September 20th, 2010

To the family of families:

Hi binkyheads!
NEW COMPUTER?!?! Jejda, that's GREAT! I'm not going to lie, it's about time. :)

The weeks go by so quickly here--I've almost been in this crazy country for a MONTH! Can you believe that? Yeah, me neither. That's great to hear that everyone is doing so well. I pray for you every day--really, truly, sincerely. I'm so proud that you're such great missionaries.

It's interesting that you bring up the -------- family not coming to church--we had the area president over the European missions visit us on Thursday and talk to our entire zone. He was a bad (as in the awesome kind of bad, when the word good just isn't sufficient) stout fellow and kind of had a Godfather-type gangster voice with faint Portuguese accent. Needless to say, we listened when he spoke. And he spoke for at least an hour on the importance of getting people to church. He said that Sundays should be the busiest day for missionaries. If necessary, we should leave our apartments at 7 or 8 to pick up our investigators and bring them to church with us around 9. He said to explain about church to investigators and then invite them, saying, "Would it be more convenient for me to pick you up at 8 or 8:30?" Haha. I don't know how that'd go over with the ---------s, but you never know for sure until you try it.

He also talked a lot about finding ways to talk to the friends and family of the investigators we have...I'd never really thought of this before, but it makes so much sense! When we dig for "gold" and find one nugget we keep looking for more in that same spot, we don't just pick up our stuff and set up a new camp 40 yards away. So we've been talking to Petr about his friends and family. We actually met some of his friends a few weeks ago--we watched them play soccer. Afterwards he introduced us to them all. Of course they were all drinking and smoking, as most Czechs do, (except for Petr...seriously, he just glowed in the midst of all them). It was a little bit of a weird place for sister missionaries to be--in the midst of 12 older men whose abilities to think clearly were diminishing by the gulp...we joked that it was going to be like that for Sister Wheeler when she gets home and is around all those bad BYU students drinking their energy drinks and such (which happens in the end of October, Ma...also, save the pictures, but I don't think I really care much for anything else). So we talked with them for a while and then found a reason to leave. Apparently afterwards, one of the friends was saying that we were really weird, talking about how he didn't like us much--AND THEN! Much to Petr's surprise, another of his friends jumped to our defence before he could, saying that we were the coolest girls he'd ever met. I KNOW. You hear that, you sister missionary downers out there? We're cool.

Anyway. I've been meaning to tell you--there's a new convert named Pavel in our branch. He was taught by Sister Wheeler and baptised the week before I arrived here. And he is a 'borec' (stud). He uses crutches to get everywhere because something's wrong with his legs, but he's awesome and he's already begun to bring friends to activities. The first time we met--we were playing volleyball at sports day--he was convinced that I was japanese or some sort of asian breed. Unfortunately, I'm afraid the truth was a big let down. I thought you might get a kick out of that.

Today we are going to PRAGUE! WEEEEEEEEE! Sister Wheeler is having trainer training, which means I'm tagging along and being someone else's companion for a week--Sister Lier, who was Sister Wheeler's companion in the MTC. I hear she's awesome and that we're challenging 10 PEOPLE to baptism this week. Whoa.
Something else weird that I've noticed about the Czech Republic: I've never seen so many people with crutches/limps in one city as I have in Brno. It's so strange, I can't really figure out why it is that way. People here are really concerned about their health, so I'm guessing that half the be-crutched people I've noticed have broken toes or pulled muscles or something. I'm not sure about the others.
This week we made Americky cookies and took them around to the people in our new apartment building and introduced ourselves. Some of them were really puzzled by the whole thing and just tried to avoid the awkwardness of the situation by taking the cookies and closing the door as quickly as possible. A few were really nice though. Our next door neighbor, Marina and her 3 1/2 year-old daughter Masha, were awesome. They invited us in and we talked with her for about an hour. She moved here from Ukraine with her daughter, recently divorced and is one of the strongest women I've ever met. She is aching for the light of the gospel, I can just feel it. But she's so positive and hopeful about everything.

Also this week we visited Sister Cadeni--one of the oldest members in the branch, whose son is the district president. Her husband died a while ago and the funeral left their family in a bit of debt, so her job keeps her from church on a lot of Sundays. Usually the sisters go a clean a bit for her because she's getting old and then she shares what she's been studying in the scriptures lately. It was my first time meeting her, but boy oh boy did I immediately love the old girl! Seriously. We went in and she fed us and asked us to bless the food first. She shared what she'd studied in D&C 1 that day and told how she'd gone to institute for 10 years as a student and then 10 years as a teacher and now she just loves her daily personal study. As we cleaned, I noticed garments hanging on her drying rack...it was just incredible to catch a glimpse of what some of our investigators could become some day.

AHHH! I love being a missionary! Sometimes I feel like a much more subdued version of myself here...there's always so much to do and think about--saving souls is a serious business. But the more I get to know Sister Wheeler, the more fun we have together. I'm so grateful for all of you. Keep up the great work! Pray for the work here in the CR! (Did you know that Elder Uchtdorf prays for the Czech Prague mission every day?! THAT is cool.)

I LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURVE you!

Sestra Dean

One thing more: people here CANNOT say Sister Wheeler's name. Usually they end up calling her something like Veely--Liba calls her Beely. It's SO funny.

Ahh, I love my life.

SWEET IS THE WORK--September 13th, 2010

Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I LOVE you!

First of all, happy happy birthday, dearest Chris and Maa! I'm praying for you to receive birthday cake and icecream falling from the sky like in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Let me know if you get it.

Chris: I don't know if you ever get these, but an Elder here gave me a MAGIC CARD the other day. And you won't believe what it is--it's called "Timeless Missionaries" and has a great little blurb about how they save the souls of those they teach and never grow weary. Soon I will take a picture of it and send it to you. I couldn't stop thinking about how I wanted to show it to you the whole day! I hope Hawaii was great! Did you two happen to meet a tall sister working at the PCC--she uses a cane and has had some brain damage, but her name is Brandy. She was in my missionary prep class and she has an amazing story. I hope you got to hear some of it.

Anyway. I'm in this crazy CyberCafe where there are lots of teenage boys giggling together over computer games. Weirdies. We now have TWO baptisms planned for the 16th of October! WEEEEEEEEEEEE! The other is Liba--an older woman who is very, shall we say, simple minded. The first time we challenged her to baptism she said no because that kind of baptism would hurt her back too much. But lately she's been making loads of progress. She's getting the hang of praying in her own words, which was really hard for her before. And sometimes, after we read something in the Book of Mormon that she thinks is especially beautiful she'll yell out "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!" It's really funny. But we taught her about the plan of salvation and about baptism last week. At first, when we invited her to be baptised, she said no again. But then we read in Mosiah 18 and in 3 Nephi about following Christ's example and we felt prompted to promise her blessings regarding her husband's health(he's been in the hospital for a long while now) and she really felt the spirit and said yes and began to cry. It was amazing. In all, Brno has SIX pending baptisms! SIX! It's incredible. Lately we've been talking about bringing up baptism earlier in our relationships with investigators and it's been really great to see such results.

So many miracles have happened this past week. I met a ROMANIAN boy (about my age) on Saturday who spoke great English. There's also a Romanian man in our ward, so we've invited them both to Family Home Eveing tonight...hopefully some good will come of it. It's incredible how the Lord takes His work into His own hands. The hard part is being willing to follow promptings that seem obscure or unclear and having the faith that it will work out. But every time I do, my heart feels as though it will explode from that cavity in my chest because it's grown so big, even if it seems like nothing's come from it.

Danielle: Don't worry, reffing will get easier. I felt like that my first few times reffing volleyball. Just act like you know what you're doing and they'll listen to you. I LOVED your letter--I couldn't stop laughing over it. You're great. Remember: never be ashamed of who you are or the truth that you know about life on earth and what's really important. It's difficult seeing friends make poor choices--I went through it too. But you have the opportunity to allow others to feel of the happiness that radiates from someone who's clean and who harbors within her the glory of the truth. Isn't it wonderful, that we know so much about who we are, where we've come from, and why we're here? That's the thing I wish everyone could understand.

Family, I love you SO SO much! I'm sending you all an e-kiss with this letter. Cau!

Sestra Dean

"No, I Wouldn't Like That . . . "

(Sister Wheeler--my awesome comp--& Me)


Nazdaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!

Haha, sorry--I meant to explain that subject line last time but I forgot/ran out of time. "The frog-mouse wars and other petty tussles" is something that I saw written on a poster my very first day in Prague. It was an advertisement for some kind of artist or singer and I think that was the name of an album or collection of work or something. I couldn't help but laugh at it!

Today's subject line features a common response to our efforts to contact people on the street. It doesn't really mean what it would mean in English, but I always laugh at it anyway because of the way it sounds.

This week is Czech week--all Czech all the time! I almost wrote this letter in Czech and told you to google translate it, but I think it would take me far too long to construct so many sentences. It will be a little challenging, but I like myself a good challenge. Things are always getting better with the language. The hardest part for me now is understanding people. This is interesting, because in the MTC I could understand much more than I could say. But the Czech accent is murdering me. (Not really). I love it when we meet people who also speak Czech as a second language--there are a lot of people from Ukraine or Russia here...and a lot of other places--because it's easier for me to understand them. I usually have some sort of headache by the end of Sundays, after hours and hours of listening to only Czech and straining my brain to decipher everything. But it's really good for me--I'm really hoping that this week will help me improve a lot.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we have GREAT NEWS!! BAHSEKFLJawefoijasdflkmavclkdsaf! I'm just so excited about it! So there's a man that we've been teaching. His name is Petr (Peter in English). Sister Wheeler and her former companion found him a while ago. Before he met them he had been completely atheist and was mostly interested in talking to them because he wanted to practice English (he's really good and usually we have our meetings in English, which is handy because he is really hard to understand...you could compare his Czech to a surfer's English), but as they met and talked he became pretty interested in everything. He's really tall and almost hippie-ish--he kind of looks like Fabio and has long blonde hair. He's about 27 and just finished school last year--he studied landscape engineering, but there are no jobs for anyone with such a degree here in the Czech Republic, so he has consented to work in a factory for the time being. I love listening to him speak English because he uses funny phrases--everything to him is 'quite okay'. He probably has the greatest conscience I've ever seen in anyone--he's living by every single commandment we've told him about and says that he's been a lot happier since he's changed, even though his friends tease him about it. He's even said that he would pay tithing if he were to be baptized. Before I ever met him, Sister Wheeler told me about him and how she thought that he was ready to be baptized. As soon as she said this, the date October 16th popped in to my head, which was silly because I didn't even know him and I had no idea whether it was a Saturday or not. Later, when we planned for our meeting with him, she talked about that date and I immediately told her what I had thought (yah! It's really a Saturday! Cool, huh?). So we talked to him about it. He was somewhat apprehensive--he takes the idea of baptism very seriously and is afraid of regressing after his baptism. We talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost with him and how it helps us continue to improve when we are trying our best. We told him that we both felt really strongly about Oct. 16th and that he should pray about it too, which he said he would do. That was my first week.

Fast forward to now. Since then, he's been progressing slowly--we've been having meetings with him and other members who have conversion stories similar to his. He's really enjoyed their stories and he's learning the value of asking specific questions in his prayers in order to receive specific answers. But still nothing compelling. Yesterday we finally asked him if he was scared to receive an answer--scared because, with his conscience, he knew he'd have to act on it if he received an answer, and he's afraid of himself sliding back in to his old ways. He admitted to it. But even then, he was fasting for his first time ever! And he was telling baptised members that they should just buy food on Saturdays and save them for Sundays instead of buying things on Sundays! I mean really, this guy is rock solid. And we're always saying things to him about "when he's baptized" and "on October 16th", etc. He smiles and doesn't deny it, but he's never said, "Yes, I want to plan on October 16th" to us, so we've never counted it as an authentic baptismal date. Bummer. So we fasted for him yesterday (without telling him about it--we mentioned it to him once, and he forbade anyone from suffering in his behalf...he doesn't quite understand the point of it yet, I think).

BUT! We all broke our contraband fast yesterday with the senior couple who lives down the hall from us. Petr knows them really well and ended up staying over for another hour after we left. Later that evening, Bro. Hrncirik (the senior missionary) said that Petr told them that he's planning on getting baptized on Oct. 16. There was a resonating thud as our jaws hit the floor. REALLY!? So, after 20 minutes of debating as to how we could go about this delicately and directly without scaring him, we called him and talked to him, and he confirmed, that yes, it's a goal that he's working towards and he wants to plan on that date. He also said that he was glad that another woman was getting baptized on that same date so that he wouldn't do it alone. Waaaaahhh! We were ecstatic. And kind of freaking out. And when we talked to him, he had five pages or so left in the Book of Mormon and was about to finish it that night. And he said that he wasn't so scared to receive an answer anymore (apparently Bro Hrncirik talked to him about it) and that he was going to ask a specific question in his prayers afterwards! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! Now we're just waiting to hear from him.

Other cool experiences: a few nights ago we received a text that was written at 4:30 in the morning. It said something like, "I don't know if I'm doing this the right way, but I believe in God and I'd really like to learn more about your faith." We had no idea who it was! After a little digging, we discovered that it was someone we had tried talking to in the park a few days before, but whose friend said they were hurrying and couldn't stop. He had looked a little disappointed, but we gave him a pass-a-long card and moved on, not thinking much of it. We give out a TON of pass-a-long cards each day and it very rarely happens that someone that we never even really talked to calls us. But he did! It was a small miracle.

Last night we went on splits with a set of Elders. Elder Bailey (who's been out for four transfers--he and I will fly home together) and I met a woman named Jana, who had a lot of interest. She was really cool--looked to be about 40 or so and had lived in Australia for a year (yes, I told her my dad lived there for a few years). She really listened to us and I was able to bear my testimony to her about a number of things and we read Moroni's promise together. It was really neat. I'm beginning to realize the value of testifying as soon and as much as possible. Because it's guaranteed to invite the spirit. And people (especially here) don't want to change unless they feel the spirit.

Also. There's another investigator that's been meeting with the Elders--Jiri(like George)--who has a baptismal date a few weeks away. Yesterday at church he decided he's taken a liking to me and starting telling me how beautiful I looked and asking me if I had any boyfriends waiting at home--he even kind of tried to hold my hand! When he left he gave both Sister Wheeler and I a hug...I realized then and there that I am already somewhat of an awkward missionary. Eek! But the Elders talked it out with him. I think he'll think twice before he tries to pull another fast one.

Anyway. I think I'm pushing my time limits. The work is great here--I love it. Really, there's nothing I'd rather be doing. Keep it up with the missionary work in the homefront. It's SO important! Seriously! The way we do it, with the contacting and the tracting and such--that's the hard way. I probably think that exact thought to myself a hundred times a day. If only members would share it with their friends, then we could spend our time teaching instead of sifting through all the people who don't want to talk to us to find the few who might. You already have a relationship with people who could be interested--they trust you and can see how it blesses your lives. Don't be afraid to share it! Have people over for dinner and invite the missionaries too! Anything! I'm so proud of the way you've involved yourselves in missionary work. I love you so much! Keep me in the know!

s laskou,


Sestra Dean

(Here I just tell people my name is 'Dean', because it's kind of weird to say, 'I'm Sister Dean'...they're not so familiar with church things. But it always makes me feel like James Bond or something. Yes, missionaries are that cool.)

First Email From Czech, 8-30-10: The Frog-Mouse Wars & Other Petty Tussles . . .

MY FAMILYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!

Jejda, it feels as though it's been a lifetime since we talked while I waited for my flight! So much has changed--and yet, it doesn't feel altogether so different. Maybe the most surprising thing is how normal it does feel, considering how abnormal my life is at the moment. Before I explain, a few items of business: 1) I get AN HOUR to email now, which is just dandy. So definitely email me if you want me to get anything in a timely manner, because we only get paper mail about once a month. Also, if you do send paper mail/packages, make sure you put the church's name FIRST, then put my name underneath theirs. For some reason things that come in any other form are not delivered to them. 2) Tell Beks that really nylons are not needed. Remember how I said we planned on wearing them on Sundays and for the big devotionals on Tuesdays? That was a big ftip (joke). I wore those one time afterwards and never again. No one cares, just look presentable. 3) Tell Beks I love her. I left a letter for her at the MTC--someone should be delivering it to her shortly after she arrives (I hope). If you could forward her emails to me, that'd be great. While she's in the MTC it'll take up too much of her email time for you to forward my emails to her, but you could copy them and send them as a DearElder. That works pretty well. From what I hear, DearElder still works while we're here in the country, but I think it will only come as often as the regular mail comes. 4) I think that's everythiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.g.g.

So. Here I am, in the home of the Hrncirikovi (a great senior couple serving here--they're actually American, but their ancestors are from the Czech Republic, so they have a funny last name), in a city called Brno. Through the lace curtains and out the window to my right I can see a web of branches, a long line of recently-waxed cars, and a neighboring apartment that looks like it could fit well in downtown Provo. I'm typing on a DELL laptop. Things don't seem so different at the moment. But THEY ARE!

First, I must tell you--the plane ride over: I didn't sleep at all--not one wink! I was too excited/nervous/giddy/insertanyagitatedsortofemotionhere. It was interesting walking around in the NY airport and suddenly realizing that the three of us snazzy missionaries together looked about as inconspicuous as a beached norwal. But I suppose we're supposed to stand out. We tried talking to people in the airport, but New Yorkers are suspicious and high-strung and no one wanted to get caught looking at us, even though we knew they were. On the flight we met a women named--uhh, I forget her name--but she lived in Michigan and was flying to visit her family in Macedonia. She was really nice and spoke English really well. We ended up talking with her for the vast majority of the flight--we gave her a Book of Mormon and told her a lot about the Church. Maybe too much...but it was a really long flight. She was pretty excited about reading the Book of Mormon. And we got her address so we could write her and send the missionaries to her. My first contact!

Needless to say, I was already getting tired by the time we arrived in the Czech Republic. And I was feeling very sticky and a little smelly (hence the fatigue in the picture). But the Irwins received us with big smiles and big hearts. The APs were with them, and I already began to feel a little like an ostracized Sister again. It's weird, but a lot of Elders are apprehensive about being normal with Sisters. Sometimes I feel like the odd one out, but it's not all bad. At least they like to carry all my things for me, right?

We spent the day walking around Prague, seeing mostly things that I saw last summer. Which is good, because I wasn't very attentive. Then they made us contact people. By this time, I was ready to fall asleep while standing there. Before they sent us off, the APs told us that the last group had found four new investigators (but no pressure, right?). People weren't very friendly. Some of them laughed. Some of them brushed by us. Some of them humored us. I endured it, but just barely. Finally, the last person I contacted was kind of a creeper. A young guy, about my age. Before I talked to him, I saw him check out another lady walking by, so I should have known better. Apparently two days without sleep can impair one's judgement. But I talked with him and he mostly laughed at me, but listened to what I had to say. I felt like it wasn't going terribly, until he said, "Can I ask you a personal question?" This was follwed by a very inappropriate idea which suggested to me that he knew very little about what kind of women sister missionaries are. So I just walked away. And I felt so tired and defeated--like a joke, after what he'd just said to me--that I began to cry as I walked back to the gaggle of Elders in the middle of the town square. And of course they all put their awkward goggles on and I was embarrassed and apologized and blamed it mostly on the lack of sleep (which I think is accurate, seeing as how I haven't cried over anything else since). And they tried to reassure me in their endearing contact-free, emotion-free sort of way and we all ate knedliky until we could burst, and slept the day's hazards away.

I met my new companion the very next day and we hopped on the next bus to Brno asap. She is WONDERFUL and her name is Sister Jocelyn Wheeler. And this is her VERY LAST transfer. ! She's really nice and lets me do as much as I can here. Somehow, when I contact with her I am nearly fearless--maybe because she understands everything and can say everything. Apparently everyone here is really surprised by all that I've learned as far as the language goes. Elder Gale (the one that had been in the MTC with us for a few weeks because of his bum leg) is serving here in Brno too and the language is a bit of a struggle for him. But it's really fun saying the things I know how to say here. We've made a goal to talk to someone about the Church on every tram ride--we take the trams everywhere! It's really fun. Usually I ask someone next to me a question about Czech and tell them that I'm trying to learn and then they ask what I'm doing here and things just go from there. A lot of people stiffen a bit when they hear that we're affiliated with a church. Most people aren't "believers", as they're called here. Well, at least they say they aren't. Most of them actually do believe in something, they just haven't really figured out what that something is yet. But they all get really excited when they hear that I'm learning Czech and they're all very complimentary of my ability to speak, even though I say almost everything incorrectly. But I think maybe that's an overlooked part of the gift of tongues--receiving the courage to say what you know how to say, which is enough.

We do a LOT of contacting here. We'll have a few lessons a day and then we just go to parks or town squares and talk to people. We went tracting a few days ago because it was raining--not super successful. But we developed a new approach: telling them we're missionaries and asking if I could play a song for them on my harmonica. Hey, it got us an appointment.

I am LOVING missionary work. Really. Yesterday we had SIX investigators at church(the branch here is great...maybe 80 members?! it's really big--and there are 4 sets of missionaries here, including us, and then 2 other senior couples). And then we found a few more. We've found that, when we remember to pray and thank our Heavenly Father for the good experiences we have talking to people, we always have more. It's really neat.

And today we moved out of our apartment into a new one because the land lady's crazy. I was kind of sad because I really liked the old apartment, but I think this new one will be just fine.

I'm taking too long, I must go. I love you! I love it here! Missionary work's not scary at all--it almost feels like a game of sorts. Maybe that's because I only understand a quarter of what's being said to me. It's really hard to understand Czech accents. If everyone spoke Czech the way Americans speak Czech, I would be in great shape. Oh well. I sure love you! I'm so proud of you and all your missionary endeavors at home! Keep it up!

Cau!

Sestra Dean