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

Week 5 in C Bud

Ahoj! Can't believe it's already week 6 of the transfer. That is crazy. After this week there are only 3 weeks left! I don't know where the time goes. Well this week was ridiculous, as usual. I don't think I'll ever have a "normal" week in CBud haha. We have a new mission president! President Irwin called and said goodbye on Friday, which was nice, but sad. We have training this week on Thursday so we will get to meet President McConkie. I'm a little apprehensive about it, just because I don't know what to expect, what things he will change. So that will be interesting. I'm hoping we get to meet his family. I felt like this week we worked really hard, but not on proselyting stuff, which is frustrating. It was all things that needed to be done, but I felt like they didn't contribute to me helping others come unto Christ, you know? We cleaned and cleaned our apartment (still not done, but almost) and cooked a ton of stuff for the branch bbq that we had this morning and district lunch yesterday, and our phone broke, so we wasted half a day trying to figure out if we could fix it and then deleting all the numbers off the replacement and putting all our numbers into that one so we could get ahold of people. I was really glad that we've been on top of the records--the only numbers we lost were people in our English class, not investigators or members. And I spent most of my language study this week translating the talk I gave yesterday in sacrament, so I didn't get to work on my language level either. (there are three levels, and when you finish each you get a certificate at the next training--I'm so close to being done with the first one). We've been working out like crazy too, so both of us are pretty exhausted. oh yeah and we had to walk home for an hour from an inactive member's yesterday, because buses are dumb and don't come very often on weekends. So yeah, this week has been a bit of a blur--I wish I could sleep for a couple days, but oh well, c'est la vie. I can sleep in a year and a couple weeks, right? We did actually get to watch the training, Elder Hansen got permission for us to watch it at the church. I loved it, it was really good and definitely inspiring. It made me really want to be such a good member missionary when I get home. But it was a little hard to watch as well because it was the ideal, and we are so so far from it here. We had 3 members (out of our active 8), 2 investigators and 1 potential at church yesterday, along with us missionaries. (My talk was on the Gospel of Christ...and the member's talk was supposed to be on oppostion--except he talked about Satan, and Kolob and Egypt and black magic instead...gah.) I would absolutely love to work with a ward, but we are the ward. The branch bbq that we put on this morning had 4 members, 2 of the Elders investigators, and 3 of our potentials (we haven't taught them anything yet). It was a lot of fun, but it's hard to balance running the branch and finding people to teach too. I did really like that Elder Nelson said in the training that "there is no line of distinction between those who have never heard the gospel and those who have fallen away" to the Lord. That made me feel a lot better about all of the less-active work we are doing. We are finally making progress with that--we teach 4 of them regularly, and another 6 have said we can start teaching them, out of the 30 I think we've tried to get ahold of. So that was really good. We taught a new less active yesterday, and phew when we got out of that lesson, let's just say I finally felt like a real missionary. She told us (all in Czech) that she believes there is no devil or hell, that she can progress better without the church, that she believes in reincarnation, that she has faith and so she doesn't need church, that we need to read in the Book of Mormon, cause we're young, but she's old and already knows it...etc, etc. So after we waded through all of that (I was praying so hard to know what to say, because she just wanted to argue, and Sister Hicken didn't really understand most of what was going on). Finally I asked her why she let us come visit in the first place. It was really neat, because the Spirit was able to work on her. She paused, was quiet, and said I don't know. And then she basically said that she feels guilty for not coming to church, and that she doesn't want to be an "odpadlik" (I don't think there is a literal translation for that, it sort of means renegade or apostate, odpadlictvi means apostacy). I was so grateful that we were able to show her enough love for her to finally open up. She was telling me that she makes costumes for some school group, and is the only one who talks to them about God, so she doesn't have time for church because she helps them. So I pulled out Mosiah 2:17 and pointed out that when she serves them, she is serving God--so she is doing something right. That was inspiration right there. Then she had a complete change of heart and agreed to start reading in the Book of Mormon again, even though she had just refused a few minutes before. After the lesson she asked how many people come to church now, so I told her that around 15 is the most we've had, and she was shocked. She kept repeating, I don't want to be an odpadlik, that would mean I've lost my faith, that's so sad that so many people have fallen away. (there used to be 40 attending and 100 on the rolls.) So that was a really neat experience. Unfortunately she's going to be in Tabor for the next 2 months so we can't visit her, but hopefully she won't lose the progress in the meantime. I want to call and check up on her in a couple weeks. Let's see, other things...We only had one person at English this week, Viktor, who is an English teacher, so his questions are always really specific (this week he asked what the section of the library is called where you can't check out books, only look at them, took me a day or two to remember reference haha cause it's been so long since i've been in a English library!). He's a really strong Catholic. But, it was really cool, cause at the end of the lesson where we usually do a spiritual thought, he asked us what our favorite scriptures are. So we ended up sharing favorite scriptures and having a really neat discussion about faith. And he came to the bbq this morning! So we think he might be a little more curious about the Book of Mormon than he will admit. I offered to give him one, and he said he'd think about it. So we'll see where that goes. Also, during the broadcast we had a pretty cool experience too. The background is that I had been feeling like we should call formers (past investigators) from the area book. so we did that, called almost every single one, and got one appointment out of the whole book. So it ended up being during the time we watched the broadcast, because we didn't know about it when we scheduled it. So we reluctantly paused it, went downstairs to wait, even though he probably wouldn't show up. So we waited for 10 minutes past the appointment, and sure enough he didn't come. But we decided to wait for 5 more mins just in case, and a guy stopped to look at our window display and actually walked in to talk to us (that has never happened before). Turns out he is a priest in a different church, but was curious about ours. So we gave him a building tour and our card, and he said he'd look at our website. I think that was important--even if I never know what comes of it, because so many unexpected things happened for us to be downstairs with the door open at the exact time that he walked by. Well that is about it. We couldn't meet with Jarda this week, but he read! It made me so happy. His wife said it would be the first book he's ever read, so I was a little worried about that. And he wants to come to English tomorrow. And the Tuckovi's 8 year old Anezka actually keeps her commitments, which was exciting. She's reading in her scriptures, not every day, but hey she's 8, and no one else in her family does it, as far as we know. She's so cool. Today's her birthday, so I guess she's 9 now, we gave her cookies :) We are going to ask President for permission to invite her to walk with us to church, because she told Sister Smith last transfer that she misses church but it's hard when her parents don't go. love you all so so much, say hi to all the family for me Sestra Cooper