Wow

Ahoj,

This week was amazing! I definitely saw the Lord's hand in it, maybe not at the moment, but as I look back I can see the hand prints EVERYWHERE! So this week Radim, our wonderful investigator accepted a baptismal date. We committed him to work towards the 20th and he said how about the 12th. We pointed out that we do baptisms on Friday's so he said the 20th would be fine. He texted us on Tuesday and said, "I shall stop drinking tea." Crazy! He was so struggling with the thought of tea being bad, but after praying and pondering about it, he received the answer that he shouldn't drink it so he has simply given it up, no problem or anything. We told him that if he ever had the temptation to drink to call us and we could chat and help him. Well on Saturday we got a phone call from him. We answered it and he said, "Sisters, I am tempted to drink!" Sister Rosenvall started talking with him and the next thing I know Radim is laughing saying he was just kidding and just wanted to call and see how we were doing. (He sure makes daily contact easy!) I think you would have to know Radim to understand how unusual that is. He is a very serious guy so that fact that he was really laughing was so great. It is so amazing to see how people change and open up to you as you work with them and bring them closer to their Heavenly Father. It is such a glorious work! I love it so much!

We were out contacting along the river this week and there as we came to the end of the path, we saw a man taking a break from work on the bench (he was out with his machine to clean up trash) and we thought about contacting him, but then thought, "He is working, we shouldn't harass him." So we turned around and started to feel guilty. So we went and contacted a lady with a stroller and when we were done we planned to go back and talk to him. Well we headed back that way and what do you know about the time we get there he stands up and leaves! But another man has sat down on the next bench for a smoke break so we went to talk to him. He wasn't really interested but somehow the Lord got us to say the right things and we got a bench lesson in on prayer and God being our loving Heavenly Father. He wants to continue to meet but because he has a new job he doesn't have a schedule yet so we have to call him on Friday when he knows. SO EXCITED! He is wonderful! So if the Lord wouldn't have made us feel guilty for not contacting the worker, we wouldn't have gone back so we could talk to Lukas! It was really neat. The other time I really noticed the Lord was when we went out to tract this area that we had never been and we wondered what was over there. During planning we felt way good about it. When we got out there, there was absolutely nothing there. There were lots of businesses and it went out into the country. We kept thinking a neighborhood would be around the corner, but it never happened. We tried to find a bus stop, but couldn't so we turned around and headed back on a different path. We found a bus stop, but it wasn't coming for at least 20 minutes. We felt we had already wasted too much time and so we walked further and came across a neighborhood of about 10 houses in the middle of this area. So we figured we'd better knock. No one wanted to listen, we were getting rejected left and right. People were out on the porches talking about us, we were intruding on this little neighborhood and they weren't happy about it. We almost left because we rang this door and two little kids came up to us and said she is down the street (where we came from) so we went and talked to her as she was watching us. She had even less interest than the others we had contacted. We then were stuck in a position to follow behind her as she went home and we went to the neighbors or we could go elsewhere. We stuck with it and followed her to her neighbors house and rang the bell. There was a young guy on the porch finishing off a smoke break who asked us what we needed. We explained who we were and then after he told us he wasn't really religious I asked what he thought happened after death. We got talking and he let us in and we taught him the plan of salvation. He really liked it and we have an appointment for Thursday. He is really chill and we are excited to teach him! David is awesome! He prayed at the end of the lesson and committed himself to read the Book of Mormon. As I look back the timing for this was perfect. Had we come earlier or later, he wouldn't have been on the porch and any of the 4 other 20 year olds that lived there could have answered and they would have told us to leave most likely, as they have different beliefs. I think he said they go to the kostel. So the Lord is absolutely in the work, I see it every day!

I have been able to see Him helping me as I speak with people on the streets in contacts. We contacted this old couple on the bench and as they talked with us they were really impressed with our Czech and that we understand so much. It is so neat to be able to carry on a conversation in a different language. Sometimes I leave a conversation or end a phone call and realize, I just talked to a Czech person in Czech! It is so amazing that a language I didn't hardly know existed 7 months ago, I can understand and speak to some extent. It is so neat to see the Lord helping and lifting me. I know He is there and that He loves each and everyone of us! Trust Him, go to Him!

Love you all!

Sestra Hicken