I Don't Play X-Box

Hi binkyheads! How are you? I hope that means good.

This week has been full of surprises--really. I have a feeling that the mission is about to completely change for Sister Laws and I. There's so much to tell you that I made myself a list! Here we go:

1. Sister Laws and I are moving to Ostrava. Remember that man that I told you about a while ago--I contacted him on the namesti (town square) with E. Bailey and he came to conference and afterwards said he wanted to quit smoking? Well, he's turned out to be a bit of a weirdie. He is at least 50 and always wears this women's coat with fur around the hood. He speaks a little English, but acts really different--like he's always a little bit drunk or he's had some brain damage or something. Apparently he's taken a fancy to me. The weird part is, there's never much of a problem when I'm around--he merely wants to talk to me and maybe shake my hand a little longer than necessary. Once he gave me a book in Czech with funny sayings about what women think of men. I didn't understand much of the little bit that I've read. His ambition to quit smoking has also been a dismal failure--he says that the devil puts cigarettes in his mouth and makes him smoke them. In the past few weeks his obsession has seemed to increase. He comes to the building unexpectedly and asks for me. Of course no one ever tells him where I am. I'm lucky to have some Elders here with me who are a little on the protective side. On Friday, President Irwin came to interview a few of the missionaries he hadn't spoken with in a while. When he came Vladislav was here. He asked him where I was and told President that he hasn't been able to sleep or eat since he met me. He's not really dangerous, just crazy, it seems.

So we're moving to Ostrava--maybe one of the ugliest cities in the CR. It's way up north and among the coldest in the country. Apparently some binkyhead decided to put a big stinky smokey factory right in the middle of the town. They also talk a lot faster there. We are switching areas with a set of Elders that are currently there (one of them is E. Betts, who was in the MTC with me), which means S. Laws and I will be "blinding in"--i.e. neither of us will know our investigators or the area or really anything at all. I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit intimidated by the whole thing. Especially the fact that people speak so much faster up there--I feel like I'm just getting comfortable understanding people here. I don't really want to be a greenie all over again! The more I hear about where we're going, the more I feel like I could be in that BBC movie North & South (shout out to all DeMordaunt women). We're leaving the nice, friendly, beautiful, peaceful college city of Brno and going to a city all about industry, where people talk differently and are always hurrying and everything is ugly. Perhaps I will make friends with some factory workers, one of which who will start a revolution against the overseers while his daughter is slowly dying because of poor labor conditions!

In spite of all the seemingly gloomy things about the change, I'm staying optimistic. I can't help but get a little excited when there are bends in the road like this--it makes me feel like the Lord really is in charge of where I go and what I do and that He has a specific plan for me, not only in life, but also as a missionary. It's going to be hard--Ostrava hasn't seen a baptism since February--but I know that the Big Guy upstairs knows what He's doing. And I know that if there was anyone I could do this with, it's Sister Laws. She is fantastic. But more on her next time, time is running short.

2) Petr gave a talk in church on Sunday AND received the priestood of A! I KNOW! Seriously, you should send him a Christmas card. I will tell him about all your prayers--keep 'em coming, he needs them. I'm not sure how he'll feel about us leaving--he really likes the Sister missionaries. And we really like him. He's going to become a legend someday, seriously! BUTTT his dad lives in Ostrava--hopefully we can teach him there!

3. Viktor is a little MIA at the moment. His brother is a Jehovah's Witness--I hope that's not influencing his desire to meet with us. But it's not over--I'll keep you posted.

4. Liba's doing really well (another sad thing about leaving). She's finally reading on her own and we just taught her about tithing, which she said she'd keep.

5. Met two amazing people contacting yesterday. One is from Ghana and the other is Czech. We were able to set up appointments with both of them. The Czech one, Vojta, was a little reluctant at first. But there just came a point where I had to whip out the big guns--I just told him flat out, "YOU NEED THIS BOOK. IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE." And now he's meeting w/ us on Thursday.

6. The food here is pretty good. Basically everything fried. More on this next time, I have 30 seconds.

I looooooooooove you! Pray for us!

s.d.