We also went to the Christmas markets again.
This is short because it’s been a busy week. The
next couple weeks will be even busier with back to back trainings and the
holiday week coming up. We will have a fun training with President P. Spiritual on Thursday, fun next week.
- · For Culture Night we went and saw Jules perform in Swan Lake, “Labutí Jezero.” He did a great job. He is our investigator from England. He is really cool and really sincere, and we will keep meeting with him after the Holidays. Hopefully things go well, because he is awesome.
- · It's been cloudy the last few days and quite cold. On our morning run today we were slipping a bit on some partially frozen sidewalks. It has snowed a bit, but it hasn't really stuck at all. Which is good and bad.
- · For Christmas, we have a lot of member visits we are hoping to make happen, some Christmas caroling, and some service. Not super productive to walk around talking to people when no one will be out, and we have been asked to not tract, because Christmas time with family is almost sacred for Czechs.
- · The members here are fabulous, and we are going to be working on referrals and working closely with them a lot more moving into next year. I am really excited about all of that. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is a great one, we sang it a billion times in the MTC last year
- · Our Bishop is super awesome and has volunteered his house for skyping, so we will be going over there in the afternoon. Probably at 4:30 or 5 our time, so that you can make it to church too. (a lot of today’s email had to do with plans for our Skype chat!)
- · I love getting the pictures that you email! I don't have time to respond to them all, but I always look at them, and they are super fun. A nice little update on what's going on.
- · Czech traditions- Czechs have the best carols. They cook and eat carp on Christmas. They all gather and have the main part of Christmas on the 24th. Baby Jesus comes to give them presents, the Czechs don't do Santa. They have a lot of other fun little things about how their fortunes will go next year (cutting and apple and looking at the pattern, putting candles in walnut shells and floating them on water, throwing shoes at the door to see if they will leave the house) They also bake a billion little delicious Christmas cookies. And finally they watch a bunch of Czech fairytales, which are apparently really funny.
We had a Christmas party on Friday! It was
really fun, and a good number of people came, which was great. Elder Terry & Elder Merrill are Wise Men.
My spiritual thought is from my Dad. He shared Moroni 10:17 : "And all these gifts come
by the Spirit of Christ; and they come unto every man severally, according as
he will. " My Dad reminded me that if we desire it, we can develop more
spiritual gifts and be willing to share the gifts to bless others. But if we
seek to bless others, Heavenly Father is going to allow us to be instruments in
His hands, and that includes developing and using spiritual gifts for others. Going
along with this thought, I had the opportunity to give a blessing last night and
I am always grateful for opportunities to use the priesthood. Not because it
makes me feel important, but because I always feel the Spirit strongly and I
feel like it helps me to practice understanding revelation from Heavenly
Father. It is a great blessing.
See you on Sunday! -Elder Pickett
Anti-Communist Statue photo by Elder Croney
Elder Croney took a beautiful selfie and eats a giant hamburger.
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