Week 65 -- Oh man Ohhh mannn

I literally cannot express how on fire we are because of this huge weekend. I hope it has somehow reached the homeland news but the Czech Republic is forming its FIRST STAKE. I apologize for not mentioning anything until now because I wanted to spill the beans with the family on Mothers Day but please please please ask me sometime in life how this process came together. There are not enough minutes or emails long enough to explain God's hand in the work here. We have heard testimony on testimony from around this country from members that didn't ever think it would actually happen one day that we would have a stake formed. It's so special and sacred and the spirit has been building up all over the country. This weekend is going to be historic for the Church in Europe and we somehow have the privilege and blessing to be here to witness it and to rejoice with the Czech saints. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf is coming to organize the Stake and basically have on President McConkie's keys are being handed over tomorrow instantly when the stake president is called. OH MAN. Please ask me about this sometime. I could talk about all the hardships and miracles we have witnessed in preparation for this event. 

On another note we have been soaking up the spirit and excitement from the stake in all that we have done this week. We have Stake Fire with us when we teach, contact, travel, and call. This last week alone we were teary eyed when testifying to an investigator that we know he is ready for baptism, we are going to fast with an investigator that's been taught for the past 9 months to be baptized in 2 weeks, we found and met with an awesome long ago less active who was so honest with us and told us his story and he will be coming to the stake organization, AND we have put our hearts, might, minds, and literal strength into this week. I am beyond grateful to be here at this time. Our Heavenly Father knows us so stinkin well and loves us more than we can imagine. This church is His church, He loves me and I know because of the miracles I have in my life, and I know that Jesus Christ, His Father, and all of Heaven will be rejoicing with the Czech saints tomorrow when the stake is organized. This. is. huge. 

I love you all and wish you a PHENOMENAL weekend and week!!! 

s laskou, 

Sestra Hale

Fun fact. Every time we are in the car we take a picture. This is one of many. 

Week 64 -- Prague Mlada Puzzled Madness

( I asked Melanie about the logistics of covering 2 different cities. It looks like these cities are 45 minutes apart by car, over an hour by train. I didn't think she'd ever be in an area to have a car, but they do now.) SURPRISE! In Prague, P-day is on Saturdays! and good question! To be honest, we live in both areas. We are trying to make it possible to be in one place for at least 1.5 days but it's hard to plan that when you work with 20 people's schedules. This week we are basically driving every day to the other area. Right now I am in Prague but am sleeping in Mlada Boleslav tonight. 

I CAN NOT EVEN EXPLAIN THE MIRACLES WE HAVE SEEN IN THIS ONE WEEK TOGETHER. 

Monday: Made it safe to Prague. Followed Sestra Fred and Andreason around Prague in lessons and appointments. 

Tuesday: Lessons and less active hunting with Sestry Boza and Manners (training but stuck in limbo together until we pick up our babies. We had a trainer's meeting and it was a small group and we had time to go out to dinner with the McConkies and take our own little Prague walk to see the city. We saw the Lennon wall, Charles bridge and walked down the main touristy streets and were in the main town square. GORGEOUS. We talked about so many things on that walk as missionaries. I'll save that for a surprise for tomorrow's skype.

Wednesday: We gave birth!! Sestra Cade was actually Sestra Witzel's MTC companion, but had to stay in the states waiting for her visa to come through. We finally got her and she is in for an adventure. We taught a ton of people then headed to Mlada Boleslav to teach English class and teach a recent convert

Thursday: District meeting in MB. GET THIS: District leader is Starsi Smith who I started the mission with in the MTC and in the field. He's training and back in Jicin just like I am back in MB! After district meeting was when it really went down. Starsi Smith brought his guitar so we could do a singing display. We started to walk to the park when we ran into a kid Sestra Fred and I met on exchanges a month ago! (10 minutes previously, I asked how this kid was and that we should call him) THEN Ludvik (his name) and his friend Terka let us sing for them, Ludvik played and sang for us a song he wrote, then they both even sang a hymn WITH us! We also met 2 amazingly golden potentials in this finding time. I don't know what is going on, the the blessings are flowing in like the Niagara Falls. 

Friday: GET THIS...we cover 2 areas. That means we have 1,000,000,000 people to plan for. I'll let you guess how long praying and planning went with these 2 areas. Guess high..5 hours!! I started to develop A.D.D. It is so needed because if we are not organized or planned out, we can NOT function this transfer. Finishing that long and guided planning time was a miracle in and of itself. Then we saw my favorite person!! Enka!!! She is so cute and we had a great lesson with her. We taught some more people then drove back to Prague where we had game night. It was a nice time to get to know the members here. I taught them the hand tapping game where you cross arms over one another in a circle and tap and there's a rhythm, etc. It was awesome. Then we had a lesson planned with a man and thanks to the fact that we teach people (not lessons), we taught one of the coolest enlightening lessons about the law of chastity ever! (side note: we taught an embassy guard the law of chastity the other day while contacting with a member in the park. This man was on duty and asked where we are from because we said hello. Then the law of chastity law came up quickly and it was taught honestly. haha story for another day..

Saturday: HERE WE ARE IN PRAGUE. This morning we taught a great lesson with a member from Nigeria who is awesome and was also taught in the lesson then went to a RS conference. Sestra Fred and I translated for the whole thing and  I saw beloved members from Liberec and met a girl visiting here named Dasha who is tight with Sestra Senkane! Dasha is from Estonia and said all the active members know each other really well over there. SO AWESOME! We are basically running around like mad successful women until tomorrow when we skype. and then we'll continue to run around like mad miraculous women for the rest of the transfer. 

ITS SO FUN.  Honestly the society here is SOO good. Its going to be so hard to leave this area with the people, stories and updates we get about people from all over Europe and missionaries and. . . .I can't explain it. It's simply a society of the European area and we hear about so many awesome things. Family- I'm excited to see you TOMORROW on Skype !!! 

-Sestra Hale

p.s. We have the coolest and best trio. Sestra Fred and Cade are so awesome and I'll have to let you know a fun fact about them every once in a while. Today's fact is that Sestra Cade likes cats and Sestra Fred is currently craving Panda Express.

The Lennon Wall in Prague

President McConkie, Sestra Hale, Sestra Cade, Sestra Fredrickson, Sister McConkie

Our first car ride together (I think Melanie doesn't hear directions when someone says "let's take a cute picture together !" , Somehow, she often hears "Time for a crazy picture!") 

Week 62 -- French. Busy. David. Baptism. 6000000chili

Did I ever tell you I'm learning French tooo? Sestra Witzel teaches it before we teach English. 

We had a few of those FULL busy consecutive lesson days this week. One ended up to be a 1st lesson with help from a less active. She taught the whole lesson basically and it was SO fun! We are having a ton of progress with our investigators and finding. 

D is the real story. 3 weeks ago the elders sat down to pick names of less actives to work with. They came across the B family. Visited with success. The father is a less active and has since had 2 children with his wife. The oldest son D was put on baptismal date 3 weeks ago and was baptized on Saturday. He is the biggest and most obvious example of elect I have ever seen. He bore his testimony after receiving the Holy Ghost and there are NO worries  from the branch or us as missionaries that he didn't know what he was getting into. He is SO kind, so loving, and his family is perfect. They are cute and supportive and we as a district are working to get the whole family in our branch family. It was an amazing experience to witness and be a part of. We had a picnic afterward and played baseball. Members, the B family, and 2 investigators stayed the entire day with us as we took the spiritual baptism spirit with us to a fun afternoon! I REALLY HOPE I STAY IN OSTRAVA NEXT TRANSFER. This branch is on fire. 

A member invited us to a food carnival. Not what we were expecting but it was good nonetheless. the highlight was Starsi Marcucci being gutsy and tried chili sauce that rates 6.000.000 on the hot scale. the video/pictures are hilarious.

Next week transfers, whats going to happen!?!! 

LOVE YOU ALL!

-Sestra Hale

 

Week 63 -- TRANSFERS

Here we are! I literally only have 10 minutes to e-mail and send this. Guess what!! I am serving in Prague and Mlada Boleslav with Sestra Fredrickson and we are expecting a baby!! (due on Wednesday)  and Sestra Fredrickson and I are Sister Training Leaders. (missionary lingo: 'expecting a baby' is training a newly arriving sister)

My mission has prepared me for this last transfer. We are going to WORK and change and work together in unity like a presidency. BRING IT. 

Last week of Ostrava was so deliciously golden. I will only share one miracle experience with you all. On Thursday, Sestra Witzel and I jump on a train to catch another train to take us to Bohumin to see Sestra Kvasnicova. The second we sit down in her lesson I realize I don't have my bag of my Czech scriptures or Czech Preach my Gospel. We broke down in English as we tried to figure out WHAT we could do and who we could ask to maybe find my bag. We had a great lesson on plan but the whole time I just felt a deep sick and sad feeling :( We had a great lesson and it was super spiritual. THEN in the Bohumin train station I tell the information desk lady about my situation and she calls a ton of people and finds the train I was on yaddah yaddah yaddah. No success. BUT while waiting for her to call people we met a man from Lithuania and I ended up translating for him to find something. THEN we go to Ostrava and are finally directed to the lost and found and that sweet train station lady worker got a nice big hug from me as she fetched my bag of holy scriptures. I was SO HAPPY. So I was celebrating with Sestra Witzel and started to pray out loud with her as we were holding hands or something (I honestly don't know. I was overcome with joy) Then MID PRAYER another train station worker walks up (we've talked to this one before) and she is holding up one of my necklaces I thought I lost a few days ago and she asked if it was ours!.....MIRACLES! If that is not evidence that God lives and knows and loves me, I don't know what is. 

I'm excited to be where I am now and I know more and more every day that this church is true and that God and His son Jesus Christ live. I love you all and wish you a good week! 

--Sestra Hale

A visit to Hukvaldy.

Week 61 -- The foetus of my kidney

In the scriptures we read "the fruit of my loins" and in Czech it is translated as "the foetus of my kidney" I don't know about you but I prefer the kidney foetus phrase.

It has been an eventful, successful week. 

This week we:

1. met a ton of great people, exchanged numbers with them, tried to set up a lesson, and a lot of the time it fell through. It's successful, then agency and prioritizing issues get in the way. That's been tough, but we are still finding like crazy and meeting the Coolest people with a ton of potential! We expected 4 people to come to church. None of them came BUT 3 of our less actives did, and the other elders had a total of 5 investigators at church. The mission is united and successful and we all feel it! 

2. every. other. day. we have sun and a cool breeze and it's beautiful. the other days it's overcast and people are whipping out their scarves again. Make up your mind weather! 

3. Bratr Kolek has hooked up our district this week with a fun service project for his neighbor who has a bee farm. This old man (his look and voice reminded me of a nice old hobbit) and his wife have several bee hives in their backyard. It was so cool to see how it all is supposed to work and how its all organized. We also tried some fresh honey. SCORE. We will return to help build hives. NEXT on Saturday there was a city wide service project. Only a small group of nice people actually showed up though. Our group cleaned up the garbage alongside the river. SO. MUCH. TRASH. Glass bottles, plastic bottles, bags, a backpack, a large rubber tube, clothes for dayyys, I even found underwear! It was insane and sad. But we worked so much and met some cool people! The police officer that walked alongside with us is a greenie officer and we were talking about his work and his english and he was so awesome. We also were talking to all the people in our group about whatnots and getting to know them. The best way to get to know someone is to work alongside with them. It was so fun and since we were right next to the river, you better believe I was tempted to tube down it. but that can wait

4. Culture night! We last minute got together with 2 members and one of our English students, dressed up fancy (casual missionary attire) and saw HAMLET THE OPERA! But wait, it gets better. It was a French Opera. That was a treat. Sestra Witzel and I had to leave an hour early to be home on time. #obedience.

That's about it. We are always meeting the coolest people and having fun and growing together. Our mission is so unified and we are all doing a great and inspired challenge to bring someone to the waters of baptism by June 30th. We pray as a mission every Thursday morning at 7am so we can strengthen our force. Join us! We need the blessings and divine intervention to continue being guided to find the elect and to work with the progressing. 

mám vás ráda!!

-Sestra Hale

 The beekeeper Mr. Sladkovský

 We found this while tracting. Best day ever.

If you zoom in closely, you will see that I am surrounded by a ton of bees flying to and from their hives. ahhh!!

 Let's Clean the Czech event.

Week 60 -- Week 7 already?

(confusing title, I've been counting weeks since Melanie arrived in the country-- 60 weeks since she arrived in the Czech Republic. She titled this week's entry as Week 7. She is on week 7 of this nine week transfer period. After that, she has only one more 9 week transfer and she'll be home, can you believe it?)

Time honestly flies when you're running around 2 cities finding, teaching, organizing, meeting, planning, and having fun.
This past week we were able to go on exchanges. Not only was it a TREAT to be back in Mlada Boleslav and to be with Sestra Fredrickson, but it was also full of miracles! I swear, the Lord loves exchanges because He puts elect people in our path. Sestra Fredrickson and I were chalking the city with "mormon.cz" and "#ldsconf" hoping to catch the eye of the curious on the streets of Mlada Boleslav. We met a man who met a Mormon in New Zealand 5 months ago and this member was able to produce for him, a Czech Book of Mormon! That left such an impression in his heart that someone would go out of their way for him, that when he met us on the street, he was SO ready! HE SAID THESE WORDS: "I am still looking for something but haven't found it yet...I have an open heart to find it" Holy elect, right? Anyway, that was sooo fun and rewarding. Sestra Fredrickson literally cried and we had a few minutes of a tender and sweet spirit as we exchanged numbers with him and testified of the truth of the Gospel. 

I ALSO SAW E! (picture attached) she is a straight up YOUNG WOMAN now. She is gorgeous and has experiences in the Gospel and is so bright and hilarious! I am so grateful I understand Czech nowadays. She was talking about the food diet her mom puts her on because her mom loves E's teeth. She says her mom makes her eat only fruit to a point that E doesn't like the taste of fruit anymore. Then she says she loves visiting her aunt in Russia over the summers except her aunt spoils her with chocolates and candy when E is sad. Plus her aunt cooks well so E said it's fun to see her aunt except she gains 7 kilos on a weekly basis over there! I was dying. I love that girl. 

We watched General Conference this weekend and made a ton of crepes for lunch for everyone. It turns out, Sestra Witzel is a crepe flipping master. who knew? We watched Gen Konf in Czech with the members but has English subtitles for us missionaries. I now understand where foreigners come from-they don't have the privilege to draw close to the literal voice of the prophet and apostles because they have to be translated. I missed hearing their voices but I also know a few of the Czech translators personally so it was fun to hear their voices as well. 

OH MY GOSH! Last thing, The Holts are the missionary pair in charge of the humanitarian efforts in our mission. They came to town, we met one member and went to the Salvation Army facility to deliver 2 blankets, take pictures for documentary purposes, and to offer our humanitarian services as a church, to theirs. I and Sestra Wolfova (the member) were the actual ones to deliver the blankets into the hands of 2 clients of the Salvation Army...this is when I grew jealous for the ministry of Christ. The woman I handed a blanket to was teary eyed as I walked up to her with a fleece blanket. I gave her a hug and cried with her as she thanked me...This experience touched my heart. I cant imagine being among Christ as He performed miracles. I would be a bawling mess. It was so beautiful and later this week we finished the rest of the blankets and will deliver the rest to the facility with all the rest of the members of the Relief Society for them to see the joy they are bringing to these precious people! It was a blast to translate for the Holts and to be a part of this project.

I love our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I love our Prophet, his counselors and apostles, our leaders and their spouses. I know that this work is the true and best work and blesses lives. Enjoy this week and be a better disciple of Jesus Christ! Let us allow ourselves to change for the better! 

-Sestra Hale

Week 59 Poslouchejte

Happy warm sunny weather! Its still chilly in the mornings and at night but daytime is the time to shine and its is sooo pleasant. We love contacting nowadays because everyone is happier and in a better mood. We actually are contacting about that today. It's fun to hear people's responses of why they think they are in a better mood. God gave them a beautiful planet to enjoy and live on. God is real!

ooh myy gooodness. We went tracting in this cute village-like place by our house on Saturday morning. A man opened his gate and when we told him we have a living prophet, he said how that isn't possible then his daughter came up behind him, asked how long we've been out and asked if we were thirsty. So they let us in and it was a FAMILY REUNION!! There were 6 people of this one family at a table with us at once and after talking about whatnots for a few minutes, the youngest son asked "whats the difference between Catholics and Mormons" so we taught the restoration. but wait! There's more! We ended up being there for 2 hours, getting asked all kinds of questions, they said the Book of Mormon wasn't the word of God and that Jesus was the last prophet, they told us we should be careful with following faith blindly, we shared our conversion stories when we knew the Book of Mormon was true, they suggested we forget everything we have been taught and only follow Jesus, etc. It was definitely a flavorful event. We were even given a priest blessings by inspiration and holding hands with this -no acclaimed religion-priest, and were each individually given blessings of which I translated for some of it for Sestra Witzel. They also were translating for each other throughout the whole time......wow! if anything it only grew my testimony of our true church. Men can say that the Book of Mormon isn't true, but that doesn't change the answer I already received from the messenger of God himself, the Holy Ghost. Sorry, no one can change what is written on my heart.

We also had training. Starsi Marcucci found a better train system to take. Instead of waking up at 2am, we woke up at 4:15am and instead of getting home at 10:30, we got home at 6:30 with just enough time to return to a house we tracted into where a woman had interest. Its was so pleasant. OH! and after training, I just told Sestra Witzel not to look at her watch, but to just keep running. We made it from the Prague church building, to a metro, to a tram, to the train station, in 15 minutes. There was definitely some divine intervention going on. 

ABOUT TRAINING: I feel like when we are prepared with questions, and when we have been studying the topics of what training will be about, there is SO MUCH REVELATION received! When we are prepared, we truly are blessed. Every word from this last training was easy to my ears and we have been trying new things, using new ideas, and have been successful in our work.

Its been a wooonderful week and we await this weekend with watching General Conference. I've heard its sooo good. Bring it! 

-Sestra Hale

p.s. try APPLYING those things from General Conference that stuck out to you. see what happens :)