Oct. 24, 2011
Hello,
It's been a great time this week! We were in Prague twice this week so that was cool. We had a zone conference and it was good, as always. We learned how to plan better for the day. Elder Bracken took this advice and planned out our days this week a lot more in depth. When we were contacting, we planned exactly what we wanted to contact about, and what exactly we wanted to see during every hour. For one hour, I had thought of the idea to contact about prophets during one hour. Kind of not the most popular thing to contact about, but we did it anyways. First guy we talk to about prophets, guess what interested him, prophets. Yeah, cool. We had a meeting with him the next day and he is basically one of those super prepared people. When Elder Bracken told him about the prophets council a few years ago to get out of debt, his only response was, I wish I knew about this a few years ago. He is in a pretty bad financial situation, but we have a meeting with him tomorrow and that should be good. He's a really great guy.
For our Croation investigator. We had a meeting with him, and he came to church yesterday. He is a really cool guy, the only problem is the language barrier. He doesn't speak the best English, and he doesn't know many Gospel words, but he is really excited about the Gospel. Apparently he was in the army in Croatia when he was first investigating the church, and for some reason couldn't join the church because of that, but it's good we are meeting with him now. Another investigator also came to church yesterday, so that was really cool.
Oh so cool news about missionaries, we now have DVD players! Thats right, DVD players, for our apartments. We use them to watch "The District" training videos of missionaries teaching people. It's really cool. We can only watch during companion study, lunch and dinner, but we watch it at least once a day. The District really helps to get me excited about missionary work.
Also really exciting, the Liahona/Ensign Book of Mormon edition came out! We got a lot to give to our investigators. I have only been able to read one article, but its really good. Read it everyone!
So we were in Prague again today so I could get my Visa renewed. After that, Elder Bracken and I took the long walk back to the train station (it's our P-Day). Prague is a really cool city. These 4 girls came up to us by Prague Castle and said thay were members from America, who were teaching English in Ukraine, and were on a week vacation in Prague. Kind of funny. You see members everywhere! Well, Hope everyone has a good week, and I miss you all lots. Keep praying for me please.
sLaskou
-Starsi Salas
Oct 17, 2011
Well this was a cool week again. So we gave a baptisimal date this week to one of our investigators. We gave it for November 4, but we will probably move it back a few weeks. He was really excited and said he would be honored to be baptised. It was pretty cool. We taught him with this one member, and it was really good. The member being there really changed the tone of the lesson. Member lessons really do help out a lot. So, if the missionaries ever ask you to teach with them, do it! It's really cool.
This week, Elder Bracken went to the school of one of our investigators to speak English with her class and talk about our families. There were 4 students all about 30 years old. It was really cool to see that they were pretty interested in hearing about our families. I showed pictures of our family. They were pretty surprised we had so many people in our family. We were also able to tell them some of the things we believe. Some of them got our phone number after so we or the other elders may meet with them hopefully! That was a pretty cool experience though.
Really cool story of this week though! So, Elder Bracken and I were waiting on a lesson with an investigator at the library, and there was this guy getting something from the vending machines. He got whatever it was, then came and talked to us. He asked if we were from The Church of Jesus Christ, which we said we were and he said he "was with the church about a year ago". We took that to mean he was a less active member. He is from Croatia and has been in the Czech Republic for about 3 months. We gave him our number and got his and told him where the church building was. (He spoke English) So then on Sunday, he called us during the third hour of church. Apparently he didn't know exactly where the church building was, and had been looking for a bit before he called us. He was able to come to the last 45 minutes of church. He then talked with President Novotny (Branch President) after church and from him we learned that he was actually an investigator in Croatia. So we are really excited to meet with him this week. It really was a blessing we found him, or rather, that he found us. He's a really nice guy. Other than that, it's been a pretty good week.
I don't remember if I mentioned this, but one of our investigators is a professional hockey player. He was an investigator in this city about a year ago, and decided he was going to be baptised, but he is waiting until after he gets married. He moved to a different city, and moved back to Hradec only this month, so I just met him. He's a really nice guy. Well, everyone have a great week. Love you all!
s Laskou
-Starsi Salas
Hey everyone!
Oct 10, 2011
Hope it's been a great week for you all! It's been a good week here. This week our Branch had their open house.
We were there everyday to talk with people as they came. It was a really cool experience. There were several less active members who came for that which was really cool! There were several people who came everyday to check it out, but the most came on Tuesday, because that is the day of our English class. We gave those tours in English, and everyone seemed to like it. So it was a really good thing.
So general conference...First time I ever watched all 5 hours I think. At least in one weekend. It was a really cool experience to watch conference. It really makes a difference to watch conference with questions in mind. It also really makes a difference when you take notes on every single speaker. It really helps you to focus more, and you never know what a speaker is going to talk about, so any talk could be meant for you. So yes it was probably my best experience with conference ever. I have pages and pages of notes. I really like the talk by the one 70 who sounded like he was from New Zealand. He talked about using time wisely. I also liked President Monson's talks.
We didn't have too many meetings with people this week, but we had a really good one with one investigator. We will most likely be giving him a baptisimal date next meeting!
So this transfer is already halfway over though! Time really does go by so fast. Elder Bracken has gotten pretty much better, but he did have to get some medicine for his cough.
So every week we study one of the Christlike Attributes in Preach My Gospel to try to improve it in ourselves. This week we studied knowledge. Apparently when someone asked I think it was President Monson how he learned so much about the Gospel, he responded saying that he masters one subject, then moves on to the next. That really seemed to make sense to me.
Well, have a great week everyone. Thanks for all the prayers, they are appreciated. Love you all very much!
sLaskou
-Starší Salas
Oct. 3, 2011
Hello again!
So this was quite an interesting week. So this week, Elder Bracken got pretty sick. He got sick on Tuesday. We had a lesson on Tuesday after District meeting, so Elder Bailey and I went to teach that one. Elder Bailey is a really good missionary and he really set this tone for the kind of missionary I want to become. He teaches really powerfully.
On Wednesday and Thursday we didn't do much because Elder Bracken slept all day. I got the opportunity to study a lot of Czech though.
On Thursday night, Elder Bailey somehow fell when he stood up because his legs had fallen asleep and he bruised both his feet somehow pretty badly, so Elder Bracken and I went to Pardubice so I could work with Elder Uremovich while the other 2 rested. Elder Uremovich is from Layton Utah, but his name is Croation.
On Saturday, there was a young adult event all day, so Elders Bracken and Bailey (still injured/slightly sick) and the Sisters went there with several of our investigators, while Elder Uremovich and I worked in Pardubice. We taught this woman, one of their investigators there. She lives in one of the most humble conditions that I have seen. Just this small house that doesn't have electricity. This lady is so very humble and ready for the gospel though. So I stayed the night in Pardubice because the others didn't get back until late. All of our investigators had really amazing experiences at the young adult event though.
So the cool experience I had this week. On Friday I was studying the scriptures and planning for lessons. I found Mosiah 2:22, 41 which I wanted to share with an investigator. A little later, I was thinking about this less active member we are working with. I had the thought that I should start sending him daily messages with scriptures for him to read. I decided that these verses would be great for him. I didn't think much about it, until he came to church on Sunday! After sacrament he came up to me and told me that on Saturday night, he was up debating on whether or not to come to church. He didn't really want to, then he remembered and read the verses I had sent him. He then decided to come! It was really cool to see that I was truly inspired to send him that message and to see what came from it.
We are having this branch open house this week starting tonight so I'm really excited to be a part of that. Oh, we will be watching conference this coming weekend so I'm excited for that. Things are going great here, so don't worry! Love you all!
-Starsi Salas
Sept. 26, 2011
Hey everyone!
So this week has been a good one. We had several cool things happen. We have still been meeting with our investigators who are doing well, and things are still moving slowly forward with them. We also got a new investigator who is really cool. He is about 55 or so and stopped Elder Uremovich and I when we were walking (we were on exchanges). He was just interested in talking with us, but when we told him we have another book that no other religion has, The Book of Mormon, he sort of got quiet and just started listening. Elder Bracken and I met with him a few days later and it went really well. He believed everything we said, but still thinks that it's not necessary to belong to any church, but we gave him a Book of Mormon and we will probably see him again this week. He was a really nice guy and I know we can help him progress, and overcome his doubts.
We had a District Conference in Prague this Sunday, which is basically just Stake Conference. It was really good and pretty interesting. There are people who live in Prague who only speak English so they had members doing translations for them. When President and Sister Irwin spoke, they had someone translate for them on the stand with them. It was really good.
We didn't have a whole lot more happen this week. We tried to find less active members to meet with, but we haven't been able to get in contact with any of them yet. We will though!
So I really hope everything is going well back home though. Mom, I got all the pictures, and it seems like all of your trips were fun this summer. Can't wait to be on one with you all too. As for now though, the Czech Republik will be fine for me. I'm learning more Czech all the time.
As for General Conference, I'm pretty sure the branches all watch it the week after in Czech, and the missionaries go to that with investigators, but we don't watch it in English until the week after that, I think. So it should be really good though, I'm really excited. Everyone, have a great week and I love you all!
-Starší Salas
Sept. 12, 2011
Hey! So it was a great week, although we had a few rainy days. Things with Elder Bracken have been going well. He is really good at helping me with Czech.
Cool thing that happened this week, we gave a very serious baptismal date. It is for the end of October and he said he really wanted to be! He lives kind of far from Hradec Kralove so it will be hard to get him to church, and there may be some problems baptising him, but he is so excited, and the members are willing to help as well. It is really cool. He has such a great spirit.
We are really going to try working with a lot of less active members and will probably do that this week. A good thing with that, is that with every less active member, there is also a referral. So we will be working with them a lot.
Elder Bracken and I were contacting and we talked to this lady on a bench. We taught her about prayer and faith and she said she really was looking for answers in life so that was really cool. She said that she didn't feel it was an accident that we met. We will hopefully meet with her this week.
I feel like everyday, my desire to do missionary work has been growing so much and I really have been seeing an increase in my language and teaching skills. It is a really great thing to be a missionary and I feel blessed every day to be serving.
As for p-day, we went to the zoo. It was really cool! Our whole district went. I seriously didn't know tigers can get so big. It was a fun trip.
I love you all and pray for you often. You are all great!
sLaskou -Starsi Salas
Sept. 5, 2011
Ahoj!
So yes, there were transfers on Saturday. The news is........I'm staying in Hradec Kralove, with a new companion!!! Elder Bracken has been out about 14 months. He is awesome! He is really great and I know this will be a great transfer. I am really excited to be staying here too and I know we will see great things this transfer.
So this week with Elder Nielson though. It was a good week and I was sad to see him go. He was a great friend and companion. He went to serve in Prague.
Transfer day though...quite a story. So I went to Pardubice to stay with Elder Bailey for the night because both of our companions left Friday night. Saturday morning I was supposed to get on a train and Elder Bracken was supposed to get on it at the next stop. He didn't get on though so after several confused phone calls, I got a call from him from a pay phone. His train was apparently late, (he was coming from Trebic) and so he missed the connecting train. Short time later, we were happily in Hradec Kralove. Ha it was kinda scary for a minute, but turned out great.
So our branch is planning a 20 (I think) anniversary of when it first started. It is going to be quite a big event and the missionaries will be very involved. I think it will be a great event that will hopefully bring many to the Gospel.
At church this Sunday, there were people from Utah, from the Toronto Foundation. They are a group of people, some who served here 15-20 years ago. It was cool to see them and talk to them. They were really nice. Other than that, it was not the most eventful week. Good week still. Our district should be a good one this transfer! I am really looking forward to having some great successes! Love you all!!!
-Starsi Salas
P.S. We have a new mission address. The old one will still be good for about a month or 2 but you can start sending stuff to the new one immediately as well, which would probably be better.
Cirkev Jezise Krista Svatych Poslednych Dnu
Elder Cameron Salas
Badeniho 1
16000 Praha 6
Czech Republic
Oct. 24, 2011
