In Zlin We Eat Lots of Ice Cream

A post service painting photo of Elder Pickett & Elder Robinson

Hello everyone, this past week was great. It was an interesting one, and I will give a few updates!

• We went to UH for haircuts last week on P-day. Free from Sister Hayden, and as you can probably see from pictures, there were pretty stellar. So that is a nice plus. Today the UH missionaries are coming here and we are going to go bowling.
• Elder Robinson is a good worker. Language study is going well. Learning a language is a step-by-step kind of thing. He has really funny analogies for how he is doing and tells stories in a really funny way.
• I also went on an exchange with Elder Gauldin in UH. UH is a pretty small city, I think I was able to see the entire city in one day there. But we met some cool people and got to meet with a guy for lunch and a little discussion afterwards. It was a good meeting.

An exchange selfie with Elder Gauldin

• We also had district meeting in UH, where we talked about what some new ideas are that we can use to find people. It was a good discussion. We are talking about how we can focus more on the influence of the Holy Ghost since it is very important.
• This past week was quite hot. We got very sweaty and showered at night as well as in the morning. We don't exactly have the ideal dress for hot weather, but it still works out, and we eat lots of ice cream.
• We were finally able to go tracting this last week, on Saturday and Sunday evenings. It also got a little cold and rainy on Sunday, which was a very welcome change. We met lots of really nice people, but still didn't meet anyone there yet who has interest. It is a little village outside of Zlin called Jaroslavice. It was a 10 minute bus ride from the center area of the city, and we went over a hill into a little valley, surrounded by a forest. It was a pretty fast change of scenery. The village is actually really pretty, and has some good views from the top of the hill.

 This is where we went tracting this week. A 10 minute bus ride from the center of the city.

• We have a few good potentials, but no one who has set-up lessons. We are trying to get more creative with finding. Our ward is awesome. The Bishop is Bishop Dynka. He is great. Super supportive, and a great guy. And our ward mission leader is awesome.

Elder Robinson in our office space in Zlin. 

For my spiritual thought this week I wanted to talk about opposition. I have come to realize that the phrase from the Book of Mormon about "Opposition in all things" is a very true phrase. I have seen over the course of my mission how opposition provides us with a unique opportunity. It is a chance to prove to God, and to ourselves, why we are doing the things we are doing. We can prove that we are doing our best and trying our hardest because we want to do our best, and not just so that we can have success and a great life. I have found that when we recognize that we are doing our best truly because we want to do our best, we can be happy even when things are not going our way. So I challenge you all to choose one aspect of your life (work, school, fitness, a hobby even) and evaluate why you do that. I can promise that when you strive to do something because you want to do your best at it, you can be happy even in the face of difficulties and lack of obvious success. Thanks for all the prayers and support!

-Elder Pickett

When we realized because of public transportation and a lack of coins on a Sunday 

that we couldn't go tracting.