Plzen in Photos!

I don't have a lot of time, and I have a lot of photos, so I will tell most of my week in pictures. Hope that is ok.

Sister Andersen is a fabulous cook

• We had a fabulous Thanksgiving, mostly thanks to Sister Andersen, who made fried chicken, and 2 pies. She didn't want to pose for a picture, but she eventually did. She is a fabulous cook. Elder Croney and I made the Jello (thanks for the packets Mom), Elder Merrill made funeral potatoes, Elder Terry made mashed potatoes, and Sister Miller made rolls. It was a good Thanksgiving!

Then we struggled to get groups pictures, to varying degrees of hilarity. 

In the end we got some good ones.

Plzen District Back row: Elder Pickett, Elder Merrill, Sister Miller 

Front row: Elder Terry, Elder Croney, Sister Andersen 

• I also had an exchange this week with Elder Merrill from our district. It was great fun. I didn't get pictures from it, and nothing too crazy happened, but we enjoyed it a whole lot.

• It awesome being with Elder Croney who is incredibly enthusiastic about missionary work and it is good being out of the office. Being a Zone Leader is getting to think about big picture things (I like big pictures), going on exchanges, and trying to live up to the expectations, which is hard, but inspiring and encouraging as well. We go to C-bud on Wednesday. (Brad's first area where he served from end of December- early May)

Here is our tree lighting on the main square of Plzen. 

It was awesome. And the square was PACKED.

We spent some of p-day today checking out the Christmas markets. They are awesome. . I saw some nativities on the Christmas market today, I will keep looking to find the best options!

Yummy, giant croissants with filling. We plan to eat our way through the market.

• Other than that, we also got to do a lot of good missionary work. We had lessons with both of our really strong investigators, and they went really well. We also had a less active member come to church, and a new convert who we have been struggling to stay in contact with because his phone isn't working. It was a nice surprise when he walked in, we were really happy.

• We have a very small primary here, and two young men. Plzen is a pretty small ward, but it is pretty tight-knit, and the Bishop here is really awesome. He is super diligent, and does a great job keeping everyone together and everything going smoothly. 

• Sounds like a whole lot of fun was had for the Pickett/ Roper/ Allison families for Thanksgiving. We are going to be putting  up our Christmas tree soon. We have picked out a spot and are working on it. Also, I am afraid that I might not get the Christmas package before training on the 22nd, because the office has them all stored, and they aren't giving them out, and it is probably buried in a pile with a bunch of others. But it will be good. (there is some mint flavor hot chocolate in the package that he is looking forward to!)

• The Light the World campaign is awesome. We are looking forward to that a whole lot. 

My spiritual thought comes from #LighttheWorld: “It's the Christmas season,” said Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. “We have lights — all kinds of lights on our houses, on our trees, on our dining tables. So if we link those wonderful traditions with the source of truth, even Christ as the source of light, it just made great sense to all of us that that would be the theme that we would employ this year.”

“The whole purpose of this initiative is to celebrate and share the Light of Christ," Bednar explained. "What we hope people will do is not simply think about the Savior during this Christmas season, or even just learn more about Him. What we hope is that they will come to know Him by doing what He did.”

Shareable online content is now available at mormon.org, including a video that invites the public to perform acts of service following Christ’s example during the Christmas season. The service effort will kick off Thursday, with a Worldwide Day of Service. 

From Elder Pickett: Watch the short video, share the light and do acts of service every day!

Thanks for the love and support!  Love, Elder Pickett