Week 24

Ahojky!                              14 Jul 2014

Ewww time is going by way too fast....I'm really trying not to think about it or I just start panicking, but this week was kind of hard because EVERYONE asked me about it. President came down for interviews and when he got to me he was like, wait, isn't this your last transfer? That means you don't get an interview until your departing interview when we get to talk about boys and school and stuff...ick. And his brother-in-law was asking me what I studied...and then the new senior couple got here and were asking how much time I had left, blech. It's harder and harder to be in denial but I'm doing my best! ....What are you talking about, I'm staying here forever!....

The Grays (senior couple) are fantastic though! SO great. They will make such a difference in this branch, I just wish I could be here to see it. Elder Gray was the church's architect for 25 years so he designed like 40 temples (including Portland!) and the Conference Center, which means he got to work with President Hinckley almost every day. He's got some pretty good stories :) But besides that they really know what they are doing and how the church should work and everything--decades of experience, so that's a little weight off of our shoulders! They have that spiritual maturity that is hard to find. So that's super cool, we planned a bbq on Friday so that they could meet a lot of the members and it turned out really well. Plus the triplets and the Kynclovi girls sang I'm a Child of God for them in Czech and English and everybody was tearing up. It was perfect. They really are just fantastic. I love this branch sooo much. SO much.

Well this week other than that was pretty good. We have some awesome new investigators--this one YSA, Tomas, we found on a street that was pretty much empty for miles, I think it was on a Saturday too--it's a ghost town on the weekends. But he had seen the Book of Mormon musical in London and was curious to learn more about us--he didn't know sister missionaries existed :) Our first lesson was good but he said he didn't want to pray or anything, just learn the information. But then on Tuesday he came to English and he was like what kind of church is this? You have all these activities, you are all happy all the time, this is completely different from any other church I've seen. The elders had taught Word of Wisdom for the spiritual thought and he was like hey I basically live that already, I'm 3/4 Mormon! And we taught with Magda, a super great girl who has been investigating for 5 years, and she gave the best testimony about daily reading and prayer, so by the end he prayed, was excited about reading the Book of Mormon and wanted to come to church. Miracles! He's so cool. 

We're teaching another YSA named Syllvie, who is also super cool. That was a great lesson as well. She just is blown away by the fact that we serve missions voluntarily (she's 20) and brings it up all the time haha. But we were teaching her and I felt like we should give her a baptismal date. So I whispered to my comp while Syllvie was talking to Jitka (a member) and she whispered back August 9th. So I asked her if she'd prepare for that day, and she said that she'd actually been thinking about baptism all week, since our last lesson, but she wasn't sure. And then she said, plus that day is my birthday...how did you know? Gotta love the Spirit. So she's going to think about it and pray about it :) The best part is that we found her after wandering around looking for inactives for 3 hours on a Sunday when no one was around. And then I saw her and really didn't want to stop her, but I felt like I should....and voila. Tender mercies :)

What else...a inactive girl who hasn't wanted anything to do with missionaries for a while actually texted US this morning and said we could come visit her. WHAT. Miracles! All we did was go by for the umpteenth time and leave a pass-along card with a note on it in her door. So cool. Oh and we've been visiting a part-member family with the elders, and no one had ever asked her if she wanted to be baptized, because her husband was really apprehensive about it (she's been meeting with them for like 8 months or something). So I felt like I really should just ask her. So I did (this was a couple weeks ago) and to everyone's surprise she said yes! And now she's on date for July 26 and they prayed together for the first time. Plzen's so great. Just miracle after miracle. Missionary work is the best. 

Well I think that's about it, this week is a normal one, next week we have specialized training at Karelstejin again like last year....and I have to give my departing testimony...ick ick ick. I might send another package home this week, cause I don't want it to get there after me... We are going to a castle today with the elders, so that should be fun, we haven't done anything like that for a while, everyone's always too busy. 

love you! 

Sestra Cooper

Week 23 in Plzen

                                   7 Jul 2014

Ahojky!

I don't even know what happened this week, it went by really fast. We have some cool new investigators, so we are finally teaching a lot again! We have a goal of 21 lessons this week, so we'll see :) Really nothing too exciting happened. The triplets turned 11, so that was fun, we celebrated their birthday when we came over for the lesson on Thursday. They are SO cute. Nefy has memorized the first 5 articles of faith, they fasted for the whole 24 hours for fast Sunday with their mom and Johy bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting about an experience she had at school--their school serves tea, and she had asked if it was black tea or herbal, and everyone told her it was herbal, but she didn't feel right about it, so she didn't drink it, and then found out later that it was black tea after all. It was so cool to be able to teach her that that feeling she had was the Holy Ghost helping her to choose the right, she was like, really?? It's just so neat to see their testimonies grow--they all came to church with new modest skirts yesterday :) I don't know how I got so blessed to be able to teach them. And they got to go on the Temple trip on Saturday with everyone, so even though they can't go in yet they got to feel the difference on Temple grounds--Nefy told me at church she wished she was there "right now". They are just counting down the days until they turn 12. Aah so much happiness--I love that family so much. 

We are doing singing time in Primary now--can't remember if I've told you that already, but it's adorable. The kids don't know any primary songs because it used to be only the Kynclovi's 3 girls every week (that's how it was when I got here). But on Sunday we had 8 little girls, and we were missing 5 other kids. So cool. Anyways, so we've taught them Love is Spoken Here and they are loving it, started Scripture Power last week :) It's been pretty fun--even the 4 year old learned the whole thing. Plus Sister Rosenvall was primary chorister before her mission so she actually has experience haha. I just love this branch so much. All of our recent converts were bonding in Relief Society on Sunday :)

Well this email ended up being all about little kids haha. This week should be good we are so busy teaching, it's the best when you don't have time for dinner or language study :) Plus we are getting a senior couple on Thursday!! Wahoo. They will help so much--it means that we don't have to run all the activities for the YSAs, like FHE, game night, sports day, but they can be in charge. So I'm excited to have them, they really do make such a difference in a district. 

OH yeah and we have a baptismal date! It's so interesting because on our vision for the transfer we put a wedding, thinking that Petr and Kat'ka would get married so that they can get baptized--but now they are saying it will be next year. So we were kind of bummed about that, but then we started teaching the girlfriend of a less-active, and she's decided she wants to be baptized, and that they are going to get married on August so that she can! Super cool. Visions are just inspired--President Irwin used to quote that scripture all the time--where there is no vision the people perish. It's so true, if you don't have a goal to work towards, then what are you progressing towards?

Love you!  

Sestra Cooper

Week 22 in Plzen

                         30 June 2014

Ahojky!

            Phew. I don't know what to say about this week. It was so schizophrenic--super great experiences and super hard ones. But the work goes on! President is so wonderful. I called him after a disaster of a law of chastity lesson (long story short the boyfriend who introduced her to the church kind of took over and gave excuse after excuse about how they can't possibly accept a date because he's scared, so then she was just confused and questioning everything. It just weakened her trust in us, which was frustrating). Anyways. you know what President said? Sister Cooper, that doesn't sound like a disaster to me! They both still want to get baptized, and you have a meeting set up! A disaster would be them saying that they never want to see you again and that the church is stupid. hahaha. And then he said he'll come down in a couple of weeks, we'll teach it again with him bearing testimony and everything will be fine :) So that helped a lot.            

            Oh on the bright side, one of our new investigators is the girlfriend of a member who we tried to teach my first transfer here, and she wasn't really interested. But we went to visit him on Saturday and he said, oh by the way, she wants to get baptized, you need to teach her everything. And then they came to all 3 hours of church :) So that was exciting ! Plus the people we've been working with to get them to the Temple are both going on Saturday! So great.            

            OH! How could I forget?? The branch had a picnic on Friday at the home of a sister we work with, her husband isn't a member and has never been interested. But we had a goal of getting him to let us teach him, because she said he's been showing some interest, but not enough to admit it. So we were talking to him at the picnic, and he's like no no, I might believe in something, but I'm not going to turn into a believer...etc. So we were thinking ok, maybe we shouldn't ask, don't know if it would be too pushy....And then my comp was like are we doing it or not? So I said, why not let's just ask. So she was like hele, muzeme prijit a vam ucit? (hey can we come teach you?) And he said, sure why not, we can talk, but you'll never convince me, set something up with my wife. Challenge accepted!! He's never agreed to take the lessons even though members have been trying for 20 years. So we are excited :) We'll start teaching him next week. Miracles! He didn't say anything to his wife so when we told her on Sunday she was so surprised :) 

            So things are finally getting moving, I'm excited to teach more. I just love teaching so much--it's definitely my favorite part of missionary work. I'm trying to teach and testify more in contacts about the Restoration and it's making a difference for sure. Church was really good yesterday but kind of hard because I realized that I love the Czech people so much. And the language, as hard as it is sometimes. I'm trying to make the most of it while I have the chance to speak it every day--that is such a privilege. So that was really sad to think that I don't have too many Sundays left. But a lot can happen in 6 weeks, so I intend to go out with a bang!

Love you!!!

Sestra Cooper

P.S. We played softball for sports day on Saturday because Gabca has the equipment--SO FUN. And I'm SO SORE. Everywhere. Haven't sprinted like that in forever. It was awesome. Dad you would be proud, I kept my elbow up and made it on base every time :)  

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

Week 17 in Plzen

26 May 2014 Ahoj! Well this week was kind of a blur, but a lot of really cool things happened. We went to Prague twice, once for training, and once for a baptism cause we were singing at it. That was fun. We're having a concert on Friday so we've been singing a lot. It was pretty funny on Saturday because we were running late on the way to catch the train and so my comp prayed before we left the apartment for an "autobusove zazrak" (a bus miracle) and a train miracle too. Then she laughed and was like, spis, tramvaj...cause we always take a tram, not a bus. But we got outside to find that they were working on the tram tracks and all of the trams had magically turned into buses haha. We laughed pretty hard at that, I think Heavenly Father was showing us that he has a sense of humor :) But THEN....we get on the train, and it's late and who do we sit by? a 20 year old guy from California studying abroad in Germany on his way to Prague, who is hours later than he planned and shouldn't have even been on that train in the first place because of a whole series of events. It turned out that we were only going one metro stop away from his too, so we helped him get a ticket and everything cause he doesn't speak Czech. Oh the craziest part--mom you might know his parents, his dad went to Torrance for high school, but he's a little older than you. Crazy huh? So if you remember any Sandstroms I met one of them. It was just so interesting--there is just no way that was a coincidence-too many things had to happen for us to meet him, he was only in the Czech Republic for a day. So that will be really cool if something comes of that, he got our contact info. Things like that happen to us all the time--what are the chances?? We really don't meet very many Americans. Yesterday was really neat too, one of our investigators came to church for the first time and really liked it, he was talking to everybody! Plus the elders came with us to visit a couple sick members to bring them the sacrament, and that was a really neat experience. The power that entered the room the second they knelt down to bless it was just so strong. The scripture: "in the ordinances thereof the power of godliness is manifest" came to mind, and it finally clicked for me. It's so true--the spirit is so strong during moments like that. That was really neat. The other neat thing this week was in studies--I was reading an old Ensign, and there was an article about how the good samaritan parable can be read as an allegory for the fall and the plan of salvation, and that it was in early Christianity. The coolest part was that it was inspired by a stained-glass window in Chartres in France--that I've totally seen! And I remember wondering why the fall and the good samaritan stories were in the same window. Super cool. So I studied that this morning and learned a ton, that was really neat. He talks about how the man is Adam, or us, Christ is the Good Samaritan, the priest is the law of Moses, Levite is the Old Testament prophets, oil is ordinances, the bandages are covenants and the wine is the atonement, the inn is the church, innkeeper is us as members or church leaders. Super cool. Well that's about it, we met a cool mom on the way home last night, I hope she meets with us. I made my planner for next transfer, which was very weird--it's the last one I will ever make. I'm really hoping I stay here, but we'll see what happens. I'm trying to make the most of every second I have left to stay in this beautiful country. So many things happened this week to remind me how incredibly grateful I am for my mission, and how much I wish I could stay forever. I have learned so many things that I never would have otherwise and changed so much--I will be grateful forever for the privilege of serving a mission--there is just no way I can express how I feel about it. I used the scripture in Alma 26:11-12 for my planner--that says it the best: "behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God...I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." I feel that joy and I have seen those miracles. Just too much happiness. Love you!