Here’s some photos of my district. The first one is us in our shirts, the second one is us unintentionally showing of the fact that none of us can smile for photos.
District unity is off the charts
Howdy everyone! Life is still crazy in the MTC, despite how repetitive it can get. Time also flys by in the MTC. I leave in just under 3 weeks now, and it’s insane. I’m super excited to get there and start with the real work, I just hope I’m prepared!
I’ve been spending a lot of time this week studying the language, because tomorrow morning my companions and I get to Skype in and talk to members of the Church in the Czech Republic. It’ll be our first real time getting to know and speak to native Czech speakers, and we are all very excited for the opportunity.
Sestra Lewis’s family made our entire district matching shirts. That means that our entire district (all 9 of us) now has 2 matching shirts, which isn’t an obscene amount, but it’s still enough to be notable. I’ll send a photo of all us wearing our shirts later today, along with some other pictures.
I was reading in the Book of Mormon this week, and read Ether 12:4, which says “Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God” I love this verse, and I can testify that the knowledge I have about the gospel truly does bring a hope into my life that I couldn’t have otherwise. I’m grateful for the opportunity I have to share this message of hope with so many other people.
Sláva kráva
Howdy everyone! I’m officially halfway through my stay in the MTC! Less than one month until I get to finally go to the Czech Republic. Things in the MTC have been pretty much the same since last week, so this email will be pretty short
To begin with, sorry for not explaining last weeks subject line, it was a very funny story that I totally left out. We have this wonderful little Filipino elder in our zone, and he and his companion were sitting out side studying last week when my companions and I walked by. He tried to say “Ahoj Starší!” which is Czech for “hello elders,” but instead blurred out Ahoj Senpai, which is actually Japanese. It was just hilarious to hear a native of the Philippines, studying Cambodian, speak both Czech and Japanese.
This week, the Provo MTC swelled to almost 2,100 missionaries here at one time, which means that lines at meal times are crazy. All complaints aside, it’s amazing to know that I am working alongside thousands of other missionaries both here and across the world to teach and testify of Jesus Christ. It’ll be very different when I get to the Czech Republic and Slovakia where there will only be 85 of us split between the two countries. I will really miss singing in the choir with 900 other missionaries, as it has been incredible to do that as well.
Also this week, I attempted to say holy cow in Czech a couple days and came to the decision that Sláva Kráva would work, which translates to glory cow. Too bad that doesn’t actually work cause I love the way it rhymes.
The pictures for today are of my district eating donuts provided by Sestra Alvord’s mom, and a picture of the Žižkov Television Tower in the Czech Republic. Our teachers told us about it. It is widely considered one of the ugliest towers in the world, and yes, those are huge black faceless baby statues climbing up the side. Apparently there’s a restaurant at the top.
Nashledanou,
Starší O’Barr
Photos
Sent from my iPad
Ahoj Senpai!
This week has been crazy busy with lessons and welcoming new missionaries, but I’m finally a month in and things are pretty good. Here’s the quick rundown of my week:
Thursday- The Fourth of July! We got to play volleyball with the whole zone and then take a zone photo afterwards. We had a religious freedom devotional that night, and then got to stay up late and watch the fireworks. We were inside the whole time though, which makes fireworks slightly less fun.
Friday- We got to teach two lessons in one day, but in English this time, so we understood a little more.
Saturday- Learned the fun new phrase of “Dobře dobře, Pane Bobře!”(pronounced dobshe dobshe pane bobshe). It means “Well well, Mr Beaver,” but it’s just a fun little rhyming phrase they use, sort of like how we have “see ya later, alligator”
Sunday- I sang in the choir again, and found out that I would have the opportunity to welcome a group of new missionaries on Wednesday.
Monday- The elevator in our building broke, so now we have to climb 5 flights of stairs to our classroom multiple times a day. It probably won’t be fixed for another month.
Tuesday- The choir got to sing The Battle Hymn of the Republic for the devotional that night.
Wednesday- We welcomed the new missionaries to our zone, and helped walked them through all the important things to know about the MTC. They are all speaking English so they’ll all leave two weeks before we do. It’s crazy to think we only have 5 more weeks left in the MTC!
It’s always super busy at the MTC, but most of it is fairly repetitive, so I leave it out.
Nashledanou,
Starší O’Barr
Photo!
Sent from my iPad
Not a fan of Cartwheels
It’s crazy to believe I’ve been in the MTC for 3 weeks already, but it’s even crazier to believe I still have 6 more weeks here. It was a return to the normal schedule this week, so not a lot has happened. The Czech language is still just as hard as ever, but I am so incredibly excited to get to the country and start serving for real. Anyways, here’s a short summary of all that’s been going on:
Thursday: My companions and I got assigned to be zone leaders, which means that the three of us are semi-responsible for planning Sunday meetings and some other relatively mundane tasks, but we also get to welcome and help new missionaries to our zone, and we should be getting 40 new missionaries in a couple weeks.
Friday: Nothing but class and mock lessons with the teachers
Saturday: The exact same thing
Sunday: We got to listen to the man who helps run all the MTCs across the world, and it was a super neat experience, his talk was super engaging. I also played in a musical number during our church meeting.
Monday: We taught for way too long on Monday, but it was amazing to see how much we could do in Czech.
Tuesday: I attempted my first cartwheel, and it did not go so well. It turns out that cartwheels are a lot harder than expected, especially in the sand. We also got to listen to another devotional on Tuesday, and I sang in the choir again. It’s such a special experience to sing in a choir as large as this one. There’s usually about 900 of us singing our hearts out, and it is such a spiritual experience.
Wednesday: I tried more cartwheels on Wednesday, and I think they might have gone worse, if possible. I am currently walking with a mild limp, so I think I will pass on doing cartwheels for the foreseeable future.