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| Elder Belshe, Elder Terry and Amanda |
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Prague Baptisms
Here in the Czech Republic we do a LOT of finding, you talk to everyone that you see on trams, metros, buses so that you can have people to teach! This week was filled with a lot of finding! It was fun having a lot of time to talk to lots of new people, and because of that we have a lot of lessons with new individuals set up for next week :) Amanda is still progressing really well, and unfortunately because of a family reunion will not be able to make it to church tomorrow, but came last week and loved it, plus Viktor and Vera were there for the first time, and Vera made a friend in Relief Society. This woman in Relief Society came and told me how wonderful it was to have her there, and thanked us for finding her! I was grateful that we were able to help, and I hope that we can continue to help them on their path to baptism! :) We ended up teaching tithing this week, and they accepted it better than any other investigator I have ever had. It amazes me how different investigators always have different issues. For some, the commandments may be easy, but accepting a prophet, no way! Interesting!
This week we visited Kutna Hora which is an old city outside of Prague with a famous bone church that holds the bones of 40000 people killed in a fight between Catholics and the Hussite Armies. It was a very interesting experience to say the least, a little creepy, but also really interesting to see bones decorated in the basement of an old kostel. (church) I have pictures to show what I mean. The man that designed it was a little bit odd, but it was definitely something I would suggest visiting! We also visited another kostel, still in use, in the main city of Kutna Hora which was very pretty!
My scripture for this week comes from D&C 3:20
And that the Lamanites might come to the knowledge of their fathers, and that they might know the promises of the Lord, and that they may believe the gospel and rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ, and be glorified through faith in his name, and that through their repentance they might be saved. Amen.
I love how this scripture depicts the purpose behind the Book of Mormon as we come to understand where we came from, and how our parents relied on Christ in their lives, so that we can also learn to rely on Christ and come closer to him. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and how it has helped me to rely on the teachings of Christ in my life.
Love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Belshe
Find! Find! Find!
Here in the Czech Republic we do a LOT of finding, you talk to everyone that you see on trams, metros, buses so that you can have people to teach! This week was filled with a lot of finding! It was fun having a lot of time to talk to lots of new people, and because of that we have a lot of lessons with new individuals set up for next week :) Amanda is still progressing really well, and unfortunately because of a family reunion will not be able to make it to church tomorrow, but came last week and loved it, plus Viktor and Vera were there for the first time, and Vera made a friend in Relief Society. This woman in Relief Society came and told me how wonderful it was to have her there, and thanked us for finding her! I was grateful that we were able to help, and I hope that we can continue to help them on their path to baptism! :) We ended up teaching tithing this week, and they accepted it better than any other investigator I have ever had. It amazes me how different investigators always have different issues. For some, the commandments may be easy, but accepting a prophet, no way! Interesting!
This week we visited Kutna Hora which is an old city outside of Prague with a famous bone church that holds the bones of 40000 people killed in a fight between Catholics and the Hussite Armies. It was a very interesting experience to say the least, a little creepy, but also really interesting to see bones decorated in the basement of an old kostel. (church) I have pictures to show what I mean. The man that designed it was a little bit odd, but it was definitely something I would suggest visiting! We also visited another kostel, still in use, in the main city of Kutna Hora which was very pretty!
My scripture for this week comes from D&C 3:20
And that the Lamanites might come to the knowledge of their fathers, and that they might know the promises of the Lord, and that they may believe the gospel and rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ, and be glorified through faith in his name, and that through their repentance they might be saved. Amen.
I love how this scripture depicts the purpose behind the Book of Mormon as we come to understand where we came from, and how our parents relied on Christ in their lives, so that we can also learn to rely on Christ and come closer to him. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and how it has helped me to rely on the teachings of Christ in my life.
Love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Belshe
Doing the Lord's Work
We had a good week! Things are awesome! We had a baptism this week for the Sisters and it was a bit hectic. Literally, it was our job to fill the font and it would just not fill this week fast enough, and we got there pretty early based on what people told us to plan for and we ended up having to run and fill buckets to get it ready in time for them. Little bit stressful, but all was well, it worked out perfectly :) She was so happy, her name was Lucka and she is a 45 year old woman. We got a new investigator couple this week, a couple from Ukraine named Viktor and Vera that came to the baptism today! It was cool to see them there! I noticed how happy she was, and I just couldn't help but smile and say YES!! That is why we are here! It was a cool experience for the week! :) Unfortunately, Mia is currently canceling meetings left and right and is no longer reading in the Book of Mormon, and the last few days we have had no contact. It is really sad for us, but we keep pushing onward :) On the bright side, Amanda and Oldrich have both been doing well both had some concerns regarding the commandments, but most of which have been resolved this week. Also, the miracle of the week is that Oldrich has decided that he wants to be baptized! He is very independent individual, and would not accept a date from us, but was willing to keep commitments and now has decided that he wants to get baptized. He, however, does not know when exactly. I truly have come to understand the reality of church, reading, and praying and keeping other commitments. It is truly the only way for us to overcome our concerns! We are really excited for him, and hope that with this choice we can decide on a date for him.
My scripture for the week comes from the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 18:8-11: 8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life— Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you? And now when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts.
It has been quite the miracle to see several people enter into the covenant of baptism, and they, along with the people baptized by Alma, have seen the joy that comes from it. The Lord's work will continue and those that choose to follow can have the blessings of happiness that others have felt. I testify that that is true! Love all of you! Thanks for your emails, love, and concern!
Elder Belshe
(The pictures are of the mission office. I googled the one of the outside of the building.)
Conrad said this week someone thought he was a native Czech! He was really happy that his language is coming along so well.
My scripture for the week comes from the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 18:8-11: 8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life— Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you? And now when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts.
It has been quite the miracle to see several people enter into the covenant of baptism, and they, along with the people baptized by Alma, have seen the joy that comes from it. The Lord's work will continue and those that choose to follow can have the blessings of happiness that others have felt. I testify that that is true! Love all of you! Thanks for your emails, love, and concern!
Elder Belshe
(The pictures are of the mission office. I googled the one of the outside of the building.)
Conrad said this week someone thought he was a native Czech! He was really happy that his language is coming along so well.
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
The Untitled Email
As many of you know, I am not a creative person :)..I have offically run out of ideas to name my emails. If any of you have ideas, let me know ;)
I got to make some nice appointments with the Office of the Interior, the City Office Department, and the Office of Finance here in Prague..a couple of things I learned from that experience. The gift of tongues is real. They used words I have never heard before, and based on context clues and a couple of times to ask for repetition we got it all figured out for President, who this week managed to run into a bus :) (..I'm sorry, but we were in office meeting and he told us that and that Elder Terry would need to fill out an accident report and I literally started laughing out loud. Apparently the guy said to President "Jak jste ne víděl autobus?" which means "How did you not see a bus? Pretty hilarious. Everybody was fine, the only bummer for him was the nametag and the fact that all 100 more or so people on the bus had to get off and get on a new bus :))
But back to all the departments, received this week in the mail some poučení which literally means enlightenment, however, it was a request for us to come receive information and guess who managed to miss the Czech fineprint on a 10 day deadline...yea..so we had to drop everything we were doing and get it all done in one day across the city to pick up these forms. We were worried it was for visa applications that had been sent back for mistakes, and if you dont get them they get kicked out of the country, but thankfully, not. It had to do with the property for the "hopefully" coming stake center in April. One perk of office work, I get all the inside info because President likes me! ;) So that was my craziness this week, it is all over, this week should be quiet and should be good for finding. The following week I have two long appointments at the visa office #stress :)..but this upcoming week should be good.
Our investigators have kind of come to a slowed progression this week. Oldrich and Mia both have a really hard time accepting some commandments, and Amanda could only meet with us once this week unlike our normal three times a week (not worried about her at all :)), but as for Mia she also hasn't wanted to set up a new meeting which is definitely worrying. We are going to fast for her not this week, but the next and for Oldrich to accept the commandments as well. We are going to teach him it on our next Thursday lesson in preparation to help him to understand. He has been so faithful in reading, praying, and coming to church and activities I really think the lack of answer through those things is the Lord's way of saying "test it.". We are hoping that a good powerful Jospeh Smith lesson will help as well.
I had fun with President today, he played Squash with me this morning, don't know if you have ever heard of it or played it, but basically you play racquetball with a smaller racquet and not as bouncy ball, man that was hard for me! He played in college, and kicked my butt! Anyway, it was still super fun! Mom should have a picture, thankfully ;) About the calling that is so awesome that you are doing that, because we as well have pushed that here with the YSA group which is what we have been working to strengthen as a companionship. We have been setting up meal appointments with them for lunch and preparing them for a temple trip the YSA leader has planned for the spring by giving them the pamphlet and teaching them the lessons that I got in prepartion for it with another member named Andreas, another YSA stud! In addition we have been encouraging all of them to begin using myfamilysearch.org and creating their own account! Fun stuff!
We got to visit the technology museum here in Prague and it was incredible :), it was 6 floors of technology and naturally, they had a whole room full of chemistry stuff..that was so fun for me to see plus they had astronomy, architecture, television room, etc..that was AWESOME to see! One of the big highlights in Prague. Unfortunately, the wouldn't let us take any pictures, but I will say, I took an awesome looking selfie that is perfectly centered around the sign.
My scripture for this week is a quote that I found during personal study of a talk given by Henry B. Eyring that I really enjoy it is called the Fellowship of the Unashamed. The Fellowship of the Unashamed :I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The dye has been cast out! I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made; I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tainted visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need pre-eminence, positions, promotions, plaudits or popularity. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk with patience, am uplifted by prayer, and labor with power. My face is set, my gait is fast, and my goal is Heaven. My road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear! I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, divided or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, or let up, until I have stayed up stored up, and paid up of the cause of Christ. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till I know, and work till He stops me. And when He returns for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My banner will be clear. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ: for it is the power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth." -Romans 1: 16. I am so grateful for what that scripture has taught me of the power of a faithful testimony, not being afraid to stand for what I believe is true even from the ridicule that surrounds me and surrounds all of us. As we share our testimony even in the face of opposition it will be strengthened! Love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Belshe
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