Howdy folks! It’s been a pretty busy week for us here in Jihlava. We almost spent more time outside of Jihlava than in it! Last Tuesday we didn’t really do much exciting. We taught English class, which is always a blast. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but our English class is mostly Vietnamese children under the age of 10, and then about 2 adults. Having that many children who don’t always want to learn English is sometimes a challenge, but it’s also fun to see what they can do when they do decide to learn. They certainly keep us on our toes. On Wednesday we had to return to Prague for a meeting with all the missionaries being trained in the Czech Republic. It was good to once again see my friends from the MTC, as well as missionaries who had been waiting in the states because of visa problems, and to see the progress we’re all making. We ended up spending most of the day in Prague. Thursday morning we started exchanges with the other missionaries in our district, Elder Rice and Elder Reed. Elder Rice came here, and he and I got to be companions for a day. We ended up teaching a couple of interesting people and even had a cool experience where we attempted to teach a man who only really spoke Bulgarian. Neither of us really spoke the others language, but by some small miracle we managed to communicate about our message. Now he wants to meet with missionaries again, although hopefully over Skype with Bulgarian speaking missionaries this time. On Friday, Elder Papworth came back to Jihlava, and then we caught another ride to Prague. We spent the night in Prague, and then headed up to a town called Liberec on Saturday morning. Liberec is built essentially all over some hills, which means that the typical crazy European roads were even more confusing. Half the roads there also double as tram tracks, which makes driving there very exciting. Liberec is a gorgeous city though, with some wonderful views. It is also, apparently, where the Spiderman movie was filmed, but I wouldn’t know about that. We went to Liberec to take part in the Wallace Toronto Project, which is a wonderful organization that goes to one city in either the Czech Republic or Slovakia and does service all over the city. Elder Papworth and I had the opportunity to work with members from all over the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and other missionaries. We got to do work on a school and residency for disabled children and adults. It was cold and drizzly, but we got to work and did a lot of service. It felt good to work hard with our hands and do some good service. That’s about it for this week! Things should finally calm down for us for a little bit now, and we should be doing a lot more working and teaching in Jihlava.
Nashledanou,
Starší O’Barr