Good Morning Ostrava (Week 11 in Ostrava)

Hey All,

This week's post title, "Good Morning Ostrava", comes from the bi-daily weather report that originates from our Dubina Apartment. Imagine, if you will, the alarm going off (a odd variation on the Nokia ringtone). This is followed by hitting the snooze button. *Gasp* Disobedient missionaries? Haha, not so - we set the alarm five minutes early, and then "sleep in for a minute." We're always on our knees and ready to go when the second alarm hit's at 6:30 sharp. Then follows the weather report. Recently, it's been more focused on the pouring rain we've had for the last 2 weeks or so. It's been ridiculous. I haven't written about it in hopes that it would just go away, but it's felt more like monsoon season the last little while. Even now, my sneakers are soggy from walking in the wet streets. Consequently, contacting has been kind of dampered too. Weekends are usually pretty slow (did you know, that people in the Czech Republic vanish over the weekend? A few get left behind and meander around parks with their dogs, but most of the population disappears into countryside cottages over the weekend. Kind of a minus for missionary work). Even still, we've made the best of it. When it's apparent that street contacting isn't going to work, Elder Smith and I pick up ourselves with some singing. We bust out our zpevniks and start singing on the street corner. It's a lot of fun. Elder Smith is really good at singing and improvising with what our current musical selection (Another factoid - if you want to soul-up a song, just take the alto part and push it up an octave at good, moving moments. Another neat trick from Elder Smith). We actually went hospice singing yesterday, and when we decided to sing songs not translated into Czech, our whole district just improvised 6 part harmonies. It's pretty sweet. We're actually going to be doing a street display on Wednesday on the main namesti, and we're really excited to see how that goes given that our district is so musically talented.

A few temporal housekeeping items: Anyone have any good missionary recipes? Elder Smith is also a world famous cook (at least, if your world is as large as the missionary field in the Czech Republic). I'm setting some cooking goals with him, and I'd like to try out a few things. If you've got a submission, send it on a three by five card to my house (or just email it to them via my home email address, brentj84062@gmail.com). Better still, feel free to send it to the mission home in Prague. Letters are always welcome, even if blogs are almost as good.

This week's report on the work is a little down. Jan and Tomas, who would have been baptized over the weekend, have taken a turn for the worse. Jan vanished over the weekend, even though he's got a great testimony and really wants to get baptized, and Tomas is having difficulty making it to church regularly and being in Ostrava over the weekend to get baptized. Both vanishing unexpectedly and having logistical issues with church are not very constructive to missionary work. Even still, we're finding and teaching all the time. Here's a good one for you: A man knocked on our church door (well, rang the bell - their all about buzzers for doorbells here) during district meeting on Tuesday. He said that he wants to get baptized and his family too. I don't think he understood that we don't baptize infants, but we gave him our contact and invited him to church. He didn't make it on sunday, but I'm keeping my eye out for him so we can pick him up as a new investigator.

Another good miracle was a man we contacted on a bench. The sun was out for about an hour and he was enjoying it with a mug of moravian beer in his hand. Clean air, green trees, rain lingering in the air - it was perfect. He was a believer and, eventually, we introduced the book of mormon to him. We gave it to him and he started to read. We left, but apparently the sisters walked into an open air cafe nearby with an investigator. Grabbing a bite to eat over a lesson isn't uncommon, and the man on the bench saw their nametags. He went and sat in on their lesson, much to the sister's surprise. We're looking forward to getting in touch with him later this week.

I think out of what I've learned this week, the most important things were patience and love. Patience, because sometimes you do your best and it still doesn't work out. Love, because the best way to get somebody to love you is to love them first. It's been great to be here as a missionary for 2 1/2 months, because I've realized that the people that progress the most are the one's that you are most christlike with. When people see/feel his example from you instead of your own wants, desires, and wishes, they detect a sense of familiarity and progress with leaps and bounds. That friendship is especially important here, because people have for years been accustomed to being just one of the crowd and not being incredibly open. It's been difficult for them, especially here in Ostrava where the brand of Communism is still visible in many places on monuments and sculptures. When we strive to be more Christlike, amazing things happen. Some readers of this blog may have no idea what I'm talking about, and they may just think it's something I'm writing or saying. Another thing I've learned here is the lesson best taught in the adage "you can lead a horse to water, but it must do the drinking." We teach and exemplify, but the key is when people try something themselves. That's when miracles happen - when agency isn't abused but is sacrificed just a bit in exchange for faith, when you do something because you believe and not because you "know what's best." Therefore, I dare all of you to try it. Go read the gospels and see if you can be a little more Christlike. Go read 3 Nephi 11 - 27. Go read Preach My Gospel Chapter Six, if you have it. You'll be surprised at what happens when you do that. The foundation of everything rests on faith in Christ whether you are Christian or not. His example forges miracles and obedience to His teachings, even when people don't realize it's his teachings they are following, brings increased peace and happiness. I can say that because most of the pople we teach are doing some of the right things, and they think they're okay. But, when we keep following Him more and more, we discover that there is no end to the blessing or the reward.

Good luck this week, everyone! I'll be back next week with a street display and a zone conference to talk about.

Love,
Brent