May 16, 2012:
Guess where?
Yep! I'm staying in Jičín! I am here with Sister Dolinar. She is great! Andrew guessed that I'd be training, but I'm not. Actually no one is! We aren't getting any new sister missionaries until November actually, so that's unfortunate, since that means I'll probably never train on my mission. Skoda! I wanted to. But alas. What can you do? :)
So talking to you was SO GOOD! I was so happy, and I'm secretly glad Daddy was in Moscow, so that I got two phone calls, haha, that gave us more time. So thanks for calling and talking. It was good to talk to Jefferey again and Yack, since she doesn't write me much, hmmmmmm ;). Thank you so much for all your happy voices and funny stories and enthusiasm about the work I'm doing. It was all very helpful, and I was so happy! Isn't it crazy that we have already had the Christmas AND Mother's Day phone call?! BAH! What on earth! But I'm glad time goes fast. Means we're working! A special shout out to Mother Dear because she does so much for me. Thank you for taking care of my life while I'm gone. I loved talking to Daddy. My smart side comes out when I talk to him, haha; it felt good to talk about my "intellectual thoughts." :) So thank you, happy den matek. [= Mother’s Day] Although I feel like it was more of a gift for me than for you! So thank you.
Guess where?
Yep! I'm staying in Jičín! I am here with Sister Dolinar. She is great! Andrew guessed that I'd be training, but I'm not. Actually no one is! We aren't getting any new sister missionaries until November actually, so that's unfortunate, since that means I'll probably never train on my mission. Skoda! I wanted to. But alas. What can you do? :)
So talking to you was SO GOOD! I was so happy, and I'm secretly glad Daddy was in Moscow, so that I got two phone calls, haha, that gave us more time. So thanks for calling and talking. It was good to talk to Jefferey again and Yack, since she doesn't write me much, hmmmmmm ;). Thank you so much for all your happy voices and funny stories and enthusiasm about the work I'm doing. It was all very helpful, and I was so happy! Isn't it crazy that we have already had the Christmas AND Mother's Day phone call?! BAH! What on earth! But I'm glad time goes fast. Means we're working! A special shout out to Mother Dear because she does so much for me. Thank you for taking care of my life while I'm gone. I loved talking to Daddy. My smart side comes out when I talk to him, haha; it felt good to talk about my "intellectual thoughts." :) So thank you, happy den matek. [= Mother’s Day] Although I feel like it was more of a gift for me than for you! So thank you.
So we're having quite the party with Roman and [our three investigators]. They all signed up to meet with us daily. So that's good. We had a meeting over there yesterday, and Brother Neckar came with us. Quite the party. It's interesting, since they are all at different levels, and all have various strengths and weaknesses, but this situation will teach us a lot as missionaries. Really take things slowly. In “Preach My Gospel” it says that it is true intelligence of a man to take a complicated topic and unfold it so that even a child can understand. Yep, so that's what we're trying to do, although I obviously don’t have true intelligence, since I still get all tangled at times. We'll see how this all pans out! They are beautiful, and I keep thinking if we really could help them all together what a support system they would be for each other. Yesterday while we started the lesson we asked them how their day had been, and [some] were tired, because they had been moving all day. It was great though, because then Roman told us about how they were in a pickle with getting their stuff to their new place, and then Roman remembered that he had Home Teachers, so [then] Brother Neckar of course came right over after work and moved their stuff in two car loads. It just made me so happy inside when I realized how inspired home teaching is, and that Roman has such good Home Teachers that he knows that he can call them in time of need. It was so wonderful! And Brother Neckar just smiled, and it wasn’t a big deal to him, because he's let Christ become a part of who he IS.
It was such a blessing, and then [an investigator], who already said thank you to the Tmej family last week at a lesson at their place for the clothes and food they gave him, then said to Brother Neckar that "my testimony was strengthened today, because I once again realized how good your people are." And then he looked straight at Brother Neckar and thanked him profusely. That is exactly what President Hinckley was talking about when people asked why we don’t have symbols. WE are our Church's symbol. And that adds even more of a responsibility to always be examples of Him, like it talks about in Mosiah 18. And BOY, is it such a blessing as missionaries to be around these members who really let the gospel emanate through them in their actions. Makes me want to be so much better every day! I love that. That's how we're going to convert the world. By example! By the members being missionaries every day. It really does soften hearts.
So I guess you're probably interested in who my new companion is! I'm really excited, her name is Sister Mary Dolinar, and she is tall and skinny like me! She studied at UVU [= Utah Valley University] and has 7 siblings; she's the second oldest. She loves PINK! Sister Dolinar is kind and quiet and really compassionate and delicate. She's so classy! I am excited. She has long thick blonde hair and is so pretty, and I think we'll get along just great. She was in Sister Jorgensen's MTC group, so one transfer younger than me. She has three dogs, and her family lives in Bountiful, Utah. One of her dogs is named Coco! But he's a boy. She doesn't know what she wants to study quite yet when she gets back, but she thinks maybe something like criminal justice. I'm excited! Pictures will come next week I'm sure :).
It was such a blessing, and then [an investigator], who already said thank you to the Tmej family last week at a lesson at their place for the clothes and food they gave him, then said to Brother Neckar that "my testimony was strengthened today, because I once again realized how good your people are." And then he looked straight at Brother Neckar and thanked him profusely. That is exactly what President Hinckley was talking about when people asked why we don’t have symbols. WE are our Church's symbol. And that adds even more of a responsibility to always be examples of Him, like it talks about in Mosiah 18. And BOY, is it such a blessing as missionaries to be around these members who really let the gospel emanate through them in their actions. Makes me want to be so much better every day! I love that. That's how we're going to convert the world. By example! By the members being missionaries every day. It really does soften hearts.
So I guess you're probably interested in who my new companion is! I'm really excited, her name is Sister Mary Dolinar, and she is tall and skinny like me! She studied at UVU [= Utah Valley University] and has 7 siblings; she's the second oldest. She loves PINK! Sister Dolinar is kind and quiet and really compassionate and delicate. She's so classy! I am excited. She has long thick blonde hair and is so pretty, and I think we'll get along just great. She was in Sister Jorgensen's MTC group, so one transfer younger than me. She has three dogs, and her family lives in Bountiful, Utah. One of her dogs is named Coco! But he's a boy. She doesn't know what she wants to study quite yet when she gets back, but she thinks maybe something like criminal justice. I'm excited! Pictures will come next week I'm sure :).
Yesterday was quite the day. I cleaned and de-junked while Sister Jorgensen packed up her six months of being in Jičín. Then we had dinner with the Podlipny… oh right! I was supposed to tell you their story. Ok, that will come right now randomly in the middle of this paragraph.
Ok, the Podlipny are so great. So so great. So they started taking yoga in Brno (everyone over the age of 50 started investigating via yoga, haha), since communism had wiped out all possibility of proselyting, the Church started giving yoga lessons, and if people asked about religion, they'd tell them who they were and then give them information about the gospel etc. So Brother Vojkufka's father (I knew all these people in Brno) gave them some type writer copy of some article or statement or something about Mormons, and they started with that. Books of Mormon weren't allowed in the country, so they didn’t get one until after their baptism. They continued to study and pray and talk to the members, and after two years they were baptized in a pond late at night. They were the first people in Czechoslovakia who were baptized during the day. Although during the day means at about 11 pm or so. They were baptized and then moved to Nová Paka, I think.
Anyway, they started holding Church meetings in their apartment, but everyone would come at random times, and they would only whisper the hymns, so that upstairs and downstairs people wouldn’t hear them and rat them out. That first year of doing so the country had twenty baptisms. Yeah. TWENTY. It was crazy. And (I'd heard of this next part before, but never SEEN one until yesterday) they started smuggling in Books of Mormon. The Books of Mormon were all red, including the outside of the pages, and on the front only the letters KM were stamped into the cover. This was done so that if someone found one on your person and just looked at it quickly, they'd think it was a book about Karl Marx. The Books of Mormon were made small enough to fit into your pocket, and there were only enough for each family to have one.
Brother Podlipny also told me a story yesterday of a man who was trying to bring more books into Czechoslovakia, and he got stopped at the border. The border patrol asked him, "Why do you have so many books in your car?!" and the man smiled and said, "I love this book SO MUCH!" And it was a miracle, because they only told him to go back, that he couldn’t bring books into the country, so he turned around. They should have stamped his passport though, making it impossible for him to ever return, but they didn’t. After that people like the Podlipny went to Germany empty handed and would return with a Book of Mormon in their pocket. Which ran a high risk, because if they got controlled on the way over, they'd have written exactly what they were wearing and their possessions, and if they were checked on the way back with something extra, they were arrested. Anyway, so quite the story.
I asked the Podlipny if they still had their communist copies of the Book of Mormon, and they did, and I was SO humbled! They've gone through so much, and in the meantime many of those who converted so long ago have already fallen away. But they've stayed solid, so that's good. But while we read, altough the red Books of Mormon are the old translation, I asked if I could read from them. (They had two copies), and they agreed. Ah, I just cradled that history in my hands. It was quite the honor. These people have been through so much. The gospel is so worth it, and I love the history. God is watching over this work! I feel like sometimes when we actually have to sacrifice a ton, things mean more. So maybe, when the secret meetings were being held and people had to risk so much, the gospel spread quicker because it was more, I dunno... I dunno what I'm saying, it was more valued? But I'm not saying it's not now. But it's just we talk to SO many people here, and no one listens, and it's just like, ah, I wish that it could be less thrown around, because in the countries where proselyting isn't allowed the gospel is just BLOOMING, because people have to inquire, and I feel like that step brings more commitment. But that was the start of my unorganized thought of the day. Perhaps next week it'll make more sense, haha.
Random other thought I told Daddy: we were [talking to people] last week, and there was this old man painting his fence, and I asked him if we could help, and he said ‘no’, and then I said, “Well, can we talk to you about our message?” He looked at me and then said, something like, "You think GOD exists?" And he wasn’t being rude, just actually really astonished. We bore testimony, and then he said, "Do you know how many people died during the Holocaust? People say six million, but that is only an estimation. No one really even knows. And my uncle was one of those who lived in a concentration camp but made it out alive. He lived there for years, and when he came home he wasn't the same, and he only weighed 53 kilos [= 117 lbs]. And you are telling me there is a GOD?" UUUUGH, why can't I explain anything in these situations? It just broke my heart. Absolutely broke it, and while I stood there blabbering, the thought came to me that while he was right, we don't physically know how many millions died in the Holocaust, and I don’t want to downgrade that, I feel like the worse, much greater loss, is the generations of millions of people who now because of that poor government and tyranny have lost hope in God. And not just that, but they are against anything religious. I've never seen SO MANY huge cathedrals in my life. They spot the landscape, and they are absolutely empty, and they are surrounded by swarms of atheists who deny God having any part in their lives. I always hear, "My grandma was a believer, but I am not." And it just breaks my heart how in one generation, in one swoop of poor government, God has been sucked out of these people. It is hard to try and connect, because I honestly cannot even imagine not ever even PONDERING about God or about where we came from. That mindset, I feel, is a greater loss. We have two deaths. But Christ has overcome the physical one. I think Satan is much happier when he accomplishes the death of the spirit. I hope that made sense. I gotta go. I love you all.
S laskou,
Sestra Christinka
Ok, the Podlipny are so great. So so great. So they started taking yoga in Brno (everyone over the age of 50 started investigating via yoga, haha), since communism had wiped out all possibility of proselyting, the Church started giving yoga lessons, and if people asked about religion, they'd tell them who they were and then give them information about the gospel etc. So Brother Vojkufka's father (I knew all these people in Brno) gave them some type writer copy of some article or statement or something about Mormons, and they started with that. Books of Mormon weren't allowed in the country, so they didn’t get one until after their baptism. They continued to study and pray and talk to the members, and after two years they were baptized in a pond late at night. They were the first people in Czechoslovakia who were baptized during the day. Although during the day means at about 11 pm or so. They were baptized and then moved to Nová Paka, I think.
Anyway, they started holding Church meetings in their apartment, but everyone would come at random times, and they would only whisper the hymns, so that upstairs and downstairs people wouldn’t hear them and rat them out. That first year of doing so the country had twenty baptisms. Yeah. TWENTY. It was crazy. And (I'd heard of this next part before, but never SEEN one until yesterday) they started smuggling in Books of Mormon. The Books of Mormon were all red, including the outside of the pages, and on the front only the letters KM were stamped into the cover. This was done so that if someone found one on your person and just looked at it quickly, they'd think it was a book about Karl Marx. The Books of Mormon were made small enough to fit into your pocket, and there were only enough for each family to have one.
Brother Podlipny also told me a story yesterday of a man who was trying to bring more books into Czechoslovakia, and he got stopped at the border. The border patrol asked him, "Why do you have so many books in your car?!" and the man smiled and said, "I love this book SO MUCH!" And it was a miracle, because they only told him to go back, that he couldn’t bring books into the country, so he turned around. They should have stamped his passport though, making it impossible for him to ever return, but they didn’t. After that people like the Podlipny went to Germany empty handed and would return with a Book of Mormon in their pocket. Which ran a high risk, because if they got controlled on the way over, they'd have written exactly what they were wearing and their possessions, and if they were checked on the way back with something extra, they were arrested. Anyway, so quite the story.
I asked the Podlipny if they still had their communist copies of the Book of Mormon, and they did, and I was SO humbled! They've gone through so much, and in the meantime many of those who converted so long ago have already fallen away. But they've stayed solid, so that's good. But while we read, altough the red Books of Mormon are the old translation, I asked if I could read from them. (They had two copies), and they agreed. Ah, I just cradled that history in my hands. It was quite the honor. These people have been through so much. The gospel is so worth it, and I love the history. God is watching over this work! I feel like sometimes when we actually have to sacrifice a ton, things mean more. So maybe, when the secret meetings were being held and people had to risk so much, the gospel spread quicker because it was more, I dunno... I dunno what I'm saying, it was more valued? But I'm not saying it's not now. But it's just we talk to SO many people here, and no one listens, and it's just like, ah, I wish that it could be less thrown around, because in the countries where proselyting isn't allowed the gospel is just BLOOMING, because people have to inquire, and I feel like that step brings more commitment. But that was the start of my unorganized thought of the day. Perhaps next week it'll make more sense, haha.
Random other thought I told Daddy: we were [talking to people] last week, and there was this old man painting his fence, and I asked him if we could help, and he said ‘no’, and then I said, “Well, can we talk to you about our message?” He looked at me and then said, something like, "You think GOD exists?" And he wasn’t being rude, just actually really astonished. We bore testimony, and then he said, "Do you know how many people died during the Holocaust? People say six million, but that is only an estimation. No one really even knows. And my uncle was one of those who lived in a concentration camp but made it out alive. He lived there for years, and when he came home he wasn't the same, and he only weighed 53 kilos [= 117 lbs]. And you are telling me there is a GOD?" UUUUGH, why can't I explain anything in these situations? It just broke my heart. Absolutely broke it, and while I stood there blabbering, the thought came to me that while he was right, we don't physically know how many millions died in the Holocaust, and I don’t want to downgrade that, I feel like the worse, much greater loss, is the generations of millions of people who now because of that poor government and tyranny have lost hope in God. And not just that, but they are against anything religious. I've never seen SO MANY huge cathedrals in my life. They spot the landscape, and they are absolutely empty, and they are surrounded by swarms of atheists who deny God having any part in their lives. I always hear, "My grandma was a believer, but I am not." And it just breaks my heart how in one generation, in one swoop of poor government, God has been sucked out of these people. It is hard to try and connect, because I honestly cannot even imagine not ever even PONDERING about God or about where we came from. That mindset, I feel, is a greater loss. We have two deaths. But Christ has overcome the physical one. I think Satan is much happier when he accomplishes the death of the spirit. I hope that made sense. I gotta go. I love you all.
S laskou,
Sestra Christinka