Ostrava

Sick Thanksgiving! We had a party as a ward and a ton of less active and investigators came. The part member family that we have been working with came and their 3 little kids loved the activities and one of them came up to me with a picture and said "Elder, I drew this for you" It was probably the cutest thing that's happened to me on my mission! We also had our sports night this week and an entire basketball team came and played with us then we taught all of them a lesson. It was way cool we basically just preached to 16 young men! This week on the town square they set up the giant Christmas tree and all of the lights so we are going there today to look at all of the markets that they set up. We also did some service for a member and painted her kitchen. That was pretty fun. It's been a good week.

This is the new Christmas film from the church about how we can become more like Jesus! Enjoy:) www.mormon.org/christmas/light-the-world?play=hero

Sbohem,
Elder Paxton

Ostrava

Well things are going good here in Ostrava. We have met a lot of really cool people and been able to work with the members a lot. We did a service project as a ward and helped clean the outside of a senior home. There were a million leaves and it was raining so they were soaking wet and muddy but it was way fun. Next month we get to go back and sing Christmas songs to all the old people so that will be cool. We also had training this week and since Prague is so far away we had to wake up at 2 to catch a train. It was a long train ride but training was way good. Elder Sebin of the Seventy and his wife came and had a really good training. Oh we also visited this part member/ less active family and it was the best less active visit I've had. They were so happy to see us and they have 3 little kids that had so much energy and they gave me a hand made toy that they made out of wood and chestnuts. It was pretty sweet. They are coming to our Thanksgiving party this week so that should be really good for them. Other than that things are good. I hope you all have a great week and remember what is really important during this Thanksgiving.

“Know ye that the Lord he is God: … Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” (Ps. 100:3–4.)

Sbohem,
Elder Paxton

Ostrava

Well I am finally all settled in here in Ostrava! Things are going good!

Last week was pretty cool, we had a stake conference in Prague and while I was there I met the guy that I played hockey with in Utah like 5 years ago! I was way pumped to see him. I got to see all the people from Plzen as well and the two girls that we were teaching when I was there came! Also that less active that we were working with came to the conference with us! The night before the conference we had a lesson with her and she told us that she prayed and asked how she knows if she is getting an answer or not. We had such a spiritual lesson and she was crying and told us that she hadn't felt that feeling for so many years. She is a pretty closed off person and tries to seem like she doesn't need anybody else but she opened up to us and it was an amazing experience to see how much she has changed in just a few weeks. We also had 4 of our investigators tell us that they knew that the Book of Mormon is true. It was so cool to see that they all had their own testimony of the Book of Mormon and were ready to act on that. It was pretty hard saying by to everyone in Olomouc cause I was there for so long but it's good to have change every once in a while.
I'm now serving in a ward which is new for me but it has been good so far. The missionaries don't have to have any callings are anything. Its still pretty small, we have about 30 people at church each week but its a lot more that my last area. Ostrava is a pretty sweet city. It's big and has a ton of trams and trains that we contact on. It's super ugly and the sun never shines but its a ton of fun. My first day here our landlord invited us over for dinner and his wife made the best svickova I have had! It was awesome. I don't know how they aren't members cause they love the missionaries. It's been pretty great here so far though! Oh we also visited this graveyard for a holiday that they have here where they light candles and put them on the tombstones to remember the dead.

I know that God is merciful and even though we all make mistakes, there is always a way to be forgiven. Have a great week!:)

Alma 42:15 And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also.

Elder Paxton

ps Elder Bowen and I switched glasses for Halloween.

Ostrava

Hey I got transfered to Ostrava so I had to travel and don't have time to email. I had a way spiritual week this week but I will have to write about it next week.

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

Olomouc

Good week! We were still stuck in side for a lot of the week but by the end we were able to get back to normal missionary life and that was nice!
Saturday we went to a members house and she has been a member for 67 years and was even a member through communism and all the crazy wars so she tolds us all of the stories and I am just so grateful for the blessing of always having the gospel in my life. She got baptized and wasn't able to take the sacrament for the first time until 40 years later becuase of communism. Then we went tracting that night and there were two really sketchy guys so we werent sure if we should contact them but we decided we needed to but they had no interest. Later we were knocking on this door and a guy rides up on his bike and said hey these two guys back there told me that you tried to stop them and talk about God so I came to find you, I want to learn more. It was really cool cause we were prompted to talk to those two men and even though they didn't have interest, it led another guy to us. Also on Sunday we only had 9 members at church not including the missionaries. That's probably the least amount of people I have ever seen at church. Things are just so different here but I'm glad I get to see what it is like and what others go through because they know these things are true. In America we are so blessed to have churches and temples everywhere. This morning we went to an old Catholic church and tooks some pretty sweet pictures so that was a lot of fun!

We reach toward the unknown, but faith lights the way. If we will cultivate that faith, we shall never walk in darkness. Gordon B. Hinckley

Have a great week. sbohem
Elder Paxton

Olomouc

So this week has been kinda slow. My companion got sick so our mission presidents wife made us stay locked up in our apartment for 2 days straight! It was soo boring. Then we finally got let out but by then we were both pretty sick but we didn't want to be inside anymore so we just kept working. We got a referral but he lived about 2 1/2 hours away so we decided to get the other elders in our district and go on a road trip to visit all of the less actives that live that far away and also give this guy a Book of Mormon. It was way fun! We drove all day and ended up in some crazy places! The GPS took us on this sketchy road and we ended up off roading on a really muddy road in our crappy little European car. Eventually we got to the referrals house at 8 at night and gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would come to church this week. Sunday I gave a talk in church and it went really well except for the fact that I am still pretty sick so after church we decided to call our mission presidents wife and once again we are locked up in our apartment until we get better so that kind of sucks. Other than that not much happened. I hope you all have a great week!


Sbohem,
Elder Paxton

We also did a chalk display and that is me contacting so girl.