It is Definitely Autumn!

I  say it is autumn because it is just beautiful here in the Czech Republic in the fall.  All of God's beautiful creations are everywhere, in the air, the trees, on the mountains, etc.  There are so many colors of leaves and with the touch of snow on yellow maple leaves in the trees is, well, just great.  Yes, it has started to snow here.  We have been hovering in the 32-38 degree Fahrenheit range this week.  A couple days we woke up with snow and as I write, it is still snowing.  Time to break out the winter sweaters, coats, gloves, and hats!

 

This was a nice week, not as filled with new investigators or lessons, but a great week of growth and missionary work, and fun.  I would like to share just a few things today.

 

So, Monday (last), we planned on going to the zoo which is the best in the Czech Republic.  Our district got all together and started to head over there when we realized we didn't have enough time to go.  So instead, we went to take out last opportunity to find mushrooms in the nearby forests before freezing temperatures destroyed all the mushrooms.  We found a few, but not any that were edible.  I only know of two kinds:  In Czech they are a Babka and Pichavka.  They smell really good, but we didn't find any.  It was too late into autumn.

 

During the rest of the week, we had a few lessons.  One lesson we had a lesson with Dana.  She is doing great.  We taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ - the steps we take to follow Christ and come closer to God. (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end).  The lesson went very well.  Our member Sister Večeřová gave strong testimony about the gospel blessing her life.

 

This may be a small branch, but there are some strong testimonies!

 

We also had zone conference.  Out of our MTC group, all the Slokav missionaries were there, and I was.  All the other Czechs in my group were in different zones, therefore different conferences.  None the less, it was a great "reunion" and the training was great.  All trainings are great.  They are good times to refocus and polish our missionary skills!

 

Other good news:

Ivo, the new convert in Brno that I taught with Elder Strobl, got the priesthood!  He is progressing like a champ in the gospel.  I am proud of him and am excited for the waiting blessings to unfold to him.  A member named Gad Vojkuvka, who kept the church alive during communism, gave him the priesthood.  His blessing, as I was told was beautiful.

Also, I found out last night that in a small city called Lišeň, just outside of Brno, lives a man that we gave a contact card a few months ago.  Yesterday, this man came to church in Brno and the missionaries are now teaching him.  It is a testimony to me that NO EFFORT is wasted!  Even giving someone a missionaries' contact card can open doors to people lost in this world to learning and coming to know God.

 

In church I got to share my talents and play the organ for sacrament meeting again.  Us missionaries also had talks in church.  We spoke about true conversion and how we can become more converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  If I had more time to talk about it, I would, but I don't.

 

I am very grateful that I can be here and serve God.  It is not work, it is a blessing that I gladly take part in.  It is a blessing for me and for others.  I know that this gospel is true and provides eternal lasting happiness.  I know that as we share the gospel and replace that fear we may have with faith, we grow in testimony and learn how to become more like our Savior Jesus Christ.  I challenge all who read this: Members of this church - get a missionary contact card from the missionaries next time you see them, and carry it with you this week until you find someone to give it to.  Find an opportunity in an unlikely place like at work, at school, at the store, or on a morning walk and give the card to someone.  NO EFFORT is wasted.  Non-Members - Go to Mormon.org to find contact information.  Either way, I promise thatyou will have joy that you have never experienced before as you share with people or learn for yourself of this message.

 

Everyone have a good week,

I love you all,

Elder Bahr

Další Dobrý Týden!

The caption means "Another Good Week"  I didn't want it to be the regular caption.  But as it says there, we had a great week.  We visited many recent converts and less active members to help strengthen their testimonies.  :)  We also got some more new investigators!  This deal with going door to door really has been paying off.  We planned at the beginning of the transfer to tract this area till it was finished, if we had time to go finding.  God has been preparing some great people for us.  We have been blessed.  The new investigators we have are a lady named Ludmila and another one named Kouřilová (last name).  They are great.  Kouřilová is the one we met while finding a less active and we scheduled then with her to meet a yesterday.  The lesson went well.  Ludmila was met tracting andwe had a lesson with her on her door step and we are excited to have another lesson with her today!  We will be giving her a Book of Mormon and teaching about the restoration through Joseph Smith.

 

Though I have only a little bit to write, it was a great week in my book being able to teach some new people and help them come unto Christ.  Not too much else happened this week.  We have continued with our other investigators like Dana, and she is doing well.  And we have been just enjoying this work.  Oh, I also got to play the organ for church again this week.  I am thankful I have been blessed with talents and can use them and share them with people.

 

Take care this week everyone and don't forget the famous phrase: Replace Fear with Faith!

 

-Elder Bahr

Amazing Week!

It may not seem like too amazing of a week, after you read this, but it was.  It would make more sense to missionaries and even more sense to missionaries of the Czech/Slovak Mission.  None the less, I hope you will feel the same excitement that I have.

So, to just dive into it, this week we found some great new people and had conference!  Conference was this week here, to get it translated and sent to us.  We missionaries still watch it in English though.  That is what I would prefer anyway to get the most of conference as I can.  I loved the talks.  They were great for me because I could ponder about my own life.  They were inspired for sure.
Now to the new people we found.  This week, we found a few new people to teach.  They are all great and willing to learn.  First is a woman named Alena.  We were tracting the other day and planned an area called Zalešná (Zah-lesh-na) to tract.  On the way there we saw a small, seemingly insignificant street.  My companion mentioned it and I said "It's a sign!!!!", so we decided to try there.  We went down it and got to a house, rang the doorbell, and this lady answered.  We spoke for a moment then she asked if she could get us some tea.  We accepted politely.  She came out a few minutes later with a table, some chairs, tea, and cookies.  We sat on her front porch while we enjoyed her hospitality and taught her.  We have another lesson this week and she told us she would love to read the Book of Mormon!  She has a daughter that she said she would like us to meet too.  She studies in Olomouc, so the missionaries there, may get a nice person to teach.  It was a great evening to find her.
The next one is a man that we found and asked to sit with him on his porch and talk with him.  So we did and taught him right there.  A couple days later, we came back and gave him a Book of Mormon and him and his wife said they would love to read it.
The last one was when we went to find a less active member.  We met a lady out side before talking with the member.  We spoke with her for some time and asked to meet with her and she accepted happily.  In our conversation, she said she was and evangelist, but still didn't know which church was true.  We talked with her a bit more, set up our meeting, and went to find the member.  The member wasn't home, but his mother was, who isn't a member.  We talked with her and got a lesson with her!

We have been blessed this week, and I know it was due to obedience to commandments, mission commandments in specific.  I know as we replace fear with faith and do what we know we should, we will find miracles in life and be blessed.  Do what you should and you will be blessed.

Until next week,
Elder Bahr

I Love Serving Others!

The title of this letter is like this for a great reason regarding apples which I will speak of shortly.

 

It is just cold here.  It isn't bad already, but thinking about how cold it is and the fact that it will get twice as cold here, just chills me. Brrrrrr.  Like I said, it isn't too cold yet, but I am still having to break out the jackets!

 

I had a nice week this week.  We didn't teach too many lessons, but we did got a nice dose of good ol' service.  Just to say a few things before we get into what we did this week as far as service; We had a great lesson with a recent convert.  She explained that people at school were asking ""Why do you go to that sect of yours?""  She didn't know how to answer, so we told her to handle it with the best weapon in the army of God.  TESTIMONY!!!!  We helped her understand how to share what she knows is true with people then we practiced.  It was a fun little reenactment.  She is a great member and knows that she is in the right place.  :)

 

This week I got to play the piano in sacrament meeting too!  It was fun and I made a couple mistakes in the hymns as I played them, but I am happy for the opportunity I had to share my talents.  God has truly blessed me.

 

A good "Side-dish" of being on a mission here is learning history from the witnesses of the history and people who experienced things first hand, instead of learning from a text book. 

 

So now on to the service experiences.  We planned to have a FULL day of finding people on Saturday and we got a call right after studies before we went out to work.  A member here has a garden just outside of town with LOADS of apples.  She asked us to help her.  We said "We would love to!"  And we loved it.  We spent 6 hours shaking trees, climbing trees, bagging apples, etc. so that the next day's storm would not ruin all of her apples.  There were literally thousands.  It was a ton of work.  She was so thankful that she just kept giving us more and more of her apples.  Our counters at home are now covered in apples.  She is a great member and I am glad we could help her out.  That evening, we also had on plan to clean the church building, so we did.  It was pretty much a full day of service.  Other than that, we called some people and tried to set up meetings for this next week.

 

Another service story comes in the form of "Lost and Found."  We were running Saturday morning and we found a wallet on the ground.  It had 2000 Czech Koruna in it (about $100).  We looked for an address in the wallet and found the address.  He wasn't home though, so we left a note.  This morning, he called us and we met and gave it to him.  It was also a great chance to share the gospel.  He didn't have time, so we couldn't share the gospel through words, but through our actions.  Lessson learned from this story is to always do what is right and the love of God can be shared through that to people.

 

When a decision is placed before you, replace fear with faith and do what is right.  That is all I got this week.  Stand up for what you believe.

 

Have a great week,

Elder Bahr

October already and Autumn is showing itself!

The leaves are changing and it is beautiful.  It is nice to be in a nice valley where the hills change color as well.

 

First, I had a great birthday.  My parents sent me some nice things and my twin sister sent me a rarity in the Czech Republic.  Cocoa powder.  I was able to make my companion and I a nice chocolate cake.  Thanks family.  It was a nice memorable birthday in a foreign land.  Oh, my mission president also called me yesterday morning and sang to me.  :)  That was a nice treat.

 

Now that that is out of the way, I need to tell you about some things that happened this week.  We had our zone conference.  We learned about how we can teach people more like the Savior.  To teach with more questions.  As our example Jesus Christ has used this spiritual gift of teaching by asking questions, we can follow him and when people ask us about our religion, we can answer with an inspired question to create an inner soul search in the person being taught.  That is the main thing I learned, now that I look back.

 

Also We had some great teaching moments with people.  I have learned how it is important to be yourself when talking to people.  They will feel your testimony as you bear your own testimony and show your own concern for your brothers and sisters.

 

In one of these occasions I learned a great point.  It is about making mistakes.  When I was younger, my third oldest sister and I got some advent calendars from my dad's friend.  There were enough for me, this sister, and my twin.  When we got them, we decided to eat the advent calendar chocolates that belonged to my twin sister.  We ate them, not thinking that it would cause any harm.  Later my my twin sister came home and my dad said "Casey, there is an advent calendar on your bed for you!"  My sister and I got nervous.  Long story - short, we got in trouble.  We felt horrible for doing it and even to this day, I feel heart-broken about it.  Many times in life, we do things that we don't bother thinking about the consequences.  The thing, is that in the life after this one, after we die and see all we have done.  We will stand before God and realize what we had done against him.  I pray that we will all learn to do what is right now and live without regrets and live how our Father in Heaven would like us to live.

 

"Choose The Right" and replace fear with faith this week.  We will be filled with joy as we do so.

 

-Elder Bahr

Baptism Pictures!

Ivo's Baptism!!!  22.9.2012