Author: Starší O'Barr

This’ll be a quick one, it’s been a busy day. Unfortunately most of what happened was just office related things, so I’ll keep most of it to myself. We had to help a group of missionaries with their visas this week, which was an adventure, but things worked out in the end, as they always seem to. We also had exchanges with some other missionaries from a nearby city. It was good to get to know them a little better, and to get some fresh air outside the office.

We had a really good meeting with a member of the church here, and we discussed repentance with him. It can be so easy to view repentance as a punishment, when in reality, it is a gift of God, made by possible by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I can tell you, my life would be a whole lot more punishing if I had to always carry the weight of my mistakes, if there was no divinely appointed way to change, and to improve. If you have any questions about repentance, feel free to contact me! I do love to talk😊.

S pozdravem,
Starší O’Barr

Welcome back to another week here in Prague! It’s crazy to think I’ve been here for almost 8 months, and that my time is probably coming to an end soon. Life in Prague is busy, but oh so wonderful. I’ll hit the highlights from the week:

Tuesday- We have a LOT going on in the office and I’m not really sure why. We put our nose to the grindstone this week and knocked off some bigger projects in the office. Finally got around to updating and automating some of the old systems we used to use for keeping track of things. It’s interesting, but I’m sure quite boring for the rest of you. We also had dinner with this wonderful half-American family, who made fun of me for never having skied before, but it’s ok because they are some of my favorites here in Prague.

Wednesday- We had a meeting with an older, house-bound member and one of her caretakers who had expressed interest in our message. Was quite the fun meeting!

Thursday- Not much else to note, did some more working on updating things, and had another had dinner with some other members, and talked about members in the ward they want us to visit, and who we would want them to visit. I love members who are involved in trying to help all of the other members feel included and loved. It can truly make a difference.

Saturday- We visited a local park on the edge of Prague with some of our friends and another companionship of missionaries and took a really cool hike to the top of this hill that I have been to before. We had a wonderful spiritual discussion on top of the hill as well.

That’s it for the week, if you have any questions, let me know! We also visited a bend in the Vltava that looks a lot like Horseshoe Bend (look it up if you don’t know, it’s a lot cooler than this place). It was surprisingly breathtaking to be there in person. It was quite the fun little hike too.

S láskou,
Starší O’Barr

Well folks, it has been quite the week here in the Czech/Slovak Mission. I’ll give you the quick rundown and then hit some highlights at the end.

Tuesday: We were relatively swamped with office and administrative work. We had to make sure everything was ready to go out to the East Zone Conference on Wednesday, and helped the APs get it all into the ‘Juicer’ (our nickname for the mission van). Unfortunately, only 30 mins into the trip an unnamed elder filled the diesel engine with gasoline. Luckily the damage was minimal, and after they got towed back to Prague, the APs were able to get back on the road in a different car, and still made it to zone conference. While all this was happening, Elder Anderson and I were busy getting lost on our way out to a member’s house, a few kilometers outside of Prague. We only missed 2 different busses. Still made it and remarkably on time!

Wednesday: We had a first lesson with someone in Letna park, and spent some more time in the office

Thursday: We dragged President down to the bank and got Elder Anderson added as a signatory on the mission’s bank account. Hoorah for office work! 🙃

Friday: It was the 91st anniversary of the dedication of the Czech/Slovak Mission, or at the time, the Czechoslovakian Mission. I’ll spare you the details but we went to Karlštejn, a gorgeous town outside of Prague, lorded over by a huge castle. We went on a short hike to the overlook where they held a meeting on July 24, 1929, and spent some time in reflection, prayer, and song. A good day, but long.

Saturday: A surprisingly quiet day. We attended a picnic held by a member in Letna park, and met a lot of people and had some really good conversations with some members who we had been trying to get in contact with for forever.

Sunday: We started by accidentally getting roped into attending the morning Czech Sacrament meeting with a friend we hadn’t seen in a few months, as well as some other members we hadn’t seen in a long time. We took a quick break for lunch, and then came back to start filling up the font for the baptism that evening and then attended the English Sacrament meeting with our friends. After that there was some more running around to get ready for the baptism of Lukáš, who is an 8 year old boy. We met with him and his family a few times before his baptism to him help understand it a little better, and to get more excited for the opportunity. It was wonderful.

Well, congratulations on making it this far! Sorry for such a long email, but there was a lot that happened. I can truly testify that the Lord is mindful of all of us, at all points. He watches over our every movement, and He gives me the strength I need to take that one more step, when I am ready to fall over and give up. Our life has a greater plan behind all of it, and a deeper meaning than we can comprehend. Please, if you are unsure, pray and ask God, and if you are unsure of how to do that, ask me!

S láskou,
Starší O’Barr

I forgot to say what happened today, but I visited the 3rd largest equestrian statue in the world.

Howdy! Here’s the quick rundown of the week:

On Tuesday we had office meeting, and spent a lot of time helping the Whiteheads, a senior couple here, work on their visas. We finished it out with district council.

On Wednesday I had an exchange with another Elder in my district, Elder Bennett. I got to show him some of Prague, and then we met with a less-active member of the church here, and talked about commandments with him.

Thursday was spent on the office, catching up on things we hadn’t gotten to that week.

We finally put together a table for the office on Friday! It has only taken us about 2 months to get rid of the broken one and put up a new one. It was a small success, but a needed one.

Saturday we had another lesson with one of our friends, and prepared for this week.

Sunday we attended the English Sacrament meeting again, and our Mongolian friend was with us once more, as well as our Ukrainian friend. We also started up Inspiration night again, which is an activity we have at a member’s house here in Prague, where we play a game and discuss spiritual topics.

Today we got haircuts, and then went for a hike by the town of Příbram. It was gorgeous! There were also wild blueberries along the entire trail, so we went crazy picking and eating them. We were all stained purple by the end of it, but it was worth it.

Have a good week!

Elder O’Barr

Ahoj všem!

It’s been another week here in Prague! Nothing too exciting again, but I can give you the quick rundown:

We had a lot of meetings last Tuesday. On Tuesday we have our weekly meeting with President and Sister Gehring (our mission president and his wife), where we discuss all the various office things that need to get done in a week. We found out we needed to look for a new apartment for some missionaries in Jihlava, which is one of my favorite cities! So I had a good time apartment shopping.

Wednesday, we started the visa work for some other missionaries, and got to go to the post office, so nothing too exciting.

On Thursday we started cranking out a bunch of things to help the office be more organized, and spent a lot of time working on things to prepare for missionaries that we hope will one day make it to the mission, when everything settles down. Then things got slightly more exciting with our volleyball activity that night. We had a blast playing volleyball and meeting a lot of new people.

Friday was nothing special, but we did get to plan out our week, and got some good ice cream.

We spent Saturday morning cleaning and shopping, and made sure to wash the car. Ona je tááák čistá teď.

Sunday we got to have in person church meetings again. We attended the English meeting, and our friend from Mongolia came, even though she doesn’t speak Czech or English. She still agreed to come back next week. Then we met with this really friendly man named Martin who had been baptized in 2002, but had fallen out of contact with the church, so he contacts us to find out how to come back. He is super excited to join us again, and we are excited to see him grow.

Today we went to Konopiště, which is a gorgeous castle in the forest. Very well maintained. Also spent a good bit of time working on some assorted financial matters this morning.

Look for the little things this week! If you don’t have a journal of any kind, I’d suggest writing a bit this week anyways. There are always things to be grateful for, if we just let ourselves be grateful.

S láskou,
Starší O’Barr 

Howdy y’all, we had another action-packed week, but I don’t have much to say. This week we might be meeting with multiple different people at different points to play some volleyball and teach the gospel. Made sure to practice a bit today, since I’m not very good.

Church finally started back up! We had two Sacrament meetings, one for English speakers and one for Czech. We went to the English one with one of our friends, and met another lady from Siberia.

-Starší O’Barr

Pics:

-Me, in Prague, doing what I do best

-The Národní Divadlo, and surrounding buildings

-Masarykovo nábřeží, looking very beautiful in the late afternoon