Prague Has an LDS Stake

I am almost out of time today, sorry!  This will be short and packed with details and information.

• We are a stake! We had a most amazing conference last Sunday, in the Zofin Palace on an island by the River. So I guess you could say it was a decent setting. President Uchtdorf was there! It was an incredibly event, and the Spirit was there in abundance. I feel so blessed and grateful to have been a part of it! We got to make and set out the programs, and I got hugged on Saturday morning by Elder Adler, a General Authority. So that was a fun bonus. I didn't get to shake Pres Uchtdorf’s  hand, unfortunately. But I got pretty close to him. I don't have my journal with me, or what I wrote about Sunday right now. Sunday I didn't write a lot of what was said, I wrote down promptings about what I needed to learn. It was good
• http://www.mormonnewsroom.org.uk/article/president-dieter-f-uchtdorf-presides-at-the-creation-of-the-first-stake-in-the-czech-republic?HP_TU_18-5-2016_dCN_fMNWS_xLIDyL2-3_  this is a short video about this event!  Copy this address and spend 3 minutes watching this historic church event that I got to witness.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency of 

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints 

 President and Harriet Uchtdor and Elder Timothy & Jill Dykes

All in favor! 

• In the new stake, the new wards are Prague, Plzen, Hradec Kralove, Jicin, Ostrava, and Brno. Others will remain as branches.
• We had Elders Shirley, Hudson, Lanham, Swink, and at the last minute, Dean and Marcucci at our apartment last weekend for the Stake Conference. . It was complete madness last Saturday. We ran out of time last week to put in any pictures. But I have some. (which someone ran out of time AGAIN to email them…)
• We had a great week, getting ready for training next week. In the office, Elder Terry is in charge of receiving "orders" from all of the missionaries, and we send out what the missionaries need. We get orders  for more papers, contacting cards, and other various and random items necessary, or unnecessary for missionary work (one companionship asked for Dr. Pepper)
• We do at least an hour of finding (typical missionary work) every day, along with our lessons and appointments. Our schedule really depends on what's going on in the office. Sometimes we spend 1 hour here, sometimes none, sometimes 4. Depends on what's happening and when it needs to be done.

 Mission Office

Elder Terry and the office elder desks- photo credit Elder Belshe

• This week I also had fun with the Foreign Police, capitalized by a lady who was extremely unhelpful on the phone (in Czech) and an email reply that made my morning. It literally fixed my every problem. I would like to find the person who sent that email, and give them a large amount of chocolate.
• On Tuesday, Elder Terry and I received a call from a BYU study abroad group here in Prague. We went over to the hospital to give a blessing to a student who ate some Czech food with nuts. She does not do nuts. But luckily she had an Epipen with her, so she made a full recovery and went off to Berlin the next day. The highlight of the night however, was driving one of the leadership groups around Prague late at night to the pharmacy, and then to their hotel. Never been driving around at 10:30 before. (Don't worry we had permission to be out past curfew)
•   The cops don't pull people over for speeding in the Czech Republic. They just rely on speed cameras for tickets. And basically you just memorize where those are, and then drive as fast as you want until you reach them. We drove with a member in his stick-shift VW mini-van, and he was flying. It was good times.

• Our District is made up of 1)Elder Terry and me  2) Elder Beazer and Elder Nick Trythall 3) Elder Needham and Elder Peterson (The Assistants) 4) Sisters Hale, Fredrickson, and Cade, the sisters also have another area they are covering, so they travel back and forth by car a few times every week (how they are still alive, none of us know) 5) Elder and Sister Holt in the office with us. And 6) The Morgans, over YSA. We skyped at their apartment on Mother's Day.
• We had exchanges with the Assistants, and many fun things happened. Such as an angry Ukrainian gentleman who ranted about WWII when we asked him to get baptized, and a chalk display.

Overall, a great week was had!  Spiritual thought: I really enjoyed my Dad’s spiritual thought this week reminding me to find joy in the journey and finding the good and fun in what I do. From my Dad:  “Joy comes in trials as you recognize them for what they are, opportunities to grow. Study it out in your mind, seek spiritual guidance, and then go for it. If things don't work out, it is not the end of the world, but just another chance to learn and grow. Life is really a lot like that even in adulthood. There are always challenges and trials around every turn, so it's ok to get used to them now.”  That is something that I have been working really hard to do, especially this week with contacting. It's been an interesting adventure, but I am enjoying it a lot. I am working on finding the good things in every situation. Which is good, and thankfully humor and sarcasm can help lighten the load! So this week, be sure that you find the joy as you go along each day.

-Elder Pickett