Thursday, July 21, 2016
Czech vs American Food
So we had an idea...and it quickly, scarily, became a reality. We have been working with a less active family that lives in a village about 20 minutes outside of Plzen. While doing service for them, our district has been trying to think of a way to involve the members in a big finding activity. We want to gather many of the lost less active members here in Plzen. So the idea was a BBQ! Czech food vs American food! We can all eat great food and ultimately in the end, give the Czechs the win on a rigged competition. That was the fun part, but the scary part was the branch really, really liked the idea (we didn’t tell them it was rigged and that Czech food would obviously win outright) and they decided to combine it with a service project that we are doing on the 30th of July for the Duchkovi, the less active family. So the end of this week, we have been rapidly planning, inviting, and getting things ready for a big BBQ in about two weeks. It should be awesome, and we are hoping that we can get a good turn out, but the stress level in our district went up a little bit to say the least :)
This week, we are having the annual visit to the monument in Priests hill in Karlstejn. That is the place where it was dedicated for the proclaiming of the gospel July 24, 1929. We have been preparing our zone and helping them get ready for this event. News on how it went to come next week! :)
In other news, many of our investigators have been gone on vacation or have not been in contact this week so unfortunately, there is not much that I can update you from that. But we are hoping for a better week this upcoming week.
This week we focused a lot on finding less actives, and working with them in efforts to help our zone see the importance of that work. Hopefully, throughout our zone we will be able to see some success in that area of work along with the weekly challenges that we are sending out to them.
Sorry this email is short this week, we have an unusually packed schedule for a Monday. We are hoping that new investigators and less actives will show up for their lessons and we can continue to help build and strengthen the Plzen ward.
Love you all very much! Have a great week!
Elder Belshe :)
P.S: I have been really bad with pictures, but this is what I look like and my companion is there too. So yea...:)
This week, we are having the annual visit to the monument in Priests hill in Karlstejn. That is the place where it was dedicated for the proclaiming of the gospel July 24, 1929. We have been preparing our zone and helping them get ready for this event. News on how it went to come next week! :)
In other news, many of our investigators have been gone on vacation or have not been in contact this week so unfortunately, there is not much that I can update you from that. But we are hoping for a better week this upcoming week.
This week we focused a lot on finding less actives, and working with them in efforts to help our zone see the importance of that work. Hopefully, throughout our zone we will be able to see some success in that area of work along with the weekly challenges that we are sending out to them.
Sorry this email is short this week, we have an unusually packed schedule for a Monday. We are hoping that new investigators and less actives will show up for their lessons and we can continue to help build and strengthen the Plzen ward.
Love you all very much! Have a great week!
Elder Belshe :)
P.S: I have been really bad with pictures, but this is what I look like and my companion is there too. So yea...:)
Friday, July 15, 2016
Fishers of Men
We had such an awesome week this week, and things are getting really busy
in Plzen. It is good! We like busy schedules :) This week we have seen many
miracles in our area. One of them was one of the less actives that we are
working with whose name is Sarka, she is a great girl that was baptized
after missionaries 6 months ago did service for some investigators whose
house burned down. She has been really busy with work, but this week found
time in order to come to church and it was great. I think she had a great
experience, and she developed a great relationship with the bishops wife,
also the young womens preisdent. She ALSO earlier, a few weeks ago, invited
her friend to come to one of her lessons whose name is Dan. Dan is about
19, we think, and is planning to volunteer for the army. He is a nice kid,
and the first lesson with had he seemed completely uninterested, but after
some time found us in the park close to the church building and told us
that he has read in the Book of Mormon and wants to meet with us more. That
was a huge miracle!
Also, we had a great opportunity to spend some time visiting a lot of the
less actives of those which we discovered stil lived at their current
addresses and found 2 more individuals that wanted a return appointment!
Finally a man named Martin, who is a teacher of some other missionaries
investiagtors here in Plzen also called after 3 months of no contact and
wanted to meet after Elder Breyman contacted him several months ago. We had
a great first lesson with him, and built a good relationship of trust with
him. He would make a great member who could help translate for a lot of the
english speakers in the ward!
This week has been wonderful and I have been pondering a lot about a verse
in Matthew 4:19-20
19. And he saith unto them, Follow me and I will make you fishers of me.
20. And they *straightway *left their nets and followed him.
I have learned two specific things from these verses. One being that as a
missionary not only must we teach in order to meet peoples needs, but we
also have to speak their language, not just Czech, but teach to something
they understand such as Jesus did with these apostles, or fishermen.
Second, the amazing and dedicated faith of the apostles where they
straighway or immeadieatly left their nets in order to follow him. I have
started reading again the Gospels in order to study Jesus, from the
viewpoint of a missionary. My hope is that all of us can continue in as
much faith as the apostles had, straightway leaving our nets to serve the
Lord to the best that we can. Love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Belshe
in Plzen. It is good! We like busy schedules :) This week we have seen many
miracles in our area. One of them was one of the less actives that we are
working with whose name is Sarka, she is a great girl that was baptized
after missionaries 6 months ago did service for some investigators whose
house burned down. She has been really busy with work, but this week found
time in order to come to church and it was great. I think she had a great
experience, and she developed a great relationship with the bishops wife,
also the young womens preisdent. She ALSO earlier, a few weeks ago, invited
her friend to come to one of her lessons whose name is Dan. Dan is about
19, we think, and is planning to volunteer for the army. He is a nice kid,
and the first lesson with had he seemed completely uninterested, but after
some time found us in the park close to the church building and told us
that he has read in the Book of Mormon and wants to meet with us more. That
was a huge miracle!
Also, we had a great opportunity to spend some time visiting a lot of the
less actives of those which we discovered stil lived at their current
addresses and found 2 more individuals that wanted a return appointment!
Finally a man named Martin, who is a teacher of some other missionaries
investiagtors here in Plzen also called after 3 months of no contact and
wanted to meet after Elder Breyman contacted him several months ago. We had
a great first lesson with him, and built a good relationship of trust with
him. He would make a great member who could help translate for a lot of the
english speakers in the ward!
This week has been wonderful and I have been pondering a lot about a verse
in Matthew 4:19-20
19. And he saith unto them, Follow me and I will make you fishers of me.
20. And they *straightway *left their nets and followed him.
I have learned two specific things from these verses. One being that as a
missionary not only must we teach in order to meet peoples needs, but we
also have to speak their language, not just Czech, but teach to something
they understand such as Jesus did with these apostles, or fishermen.
Second, the amazing and dedicated faith of the apostles where they
straighway or immeadieatly left their nets in order to follow him. I have
started reading again the Gospels in order to study Jesus, from the
viewpoint of a missionary. My hope is that all of us can continue in as
much faith as the apostles had, straightway leaving our nets to serve the
Lord to the best that we can. Love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Belshe
Saturday, July 9, 2016
Czech, Czech, and more Czech
It has been a fast few weeks for us here! Especially with the entrance of President Pohořelický and his wife, we have been going back and forth between Prague a lot as well. It was a great opening training that they gave, they introduced themselves, and answered questions. Then we had short interviews, and introduced our families. President Pohořelický is a great man! Incredibly humble and loving. I instantly felt it as we came in. He feels on the same level as us. He is our friend and companion rather than a leader above us. Not that President McConkie was exercising unrighteous dominion, only that it really seems that he looks to us as much as we look to him. For the first training, he did it all in Czech, and Elder Breyman and I translated for the senior couples. That was an interesting experience too. We definitely did not get as much out of it as we would have without having to translate, but it was still an awesome experience. My Czech abilities are going to grow at rapid rates, and I am excited for that part! I was definitely humbled this week by my abilities in Czech :) But the senior couples and the greenie missionaries were able to understand well, so I will count it as a success.
As for our area, it woke up again! Not by finding new individuals, but the old ones re-established contact. David reestablished contact with us this week. He has some questions he wants to go over, and the same goes for Mira, who called us and told us his truck driving kept him in Germany for almost 2 weeks. Then the Duchkoví family, ALL came to church! That was a miracle in and of itself!! That was the very first time that they have come together in over a year, normally just the wife or just the husband will come. Things are changing in a good way for them. Also, we have been working with the 1st counselor’s wife, who is not a member. She has been meeting with missionaries for several years, and she now also has asked for us to visit her again. Things are looking up, and miracles should be coming to Plzen!
Sorry! I really dropped the ball and didn’t prepare a scripture for this week. I will repent and have one next week :)
Also sorry we had transfers, and Elder Breyman and I will stay together as zone leaders for another transfer. I am really excited! Much of the mission leadership has stayed together due to the entrance of the new mission president. Have an awesome week everyone!
Elder Belshe
As for our area, it woke up again! Not by finding new individuals, but the old ones re-established contact. David reestablished contact with us this week. He has some questions he wants to go over, and the same goes for Mira, who called us and told us his truck driving kept him in Germany for almost 2 weeks. Then the Duchkoví family, ALL came to church! That was a miracle in and of itself!! That was the very first time that they have come together in over a year, normally just the wife or just the husband will come. Things are changing in a good way for them. Also, we have been working with the 1st counselor’s wife, who is not a member. She has been meeting with missionaries for several years, and she now also has asked for us to visit her again. Things are looking up, and miracles should be coming to Plzen!
Sorry! I really dropped the ball and didn’t prepare a scripture for this week. I will repent and have one next week :)
Also sorry we had transfers, and Elder Breyman and I will stay together as zone leaders for another transfer. I am really excited! Much of the mission leadership has stayed together due to the entrance of the new mission president. Have an awesome week everyone!
Elder Belshe
Sunday, July 3, 2016
President McConkie's Last Zone Conference
What a week! I will try to cover all the highlights. A LOT happened this week!
First of all, this was the last training that President McConkie gave, and it was really emotional. In a mission with a little under 100 missionaries, you get to know the mission president very well. I have gotten to know President McConkie very well, and I am very sad to see him leave tomorrow. In his last Jesus Thought he shared a scripture in Mark 9 about the son with palsy. The story of how he wants his son to be healed, but he doesn’t know if he has enough faith. He related it to us as missionaries, striving each day to do our best and wondering if it is good enough, and helping us to know that it is! Such an amazing testimony he gave along with all of his family. This also was the last transfer for the Holts, the office couple, who gave departing testimonies. I am also very sad to see them leave after all the time we spent together in the office!
Other than all the emotional stuff, we also did a lot of work ;) We focused on working with less actives as requested from the Unorganized Ward President. (we won’t be an organized ward until the 31st of July when the Stake President comes to give us a bishop) We saw some serious miracles! We went to visit some of them, and most of them no longer lived at the given address as confirmed by neighbors. However, as we were about to leave we felt inspired to talk to a family across the street. They had no interest, but as we walked back towards our car we saw a guy giving us a weird look and he said "Are you guys the new ones?" Yup, that’s us! A miracle that we ran into him, always have to count those. We are having our first meeting with him next week.
Also we conducted our final exchange of the transfer, and I set the goal to only allow for 10 seconds between contacts. Which, if you are on the street talking to people, is not a lot of time. It requires some running, but we accomplished it and 4 new set up lessons came from it! We are just continually praying and hoping that all these people come this upcoming week. A lot of this transfer, like my first transfer, has been lots of finding people. Then we set up a meeting and then they do not come to the lesson. It has been difficult, but it always just means that the miracle is around the corner!
Then we had our transfer culture night. We hiked 11 km in our suits.....yea, we are classy hikers. ;) We failed to realize how long the hike to the castle would be. Needless to say, in a hot and humid climate, I was pretty sweaty. Awesome castle though, and some of the other missionaries had some investigators that came so it was worth it in the end. Pretty busy but awesome week!
For my scripture this week, I want to share Alma 5:26. It states, “And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?”
This week, from a spiritual zone conference to a lot of dropped lessons, to a miracle of finding a less active, I have found Christ even more in my mission. It continues to grow each and every day. Christ lives, he is real, and he is our Savior and Redeemer!
Have a great week! Lift where you stand!
Elder Belshe
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