Week 4 Ahoj

Draha Rodina! Jsem tady v Cesku! [note: Dear Family! I am here in the Czech Republic!]

I am in Brno with Sestra Brimhall as my trainer. She is amazing! She was my relief society president at BYU and I was keeping up with her blog until I came. She is so great and I am learning so much from her already.

It was so great talking to you all at the airport. I didn't call from London because it was too expensive, but the flight went well. The best was when we landed in Prague. All 8 of us just felt this surge of excitement and nervousness. It was so neat walking out and seeing President and Sister Irwin with the 3 APs [note: Assistants to the President] waiting for us. One of the APs waiting for us was Starsi [note: Elder] Shumway who is headed home today! If you remember he was a new missionary in Ostrava two years ago when we went and so it was neat seeing him again, this time with me being the new missionary. Starsi Meiling was also one of the APs. We filled three cars - one of them a van with missionaries and luggages and then drove to the mission home. Oh and of course I arrived in Prague without my voice. Everyone wondered what happened. So did I. But it's coming back which is great.

We took pictures with the President and his wife so that they could email them to our parents and then the APs took us on a walk through Prague. The whole point of this was to keep us awake. After the walk we stopped at a restaurant for dinner. The mission paid for it which was great. For the first meal I had Svickova [note: marinated beef with dumplings and gravy] followed by ovocne knedliky [note: fruit dumplings] for dessert. It was so good. We hadn't had a real meal since Breakfast at the MTC. We headed back to the mission home and the Elders went to a nearby bed and breakfast for the night. Sestra Clark and I got to sleep in the President’s home. He sent us all to bed at 7 which was great. Of course I woke up at 11:30 wide awake, but I eventually fell asleep and was in and out the rest of the night. Hooray for jet lag!

In the morning all of our trainers arrived at the mission home and we had a breakfast with President and Sister Irwin. President and Sister Irwin are amazing! I love them already! After breakfast President Irwin spoke to us and then assigned companionships. I am so happy to be with Sestra Brimhall in Brno. Sestra Clark went to Ceske Budejovice with Sestra White who I also know. Starsi Greener stayed in Prague, Starsi Hansen is in Brno with me, and Starsi Knapp and Strobl are in Ostrava.  After that the APs took us to the police department to get paperwork done. When we got back we had brief interviews with the President and then went on our way to our areas. Oh yes, at the mission home I also met Starsi Medonich again! I was in Ostrava for his first week last summer. It was so great seeing him again! He's doing so good.

We took a train to Brno - Starsi Hansen and his trainer Starsi Salas with me and Sestra Brimhall. She clued me in on the area, our investigators and on the lesson we'd be teaching that night! I know right! I have investigators and lessons to teach. It's kind of weird, but sometimes I have to stop and I'm like "Whoa, I'm a missionary. I'm for real!"

When we arrived in Brno we met up with my third companion, Sestra Smith, who will be with us until Sestra Sears comes [note: left behind in the MTC because of her broken finger]. She'll be going to Uherske Hradiste, but her companion is still with Sestra Bean in Prague. I also met Sister Martin who is serving in Brno with her husband. She is so great. We bought tram passes and stuff and then headed to our apartment to unpack. I love our apartment! It's way nice and cute.

I had about an hour to unpack and then we headed to the church to teach. We had time so we took a longer tram and did some tram contacting. Scared me to death! But I did it! At the church building, we taught an investigator who is so golden. The lesson went great and we taught with the Branch President who was amazing. It's really a blessing to teach with members. It's so much more effective.

We have a baptism this Saturday as well. Today we are teaching three lessons. Last thing, pretty much everyone we talked to since we arrived in Prague said welcome, followed by “you missed Elder Christofferson”. I guess he came last week.

Well, I love you! We have district meeting, district lunch and then I think we'll be doing some street contacting. We have great investigators, baptisms set and well, incredible things are happening in Brno. Love you all so so much!

S laskou [note: with love], Sestra Pysnakova