Hradec Kralove

This week has been great! It was my first week in HK. The area was pretty dead when I got here but I'm pretty use to that now. Basically every area I've been sent to has been pretty dead when I got there. We have already seen a lot of success though. The other day we set up with a mom for tomorrow and then we called this guy and he said he couldn't meet cause he lost his passport and had to search the city to find it so we said we would pray for him to find it. The next day he sent a text and said that he found it and that he has time to meet. We had a really spiritual lesson and he said he wants to get baptized so hopefully he will be able to come to church next week. HK has a lot of students and it is time for final tests so they are really busy. The ward is awesome here. We have a lot of families and little kids so it is a lot of fun. Our ward mission leader is a young return missionary so he has a lot of fire in him and gets a lot of work done.
On Saturday we had sports night with members and investigators. A bunch of way good soccer players came so it was way intense. I haven't had this much pain in my legs since hockey. It doesn't help that the next day we didn't have any lessons so we tracted and contacted all day. The weather is super nice though so I love being outside and talking to people. Also Elder Gubler and I have started a band and we are doing pretty well...

Sbohem
Starsi Paxton

Frydek-Mistek

This week was great. Our investigator that was in prison is free!! We found a new mom that wants to be baptised and we had stake conf yesterday so I got to see all of the members and investigators from my old areas.
We had a lesson with the mom that was supposed to get baptised this week. Turns out her son got his tooth knocked out and he was bleeding all over the place. She said that in that moment she had no faith and so she didn't think that she could be baptised because her faith wasn't strong enough. We felt prompted to show her the video of Joseph Smith when he prays in the forest and Satan tries to stop him. We talked to her about how Satan will always try to stop us from doing something that will bring us closer to God. That really helped her see that she still has faith and wants to be baptised but we told her that we want her to come to church at least 2 more times before baptism so that she will be more prepared. So things are still going well for her.
Transfers are next week so we will see what happens.
I just want to testify that no matter what trials we are going through, we can always over come them and the blessings will come. God will never leave us to go through these things alone. Jesus already did that for us so that we wouldn't have to. I know that God loves us and knows what we can handle. Have a great week!

Elder Paxton

Frydek-Mistek

This week was pretty sick. The elephants were out in the field again so we went and fed them. Elder Cardon and I had a lecture and a school again. It was pouring rain and our tram had a delay so we were sprinting to this school and when we finally got there they sent us a text saying it got moved to the other side of the city so we had to sprint all over the place looking for this school. We finally got there and we were soaking wet and out of breath but this lecture was even better than the last one. They gave us a box of chocolates at the end. haha We also set up a trip with the YSA and that was really fun. We got 3 less active YSA to come with us so it was pretty successful. The mom we have been teaching was supposed to get baptized this week but we have stake conference so we moved it back a week. She had her interview and everything but then something happened on Saturday and I think her kid is in the hospital. We don't really now what is going on but we are gonna wait until she can come to church a few more times before she gets baptized.
Elder Cardon and I have offically served in the same district for 1 year straight! Pretty crazy.
Have a great week. God love you!

S bohem.
Elder Paxton

Frydek-Mistek

Hey everybody!
This week we did another "Uklidme Cesko" service project and we ran into a bunch of cows so of coarse I sat down and chilled with them for a while. We had a bbq with all of the people after and they were all interested in our church and why we are here. It was pretty fun. It was snowing on Wednesday but we had the town square reserved to put a tv out and blast the Easter video so we still did it even though it was snowing. We had it echoing throughout the whole center of Mistek and so many people stopped to watch and talk with us.
We didn't have any contact with the mom that has a baptismal date and she didn't come to church so we were freaking out all week trying to figure out what to do but finally on Sunday we prayed that we would see her outside with her kids and after a little while of waiting outside in the pouring rain we finally see her walk by so we went and talked to her and had a good lesson. She was having a pretty rough week and was scared to talk to us because she wasn't sure if she was ready for baptism but we talked with her and figured everything out. Also we called our guy in prison to see how his court date went and from the sounds of it he is getting deported so we are going to go visit him this week and see what is going on. We also came out of the train station the other day and there were 3 elephants just eating this tree. So we went and got some pictures of them then went home. Pretty interesting stuff happens here... It was a way stressful week with all of that but it ended alright.

We also went with Bishop to bless the sacrament at an elderly couples home and they gave us this drink that tastes and smells like coffee but it doesn't have coffee beans or caffeine. Elder Andrus looked a little confused but drank it anyways so I decided to wait until he was about half way done then I leaned over and said hey don't drink that, its coffee. He freaked out and was like I thought I heard Bishop said the word coffee but I wasn't sure, I thought it was just funny tasting hot chocolate! Finally I told him I was just joking and that it wasn't coffee and he felt a lot better. haha he was so confused why Bishop and 2 members were giving us coffee!

So that reminded me of a cool blessing that Elder Packer received while in the military about our bodies.
“You have been given a body of such physical proportions and fitness as to enable your spirit to function through it. … You should cherish this as a great heritage. Guard [it] and protect it. Take nothing into it that shall harm the organs thereof because it is sacred. It is the instrument of your mind and [the] foundation of your character.”

Have a great week and stay healthy.
S bohem,
Starsi Paxton

Frydek-Mistek

Well we had another great week! We had exchanges in Hradec Kralove and I got to be with Elder Beazer, hes a bro! So we went there and did an Easter activity on the town square. We got a tv with speakers and played the Easter film while we stopped people to come and watch it. We had some really cool experiences with that. One girl came to watch it and started crying because she liked it so much, then we set up a lesson with her.
Easter was pretty normal here. It was fun though because they set up all the markets in the center and we got the traditional whips that they make. I also wore my super fat tie that a member gave me last Easter.
We had a pretty funny experience the other day, we had a lesson on plan but they didn't show up so we started walking towards the park to contact when this guy stuck his head out of his window and started yelling something at us. I though he was just trying to be rude so I kept walking but then he said that we talked the other day and he still had our card so we went back and talked for a second then he told us to come on up. We got there and there were like 6 guys just chillin in this total bro cave, music was blasting and there was alcohol everywhere but they wanted to talk about Jesus so we stayed. Elder Andrus had no idea what was going on and was wondering why we were in such a crazy place. We set up with one of them but had to bounce when we heard that his friend was bringing over some weed... It was interesting.
Today we visited a pretty sick castle. So I have some good pics.

I'm sure you have all had a chance to look at the Easter film but I invite you to go watch it again. It shows us who Jesus really was and what that means for each one of us. Have a great week.
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/topics/easter?lang=eng

S bohem.
Starsi Paxton

Frydek-Mistek

Hello! Another great week in Fydek Mistek! We had some pretty cool experiences with finding this week so things have been going well. The other day we had just got back from visiting our investigator in prison and it was pouring rain but we saw this mom with 2 kids so we stopped them and asked the mom who Jesus Christ was according to her. She told us the she isn't a believer but that her daughter was. Her daughter was like 5 years old!! haha the little girl looked at us and said yeah I believe in God and Jesus Christ! It was the best thing I have ever seen. The mom then told us about how her parents died when she was 18 so she couldn't believe that a god existed and would let that happen. We taught about the Plan of Happiness and testified about eternal families then invited her to learn more so she looked at her daughter and asked if she wanted to talk with us more about God and the little girl thought about it for a while then said yeah so the mom set up with us for this week! Then we gave the kids pictures of Jesus and they were way pumped. It was the coolest experience. The craziest thing was that the 5 year old girl believed in God, because basically nobody believes in God here especially if nobody else in their family believes. The mom had a son about 7 years old with her as well but he didn't believe so I don't know why the little girl believed but it was pretty sweet.
We were also tracting this week when we saw a guy building a fence and he said I already read about you guys if you really want to help come build my fence. So I went and started building him a fence. He was way shocked because we were in white shirts and ties and he didn't expect that we would really help. As we worked he asked us all sorts of questions about our church and we were able to share our message with him and set up to came back again. This week we also had the country wide Uklidme Cesko where people all around the Czech Republic take time on Saturday to clean up the cities they live in. It was pretty fun. Fydek Mistek is a really clean city so it was pretty easy for us.
We also got to watch conference and that was really cool. It's such a blessing for us to be able to receive guidance from a living day prophet. Here are some wise words from President Monson: If you are not reading the Book of Mormon each day, please do so. If you will read it prayerfully and with a sincere desire to know the truth, the Holy Ghost will manifest its truth to you. If it is true—and I solemnly testify that it is—then Joseph Smith was a prophet who saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Have a great week.

S bohem,
Starsi Paxton

Frydek Mistek

This week was pretty good, We visited our investigator in prison and it looks like he will probably be there for about 2 more months. He is reading and praying everyday though so that is cool. The other day we met a black guy from Africa and he was way prepared to hear our message and said he wants to work towards baptism he just needs to read in the Book of Mormon for a little a learn more about Joseph Smith so we met with him again on Sunday and had a really good lesson. We have also been teaching that mom with 3 kids but she has had a hard time coming to church so we prayed and fasted for her this week and she came! It was a huge blessing.
Other than that, not much happened. We didn't watch General Conference because we have to wait for the translation so we will watch it this weekend. My new comp is pretty sick, he is working hard so it's been pretty easy training him. He lived in Germany for 12 years so he has some pretty funny stories. It's been good.