Category: České Budějovic

Zdravím vás, dámy a pánové,

Well, congratulations on making it to the final installment of my mission updates. It’s been an incredible 2 years, with countless ups and downs, most of which I left out of these emails. Hopefully you were able to get something out of my random thoughts at the end of each week, even if it was no more than a cool photo.

This week we had one of the best church meetings I’ve attended in a long time, and we hit a record attendance of 20 people this week! I have absolutely fallen in love with the branch of the church here in České Budějovice. They are some of the kindest people I’ve ever met. We got to teach the youth, which included the children of a family we’re teaching, and it was a blast. Today we played basketball with some Czech high schoolers, then took one final trip to Český Krumlov to soak in the sights.

I’ll let you all know here and now, that my mission was absolutely amazing. I don’t have enough words to describe it, and words would not do it justice. It was not easy, in fact it was never easy, but it was a lot of fun. I think if it had been easy it would’ve destroyed the purpose. All I can really say is that it was worth it. If you have any questions, feel free to respond to this email, send them to my home email (tanner@obarr.us), or contact me on social media next week! I’ll catch y’all in a week and a bit!

Pics include: Me on top of the big tower in Český Krumlov, pics of and from the big tower, my companion and me trying to look “hard,” and  some random shots from zone conference.

Nashledanou,
Starší O’Barr

Welcome to probably the second to last email you’ll be receiving from me!

You’re all in luck, it’s a short one this week! Our week consisted of a lot of time trying to talk with people on Facebook, and very few lessons, with one quick trip to the hospital. I will not be coming home in a cast! The temperature also really jumped up this week into the low to mid 30°C, which is above the comfortable point for most people, so we do everything in front of a fan. The real highlight of the week was our first in-person church meeting! That really turned this slow week into a good one. I got to give a talk and also finally see all the little band of members together. It was just good to see and interact again. I appreciated it.

Well that’s all I’ve got for ya this week! I hope you enjoy a random one of the many blurry elevator selfies we took this week, as those were the only photos I have.

Čus a čau,
Starší O’Barr

Vítám vás!

I haven’t really ever numbered my emails, not even in the beginning. However, now you can officially count the number of emails you’ll be getting from me on one hand. I think. I’m not the best at math.

Our week was another relatively quiet week without much of note. We had an exchange with the APs in Prague, which provided a nice midweek respite. They opened restaurants here again! It’s been probably 6 months since we last ate inside a restaurant, so we enjoyed that this week. While we were in Prague we got to teach some really cool lessons and visit some interesting locales, but not too many photos.

This weeks photos include: Sand statues from the town literally named sand in Czech (Písek), and probably the 900th photo I have of Prague from the same spot.

Čus,
Starší O’Barr

Howdy!

This week involved a lot of time spent in a car, which means less time for excitement, sorry to disappoint. I did promise to make a bunch of cupcakes for people we’re gonna see tomorrow, so I spent a good chunk of time making those. We got to drop off a bible to someone, which is always fun! Recently we’ve been trying out a new kind of Facebook ad, which has seen some mild success. It’s always fun to try new things! Sometimes we can get so obsessed with doing things the way we’ve been doing them, that we close ourselves off to the paths God would have us take! So this is your reminder to switch your schedule up, and try to listen for the Spirit of God directing you down paths you might not have been ready for!

Photos this week include: Highlights from Český Krumlov (a well preserved medieval city with a big castle complex), some homemade Indian food and fresh chapati (look ’em up, they’re easy and good!), and a selfie my companion and I took to print off and give to a loveable older member who has a picture of every missionary she’s met.

Enjoy, and have a good week!

-Starší O’Barr

Howdy howdy folks,

It has been another week in České Budějovice! Fun fact I might have already shared about České Budějovice: it’s actually a plural noun in Czech! No clue why, but they do that with a lot of city names in Czech. But I guess you folks probably don’t read this to learn random tidbits about the Czech language. So onto the meat!

Things are going well here! Our one friend is steadily progressing towards baptism, but it is not an easy process. We are convinced she will get baptized, were just hoping it will be sooner rather than later. So if you happen to remember us and her in your prayers, we’d be very grateful! We did get to go out and visit her home town this week! It also has a long grammatically complex name: Jindříchův Hradec (Henry’s little defended place). Gorgeous town with a good sized castle at its core! Other than that we have had done lots of stuff on Facebook, and also been visiting some member families!

That’s probably all for this week! Our photo selection is: An impossibly long holy staircase (really long story about why it’s holy, but to Catholics it really is!), us cheesin with the district near the top of the holy staircase, some fancy pasta I made with black noodles, and something (?) I purchased at an Italian market from a lady from Croatia (🤷‍♂️).

Mějte se krásně všem,
Starší O’Barr

Náááááázdar milé dámy a drazí pánové,

This week was another relatively regular one, with a couple notable exceptions! Despite the lack of craziness, it was an exceedingly good week. Life in České Budějovice is always a blast!

Our week did consist of a lot of time spent staring at our phones, which does tend to deflate our moods! However, I think one of the greatest things to learn is that our attitude is always on us. We often can’t control our circumstances, but we can control how we react. This week my companion and I hit a point, where we honestly realized that while we weren’t doing anything wrong, we could be doing better. So we resolved to do better! It kinda is that simple! Really hard, but impossibly simple! Our good young friend is still working on her baptismal date, and we’re eager to help her press forward as she learns more about God and her relationship to Him! We’ve gotten blessed by having a super wonderful branch down here who are very willing to teach with us, which is incredibly helpful! Having a member there can change the entire lesson, so I guess this is my call to action! Check on your local missionaries, and see if you can’t help them teach someone!

This week I decided to make some classic Czech perník (don’t be fooled by google translate, it is not just gingerbread). Things were going all right up until the point where I was supposed to add the eggs. 4 of them. That’s when I discovered that I had in fact hard-boiled all of the eggs we had left. We improvised, and I’m not gonna let you know how it turned out. We also explored our church building’s dungeon. Definitely high on the creep scale, but it was a good time.

We capped the week off with a quick trip to a castle on the confluence of two big rivers here. Gorgeous! That’s where all of this weeks pictures come from! If you got any questions, just ask!

Mějte se hezky, všem!

Starší O’Barr

Welcome back, drazí pánové a drahé dámy,

This week was, in all honesty, a relatively routine week. That means I don’t have too much to grab your attention with, except for the castle we visited today! I got to do a lot of introducing my new companion to people, we had a couple first lessons, and then just kept finding! Restrictions have been slowly loosening as well, which means we get to do more shopping (and of course more in person meetings)! I’ve been studying and teaching a lot more about repentance, why we need it, and how we go about repenting. It’s really been impressed on me lately how incredibly amazing the doctrine of repentance is, and why it’s such good news!

Photos this week include: Me and the comp cheesin’ on the náměstí (main square), the Cinderella-esque castle we visited today (wayyyyyy sick, probably coolest place I’ve been), and me alone in the elevator after my companion took too long and the door shut on him and he had to take the stairs.

Mějte se krásně!

Starší O’Barr

Dobré odpoledne,

Well, it finally is here folks, the start of my final transfer as a full time missionary. I will be staying in České Budějovice, spending my remaining two months in beautiful southern Bohemia. I am, however, sending off Elder Zamastil today, and I’ll be picking up Elder Hamilton to be his replacement. Spring weather is finally in full force here in the Czech Republic, which means lots of flowers and even more intermittent rain showers! But it means summer’s on it’s way, so we’re happy!

This week was a good one. My friend Kája, who I taught when I was in Liberec, got baptized this past week. I wasn’t able to attend, but it was still awesome! We also helped our friend in České Budějovice set a baptismal date. It’s amazing to think how much what we do as missionaries has changed since I arrived here 2 years ago, but also how the work of the Lord has kept moving forward!

Pictures this week include: The worst cobblestone street I’ve ever seen (literally just a pile of rocks but people walk and drive on them), čibabčiči (a delightful meat dish that looks less than delicious, also not sure on that spelling), and our final district council (which due to some missionaries going home early was actually just the whole zone).

S láskou,
Starší O’Barr