brad

brad

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Sickness, Stress, Service and a Baptism!



Prague District:  Elder Brockbank, Elder Smith, Elder Greier, Elder Petersen, Elder Tingey, Elder Pickett, Elder Andriarena and Sister Brown, Sister Heap, Sister Boza


I wanted to keep my alliteration going, but baptism was an important enough thing to include that it was worth breaking it up. I will just go straight into some updates, because we don't have a lot of time before we are going to practice for the concert that we are going to have on the 4th of November.
  • On Monday we were planning for the baptisms that were on plan for this weekend. Things got pretty hectic and a little crazy with that. The investigators were from different areas than ours, but because I am the District Leader I am involved in the process a lot. And we had some confusion and problems with communication with the ward, which made things more stressful.
  • After speaking with quite a few people I was still stressing and trying to figure out details for the baptisms. I also conducted 2 baptismal interviews for a married couple with 3 children. That was a great experience, and it was wonderful to see how prepared they were and how well they understood the doctrine. We also were able to teach an investigator after English (which I didn't go to because of the interviews) and he accepted a baptismal date. It is not super solid, but we will continue working with him regularly and we hope that he will progress well.
  • On Wednesday I woke up and was pretty sure that I was sick. But I took my temperature and I didn't have a fever, so we went ahead with our plans anyways. Our whole zone was here doing interviews with President, and we had an elaborate contacting group set-up, but Elder Brockbank and I had to do some work in the office and go to "far-away" post, so we were not able to participate. Also by lunchtime my body started to shut-down and I got the chills. The moral of the story is that by the afternoon I was lying on a couch in the office sleeping while Elder Brockbank and President did some things that they had to, and then Elder Brockbank and I went home and I went to bed.
(This was last week when Elder Greier and Elder Brockbank were sick, 
no pictures of Elder Pickett sick)

  • Thursday was better. I was still not at 100%, but 14 hours of sleep does miraculous things. I came to the office and did a lot of napping/relaxing in P-day clothes. It was not a normal day, but nothing much happened.
  • Friday was great. The couple were baptized, and they had friends (both members and not) who came to support them. The missionaries sang "Nearer My God to Thee" a capella and that was fun. It was a really great Friday and an especially wonderful evening.
  • Today we did service at the Bishop's house. He and his wife are so great. They are both really funny, and we had a great time. That was our week.
  • Elder Brockbank and I are doing really good. We get along very well, he is super easy to work with. He is really funny too which helps. He is kind of exploding out of his ears with office work, while I am virtually all out.
My spiritual thought for the week is about decisions. I have found on my mission that trying to become more like Christ really boils down to everyday little decisions that we make. Many of them are made "in the moment," which can sometimes lead us to make bad decisions, but I have found that sometimes all we need to do is think for a moment and recognize the option that will have the best impact for us in the long run, rather than the first idea that we want to follow. So my challenge to you this week is to look at decisions and to think a little bit about how each decision can help you to draw closer to Christ, and then actively choose to follow Him. Thank you for the support and prayers!

-Elder Pickett
Glad to hear also about the great farewells of Noah & Sarah and the news about marriages and school. Interesting BYU essay change, I think that is a great prompt though. Lots of potential for good essays from that. Next transfer will have some crazy news. That is for sure. It will be fun.

 Prague missionary apartment




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