So. I have some fun things that occurred this week to talk
about. But they were all caused by 1 major event. So I will tell about that
first. When I arrived here in C-Bud, President McConkie described the area as
"literally on fire." And it was. They had a lot of people on
baptismal date, and lots of people with sincere interest in the gospel who were
learning a lot and coming closer to Jesus Christ. Which is basically our whole
entire goal as missionaries, so we are excited when that is happening.
Unfortunately, when I showed up I brought the cold and the snow (Wait… is Elder Brad like Else from “Frozen?” He can’t be… because the cold definitely
bothers him, ha ha). And cold and snow have a bit of a tendency to put out
fires...
- To put this into perspective
of how much our fire dwindled, at one point this past week, due to some
miscommunications with an investigator in our last lesson, we had no
investigators. Not one. Because he temporarily dropped us, because he
thought we dropped him. Elder Galbraith has been here almost 2 full years.
He has never before had no investigators. But there we were, for 20
minutes, without a single one. Let's just say that we were reeling in
shock quite a bit, and our language study was not very productive. But
turns out, he didn't mean to drop us, so we were all good.
- So we contacted this week. A
lot. We had multiple blocks of at least 3 hours where we were outside (all
bundled-up) in the snow trying to talk to people about the gospel. Oddly
enough, we find that people are more polite to us and more willing to talk
when it is freezing cold outside. Not sure why. We are stuck between they
are 1) impressed by our dedication and decide to stop to at least see what
we're all about or 2) just as crazy as us (because they are out in the
snow) and so not all uncomfortable to stop and talk with two young
strangers about their thoughts about such things as the purpose of life
and the role of Jesus Christ and prayer in it. From his companion Elder
Galbraith: During one of our
multiple hour contacting blocks this week (this one being 4 hours
straight, so not the worst we had), we were outside in -17 degree Celsius
weather, which is a grand total of 1 degree Fahrenheit. It makes the current
0 degrees feel like the middle of summer though!
It was decently cold.
- We also went tracting down a
rather snowy street and met the most polite people to ever reject us.
Other than 1-2 rude gentlemen, everyone was very nice in their rejections.
No one wanted to talk to us, but they were very nice about not wanting to
talk to us. So that was really good. We prefer those kinds of rejections.
- We walk to the town square
basically every day. The church building is right off of the main square
and we teach most all of our investigator lessons. We go out to the
suburbs to tract about 1 evening a week. We're going bus contacting this week, so I will have a chance for some
fun conversations I expect.
Town Hall on the main square (náměstí
Přemysla Otakara II) and the city square (taken by a different Elder in a different season!)
- We also did a singing display
as a District. Where 2 missionaries stand and sing songs in Czech and 2 go
out and contact. When I was out contacting, the first guy I tried to talk
to basically told me to get lost. It was an interesting start...
- Good things did happen this week though. We had lots of conversations with people that were very nice, and even if they decided they didn't want to meet with us, they still respected us and were curious at least about who we are and what we are about. We also met an English speaking gentleman from England, and we started teaching him. That is a good one, because I can understand everything that is happening during that!
- The problem we mainly run into is we can't figure out how to draw people to the gospel. Most people when they hear that we are talking about religion don't want to talk to us. Mainly they have a very strong atheistic influence from communism, and if they are religious, they have a strong distrust of organized religions trying to take your money and control your life. So it's difficult. There are also a lot of people here who ascribe to being Buddhist. Which was unexpected for me.
- Oh man, my sense of humor is
probably my best coping mechanism. I joke around plenty with my companion.
And he laughs easily, so that is good too. We have fun together. Some
peoples' responses to us make so little sense you can't not laugh about
them. Our favorite is when people say "I don't want anything!"
or "I am nothing!" in Czech and keep walking past us. We joke
about how the Czech people are just too humble, even for the Gospel it
appears.
- Also we had Branch
Conference. Which President McConkie came and spoke at. I didn't
understand most of his talk, but I DID understand his testimony of Jesus
Christ, and that he said after it that if we didn't get anything from his
talk, he wanted us to get that. So that was pretty awesome.
- Speaking of
understanding...My Czech is coming along. Slowly. As always. I can usually
kind of understand people, as long as they use enough vocabulary that I
know. Which means when we stop talking about the Gospel, I get lost pretty
quickly, because that's really all that I know. It is also really funny
because when people are talking to us during contacts, they look back and
forth, not realizing that I have no idea what they are saying. So they are
talking to both of us, but really just to Elder Galbraith most of the
time. It's great fun.
- My favorite things about Czech culture...The food is amazing. Public transportation is fun, and it is very much used here. Czech pants. Czech pants are able to be purchased in pretty much any size. I have seen basically every age you could imagine of people wearing them. They are pretty jazzy. (pictures in last week's blog post)
- Halušky. It is macaroni and cheese, except superior in literally every way. Unfortunately it is not possible to make in the US. Unless you know a way to get unpasteurized cheese, which is illegal to sell. It is actually the signature Slovak dish, but my companion served in Slovakia for a transfer, so he loves it. We make it from a box, but it can also be made from scratch. There is also an option to make it with cabbage instead of cheese. Not sure how that would be. And I have heard some people use cottage cheese instead of Brynza (the cheese you can't buy in the US). Also, if you can find out how to make good Svičková, that might change your life forever. But it will be difficult to judge, because you have not tried it in the Czech Republic before...
The town square (or naměstí) in Jindřichův Hradec, where we
visited today.
A cool kostel (how you say church in Czech).
Elder Galbraith has developed sore shoulders. This is how he stretches.
(nice to get a glimpse of part of their apartment... weights, a keyboard, ironing supplies!)
Spiritual thought for the week is about Christ. It comes
from Luke 22. Starting in verses 41-44. This is when Christ is performing the
Atonement. He is suffering for the pains and the afflictions and the sins of
the entire world. More suffering and pain than anyone has ever had to go
through. Then after that, he gets betrayed by Judas, one of the 12 Apostles!
Someone who was with Him during miracles and teaching, and still betrays Him.
And He knows that He is being taken to be killed. He has prophesied about it
His whole ministry. But He takes the time to heal the guard's ear after one of
the Apostles tries to fight back. He is in the middle of the most difficult,
agonizing thing that has ever been completed by anyone in the world. Yet he
takes the time, and has the compassion to heal this man. What does that mean
for us? I think it means 2 major things. One, going through challenges and
trials in our own lives gives us compassion and empathy for others when we see
that they are suffering. Two, we can always take the time to help. We can
always put in the effort and always find a way to serve those around us.
Thanks for all the support and emails and prayers! You all
rock!
-Starší Pickett
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