Week 7 in C Bud

Ahoj! I learned this week that ahoj is actually a latin acronym it stands for ad honorem jesu I think. So it is the same as the sailor's greeting, just english speakers changed it to a y. Cool huh? The things I learn while teaching English haha. Well I don't really know what to say about this week. Just a lot of work, like usual. Our investigator Jarda flat out refused a baptismal date and he's still refusing to try to pray too because he's "waiting for a sign." So we'll see how that goes...It's so frustrating to have to respect people's agency haha. It must be so heart wrenching for Heavenly Father to watch us make stupid mistakes and refuse to let him help us, thinking that our way is better. We gave a lot of building tours this week, and gave out 2 Book of Mormons, I've never done that before, so that was cool. I had to give another talk in sacrament, this time about family history. We are trying to start up a family history how-to activity every other week for the branch, so we are doing that on Wednesday. Since me and Sister Hicken are the only ones who've ever done it (the elders haven't and all the other members with experience are inactive) that means we get to try to explain it in Czech. Yay! That will be interesting haha. I'm jealous of all your family history work mom!! I would love to be helping. Can't believe we had a castle! So cool. You should send me the story if there is one! So anyways...We are really hoping people show up. It's summer so everyone's always gone. We had 5 members at church this week--I think it's actually going down now. We are working so hard to try to get people to come back and they just won't put in the work! I'm seriously so glad that you and dad taught me to work--thank you so much. I know I hated chores at the time, but man it's just so hard to watch people who have never worked a day in their life complain that their life is so hard, but they won't do anything about it--not even coming to church for 2 hours once a week. It's awful to watch. But, we had branch council this week (we go because we are the relief society, primary and young womens) and started the branch mission plan, so that raised my spirits a bit. Just have to keep the vision. I've been thinking a lot about what you said mom about being a trailblazer--I'm certainly trying! But we are making progress with one of our less-actives. She's actually been coming to church, usually misses sacrament meeting but is there for the 2nd hour. She's in her 70s with no family, and when I met her she was very bitter, always complaining or judging someone and just generally unpleasant to be around. But we've managed to persuade to her to meet with us after FHE on Fridays (basically we just kick everyone else out and start teaching her so she can't leave--she would never set up for a time with us). But we've taught her 3 weeks in a row now--this last lesson we read from the last Relief Society talk about an older single woman and how she was not alone, because she is a daughter of God and she is part of his family. But she really responded, and has been so much more kind, and has started putting down her walls--she just needed to feel loved. So that was really neat. We are going to start personal progress with her this week to help her start on the path to the Temple. So that was one of the moments where I felt like we are actually making a difference here. We have a lot more lessons on plan this next week so hopefully it will be better. It's so true that a teaching missionary is a happy missionary--President Irwin used to say that all the time. This last week we just did a LOT of contacting, which is still meaningful, but it's not the same, especially cause we didn't get any numbers. The two girls we gave Book of Mormons to didn't want to give us their numbers. It's just hard sometimes to study the gospel so much and feel my testimony being so strengthened, and have people not even give us a second glance. I know that this message would completely change their life if they would just try it! The rewards so outweigh the effort it takes. I know I shouldn't be counting...but I can't help it. Can't believe I've been out 6 months. It's gone by so fast but so slow at the same time. Yet it feels like my mission is just going to last forever, the days are so long. This transfer's almost over. And next week we are going to Prague on Monday for visa renewal stuff and then back again on Wednesday for training so it will go by fast. I found out it's all the missionaries in the Czech Republic, not just the two normal zones, so I'm excited to see what we do. President told the sisters to wear good shoes and it's pioneer day...so that will be interesting haha. tak jo, I think that is everything. love you soooo much! Sestra Cooper P.S. I keep forgetting to tell you this--everyone here always comments on how nice our teeth are haha. It's pretty funny/awkward, because what do you say to that? Thanks...it was the result of 5 years of having metal in my mouth, glad to know it payed off...haha.

Week 6 in C Bud

Ahoj! There isn't much to say for this week...nothing really happened. All 3 of our progressing investigators are out of town and the other 2 won't answer their phones and the new one dogged another appointment...so...we didn't teach too many lessons haha. But that's ok. They should start coming back this week, so that will be good. Constantin went to church in Romania though and loved it, so that was pretty awesome. He would get baptized tomorrow but he's just worried about having to go back to Romania and then having no support there, he wants his whole family to get baptized at the same time. But it turns out there are inactive families in his town, so who knows! We are hoping it helps him have the faith to just do it. We taught some less actives, did a LOT of contacting this week too. 4 hours of it on Friday--we got 1 appointment with a number and another number out of it. So that was good, hopefully we can actually meet with them! One of them is Japanese, her name is Fujiko and she's a student here. Super cool. So I'm hoping we get to teach her and then we can refer her to the missionaries in Japan when she goes home in a month. Oh yeah, and I called Vlasta, that less active I told you about last week? She's been reading in the Book of Mormon, and she's coming back for a couple days soon and wants to meet! aaah I was so happy. I think she might make it. We taught a first lesson this week, and it was really cool, because as I was teaching I realized I was so so happy. It's amazing the joy that comes from missionary work. Sister Hicken commented on it later too, she said that she could just see the joy emanating from me and I was really myself as we were teaching. It was so cool--I'm finally starting to feel comfortable enough with Czech that I can start to express my personality. aaah I loved it. Of course when people talk about not-church things I still have no idea what they are saying haha. But still. Progress is progress! I was reading one of the conference talks this morning, I think it's called being accepted of the Lord? Anyways, it made me reflect on this transfer. There are only 3 weeks left (aahh) so I was thinking about what we've accomplished in those 6 weeks. As far as our numbers go, it doesn't really look like much. But we are slowly increasing, I guess our area is the best it's been in who knows how long, even if it's not quite where I want it to be! We don't have anyone close to baptism, and none of our less actives have even come to church. So for all intents and purposes you'd think I would feel pretty discouraged. But the funny thing is that I don't! I'm so happy. I've learned a lot, we are working hard, and people have their agency. I feel like the Lord is happy with our work and that's really the only thing that matters. Yes, it would be nice to see that we've actually made a difference in someone's life, but I'm learning to be patient with the Lord's timing, and to trust that our work is not in vain. I think training helped a lot with that. President McConkie is awesome. And so is his family. They have kids that are 15, 13, 9 and 7. We got to meet them all, and President has so much faith. It was incredible. He served here from 1990-1992, right when they opened the mission after communism, and he's actually known every single mission president since, because he was doing humanitarian work here. So cool. He was part of the Miracle of Slovakia, and told us the coolest story. I think you already heard the gist of it, how they were trying to get the church recognized in Slovakia in 2006? At first they hired professional signature gatherers, and they only got 176 names in a week (they needed 10,000 total). So then they sent all the missionaries out for 3 days. President McConkie was there and was telling us about a Czech greenie, who had only been in the country for 2 weeks before getting sent to Slovakia to gather signatures. The only thing he could say in Slovak was "I believe in God, in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost". So that's what he did. He prayed to be able to bear his testimony with power. And President saw him do this, this one lady was asking him all sorts of questions which he didn't understand a word of, and all he could do was say his testimony over and over. And she signed it, even though she had no idea what it was for, and she had to write her address and the equivalent of her social security number on it. And in one day this greenie gathered 205 signatures, more than any of the other missionaries. All together they got the 10,000 that they needed. Total miracle. But basically President's training was on bearing testimony with power, it was really inspiring. I think I had gotten into the trap of seeing C Bud as kind of a dead end area--but he really raised my vision. He asked me if I had the faith to find a family that will jump start the branch growing again. And I had to think about it. So I've really been working on my faith, and fasted for that this week. I think I'm going to stay here for next transfer, things are finally starting to get going, I'd be pretty sad to leave. Sister Hicken is hoping she'll stay for a 3rd transfer too, we work really well together. but we'll see I guess! love you!!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 5 in C Bud

Ahoj! Can't believe it's already week 6 of the transfer. That is crazy. After this week there are only 3 weeks left! I don't know where the time goes. Well this week was ridiculous, as usual. I don't think I'll ever have a "normal" week in CBud haha. We have a new mission president! President Irwin called and said goodbye on Friday, which was nice, but sad. We have training this week on Thursday so we will get to meet President McConkie. I'm a little apprehensive about it, just because I don't know what to expect, what things he will change. So that will be interesting. I'm hoping we get to meet his family. I felt like this week we worked really hard, but not on proselyting stuff, which is frustrating. It was all things that needed to be done, but I felt like they didn't contribute to me helping others come unto Christ, you know? We cleaned and cleaned our apartment (still not done, but almost) and cooked a ton of stuff for the branch bbq that we had this morning and district lunch yesterday, and our phone broke, so we wasted half a day trying to figure out if we could fix it and then deleting all the numbers off the replacement and putting all our numbers into that one so we could get ahold of people. I was really glad that we've been on top of the records--the only numbers we lost were people in our English class, not investigators or members. And I spent most of my language study this week translating the talk I gave yesterday in sacrament, so I didn't get to work on my language level either. (there are three levels, and when you finish each you get a certificate at the next training--I'm so close to being done with the first one). We've been working out like crazy too, so both of us are pretty exhausted. oh yeah and we had to walk home for an hour from an inactive member's yesterday, because buses are dumb and don't come very often on weekends. So yeah, this week has been a bit of a blur--I wish I could sleep for a couple days, but oh well, c'est la vie. I can sleep in a year and a couple weeks, right? We did actually get to watch the training, Elder Hansen got permission for us to watch it at the church. I loved it, it was really good and definitely inspiring. It made me really want to be such a good member missionary when I get home. But it was a little hard to watch as well because it was the ideal, and we are so so far from it here. We had 3 members (out of our active 8), 2 investigators and 1 potential at church yesterday, along with us missionaries. (My talk was on the Gospel of Christ...and the member's talk was supposed to be on oppostion--except he talked about Satan, and Kolob and Egypt and black magic instead...gah.) I would absolutely love to work with a ward, but we are the ward. The branch bbq that we put on this morning had 4 members, 2 of the Elders investigators, and 3 of our potentials (we haven't taught them anything yet). It was a lot of fun, but it's hard to balance running the branch and finding people to teach too. I did really like that Elder Nelson said in the training that "there is no line of distinction between those who have never heard the gospel and those who have fallen away" to the Lord. That made me feel a lot better about all of the less-active work we are doing. We are finally making progress with that--we teach 4 of them regularly, and another 6 have said we can start teaching them, out of the 30 I think we've tried to get ahold of. So that was really good. We taught a new less active yesterday, and phew when we got out of that lesson, let's just say I finally felt like a real missionary. She told us (all in Czech) that she believes there is no devil or hell, that she can progress better without the church, that she believes in reincarnation, that she has faith and so she doesn't need church, that we need to read in the Book of Mormon, cause we're young, but she's old and already knows it...etc, etc. So after we waded through all of that (I was praying so hard to know what to say, because she just wanted to argue, and Sister Hicken didn't really understand most of what was going on). Finally I asked her why she let us come visit in the first place. It was really neat, because the Spirit was able to work on her. She paused, was quiet, and said I don't know. And then she basically said that she feels guilty for not coming to church, and that she doesn't want to be an "odpadlik" (I don't think there is a literal translation for that, it sort of means renegade or apostate, odpadlictvi means apostacy). I was so grateful that we were able to show her enough love for her to finally open up. She was telling me that she makes costumes for some school group, and is the only one who talks to them about God, so she doesn't have time for church because she helps them. So I pulled out Mosiah 2:17 and pointed out that when she serves them, she is serving God--so she is doing something right. That was inspiration right there. Then she had a complete change of heart and agreed to start reading in the Book of Mormon again, even though she had just refused a few minutes before. After the lesson she asked how many people come to church now, so I told her that around 15 is the most we've had, and she was shocked. She kept repeating, I don't want to be an odpadlik, that would mean I've lost my faith, that's so sad that so many people have fallen away. (there used to be 40 attending and 100 on the rolls.) So that was a really neat experience. Unfortunately she's going to be in Tabor for the next 2 months so we can't visit her, but hopefully she won't lose the progress in the meantime. I want to call and check up on her in a couple weeks. Let's see, other things...We only had one person at English this week, Viktor, who is an English teacher, so his questions are always really specific (this week he asked what the section of the library is called where you can't check out books, only look at them, took me a day or two to remember reference haha cause it's been so long since i've been in a English library!). He's a really strong Catholic. But, it was really cool, cause at the end of the lesson where we usually do a spiritual thought, he asked us what our favorite scriptures are. So we ended up sharing favorite scriptures and having a really neat discussion about faith. And he came to the bbq this morning! So we think he might be a little more curious about the Book of Mormon than he will admit. I offered to give him one, and he said he'd think about it. So we'll see where that goes. Also, during the broadcast we had a pretty cool experience too. The background is that I had been feeling like we should call formers (past investigators) from the area book. so we did that, called almost every single one, and got one appointment out of the whole book. So it ended up being during the time we watched the broadcast, because we didn't know about it when we scheduled it. So we reluctantly paused it, went downstairs to wait, even though he probably wouldn't show up. So we waited for 10 minutes past the appointment, and sure enough he didn't come. But we decided to wait for 5 more mins just in case, and a guy stopped to look at our window display and actually walked in to talk to us (that has never happened before). Turns out he is a priest in a different church, but was curious about ours. So we gave him a building tour and our card, and he said he'd look at our website. I think that was important--even if I never know what comes of it, because so many unexpected things happened for us to be downstairs with the door open at the exact time that he walked by. Well that is about it. We couldn't meet with Jarda this week, but he read! It made me so happy. His wife said it would be the first book he's ever read, so I was a little worried about that. And he wants to come to English tomorrow. And the Tuckovi's 8 year old Anezka actually keeps her commitments, which was exciting. She's reading in her scriptures, not every day, but hey she's 8, and no one else in her family does it, as far as we know. She's so cool. Today's her birthday, so I guess she's 9 now, we gave her cookies :) We are going to ask President for permission to invite her to walk with us to church, because she told Sister Smith last transfer that she misses church but it's hard when her parents don't go. love you all so so much, say hi to all the family for me Sestra Cooper

Week 4 in C Bud

24 June 2013 Well. This week was kind of crazy. I don't know what it is about C Bud but it's seriously never-ending adventure. Good and bad. For example, I noticed some old Christmas ornaments that had fallen behind one of our dressers yesterday, so we decided to move them today...and found 10 YEARS WORTH OF DUST AND COBWEBS. Ick. It's so gross. Pretty sure I vaccumed up at least 3 (alive) spiders, plus who-knows-what in all the old cobwebs. I have never seen so many dustballs in my life. So we spent 3 hours of our P-day today moving furniture and vaccuming and we are probably only 1/3 done, if that. We still haven't moved the other armoir, my bed, the other shelves, or the couch and two desks. But the good thing is I finally figured out why I can't breathe or sleep in this apartment...I'm running out of inhalers, so I've been trying not to use them, but then I just cough. So...I'm hoping once we get it all cleared out that my asthma will go back down. It was so musty when I got here, especially compared to the new Prague apartment I was used to...now I know why. So that's fun. We are going to call President and see if he will let us tackle it this week instead of having to do it only during personal time, cause it's disgusting and really is a danger to our health haha. So we'll see what he says. We are joining the ranks of the sisters who have attacked the apartment after we took over from elders...apparently the bathroom used to be full of mold, and one of them scrubbed and scrubbed it with bleach, and the toilet used to be completely brown, and we've almost got it back to white. Let's just say I'm glad I don't have to live here forever... And THEN yesterday, at the end of sacrament meeting, one of our members (she's 91) gives this groan and collapses. So we called the ambulance, and they came and got her. Everyone was afraid she had died since she was unconscious. But she's ok, she has diabetes and they gave her insulin so she's fine. So that was quite the drama. And the drama continues...last Monday, we were supposed to go hiking. So we sprinted from email to the bus stop..and just barely missed it. So we literally ran from the library all the way to the train station and got there 4 minutes before it was going to leave. So we get on, and the ticket guy comes around...the elders ask for the stop we need to go to, and he says we aren't going there, this train goes to Germany... So we got off at the next stop, in this little town and try to find the bus stop. We found it, but none of them went to the mountain. So we changed plans...and basically ended up wandering around in the hot sun for 3 hours and finally got to the road that goes to the monastery...and then had to turn around and go home to make it back for working hours at 6. haha it was miserable. Last time we let the elders plan the vylet haha. But. In terms of the work it was a LOT better. We got 3 new investigators!!! Finally. (We've had 0 the whole transfer) It was such a relief. We stopped by Jarda's house (the really cool young dad who lives on our street) and he was actually home! So he let us in and we ended up helping him take the stickers off his car, cause that's what he was doing, and then teaching a first lesson. It was really good, and we got to meet his adorable wife and little 2 year old daughter so we are really excited to be teaching him. However, it was in the backyard and we got attacked by mosquitoes...I have 13 bites on my legs and feet. haha...so yeah. But it was so worth it! They both speak English really well and so we teach him in English. We tried to do Czech but he doesn't want to. Wednesday we had training in Prague, which was really good. But sad, because was President Irwin's last one, he goes home on Saturday! Crazy. We have another training on July 4 with the new mission president in Prague, so we are going back up next week. Yay for 2 1/2 hour train rides!! Hopefully it won't be as hot as this last week, I've never been so sweaty in my life haha. So gross. Dad, you asked about sister leaders--we still don't have any. I'm hoping that will change with the new mission president, he gets here on Saturday. But it might just be that we don't have enough sisters or something. President's email this week he said he got to see the agenda for the new mission president seminar, Apparently the Brethren have made some "very bold decisions", on new policies in the next couple months, not sure what that means!! We'll see I guess. Oh yeah, and dad--the elders have an investigator whose doctor told her to drink coffee because of her blood pressure, and they wanted to know what other things are good for that so that she can keep the word of wisdom. any ideas? Oh I did have a cool experience--we convinced one of the less-actives to let us teach her the visiting teaching message after fhe (she comes really late, sometimes, and comes to relief society but not sacrament.) Since we are the relief society we do all the visiting teaching too. So we started talking about it (it's on family history) and she said, I don't have any parents and I don't have any kids, so I don't care. So we were like...uh....so I asked her if she has a personal journal, and she says no, and I don't want one. So I would have been completely lost if it weren't for the spirit, because the next second I started talking about gratitude journals and how we can always find something to be grateful for, and committed her to write down 3 things a day. I was so incredibly grateful for inspiration haha. That was cool. Well I think that's about it....we had a really good lesson with our other new investigator too, he's a former, so he's been taught everything. But he's super cool, a professional violinist and loves nature. I felt like we really needed to establish expectations, so I was like, you know we prepare people for baptism right? And he said yes, of course, and I do have that as a goal, it just might take awhile. So I reassured him that he can make it and that we are here to help him--the spirit was really helping me to know how to teach to his needs, it was really cool. (and in Czech!) He mainly wants to meet to have help understanding what he reads in the Book of Mormon. He totally believes that it's true though. Such a sweet guy. So we are excited to teach him too, not sure why he doesn't want to get baptized, but we'll get there. love you!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 3 in C Bud

17 June 2013 Ahoj! I really don't have that much to say for this week... nothing really happened. We did a ton of less-active work, walking around in the sun trying to find apartments of people. We did pretty well, and two of the families agreed to let us come teach them in July, so that was progress. I had to bribe one of them with banana bread for her to let us up, that was pretty funny. She answered the zvonek, and was like, I'm sick. So I said, it will only be 5 minutes and we brought you banana bread! and she said fine, and let us into the building haha. We got her number, which was good cause we only had her husband's, and he didn't really sound that happy about us calling (he's a former branch president). So that was really nice, tender mercy there. She said they'll be back from their chata in July, so maybe we can come by then. Everyone goes to their chata in the summer/weekends, it's so it's hard to get them to come to church or to meet. It's a czech thing, they all have these little cabins in the woods that they have gardens at, and they go there anytime the weather is good. So it's pretty much pointless to try to contact on the weekends cause the city is deserted. Luckily we do a lot of branch stuff on Saturday, we have sports day, we clean the building, and have correlation, so that takes up time. This week has just been super discouraging. Our one investigator with a baptismal date flaked out on us, and we still haven't taught a first lesson. Not a single one. And we got zero member lessons this week again. We are trying so hard to be exactly obedient, to be worthy of the spirit, and to use our time effectively and everything, but we just aren't teaching anyone. I'm trying really hard not to be discouraged. I know that the Lord must have something he wants me to learn from this--haha probably patience. That's something I always seem to be working on. And I know that I shouldn't judge our worthiness on our lack of lessons, but it's hard. I'm really trying hard not to complain and to have faith. But enough of that...good things this week. We contacted our 3 referrals, one we are supposed to teach tomorrow, so we are hoping that works out, it's a family. My contacting has gotten better, I've really been trying to listen to what they say and then testify of something that relates to their life. And I've also been focusing on the restoration, how we have a living prophet today, because that's something pmg says to do over and over, and I noticed we weren't doing it. We usually introduce the book of mormon, but I wanted to get better about connecting it to the restoration. When I did, I really felt the spirit testify of it to me, and so I'm really happy about that. It's easier to do with people who are believers, most people we contact say they are atheists. But what's really interesting is that every single one of them say that they believe something exists, but they don't know what. It's amazing how much our spirits remember--that we don't. Oh and we were watching one of the training videos, and Elder Ballard said we should be contacting 10 people/day outside of our plans, so we are working up to that, contacting on the buses, while we're walking places, etc. I've definitely felt the gift of tongues this week though, my czech is getting a lot better, at least in gospel words. I'm pretty sure I got sworn at/made fun of by the people in Ctibor's building when we went to visit him, (he lives in the ghetto) but I had no idea what they actually said. You can gather a lot through body language though. Funny things: the elders caught a huge fly, put it in the freezer so that it slowed down, and then put it on a string and were playing with it. hahaha elders...how do they think of these things??? let alone have time to do them. hahaha. You should have seen how much they were cracking up at it, they brought it to the church to show us cause they were so proud.... Oh yeah, and they were riding a sheep on Friday too. haha Br Sir feeds us lunch every Friday, and he has a pet sheep named Vojta. I hadn't seen it yet, so he took us outside and we got to feed it baguettes, and the elders were trying to ride it. That was pretty hilarious. Oh! and Dad, you will love this. The coolest thing, during language study I was looking up words, and I realized that cooper is bednar in czech. Elder Bednar has czech ancestors--they must have been barrel makers too! Everyone always asks me what my name means, so now I know what to say. Cool huh?? I loved it. Ok last thing, and then I'll send pictures--read Moroni 60 (Moroni's letter to Pahoran) and look for the things he lists as the duties of the government. Except I looked at them as duties as members of the church, how we can keep our covenants. I learned a lot from that, it was cool. Ok I'm running out of time--we are going hiking today so we have to rush. We have training in Prague on Wed, so I'm excited for that. love you!!! Sestra Cooper Family only: Mom happy late birthday!! So sorry I didn't mention it last email, I promise I remembered :) how was it?? That is awesome that you are getting a puppy, way to work for it Brigit! That will be fun, I'm excited to hear about it. Mom, I really do love you so much. This week has been really really hard, and to top it all off I dyed my garments grey this morning haha. A black sock got stuck in there. I wanted to call you so bad. Totally started crying when I said the closing prayer to comp study this morning, Sister Hicken suggested I get a blessing from one of the elders, so I think I'm going to. Dad, happy late father's day! I've been thinking about you a lot actually. How much I've learned from your example, how much you've taught me. So thank you for that, I can't imagine having a better dad.

week 2 in Ceske Budejovice

Ahoj! Phew this week was kind of crazy, I can't believe it's only been a week since I wrote you last, it feels like forever. This week was full of ups and downs, it's kind of ridiculous how some days are full of miracles and others are just really really hard, and depressing. Usually back to back. For example, we had on plan to teach 19 lessons this week, and 5 planned for Thursday, 2 potentials, 2 less-actives, and 1 active. Guess how many we taught? 1 investigator that we didn't even plan for. The member was in the hospital for her heart, so we went and visited her, the less-active cancelled, and both potentials dogged. We haven't had a single potential show up to a meeting the two weeks we've been here. That is pretty unusual actually, usually you get at least a few! We've had 6 or 7 set up I think, and not a single one came, even though we confirmed the day of. So we've been doing a lot of contacting/tracting/figuring out which less-actives we are going to go visit. That day even our back-up plans fell through--the member we were going to teach couldn't come either, and the referral we tried to contact wasn't there. So apparently we need to start making back-up back-up plans haha. But! we did have a super awesome experience tracting our street this week. We had like an hour left, so we decided to tract on the way home, and I wanted to talk to a family we walked by earlier in the day, that I noticed out of the corner of my eye, they were in their yard. So we went back and rang the zvonek, and the dad came out! usually they just stick their head out the window or answer the zvonek with nemam zajem (I'm not interested) and that's that. But he actually came out to the gate, and started talking to us...took pity on our horrible czech and spoke in perfect English. He's a draftsman, sort of like an architect? And has a cute little family! His name is Jarda, and he seemed actually really interested too, we told him about the Book of Mormon, how it helps us to strengthen our families, and a little bit about the Plan of Salvation. He was so cool! And a family! and normal! and he speaks English! which is bascially all the qualifications we are looking for to have a member branch president again, instead of missionaries. haha we were on a high for a couple hours after that, so exciting. We have exactly 2 normal members in our branch, the others all have mental problems or other issues, or they are normal but inactive. They tend to scare off investigators, which is really not helpful, because it's so hard to get them to come to church in the first place. Jarda said we could come back the next week to teach his family, so we are going to go by tonight, and we're praying that he's home and will let us in!! He said his work is really unpredicable, so he wouldn't set up for a specific time. so that was really exciting. Saturday was a day of miracles too, first of all, during comp inventory (the best comp inventory we've ever had--that was a miracle in and of itself--we are totally united and on fire with our goals) This former named Michal called, and Sister Hicken had thought he had dropped us, since he was only coming to English and wouldn't set up again. But HE called US, (which never happens) to say that he wanted to keep meeting, and that he'd been reading in the Book of Mormon on his own (also never happens). So that was exciting. Then, we go to town, a less-active dogged us, so we went to go contact on the namesti, cause there was a marathon going on, and a ton of people out on the streets. Sister Hicken contacted this guy she's been feeling like we need to talk to...but he only speaks French. So guess what? I got to try to frantically shove all the Czech out of my brain and try to speak in French. haha it was so embarrassing, I can't remember anything. I was able to say that we were missionaries, and the name of the church, and the book of mormon...and that was about it haha. I understand everything they say, but I can't put sentences together without Czech words coming out. He asked how old our church was, and I actually remembered how to say 1800 (but not the 30 haha). So we gave him our card and he said he'd go to the website in French and call us if he wants to learn more. So that was neat, we are really hoping we run into him again, and I think I might start reading the Book of Mormon in French at night so that I can actually say something next time. Sister Hicken says she's seen him like 4 or 5 times already, so it's likely. OH yeah, so the weird part, I was just thinking, why didn't I practice more with the french member in Prague, Matthieu, while I had the chance?? And then we turn the corner and Mattieu is right there. Weird huh? He had said he might come to Ceske Budejovice and say hi but I thought he was joking. But no, he just finished his studies, so he was on vacation in the area and came to say hi. He was like, I'm going back to France, so I'm allowed to write you right? haha so maybe I'll get to practice my French grammar...that will be scary! In the MTC though, there were free boxes on all the floors, and so I grabbed a French board display book out just in case, looks like I might need it if we run into that guy again. (I forgot to ask him his name...oops). Anyways...so that isn't even the end of the miracles that happened on Saturday. While we were talking to Matthieu, the Kalensky walked by, who are an inactive couple we are going to visit on Tuesday, so we said hi and confirmed the appointment. Then we taught Ctibor, who is another less-active, he's a Roma (gypsy) and won't accept the priesthood cause he's not white? We're not really sure. He has some strange ideas, but Czechs are rather racist, so he has good reason for feeling discriminated against. But we had a lesson with him, and had planned to ask him how he felt at his baptism, and what the foundation of his testimony is, so that we could invite him back to church and help him realize that we really need him. So that was our plan. We sit down, and he pulls out this notebook, where he's written out his testimony, complete with scriptures and everything, and tells us why he knows that the Book of Mormon is true (last meeting he said it was 98% true cause he didn't like that it tells you to do things) and why the church is true. So I was concentrating so hard, trying to understand the Czech, and the tangents, but I got the gist enough to ask...so you are saying that the foundation of your testimony is that our bodies are temples? (I was really hoping I understood that correctly...) and he said yes! So we testified that we really need him in the branch and that we could really use his strong testimony, and that it doesn't matter that he is the only Roma, God is no respecter of persons. and he said he's going to start coming to church again, and in the closing prayer, he prayed for forgiveness because he's been inactive. It was a complete 180 from the last time we talked to him. So cool. Our fast for inactives totally worked! We had a FHE lesson with the Tuckovi too (the inactive family whose house we live in) and even the 13 year old who usually has an attitude was actually paying attention, and the dad offered a kneeling prayer at the end, which I guess doesn't usually happen either. Miracles happen! So yeah, that was the week. Pretty crazy huh? Sister Hicken is the Relief Society President now, and I'm going to be the branch pianist next transfer, cause Elder Bahr is probably leaving. So I am now relearning the piano during dinners when we eat at the church. Haha that will be interesting....but we have the simplified hymnbook, and it's really not that hard, so I should survive. The branch doesn't really follow the piano anyways, and no one can sing on key except the missionaries (if I miss a word everybody else basically misses it too haha cause they just listen to me and Elder Bahr) Man stateside missionaries have it good! It would be so great to have a functioning ward. We totally wish we could do family history with people too, but the website isn't in Czech, and there aren't really any Czech records online here, they are all in libraries and things, so it's really hard to do family history here. Mom, you asked about Sister Hicken--we are getting along better than we ever have, and it's so fun. Such a blessing. We are cooking meals together and have started running every other day cause we are getting fat...haha. Czech food is bread and meat. And dessert. But I'm determined to get back into shape! And it really helps that we can help each other with goals like that, plus all the normal missionary ones of course, like finding always, improving our Czech, improving our teaching...there is an endless list of things we need to work on. But we are getting better every day! Oh yeah mom, can you send me the crepe recipe and the poppyseed dressing recipe? You can't get any good salad dressings here, it's sad. So that is the state of things in Ceske Budejovice (did you know that Budweiser was started here? that's the name of the town in German...random side note, but I'm assuming Dad already googled it and probably knows more about it than I do haha). We are planning to go visit a bunch of less-actives on Wednesday, since they all live near the Maj. So we'll see how that goes, we are really hoping we can set up appointments to come back, and we might bring them banana bread. I can't really think of anything else to say...so I guess that's it! love you all!!! Sestra Cooper

week 1 in Ceske Budejovice

Hi! Sorry you had to wait so long for this email, I got transferred! To Ceske Budejovice, which is 2 1/2 hours south. And it was pretty funny that you told me about Marci being with her MTC companion her second transfer, cause I am too! So it's me and Sister Hicken here, and a pair of elders. Elder Hansen is the Branch president, and his companion is the district leader, cause the branch is really small. I kind of figured I wouldn't have a follow-up trainer, but I didn't think I'd have to leave Prague too. It's been probably one of the most stressful weeks ever. I was really surprised when I got the transfer call, so I had to pack up everything, say goodbye to everyone Sunday, and leave on Monday, and take a train by myself. That would have been fine except they were working on the tracks so we had to switch to a bus, and then back to the train...with all of my luggage. Dragging two suitcases and a duffel up all those stairs was definitely not my first choice! I'm pretty sure each of them weighed more than half of me. Definitely got a workout from that! But I made it eventually. We had Sister Smith for two days and then she went home, and we had to fend for ourselves. I got to go back to Prague on Saturday actually because there was a district relief society conference, one of the elders investigators went, so we got to go. That was an adventure too! On the train ride up, their investigator started arguing with one of the members. The investigator was arguing that you can't say God is a person, you have to say he was, because he's perfect. And the member was arguing that God is a person, because the missionaries taught her that he has a body like her, and she's a person. So I tried to get them to see that it was just semantics, they were actually both saying the same thing....but to no avail. So me and Sister Hicken decided we were all going to read Moroni 7 together, out loud, so they couldn't argue anymore, and that lasted us until we got to Prague. They were all obedient, and readily agreed. I honestly felt like I was chaperoning little kids....and all three of them were at least 50 or 60. It's quite intimidating to have that much responsibility...I don't feel like I'm old enough! But then, Vera (one of the members) is afraid of escalators...and huge long, steep escalators are the only way in and out of the metros in Prague. So she freaked out every single time, and Sister Hicken had to convince her to get on them. hahaha, it was ridiculous. Oh and then the elder's investigator Jana, didn't quite believe me that I knew the metros in Prague, so she kept checking the maps, and got off one stop too soon, so we had to find her in the crowd and get her back on the metro before the doors closed....oh the drama. But! We had a miracle on the way too. So we were almost out of money, case it was the end of the month, and we had to buy our train tickets, plus one of the members cause she's on welfare. So we do that, and then realized we needed change for the metro passes. So me and Sister Hicken pull out all the change we have...my two passes were 48 crowns, and I had 49. Sister Hicken buys hers, and then we realized we had to buy them for that member too. So we look at how much we have left, and her tickets are only 12 crowns each cause she's old and gets the senior discount. Sister Hicken had 23 crowns...and then I remembered I had 1 left. Exactly the amount we needed, down to the crown. Pretty crazy. So then we finally made it to the conference, which was pretty good. But very relief society-esque, I know you know what I mean mom. There's something about relief society that has it's own unique culture, no matter what language you are speaking, that's very weird to people who aren't used to it. So Jana thought that was pretty weird, she has a Catholic background. But the new area authority spoke at the end, he's German, and his talk was really really good. He talked about repentance, and asked the question, it is our responsibility to complain or help? (specifically about crying kids during the sacrament), and then he talked about how the temple helps us in every stage of life, that was really good. So I'm really working on trying not to complain and just go to work. So the rest of the week was kind of rough too...we had 5 people dog us (not show up). So we did lots and lots of contacting in the pouring rain, and our numbers were really low. As if all that drama wasn't enough (plus the trying to speak czech and remember everything we are supposed to do when we are both new).... since it's been literally pouring every day for weeks, (I honestly don't think I've seen the sun in weeks, and that is not an exaggeration) there are now severe flood warnings! Yay. Prague is in a state of emergency, all the metros are shut down, and it's supposed to flood here too, but not as bad. When the reservoir gets full they open the floodgates. So the Tuckovi put a bunch of stuff in our apartment from their basement, cause we live by the river (we're on the 2nd floor). It was supposed to happen last night, but now they are saying it will be tomorrow. So we might be stuck inside all day tomorrow...we'll see. Sister Hicken's excited cause it means we might get to do extra service. So yeah...never ending adventure here in Ceske Budejovice. All of that happened in a week! Mom, you wanted to know how singing displays work? They only do them in Prague and Brno, unfortunately not here cause there aren't enough of us. But we just pick a spot by the metro or bus stops where there is a lot of people, and one companion sings while the other one contacts. We just sing hymns. So in Prague we had 4 or 5 people singing and then their companions contact, and we'd switch off every 15 minutes or so, and go for an hour and a half. We also had a info board that we'd set up next to us when the APs remembered it, and it had the church's name and pictures, the living christ, that sort of thing. We did it once a week as a district. I must have just missed your package...lame! I have to wait until training on the 19th to get it unless the zone leaders come here for some reason, cause it will be in Prague. I was really hoping it would be there on Saturday. Mom, I do look up the scriptures you put in your emails, don't worry haha. But I usually don't have time to respond cause Sister Bowler didn't like using the whole hour and a half. But Sister Hicken does, that's one good thing about being with someone from my own group I guess! I had the same epiphany about Satan being bound cause of righteousness the other day, pretty cool. You are totally spoiling the sisters! That is great. It would be so wonderful to have someone like you in the branch, seriously. We don't have any active families, just a few older men and women, and hardly any of them are married, maybe 10 or 15 come. So our primary is totally empty, and we only have 2 hours of church, it switches off between being sunday school and relief society. So we are going to be doing a lot of inactives work, we fasted for help on that on Sunday as a district. Well I am out of time, love you!!! Sestra Cooper