GENERAL CONFERENCE

Our C-Bud District

(Starsi Dean & Pickett's nametags got swapped)

From a letter Elder Brad sent home:

"I am here in the Czech Republic having the time of my life and learning a ton along the way."

In case my title didn't give it away, LDS General Conference was pretty good this past weekend. We watched it with our branch on Saturday and Sunday, but did it in English. We downloaded the English version onto our phones, each put one ear-bud of a headphone in, and then started it at the same time to line up with the Czech broadcast we were watching. So that way we could be in the room with members, but still actually learn things and being spiritually uplifted. And it was awesome! That was, most certainly, the highlight of my week, but some other things happened too...

• Last night we ran into the same Satanist I met last transfer with Elder Galbraith. He told us that appreciates and admires us and the work that we do here in the Czech Republic. That was a very odd moment, and I was quite unsure how to respond. Directly after that, we ran into the American gentleman Dennis, who lives around the corner from us, is from North Carolina, and speaks no Czech. He's been here for I believe 10 years. I don't know how he is still alive honestly. I would go insane living in country and not knowing the native language spoken for that long.
• We also made a triple batch of Halusky for our branch lunch on Sunday. It was quite an adventure, but a successful one. One of the members then brought Svickova, the sauce and meat. So we ate them together. It was a very original combination, of my two favorite Czech/Slovak foods, but it was actually really good. And then another member made pancakes, which were a lot like crepes, and we ate them with chocolate sauce. Also very good. Overall, we had a very good Sunday experience. 
• Lunch prep is our real meal. It is good. Spaghetti is really easy, we eat that. And some other similar foods. I do indeed miss chili and tacos and fried rice. But I will survive.

Photographic proof of cooking!  

• After General Conference, we tried to hunt down some less active church members, we have a list with their addresses. That was fun too. We found out that two of them no longer live at their old addresses, and one does, but we couldn't find the address! But we got to have a loud conversation with an elderly gentleman who was hard of hearing out of a second story window, got invited to come back and visit an older lady, and talked to some interesting people on the bus. It was some good finding time, overall. 

 The Czech Republic in spring!

This is a flower called "Golden Rain" and it is everywhere here! I love it.

•  This week I really tried to work on following the Spirit, even when it was a little inconvenient or uncomfortable. I will keep on trying Dad. Thanks for the challenge and the prayers!
• We also went on another bike ride today. And as I pulled out my camera to take a picture, it told me to charge the battery, and then it died. That was a bit unfortunate. So, sadly, I don't have any pictures of our extremely painful, and extremely memorable bike ride today up and down the hills of Southern Bohemia. We got bikes from Pavel, our bike friend. Our ride was to the middle of nowhere. And too far.  (Picture from Sestra Manners!)

Bike ride in hills of Southern Bohemia

·         This week has been an adventure. The language is coming along really well. I am picking up things a lot faster now. Every day I continue to see improvement.  I feel like I have always had a good understanding of what people are trying to say, even if they don't say it correctly in the English language. And I am feeling the same with Czech. I find that I can pick out the meaning of some Czech phrases and sentences and statements.  I actually had a cool experience with the gift of tongues this week. I try to pray personally in Czech, even by myself at night in my head. But when I want to have an especially heartfelt prayer, I like to do that in English. It is more comfortable for me. Well I had such a night this past week where I was struggling a little and I felt the need for an especially humble, heartfelt prayer. So I started it in English. But about 2 sentences in, the Czech words I was using in English started coming to my head more easily than the English ones. So I felt like that was Heavenly Father telling me "Just try it in Czech. You can do it." So I did. And I had a long, really heartfelt prayer  all in Czech. It was a cool spiritual experience

My spiritual thought for the week doesn't come from conference, it literally IS conference. Go and study it people! The talks and counsel which we were given were inspired and are sure ways to help us to draw closer to the Savior, to better honor our baptismal covenants as members, and to be better human beings in general (this challenge is meant for everyone who read my emails, no matter what religion).
https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng 
My challenge to you is to choose at least 1 talk this week, and study it! Mark it up, write on it, cross reference it, but study it and learn from it. I am doing Elder Bednar's talk, but you can choose whichever one you want! 

Thanks for all of the support and love, you are all awesome!
-Elder Pickett

 Random, artsy photo

 We work hard and enjoy pday fun!  Our District.

Hluboka last week