when you are listening to a foreign language you don't understand haha, that's a struggle. No wonder our exchange students weren't that thrilled about coming to church after the first time! I was sitting next to one of our investigators on Sunday, and it was 2 hours in the chapel cause of Branch Conference, and it was SO HARD to stay awake haha. I felt so bad, and I was thinking, you can't fall asleep in church, what kind of example would that be?? Haha. Luckily the Irwins spoke, and they speak English, so I was at least able to understand their talks. And then Sister Bowler usually translates for Relief Society, so I knew what was going on for that hour haha. It's all good though, I know I will get it eventually, I'm just trying to be patient! Oh yeah mom, you asked about how we teach lessons with our male investigators-we teach in the church building, and there are usually elders teaching at the same time. We just have to leave the door open. There are 9 missionaries in Prague and we are the only sisters. Or Elder Curtis and Sister Curtis are usually there too (one of the senior couples). If we have a lesson later at night sometimes we'll ask the Office Elder to be in the building or something, but it's usually not a problem. Ok I'm running out of time. Love you all!!!! Have a fantastic week. Sestra Cooper

Week 4 in Praha

Ahoj! This week has been kind of ridiculous. Mom I got your package on Thursday, thank you so much!!! I love it. Wore the shirt yesterday, it's super cute! Oh and I bought my backpack and I love it, it's perfect and happens to be cute as well! Sorry I don't have a picture of it, I'll try to get one for next week. I used my credit card though, just so you know Mom, so you can pay that off. Do you want me to use my credit card or my debit card when I buy personal stuff? So on Thursday I had my first Zone Conference, which was really good. It was embarrassing though, because literally right before it I totally biffed it on the stairs around the corner. Don't worry, I'm fine, just scraped up my knees but then we went straight to Zone Conference and everybody was asking what happened haha. So I got to explain that I tripped on nothing haha. It was funny too, cause that night Sister Bowler did the same thing, not on stairs luckily, but she just totally fell too. It was a super clumsy day I guess, don't know what was up with that. Anyways. Zone Conference was super good though, President showed us a documentary of the assassination of Heinrich Reinhardt, who was the only high-up Nazi to be successfully killed during WWII. He was Hitler's 2nd hand man and was over Czechoslovakia during the war. So the two men that assassinated him it were from here, one Czech and one Slovak who were part of the Resistance, and they were around our age. (We are going to go to the crypt where they were hiding/died when the Nazi's found them today, that will be cool) I know that sounds super random, but I promise he connected it to missionary work haha. One of them wrote as he was leaving England "I've been called on a special mission, and I will carry it out, come what may." So we talked about that, and the attributes those brave young men had, they lost their lives for their country, and were absolutely devoted, courageous, loyal etc. Plus it was helpful to learn more about the history of the Czech Republic--it really helps me with perspective to know things like that. There is a reason that the people here are so guarded, and don't like organizations contacting them--they went straight from a reign of terror during the Nazi's to Communism. So that helps me have more compassion when they are super rude to us on the street, or just ignore us completely. It's so sad, because I know that the gospel would help them so much--and they deserve to be that happy after everything they've been through. On a happier note, it's finally Spring. We had a couple days that were super hot too, it sounds like it's going to go basically from Winter straight to Summer. That meant that I got to go running twice this week in the huge park across the street. That felt soooo good. Ok, people we are teaching--Mom you asked about them. So I think I already told you about Charlah a couple of times, but I can't stop raving about her. I heard her whole story this week--she loves David Archuleta, so when she heard he was going on a mission for his church, she wanted to know what church it was. So she found our website and read everything she could, showed up at the church building and found the missionaries (they thought she was a member at first) at home in Indonesia and told them she wanted to be baptized. So they taught her every day for 2 weeks and then she moved here to Prague for University, and emailed the mission and told us she wanted to be baptized. So our sisters taught her every day for 2 weeks, and she got baptized the week before I got here. So cool huh!?? She wants to go on a mission next year, cause she's 19. It's stories like that that keep me going!! We are getting her started on family history hopefully soon, and she wants to go on the Temple trip this week but has to figure out her visa cause the nearest one is in Germany. So we are hoping she gets that all figured out soon! We have two people with baptismal dates right now, one is Vaclav, he's older in his 50s I think, but has accepted everything we've taught him, including Word of Wisdom, which is hard here cause EVERYONE drinks beer. So we think he might actually make it, it's for May 4th. Then the other one's name is Boky, he's from Macedonia, early 30s I think. He's really cool, really open. He's reading and praying and committed to pray about the Book of Mormon this week, so we'll see! Oh yeah I got a number from contacting all by myself this week! That was exciting. It was super short, he said he didn't have time, so I asked if he had time another day (in Czech) and he said "mozna" which means maybe. He was walking away so I literally ran to catch up with him and get his number haha. He took pity on me and spoke English after that, probably because I was butchering his language haha. But he actually answered his phone when I called, so we are calling him on Friday to set up a time! That was exciting. We have other people we are teaching too, of course, but I don't have time to tell you about all of them sorry. They are all new investigators or potentials, though, not with baptismal dates. Oh one last story, yesterday we were contacting at Dejvicka, but before we got there, Sister Bowler felt like we should get off the tram early. So we did, and walked there instead. And right as we got to Dejvicka after talking to a ton of people that weren't interested, I contacted this Mongolian lady. She was super cool, and is interested in meeting with us. Her number was the only one we got the whole hour and a half, but that's about normal. But if we had just taken the tram there we probably would have missed her, cause she wouldn't have been there at that time. So that was neat. Czech was super discouraging this week, well mostly yesterday I guess. At polar bear Elder Guymon was teaching us this grammar principle that the Slovak Elders call "blby stroj" which translates to "stupid machine" haha. But it's ridiculous. Whenever you use a quantifier (like a lot), instead of using 1st case plural for the stuff after, it changes it to 2nd case singular and makes it neuter, for basically no reason. So that was yet another thing I don't know how to do, which wasn't that great, because I just kept getting reminded all week that I don't speak Czech. And then last night I just totally froze and couldn't say the first vision during our lesson with Boky, I honestly don't know what happened. So Sister Bowler had to save me and I was just so disappointed in myself--I did it just fine my first week here. I know that I'm too hard on myself, but it was rough. So I'm trying to be optimistic, and patient and just trust that the Lord knows what he's doing, and that I can help here, even though I don't speak the language. Your email from last week helped a lot Dad, so thank you! It seems like what took you 3 months in Japan is actually like a year when you are speaking Czech. But I try not not think about that! I know that it only feels like my Czech is getting worse, because I'm starting to understand the gist of what people say, I just need to practice actually saying stuff more. Anyways, sorry to end on that note, it's slightly depressing. But I loved Conference, it was super good, and I needed that boost. Me and Sister Bowler realized the transfer is halfway over this week--so weird!!! I don't know how missions with 6 week transfers do it, it goes by so fast!! She goes home in 4 weeks, and since all the other sisters will be training, that means I have 4 weeks to figure out Czech before I'm probably with someone from my MTC group for next transfer. Aaah! There is still so much to do in our area too. Oh Dad, you asked why we have P-day on Saturday in Prague, it's because we have the office elders in our district and they have to work in the office all the other days of the week. Dad you have a broken finger?? haha wow basketball sounds dangerous! Yeah the branch in Prague is definitely big enough to be a ward, but we have to have a stake first. We have a goal of having one in the next four years, but we need more priesthood. Mom thanks for your letter and filling me in on the news, we heard about the bombing from one of our English class people, but he didn't know that much about it, that's awful. We didn't believe him at first. Sorry I don't have time to respond to everything, but I love hearing from you!!! Ok I have to write the President still, gah there is never enough time to say everything I want to tell you!! Oh well. I don't think I can send pictures today cause the computer isn't recognizing it, but I didn't really take any this week anyways cause we just went shopping for stuff. I should have some from the crypt today though, for next week. Love you all so much!!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 3 in Prague

Hi!! 13 dubna (april), 2013 Dad I was cracking up about your letters home, that definitely makes me feel better!! That is exactly how I feel. I can say some stuff but the second they say something back I have no idea what they said. I'm starting to get the gist of conversations at least--most of the time. And the sounds aren't quite as blurred together most of the time. So progress! haha. And that is really neat to read that line about the Sakamotos. It really goes to show that even when we feel like we're making no difference at all, we can be an instrument in the Lord's hands and not even know it. Mom you are all talking about Annica's email, but I didn't get it from any of you! Will you forward them to me and give me her email address? This week was good. Super busy. Yesterday I felt like a real missionary, because we contacted for almost 2 hours and got nothing and people were being unusually rude, and then I went tracting for the first time and got sworn at for the first time. (at least in English, it might have happened before in Czech, but I don't understand). haha. Oh and all 3 of our lessons cancelled yesterday too. So that was interesting...We did meet this guy at the very last door though, who had met missionaries before, and might come to Conference tomorrow. So we'll see I guess. But we have a new investigator who we've taught 4 lessons to, and he accepted the word of wisdom with no problems, so that was cool. He was going to come to all 4 sessions but had to work today...so we'll see if he shows up tomorrow. He's on date for May 4, so we are hoping he makes it to baptism. Our new convert Charlah came though! She is awesome and 19, I think I told you about her before? But she wants to serve a mission in a year-teaching her is always such a boost cause she gets so excited about the gospel. Ok fun cultural things...the word for slippers is pantoufle!! same as French. That was exciting haha. We contacted a French guy in the park yesterday and I thought about speaking to him in French but I can't remember ANYTHING. It's all Czech now. Oh well, hopefully it will come back eventually? We walked around Prague last P-day, that was fun. So I have some pictures from that. Oh and we went to this investigator's apartment, it's in Prague but an old farmhouse converted into apartments, and there was a horse pasture nearby. It was so funny, like a little piece of countryside just planted there. I guess the rest of the Czech Republic looks like that, so that was really cool to see. What else happened...oh we had new missionary training on Tuesday, that was cool cause I got to see my whole MTC group again. Oh we taught this guy who is being taught by the sisters in Brno, he's in Prague for the week. I actually heard about him in the MTC cause one of my teachers had contacted him 3 years ago. It was pretty funny cause the whole lesson was in Czech, and then at the end I was struggling to say something, so I asked Sister Bowler how to say it in English, and he said, in perfect English, oh don't worry I speak English too. We were really surprised haha. He was like, yeah I know you need to practice your Czech, so I just let you keep going haha. He's really cool. He's a Jew, so he isn't quite sure about Christ being the Messiah, but he totally gets the gospel. He just prayed for the first time a couple weeks ago I guess and said it was a really neat experience. So that was neat to meet him. My Czech is improving, but it's still so frustrating not being able to understand people. You can't really teach to their needs when you can't understand what they are. But I did contact completely by myself during a singing display this week (one companion sings while the other goes and talks to people that walk by). She wasn't interested but was really nice, and I understood the majority of what she said. She did take a pass-along card though, but a lot of them do. The weather is definitely warmer, I think it's finally Spring! That was exciting. Mom can you send me a real letter with the stuff you liked from Conference so we can "talk" about it? I don't have enough email time to say everything I want to. I really liked Sister Dalton's and Elder Scott's surprisingly, and elder Cook's. We haven't watched Sunday yet though, so I'm excited for that tomorrow. That's really interesting what dad said about the plan of salvation and buddhism, I've never thought about that before. Cool. My companion is good. I'm learning a lot from here. We've had a couple bumps, but we are fine. Our unity is definitely getting better. It's so interesting because I see a lot of myself in her. I can definitely feel the Lord strengthening me so much, I feel like I've grown up a lot already. Like I haven't been defensive at all, and I can tell when I'm putting my walls up and have been able to put them down. Oh and it occurred to me to do the dishes haha. I know you will appreciate that mom. I feel like my communication skills have definitely gotten better too. Ok well i am running out of time. Oh and I think I'm going to go buy a backpack today, I mentioned that last time, but you didn't say anything...So I don't know how much you want me to spend on it/not spend... I guess I'll just do my best to find a reasonably priced one. Most of the missionaries have Deuter's here, they are really nice. Oh yeah, I had an interesting experience last week with fasting. Let's just say I have a testimony of it now! It was really weird, cause I was having a really hard time with swear words popping into my head, which was really weird cause I've never said one in my life. So I was praying to get rid of it, and doing everything I could to stop it, but it wasn't working. So then it was going to be fast Sunday, and the scripture "this kind goeth not out except through prayer and fasting" came into my mind, so I decided to fast about it. And it completely stopped. It was so strange. But I really felt like I was healed spiritually, from something I couldn't fix on my own. I'm not really sure why I needed to learn that lesson, maybe so I can have more empathy for investigators who are addicted to things or something? No idea. But I felt like it really strengthened my testimony of the atonement and of fasting, so that was cool. I love you!!! Sestra Cooper

First full week in Prague

Ahoj! I can't believe it's P-day already, this week went by super fast. I'm glad you got the pictures from Sister Munro, she's so sweet. They are from Australia and work in the office. We have a bunch of new investigators this week, which we are very excited about, our area was pretty much empty before. So we are teaching a lot of lessons to them, and then also to a lot of less-active/inactive members, because the branch needs the support. Most of the lessons are in Czech, but we do teach some in English because there are a lot of international people living here, cause it's Prague, and English is usually the language we have in common. Oh and this is funny, but remember the silk long johns you gave me? I LOVE THEM. haha. It's been freezing and they get rid of the I-have-to-wear-tights-all-day-every-day feeling. So thanks for those haha. It's warming up a little bit, supposed to be in the 60s next week, I'm just waiting to be able to run! There's a huge park right near us but it's been too cold and Sister Bowler doesn't have any warm running stuff, so I'm just trying to stay in shape in the apartment. Oh yeah we taught English this week too for our service. We have to have the most quirky English class ever. There's a pathological liar (he spent the first few minutes telling me that in 1928 when he was born they lived in trees and couldn't read or write and they were savages and then in 1978 Hitler came and made them cut down the trees and work in factories. No that's not a typo, he said 1978 hahaha.), a Buddist-y guy with long hair, another man, a woman who spent the entire time freaking out about her tooth hurting, and then a super nice member who was taught by sisters so he always has some sort of treat for us. And they are all regulars, so I guess we teach them every week. We do a presentation thing cause we teach the advanced class, so I got to teach them Anthropology vocab! haha that was fun. I wish they were interested in the gospel, but we do a spiritual thought at the end, so at least they get something. I had kind of a discouraging day on Tuesday, we had been kontakting and everyone was just being super rude, but luckily that didn't last too long, and the rest of the week was fine. We taught an AMAZING first lesson to this man named Zdenek, the spirit was so strong, and I was SO glad I memorized the first vision in the MTC, because I was able to recite it with meaning. I know he felt it too, because I was looking at him as I was testifying of it, and the moment the spirit came in super strong he looked down, it was so neat. We have a second lesson with him on Wednesday. Right now he's a member of Ceskoslovenska Husitska (the church founded by Jan Hus), but he was super intrigued by the idea of living prophets, and we told him about conference, so we are going to try to get him to come to a session next week (we watch it a week late). Oh I learned the czech equivalent of "beating around the bush" the other day: chodil kolem horke kase. It literally translates as: walking around hot mashed potatoes. haha. Ok Mom, your questions. It does feel like Europe, but it's different than France. I'm not quite convinced Prague is prettier than Paris, but I haven't done very many touristy things. We'll see if I change my mind haha. We don't really hear English on the street, it always surprises me when I do, it's mostly just Czech. Sometimes Italian or something else. But I'm not really in the touristy part, so that's probably why. When we went to the Easter Markets last week there were a lot more. Food: we really don't have time to cook. But I'm trying to eat healthy, I have trail mix in my bag and I bought a lot of fruit and salad stuff. I'm sure I will get into more of a routine and figure it out. We've had one dinner at a member's house, but we are invited to another one sometime next week or the one after. Dinner just gets planned around lessons, so sometimes it's not until 8 when we get home, or we just grab something on the way. I think I might buy a backpack, cause I can't fit everything into my messenger bag. Usually when we leave the apartment after studies we don't come back until nighttime cause we aren't supposed to waste time traveling home and back. But since I'm a greenie we have studies until lunchtime anyways. My companionship is really good. We are still working out the kinks teaching together, that's hard cause most of the time if they say something she has to answer cause I can't understand their responses. I'm understanding most of what she says now, but native speakers are harder. But we are pretty similar personality-wise, it's pretty funny actually. She was a Linguistics major at BYU! So she speaks Italian and Spanish, (or she did, it's hard to remember when you are speaking Czech). We now get 90 minutes to email, but she doesn't want to have the extra half hour, so we need to work out a compromise I guess. We go to an internet cafe for it, we aren't allowed to use member's computers. Not sure if we will have a P-day routine but I think we will usually email around this time, after lunch. Next week is weird cause we have conference, so we are going to do it in between sessions. My jet lag is pretty much gone, yeah. I still hate mornings, but I don't think that is going to change haha. Unfortunately there are not any flowers or leaves out yet cause it's been so cold. I'm hoping spring gets here soon though. Oh yeah! I contacted by myself on Friday! Luckily no one wanted to talk to me, so I didn't have to understand anything beyond, no I don't have time, or I'm not interested haha. Which I hear so often that I now understand. But that was exciting. Ok I think that's about it....I will send pictures cause I remembered my memory card! The Czech is coming, I know I'm so impatient. But I am improving a little bit, so that's nice to see. I was hoping you would have Annica's email address, so I could send her something. I guess you can just forward this to her. I'm excited for her, I learned so much in the MTC. Mom, I'm glad Swedish is fun! Czech is a little bit like that, you can drop the subject and there is only one present tense and one past tense. However, the cases make up for it, they are ridiculous haha. I wish I had more time to respond to your email, that is awesome that you are teaching the new member lessons--we do that too :) Ok that's all I can think of and I still need to send pictures and write the mission president. Love you!!! Sestra Cooper (Pictures on Facebook)