December 27, 2011:
God answers prayers when our will is aligned with His
Hi again :) It was nice to talk to [many of the family members]. I'm glad my Christmas package got there in time for Christmas. I hope everything went well and is going well. Things went well over here on this end. We got to spend Christmas indoors with the District, because every store here was closed, and no one was on the street. So we had everyone come over to our place, and Sister Brimhall and I made it really great. I felt like all the Elders were my kids or whatever, because I was working so hard on making their Christmas great. We carried their American [gift]boxes to our apartment, and I wrapped them so that they'd be nice under the tree we bought. I cooked a pumpkin pie from scratch (I'm learning that I have random skills I never thought I had before, but when you're put in interesting situations that make you work harder, crazy wonderful things happen). I also cooked a ham, made a salad, steamed carrots, and made mashed potatoes. Oh, and I made ginger cookies. It was great.
God answers prayers when our will is aligned with His
Hi again :) It was nice to talk to [many of the family members]. I'm glad my Christmas package got there in time for Christmas. I hope everything went well and is going well. Things went well over here on this end. We got to spend Christmas indoors with the District, because every store here was closed, and no one was on the street. So we had everyone come over to our place, and Sister Brimhall and I made it really great. I felt like all the Elders were my kids or whatever, because I was working so hard on making their Christmas great. We carried their American [gift]boxes to our apartment, and I wrapped them so that they'd be nice under the tree we bought. I cooked a pumpkin pie from scratch (I'm learning that I have random skills I never thought I had before, but when you're put in interesting situations that make you work harder, crazy wonderful things happen). I also cooked a ham, made a salad, steamed carrots, and made mashed potatoes. Oh, and I made ginger cookies. It was great.
Everyone else sat in the living room area watching the movie “How to Train Your Dragon” while I cooked. It made me happy to be able to contribute. Sister Brimhall helped me too, and we used the pretty napkins Mommy sent to make the table look pretty. It was wonderful, we had dinner, opened presents, had our ‘white elephant present’ thing, and then watched “Megamind”. It was great watching that. And then we just sat and talked for a bit and ate pie. Elders left around 8 pm, so they were over about a total of 6 hours. It was a great Christmas, and Sister Brimhall and I both kept saying how it turned out the very best it could have for being Christmas away from home. I hope the Elders liked it. They said they did :).
Thank you so much for the giraffe blanket. I LOVE it. I have needed a blanket, and now I have one. I love it! And plus it's starting to get colder at night here, so it's come in so handy. Thank you for all the chocolate. Chocolate gets me through the day. Thank you for the angel that I can add to my Nativity next year. Thank you for the beautiful Scripture case. I love it. Thank you. And thank you for the extra journals. I think I'm set :).
Also the hand warmers have already been used. The Elders are so jealous of them, because they are reusable, haha, so they will definitely come in handy. My hands get so cold so easily. Thank you so much!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Also thank you Mummi and Morfar for your package. I loved the chocolate, and the little girl on skis is lovely. Thank you!
The whole Mission went to Prague on Friday for a Mission Christmas. We had to get up at 4 in the morning to get there on time, but it was wonderful. We first had a talent show and..... I did my RAPTOR. It was great. There is an Elder here who does a FANTASTIC raptor noise so we joined efforts. We were the second in the show, and everyone just loved it. It was great. And I'm so glad I did it. No regrets. Sister Brimhall said I am brave. Haha, maybe I'm just letting my inner dinosaur out. We then went on a walk and took some GORGEOUS pictures of Prague. Seriously, this place is unbelievable. So lovely! I am blowing these pictures up when I am home. Man, they will take your breath away. I feel like it's all just a weird fairy tale. Too soon it'll all be a memory! Thank heavens for cameras. Seriously. I was thinking about that this morning and how blessed I am to be able to show my kids what my mission was like. How great is that. Ok, so anyway, after that we all had dinner together and then a spiritual thought thing with Bible readings and songs, and then we got a Mission picture and then went home. They gave us a pamphlet of all the missionaries in here, and I hope they sent that to you as well, and the First Presidency sent all the missionaries a Christmas card, so that was neat. Also one of the Elders’ dads is the CEO for Leatherman, the knife company, so we each got a really nice knife with the Mission inscribed onto it. Really nice huh. I sent his father a thank you card. I loved being with all the missionaries. Just loved every minute. Everyone is so happy, and these people are becoming some of my really good friends. I am blessed! So blessed.
And the train ride back was just fantastic. I felt like I was in Harry Potter. We had a train cabin thing, and then some of the Elders were sitting out in the hall, and we were just laughing and [talking] to this random girl sitting with us, and man, it was just wonderful. When the Spirit is with you, everything is uplifting and good and wonderful. And now Christmas is over?! Crazy huh. Time just goes. And goes and goes! And we can't stop it. Good thing we have the gospel to help us know what is the best thing to use our time on. I'm certainly grateful for that.
So this week is weird because Czechs have holiday from about last Thursday to this Thursday, so nothing is really open (hence I couldn’t get to a computer till now, sorry), so we have all these random District and service days. Which are fine, but I miss talking to people. Luckily we have a lesson with [an investigator] today in a few hours. Yesterday we spent all day trying to get our areas figured out. We literally split up the city, and [will try to work with and invite the less active members back to Church]. Our numbers at Church would triple if [less active members] were active. Ugh, there is SO much work to be done here. We are also trying to get a family history night going, so that older people can come spend time together. So we need to talk to the Branch about that, and get it going. Also I made a poster for English advertising last week, and Sister Brimhall and I are supposed to make it into fliers to hand out. So there's plenty of work to be done, and actually sitting at a table with all this stuff in front of me made me miss school for a minute!
So this week is weird because Czechs have holiday from about last Thursday to this Thursday, so nothing is really open (hence I couldn’t get to a computer till now, sorry), so we have all these random District and service days. Which are fine, but I miss talking to people. Luckily we have a lesson with [an investigator] today in a few hours. Yesterday we spent all day trying to get our areas figured out. We literally split up the city, and [will try to work with and invite the less active members back to Church]. Our numbers at Church would triple if [less active members] were active. Ugh, there is SO much work to be done here. We are also trying to get a family history night going, so that older people can come spend time together. So we need to talk to the Branch about that, and get it going. Also I made a poster for English advertising last week, and Sister Brimhall and I are supposed to make it into fliers to hand out. So there's plenty of work to be done, and actually sitting at a table with all this stuff in front of me made me miss school for a minute!
I can’t believe this transfer is almost over. We only have about two weeks left. I don’t like that at all! I love Sister Brimhall. We get along so well and both have the same dreams. We both intend to travel and help developing countries, and we both are similar in how we approach situations, we work hard, and we don't get offended when the other has something to say about the other during teaching etc. We realize we are both learning, and correction is how we best learn. It's wonderful. I hope that President doesn’t move us, but chances are slim seeing that the oldest three missionaries are still training the last greenies, and the new training program leaks into next transfer... well, we'll see. I love her though, and I adore Brno. I never want to leave! But President told me last interview that being in Brno or Prague your greenie transfer is really hard, because half of everything you do is in English, so since I've been here my first two transfers, now I might get switched out soon. Blah. Ok, I'm not going to think about it! Haha, I just love it here. But it's probably just the whole Czech Republic I'm in love with, so no worries right? And Sister Brimhall and I go back to BYU [Brigham Young University] next Winter semester same time, so I'll just harass her into rooming with me or something, bahaha.
I never got to tell you all about something fantastic that happened last week that I just remembered. Ok, so we had a competition with another missionary Zone about who could get the most [phone]numbers, because it was Christmas week, and no one wants to give out [phone]numbers. SO. On the second day of the competition we were doing nightly planning, and we had 4 hours of contacting [people] on plan. While setting goals Sister Brimhall said, “Let’s get ten [phone]numbers.” I said something ridiculous and said, “How about FIFTEEN.” Hahah, ok, just so you know that's almost impossible. Key word here... ALMOST. She said something about how she used to make goals for a reason before she met me, but with me goals are just this high number, because I set them so high. I said, “OH SISTER WHERE IS YOUR FAITH?!” and so it was set. Fifteen [phone]numbers in four hours. That's averaging one every fifteen minutes. Fantastic. And almost impossible. But we set out. And we pushed HARD. We split up, we teamed it, we talked to everyone... we didn't take bathroom breaks, we didn't stop to warm up our hands.... and guess what? Four hours and forty five minutes later (we went into dinner time) we had fifteen [phone]numbers. Fifteen numbers. No one could believe it. Boy, did I pray hard that day, though, and man, did we work. It felt wonderful though. And God really really truly does help you when you set a goal, work for it, and then sacrifice for it to show that you really do care about the goal you set. We were SO tired. And SO happy. At the Christmas get-together on Friday Elders we didn’t even know were coming up to us and saying, “Are you the ones who got fifteen numbers in one day?!” and we proudly said, “YES.” That night as we were falling asleep Sister B said, "Sister, I love how ridiculous you are. We got fifteen numbers today because of you being crazy. That's five more people than we would have gotten without you." And that made me so happy. And that is why I love Sister B. She admits that I’m nuts , but then tells me when I do well at something. And that’s why our companionship works so well. Because when she criticizes me on something I know that she still loves me, and if I have the Spirit and work my hardest, I have nothing to feel negative about towards myself. So when she corrects me, I can say, you're right! Thank you for pointing that out. And then I work and become better. It's great. The Spirit really does work through you, and life is good when you feel happy and confident. I love that. And I love that Heavenly Father knows me SO well that He listened to my prayers about getting fifteen numbers. And that's exactly what He helped us do. Get fifteen numbers. In one day. I love Him. I love that my goals are His goals. When goals are in line crazy things happen. When goals aren't in line, there's contention, and things don’t turn out so well. I love that through prayer we can learn to align our will to His.
Well family, that was my miracle of the week. The other miracle is the miracle of Christmas. I was reading the Book of Mormon, and there's a scripture in 2nd Nephi somewhere that says Christ is the beginning and the end. And if you pray and get to know Him, your heart just BURNS with joy. I know He lives. And I know that God hears and answers our prayers. I love you all, merry belated Christmas!
Love,
Sister Izatt
Well family, that was my miracle of the week. The other miracle is the miracle of Christmas. I was reading the Book of Mormon, and there's a scripture in 2nd Nephi somewhere that says Christ is the beginning and the end. And if you pray and get to know Him, your heart just BURNS with joy. I know He lives. And I know that God hears and answers our prayers. I love you all, merry belated Christmas!
Love,
Sister Izatt