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