Life of a missionary

Sorry about last weeks skimpy letter I will try to be better. It is so beautiful here with everything going into bloom and the weather being so nice, for the most part. 

So we have really noticed the blessings of obedience recently. We have strived really hard to be to bed on time. Rather than doing our own thing at 9:30 and then when it is almost 10:30 getting ready for bed and being a little late, we have started to get ready at 9:30 and then with the time left we do our own things like journal writing, never enough time for that and anything else. Because we are ready for bed we can be in bed on time and that is how we got two new investigators. :) One of our investigators, Jitka is amazing! She is a stay at home mom and has a baby boy. She is so wonderful and at our first lesson she asked questions like, "What is the purpose of my existence?" "What is Gods plan for me?" "What is the difference between your church and other churches?" and finally, "How did you come to know it was true for yourself?" So we were way excited to teach her again, had an appointment gave her a commitment or two and went our ways. One day shortly after we were waiting to get on the bus. Somehow we missed it come and go so we jumped on a random bus thinking it would work, well we went too far, so we jumped off and wandered and ended up getting back on the bus and going the opposite direction. When we got to the right stop, or what we thought was right, I began wondering who we were supposed to talk to. There had to be a reason for all of this crazy run about. So I began looking in the faces of everyone when what to my surprise Jitka was coming up the street. We stopped and chatted and she had some good questions, she had been thinking about her reading assignment etc. It was wonderful. We confirmed our appointment, all in excitement for the next meeting and went our ways. (This is the second time we have run into her on the street and she isn't ever in town, she lives out in the country so the Lord truly has been putting us in her path for a reason, she is so prepared!) Unfortunately something happened and she cancelled and has now dropped us... but we continue to pray for her, that she will be open and want to learn more whether it be with us or with other missionaries at a later date. She is awesome! 

Our other investigator Joe is hilarious. He is out of control with questions and we showed him the Joseph Smith video and he was talking through most of it. We thought this would keep him quiet, it did some but yeah. It is going to be interesting to see what happens with him. He is gone to the spa for 3 weeks so we aren't allowed to contact him. But we did get him a Book of Mormon. He reads so many weird things about our church on the Internet. It was really funny, in our first meeting he was trying to tell us that liking someone of the opposite sex was normal. When we told him we weren't nuns and would get married later in life he was relieved. He is a funny old man. 

At one conference last week our district had to sing a musical number, that was kind of crazy. We sang the men's chorus of High on a Mountaintop each of us singing a different part. We learned it in less than 24 hours before we preformed. Luckily we had a train ride to practice some. There was a man as we were getting off that leaned in and told us we had nice voices, it was funny because he said it in English and just how he said it. The Bells were at zone conference, it was fun to see them and chat. They are so wonderful, a nice little connection home although I didn't know them really before this. 

We made a new friend, his name is Melad from Egypt, he is Coptic orthodox. He has come to church and a few other activities like sports day and our Czech class. He told the elders that he wasn't going to come anymore if we didn't go to his belly dancing class. ha ha he is so funny! It is fun to talk with him and see the differences in our beliefs. He tells us he doesn't want to join our church which is funny because he brought that up himself, we weren't even on the topic of religion when he said that, so he is thinking about it! ah ha 

During my personal study I found a new favorite verse. I have always loved 1 Nephi 17 because it talks about the same experience so positively from Nephi and so negatively from his brothers, but this time I read 3 and 50 and they just stood out to me. Made me think of my favorite scripture story of Enoch and how the Lord is always there with us and He loves us! He definitely does have a path just for me and one just for you, He is so loving and supportive!!! Did I mention that I got to speak in church yesterday? Yeah that was great. I just gave the first lesson on the restoration. But because I don't have the best Czech I wrote it out and read it mostly until the testimony... ha ha it was great. Michal our not so progressing investigator told me the other day that my Czech has improved. So that is good, I have gotten better over the past month! I can't believe I have only been here a month, it feels so much longer and the MTC, well that was a few life times ago! 

It's so amazing to see how the Lord is in everything and has things timed out perfectly. We were going to visit a less active, but the buses weren't working out so we decided to do our back up plan. So we headed on our way and remembered something we needed at the store, so we "quickly" stopped in, took too long and couldn't find what we needed, so we left. We caught the bus to our destination and what do you know a less active was getting off at the same time we were!! So we got to stop and talk with him and make plans to go to church together, woot! 

With all the crazy things to eat, I was really surprised to find that the spinach bratr Sir cooked was delicious! I wanted more! Upon asking how it was made we discovered why it was so good, cooked in bacon fat! YUM!!! I am glad sometimes when I decided to try out saying things to my companion before I say them to people. I was attempting to come up with, "Is there anyone you know who would like..." and because libi se can mean a few things evidently, I came up with, "Do you know anyone who looks good?" So yeah... ha ha ha 

With the weather being nicer it has been fun to get out and play frisbee and soccer for sports day and obviously ride bikes to the famous castle Hlubolka. so beautiful! 

A few other thoughts before I close, we had the opportunity to make banana bread and cookies and go deliver them to less actives and share a short message, that was a fun adventure. After FHE Friday night rather than playing games, I helped Monika an investigator of the elders learn how to French braid, that was interesting as I had little to no language skills to communicate that. More and middle are the extent of what I said I think. ha ha it was great. She is getting it, next week maybe it will be even better! When we go to the ghetto to visit a less active, the little girls there are always so excited. They come running when they see us and talk and talk. They always hug us and sometimes we have taught them something. Like my companion teaching them how to pray and then leaving them with a prayer or giving them a pass along card. They are adorable and so loving. And finally, I contacted a women yesterday and she threatened to call the cops on us! Ha ha so I am now a missionary, I have been threatened! ha ha who would have know that asking someone how they were doing today was bad. 

 The work here is wonderful, I am loving life and the people. We have a wonderful branch here. The Lord is mindful of us and our needs and he wants to help you! 

 Love you, 

Sestra Hicken