Faith and Prayer ( Week 21 in Prague, Week 81 in Czech )

Hello,

This last week has been great! It's been an interesting series of days composed of many meetings, Lilia zeroing in on her baptism, and we brought in 5 great new missionaries from all over the united states. We also had to part with three missionaries who were going home. This group represents the last group of czech missionaries to leave before next march. But, as I've been saying around here for a while, I'll be here forever. :) No going home for me.

We take the new missionaries out contacting as part of their first day in Prague, mostly to wear them out so much that they sleep all night long and get adjusted to the time difference quickly. We gave them the extended prague walk, about 10 KM of hiking from site to site, which covers the bulk of the really good things to see here. We naturally run into members on vacation a lot, which is fun. They saw Prague Castle, the Senate gardens, Charles bridge, the old town square and the clock tower, the monument to Prague Spring riots, the museum, and a modern art statue of Saint Wenceslas on a horse that's upside down. They were nervous the whole time since we take them out contacting at the end of the walk but right before dinner. "We can't do that! Talk to people? In czech! But half of us are going to slovakia!AHHH!"

This is where the most important thing I've learned on my mission came into play, and I'd like to share it with you.

When God gives us a commandment through scriptures, living prophets, or personal revelation, we might be scared a bit. That's normal. But, we get to make a choice: Are we going to believe and do, or will we doubt and not do. There is no "try" involved. You do it, or you don't do it in the end. When we choose to succeed, we confirm that faith with prayer to make it a reality. Then you go out and work to achieve it. It's very simple, but incredibly powerful. Every blessing that God wants to give us may be earned by following that pattern of being obedient to his commandments, having faith, praying, and working. You will succeed. The new missionaries didn't know this yet, but we promised them success, made assignments, and prayed. Then we scooted them off. Within 30 minutes, they'd picked up 3 phone numbers all by themselves. They were elated! How did the assistants know that it would work? Well, because the Lord blesses the obedient, the faithful, and those who go out and work.

I've got to go now, but Lilia will be baptized this time next week and I'll get you pictures of it soon.

Cheers,
Elder Brent Anderson