week 16 in C BUD...aaaaah

9 Sep 2013 Ahoj! I freaked out yesterday during weekly planning when I realized we only have 3 weeks left of the transfer. Can't believe it, it goes by so fast! We've got District Conference in Prague this Sunday and then the next week Constantin and our returning member get the priesthood (!!) and then we've got training in Prague and transfers. Oh yeah and we have another investigator with a baptismal date for that week too. So we'll see how that goes, should be pretty busy. It's really cool because our vision for the transfer included 1 baptism or someone progressing towards it, and a less-active returning and getting the priesthood, even though at the time we had like no investigators and it didn't look possible. (we still have like no new investigators...but that's ok!) God is a God of miracles and they are totally happening :) Annica that is awesome that you had a baptism the same day! so fun. Wow orange water, gross. Good thing you checked! Constantin did get baptized on Saturday :) It was pretty small cause not a lot of people could come up to Prague, but the spirit was so strong and he is so happy. So neat to be a part of it. We got him a shirt and tie as a present, and he was so excited haha. So great. It was cool too, cause Sister Bateman, who is our sister training leader is in Prague, she was there for his 2nd lesson a year ago as a greenie and she got to see him get baptized :) The office elders filled up the font for us, which was good, cause we wouldn't have had time. Other things....we went out to Prachatice, Sedlec and Plastovice to find less actives with the senior couple this week. That was really nice to be able to make some progress on that, cause they have a car. So that was fun, the only one we taught was one that we've visited before, the other two have moved, but that was good to know. It was fun seeing this tiny old villages, they are so pretty, and a nice change from the city. I think we are going to make it a weekly thing, we're going to visit some more on Saturday. Our area is gigantic, it goes to the German border and all the way up to Plzen, so for some of them it's an hour drive to get there. But that was fun. We're trying to keep them busy cause they don't really have anything to do. I'm glad my package made it! I was worried about that. I'm glad only one of them broke, i'll just have to get some more next Easter. The keychain is from Indonesia, Charlah gave it to me. The old testament manual would be helpful, but I don't think I can lug around anymore books for transfers haha. We have one in Czech at the church, not that that is very helpful. But I have been learning a lot, even though Leviticus is kind of painful haha. All these things I never knew were in there! Like one of our investigators said Mosiah 29 (about the judges) seemed too modern to be true, and then I was reading Exodus and Moses does the same thing! And one of our returning members was freaked out that the temple font has 12 oxen--but Solomon has the exact same thing in his temple. Totally cool. haha we would finally get a snuggly dog when I'm not there! go figure. but that's awesome. We were watching the district today in comp study and just laughing about how it would be if they filmed it in our mission. Cause they are like, "we did all we could to just get a baptism, and it didn't happen." Ours is more like "the whole district did all we could to find just one new investigator to teach this week and we still have no one!" haha. (that's actually true for this week...) And our apartment....haha the top of the toilet is broken so we have to leave the window open 24/7 or it stinks, and the toilet seat falls off, our freezer eats our food alive even though we just cleaned it out and our clothes drying rack is duct-taped in 4 places and still collapsing so we have it propped up with weights. Oh yeah and my bed is two pea-green box-beds from the 70s stacked on top of each other with a mattress on top, and my nightstand is an ironing board hahahaha. Can you imagine them filming that?? we were just cracking up. Gotta love it. But the funny thing is that I just love it here. It really makes no sense. Blessings! I wish I could describe it better, what it's actually like, I feel like I can only tell you like a tenth of everything that happens, if that. Love you sooooo much!!! Sestra Cooper

week 15 in C Bud

Ahoj! 2 Sep 2013 Well this week was a week of miracles. Constantin is getting baptized on Saturday!! I can't even believe it. He's changed so much in the last 2 weeks. It was so cool cause we had a lesson with him this week, and he's been reading the Doctrine and Covenants (he's already read the BoM, Lorenzo Snow manual, True to the Faith...) and it was so funny cause he whips out these verses and was like, why didn't you use these on me before?? This one says I need to be baptized and this one says I shouldn't ask God for a sign! haha. It was great. The Spirit taught him what he needed to hear, and what we weren't able to get across. And he's gotten more and more solid by the day, passed his interview and he's all set! He wants it to be in Prague so we are going up there on Saturday :) I'm just grateful to be a part of it. We got to meet his family over Skype cause they are in Romania, and his wife and oldest son are reading in the Book of Mormon :) He wants to start up a group big enough in his little town to have missionaries come one day. And Ctibor decided he wants to work toward getting the priesthood, and Olina came to church!!! She was baptized last year and we've been trying to get her to church the entire time I've been here. So she finally came when we stopped by to wake her up! That was exciting. Oh and Michal accepted a baptismal date too, so that was good. Me and Sister Regnier taught Family Home Evening about how to bear your testimony, but nobody really came, so now we are teaching it in Sunday School this week cause Fast Sundays always just make us cringe. Yesterday we had one complaining about how no one helps her with her problems, one was a history lesson about Napoleon and Hitler and who knows what else....haha yeah they get pretty interesting. I understand just enough to cringe, but not all of it. So that should be good, we are hoping that helps, cause it's really sad when you are secretly glad when your investigators don't come to church because you are afraid they'll get scared off. I taught Relief Society again, and it actually went fairly well. A member who had left the church a couple years ago was down here on vacation for a couple weeks (she lives in Prague) and she stayed :) It was her first time at church since she left, and she said she really liked the lesson, so I was really happy about that. I've had some pretty interesting discussions with her, it was really cool to meet her. It was the chapter on with God all things are possible. We are going over to the senior couple's apartment tonight to plan when we will go out to visit the less actives that are further away, because they have a car. So I'm excited to get that going, we could only do so much when we have to take buses. Well I think that's about it, Ctibor brought us a Roma specialty for lunch on Saturday, stuffed cabbage I think is how you'd translate it, it was really good. And there was an end of summer street party going on during dinner on Friday, so I got to have some paella. It was good but I think yours is better mom :) I just love European street markets, so much culture! We don't get to do stuff like that very often, so that was fun. love you soooo much!!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 14 in C Bud

27 Aug 2013 Ahoj! This week was crazy. So many things happened, I don't even know where to start. First of all we had an AMAZING first lesson with Zuzka, she is the most prepared person I have ever met. It was so cute, she was like, wow, I really want to read this book, can I borrow it or something? haha. She is like 26, speaks perfect English, and guess what she studied in college?? sociocultural anthropology. aaaah it was so much fun to bond with her. She was telling me about her thesis project and it sounds fascinating. Oh yeah and she accepted the baptismal invitation, we are giving her a date on Wednesday :) I'm so excited about her. And this week we also managed to give a date to Constantin, who has been investigating for like a year. We ended up having a group lesson with the elders (they teach him Czech) and he really responded well to Elder Bahr, finally just admitted he's just scared. So we'll see what happens, it's for september 7th. And Michal's coming back this week too! So things are looking up. We prayed about our baptismal date goal for August and felt like we should go for 3 even though we had like no investigators at the time, and now it's looking like it might happen. So that's exciting. Oh yeah, cute story: we went to Ctibor's panalak to teach him and as we were leaving this group of little boys came up to us and were like, do you speak English? Can you teach us how to pray? it was adorable. I'm going to start putting the modlitba (how to pray) cards in my bag so we can give them one next time. On Friday we had training in Prague which was amazing. President McConkie just blows my mind every time. He is so great. And he trusts us so much. He gave us a bunch of new finding ideas, he wants us to get creative. We are allowed to go on cultural vylets now with members and nonmembers, once every 2-4 weeks, which I'm super excited about. I've been wanting to understand Czech culture better since I got here, but didn't really have a way to do it. So because of the new rule we got to go mushroom hunting with Brother Sir on Saturday, it's so Czech. They love mushroom hunting, they call it their national hobby. I loved it, it was actually really fun. And it really helped us gain more trust with him too, which we needed, which was more of the point. The only downside was that almost all of us got ticks on our legs...oops. haha. It was my second one, I think I forgot to tell you about the one my first transfer. So I didn't freak out as much this time and got it out just fine haha. Gross. Me and Sister Regnier decided we are buying tick spray the next time we go into a Czech forest. It was actually pretty funny, yesterday we were talking about how well we get along, and both of us were worried when we heard we were going to be together haha. Guess first impressions in the MTC were wrong! She was like, I thought you were like perfect or something, but you are actually really fun! haha great....apparently everyone still thinks I'm intimidating when they first meet me. Oh well, I feel like I've changed so much since the MTC anyways. It will be interesting to see what you think when I get home. What else...I gave another talk on Sunday, used Elder Bednar's definitions of testimony vs conversion. No idea if my Czech was intelligible or not, because no one said anything about it. So I hope it helped someone, I learned a lot preparing it at least. We had 26 people at church, even more than last week :) And the senior couple finally got their visa so they are coming on Wednesday. oh yeah another thing, they've banned backpacks. We can only wear them on P-day or for service, when we aren't in proselyting clothes. I'm quite bummed actually because I love mine and use it every day. So I have to go buy a bigger messenger bag today, because my little one is just too small. So that's a pain. But I understand why, they don't look very professional, hopefully it won't be too hard to find a good one. love you sooo much, Sestra Cooper

Week 13 in C Bud

Cau! Holy cow the transfer is almost halfway over. Crazy!!! I can't believe it. Who knows what will happen, I'll probably be leaving. It feels like I"ve been here forever and that I will just stay forever too haha. This week had even lower numbers than last week, cause even our less-actives dogged, but it was actually a lot of fun. Even though we contacted SOOO much and got no meetings out of it. But the cool thing was that I finally learned to love contacting. I've hated it my entire mission haha. But this week I really just dove in and felt so much joy from talking to people on the street. We got 6 numbers, which was really good (2 of them dogged and the other 3 aren't answering their phones). But we did a chalk display on Lannova street, which ended up being really fun, I'll send a picture. The elders drew a world map and Lehi's journey with the Bible in the old world and the Book of Mormon on the new, and then we contacted on the Book of Mormon. It was so fun. And I met a really cool girl named Zuzka, I was telling her about the Book of Mormon and how it's evidence that our message is true, and she said how can I know? So I read Moroni's promise with her, and without me even having to explain it (most people get confused with the Spirit part) she said, oh ok, so I'll feel that it's right in my heart (!!!!) So cool. So I called her on Sunday, and she didn't answer, and I was like, great, there goes the last of the numbers we had. But then she texted, remembered my name, and said she wants to meet on Tuesday!!! aaaaah I was so happy. It was the best. I'm really excited about her. And she's young! Yesterday was just a really good day, we had 23 people at church!! hallelujah. 3 of them were Dutch tourists, but still. (I got to translate during Elder Bahr's talk...aaaah. But I can understand missionary Czech so it was fine. Native speakers I still have some trouble). AND CTIBOR STAYED FOR THE SECOND HOUR. haha. I've been trying to get him to stay for so many weeks. One of the members invited him, and he was like, why not? So he's almost active :) Still working on the whole priesthood thing, but that's ok. I taught Relief Society/YW and it was a disaster haha. The youth curriculum does not work for adults apparently! (Gita wasn't paying attention, Vondrackova never does, and then we had the elder's Russian investigator who doesn't really speak Czech. Johi was wonderful though--the Chrdlovi's 16 yr old) I think we are just going to teach YW every other week during Sunday School until the senior couple gets here--they are stuck in the MTC waiting for their visas, so they still aren't here. Oh yeah and I did a lot better at asking for referrals, that's been one of my goals the past few weeks, I remembered in every single lesson this week :) (granted there were only like 4 of them...but still.) What else happened...we got our other English student to pray at the end of the lesson! And we had a branch bbq again, that was fun, we bonded with Johi. This week we have A LOT of contacting again. Since we still have no investigators. But are doing another district finding activity, this time we are going to set up a board that says something like, what questions do you have for God? and then have people write down their questions and their number. So we'll see how that goes. And then we have training on Friday, which will be fun, I always love going back up to Prague. And it's on finding this time, which we need a lot of help with so I'm excited. Our sister training leader gets to do something this time, with president's wife. It's really nice to have one finally--she calls us every Sunday night to check in. Our zone had a goal of 22 new investigators this last week (2 per companionship is standards), and everyone was supposed to send out a text when they found one, or had some miracle happen with finding. It was cool at first, but after working so hard all week and getting nothing it was kind of rubbing it in haha. But Sister Bateman's area is suffering too, and she feels the same way, so that made us feel better. Numbers don't mean a thing right? The zone ended up getting 20, which I guess is better than we've had in a long time, so that was cool. Just wish we could have contributed to it. Elder Greener is super good about encouraging us though (I think it's a talent of his), he was telling me that he had 2 transfers in Prague when literally the only lesson they taught a week was English. Then they had 2 baptisms, and then the area died again. So he was talking about how it's just the Lord's timing, and how it's not that we are doing something wrong--it just happens. So that helped a lot too. Plus I just keep telling myself something that one of the speakers said in the MTC--when Ammon was baptising thousands, Aaron was in prison. Kind of like what you were talking about in your email Dad. It's been really interesting too, my last two companions have commented on how much they enjoy learning from me in comp study, how I have so much "world and spiritual knowledge". I have never seen my love of learning as a talent before, but I guess it is. I'm just glad that they don't feel like I'm always talking their ears off haha. So that was cool. I've already read the whole missionary library, daughters in my kingdom and all of the Ensigns in our apartment during breakfast and nights (because of course I read the scriptures during personal study, and it's nice to read something else)...I think I'm going to start on the church handbook, because I am technically the Relief Society president right? Maybe I should know what's in it haha. And I'm working on reading the Book of Mormon out loud in Czech, almost done with 1st Nephi! Oh yeah and I saw that the missionary numbers are up to 75,000?? So cool. Sestra Cooper NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

week 12? mozna... i can't remember haha. in C Bud

Ahoj! 12 Aug 2013 Well I really don't have that much to say about this week. It was kind of really terrible. (so i guess we were in the same boat mom, sorry!) All of our investigators disappeared again, and we didn't have any luck finding new ones. Literally all of our investigators but Constantin are gone, and he's not progressing. They are either out of town, or not answering their phones/door. It wasn't quite the lowest numbers week I've had, but really close. If it weren't for the less-active lessons it would have been. So that was really discouraging, I was feeling pretty down on Friday, and just struggling to keep the faith. I have faith in God of course, but when it comes to people not being flaky...that is another story. Agency gets me every time!! But things got better on the weekend, Ctibor came to church again, that's number 3! it would have been 4 but he ran into a slightly apostate member on his way who told him not to come. I'm still mad about that, pretty sure it's just cause he's (the other member) racist. Super lame. But Ctibor came this Sunday, and is doing really well. AND the Chrdlovi are back!!! They are an awesome family who have been living in England for the last 2 years, so they all speak perfect English (the 5 year old sounds like a Brit, it's so cute). They are totally active, involved and know how a real ward functions and they love helping the missionaries, so I am so excited about that. They have a 16 year old girl who is awesome too, so I might even get to teach some YW lessons again :) my favorite. We are all going to their house for dinner on Tuesday, and the senior couple gets here tomorrow too!! I decided that last week was just Satan throwing a tantrum because the work is just going to explode now :) I'm excited for the miracles. I really do feel like I'm in C Bud to help the less-actives. That's really the only area where I've seen any sort of progress. Plus last night I remembered that in my setting-apart blessing President Barnes said that I would see people convert to the gospel, but it would be just as important, if not more important to activate those who have fallen away. I feel like I'm seeing that happen. So that's been pretty neat. Oh and yesterday's personal study was really cool. I was studying my patriarchal blessing and just kind of pondering things, how hard it was to leave on my mission and how great it will feel to come home (exactly a year left this week--crazy) after giving my all for a year and a half. So then I started thinking about premortal life, how hard it must have been to leave, and how amazing it will be to return home. So then I was thinking about why anyone would have chosen to reject the plan of salvation--it seems pretty unbelievable, when Heavenly Father and Christ were right in front of us. (I was reading President Uchtdorf's talk from the YW general conference too). But then I had an epiphany that it was fear. That's what holds back anyone from progressing in the gospel, whether that's being baptized, or being fully converted, or what. With Satan's plan there was no risk of failure. Of course that meant no growth as well. All of the experiences in life that mean the most are experiences of growth--which means that sometimes they are really hard. Life is about walking by faith, and fear is the opposite of faith. So when we let fear hold us back, then we can't progress and walk by faith, like we are meant to. The Spirit is so cool :) We are going to Hluboka castle today for P-day, assuming the Elders figured out how to get there haha. So I'm excited about that, apparently it's the best castle in South Bohemia! So that'll be fun. love you!!! Sestra Cooper

week 11 in C Bud

Ahoj! 5 Aug 2013 This week was kind of crazy, like usual. My birthday was really fun, we went up the black tower at lunch, because it's right by the church and I'lve been wanting to go up it since my first day (it was built in the 1500s). Pretty awesome. And we got mcflurries :) Oh and I did get your package in time mom, forgot to tell you that last week. And I got my hair cut! halleujah. Sister Regnier is awesome, we are getting along great, she's really easy to talk to. Elder Bahr stayed too, but Elder Greener is the new branch president. He's super enthusastic so that's been really good for our district. And the senior couple gets here next week!! Can't wait. What else happened...oh I finished my first language level!! finally. It took foooreeever, had to memorize so much sklonovani (the cases) But I was really happy about that. Oh and we got 15 lessons this week, which was the highest I've gotten in C Bud, so that was exciting too. Our investigator Michal is progressing so well, but he leaves for another month this week. Which is really lame. But I think he might make it to baptism, he wants to be baptized, he just doesn't feel like he understands things well enough yet, which makes sense. I feel like I've really connected with him though, he's a professional violinist, and he's so sweet. So that was neat to see his progress. And we had a really good lesson at English as well, George was the only one there, and he says he doesn't believe in God, but he's been asking more and more questions during the spiritual thought :) That was exciting. And Jarda's back!! miracle of miracles. We met with him, and he was totally closed at the beginning of the lesson, basically like, I appreciate what you are doing, but it's not for me. And then Sister Regnier shared her dad's conversion story, and how grateful she is that he gave the sisters a chance, and by the end he agreed to pray! I ended up teaching the whole Restoration too even though we didn't have it on plan. And he wants to meet with us again! (He's moving to Qatar in a month....but I'm hoping that that doesn't happen.) Our new investigator Angela was so cool, and then we taught her on Sunday and she got super closed--Sister Regnier thinks it's because she has realized it might be true and got scared. But she said we can still meet with her, so we'll see. This week was kind of the opposite of the last couple, we had really good progress with our investigators, but the less-actives freaked out. And Constantin, who isn't a member but is more active than most of them. So that was lame. One started smoking again, both bailed at coming to church, and Constantin started drinking coffee again. (Because the previous sisters said they would send him postcards when they got home and then didn't...he concluded that we are all liars, and the church isn't true. But the Book of Mormon still is.) Gah. So that was rough. Oh yeah and then that kid that hit on Sister Hicken last week was being ridiculous yesterday, he does not take a hint. So we asked the elders to tell him to back off, we'll see if that works, it's getting really obnoxious. Well I think that is about it...we had another family history activity, and a lot more people came this time, so that was neat. Oh yeah and I taught Relief Society. I do feel more responsibility for the sisters now actually, which is interesting. We had two come on Sunday, so we really need to find some more women. I'm learning a lot about people being here in C Bud. I feel like I'm continuing to learn more about myself, how important it is to be grateful for the things I have, how grateful I am to have a work ethic and to have a supportive family back home, and what attributes matter most to me. It's amazing how much personal growth comes when I spend all day every day thinking about others. It's so true that when we lose ourselves in the work, we find ourselves! Love you!! Sestra Cooper

week 10 in C Bud

29 Jul 2013 Ahoj vsichny!! Well as you can see I am still in Ceske Budejovice! I was so happy that I get to stay. Sister Hicken left for Hradec Kralove this morning and my new companion is Sister Regnier. Yep another one from my MTC group haha. But I'm excited, this transfer is going to be awesome. We built up our area so good last transfer, I'm really excited to see what can actually happen now! This week was kind of crazy. We went to Prague twice, for visa stuff and Mission Conference, it was so great to see everybody. We went to Karelstejin again to the place where Elder Witsoe dedicated Czechoslovakia in 1929 because it was the 84th anniversary. So we had a meeting there, sang the same hymns they did, and then had some testimonies and President read some of the promises Elder Witsoe gave when he dedicated the lands. One was that this mission would open the door to the gospel being preached in other Eastern European countries, so President talked about how we are blessing people beyond our mission when we serve. I had actually just had an experience about that two days before. We were on the train back from Prague the first time, and there were two ladies in our compartment. One of them kept glancing over at us, and I felt like I should talk to her, but I didn't know how, and felt like it was awkward with the other lady. So instead of just pushing it away like I was tempted to do, I started praying that I would know what to say and that the other lady would leave. So after she looked up at me for the umpteeneth time I finally gathered up enough courage to ask her how she knew english (she had asked us to shut the door in English). And right at that moment the other lady got up and left. We ended up having a really cool conversation for the next hour, she's Russian and lives around the corner from the elders in her city, so she recognized our tags. And she'd been given a Book of Mormon in English before, but she never got around to reading it (she didn't want a Russian one). So I was able to testify to her about why I am on a mission, and why the Book of Mormon is so amazing, and how it's blessed my life. I'm sure I'll never see her again, but I'm so glad that I prayed to know how to follow that prompting--for some reason that's the first time it's ever occurred to me to ask for help haha. It was a really cool experience. (The other apostolic promise was that the Spirit of Elijiah would bless the people's hearts to be open to the gospel. So that was really cool especially because we just started up that bi-weekly family history activity!) Other things this week...We have a super cool new investigator...and she's a woman! hallelujah. We only teach men haha. But her name is Angela and she contacted us when we were doing building tours--she's a former and when we had our first meeting with her, she told us that she's been praying to find more peace in her life, and that we are the answer to her prayer!!!! aaah it was so great to teach someone who actually wants to learn. Oh and the other miracle this week--Ctibor came to church AGAIN, stayed for the second hour, and said that he's going to come again next week. I'M SO EXCITED. We have worked so hard with him, I was telling Sister Hicken the other day that when we come out of a lesson with him I feel like I'm walking out of a battle haha. Between the trying to understand his Czech, waging war on his apostate ideas and trying to get him to understand that he has worth and that we need him back in the branch, it's a lot of work haha. BUT SO WORTH IT. aaah I'm so excited. And we get the senior couple in 2 weeks! The branch is finally starting to move. Oh, funny story from Saturday--the elders invited a boy they met on the street to polar bear (don't ask me why, he's young, and not even Czech, he's from Ukraine.) Anyways. So we are walking home with the elders like we always do, and this kid is talking to my companion, I'm about 5 feet in front of them. And then all of the sudden he starts hitting on her, talking about the sunset and wanting to go on a walk and to know where we live. So I went back and rescued her just in time haha. I literally pulled her away while telling him nashledanou (goodbye) several times while he kept trying to talk to her. And then we walked home the opposite way so that he wouldn't follow us home haha. We were just like whaa? Apparently we are just naive? didn't even cross our minds, we don't have to worry about that as missionaries right? hahaha I felt so dumb. But it was really funny. And then he came to church the next day and kept trying to talk to her....so good thing there were transfers haha. She's safe. Well that is about it I think! I'm the new Relief Society president by default, unless the senior couple gets to do it, which would be such a relief. But we'll see what happens. We had one woman at church last week, which is up from 0. So progress! Oh yeah and it's my birthday tomorrow. Crazy!! 22 sounds soo old :) love you all!!!! Sestra Cooper