Week 3 in Ostrava

Hey all,

I hope everything is going well at home. No worries, just hoping everything's going alright. It can be really difficult when life gets moving faster and all. This week felt kind of like that for me, I think. It's been a great week overall, but a lot of really goofy stuff happened. Two of our investigators landed in the hospital, one of them got diabetes, another had to stop meeting with us entirely to catch up on his work, and several of them stood us up on appointments. Even so, we got a lot accomplished this week. I believe I already wrote about mission conference. The next day was P-day and we spent the morning with the other elder's landlord on a golf course. I'm a realy crummy golfer :P but it was fun nonetheless, and there was great contact made with the landlord. Another great opportunity came with one of our investigators in the hospital, Jan Travniček. He had kidney stones, so we went to go visit him and taught him more about the restoration and, specifically, about the priesthood. We then gave him a blessing, and I got to do my first annointing in Czech. Haha, it was kind of funny since I looked up for a second from my cheat sheet card, and when I looked back again I was on the confirmation prayer. I didn't get very far before I stopped and started over, but he just about got confirmed instead of annointed. Even so, he has a great testimony of the priesthood and the restoration, especially Joseph Smith. He really loves that man.

In other news, we went on a member activity on Saturday. We hiked up to Ivánčena, a mountain nearby, with a bunch of investigators. Apparently, back in 1945 before the war was over, a bunch of Czech boy scouts were killed in battle at the top of this mountain. There is a huge wall of stones placed by people when they come to commemorate it. I placed a rock I hauled up the 1000 meter climb there too. And, when we went it was the anniversary so there were thousands of Czech scouts up there. The catholic church even held a memorial service. It was really interesting to talk to so many people and to see a catholic service of some kind. The priest was talking about scouting and being a good example and such, and it felt like he was saying good things. Then they went to pray, and it just felt really really weird. I didn't even understand what they were saying, but it was definitely not a comfortable environment. They did another service later on the actual memorial, and again it was just weird. I don't even know how to describe it. Either way, it was neat having that experience. Everyone was freaking out about the americans there, though. So many people wanted to take pictures with us, and they were even more shocked to find out that I'd only been here for two weeks or so. It kind of frustrated them since they study english for 10 years through school, and still don't speak it very well. "How is it that you can speak Czech so well and understand us after only two weeks?" Haha, if only they knew. It helps that I'm in their country, sure, but the gift of tongues eclipses any formal training or experience in communication. We then hiked up another 1000 or so meters to the top of Lisa Hora, the tallest mountain in the area. I can now say I've seen Poland. Kind of - it was really foggy. Even still, I got a lot of pictures and a great view of the countryside. I'll be sending them home soon so you all get a good view of where I'm at. Honestly, it looks a lot like the greener, wooded parts of Utah and Idaho. Mostly Idaho, I think. There are just ancient villages and castles around too. :P

Largely, that was my week. We have meetings regularly, there are a lot of people we work with, and people are all very friendly. Very very friendly. It's kind of crazy how friendly people are when they take the time to talk to you. Definitely wasn't expecting that. Oh, something else that's been interesting. I've had a number of experiences here where my business experiences have helped me relate to and teach the gospel to people. Having the gospel principles as a foundation for doing business was a great blessing, since I can directly take the gospel patterns and apply them to the lives of others. "If you will listen to what we have to say and apply it, it will change your life personally, spiritually, in your business life, at home..." That's a great promise, and it's wonderful that I have been blessed with such a powerful tool in relating to people individually and personally. No one is going to want to listen unless there is a reason for it. Because of experiences and blessings I've had, there are a certain group of people I can reach with great ease. I'm finding that every week here, sometimes every day or so, and I believe that as I apply myself, I will find great people here who will be baptized and become powerful influences in the branches here. Leaders, bishops, stake presidents, temple presidents will come from the people I find in this way. Ahh, it's good to be here.

I hope you're all doing well in school, work, life, church, and all. Good luck this week! Sometimes I feel like you need it more than I do. :)

Love, Brent