Elder Brad Pickett: We Are Not Counting Down

Beautiful Czech countryside-- Uherské Hradiště maybe? (photo credit: Elder Raines)

Things are going pretty well here in Zlín. The toughest part so far is that we have yet to find a single investigator this transfer, and I don't want Elder Schmutz to have the bad expectation that we don't find people in our mission. The problem is that we just haven't found anyone with real interest yet.

Elder Schmutz and I are doing well. We got some rain, and we will get some more this week as well. I don't really know how to describe people's learning styles...But we talk about Czech and he is learning step by step with it. I am trying to figure out how he is doing for reals, not just on the surface, don't worry Mom. As a new missionary, he is little tired and not used to the neverendingness of missionary work, but that's to be expected.
Elder Schmutz’ 3 best qualities...He wants to teach people, he's good at planning and thinking ahead, and he is diligent about studying the scriptures.
The ward members are great and the ward mission leader too. He is a very to-the-point kind of guy. He is efficient, and gets missionary work and the gospel really well. He has a great knowledge of the scriptures and the gospel too. He is encouraging us speak just Czech outside of English class. That's not really happening, but we are speaking it more. I am just not really a fan of trying to speak only Czech to a new missionary. Everything we did would take a few hours extra of translation.
As far as what we do in our UH ward as missionaries, Elder Gauldin and I translated sacrament meeting for the American member who lives here, and now that Elder Gauldin is gone, I translate for him. I really like translating though, so I enjoy it. We taught Gospel Essentials a few times last transfer, mostly at the beginning. But it's been a while. And we are also in the choir for the Christmas program, which will take place after I go home, which is lame. But we are practicing for it because my companion will be there for it.

Elder Jarvis (new trainee) & Elder Raines- in our UH/ Zlin District

I heard good reports about LDS General Conference. We are going to watch it this weekend. Hopefully in English, because no one will understand anything that they are saying in Czech since our district is young in the mission, except maybe me. Maybe I could understand. Maybe not.
Trainings and other fun coming up… Exchanges this week, Thursday to Friday with the Zone Leaders in Brno. I will exchange with Elder Brockbank (former companion) and Elder Schmutz with Elder Collins. Training 11 October there as well. Elder Schmutz won't have visa work for a long time, because he has a year long visa.
Information on my MTC District- Elder Paxton will finish in HK, Elder Anderson in Plzen, Elder Chadwick in Prague, and Elder Smith in Slovakia. Elder McClain serving in Slovakia and Sister Morgan, who is in Brno, will go home with us. I don't have my flight plans, I will probably see them in 2 weeks at training.
Hahaha, to start off with, I am dying at your postal adventure Mom (ongoing saga of the broken box and the lost items sent to the Dead Letter office…) It turns out that bureaucracies are a nightmare all over the world. I will tell you a few postal horror stories from my time in the office when I get home. Funny to be serving here as a missionary, and probably the angriest I have ever been is when I was at a post office, not dealing with people on the street. But way to do some digging. The good news is that I tried to not send anything home that will kill me if it somehow gets sucked into the great black hole of postal deliveries gone wrong. Sorry about the 1s. If I had a 7 written on there it would have been really clear to them which was which, but the addresses didn't have any 7s in them...I am also still confused about why she told you it was gone already and then magically found it. She didn't just find it the first time?

My spiritual thought is from my Dad about conversion. He shared with me that as a missionary, no matter who I help to bring back to activity or baptize, or who I teach, that when I finish my mission, I should be the one that is most converted. I should be the one who has changed the most. He encouraged me to ponder that, to recognize spiritual growth, not only in knowledge but also in small spiritual experiences that helped to shape my conversion and mission experience thus far. That is great mission advice. I definitely have some of those moments of feeling the spirit so strong no matter the outcome for the person I am teaching, and I actually have a little notebook I write them down in, to look over again later. I am not super great at journaling anymore, but I try to at least write down some spiritual experiences, impressions, and interesting insights into the gospel that I hear or read, or receive as "sudden strokes" of inspiration as Joseph Smith called them. Thanks for the thoughts and encouragements. Have a great week. Out of time, sorry. Love you lots.

Love,

Elder Pickett

No pictures this week but here’s some more Elder Pickett sightings from the Sept 9th

Wallace Toronto Foundation service project