May 23, 2016 -- "The sneak attack contact hasn't worked yet"

This week has been a pretty successful week. We worked hard--always can work harder. We definitely felt the opposition in missionary work but also had some of the sweetest, most spiritual moments. One being with this really nice Polish man named Petr. We met him a couple weeks back and were able to meet. He works in the Czech Republic and speaks very well. He comes from a Catholic background but is so open open to our message. When we were talking about Christ we wanted to share some verses from Alma 7 with him.  We gave it to him to read. A couple sentences in he realized it was in Polish and laughed so loud, and we laughed so loud with him. From what we could tell, he was so happy we found him a Polish Book of Mormon. We have seen him a couple times around the town, and he always repeats the day we are meeting and the time. He is pretty darn solid already.

Mira has met with the missionaries before. He has a lot of questions, but I think this time he is really ready to take the challenge of trying to do what missionaries tell him to do, so he can know for himself. Our next lesson is today, and we will review the chapters he read and talk about faith together. 

We had a sports night and instead of playing volleyball, we decided to go try to shoot some hoops with the Elders the some nice member boys, Stephan 9 and Patrik 13. While we were playing on the other side of the court there were 2 men and boys looking like some fathers and their sons

"Stephan" is the boy in the green jacket.

playing. Stephan thought it would be a wonderful idea for us to play together. (I think all of us were saying in our heads, "No Stephan. They are playing. It's fine."  Plus, we weren't way talented or anything.) But he called out and asked if they wanted to play. They agreed, and then we played a pretty good game of basketball. After we were done, we invited people for a spiritual thought. Surprisingly they all came in. Starsis Vennard and Collins gave a beautiful simple thought how we are supposed to have joy in our life and family brings lasting joy. One of the men that was playing (as for a description he was very buff and on one arm had this way big tattoo) said "Wow. That is really nice to listen to." Also another little boy added that it was really nice sounding. The man continued on, "I have no wife, no family, no girlfriend. Yeah, sometimes I can feel good playing ball for second, but then I go back to not loving my life." Turns out that everyone that was playing ball on the other court were two single men and a bunch of random neighbor boys. I learned a very big lesson that day. The Czech are really good at playing things off, really acting like they are okay. But I know from multiple experiences that everyone who doesn't have the Gospel needs it. I am so thankful I can be sharing a message of lasting happiness with a people that really need it.

Yesterday was such a interesting Sunday. Mission Sundays are a ton different from normal Sundays.  We first started out tracting. Sometimes, before we go out, we pray for specific things. Before we went tracting, we prayed someone

would be interested in our message and would want to learn more. That prayer was answered about 20 houses in by a boy about 19 years old. I almost feel not missionary-like describing what he was wearing but it was nothing but these tiny little shorts pretty sure they were underwear. He asked us if we spoke Czech or English but for the first couple minutes we could not speak either!! Feeling like a nun for a total of like 8 months or something then to have to talk to this more then half naked boy just doesn't work. We know Heavenly Father blessed us with a fence that was in between us so that was a total blessing. He shared his thoughts. He thought he totally had everything figured out. We shared our thoughts. He tried to tell us that we can't say we know things are true.  So we shared Moroni 10: 4-5 and said that we can. He ended up saying he has some questions about life and committed to read the Book of Mormon. Still a little scary. After that we saw our sports nights friends, the two adults tanning outside, and we talked to them. We decided that the Czechs don't wear a lot of clothes, and it will be a long summer.  Also, yesterday we were looking for this referral. We read the map wrong and went on like a 20 min bus ride to the middle of nowhere walking on a highway back, we talked to some great people. We figured out the referral lives a couple streets away from our house. After we had a plan to contact by the river but needed to get there faster. So we took this steep short cut through the woods.  We came running out and startled this man and started contacting him. He said "No." The sneak attack contact hasn't worked yet but we will keep working on it. 

-- 

Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees.

Sestra Baxter