Week 3 in C Bud

17 June 2013 Ahoj! I really don't have that much to say for this week... nothing really happened. We did a ton of less-active work, walking around in the sun trying to find apartments of people. We did pretty well, and two of the families agreed to let us come teach them in July, so that was progress. I had to bribe one of them with banana bread for her to let us up, that was pretty funny. She answered the zvonek, and was like, I'm sick. So I said, it will only be 5 minutes and we brought you banana bread! and she said fine, and let us into the building haha. We got her number, which was good cause we only had her husband's, and he didn't really sound that happy about us calling (he's a former branch president). So that was really nice, tender mercy there. She said they'll be back from their chata in July, so maybe we can come by then. Everyone goes to their chata in the summer/weekends, it's so it's hard to get them to come to church or to meet. It's a czech thing, they all have these little cabins in the woods that they have gardens at, and they go there anytime the weather is good. So it's pretty much pointless to try to contact on the weekends cause the city is deserted. Luckily we do a lot of branch stuff on Saturday, we have sports day, we clean the building, and have correlation, so that takes up time. This week has just been super discouraging. Our one investigator with a baptismal date flaked out on us, and we still haven't taught a first lesson. Not a single one. And we got zero member lessons this week again. We are trying so hard to be exactly obedient, to be worthy of the spirit, and to use our time effectively and everything, but we just aren't teaching anyone. I'm trying really hard not to be discouraged. I know that the Lord must have something he wants me to learn from this--haha probably patience. That's something I always seem to be working on. And I know that I shouldn't judge our worthiness on our lack of lessons, but it's hard. I'm really trying hard not to complain and to have faith. But enough of that...good things this week. We contacted our 3 referrals, one we are supposed to teach tomorrow, so we are hoping that works out, it's a family. My contacting has gotten better, I've really been trying to listen to what they say and then testify of something that relates to their life. And I've also been focusing on the restoration, how we have a living prophet today, because that's something pmg says to do over and over, and I noticed we weren't doing it. We usually introduce the book of mormon, but I wanted to get better about connecting it to the restoration. When I did, I really felt the spirit testify of it to me, and so I'm really happy about that. It's easier to do with people who are believers, most people we contact say they are atheists. But what's really interesting is that every single one of them say that they believe something exists, but they don't know what. It's amazing how much our spirits remember--that we don't. Oh and we were watching one of the training videos, and Elder Ballard said we should be contacting 10 people/day outside of our plans, so we are working up to that, contacting on the buses, while we're walking places, etc. I've definitely felt the gift of tongues this week though, my czech is getting a lot better, at least in gospel words. I'm pretty sure I got sworn at/made fun of by the people in Ctibor's building when we went to visit him, (he lives in the ghetto) but I had no idea what they actually said. You can gather a lot through body language though. Funny things: the elders caught a huge fly, put it in the freezer so that it slowed down, and then put it on a string and were playing with it. hahaha elders...how do they think of these things??? let alone have time to do them. hahaha. You should have seen how much they were cracking up at it, they brought it to the church to show us cause they were so proud.... Oh yeah, and they were riding a sheep on Friday too. haha Br Sir feeds us lunch every Friday, and he has a pet sheep named Vojta. I hadn't seen it yet, so he took us outside and we got to feed it baguettes, and the elders were trying to ride it. That was pretty hilarious. Oh! and Dad, you will love this. The coolest thing, during language study I was looking up words, and I realized that cooper is bednar in czech. Elder Bednar has czech ancestors--they must have been barrel makers too! Everyone always asks me what my name means, so now I know what to say. Cool huh?? I loved it. Ok last thing, and then I'll send pictures--read Moroni 60 (Moroni's letter to Pahoran) and look for the things he lists as the duties of the government. Except I looked at them as duties as members of the church, how we can keep our covenants. I learned a lot from that, it was cool. Ok I'm running out of time--we are going hiking today so we have to rush. We have training in Prague on Wed, so I'm excited for that. love you!!! Sestra Cooper Family only: Mom happy late birthday!! So sorry I didn't mention it last email, I promise I remembered :) how was it?? That is awesome that you are getting a puppy, way to work for it Brigit! That will be fun, I'm excited to hear about it. Mom, I really do love you so much. This week has been really really hard, and to top it all off I dyed my garments grey this morning haha. A black sock got stuck in there. I wanted to call you so bad. Totally started crying when I said the closing prayer to comp study this morning, Sister Hicken suggested I get a blessing from one of the elders, so I think I'm going to. Dad, happy late father's day! I've been thinking about you a lot actually. How much I've learned from your example, how much you've taught me. So thank you for that, I can't imagine having a better dad.