A Chance Encounter With A Former Missionary

Starsi Shirley and Starsi Kevern with a former Czech Republic missionary and his spouse that they ran into in the C-Bud town square

May 29, 2017

Hey!

For P-day today we didn't have anything planned, so we ended up just cleaning the house, eating lunch with the Sisters and then we went to the church building and I started teaching Elder Kevern how to play the piano haha. Pretty relaxed day!

Here’s this week’s update on our investigators: It's going pretty well with all of them. The two kids that we are teaching accepted baptismal dates for this next month but as it turns out, their parents want them to wait a little longer. But our other investigator passed his baptismal interview this last week and the baptism is planned for this Saturday! :) The Sisters here in Ceske Budejovice also have an investigator that is ready for baptism so we will be having a double baptism this weekend. We're excited! We just have to figure out all the little details this week and get everything ready. Our investigator asked me to baptize him and I think I might also be baptizing the Sister's investigator as well. We'll see.

As far as finding new investigators this week, it was pretty rough. We went out contacting or tracting quite a bit this last week without anyone setting up an appointment with us. We are hoping for a better week with finding this next week.

My companion and I are working hard. We work well together too, I think. We were talking to a few ladies on the town square this last week and had just gotten shut down and as we were walking away, I heard a yell. We turned around and saw this couple, a missionary that served here 20 years ago and his wife, running towards us. They had just gotten lucky to see us at the right time in the right place. They ended up coming to English with us.

We have our weekly English class on Tuesdays. I don't know if I mentioned this a week or two ago, but we always end our class with a spiritual thought. Right in the middle of the thought that we were giving, one of the students stopped us and said "I want to learn more about you church!" That came as a surprise and we are now currently teaching him.

Overall, I'm doing well! I’m starting to get sun-burned, so I'll come back with some good missionary short-sleeve tan lines I think. 

Love you!

-Elder Shirley

This week, we had the wonderful surprise of receiving an email from a former Czech Republic missionary who had returned to visit the country and ended up running into Elder Shirley and his companion. He sent us the picture that is attached to this blog post as well as the following email:

Hello Brother and Sister Shirley,

I was a missionary in the Czech Republic back in 1997 - 1999.  My wife and I are visiting the country for a week.  On Wednesday evening we had a sweet experience.  We ran into your son and his companion on the náměstí (town square) in Budějovice.

20 years ago České Budějovice was my first area and I was there for 7 months.  So it was a sweet experience for me to return and see the city again.  The exciting part for my wife and I was running into the missionaries!  We visited with them for about 10 minutes and then went and attended English class with them.  There was actually an older gentleman in the class that I remember from English classes when I was there 20 years ago.  That was fun!

Anyway, your son seemed to be doing well.  He has a newer companion in the mission (as you probably already know).  I just thought as a parent you might appreciate a picture of your son and his companion and to know that he is doing well.    I know he'll be coming home soon and I'm sure you're very excited about that.  As a former missionary here I can testify that your son is being watched over and protected and the Lord's hand is helping him daily in the great missionary work taking place in this wonderful land of the Czech Republic.  The work here is hard and it is slow, but the people are marvelous and the church is growing.  

Anyways, I just thought you would appreciate news of your son and a picture of him and his companion.  Take care and I hope you have a happy reunion with him soon!