I'm so glad I learned German in school, but now Turkish too? ( Week 2 in Liberec, week 28 in Czech )

Hello Everyone,

So I'm really excited to report that this, our first full working week in the area, we've been practically inundated with success. Tons of great contacts, referrals, lessons, new investigators, and we've already hit standards (56 hours/week) on speaking Czech, even though Elder Bown has been here for a week and a half. Crazy! We've got two families on the plan for this evening, a man from Germany who only speaks German and Turkish that we'll be starting to teach in German (Danke Schoen, Herr Knoblaugh - I'm brushing up on my German gospel terms with Elder Bown, so we'll see how this goes; largely, German is his playing field because when I go to speak German only Czech comes out. It's really hard!), and several other contacts, former investigators, and current investigators that we'll be working with in the coming weeks. Really, the area feels like it's getting warmed up and healthy very quickly, and it's not taking any undue sacrifice or suffering to make it happen. We've been spending a lot of time on the streets and in apartment buildings talking with people, but it's coming together very well and very effectively.

As for a weather report, the snow has melted off (mostly), it's been foggy, but almost always above freezing. We're expecting it to take another plunge in the next week or so, but for now we're doing alright. We also moved into our newly furbished apartment on Thursday, so I've got my own bed again after about 2 weeks of living out of a suitcase (our last week in Třebíč we spent all over the place: I was on a Bus, in Prague, and then on the Floor for the rest of it - welcome to the glamorous world of missionary work :D). Our apartment is still not quite ready yet, as the insulation around the windows is being finished over the next few weeks and months, a few paint jobs are on hold, and we need some rugs or something, but we're happy and it's clean and rather homey.

It's interesting looking at how the Lord directs our lives and how it's our job to live correct principles and do what we know is right. In coming to Liberec, we've been trying very hard to be 100% aligned with what the Lord wants from us, and we're seeing the success from that represented by the surge in progress and activity in our area, the lessons taught, the people that were brought to us, and all these German speakers that are giving Elder Bown plenty of time to practice teaching largely on his own. I'm convinced that our absolute happiness depends on us living righteous principles, principles that unify us with Heaven which then enable the Lord to prepare events and environments around us that will promote life and growth in ways that we can't imagine. We've been asked to set at least one baptismal date by the end of this week. Although that will take considerable faith and prayer, I know it will be possible and I'll let you all know how it goes next week.

I have a quick story about a man we talked with about faith and why it's important. We stopped an older man on the street and we explained about faith and things. He went into a classic reply about how Communism destroyed the faith of people here and that materialism is the thing that people believe in. We proceeded to bear powerful testimony about True Faith, that faith does not mean that one simply leans on an invisible God who tells fairy tells and who, like a wealthy grandfather, dotes on his children at their every whim and wish. Faith is not a crutch for the weak to lean on, although it can be. Faith in the True and Living God extends also the understanding that true discipleship has a price that must be paid in trials and, as Joseph Smith put it, the "[wrenching] of your very heartstrings." God doesn't want us to simply grow fat and happy from things that we want. He wants us to give ourselves to Him so He can make us something better, something godly. This does not mean that we cannot fulfill our personal dreams and wishes, that we can't be mountain climbing enthusiasts or professional wake boarders, that we can't pursue what we want or that we are to sacrifice ourselves as martyrs. Rather, we are to profit from it immeasurably and become great through Him. We told this Man that Faith enables us to become great and that true faith does not mean that you don't have faith in yourself and that you need something to rely on. True faith means that you are so self-aware and so self-confident, that you are able to give your entire self to Him in exchange for His Glory. Really, the only ones who know that faith means seeing the complete picture of what it means to be human, both the bitter and the sweet experiences, and are able to prize that which is good because they know the infinite difference.

We told this man about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, that there is evidence you can touch and read and think about and feel and experience. He was definitely changed after our encounter. Although he declined our invitation to discover how he could change his life, we did commit him to read it and to consider it's message.

It's great being here. I love it, and I'm afraid that the time between P-day's is shrinking. Last transfer felt like less than a week, and this transfer feels like a matter of a few hours so far. It's all getting compressed together, and it's terrifying but exciting. I'm excited to see what the next week brings us, and I'm already excited to share with you all the success that we can see coming over the horizon. Good luck, and may the Lord bless you all this week. Try being better, loving more, seeing just a bit further than the things around you. The message of the Gospel is that the only important things last forever, and I hope that we all, including myself, learn to treat our most valuable possessions, the relationships we have with each other and with our Heavenly Father, as the priceless parts of our lives.

Starší Brent Anderson