20 October 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOTHER! hodne stesti vam blahopreju!! That is how you wish a happy birthday here. It means lots of luck i wish you. That is also for daddy i know it is already way past but...I still hope your birthday was good dad. I figure it is better that i forgot because that means that in my mind you are still the same age...which means you dont get older! That is not the best excuse but i hope it makes you feel younger. Life is going pretty well here in Liberec. We taught 15 lessons this week 8 with members 4 without and 3 less actives. So a pretty successful week in that sense.

Well we had zone conference this week and it was a blast. I learned so much and am so excited that I got to see Prague again. It has been a long time since I have been back on this side of the country in bohemia. I have been given a great opportunity and am trying to figure out what I can do to improve our work here. It is wonderful to be able to look at what we are doing and see that as a district we are doing very well in a certain area like with member lessons and to be able to ponder now on what we can do to increase the other areas of our work. I'm going to see what we can do to increase our number of new investigators per week and members at church. I feel that if we can maintain our member lessons taught as well as members at church and new investigators than I really feel that we will see an increase in progressing investigators and baptismal dates. So we are going to do some research there and enlist some new goals to make these things happen.
I've never seen the members of the Branch so excited about one individual before like they were for Jvan this past Sunday. Everyone was talking to him and really congratulating him. It was almost like we were in a ward back in America. I think baptism is now becoming a reality here. It has been so long since they have seen a new person enter into the church.
What an amazing experience and joy it is for a person to find out that he can have a personal relationship with God, to try and have that relationship, and to know for himself that God lives and experience that relationship in all actuality and truth. It is amazing to see someone come into this great knowledge of truth that He lives and loves us and desires to speak to us in our hearts and in our minds.
The missionaries here are doing great. They have got the fire in them. We are going to go out as a district today and tract these panaloks that we found that are full of families. It is exciting to see success. It is exciting to see others lives change.

Questions:
1. Are you eating good? yeah.
2. Have you gained weight or lost weight? i have lost muscle and gained fat. I dont get to play frisbee as much to keep the fat off.
3. Do you need the shoes or extra pants that you left here? not yet i dont think im doing pretty well. You could send one pair of pants, black or grey. that could help a bit.
4. Which of the pair of socks do you like the best? well i like them all, its just that since i walk so much the fuzzyness gets like rubbed of and creates holes. i dont have holes yet in the new socks but i can see it being a problem.
5. What would you like for Christmas? a czech ctr ring and an oil valve mine broke my second transfer, a cool tie from that hole in the wall SUITMAN store one with paisleys and stripes.
6. What did you think of General Conference? Great but i watched in czech so i didnt get a whole lot from it.
7. What was one of your favorite talks? umm president monson Priesthood session. i saw that one in english.How about the announcement of the Rome, Italy temple? that is going to be sooo cool and a big help for the missionary work there.

Well the mission life is good. it gets hard sometimes but it is teaching me a lot and giving me time to really put my priorities in order. seeing so many people all the time really teaches you a lot about yourself and how to be a stronger more motivated individual. I love you a ton family but i will miss thanksgiving. They dont celebrate that here, so my companion and i will probably make something together.
Take care your son Morgan