Week 8 in Brno

Ahoj! 18 Nov 2013 aaah I can't believe the transfer's already over. Ridiculous. The next two weeks are going to be crazy too, we have our concert on Wednesday night and then training on Thursday, and then the next week is Thanksgiving! Crazy. We get two hours for Thanksgiving dinner, so that will be nice. This week was kind of a blur....we did 3 singing displays to advertise for the concert so that was fun and freezing and my voice is going haha. We've been singing soooo much. And we're doing the musical number for the baptism on Sunday too, yay! But it was awesome, we've given out over 1000 flyers. So we'll see how many people actually show up! Prague just did one and had 100 potentials come. So I'm excited for that, we've gotten pretty much everything organized and together, just have to tweak the program a bit! It's going to be awesome, and hopefully we will get a bunch of new investigators for it. What else happened....we had an amazing impromptu lesson with our investigator Draha! That was so cool. We had invited her to the Relief Society clothing swap but somehow it started before so by the time she got there it was over, so we were scrambling to figure out what to teach. We ended up teaching the first half of the plan of salvation and watching Finding Faith in Christ, but the entire thing was so guided by the Spirit--I don't know that I've really had a lesson like that before. I knew exactly what I was supposed to say and how to relate it to her. And my companions were on the exact same page. So cool. We were all tearing up at the end. So that was amazing, she's progressing really well. And we had a good impromptu lesson with our Mongolian investigators too--a father and his son. It's really hard to communicate with them but they know French too (so I really need to relearn it....) and we had a member that spoke French in the lesson with us. It's pretty funny cause everyone in the district is teaching a Mongolian right now, Sister Schoen is convinced that it's a sign and that they will all get baptized and then they'll have their own branch! haha. We are trying to work out a skype schedule with the Mongolian elders cause the time difference is really hard. hahaha oh yeah and my companion accidently dyed her hair bright red last night.... that was pretty funny. She dyed it back this morning but she was freaking out about it. good times.... I think that is about it.... oh wait I had a really good personal study yesterday! That was cool. I was studying the Ten Virgins parable in an Ensign and it was talking about how olive oil was used for all sorts of things back then, food, a condiment, healing wounds, etc. And so then I started thinking about how Gethsemene means olive press and how it can be a symbol for the atonement, and then realized that all of the uses of olive oil can be how the atonement works in our lives spiritually. It was really cool. love you!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 7 in Brno? I can't keep track anymore haha

11 NOV 2013 Hi!!! We heard about our Christmas plans and I GET TO SKYPE YOU. hahah I'm sooo excited. I miss being able to just tell you everything. I know it's been almost a year but sometimes I still want to call you and tell you how excited I am about stuff. The rest of the holidays are going to be super awesome too. So the 23rd we have a mission conference so I get to see everyone I haven't seen in forever, and I'm pretty sure they will pass out the Christmas presents then too. And then on the 24th we go around and teach as many 5 min lessons about Christ as we can--to members, investigators, anyone who will listen to us. Then Christmas Day we go and do 3 hours of service with a member, so we can go carolling or something, and then spend the rest of the day with our district and skyping :) We only have 45 min of course, but I'm so excited. And THEN, on the 26th we do singing displays all over the city as a district :) It's going to be so great. And then on New Year's Eve we have to be home by 5 cause everyone will be drunk and we get to watch disney movies. haha. I can't wait. President McConkie is a genius--he didn't like that in the past they watched movies on Christmas, but he knew that everyone loved it so he just moved it to New Years and made sure Christmas was still about Christ! President McConkie is amazing mom, don't worry. I honestly think that part of the reason I am in this mission is because of him. It's such a blessing. And he respects the sisters and doesn't play favorites at all. In one of my interviews he was telling me that at an Area training one of the other mission presidents asked him how the sisters in his mission were, like they were going to be a problem, and he said are you kidding? I've never had a problem with any of them and they lead the mission! haha. Seriously he understands the gospel soooo well and his wife and family are amazing too.(haha mom my companions say that you look like Sister McConkie and she really does remind me of you :) She is awesome. At the end of every training President spends the last 15 minutes talking about one of Christ's titles in the New Testament--last time it was the Great Physician, I learned so much. I really wanted to tell you about it Dad. And he is so wise, seriously everything that comes out of his mouth is so helpful. (Dad-I think about you quoting o be wise aaallll the time). We rode down with him from Prague cause he was coming to Brno anyways and on the 2 1/2 hour car ride he went through all of our investigators with us, how they are progressing and where we are stuck and we came up with lesson plans for their next lessons. We actually tried one of them this week and it was so inspired. She's from Equador, and her mom is a member, but she's living here, and hasn't really been progressing, she's scared to come to church too. So he suggested that we relate the gospel to her mom--and ask if we can just teach her 4 lessons (since she's latin and already has a lot of faith we can teach her a lot more at once)--the same exact lessons her mom learned and then during the 5th lesson have a heart to heart with her about what she's learned and if she believes that it's true. So we talked about this plan with her, and she loved it, AND it turned out to be her mom's birthday that day anyways so she was already thinking about her. Can you say inspired?? And then she said she wanted to learn about the plan of salvation so I whipped out my pictures that I always have in my bag and we had an amazing lesson, completely by the spirit. So we called President after and told him about it and he was really excited. This week really was fantastic. The branch had a bonfire night activity cause the branch president is British (remember remember the 5th of November), and it was super cool. We had 4 investigators show up and Draha just loved it, met a bunch a members and everything. And then they had real fireworks too! It felt like 4th of July haha. And then two little girls got baptized on Sunday and we got to sing at that, that was fun. (I've done more musical numbers on my mission than my whole life haha) They are totally adorable, I'll send a picture. Their parents totally involved us and we got to teach them a couple lessons the last couple weeks, it was so fun. And our investigator Diego came to that and I think he really liked it. I had a really good personal study in Psalms of all places the other day too. I was just letting my fear hold me back from talking to people, and I realized that and repented, and it made such a huge difference. My attitude got way better and now I'm all excited to share the gospel again. Plus I had a lot of tender mercies this week--we had 4 people independently (members and investigators) tell us that they see the light in our eyes, and that when we speak we have the spirit and that it will make a difference when we talk to people. That was so good to hear, because sometimes I really don't feel like we are. So that was really nice. The Branch here is super awesome, it feels like a ward family, it's so nice. Well that pretty much sums it up. We have some pretty awesome progressing investigators now, so I'm hoping that I get to stay next transfer and help them make it to baptism. We'll see! I realized the other day that I've had a baptism in every area so far. Pretty crazy huh? But we are supposed to expect miracles so I want to keep the streak going :) I'll do my best! love you!!!!! Sestra Cooper P.S. Oh yeah and we are teaching this old lady who's husband was famous in the 60s in Hollywood apparently. I'd never heard of him, but his name is Eduard Ingris if you want to look it up. She's pretty cool, we've only had one meeting with her and she mostly just talked about him, he knew all sorts of people, including Hemingway!

Week 6 in Brno

4 Nov 2013 Cau! This week was kind of weird. The first half went by super fast cause we had to go to Prague again for Sister Stegich's visa and then we had Zone Conference. But then the second half took forever. Zone Conference was really fun cause it was all of the Slovak missionaries too, so I got to see Sister Jones and Belibi Minya. That was neat cause I haven't seen them since my first transfer. Sister Jones and her companion stayed at our apartment the night before, and it was so fun to talk to her--we have way more in common than I do with my companions. So that helped. And training was amazing of course, it always seems to be exactly what I needed help with and I always come away with more enthusiasm for the work and excited to try all the new ideas. So that was good. It was weird to have Halloween in Europe though, I saw exactly one Halloween display...the day after haha. It really didn't feel like it. I also can't believe it's November, I don't know what happened, the other day I started writing March on a record and I was like wait a second..... haha. The time just doesn't seem real. We are having a concert in 3 weeks that I'm excited about. We are teaching the first lesson through music! So each missionary companionship will teach one principle and then we have 2 songs for each of them. So we are going to try and get the members excited about it and involved so that it's a less intimidating way for them to invite friends to learn about the church. Plus all the members here are ridiculously talented, so it should be really good. We are just still working out the logisitics of it all, but I'm excited. President McConkie has awesome ideas--some of the other cities have already done it and they were really successful. As far as the week went we had a ton of lessons cancel, 6/6 one day. But it happens. A lot of our investigators got sick so they just dropped off the planet for a little bit. Hopefully we are able to meet with them this next week--cause we do have like 7 now, which is amazing. We are going to try to give 4 of them baptismal dates this week, so we'll see how that goes! After this week we only have 3 weeks left of the transfer though, so that's super weird. I did hear that President might be sending a Czech sister to Slovakia so that we don't have trios in both countries, so that will be interesting. I would love to serve there at some point...but at the same time things are just getting started here and I would hate to leave so soon. So good thing I don't decide right? I'm hoping we get to do a Thanksgiving dinner with the district--I think the senior couple might do it, that would be really nice. Because of course none of the members will celebrate it! Can't believe it's so soon. We had a first lesson with a referral who is a young woman, her mom's a member and she's been coming to church, efy, seminary and yws for a year but never got baptized! And she's super adorable, I am so excited to teach her. She really just wants to make sure that it's the right decision to get baptized and to get a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It was really neat cause as I was teaching her the first vision and testifying about it I just felt my testimony get stronger and I'm so grateful for it. And my testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown a lot this week as well. I just opened up to Helaman randomly and I'm just so surprised every time how spot on everything is. It just seems to describe our day perfectly. And I knew that before, but it never really sunk in. Plus I feel like I can identify better with the prophets when they describe sorrowing over the people's sins---I feel that when people choose not to listen or make decisions that I know will make them unhappy. I'm just so incredibly grateful for this gospel--it brings me so much joy, and I just wish that others would give it a chance--just to try it, and see if it doesn't make a difference in their life too. Love you all soooooo much. Sestra Cooper P.S. Cool fact about Czech that I think I forgot to tell you--it used to have z's like Polish until Jan Hus, and then they shorted them to the accent marks, like the hacek. Interesting huh? So Polish is really quite similar, it just looks different.

Week 5 in Brno

28 OCT 2013 Ahoj vsichni! Well this last week was soooo much better. We instituted comp inventory every night and that made a huge difference. I love both of my companions but man trios are hard haha. I wish someone had warned me! Oh well, we've kind of figured it out now, and things are going a lot smoother. Plus we found a bunch of new investigators last week!!! Which was super awesome. I'm convinced that Heavenly Father was just waiting for us to get our feet under us and then he just opened the floodgates. We are teaching this really cool guy named Diego, he's from Italy but speaks fluent French, and some English, can't remember if I already told you about him or not? oh well. But we had a really good first lesson with him, and he seems to be pretty solid. It was funny though cause he would start to ask a question in English, and then switch to French, and then I'd respond back in English cause I can't remember my French grammar (it comes out Czech)...and he was reading from an Italian pamphlet and Book of Mormon. And sometimes we accidently started speaking in Czech and he looked at us like we were crazy. Gotta love Europe!! Oh yeah and I bought a bunkbed! haha. So I'm not sleeping on the couch anymore. yay! Good thing I'm careful with my money or we wouldn't have had enough. But funny story...so we get to Ikea last Monday, and the first bed we see is perfect. So we booked through the rest of the store got to the warehouse, and it wasn't there. So we tracked down someone, and tried to explain what we wanted in Czech, and it turns out I wrote the wrong number down. So we finally got the bed, and realized that it was really long...and the zone leader's car is a little skoda....and no one in Europe owns a truck. So Sister Schoen called them and was like, abort mission there is no way it's going to fit. But they came anyways and measured it and it was just barely shorter than the whole car. So they were like, it'll probably fit....you can just buy it. haha. And they actually managed to fit the whole thing in--I'm not doing the story justice cause it was hilarious--I'll send a picture. Basically it was like Mr Incredible in his little car hunched over. hahaha. So then I put the whole thing together by myself and took apart the other broken bed, so our apartment is finally back to normal! That was fun. Sorry this is a lame email, I really can't remember what happened this week. Lots of lessons. Which was awesome. We are going to Prague again tonight cause Sister Steglich has visa stuff this time. And then we have training on Wednesday, and the whole Slovakian zone is coming too, which I'm super excited about, haven't seen them since my first transfer. For Halloween we are going to go visit a graveyard at lunch, and then we're having a halloween-themed district dinner on Sunday. So that'll be fun. that's about it.... Oh yeah I'm almost halfway through the Old Testament! And I am loving it. Yeah there are some crazy/disturbing stories, but you just have to get through them to find the gems. So I've developed a love for the Bible now, which is awesome. I feel like I'll be able to answer questions a lot better now, the more I read it the stronger my testimony of the Restoration gets. It's awesome. love you all!!! Sestra Cooper

Week 4 in Brno

21 Oct 2013 Ahoj! I'm not really sure what to say about this week, we're working hard. We got some referrals, which was cool, and we have a lot of potentials that say they want to meet with us, it's just a matter of them actually showing up/answering their phones. But oh well. We got to go on a hike with one of them in Saturday, and that was absolutely beautiful, cause it was all the fall leaves. I'd better enjoy it while I can though cause the snow is supposed to start in 2 weeks....And the branch has started a Christmas choir, so we get to be in that, that was fun. Church yesterday was super productive, we had our investigator actually show up, and he's Russian. So it was super cool cause a member got up to speak and she's Russian too, so he got to hear it in his own language :) He understands Czech fairly well cause they are pretty similar, but that was a small tender mercy. And then I was talking to a YSA, and he had brought his roommate to church, and said his other roommate has been asking lots of questions about our church as well :) So we got two referrals! That was awesome. He's from Taiwan and served his mission there, and he's studying music here so he's going to help us with the concert we are going to put on in November too! I'm excited for that. Last p-day was really fun, we went to Spilberk, the castle that's in the middle of the city on a huge hill, and then Sister Steglich bought a guitar, we all got scarves, and then we tracked down The Candy Store, which sells American food. That was super exciting haha, I got goldfish, jelly beans and rootbeer-- so we had rootbeer floats the other night!! It's been so long since I've had American stuff haha. That was happy. Today we are going to IKEA to buy a bunk bed, cause we only have one bed, the other one broke, and now there are three of us. So we'll see how that goes. Hopefully the zone leaders will be able to drive there to pick it up, cause they have a car. Otherwise it will be us lugging it by ourselves onto trams and buses and up and down stairs.....which will be a bit of a nightmare. So we'll see. I'm sorry to hear about Grandpa, gah I wish I could have been there to help!!! I'm glad that everything went as smoothly as it could have. I miss you all so much. I'm so grateful that we all know without a doubt that we will see him again. The gospel is so amazing. I just feel my testimony getting deeper and deeper the longer I'm out here--it's way more that I could have imagined, so I know that it's worth it. love you all soooo much. Hug Grandma for me. Sestra Cooper

Week 3 in Brno

14 OCT 2013 Ahoj! Well I'm definitely feeling better than last week, but this week was just kind of ridiculous. We had the worst train-wreck of a first lesson I've ever had on Monday and so that just kind of made my self-confidence die, and working with three people is really hard so there's been drama with that...but we're getting better. Found some new potentials and we've gotten a lot of referrals lately, so that's been exciting. There's one who's a yw and has been coming to church with her mom, and she went to efy and everything this summer, and I guess the other yw have been talking to her about getting baptized and she's thinking about it. So we should have our first lesson with her this week, and i'm excited about that. And another one came to conference and sports day this weekend, he's italian. (He speaks fluent French, but not very much English so I'm trying to remember my french...haha. It's a struggle, but at least I still understand everything) So we will finally have some people to teach, yay! And we did a how-to-start family history presentation that actually went really well, and it made contacting people on the street way less awkward when we could just invite them to an event at the beginning. So that was cool. (I'd love to see that family history stuff you are working on mom! it sounds awesome.) We are going to organize a concert soon and try to get more potentials there. One of the other cities did it and basically taught the first lesson through songs, and musical numbers and got new investigators out of it. Super cool right? Oh but the other ridiculous thing...I don't know what it is with me and getting sick/eaten alive here but it seems to happen way more than normal. We had a pigeon's nest outside our bedroom window that they knocked down, but apparently when you do that the bird mites go looking for something else to bite, and since i had the bed by the window the next day I woke up with more than 100 bites all over... So I've been sleeping on the couch all week while we've sprayed the bedroom with raid and aired it out just in case... So that was disgusting and kind of miserable, but we've gotten rid of them at least. So progress? Hopefully we'll move back into the bedroom in the next couple of days. And I found some good running shoes so we've started running again, and that felt amazing. anyways....we also went to prague again, and I officially have my visa now, so that's finally done. President McConkie was in Brno so we got to ride back with him, that was cool to just talk to him cause we never really see him except for trainings. And Conference was amazing of course. I think every talk was just so good. I loved Elder Hollands, Dube, Hales, Bednar, Ochoa....basically all of them. I can't wait to study them. There really is such a sense of the Lord's hastening His work, which is a little scary, I felt like a lot of them talked about how the world is just getting darker and darker, and how there is such a divide between those who are converted and those who aren't. There seems to be less and less middle ground. And it really does feel like Satan is throwing a tantrum like you said mom. Yuck. But at the same time, the gospel is so amazing, I can't believe we have more than 15 million members now!! That's crazy. Conference had me thinking about the future a lot, so I'm trying to not think about next year and how I have no idea what I'm doing with my life... Besides, I know that the Lord is in control, and that he will guide me when I make big decisions. It's still a long ways away, but at the same time transfers go by so fast, and I'm almost halfway done. So weird. Anyways. Well today should be fun cause I think I have a cool idea for Christmas presents for you guys assuming it works out and we are going to another castle with the whole district. So I'm excited about that. I can't believe it's almost Halloween! October just started.... love you!!!!! So. much. Sestra Cooper P.S. I finally saw a hedgehog! haha. And apparently I have a slovak accent when I speak Czech, I probably already told you that, but I thought it was funny.

Week 2 in Brno

7 oct 2013 Cau, Well I was doing fine until I sat down to email....I think the stress of this last week has caught up to me, and I've felt like I have to be the strong one for both of my companions. Both of them have kind of had a hard transition, so I've been trying to be the one that has faith and is optimistic and pushing us on, and comforting them. But I got sick AGAIN, and my cough won't go away, so I've been kind of miserable all week. Finally got to organize half the apartment yesterday though, which helped, it was such a mess I couldn't figure out what materials we even had. So that will help a little. I just really miss you right now. And I know that my friends are probably busy but no one but you guys have written me for a couple transfers now, which is lame. I know I shouldn't care, or take it personally, but it does hurt a little bit. I think I'm just extra sensitive because I don't really know any missionaries in Moravia--all of my friends are on the other side of the country. And the elders in my district here like to make feminist jokes and such, which is just annoying. I'm sorry this is such a downer, I think it just all caught up to me, and I feel like if I lose it in front of them then my companions will too-gah. I'm just feeling kind of alone right now. But I know that it's not about me, yadda yadda.... And I am working hard of course. I'll be fine, we're so busy there really isn't that much time to think about myself anyways. Well on the bright side the members here are great, and I really do like Brno. We have a really good YSA group, and people actually stop when you talk to them on the street. All of the people they taught last transfer have kind of disappeared, so we are basically starting from scratch, but we have a meeting with an old potential from C Bud (that I referred to myself haha) tonight and she sounded super cool on the phone, so that's exciting. We are teaching a family history introduction night on Wednesday so we are going to contact on that for the next few days to try and find some new people to teach, and then after that we are going to focus on inviting people to Conference, since we watch it a week late. I can't wait for it, I think I really need that spiritual boost. Can't believe it's been 6 months since the last one though! That was my second week in the country. Kind of crazy. The days just seem so incredibly long, but then I look back and I'm almost halfway done with my mission, and I don't know what happened! Well I don't really know what else to say about this week, it's all just kind of a blur. I just feel like I need to just be so much better, more effective, more bold, just everything. I know I shouldn't be such a perfectionist, but I could just be so much better. Gah. It probably doesn't help that I haven't had a real P-day for 3 weeks. I am excited about this transfer, it's just going to be a lot of work. But I'm really glad that I feel like I left C Bud a lot better than it was when I got there, so I'm determined to do the same thing here. I like contacting better in a trio, teaching is kind of hard to get used to, but we'll get there in the end. We are going up to Prague again on Friday for my last visa appointment, which will be good to get done. And I'm going to try and find some good tennis shoes today, I hate shopping as a missionary it's so stressful. Gah. Oh well. It'll be fine. love you!!!! Sestra Cooper