Spring Rain

May 28, 2012

Hey Everyone!

So it's raining today, but it's still hot. You just have to love it! So if you were wondering, yes, Trencin does have a castle sitting right above the city!

 

It's been really an amazing week though! We just had really good experiences. We have been finding a good amount of people lately! It's been really cool to see that the Lord really is preparing and leading us to these people! We had such a great experience though. We we're tracting at these houses, and this guy was on the side yard so we yelled at him, and he told us he didn't live there and didn't have interest. So then we rang the doorbell, some lady answered and we were talking to her for a bit and it was going alright, then this guy comes out from the side yard (different guy) and starts telling us he has cancer and what can we do to help him, and then the lady went back inside the house. So it's just kind of out of control at this point. We just started telling this guy though that God is there and that He does love him, and that even though he has cancer things are still alright. He started to really start listening more, so then I felt inspired to share Alma 40:23 with him. That was the one, the verse he needed to hear. He asked if we believe those words are true and I said I know they are. He let us in and we talked about the Plan of Salvation. He just turned so very hopeful, and really gained a new light in him! He just kept saying he wants to come to church and that he was so glad that we came and he feels so much happier! I'm glad we could fill this man's life with hope and joy! We're really excited to meet with him again this week! 

 

We were able to get 2 investigators to church this week which was really cool! They really enjoyed it and the members took good care of them. The relief society started setting up lessons for us with one of the investigators, so that was really amazing! We just really feel so blessed at this point!

 

Our baptismal date investigator is really busy at this time, so we may have to wait a few weeks for her. She is a single mother, and is just having some challenges, and isn't having much time at the moment, but she's doing well!

 

One thing I've really been studying this week is the why of the gospel. Why is the gospel such a great thing in our lives? I sat down and studied and made a big list one day. Some of the things I decided though are that we have a knowledge of the plan of salvation, which tells us exactly where we came from, why we are here, what we need to do here on earth to be happy and to return to live with God, and we know where we are going after this life. We have the fullness of the gospel, and with it, great joy in our lives as we embrace and follow the gospel. There are so many other things as well!

 

Other questions I got. The Trencin branch is one of the oldest branches in Slovakia, not sure how old though. We meet in a rented building on the second floor. There are about 50,000 people in this city. We contact people just on the streets and wherever we can. There is a main center, but missionaries have always been there in the past. We're finding some new places to go. We walk a lot and it's really good. Nice for a change rather than trams and buses.

 

I love you all family, thanks for all that you do for me. I really appreciate the emails and prayers! Have a great week!

Zdravim z Slovenska

 May, 21, 2012

Dobrý Deň!!

Hey everyone! It's been really such a great week here in Trencin!!1 I love it so much! It's really a lot smaller than Brno, we don't take any buses and there aren't even any trams, but we walk everywhere! I really like it! 

 

So the Slovak language. It's really not all that different than Czech, it's a lot softer though. They do use a lot of different words, but most of the time the spelling difference is only minimal. My understanding of it is pretty good, but I can't speak very well yet. Most all people in Slovakia understand Czech, but I definitely need to learn Slovak if I want to understand them. Once I have it in my head I'll be able to understand better. It's going really well though! I always had hoped I could come to Slovakia, so here I am! 

 

So at church there were 6 members. There is the Branch President and his wife and mom, 2 other women, and another man. We only have church for 2 hours. It was really good though! I was able to bear my testimony during church, which was really a great experience! There are about 20 missionaries her in Slovakia compared to 50 in the Czech Republic I think. The Branch President here is great though! He works in Plzen in the Czech Republic during the week, but he is really a great guy!

 

So we've already had some really cool experiences here in Trencin! We have met this guy who met missionaries in the past. He said that they really left him with a good feeling though, and that he wanted to meet with us sometime! We also met this one family tracting who invited us in. It was really great to share the gospel with them! They didn't seem extremely interested, but said we could come back anytime we want, so we're definitely going to go teach them again! The branch here really needs them! One woman is hopefully going to be baptised the first Saturday in June, so we're really excited about that! The other missionaries have done a great job with her so she's really prepared! 

 

So other than that, we've just been working hard, talking with everyone we can and trying to find these prepared people to teach! This transfer is looking really bright, and we have a lot of good work to do here!!!

Hope everyone is doing really well back home, and I love and miss you all! Have a great week everyone!

sLaskou

-Starsi Salas

New Transfer!

 May 16, 2012

Hey everyone!

So thanks everyone for the call! It was really great to talk to you all this Sunday! I'm glad to hear you are all doing well, and that things are alright back home!

So there is some big news this transfer! I have finished my service in Brno and have been sent to serve in the city of Trencin! In, Slovakia! So I now am serving in a new country, learning a new language (Slovak). That's something, right. My companion is Elder Zabriskie, who is from Utah. 

I have had several occasions to talk to him before, and he is a really great guy. He has served in Kosice and Bratislava. So we just got to Trancin, and I'm completely out of energy from dragging around all my luggage. It's a really cool city though, with a big castle overlooking it! It's really beautiful. Plus, there are actually mountains in Slovakia, not just small hills, so it's pretty great! I'm loving it already. I'll only be here 1 transfer though, as I don't have a Slovak Visa. There aren't any other missionaries here in Trancin, and our district is with the Elders in Zilina. There aren't any sisters in Slovakia. 

The branch here has about 6 active members from what I hear. I'm enthusiastic to get to work! There is a lady here very close to baptism!

So my last week in Brno though. It's been a really cool one. Elder Hansen and I tried to finish off the transfer strong. It was really cool. Elder Hansen is with Elder Stimpson, so he's in good hands. Our investigator Pavlina is doing really well! She is progressing so well, and really is just so excited to hear about the gospel. She's so very open to learn more, it's great! Still not quite ready for baptism yet though. It's just so exciting to teach her though, she really makes it a great experience, and I'm definitely very uplifted every time after we teach her. The other investigators are doing really well as well. They don't have too much time to meet, but we were working on meeting with them multiple times a week.

We found in Brno though this new place to talk to people. It's right buy this business center, so we get a lot of people who are business people. It was really cool to talk to them.

It was sad to leave behind Brno though. So many great memories, so many amazing members. The members there are all so great, and I really love them all. They are such good people and really are willing to help us out when we need them to.

Not too much else to report, just excited to work hard this transfer! I'll hopefully have more to write next week! Hope you all have a great week, and love you all!

Slaskou

-Starsi Salas

1 Year!

 May 7, 2012

 

Hey Everyone!

So yes Friday was the 1 year mark, but it just makes me realize how much I still have to do in such a little amount of time. Time to really step up the missionary work! 

So a question I had was how we get around Brno. Well, we have trams here, also called a Šalina. They are really cool, I had never been in a city with trams before so it's really cool. We take them everywhere, and there are some busses here as well that we take. Trams are better though. The scary thing about them are that they have the right of way before anything else. So they have the right of way over cars, and people, yes people. So watch out. We love talking to people on trams though. They can't get away from you!

Things have been really well this week though! We met with this guy who used to live in New York and Florida for 40 years or something but is Czech. He is super nice and calls himself our "Czech Dad" so it's pretty funny. He just keeps wanting to tell us he'll take us places and to dinner and stuff so it's hard to get to the gospel, but he did accept a Book of Mormon! He is a really nice guy.

 

We are still meeting with this girl, Pavlina, who is still doing so great! She is still extremely cautious, but is progressing so much and comes to church about 75% of the time. She is really great! We went through the plan of salvation with her over the course of 3 or so lessons and she is really just learning so much. She is so excited to learn and to grow it's amazing!

 

We also had set up a meeting with this one guy several times, but he kept canceling at the last minute. But on Saturday, he called and asked if we were going to meet that day. We said sure. We had never met him so we went to the lesson, and he turned out to be this really cool Vietnamese guy who grew up in the Czech Republic! It was a really great lesson, and he's reading and praying about the Book of Mormon!

 

We had this really amazing lesson in Elders quorum this week. Brother Saunders is the Elders quorum president. He is from England and doesn't speak the best Czech. He really gives the best lessons I have ever heard though! He is so inspiring and motivating, and gets his point across however he can! This week he talked about how we need to learn our duty, and then perform it. He told a story about how his dad was a new convert in the military and was called to the branch presidency in Hong Kong in the first branch. There were 8 members, 6 were Americans in the military, 2 were natives. Someone from the brethren came, gave him the Melchizedek Priesthood, and some manuals on it, told him to learn everything he could, and to get to work. The church grew a lot in the the next 3 years, to about 300 members! It was a really cool story.

 

It was kind of hard to get lessons set up this week, but we did our best and really saw some tender mercies of the Lord. I really have felt the Savior's hand in my life in the last few days, and felt how we really can receive strength from Him and His Atonement, which can help make us better, as well as receiving strength from the prayers of others.

 

So thank you everyone for everything you do for me, and thanks for all the prayers and emails. I really love you all a lot. Thanks again. I really appreciate it. Have a great week and I'll talk to some of you next week on Mother's day!

sLaskou

-Starsi Salas

1 Year?

April 30, 2012

Hi Everyone!

So yeah, I guess this Friday will be my year mark, I haven't been out that long. So it's going really well though! We had a super week! So here it is:

First miracle, we are teaching this 27 year old girl, who had been taught for about 8 months now. She is doing really well, and progressing really steadily, but slowly. However, this week she really started praying more to find out answers to her questions, and she is really progressing! She is just super excited about the gospel, and it really brings her a lot of joy! She comes to church almost every week, and is doing really well! She had this great moment of understanding this week when we were talking about the Plan of Salvation, which was really cool! She just seemed to get it. Great week with her!

 

So our second story, we got this member's less active son to come to church last week, and we met with him this week. We talked about missionary work, and he got really excited! He came to church with us on Sunday, and kept asking this one member who just got back from a mission about missions! He is just really really excited and is looking forward to serving now! He still has about 2 years (he's almost 17), but is really excited about it. It was really awesome to see!

 

Our third story happened this morning. We woke up, and had a few text messages. One of them was from this guy we've met with a few times, he said "I got it!". Of course, it was early, and I didn't really understand, so we asked him what he got. Apparently, he'd been praying, and found out that God really is there, that He really loves him! Such a great thing to hear! We're really excited to meet with him again this week!

 

So, we had several lessons not show up this week, but we've been really blessed anyways, and the Lord really is watching out for Elder Hansen and I. We're doing really well together still, and we're definitely working hard. Elder Hansen really helps me stay motivated, seeing how hard he tries to work! Our district here in Brno is doing awesome, and I'm really lucky to be serving such a great district!

 

So I read this week in 2 Nephi 33:10-11, which talks about the Book of Mormon. It says, if you believe in Christ, you will believe in these words (the BoM). It really is true, that the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ, and if people would just look past their negative feeling about the Book of Mormon, and just read it, they would see it testifies of Christ, and everything He taught! I know the Book of Mormon is true, and is the word of God! It is a great book!

 

Congratulations Eric for graduating! I would have been there

So, questions people had this week:

-My favorite hymn, I don't really know. I like a lot. Maybe Come thou Fount, even though it's not in the English hymnbook at the moment

-We have a choir here in Brno, there is a spring concert next Saturday, but I don't sing in it at the moment

-Suggestions for members back home, just share the gospel with everyone, invite them to read the Book of Mormon, because that is what our entire religion stands on, the truthfullness of the Book of Mormon. If it's true, everything else is true

-Transfers are the 16 of May, so I'll email that Wednesday.

Thanks for all the emails everyone! I really appreciate them! Have a great week! Love you all!

sLaskou

-Starsi Salas

Hello

April 23, 2012

Hey Everyone!!!

Hope you had a great week, and it sounds like everyone is doing great! So it's been a really great week this week! President Irwin was at our District Meeting, which it was great to see him and Sister Irwin. It was a good one this week! 

 

So this week we we're able to reach some of our goals of teaching lessons, which was good! We are teaching this doctor, who is a really great guy! He is such a humble guy and is really finding our message helpful and enlightening. He is progressing so much, the only problem is that he works and studies so much that he can only meet once every other week, and works often on Sundays. 

 

One  great miracle we saw was this one girl we are teaching hasn't really been making too much progress. She does a lot of the things she needs to, but doesn't really believe in God, and has been unwilling to pray to know if He's there. But, she came into this last meeting, and she said that she has started doing that! It ws a really cool thing to see, and even though she doesn't have a specific answer yet, she is definitely progressing. 

 

We also met with this one kid for the first time and it was an awesome lesson! He told us he would read the Book of Mormon in a week. Just a really great kid, and we're really excited to meet with him again this week! There really are prepared people! Also, we got one of our member's less active sons to come to church. He is about 17 and is a really cool kid! Now we just need to help him realize that he should serve a mission! Just a great kid though.

 

So, other things though. I'm just really realizing more everyday the importance of the gospel, and the importance of declaring it to everyone. I still really love the scripture on my plaque back home in Romans, about how "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ". I'm realizing everyday, that I am really living that, as I go and talk with people who don't want to hear anything about the gospel, and I realize that I really am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I also am really trying to internalize that verse in 3 Nephi 5:13 "behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I am called of Him to declare His gospel, among His people, that they might have eternal life" or something like that, I'm just quoting it from memory. It really is a great verse though, and I'm definitely trying to live it. 

 

Elder Hansen is doing awesome as well! We are working hard to declare the gospel to everyone! He is a great hard worker, and I'm really glad to serve with him. He's a great help!

 

Hope you all had a great week this week! Sounds like things are going great! Congratulations to Eric on graduating! You did it!!! Have a great week everyone! Love you all!

 

sLaskou

-Starsi Salas

Dešť

 April 16, 2012

Hey Family!

So This has been a good week! There wasn't too much new going on this week. We did have a district leader training here in Brno with all the district leaders. It was a really inspiring meeting, and really good. President Irwin always knows how to lift and inspire us. I'm really learning what it takes to be a leader in church callings. A calling of leadership is definitely a calling of service. I'm really learning what it means to be a servant. It's definitely something that really brings joy to my life. I'm definitely learning that we may have huge tasks in front of us, but with the Lord's help, we can do whatever He asks us to do.

So cool story though this week, called up a less active member, and he committed himself to church before we could ask. Showed up, and it was really cool!

Elder Hansen is doing great too! We are really working hard to do the Lord's will here in Brno right now.

The other Elders here in Brno are teaching a Bulgarian, who is really committed to baptism! How's that sound Eric?

Thanks for all the letters family!

sLaskou

-Starsi Salas