A Week of Firsts

Elder Schmutz' first time tracting and this is where we tracted.

Hello everyone, this has been a good week, full of firsts for my new companion! Elder Schmutz just flew in on Tuesday to the Czech Republic, and almost has a week of in the field experience under his belt. He is awesome, and is doing really well. It gives me fun memories to when I was new, reminds me of my first transfer, which is weird to relive again . I will list some of the highlights from this last week:

• On Tuesday Elder Raines and I took a train into Prague to meet up with all of the trainers for the trainer meeting. All 17 of us trainers, for 16 new missionaries, met together to talk about how important training is, and the do's and dont's of training. We talked about how the beginning experiences of a mission can form the expectations for what the rest of their mission will be like, so it's important to make those good expectations. And we also ate Halušky. Always a good thing.
• The next morning we all met and ate breakfast together, and then President talked about some stuff that was going on in the mission and gave a little opening. After that he put up a big map of the Czech Republic on the board, and told people where they were going. We did all of that, and then went off to our areas. We took a train and got home at 3pm or so, and did a bit of contacting! It was fun to remember my first night contacting and having absolutely no clue what was happening.
• We also had some new firsts for Elder Schmutz this week, such as: tracting, drinking kofola, eating halušky, having district meeting, taking a bus to church, church in czech, and many more. Pictures!

 First Kofola- Elder Schmutz (this is THE soda that the missionaries all drink… 

and mostly love)

First Halušky- a missionary FAVORITE!

• We had lots of good conversations with people this week, but didn't really have too many people who wanted to talk more. Next week will be better.
• We also went on a trip to a castle today, but we ended up at a Chateau instead. It was still nice though.

Zamek Buchlovice (chateau and garden) We visited today. And some trees there. 

• Elder Schmutz is from Omaha Nebraska.  I am enjoying my time with him. He is a good one, and really wants to be a good missionary. Our district is really, really young. In UH Elder Raines is training Elder Jarvis and Sisters Hayden & Dance are companions.
• (Caroline remembered that Brad’s trainer Elder Galbraith was a good cook and that helped a lot 1st transfer.  So she wanted to know if he is keeping that tradition going.)  I am not a cooking master, but I may have mastered spaghetti by this point. I like spaghetti. Also I can make Halušky from the box, which is good.

Today's spiritual thought is about the scriptures. We finished the Book of Mormon this last week, and we have now started on the Bible. We are reading 13 pages a day in order to finish the Bible in 2 transfers. It is always great for me to recognize how much we receive from studying the scriptures. I know that as we read them we will receive greater strength and feel the Spirit more abundantly in our lives. Thanks for all the support and prayers!

-Elder Pickett

Adventures in mailing a package from the Czech Republic.  Apparently it arrive in Roseville end of July (while we were gone and mail was on hold… but then it didn’t get delivered and no notice from the PO).  Final notice arrived in Saturday’s mail.  Apparently, the box broke or opened or something and probably half the contents spilled out.  The postal workers put some items back (who knows what happened to the rest) and then added 3 books just for kicks?  The loose items went to the Dead Letter Office in San Francisco.  As far as we can tell… many letters addressed to Brad were bundled up and sent back to the MTC because all the others were addressed to the Czech Republic Mission Home.  The Head of the MTC Mail Room is related to some great friends, recognized Brad’s name, and sent the letters to our address?! Also when I went to pick it up today, they told me it already got sent back to the Czech Republic. They eventually found (another ridiculous story).

The Dead Letter Office is also mailing letters back to sender or sending them back to the Czech Republic.  If you get one that you sent to Brad, please mail it to the Pickett household.  He intended to keep it.  

I couldn’t make this stuff up.

The contents of “the box!”  USPS loses some items so then just randomly includes 3 books  instead?!  They even included the original box.  Many items lost.  Sad.

From Elder Pickett:  Yeah, I was going to write and ask about the letter thing. I am just glad that the post office has the box at all. I did multiple layers of tape around it, but maybe it wasn't heavy duty enough tape, I just used what we had available...There should be all my planners except my last 3 transfers, a little Czech song book, and a small Catholic prayer book in Czech from a grandma. And letters. That should be it. I am getting some of the letters sent back again, which is an adventure. Hopefully most of them are still with the box.