Branch Chapel in České Budějovice

Historical Sites Around České Budějovice

Monastery Curch of the Virgin Mary in Piaristicke Square

Town Hall in Ceske Budejovice’s Ottokar II Square

Winter Wonderland in C-Bud

Scarfs are awesome! That is one thing I learned this week! Being from a land where it is hot, ( and I really don't know what a scarf is) I have found it incredibly useful :) It went from barely needing a sweater to bundling up in the crazy cold snow! It was snowing pretty hard! It was fun up until we were in it for longer than 5 minutes...:) The true test will be to see if I survive ;) 

 

As for our investigators they are all wonderful! Zdenek is right on track for baptism, but since he wants his brother in law to baptize him (who will be out of town on the 5th) we will be doing it on the 12th! We hope..still figuring out the details :) As for Ludmilla and her family they are doing wonderfully, and we are eating Thanksgiving Dinner with them for our P-Day which will be on Thursday rather than today. They are excited for an American Thanksgiving ;) We had a new investigator come to church this week whose name is Vojtech. He has been meeting with us for a while, but had a tough time progressing. After a really really good lesson about baptism being a gate not an end, he is finally feeling prepared to work towards a date in January! We are really excited for him! Things are going well in C-Bud! 

 

We have training next week in Prague so that will be really fun! :) Other than that, we took a tour of C-Bud last Monday and saw all the sites I see each day, so much fun :), but now I actually know the meaning and history behind it! :) 

 

My scripture for the week is 1 Nephi 21:15 "For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget thee, yet I will not forget thee, O house of Israel." As we follow the Lord and his commandments we are part of the House of Israel, and as we continue to strive to do our best we have his promise that we will ALWAYS be with us no matter what the situation or wherever we may feel we are in our relationship with him. He is there and loves us! Thanks for all the love and concern and the emails! I can see the results of all the prayers! :)

Elder Belshe

Abnormal Weather

This week has been incredible weather! Highly unusual for this time of year, even for the generally warmer southern part of the country (Elder Galbraith is convinced I am going to Liberec next transfer the furthest northern mission city because I hate the cold :) ) 

 

The Lord is continuing to bless us with success here, and things are going really well! Zdenek is now on track and a baptismal interview away from baptism, but in Europe you have to give the 5th discussion (normally have to give the 1st four only) before baptism! Not completely sure why, but it is a rule. Ludmilla and her family have been consistently coming to church along with Zdenek which is awesome! They are both doing really well! Adam is doing good as well, reading and praying on his own, but he lives in a tiny village outside of Budějovice which is really difficult to visit and for him to come here, so he has absolutely no way of transportation for church until he gets his license, unless his parents can get him here until he gets his license. We are praying that he can so that he can also make his baptismal date on the 19th! I am emailing early today, so I have not yet done any traveling :)..today the sisters have someone they teach during English (a potential investigator) who wants to give us a tour of Budějovice so I am excited for that! Things are going really well for us here and I am really excited for what we have coming this transfer! Hoping for some Christmas miracles in the upcoming weeks! :) Thanks for all the emails and prayers! I can see the fruits of all the prayers I have received :)

My scripture for the week comes from I Nep 19:9:
And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.

This month I have been focused on the atonement and the importance of Christ during my reading in the Book of Mormon in hopes of being done by the end of Christmas Eve, and I feel that my testimony has really grown stronger and it has helped our friends understand his importance as well! He is our Savior and Redeemer!

Elder Belshe

View from Klet

Week of Miracles

On the week of my birthday, the last week of the transfer, we hit a rough patch and had 3 of the 4 people that were on baptismal date drop; however, this transfer we have been blessed with many many miracles. 

Two weeks ago we found a lot of new investigators and in the last week we have seen the fruits of our labor come! We currently have again, 4 investigators on baptismal date, one of which is Zdeněk who is doing incredibly well, coming to church, and is still talking about how excited he is for baptism on the 5th of December. One of the people we found is an 18 year old named Adam who when we contacted initally didn't seem interested, but as we pursued he said that he has been looking to be baptized for a while and is excited that he found his way! An absolutely incredible miracle indeed! He is on date for the 19th of December! Then there is Ludmilla, who is a mother of 3 kids and takes care of 4 others who are her friend's kids, she is an amazing woman and works a lot! She has a lot of interest in the plan of salvation, and is on date for the 19th! Her son. Michal, is also meeting with us often, but we haven't met often enough to give him a baptismal date. Then there is Michal, he is a former investigator, who comes occassionaly to game night and plays the violin in the town orchestra! He is great, and we had an amazing spiritual lesson with him, with a bold baptismal commitment which in the past he was not ready for, and now he has accepted and is willing to work towards that date! We hope that he will continue to grow his desire! :) Finally, we met an awesome family named the Maskovi, who live in a city adjacent to Ceske Budejovice! They are amazing have 3 kids one girl who is 16, a boy who is 13, and a young boy who is 3. It was a really different, and fun experience teaching a family! They are quite amazing! They are Catholic, but don;t regularly attend, but they love the idea of the Book of Mormon and we are excited to see their progression! :) 

Lots of great miracles are happening here! We also had District (Stake) Conference in which President Chrdle, the man we run with, directed and gave an AMAZING talk about the importance of the law of chastity during the priesthood session (which I actually understood most of :D) and President McConkie is a very bold man, and he gave a really great talk about Joseph Smith and the evidences that he truly was a prophet of God! Overally an amazing conference and we had Zdenek and Ludmilla there with us!

Funny story from the week, for our Vylet, day trip, during Pday we went on a hike (organized by yours truly) hahaha..it was interesting to say the least. My english class had said that it was a "must see" place, so I decided to go. Little did I know that it was 22 km long, that is about 13 miles......so pretty sure my entire district hates me because in order to get our necessary work done for today we had to run, nearly all of it...so exhausting. Lesson learned. NEVER let a greenie (I am still a greenie for one more week) decide your Vylet trip! :) It was still fun, even though we are all exhausted! It had an amazing view at the top, the mountain was called Kleť. I have a cool picture! :)

As for my scripture this week I chose: I Nep 17:50: It describes the faith necessary to produce miracles, even changing water into earth. I have thought about how I could apply that to myself as a missionary to have the faith necessary to produce miracles. As I have learned from President McConkie, Faith is a concept of action so go out and work, and that is what we did. As we have worked hard the miracles have come! I know it can come for all of us as we strive to live to the fullness of the commandments and look each day in how we can improve our faith! Thanks for all your emails and support! :)

Elder Belshe 

Elder Belshe and Elder Galbraith

First Week of the Transfer

Awesome first week of the transfer! Since we had a lot of investigators drop last week, we had plenty of time to go and find and find we did! Elder Galbraith and I work really well together, he is 21 and has already studied a year at BYU before coming on his mission! He has been in the country for a year and a half and just came back from Slovakia! He is, like Elder Needham was, the district leader and the Branch Counselor in the branch as he was sustained this Sunday.

This week we have received a lot of blessings in our finding efforts! We were able to find two families this week, which is really difficult in this mission! Both of them are great and are excited by the message of the Plan Of Salvation! We also have lessons this upcoming week with several YSA age people that will really help the branch. As of now we have one, and she usually is living in Brno :) It has been a good week of finding, and I am excited for the upcoming week! Thanks for all your prayers and support! I can see the blessings of all the prayers! :)

My scripture for the week comes from Mark 12:41-44. I have thought about the woman that could only cast in two mites, and what that means for us. I related it in a way to our talents where at times we may feel that we only have two mites to cast in in our lives where so many people around us are doing better, but as the Lord as said "She has cast in more than all they who have cast in of their abundance into the treasury". As we give our all, focusing only on what we can do, rather than compare ourselves to others! We will be happier and see the blessings of the Lord showered upon us! Have a good week! I am Czeching out (see what I did there ;) )