Blessings and Building the kingdom ( Week 8 in Prague, Week 68 in Czech )

"Rozsvitiš svou lampou dnes, a zustaneš se mnou..." *WHACK*

The nokia handset quit buzzing and Elder Anderson rolled out of bed. "Dobre rano!" he yelled out to his companion, and they both got the day off right with some prayers and exercise. Elder Anderson had set a new goal to get up to doing 100 push ups a day while in the office, but he knew it was going to take some time since he could still feel his morning situps from the other day. But, the bench-press in his apartment (yes, they have a home-made bench press made from old chairs and carpet) was there, and they pumped that press morning and night in efforts to meet their transfer goal of becoming more like Chief Captain Moroni.

Beyond the iron and the exercise, however, Elder Anderson was feeling very content in his heart. The Lord had blessed them immensely in their service that week, and had provided them with very unique experiences all week. The office half of the picture was rather thin, but he was being put to use in filling out visa paperwork (and then, after filling out one two many of the six page forms of bureaucracy, decided he'd make another spreadsheet to do the same thing for next time), putting the finishing touches on the publishing module of the new missionary reporting system, and holding down the fort with Elder Doxey while president was in Poland for the annual young single adult conference. All of the small victories in the office versus red tape and real-time data, however, didn't compare to the miracles wrought throughout the week.

The first was on Wednesday on Karlovo Namesti, when the missionaries (after a mildly complicated turn of events) were following the spirit, not knowing beforehand what they should do. They showed up and started talking to everyone they could find. Then, they saw Alena sitting on a bench. They walked over and happily introduced themselves. After a brief conversation about life priorities, they made the connection with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and she began to express how she'd been raised in a church, but now was turning over many different options and ideas in her head and wanted to choose for herself how she wanted to believe. The Elders were grateful as the spirit guided them through a lesson talking about commandments being spiritual laws that enable us to achieve greater heights, just like an airplane achieves greater heights by obeying physical laws. This view of commandments was groundbreaking for her, and the Elders followed up with 2 Nephi 31, where Nephi teaches the commandments regarding baptism and the gospel plan. She loved the idea and the doctrines, and they arranged to meet again after her vacation the next day. At the end, she said "I'm very grateful that the Lord led you to me today."

The second was on Thursday in the park Letencke Sady, when the missionaries (after finishing their appointments for the day 30 minutes early) had almost an hour to spend that they hadn't expected. Guided by the spirit, they went into the park. It seemed a slow evening, and they didn't see a whole lot of success in the first 25 minutes. Then they ran into Blanka. The missionaries, careful to not rush into too much too fast, asked Blanka if she believed. She said yes. She than said she believed in God. The Elders rejoiced, and proceeded to talk about the book of mormon. She had said that the most important thing in her life was love, and it wasn't long before Moroni 7 was being read in turn by each of them. The spirit was present, and Blanka was very grateful for the meeting, already looking forward to meeting up again on Saturday. That night, she sent the Elders a text, explaining she had been at home, but had had the most powerful impression that she needed to go to the park and sit on a bench. She did, and she knew it was the Lord bringing the restored gospel into her life. That night, the elders were very joyful indeed.

The last was on Friday. Once again, the Elders found themselves with about 50 minutes at the end of a long day. They had planned on going to Karlovo Namesti, but then decided to go to Namesti Miru. As they stepped into the metro station, the impression was clear: "Go to Dejvicka", one stop away from the building, instead of 20 minutes into the center. They started talking to everyone they could and, halfway through a bench lesson with a Slovak man, Elder Anderson spotted Tomas, a man they had met and taught a month ago, but who had since fallen out of contact. He jumped up, let his companion continue teaching, and Tomas, in about 10 seconds, wanted to sit down and ask the excited Elder why the church was true? The last meeting with Tomas was about the restoration, but it hadn't been clear and Tomas left early, feeling uncomfortable. This time he was ready, and his loving Heavenly father had arranged a meeting with his servants, the missionaries, to give him another go. Tomas thought hard about the message, and said at the end of the meeting, "It would be extremely important to know that Joseph Smith is God's Prophet!" He is consequently coming to church on Sunday.

In the end, Elder Anderson felt that the most important things this week had been working hard and doing his part, and keeping himself aligned with the Gospel and with the Spirit. The Lord provided each of His children in turn, and the Elders knew that they were fulfilling their calling to teach and baptize all nations by inviting others to come unto Christ through the gospel. To the fortunate readers of his weekly epistles, Elder Anderson wanted to say "I love you all, and I want you all to know that you should have a goal to go on a mission. Old, young, in the church, out of the church: You will see the greatest blessings ever in doing it. If you're not in a position to go now, set a goal and start planning now to make the changes you need in order to go. It's such a beautiful thing!"

Love,
Elder Brent Anderson

Happy Pioneer Day ( Week 7 in Prague, Week 67 in Czech )

It's been a rather fascinating couple of days here in the land of miracles. Monday-Tuesday we worked on the new statistics system for the mission (it's going to be good), met up with some investigators, and went on exchanges. Wednesday we went to Ceske Budejovice for an exchange, Thursday we went to Brno for an exchange, Friday we had another conference with all the new missionaries and their trainers. And today is Saturday. I'm sipping on a glass of yogurt drink, eating some Czech rolls, and have this really salty but somehow savory cheese that I decided to try out this morning. Today is a good day!

The exchange in Budejovice was interesting, I'd never been there before. It really seemed fascinating how the work differs from one place to another, but how it's also all the same. It just might be the most beautiful city I'd been to so far, but there are a lot of beautiful cities here. The accent there is pretty thick for Bohemia, but it was surprising nonetheless to hear from several sources about my accent. I speak like a moravian! I had no idea, but missionaries and Czechs alike all thought I talked funny, and they could tell in about 4 words that I spoke like I was from Moravia! YES! I have a list of language milestones I've set along the way, and that was one of them. Now for me to figure out the Bohemian accent and be able to bounce my voice around as I choose. It really shocked me though, and it was a huge compliment.

Otherwise, I love what we're doing and I'm grateful that all of our work focuses in on Baptism and helping people receive covenants for themselves with God. I love it.

I do have a few thoughts bouncing around my head today because it's the 24th of July. A student of church history would be quick to identify that the 24th of July, 1847, the pioneer saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and Brigham Young declared, "This is the place." But, a student of Czech church history would be quick to identify that on the 24th of July, 1929, Elder John A. Widstoe of the Quorum of the Twelve stood atop Kněží Hora (Priests Hill) near Karlštejn castle and dedicated this land to the preaching of the gospel. In the late 1800s, missionaries from the Europe Austria mission (Then one of the largest missions in the world) started teaching in the Czech Republic but faced great opposition and even imprisonment. After the first world war and the formation of the "First Republic" the Czechs were more receptive to the restored church and her missionaries. But, World War Two interrupted the advances being made, and following a brief period of three years after the war, Communism took root and oppressed the Czech saints until 1990 when the Church received recognition once again. Since that time, thousands of Czechs have been baptized, and there is on the horizon a czech stake with real chapels and stake centers, and not just rented space in other buildings. So exciting!

I've got some homework for you all to read. The first article (http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=cc529527730eb010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD) is the story of the Czech saints from the beginning and includes many of the remarkable details you never hear about. (By the way, the mission still publishes the Novy Hlas newsletter today, and one of the descendants of Josef Roubicek is my current district leader)

The second article follows the lives of two incredible saints that made great contributions to the progress of the church here, Jiri and Olga Snederfler. http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=af629527730eb010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Today is pioneer day, and with gratitude and reverence towards my own pioneer ancestors and their sacrifices  for me personally, I express equal gratitude to these saints for their dedication and devotion. I've ministered to and been ministered by some of these saints and their children over my mission, and they are great examples of faith and devotion. I hope their examples will inspire us to do what is right when we have challenges for our faith.

Have a great week!
Elder Brent Anderson

The value of Baptism ( Week 6 in Prague, Week 66 in Czech )

Dear Family,

This last week has been a lot more "normal" than past weeks. Really, than the last month. An emergency transfer across the country to take the place of a departing missionary who's the last in a generation right before the old mission president bows out the door and a new mission president arrives who is just in time for the leadership conference and a week of zone conferences when you're sleeping on the floor and then getting up to motivate, inspire, and train your friends and family before landing in the most beautiful city in the world and taking a break on P-day to recover is quite busy.

This last week, on the other hand, has focused more on us building up our own proselyting area, helping president Irwin get acclimated, and putting future plans and changes in motion to bring the mission to broader heights.

I do have to ask a favor of you all, and I've got a confession to make. A public confession. I've tried my best to keep this a secret from the world by wearing fashionable clothes, being well groomed, and spending lots of time with friends at movies, on dates, and other things. As a missionary, obviously, all this was focused into being consecrated to the best work in the world and trying to really connect with the people here by being open and friendly and loving and even making missionary work cool. These things have brought great blessings for certain. But, something was still underneath the surface, and it's this deep, dark secret that I'd like to reveal to you all and ask you all to please still love me despite how different I am.

I'm an absolute nerd.

Yep, it's true. Now, don't stop reading here, and my request still stands: I hope you can all find a little room in your hearts to harbor some hope for me while I strive to cope with this reality. It's not lethal, but it may be incurable. I bring it up today of all days because of some really neat projects we're pushing out in the office in the near future.

In the past, and traditionally in missionary work, we gauge missionary performance on lessons taught, czech spoken, baptisms, and other key indicators. Here in the mission home these statistics are carefully indexed in a database on a zonewide basis. This database runs back to 2004 and is fascinating to read. A week ago, we introduced version 2.0, a major leap forward in the world of mission progress tracking. From our press release, "We really believe that version 2.0 will change the way we look at missionary work and will serve as an example to other missions who, in the dazzling light of this great innovation, will rush to follow suit." These major upgrades consisted entirely of adding a nicely arranged and carefully color-balanced graph to each table of data, as well as coloring the tables blue instead of grey. They even have a nice drop shadow behind each graph line, a finishing touch I felt was necessary to make it just right.

But the next step will be based on some secret research we're collaborating on with the missions from the UK. It's a system designed by a former Norwegian AP from several years ago who, when the mission president discovered his humble genius with numbers and computers, locked him in the office under high security for a year and had him produce amazing reporting systems for him. Based on his development, we're developing a tracking system for storing area performance instead of zone performance, and then being able to run analysis on any area or arbitrary collection of areas with any set of data. This data will then be graphed and processed for each leadership companionship so they can more effectively see trends and help their missionaries progress more effectively.

I guess the bottom line is that we're laying the foundation for many many years of missionary leadership, and we'll be starting with our call in and accountability responsibilities. It's very exciting to be apart of, and it helps me to think about different things I'd like to do after my mission to help the church push missionary work forward. But, in the mean time, we've got a lot to do and another baptismal date for that matter.

It all started last saturday when we were on Namesti Miru (Peace Square) talking to people on benches. I walked up to a nice looking lady with two dogs and asked her about the meaning of faith to her. She explained that she's a catholic and that Christ is most important in her life. I sat down and started talking with her about baptism. While she'd been baptized, I explained she could be baptized by someone who has authority from Christ and it would be her decision, not her parent's. She found the idea very exciting and we arranged to meet again this week. On Thursday, we met up again and we dived into the Book of Mormon and the need for baptism. We talked about Christ being baptized when He was older and how His baptism is an example for us to follow, and we asked her to follow His example by being baptized next month. She's very excited about it, accepted wholeheartedly, and we'll be meeting again on Monday to teach her about Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the gospel.

It's humbling to see what the message of the gospel brings to people. It's very open, very inviting, but also includes concrete things to do. I'm very grateful that the Lord gives us specific things to help us to grow in specific ways so that we are prepared for a certain future in His kingdom. Many people believe in heaven, but they see it as a way to get out of work and suffering. While we don't suffer in God's presence, the purpose of progressing is all about becoming better, and after this life we will continue to progress.

I love you all, and we're really looking forward to our baptisms in the up and coming weeks, along with all the nerdy office improvements. If all goes well, our VoIP system will be up and running very soon.

Some plugs for the Mormon.org website: They have a new one, and you need to see a real czech on there. His name is Daniel, and you can read about him here: http://mormon.org/me/1G2P-eng/ and also watch the film on http://mormon.org/missionary-work/ and look for Sister Ganbaatar. She's been visa waiting in Provo for 8 months and is down there working with the missionaries and is apparently a real fireball. Hopefully we can get her visa really soon.

Love you all, look forward to hearing from you and writing again soon.

Elder Brent Anderson

Baptismal dates, the journey of 2000 kilometers, and grand theft auto in Bratislava, Slovakia ( Week 5 in Prague, Week 65 in Czech )

I have too much to write and not enough time. In my mind (and I'd hope in yours too) I have a beautiful letter envisioned, one with good structures and humourous wording. But, I'm afraid I've not budgeted my time well this morning and have to make it a list of bullet points.

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

The Next Chapter ( Week 4 in Prague, Week 64 in Czech )

Rozsvitiš svou lampou dnes, a zustaneš se mnou..." *WHACK*

Elder Anderson's new phone clattered to the floor. He had the next model of the classic "missionary phone" which could play music, and had the czech translation of the ever-popular song "Mercies" by Jenny Phillips set up as his alarm clock. While he did enjoy a good sacrament-ready musical number in the morning, today was a big day and it was time to get praying. Recently he'd found it easier to pray without dozing, so he prayed himself through and started getting ready. It was Wednesday, the 30th of July, the last official day for the Slovaceks. After a quick breakfast, they hit the office for their personal study, and then headed to the airport to receive the jolly couple.

At the terminal, they waited with the Slovaceks and talked about experiences and future plans. Somehow, it didn't seem anything was changing. As they waited, they realized their airplane had landed 10 minutes early, but they still weren't coming through customs and it had been almost 50 minutes. Earlier they'd taken bets on what time the Irwins would come through the gate, but those times had long expired. "Do you think they made it to vienna?" "No, I bet they're luggage was lost somewhere."

Finally, a disheveled but smiling president and sister Irwin pushed their luggage cart through the gate and into the common area. "Good Morning! So glad to see you! You wouldn't believe it, but they lost one of our cases back in Vienna." Said President Irwin. "Don't worry president, we'll see to it that we find and deliver your suitcase." replied the assistants. They grabed the "cases" and started off for the parking lot.

The new president left with the old one, and Elder Doxey and Anderson set out to deliver the luggage in the mission micro bus to their apartment some 3 kilometers away. Due to an unusually dense traffic mixed with construction, the elders made it back to the mission home some 3 adventurous hours later and decided that, "next time", they'd take the metro and manually haul the luggage instead of fighting in and out of traffic.

The next two days were composed of transferring vast amounts of information from president Slovacek to president Irwin regarding the mission, our progress, and items of interest. Interestingly enough, no information was shared regarding individual missionaries, giving each person a chance to change radically without fear of apprehensions. What a blessing for so many! On Thursday, after a few bank meetings and some last touches to this transfer of information, President Slovacek and his wife went around, hugged the missionaries for the last time, and bowed out the door to spend time with the Czech saints in the temple and then ride off into the sunset.

Elder Doxey and Anderson stepped into the office right after President Slovacek had left and sat down to plan a conference. President Irwin sat there, somewhat lower in his chair since the chair was adjusted for president Slovacek's larger stature. Piles of letters and documents were neatly stacked on the desk among binders of information and contacts on members. He surveyed the scene for a moment.

*Sigh* "Right, where to start..."

The phone rang. "Oh! What's that?"

"It's the phone from the United States."

"Oh, really? Well, what do I do?"

As he reached to answer it, someone else picked it up in the mission home. He sighed a breath of relief.

After a brief pause, he fixed his jaw and resolutely declared, "Well, we have a leadership conference tomorrow. How does that go?" They all rolled up their sleeves and got to work. The jet-lag and the sheer change was a stress to the new mission president. But, Elder Anderson noticed that a quiet change started to come about him as the meeting progressed, particularly after a powerful prayer from President Irwin at the beginning. The atmosphere changed from stressed and unfamiliar to loving concern for each missionary and a very solid plan regarding how to bless the lives of the missionaries the most, an outright miracle considering that President Irwin hadn't even met most of these missionaries ever before in his life. Even details like moving the meeting ahead by 20 minutes so an elder could catch a later train and get some more sleep were considered. Elder Anderson immediately developed a great love and respect for his new priesthood leader due to this great example, and it was clear to him that the mantle of priesthood leadership and power had completely moved from a very broad pair of shoulders to a very British pair of shoulders.

The leadership conference went off excellently, focusing on being a christlike leader and becoming like the savior. The Church had also begun to roll out a new program for missionaries to learn how to use Preach My Gospel more effectively. This new program would be in the hands of all missionaries by May of next year. But, when at the MTC, president Irwin had received the new program literally right off the press with several other exciting new tools. The Czech Prague mission was among the first missions to begin using the new, intense program, and it was now on President Irwin, Elder Doxey, and Elder Anderson to learn the new program and implement it immediately. They all sensed excitement in the air when talking about it, since they were the ones who would push the program into widespread use and knew it would be an incredible blessing to millions of people. In fact, while Elder Anderson was writing his letters home on Saturday he couldn't wait to wrap up and run to the next room to get started planning with the new president for the new changes and for a week full of zone conferences. He was very grateful for all of the amazing opportunities afforded him by missionary work, and he couldn't wait to get started changing the mission and blessing the lives of Czechs, Slovaks, and missionaries with such a grand new chapter ahead of him.

Love,
Elder Brent Anderson