Week 9 in Brno

25 Nov 2013 aaaah this is the last week of the transfer....and last week was CRAZY. So many things happened, I don't even know where to start. We had our concert on Wednesday, and that was really good to finally have it done. It was so stressful! We were kind of disappointed because we only had 70 people come, including members and missionaries, and we had talked to soooo many people on the street. But we were talking about it in training the next day and President helped us see how much it built trust with the members. It went really well and they saw the effort we put into it, so hopefully they will invite friends to the next one. It really did help us to bond with them. And we did get the numbers of some of our English students who came, so hopefully we will be able to teach them. We'll see. I ended up singing in 3 of the songs, so that was fun but I think it made me sick, cause we sang sooo much last week in the cold at all the singing displays. Hopefully it doesn't last too long. Training was amazing as usual. We talked a lot more about Christmas plans, how to teach more member lessons and how to plan, so that was helpful. And then President talked about the Czech holidays that happened this week--Nov 20-22, 1989 is when the Communists finally gave up control to Vaclav Havel. And he talked about how the members of the church met during Communism and everything, it was pretty interesting. And then there were a bunch of departing testimonies from the huge group of elders going home. I love them cause they always talk about what they've learned and there is a lot of wisdom in that. It's so strange because most of the missionaries I knew have gone home, everyone else is younger. I'm starting to be in one of the older sister groups. So weird. Sister Jones stayed with us again, so fun. But she pointed out that we only have 4 transfers left....I may have freaked out a little at that haha. Let's see....what else happened. We had really good lessons with Draha and Diego and a new guy named Honza. We asked both Diego and Draha to pray about being baptized, both were Catholic growing up, but not really practicing. But it was ridiculous because both lessons were interrupted soooo much. Opposition! During Draha's literally right as the question came out of my mouth her phone went off, someone had set off the alarm at her house....and then 15 minutes later when that was finally over, the branch president stuck his head in and started talking to the member who was teaching with us, and the doorknob fell off the door again... haha. But she said she'd think about it. And then with Diego's lesson there were a bunch of kids in the classroom next door just screaming. We were trying to watch the Restoration movie with him in Italian. So once they finally stopped it was quiet right up until the first vision part....when someone started vacuuming. haha we were like really?? But the lesson went super well, we all kind of bonded over it, we just talked about how the church is like one big family and he really loves that part of it. Oh and then it felt like we were on the District, because at one point he asked "what do I need to do to follow Jesus Christ?" and "So you are saying that my baptism wasn't valid?" haha it was verbatim. (Yes I've gotten to the point where I can quote the whole District haha. That's what happens!) And then he asked for a reading recommendation! I'm so excited to keep teaching him. Our new investigator is really hesitant to believe in anything, but he is willing to listen to the lessons, so we'll see with him! This week should be good, we have exchanges on Tuesday, Thanksgiving on Thursday---which won't really be any different except the senior couple is going to feed us and we get 2 hours instead of one. It will be weird though cause it's an American holiday so no one else will be celebrating it. But that will be fun. And then transfer calls!! I'm pretty sure I'm staying but you never know. This next transfer is going to be crazy since the sister training leaders have both been in for 2 transfers and someone's probably going to Slovakia, and two people will be training. So we'll see what happens! Oh--I'm waiting to send your Christmas presents until after Friday cause that's when the Christmas markets start!! So I hope it will still get there before Christmas. Hopefully I can find something good there, they are supposed to be even better than the Easter ones. The stalls are already set up and so is the giant Christmas tree :) It's supposed to snow any day now, it's gotten pretty cold. love you!!! Sestra Cooper