Elder Anderson stared out the window of the train whizzing through Czech countryside. He loved to see the cottages, flocks of sheep, old farmers who still did everything by hand, and then pass through a mountain tunnel and land in the middle of a sprawling metropolis, and then gradually slip back to rolling green hills and fog laced landscape.
It was the greatest mission in the world.
That morning had been spent with the Wallace Toronto foundation doing service in Uherske Hradiste, a city on the complete opposite side of the country from Prague. But fortuitously they had been there, and they had enjoyed meeting and serving with members from all over the mission. As the train picked up speed from it's last stop, the exhausted Elder looked down at himself. Not quite the appearance of a servant of the Lord, wearing muddy shoes, dark trousers (yes, trousers: they were made in the UK), his white shirt slightly unbuttoned with the service project t-shirt over the top, and his suit coat that didn't match any of his dress to put the finishing touch on what could have been a fashion nightmare. Fortunately, the drapes were drawn, Elder Thompson the new AP was sprawled on the bench in the train car fast asleep. He had been since before they'd left Uherske Hradiste. Elder Anderson's scriptures were out and he'd been deep in study about the Doctrine of Christ from 2 Nephi 31 after a spiritual intense and spiritually fruitful conference all week in Bratislava.
Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, is one of the best places to visit in Europe. Convenient, close, up to date, but with all the charm and curiosity of an ancient city, the mission selected it as the center for the Moravian-Slovakian conference for mission leaders, and the entire event was a great success. The conference had been called to introduce and kickoff the new MTC Simplified Curriculum that had begun to make it's way around the world. Apparently, few missions had been bold enough to pull it's leadership out for a week for the sake of a week-long training. But, President Irwin took the helm, planned a four day long event, and the missionaries came together. The curriculum, in essence, empowers missionaries to base their entire effort in testimony and the doctrines given by the Lord to us all, particularly from the scriptures (esp. the Book of Mormon) and from Preach My Gospel. The conference started with the Doctrine of Christ and the necessity of using it as the core of our purpose as missionaries, closely followed by challenging others to baptism within the first or second meeting. The other topics were primarily focused in using Revelation and helping investigators and members receive revelation themselves, using the book of mormon as the key to conversion, extending commitments, and setting expectations when we begin teaching. Each day was a spiritual outpouring of insights and revelation and were incredibly spiritually drawing. Elder Anderson recalled Elder Machado mentioning that he spent a whole day in the temple prior to his departure, and how exhausted he was from the work he did there. It must have felt something like a week of intense study and practice. In the evenings the missionaries went out to teach. While there were many miracles that occurred each night, one was worth particular sharing.
The first night, a storm rolled in just as the conference concluded. It thundered, flashed, and poured like they hadn't seen for quite some time. It was not time to contact, but the missionaries started hitting the panelaks. One great benefit of serving here was that apartments were inside of enclosed buildings. No getting wet or cold knocking on hundreds of doors, since they were all inside the building. The great downside, however, was that you had to get into the building first. Being czech speakers, no slovak would logically let someone in if they just randomly buzzed and asked for the door to be opened, especially when a major shooting had happened just outside of Bratislava that rocked European news. The sets of panelaks were alright, but no one was particularly interested. The missionaries moved to another row of buildings and started buzzing to get let in. No one spoke to the cold wet missionaries longer than 10 seconds via the door intercom, but they pressed on at the first door. A man came down after a few buzzes and began yelling loud and clear. "Get out of here! You don't belong here!" It was quite evident that there people to be found that night and that everything was against Elder Anderson and Pearson (his temporary companion due to sleeping arrangements). They moved to the next door and got let in, but again to no avail: No one was interested in the priceless truths the Elders had brought to teach. Elder Anderson and Elder Pearson talked it over, and they decided to pray before every door they knocked for the rest of the night. As they did so, an intense reception to the Spirit was acquired and the Elders took courage with each contact at the door. Unfortunately, the results were similar up until the last section of the panelak.
The Elders arrived at the entrance to the last part of the panelak and the storm was beating down harder than ever. They started buzzing one name after another. Some didn't answer, others were quick in their rejection. The third to last name on the list said he would come down. After several minutes of waiting, the Elders buzzed the second to last name and then the last name. Just as they pressed the name "Kafka" the Elders saw a man open the door for them. The door was magnetic, and it required someone to come down to actually open the door. The man stared at the elders, glanced at their name tags, then said "Hello, my name is Peter and I'm a Jehova's Witness."
Elder Anderson just about laughed! This was going to be interesting.
The man didn't seem to listen intently and tried to explain that he let us in more out of pity than interest, and just as the Elders were about to ask if they could go further into the building, another man walked down with a dazed look on his face. He was tall, an older man, wearing old but comfortable looking clothes.
"Umm, what are you two doing here?"
Elder Anderson bounced back and forth between the two of them, not sure who to address next. He felt good about the second and, sensing the urgency of the moment, declared their purpose. "Hello, we're here as missionaries sharing a message about Jesus Christ and about how he has called another living prophet for our day. May we come in?"
The first man just stared at the situation, wondering what would happen next. The Elders, with prayers in their hearts, watched Mr. Kafka. Kafka thought for a second, looked at the Elders and said, "Sure, come in." They walked past the threshold and stepped into the elevator.
Mr. Kafka had been to English lessons in the past, but had never learned much about the church. He spoke perfect English and studied the scriptures diligently in English, and was earnestly searching for more truth. The Elders simply but clearly laid out the message of the restoration and used the new skills they had acquired from that day's training to testify to him by the spirit. He had many questions and, for the next three days, met with the Elders to learn more about the restored gospel. He even planned on coming to church, and Elder Anderson was confident that his baptism wouldn't be too far off in the future. The Elders had never felt such a strong feeling of love for one of their investigators in such a short period of time as they did with this man, and they knew it was because the Lord had proven them and provided a way to reap the blessings they had been diligently seeking.
Another miracle (we'll keep this one shorter): The next day with Elder Read, they went to the park but had a hard time getting people to stop and listen. They sat for a moment, prayed, read a scripture, set a goal, and started off again. A few minutes later, they had an intense feeling that someone needed them on the other side of the park. They fled to the inspired spot and there on a bench was a girl in a pink coat. "That's her!" they said to each other, and they rushed over to speak with here. Her name was Nancy, and she was studying slavic languages there in Bratislava. She spoke some english and some slovak, and the Elders quickly sat down and introduced the book of mormon, bearing testimony of it. Nancy, a student from Russia, found it hard to understand in English but she did feel the spirit from Alma 7 where there is the testimony of the Savior. "Can I get this book in Russian?" The Elders were very ecstatic, prayed with her, and exchanged contact details. As they prayed, a feeling of depression left her and she felt the warmth of the Spirit from the missionaries. "I've been feeling for a while" she said before they parted, "depression, but meeting with you and your prayer have left me feeling...." she couldn't describe the feeling, and while the Elders didn't understand her russian vocabulary, they knew what she was saying. "I know this meeting was an answer to my prayers." Little did she know, she was also an answer to a heartfelt prayer.
The week had been epic, it had been draining, and Elder Anderson and Elder Thompson were looking forward to their foam mattresses on their bunk bed, right next to the leaky windows that looked out over northern Prague. It wasn't much, but it was home, and they were happy to be on their way back again. Elder Anderson did feel pangs of guilt for not getting those photo cds off as he'd been promising for some time, but they were at least burned and would be on their way soon. They had a week to breathe ahead of them and then it was zone conferences, another 4 day conference, and trainings galore until the end of October.
And he smiled.
Love,
Elder Brent Anderson
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