This is a very inaccurate representation of our height difference (5'9" and 6'6").
We took this picture for our tracting letter.
Hello everyone. My new companion Elder Brockbank is great.
He is incredibly easy to get along with, he loves everyone, and he is pretty
hilarious. He is learning the ropes quickly. We are having to spend far too
much time in the office, but we are working to stop that. This has been yet
another insane week, but it has been really great as well. We had a pretty
normal time through Monday and Tuesday, nothing too crazy until Wednesday.
So I will go from there.
- On
Wednesday we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I will briefly
explain the mission pyramid organization to give you a picture of how this
all works. At the top is President. He has two Assistants (Elders here in
Prague) who help him look over the needs of the whole mission and plan how
to work with that. After that the mission is split into 4 zones: Prague,
H.K., Brno, and all of Slovakia. Over each zone is a set of Elders who are
Zone Leaders. And within each zone is 3-5 districts, depending on the
size. And there is 1 missionary who is assigned to be over each district.
That is me in Prague. The District Leader goes on exchanges (24 hour
companion switches) with each Elder in his district. The Zone Leaders go
on exchanges with each district leader in their zone. And the Assistants
go on exchanges with the zone leaders, as well as whoever else President
asks. The Zone leaders are part of a district in the zone as well, which
gets a little confusing, but not too bad. This week I had an exchange with
Elder Belshe here in Prague, and Elder Brockbank went to Plzen with Elder
Croney. It was so much fun. I have so far been following Elder Belshe all around
the country, I was "born in the same city" (mission lingo for Brad's first area) as him with Elder Galbraith, and
then came to Prague right as he left to do his job in the office with
Elder Terry, and we finally got to work together on an exchange. During
this exchange we also had a great district meeting and set goals as a
district about what we want to accomplish this transfer together. It
should be really good, and I am really excited. Elder Belshe is an awesome
missionary, who has had my exact same position, so it was great to get
some advice from him about how I should do things here.
Here is our "exchange selfie" Elders Belshe & Pickett
- Thursday was
Missionary Leadership Council, which is all of the Zone Leaders, Sister
Training Leaders (kind of like sister zone leaders), the Assistants,
President and his wife. We got invited to lunch after, which was really
tasty, and were able to get out of the office that evening to finally go
do some proselyting. It was a crazy day, but we got a lot done.
- Friday
morning I had visa work, and I had to drive President's car. That was
terrifying, but went well. Then the Foreign Police were especially speedy
with getting our group through, which was awesome. After that we went out
to lunch for Indian food, then had a lesson with a member. And I received
a text message from President asking us to go pick up some translating
devices for the ward from an address in Prague. So we got to go on a fun
drive with some not-so-fun traffic included on the way back. This
adventure described by Elder Brockbank:
“We drove through the madness known as the streets of Prague and then got
to this weird building. We rang the intercom and they let us in. Then we
met this guy and he gave us translating headsets for the ward and we
signed our lives away (we had no idea what we were doing) and then drove
back.”
the madness known as the streets of Prague
- After that we weekly planned very
quickly, and then had Game Night. And during that we had to help some of
the sisters with their car problems, which we couldn't resolve. It was a crazy Friday.
Luckily while I was gone at visa work Elder Brockbank was able to go out
with some other missionaries and actually talk to people, and we actually
got two new investigators. We don't
have many investigators. We have one that we are consistently working with
a few more good possibilities that we are hoping to keep on with. We are
working with two recent converts who are somewhat less active.
We also made it to the end of Prague looking for a couple of less active members.
Twas an interesting sight.
- We
still play the piano in Primary (Sunday
meeting for the 3-11 year old children), and last week I translated
there too. We have some kids who know Czech, some who don't, and some who
don't know any English, so they need translation sometimes. Translating is
really fun, but also tough.
- President P is a big hands-on mission president,
who likes to teach with us, practice role-plays, and whatnot. And, like all of
my favorite high-quality members here, he is a big take-the-initiative
problem-solver.
- Last
week we went to the Toronto project in a little town. They did a project
for a school called "Life without barriers" for people with
disabilities. We spent the whole time emptying out an attic in a pretty
run-down building that clearly used to be a hospital. They are clearing it
out and I think refurbishing for new purposes with the school. It was good
times. You can probably find a lot of other pictures on the website. A guy
was there taking pictures of us the whole time. (In
response to a question about the sweet looking pants…) And President P
has Czech pants! That's what those were. They are work style pants. They
are so great.
My spiritual thought
for the week comes from goal setting. Goal setting has always been something I
am not great with. But on my mission I have gained a strong testimony and
setting goals and working towards them, with the direction and guidance of the
Lord. After we set goals in District Meeting on Wednesday it was
great to see how focused we were, and how we knew exactly what needed to do.
Goals give us better direction and purpose so that we know what we are working
toward. So I challenge you all to set a goal. But not just to set it, but to
actually commit to it. Because that makes a difference. And as you set goals
with faith and trust in the Lord, He can help you to improve in ways you never
realized were possible. Thank you for the support and prayers!
-Elder Pickett
Prague is pretty.
Also, last Sunday our power was not working, so we had to
come to the office to make our spaghetti to eat. It was a fun adventure.
Someone drew Elder Brockbank and me, and the Assistants got jealous and drew themselves.
(Mom & Dad went to a restaurant in downtown that had a menu with Czech specialty choices. We sent pictures of our meal!) Your meal was pretty Czech, I have bratwurst and wiesswurst
sausages at a few outdoor barbecues, Dad's was classic Czech. I literally could
have ordered it for lunch today if I had wanted to. Gulash with knedliky. And
raw onions on top. Also, in the picture you sent of the restaurant, the
background actually looks Czech, because the posters and what-not are from a
classic Czech beer company and that logo is everywhere in restaurants here.
Even the chalkboard with food options is pretty classic.