Olomouc

Pretty fun week here in Olomouc! We actually weren't even in our own area for half of it but we still rocked it this week! We had training in Brno on Thursday and then on Friday we went to Prague for my comps visa work. When we were trying to get a train to Prague the only two seats left were on a luxury train but we had to be there on time so we got on and it was the sickest train ride of my life! They gave us free food and all sorts of stuff. On the way back we weren't so lucky and got stuck on an old train that was too full so we had to stand the whole 3 hour ride.
After training on Thursday we went to visit this girls house that we got as a referral from missionaries in New York, it tooks us forever to get out to her tiny village but when we showed up the dad got super mad and kicked us off his property. We asked if we could at least give the Book of Mormon to here because we wrote our testimonies in it but that just made him even more angry. As we were walking down the street we saw them drive past us in there car so we decided to run all the way back and leave the Book of Mormon in the mail box. So we are praying that it will get to her.
We also had a lesson with this guy that looks like Jack Sparrow. The last time I met him he was wearing a kilt. He swore at me and then flashed me as he was flipping us of but this time he was actually really nice and read in the Book of Mormon with us. On Sunday one of the members here gave her departing testimony and we had a nice lunch party for her. She is leaving for the MTC this week.
Other than that it was a pretty normal week.

Faith-
Having faith in Jesus Christ means relying completely on Him, trusting in His infinite power, intelligence, and love. It includes believing His teachings. It means believing that even though we do not understand all things, He does. Because He has experienced all our pains, afflictions, and infirmities, He knows how to help us rise above our daily difficulties . He has “overcome the world” and prepared the way for us to receive eternal life. He is always ready to help us as we remember His plea: “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not”

S Bohem,
Elder Paxton

Olomouc

Another great week! My new comp, Elder Collins, and I are doing great. We have seen a lot of blessings just in our first two weeks so this transfer should be a really good one!
School has started here so about 22 thousand young students just moved here. It is crazy!
Our mission isn't really one to get referrals but this week we got 3 solid referrals so we were pretty pumped! I know it doesn't sound like a lot but for this mission that is a ton! I have probably only gotten 2 referrals my entire mission.
We went to a members house last night for dinner and the kids play the accordion so I got to try and it was pretty sick! They also didn't believe me that I could do a back flip so I did it even though I was still in my suit.
Sorry it's short I ran out of time but I hope you all have a great week! God is there and he loves you all!:)

Elder Paxton

Olomouc

This week my companion and I had some pretty sweet experiences. On Tuesday we were on our way to the building but we needed to take a tram so we were at the stop and our tram was 15 minutes late so we decided to take a different tram that would at least get us a little closer but right as the tram pulled up I felt like we needed to stay. So we did and this girl was standing by us so I started to talk to her and turns out she was waiting for the same tram that we originally wanted. We got on the tram with her and had a really good lesson about how God really does care about us and wants to help us through those hard times in life. Then she wanted to meet with us again so we have a meeting with her tomorrow. It was cool to see how the Spirit guided us to find this girl.

Wednesday a man came up to me and told me and tried to sell me drugs, he said the government made it illegal because they don't want us to be healthy, its all a conspiracy. I told him I didn't have money so he started pouring some into a bag and said I'll let you have half for free. You will see within two weeks the result. We didn't end up taking it though.

Thursday our land lady came and cleaned our apartment for us. Elder Collins had his clothes in the wash and when we got home they were all hung up and our bed sheets were changed! She is the best!

Yesterday a member came up to us and asked if we would go to the hospital with him to give his mom a blessing. We end up in this sketchy hospitals where everything was basically abandoned. My companion and I were so confused. We looked all over for his mom but never found her, all of the sudden the member walks into this hospital room so we follow and we see a guy laying on the bed with one leg missing! We had no idea what was going on and neither did the guy without a leg. Then the member said to the legless guy "I was there when this happened" The guy started crying and the member told him who we were and what we do here. We ended up giving him a blessing. Turns out he jumped in front of a train to kill himself but it didn't kill him and the member was working at the train station and saw the whole thing. It was insane that we went there looking for him mom and ended up finding this man.

This week we have seen how the Spirit is willing to guide those who will listen. I am grateful for the guidance from the Holy Ghost and I encourage all of you to look for those small promptings in your everyday lives. Have a great week!

Olomouc

So we had transfers today but turns out I am staying in Olomouc for at least one more transfer so I am pretty excited about that. My new comp is Elder Collins and he seems pretty cool! We are gonna have a great transfer!

This week we had training so we had to go to Bratislava in Slovakia and that was pretty fun. Elder Bowen (Senior missionary) drove us all there so we got to have a pretty sick road trip with Elder Bowen! He loved it!
This week a member from Prague was staying in Olomouc and didn't have much to do so he just contacted with us all day and it was way fun. Then the next day he went all the way to Brno and bought us peanut butter from Marks and Spencer! It was awesome! We had our culture night on Friday and we went to the circus. Not a ton of people were there so a couple of the members and missionaries got called up as volunteers! It was so funny!
Saturday we got our transfer calls and Elder Vickers and I had to wait all day! Finally at 8:30 we got a call and it was my trainer who is the AP now and he said because he is going home this week and it is his last calls he wanted mine to be very last. But I got it eventually so its alright.
Sunday we went to Brno to watch the rededication of the Freiburg Temple! It was so cool to be with the members and see how much they really appreciate the temple because they don't have one here in the Czech Republic so they have to go all they way to Germany if they even want to go.
I realized how blessed we are in the states to have so many temples around us. I am so grateful for that.
I hope you all have a great week and remember how blessed you are to have these gifts from God so close to you.

Olomouc

Pretty normal week. Kinda short because we have Pday on a Saturday.
Last Pday Sister Bowen cooked 80 donuts and we had a donut eating contest for FHE. My companion Elder Vickers won. I got 10 and was out! haha We had an exchange on Tuesday so I was with Elder Cardon for a day and that was a lot of fun.
On Tuesday we started a fast with some of our investigators to help them receive their own personal answers so that was really cool but Wednesday and Thursday were pretty rough because almost all of our lessons bailed on us, but we were able to contact and find some really cool people. Friday was Elder Vickers year mark so we went to lunch with a member and he paid for us which was pretty sick. Today we went to a car museum full of all the old czech cars. It was really cool to see some different cars made here.
We get our transfer calls next Saturday so we will see what happens.
Other than that not much is new.
I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Paxton

Olomouc

This week was great but not too much happened.
President Pohorilicky and his wife came to our district meeting and to check our apartments. When they came to check ours they were like wow this is pretty nice lets have district meeting here. So we did and it was pretty great. I got to contact with president and learned a ton from him. The same day we got a text from one of our old investigators that just dropped off the face of the earth! Turns out he was travelling the world and will be back next week so way are way pumped!
On Saterday Sister Kopecka cooked lunch for us. She made us a huge meal and we had a really good lesson with her. She absolutely loves the missionaries so it is the best when we can go over there because she gets so happy.
We were in the park and saw some of our slacklining buddies so we went to talk to them and practice our slacklining. I finally got my shirt from them so I think I am officially in there gang! haha
Other than that it was just a normal week.
I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Paxton

Olomouc

This week was great. It was kind of hard because all of our YSA went to the conference all week so we had nobody to teach with us but that's alright. We had two really spiritual experiences this week. The first one was when we were looking for less-active members, we went to the address listed but turns out they don't live at this address anymore so we just started tracting the building. One lady eventually answered and at first she said no and started to shut the door, we quickly handed her a card before she closed the door. Suddenly she opened it again with tears in his eyes. Her parents recently passed away and she started drinking because of that. She has been looking for help but hasn't been able to find it anywhere. We shared with her the Book of Mormon and told her how it can change your life for the better. The second was when we got a random call, we were at sports night playing volleyball with some investigators and members when we got this call from a random number. We answered it and this guy said "I was just walking around and saw this sign for your church, I've done some bad things in the past and I want to make things right. Can I come tomorrow?" We met with him and had a really spiritual lesson. Turns out he was born in Mongolia but moved to Detroit when he was young. In Detroit he got mixed up with some bad things so he decided to come to the Czech Republic. He has been here for about 6 years now and is still looking to fix his life. He was a believer when he was young but just fell off the path. When he came to our lesson we asked him what he thought of when we said prophet and he answered Joseph Smith. We were way shocked! Turns out he had read quite a bit of stuff about our church before he came to our lesson unfortunately some things weren't so great that he read but by the end of our lesson he said he knew that this was exactly what he was looking for and he felt like our message gave him a purpose in life.
We also stopped 2 young guys on the street and they said we don't believe at all! You have 15 minutes to convince us. So we taught them about the Book of Mormon and it ended up being way longer than 15 minutes but they left with a Book of Mormon. It was really cool to see how our message fit to each one of these people individually. They were all struggling and found hope and peace in our message.
This reminded me of a scripture in John and about how lucky we are to share the message with people so that they can find this for themselves. "Peace‍ I leave with you, my peace‍ I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

I hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Paxton
/br> We saw some pretty sweet Catholic churches this week and I am actually getting pretty good at cooking.