Saying goodbye

Saying good bye to friends and family before leaving for Utah.



At the MTC.
See you in 2 Years!!

Great Week at the MTC!

Hey Everyone!
Great week here at the MTC! Such a great spirit here.
Richard Hinckley spoke last Tuesday to us which was awesome! Elder Hinckley spoke on working hard as a missionary and to forget yourself. I really felt good about what he said and am trying to work even harder.

I read this talk by Elder Bednar this week and it was really good. He talked about the enabling powers of the Atonement. He talked about how the Atonement isn't there just for us to be forgiven of our sins. In the Bible Dictionary under Grace, you can read that the Atonement will allow us to accomplish greater things than you would normally be physically unable to do based on your amount of faith and hard work put in. I really feel that present in my life as a missionary.

I have already taught about 10 lessons in the Czech language and from the latest one, I really feel that my best effort to study what we needed to teach helped my companion and I to speak in Czech more effectively than we should be able to in 3 weeks of learning. I love it, its such a great blessing.

Most of our district has been going to choir. We practice 2 times a week and sing the song we were practicing for the Tuesday devotional. This week we are singing "This is the Christ". It is such a great song. I love it so much.

I just feel so very blessed to be able to serve a mission and I love being here every day, even if its not every moment of every day. Its hard at times, but the rewards for going on are great.

I love you all family and I miss you, but I know I am supposed to be here right now. Don't worry about me, there's nothing to worry about. Love you all!

S Laskou,

-Starsi Salas

MTC Week 2

Hey Family!!!

Another great week at the MTC. So many things happening, its crazy. So its week 2 and we have already taught about 7 lessons in Czech. Obviously we just sort of said our memorized phrases and smiled and nodded at the investigators replies. The TRC is no longer doing fake investigators, now you teach real people, mostly members of the church. They say it makes it more realistic then trying to teach a native person who you know isn't. However, our 4 Czech teachers do still pretend to be investigators and we teach them. Neal L. Anderson came and talked to all the missionaries last Tuesday at the Tuesday devotional. It was really good. He talked about our purpose as missionaries. The Czech language is still very hard, but I'm practicing as much as I can. I still have to remember though that I wasn't called on a mission to speak the Czech language, but to teach the people. Having the Spirit is much more important. So Tuesdays are my P-Day so we go to the Temple, which we are doing in about 30 minutes. It's great there. I love it! Every day we wake up and get ready, eat breakfast, then go to class. We have 2 class times that are 3 hours every day, but its at different times every day. Mondays and Thursdays are the same, and Wednesdays and Saturdays are the same. We have class, gym and personal and companion study times throughout the day. Our teachers teach us Czech part of the day, and how to be effective missionaries the other parts of the day. I would like to thank the Tanner's for sending me a big box of candy, we are definitely enjoying it here! We watched that movie about the Czech guy in our class. It was really good. We could understand some of it in Czech. For church on Sundays, we go to priesthood, then have a district meeting. After lunch we go to Sacrament meeting. We always have a fireside on Sunday nights. After the fireside we watch a movie. This week we watched Legacy. I hadn't seen it in a long time and it was really good to see again. I love it! For church though, there are no callings, only assignments. The District Leaders and Zone Leaders have more permanent assignments, pianist and chorister are all made weekly. Its mostly the same people every week though. I am senior companion in my companionship, but that doesn't mean too much in the MTC. Elder Spencer is good, and we still get along great. Probably my favorite Elder is Elder Medonich. We like a lot of the same stuff and get along super good. But that's why we would probably make horrible companions. We seriously have 30 minutes to write our emails before we get kicked off the internet so I can't write everything I want to. I only have 3 minutes left. I love you all though and am excited to hear from you more. Someone please get me a J-Dawg, I really need one. Love you all!!!

s Láskou,

Starší Salas

The First Steps

Daniel, a youth in Czech Republic, talks about religion in Czech Republic and his experience learning about the gospel.

We thought everyone might like seeing what its like in Prague, what the language sounds like, and of course, what kind of changes Elder Salas and other missionaries will be helping the people have there...

It's Here!! First Letter!

Dobry Den Rodina!

Hope all is well. Wow its already been almost a week! So many questions you guys asked too! I will try my best to answer them all but I only have 30 min to read emails and write replys.

The MTC is great! Such a spiritual place to be! I love it. My companion is Starsi (Elder) Spencer from St. George. He is seriously like the exact opposite of me, super outgoing and stuff, but I love him he's awesome! We get along great and are trying our best to be good elders! He has never been on a plane so our flight to the Czech Republic will be his first. What a first plane ride!

I saw Elders Ricky Holland, Madsen, Roonie and Tekulve (Anaheim East) which was good. I see Elder Holland all the time. I don't go to LA to get my Visa so don't bother looking for me mom!

The Bulgarian Elders are our Zone Leaders and really good guys! There are 3 of them. Well, my District is great! 9 Starsi (Elders) and 3 Sestry (Sisters). I am good friends with all of them, they are all super awesome people!!! I will write more about them later.

So the language...it's super hard. The alphabet is the same, so I won't be getting a new nametag. It does have little things above some of the letters though so its all confusing. I am kinda getting it but it will definitely take a lot of time. Japanese is definitely way harder though so that's good for me that I studied it so long. Makes Czech way easier. I feel like I really am getting it down a lot faster than I should physically be able to but that's just one of the blessings of being a missionary! I love and miss you all and hope you are all doing well!

S Laskou (Love)

Starsi Salas

The package has been delivered!

Elder Salas entered the MTC on Wed. May 4. He arrived so happy and excited.
I just have to remember that it's "only 2 years for a day!"