Month: November 2019

Welp, I’m 19! Thanks for all the birthday wishes everybody!

Everything else this week was very normal. We reached out to members a lot this week. Most of the members of the church here are some of the only members in their family. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was meant for families, and so we’re trying to help encourage people to reach out to their families and share the happiness that it brings to their lives.

We also spent a lot of time trying to find older members of the church that live around Jihlava. That meant we walked around in the dark for a good few hours, but it was good because we were able to get contact with people who hadn’t talked to missionaries in a long time. We didn’t actually get to visit with any of them, but we’re hoping to try again soon.

That’s the theme for this week, hope. I have a lot of hope for the things I’ll be doing this next year, and I’m grateful for the assurance that I have that even if things don’t work out how I expected, they’ll work out in the end. Our Savior loves and knows each one of us, and we’re each prepared for the path we have to walk.

Pictures:

• Me being 19
• Havlíckuv Brod, a nearby city
• Same
• A random grim reaper skeleton on top of a building
• Some cool Latin inscription on the side of a Kostel

This week was probably the busiest/most exciting/most eventful week of my mission so far. I’ll just include a collection of little stories. Unfortunately there aren’t too many pictures this week, but there’ll be a couple at the end.

Temporary Exchange:

On Tuesday, Elder Beckstrom and I took an early morning bus to Prague to start our week long exchanges. We had to wait a long while for the Elders serving in Prague to actually get to the Mission Office, but it gave me a chance to catch up on my Old Testament reading. Once they got there, Elder Williams (my MTC companion) and I hurried back to Jihlava to teach English.

Svatý Martin gets it right:

Well, last Monday I mentioned that it was Saint Martin’s day here in the Czech Republic. When Saint Martin rides through town, he supposedly brings winter, and it kinda marks the start of the winter season here. Well, he rode through town last Monday, accompanied with plenty of fanfare and literal torchbearers. And then on Tuesday it began to snow. By the time we had left our English lessons on Tuesday night about an inch of slushy snow had accumulated on the naměstí. By the next morning, things were pretty well plastered white, and it was still dumping snow. Elder Williams and I took the opportunity that morning to go for a very long walk in the middle of the snowstorm, cause there were people we needed to visit. Unfortunately, no one was home/opened the door for us, but we were able to talk the few people that were out that morning. The pictures I got were actually from outside of Jihlava where the snow was a little deeper, on our drive to Prague the next day.

Just remembered I didn’t send finish this, so sorry, but it’ll be shorter than intended.

Zone Conference:

We got there late due to a car accident (that story will have to wait until later) but we got there nonetheless. We had the opportunity to hear from Elder Kopischke, who is a leader of the church here in Europe. He taught us about walking the cycle of faith described in Alma 26-43. God only asks us to take that first step into the unknown. Even if we can no more than to desire to believe, and if we try to act on that desire, God will help us grow our faith. This applies to the people we teach as they begin to learn and believe for the first time in their lives, and it applies to those of us who are a little further along the path. We will all be faced with unknowns and uncomfortable things, but as long as we walk in faith, and allow that faith to guide us, we will walk safely and securely to where we need to go. It is definitely something we are trying to work on as a mission here. Afterwards, I had the opportunity to meet with him individually and talk. It was incredible.

I lose my nametag:

This week we returned to one of the farms to help clear the top floor of a barn of junk and hay. It was a lot of fun. We pitch forked a pile of hay the height of the first floor of the barn! And I only fell through the rotting wood once! Unfortunately somewhere in the process, my nametag fell off. Now I love my nametag, but I was not about to swim in a haystack larger than a house to find it. That was a tragedy, but it wasn’t sad enough to offset all the other awesome stuff that happened this week.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

Čau,
Starší O’Barr

Things have gotten busy this week, and I’ll be spending most of next week with one of my companions from the MTC, Elder Williams, on a sort of extended exchange while Elder Beckstrom does some office work in Prague. We also all have to go to Prague for a couple of days this week for a special training and devotional with Elder Kapiška(?), an area seventy.

I spent a day in Třebíč this week on an exchange with Elder Thomas, which was my first time being the older missionary, but it went pretty well. We moved wood for service on Saturday, for about 5-6 hours. Afterward, they fed us some more traditional Czech food. I was given a healthy portion of sauerkraut. Then, as soon as I was finished, the babička (czech grandmother), immediately asked me if I wanted more. Of course, I only sort of misunderstood the question, and ended up getting another heaping plate of sauerkraut. I don’t have pictures for reference, but it was a LOT of sauerkraut.

Today was a big holiday here in the Czech Republic. They set up by far the largest markets I’ve seen, and were selling all sorts of food and warm drinks and little trinkets and light up things. They also had a full concert going on somewhere on the town square. It was packed with people. At the end of this all, a man representing Svatý (saint) Martin rode through the town on a big white horse accompanied by people holding huge flaming torches. His arrival signifies the start of winter here, and accordingly, it was freezing here. I tried asking more about who Svatý Martin was, but apparently most people don’t know at all.

We had some good lessons this week, especially with this older member whose son is leaving town and she’s having a real rough time with it, and we are trying to help her get through it. We’re still trying very hard to teach the people we have been, but they have also gotten very busy lately, and are struggling to find time to meet.

Čau,
Starší O’Barr

Picture 1-2: Random pictures of Třebíč

Picture 3: The town square about a half hour before Svatý Martin came through.

This week was busy, but it also felt like not a lot happened. I’ll try and hit the highlights.

On Tuesday, Elder Beckstrom and I had to go to Prague in order for him to do some visa work so he can stay in the country. It was wonderful, and it really made me want to live in Prague. Elder Beckstrom had some other business to take care off in the mission office, so a senior missionary, Elder Whitehead, and I went to do some things in Prague. He and his wife had been really craving some American food, so we went to the American Candy store in Prague. It was interesting to see some things there that I hadn’t seen in a while, like non-ketchup flavored Cheetos, candy corn, root beer, and marshmallows. I hadn’t even really noticed that they didn’t have those here, but it was still cool to see them again. Elder Whitehead went ahead and bought a bunch if it to take back with him, and I helped him carry his stuff back to the building. By that time Elder Beckstrom was done with his business, so we hurried off to our lunch appointment with someone he had taught when he was serving in Prague, and then we headed home in time to teach English.

Some of you might remember me mentioning the Vietnamese children that frequent our English class. Well this week, we decided to invite them to our Halloween Party! They all came, and it was great opportunity for one of their moms to meet the members here in Jihlava. We’re hoping we can get them to come to more activities in the future. A lot of people carved their first pumpkins and tried their first rice crispy treats! The Halloween Party went well, we had many non-members show up and it was an all around good opportunity for the whole branch to get together.

Halloween was also the day that that ominous-sounding European law I’ve been referring too went into effect, which meant I got to shred a lot of papers. I didnt realize how fun shredding things is, but I also didn’t realize how fragile paper shredders are. It was a learning experience.

Also, the day finally came. I’ve been waiting for this since I first found out I was coming to Jihlava. Jihlava’s town animal is the hedgehog, and there are hedgehog decals on everything here. Even the hockey team’s mascot is a hedgehog! And this week, I finally saw a real life wild hedgehog. I had been told they were out there, but I had yet to see one with my own eyes. It was among the most exhilarating experiences of my life. I’ll include picture evidence at the bottom. Also, daylight savings time exists here as well, and now it is pitch black around 5PM. Those photos were taken around 6:30.