Monday, November 4, 2013

First baptism

1st baptism

It's started to get cold, and I'm sure it is just going to continue says Elder Guymon, It's  actually really late for when the rainy season has started, which was about 2 days ago.  He says it'll rain until it snows which the President says will be as early as November 11th, so it's going to be cold, and it's just going to continue getting colder and colder for the next 6 months.  So the way I see it is that it's probably about another week before it's boot season and then it's going to be really cold and I'm going to need more clothes to survive haha. I'm looking forward to it but I'm sure once I get into the middle of it, I'll start to miss spring and the summer, But I am rather happy that I was in the MTC for the first summer and that I only have to really go through that again one more time because when I got here it was really muggy and not comfortable at all.   That really only lasts for about 2 months, so 4 months of good weather, 6 months of freezing cold so much that you run from one sunny spot to another haha, but I'm sure I'll be fine with it. Elder Barber calls my jacket the eskimo jacket and so because of his incredulousness at the size of it, I'm thinking it's going to be a good jacket for the winter. I've been having more pains in my knees out here so maybe that means I'm growing again, or that just means I have achy knees from when I grew 10 inches in a year. Either way they're hurting haha. Just a little pain in my ankle nothing too much out of the ordinary, I've never had to take medication for it so I'm fine. We've been doing transfer guesses because those come in 4 weeks or so, which is really quick because it doesn't seem like I've been out for so long this transfer, but it's already been 5 weeks which is just nuts if you ask me. It's fine though and it's really crazy that at the end of this transfer it will already be December and almost Christmas time!
halloween package sent from the US.
I did get your packages at the training both of them which was awesome because we actually got driven back to Kosice by the zone leaders because they had to come to give our investigator the baptismal interview and then they also did splits with us on that day so every was taken back in the car that night and we got home from the training at about 10:40. 6 and a half hour car ride was pretty fun I guess, but really long and then it got dark and pretty much all there was to do was to sit there and look into the black night because the night comes at like 5 here now if not earlier because we're on Daylight Savings. It was great to get to sleep in last week for the hour but then we lost it because we stayed in Brno and I got a bad night sleep.
 
I finally got my first interview with President Mcconkie, lasted for about 15 minutes and we basically just talked about how I was doing and that he had been hearing pretty consistently that my language is good and I guess him and Elder Guymon talked about it as well.  President basically just asked what does he (me) do to make it so that he speaks the language well and Elder Guymon just said, "well nothing really, he just studies during language study and then speaks really well,  nothing special he just does it." So, that felt nice even though I can definitely tell that my language is improving  based on how I can communicate with people and the amount that I am understanding. I did hear about the Elder getting mugged at the conference.  It was kind of funny, because I knew Elder Rasmussen in the MTC he used to live in Qatar, that's cool that theres a connection there, (This elder has family in Elder Ferrell's home ward) but yeah they beat up on his companion a little bit and stole 90 Euros from him and then Elder Rasmussen gave him a 5 dollar bill and they were like, what is this?  What are we supposed to do with this and he said well that's all I have haha. At least there was really no damage done, I think I just would have bolted and ran for it if I saw my companion getting punched, or I would have helped and attacked them, I'm not really sure, depends on the circumstances.
 
There was so much candy in those packages haha and I really really appreciate every thing that was in there especially the mac and cheese I'm so excited for that! My companion says that I should tell you to just open the mac and cheese boxes and just give me the cheese packets because noodles are very easy to get here and we can just do that and then theres more room, but meh either way works for me haha. And you don't have to send me a package every month so that I know that you are thinking about me haha. I know you do, and plus those packages are expensive, I don't know if you're spending more money on me out here or when I was at home.
This week was really really awesome because we had the baptism of one of the eternal investigators named Jarmilla. We baptise at a hotel named Hotel Bankov, in their upstairs pool. It was really cool and of course it had it's mishaps but all in all the spirit was there and we had a really cool baptism. Elder Guymon did the actual ordinance and President and the member from Kenya had talks. Basically I did nothing except show up.   But I'm okay with that and then we came back for the Slovak traditional half sandwich things called Chliebicky or somewhere around there, Then we were talking about who she wanted to confirm her, and she asked me whether I could actually confirm her. I said I could or Elder Guymon could or President could, and she chose me. I was freaking out about doing it all in Slovak and giving her a blessing and doing everything in Slovak but I did it with little time to prepare, and yesterday I confirmed her a member of the Church. It was amazing and I truly feel like angels were there helping me along the way and I spoke perfectly and the Spirit was definitely there and it was just wonderful that I had that opportunity to do that for her especially since I'm so young. And then we had a really nice sacrament meeting and we visited a lady whom Elder Guymon taught once and it was raining and we were going to go to one of their cemetarys because they're really beautiful and it was the Day of the Dead in Slovakia and basically everywhere and they light candles everywhere but we didn't go because it was raining and so we just taught her in her house and saw all of her cool photos and stuff. We then listened to a CD of one of the members who was a Jew and was in concentration camps yesterday which was just an amazing experience to hear everything that she went through being in 2 different camps and never seeing most of her family again, really awful stuff it was. We're going to try and visit her this week because her daughter doesn't like us coming for some reason but we have the feeling that we can get in there, so we're going to try that.
Anyways this is a long letter and I need time to email everyone else but, I love you all and I hope you're all having fun and being safe!

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