Smile, life is great

What a beautiful day! I have been able to run around today without a jacket! The sun is shining and it is wonderful! I hope that it lasts! So just so you have a small idea of things that are going on in my life besides studying and working on the language and learning Czech and sharing the gospel and those types of things that are intertwined in everything we do. When we have a few minutes between meal time and the next activity or personal time at night I have taken it upon myself to clean up the kitchen (go figure) It is amazing all the neat tools and appliances that we have that my companion didn't even know about, and she has been here for a few months already! So that has been fun. Once a week we go upstairs to the family we live with and the mother helps us with the language. That is such a nice help, if only I knew what would be the best thing to work on with her. I hope to figure that out soon! We also have an investigator named Michal who insists that he give us a mini Czech lesson before we teach him about the gospel. It is fun and he is a great guy. I hope that we can figure out how to get him to keep commitments or we may have to drop him. His desire seems to be fading, so sad! We also teach an English class, we have the advanced class and so we mostly just have conversations and answer questions and teach them what they want to learn and share a spiritual thought, they are good to listen though they claim to have no interest. 

Brother Sir is wonderful, he cooks us a meal every week. He made us some turkey fried steaks (something similar to that but it was with pork and way good) so he loaded our plates with potatoes and then told us to get the meat. We took one and he looked at us and said two. So I took another thinking there is no way! These are huge. SO I managed to down them, they were delicious. Then to my horror he opened the oven and pulled out another pan of them set it in the dish on the table and said continue. I looked at my companion and she grabbed it and started eating. So I took more and ate it. Realize these are huge, people shouldn't normally eat more than one. So I ate the third and there were still some left. Luckily he allowed us to take them home rather than eat it there, I was a little nervous! ha ha Especially when he went to open a pan on the stove! Luckily it was soup for between conference sessions that he was planning to bring and not dessert for now. So he brought us goulash (goo-lash) soup which was actually really good, even if it did look sketchy. Then on Sunday he brought something similar with cabbage in it and kinedliky (a bread stuff) to go with it. So good, but SOOO much food! He has us eat so much! I am the only one who can't seem to eat it all easily. Everyone else always wants more! Crazy stuff! I don't know how they manage it because I am gaining weight already! I am back to what I was a year ago, so much for being so good over the summer last year! ha ha 

Funny story as we were meeting with him for meals I told my companion that we needed to be leaving a message with him, so we decided to review the 10 commandments. Evidently his language isn't the cleanest and she mentioned that a while back he had bought something on the Sabbath but that probably wasn't a problem anymore. Well we taught the lesson and then Sunday between sessions what do you know, but he has bought us sisters ice cream cones! AHH!!! ha ha we thanked him and didn't know what to do about that. So I don't think our message sunk in! Guess we still have work there. Constantin, our wonderful Romanian investigator made it to all the sessions of conference! IT is great how dedicated they are! We had it in Romanian on our phone so he could listen to it while everyone else watched it in Czech and we missionaries sat in the office and watched it in English, I was so excited to actually get to hear it in English! We hadn't been planning to do so, but got permission. Although I would love to continue to get your thoughts and things about conference as I can't see it again until it comes in the Ensign. 

As I listened to conference there was a theme that I pulled out, keep your covenants, keep the commandments! I thought it was interesting that my companion got chastity as the main topic, to each their own. ;) Anywho besides that I got that we need to come closer to Christ, we need to strengthen that relationship, apply the atonement and repent. As I read back over my notes this morning I noticed a theme in my notes that I hadn't recognized as I listened. Missionary work, how to be a better teacher and the necessity of loving and caring for others. So wonderful! It is amazing what happens as you take notes and then take the time to review what you have written, you think you know it. But there are messages there that you may not have noticed before. 

As we have met people there have been many that tell me how impressed they are with my Czech considering I have only been here 3 weeks. Then all the older missionaries saying they didn't know as much as we do. I guess I am doing good although I feel like I know nothing! This past week we had a Czech week. This is where you speak a ton of Czech and not much English and focus on certain things to improve. I look back and it is amazing how much it truly helps! The gospel is true, if you have a question about it, go to the Lord, study it out and you too will know it is true! The Lord is there to help us, he wants what is best for us, it was said in conference, He wants our happiness, I know that is true and we have the opportunity to be the way for others to find that happiness as members and as missionaries. I love this work and with faith I know that I can do the work the Lord has sent me here to do, I can master this crazy language and I can say what the Lord would say if he were the one speaking. I love the Lord, He is so good and loving. We met a man the other day who didn't believe that God was loving, I was shocked and didn't know what to say, how can you not know He is loving?! Anyway time is short. When I figure out how to send pictures I will. I just need to understand Czech first. :) 

 Love you 

Sestra Hicken