Plzen District- Another Fast Week!

Our District on a cool graffiti wall (photo credit Elder Tingey)

Here are some really fast highlights of the week.  And I forgot my memory card reader, so pictures next week, sorry! Have an awesome week! (I got a couple pictures this last week from other missionaries in the Plzen district… so we can deal with no pictures today!)

• We had a fabulous lesson with Petr. He told us that he doesn't know if these things are true. He believes that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are there and answer prayers, but he doesn't believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet yet, or that the Book of Mormon is true. He was really worried to tell us, because he thought that we would be upset, but we were really glad that he told us, because it shows he is actually thinking about stuff and that he has questions, and a desire to really find the truth, not just what sounds good. So it was a really good, and really important lesson. And Jitka, one of the YSA here taught with us, and she did a great job and really helped out. Teaching with members is such a good idea.
• We sent out a scavenger hunt to our Zone on Tuesday. A list of different people to look for, and a simple way to keep score. It was crazy the amount of miracles that we heard about from it. We wanted to have a day with some fun in it, and make people excited to go find people, and it totally worked. That was a really fun to see how something simple like that was able to spice things up for us nicely.

coolest chairs EVER at the science museum (photo credit Sestra Valentine)

• We also got to help someone walk to the hospital on Tuesday. He was standing in front of a long crosswalk without a stoplight and stopped Elder Tingey to ask if he would help him cross. Then we asked where he was headed and offered to help him walk to the hospital as well. He fell while at work, and messed up his ankle pretty badly. He was really grateful for the helpful and offered to give us beer money, which we declined. He was a really cool guy and we hope to run into him again sometime.
• In the Plzen ward, we keep busy.  Elder Tingey actually plays for choir now, because he is a musical genius. We pass the Sacrament and give talks fairly often. And help home teach. We don't have any big ward activities. FHE every week is generally for YSA, although anyone can come. We also have English class, and then have Game Night on Friday, and Sports Night every other Saturday. We are working with several less actives, including 2 families. They are both really great and we really like them. Our bishopric is all awesome. All of them have families in the church and are great examples. Petr Kyncl is our bishop and his counselors are Brother Štorkan and Brother Holub. There are also a ton of Grandmas in this ward, and they are all great. And then we have other good teachers, and a few YSA, but not a ton.

Elder Pickett & Elder Tingey (repeat picture)

• Exchanges are good although we didn't actually have any last week. Finding has not been great for us these past couple of weeks, we need to make more time for it in our day and find some new ways of finding. We are working on organizing a day in our zone to encourage new and different ways to find, and we are hoping to see success and some new, good ideas from that. We are able to get referrals from time to time. This week on Sunday we are going over to Bishop's house and his family is going to invite someone to come as well. That should be good. 
• There are probably close to a million Petrs and even more Jans in the Czech Republic. They have a lot of repeating names. We had interactions with 4 different Petrs in two days last week, it was pretty nuts. We're joking that this transfer has been the transfer of Petrs.

Christ is in all things, even the trash cans testify of Him (photo credit Elder Tingey)

• I think that is one of the challenges of being an older-in-the-mission missionary is that you start to think you know what you are doing and you've got things covered. That is really not a good idea or a good attitude when you are trying to be an instrument in the Lord's hand. But it really is critical to focus on the things that He thinks are most important and using our time the way He wants us to use it. Which can be tough.

For a spiritual thought I want to talk about looking where we are going. Sometimes in life we are so focused on the path right in front of our feet, that we forget to look at where we are even going to end up. We are trying so hard to just take the next step that we forget to realize what our goal even is. When we agonize about the next step and stress about it, a good way to get over it is to look up, to recognize all that the Lord has provided for us, and to see where we want to go. That makes the next step exciting, and gives us the courage and confidence to keep going. And whenever we look up, we will see that the Savior is beckoning us on. So keep going and keep your head up. Thanks for the prayers and support!

-Elder Pickett

One of our favorite places to eat is an Australian meat pie place. 

Great food, and a great price! Also, the owner is really cool.

An art memorial for General George S. Patton, who freed the city of Plzen 

(photo credit Elder Brockbank)

selfie at the science museum with a HUGE fan! (photo credit Sestra Valentine)