Week 8 in Brno

Ahoj! 18 Nov 2013 aaah I can't believe the transfer's already over. Ridiculous. The next two weeks are going to be crazy too, we have our concert on Wednesday night and then training on Thursday, and then the next week is Thanksgiving! Crazy. We get two hours for Thanksgiving dinner, so that will be nice. This week was kind of a blur....we did 3 singing displays to advertise for the concert so that was fun and freezing and my voice is going haha. We've been singing soooo much. And we're doing the musical number for the baptism on Sunday too, yay! But it was awesome, we've given out over 1000 flyers. So we'll see how many people actually show up! Prague just did one and had 100 potentials come. So I'm excited for that, we've gotten pretty much everything organized and together, just have to tweak the program a bit! It's going to be awesome, and hopefully we will get a bunch of new investigators for it. What else happened....we had an amazing impromptu lesson with our investigator Draha! That was so cool. We had invited her to the Relief Society clothing swap but somehow it started before so by the time she got there it was over, so we were scrambling to figure out what to teach. We ended up teaching the first half of the plan of salvation and watching Finding Faith in Christ, but the entire thing was so guided by the Spirit--I don't know that I've really had a lesson like that before. I knew exactly what I was supposed to say and how to relate it to her. And my companions were on the exact same page. So cool. We were all tearing up at the end. So that was amazing, she's progressing really well. And we had a good impromptu lesson with our Mongolian investigators too--a father and his son. It's really hard to communicate with them but they know French too (so I really need to relearn it....) and we had a member that spoke French in the lesson with us. It's pretty funny cause everyone in the district is teaching a Mongolian right now, Sister Schoen is convinced that it's a sign and that they will all get baptized and then they'll have their own branch! haha. We are trying to work out a skype schedule with the Mongolian elders cause the time difference is really hard. hahaha oh yeah and my companion accidently dyed her hair bright red last night.... that was pretty funny. She dyed it back this morning but she was freaking out about it. good times.... I think that is about it.... oh wait I had a really good personal study yesterday! That was cool. I was studying the Ten Virgins parable in an Ensign and it was talking about how olive oil was used for all sorts of things back then, food, a condiment, healing wounds, etc. And so then I started thinking about how Gethsemene means olive press and how it can be a symbol for the atonement, and then realized that all of the uses of olive oil can be how the atonement works in our lives spiritually. It was really cool. love you!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 7 in Brno? I can't keep track anymore haha

11 NOV 2013 Hi!!! We heard about our Christmas plans and I GET TO SKYPE YOU. hahah I'm sooo excited. I miss being able to just tell you everything. I know it's been almost a year but sometimes I still want to call you and tell you how excited I am about stuff. The rest of the holidays are going to be super awesome too. So the 23rd we have a mission conference so I get to see everyone I haven't seen in forever, and I'm pretty sure they will pass out the Christmas presents then too. And then on the 24th we go around and teach as many 5 min lessons about Christ as we can--to members, investigators, anyone who will listen to us. Then Christmas Day we go and do 3 hours of service with a member, so we can go carolling or something, and then spend the rest of the day with our district and skyping :) We only have 45 min of course, but I'm so excited. And THEN, on the 26th we do singing displays all over the city as a district :) It's going to be so great. And then on New Year's Eve we have to be home by 5 cause everyone will be drunk and we get to watch disney movies. haha. I can't wait. President McConkie is a genius--he didn't like that in the past they watched movies on Christmas, but he knew that everyone loved it so he just moved it to New Years and made sure Christmas was still about Christ! President McConkie is amazing mom, don't worry. I honestly think that part of the reason I am in this mission is because of him. It's such a blessing. And he respects the sisters and doesn't play favorites at all. In one of my interviews he was telling me that at an Area training one of the other mission presidents asked him how the sisters in his mission were, like they were going to be a problem, and he said are you kidding? I've never had a problem with any of them and they lead the mission! haha. Seriously he understands the gospel soooo well and his wife and family are amazing too.(haha mom my companions say that you look like Sister McConkie and she really does remind me of you :) She is awesome. At the end of every training President spends the last 15 minutes talking about one of Christ's titles in the New Testament--last time it was the Great Physician, I learned so much. I really wanted to tell you about it Dad. And he is so wise, seriously everything that comes out of his mouth is so helpful. (Dad-I think about you quoting o be wise aaallll the time). We rode down with him from Prague cause he was coming to Brno anyways and on the 2 1/2 hour car ride he went through all of our investigators with us, how they are progressing and where we are stuck and we came up with lesson plans for their next lessons. We actually tried one of them this week and it was so inspired. She's from Equador, and her mom is a member, but she's living here, and hasn't really been progressing, she's scared to come to church too. So he suggested that we relate the gospel to her mom--and ask if we can just teach her 4 lessons (since she's latin and already has a lot of faith we can teach her a lot more at once)--the same exact lessons her mom learned and then during the 5th lesson have a heart to heart with her about what she's learned and if she believes that it's true. So we talked about this plan with her, and she loved it, AND it turned out to be her mom's birthday that day anyways so she was already thinking about her. Can you say inspired?? And then she said she wanted to learn about the plan of salvation so I whipped out my pictures that I always have in my bag and we had an amazing lesson, completely by the spirit. So we called President after and told him about it and he was really excited. This week really was fantastic. The branch had a bonfire night activity cause the branch president is British (remember remember the 5th of November), and it was super cool. We had 4 investigators show up and Draha just loved it, met a bunch a members and everything. And then they had real fireworks too! It felt like 4th of July haha. And then two little girls got baptized on Sunday and we got to sing at that, that was fun. (I've done more musical numbers on my mission than my whole life haha) They are totally adorable, I'll send a picture. Their parents totally involved us and we got to teach them a couple lessons the last couple weeks, it was so fun. And our investigator Diego came to that and I think he really liked it. I had a really good personal study in Psalms of all places the other day too. I was just letting my fear hold me back from talking to people, and I realized that and repented, and it made such a huge difference. My attitude got way better and now I'm all excited to share the gospel again. Plus I had a lot of tender mercies this week--we had 4 people independently (members and investigators) tell us that they see the light in our eyes, and that when we speak we have the spirit and that it will make a difference when we talk to people. That was so good to hear, because sometimes I really don't feel like we are. So that was really nice. The Branch here is super awesome, it feels like a ward family, it's so nice. Well that pretty much sums it up. We have some pretty awesome progressing investigators now, so I'm hoping that I get to stay next transfer and help them make it to baptism. We'll see! I realized the other day that I've had a baptism in every area so far. Pretty crazy huh? But we are supposed to expect miracles so I want to keep the streak going :) I'll do my best! love you!!!!! Sestra Cooper P.S. Oh yeah and we are teaching this old lady who's husband was famous in the 60s in Hollywood apparently. I'd never heard of him, but his name is Eduard Ingris if you want to look it up. She's pretty cool, we've only had one meeting with her and she mostly just talked about him, he knew all sorts of people, including Hemingway!

Week 6 in Brno

4 Nov 2013 Cau! This week was kind of weird. The first half went by super fast cause we had to go to Prague again for Sister Stegich's visa and then we had Zone Conference. But then the second half took forever. Zone Conference was really fun cause it was all of the Slovak missionaries too, so I got to see Sister Jones and Belibi Minya. That was neat cause I haven't seen them since my first transfer. Sister Jones and her companion stayed at our apartment the night before, and it was so fun to talk to her--we have way more in common than I do with my companions. So that helped. And training was amazing of course, it always seems to be exactly what I needed help with and I always come away with more enthusiasm for the work and excited to try all the new ideas. So that was good. It was weird to have Halloween in Europe though, I saw exactly one Halloween display...the day after haha. It really didn't feel like it. I also can't believe it's November, I don't know what happened, the other day I started writing March on a record and I was like wait a second..... haha. The time just doesn't seem real. We are having a concert in 3 weeks that I'm excited about. We are teaching the first lesson through music! So each missionary companionship will teach one principle and then we have 2 songs for each of them. So we are going to try and get the members excited about it and involved so that it's a less intimidating way for them to invite friends to learn about the church. Plus all the members here are ridiculously talented, so it should be really good. We are just still working out the logisitics of it all, but I'm excited. President McConkie has awesome ideas--some of the other cities have already done it and they were really successful. As far as the week went we had a ton of lessons cancel, 6/6 one day. But it happens. A lot of our investigators got sick so they just dropped off the planet for a little bit. Hopefully we are able to meet with them this next week--cause we do have like 7 now, which is amazing. We are going to try to give 4 of them baptismal dates this week, so we'll see how that goes! After this week we only have 3 weeks left of the transfer though, so that's super weird. I did hear that President might be sending a Czech sister to Slovakia so that we don't have trios in both countries, so that will be interesting. I would love to serve there at some point...but at the same time things are just getting started here and I would hate to leave so soon. So good thing I don't decide right? I'm hoping we get to do a Thanksgiving dinner with the district--I think the senior couple might do it, that would be really nice. Because of course none of the members will celebrate it! Can't believe it's so soon. We had a first lesson with a referral who is a young woman, her mom's a member and she's been coming to church, efy, seminary and yws for a year but never got baptized! And she's super adorable, I am so excited to teach her. She really just wants to make sure that it's the right decision to get baptized and to get a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It was really neat cause as I was teaching her the first vision and testifying about it I just felt my testimony get stronger and I'm so grateful for it. And my testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown a lot this week as well. I just opened up to Helaman randomly and I'm just so surprised every time how spot on everything is. It just seems to describe our day perfectly. And I knew that before, but it never really sunk in. Plus I feel like I can identify better with the prophets when they describe sorrowing over the people's sins---I feel that when people choose not to listen or make decisions that I know will make them unhappy. I'm just so incredibly grateful for this gospel--it brings me so much joy, and I just wish that others would give it a chance--just to try it, and see if it doesn't make a difference in their life too. Love you all soooooo much. Sestra Cooper P.S. Cool fact about Czech that I think I forgot to tell you--it used to have z's like Polish until Jan Hus, and then they shorted them to the accent marks, like the hacek. Interesting huh? So Polish is really quite similar, it just looks different.

Week 5 in Brno

28 OCT 2013 Ahoj vsichni! Well this last week was soooo much better. We instituted comp inventory every night and that made a huge difference. I love both of my companions but man trios are hard haha. I wish someone had warned me! Oh well, we've kind of figured it out now, and things are going a lot smoother. Plus we found a bunch of new investigators last week!!! Which was super awesome. I'm convinced that Heavenly Father was just waiting for us to get our feet under us and then he just opened the floodgates. We are teaching this really cool guy named Diego, he's from Italy but speaks fluent French, and some English, can't remember if I already told you about him or not? oh well. But we had a really good first lesson with him, and he seems to be pretty solid. It was funny though cause he would start to ask a question in English, and then switch to French, and then I'd respond back in English cause I can't remember my French grammar (it comes out Czech)...and he was reading from an Italian pamphlet and Book of Mormon. And sometimes we accidently started speaking in Czech and he looked at us like we were crazy. Gotta love Europe!! Oh yeah and I bought a bunkbed! haha. So I'm not sleeping on the couch anymore. yay! Good thing I'm careful with my money or we wouldn't have had enough. But funny story...so we get to Ikea last Monday, and the first bed we see is perfect. So we booked through the rest of the store got to the warehouse, and it wasn't there. So we tracked down someone, and tried to explain what we wanted in Czech, and it turns out I wrote the wrong number down. So we finally got the bed, and realized that it was really long...and the zone leader's car is a little skoda....and no one in Europe owns a truck. So Sister Schoen called them and was like, abort mission there is no way it's going to fit. But they came anyways and measured it and it was just barely shorter than the whole car. So they were like, it'll probably fit....you can just buy it. haha. And they actually managed to fit the whole thing in--I'm not doing the story justice cause it was hilarious--I'll send a picture. Basically it was like Mr Incredible in his little car hunched over. hahaha. So then I put the whole thing together by myself and took apart the other broken bed, so our apartment is finally back to normal! That was fun. Sorry this is a lame email, I really can't remember what happened this week. Lots of lessons. Which was awesome. We are going to Prague again tonight cause Sister Steglich has visa stuff this time. And then we have training on Wednesday, and the whole Slovakian zone is coming too, which I'm super excited about, haven't seen them since my first transfer. For Halloween we are going to go visit a graveyard at lunch, and then we're having a halloween-themed district dinner on Sunday. So that'll be fun. that's about it.... Oh yeah I'm almost halfway through the Old Testament! And I am loving it. Yeah there are some crazy/disturbing stories, but you just have to get through them to find the gems. So I've developed a love for the Bible now, which is awesome. I feel like I'll be able to answer questions a lot better now, the more I read it the stronger my testimony of the Restoration gets. It's awesome. love you all!!! Sestra Cooper