Week 21 in Plzen!

                       23 June 2014

Ahoj!

Well this week was pretty good. I feel like I finally got my fire and sense of urgency back, which was such a blessing. Unfortunately I'm sick again, but hopefully that goes away soon. On Wednesday we had specialized training with Elder Teixeira of the seventy and it was really good. I learned a lot about being bold, about having more faith, believing in miracles and how to help people accept a baptismal date, and why we even invite for baptism in the first place. My favorite part though was probably Sister McConkie's training on unity--it was fantastic. She said that on her mission in Argentina 20 years ago she was serving with a companion from Peru, who of course was a native speaker, and a really good missionary. And she said that she started just being really jealous of her companion, and it was eating away at her. So one day she swallowed her pride and just told her companion how she felt, and she said her companion just looked at her and said, hermana, soy nos uno! (not sure how to spell that haha). She told her, when I talk to the taxi driver, that means you just did too, when I connect with a member, you connect with them too---we are one! And so Sister McConkie went on to talk about how that's influenced her life and marriage, she said when she was home having babies and couldn't make it to the temple, President still went every week, and she would think to herself, soy nos uno, soy nos uno, that means I'm in the Temple, and he's at home picking cheerios off his pajamas. hahaha. I just loved it.

And then she shared an experience that she heard a czech sister tell about her mission in Russia. This sister was training two greenies at once and it was right after communism, so when they were tracting in Moscow they got picked up by the police, who were really suspicious of foreigners. They were taken to the prison and had to walk down a long corridor full of male prisoners who shook the bars and yelled things at them. She said that she took one greenie in one arm and the other on the other side and they walked down that hall, and she just kept saying--you cannot divide us, you cannot divide us. They got to the end, and were able to testify to the warden when he interrogated them, and he eventually let them go. But it was just such a beautiful example of unity--you cannot divide us, you cannot divide us. And so me and my companion have been saying that all week---we are one, you cannot divide us. So when she contacts the person on the street first instead of me because I'm too scared--we are one. When I ask a good question in a lesson--it's the same as if she did, because we are one. And it has made SUCH a difference, in absolutely everything.Even just making sure we walk side by side. It's made a difference in teaching, in finding, in confidence, in attitude. It's been amazing. This transfer has really taught me about unity, and I'm so so grateful. Sister Rosenvall is so great. We get along so well and have so much in common-it's been such a blessing. We downloaded a couple more conversations from the mormon channel onto our phone so we've been listening to those, and the unity between the spouses has been so evident as well in those talks. It's amazing how once you learn something new, all of the sudden you see it everywhere. 

I've been reading the New Testament a lot this week and I just finished Acts today. I want to finish all of the standard works on my mission, and the New Testament is the last one I have left. It really impressed me as I was reading that the church really is organized exactly the same as it was then. So cool. The church is so true. And it is growing so much here in Plzen--the zone leaders baptized another family on Saturday--they have 4 kids. The chapel is completely full on Sundays, I think we had almost 60-something people at church--we need a new building :) And Kat'ka came for the first time! She's doing so well. And Simona--my goodness everytime we see her and the girls they look happier--she has so much faith. We got to go to the girls 5th grade graduationon Tuesday and that was so fun. And they are going to the Temple again next week. Aah I just love it here so much. We have 4 first lessons set up for this week already, so hopefully some of them turn into new investigators. Missions are the best.

Love you!!

Sestra Cooper

P.S. just realized it's the 23rd today, which means I've been a missionary for exactly 18 months. Wow. Time flies.

Week....wait for it.... 19 in Plzen!

Cau vsichni! 9 June 2014  So dream come true, I'm staying in Plzen with Sister Rosenvall!! Phew. We were pretty convinced that was going to happen but of course the night before transfer calls we were freaking out and I thought I was going to go to Slovakia and she thought she was going to Brno haha. But nope! It's good that we are both staying because we have a super cool new progressing investigator and we just started doing singing time in Primary :) I don't even know how to describe this week, it was the longest week of my life! haha. But a lot of really cool things happened. I don't know if you remember Diego, the Italian man I was teaching in Brno? We found him in November. But he got baptized on Saturday!!! Super cool--he's the first person I actually found who's made it to baptism. So that was really nice to hear :) This last transfer was insane in terms of baptisms, we had 29 total across the mission in two months. And 7 of those were in Plzen (the elders baptized a mom and her son on Saturday ) :) The Lord is hastening His work! So awesome.  

The other really cool thing that happened was on Tuesday, Elder Kearon of the Seventy, Sister Wixom (primary general president) and Sister Reeves (2nd counselor in Relief Society) came to visit Prague. We got to go with some members and investigators to the special fireside. It was sooo good for the members because they did leadership training for the auxilaries. Plus it was neat for me and my comp because Sister McConkie asked us to bring Sister Reeves upstairs to their apartment so we got to meet them all and hug them. That was cool--they brought such spiritual maturity with them when they talked--I don't know quite how to describe it, but the church is so young here that there is definitely a difference. It was good to be reminded that we aren't the only ones on the battlefield so to speak--they talked about how they were waiting in a line at the airport in Portugual when the lady in front of them found out it would be 10 min longer wait and commented on how 10 minutes can be soo long. Sister Reeves said they looked at each other and then started talking to her about the gospel. haha love it!

In terms of the work it was a pretty rough week, we got dropped by almost all of our investigators and all the potentials either dogged us or didn't answer their phones. So that was kind of frustrating. We also had an interesting experience the other day with this lady on the street who just started yelling at us about how the bible is enough, how she already knows everything from the internet etc...it was just interesting because she was so angry, and if she had listened to what we were saying we would have been able to answer all of her questions. But all we could do was not get mad back, be patient and bear our testimonies. Finally at the end she stopped long enough for me to state our message of the restoration and testify about it and invite her to find out for herself, and then she apologized and wished us luck. It was just kind of bizarre, but a good experience-- sharing your testimony really is the only thing you can do when that happens.

 But Kat'ka, our progressing investigator is doing awesome--she's the one I mentioned last week, the girlfriend of the elder's investigator? We had an amazing lesson with her--we aren't really sure what changed. But we taught Restoration and she had studied Alma 32 (even marked it up) and prayed for the first time in her life. She said she felt "love towards something and love back towards her" so she knows that something is there, and that she's excited to learn more about who God is so she can know if it's him. SO COOL. We just walked out of there in shock haha. I don't know why it still surprises me that what we teach actually works when people are willing to try it! That's the hardest part, is getting them to just try it, to read and to pray. If they do that, they will get an answer, and it will change their life :)  

This transfer is just going to fly by, so I refuse to get depressed about not having any investigators--we are going to find some despite the blazing heat and being disgustingly sweaty haha--summer has officially hit! Plus we've made a lot of progress with less-actives and helping out the branch. And we have a goal of running every day because we got fed waaay too much this week and czech food is all potatoes and butter and meat, I refuse to go home fat!!! hahaha. At least we're on the same page--comp unity :) And I'm almost done with my last two language levels! yayyy sklonovani (cases) takes foorrever to pass off. We have a member of the area presidency coming to our next training in two weeks, so I'm excited about that. Good things are happening!   love you sooooo much Sestra Cooper

Week 18 in Plzen!

2 June 2014 Ahojte! So weird that I've been here for 4 months already. I cannot believe it's June!!! So crazy--It seriously feels like Christmas was yesterday. We both think we're going to stay here next transfer, which would be a dream come true, but that might just be wishful thinking :) We'll find out on Saturday! I'm glad the package got there, I'm sending another one home today. Dad-I love that idea of the book of life being more about our covenants and ordinances and who we have become than a sum total of our acts--that feels right to me. Cool. I had a really good personal study today, I printed off Elder Bednar's talk and studied it,and it's sooo good. I love it when he talks about the enabling power of the atonement--I really feel like I understand that now after being here. There have been so many days when I really felt like I couldn't keep going, and somehow the strength was there. I was thinking about sacrifice this morning too, because a lot of people we talk to will say things like, wow that's such a huge sacrifice, how do you do it, we admire you, etc. Which is always a little weird for me, because I really don't see it that way at all. I think I did at the beginning, but now it's just pure gratitude at all the blessings I have received because of the privilege to serve and I feel indebted for that chance, not deserving of sympathy! haha. I did get kind of trunky this weekend, which was annoying, but I fasted and I'm feeling better. Plus we taught the triplets about modesty after church and that helped--they are best! Two of them were just asking question after question--what about this kind of shirt, is that okay? what about these shorts? haha. But little Nefy was just rolling her eyes at them and was like, good thing you taught us this lesson, now we know what we need to buy! my goodness they are cute.They are already planning a "spolecne den" (together day) for when I come back to visit, they were like, you can stay here and we'll hang out ALL day hahahaha, and you'll get to translate for your family! They are so excited to meet you all. This week was pretty normal, nothing too crazy happened. We did start teaching the girlfriend of one of the elder's investigators, they've tried to teach her in the past but she was never interested, but he invited us over for lunch and it turned out really well. We used Alma 32 and talked about it as a science experiment (she studying biology and is an atheist). So at the end we asked her if she was willing to try it, and she said "asi jo" (yeah). I was so surprised, I think I did a double take, to make sure I had heard right haha. So we are meeting with her again on Wednesday! So excited. So that was really cool. Oh yeah and we had a concert on Friday-- It was Restoration-themed so we taught the first lesson through songs. It turned out pretty well, considering the fact that the elders cancelled half of the practices and some of the songs weren't exactly on pitch...and one of their investigators showed up with instruments wanting to play their own pieces, that weren't church-related. haha gotta love it. Mom-that's so cool about the Family History! 1680...I am SO excited to go to Sweden and see all of it. Sounds like the Temple trip was really neat. love you all!! Sestra Cooper