Mine Is a World of Houby and Binkyfriends October 27th, 2010

Cauky Family!

Today I lost my mother. In the mission, I mean. A small part of me feels like I could be the little bird in that children's book {"Are You My Mother?"}, constantly searching for a new one. But it will be good. Sister Wheeler was amazing (or Beely, as I typically call her, in enthusiastic Liba fashion) and it was really neat to begin my mission while watching the end of a very successful one. It makes me think a lot about how I want my mission to end. That girl is a rock star. It was neat to see the lives that she touched in Brno (which is only one of four places she served in!)--we met with many of the most significant ones on Monday and Tuesday. Three of them were all young men who are also recent converts, including Petr. I couldn't help but laugh at the gifts they gave her--they were so characteristic of each of them! Tonda, ever the friendly pleaser, gave her chocolates. And boy were they good! (Tonda is also seriously considering serving a mission! Way to go Sister Austin, if you're reading this! We talked to him about that yesterday and he said he was 90% sure and has a meeting with the branch pres soon! Woo!) Pavel, the dramatic and somewhat emotional yet very eloquent 24-year-old who was baptized the weekend before I came to the Czech Republic, wrote a poem for her in English that ended with "you will always be in my brain" (because everyone knows that "brain" rhymes with "again"). And Petr, the incorrigible nature-boy that he is, gave her a fossil that he found on the beach, of a seashell. Hah! Isn't that all just so great? She was a good missionary because all these people knew that she really cared about them. I want to be a missionary like her.

My new compy-doo is Sister Laws, a soccer-playing chocolate addict who's been in the country for three transfers already, all of which have taken place in the little town of Jicin. We are staying in Brno this transfer, which is great because lots of great things are about to happen there, I can just feel it! I think Sister Laws and I will have a grand time together--and chances are, because Mr. Pres is really big on this now, we will be together in Brno for the next two transfers. But no one really knows.

Want to see a real miracle? Pray. Seriously. It really works. I've learned a lot about that this past week. Usually we pray just before we begin contacting people in the city. Twice this past week I've prayed specifically that we will find someone who will give us his phone number and want to meet with us again and IT WORKED BOTH TIMES! Seriously! And it's not like that happens with every person we contact--or even every 5th person we contact. The second man, a 24-year-old named Viktor from Ukraine, seemed really sincere in his interest. Afterwards, Beely said, "I think he's going to get baptized--really! He just seems so humble and interested in what we have to say..." Then we said a prayer and thanked Heavenly Father for the opportunity to meet him. In it, Beely asked Heavenly Father to bless him that he will continue to have interest and eventually get baptized and as soon as she said that I just felt it--that he really would! It's so amazing--we can be led by the Spirit even in our prayers to know what sorts of blessings God is waiting to give us, if only we pay attention enough to know what to ask for. (You should go read about prayer in the Bible Dictionary. No NOW--really, it's THAT good.) We've met with Viktor and two Ukrainian members since then--they say he's pretty solid. It was a little difficult because we didn't understand much if any of what they said. But we trust these men. And he left with a commitment to read in the Book of Mormon. Hot dang, I love this work!

ALSO ALSO ALSO! We had a MISSION CONFERENCE on Saturday! Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the Quorum of the Seventy came! That man is a spiritual beast, and he basically ripped out our souls, showed us the holes in them and shoved them back down our throats. (Wow, that was maybe a little too dramatic). He is a powerful speaker, for sure. In a good way--we all left knowing how we needed to improve and also feeling that it was in our power to improve. You should read his talk in the May 2009 conference Ensign again on faith--a lot of his talk to us was in there. He talked a lot about aligning ourselves with God's will. I realized that I came here with a specific idea of who I am...and it's been a little bit of a struggle maintaining that identity. But really, none of what I was matters now--I'm a disciple of Christ now, and that's all that matters for the time being. I took almost 10 pages of notes from his talk (it was 4 hours long!). Go read his talk. Now.

Petr's doing really well--he gave a talk at another baptism on Sunday and it was so good that they asked him to speak in church on Sunday! He's having a real hard time with Beely leaving though...I'm pretty sure he's in love with her. Rough.

Ahh, I must hurry and end thissss. But I LOVE you! Beks, I'm so glad you're catching the spirit of real missionary work--that's really what it's all about. It doesn't matter how well you speak the language as long as you work to improve and trust in the Lord. That's all.

Smelly- I LOVED your letter! I will write you back asaicgmhospoapd (as soon as i can get my hands on some paper on a p day). Courty and Beks, letters are coming for the both of you right now.

Gayann--Thanks so much for your email! I will keep the deets coming and write more about food on Monday, promise!

Maaa, I think that's all for a package. Of course, if you wanted to include a small thing of Adam's I wouldn't cry about it. I love you all SO SO much! Seriously, I have the best family ever!

--Sestra Dean

Sending Letters/Packages to Czech

To those of you who may want to send packages/letters to Ashley in Czech, please use the following address (if the church's name is not on the first line(s) as shown, she will not receive what you're sending):

Církev Ježíše Krista Svatých
Posledních Dnů
Sister Ashley Dean
Czech Prague Mission
Milady Horákové 85/95
170 00 Prague 7-Holešovice
Czech Republic – Europe

Packages/letters sent for Christmas should be mailed by late October.

Thanks for following her adventures . . .

--Gordon & Alice

Chubby Mush

Helaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! (That means 'hey' in czech...it's really funny when little kids here say it.)

Sestnacteho Rijna Sestnacteho Rijna Sestnacteho Rijna Sestnacteho Rijna Sestnacteho Rijna Sestnacteho Rijna Sestnacteho Rijna--that phrase has been playing over and over in my head since my second day in Brno, when Beely (aka Sister Wheeler) first told me about Petr and I immediately knew... It means the 16th of October! AND IT REALLY HAPPENED! THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS HAS TWO BOMB NEW MEMBERS! WOOOOOOO!

In commemoration of this sacred day, here are 16 facts about Petr Bandik, the man who once shouted to the sky with clenched fists "it will be hard to change me!" This was back before I ever set foot in Brno.

1. He speaks Czech like a surfer would speak English or something. I can never understand him because he uses so much slang.

2. He plays a great goalie in football.

3. The day of his baptism he was a nervous wreck! Really, I've never seen him like that before.

4. He is one of the most even-keeled people I've ever met. Which makes #3 weird.

5. He came anyway. Because he is a man of his word. And a man of faith.

6. He looks a lot like his dad, who came to the baptism and seemed very pleased.

7. I still don't know whether or not he looks like his mom--she came but sat crying in the car the whole time.

8. His favorite food is beef and he hates sweet things. So he gives it all to us.

9. He also hates ties, but Elder Jones asked him if he wanted to wear one at the baptism and he decided to. Then he showed up wearing a tie for his confirmation the next day! The only tie he owns he got when he was 15. I don't know if we'll ever see him in one again.

10. As soon as the service began he felt much better.

11. After he was baptized he told the elder who baptized him, "I feel quite perfect."

12. #11 is funny because he always uses the word 'quite' when he speaks English. Nothing is 'good' or 'bad', it is only ever 'quite okay' or 'quite a funny' (yes, he always says 'quite A funny'--I never have the heart to correct him--it's like when Michelle used to say sunscreen and bikini for sour cream and zucchini, I don't really want him to fix it, it's too endearing)

13. When he was confirmed yesterday, by a British man in our branch who married a Czech woman, he was told that he had a work to do in the church and that trials would come soon, but if he read his scriptures and prayed every day his faith would always grow. And it counseled him to share the gospel with his family.

14. He loves reggae music and Bob Marley.

15. His dad picked up a younger girlfriend which tore his family apart a while ago and just recently his parents finally separated. For this reason, he LOVED his first time at church (this was also before I came to Brno), because they talked about the law of chastity in Sunday School. They basically had to drag him there, but afterwards he said he loved it and wanted to come every week.

16. He texted us last night asking about good scriptures on the Holy Ghost--how it feels and such, because he's awesome and studies his scriptures.

Anyways. I cannot describe how amazing it felt to see him baptized and confirmed--to know that real happiness in life is now available to him. AHH! I've realized that it's such a blessing to have an investigator that speaks English so well as a greenie--I would not have much of a relationship with him if he didn't, because I wouldn't be able to understand anything. I never realized before that missionaries really develop deep friendships with those they teach. It's so great!

Ghazi, the miracle man, got a job a little while ago and we've had a really hard time catching him because of it. We're still working on it, but he won't know enough to be baptized by Nov. 6th. We'll see and pray and work our hardest. That's all.

That's basically all. Another pretty typical week. We've found a few people who are really cool. One girl, Alena, is an artist, but also works at a chocolate bar, so we are going to visit her there today. Gotta love the Lord's work right? "Chubby mush" is Beely's nickname for her little brother. Haha. The girl's obsessed with mushrooms for some reason, and started calling him chubby mushroom, which was shortened to chubby mush later. What a funny girl!

More Christmas things: I know I keep adding to the list. Buuuuut I'm thinking that none of these things will be very expensive. 2 things here: any sort of smallish pictures of Jesus that I could give to investigators would be great. It's amazing how much that touches people here. Also: a new journal. Actually, you could just send two right now so you don't have to send one later. And if those two journals happened to be from Anthropologie that would bring some serious warmth to my heart.

One interesting thing: here it is really common to ask someone if they're a "believer". Isn't that funny? My first time I was a little weirded out by the idea of asking someone that, but here it's totally normal. I dare you to try asking someone in America if he/she is a believer. And then return and report, please.

I just received letters from both Courty and Bekahhhh--letters will be coming your way SOON, no worries!

As for the ------- family, just keep praying for them, being there for them, looking for opportunities to tell them what you know. That's all anybody can do.

Family, I seriously love you to itty bitty pieces. And now I must go because my stomach is eating itself.

S laskou,

Sestra Dean

P.S. I will post more pics next week, slibuju!

P.P.S. Next week is transfer week, which means that I won't be writing till Wednesday. So don't freak out.

October 11th, 2010

No nazdar!

Waaah, I can't even believe that about the person getting baptised after watching conference! That's fantastic! We just watched conference this past weekend--we get it a week later here to allow it to be translated in to czech. But we still watched it in English. There was a man there from Russia I'd never seen before...he's not a member, but apparently he's known the missionaries since 1997 and has come to the past four general conferences. I blows my mind how someone can love conference enough to see it FOUR CONSECUTIVE TIMES (all four sessions!) and still not understand that they need this! THEY NEED THIS! ASDLFKJ!! I told him that we could change his religious status very easily, but he quickly changed the subject after that.
But conference was fantastic! I sat right next to Petr for both of the Sunday sessions...it changed how I took in every word of it. (That could be because I could smell him the entire time...which is normal. People here just don't shower much...or ever. I hope I never smelled like that!) I loved how much they talked about baptism! It was perfect for him because he is getting baptised THIS SATURDAY! I am always amazed at the way all my questions are answered through conference. Lately I've been struggling with consecrating everything to the work--even my thoughts. It's an interesting experience, having a companion who's about to leave and who's worrying about 'otherworldly' things. I have barely begun my mission, yet the mentality is somewhat contageous. Don't get me wrong, Sister Wheeler is not trunky in the slightest--she's still a hard worker and focused. But there are things she has to think about. And her presence sometimes gets me thinking about the end instead of the now. But conference did a lot to help me with that--talking about gratitude (gotta love President Monson!) and consecrating life. We joked and told Petr that it was as exciting as Christmas, so he told us that meant yesterday was Boxing Day. Ha. And HIS PARENTS ARE COMING TO HIS BAPTISM! BOTH OF THEM! WEEEEEE! AND HIS GRANDMA CAN'T COME BECAUSE SHE HAS CANCER BUT SHE'S GOING TO MAKE CAKES FOR IT! AHHH! Now we just need him to invite his friends. :) Thanks for the advice Ma, but changing friends here is not really much of a possibility... There are a handful of people who are members, but none of them are his age. And besides, it's not that they're bad people, they just don't understand religion really. What he needs to do is share the gospel with them so they can be happy the way he isssssssssssss. Which I think he will. Because he's a borec (stud).
Man, life is gooooooooooood.
Also: Elder Bailey and I met a man on the namesti a few days ago who's sanity was somewhat questionable. We told him about the Book of Mormon and about conference. But he came to three different sessions! Right before the first session, he told me that he was CRAZY about cigarettes...but after the last session he told us that he wanted to quit smoking. Cool! Way to go Elder Ballard!
Furthermore: A man who's getting baptised this Saturday (we're actually down to 2 people...funny how that works. But most of them are just postponed for the time being), when asked who he wanted to baptise him, requested ME! Hahahahahaha...this response was quickly followed by another lesson on authority.
And: last week I accidentally told someone that I was writing in my umbrella (destnik) instead of my journal (denik) and I also addressed a man as a woman. I love learning Czech!
Additionally: this week is supposed to be the COLDEST winter the CR's seen in A THOUSAND YEARS! AGAHS! We do have warm socks here. I will buy a warm coat soon. But hand/feet warmers would be awesome. Also, don't bother with the ring then--I can't abide silver jewelry.
I heard that David Archuleta's singing with Motab for Christmas. I know you're all over that already.
Family, I just love you so dang much! Danielle and Michelle, you can WRITE ME, if you want. No pressure. Corey/Chris, I'll write you soon!

Tak jo, tak cau.

LOVE YOU! Really, I feel your prayers. Keep up with the great missionary work!

Sestra Dean

[Blog Readers: to watch General Conference (October 2010), go to lds.org and follow the conference links.]

October 4th, 2010

Ahojjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj!!

You will never guess what we did this morning... Sli jsme na houby!! --We went MUSHROOM HUNTING!! I KNOW! Czechs are just like little hobbits, it's great. And they all know their species of mushrooms... Especially Petr (he's the one who took us--he's the ultimate hippie, basically. Which is why we love him so much). I thought about Courtny a bit as we went, and how we bought those weird mushrooms at the farmers market in Boise, along with that plant viel--the baby ferns. Unfortunately, because it's getting cold, we only found poisonous mushrooms, so we couldn't eat any of them. But some of them looked EXACTLY like the mushrooms in Super Mario Bros. I mean really. It was weird. I guess it makes sense that they modeled the video games after things that were somewhat real...but I'd never really envisioned it before. Petr told us that all mushrooms are edible--but the ones that we saw were the kind of mushrooms you can only eat once.

Speak of Petr, he's doing GREAT. We talked with him last week about missionary work and asked him about telling his family and friends about his baptism. Initially, he was completely against it--"No way!" he told us. He even said it in English. But he's slowly been breaking down...Saturday night, apparently he couldn't sleep at all because he had a dream that he told his family and friends and that they all came to his baptism. So early Sunday morning he called his mom and told her. She wasn't too happy about it--he doesn't really understand because she's also the one who didn't like it when he was younger and got into a lot of trouble. I think she may warm up to the idea though. He talked to his dad too, who said he'd come. Weeeeeeeee! Seriously, this man is stellar. I'm kind of obsessing over him and how great he is.

Liba is doing okaaay, but not quite as well...we taught her the Word of Wisdom this week. I was nervous about this because nearly every time we've come she's told us how much she LOVES coffee. Initially she protested, but finally she said, "Okay, if you say so, Beely (remember, that's what she calls Sister Wheeler...apparently she called Sister Reese, who was here before me, Sally. Go figure), I believe that it's from God." And she agreed not to drink coffee any more. We brought her Caro to drink instead. The next day she drank coffee once, but we've talked to her about it and she's done better since. We're a little worried about her testimony...she's very childlike, so we're teaching her simply, but we really want her to have a testimony when she's baptized, instead of just baptizing her because we can. We've talked about pushing her date back some...we'll see. I tried to take a picture with her, but she said we needed to wait until we could get her cats in the picture, so maybe next week. :) Yesterday we visited her husband in the hospital with her. It all makes sense now. He's also very simple-minded, but less talkative. She just brings him tons of food and talks to him while he silently chews. It's a beautiful marriage. :)

So I need to tell you about a miracle, quickly, because we're running out of time. About a month ago, an Elder and I contacted a man from Tunesia. He's Muslim and his name is Ghazi. We talked with him about the BOM. I kind of figured he wouldn't be interested because Muslims tend to be wary of other books and the idea of other prophets since Muhammed, but he actually said if we could bring him the book in French he'd read it! Okay. So we did, maybe 2 days later. Unfortunately, though, he was going home to Tunesia for a while, so we wouldn't be able to meet with him until October. And he didn't have a Czech phone number, so we just planned to meet with him on Oct 1st. That day came about on Friday. With no way to contact him and remind him, we weren't so sure it'd happen. But he called US! So we met with him--he read the Book of Mormon TWICE since we gave it to him! He was worried about the things that God's forbidden us to do--especially because he's done a lot of them (he has a 4 month old daughter...and the woman has fled the country). He said he didn't want to do those things any more, that he knew it was a very good book, and that he wished there were a way for him to start over fresh. What do you know, THERE IS! So we told him about baptism and showed him a picture and he said, "Where can I go to get that done?" Here, in Brno! "When?" How about November 6th? "Okay." SO HE'S GETTING BAPTIZED!! WOOOO! And he seemed so sincere and humble...it's interesting how the most humble people are the ones with the roughest lives. Anyway, it's cool.

Also: any appropriate music will do. And HAND WARMERS! AND FEET WARMERS! AND ANYTHING FOR WARMTH--IT IS GETTING COOOOOLD HERE! They don't sell hand warmers. The easiest way to send money would be just to put it into my account. And you can also get me a CTR ring in czech for Christmas if you'd really like to... ZS is it in Czech. A gold one maybe. With white on the inside of the shield. If that's even possible.

And yes, E. Meiling's been in the CR for 2 weeks now. I just saw him last week--he's hanging in there. He said he FINALLY got a letter from Danielle. His health has been miraculous.

And now I must go write the Pres.

LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOOOVE!

Sestra Dean

September 27th, 2010

HELLOOOOOOOOOOO RODINOO!

Here I am in the "cyber cafe" again, which means yet another week has come and gone. It's crazy how quickly the time flies already. I've been telling people all along that I still have about a year and a half in Czech Republic, but I just realized yesterday that I really have only have a year and 3 months! How does that happen?! In a mere few minutes 3 months of my life has already passed me by. Two days ago marked the halfway point in the transfer. My comp just got her flight plans today--EEK! Every week I write Prez and tell him that if he really wants to keep her here, I'd be okay with that. Maybe it'll work--you know how persuasive I can be. :)

This past week I've spent my days in Praha--the land of fairy tales and loud tourists. It's interesting--you never realize how quiet Czechs are on a tram/bus until there's someone from America/England on the bus too. Then the contrast is made quite clear. AAAAAND I had the GREATEST surprise only 15 minutes or so upon entering the church building in Praha. BROOKE LARSON was there. The Wookie! I KNOW! (She's the one I lived with in Jerusalem...she writes really well, wrote that book list you read once, Ma). She's been a Sister in Albania for the past year and a half and just returned while I was in the MTC, so I thought perhaps I'd never see her again. But here I am, hauling my buns around the obscurity of the CR, and lo and behold she appears from the dust like a...a...something. It was SO GOOD to see her! She's studying in Praha for a month so she can teach English in Barcelona. Woo! She's still the same old Brooke for sure (she had streaks of purple and blue in her hair), but the mission changed her some. Only in good ways. She just seemed very grounded and centered. Like she'd found her chi, if that were even a real thing. The Albania mission sounds like a trip, that's for sure. People from opposite sides of the country can't even understand one another--she didn't get a real grasp of the language until the very end. Yikes. I love the Czech Prague mission. She told me to give a special SHOUT OUT to Bekah boo in the MTC. She loves you. And I love you. I pray for you to have the gift of tongues every day, just FYI. I'll be writing you soon, whether or not I see a letter from you. :) Keep rocking it, Poop.

Sister Wheeler was training all week in Praha, so I was a makeshift companion with Sister Lier--Sister Wheeler's companion in the MTC. We did ourselves a bit of finding and challenged a total of 5 people to baptism. It was pretty neat. We found another man from Romania (they're everywhere here! If only I could remember!) and taught him the next day. At the end of our lesson, I prayed in some twisted hybrid of Romanian and Czech...he and God were probably the only ones that understood. It was fun being in Prague and seeing the other missionaries, but it's different talking to people that you know you'll never see again and setting up appointments for other missionaries to teach. And I got sick of eating out--seriously, EVERY MEAL. Ugh. Who wants KFC when you're in Europe? I need my veggies. So, in spite of the fact that I attended my first SINGING DISPLAY (= awesome! all the missionaries band together and sing hallelujahs in an overwhelming spectical of heavenly awe...really, people stop and listen), I was ready to come back.

And there were our investigators, waiting for us! We watched the long Joseph Smith movie that they show at temple square with Petr on Saturday. He's so cute--he had a hard time with how sad it was at the end. But he said he supposed it was good that he died because it showed how much it meant to him. He was supposed to spend the weekend in Nova Jicin (his hometown), but he came back early on Saturday to see us and to come to church. He seems to be growing more and more sure of the church all the time--or maybe just more used to it. On Sunday he went outside the building in between classes on what we like to call a 'ponder wander'--like how it always shows people thoughtfully ambling along as their testimonies grow in those old seminary videos...we may or may not watch old seminary videos during lunch here...I may or may not love that--afterwards he told me that's it's difficult for him...he doesn't fit in with all his old friends in Nova Jicin anymore (doesn't want to), but also doesn't quite fit in with the ward because he doesn't know as much and hasn't been baptized yet and there aren't any members in his same situation in life. He's moving to Canada in January, so I think things will improve for him when he can attend a strong singles ward, but it's definitely an adjustment for him. Keep him in your prayers.
Liba's also still Liba. We are going to teach her the Word of Wisdom on Wednesday. Last time we told talked about prophets and obedience and why it's important--she told us she's willing to do whatever they say...but I'm a little nervous because she's told us how much she loves coffee basically every time we visit...we're going to bring some Caro for her as a substitute. I hope it suffices. Aaaaaaaand we're going with her to visit her husband in the hospital! I wonder if he's as crazy as she is! (I hope he doesn't smell quite as bad...I love the woman, really I do, but sometimes I have difficulty breathing while I sit next to her in church. Old person + coffee + poor Czech hygiene is not exactly the most pleasant thing I've ever snorted.
But life here is very grand. I just LOVE being a missionary. The Lord really blesses us--when we want the blessings and show we're willing to act on them. Aren't promptings funny sometimes? Last night was freezing and we were walking home in the rain...we passed this woman and the thought came to me that we should talk to her. But it was raining and Sis Wheeler was booking it ahead of me. Finally, I asked her if we could just turn around and give her a card or something. So we did. But once it was in the lady's hands, she asked if we were a cult. No, I said, we're just a church. She grew all flustered and tried to give it back to me, but of course I didn't take it and it ended up on the ground, where we left it. Go figure.
But I know God leads us, that He labors with us in the vineyard. Isn't it grand?

I'm creating a Snapfish account to upload my pictures because I need more space on my card. That way you can look up all my pictures at once, instead of trying to email them back and forth.
go to snapfish.com
email: ashley.dean@myldsmail.net
password: deaner
You can upload pictures to it too if you want me to see them.

As far as Christmas goes, I would LOVE some music! I bought that Nearer CD for Chris and Corey last Christmas, but I think they left it at our house...if no one's listening to it, you could just send that on over. EFY music is allowed here, says Mr. Prez, but you know that I'm not huge on all of it. I would love the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack. Or Christmas music or something else great. As long as it's instrumental and peaceful or about the Savior or something. Alsoooo....if you want to send a few sheets of scrapbooking paper so I can cover my little BOM, that would be great. They don't have much here. I'll probably need like 3 sheets of the same kind. I'm thinking maybe like an antique map sort of look? I don't know. Get me something classy, Ma. Granola/Adam's would be great. Other than that....they have H&M and Zara and Reserved here, so if you want to just send money, I could definitely find some satisfying things here. :)
There are some really cute manger scenes made of corn husks here Ma...let me know if you'd be interested in one--I'm uploading pictures on to Snapfish.

Aaaaand I think that's all. Tell President H that I haven't forgotten my promise, I'll send him pictures for sure. I love you all--keep up the great missionary work! Danielle, did you get my letter yet?? Also, when are Chris and Corey going to make me an aunt?!?! Everyone else here has nieces and nephews and I just really want to fit in with all the other missionaries. :)

Love love LOOOOOOOVE,

Sestra Dean