New Beginnings

Elder Croney and Elder Pickett at the church building & at the Mission Conference

Hello everyone! This last week has been filled with snow, contacting on public transportation, transfer calls, and some fun lessons!

• We'll see what happens, but our area is doing pretty good and I am excited about the potential of some of our investigators. J. we teach today, he is the dancer. O. we are not in contact with right now, no idea what's going on there. L. is a super sassy Czech man and we'll see how J. and I. pan out. They both expressed interest, but then haven't responded to our invitations to set-up.

A house I drew during English class to help our students practice new words.

• We visited one of our investigators this week twice and had good lessons about faith and coming to find spiritual answers. He made us some food and tried to offer us alcohol, which we refused. It was good practice for refusing temptation and peer pressure. Actually he was just joking, and it was pretty entertaining.
• We had our last District Meeting of the transfer, which was a good testimony meeting together.
• We also good food together for lunch on Saturday, had a lesson with someone new, and had a really fun sports night, although very few people came.
•  This transfer I will be with Elder Tingey. He is in Elder Terry's group, so this is his final transfer (2 in a row for me!). It is interesting to be serving with a final transfer companion. In Plzen will be me with Elder Tingey, Elder Brockbank with Elder Terry, and Sister Andersen with Sister Valentine.

Elder Tingey (new companion) and me outside of the church building. Elder Tingey actually served with Elder Croney in Brno about 8 months ago or so.

• Church was interesting, we had lots of people wish the missionaries the best and they were sad to see people go. Elder Croney has been here for a while and the member really like him, so they are sad he is leaving.

Elder Croney and I this morning on transfer day. 

We had breakfast as a district with some friends before people left.

•  Inactive vs. active here in the Czech Republic varies widely depending on the city, but usually we have a whole lot more people on the role than actually ever come. Prague is the worst, because there are a lot of international people and no one knows if they have moved or not. We tried to help a little with that, but there is a whole ton of work to do
• Snow driving? We are doing a bit of that as well. Elder Croney is from Utah, so he knows how, but Elder Tingey is from Washington... We've had some good snow as well. I used hot hands for tracting the other night, and that was a great choice. It gets pretty cold here, although hasn't gotten to -17 F or anything like that. Luckily we are at low elevation, so we are a bit luckier in that respect.

So this great spiritual thought from my Dad is about judging righteously and is something that I have been thinking about recently actually. From my Dad:  “There are many times that we judge something or someone. As a result, we often don't see the potential in someone, or we don't see what the Lord has in store for that person. If we do judge then we sometimes miss seeing what their potential is or what they really can become. Only the Lord is one who can judge justly or righteously. So as you are out talking to people, deciding whom to approach and who not, remember to approach or talk to whomever you can. Don't just decide who, because you never know what they might be or what their potential to become is. Only the Lord knows that.”  It is sometimes difficult for us to predict how people will connect with the gospel, or how they will respond to the promptings of the Spirit, that's why we talk to everyone we can!  So remember, we don’t know people’s potential by their outward appearance. 

Thanks for the support and prayers!

-Elder Pickett

Christmas present opening!

 The view from the hotel we went to for our 3 day Missionwide Conference that I talked about last week. It didn't snow, but the dew froze into frost, and the whole countryside was covered in frost, it was amazing.

My MTC group! All of the Czechs in the mission, and we were all together at a training. 1st time so far in my mission! 

Back row Elder Paxton, Elder Anderson/ Middle row Elder Smith, Sister Heap, Sister DeMann, Sister Humphries, Sister Andersen, Elder Pickett/ Model pose Elder Chadwick

                          A goofy picture of Elder Smith and Elder Chadwick from training

A very unhealthy burger from McDonald's that is a special here. It is a regular hamburger, but also has a patty of deep-fried cheese on it (deep-fried cheese is actually a common thing here)