Monday, May 28, 2012

Week 15 Road trip?

Draha rodino a kamaradi! [note: Dear family and friends]

Tak co? Dekuji mockrat za vase email a taky dopisy. Moc jsem vdecna za to. Dostala jsem velky prekvapeni vcera. Kolklovi prisli na shromazdeni do Brna a bylo to super! Moc stastna jsem byla ze jsem mohla je videt! [note: How are you? Thank you so much for your e-mails and also letters. I appreciate it so much. I also had a wonderful surprise yesterday. Our family friends the Koleks came to church in Brno and it was super! I was so happy to see them] They are wonderful! Dusan gave a great proslov. [note: talk] I just hugged Zuzi over and over again. And Dando is pretty cool and very much 13! They are all so great. Iveta sent a letter and some chocolate. She'll be coming next month for a conference here in Brno. Anyways it was such a tender mercy having them there.

 Sestra Pyšňáková and the Koleks from Ostrava

Well, this week was a little tough. We had some investigators drop and some of our strongest baptismal dates are facing opposition and doubting their decisions to be baptized. Tough time, and it left me wondering where all the miracles are, but I'll just keep pressing forward and do the best that I can! And you know, there are still so many things to be grateful for. We have been so blessed! Opposition is just part of the journey right?

On Monday we had a great lesson with one of our investigators. We gave her a baptismal calendar and she was thrilled. On Wednesday we taught her again and since President and Sister Irwin were down in Brno for training, we asked Sister Irwin to teach with us. The lesson was beautiful! We taught her about the Sabbath day and she was just her perfect beautiful self. She asked us about fasting so we talked a little bit about it. She has some health problems and she explained that she could go without food, but she needed to drink some water. She was so concerned and so full of desire to keep the Lord’s commandments 100%. It was touching! We of course explained the principle of the fast and told her there were exceptions. Sister Irwin was thrilled with her and afterwards asked in her English accent: "Oh, where did you find her?!"
Friday was kind of a blow though. We had a lesson with with her in the park. After we sat down she told us she wasn't prepared to be baptized. She said her baptism has been on her mind and she read the 10 commandments in Mosiah and it says to honor your father and mother so she feels like she should tell her dad before she gets baptized, but she's afraid to tell him and doesn't know how he'll take it. She said she hasn't gotten an answer yet that this church is true and she feels like she needs to keep reading in the Book of Mormon more. All-in-all she said that she isn't ready to be baptized on the 16th. It was a tough lesson. We could just see how she's wrestling inside. She said she needs to study for her finals, but she can’t focus because she's thinking so much about her baptism. She feels like putting off her baptism will help her focus more on tests and stuff. The thing is, she needs to act! The answer comes when we act. We recommended Alma 32 to her because that's just exactly it! Sometimes we just need to act in faith and when we do, the answer comes! We're praying like crazy for her. We need a miracle. We have a lesson planned with her tomorrow and she's planning on coming to baptism. Hopefully something will touch her heart.

Our other investigator is doing great. We had a lesson this week and he is so excited for baptism. He always says "Uz se tesim na krest!" [note: I am looking forward to my baptism] whenever we talk to him. He scared us to death this Sunday because he was going to go to the branch in Trebic. We talked to the branch president there and the elders in that area and everyone was expecting him. We talked to him Saturday night and he sounded great. Well, we got news from the elders on Sunday that he didn't come. We called him and I talked to him and asked him what was up. He said that he felt kind of dumb explaining, but he said something like: "I was so prepared to go! I was looking forward to go. I called the Kutilovy (a family in that branch) and told them I was coming. I arranged to drive a car over there. I woke up this morning and got ready. I said a prayer and headed out. I got in the car, but then I had a strong feeling pulling me back and telling me I needed to be with my family. You see my grandpa died a year ago today and my family went with my grandma to the Catholic Church to remember him. I felt like I should go with them so I did." He was so sincere; I had no idea what to say. The thing is he's been to church 3 times, but sacrament meeting only twice and needs to be 3 times to be baptized. I called and talked to President Irwin in the afternoon and explained the situation. I love President Irwin's response. He said, "That’s okay. He's ready. He has that desire and as long as he still has that desire yes he can get baptized. He's been to church 3 times, he has the desire to be baptized so yes that's fine." I love President Irwin so so much! He is so so so inspired and really does things by the Spirit. So our investigator is on plan to get baptized on Wednesday! Keep him in your prayers!

 Beautiful Czech Countryside

You'll never guess where I went on Saturday! I went do Českých Budějovic with my spolecnici! Bylo to skvely! [note: with my companions, it was awesome] Someone that Sister White had taught was getting baptized so we got permission from President to go. It's 4 and a half hour train ride there from Brno so we caught a train early in the morning, stayed for the baptism and then headed back in the afternoon. 9 hours total on a train! Made Saturday a long day, but it was a beautiful scenic ride and I really enjoyed it. Plus we had so many calls to make and things to plan for baptism this week that it was a blessing. The baptism in České Budějovice was for a man who met the Sister missionaries last year. His name is Ctibor. It was interesting because the baptismal service there in České Budějovice was quite different than the ones that we have in Brno. The one in České Budějovice was outside by a river. We had the service in a grove of trees and then Ctibor was baptized in the river. It was so humbling to see, but such a testimony builder!  The branch there is very small and struggling. An elder is serving as the branch president there. All of the missionaries are running the branch. But they are all amazing and doing so well!

Sestra Pyšňáková and Sestra Clark in České Budějovice 

It was so good seeing Sister Clark. Something neat was when Ctibor bore his testimony after he was baptized. He said he had met the sister missionaries last year and had since been taught by 6 sister missionaries total. He said he liked them all and learned something from all of them. But he didn't want to get baptized. Then Sister Clark came in and was teaching him a lesson. Now when Sister Clark teaches, she teaches from her heart. You can really feel that she means every word she says! So she was teaching Ctibor and started crying or something and Ctibor said that it got to him. He said "To snad neni mozne za tady ta mlada zena muze mluvit s jeji srdcem, ale ja, stary muz, nemuzu!" [note: This is impossible. This young woman here can speak from her heart and I, old man, cannot] It touched him so much he wanted to be baptized. That was a testimony builder for me that as missionaries we are called to serve where we are supposed to in specific areas at specific times. The Lord has been preparing his people and at the right moments, our paths meet and we become part of the Lord's great and marvelous work. It's really amazing!

Well I have to go now. We had an amazing specialized training on Wednesday with President and his wife. I just love them! I love this work. It's not always easy, but it's worth it. We just keep pressing forward in faith! I love you all!

Love, Sestra Pysnakova

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