Poslední Týden!

I am in my last few days in the country.  My mission has been good and has gone by fast.  I am excited to come home and see my family and start the next chapter of my life.  Until then, the work continues.

Last week we had a zone conference.  At the conference I, as well as the other missionaries in my group, gave my departing testimony.  It is a tradition for in your last conference you share with everyone what you learned on your mission, joys and your testimony.  It was difficult.  I didn't think I would get emotional, but it snuck up on my and I lost it.  I talked about many things and I can't remember all I said, but mainly I shared about how much my testimony in God has been strengthened.  I know God is there and I notice and feel His influence every day.  It is a beautiful thing to feel.

We had a couple singing displays this week too.  We sang at a place called Dejvice and at Museum.  It was great both times because there were extra missionaries there from other cities visiting for visa work, and we got to sing Christmas songs!!!!!  I love Christmas and the spirit that fills the air.  I thought about it today and there is a spirit of love, warmth, gratitude, and togetherness around Christmas time along with the nice smells in the air of burning wood, sweets, etc.

Today for P-Day we had a "turkey bowl" with President and his family, soon we will go back to their place for dinner.  Later this evening is a baptism of someone the sisters are teaching.

I have no more to say.  I will keep it short and sweet.  My mission has been great.  Not boring or disappointing, but pleasant and uplifting.  I am happy for all the people I met and have been able to help.  I am thankful for my family that has supported me the whole way.  I am gratful to my Father in Heaven for His patience with me and His hand in all things.  I pray that the people in the country of the Czech Republic will be blessed in coming to know of the truth and knowledge of the gospel.  It truly makes people happy.

Everyone, Until we meet again - Replace Fear with Faith!

Elder Bahr

Christmas Nearing and Christmas Gifts of Joy Arriving!

First I am excited to say the Christmas markets are up on the town squares!!!  I missed visiting them last year and the year before I was in the MTC, so I was sad last year to think I will never get to see them up close and enjoy the Czech Christmas Spirit.  Lucky me, I will be able to see them this year!!!  :)

Now, Would it be too repetitive to say we had another miracle this week as well???  Well, I will say it.  There was another miracle!  Quite a large one too!!!  These are the Christmas gifts of joy.  We were at district meeting talking about how in the work we were going through a rough patch with little success and that soon the patch would move on and we would be successful.  It was an amazing meeting.  The Spirit was very strong.  Toward the end we heard the door ring to the church building.  The senior couple the Mendenhalls went down to check.  They came up excitedly and asked for some missionaries to come down to talk with the woman there.  The sister missionaries went down.  After about 20 minutes they came back up and told us this story.  This woman and her friend had ordered a couple Book of Mormons a few weeks ago and hadn't got them yet, so they found the church address and went to get them.  She got the Book of Mormons for her and her friend and was taught a quick lesson.  "She is definitely prepared." The sisters said.  "She was so cool!!"  To make this miracle even more spectacular, later that day we were walking an investigator of ours to the door when another guy came to the doors.  We let him in and let him walk past, thinking he had a lesson with some other missionaries.  We said bye to our investigator and then this other guy came up to us.  We introduced ourselves and he was super friendly and outgoing so I thought he had been missionaries for a while.  He said it was his first time here.  He began to tell the same story the sisters' new investigator had told about ordering a Book of Mormon.  He was the woman's friend and got off work and decided to come by to take a look.  So we showed him the church building and where we meet for church on Sunday and how it goes.  He told us his story how he came to know of Mormons, during which I was awe struck!  He said he had seen a video online of a guy (Who was Mormon) from New Skin and said he just felt something that he needed to come to know.  He decided that he had to meet him, so he flew to Provo to meet the guy who then was in Los Angeles, so he flew down there.  He met him and felt the same thing!  Later he was walking along a sidewalk at the beach pondering about God.  At that moment, he had first ever thought about if God could exist. A man walked past him and they said "Hi" to each other and he said he felt there was some sort of connection between him and that stranger that makes us all brothers and sisters, children of our Father in Heaven.  He stopped and leaned on the railing of the sidewalk over the beach and looked out over the ocean.  After a short moment, he looked down at the beach where someone had that day written in the sand "GOD LOVES YOU!"  That was an answer to his silent prayer.  He decided to get to know Mormons and our beliefs and Replaced Fear with Faith and went out of his way to know God.

As my mission comes to a close, and the beauties of this land, this people, and sharing the gospel here ends, I am privileged to see these miracles continue in majestic ways.  I am most grateful to be a part of Christ's true church and to preach His gospel.  I know the church is true.  I know God lives and answers our sincere prayers.

Everyone, take care.  Enjoy getting into the Christmas Spirit.

Family, Friends, I will see you all shortly.

I love you all.

Elder Bahr

Zooooooooom!

Some people say this week went be slow, but for me it was fast.  We had a great event happen this week too!  We have been for the last month or so been advertising for a concert we were putting on.  Last night was it!  We had 98 people show up to our concert!  Members, non-members, friends, etc.  The concert was called The Restoration.  We sang songs that speak about all sorts of things from the restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith.  In total 8 songs were performed and in between, a member spoke about prophets, Christ's earthly ministry and the restoration through Joseph Smith.  It went very well.  We had this week a couple singing displays to advertise for it.

We had a few lessons this week.  Teaching has slowed down a bit, so we are trying harder to get more people to teach.  This whole transfer people have set up with us to meet and many have cancelled or came to the meeting and have not been able to meet since.  We try our best though and we will see something someday. It is kind of like when I was in Brno and Elder Štrobl and I got few lessons, but later we found out that 3 people we found and taught have been baptized there since.  My mission has been satisfying.  The work is great and will continue on!

Replace Fear with Faith,

Elder Bahr

Messages of the Week

I hope this doesn't sound repetitive, but this week zoomed past.  Just the other day was Halloween and now soon approaching is Thanksgiving.  I have been blessed this week with great missionary opportunities.

Recently in preparation for our concert we have been having more singing displays.  Monday we did one and yesterday we did one.  Yesterday we traveled by the Metro (subway) to where we would sing.  On the way we sang in the Metro trains!  While a few of us sang, the other missionaries passed out fliers!  At the display we passed out MANY fliers and we are expecting a large turnout!

We also were able to work out in areas where missionaries don't often go.  We went to the outer parts of Prague.  We had some nice success!  We have a lesson today with a nice Slovakian lady we met a few days ago.  There was another lady we met as well that lives outside of Prague and she gave us her address for us to send her a Book of Mormon.  It is great that even when missionaries can't make it somewhere, we can get our message to them!

A few days ago we met with a cool guy from Ireland and he invited his friend from Sweden to the lesson.  They both had many questions about Mormonism and came out of the lesson knowing who we are, instead of thinking what the world sometimes thinks about us and not finding out for themselves.  They are two great young people and I see great potential in them!

Last story is a MIRACLE!!!  My last few weeks have been full of them.  Last Sunday in České Budějovice a less active member, Elder Greener and I would teach, came to church!  She was apposed to going but decided she would go after dropping her daughter off somewhere.  She then said to herself "I will go if there is a parking spot open."  The streets were clear!  Then she said "I will go if the door is unlocked."  The door was unlocked.  Then she said "I will sit on the stairs just outside the sacrament room door and listen to the first few talks."  President McConkie just happened to be there and instead of sharing his testimony at the end to wrap up the meeting, he felt prompted to do it at the beginning.  He did so in the very time frame that the member decided to stay.  He mentioned some things in his testimony that really meant a lot to her and now she is on her way to activity again and to all blessings the Lord has for her.  She has had some thing stopping her that was replaced with FAITH.  It is great to see the Lord's hand in this work.  The church is true.  :)

Elder Bahr

MORE MIRACLES!!! WOW!!!

This week we had two huge miracles.  I will just get on with telling about them now.

President McConkie talks about how we need to strive to be spiritual people when we are missionaries, because we are entiltled to that right and that is the only way we will be successful in the Lord's work.  I agree... so last Wednesday night we tried out hardest to be led by the Holy Ghost in our planning for the next day.  We decided that Thursday we would go to the town hall to look for service opportunities in the city.  We planned after that to go to a nearby park to hand out flyers to advertise our concert we are putting on about the Restoration.  While there we were talking with an old lady.  As we did so, a young lady came up to us and waited to speak with us.  Atthe end of the conversation the old lady said she would come!  Then we turned to talk to the young lady.  She told us that she had moved here recently and everytime she sees missionaries, she tries to see if she recognises them from them teaching her in the past.  In this limited visability park in the middle of Prague, she spotted me and recognised my hair.  Now, here for the crazy part... she is a girl I taught at the very beginning of my mission in Ostrava!!!  Now for the crazier part... when she was taught almost two years ago she wasn't making much progress towards baptism.  When we spoke a couple days ago, she said that she has been thinking a lot about baptism and wants to be baptised but has something holding her back.  We will be meeting with her on Sunday to talk about it and help her to be baptised!

The other story is the very next day.  Thursday evening we were planning and trying to be spiritually in tune.  We felt like we should go contacting people at 8 in the morning locally (during our usual study time).  The next morning right after breakfast we went streight outside to work.  With no conversations with anyone and 10 minutes left in our block of time set apart, we felt prompted to cross the street which was a little out of our way for our path home.  We contacted a young man named Tonda.  We taught him right there on the street about the restoration and now have another lesson schedualled for today!  The miraculous part is that he said that lately he has been wanting to be baptised!  We told him that is what we help people do, it so make that covenant with God.  We are more than excited for our lesson today.

The Lord's work moves on.  The church is true.  It is a beautiful thing to be a part of.  This seems like a great way to finish a missions, FULL OF MIRACLES!!!

Nepřestávejte vyměnit strach vírou!  Vytrvejte!

Starší Bahr

Už bude Listopad!!!

It is insane that it is already going to be November next week.  It is weird that a whole year ago I was in Zlín.  Time flies.  In small scale, this transfer has been going by really fast.  I feel like a couple days ago I was writing last.

I am doing well.  We had some great lessons with a some people.  We are meeting with a girl named Tina.  She recently became a Christian and is now learning about our church.  We met with a guy named David.  He is of the Hare Krishna faith.  His beliefs are similar to ours in some ways.  He seems open to learn more and he actually came to church last week.

This week I changed the last tires of the mission cars.  We had our English class which went well.  We had a singing display on Tuesday in our area Anděl.  Also there was a zone conference.  It is bizar to be there since I realized that the next one is my last.  It was a great conference at which President McConkie does this very cool thing where he teaches us from the scriptures.  He has such a bank of scriptural knowledge and wisdom and it is a blessing to be taught by him.  His testimony and his love is so strong and radiates from him to everyone.  Yesterday a bunch of the young adults from the branches in the Czech Republic got together in Prague and had a nice activity together.  Today they are doing service at the site where the Church baught property to start building a stake center!  Yesterday I got to see Ivo from Brno and Eva from Zlín!  It was great to renew friendships and talk.  Ivo is going to the temple in a couple weeks for his endowment!  He is doing great in the church.  He just gets stronger and stronger.

This mission is a very sweet point in my life and I enjoy serving the people here.  If wants to make a friend for life, share your time.  If you want to make a friend for eternity, share the gospel.  These friendships I am making will last forever.  The Church is TRUE!

 

Take care all and Replace Fear with Faith!

Elder Bahr

Miracle Week!

This week we had a many great and many interesting things happen.  For sake of time I will tell you only a couple.

The first one; We met with the man that visited our building last Sunday that the strange reason (see last week if you don't remember).  The meeting sadly went no where.  He doesn't want to accept anything from what we teach.  He was very nice and hospitable though since he invited us over and made us lunch.

The other thing thing was a miracle.  It was an experience that I think is one of the top mission experiences and trumps the story told above.  It still hasn't finished, it is an ongoing experience, but I think it will end up amazing.  Last Tuesday we had an exchange.  On the exchange Elder Simcock my district leader and I contacted a kid named Tomaš.  We got his number, we gave him a call so our number would be in his phone.  He said "Ok, good." as we called, but I didn't see on his phone anything show up.  We thought it might be a false number given to us, but we continued on in high hopes.  The next day Elder Talbot and I were doing some calls.  We called Tomaš's number and the person picked up.  I asked if Tomaš was there and she said "No, wrong number."  I said thank you and hung up.  Now, usually I answer with "Ok, well we are missionaries..." and try to get a meeting.  This time I didn't and as I sat there, I felt like I should call back.  After being nervous and convincing myself to call again, replacing fear with faith, I did it.  She answered and I said "Hi, I just called and I know Tomaš isn't there, but we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ.  We talk with people about Christ.  Would you be interested in that."  Surprisingly she said yes.  I told her about the Book of Mormon a little bit and invited her to meet with us. She replied asking where we were in the Czech Republic.  I said Prague and she said she lives in Most (120km to the north).  I thought "Dang... What to do now?"  She said that she would be in Prague on the 27th and then I told her that that day we have church.  She said she would come!  This story is a miracle because people usually get upset when we call a wrong number and try to share the gospel.  However, because of following the Spirit in calling again and doing what I am supposed to, we found someone ready.  We are super excited to meet her.  I will tell you all about her when the day comes.  Moral of the story though is to keep trying in any situation with what you are doing even if it doesn't go right the first time.  :)

My mission is do good.  It is GREAT.  I am happy to be here.  The church is true and I am happy it is here in our day.  Have a fantastic week.

Elder Bahr

Conference Weekend for Czech Republic

Here in the Czech Republic we, like always, have to wait a week for conference so that it can be translated.  So, yesterday and Friday we went to conference.  It was very good and I was super excited for it.  As I have grown up I have gotten more and more excited for conference weekend.  It is definitely a highlight of the year because of the great spiritual feast we get!  Saturday all English speakers got together and watched together.  In the Prague branch there are a few American families.  After priesthood session, President McConkie asked us missionaries what we used to do after conference.  Just like most other missionaries he told us that he would go out for dinner, so like the tradition was, we all went to a nearby restaurant to have dinner together and talk about the conference.  It was a great way to end Saturday.  Yesterday on Sunday we watched together conference as well.  My favorite talks were in the last session.  But... all the talks were great in all the sessions.  Between the morning and afternoon sessions we had an interesting surprise... a man that stands outside of our church each Sunday handing out anti-material to our members and bashing on our faith was performing an exorcism on our building.  We sprinkled it with holy water and began to pray.  We actually decided to set up and have a meeting with him tomorrow.  That was a small example of replacing fear with faith.  In the moment it wasn't difficult, the Lord was on our side.  We pray it will go well.

Throughout the rest of the week, we had a couple lessons.  One of which was with this great kid that was an exchange student in America.  We taught him well and he retains all we teach.  He impresses me.  He expressed to us that he would be a member because all of what we teach "sounds so good" but he doesn't believe in God.  We are going to keep working with him and hope he will find out for himself that God is there.  He is a great kid and very smart.  He will know one day.  This week we helped at a members house.  We took mortar off of old bricks for them.  We had a singing display which I just love to do!!!  Last Tuesday I helped change the mission cars' to winter tires.  It was fun.  I love to do service as a missionary, especially when it relates to fun things I did in the past like changing tires.  Monday evening we visited an American family.  The live here and work at the American Embassy.  We travelled by public transportation to their house and walked to their street the last part of the way.  As we turned onto the street we saw a bunch of American-style houses.  We found their house and were welcomed in.  There whole house looked American!!!  They fed us a great meal of French toast with American fruit and maple syrups.  For dessert we had root beer floats!  It was so good.  We then had Family Home Evening.  It was sooooooooo good.  They definitely have the spirit in their home.  We taught about the Spirit in the home and it just resonated beautifully.

 

I have a nice week.  It is crazy that already the 2nd week of the 9 week transfer is gone.  Next week ought to be a good week as well.  I look forward to it.

Elder Bahr

First Week In Prague!

Well Prague is just great!  Interesting things is that my P-Day here is now on Saturday (Prague missionaries).  I have been here a week and I enjoy it a lot.  My companion as I said last week is Elder Talbot from Alpine, Utah.  I got here Monday afternoon and put my things at the building.  That evening we had Family Home Evening with all the young single adults and our investigators.  It was a fun activity.  During it was sang to for my birthday!  It is strange to be 21.  The next day we went out on the streets to contact people.  We had an amazing day of contacting!  We met so many cool people and had nice meaningful conversations with some of them.  We set up meetings with a few of them.  Thursday we had English class which was very fun.  Wednesday we met with a family that we met the day before.  We had dinner at their house.  They are not real big in being believers but enjoy having us over and having us teach them.  We will keep working with them.  Wednesday we had district meeting.  It was nice not having to plan it like I had to in České Budějovice.  I enjoyed being able to sit and listen.  Thursday we did more street contacting.  It is so great to contact here!!  People are SO open.  We went to a college area in Prague and set up some lessons.  We also had a nice conversation I will never forget with a man from England.  We were just talking and sharing our beliefs with each other.  He was atheist, but we both enjoyed so much each others company.  I pray for his happiness because he was a nice man.  It was just a beautiful conversation we had.  Friday we had a singing display which I haven't had in a while!  It was so fun to sing for people and share our testimony in this way.  We got many meetings set up and many peoples' contact information as a district.  Later we were at the building and a man came up and told us he has been gone for a couple years but loves meeting with us and would like to meet again.  He is very smart and lives a humble life.  We will be meeting with him again soon.  We also had a game night as a branch.  One of our new investigators came.  She enjoyed it a lot.  We met with her before and taught a very spiritual lesson.  And today we have P-Day.  It will be interesting getting used to, but I will handle it.

This week has been amazing and I can't explain it all in the time I have right now but I am just blessed to be here my last transfer.  This city is white and ready to harvest.  I must go now.

Replace fear with faith,

Elder Bahr

30. Září 2013

Today 30. Září 2013 is a good day.  Happy Birthday to my twin sister and me.  :)  Also today to continue the tradition from the past 3 weeks, I am going to Prague.  Yep, it is transfers if you have been following along.  My next area and final area is Prague.  I am going to be in a part of the city called Anděl.  I am excited.  I will be living about a mile south of Charles Bridge to give you an idea where that is at.  My morning exercises that we are supposed to do may consist of running across the Charles Bridge each morning.  I will be with a missionary in his 3rd transfer named Elder Talbot.  This transfer is going to be great.  I am super excited to serve with him.

 

My last week here in České Budějovice was nice.  We visited a few less actives including that one that works as a book restorer.  We went to an opera called La Tosca in which an investigator plays violin.  We went to support him.  We had an amazing lesson with a couple.  He is from Romania and she is from here.  She has had a terrible past and from all her experiences as grown into a strong woman that loves life.  They invited us over for a delicious lunch and then after we taught them our message.  We had all the normal weekly things as well and they went well.  Also we went to Prague for a zone conference.  It was super good and I can tell this mission is changing and improving.  Missionary work here is unique and beautiful.  I enjoy being a part of this change.

 

I don't have much else to report or much time because I have a train to catch, so I just wish all a great week.

Replace fear with faith.

Elder Bahr

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Fall is Here Already!

The weather lately has shown signs of fall a lot.  Last week it rained often and now it is cool and windy.  I love it though because it brings back memories of one; when I started my mission and two; when I served in my favorite city last year - Zlín.  It is good to see the different seasons.  Noticing all the changes are a testimony to me that God and Christ exist.  How else could things like this make me feel closer to the Maker of it all.  It is beautiful.  Something my mission has taught me is that God is seen in everything.  I notice Him everyday.  My mission has been a blessing in this, alone in itself.  Many things have been learned though and much more is yet to be learned.

Well since the weather is changing and the days are getting shorter.  Strangely, this is making he days go by faster.  This week did go by fast.  We have one week till transfers.  They are next Monday and I am off to my last companion and possibly last area.

I have had a great week.  Most of the same things happened.  So I won't worry about talking about that.  I will keep this week short.  Things in this area have become difficult though.  We have been having trouble finding new people to teach mainly.  It has seemed that lately no one wants to stop and talk with us.  Perhaps something will come soon.  We can only pray for that.  This week though we had a GREAT time doing some service at a less actives' place.  I spoke about a member we found though getting our books worked on.  We went to her city outside of České Budějovice to help her out.  She is a single mother we found out that also has a farm to look after.  So she has a daughter, work, 2 horses, a couple dogs, etc. to look after.  So.... We GLADLY helped her out.  I got to clean a horse by brushing it and picking the dirt out of it's hooves.  Then we took bad, wet hay to a manure pile.  A big rain storm came right during the hay part and so we took a break for a moment and got back to work when it stopped.  We picked up a bunch of trimmed off tree branches and put it in the barn.  We searched for eggs and we fixed her door so that in winter snow wouldn't blow into her house.  It was a nice thing to do from trying to talk to people all day to helping someone directly.  Now, some people may say that that is not missionary work cleaning horses and all this other stuff but when one can feel the Spirit during the service saying that it is good, then that is enough of an answer to me that the Lord is pleased with what we do.  Serving others is one of my favorite forms of missionary work because it builds a relationship of trust and care that will help them come back to the Church of Christ.  I hope she will become active again soon.

Also this week, church was amazing.  The branch here finally got organized a presidency.  Elder Greener is still the President, but he has 2 councilors now and a plan to get Czech people leading the branch soon.  The other spots needed in a functional branch are also being filled.  It is great to see. During preisthood quorum, the lesson was about home teaching and now the branch is STOKED about it.  The growth is amazing here.

The church is true and the Lord's work moves on!

That's all to report.  :)

 

Replace Fear with Faith!

Elder Bahr

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Prague Again.

This last week I was in Prague again.  My companion and I went there Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday afternoon.  Elder Greener had some branch president meetings on Saturday morning and on Sunday was the district conference.  One of the Saturday meetings I decided to sit in as well and it was about how to find work.  It was a great meeting and really helped me realize how God takes part in all parts of our lives.  Another meeting Elder Greener had, I sat in to translate for an American senior couple that visited from Hungary.  They were presenting a training for church clerks in the Czech Republic.  After these two meetings Elder Greener and I went to lunch with President McConkie.  We went to a really good burger place.  It was nice to spend time with President.  We talked about the branch in České Budějovice.  That evening we spent some time at the church building and visited with some members.  The members here are great.  Sunday we went to the Congress Center in Prague for our district conference.  In the past, these meetings could be done at the chapel in Prague, but because the church is growing, we have to go to rent bigger venues.  The conference was great.  I didn't know many of the members, but they were all still very nice and friendly.  It was in a way a family reunion for other missionaries who saw members from branches they previously served in and was beautiful to see how the church acts as one big family and we all love each other.  One of my favorite talks was exactly about that.  Sister McConkie, the mission president's wife spoke about how in her family growing up there were the occasional disagreements and fights between her brothers and sisters, but at the end of the day they loved each other and supported each other and forgave.  It is so in the church as well.  We will all have some sort of disagreement or fight or issue with one of our brothers or sisters in the church at one point, but when it all comes down to things, we MUST love each other and show one to another our care.  We must forgive and leave all judgements behind us.  It was a beautiful talk.  A few members also spoke and one even was giving a kind of farewell talk.  He will be going on a mission in a few short weeks.  After the conference, we mingled a bit with members, took pictures, and went to catch our train.  We decided the night before to mingle with people after and catch a train an hour and a half after the conference, which just seemed like a normal thing to do, but for an hour and a half maybe a little bit lazy...... BUT...... We were led by the spirit in this.  We got on the train and sat down in one of the cabins.  A few minutes later, a less active member from České Budějovice walked past us and saw us.  It is the less active that we met at the book binding place!  We were able to spend the whole train ride home with her and build our relationship.  I know that she will become active soon!  It is great how the spirit guides us to bless those around us.  A normal act of planning when to catch a train can be a blessing that helps others.  Trust in the Spirit and don't wait to be prompted when to do something, for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant. DC 58:26

 

The rest of our week was good too.  I had an exchange with a zone leader, previous companion Elder Štrobl.  It was a great exchange and I learned much about enduring to the end.  We taught a lot this week too.  One person we met with almost every day.  The other normal activities took place as usual and went well.  My mission has been good so far and it can only improve from here.  Just under 3 months left and I have got to do my best.

 

Have a fantastic week all and don't forget the usual thing to raplace with something better.  ;)

 

Elder Bahr

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Eventful Week, and 2 More Eventful Weeks Ahead!!!

Among the many other things that happened this week like the normal English class, Czech class, district meeting, and Family Home Evening we had a couple other neat events.

 

We had a district find.  We went to the park and drew the plan of salvation on a bigger section of the path.  It went well.  We set up 2 meetings and got 3 numbers in about an hour.  It was great because we found some really cool people.  One was a family of 5.  Elder Greener and I have the goal to get them baptised in a month.  It will be a lot of work, but we have strong faith that we can do it if we work hard.  Another younger man decided to meet with us for this week.  Also we stopped a woman and she said she was in a hurry and gave us her business card.  We saw her the next day on the street and she is excited to meet with us!  A couple days after the activity we also got a referral from Prague of a person who wants a Book of Mormon.  He seems way cool.  He is a rapper and goes by the name of Stevie Wonder.  We called him and he sounds really interested.

 

This week we also went out to a little village and met with an investigator of ours.  He is really great.  He is down to earth and wants to learn.  He has no church tie-ins really, so he is really curious about our message.

 

Last Saturday Constantin from Romania was baptised too!  The sister missionaries have been working with him for almost a year now and he finally decided to be baptised.  It was held in Prague with just a few of us.  Saturday morning we rode a train up and had the service and came back down.  The reason for the title of this letter is because this next week on Friday we will be going up again to Prague for a couple days for my companion's branch president responsibilities and also a church district conference.  It is kind of like a stake conference, but smaller.  Then the next week we have a zone conference in Prague.  Lastly, at the end of the month will be transfers and I will probably be leaving České Budějovice.  It is a lot of travel.

 

Last Sunday Constantin got confirmed a member.  Also that Sunday (and also a couple other times this last week) I was translating for a German member visiting here.  He is here for his job for a couple weeks.  Last Sunday I got to translate for him the Czech meeting into German.  I have a testimony of the gift of tongues now because a lot of my German I learned in high school came back to me.  He said that I had almost no accent and was surprised that I spoke so well.

 

This week was great.  With testimony shaping experiences and hard work accomplished I am loving my mission even more.  It is too bad it doesn't go on forever full-time, but at least I still get to be a missionary.  'Every member a missionary!' David O. McKay.

Replace fear with faith and get out there and be missionaries.  It is a great fulfilling work to be a part of.  :)

 

Elder Bahr

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Senior Couple Power!!

Get ready České Budějovice, the Žmolkovi are here.

Last week the missionary senior couple arrived.  On Wednesday we welcomed them to their new home here.  They have Czech ancestry.  They have a really cool story on how they decided to serve.  They were thinking about it one day and decided to pray about which language to start learning.  They wanted a running start so they prayed.  They felt like they should learn Czech so about a year ago they moved to the Czech Republic and enrolled in a Czech class at a university in Prague.  About 4 months ago I think, they put there papers in to be called on a mission and they received their call to the Czech Republic!  They went home to prepare things and then came here last Wednesday.  We missionaries are so excited because we know how much senior couples really help.  This small branch here will be huge soon.  We will need a new building to hold everyone.  I can feel it!

 

Last week we met with the man we "mischievously" tracted into named Dina.  He has a great background.  He is super nice and loves to talk with us.  He told us that he already has his beliefs but still enjoys talking on the subject of religion.  He may not want to change now, but můžeme to napravit because the restored gospel has SO many great things that are not here to replace one's beliefs, but to add too it.  We will be meeting with him soon.

Also last week something nice, we met with a member that has recently become active and he offered to make us some food from his culture, a gypsy specialty.  It was stuffed cabbage.  It was kind of like an egg role but made of rice and meat wrapped in soft boiled cabbage.  It was very good.  I will have to get the recipe from him.

 

This Saturday is a great day.  An investigator here Constantin from Romania is getting baptised!!!!!  The sister missionaries have been working with him for 10 months and he has had the same concerns of returning to Romania and not having any other members to help support him.  He lives in a city miles away from a branch.  He has been afraid.  However, He has nothing to worry about because "the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."  This scripture found in the 3rd chapter of 1st Nephi in the Book of Mormon has been shared with him many times and has helped him know that when he keeps the commandment of baptism, the Lord will prepare a way for him and us all to stay strong in the church in whatever part of the world we may be in.  The scriptures are a great source of strength to replace fear with faith. Constantin is a great person.  I am glad to know him.  He will be a great blessing to the branch here and will be a great start to a branch forming in his little Romanian city.  He says that also there is his wife, his oldest son and some nieces and nephews that have been reading and who want to be baptised as well.

 

The church is true.  Don't let the world fool you.  I know that and am grateful I can testify of this in the Czech Republic to these people.  Have a beautiful first week of September.

 

Elder Bahr

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Dobrý Den Přeju Všem!

Last week went by kind of fast.  It was a fine week though.  For English Class we all went to a near by burger place and practiced ordering food in English.  I feel like I have a greater bond with my English class now which is good when you want to teach someone.  At first, you must build a relationship.  Next class we will try to meet with a couple of them and teach them the gospel.  We tried a new district activity too.  We wrote on a piece paper "Co byste se chtěli zeptat Boha?" which means "What would you like to ask God?" We then placed it outside our building so that people could see it down the street and think about it before we would contact them.  We will be trying it again somewhere more out in public.  On Thursday evening we travelled to Prague.  We had a training on Friday.  The training was a very good one.  Our zone leaders talked about how we can help people simply interested in the gospel to become people studying sincerely to know if it is true.  The assistants to President McConkie talked about home teaching.  It was an interesting missionary topic, but it is something that the branches here desperately need.  President McConkie talked about new activities we can do as missionaries.  Also a sister missionary with Sister McConkie spoke.  They helped us reflect on the magnitude of our calling and the importance of it.  They told us to remember back to when we got our mission calls.  It was good to reflect back to it.  On Saturday we were invited to take part in a traditional Czech pass time.  We went mushroom hunting.  Brother Šir took us.  At first there were none, but then we ended up finding a whole bags worth of them.  Brother Šir told us something funny.  When you go mushroom hunting, you must say "We are going blueberry hunting." otherwise the mushrooms will hear and hide themselves.  We all were walking through the forest saying that.  It was a great time with Brother Šir because afterward, we saw a HUGE boost in our relationship with him.  We have gained his trust and now he may start inviting his friends to meet with us.  Church was great.  26 people came!!!!  In the recent past it has been so few, around 11 people.  We had 6 non members there too.  What makes it better is that when a senior couple comes to a city, the missionary work and church attendance booms!  Senior couples help a lot.  And guess what... The senior couple for sure is now coming this Wednesday!!!  I am blessed to be in České Budějovice right now.

Now, just to close I want to tell you all a great experience I had this week.  On Tuesday,instead of having lunch right after studies, we decided to have a "Power Hour."  We left at 11am to come back at 12am for lunch.  On our way out we were walking down the street just talking.  No one was on the streets.  We continued and got to a point in the road where we had to choose which way.  Elder Greener said let's go left.  So we went left.  After that I said about a far off hill with houses on it "That looks nice.  Let's go there."  We continued down the street in that direction with the intention to contact people on the streets.  A few houses down the street a house's door bell stuck out to me.  Seconds later as I walked past it, I rang it.  Elder Greener looked at me surprised of the randomness.  I just smiled mischievously and continued ringing it.  A man came out named Dina.  We talked with him and long story short.  We have a meeting with him this week.  His past experiences with missionaries have prepared him for us on that day.  Unity in our work is what called for our success.  If Elder Greener hadn't chosen that street and I hadn't chosen that house.  We would not have met him.  The Lord is who guides this work and guides His missionaries by his Holy Ghost to those who are ready.

 

Missionary work is great.  I love it and am excited for the continued experiences I will have that will strengthen my faith that God is there and Christ is His Son, that the Book of Mormon is true and a prophet guides this church, the Lord's church here on earth.  What a wonderful blessing do we have.

 

Replace Fear with Faith.

I love you all.

Elder Bahr

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I Love My Mission.

I just love the effect my mission has had on me, especially the last few weeks.  I see so much joy in it and I am eternally grateful that I am out here.  It is a great blessing that I wouldn't trade for anything.  I will miss it probably the day after I am released.  Luckily I have just over 3 months left.  :)

 

České Budějovice is great!  It is so nice to have the Chrdlovi family back from England.  They are a great help.  Last Tuesday we went to their house for dinner.  They are a great family and they help me to feel at home.  We have been running Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings with Brother Chrdle.  I miss running and it is hard to get up and start running unless you have someone who is waiting for you.  We meet him at his house and run a 5k (3.1 miles).  Half way through we stop at a giant tree outside of the city and do push ups and talk about the members, investigators and how we can help the branch the most.  He is a great member.  He used to do this every morning with missionaries in the past.  On the way back, the last mile we time ourselves.  I am currently at a 5.01 mile.  It is about 25 seconds off of my high school record.  I was pleased at my time for not having trained deeply for about 2 years.

 

The senior couple we thought were coming are still in the MTC waiting for their visas.  As an added duty to our missionary responsibilities, we found them a nice apartment to live in.  Missions really do prepare a person for the real world.  I have learned how to take care of my self, cook (my mom taught me most cooking though), talk to people on the streets, work from 6.30am to 10.30pm, look for a house, etc.  It is nice.  I am sure though that real life as a normal person is still a lot different.

 

Last Thursday we did a district activity.  We 4 missionaries went to a busy part of town and drew a map of the world with chalk on the sidewalk.  We then placed the Book of Mormon where the Americas are and the Bible where Jerusalem is.  We tried to contact people in this way.  We have been wanting to do district activities for a while but a singing display is difficult with 4 people because half the people would be gone to contact while the other 2 are left to sing a 4 part song.  The chalk activity was a success.  We didn't get any meetings set up but we were able to get our message out to a lot of people, even after we left.  The chalk is probably still there.  :)

 

We had another branch BBQ on Friday.  It went well and we had a nice turn out.  Saturday we had a quick lesson with someone and then went to sports day.  We had a great turn out of people there too.  One of them we my try to teach soon.  The main thing that happened on Saturday was a small miracle.  It came by replacing fear with faith to the point that when something 'frightening' comes we immediately go into faith mode and the fearful thing has NO effect on us.  In the past I would have a strong feeling to contact someone, but as they got closer, I would loose my courage and get nervous.  My fear had one.  Last Friday, my faith one.  Elder Greener and I were on our way to an appointment.  We were in a little bit of a hurry too.  Being Saturday, there was almost no one on the street.  Suddenly around the corner came Lena from Latvia.  About 50 meters away we saw her and got the feeling 'Contact Her.'  We both decided to contact her, so as she came closer, we introduced ourselves.  She wasn't interested much but then started to talk about the Book of Mormon.  We got her interest.  We offered her a quick tour of our building just on the other side of the city center.  We said we would give her the Book of Mormon there in her language as well.  She agreed and we did as we said.  We told her about church too and invited her.  Sunday comes around and she is there before us.  Church was good.  I had a talk about the Book of Mormon.  Also something great was that we had 23 people including 3 dutch members that travelled an hour to come to church.  The branch is growing!!!  Well, back to Lena.  After sacrament meeting I asked her if she understood what was said at church.  She said a little.  Then I asked her how she felt.  She said 'I feel in my heart a new light.'

 

I have a testimony that this church is true and that no matter what the language is, God loves us all just the same and will offer us spiritual experiences is we come ready and willing.  Lena is now meeting with us and has been reading the Book of Mormon since she got it.

 

Everyone have a great week.  Invite someone to church this week, or if you are not a member click here to for more.

Hodně Štěstí!

 

Elder Bahr

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Missions are Great Experiences!

One of the many reasons I am grateful for my mission is the scriptures.  Since I have been out I have met other missionaries who have helped me learn how to study better.  I love the scriptures.  Currently I am reading through the Book of Mormon at a slow pace, but I am getting all I can from it.  I have learned through my own experiences how the Book of Mormon is true.  It makes sense logically and I have had many, many moments where I read and I know the Holy Ghost is telling me it is good.  I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and the prophets who wrote them long ago.  The stories in the that are there teach us to be faithful and replace fear with faith and how to live our lives to be the most happy.  The main reason of my conversion is thanks to the feelings I have experienced while reading the Book of Mormon.  That is why we MUST read everyday to stay converted.  I invite those who don't read the Book of Mormon every day to do so.  I know your faith will deepen and you will see a change.  I see the world differently.  I see myself differently.  I know these things are true.  The mission is really a great tool and great experience to solidify a testimony.  It is a true blessing to be out here and take part of this work of salvation.

 

Well now for this week, those were just this weeks thoughts.  This week was a good one.  We taught a bunch of people and were able to have members there.  Members really help in teaching.  We have a couple people unfortunately that are so hard hearted against what we testify of, but that is their decision.  I know what is true and I am grateful for it.  This week we had a lot of people at English class.  District meetings are getting better.  When I first started being a district leader I felt so under qualified, but now it is getting better.  I enjoy it.  Last Sunday a family returned from England.  They were there for I think 3 years for work.  They are back now though.  When they walked in for church, a new energy was brought in to this branch that has been struggling lately.  They were warmly welcomed and we are all excited for them to be here.  They will be a big help to all of us.  Another bit of news that is exciting is that a senior couple will be here this week.  That will really help this work move along.  There are things that as missionaries, it is almost impossible to do without a senior couple.  Great things are going to happen here in České Budějovice really soon.  Já se těším!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I am doing well and I am happy to be here.  There is nothing better for me to do now that this right here.

 

Short e-mail, ale to stačí.

Elder Bahr

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Great Transfer So Far!

I don't know how to start this letter this week so I will just start and hope that ideas come.

This was a good week this week.  Elder Greener and I work very well together.  On Tuesday we did a lot of contacting and I feel like I am learning a lot from him on how to just be friendly to people.   Wednesday we had a couple lessons on plan.  We met with someone that was taught last transfer and he is usually pretty accepting of lessons, but another person we teach came to the building during our lesson and sat in as well and started going off about how Joseph Smith could not have seen God.  Well, now both of those investigators are now kind of against us in what we teach.  We will see if we can change their attitude but if it has no effect, unfortunately we will have to drop them and stop teaching them.  Later that evening we had a great lesson with Margita though.  She has a new baptismal date.  Also her brother in law has a date!  His name is Lukaš.  He recently told us of an amazing experience with prayer that he had.  He prayed for work and got work that day.  That is the diluted story, the full story is a testimony builder for me and for him that God does hear and answers our prayers.  Also earlier in the day we helped a member clean his house.  Service is fun!  The next day Thursday we had our district meeteing.  We left to go to district lunch before the meeting and found a less active on the way there.  Then we continued and ran into an Mormon from Utah.  He was happy to see us.  We quickly showed him the church building.  Then on the way to lunch, we ran into another investigator.  It was interesting to us that we ran into so many people.  District meeting went super well.  We are all doing a transfer long activity that will help us improve in many areas of missionary work and normal life.  It is going to be a good transfer.  We can already feel it.  On Friday we ate at Brother Šir's house.  He made pork knee with mashed potatoes.  It as super good.  Czech cuisine is one of the best.  Later we had Family Home Evening as a branch and did family history.  A really awesome member here Gita is super excited to go to the temple to do ordinances for her ancestors.  Saturday we went to see a less active and had our usual Saturday schedule of 'Sports day', cleaning the building, weekly planning, and our district language study.  Sunday made me nervous, but wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Elder Greener is the new branch president, but hasn't been sustained yet.  For him to be able to be branch president, even to lead a meeting at church, he must be sustained.  Well, no one from the district presidency of the church could come down to sustain his so President McConkie had to assign someone.  He assigned me.  I led a church meeting yesterday.  I was nervous because I had never done it before, but it ended up not being too scary.

 

So, maybe this week doesn't sound too different, but it has been a good week.  I am excited to serve here with Elder Greener.  I feel like this transfer will be the best one I have had.  One because it just feels that way, but also because of some of the recent happenings.  President Irwin when he was mission president taught us a BUNCH on obedience and how that is how we receive the Lord's blessings.  President Irwin was very strict with any unusual missionary activities like going service projects not lasting over an hour, and not going on mushroom hunts or any similar activities with members or non-members.  Those are just a couple examples that helped us stay focused on the work to be the most productive.  President McConkie, the current president allows us to go on these activities and is up for ANYTHING that will gain the trust of the Czech people.  The Czech people are more open to strangers and to those who teach when they trust us.  Now it may seem to contradict itself with one president allowing unusual missionary activities and the other not allowing.  However, to look at it in God's perspective, it makes perfect sense.  We are now wiser and more trustworthy missionaries.  We know how to keep missionary rules and be good.  Now we can use this wisdom and trust in how we go about doing these missionary activities.  We are obedient and powerful missionaries now.

Another thing realized this week was all the work done in Česke Budějovice preparing the way for the future.  A senior couple will be here on the 13th of August.  The sister missionaries did a WHOLE LOT of work with less active members and so now when the senior couple is here, they can take that work with us missionaries and build the church in this part of the vineyard.

God has perfect timing and I am blessed to be a part of this work here in this day.  The church is true and a prophet leads that church.  This I know.  Missionary work is great.

 

Replace Fear with Faith.

Elder Bahr

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This week was beautiful.

This week was beautiful.  For the most part, it was a normal week with lessons on plan, appointments to run to, contacting people on the streets, English class, Branch Family Home Evening, church, visiting members, etc.  One thing different was an experience that is now in the journal and will not be forgotten.  This last Wednesday, we travelled to Prague.  All the Czech missionaries met at the Prague Train Station at 9am.  We had to wake up early, but it was nice to travel in the morning cool instead of the afternoon heat.  It was a nice train ride.  When we got there and all were excited about a small reunion of previous companions and other missionary friends.  We all loaded onto a CityElephant (a local city train of Prague) and travelled to Karlštejn Castle.  The train broke down part of the way, but soon got assistance from another train engine to push us.  When we got to Karlštejn we all walked toward the castle.  It is a great big castle built many, many years ago to keep safe the crown jewels.  Now the jewels are under Prague Castle in Prague.  Not important though.  We went there not to see the castle, but to see a sacred site just behind the castle in the middle of the forest.  In the forest just behind the castle is a stone monument where on the 24th of July, 1929 an apostle of the Lord came to bless the land and open it for missionary work.  The Czech Republic was the site where missionary work was opened to all Slavic people.  The apostle Elder Widsoe (I hope I spelled it right) said in 1929 that the work of the missionaries and saints here blesses not just the people here, but opens the blessings to the people in Poland, Ukraine, and all other Slavic countries.  President McConkie, our mission president told us that the same blessings that were pronounced 84 years ago are for us too if we will be worthy of them.  The meeting that we had, we came to fasting to feel the spirit in abundance.  The meeting was done in the same fashion as was done 84 years ago.  We sang the same songs, missionaries bore testimonies on the same topics as were in 1929.  There was a missionary quartet that sang "Oh, My Father" as did a the first 4 missionaries here.  After our meeting, like the saints did many years ago, we had a picnic.  Then we went on our way back to our areas.  A main part of the meeting was to recommit ourselves to this work of salvation that we are doing.  Missionary work in this mission will be soaring soon.

 

Also at the meeting we had I found out another great thing.  Another person that Elder Štrobl and I found in Brno had recently gotten baptized!  His name is Libor.  He is a younger kid.  We first met him in Lužanký Park in Brno and he didn't show up to his meeting, so we started to go to our back-up plan to contact near the church building and we found him there.  Well, he found us.  He ran after us for the lesson.  He is a great young man and I am glad to hear of people I found and taught in the past are gaining a testimony of this restored gospel and being baptized by someone with God's restored priesthood.  This work is true.

Those were the main events of this week.  Now to another week in God's work.  For transfers, I am staying here in České Budějovice.  Elder Hansen to everyone's surprise transferred out.  Elder Greener came in and is my new companion.  He is from Idaho.  He is the new Branch President and I am staying district leader.  A senior couple is coming in as well in about 15 day.  The work here is about to explode.  Cities around us have been doing super well and now it is our turn.  I am excited for this transfer.

 

Replace Fear with Faith and thank God for your blessings.

Elder Bahr

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Last Week of the Transfer! Time for Miracles?

This week is the last week of the transfer, so I have to get it to be the very best.  We should have a nice week though.  We need to find some more people to teach because the people we have now are not progressing a lot and taking time away from us finding people who will make progress.  This week we have a good amount of finding on plan and hope to find some great people.  Time for miracles?  Yes.

 

This last week I had a couple cool experiences.  We have one investigator that had been having trouble and not wanting to change.  He has not been too truthful with us and denies many things.  We prayed to know what to do and got an answer.  The next day we saw him breaking to word of wisdom and we got our answer to our prayer.  Now we are able to work with him on that.  I don't want to share too many details but our answer was given.  The full story can be given a later time.  It is a testimony to me that God guides us though.  We prayed and God heard us and led us.  Literally led us.  :)

 

Also we saw a less active member who struggles with the word of wisdom as well.  We saw him breaking it as well and continued on.  I didn't feel comfortable so we turned around and talked to him about it.  We told him he can either keep the thing he had and possibly sin or give to us to dispose of.  He decided to give it to us and we got rid of it.  He is very humble and we were grateful that he gave up what he had.  We told him he will be blessed for it and left.  He thanked us.  I realized in that moment the principle of love.  When we go to the aid of someone struggling with our intentions matching God's intentions and if we replace fear of their reaction with faith to help our brothers and sisters, they will feel our love and even God's love.  They will decide to do better.

 

Today we went on a bike ride for P-Day with Brother Šir again.  We went on a beautiful ride.  We stopped in a classic Czech city and had lunch.  Right before we left, we met a few Americans.  They are doing some bike ride from Prague to Vienna.  One lady had asked what we were doing here and we said we were Mormon missionaries.  The lady's husband started talking about how he knows all about us and that he would like to see the gold plates.  He said they don't exist and that we can't convince him.  Now, in this situation I didn't get mad.  At home I would usually not know what to say, but this time I just simply said "Well, I believe it." and smiled.  I enjoyed his strong faith in that that he believes.  However, I hope and pray that someday he will be humble enough to read the Book of Mormon to find out it is true.  He was a nice man nonetheless.  This week I started to study the Book of Mormon, making notes in my scriptures and in a notebook and it has made a big difference in my testimony that the book is true.  I love to study it and grow my testimony because I feel so good when I 'research' and find my own evidence that it is true.  That is why I believe it is true and it cannot be taken from me.

 

Well, this week will be exciting.  On Wednesday we have a training and it seems like it will be like one we have never had before.  It is coincidentally on Pioneer Day.  We don't know what we are doing yet but we are meeting at the train station instead of the building in Prague and have been asked to fast before we get there.  I am super excited for it.  I will tell you all about it next week.

 

Missionary work is great and true.  I am happy to be out here and dread seeing the days count down toward December when I come home.

 

All is well, so let it be.  Zatím, Čau!

Elder Bahr

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Half Way Through July Already!

Dobrý Den Všichni!

 

How is everyone?  I know you all can't answer me, but think of how blessed you are.  Here in the Czech Republic the question 'How are you?' is taken literal.  People say good, fine, and even bad.  For those of you out there who when taking this question literally, answer bad... Think again.  Life is great and God takes care of us.  Maybe right now we don't have the best circumstances, but God can provide in these difficult times.

 

July is already half way through.  It is going by fast.  My week this week has been a good one.  We got 3 new people to teach.  We have 4 people in preparation to baptism.  We could be teaching more, but we are doing good for how much we are teaching.

Also this last week I had an exchange with the zone leaders.  For those of you who don't know missionary terms, this means that I work with a different missionary (a leader) for one day.  I learned much from him.  I have a testimony that our leaders are called of God to help us in the time they are called.  God knows who is best for teaching us a certain thing, or even us teaching a someone else.  The exchange was last Wednesday.

 

Church went well even though ever week fewer and fewer members are coming.  This branch here is really struggling.  Some prayers could help them.  At church, the talks were all relating to Family History.  We are planning on helping the members here learn about their ancestors.  On FamilySearch.org there are few Czech entries.  A new person came to church named Laďa.  He is not a member but we are going to start teaching him.  He sounds great.

 

Today for P-Day we went on a bike ride with Brother Šir.  He is a great member and is a strong point of our branch.  I got a little pink from the sun.  It was a beautiful day.  It was beautiful to see the countryside of South Bohemia.  Later today we have a lesson with one of our investigators who is preparing for baptism.  The rest of the week should be a normal week, but we will see miracles.  Each week is new and has to be gone into with fear replaced with faith.

 

Everyone have a great week and don't forget about all the blessings you have.

 

Elder Bahr

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Happy 4th of July!

Hey everyone!

Last week I got to meet our new mission president.  He and his family are great.  They very friendly and love the missionaries.  President McConkie is very good at teaching simply.  When he was talking to us during the conference, he bore great testimony and I could feel it when he spoke.  I can tell he will do much good here.  I am excited to see what all will happen.  At the conference the family introduced themselves to us too.  They are a family of 6.  3 boys and a daughter.  They are getting settled in well.  I can't imagine how big of a challenge that would be to move to a different country with an entire family of 4.  I would go crazy.  But the Lord provides a way when he asks us to do things.  He doesn't leave us to fend for ourselves.  I am grateful for that.

This last week was the 4th of July.  Happy birthday America!  We had our conference also on that day and President McConkie got us a nice American lunch to celebrate.  We got a BigMac and fries from McDonald's.

We were able to teach a good amount this week too.  We had a bunch of things planned, but people ended up not able to meet.  We still did better than last week.  This week should be better, we already have a bunch planned with people.  We are excited.  The mission is best when you teach a lot.

Last Sunday was fast Sunday and it was nice.  More people came to church than have been there in a few weeks.  I bore my testimony on Christ and the power of his atonement.  I testify to people everyday, but that time was extra nice because I felt like it was very clear and more from the heart.

I don't have much to say this week.  It is great being a missionary.  It is crazy how fast time goes.  Last week I hit my mark of 5 months left.  I hope that it goes by at a good pace so I feel like I have done all I could.  There is never enough time to do everything.

Pray for the people we are teaching, do a good thing every day this week, and replace fear with faith.

 

Elder Bahr

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The Work Progresses!

This week, my companion and did very well.  We didn't teach a whole lot, but we have many people who are preparing for baptism!  We have currently 4 people on date!  One is Miloš.  His is in a couple weeks!  It was changed so we could teach him a couple more things.  The other people are for next month.  They will need more time to prepare for baptism.  It is exciting to see people say yes to the baptismal invitation and be excited for it.

 

Last Saturday, our previous mission president, President Irwin went home.  He and his wife finished their mission.  Our new president is here now.  His name is President McKonkie.  He and his wife are much younger than I thought.  We have a training this Friday and we will meet him.

 

Today as a branch we had a nice BBQ.  We started by playing games.  Then we ate hamburgers and hotdogs.  Many treats were there too.  We then played more games.  A few of them were for example that 2 people would go against each other in a competition of keeping each person 3 balloons in the air.  The person with the balloons in the air the longest wins.  Another game we each had an Oreo on our foreheads and had to get it into our mouth without hands.  Another was to eat a donut from a string without hands.  First person to finish wins.  I then showed a quick magic trick and then we cleaned up.  It was a great opportunity for members and investigators to get to know each other.  It was a good turn out of about 13 people.  A lot of treats were left over, so we gave some to the business next door that shares the courtyard with us.

 

Oh, earlier in the week, I was able to watch the Worldwide Leadership Training on missionary work that the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles put on.  It was a great training.  I am glad that members are able to be such a big part in it.  It isn't just on us missionaries.  Members are to help missionaries find people to teach.  Sometimes it takes courage to invite people to meet with the missionaries, but it just takes replacing fear with faith.  One quote I liked especially from the training was this; "When we do our best, the Lord will not let us fail."  Let us invite our friends, neighbors, co-workers, associates, family and those who we see each day to make this important step and learn.  There is nothing to loose, only all to gain.  (In a humble way.)  The Lord loves us all and will bless us to be successful in His work.  The things I get to do as a full-time missionary are a once in a life time event and I am proud to be a part of it.  It is great to help people come closer to the Savior and our Father in Heaven.  The best thing is that anyone can help in this, in some way.  As we go on through this next week, lets all participate in this work.

 

Have and outstanding week.

Elder Bahr

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Last Week with President Irwin

President and Sister Irwin finish their mission and leave on Saturday.  It will be sad.  We had a training last week.  It was a very good one about how we can use "The Whole Buffalo" to teach more people.  We went to Prague Tuesday night and stayed at the office elders' place.  That next morning was the training.  I really feel that the training will help us all missionaries improve our teaching skills and help the church grow here in the Czech Republic.  The training ended and we all gave President and Sister Irwin hugs.  It was a sweet moment.  They have been great "parents" over here while I am not home with my dear parents.  They will be missed.  The new mission president and his wife and kids too come in also on Saturday.

 

This last week we had a great week considering we lost some teaching time to the conference.  We still taught a lot.  We have a couple people on date right now for baptism.  Both would be this Saturday, but they both need a little more time.  We should have them next month.  Also, we met with a new person that is just awesome.  When we teach him he says that things we teach just make sense.  In the end we invited him to be baptised when he knows it is true.  He said "Yes.  Why wouldn't I?  That would be the right thing to do."  One of the coolest things is that if he gets baptised, he is young, so he would have the opportunity to serve a mission!!!

 

Sunday was a nice, but odd day.  I gave a talk.  That was the nice part.  It was on service.  The odd part is that during the closing song, a member who is around 92 years old, started groaning, lost consciousness and stopped breathing.  We called an ambulance.  She regained consciousness and went to the hospital to get checked.  She is fine now.  She just had super high blood sugar due to her diabetes.  We had all though she died.  But all is fine now.

 

It was beautiful weather this last week.  It is raining today, but it got hot.  It is nice to have a summer.

Well, all is well here.  I am happy to be teaching the people here the restored gospel.  It is one of the best things to do.  It can be difficult at times, but the good times level it out and them some.

 

Don't forget to replace fear with faith.  I love you all.

Elder Bahr

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We've Been Busy. It is Good.

Hello All!  It is good to be here.  I hope that everyone had a fantastic week.  From what I hear about home, it all sounds well.  I am doing well here.  This last week, we taught a lot.  Since I got here in České Budějovice, each week we have gotten more and more opportunities to be missionaries - and being a missionary is great. The great big other flood announced never came to us.  They have been letting the rivers flow out all the last couple weeks.  No damage here, so that is a big blessing for everyone here. 

 

This last Monday we visited a less active family and had Family Home Evening with them.  I hope and pray that soon they will come back to church.  They are a great family and many people always ask about them.  Pretty much the whole branch misses them.  On Tuesday we had a nice English class and had a couple other meetings with people.  Our District Meeting was also that day, which I lead.  Being district leader is difficult for me because I feel like I could do better but I don't know how.  That is where prayer comes in.  I guess I need to pray more.  This experience will bring good so, I will just have to continue it.  On Wednesday we taught a few more lessons.  Thursday we had our Czech class for foreigners.  One person came - the sisters' investigator Constantin.  He is very smart.  He is from Romania and knows so much about nature, plants, math, physics, etc.  We also that day taught another 4 people and a couple on Friday.  Then we tracted on Saturday.  It was nice tracting.  We didn't find anyone new, but I felt very calm and the spirit.  I felt like a missionary so much.  Sometimes the work becomes repetitive, but that day I decided to be super positive and everything and it was great.  We then went to sports day and played soccer with some of our investigators and members.  A member Gita who is mentally handicapped played with us and she made a soccer goal!  She was SO excited.  She said it was the first goal she has made in a long time.  She went home and told all her friends on facebook.  She is a great member.  She makes everyone's day.  She is always positive and smiley.  Reminds me of my awesome brother Adam.  He is the best brother one could have.  Sunday We had church and a good turn out.  16 people came!  After we had 3 lessons that we had to run around to and brought the sacrament to 2 of them.  It reminded me of when I would serve the older people in my ward when I was a in the young men's program in the church.  Those were good days.  I enjoy talking with the older people.

Missionary work is going well.  It is surprising how fast my mission is going by.  I am grateful for my experiences out here.

I must go now.  Don't forget... Replace Fear with Faith. ;)

Elder Bahr

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Summer Weather, Yet?

Just a quick update from this last week's flood.  Not much happened here in České Budějovice.  We are a little higher in elevation, so the rivers just ran high and quick and went down to Prague and on over into Germany.  Most of the damage is down river from us.  We were luckier.  However, last Saturday, they started announcing another flood warning in Level 2.  Last night it rained cats and dogs, but it is not raining almost at all now, so it might actually change to summer this week and the flood not happen.

 

So, we had a nice week this week.  We got a little more work done and are happy with it.  I am proud of my district (missionaries I lead).  The sister missionaries this week have really been working hard to bring back some of our less active members.  They have been working hard and seeing many blessings from it.  Our companionship is also doing well.  Our investigators are learning more and more and working toward baptism.

This next week, we are expecting to be pack full of appointments.  We are doing our best to get as many meetings we can with people.  It is a lot more enjoyable to work super busy than to have slow days.  That is one reason why we are striving to do better.  Also, we want to just help people hear the gospel.  We have lately been teaching the same few people and have had trouble finding new people to teach, but we found a couple new people that we will start teaching this week.  One kid we found is just cool.  His name is Václav.  I am super excited to teach him.  He is similar to the Ivo I taught in Brno.  If he is similar to Ivo, than he has to be cool.  Anyway, we met him on a street called Lanová which is on the way toward the train station.  We didn't need a train, but we planned to find people there.  Elder Hansen, my companion addressed him and said we were missionaries.  We talked about how we can strengthen our faith through the Book of Mormon and he started saying that he didn't have any money right now.  So we replied that it is free and we would love to give him one.  We were set up for today, but he had to reschedule for next Tuesday.  We are so excited because he actually wants to read it.  Many people don't have the desire to read it, they say that the Bible is all and that they don't need the Book of Mormon and even bring up Bible verses that say that it is bad to add to the bible.  The Book of Mormon is just a historical record of different people on a different land anyway, so no worries about going against what is said in the Bible.  Above all that is said, I have my personal testimony of the Book of Mormon and I know it is true.

This work I am doing is real.  I am excited about what is happening.  The church is growing here in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.  This year, there have already been 48 baptisms in this mission.  We are well on our way to our goal of a stake here within the next 4 years.  We just need to keep it up and improve more and more, day by day.  This church is true.  Stay true to it or if you are not in it, get in it.  Replace any fear you have with faith.  What is there to wait for.  I am proud to be a member and missionary, I truly have been blessed.

 

Mějte se dobře, Všichni.

Elder Bahr

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Summer Weather?

This week has been a nice calm and full week, with a nice surprise at the end.  It was the first week of this new transfer and we got to teach more than we have in the past few weeks.  We still have people preparing for baptism and one of our investigators went to a Relief Society meeting in Prague.  She had a nice time.  We had our English class as usual and people were happy that I got to stay.  On Thursday, our investigator Jana made us some ovocné knedliky (fruit dumplings).  They were warm bread dumplings with shaved apple and sliced strawberries put into the middle, butter melted on top, cocoa powder sprinkled on top of that, and a sweeter sour cream dolloped to finish it off.  OH MAN, it was delicious!!!  MMMMMmmmmmmmmm.  Right after we had our district lunch.  So Elder Hansen and I got a small lunch. Then we had our district meeting which went well.  I feel like my district leader skills are improving.  Later that evening, we started to teach a Czech class for foreigners.  One person showed up.  More will show up next week.  On Friday, we visited a member and he fed us.  He feeds us every Friday.  He is an awesome member.  He is super smart and loves to help us and the branch.

Now for the surprise for the end of the week.  It is summer, as you all know.  Well... this week it has been raining a lot.  The whole time, the rivers Malše and Vltava have been raising.  Sunday morning we found out by a couple members that we will be flooding soon.  The Czech Republic is having flooding all over the country.  Prague is already flooded and in a state of emergency and the Metro (Subway system) is under water now.  Last night here in České Budějovice we brought things from the downstairs corridor of the church building upstairs to keep things from getting wet.  We live in on the second floor of a house, so we are fine.  It hasn't flooded yet, but when the reservoir up river gets too full tonight, they will be letting water out.  All is fine for us, so no need to worry.  I am not worried about it, rather I am excited for the service we will get to render for people.  I would say that the funnest and most loving form of service is that, during a time of crisis.  I am excited.  Let's hope the storm gets better.

This next week should be nice.  I am excited for the people we get to teach, and for the missionary work that we have in front of us.  Let's remember to replace fear with faith and do our best with what we got.  I love you all.  Have a fantastic week.

Elder Bahr

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Work Here Going Great!!!

Missionary work here has exploded!  We have now three people preparing for baptism, we had a couple people at church, we taught a good amount of lessons.  It is all well.  We can still do better and we will.  In this mission we have a saying "Our best will

get better."  We will see that soon and then continue.  This last week we also went to Prague for my companion to have a branch president training and we also had a very nice zone conference.  It was held here in České Budějovice.  We had a zone activity where we all 20 or so missionaries went out on the streets to find people and practice our new skills learned during the training.  It was very helpful.

 

This week is transfer week.  I am staying here with my current companion, Elder Hansen.  I am excited because we will be able to both see what we have been working hard on.  We have been trying for a while to get some baptisms here and new members because this branch is so small.  We should see that this transfer!

 

One cool story I wanted to share is of a lesson we had with someone this week.  This investigator was talking about how God doesn't answer his prayers.  I decided to tell a story to illustrate the fact that praying doesn't always change things to how you want it to be, but that God has His own timing and knows that it is for our better.  The story seemed to help him and I feel it could help a few others who need to hear it.

"Almost every year, as I grew up my dad and I and a few of my sisters would take a backpacking trip into the Wallowa Mountains.  In the Wallowa Mountains it is far away from civilization which makes it very beautiful because not many people go there.  One year we hiked up to the upper lake and came to a beautiful ridge that overlooks the miles of forest and the meadow from where we just had hiked.  We set up camp and went fishing, swimming, and hiking around.  Night time came and we cooked our fish and our military style meals (MREs).  As we finished and sat around the campfire, we heard some rumbling far off.  We went over to the ridge and sat watching down the valley where a giant thunderstorm was showing us its magnificence.  As we watched, we noticed that is was coming directly up the valley to the ridge where we were camped.  Winds picked up.  Thunder got louder.  Rain began to fall.  We hurried in our tents.  We lied there waiting and the storm got worse.  We began to be frightened.  To calm us, my dad ironically began to sing the church hymn "Master, the Tempest is Raging."  After some time, we decided to pray.  My dad offered a prayer for us for safety and that the storm would go away.  After our prayer, we waited.  The storm continued with more rain, lighting, and thunder echoing off the mountainsides.  After a time longer than we had wished, the storm finally dimmed off.  It was quite an experience to go through.  Today I look back and realize God's beautiful timing in our lives.  We prayed for the storm to go away; God let it go on against our wishes for a little while longer and then ended it.  Through this experience, we as a family grew closer and stronger.  We shared a beautiful moment together, witnessing God's power.  We would not have grown closer and stronger to each other if God took the storm away the instant we asked for it."

God has perfect plans for us in life.  He knows what is best for us and will give us these trials to help us grow.  Let us accept them and find what we are to learn.  Trusting in God will bring us much farther that giving up in life's storms.  Let us replace fear with faith and gain our potential.

 

I hope that everyone has a pleasant week.

Elder Bahr

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Improvement. A Daily Goal in Life.

As this transfer from the past 8 weeks comes to a close here in a week, I have taken a moment to think about what has been done.  The beginning of this transfer was rough.  There was one person in our "teaching pool", we had street contacting everyday, it was difficult to get more people to teach, etc.  I have been looking at how many lessons we had during each week, and how many new people have been found.  These last few weeks have been different.  We have lately been finding a couple people each week, having around 10 lessons each week, we are now helping a couple people to baptism.  One person has a date set.  Looking back I see a constant improvement.  It started small and by replacing doubt, fear, and discouragement with our faith, we have been able to take what we have and build it into something stronger.  This area which we uphold is now alive and active!

 

This week has been a pretty fast week.  Each day went by so quick.  I guess that is what happens when you are busy.  We had many lessons  with people.  We found a couple new people.  We are still teaching a woman that we met during our current idea of "Door Tours."  Her name is Jana and she is very nice.  She is maybe in her upper 40's.  She has been to church for the past couple weeks and loves to participate.  We have been talking to some nice people on the streets as well.  Also, we have been able to have our sports day!  We as a branch and anyone else get together and play Frisbee and soccer on Saturdays for an hour.  Church went well.  We had a couple of our investigators at church.  There was a big thunderstorm last night too.  It was a nice week in all.  I look forward to this next week seeing what we can do!  Transfers are next week too.  A lot of missionaries are at the ends of their missions, so a lot are coming in this next transfer.  16 new missionaries are coming in.  I have heard it is going to be crazy transfer.

 

Well, I hope everyone has a great week.  Do something to make yourself better and better this week.

 

Elder Bahr

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Spring Time - Planting Seeds.

It has been spring for a some time now.  People all over are planting seeds.  I have no time for that even though I would love to.  Instead, I am planting other seeds.  Seeds that are spoken of in the Book of Mormon.  Every time I run into someone on the streets and try to talk with them, I plant a seed in there heart.  I had many opportunities this week to plant some seeds.  One instance is one man that we stopped in a park.  We introduced ourselves and he said "No, no, no."  I asked him why and also explained a little bit more about who we are.  He wasn't interested but I asked him some questions that I don't normally ask.  I asked;  What do you do to grow your faith?  He said he prays and that is all.  I asked him if he reads the scriptures.  He said no.  I asked him if he goes to church.  He said no.  I began to testify about how I have been blessed personally by actively growing my faith and gave him our card.  We departed.  As we walked away, the man said "I will come to church some time, I promise.  I am serious."  This little experience for me was very nice.  I know when we actively grow are faith, we are blessed.  And especially when we share our ideas of faith growing with people, we are blessed and others are blessed.  I hope to see him some time.  Also this week we have continued our "Door Tours", as we call them.  We stand at our church building and catch people walking past to give them a tour.  This week we got new new people to teach from them.  Also, I met a father and son that are both interested in religion.  They said that this next Sunday they will try to come.  These two, if they start being taught by us and are baptised and become members, will be a great addition to the small branch of České Budějovice and future priesthood holders.

 

Quick funny story.  All will enjoy this.  So, Yesterday was Sunday.  I play the piano at church.  I chose songs and put the numbers up on a display so the members knew which songs to sing.  We get to the sacrament hymn and almost no one is singing alóng.  I continue thinging that they will catch on (The is what they usually do with less known songs).  They didn't really.  Later, after church I was told that I was playing a completely different song than that that the members had in front of them.  That is why no one knew the song I was playing.  Not a big problem, I was told that people still enjoyed church.  :)

 

I also, yesterday, got to talk with my parents and family for Mother's Day.  I have the best family.  Next time I talk with them will be in person.  That is weird.  I only have 6 months left.  Unbelievable...

 

Well, I don't know how to explain this now, but this week I have had many spiritual moments where I feel the spirit in abundance.  I love teaching people about the restored gospel in its purity and simplicity.  It is so true.  I love to brighten people's days here when it is hard to find lasting happiness.  I love to tell people what I know to be true.  I love working side by side with the Lord to bring God's children to Him.

 

I don't have much else to say this week,

Výměňte Strach Vírou!

Elder Bahr

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