Czech-ing out

Well Brandon has sent his last email. We are all excited to hear him report on his missionary experiences at his home ward Sacrament meeting Sunday December 10th, 2017 at 1:00 pm

Hradec Kralove

It's been another great week in good ol' HK. We were able to meet with the girl that has been struggling with drugs 2 times this week and we had some really spiritual lessons. It's so sad that she is only 18 years old and she has already gone through so many trials. She is now living with her uncle who is a member though so that is good and we have seen a huge change in her. We had a ward talent show which turned out really well and she was able to come to that and had a lot of fun. We also went to Prague for our training and it was a pretty powerful training so it was cool to be there. We wrote everything that we wanted to leave in the past on small pieces of paper and then threw them in the fire as a "burnt offering" since we are reading the Old Testament as a mission. It was nice cause I got to through the papers in the fire which kept me warm cause it was cold and raining and I didn't have a coat. After the training we drove the Elders from Liberec to HK so we could have an exchange with them. It was fun cause Elder Andrus was there and I trained him so it was good to see him again and I was with his greenie Elder Lund. We taught a couple of families while on the exchange so it was a good exchange. One thing that was pretty cool was that we were at the college dorms this week and we were there for and hour and a half but only knocked on 3 doors because the first guy let us in and we set up with him again then we taught the people at the next two doors. On Saturday we were out tracting and it was so dang cold. We were out there for 3 hours already with no success but then this guy finally comes out and we are having this really good discussion thinking that we will get invited back and all of the sudden the cops show up and start searching us for drugs and all of this stuff. They were like you aren't allowed to do this and I was like man I have been doing this for the last 2 years of my life if you want to call our lawyers then go ahead but here is a paper that says we can be here. So one cop goes back to the car and the other one is looking through our bags and Elder Collins is like well here we have the Book of Mormon it is another testament of Jesus Christ and the cops was like moving on what else is in there. haha in the end they left us alone and we kept tracting.
So yeah things are good! I hope ya'll have a great week!

“Faith always defeats fear.” —Henry B. Eyring

S laskou,
Starsi Paxton

Hradec Kralove

This week was so sick. Elder Collins and I drove to Trencin in Slovakia for a meeting with President and some of the other missionaries so that was a long drive but we stayed in this hotel place and got free breakfast so it was for sure worth it. That morning we went up to the castle in Trencin where President Uchtdorf dedicated the Slovak area for missionary work. It was so cool to feel how strong the spirit was there as we talked about how much the Slovaks went through to get the gospel there. We had a big group finding activity there where we got a big tent on the town square with a tv and heater then we gave out free fruit tea to everyone walking by so that they would come in and watch the video about Jesus. We also did some singing displays and other small activities. After 4 hours of contacting on the town square we found 24 new investigators for the missionaries in Trencin. Unfortunately we had to drive all the way back to HK late that night so we didn't get much sleep but ya know we're alright. Then we got a call from Olomouc and they are having some really big miracles there! This girl came up to them and said I have been looking for a place to be baptized, can you help me with that? haha pretty sick. Right now they are working with a lot of people to get baptized so I am excited because we want Olomouc to be the next ward here. We were tracting last night and it's basically winter now cause it gets way cold at nights. We were in this small village and after a few hours of tracting we found this mom, her son and the grandma that want us to come back on Thursday. There have been some good things going on here lately. Oh we also stopped at a graveyard on the way to Slovakia because it was the holiday where they put tons of candles on the graves so the whole place is lit.

Like Elder Neil L. Andersen said,
“We see God’s miracles in His wondrous work and in our own personal lives.”
Have a great week!

Sbohem,
Starsi Paxton