WAHHHHH! I LOVE SEEING PICTURES! (April 26th, 2011)

Seriously--you all just look soooo great! Danielle is just so skinny! Ma, I forgot to tell you--I was showing someone pictures of our family the other day and someone could not believe that you were my mom. Most people think you look way younger than you actually are, according to all the pictures. Thought you'd like to know--live it up, you're gorgeous.

This week has been SO crazy, SO packed! I'm going to number the things I have to tell you so that I don't forget everything because it's all just so wonderful I can't leave anything out!

1. Last Tuesday we went to Brno (my birthplace!) for specialized training, which is what we have instead of Zone Conference each month. Lots of dying missionaries gave AMAZING testimonies...and the weirdest part is that they are missionaries who came out with my trainer, who died a long time ago. I remember meeting them and thinking to myself that they still have an entire quarter of their missions left! I'm starting to realize how fast time flies. I can't even waste a second!

2. DUSAN DUSAN DUSAN! He's still so cool--in fact, ever since President Irwin taught him with us he's become a legend around the mission. President is telling everyone during each specialized training how cool our investigator is! Woo! We talked to him again about baptism. He says that he's positive he wants it, but his girlfriend, Martina, just wants him to go a little slower. Her mom is a Jehovah's Witness, and I think she's just a little cautious when it comes to joining religions because a lot of JWs sign their lives away when they're baptized. But get this: he sent us emails of the potential cars he is thinking about buying and wants us to help him pick (Audi, BMW or Lexus...tough decision, eh?). He says that of course he wants Martina's opinion too, but he wants us to help him decide. It's amazing how much people trust you when they know you're sent from God.

3. Wednesday, as a part of Awesome April, was another ALL DAY, ALL CONTACTING mega session. But this time MISSION-WIDE!! As a district, we decided to beat our record from last time and go for 1300 contacts and at least 50 solid numbers (some of the 72-day numbers were a little quesitonable...I think a few girls afterwards were hoping to go on doubles with some of the Elders...hah--that's only kind of a joke) aaaaaaand we ended up with 1365 people contacted and 55 phone numbers! WOO! It's so amazing how much the Lord works with us when we set righteous goals! He really really wants us to succeed--I'm convinced of it. Every hour we re-grouped, prayed, counted, and went on splits with a different missionary. At one point, Elder Nielson and I made a goal to get 4 phone numbers in that hour--not unheard of, but something that definitely requires a bit of effort. Scheduled to regroup at 15:00, we found ourselves at 12:50 with only 3 numbers. But we were determined to work until the last second--we talked with everyone we could find and cut short contacts that were obviously headed nowhere--and at about 12:58 we got it! It was just another small miracle in a day full of miracles--in a lifetime full of miracles, really. God loves us! We also ran into Martin during the day and he came and contacted with me for a block. It was really interesting--like having a greenie or something....except he understood everything perfectly. It was a little glimpse into his future, I hope. :)

4. On Friday we met the next Martin Grochol! Really! His name is Jirka, he's 19, and AWESOME. We talked with him about what brings him joy in life. When we mentioned that faith in God can bring us lasting joy, he told us that he's been thinking he should start believing, but hasn't quite yet. Turns out, he's had some experiences with answered prayers, and really has begun believing all the while, he just hadn't realized it or done much about it. So we talked with him about this and then he asked us--so, what should I do? We took him to KFC right then and taught him about God and prayer. He came to church on Sunday and stayed all three hours! He said he really liked it! He's so so so cool, I'm kind of obsessed with him! WAHHH!

5. Speaking of Martin Grochol, on Saturday we had a meeting with him. He finally told his staunchly-Catholic grandmother that he'd been baptized into our church. And, well..she kind of had a conniption. So he came to us with all sorts of questions about polygamy and cults and such things. We were able to have a good talk about it, but he was a little unsatisfied with how little he knew about everything. On Sunday he came to church, passed the sacrament, and then left in some kind of hurry. When we called him about it, he told us that he was going to church with his grandma "searching for truth". I felt my heart break in a thousand different places and I couldn't pay attention to anything for the next two hours. I couldn't help thinking how hard it would be as a parent to have a child reject all the things you've worked so hard to teach them. Gloomy foreshadowings in my patriarchal blessing didn't really help me feel much better with this. But, as the clock of the church next door chimed noon, I couldn't help but think of the BYU bells and how they always chimed "all is well" at every hour. I got this sudden feeling of peace--that things would be okay. Sure enough, when we talked to him later, he said it was really weird at his grandma's church--something was missing.
This got me thinking a lot about my own testimony, how I came to know for myself, even though I don't know everything about every religion. But the glorious thing is that we don't have to be really knowledgable to know the church is true--we have to know what it's like to feel the Spirit and trust in those feelings and all the rest will come.

(I'm in the library right now and someone is drinking alcohol next to me...typical Czech Republic.)

6. Easter. Yes, I was whipped. Not hard, by any means, but yes, it's with the branches. Our clever Elders woke up at 5 AM to come and attack us while we were on our morning run. Unfortunately, Sister Laws looked out the window before we left and saw them, so they lost the element of surprise. I thought I was going to hate it, but we did it all in the spirit of good fun and Czech culture. Still, probably not a tradtion I'd take home to America with me. A lot of Czech women don't like it either. Then we went to Ostrava Castle with so many of my favorite Czechs (including Martin, Rosta, and Jirka!, among others) and then I played Risk for the first time ever and took over the entire world. I think that's a foreshadowing of baptisms to come.

Sorry, I know that's a lot. In closing, I just really wanted to let you in on a little secret: did you know we have a mission song?! Yeah, no one else in the world has this song, except for Czech Prague missionaries. Cool. I nearly cry almost every time we sing it. Here are the lyrics:

We come from places far and near to find the Lord's elect. With faith to work his miracles, our souls with strength are blessed.

Past martyrs of the land we place in reverence and respect. They died for freedomes we hold dear. And we will not forget.

The seeds are sown, the field is white, in Czech and Slovak tongue. Come join the harvest of men's souls, until God's work is done.

Chorus:
We are called of God to a land once cold, bringing forth his wondrous light. And with us the Lord labors here.


I love that so much. I really know the Lord is working with us here. I see it every day and I feel it as I'm typing these very words. This gospel is oh so true. Don't forget it, even for a second.

I love you! Next week I'll be emailing on Wednesday because it will be transfers and I could very well be in an entirely different city! AHH! I don't want to think about leaving...

s laskou,

sestra dean

P.S. Ma--don't send me anything expensive. If I could ask for one thing it'd be a Tide stick--the little kinds that look like a marker. Yes, I'm a messy eater. I don't really want anything else. Except maybe a letter from Danielle.

My pix aren't uploading at all today. Don't know what the big d is. I'll figure it out next week.

Beks: I have pics all printed, all ready for you view pleasure. :) Don't forget: God loves you, Sister! (direct quote from the asian compy-doo)

Who would have thought Easter would be such a sexist holiday? (April 18th, 2011)

I can't believe I've forgotten to tell you about Easter traditions here! (Dad, you'll get a real kick out of this...) Apparently, as a part of Catholic tradition, Easter here lasts three days (Sat-Mon), however the average Czech only pays any attention to Monday because they feel very little religious connection to the holiday, but they do happen to get the day off work. I'm not exactly sure how this, the biggest, craziest of the Czech Easter traditions, came to be, but in this little country, instead of pondering the resurrection or even reflecting on the upcoming spring,THEY BEAT WOMEN. No joke. They fashion these little whips by braiding a few sticks together (some whips are really thick, some are smaller--I think it depends on the decency of the man making it) and dangling some ribbons from one end. Then they go around and beat women while chanting something in particular (I've only heard it once or twice and they say it really fast, so I'm not sure what it means yet). Apparently it keeps the women healthy for the rest of the year. And then, in exchange for the beating, the women give men eggs or candy or alcohol. In some villages I hear that the men are completely drunk by the end of the day because they go from house to house doing it until they've each beaten everyone. And they don't really even have to know a woman to beat her. And the funniest part is that the Czech women LOVE it--they're almost more offended when people don't do it.
So yes, I will be spending next Monday battling my pride. :) Gotta love Czechs!

A few Czechs in particular that I love:

DUSAN DUSAN DUSAN DUSAN!!! AHH! He's sooo cool! He's begun referring to the church as "our church" and he's still reading from the BOM 15-20 minutes every day. He's even begun watching General Conference at home--says he's going through it slowly because he wants to understand everything. President Irwin was in town on Friday, so we actually brought him along to our lesson with him. Poor Dusan was so nervous when we told him that he was coming--"Really? He sounds like a really important man!" "Should I call him Mr. President?" We talked about Jesus Christ and baptism with him. Helped him understand that baptism was the gateway to further learning and growing, not a final destination (a common misconception here in the CR--one guy's been coming to church for almost 12 years and still isn't a member because he can't get over this). When we taught him about Jesus' baptism he got really surprised and said, "I didn't know that Jesus Christ was baptised. Wow--I think everyone should be baptised!" So he's praying about it and talking it over with his girlfriend. Also: we haven't taught him any commandments yet, but he's read about the Word of Wisdom and stopped drinking alcohol on his own. He also told us he's going to stop drinking coffee and tea too. He's just so wonderful and humble. It's amazing how much he trusts and believes us. He's a real miracle. Yesterday he was in Germany buying a new Lexus. Not at church because of that, but man is he loaded.

Petra Galickova: we've taught her once before. She's the wife of one of my favorite members, who served a mission in Washington state a while back, and speaks English perfectly. His first marriage to a member ended unpleasantly, so Petra's not a member, but a gem still. After our first lesson, I found myself wondering what sort of difficulties we could expect, because she told us that she has a lot of concerns, and I know she's already been taught by other sisters before. But yesterday we decided to start from square one: the restoration. Surprisingly, she knew very little about it, except that Joseph smith translated the BOM. She didn't even really have a great understanding of Jesus Christ. To shorten things, the lesson went really well--the spirit was really strong, and she committed to reading from the BOM and praying about it to find out for herself. I just really really want them to be an eternal family!!

Zuzana Tomsikova: mother of a cool young member who's leaving on his mission to Canada in a week or so, Ondrej. SO much potential here too! She has a lot of interesting questions--she's investigated religions her whole life, but it's never felt real or personal to her--things like, what do you picture in your head when you're praying? Or harder ones, that I can't answer regarding how it's possible to live with all of one's family at once. She's one of those people that has a strange ability to disagree with you while praising you and making you feel like the cat's pajamas, she is that nice. Occasionally it's difficult to read her because of this. People like this make me so grateful that Heavenly Father's helped me so much in my ability to speak and understand Czech.

Those are two of the three investigators we're teaching who are related to members (the other is a ten-year-old boy who's the son of an AMAZING member and her alcoholic husband...kind of a tricky situation). We joke a lot about how our calling is not only to find, teach, and baptise individuals, but devise ways to create eternal families! My mission has made me realize over and over again how important families are. Of course I've always wanted my own family, but I think that I'm really beginning to look forward to having my own family, for the first time in my life. And I'm learning over and over again how much I have to be grateful for when it comes to my own wonderful family. :)

Everyone, I just think you're all swell. Keep up the greatness, I love you!

Sestra Dean

Ma: you pick the day (or a few possible days) and I'll work around that, as far as calling goes. Break a leg!

Breanne Black: you just write the best letters ever! I was laughing and crying all over the place--thank you! I will be sending you a response asap. But it sounds like there are SO many Romania girls that have a little writing to do (i.e. Keilani = Korea?! and Trisha = BRENT?!)

Rosie: oh my goodness, those pictures made me the happiest little girl in the world. Serious face. Our kids are so wonderful. And I'm so SO excited about your friend coming to the mission--I hope I get to train her, I hope I hope!
and...Wayne Sandholtz?!

Also: Sisters Renata Blombergova and Eva Ivanova (members from Ostrava) met Christine Frye (friend that went to Jerusalem with me) on Temple Square of all people--I just received a picture of them together yesterday. What a great surprise!

Oh Helloooooo! (April 11th, 2011)

Cest ladies and gentlemen, cest!

Don't worry. We just had the greatest weekend of your life. Get this--Saturday: General Conference. Group cleaning the church service activity. Baptism. Major lunch out of the goodness of the woman who was baptised, Radka, who happens to be a chef. General Conference again. General conference again. Wowza. (Yes, President wanted us sisters to watch the priesthood session too, since we are here on priesthood duties. Can I just say those general authorities really seem to loosen up during the priesthood session? I almost died when Elder Eyring shared his story about the sailor--oh man! Gotta love that guy!) One of the greatest things about it: FIVE new members of 2011 in our branch were some of the only ones other than the missionaries to attend all of the sessions. It was so beautiful to see them all soaking it up and to talk with them afterwards about the things that really touched them. It's amazing how Conference just seems to lift everyone's spirits. Rosta sat there and took notes the entire time! It was just so wonderful to see the kind of progress these wonderful people are making.

Speaking of members, this week as part of Awesome April (don't forget the British accent) we will be doing presentations with members in the branch about missionary work. Our beloved President Irwin is really focused on getting the members here involved in missionary work and this is one of the ways he intends to see it through. We're giving each family a card that has a list of 20 or so things that they can do as missionary work, and a calendar where we can write in which ones they committed to do, etc. I think it's going to be really wonderful. Sister G has taught me a lot about the wonder of referrals in a mission where referrals are hard to come by. After serving in Provo and American Fork for 8 months, where they hardly ever tracted, but just fed off refferals, she has got a good thing d-o-w-n. Referrals are just a beautiful, beautiful thing. New investigators with a built-in support system. With someone who speaks their native language to answer questions--someone who will stay in the branch long after missionaries leave. Seriously, everyone--REFER! How can we not share the gladness of this wonderful gospel with everyone we know? Be a good friend, and share your eternal splendors.

Dusan is doing well, in a manner of speaking. Leg is still shot, which means he couldn't come to Conference, even though he really wanted to. But he's chugging his way through the Book of Mormon and we have contact with him daily. He hasn't lost any of his enthusiasm and he's eager to learn everything. I just love this guy! I will try to get some pictures of him for next week.

Had a meeting with Michal Filip last night. I'm afraid to say this, but that man has changed so much since we've known him. He says things that are completely different from what he said when we first met him. He just wants to throw insignificant questions at us (like about the archangel Michael and where it says that he was Adam in the scriptures) and doesn't want to hear our message. It's so difficult sometimes to know what really is the best for these people I've come to care so much for. Hey, but get this: we found out that Sister Laws and I met his younger brother our first week here in Ostrava. We were supposed to meet with him, but something happened and we couldn't, and then we lost touch with him. Last night we compared the phone number we had w/ Michal's brother's and it was the same. So I'm wondering if the key to getting Michal may be through his brother...we'll work on it. Pray for us, please!

Sometimes I feel as though this mission demands so much from a person. Don't get me wrong, it's great--but I'm understanding that the only way it's possible for a person to change so much on the mission, is because the mission demands so much. I absolutely LOVED all the talks on trials and learning from correction and pain and being healed. So many people ask us why bad things happen to good people, why it seems there's no justice if God exists. Maybe because of that, those talks meant a lot to me. God knows EXACTLY who He wants us to be. And He loves us far too much to take away the trials and the suffering. Isn't that so beautiful? He knows what we need to become perfect and He gives it to us without hesitation. And then as we, in our lack of perspective, despair while the trial's upon us, He cries right with us and gives us the strength we need to endure. Then, when it's over, we can look back and see a difference in ourselves.

I've grown so much as a person in the past 9 months. Amy Dean, I am just so dang excited for you! And Keilani Nielson, if you're out there reading this too! And everyone else who is dissatisfied with his life as it is now--find a way to share what you have and you will find that you really are blessed with so much more than you need.

Everyone, this chance at truth is just the best thing that's every happened to us. I love it.

And now I am going to play some ultimate frisbee. Oh yeah.

S laskou,
sestra Dean

I hear Lisa Ogles (Viehwig) is having a baby! AHH! AND Tiffany--awesome! P.S. Did I mention that my AP is related to Tiffany somehow? We spent a great part of lunch talking about all the random connections Elder Anderson has with that huge family in Eagle Idaho. Love them. :)

Beks: I just love you and all your Asian comps. They all look so small and fragile. Can't wait to hear all about the miracles that happen in the big city. Also: this weekend I've been having NieNie flashbacks. Maybe it's all the talks about pain.

Sister Wheeler (I don't know if I'll ever be able to call you Jocelyn...)--ahhh! Chci slyset vic o tom to muzu! Fotky, prosim? Muzes ocekavat neco postou. Mam te rada. :)