Week 17 in Brno

20 Jan 2014 Cau! Only have one email left for the transfer! Can't believe it. I really hope I stay. Oh yeah and the next P-day is going to be this Saturday instead of next Monday cause the elders wanted to learn how to play squash, just fyi. It's basically spring here, no idea if I'm ever going to see the typical Czech winter. It's been sooo warm. Not that I'm complaining haha. This week wasn't too eventful, except for the fact that Diego is back! He texted us on Sunday asking to meet! So we'll see how that goes. And we had a really good phone call with Luc, he's still hoping his wife will change her mind and let him meet with us again. I talked to President about it and he suggested we write her a letter, so we'll send it this week. He says he wants to be baptized. So we'll see what happens. We had zone training on Tuesday, that was good of course, but always a little intimidating. President is changing the way we do goals for the next year--we are doing them from the ground up--we all had to look at our branches and figure out what they need and then go find and baptize those people this year. It's awesome but puts even more pressure on at the same time. But we are soooo close to having a stake. SO CLOSE. So we are going to do our best to make it happen, it would be such a blessing for the members here. For example, we don't have a Czech patriarch, so if they want to get their patriarchal blessing they have to go to Austria, get it in German and then wait for it to get translated into English and sent to them. If they don't speak German or English (and a lot of people don't) then they have to have someone they trust translate it for them, or just wait until we have a stake. It's made me appreciate growing up with all those blessings so much more. The exchange was really fun too, and I got to see Uherske Hradiste for about an hour. I love getting out of the city, Czech countryside is soo pretty, even in the winter. Plus the sisters live in one of the apartments they used to hold secret meetings in during Communism. Super cool. It was neat to get to know Sister Graham better too, she's awesome. Oh yeah and we're allowed to read Czech church history stuff on P day, which I just found out about, so I read Martha Toronto's autobiography today! (It took me like 2 hours--my comp was like wait...you didn't read it, you swallowed it! hahaha It was so great to read again!!). She was the wife of the first Czech mission president--he was mission president from 1936 til he died in 1968. They were kicked out during WWII, and then came back built up the mission for 4 years until the Communists got here, and got kicked out again. But he was still the mission president the whole time, and got to visit a couple of times after that. It was so cool to hear about it--the things these members went through...They had to submit a talk six weeks before they could give it to the authorities so they could censor it--and that was while the church was still legal. And all the rationing and everything...being followed and every action reported...It helped me understand Czech culture a lot better. We would have had a stake in the 60s if that didn't happen. And she talks about how it just broke their spirits--it just pressed down on them. It's so sad, but really important to know, and it makes me appreciate them so much more. Perspective helps--the things I go through that are hard are nothing like that. It's really neat too because my mission president's president was one of Wallace Toronto's missionaries way back then. Oh and the miracle that happened this week--we got 6 numbers on Thursday! It was awesome. We were looking for ysa girls because the branch president really wants to help the single rms get married (i know it sounds funny but we have 6 returned missionaries in our branch who aren't dating anyone) and almost all of them were exactly who we are looking for! We were so excited. So we should have some more people to teach soon! love you!!! Sestra Cooper P.S. the picture is from the exchange oh yeah and that guy you met dad, who was a missionary here? He's back for some kind of internship with his wife so he said hi for you :) It was funny cause we got to the building for fhe and the archibalds were like there's somebody from Oregon here who knows you! And I was like...uh I don't recognize anyone...haha. So that was fun!