My dear little binkies,
This week has been really good. Well, actually, looking back on it there were a few hard parts, but for some reason the contented feeling of a week well-used lingers with me. Like a movie that has those bits in it that make you jump, but ends so happily that you barely remember those parts once the movie's over.
Before I forget, Ma--dont worry about the phone call. So far I know that: you will be calling me, I will be emailing you the number when I know it--probably the week before--and you will have the chance to do a test call sometime throughout the week before Christmas for a half-minute or so to make sure that it works. I will tell you more once I know the deets. Yes, Pres Irwin is the bomb.
I've learned a few things this week that I want to share with you--they will probably explain more about the week than anything else:
1. You don't have to understand everything to know that something is right. Olga--I think I mentioned her briefly before--is a 35-year-old woman we've been teaching for about 2 weeks now. She likes to talk a lot--I might say she's a little bit of an airhead, if I understood her Czech better than I do. (She's hard to understand sometimes.) But she has three kids and is divorced and came to Max's baptism--remember? SHE AGREED TO BE BAPTISED ON JANUARY FIRST!!! WOOO! I know that she doesn't quite get everything yet, but when we set goals, God helps us achieve those goals if we're willing to work at it. She needs to make reading a little more of a priority than it is now, I think, but I think she can get there.
2. God reaches out to us and gives us every opportunity to build a relationship with Him, yet it's still in our hands whether or not we do so. Our fears can hold us back when we deny that they exist.
Petr number two, the "golden" one with whom the spirit was always incredibly strong--well, he dumped us. I wish I could have made a big scene about it, like in Legally Blonde or something, but I don't think my Czech is quite there. Being a missionary has a surprising amount of similarities to dating life (i.e. communication is really important, you meet a lot of people that have interest, but only a few really last, sometimes when you're trying to talk to people about the purpose of life they ask you to go out dancing with them instead, etc.). But it's interesting, because I KNOW that he felt the spirit when weve been there. I know, because I've felt it every time and I could read it in him that he felt it. But he's afraid. We had a discussion about Jesus Christ that we'd planned to have, even after he'd already told us he didn't want to keep meeting. We both had the opportunity to testify really strongly that we knew these things were true and that he could find out for himself whether or not they were true if he were willing to try these things we were telling him. He kept saying that he's never had any friends who were believers and that he just doesn't think he needs to read some book--he's content. I'd always kind of thought that the people who wanted to stop meeting with the missionaries were only those who didn't really get the meaning behind the message in the first place. I can tell that he's afraid of something--of change maybe. I've asked him before if he's afraid and he always says no. I think recognizing our fears is the first step to conquering them. It's like that little lie Satan tells people--that he doesn't really exist--I've come to think that's the most powerful tool he possesses.
3. God wants me to have success even more than I want me to have success. On Saturday we met this kid, Martin. Hes in his mid-20's or so and was really interested in our message and hearing more, even though he didn't consider himself a believer. He was really intrigued by the idea that he could find out for sure whether or not God exists. So we took him to KFC after maybe 5 minutes of talking on the street and taught him about prayer and how he could ask God if He's really there. Then we invited him to church with us--AND HE REALLY CAME!! Woo! Great, right?
Except. We'd only talked with him about prayer and about God, and maybe a little about God's plan. So when people stood up and bore their testimonies in church about living prophets and the priesthood and temples and (this one came up a lot) how important it was that this is the ONLY TRUE CHURCH, I started to sink in my chair with worries about the poor kid next to me. We sounded like a cult, I just knew it. He was going to be scared and leave and never want to speak with us again.
But he decided to stay.
Sunday school (the Gospel Principles class doesn't exist in this branch--big bummer) was about the stick of Joseph and the stick of Judah. Way over his head. But he stayed for priesthood. Which was about the talk by President Uchtdorf--pride and the priesthood or something like that. AHHH!
But the crazy thing is that, while he was really curious and it was completely new for him, he didn't cower away. He said he could tell that these people were really good people, and he set up to meet again with us on Tuesday. And I realized that God will do whatever is necessary for people--he'll inspire others to say the right thing when I can't control them. He does what it takes when I do what it takes. Cool, huh?
4. God has a sense of humor. A few days ago Sister Laws and I were looking through a list of gospel terms in Czech. We laughed over a few of them and said things like, "yeah right, like I'm ever going to say something like Born in the Covenant here on my mission, hahahaa". But sure enough, a few days later we had a lesson with an investigator, Marek. The CR's oldest member (he joined during Communism!) came in and asked if he could join us. We invited him to share his experience with baptism, as that's what we were talking about, and somehow he starts talking about temple ordinances and, sure enough, the term Born in the Covenant comes out of his mouth!! What the--?! Sometimes I'm amazed by these members here...in both good and bad ways. Luckily our investigator wasn't the type to get too weirded out. But man oh man, I bet God laughed at us then.
Those are probably the highlights. It's been pretty cold this week, but today's not so bad. Sounds like it's pretty bad there too--Chris and Corey, if you die I probably won't be able to come home for the funeral, so please wait until next Christmas, okay? :) Kidding. For Christmas we get three whole days off! I can't even imagine what we'll do with so much time. And one day we'll have a big mission conference/talent show and rumor has it that a General Authority is coming. Weeeee! I'll keep you updated.
I love you all lots! Start looking for something from me in the mail soon!
S laskou
Sestra Dean
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