Plzen is AWESOME

Elder Croney and I with a member here. Who is actually Russian, 

but speaks almost flawless English.

I have almost no time for emailing today, because our P-day kind of exploded.  Lots of getting ready for things. We actually have a lesson in 15 minutes, and then FHE after so we will have to run.  That's why we ran out of time. And our P-Day has been a little crazy. But really good, we did everything we had to. Mostly. (Some information if from a bonus back and forth email with Mom last Monday on transfer day!)

•  Plzen is AWESOME. I love being in a bit of a smaller city again, it reminds me a lot of C-bud in some ways. Also, here in the Czech Republic they have some big apartment buildings for mass housing (from communism days, we are all pretty sure) and we live in one of those. They are always in groups. It is very interesting. We live in Lochotin, an area here.  The church address is Zikmunda Wintra 7 (it is fun to Google Earth where Brad is serving). On transfer day, I arrived at noon in Plzen.  We taught a lesson to a really cool YSA investigator from England. It was a great lesson. And we ate lunch, bought a bus/tram pass for me, and had FHE . Then we bought food and had call-ins with the Assistants. A good first day in Plzen.  
• I have heard about the election. Had a lot of people ask us about it on the streets actually. Pretty crazy wild. It's been weird to watch it develop at such a distance. We had a reporter come and ask for Elder Croney's opinion on it. He was allowed to comment, because the reporter took the time to ask the Bishop here, who called and talked to President about it. Elder Croney just said the church is neutral and we will try to support our president. We will see how that all goes.

• It has been freezing cold this past week, but looks like it will warm up a little this week, which is good news for us. Yesterday evening we went tracting, and there was a bit of snow on the ground.

Our car shows us the temperature. And a little snowflake pops up to let you know when it's cold. Because the -1.5 C isn't enough for that sometimes.

The first snow! 

• But Elder Croney is awesome. We are having a lot of fun together, working hard, playing hard, and eating plenty. He is really a fabulous example and companion, I really like him. He was my zone leader, so I have done call-ins with him every other week for the past transfer. This is his last transfer.
• We have a few good progressing investigators, and are finding more as well. No baptismal dates yet, but we are close. Hopefully this week.
• This week we have a special zone conference with a member of the area presidency, President Sabin. And then a missionary leadership conference the next day, which he will also be at. Both of those will be in Prague, so it will be a lot of traveling on Wednesday and Thursday. Our zone is Prague, C-Bud, and Plzen. Just three cities.  And there are 4 elders and 2 sisters here in Plzen: Elder Terry & Elder Merrill, Sister Andersen & Sister Miller, Elder Croney & me.
  
  
• Scott shared with Brad that "the focus with the young men we are serving with is that all the YM will be mission bound and temple worthy at all times. That will be the measuring stick for us."  From Elder Pickett:  That is an excellent measuring stick. If that can be your focus and your standard at all times, you will turn out just fine in high school. Because that kind of drives most of the other good life choices, like diligent work and studies and all that good stuff. I think that everyone who goes on a mission finds some big changes in life. I already have, and I am only halfway through.

Spiritual thought for the week comes from my Dad’s email to me.  “Diligence is defined as consistent, valiant effort, especially in serving the Lord and obeying His word. Diligence takes preparation, hard work, faith, self-discipline and determination. However, as we are diligent in our work, the Lord will bless us beyond belief through experiences we will have by being an instrument in His hands.”  Thanks Dad for the thought about diligence. My companion is a great example of that actually, which I really appreciate. We are being very conscientious of how we are using out time, and try to be the most effective we can with it.  I challenge you all to be diligent in your efforts this week.

Love you lots!  Elder Pickett

Some pictures from my last days in the Mission Office and with my Prague District

President and Sister Pohorelicka

I am excited to be leaving the office but I will miss being around President P, that is true. He said bye to me on transfer day, and then said that we will still see each other soon which pretty awesome, so it is not really good-bye. . And he is awesome. Super friendly and very personable.

 Prague Pday fun- Elders Pickett & Brockbank, Sestra Brown, Boza, Heap

 Prague Stake Conference with Elder Brockbank

 Caroline spotted Elder Brad way in the background above the sister in the red.  Missionary family searching pictures!

Here are the Halloween zombies (from a care package from home), 

Elder Brockbank and I soaked & grew them while I was in Prague

Elder and Sister Scott (who sends and answers all the mission emails!) who serve in the Mission Office

Elder Hymas, the new Visa Elder taking my place and my office area

Elder Hymas has already called me a few times when I left for Plzen. Probably 5 or 6. 

I had Elder Belshe on speed dial when I took over from him.

Goodbye Elder Petersen 

I have also exchanged coats. I got a nicer one that doesn't look warmer, but actually is. It blocks the wind a whole lot better. It came from Elder Petersen, who is headed home on Thursday. . It is shorter and not as bulky, but I think it is going to be warmer. Which is good, because I am going to need warm this winter.

The End (of this Transfer)

Hello everyone! This is my last email home for this transfer, which has flown by at an alarming rate. We had a pretty crazy week in the office, which left little time for proselyting, but this next transfer I will be leaving the office, which I am ready for! Here are some updates from the week:

• I had an exchange with Elder Petersen, one of the Assistants this week. He goes home next week, it was a good exchange. We ran close to 5 miles for exercise and I was ready to die by the end. I haven't run in a while.
• We had a good final district meeting, and we were able to practice for our concert as well. We have been practicing for that this whole week, as well as advertising for it. More on that later.

Here is a selfie of us at the Peterson's house. They are an American family and they made us delicious chili and we had Fritos with it. It was delicious.

• The end of the transfer tends to get pretty crazy in the office, so we had to be here a lot, but it has been good as well. We have to prepare things for the new missionaries coming in, and since it is near Christmas time, we have gone to the Post Office probably 3 or 4 times in the past two weeks. Lots of packages coming in.
• So with advertising for our concert, we went to three different metro stops and sang and passed out flyers. We passed out several hundred, and got a lot of really good reactions (except for from some disgruntled teenage employees at a pizza place, who turned up their music louder. We stayed there and sang a little louder too). Unfortunately we did not have anyone from our metro singing that actually came to our concert, but those people at least know that Mormons can sing and enjoy it. From Elder Brockbank:  “As we were singing, people would even stop and pull out their phones and record us. What was very interesting though, was that it wasn't when we were singing "One Love" by Bob Marley or "Lean on Me" but it was when we sang our acapella version of "Nearer My God to Thee" in Czech that had the most people recording us. The Spirit just whipped those phones right out of their pockets! Music has power. We honestly don't know what happened to the videos that people took of us at the metro stations. Maybe they are now flying around the internet. We sometimes don't know what comes from our actions, but we can trust God knows and that it will all turn out good!”
• On Friday we had our concert. We had a decent turnout of ward members, and a few investigators. It was really fun and we played lots of variety. Our theme was peace, love, and gratitude, and we wanted a mix of lots of songs with upbeat as well as more reverent. I will just list the songs we sang/played (don't worry, we got everything approved by the Mission President): And acapella, jazzed-up version of “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,”  “Nearer My God to Thee,”  also acapella. Then a guitar duet by Elder Smith and a member here, who played the song “Hallelujah” but changed the lyrics so that it is about Christ. The Sisters sang the song “Beautiful Savior.”  We all sang “Lean On Me.”  Then we had a piano solo by Elder Tingey, an arrangement by him of “Where Can I Turn for Peace” and “He is Risen.” Then we sang a changed-up, jazzed-up version of “There is Sunshine in My Soul Today” as Elders. We got some good laughs out of it, which was the goal. Then we sang “One Love” by Bob Marley, and finished with the song “Prayer of the Children.”  We had really good reactions from everyone who came, and I think that they enjoyed the experience. We hope to see some good results from it.

And here is a selfie of our district after our concert.

• Forgot to mention that we went to a fabulous production of Phantom of the Opera on Thursday for culture night. 

Here is an awkward picture with Elder Brockbank from the concert (excellent photobomb by Elder Geier). 

 Sestra Heap, Elder Pickett, Elder Brockbank (below) at dinner before Phantom, 

notice the big mug of Kofola!

•  That is so weird to me that Elder Farnworth (one of Brad's best friends from home) is home now. I can't believe it has already been two years. I am glad to hear that he is doing well and has a good solid plan in front of him. Weird that people are going in and out of missions a lot. Hard to believe all this stuff has been going on since I left.  
• Elder Hymas is coming to the office from Brno to serve with Elder Brockbank.  I  am going to Plzeň, I will be serving with Elder Croney as Zone Leader. I am really looking forward to it. This means that I have officially stalked Elder Belshe since the beginning of my mission. We will see where he ends up... 

·         (Elder Belshe served in CBud with Elder Galbraith and then was transferred to Prague.  Brad took his place in CBud with Elder Galbraith, then served with Elder Dean.  Then Brad was next transferred to Prague and took Elder Belshe’s place again with Elder Terry, then Elder Brockbank.  We joked then that we needed to closely watch where Elder Belshe went so we could see where Brad would go next.  Elder Belshe was transferred to Plzen at that time.  Yes… now Brad is being transferred to Plzen to take Elder Belshe’s place!!  We can’t wait to hear where Elder Belshe is being transferred to this Monday!!)

That was our week. To finish I would like to share a spiritual thought about the importance of maintaining focus. In doing so I want to talk a little about Peter, when he briefly walked on the water to the Savior. As he went toward the Savior he successfully walked on water, which is quite miraculous. "But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink" It was as Peter stopped focusing on the Lord that he began to sink. And when he realized this "he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him." I think that this story has many applications in our lives and in our faith. I think we often make the mistake Peter does, we begin to do something because the Lord has asked it of us, and then we lose focus on him, and begin to be overwhelmed. But the Lord is there, and as soon as we focus on Him again and ask for His help, He will "immediately" reach out to us. I challenge you all to keep Christ as the focus of your service and activities. Thank you for your prayers and support!

-Elder Pickett

What a Year

heroes!

From Sister Gunnell/ one of the couple missionaries serving in the mission:  "Our heroes for the day! They put our snow tires on the car while we were attending a baptism. On their P-day no less. You have a wonderful son! We served with Elder Brockbank in Jicin and love him to pieces!! Looking forward to getting to know your son better!!" 

As is commemorated in my email title, yesterday marked a year to the day since I entered the MTC. Crazy to think about. This week has been pretty crazy as well. Lots of interesting things and some fun, some not fun.

• Last week we had baptisms of a married couple with 3 kids here in Prague. They are good friends of members who actually just went through the temple for the first time and were sealed (they got baptized a year and a half ago in April). The newly baptized family is super awesome and very solid. They have an excellent understanding of the gospel and how everything works, and we feel that they are a really solid addition to the ward. The husband actually was invited to bear his testimony on Sunday at Ward Conference. He is super awesome.

Our baptistery here in the Prague building. 

President P redid some carpeting and lighting and it looks really nice.

• On Sunday evening I threw-up. And then again at about 3:30 in the morning. Not sure why, but seeing that a few other people from our district did as well, we think it might have been something that we ate. But we don't know. Elder Brockbank and I went out for the evening to go visit a few less-active members. We got on a tram and I wasn't feeling too great. We walked into the metro and I was still feeling pretty bad. We got to our stop and started walking and I had to sit down because I was feeling really bad. So we decided to go back so that I could go to bed. Well we took the metro back to the tram stop...And I didn't make it any further. I threw-up in a trashcan there, with an audience of 6-7 semi-drunk homeless people. They came over and asked me for cigarettes after. They probably thought I was drunk.  Needless to say a memorable experience. I am totally healthy now though, don't worry.
• Monday I was feeling okay. I was kept on a diet of bread and fruit tea drunken very slowly for the day. And interesting day. We also got ready for training the next day, and I napped a bit. We have a convenient couch here in the office and I have used it a few times these past weeks.
• Tuesday we had a really good zone training. We talked about baptism (a favorite of ours), successful missionary work, referrals, and promising blessings.  It is super great to work with President P, and I definitely will get a picture with him before transfers. It was a good training, and I got to really eat the lunch, so that was excellent. After that we changed some tires, and then practiced for our concert next week.

 From Elder Brockbank: "Here's a picture of me when I drove a car for the first time this week in Europe. Look at that cool, calm, and collected face with hands at 10 and 2.  Just think of Mario Kart full of lane changes, signs galore, trams to dodge, and if you crash, you can actually die."

• Wednesday we had to prepare for the other zone conference, so that involved a lot of work in the office. Not much happened that day.  From Elder Brockbank: “I quickly redesigned a certificate for President P(aka made a new one) into something high-brow, edgy, classy, and still accessible to the average Mormon missionary serving in central Europe.” This mission is going to be CLASSY by the time Elder Brockbank leaves the office with his graphic design skills.
• Thursday we had an exchange. I was with Elder Geier and we had fun being outside finally and talking to people. It was a great day.

 Prague is pretty in the Fall 

• Friday we took a car in to get the tires changed professionally by someone and then also practiced for our concert. And my great companion paid for a yummy lunch (picture included!) for me to celebrate my mission birthday since I did pass my year mark yesterday. That was kind of crazy. I certainly hope that things slow down. That would be great. It was a good day. 

•   (answering Scott back…) Teenage years are pretty critical for the youth and their testimonies, because it is when they start asking themselves if they really believe all of these things. When I talk to people I usually identify 15-16 as when I really started to gain a personal and defining testimony of the gospel. So they are right at that time. And real leadership experience with accountability and decision making is critical too. Learning how to solve problems and make things work. It is important.

• We are going to Phantom of the Opera next week for our Culture Night. It is going to be really good. We are also having a concert and inviting lots of people to it to use it as a finding tool. We have a VERY musical district, so it is going to be pretty awesome. We just need to practice a little more to get ready for it. 
• ·         Transfers happen a week from Monday. We will get calls next Saturday, so I know nothing. Except the fact that I am probably leaving. Almost certainly.  I am really excited to get the heck out of the office. Being cooped up in here is starting to really drive me crazy. We just have no time for other missionary work, and it gets frustrating and discouraging. But I am going to try to emphasize finding time to get out a lot during planning this week and try to make it happen. Somehow. This transfer is going really fast and I feel like I have run out of time for a lot of stuff here. But it is still good. 

My spiritual thought for the week is on mercy. The Savior is the perfect example of mercy and love. It is interesting that sometimes in life we think that everything that is happening is so lacking in mercy and that we are forced to suffer things that we should not. But I testify that God is merciful, that He uplifts and supports us during our trials, and that He will guide us. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is strong enough to undue any damage done to use during this life. Thank you for the support and prayers!

-Elder Pickett

 Food commentary & pictures from Elder Brockbank. 

 Our missionaries are DEFINITELY become foodies!  

Elder Brockbank: "This is Svičková. It is THE Czech dish. It is terribly delicious. Those bread things are called knedliky and are SUPER YUMMY with the vegetable sauce. This is an insanely yummy crepe that I ate stuffed with chicken, cream sauce, and mushrooms. Also a plus is that food in the Czech Republic is CRAZY cheap."

Sickness, Stress, Service and a Baptism!

Prague District:  Elder Brockbank, Elder Smith, Elder Greier, Elder Petersen, Elder Tingey, Elder Pickett, Elder Andriarena and Sister Brown, Sister Heap, Sister Boza

I wanted to keep my alliteration going, but baptism was an important enough thing to include that it was worth breaking it up. I will just go straight into some updates, because we don't have a lot of time before we are going to practice for the concert that we are going to have on the 4th of November.

• On Monday we were planning for the baptisms that were on plan for this weekend. Things got pretty hectic and a little crazy with that. The investigators were from different areas than ours, but because I am the District Leader I am involved in the process a lot. And we had some confusion and problems with communication with the ward, which made things more stressful.
• After speaking with quite a few people I was still stressing and trying to figure out details for the baptisms. I also conducted 2 baptismal interviews for a married couple with 3 children. That was a great experience, and it was wonderful to see how prepared they were and how well they understood the doctrine. We also were able to teach an investigator after English (which I didn't go to because of the interviews) and he accepted a baptismal date. It is not super solid, but we will continue working with him regularly and we hope that he will progress well.
• On Wednesday I woke up and was pretty sure that I was sick. But I took my temperature and I didn't have a fever, so we went ahead with our plans anyways. Our whole zone was here doing interviews with President, and we had an elaborate contacting group set-up, but Elder Brockbank and I had to do some work in the office and go to "far-away" post, so we were not able to participate. Also by lunchtime my body started to shut-down and I got the chills. The moral of the story is that by the afternoon I was lying on a couch in the office sleeping while Elder Brockbank and President did some things that they had to, and then Elder Brockbank and I went home and I went to bed.

(This was last week when Elder Greier and Elder Brockbank were sick, 

no pictures of Elder Pickett sick)

• Thursday was better. I was still not at 100%, but 14 hours of sleep does miraculous things. I came to the office and did a lot of napping/relaxing in P-day clothes. It was not a normal day, but nothing much happened.
• Friday was great. The couple were baptized, and they had friends (both members and not) who came to support them. The missionaries sang "Nearer My God to Thee" a capella and that was fun. It was a really great Friday and an especially wonderful evening.
• Today we did service at the Bishop's house. He and his wife are so great. They are both really funny, and we had a great time. That was our week.
• Elder Brockbank and I are doing really good. We get along very well, he is super easy to work with. He is really funny too which helps. He is kind of exploding out of his ears with office work, while I am virtually all out.

My spiritual thought for the week is about decisions. I have found on my mission that trying to become more like Christ really boils down to everyday little decisions that we make. Many of them are made "in the moment," which can sometimes lead us to make bad decisions, but I have found that sometimes all we need to do is think for a moment and recognize the option that will have the best impact for us in the long run, rather than the first idea that we want to follow. So my challenge to you this week is to look at decisions and to think a little bit about how each decision can help you to draw closer to Christ, and then actively choose to follow Him. Thank you for the support and prayers!

-Elder Pickett

Glad to hear also about the great farewells of Noah & Sarah and the news about marriages and school. Interesting BYU essay change, I think that is a great prompt though. Lots of potential for good essays from that. Next transfer will have some crazy news. That is for sure. It will be fun.

 Prague missionary apartment

The Week my Companion Drowned in Office Work and I Left Him Inside

 PRAGUE!

                                                        Elders Pickett & Brockbank

Hello everyone! As you might have guessed by my title, this was an interesting week. Elder Brockbank's list of activities and requirements in the office keeps getting longer with cars and other duties. And mine keeps getting shorter and shorter. Which is fun for me, and not so fun for him. So this week, I did splits with the trio of elders in our district a few times, and Elder Brockbank stayed in the office and Elder Scott was his companion. I will highlight some of the missionary tracting and activities of the week.

• On Tuesday I went with Elder Geier and we taught a family that is getting baptized next week! They are super awesome, and they are good friends of one of the members here, so we are super excited. It has been really great to see the progress they have made and their preparation. We also went out contacting together and had a few great conversations with people. Hopefully we can lead that into meeting with them.

Prague District 

 Elder Smith, Elder Petersen, Elder Andriarena, Sestra Brown, Sestra Heap, Sestra Boza, Elder Greier, Elder Tingey, Elder Brockbank, Elder Pickett. 

We just bought sweaters today so that we will have matching district sweaters (can't wait for that picture!).

• On Wednesday we had district meeting and then sang and talked to people. And then we came back and dropped off Elder Brockbank in the office with Elder Scott and I went on a split with President, because he is starting to teach me how to drive stick shift. So that was a little fun and decently unexpected. I can now officially start driving, and change to second gear in a stick shift car. It was really hard at first, because we left the parking brake on, so the engine died twice in a row. But after that it got easier. I haven't really driven it much yet.  I will keep you informed with my progress. We also started an exchange, I went with Elder Tingey. It was a good exchange. 
• Thursday I had my exchange. We met a few cool people and we contacted all together as a district. We set up a table and played some music and just started talking to people.
• Friday we had cleaning checks and had a quick lunch and then almost ran to get to an appointment, which fell through. So that was really fun.
• Hopefully our nation doesn't totally crumble while I am away. Nothing I can about it. I am plenty healthy and my legs look all normal again, don't worry.  

Us in front of the Lennon Wall

• We listened to Elder Juan Uceda's General Conference talk about meaningful prayers in Czech, but I read it in English later. It was a really great talk. That is something that I have seen make a real difference on my mission, and something that has changed as well: how I pray. Thank you for the prayers.
• It has been a while since I have gotten to scientifically geek out about something (referring to a recessive gene kidney disease that his new niece Sadie has been diagnosed with). I have to control myself, because a lot of strong atheists here try to use science to back-up their arguments. I have found that I can't get into any sort of discussion using science, because that's just never going to cut it for me, or for anyone else. Also, I have my spiritual and scientific knowledge tied together, and so there are some connections that make perfect sense in my brain that don't work for people without the spiritual background. It's tough sometimes. But good practice for me always keeping the spiritual things on a higher level than temporal/scientific.  Here’s an example of a street contact as told by Elder Brockbank:  “We started talking with a guy and found out that he is way into biology. We asked if he believed in God. He didn't. We asked why. He didn't know; he had just been raised this way. We told him we talk and discuss with people about how we can find out if God is there. He said he wasn't too interested and started to walk away. I ran after him and asked if we could meet with him once more. He stopped and said we could keep talking. He continued to explain that it was just the way he was raised. He had never learned about God so he has never believed in Him. He said it may have been different if he was born into a believing family. He said he wanted to believe but that it probably wasn't possible.”
• Our APs are really good. They get along very well. Sometimes they are a little bit crazy, but I really enjoy working with them. We are working on that carry-over from a good street contact to someone to continue teaching. It is still a work in progress. But our numbers are certainly improving. 
• I do like packages of Christmas cheer. I will keep my eye open for that one. I will get a nice nativity set. Actually two, one for me and one for you.
• This morning we got up and as a District, ran through old town Prague and on Charles Bridge.

• Blurry pictures of us running 

My spiritual thought is about perseverance. One of the things that I have gained a testimony of on my mission is that you keep going and keep going until you find the blessings. The Lord always follows through on His promises, but we have to meet the requirements. And one of those is that we continue on until we have done all that we can, and then the Lord makes up the rest. So my challenge to you is to keep going. Keep trying your best to be obedient, and I promise that the Lord will bless you for it. Thanks for the support and prayers!

-Elder Pickett 

 Love you lots too!

 We live on a pretty street