Hey Everyone!
How is it going back home? Hope all is well. Sounds like a good amount of the family had fun on the East Coast this last week. It was fun when we went there.
Well, the last week has been a very good one. We got a few new investigators and have met with them. Our other investigators are doing pretty well too. He is still progressing towards being baptised on August 12, so we're really working hard with him so he'll be ready. He is a great guy.
We also met with a less active member this week and are trying to get him to come back because he really wants to go to the temple and we really want to help him go. He also came to sports night Saturday which was cool! At sports night we played soccer again which was a lot of fun.
So mom was asking about food here in the Czech Republic. We have only eaten at a members house once, and they made the, I guess, traditional Czech food of potatoes and sauce stuff with meat. Ha super descriptive I know. The sauce the Horak's used when we went over there was like a dill sauce, which was really good. Elder Nielson and I make Haluški at our place pretty often though which is a Slovakian food which is really good too.
So church was really good again. The one thing I'm noticing about my Czech is that I can understand better now. I guess I am just getting more used to their accents. I can speak a little better, but It's coming along slowly. This week at church we had 61 people though, which we need to consistently have 60 for about 7 months, I think, to get a ward building! So we're on our way there, we just need to keep up the work. This coming week we are going to speak a lot more Czech to each other though so I'll hopefully learn a lot.
This week it was really cool and rained like 3 days which was nice, because apparently the summers are extremely hot and miserable. So I guess I just lucked out so far. The cool thing about it being so humid is that if you are in the sun and it is super hot, you just have to go into the shade and the temperature drops significantly.
One thing I did for the first time this week was trying to go tracting. You can't just walk into any panalock though, you have to have someone buzz you in. So we tried for a while but no one let us in. It was fun though!
Well, it's been a really good week and I am looking forward to next week and being able to have more success! Love and miss you all!
-Starsi Salas
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Another Good Week!
Hey Family.
I hope all is well as always. So we had a cool week this week. We have p-day today because we had specialized training in Prague yesterday so it got pushed back a day. Good thing about that though, most of the castles are closed on Mondays, so today we got to go to Trosky Castle! It was super awesome and I loved it a lot. It took like 90 minutes to get there but it was so worth it. I got a picture of it I will try to send home.
So the week...Every Tuesday we have District Meeting and go out to lunch, so thats always fun. Both our investigators bailed on us on Tuesday so we did a good amount of contacting. It was good though. Wednesday we were in Prague to get registered with the foreign police. (Prague twice within 7 days!) So that took up a good amount of the day. After we got registered, we went with some of the Prague missionaries to do a street display. We sang and had people go talk to people as they walked by. It was really cool and such a great experience.
On Thursday, I learned a little about the difficulties of being a missionary. We had 2 lessons planned to teach investigators, and they both bailed on us. They were all former investigators, not ones we meet with regularly, so Elder Nielson said it wasn't super surprising. What that meant though...a whole day of contacting. It is hard to walk around all day talking to people, especially when you can't understand much. It was good work though.
On Friday, we taught Pavel and Marie. Marie is an older woman with arthritis and was at the hospital getting tests. So we visited her there. She is such a great woman! She speaks good English and lived in New York for about 7 years. She is just super smart and loves reading in the Book of Mormon. It was really cool to talk with her. I also showed her the picture book Holly made me and she really liked it.
Saturday we went to the Horak's house in our ward and did service. It was really good. We helped Brother Horak make a path and also dig a flower bed. Sister Horak made us lunch after and it was super good.
We taught Honza later that night, then went to sports night with him. We played some basketball and then some soccer and it was fun.
Sunday was really good. We went to church, and I understood some stuff that they said, but not too much. We had a district lunch at the Sisters apartment, with presidents permission of course then Elder Nielson and I went to plan.
We visited with Marie again and she should be out of the hospital by Tuesday so thats good.
Yesterday we were in Prague which was good. It is always cool to see people from my MTC group again because we don't get to very often. Today we went to Trosky Castle though which again, was super awesome. We went with our district and the Elders from Jicin. So I'm looking forward to another great week!
-Starsi Salas
I hope all is well as always. So we had a cool week this week. We have p-day today because we had specialized training in Prague yesterday so it got pushed back a day. Good thing about that though, most of the castles are closed on Mondays, so today we got to go to Trosky Castle! It was super awesome and I loved it a lot. It took like 90 minutes to get there but it was so worth it. I got a picture of it I will try to send home.
So the week...Every Tuesday we have District Meeting and go out to lunch, so thats always fun. Both our investigators bailed on us on Tuesday so we did a good amount of contacting. It was good though. Wednesday we were in Prague to get registered with the foreign police. (Prague twice within 7 days!) So that took up a good amount of the day. After we got registered, we went with some of the Prague missionaries to do a street display. We sang and had people go talk to people as they walked by. It was really cool and such a great experience.
On Thursday, I learned a little about the difficulties of being a missionary. We had 2 lessons planned to teach investigators, and they both bailed on us. They were all former investigators, not ones we meet with regularly, so Elder Nielson said it wasn't super surprising. What that meant though...a whole day of contacting. It is hard to walk around all day talking to people, especially when you can't understand much. It was good work though.
On Friday, we taught Pavel and Marie. Marie is an older woman with arthritis and was at the hospital getting tests. So we visited her there. She is such a great woman! She speaks good English and lived in New York for about 7 years. She is just super smart and loves reading in the Book of Mormon. It was really cool to talk with her. I also showed her the picture book Holly made me and she really liked it.
Saturday we went to the Horak's house in our ward and did service. It was really good. We helped Brother Horak make a path and also dig a flower bed. Sister Horak made us lunch after and it was super good.
We taught Honza later that night, then went to sports night with him. We played some basketball and then some soccer and it was fun.
Sunday was really good. We went to church, and I understood some stuff that they said, but not too much. We had a district lunch at the Sisters apartment, with presidents permission of course then Elder Nielson and I went to plan.
We visited with Marie again and she should be out of the hospital by Tuesday so thats good.
Yesterday we were in Prague which was good. It is always cool to see people from my MTC group again because we don't get to very often. Today we went to Trosky Castle though which again, was super awesome. We went with our district and the Elders from Jicin. So I'm looking forward to another great week!
-Starsi Salas
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Hradec Krávolé
Hey Family!
That's exciting to hear about Joey going to Italy! He will be great!
So It's been a great first week. Hradec Krávolé is awesome. The first thing I learned about it...a lot of people speak English pretty well. Most all the ward members do, so I'm actually not pushed as hard to speak Czech. Kinda sad because I really need to more. My Czech is getting a little better though, and not all our investigators speak English so thats good!
So about church on Sunday. It's in the little square malé naměstí as they call it in Hradec Krávolé. It's in a rented, I think, building above a bank. I don't know how many ward buildings there are in the Czech Republic. There is the one in Prague at the mission home, and probably one in Brno, but I'm not totally sure where else. Apparently we need 10 more people to regularly attend our branch for like 7 months, I think it is, in order to get a building. I don't think it becomes a ward yet, because I think you need a stake to have wards. We have like 40ish members I think, but I'm not a super good estimator of people. It was good though! So I was supposed to get up and introduce myself during sacrament, and my companion said he would tell me when. We weren't sitting by each other because we were sitting by our investigators, so yeah, confusion happened, and I got up at the wrong time. That's all right though! Ha it was funny. Everyone was super confused I'm sure as to why I got up right then and introduced myself but oh well.
So as for our investigators. We have a few right now. There is Pavel, who is awesome! He is like 35 or 40 years old. He speaks English pretty well and he just likes to speak English to us a lot so our lessons are mostly in English. We're still trying to get him to read the Book of Mormon every day, which is hard. He comes to church every week for sacrament which is really cool!
There is Petra, a 40ish year old woman who doesn't speak English so when we met with her I didn't really understand anything. She came to church Sunday though!
Then there is Honza. He has been meeting with missionaries for over a year and a half and believes everything, comes to church every week, but doesn't want his mom to get mad at him so he won't commit to a baptisimal date. He says he knows he will be baptised, but wants to wait for his mom to be ok with it, or to want to take the lessons herself. He speaks really good English.
Elder Nielson and I mostly go contacting at parks which are really cool. I love the parks here. So many people have dogs in the Czech Republic, and so they all walk them at the parks. The parks are super nice looking though, and are just amazing.
Since today was p-day, we took a train to this other city with the other Elders and the Sisters in our zone, as well as Brother Schultz, this older man in the ward. It was really cool and nice, and we walked through this old cemetery which was really cool looking. It was fun.
Oh, story about yesterday. So on weekends, Czech go to their cottages as they call them. They are like one room shacks, and there are a lot of them all together. So they go there on the weekends and garden all day. Just what they like to do I guess. So yesterday we went to the before mentioned Brother Schultz', and helped him garden for service. It was really fun. Elder Neilson and I went as well as the Sisters and one of their investigators. So it was good. Oh later that night we also had sports night with the sisters and Honza. We played soccer and this one Czech guy there played with us too. So thats pretty much the week! It was good. Talk to you all next week.
-Starší Salas
That's exciting to hear about Joey going to Italy! He will be great!
So It's been a great first week. Hradec Krávolé is awesome. The first thing I learned about it...a lot of people speak English pretty well. Most all the ward members do, so I'm actually not pushed as hard to speak Czech. Kinda sad because I really need to more. My Czech is getting a little better though, and not all our investigators speak English so thats good!
So about church on Sunday. It's in the little square malé naměstí as they call it in Hradec Krávolé. It's in a rented, I think, building above a bank. I don't know how many ward buildings there are in the Czech Republic. There is the one in Prague at the mission home, and probably one in Brno, but I'm not totally sure where else. Apparently we need 10 more people to regularly attend our branch for like 7 months, I think it is, in order to get a building. I don't think it becomes a ward yet, because I think you need a stake to have wards. We have like 40ish members I think, but I'm not a super good estimator of people. It was good though! So I was supposed to get up and introduce myself during sacrament, and my companion said he would tell me when. We weren't sitting by each other because we were sitting by our investigators, so yeah, confusion happened, and I got up at the wrong time. That's all right though! Ha it was funny. Everyone was super confused I'm sure as to why I got up right then and introduced myself but oh well.
So as for our investigators. We have a few right now. There is Pavel, who is awesome! He is like 35 or 40 years old. He speaks English pretty well and he just likes to speak English to us a lot so our lessons are mostly in English. We're still trying to get him to read the Book of Mormon every day, which is hard. He comes to church every week for sacrament which is really cool!
There is Petra, a 40ish year old woman who doesn't speak English so when we met with her I didn't really understand anything. She came to church Sunday though!
Then there is Honza. He has been meeting with missionaries for over a year and a half and believes everything, comes to church every week, but doesn't want his mom to get mad at him so he won't commit to a baptisimal date. He says he knows he will be baptised, but wants to wait for his mom to be ok with it, or to want to take the lessons herself. He speaks really good English.
Elder Nielson and I mostly go contacting at parks which are really cool. I love the parks here. So many people have dogs in the Czech Republic, and so they all walk them at the parks. The parks are super nice looking though, and are just amazing.
Since today was p-day, we took a train to this other city with the other Elders and the Sisters in our zone, as well as Brother Schultz, this older man in the ward. It was really cool and nice, and we walked through this old cemetery which was really cool looking. It was fun.
Oh, story about yesterday. So on weekends, Czech go to their cottages as they call them. They are like one room shacks, and there are a lot of them all together. So they go there on the weekends and garden all day. Just what they like to do I guess. So yesterday we went to the before mentioned Brother Schultz', and helped him garden for service. It was really fun. Elder Neilson and I went as well as the Sisters and one of their investigators. So it was good. Oh later that night we also had sports night with the sisters and Honza. We played soccer and this one Czech guy there played with us too. So thats pretty much the week! It was good. Talk to you all next week.
-Starší Salas
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Dobry Den!
Elder Nielson and Elder Salas
Hey Family,
How is everyone? So I am here in the Czech Republic now! It's really awesome. So we flew a lot. I didn't really feel too great by the time we got to the London airport, and didn't sleep too much. We flew into Prague and met President Irwin and his wife and 4 of the A.P.'s. They were all really nice. We drove to the mission home in Prague, which is also the ward building. It was really cool to see the city driving. Immediately when we got there, 3 of the A.P.'s took us on the Prague walk. They said they had to keep us up until we went to sleep at night to help combat our jet lag. We went to Prague castle first which was really cool. Mom would love it a lot. Then we walked across the Charles Bridge which had a lot of statues which was awesome. After, we walked to this town square where we contacted people for about 20 minutes. Elder Jones and I talked to this guy from Sweden, I think he said, who spoke English. He wasn't interested but was really nice. Then we talked to this guy in Czech and he started talking a lot and we didn't understand. He just kept saying stuff, until we were rescued by Elder Tall. Then we went to this Czech restaurant and ate a lot of Czech food. I got this chicken stuff with potatoes. It was super good. We also got these dumpling things which were great as well. Then we headed back to the mission home on a subway.
Prague is definitely a city mom would love. It is a really cool city! I liked it. At the mission home, we grabbed some stuff we would need for the night, then we went to this hotel for the night. It wasn't like a normal hotel, it was more like a condo. The guy who owns it is really nice and knows the missionaries, but I don't think he is a member. We got to sleep a long time. I slept from like 8 at night to 7:30 the next morning. It still wasn't enough sleep though. Then we went back to the mission home where the President and his wife made us breakfast. It was pancakes and these chocolate Czech rolls. It was super good.
Then we got our Czech credit cards and got some other papers and then went downstairs to meet our trainers! A lot of missionaries got put into groups of 3 because some of the older missionaries were leaving midway through the transfer. My trainer is Elder Nielson from Springville Utah. He is super awesome! Our city is Hradec Kralove, about a 90 minute train ride East from Prague. We got to our apartment and I unpacked all my stuff. Transfer days are also P-days here because President Irwin said he wants us to get more settled in and to shop that day. Our normal P-day is Monday. So I unpacked and Elder Nielson and I went to go shopping. The normal store was closed because yesterday was a holiday, Jan Huss day, so we walked 20 minutes to the next grocery store to get food to last us until Monday. We brought it all back to our apartment and then planned our lesson for the night with Pavel. Pavel is a super nice guy with a wife and two kids I think and another on the way. He speaks really good English and likes to speak it with the missionaries but he can't say everything so its like a half English half Czech lesson. He was really nice to me and is just a great guy.
So after that we contacted more around this loop thing which was cool. Then we went back and Elder Nielson made us curry for dinner which was great. He had me try this Czech soda that taste like black licorice, not super great. Ha, but then we planned for the next day and got ready for bed. I slept pretty good last night. Today we get to email because yesterday on P-day all the email places were closed. We get an hour to email in the mission field. This morning I was still super tired, probably still from jet lag, but it will go away eventually. Today we have our zone meeting. Elder Nielson and I are also teaching Lukaš later today. It will be cool to see how the lesson goes.
Things are going really good though, it's a great place to be, and I will tell you more as more happens here!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
MADE IT TO CZECH REPUBLIC!!!
Czech Prague Mission
5 July 2011
Brother and Sister Salas:
Elder Cameron Salas has arrived safely in Prague with a smile on his face! We are sending a picture of him and President and Sister Irwin. He will be taken on a tour near the Mission Home and then finally allowed to sleep. He shall be a sleepy Elder missionary! This will speedily allow him to acclimatize to our time zone.
Tomorrow Elder Salas shall meet his Trainer and begin loving the people of the Czech Republic. We are glad he is finally here. We shall take good care of him and the Lord will watch over and protect him.
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