Out of the Prague Zone

So, for the first time in my mission I am leaving the Prague Zone! I’m going about an hour away to Hradec Kralove which is in the Hradec Kralove Zone where I will serve as zone leader with Elder Oviatt. He is a super awesome Canadian, no unfortunately does not have an accent :).

Hradec Kralove is a richer city, one of the richest in the Czech Republic, and is home for many students studying in the medicine branch of Charles University. I just arrived today, but it is a beautiful area, and I am very excited for the things we have coming up ahead of us!

This last week we had some meetings with our investigators including running into Olga, one of our investigators, on the street. She is doing really well and at the last minute could not make it to the conference in Prague unfortunately. We also met with Jules. Both of which are doing well and are reading and praying and should be on date and coming to church in the coming weeks!

I don’t know much about my new area here in Hradec, but I have heard the ward is very self-sufficient and doing really well after the creation of the first stake.

The best part of the week was being able to have Stake Conference in Prague with members from all around the country coming to be a part of it! The theme was receiving promised blessings, and it was an amazing conference! Many of the stake leaders from several organizations came and spoke including the stake leaders of the primary, sunday school, and young men’s organizations. Some of the most joyous parts of missions are seeing the progression of those you were able to witness come unto Christ through baptism, continue to progress in the gospel. It was such a great blessing to see Amanda at conference who has been doing well in Prague after I had the privilege to baptize her almost 8 months ago. Also, have heard that Olda is doing well in Brno, and has a serious girlfriend who is a returned missionary, and David in Plzen just received a calling as a teacher for gospel principles. It is great to be a missionary!

In our mission, we are studying the doctrine of Christ together as a mission to strengthen our understanding of teaching these core principles and to continue in our mission theme of “finding always, teaching repentance, and baptize converts”. Elder Oviatt and I are excited for MLC this upcoming week to welcome the arrival of a general authority for our zone conferences, and promote this theme throughout the rest of the zone.

My scripture this week is my favorite, the one that I have on my mission plaque: Isaiah 53 3-5.

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 ¶Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

I love this scripture because it emphasizes the truth of the intense suffering that the Savior did for us in Gethsemane, and allows for us to heal our pains, overcome our sins, and remove our scars. I know that he did, and it is available for all those who show faith in him.

Have a great week! :)

Elder Belshe