God Loves us

Ahjo,

I have exciting news and if you haven't heard it from someone else let me gladly tell you now, GOD LOVES US!!!! ha ha Our Heavenly Father truly does love each and everyone of us, we are His children and He wants what is best for us, why wouldn't He? Our parents definitely want what is best for us and they have definitely sacrificed for us so we can have the best they can give. Our Heavenly Father is the same.

 I know that because our Heavenly Father loves us He not only hears, but He also answers our prayers; so pozor (watch out in Czech). If we truly desire something and it is good, I promise you that the Lord will bless you with that thing. I know this from not only studying the scriptures and seeing that promise but because it has happened in my own life. More recently I have truly been desiring the ability to understand and speak Czech. To be able to have a conversation with people and know what they are saying, not just words that give me a general idea. Especially when it comes to topics other than the gospel. (It is so funny I can tell when my companion changes into teaching the gospel, not because her voice changes but because I can all of the sudden understand, as it is the words I have learned!) So I have been praying for that pretty consistently and hard. I realized the other day how much I rely on my companion and how I really should be relying more on the Lord and because I desired that, I decided to pray for that. (Lets also remember that I think it would be great to have now, although I know that isn't likely as it will take time and lots of work.) So this week is transfers, actually it is today! Saturday night I got the phone call telling me who my new companion would be. I have the opportunity to be companions with Sister Cooper. We were MTC companions and we now get to follow up train each other, it is going to be great! You may not have made the connection that this was the Lords way of answering my prayer, so I will point that out. Since both Sister Cooper and I are fairly new, neither of us know the language really well. So we will HAVE to rely on the Lord to teach anyone and to understand anything. We will have a lot of work ahead of us as we study the language and even more, we will be blessed, as well as our investigators, as we are forced to teach simply. Sister Cooper will be leaving Prague and joining me here in beautiful CBud! So it will be a party. This experience while it initially seemed like the Lord was making a blunder, I know that it is part of the Lords plan. He wants what is best for us. He loves us! As my mission theme has been, the Lord doesn't set us up for failure. He gives us trials and hard things to help us stretch and grow. He knows what we can become, He knows what we can handle. He wants to help us so that we can reach our potential. I am excited for this new experience and I am so grateful to be a missionary and to have had the opportunity to be trained by Sister Smith who has been so wonderful and helpful.She gets to spend a day and a half with us before she flies home to the US so that will be a wonderful little transition.

 Who knows, next week you might hear something crazy like "I'm the new Relief Society President!". My previous companion was and none of the current active members are in a position to do so. SO it is kind of narrowed down to my companion Sister Cooper from Prague or me who has been here in CBud with the members. We will see what kind of crazy plans the Lord has brewing next week. I love the gospel and the experiences that I have that bring me closer to my Heavenly Father and His Beloved son Jesus Christ.

 Since my trainer is leaving me, we took the opportunity to reflect back on our transfer together. It was neat to see how much we have grown and improved together as we work with the Lord. Even better and more amazing was to see the progress that the Lords children are able to make as they rely and trust in the Lord by keeping commitments. It is sad to see those who choose not to keep them. I was shocked to see the difference between those that keep commitments and those that don't. Within just a couple of months you truly see that doing the basic things (keeping commitments) like reading the scriptures, praying coming to church, how it strengthens their testimonies and really does make a difference in their lives. It makes me realize how important it truly is to do these simple things in my own life. It is so true that if you are not progressing in the gospel and in your testimony that you are regressing. Being able to watch people use their agency and keep commitments or not has really been a blessing for me.

 Last week I mentioned that we were having a training here in CBud. We did some contacting blocks and got 25 numbers for CBud. We are working to get appointments with all the people that gave us phone numbers from that. It is neat, all the people we have gotten a hold of have either set up with us or said they were interested and wanted us to call back in a few days. We are excited about the work, it truly is moving forward. We went to visit a man in the branch who has really been going through a hard time. He has been unemployed for over 6 months and hasn't had the best health. But he is a sweetheart. When we went over there I was amazed as I realized how much I love that man, how much I love all of the people here. I realized this about the time that I realized how sad/disappointed/broken hearted I was as I stood there listening to him talk to us and smelled the alcohol on his breath. I can only imagine how the Lord feels when anyone of us chooses to break one of His commandments. It was neat to realize how much I truly love the people and care for them, realize how much I want to help them, to wonder what I can do to be the Lords hands and help His struggling children.

 Wow this one has been really churchy...I guess that is to be expected though right? That is kind of what my life is centered around! :) Saturday we get to go to Prague for a RS activity/devotional thing. I really don't know much about it but I am going to be in charge of spreading the word and getting people to meet us at the train station and come so we can have a good group for the meeting.

 I would look through my planner and tell you other things that happened but I have a new one so I can't do that.... Oh our Romanian investigator Constatin, we love him to death. He is so funny and sweet. We were headed to our Skype lesson with him and he called Sister Smith fat and then immediately said odpusteni (forgiveness-I left out all the accents though) it was funny. That would be the third time he has done so. He then went on saying moc sport, malo jist (a lot of exercise (sports), little food). Knowing what his answer would be I looked at him and said, what about me Constantin?! He then got a mischievous look on his face and said oba! (which means both) So Constantin thinks we are fat and tells us often. We need to eat less and exercise more, so there you go! It really is hilarious because he is so animated (because we have very limited speaking abilities with him). But a few days before that in a different lesson he told us that if we needed a liver he would give his or if someone shot at us he would jump in front of the bullet. He truly does love us! ha ha anyway this has gotten really long, SORRY!

 Love you lots! Do the simple things everyday, it truly makes the difference! I love you and I know that our Heavenly Father loves you. Allow Him to lead and guide your life, it is well worth it! 

Love Sestra Hicken