brad

brad

Monday, May 2, 2016

The Final Week/ A New Beginning

Ahoj everyone! Hope you are all healthy, happy, and having a terrific Monday. I know I certainly am. First things first, I realized that I have been titling my emails wrong this whole time. I should be titling them according to the week I am writing ABOUT. I am just so excited that I get ahead of myself. Sorry about that. So, first I will talk about last week, then I will talk about some of the big changes this week.  (Brad forgot his card reader... we wait until Saturday for pictures...)
  • First off, this last week we had training in Prague. It was phenomenal! We had 3 different trainings, along with lunch, and a great thought by President McConkie about the Velvet Revolution. If you don't know about that one, go look it up. Because it is awesome stuff. The training we had we from President McConkie, Sister McConkie, and the Assistants to the President. President taught us about how to teach better. He talked about a whole lot of great things, and helped us to feel more confident and we invite people and expound the scriptures. Sister McConkie used three different examples to explain about the importance of remembering potential, and seeing potential through God's eyes. The potential of ourselves, of our investigators, and of our members. And then the Assistants talked about the importance of serving with "all of [our] heart, might, mind, and strength" from D&C 4. It was all excellent.
  • We had a lot of cool experiences this past week as we went out looking for Less Active members. While we were not successful, we found several investigators along the way. We have been seeing a lot of miracles this past week.
  • We're just doing our best, and then we let God do the rest. We like to talk about Enos as a model of prayer, and the importance of praying with "real intent" as Moroni says. I have been adding contacting into my personal prayers, and I have seen a difference. I have found that the first contact is the hardest. It's kind of like that idea that an object in motion stays in motion, and an object at rest stays at rest. You have to muster a lot energy at first to try to get started, but once you do, it's a whole lot easier to continue. That's especially important for me right now. I am working on personally looking for contacting time, and to put in the effort to contact while we are traveling. I had a specific experience Saturday morning with bus contacting. I had studied about the Atonement of Christ during personal study that morning, and then I was praying for the desire and ability to contact. Then we got on the bus, and I just immediately started into it. And I had a really enjoyable time, trying to talk to people, actually talking to people, and giving someone a commitment to do a small act of service when he wasn't interested in meeting with us. It was really cool.
  • On Saturday, we got transfer calls! Which leads to the new beginning. I am writing this email from Prague, where I am serving in the Mission Office with Elder Terry! I have a lot of new and unique responsibilities, including being in charge of Visa work for the missionaries who are here. That is a little bit terrifying to be honest. I am hoping that I am up to the task. From my old District, Elder Dean is staying in C-Bud, serving with Elder Marcucci (from Brad’s MTC District), whose uncle served there 20 years ago. And the members remember him! And Sister Manners is training in C-Bud! And then Sister DeMann is off to Brno, where she is serving with Sister Humphries, from our MTC group.
All packed and ready to go!

  • We traveled into Prague on Sunday night, so that Elder Belshe could train me this morning before he left for Plzeň this afternoon. It's going to be quite and adventure, and quite a change here. I am very excited and I am looking forward to a great transfer.
  • Elder Terry is in his 3rd transfer in the Office. He is the Office Manager, and I am the Office Computers guy. Which doesn't actually mean I know anything about computers, it's just my title.
My spiritual thought this week is on the idea of New Beginnings. Weird. Change can be exciting. And also very tough. I am both excited and nervous to be here. But, change brings a great opportunity for growth and learning. The Lord is in the details of our life, and He wants us to keep progressing. He has more in store for us than we can realize on our own, and as we trust Him, we can see our lives improve, and our learning increase. So trust in God, and know that he is in the details! Thanks for the prayers and support! 

Gots to go for now, lots of work to do, but I will email and send pictures on Saturday (pday for missionaries in Prague) as well! Sorry I only had time to respond to our family today, I will get back to other people Saturday.  Love you lots! We do get to skype for Mother’s Day so I will be SEEING you soon!
-Elder Pickett



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