Olomouc

Well this week was probably the best week of my mission. This less active member from Slovakia moved to Olomouc to study a couple months ago. Her mom is very active in the church, both her brothers served mission. One just got back and the other was a branch president in Slovakia. She was very against the church and when she moved to Olomouc she said she wanted nothing to do with the church, missionaries or anything. So we started out with inviting her to Family Home Evening. Eventually she came to FHE but still didn't want to hear the spiritual thought or anything. We invited her to lunch one day and asked if we could share our favorite verse with her, at first she said no but eventually she let us. Time went by and she kept coming to FHE and a few of our missionary activities. She became pretty good friends with us so we finally just asked her why she was against the church and she opened up to us and told us about what has happened in her life. We asked her to start praying again and if she would come to the stake conference next week and she said she would think about it. On Wednesday we had our culture night and went to a Kostel for a classical music concert which was way fun but that girl came with us and told us the she had been thinking about what we were saying but she just didn't feel like it could work for her. We ended up talking about Gods love and prayer for an hour during the concert then later that night she sent us a text and said "thank you for not giving up on me. I listen to everything you guys say to me and really do think about it. You guys are the best and I am grateful to have you in my life. You are doing a great job." We were amazed to see that text. She went to Slovakia for the weekend but we asked her if she would be willing to come back for church on Sunday and after a little bit of convincing her to come she said she would. We have been fasting and praying for this girl for months and now she is coming to church and praying again. The change we have seen in her life is incredible. I have a strong testimony that fasting and praying works and I know that we all need to befriend those that are going through a hard time right now and help them remember the love God has for them. The littlest things we do for people could change their life.

Also this week we have been teaching this two girls that referred themselves. Within two lessons with them, one is in Heleman 8 and the other is in the end of Mosiah. They told us that they know that the Book of Mormon is true but they are just waiting for the answer about baptism because they are strong Catholics. We know that they will get their answer soon though. On Saturday we had a pretty crazy day. We watched a man die on the street but we don't know how he died. Then we did a chalk display and this girl came up and interrupted us saying that we were crazy for doing that. Then she thought that I was the 'holy spirit' and she started asking me about all of her dead friends. After that she convinced herself that I was her expartner reincarnated into a new body and she kept saying that she loved me! I didn't know what to do and all the other missionaries just stood there and laughed while this girl fell in love with me. Finally we got away from here with out her doing anything else too crazy!
Sunday we had a lot of nonmembers come to church and that less active girl came for the first time in a long long time. It was a blessing. Then we did a singing display and we got a member to come with us and that less active girl. While some of the missionaries sang with the members I was contacting and a homeless guy came up and tried to fight me. He started screaming at the top of his lungs saying that I don't truly fallow Christ and that I am just a rich, white boy from America that doesn't care about anybody else. He screamed at me for a good 5 minutes and a huge random guy on the street was coming up to fight the homeless guy and get him away from me but I finally got him to leave so luckily they didn't fight. That homeless guy yells at the one of us missionaries at least once a week but I think this week was the most mad he has ever gotten. It was pretty crazy.
Today we played squash with a member and it was a blast. Czech people really like playing squash. So it was a pretty good week for me. I hope you all have a great week. God loves you all and is always there for you!

Sbohem,
Elder Paxton