This week has been truly amazing. When it all comes down to it, the works we are engaged in are ultimately directed by God himself. We just have to do the footwork down here in our little stewardships. I say this because we had a baptism on Saturday. Tomaš Koutný was baptized on saturday along with a woman named Renata Blomberg. Renata was not on the plan for Saturday. In fact, the branch didn't know she was getting baptized until that morning. I'll start on Wednesday.
Wednesday night we have Institute. It's like seminary but member led. It's a really great program and everybody gets a lot of out of. Renata, a new investigator from the preceding tuesday, was invited to attend. She came on our member trip to Stramberk, came to all three hours of Sunday meetings, and was completely excited to come on Wednesday to Institue. We had a meeting with her on Tuesday where we showed her the Joseph Smith film. She was blown away and loved the message and the meaning. She came on Wednedsay to Institute. We then taught her afterwards for a moment where Sister Ivanova shared her testimony along with a man from Utah named Bernard Pyšňak who is a native of Ostrava but lives in Bountiful. He bore solid testimony by sharing his conversion story. She felt the spirit very strongly and we set up for the next day. The next day we went to her house (had lunch - svičková, which is pretty much amazing; I'm making it when I come home) and taught a full plan of salvation. Again, the spirit basically ran the whole meeting and was very easily felt. We set up for Friday night before sports.
Friday night arrived. We started teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. We covered faith in Christ, his role in saving us from sin, and then went into repentance. We talked about baptism, and just as we started talking about the holy ghost Brother Pyšňak knocked on the door, saying he wanted to share his testimony and see how things were going. He then bore perfect testimony about baptism and the truthfullness of the Gospel and of the verity of the Church. Afterward, Elder Auger said that it was the strongest he'd felt the spirit in a meeting with an investigator. Rentata started to cry and said she wanted to be baptized as soon as possible. District Leader Elder Williams was in the building, we set up to interview her, and spent the next two hours teaching the remainder of the lessons. What was neat is that God had prepared her to be in line with all the gospel principles before our meetings. She looked up information on our Church when we talked with her last week after english, and stopped drinking coffee. She understood the commandments and how we believe them and already started to follow them. After a few phone calls and some paperwork, we were set to have two baptisms on Saturday.
Saturday arrived, we went to Krasne Pole, and I had the awesome experience to be able to baptize Tomaš Koutný, a boy who wanted to be baptized for 8 months but hasn't had parental permission. He still doesn't, but has taken the step ahead and knows that God will take care of him. Renata was baptized as well, and when we confirmed them both on Sunday they both felt the verity of the ordinance. Renata could hardly get up after her confirmation, she was feeling the spirit so strongly.
For me personally, it has been a very great blessing to watch such a fast teaching track. I really appreciate taking the time and patience to invite others to come unto Christ now. I also felt my personal capacity with the language increase this week when we contacted on Wednesday and I had no problems speaking or understanding. It's been one of the best weeks of my mission, right up there with the last week of my MTC stay.
Transfers are on Wednesday. I'm staying here to be followup trained by Elder Smith. He's been in Prague for nine months and is way excited to get to work in a new area. Apparently he's a great singer and he's got a great attitude when it comes to missionary work. Sounds like it's going to be a great followup transfer! Ultimately, the baptismal figures and the number of lessons we teach are great, but it's the love we have for our brothers and sisters and showing them how our lives have changed forever because of the incomparable message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what it's all about. We don't force, we don't push - we invite and bear testimony through example, countenance, and behavior. When we find, we talk with people and help them see how the Gospel matters to them. Ultimately, we all already accepted Jesus Christ to get to this earth. Thus, we're just reminding people of what they already believe in.
Good luck this week!
Brent
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