Sister Stephanie Hicken: What a Whirlwind!

AHOJ!!!!

This week has been great, many 'unusual' things happened within the past week. I skyped you (go figure), went to a BYU mens volleyball game with some less active members and I went on exchange to Boleslav and last but not least, Constantin is living in Prague for a little bit because of work so he showed up for a lesson and brought a friend who we are now teaching. It was quite the experience where Constantin speaks very simple czech and his friend speaks no czech. So we would say something and Constantin wanting to practice his english and show us he knows it in english would take a minute and translate it to english and then say it in czech and finally in romanian. It was funny we kept having to remind him to translate for his friend. He also changes what we say. Instead of asking him a question he tells him the answer. He also doesn't ask him if he wants to read in the scriptures he tells him to read and then says that he will be controling his reading and jokingly says i will smack you if you don't read everyday and pray twice daily. So it was an interesting lesson to say the least. At the begining we were asking questions to understand if his friend believed and Constintin was answering for himself being like yes I know that God lives I know Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He would go off and it was hilarious because he kept thinking we weren't catching it so he would repeat it in english. Then he would catch that he needed to translate it so he would. It was so great. Good times with Constantin.

Like I mentioned, it has been a crazy week. Monday we unexpectedly had to go on exchanges so that a Sister could go do visa stuff, so I got to be Sister Mendenhalls companion (Senior couple) and my companion got to go to the visa office. So we started off the day all crazy with lessons falling though and not having studies. So when we got back together we decieded the best option was to go to the church and do some studies. On our way across the road we heard a lady yelling sestry misionarky! So we turned around and went to her. She then continued to talk telling us how she served in our mission when President McConkie was a missionary. She then introduced the man she was with to us. She told us it was Petr, a less active we had been looking for forever! So we chatted and exchanged numbers. We went to the church to study and before long they showed up at the church waiting for President McConkie to finish his meeting. We decieded it was best to build a relationship rather than study, so we did. Then after we had a lesson and lunch and FINALLY went to do studies. As we were finishing our studies we walked out of the YSA room into another less active Martina who was there to cut another YSA's hair. Instead of doing what we had on plan we stayed and chatted, and built that relationship. It is so amazing how many things can happen to throw your scheduel so out of wack but yet you end up seeing so many miracles that you wouldn't have seen had you not been thrown off. It is so amazing! The Lords timing is PERFECT!!!! I have loved seeing his hand and all the little miracles.

Tuesday was the BYU mens volleyball game and we got to go with Marketa, an awesome less active! She texted us and asked us if it would be alright for her to bring a friend who is a less active. We weren't about to say no to that one. So it was a great experience! I must say it was really weird to be there, like extremely, but it was good bonding time. Makes me realize how much i miss playing volleyball!

One of the days we had three lessons on plan and before lunch we had somehow managed to get three more on plan and it was one of those crazy days that we weren't able to study because a ridiculously early lesson and then having other people only able to meet that day... it gets crazy and it is so hard to not have studies in the morning and just go with a little fast study and planning, but the Lord definietly blesses us and is taking care of us. He makes it all work! Honza and Ivan are teaching with the missionaries like crazy and loving it! They are awesome! Honza walked up to some of the Elders and asked them if he could see their planner. He then looked at where they had lessons and said I have free time here here and here. So they said would you like to teach with us? He is obviously really excited to teach with them. Both of those boys have such strong testimonies and are so good to testify what they know. If they have questions about something they don't bring it up in the lesson, they wait until they meet with us and get answers for themselves so they don't confuse the investigators, they are so good about knowing what to and not to say, they are amazing! I love it! Thursday we had an investigator cancel on us which opened up a few hours in our scheduel. She had confirmed earlier in the day but then ended up canceling an hour before. Since it takes about 45 minutes to get there we had a very open scheduel. So we decided to eat dinner and then go find the miracle that God had waiting for us to uncover becasue there is always something that happens. Well as we were sitting in the chapel listening to Robert (a ysa who is a boss at the piano) play the piano, a lady pops her head in the door and told us she just wanted to know who was playing such amazing music. Not recognizing her I decided to introduce myself. Come to find out she is a less active baptized back in 98 and saw the door adjar at the building and decided to stop in. Well she was more than happy to meet with us so we will be headed there tomorrow. She is a mom of 4 kids and has a husband, they just like 45 minute bus ride away and he works on sunday so she doesn't come any more. We didn't even have to go out to find the miracle, it came to us, it is so neat to see!

Friday I got to be in Boleslav with Sister Steglich. She is amazing! Her czech is wonderful and she is able to pull so many ideas together and teach so smoothly, it was amazing! I loved being with her I learned so much. She had wanted to see miracles during our exchange, so with high faith we headed out on a contacting block and found this awesome Polish guy. We had just gotten his number and we were going to say goodbye when the thought came to me ask him if he has time now, so I did and we ended up walking across town to our office which is across the street from his apartment and we had a meeting! It was amazing! He enjoyed it and set up to meet with us next week, miracle i think so! Also on our plan we had to contact families specifically. Families are harder to contact but since it was our goal we decided to go for a lady who was pushing a stroller. We almost let her pass becasue she was texting on her phone, but at the last minute we stopped her and started to chat. She is a believer and very open. Way friendly and wants to meet next week! She was a sweetheart and seems so prepared! MIRACLE!!! Sister Steglich had the goal of three numbers during our contacting time and during the last bit we got our thrid number. Wow what miracles getting who we were looking for an unexpected lesson and three numbers, go faith! We also had a lesson fall through so we decided to stop by a few less actives to say hi to and maybe share a thought with. That was great. I got to see Sister Bursova, she invited us in and gave us a pastery! She was so happy to see us, it was so wonderful! I am so glad she was home! We also got to visit Sister Marksova, she is the sweetest lady, I just love her so much! She invited us in for tea and cookies so we had a short thought with her and that was a miracle. I guess that was the first time they have gotten into her door this transfer, crazy! I just love that women so much!!! AHH!!!! :D So two less actives that weren't on plan! Then we met with SIster Hederlinova and ran into her daughter sister Zajickova. We were also able to teach Jakub and Erik and answer a lot of their questions about the gosple. It is so neat how they used to meet with us just for the english and now they come and it is all in english but it is all questions about who we are and what we belive and why we do what we do. It is so neat to see how much they have learned! We also met with Dana and went to the skoda museum with her where we ran into Honza a guy I contacted and they have been meeting with and he is on baptismal date! It was a day full of miracles, I just love Boleslav so much!!!! Such an amazing place. Sister Schoen and Steglich are taking great care of that little city,

All around it has just been a miraculous week, full of wonderful surprises! Look for God in your life, he is there and He will bless you! I love you so much, have a great week!

Sestra Hicken