Category: Prague

Well, I officially have been on my mission for 1 year! It feels like it can’t have actually been that long since I entered the MTC, but it has been. I’m super excited for the remaining year of my mission.

I, unfortunately, don’t actually have that much to share this week. We had zone conference, which was amazing. It happened to fall on exactly my 1 year mark, so I took some photos with the other missionaries that were with me in the MTC. We finally figured out what needs to be inspected when inspecting cars, so we were able to start that this week, with the help of our wonderful senior couples. There have been a lot of little things like that that we have been able to recently take care of in the office, which will hopefully make my job easier going forward 😊. This is probably the last week Elder Williams and I will spend together as companions, which is sad, but we are glad for the ridiculously long amount of time we had together, both in Prague and in the MTC. We have a very busy week ahead of us, so keep an eye on next week’s email.

Čau for now,
Starší O’Barr

Pic 1: Pod Karlovem mostem (Under Charles Bridge)

Pic 2: Staroměstské Náměstí s novým Mariánským sloupem (Old Town Square with the new Maria Pillar) The pillar is new and very controversial

Pic 3: Pražský Orloj (Prague Astronomical Clock)

Dobré odpoledne a good afternoon všem!

It was quite the busy week, but I really don’t have too much to say. We had an exchange this week with Elders Motiuk and Thomas, who lived with us at the beginning of this transfer. It feels like that was so long ago, but it was really only 7 weeks ago. We had some concern over our the mission president’s visa appointment, which was this past week, but it went well! We were only slightly concerned he would get kicked out of the country. Haha, it wasn’t actually that bad, but a little stressful. Also filmed some stuff for a new Facebook video, so keep an eye out for it in the next week or so. Spent Monday in Karlštejn. We were going to visit the spot where our mission was dedicated, but didn’t have time. Had some really good ice cream and saw a cool castle in the forest.

Have a good week everyone!

Elder O’Barr

Not a lot of time today, so I’ll keep it short. We had some really good opportunities to do some small acts of service, which I loved. We helped a lady move across Prague. We got to listen to a drunk guy play guitar and sing to us while doing it. Then we helped a mostly blind lady read some mail in a post office. It just felt a little bit like confirmation that life is on it’s way back to normal here. We had a couple lessons, and did a LOT of office work. Today we visited pražský hrad, as it was all free today in honor of it opening back up to the public, so that’s where the pictures are from.

Love you all, have a wonderful week,
Starší O’Barr

Čaute všem!

We are really living it up here in Prague! This week Elder Williams and I spent a lot of time getting 4 of the 8 new cars we are purchasing for the mission here, and selling 4 of the old ones. It took a good bit of brainpower, and a slightly higher-than-healthy amount of stressing, but we got it done. Just a word of advice, keep a close eye on all the important documents that belong in cars, bad things happen when they go missing. We are also finally making progress on all the visa work that needs to be done for the missionaries here in this mission. That required a lot of phone calls, but we got pretty familiar with the inner works of the Czech Ministry of the Interior and the Department of Foreign Police by the time we finished. Also listened to the same 30 seconds of hold music for a cumulative total of 2 hours.

We had quite a few lessons as well this week. Some went better than others, but it felt amazing. We haven’t been able to do that much teaching in a long time, and it felt really good to do some good old fashioned missionary work. As part of our adventures with the cars and visa work, we got to explore a little more of the city. I forget how much I love Prague sometimes. It certainly is one of the best cities in the world.

Have a good week!

Elder O’Barr 

Pictures:

1. A really cool mural at a tram stop by the river
2. The Vltava river. If you look close you can see a huge horse statue in the background 
3. The ivy by the church building might be slightly overgrown. We could actually disappear into it, it’s so thick.

Well, it has been an incredible week here. We had a lot of meetings with people, and every companionship in our district began teaching at least 2 new people this week, which was a bit of a miracle. We also had a zone conference this week. Due to the borders being closed, all of the missionaries in the Czech Republic got together, and all of the missionaries in Slovakia got together, instead of the normal mix of both. I got to see a lot of missionaries I haven’t seen in almost a year, including Elder Carter, who was my companion in the MTC. It was a very uplifting experience all around, and it was so nice to see everyone again, as we haven’t been able to gather the past couple of months. We also had dinner at a members house, and got to help teach someone the sisters are teaching. Our friend who was baptized in January was there as well, and he helped teach. It was amazing to see how much he has grown since his baptism! The gospel brings so much added hope and light into our lives! Even at our lowest, when we feel like we’re completely alone, and without hope, Christ is with us. When we are at our best, and we feel like we’re on top of the world, Christ is still with us. When we mess up, and feel like we can’t fix the problems we’ve caused, Christ is still there. Through him, change is possible, and it is achievable. If there is anything you have wanted to change, I invite you to do it. Take advantage of the gift we’ve been given, and become a little bit better today.

Have a wonderful week! Enjoy the nice Spring weather if you can!

Starší O’Barr

It has been another glorious week here in Prague. Elder Williams and I have been hard at work in the office. Visa offices are not open, but we are really laboring to get everything ready for when they do open again. There is a lot of busy work involved in filing visa requests, which is requiring a lot of patience on our parts, but we’re making it through. We found time to have some good lessons this week. Nobody we’re teaching is quite ready to be baptized, but we are hopeful for the next couple of weeks. We also began teaching a young boy and his family. His parents are members of our church, and now their son also wants to be baptized, but they want us to teach them all together as a family before he gets baptized.

Happy mother’s day to all the mothers out there! We spent our mother’s day with a member couple and all of their friends from the Philippines. We got to speak to them a lot about the gospel and even ate a good bit of Filipino food. It was a wonderful time, and we will hopefully be teaching some of them soon.

I love all of you! Přeju vám hezký týden!

Starší O’Barr

Howdy everyone!

We had an incredibly busy week in the office. In preparation for the reopening of the visa offices here, we need to prepare a lot of papers for those who are due to renew their visas this summer, including me! It feels weird to think that I have been out for almost a whole year now. Time is starting to fly! We spent a lot of our time in the office working on those and paying rent and getting things ready to replace a lot of our cars. It has been a lot of work, but we’re helping keep the mission going. It unfortunately didn’t leave much time for us to talk to people this week, but we still squeezed in some good lessons on Saturday and Sunday. We are excited to have all of our new friends join us at church when we can start meeting again. 

On Sunday we had the wonderful opportunity to fast again. Fasting is where we voluntarily refrain from eating or drinking for the purpose of drawing closer to the Lord and requesting His blessings. We regularly fast once a month on, usually on the first Sunday of each month. It is a wonderful opportunity for us to draw closer to our Heavenly Father, and to receive answers to the questions of our souls. It has come to mean a lot to me on my mission. 

This week, we went with some other missionaries to a park I visited my first transfer here in krasná Praha, back in February, called Divoká Šarka. It is mostly these big cliffs and hills on the outside of the city. It was a lot of fun to be out in the ‘wild’ again.

That is all for this week! I hope you all have a wonderful time!

Starší O’Barr

Dobrý den!

Do to the slowing of the spread of the disease here, quarantine is finally ending in the Czech Republic! We are still not allowed to contact on the street, and stores are still slowly opening, but the end is hopefully in sight. A lot of things are returning to a new normal. The missionaries that were staying with us went back to their assigned city. It was sad to no longer have the company, but we were also happy to have some more space in our apartment.

Honestly that is our only real update. We are allowed to meet with people in person again if they are willing, but church meetings are still forbidden. We have had a lot of success with getting people to watch the Sacrament meeting broadcast that the Czech Republic stake is running, which has been really cool. We are hoping that many of those who have been watching online will be more willing to come to our actual Sacrament meetings when they start up again in the next couple of months. If you wanted to watch some Czech people give talks, email me back and I can get you the link for the broadcast.

Přeju vám hodně štěstí a zdraví
Starší O’Barr

Pictures this week!

• Pic 1-2: Lidice, a town the Nazis burned to the ground in retaliation to some Czechoslovak rebellions during WWII
• Pic 3-4: Hrad Okoř, a castle near lidice
• Pic 5: Rapeseed fields! A very common sight across the Czech Republic is rolling fields of beautiful yellow Rapeseed. They turn it into cooking oil

Zdravím vás!

This week was transfer week, which is why you’re all receiving this email today, instead of on Monday. Elder Williams and get at least one more whole transfer together in the office! Hopefully we’ll be real good at this stuff by the time we actually get out of here.

Plenty of other missionaries moved around, but our district here in Prague stayed pretty similar, not too much shuffling around. The Coronavirus restrictions make it hard to move around too much. There IS a light at the end of the tunnel for us, as stores started opening back up yesterday. It will still be a long while until everything is back to normal, and we can talk to people outside, but the process is exciting. In the meantime, we’ve learned some important things about how potent and effective Facebook is for talking to people. Elder Williams and I didn’t have a whole lot of time to contact on Facebook, as there was a lot of work happening in the office, but it has proven to be a very effective tool around the mission. People are a lot more willing to talk to us online than in person, and things are going well!

I personally have found a lot of peace this week from Matt. 11:28-30, and the promises contained it. Christ has promised us rest, and shown us the path to it. As I’ve tried to be more like Him, and engaged myself in His work, my life has become infinitely more peaceful. I still face a lot of trials, and I’m still always working, but the work never seems as hard as it did before.

Have a wonderful week!

S laskou,
Starší O’Barr

Hello!

Another quick email this week, but I have some actual updates! We got some guests! The elders serving in Liberec moved here to Prague, which is a real blast. Elder Williams and I will have been companions for 6 months this week! We bought a steak to commemorate it. Elder Williams and I had a couple lessons over Facebook, and we also spent some time talking and meeting people on Facebook. I am so grateful that we are still able to be here and serve and live in the Czech Republic, even in these times.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Elder O’Barr