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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