Tuesday, September 3, 2013

And then there were two

Hey everyone, how goes it back in the states? How about the (I'm sure lovely and horridly hot Phoenix) I'll have you know that it has been an absolutely lovely week this week and the temperature here has been around 20 degrees celsius and absolutely perfect where I don't sweat whatsoever. So that's really nice especially since our appartments don't have air conditioning and the windows suck and you can't open them at night for fear of flys and bugs in the house, so we are definitely grateful for that. This week was really fun and cool and then a little sad at the end and then also today. But I'll just go through the first two and then end with why it was a little troubling.
So this week we did a lot of things for the district and then also for the zone and one of those is that we went into Presov to teach a recent convert named Vlado and he told us that it was the 3rd biggest city in Slovakia, which I don't know exactly if that's true because I don't know if I trust him or not haha. But we went there and we took a train and it took 40 minutes to get there and then we're also doing it again this week and then we're going to go around there and visit some less actives. We try to do as much less active work out here when we don't have lessons planned, but this week we really want to try to increase our teaching pool so that we are able to fill the week so this week will probably be filled with seeking referrals and then also a lot of contacting on the streets and on the trams and such. We've made some goals this week to have 3 new investigators and we're hoping to fulfill that since all of our investigators seem to either leave or get disinterested. We taught a really cool young girl here named Miroslava and she was so awesome and accepted to be baptised if she knew it was true and she read like 10 chapters after the first lesson and then she moved to England for 6 months... She was our last progressing investigator so we have a lot of work ahead of us, but we'll get it done, I'm not worried about that, our companionship is really productive and is constantly seeking to increase the people that we teach and to really bless their lives. It also helps when your branch president is super awesome and is always willing to help, when I come back this will definitely be one of the places that I will need to visit if only for him because he is truly an elect person and is one of the coolest people that I know out here. As well as he's only been a convert for 6 years and he's still so strong in the church and is also a Temple worker for the freiburg temple and was there this last week. He's so nice and is such an awesome person, I will really never forget him and plus I'm hoping I still have at least another transfer with him and then I also hope that I come back after that too because that would be really awesome.
This week was also the week where everyone in Slovakia went to Trencin to go there and have a training and then also to visit the dedication site and that was super cool as well as it was to see everyone. We have another thing on the 21st in Brno where I'm pretty sure that we'll be going it is just that is the whole weekend and is like a stake conferance for everyone so I guess we'll go there for a training that we're supposed to be having every month for the zones and then also for the stake conference for all the branches in the district which means everyone in Slovakia is invited to go. That's still not finalized on what we're doing but it's most likely what will happen so I'll receive the package that you sent me at that time, since the only things I got this time were a letter from Taylor and then one also from Samantha. The training was really cool though also, there was a new program for new converts that was just introduced that has to do with home teaching and giving all new converts a calling and then doing home teaching for them with the missionaires for the first 3-5 months and then fade out after that to make sure their comfortable and then also active. Then we talked about why we received our calls and whether or not we already know why for the specific reasons and that was super fun and powerful and it was done by our zone leaders and it was really cool to hear everyones story about it. Then president McConkie talked to us about more finding activities that we could use and different ways that we can effectively find people which really gave us some new ideas that we're implementing this week like giving out lectures and then also serving our branch president by working in his garden this week and that kind of stuff. But yeah this week was super fun because we stayed in Zilina , in their amazing appartment which is newish and is just crazy how big it is, and it also has a guest room for missionaires coming through it which is nuts, and then it's like 2 minutes from everything its literally right near the namestie. It was also funny though too because everyone kept on asking me about my Slovak because somehow everyone is hearing that I'm good at it, but whatever. That's about all that went down for the conference, it was just super fun to meet all the other missionaires and to get mail and then to also see everyne that I havd already know and stuff like that. It was a really great experience.
This week was sad though too because Saturday we received a call from President and we had a emergency transfer from our area and Elder Frederickson was transferred from my companionship and is now with his old MTC companion in Bratislava. Elder Alger who was the missionary in my MTC companionship (the army one) went home yesterday because of a medical illness and is going to be there for a little while and then if he's okayed then he'll come back out here or he'll stay in the states but that's still undecided so I have no information on that. It's sad for multiple reasons because Elder Alger had to go home and then also that we lost Elder Frederickson too. It feels a lot more lonely out here now that he's gone and there's not 3 of us and always one to talk to, now it's just me and good Ol' Elder Barber. (yay......) I'm just teasing him, he's really fun and great and a good trainer. It's also exciting for Elder Frederisckson because in about a week or 2 him and Elder Utley will have been on their missions for a year completely which is really cool that they get the oppurtunity to be with eachother for thier year marks. He's really afraid that once he gets there time is just going to disappear and then he'll have no more time left here. But we put him on a train today and he's probably nearing Bratislava now coming from Africa, I mean Kosice.
Thank you for the packages that I'll eventually get though haha, we went to HnM and I actually bought 2 sweaters there for 15 euros each which is worht it so the sweaters that you send me though will be fine too, it's going to be sweater weather for 6 months might as well have a lot of them haha. I also bought 1 more pair of pants, they're light gray and skinny and European which I'm really happy with and me and Elder Barber will eb taking pictures when President Van Dalen takes us on a tour of kosice this afternoon and you can see our awesome European pants, they're really tight and awesoem and they were also cheap. I just used the money that you sent with me so. But anyways yep thats this week and thank for for everything in advance and I'll probably ask you to switch some more money over to my back account whever I need to buy stuff like souvenirs and stuff but that probably won't be for awhile so I'll remind you when I get there.
Anyways I love all of you and I hope that you're all doing well and are all safe and such. Until next week!


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