365 Days to Go!

In the tunnels underneath a church in Uherske Hradiste

The chapel in Uherske Hradiste

Finishing up a study session in the apartment

7 ties for $25!

The elders in the Uherske Hradiste district

A picture of the mission countdown timer that we keep at home

July 18, 2016

This week went well; pretty normal again. On Friday though, my companion had to go to Prague to finish up his visa work. So I stayed in UH and was in a threesome with the other two missionaries here for a day. We had an awesome day and taught a ton of people on the street. It was a little weird being in a threesome so I was happy when Elder Hudson got back at the end of the day. 

This whole last week, it has been raining quite a bit. It reminds me of Washington weather. It was a good change from the normal burning hot. A few of my pairs of pants are actually sun-bleached pretty bad from being worn for a year and through all this sun. My black pants are turning a kind of orangish color and my gray pants are going pink haha.

But, because it was raining on Saturday, we had a pretty cool experience. We had on plan to go do service at a member's house, but because of the rain, she cancelled on us. We weren't sure what to do. So we decided that we should either tract in the city or go to a different city and tract, offering service. So we decided to pray about it. We all felt strongly that we should go tracting for service. So we got in the car and prayed again about where we should go. We felt impressed to go to a specific city so we went there and started tracting. The very first lady that we tracted into said that she didn't need help, but she told us to tract the street behind her house and ask people for service there. So we did and after about half an hour, we knocked on one house and an older lady answered the door. She said she didn’t need any help, but she recognized that we were Mormon. She started asking us all the typical questions that everyone asks us like "What state are you from?", "How long will you be here?", "How long have you been learning Czech?" and so on. She said, "You can come in, but I don't want to talk about faith." We said okay, but of course, we had to bring it up :) We ended up having a really good conversation with her and at the end of the conversation we gave her a Book of Mormon. It was an awesome experience. 

It is amazing how sometimes you feel like the work is so hard. But every so often, we are blessed with certain experiences that help us keep going and help us to keep that faith.

Miracles happen often when we look for them. With faith, they happen always when we seek them. The Lord is in this work! We are blessed in so many ways that we sometimes don't recognize. I know that this Church is true and that the message that we share brings happiness and peace to all who will hear. 

This coming week we will actually be going to Brno for an exchange with the zone leaders and then the next day, we are going to Prague, and then on to Karlštejn to celebrate the anniversary of the mission opening up. It should be a really good week! I totally believe that this entire year will go faster than the last one, so I'll make sure to keep working harder! 

By the way, I ate cow tongue today, just a little piece for fun. It was really soft and I have to admit, pretty good. But the texture and just the thought of eating cow tongue made me feel a little weird haha.

{We asked him what we could send him in a package} As for what I would like in a package? I actually don't have bad allergies at all now, so you might not have to send the medicine! I'm probably still good on clothes. And I actually bought 3 ties this last week for about 10 bucks. You can get clothes for really cheap here! As far as requests go.....candy of course. Reese’s, Butterfingers, another box cake, boxes of Mac & Chees, etc. Whatever you like really; I’d appreciate anything!

-Elder Shirley