Conference Week

It has been such a crazy week. When I sit down to email I have the feeling that I have lots to talk about, but then I dont even remember what happened this week :)..from what I do remember it has been a great week! Of the big things this week, I conducted an exchange with the APs who are in our district here in Prague, and I am supposed to be training them..which is ridiculous because they are both studs and one of them trained me (Elder Needham)! So I really prayed for the guidance of the spirit and what to try to help them to apply in their missionary work and it hit me right as we started, making our contacts as spiritual as our sit down lessons. Which is hard in the environments that we are in, but it really helped me as well. Interesting how the spirit helps us while we are in the work :)..we also had an awesome training this week about Finding and not getting into a rut. My second favorite training ever! He is so great! It has been so fun to be so close to him here in Prague! He is such a great, humble, and spiritual man!

We have so many new finding ideas that we are going to apply this week, I am super stoked! Then we also had a funeral this week, and the missionaries were asked to sing, so we, by a miracle, made it there on time. #districtleaderscreweduptheaddress...but after hearing both my companions tell me that I am too hard on myself they forced me to forgive myself, so there :) Even though we were late they were so appreciative, and this member that is less active is now planning to come to church! That was a HUGE miracle this week. As for other news, Viktor and Vera have been really busy with work and have not met with us, but Oldrich has PASSED his interview (if I did not say that already), and he will be watching the conference via smartphone in his science camp that he is doing! He is SO awesome! :) That is about all for this week!

Here is my scripture for the week.  What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same. In preparation for conference we have challenged the branch to think about their concerns and questions and to bring it to the Lord in prayer, write down, and be prepared for the revelation. As we prepare for conference this week, I am very excited for the opportunity I have to listen to a prophets voice. I know the Lord lives and loves us, and his mouthpiece is President Thomas S. Monson, a true and living Prophet. Have an amazing week! Love you all!

S Laskou,

Starší Belshe

Petrin Hill

#Aleluja

This week it has been ALL about Easter! Our goal (should we choose to accept it, which we did): Tell everyone that Christ has risen from the dead and that he is our Savior and Redeemer. It was really fun to have a lot of time to have finding! Unfortunately, that also meant that we were unable to meet with a lot of investigators. Viktor and Vera were overloaded with work, and sick so they could not make it to church. Also, Oldrich was out of town due to the fact that he is a host to a free science camp that he puts on for kids to learn Physics, not sure If I said this last week, but he is awesome! :) We talk about Calculus some times...haha only some times though :) This week Oldrich passed his baptismal interview! Yay!! Now all that is left is a couple of lessons followed by a interview with the branch president! Good stuff! This week fortunately he will be in Brno for church while he is visiting his grandmother, but the next two weeks for church he will be gone for this camp :(..however, once he gets back he will be all ready for his baptism! Looking forward to it so much!

Our district in Prague slowed down a bit this week due to the fact that so many people were sick, out of town for the holiday, or out of contact. Finding has been great, all of the companionships have been finding and teaching people on the streets; however, they have been not translating to progressing investigators, so in District Meeting we talked about these awesome things called Baptism Calendars that our mission has (not sure if other missions do), but they are great. They basically have a daily box to check to read and pray and another box to check for church each week! Then you can talk to them about what they need to do to be ready for baptism and write it in with them on the sheet. Ultimate way to set expectations! Then we had some district finding, and we faced some opposition in that! Opposition can be good though! It just means that blessings are around the corner! I had this awesome spot picked out for a singing display, unfortunately, stolen by other people selling stuff! Then when we wanted to have a chalk display and write #Aleluja everywhere in this park near the center I had no idea that across the street is a famous Dancing Hall, #tourists..but that is ok, it happens! :) Our English class that we teach, and the people that were here for game night and for family home evening loved the video! It has been a great thing going around asking people's opinions about Easter! It has also been great practice for Elder Cardon for contacting :) We also took a walk to the 2nd best view of Prague in a place called Petrin Hill, awesome view! 

Although it has been a slow week for us, my personal testimony of the Savior has truly grown as I have remembered that truly I can have a new start, thanks to his sacrifice for me. Rather than a scripture this week I want to bear my true witness that Christ lives. I know he does. As I testify to everyone that we meet here in Prague that feeling of truth confirms to me, and to those we meet that he truly does live. He died for us, and on the third day, he rose from the grave. The grave hath no victory, because of him, and death hath no sting, because of him. If you have ever wondered if he truly did sacrifice himself for us, then I encourage you, challenge you to test. Pray to God, in his name sincerely looking for an answer, and it will come. I can promise you that. If you have not had a chance watch the video on lds.org promoted for easter, it is right on the front page, can't miss it! Love you all! Have a great week! #Aleluja

Elder Belshe 

Trip to TV Tower

New Experiences

Visa work- 

1. Had two appointments this week, we FINALLY got our permanent residency cards and a couple senior couples got theirs (this is not the difficult ones)

2. The foreign police department is only scary if you let them scare you :)

District Leader:

I have been able to spend a lot of my time on this aspect this week thank goodness, due to the fact, that visa work went, pretty much smoothly, and is starting to slow down for the transfer. We had district conference and President Mendozza of the Seventy came and gave two challenges to us. One was to kneel and pray with a pen and paper of people we could share the gospel with, and the other was to have a BOM and have a prayer in our hearts that we will be prompted with whom we need to share the BOM and our testimony. So in efforts to captitalize on that I divided  the member list into 4 parts for each companionship, and commited them to talk to all the active members this transfer about the challenge and follow up in hopes to increase the number of referrals we get in this mission. Which is close to none. Also gave trainings this week on vision, and how including the branch vision will help us not only to baptize but build the kingdom of god. Finally, had an exchange with the elders in my district and taught them about bold commitments which is something they struggled with. It was good! I enjoy being bold with people :) 

Training:

Elder Cardon is awesome. I love him! He is doing super well. He loves contacting, he truly is my son (yes, in missions those you train are called your sons, fathers are trainers, grandparents are their trainers, and so forth..I want one Pday to create my mission family tree ;)) He has come to love getting to know lots of types of different people and seeing that one person at the end of the day that is interested after a long day of work. He is struggling a little bit with the language, but my hope is to help him understand that spiritual preparation also helps with the language. And with his diligent study his Czech will improve rapidly, and it already has. I have taken a bit of a different approach to 12 Week. I have taken the role of Amanda as an investigator, and Elder Cardon plans, studies, and teaches me like any other investigator one day, and the other day we do a training based on what we think we can do better. Fun stuff! Training has been my favorite part this transfer Id say!

Our Area:

Our area took a big hit this week unfortunately. In the last few weeks we have met lots of great people, but all of them other than Oldrich and Viktor and Vera have dropped us..so that is 80% of our teaching pool gone. We had 7 people drop us this week. Ouch! However, it is more time to find other people that want to learn the gospel! :) I am excited because this week we have a lot more time for member visits, less actives, and other methods of contacting that we normally dont have. As for Oldrich, he is doing FANTASTIC! He is planning to get baptized in about 3 weeks! We would baptize him next week, he is SO ready, however, he is on a 2 week trip doing a service project of creating a science camp for a local school. Helping them understand the importance of modern day physics. At game nights on fridays, I get all nerd with him, pretty awesome! ;) Viktor and Vera have slowed down a little, they have met with us, but our unsure about the marriage, mostly Viktor. They want baptism, but not the marriage right now, unfortunately, the marriage must be done first. This week we will talk to them about a marriage, and we are considering fasting to help them realize it is important. Probably will! But that is about it for our area! Hopefully we can find those that are prepared to hear the gospel message! :)

As for other things, I ate most of the snacks, but you would be so proud to know that I have ate them in portions!! As to not eat everything and then be sad later(other than the oreos those were gone in 12 hours). Prague is beautiful, we decided to take a walk this week around, across Charles Bridge again, and took a view from the famous TV tower! I have some pictures! Such a beautiful place, I love it so much! We are in the best mission in the world, no offense to anyone else ;)

My scripture this week comes from Mosiah 4:9- Believe in God, believe that he is, believe that he has created all things both in heaven and in earth. Believe that he has all wisdom and power, both in heaven and earth, and believe that man cannot comprehend what god can comprehend. Not quoted word for word, but in studying it this week, that is what I memorized. Having a belief in God for me has always been so elementary, but as I have come to realize that his role in my life has realy developed my personality and moral system. As I have taught the gospel of his son, Jesus Christ, and seen how it has changed other people it has changed me as well. I believe in him, and know that he lives. That is my pure and and simple testimony that God lives. Have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Belshe 

Ain't Nobody Got Time For Dat

Ain't nobody gat time for 'dat, I got bronchitis...:) No for real though, I had bronchitis, that was not fun! But thanks to wonderful doctors that speak English, I was called to repentance and told I need to drink more water! Amen! Doing it, I now have put a new water bottle in my bag ;) So, this transfer, CRAZY! In addition to the office elder responsibilities, I became the Prague District Leader and also we are training! A new missionary! :) He is so great! Elder Cardon from Washington, the state, and he has no fear of missionary work and is willing to do everything and has dived right into it! :) After being sick the last week, we had our first district meeting which was fun! It was so great to be praying and just instant receive revelation for how to help our district grow, by trying to be an example. We talked a lot about the power of members in overcoming investigators fears of church, and the importance of helping them receive personal revelation in order to get people to church which has been hard for us as a district lately. As for our area, things are looking up after a more difficult first week we met a new man named Vojta who is a 23 year old business man that we met on the street. Then Viktor and Vera, after weeks of teaching assuming they were married told us they weren't. That was a surprise! Lesson learned: DONT ASSUME! But after talking to them this week, they are willing to commit to a marriage ceremony through the church ;D..so details to come about the time and all that..#justbecameaweeddingplanner. Then Oldrich, an investigator that we have been teaching for a while, has decided after committing to pray about a baptism date on his own wants to be baptized on April the 16th! Which is so awesome! He is so great and will be another wonderful addition to the YSA part of the branch here in Prague! My scripture from this week comes from 2 Nephi 16:10:

Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes,and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,and be converted and be healed. 

I can testify of the healing power of conversion that I have seen in the lives of these wonderful people that we teach! Healing comes through Christ as we humbly come unto him with open spiritual ears, eyes, and mind. Thanks for all the emails of support and help! Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Belshe 

Vysehrad Pictures