March 9, 2009

**Sorry I posted this a week late, I can't ever seem to copy Hannah's letters from my parents computer onto Blogger**

This week has been good. We had been worried about Ken, who is scheduled to be baptized March 21. He didn't come to church last week and we hadn't seen him for a couple days before that (which is really weird). We found out where he lived and on Tuesday we searched him out. We found out that he had been really sick last week, but that he was doing better. Something happened while he was sick and he is really excited about the gospel. We met with him twice this week and HE CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY!!!!! Wahoo!!! He seemed to enjoy it and he met a lot more of the members. It was exciting. Sister Waite had to translate for him because he knows English a lot better than he knows Czech. I just wish we had another Mongolian member in our branch. There are a couple in the country, but not in our branch. Ken also talked a lot about his baptism. He is really getting excited. Yes!

The same thing happened with another one of our baptismal dates, Mirek. We were supposed to meet with him this week and he never showed up so we went over to his house. We found out that he was also sick. When we met with him again on Saturday, there was a new light in his eye. We taught him about the word of wisdom and committed him to live it. He told us it would be hard but that he knew that he could do it with the Lord's help. Apparently he hasn't had money for alcohol or tobacco recently so he has not been drinking or smoking. So we just have to help him stay away from it. He really is a new man. I am so excited for him.

Since I have talked about two of the three baptismal dates I might as well talk about Kacka too. Well she is excited to get baptized on March 21. She was also sick this week so we only got to stop by and say hi. But with her the most exciting thing was actually her mom. Her mom has been inactive for years, but started coming back to church sometimes when Kacka started taking the lessons. Well in Sunday School yesterday she made a comment like, "Now that I am back in the church I can feel the difference." She really feels like she is back. She doesn't have to wonder about if she should come to church. She just does it. Yeah! A full family active in the church in Uherske Hradiste. Mom, Dad, Kacka, and Kristina. I can't wait.

This week I have officially been in the country for a month. I can't believe it. We are so busy that the days are just flying by. This next week we are trying to break the record in the mission for member lessons, so we have another busy week planned. We were supposed to teach two lessons this morning (on p-day), but both of them cancelled on us, but want to reschedule, we just have to find time to reschedule with them. We will just have to step it up the other days. Already we have something like 20 lessons planned for the week. It is crazy, but a wonderful wonderful crazy.

On Thursday we were supposed to teach a lesson to a new investigator that didn't show up. Our backup plan was contact through the park and our goal was to teach a lesson on the spot because we thought it was going to be a warm day. Well, we went outside and it was raining. We decided to get going because that it what we had scheduled to do. We talked to someone right outside the building. After talking to him a bit, we asked him if we could teach him more inside our building. He said that he had 1/2 an hour and he came in. We taught him a first lesson. It was really cool. The Lord helped us keep our goal even though we didn't know if it was possible. Unfortunately for us, he actually lives in Zlin so we sent his info along to the Zlin Elders.

Another cool experience. On Saturday night we decide to go contact a women, Jana, that we met on the street a couple weeks ago who was very interested, we gave her a book of Mormon, and she gave us her telephone number and address. Well we had tried to call her a couple times and never got a response. So we decided to go visit her. She was excited to see us. She had read Alma 32 and wanted to talk to us about it. She said that her phone had been iffy the last little while. Then she asked if she could buy the Book of Mormon from us. We told her she could just have it. She then wanted to give us everything she owned. Pens, magnets, food, whatever she could give us. She was awesome. She is going to be out of town for the next couple weeks, but wants to meet with us as soon as she gets back. I am so excited to meet with her again.

Well, I think that is all the time I have for this week, but tune in next week for an update on how many member lessons can be taught in one week in Uherske Hradiste!

Love,

Sestra Hill