Monday, September 7, 2015

First Full Week in the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is quite an amazing and beautiful place! This week we started with a progressive training seminar with President McConkey, and he shared his vision for the mission and related it to Mark 2, the parable about the man with palsy, and how we all have our duty to lift our end of the pad that the man lay in, and we all have to work hard in order to produce the results that we want to see. It was great! The next training will be in Prague in 3 weeks! 

This week has been quite difficult in the fact that all but 2 of our scheduled lessons have fallen through which means we have done a lot of finding on the streets, buses, etc. Something interesting here is that everything, and I mean everything, shuts down right at 8 o'clock on the button, so most of our proselyting time happens during the afternoon and then we have dinner at 8 before planning for the next day. As far as the efforts go we have 2 progressing investigators, one that I haven't met yet that has a baptismal date but has not talked to her parents and is not completely sure she wants baptism! Her name is Katia and she is 17, and the other is Tamara who is 23 and just barely started meeting with the missionaries. The two lessons we had were with her, and are working with her to read from the Book of Mormon. 

This Sunday was Fast Sunday, and also my first opportunity to share my testimony in the new branch which was incredibly scary, but was complimented by a few people afterward. Also we had quite low attendance, more than normal about 12 rather than the normal 25, so I also blessed the sacrament. The great blessing that I have seen this week is although this language is really difficult for me to understand at this point, and also to speak it the spirit is always the same no matter where you are! It can touch anyone's heart anywhere at anytime.

As for the cultural and things I have learned is that Czechs are obsessed with health, it is actually kind of funny they spend a lot of time worried about their health, and the weather. This week it went from high 90s and 80 percent humidity to low 60s and wind chill overnight so I got to wear a jacket and it is a rather nice change! I visited Cesky Krumlov today, and I have lots of pictures! Easily the most beautiful place I have ever seen! 

Here's my thought for the week: It comes from my favorite scripture (I hope I haven't shared this before) Isaiah 53:3-5 and the section that strikes me most is the phrase and "the chastisement of our peace was upon him" or in other words my interpretation "The price of our sins was upon him" and with his stripes we are healed. No matter the difficulty in life, the trial, the disappointment, the sadness, the Lord is there to bless and sanctify all those that will simply Come to Him, follow him, and rely on him. As we do that his infinite peace will be with us! Love all of you! Thanks for the love prayers and support!


Elder Belshe

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