Transfers

Well, this week has been a little bit slower, but a lot of preparation for the upcoming transfer!  During this next transfer, the office couple will be taking over half the responsibilities of the office elders. and the assistants will be taking over the other half. It will be a blast to the past, of the transfers in the office that I had with Elder Terry. I will be in charge of visas again, in addition to assistant responsibilities.

After two weeks of hard work we were finally able to configure a way to add Czech subtitles to the videos that we have been working. They have been a huge success. It was just in time for a big event of ‘Meet the Mormons’ in Hradec Kralove which hopefully will be used as a finding activity for other missionaries throughout the rest of the mission.

On Friday, we had an activity where we introduced ourselves and the state we were from. It was really good, lots of investigators, members, and friends of the members came. We had about 50-55 people in attendance for our presentations. I introduced my state, and then had the pictures of me growing up printed out for a tri fold thing about me personally. I picked my favorites, and then the office elders made boards for us and got everything ready for it. It was really nice! Ha ha! funny story, a member, less active, brought her friend and I got to talking to her for a while, and she was really friendly. It was good all the way up until the point that she told me that she had a "crazy" side and likes to pole dance......and she invited me to her next show. Nice! So that will DEFINITELY be an investigator for the sister missionaries to follow up on. I can say that was a first. So that is my funny story for the week :)..but overall it was good. Another less active family we invited came and loved it, and Michal was there as well. So I consider it a success. People got to learn that Arizona is a lot more than just desert ;)…so it was a good experience!

Also, miracle of the week, we were really stressing because 9 of the 11 new missionaries that were supposed to be coming from the MTC, did NOT receive their travel itineraries in the time that they should have. So we were really stressing and helping President try to rearrange the transfers almost at the last minute, but we had a mission wide prayer that they would receive their travel itineraries and visas, and they came through :)...at the last minute in a speed faster than anything man could ever do, each of the missionaries received their visas and travel information to Provo even though it hadn’t even been in Salt Lake the day before. Miracles do happen, and because of that, I have decided to send a verse today about miracles.

Mormon 9:15-19

"And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles. Behold, are not the things that God hath wrought marvelous in our eyes? Yea, and who can comprehend the marvelous works of God? Who shall say that it was not a miracle that by his word the heaven and the earth should be; and by the power of his word man was created of the dust of the earth; and by the power of his word have miracles been wrought? And who shall say that Jesus Christ did not do many mighty miracles? And there were many mighty miracles wrought by the hands of the apostles. And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles."

I have a testimony that God lives, and that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That miracles still exist today and in our everyday lives.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Belshe

Pictures:

1. Office Crew in new suits...just the office elders not Elder Page and I

2. Elder Page and I at Vyšehrad

3. Day 1 of 3 of our zone training cross country road trip

4. An attempt of a zone selfie at the Hradec Kralove zone conference...I’m not in it, but everyone else is.

Final Trainings of this Transfer

Because of the changes given by the Area Presidency, we will have two zone trainings and then a zone conference, and this transfer was both zone trainings. So, because there are four zones and we were asked by the zone leaders to train at their zone trainings we attended eight zone trainings during this transfer. Four at the beginning, and four at the end. We were very grateful for all the training that has happened, and how the quality of the trainings has improved as well! 

It has been such a great journey during this transfer! This week we had the last two trainings, one in Hradec Kralove, and one in Prague. However, for the one in Hradec Kralove we had heard the night before that President had just become a grandpa :)..His daughter living near Trebic had a daughter named Emma. She is adorable. So we were left to change things around at the last minute, and it was a little unorganized but great trainings were given.

For the training in Prague, Elder Adler of the Seventy came and joined us to give a training. His talk was superb about the fruits of missionary work, and his wife did a wonderful job talking about the atonement. I took a pretty superb zone selfie, but then I left the camera in HK....:) So it is safe, but you will get that picture next week. 

Other than that, we have had office work and things to get ready for a final exchange and preparation for the next transfer. My assignment for next week from President....is to learn to drive a stick shift...prayers for safety are appreciated ;) 

My scripture for this week comes from some of my favorite verses from the Doctrine and Covenants when Joseph Smith is in Liberty Jail. I might have shared them before, but I will do it again anyway :) 

Doctrine and Covenants 122:7-9

7. And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.
8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.

The Lord has never left us comfortless, and he never will. Every time I read these verses something new sticks out to me, and this time was the power of verse 9. That if we "hold on our way" the Lord knows our days, which passes as if the smallest degree of seconds in his time, and will not allow the priesthood to leave from us. The blessings of the priesthood are readily acceptable if we will but hold true to our faith in God and fear not man, or the frailties of our general mortality. The Lord loves us, and wants us to be happy, but also to grow and rely upon him. Have a great week! Love you all!
Elder Belshe 
(The Mission President shared some pictures of the trainings this week)

Road Trip

This week was terrific! I really enjoyed everything that we were able to be a part of! We finished up our trainings, and everything we needed for our road trip on Monday. Then Tuesday morning we went straight to Jihlava where we helped pack up the Sisters apartment, closed the apartment with the landlord, and then helped them move into Trebic. This will be a big change, and a good movement to the work of a second stake in the Brno area. Afterwards, we stayed at President Pohořelický mom's house in Trebic, and then left early in the morning for Brno. Had our training in Brno, and then drove into Bratislava for the next zone training! After their training we helped the Hardwicks, the senior couple in Slovakia move out a few other things they needed and then came back to Prague....I was pretty tired, but it was a very effective week.

On Friday, we did our best to get all our office work done, and have lessons with our investigators. On Sunday, we had the first mission U-nite, which is a principle taught in the power of everyday missionaries, where members invite their friends to an open group discussion about certain lessons that missionaries give. Our job was merely to attend and interact with all of the people. It was a huge success, and we were able to get a new investigator from the event. The focus in our mission with preparing for the new stake, has had a lot of success and that has been exciting! We will hope all continues to go well as we present this activity with help from the stake for the following transfer.

Michal is doing well, he has been reading and praying, and seeing opposition; but he has been able to recognize it and push through it. His baptismal date the beginning of March is looking pretty good. We are also now teaching again Viktor and Vera, a couple here from Ukraine that Elder Terry and I taught last year when both of us are here. Then we are teaching David and Kristina, both of which are also referrals from Jara, our ward mission leader. We are excited to really start to see more of these individuals progress and come unto Christ. 

After hearing of the passing of a good family friend, Bill Wright, I thought of the wonderful message of the Plan of Salvation. He was a wonderful man who was loved by all, and did nothing but look to serve others including me and my family. I was saddened by his passing, but reassured by these scriptures:

Mosiah 16:6-9 And now if Christ had not come into the world, speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption. And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection. But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.  He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.

How grateful I am for the knowledge that the grave has no victory, and death no sting through Christ. Through Christ we can, and will, be resurrected and through his suffering in Gethsemane the sting of death cannot maintain a hold upon us. 

S Láskou,

Starší Belshe

Senior Couple Presentation, Trainings, and Road Trip

Senior Couple Recruitment, Trainings, and Road Trips

So first things first, I wanted to explain the attached link that I have included in the email. We currently have the blessing of 6 senior couples in our mission. Four of which will be leaving in the next 5 months. We have seen such an amazing, needed help that our senior couples provide. They can bring a special love, connection, and experience for the members that younger missionaries can’t provide. They accomplish tasks that many younger missionaries cannot, and they also bring such a wonderful needed spirit for all of the young missionaries. We are looking to help those considering to serve a mission see the wonderful blessings and benefits of a mission. We would love if you would share this video with any individuals you would feel would like to serve a mission, or also to send it to those individuals that you know who would consider serving a mission. Please share this with people you know and encourage individuals to choose to serve a couples' mission. You are needed!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xm6 b2ai3hnwo16r/AACbOztI4xkxzVcJt iozcsh6a?dl=0

As for this week, we had MLC (Mission Leadership Conference) which was really good. We planned for training and talked about the needs of the mission. This week with Michal, we had a wonderful sacrament meeting with him, and when we were going to Sunday school we noticed he was gone. We thought maybe he had left, but noticed his bag was still by the front entrance so we just went to class. About an hour later I get pulled out of class by a member who has been teaching with us the majority of the time, she said Michal accepted a baptism date from her! He wants his goal to be baptized on March the 20th! It was a wonderful example of member missionary work, and it was great because she helped resolve concerns that Michal didn’t feel comfortable sharing personally with us. We are very excited for him.

We have spent a lot of time preparing for a couple of trainings and exchanges.
Our exchange this week was in Jihlava.  We had the same approach of doing a fireside at the end of the night after a day of really trying to jumpstart the area, and without fail, the Lord always provides a way. In one day, we were able to find 7 new investigators in an area that had struggled to find any for weeks. It was a very large faith booster for them.

Next week we are spending the entire week gone for trainings and helping missionaries move into new apartments. Lots of new areas being opened, others closed, and senior couples leaving. So we have converted the mission van into a moving service/RV...it will be a great week!

My quote comes from Elder Christofferson's talk: Abide in my Love

To “continue in” or “abide in” the Savior’s love means to receive His grace and be perfected by it. To receive His grace, we must have faith in Jesus Christ and keep His commandments, including repenting of our sins, being baptized for the remission of sins, receiving the Holy Ghost, and continuing in the path of obedience.

I love this thought of abiding in the Savior's love...it requires us to act! It is not something passive that comes to all that simply want it, but it is open to all that give their all to him and strive to repent and change a little bit each day. One of the ways I have been striving to repent is by saying my prayers out loud and really focus on following the spirit in my prayers. Elder Page, Michal, and I are on a challenge to pray out loud for 15 minutes a day for 30 days straight. So far I haven’t missed a day, and I have felt a stronger connection to Heavenly Father through my prayers. I know that taking action to abide in Christs love, we will find it.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Belshe

Office Projects and Olomouc

So, this week has been a little bit more focused on office work. We spent a lot of time working on translating, and adding subtitles to "Meet the Mormons" in Czech to help support missionaries in their finding efforts. It has been a little tedious, but also it’s finally done. We have been working together with the office elders on it! We also have been planning MLC for next week, and getting other things ready for the end of the transfer in a few weeks! 

The best part of our week was an exchange into Olomouc! This is the city that Elder Page was in for 9 months as a branch counselor and district leader. We got to visit and announce some changes that would be happening in the area including an opening of a nearby city called Prostejov. Also, the addition of a sisters' area which is going to be a fantastic change to this area. 

Our work is centered on the four areas of Prague, Liberec, Olomouc and Trebic by strengthening these areas we would be prepared for a second stake in the Brno side of the country.  So we are visiting each area on exchanges holding firesides and trying to get the missionaries excited for the work and get the areas pumping. Last week we saw the movie “Miracles” in Liberec with 10 new potential investigators, and this week in Olomouc we found 8 new investigators! We had a very spiritual fireside were we brainstormed finding ideas and things that can help the area grow. I shared a spiritual thought about visions and planning and Elder Paige talked about faith, then we had a testimony meeting. Next week we will have exchanges with some zone leaders, and then we will do it in the Trebic area the following week! 

My scripture from this week is Mosiah 13:11

“And now I read unto you the remainder of the commandments of God, for I perceive that they are not written in your hearts; I perceive that ye have studied and taught iniquity the most part of your lives.”

In reading the story of Abinadi this week, I came across the phrase "written in your hearts" and it struck me. Although, I would assume we generally keep the 10 commandments throughout our lives, the idea of it being written in your hearts came to me as being a little bit deeper. When it is written in our hearts, the thought of sin rarely is acted on. When it is written in our hearts, we never let "small misdeeds" slip by. When it is written in our hearts we become more like Christ. I love this thought, and I have considered the commandments and if all of them are written in my heart. This has helped me to know what I can improve to feel closer to my Heavenly Father. I know that if we write the commandments in our hearts, that we can be more conductive of the spirit and feel his love in abundance!

Mějte se hezký! 


S Láskou,
Starší Belshe

Road Trips

So this week for my email, I am just going to break it down by days because there are lots of highlights to go over and I don’t want to miss one :)

Monday:
This day we spent a lot of time in the office finishing up trainings for Dropbox, Media, referrals, Senior Couple Presentation, and new Standards. Then we accompanied President and Sister Pohořeličti to a Multi Faith Cooperative Conference. I was assigned as photographer, and it was a good conference to be a part of. They discussed the importance of finding harmony between our many faiths, and President and Sister Pohořeličti discussed how family bonds all of us together and explained Family: A Proclamation to the World. It was very powerful! Afterward we talked to one of the coordinators to set up a service project that we can do tomorrow.
Tuesday:
We traveled up to Brno early in the morning and prepared everything for zone training, and translated for it. Gave the trainings we finished up, and translated for the senior couple missionaries for the presentations that were given in Czech. Then we spent the night in Brno and talked with the Brno Zone Leaders.
Wednesday:
Woke up early in the morning and drove to Bratislava and had their zone training. Also very spiritual, and loved being able to get to know the Slovak Missionaries better that I never got to meet before, because I’ve been on the Prague Zone of the Country for basically my entire mission. Drove back to Prague that night, spent the long drive calling potentials, referrals, and others on the phone. We also rocked out to approved Disney Music...it was a good time ;)
Thursday:
Woke up early and drove up to Liberec for an exchange with the District Leader, and a planned district finding activity with the Sister Training Leaders and the Zone Leaders. We started to do some contacting about our free English course when we were stopped by the police. So we switched our activity to an "apparently more legal" gospel centered topic on the other side of the city, and made it a competition to see who could find the most new investigators. The Sister Training Leaders won and I bought them ice cream, but it was a true miracle. In the space of 2.5 hours we found 8 potentials, and 5 new investigators between 5 separate companionships. It was a light of hope and a large amount of new faith for this area! It was a great day!
Friday:
Got up at normal time :) Then traveled back to Prague right on time for District Meeting and we talked about miracles. President has challenged us to have 8 baptisms here in Prague during this transfer. It is a very high goal that requires a large amount of faith. In our fast that we are starting tonight, we will be fasting for the ability to fulfill this goal. We are very, very, excited! Then we taught Michal and David, our current progressing investigators, both of which are great! We focused on church for them, and Michal should be coming tomorrow and David will be coming the following week.
Saturday:
Today we played squash in the morning with a member whose is getting married in 3 months. Andres, he is a stud. I also stepped in dog poop...that was kind of lame...but then we got in the office and caught up on all the work that we had to get down during the week! It has been a busy week, and a lot of great changes

My scripture for this week: Mormon 9:19

19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.


God's miracles are still on this earth today. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever and continues to guide us in these the latter days. When faith is combined with works in accomplishing God's will….the miracles come!

Have a great week!


Elder Belshe

Zone Training in Brno