Week 10 AUTOBOT SJEDNOTEJTE!!

Sorry, I'm running short on time today.

While studying language I found the word for Unite. I immediately thought of transformers.

The title of this email means Äutobots, Unite!  ...but now that I think of it I should look up the word for assemble.

WELL This last week was 1. boring because the Elders were in Jicin. 2. a bummer because most of our lessons were cancelled or rescheduled. 3. intense. I don't think I am allowed to tell about what we were asked to help with because it was so intense. All I will say is I have a testimony of the Spirit in the home. When families don't love each other it gets nuts. NO MATTER WHAT-love one another! If you don't love your family, or if that is hard, just remember that is one of the 2 most greatest commandments. Don't believe me? Read the scriptures.

BUT... we got our baby zelenač!!! (Mom's Note - I'm not sure what this means, but I'm guessing they got the new missionaries from the MTC this week) That is exciting because A. I am in a way his mission aunt and B. I am officially not a greenie anymore. C. He is SO ready and prepared! He remember all these czech names of people. That took my 3 weeks to barely get down!

Lastly, today we walked forever long trying to look for the volleyball courts and we played! It was sand courts. It was so much fun-Elders won 2 games and we won one!

It's awesome being here. Sister Behunin has a hilarious/nuts family that I really want to meet and also Sister Behunin is so much fun. We love this hard transfer.

Bring on the hardships!

-Sestra Hale

 My Companion and I

 Our Sacrament Meeting Room

 The Namesti

Statues on Lannova

Week 9 -Week One of C-Bud (České Budejovíce)

Melanie - I got your e-mail last Monday morning and I was surprised to hear from you and that you had transferred !!  I thought I would only hear from you if you DIDN'T move. So here are my questions: 

1.  How did you get packed, get by car to Prague, travel by train, bus and then train again to get to your new area and still have time to write a wonderful letter home? 
ANSWER: All the traveling from Mlada to C-Bud took a total of 5 hours. Maybe a little less. Then the rest of the day was P Day! so of course I wrote a great letter home. And it is easy to pack in three total hours over 2 days when you keep your things organized. 

2.  Is it weird that some of your MTC district just barely got to the country 3 weeks ago and it's already transfer week? Have you heard from any of them since they got there? have you seen them? Was their language training affected by being assigned in the states for over a month after the MTC? 
ANSWER: All I know is where a couple of them are by word of mouth. BUT! Our entire MTC group will have progressive training on the 5th in Brno with the new group of missionaries. (its funny because progressive training is something that you are supposed to have the 2nd or 3rd week in the field. I could probably teach them about the progression they will make in the coming weeks!)

3.  Did you travel alone from Prague to České Budejovíce?  If so, was that weird? (if it was me, I'd count that as a tender mercy to have a teensy bit of time to myself) 
ANSWER: Yes I traveled alone but made a friend that spoke English and talked to me the entire way. It didn't feel like I was ever alone but I haven't been bothered by that yet :) I love being around people. It's not overbearing because in the morning we have at least 3 hours where we don't technically have to talk to each other so its like our own quiet time with the scriptures. Works for me!

4. This isn't a question, but I loved the picture of you in the Elder's car sitting under their guitar. Good times. 
ANSWER:  Mom, that car was stuffed. I rolled down the window to get air half way to Prague. I felt like we were a road show band!

Ahoj! 

SO I just want to clarify something...The internet does not have a truth filter. If you want to know about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or ''The Mormons'' DON'T WIKIPEDIA YOUR INFORMATION. The same rules apply when you do a research project for school. Don't read crap on the internet. Ask an active member, or a mormon that goes to church regularly! Forreal. It is like every other week someone drops us because they read crap on the web. Hello? You are able to form your own opinion? Read the Book of Mormon for yourself rather than reading what so and so said about it on their blog. Good-Ness.

WELL! This area is different than Mlada. I never thought the work could be different in different areas but C-Bud has proved me wrong. The branch members here are so great.  I'm excited to know and work with these members this transfer.  It's such an interesting place. AND! I counted the people yesterday. Minus the missionaries (me and my comp, the Elders, and the couple here) 15 people at church..

Brady- Do you know any Sister Zmolek from your mission? She served there about the same time as you. Well, her parents are the couple serving here with us. Its cool they are in their 60's and learned quite a bit of Czech. I don't think I'll have that motivation when I'm in my 60's.

The weather is beautiful The spring has arrived! On Thursday we had a bench lesson with David (from Florida) He loved being able to speak English with someone. We taught him about the Book of Mormon on a bench in the middle of the naměstí!  RIGHT NOW-google the naměstí (center, square, middle) or Ceske Budejovice! It was so great. I really feel like I am in Europe in this area. Also there are flowers everywhere. Everyone has flowers planted in their tiny walkways to their homes and the parks have little flowers all over them. Even the weeds on the side of the road are pretty here. They are green and sometimes even have flowers too!

Get this--we met with a recent convert who is 17 from Ukraine, his parents are divorced but both found the church on their own and told him to find the church here while he is here in the C.R. He found the missionaries and was baptized not too long ago while learning Czech. We are always using his translator on his phone to teach him. Its crazy that we are both communicating in our second languages!

We have sports day here. We went to a park and asked people to play with us. No one was saying yes then Starsi Davis said ''if these kids say no we can just go play ping pong at the church'' He asked these 4 kids and they said yes! I have never loved soccer so much before. These kids were so cute and one of them, it was her first time playing! She would run after the ball and stop it with her hands before kicking it in some direction. They also asked where we were from and thought it was SO cool to play futbol with Americans! p.s. they were ages 8-10. I'll send a picture next week. CUTE! 

This transfer is 10 weeks long! It will be exciting and full of growth. I can already tell.

Lastly, our apartment. It cracks me up. In Mlada we had wood floors, a nice couch, nice wooden cupboards, it was clean and simple. The apartment we have now is in the same building as another family, so first off sometimes what goes through their pipes seeps into our toilet and our pipes, there are some cupboards that don't close all the way in the kitchen, the floor creaks like mad in every step you take on it, the couch is Hideous, there are 2 huge hideous rugs in 2 of the rooms, the shower is so small I always smack the water off or burning hot while grabbing my shampoo or something, the water heater is sensitive and lasts short periods of time, I am in a constant battle with the temperature of water while taking a shower or doing dishes, My bed...get this...my mattress is stacked on 4 parts of a couch. The color is that of a sick baby's green poop, and my pillow case doesn't fit the pillow and I am basically 4 feet off the floor when I sleep. I have mastered the prayer in bed in the mornings. It's too much a a risk to fall on the floor in the morning to pray. 

That is C-Bud! 

I love my companion, she is down-to-earth and is so good at teaching me the area so I can teach the next sister that comes here next transfer. She also says I am very good in language for my second transfer. She also has a great voice and we often sing Disney songs while making dinner. Last night was Mulan with multiple kickings in the air.

-Sestra Hale

If you have any questions, feel free to ask! 

Love you all! 

mejte se hezký tzden! pomatuejte...jestli máte otazku o cirkví Ježíše Krista, zepte se jenom aktinví člen!

miluji vám!

Week 8 Transfers

I AM IN SLOVAKIA!!!!!!!!!!

Okay I guess that is not the best joke I could come up with but I bet I really had a few of your going right? I am currently in České Budejovíce, still in the Czech Republic, south of Prague. It is cool because I have pictures of the town square on my computer back home. I am serving here! It already is so different than Mlada. Not everyone works for Skoda (the car making company) and there are actually a ton of people on the namesti. I am here with Sister Behunin from Utah and she hits her 1 year mark this transfer. I am so happy to be here! 

This morning the Elders got permission to drive me to Prague since they were heading that way too. We all drove there together, then split up at the train station. If it weren't for Adel, a nice woman who spoke English like a British woman (her bf is from England), I would be so lost because the itinerary went from train to bus to train. She also helped me with my luggage and she wrote down AND looked up pictures of all these places around C.R. that I must visit. Thanks lady! ALSO She looked at me so crazy when I told her I was a Mormon. She has heard crazy things about them. Don't worry. I explained and fixed her thoughts on what she thinks mormonism is from the documentaries she has seen

p.s. If you want to know about mormonism, ask a mormon. Don't watch a play or a documentary NOT produced by the church itself. That is silly.

Anyway yay! I am excited to be here. The last week has been great full of fun and great last lessons and saying goodbye. 

I really want to talk about General Conference though:

We were in a lesson with J about a week ago and I got the prompting to ask him to live exactly like a member of our church for 3 weeks then tell us it is not the true church. He is so faithful he is doing just that! He even tried to pay tithing! (woops. you need to be baptized to pay tithing) SO he came to ALL sessions of conference. He was in Jicin with us for 8 hours Saturday and 8 hours Sunday (he stayed for the women's session). So on the way to the Sunday morning session my eye ball hurt like it had been punched or something. So while on the bus I leaned down and began to pray with intentions to pray for my eye. I started praying and all my thoughts rendered to J and what he can get out of conference. I prayed the rest of the 10 minutes to the church building. This session there were lots of members there so J watched it in Czech. Yay! He could get the full effect of it that way! It turns out that God DOES hear our prayers. I already knew this but maaaaan did my testimony grow during that session BECAUSE there were 2 talks specifically that catered to what I knew J needed to hear. No joke I cried on and off the entire 2 hours of Sunday morning session because 1. my prayers were answered   2. J heard what he needed to hear   3. Those talks also lifted me up and gave me my personal answers that I needed.

My testimony is currently on fire and I am so excited to release that fire on the people of Ceska Budejovice.

Fun Facts:

-Saturday Sessions of conference made me husband hungry. I know I am not alone haha. I am excited to be a wife and mother in the future. I know what I am doing now is preparing me for that next part of life and forever.

-I love being a missionary and I love being here in the Czech Republic! Thank you all for your help in my preparation to becoming the woman I currently am. Family, leaders, Bishops, friends, teachers, neighbors, everyone!

Love you all! 

-Sestra Hale

  This young woman is 14 and is Mongolian. She taught me how to say "'hello, how are you"' in Molgolsky. That is a crazy language! (pray for those missionaries there.) Anyway she is super smart.

This is our English class we teach every Wednesday night. They are so great! We write "Welcome" on the board every week above the sentences we say to introduce ourselves. They all actually say "Welcome, hello my name is ___".   It is the best! We played Dobble with them. It was intense and so fun!

 ​​yay! One of our last days together.

  As the elders drove me to Prague in their tiny car with all 
of our stuff....I was crammed! I withstood that seat for an hour! ​​​​​​​​​​

Week 7 Velikonoce and Počasy

It gets so cold in this computer store/coffee corner room we email from. By the time I write this email my fingers are so stiff! so bear with my spelling errors.(well Mel, I always check for spelling and punctuation before I post your letters your blog, it's just my thing - Mom) 

First off I hope everyone had a hezky Easter and General Conference weekend! What a blessing to have those on the same weekend! We had great contacting approaches this last week. We asked people why they celebrate Easter and hardly anyone knows! Then we swooped in and bore our testimony of Jesus Christ and what He did for us. 

Speaking of Easter- let me now tell you what the Czech Republic does for Easter (Velikonoce). They have the weirdest traditions. SO! Monday everything was closed because that is the day they celebrate Easter. I don't know why. The tradition goes as follows: The boys go around with braided branches of a weeping willow tree and whip the women in their homes while chanting a song. (Its not abusive) Then the women offer the men shots of vodka or candy. AND! If they come after 12:00 the women can pour a bucket of water on the men. I guess the song is wishing another year of health and happiness for the women. We were secretly hoping someone would whip us just to say we were a part of the tradition. But no worries. Last night one of our investigators was coming back into town by bus and told us he had something for us. We were like "what if he wants to whip us??" we were so excited. Anyway we meet up with L and he tells us to put out our hands and he hands us 3 huge containers of food. We couldn't stop giggling, he is just the best. Then he tried to feed us a piece of some bread and meat thing but we awkwardly put out our hands instead. Hahaha. I'm sure this sounds creepy but L is the sweetest and we always somehow end up talking about food during our lessons. I love him!

I love my sassy companions. Transfers are coming up! We have no idea where everyone is going except for Sestra Senkane because she is going home. 

The weather has been nuts!!! On my Prague exchange day, it was pouring snow, then raining sideways, then so much wind you could barely walk against it, Then snow off and on since then! For example, yesterday it was hot while we were seeding a cute neighborhood then BAM! The second we buy ice cream it's cold, dark, and snowing hard! This weather will not make up its mind. 

Speaking of Prague. I had a 24 hour exchange there! Half of our lessons were in English, the AP's and one Elder Mendenhal (a senior elder) and Sister Smith and I went to a lady's house to give a blessing. Even though it was in Czech, the spirit was the same. Those blessings were so tender to hear and witness. I am so so so grateful for the correct priesthood we have today. Also while in Prague we had a hilarious lesson. This guy never comes to his lessons so we were eating dinner in the lobby area of the church building then all of the sudden he comes FIVE minutes before our next lesson! So on man comes 45 minutes late, the other man then comes in 5 minutes later. They are both investigators at different levels of conversion and Sister Smith gives me the face like "crap. what do we do??" I said "split!" So on the other side of the room I start talking to one and was ready to teach him the Plan of Salvation by myself, then Sister Smith just says we can do a lesson together. It was sooo funny because in the lesson they were teaching each other and M is sassy so he was saying things that the other man corrected him on and the whole time Sister Smith and I are lightly laughing and getting red for how the situation was. 

I hope that all made sense. It's been a great week and I am way excited for this coming week because we have General Conference! Take care everyone and can I invite you all to try something? -------so this last week I needed divine help to focus and not worry about the language. I want to listen with love to the people we are talking to and not think about how I should say it. I decided to pray and through that long long prayer with focus on all thought I brought to Heavenly Father, with the desire to just talk to our investigators and cater to their spiritual needs, with the sincerity and faith that He would help me, I have since received revelation in our lessons and have found the work to be easier. I have a firm testimony on the power of prayer. Heavenly Father is absolutely there for us and he loves us as his spiritual children. This week, will you sincerely pray to your Father in Heaven, and tell him your desires and plead for his help and guidance so that you can have what you need? Make sure to close in the name of his Beloved son Jesus Christ who has physically put on our burdens and done all in his life for us. This pattern of prayer is essential in our building a relationship with the Godhead. 

I looooove you all so much. Thank you for all the things you have done in missionary work and remember who is on your side to help! P.S. Don't think it is awkward to share the Gospel. Just talk!

-Sestra Hale

p.p.s. The Czech language is so great. It is coming slowly. but surely. The gift of tongues is real! 

This is where we live! Its called a Panalok. But I call it a Panda-lock

This is the high school near our office. I wish my high school looked this fancy!

100 days celebration! Thank you for the package! I laughed as I opened it. So great!

 Me after taking a picture "Wait. Maybe I should put on my nametag so I actually look like a missionary"  

Sister Clark/photographer: "Yeah cause you REALLY look like a missionary right now"

We meet so many different people. These are in our office and since I took this picture we ordered a Bosnian Book of Mormon and another in Slovak! Its so crazy going from all english and some spanish back home to a million different languages everyday.

We email either at the library or this computerstore/coffee place. Here is a picture for you.

 This is a picture of the family that feeds us every Sunday night. We all love each other.

We bought ice cream cones when it was sunny, then it started snowing.