Plzen

I had another great week here in Plzen. It has been getting a little bit warmer so more people are out in the parks as families! The parks here are amazing. They are huge and full of trees and lakes!

This week we have had a lot of people get super mad at us for contacting on trams and buses and that's when it is the hardest to keep going but everytime we got yelled at and just kept talking to people we found someone that is super nice and wants to meet with us. One guy we found is Lukas, he speaks really good English so he asked if we could teach him in English so he can keep practicing but when we met with him he was amazed with our message and with us as missionaries and how much we give up to be here. Then we met two girls from Russia at different times and both of them said that they have been looking for a church to go to here in the Czech Republic and when we contacted them they were so happy and so glad they met us. But before each of these people we found, we got yelled at by super mean people but we just kept going and ended up finding people that really needed us. You have to go through trials before you receive the blessings. We also got a black investigator from Africa so that is pretty cool cause there are basically no black people here in Plzen.

On Saturday we had our culture night for this transfer and we got to go to the Blik Blik Light Festival. It was so cool, it starts in one park and you walk through town from park to park and they have different light events in each park. It was way fun, we got to go with some members and investigators which made it even better.

Also since it is almost Easter they set up the markets on the town square and have petting zoos and everything! So it's been a great week! President McConkie shared a talk with us from Elder Wirthlin about the Resurrection and I just want to share a part of it with everyone because it's almost Easter!

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin.
I think of how dark that Friday was when Christ was lifted up on the cross.
On that terrible Friday the earth shook and grew dark. Frightful storms lashed at the earth.
Those evil men who sought His life rejoiced. Now that Jesus was no more, surely those who followed Him would disperse. On that day they stood triumphant.
On that day the veil of the temple was rent in twain.
Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus, were both overcome with grief and despair. The superb man they had loved and honored hung lifeless upon the cross. On that Friday the Apostles were devastated. Jesus, their Savior—the man who had walked on water and raised the dead—was Himself at the mercy of wicked men. They watched helplessly as He was overcome by His enemies. On that Friday the Savior of mankind was humiliated and bruised, abused and reviled. It was a Friday filled with devastating, consuming sorrow that gnawed at the souls of those who loved and honored the Son of God.I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest. But the doom of that day did not endure.
The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind. And in an instant the eyes that had been filled with ever-flowing tears dried. The lips that had whispered prayers of distress and grief now filled the air with wondrous praise, for Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, stood before them as the firstfruits of the Resurrection, the proof that death is merely the beginning of a new and wondrous existence. Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays. But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

My Comp and I. We found and American candy store so we got some candy. The Czech Republic finally got hymn books. And it was pouring rain one day.

Plzen

Another great week in Plzen! Elder Carlson and I have been working way hard and finding a ton of people to teach! It's crazy though cause he is only one transfer ahead of me so we are both super new and he is also the district leader so we have to figure all of that stuff out as well cause the last district leader was in a different area so we don't have any of the things we need so it's been interesting! We are having so much fun though!

Right now we have a couple really solid investigators on date and they are progressing a lot! One crazy thing that happened was that we have these two investigators Micheal and Morgan and they both have a baptismal date and we have been teaching them for about two weeks and we had a lesson yesterday with them and we are teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about half way through the lesson when we were talking about their baptismal date Micheal says well you guys never asked me this question and it's pretty late now but I am acutally already a member of your church! I was baptized in Russia when I was about 8. We were like what the heck!? Then he goes on to tell us that he has the priesthood and baptized 3 people when he was 19 but then they moved and he became in-active and hasn't really been able to find the church neer him until here in Plzen. So we have been thinking he was an investigator this whole time and turns out he is really a member. But Morgan is still an investigator and working towards baptism so it's good because he is getting that extra support from Micheal as a member when the missionaries aren't around.

Other than that we have just been teaching and finding and it's been a ton of fun! Plzen is great and the branch here is amazing! Sorry it is short I gotta go!! Have a great week!!

Elder Paxton

Transfers!

This week went great! Last Sunday I gave another talk in church and it went really well but let me tell ya talks back home were a lot easier than here! On Monday we went to Prague and it was a lot of fun! We had some pretty interesting people come up to us. One guy was from Florida but lives in Prague now and he was crazy. He kept telling my companion "I don't even know you but I like you, you've got a nice smile." But then he looked at me and said yours is a little goofy! haha Then he just chewed us out for a while and he just kept saying "Jesus says love everyone, I love ya, I don't think very highly of you but I love ya!" It was so weird. Then we ran into some other elders and sisters that were in Prague for visa work so we went to dinner with them.
On Tuesday we had a lesson with Morgan and Michal, Morgan is on date and speaks English but we were on splits so I was teaching them with a member that kind of speaks English but about half way through they started asking probably the hardest questions a missionary could be asked! And I didn't even have a companion to help me out! It was terrible! But I answered the best I could and he is still working towards baptism.
Wednesday we went to Prague again for training and they announced our new mission president, President Jan Pohořelicky!! He is a Czech so I am super excited to have someone born here be our next president!
On Thursday I had an exchange with Elder Hymus and that night we had our "Culture Night" so we went to an opera in a really old but super nice theater! They are really in to plays/ operas/ ballet here so it was cool to experience that! We also went to the tallest cathedral/kostel and it was way cool but there were so many stairs!!! haha
Saturday we got a call from President McConkie, I get to stay here in Plzen and my new companion is Elder Carlson. He is only one transfer ahead of me but he is follow up training me and will also be the district leader! My old companion Elder Needham is now the AP!
So today Elder Carlson showed up and we are already working hard! I am super excited for this transfer! It is going to be interesting!
This week I challenge everyone to read Luke 10, The Good Samaritan and remember to always be willing to help and when you receive help always pay it forward! We get to do a lot of service here and it is amazing to see how much it helps the people and how happy they are when we finish! I hope you all have a great week!
Elder Paxton

Well things are finally starting to go better for us! We got two people on date for baptism, one is Nikolaj the guy from Ukraine. He has such a crazy story I might have already talked about it but I'll tell it again! He used to be a dang good sniper for Ukraine but finished his service and went back with his family but then the government kidnapped him and his brother and forced them to go to war again. While in war they were disarming some sort of bomb but it blew up and he watched his brother get blown to pieces and all of his friends die. He got sent to a hospital to have surgery but they screwed up so he is slowly losing all feeling in his leg. He escaped the hospital and came to the Czech Republic. But because he is illegal they force him to work 13 hours a day or else he gets sent back to Ukraine where they will find him and put him on the front line in war. So it really sucks but he has been doing a lot better since he's been meeting with us and wants to be baptized really bad! His date is next week because he has already been taught everything but we still don't know if he will make it or not because he has a hard time coming to church because of work. The other guy showed up to sports night on Saturday and we started talking to him and his friend. Morgan is the one that committed to baptism and he is from France, Michel is his friend from Greece but he didn't commit to baptism. So we finally hit standards and that is the first time in a long time Plzen has hit standards, and the first time it has been a greeny and a trainer!
This week I also had another exchange with Elder Beazer and for the first time we had nothing go wrong!! We even got two new investigators! So we celebrated by getting some pizza at our regular pizza place where the same waitress always serves us and thinks we are stupid because we don't speak very good so she will always ask if we want an English menu but we know how to read the normal one. And then we were on a small exchange on Saturday for a few hours and nothing went wrong on that one either! We have really improved!!
Other than that not much happened. Today we are going to Prague so I am excited to see some old castles! And this Saturday we find out what is happening for transfers and then Monday everyone goes to their new area! So we will see where I'm off to next or if I will stay!
I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Paxton

Plzen

Another great week gone by! We had a rough week as far as meeting with investigators because every time we set up they would cancel 20 minutes before. Also on Tuesday I was on an exchange with Elder Beazer again and we had apartment checks but we had about 5 minutes before the senior couple was going to get there so we decided to go contact outside our building until they got there but as soon as we walked out of our apartment we realized we left the keys inside and with our building you also have to have a key to get out so we were locked out of our apartment but locked in the building and the senior couple showed up but we couldn't let them in so we had to sit there and wait for Elder Needham to bring us the spare key. But we passed so that was good! On Wednesday we went over to Sister Komoncova's house for lunch and she is the best! She is the nicest old grandma and she loves the missionaries! Then on Thursday we had service at a less active members house and it was the grosses thing I have ever experienced in my life! We washed her dishes and every single dish was covered in black mold, and the worst part was she still ate off of them with the mold! Also her entire floor is covered in a mixture of her dogs hair and her hair so when I tried to vacuum it got clogged and over heated so I had to reach my hand in there and pull out clumps of hair and I filled a whole groceries bag with vacuumed up hair! Then on Saturday we had sports night which is always fun and we had some new people show up but on the way there Elder Needham lost his wallet and we didn't notice until after sports night so we never did end up finding it. Sunday we had branch conference so President McConkie and his family were there and we had a ton of people there. We had so many that we had to put up chairs in the back rooms for people to sit! It was awesome! Then we were suppose to meet this lady outside of her Kostel, Catholic Church, but she wasn't there so we went inside to see if she was there, she wasn't but it was a pretty sweet building. It is super big and old but you could just feel that it wasn't even close to the true church! But today was by far the best day, this morning we got Nikolej on date for baptism on March 5th and he is really solid. Then we took a tour of the Pilsner Urquell beer factory. It was probably one of the coolest things I have seen here! But with being here and seeing so many drunk people and how beer has messed up their lives it just goes to show how important it is to take care of your body. Like in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 we know that our body is a gift from God and when we respect our bodies we show our love for him! And I know he blesses us when we take care of our bodies. I hope you all have a great week!

Stašï Paxton

Week 6 in Plzen

This was definitely the craziest week of my mission!
One really cool thing that happened was on Tuesday we were teaching our English class and at the end we showed the Thanks to Him video and gave our testimonies on that, the spirit was so strong so we asked if we had any volunteers to say the closing prayer. This old man named Vratislav, that has been coming to our class ever since before I got here but hasn't shown any interest in the gospel, volunteered and said the closing prayer! It was a really cool experience to see how our testimonies can really help people to feel the spirit and sometimes it takes longer for others to recognize it but Vratislav finally recognized the spirit and we are hoping to meet with him again tomorrow!
Then where it got really crazy, My companion had MLC in Prague so Elder Beazer and I were together again for the day. We had on plan to go to Koloman's house, he is a less active member, because he needed a blessing. Right before my companion leaves he says "Don't miss the train cause the next one doesn't come for another hour." We were like don't worry we won't miss it!! But we missed it! So we call Koloman because he was supposed to be waiting at the train station for us to get there and we tell him we missed the train. Luckily he said he would wait for us to get on the next one. So finally we get on the train and when we get off the train we look around and there is literally nothing around us and Koloman isn't there. We were like crap we got off one stop too early so we start sprinting on the train tracks to get to the next stop and after a long time of running we get this call from Koloman asking where we were cause he didn't see us get off the train. We told him we were sprinting and we should be there soon but he was like No please get off the tracks and go back to the train station. But we couldn't really understand him because neither of us speak good Czech so we thought he was going to meet us back at the last train station so we start sprinting back so that we will be there when he gets there. We finally make it back to the train station but he wasn't there. Then we get a call from the branch president telling us that we need to wait for the next train and go back to Plzen. So we were like crap Elder Needham is going to kill us because first off he told us not to miss the train but now we aren't even going to give Koloman his blessing! So we are just sitting at the train station freezing because we just ran forever in our big coats so we got super sweaty and then it started snowing so we were freezing and super disappointed! Plus we had another lesson planned with Daša but there was no way would were gonna make it back in time! But we texted Koloman and said so we aren't coming to meet you anymore? And he text us back but we couldn't understand it but all of the sudden the train pulls up and there is Koloman! He said he would come back with us to Plzen and we could just give him the blessing at the church! So we taught a dang good lesson then gave him a blessing!! And luckily Daša said she could move the lesson back an hour so we made it to that on time!
So then I thought dang this day couldn't get any crazier but I was wrong. After our lesson with Daša I had to go with Elder Hymas, also new, back to Slovany to meet up with my companion. We got on a bus but after a while we were like dang this has been a really long bus ride and nothing looks familiar, are we going the right way? But we just figured oh it will look familiar once we get to the right stop. Then all of the sudden I look out the window and see Globus, this building that is super far away from our city and I only see it when we go and do service for this member that lives far away and we usually have to take a car to get out there cause only a few buses go out there like 2 times a day! So we hopped off the bus and went searching for a way back home! Finally we found another bus and made it home!
Then the next day we ran into Nikolaj, one of our investigators that we haven't been able to get in contact with because he doesn't have a working phone anymore. So we talked with him and found out that he was going to the hospital because he doesn't have feeling in his leg anymore because when he was in the war a grenade blew up next to him so they took him to a hospital but they messed up so now he just slowly keeps losing feeling in his leg. So the next day we went to the hospital to find him but we never could find him cause their hospitals here are crazy. People are just walking around with all this bloody bandages and open wounds and the doctors start bringing out this guy on a table that is almost dying and they act like it is no big deal! They have no privacy what so ever in their hospitals and just bring injured people that they picked up off the street right through the visiting area. It was pretty crazy!
And tonight Elder Beazer and I will be on exchanges again so hopefully we won't get lost anywhere this time! But it has been a great week! I hope you are all doing well!

Starší Paxton Elder Beazer and I on the train tracks

Half way through my first transfer!

It's crazy how time goes by! In my mission we have 9 week transfers so I just barely hit the half way mark. But I love it here! The city is awesome and the people are great!!
This week we had zone training and since my companion is a zone leader he had to meet up with the other zone leader to plan for that so for about three days I was with Elder Beazer again! He is great, this is his second transfer so we are both super new but we have gone on a bunch of exchanges together and it is crazy trying to teach lessons together but somehow it turns out great! At training Elder Beazer and I practiced teaching the mission presidents wife and she said we worked really well together especially since we weren't even companions! The training was really good and our mission is doing really well! On the way home we got on a train that is suppose to be super fast and really nice but it broke down after one stop and they threw all of the passengers on a tiny, crappy, super slow train! It took us double the time to get home and we were stuck standing in the area by the bathrooms! It was so hot and such a long ride! haha but it was a pretty fun experience!
Our district did service for Vladimir again and this time is was some pretty hard work! We moved a whole bunch of old furniture and equipment out his factory and into a different building but we had to lift it up some sketchy wooden stairs that are super steep! It was way fun though because he is trying to restore a castle he owns so we get to work with him on that and see all of these super antique things! I love it!
My companion and I had a pretty good week, we got 3 new investigators and they are all really cool! Two of them we contacted at separate times and they both sent us a text that said they couldn't stop thinking about our message and wanted to learn more so we taught them and they seem really interested in getting baptized! I really hope things work out because they would be really good branch builders and help us get a stake in the Czech Republic. We are getting super close to that!
Also our branch just bought the upstairs to the building of our church and we got to see it the other day and they are going to expand the chapel downstairs because we are getting pretty big! Our branch is doing really good!
Not much else has happened but it has been a super fun week!
One scripture that has really helped me this week is Moroni 7:33. About how if we have faith in Jesus Christ we will have power. I know this is true because I have seen it here, people don't have faith and they have a really hard life but as soon as they build that faith in Christ their lives improve dramatically!
I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Starší Paxton