Here's to a killer good week (Week 15 from Ostrava)

Hey Everybody

So, last week, the catchphrase was "Here's to a killer good week." Turns out that we actually shot straight zeroes on all our statistics, excepting member lessons (2, which went really really really well) and Speaking Czech (which came into 58 hours, above standards and really great considering we had a zone conference on Wednesday in English). We had other lessons, appointments, member lessons, and spent many many many hours finding last week, but we ended up with absolutely nothing that happened. People wouldn't show up and wouldn't answer their phone for appointments. Investigators went on vacation. The rest cancelled. Kind of disappointing, in a way. Then again, I can think back to times in my life when my best "just wasn't good enough." Or was it?

This week, I'd like to talk about all the good things that happened, as well as why it was a success. I would say that success is a composite of several factors. External successes like winning a trophy, baptizing a new convert, or teaching 30 lessons (which, by the way, is happening in companionships in the zone, 29 of which were with members :D) are really easy to see, measure, and feel good about. Everybody sees what you did and you can feel proud of what you've accomplished. There are internal successes. These happen everyday when we choose to do good things instead of bad, and better things instead of just good things. Maybe it's when somebody chooses to not start smoking, or when we keep ourselves focused and committed when the going gets tough. It happens every day when someone chooses to be an optimist instead of looking on the downside. And, of course, there's always the combination of the two when we do success, we become internally successful, and we achieve successful results. Unfortunately, sometimes things don't add up like we want. I think all of us are OCD to a certain extent, if I can use that term, in the sense that we all like things to add up evenly and be squared away. You put in x hours of work, you get x dollars and cents. You spend 10 hours talking to people, and you should find maybe 5 people as new investigators. Wouldn't that be neat? Sometimes, however, 2+2 doesn't equal 4 in the way we expect. It could be that part of the answer is external, like a lesson taught. Another part is internal, and we feel it but don't see it, but it's still part of the solution. Even then, you might not feel like the difference is made up. That's where faith comes in. A great example of faith is going to school. We put ourselves out, have faith our teachers are right and know what's best to learn, and then do the homework. We might skin our intellectual knees with B's or C's or even F's. But when we're committed, when that internal success adds up, we can then say to ourselves that we fought our way to the top. Pretty soon, we start seeing how what we're learning actually does exist. A calculus student can't help but see the order in the universe. A musician or artists begins to see how beautiful and organized and creative our world is, and begins to draw inspiration. A computer programmer or scientist starts seeing neat ways to make the world a better place.

It's in these small, saved up moments that we start to prepare for the future. Instead of spending all our figurative money right now and going into debt later, we prepare for rainy days without realizing. Even though we don't get what we want now, we know that someday it'll be made up, and we can look forward faithfully in hope. Mmm, hope - what a great word.

Ultimately, I want you all to know that when I write these letters, it's coming from the heart. I do it right after sending a report to my Mission President accounting for every minute of every day of the week, including everything that's happened. I really really am as happy as I say I am. Sure, it's hard - but that's what we signed up for when we said "yes, I'd absolutely love to come to the earth and be apart of all this." We knew it would be hard, but only the good things in life are. Ultimately, I want you all to know that, even when all things go "dead wrong", it just means you're measuring something the wrong way. Like a ruler, if we measure it's width, it's only an inch at most. But, if you turn it on it's side, suddenly it's a foot, maybe a meter, maybe even more in length. When we look at ourselves and can honestly say we're clean before God and man, are trying our best, and are especially relying on our savior to make up the difference that we all inevitably leave, that is enough. No matter what, your best really can be enough.

I hope you all have a fantabulously great week. I need to look for a word in Czech that doesn't exist in English to describe how much I'm looking forward to this week. I'm sending home my SD card soon, so you can look forward to another batch of pictures and crazy-good experiences from the Czech Republic. Elder Smith says hi, everything is going great, and we've got 2 weeks before the end of the transfer.

Good luck everybody!

Love,
Elder Brent

PS - I've gotten some great letters from many of you out there in the "real world" (Thanks Christie, Kayla, Kat, Trevor Johnston, Grandparent's "Grunt" and "Joe", and, of course, my fantastic family). Thanks a ton!

Soccer and the Ostrava god of beer?

"Horribly unflattering photos of Elder Anderson playing sports, and the local pagan god of beer (No, I'm not even kidding - the original statue was destroyed by the Catholics and a church was erected nearby to force the local pagans to repent. It didn't work, and Radegast (the name of the god) is now a famous local beer)." Brent Anderson

Expectations and Personal Victories (Week 15 in Ostrava)

Hello Everyone!

So, not a whole lot to report from this last week. Still working on language levels, still speaking czech, still spending a lot of time finding new investigators, and still enjoying the humid heat of Czech weather. You would never guess that thunderstorms would suddenly appear, drop enough rain to fill the roads with water (literally), and then suddenly vanish, leaving everything wet and everyone gone.

I think that we've been spending a lot of time talking about expectations, goals, and how to make that happen. We actually have a zone conference this week that will probably address a lot of these things, so hopefully we'll be able to improve our capacity on the coming week. What I find interesting is that it's the personal success that matters more than the external success in many instances. For instance, if a missionary is going through the motions of missionary work but doesn't have his heart wearing the nametag too, what does it matter? Conversely, when we are absolutely committed to our labors wherever or whatever we are, even when it's hard, we suddenly become really effective at working miracles. For us in Ostrava, we've been having a lot of personal victories recently. Spending extra time finding, skipping or shortening mealtimes to try and sacrifice just a little bit more, improving our hours of speaking czech to all-time highs, and almost literally talking to everyone. On the outside, you can measure the results as somewhat dissappointing. But, on the inside, who can say that we didn't see success? I'm personally performing better today than I was last week, or last month. In the face of another week that will probably have a lot of time looking for people to teach, I'm still hopeful that we will find, that we will teach, and that, in the last three weeks, we will baptize. That's the promise of missionary work - you pay the price, you get the results. Indeed, that's the promise we get from the Lord too. You pay the price, you get the reward. I think it's funny how so many people in this world expect something for nothing. When you look at how many people believe, for instance, in free salvation, nothing after this life, or reincarnation, they're really just saying they want something for nothing. I think it's a profoundly beautiful thing that what we teach people is based upon personal sacrifice. The atonement is universal and infinite, but it does not work if we don't follow the instructions. It's almost like someone being given a bag of groceries, setting it on the table, and expecting to be fed. You've got to work, prepare, and make it happen first. I personally think the best foods are those that take an extra mile of preparation and care and skill in order to be ready. Svickova, the national food here, is like that. You can spend days getting it ready, and then several hours slow cooking your meat with the vegetable sauce. In the end. however, it's some of the best food you've ever tasted. The gospel is like that too. When we follow the instructions, learn what we need to become, and then do it, we can't help but get the blessings.

I think the one neat thing about personal victories is that, when we invest ourselves fully and don't hold ourselves back, when we really put ourselves out and do what we have set out to do, not only can you expect the best but you can expect your expectations to still be high.  I know mine certainly are, and I feel that they are perfectly justified. And if they don't turn out, I can't say that I sold myself short a few cents. Indeed, I can almost say that I have positive credit and just need to wait a little longer to see the results delivered. Discouragement comes from unmet expectations, including self-expectations; if we're doing all we can to be our best self, who can ask for more? I know I can't.

Ultimately, it's been a good week for me. I'm feeling a lot more like a functional missionary instead of just a greeny, and the future has never looked better. Here's to a killer good week!

Elder Anderson

Some more photos from Starsi Brent

Self Portrait

A town square, completely empty?

Interesting Castle

This is for Tod, Can you say identity fraud with all these receipts left on the ATM

A slower, but better week (Week 14 in Ostrava)

So it's been a slower but better week. In all, we taught only a handful of lessons, found a new investigator, and worked really hard to get that accomplished. People come and go on vacations, people are out and about but not particularly interested in what we have to say, and overall the work is going rather slowly. At the same time, however, the intensity of what we've been putting on the line has been much higher. We're working harder, smarter, faster, more effectively than ever before. I feel very pleased with my performance this last week, and already see how I can improve to make what we're doing reach a new high. Last week, for instance, we hit 60 hours of czech speaking. We're still shooting for something in the 80's, but 60 is the highest we've made it this transfer. When we go out to find, it is always with a prayer in our heart, a vision in our minds, and the absolute best we can offer to people on an individal basis with the best czech we can speak.

 

Ultimately, I'm seeing how when we put out our best but our expectations are still not met, it only means that we just get to wait a little longer. I think of patience as an ingredient in a cake or something. It's like when you beat air into batter. It needs to be there, but you can't see it. It's the same as throwing that batter into the oven to make it into what it's meant to be. If yo just ate the batter, it would be nasty, if not unhealthy. Those extra 30 minutes at 350 degrees makes it so much more rewarding.

 

I trust my parents have posted some photos that illustrate the slowness we've had here lately. Even still, I'm hopeful and feel very confident that we are just waiting and being prepared to focus all our efforts on someone or something very significant. I guess if we were teaching 30 lessons a week and had a huge teaching pool, we just might miss the one that really matters for us right now.

 

I was planning on finishing a letter to my friend Nate this week. Unfortunately, I've heard that he's already packing for Philladelphia. If he is, I wish him luck. If not, I'd finish that letter by saying that it all comes back to emulating the Savior and, equivalently, our Heavenly Parents. All of us, whether we believe it or not, are sons of God. If he's the king of the universe, that makes us princes and princesses of consequence, but we only have that divine birthright when we remember who we are and act like it. Therefore, being the best children we can be and emulating our parents in heaven, following the example of our older brother Christ (who really was and is just "on his father's business" and was showing us His example anyway), we can make the most of our lives in every way. That's how I find the most success and satisfaction, and that is how it's meant to be. Be like Him, and you'll not have any problems when everything is said and done.

 

Good luck this week! I look forward to hearing about your successes and sharing some of mine next week.

 

Elder Brent Anderson

A few more photos

We hope you enjoy these photos and the video link at the bottom. 

Brent's Dad and private secretary.

Happy missionaries

Brent the clown

Singing in the town square

Brent and his favorite manly trick, tearing a telephone book in half.

Brent and Elder Auger

Here is a link to a video of Brent and some other missionaries singing. I hope it will work.

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1624862281&k=Z6C2Q3T4R6VBUCD1QB63TPWWR3BD

The rain has ended! (Week 13 in Ostrava)

Hey everyone!

 

So, I'm still alive. Sorry on the delay, but yesterday was a national holiday here. So, everything was shut down including every internet cafe and library. Rest assured, the rain is gone, the monsooning is behind us, and the July sun is keeping things very...warm for us. Humidity is a new thing for me, and I'm getting a good experience at not having air conditioning. Even still, it's great here! We've been contacted by several people this week, have a few new investigators that we're working with, lots of lessons, and this week is looking even better. We're even trying to shoot for 80 hours/week speaking Czech as a companionship. Woo!

 

So, I've been thinking about what to write home this week. Sometimes I'll theme what I write to an extent, other times it's just more of a publicly read journal entry. Today, I'm going to write a letter to a missionary currently preparing to serve in Pennsylvania. The missionary is Elder Nathan Thatcher, one of my best friends back home. The letter is titled "The Things I wish I'd known when I was in the MTC." It's being written in response to several things that I really didn't know coming into the field, but that would have made a difference to me. Of course, his challenges and strengths are going to be different than mine. But, I think at the very least it will be a good way for me to communicate about how I feel about missionary work now that I'm starting to feel a little more experienced (Speaking of which, I've been in the country for 3 months today).

 

 

Nate! How are things going, my friend? It's been, what, about 5-ish weeks since you put your name tag on for the first time, right? Crazy! I think it's funny considering that back when we were in 5th grade it was really easy to think about someday going on a mission, seeing friends or mentors leave and come home, and never really thinking that you were going to ever be *that* old. I guess time moves pretty quickly. I decided to write you partially because I really wanted to shoot something off to you before you left for Pennsylvania, and partially because I've passed a hazard light on my path as a missionary. It's kind of scary to consider, but if a mission were like a football game with 4 quarters and 1 quarter of overtime, I'm already through the first quarter. Yikes! How crazy is that?? Given that little wake up call, I've inventoried and started looking back at the foundations from the MTC that I laid, what was good, what wasn't, and what I would do if I were back there again. Of course, things are different for everybody, but I have faith that a few things here will be helpful in some way.

 

First off, your companion can be your best friend or someone you have to live with for 2 months. I've been very fortunate to have fantastic companions my whole mission. I actually miss my MTC companion sometimes, not because my other companions are problematic but because we had to support each other so much that we really grew together to survive all the changes we made at the MTC. I think the MTC companionship can be the most flexible, since once you hit the field you have to get moving with the work and progress.

 

Another thing is that missionary work is about being 100% obedient and working with everything you've got, but being yourself. It's not enough to be a by-the-book missionary. People don't like talking to someone that isn't being themselves, even if they are being the absolutely perfect missionary obedience and book-wise. It's when we're genuine and working to be like Christ that we make the most progress.

 

 

 

The library is closing right now, so I've got to put this on hold for now. I'll finish part two next week, and then you can fire this off to Nate.

 

In the mean time, I hope you all have a great week!

 

Elder Anderson