This week was zone conference week. We saw all the missionaries. It was fun because we had to take care of food, transportation, interview schedules, and lots of logistics. But the conferences were very powerful. Elder Doxey and I trained on giving out baptismal dates to fulfill our purpose as missionaries. I'm not sure what the total influence of the training was, but our object was to increase the courage and faith of missionaries in the message to where they would have baptism on their minds from day one in working with an investigator. So far, I can count at least 3 baptismal dates that have been extended because of the training, however President Irwin mentioned that he's been getting calls all week from excited missionaries declaring "It worked! It worked! The AP's training worked and we have a new baptismal date!" I think that is the point of life right there, in an example. Missionaries have the purpose to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel, and the tangible part of that process is the baptism and confirmation. By empowering missionaries to fulfill their purpose and then seeing them fulfill part of that purpose, the missionaries find the happiness they're looking for.
We also went on exchanges in several cities like Zlin and Bratislava. In each city we saw many miracles, including a new baptismal date, we found lots of people who were interested in hearing about the church (very interested, to the point where they had even met with missionaries before but had lost contact), and we also found relatives of a new senior couple with czech roots.
Slovakia is very beautiful, but very far away. We spent a lot of time driving, but it was fun to see the scenery and mountains.
Now for the grand theft auto bit. We were in Bratislava. I parked the car next to the Danube river looking out over a clear blue sky, boats moving along the water, and slovaks playing beach volley ball. We went into the center to work, came back that night, and the car wasn't there. I was convinced that the russian mafia had taken our car for drug money (Like it's worth that much - it's a good car, but we're lucky to have power windows). We walked the road several times, but could find nothing so we called the police. After filling out reports with the Slovak cops (That's fun, never had to do that in Czech before too) they put us in the back of their car inside the cage and we drove down the street with the lights flashing. I was absolutely certain the car had been stolen.
Turns out it was just around the corner where we'd parked it. Talk about aaaaawwwwwwwkkkkkkwwwwwaaaaarrrrrdd! Then again, I was laughing all over inside because I knew this would be the most awkward moment of my mission ever. The cops gave us a look of "Are you dead serious?" dropped us off, and we took off for Brno. Needless to say, the new mission president was really relieved.
it's been a good week, I'm glad to be home, and thanks for the letters and postcards.
Love you all,
Elder Brent Anderson
No comments:
Post a Comment