July 20

Dear Family,

Well this week hasn't been anything really unique. It's just been a week full of little miracles, feeling the spirit a lot, and a couple sad moments when people just don't want to accept God's love for them. This week I have just been realizing how much I have learned on my mission. I am so grateful for this opportunity I have had. I have learned so much about God's love for His children, how much I need to rely on Christ, and that God really is part of our everyday lives. I think I have always known that God is a part of our everyday lives, but I have never asked for His help as much as I have on my mission. I guess I didn't have very much faith, because there are lots of times that I still just sit back and I am almost suprised that God answered my prayer. For instance, on Saturday it was raining really hard almost all day. We had a couple meetings planned. Well we went to the first one and they didn't show up and didn't answer their phone. So then we went metro contacting. I had prayed that Zuzana, our meeting at 1:00 would please show up. Well we were supposed to meet her outside at 1:00 and it was pouring. So we didn't have very much faith that she would come. Well the metro came a minute late so we were about a minute late to our meeting with her, but we weren't really worried because we didn't think she would come. Well to our surprise, she was standing there with her umbrella. We ended up going to KFC and teaching her a great lesson full of the spirit. It just sometimes surprises me how much the Lord answers our prayers. And it's not just our prayers that he answers. He answers everyones prayers. When we ask our investigators to pray and promise them that the Lord will answer, I know it is true. The Lord answers all of our prayers regardless of what we have done. I also had another experience this week with following the spirit. Saturday night it was only raining a little, and we had a little over an hour for contacting. We felt like we were supposed to go to a certain park in Prague even though it was raining. Well no one was at the park. So we felt like we should go back and contact near our apartment. So we hopped on the bus and I was just looking out the window as we were heading back. All of a sudden I saw a woman, sitting on a bench in a small little park. I felt like we needed to talk to her. So we got off at the next bus stop, and walked back to the park. She was just leaving, but we talked to her. We ended up teaching her a first lesson. She felt the spirit really strong. She wasn't sure if she wanted to meet again, but that was one lesson that I felt we were guided to find her, and then we were guided in what we said. I don't know what will happen with Elena, but I do know we were doing what we needed to do. This week we met with Jitka and Sasa on Monday, and talked about living prophets. It was such a good lesson. Then they told us Jitka was going to be gone for the next 10 days but Sasa said we could come meet with him again on Friday. So we did. We had a great lesson with him. He is starting to really understand. He is starting to want to give his will over to God. He knows that it will be hard work but he is willing to work on it. Our goal for him this week while Jitka is gone, is to be seriously considering baptism and then next week when Jitka gets back, to have both of them pray about a baptismal date and really commit to that. So help them figure out when they are going to get married, and help them prepare for baptism. I am so excited for them. On Friday he told us that this week he was going to study the scriptures a lot because Jitka wasn't there. I am excited for him. This week was also really sad because of Eva. On Friday we had a fantastic meeting with her. She has come to really understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. She knows that she is so much happier when she does the work to live according to it. We asked her what she thought about baptism. She said that she is really busy at home right now and doesn't know if she would have time to prepare to be baptized, and then we got to the real point. She basically said that she knows that in the long run it is better to work to have good prayers and then let Heavenly Father help her do the things she needs to, but that she really likes to just be able to drink alcohol and be away from her problems, so she didn't know if she wanted to get baptized. We promised her lots of blessings and committed her to pray and ask God what He wanted her to do about baptism. Well on Sunday we tried to set up again with her and she said she doesn't have time to meet with us anymore. She still wants to come to church every week and come to activities, but she doesn't have time to meet with us. It makes me so sad. Heavenly Father loves her so much and wants to help her, but Eva is not letting Him help her as much as He could. And my scripture for the week is Helaman 5:47. I don't actually know what it is in English, but from translating from Czech it is something like, Peace, Peace unto you, for your faith in my Well Beloved, which was from the foundation of the world." We receive peace by having faith in Jesus Christ. When we have faith, everything will work out. I love you all!!! The gospel is true, and the best thing ever!!!!!!
Love,
Sestra Hill