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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Branch Conference Week

This week was České Budějovice branch conference.  President Irwin came down the night before (Saturday).  We went to dinner at a place called the Budweiser Hotel.  It was good.  It was nice to have a little more time with President Irwin and his wife than we usually get.  The next day we had branch conference.  President Irwin spoke, Sister Irwin spoke, my companion (branch president) spoke, and couple others from the district council of the church in the Czech Replublic.  The talks were very nice and though I have heard them before (In Zlín last transfer), I learned more.  The church is true.  I said the closing prayer.  After sacrament meeting ended, a member of the district presidency came up to me and asked were I was from.  I told him Washington state in America.  He told me that my Czech was really good and that I had a Czech accent when I spoke.  Ahhhhh, it is nice to finally be able to talk like a native.  That has been one of my goals.  After that, I got an interview with President Irwin.  I always look forward to those!  Then we went to priesthood meeting.  The district presidency taught us about how to help other members remain active in the church.  One thing I learned was that if we participate in ordinances like baptism, if we are baptised and don't do anything after like going to church, taking the sacrament, etc. it is like our baptism didn't count.  Sure God will take into consideration in the final judgement that we followed Christ at baptism, but we will also be judged for not continuing to follow Christ throughout our whole life.  I know that enduring is important.  I know it is part of the path that leads to God.  I am grateful for the many examples in my life that show what "enduring to the end" means.  ANyway, during priesthood, I got to practice translating to English for President Irwin.  It is fun to translate.  Funny thing though, I would hear a word in Czech and KNOW what is means, but I would not remember the english word for it.

Other than that, this week was pretty normal.  We did some tours of our church building and found some great people.  We have walked the streets of Česke Budějovice and found some great people.  We have visited members and gotten new people to teach from them.  The work is going great and I love being a missionary.  Ať zpomalí čas.

 

Have a pleasant week everyone.  Don't forget to replace fear with faith.

 

Elder Bahr

 

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