Crazy Transfers Week ( Week 19 in Olomouc, Week 54 in Czech )

Good morning everyone! I bet that monday mornings for you all consist of hitting the alarm and jumping out of bed to check your emails or your facebooks or whatever this is getting broadcast on nowadays (radio? television? times-square news tickers?) and poring over the latest from Elder Brent Anderson, your favorite Starší (Unless, of course, you're a member here, then you love all the missionaries; or, for you parents of other missionaries that happen to stumble across this thing).

It's been a pretty crazy week. The transfer happened as usual on wednesday, except the fact that all training missionaries were delayed by a day. The travel office did the missionary paper work wrong, dating the visas a day late. Instead of flying on Monday, they flew on Tuesday. This threw us all for a loop, right until the volcanoe hit in iceland. Everyone thinks it's crazy here and some people are scared, but there is nothing that has been seen except for a slight bump in the weather for a day. That's it. As far as the delayed missionaries, however, it was a blessing. They flew into Prague no problem, whereas if they hadn't received late visas they would have had cancelled flights, backed up tickets for at least next week, and a lot of headaches. The departing missionaries had no problems either. Funny how it all works out that way when you consider who's work this is over here and how he arranges for everything *just* right. Moral: Even something that looks like a mistake (delayed visas) can be a great blessing.

So, Elder McGowan arrived on Wednesday. He's been in the country for 6 months and only served in prague. He's already trained and been a district leader, so he's gotten a fair bit of experience so far. He's from New Jersey, has two siblings and loves to play sports and eat. He eats so much! Maybe not a ton at once, but he's always eating something. And yet, he maintains a pretty decent figure despite the caloric intake.

I myself am looking at a diet and have cut out all yogurt and sugary drinks from my diet in anticipation for the ever-exciting missionary summer-swim season (That is, swimming in downpours on the streets in my ever-so white and wrinkle-free Stafford shirts).

We're seeing interesting progress among people right now. Some people have randomly returned from nowhere, others have turned into amazing investigators in a very short time. Reading assignments, praying, people turning from not-believers to believers in a short period of time. Case example: In the other elder's area there is a man studying from india. He used to be a textbook atheist. He now believes in God and in the Book of Mormon. 5 weeks, lifetime of thinking changed. Amazing! Otherwise, we're looking at some really neat service opportunites in the near future. We've been serving at a family home outside of Olomouc demolishing the old wood-sed/outhouse combination. Climbing around on old rafters and clawing out rusty nails with sharp tools can be so much fun (Yes, I include that last sentence to just tease my mom - I'm being safe, I promise). Last week we took down a brick wall and we're going to be clearning out another part of it this week so we can install a concrete retaining wall. Pretty nifty what you learn on your mission, eh? Also, my cooking skills have leveled up. I love using parmesan cheese - it makes for good pizzas, good alfredo sauce (from scratch!), and just about anything else. Maybe it's because I've gotten tired of Eidam, but it's my favorite right now.

Also, I've discovered recently the amazingness of paper and using it to keep track of goals. Elder McGowan and I are getting way organized, using spreadsheets and reporting tools, binders and tabs. Almost reminds me of some former life but dealing with missionary stuff instead of things that distract me from missionary stuff...

So, apart from all that, my week has been great. Elder Nestman is now in a completely different part of the country (Sad) and Elder McGowan has finally escaped from Prague to see what the real part of the country is like. I had a talk on sunday about the book of mormon and, after the new missionaries introduced themselves, I got up and started introducing myself as well, saying "Ja su Olomoučak" ("I'm an olomoucian", but with a thicker accent, since I basically call this place home now, even if Ostrava still has my heart :P)

So, I'm rambling. We have zone conference this week, my dad is doing alright from what I hear, and I'm really looking forward to this transfer. One last note: We took over a zone last week. Brno is now under the jurisdiction of the Olomouc Zone, at least for the time being. The district leader there, in terror, switched our ring tone to the imperial death march. Bahaha! It also means we now have 20+ missionaries to take care of, including some senior couples. So much fun, so much to do!

Have a great week, I love you all.

Love,
Brent

PS - Those of you with my Olomouc Address: Go ahead and keep using it, I'm not going anywhere.