Another Crazy Week Crazy Transfers Week ( Week 20 in Olomouc, Week 55 in Czech )

Hey Everyone!

So, Elder McGowan and I are getting along amazingly. We have so much in common, it's ridiculous. For starters, we had the same mission prep class in college. We had the same season tickets to BYU football (Well, same row a few seats down). Turns out we have the same taste in music, entertainment, and inside jokes. Really, it's been crazy seeing how it's all worked out this transfer this week. We had zone conference on Wednesday and provided a training on teaching freshly by using effective commitments. Elder McGowan dressed up in a Nike shirt with "Fresh" plastered over the front and a subway sandwich. "Eat fresh!" It was a pretty fresh training, if I do say so myself, full of fresh ideas and fresh improvements to keep our mission fresh. Yeah, I'm trying to use the word "fresh" as much as possible. It's one of those fresh inside jokes we're passing around now.

In other news, we found a really super golden man the other day. He's a math teacher here, and all we did was start talking to him, show him the book of Mormon, and teach him like we're supposed to. No convincing, no jumping around ideas and trying to help them see faith as a strength and not a weakness. Just simple, powerful testimony. We were really excited to see his response. We'll be meeting with him soon to talk more. Other people we're working with have started coming to home evening activities, meeting members, and starting to progress slowly but surely. A man from India in the other elders' area has committed to baptism, so we'll be working with them very closely to help them move through that process correctly. I think that in the entire zone there's Elder Lance, Sister Hill, and then me in terms of seniority. Everybody else is less than 10 months in the country, which is pretty exciting. The Lord is blessing us, however, as we can all see when we look at the stories of finding, baptising, and teaching across the mission.

I do have to say that anyone that reads my letters need to take it as a personal favor to me to set one small goal on a way you can help the missionaries where you live to push the work forward. Make them a meal! Drive them to an appointment! Share a friend the gospel and invite them to meet the missionaries! Referral work really is the only way the church is going to keep pushing progress forward. No other ways work nearly as well.

On a more spiritual note, I'm learning right now that the most important thing in doing missionary work (probably in doing any work) is relying on the Lord. We are here as His servants and representatives, basically His proxies. He would be here doing this if it were possible, but it would through off a lot of the plan so he sends us around instead. Thus, to get the work done, perhaps it's not so much "how close can I be like the Savior right now so that I can do this work by myself", that's probably part of it, but maybe it's more "how much can I rely on the Lord right now so that He can do this work through me". We're instruments, not androids. The Lord can accomplish much more in us and in others when we get ourselves out of the way and let him work through us as we listen to the spirit and act accordingly.

Otherwise, things are great. I have several letters that have come in recently (yes, your replies will be in the mail today). I'm happy, healthy, and looking forward to a week of work in the rain. I've found that the Lord does answer prayers, however, so if we really need sunshine, he sends it. Then, when we're inside, he'll get the rain pushed through anyway. Or, if it's going to rain anyway, he sends sunshine to us on the inside, so we are out working despite the wet. Speaking of wet, we're getting our suits dry cleaned. My suits have taken a pretty good beating this year/winter, but they'll be coming back in a week looking as good as new (I hope).

Grab bag: Elder McGowan is really sharp and on top of goal setting and fulfilling. I think that sometimes we try to set too big of goals and we get frustrated at the results. But, I'm seeing that I can set goals to do the little things and it's within my power to fulfill those goals and see the results. Cases in point: Language performance is going way up this transfer between the both of us due to solid goals and resolve to reach them. The same thing applies to apartment cleanliness. We've upgraded our cleaning supplies from old wooden broom to new plastic one, replaced the vacuum bag, and have about 80% of our spring cleaning behind us. Yes, our missionary apartment is in good shape. Now, I've got 7 weeks to get into a good cleaning habit so I make sure that it happens in the future. I've been pretty good on the whole, I think, but sometimes cleaning falls from being a priority.

Grab bag: We bought a four whole punch the other day to keep our record books organizedejši. We're pretty stoked about it. They even had to order it for us.

Another good grab bag: We have started rewriting lyrics to our favorite Mormon tabernacle choir songs to make them more interesting, including calling people to repentance/baptism, singing out to the relief society with their arts and crafts activities, and serenading to Elder McGowan about taking care of his book of Mormon. In short, we're having a lot of fun.

Love you all, if you're in my real immediate family then you'll hear from me this week, for those of you faux family members (haha!) hang in there: I'll be getting this batch of letters out soon.

Thanks,
Elder Brent Anderson