Surprise!

Ahoj,

So surprise of surprises! I am training! So a couple weeks ago I thought, "so I was trained, I follow up trained myself and then someone else, the next step is training, that is frightening..." Then I thought, "Like that would happen." Then when I heard there was only one new sister coming in this transfer I thought, "there is no way at all I am training! I am so off the hook!  Not to mention the fact that I haven't been praying for help to not rely on my companion and to learn the language better like I had the two previous transfers, so I should be fine." Fortunately the Lord knows our hearts and desires, so He blesses us with what we want and need. So with all my thoughts and attempts to convince myself I wouldn't be training, the Lord knew better. I am headed to Prague in a few short hours and I will get trained tomorrow and then get my new companion Wednesday and bring her back to work hard. :) SO we will see how this goes! My companion is wondering why I am not freaking out. I think I make her nervous that I am so calm. But honestly, what good would freaking out do? I know the Lord loves me and He loves my new companion and so He wont set either of us up for failure, so we will be fine. It is just a very trying task. One that I will grow greatly from. I am excited and it will be wonderful. So about this week... The Bells came and did an apartment check, it was fun to welcome them in and chat.

I never cease to be amazed at what a name tag can do. It is amazing how many people look at it when you go up to talk to them. It is definitely one of the first things they notice and as you talk to them they usually are reading your tag. But what really stood out to me was when we were on the train and three teenage girls jumped into the compartment with us and they were swearing up a storm! I was writing and attempted to ignore it. Then not thinking too much about it I slid my hair behind my back and my tag was showing full force so to say. And those girls language made a fast change. In fact, they got pretty darn quiet. I wish I would have talked with them but I didn't, next time I will.

We have been striving to find less actives to work with. We found a man named Milan who is allowing us to visit him now. He asked us how we remembered him, how we found him. We just testified of his Saviors love for him, it was great. I am so excited to work with this man. He was baptized back in 1991 and we found that he no longer has a Book of Mormon and that he had forgotten how to pray. So we are excited to help reteach him and remind him of all that he knew and loved. I hope to get members coming with us so that we can build friendship in the ward. This work is so exciting, I just love it! I can't wait to find all those other less actives that have forgotten the message of this gospel, and the joy that it brings into our lives, It is such a great experience!

This week has been a lot of traveling, Monday we went to Prague so I could get fingerprinted and Wednesday we went to the branch presidents for dinner (he lives a ways away) and then on Thursday we went to Prague for specialized training and then we had a lesson at a members who live a train ride away and then Friday morning we went to another members to help cook for a service project on Saturday and Saturday we traveled an hour to the members and spent the day doing manual labor. It was a great week with lots of service and time to get to know people, but it was a lot of traveling! Oh we also had a concert on Friday night and invited everyone! That was fun, president came down and played the violin and it was a great meeting. Our investigators are doing wonderful! Katka has really opened up and I hope that we will be able to meet with her more often, she is so wonderful and so sweet. Radim brought up baptism and is praying about a date. He has decided that he likes reading in the Book of Mormon and is thinking about starting to read the bible. I love how people can change so fast (when it is for the good) over night! It is amazing what prayer and faith can do. I am so excited for the progress he is making! He said he felt he could probably be ready for baptism by the end of October. We just have to help him realize that church is important.

We have loved to go and visit the Jezkovi family. They are so cute! They have adorable children who love us to death. We are going to have to tell them the missionary rules though. Yesterday at church Terezka came running in saying misionarky! and gave us a huge hug! During sacrament meeting I was sitting there and she came up to me and was leaning against my legs and trying to get me to pick her up so I set her on the seat next to me and purposefully had things on my lap so she couldn't get on and a member next to me realized that the girl wanted to be on my lap and so she removed the stuff on my lap for me and Terezka climbed right up. This is like me trying to tell Annalise no! She is small like Annalise and just so adorable! There are some pictures. I will send. I need to reinforce those child rules though. So hard to be loved by children sometimes. The work here is great, I love serving and am grateful for new challenges that will help me learn and grow. Sorry this is all over the place, we are in a rush and I didn't think before hand what to type, love you tons!

Sestra Hicken