Ahoj!
This week has been glorious! I will try to tell simply the highlights, but there are so many! Can I just say when you set goals and try hard for them, the Lord will bless you with miracles! The fact that every time we are in a hurry and need a miracle bus, one pulls up just as we get there and it is the exact number we needed. The Lord truly watches out for us!
President in last training invited us to fast and pray to know what 5 less actives and which 5 formers the Lord needed us to work with. So this week we got a hold of one of our formers and set up. We show up to his house and start walking and he is talking about some elders that had taught him. I didn’t really think anything of it, especially since our area is recently reopened to Sisters. So we got up to the apartment and we say hello and shake hands and the wife says she recognizes Sister Rosenvall but the husband recognizes me. I was lost thinking I have never seen you in my life! We had just sat down when there was a knock on the door and they both got up to get it. At this point Sister Rosenvall looks at me and says, "These are the elders investigators! These are the Fekovi!" Well when they came back we talked more and asked what they had learned from the missionaries, what they liked etc. So we could get a foundation of what to teach as they had been taught for a long time not just once the restoration a few years ago. But it was a neat experience because there was some confusion a few weeks back and the Fekovi hadn't responded to the elders and they had stopped meeting and it was not good news. But then we met with them, they loved it, and the elders were able to start meeting with them again. The lord works in mysterious ways, but his ways are better than our ways.
We contacted a man named Martin and he was really standoffish and said I am not a believer and continued to back away from us. He said he believed in himself and he had his own path. We managed to ask questions and get him to talk and open up some and then in the middle of talking he starts to stare off into the distance and says wait. And walks off to two girls across the street. We thought whatever and walked off to find more people. Well a couple days later we are getting ready to head out for the day when we get a phone call from the elders saying, "How soon can you get to the building? There is a guy named Martin Ludwig here that wants to meet with you." It took us a second, but we soon realized who it was and said we'd be there soon. As we were walking there we looked at each other and said, "We didn't even give him a card or anything!" Come to find out, he felt bad and so he went to the information center in the city and asked where he could find the Americans with the tags and they sent him to our church building. The elders showed up shortly after he arrived and asked if they knew where he could find the ladies from Utah. So we met with him and set up another appointment. Unfortunately he just wants a girlfriend so he confessed his dying love for my companion and ran off at the end of our last meeting. He had no interest in learning about the gospel.
Saturdays are days that are really hard to teach, no one is out. But we had a goal to teach at least two lessons and we weren't going home until we had. So we went out to walk along the Labe River and saw a man reading his news paper. So we went up to him and he told us he didn't have interest. So I asked if we could as a question and one thing lead to another and we ended up teaching him about prayer and he let us close with a prayer so he could see how we pray. It was so neat! He said he didn't promise to meet or anything, but thanked us and we moved on. Thirty minutes later he was still there reading and so we dropped off a Gospel of Jesus Christ Pamphlet for him. :) I love bench lessons!
As we walked along the river we came across another lady on a bench and so we contacted her. She looked like she was about to break down into tears. It was so sad! We told her a little about the Book of Mormon initially and then asked if she was a believer she said no and basically that she wanted us to leave. Sister Rosenvall asked her if she was happy. Eva responded no and after asking why, she said that there was no purpose in life. I then felt an overwhelming love for this lady, I had loved her before, but this was so much more. I then began to testify about The Plan of Salvation and how Heavenly Father has a plan for her specifically. How she is a daughter of God, how He loves her and wants her to be happy. How He wants to bless her and hear from her. I have no clue what all I said, but it was so neat to be able to say everything that the Lord wanted me to and to do it without thinking. The Lord truly can work miracles. After testifying, we gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet. I then said, "As missionaries, we are here to help people." and asked her if there was anything we could do for her. She said no and was still fighting back the tears. So I asked if we could pray for her before we went. She said we could so I sat down and explained what prayer was and how we pray. Then Sister Rosenvall offered a beautiful prayer. At the end Eva was crying. I so just wanted to give her a big hug and help her out! I asked her if she had any questions and then finally asked one last time if we could do anything for her. She said no. So I told her we hoped that her day improved and that if she had any questions our number was on the pamphlet and off we went. Let me tell you that one experience was worth the whole mission! I love this work, it is so wonderful! I can't believe the blessings that come through this service. Getting to help people and feel that love the Lord has for His children is amazing! I absolutely love this work!
Yesterday we were able to go to Prague for district conference. It was so glorious! As we walked towards the building I saw a huge group of people. Then I saw Constantin, he had seen me and was running down the stairs and across the patio to get to me. It was all I could do to not drop everything and run to him! ha ha As he came up he stuck his hand out strong and welcomed me and was so excited to see me! I can't tell you how much joy I received from seeing him and getting to talk with him. Constantin is amazing! (It was similar to the feeling I get when my nieces or nephews see me and start running to me) It was so wonderful to hear him talk about his baptism and how wonderful it was. He has so much joy and is so happy. He had all sorts of pictures to show me and even brought me his baptismal program and a picture of us with a note on the back. He told me how he now has Facebook and the picture of me and him is his banner photo. We chatted a long time. I also got to see many others from CBud and chat with them. It was so great to be reunited and just get to talk with people and realize how much I had missed them. It was like there was a hole in my heart I hadn't noticed was missing until it was filled again and I was over joyed. During the conference Constantin was a few rows a head of me. He would turn around and just smile at me until I noticed him. It was so great to see him. Then at lunch he came and found me and had more to tell me and we just chatted for another 30 minutes or so before he had to leave. It is so neat the love and unity you feel when you gather together. It is no wonder that the Lord commands us to gather together oft to discuss the welfare of souls. (I think that is found in Moroni 6) But there is such a strength and unity when you do gather together. I have never noticed it quite like this. The spirit is definitely stronger and lets just say the Lord knows what He is talking about. If He says something, it is going to be true, whether you notice it now or not. :)
The senior couple from CBud talked to me. They said they have heard so much about me and talked of how grateful they were for all the book work that Sister Cooper and I did with the less actives. Sounds like they have started to go out and find these people and meet with them. They thanked me for the wonderful ground work and foundation that I made so they could pick up and run with it. They have been able to take the names and google them and find addresses, sounds like the records on addresses and things are way off, I could have told you that, they aren't findable on a map! ha ha But it is really neat to hear all of the wonderful stories with all these less actives getting contacted and loving that they are known and cared about. Sounds like last week they had 25 people at church, so much better than our maybe 10 including the missionaries! Woot! The work truly is progressing and the Lord truly is in it!
Last night we got a phone call from Radim. He said he was just calling to see how we were doing! ha ha I love it! He does daily contact for us sometimes. I love that he is comfortable to just call. He asked us what we were doing and what our plans were. We said we were doing a little planning. He said he wouldn't keep us, but we asked what he was up to and he said just playing games on his computer. Kind of hinting that he was bored. So we told him, if you want to meet Radim, we can. To that he said, "Perfect I'll be at the church in 20 minutes." That is how long it takes to get from his house to the church. I love that he enjoys the spirit he feels when he is around us and that he wants to learn more and understand. He truly tries. He is such an example to me! I also love that he is comfortable to ask us questions when he doesn't understand and is willing to try things he doesn't understand.
The Lord truly does love each and everyone of His children. He loves you. He wants you to be happy. He has a plan for you specifically. He won't EVER ask you to do something that you cannot do without His help. If you want something and you strive to receive it, the Lord will bless you. I know that this is true. I know that the Lord lives. I know that the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Gods church on the earth. If you don't know that, pray to Him, ask Him. He will tell you.
Have a wonderful week because I sure will!
Love you tons
Sestra Hicken
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