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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