Thanksgiving Week In Brno

Ready to eat Thanksgiving dinner!

Elder Shirley with the town of Brno in the background

The Thanksgiving feast enjoyed by the Brno missionaries. Elder Shirley says, "Our sister missionaries here in Brno are awesome!They literally cooked everything for us." Thank you Sisters Valentine and Huylar!

Christmas tree lighting in the Olomouc town square

November 28, 2016

Hi!

Tuesday was a pretty normal day for us here, one of the few normal ones that we have had lately. We had district meeting and just did a lot of street contacting that day. It is kind of interesting that recently we haven't had a whole lot of street contacting because we honestly just haven't had time. We have been missing the 2 or 3 hour contacting blocks recently with the lack of time. We had English class and then met with our investigator afterwards. 

Wednesday we were on an exchange with two Elders. We had a pretty good day and were running around the city to catch trams and buses. Missionary life is always fast paced! Exchanges are always successful days. We came away from the exchange with 2 or 3 potential investigators. That night, we drove to the city of Třebič and did a little finding in their area. We also visited their district meeting. We drove back that night and had a late lesson. We taught the guy about baptism and actually ended up reading Moroni 8 with him. He is a really cool guy and didn't even get offended haha. We ran to get home at 9:30 that night. 

Thanksgiving Day was pretty good. We had on plan to visit a castle but it didn't end up working out. It was a normal day until about 5 o’clock. Our sister missionaries here in Brno are awesome! They literally cooked everything for us. We ate dinner together in the church building. All us Elders did was buy rolls from the store across the church building. We are definitely blessed to be serving around sisters during the holidays!

We went to another district meeting in a different city on Friday. It was in Olomouc, which is probably the prettiest city in the CZ. There are a lot of college students there and it made for some good contacting there too. Every year at the end of November, the city lights the Christmas tree in the town square and everyone gathers to see it. There were soooooo many people there. It was really cool! And now there are Christmas markets all over in the city. Christmas time is here! Best time to be a missionary! As of a few hours ago, we put our Christmas tree up. Pulled it off the shelf from some missionaries that left it there in the past and plugged it in haha. Pretty simple process and a pretty small plastic tree.  

It looks like you all had an awesome and exciting weekend! It was good to see all the pictures of the family. At least I feel a little bit like I was there. I liked the picture of everyone sleeping in the family room haha. Also, Brett and his facial hair?? He can grow more than I can!

Here are a couple of questions we sent to Elder Shirley and his answers:

Q.  Where is your companion from?

A: My comp is from all over the states. His Dad is in the military (AIr Force) so he has lived in about 8 or so states and also lived in Germany.

Q.  How are your investigators progressing?

A. As far as investigators go, we have one guy with a baptismal date that we are regularly meeting with. His name is Dan haha so it fits in with the family. 

Love you all!

-Elder Shirley

It's a Blessing to Have Sisters In My District Who Can Cook!

Brno district.  Sisters Valentine and Huyler, Elders Carlson and Shirley

Jihlava town square

Elder Shirley with Elder Plewe

Most of the original June 2015 MTC group

November 21, 2016

Hi!

This week was awesome! With being zone leader, we have a lot to plan. It is definitely hard work, but a lot of fun at the same time. And with all of the planning and traveling that we have, we are getting behind in at home like dishes haha. We had training last week in Slovakia. That was my third time going there. It was a really great training. Elder Saben came from the Seventy and gave a big portion of it and we had a little question and answer with him as well. He is such a wise man and knows the scriptures almost better than anyone I know. On Thursday, we were in Prague for mission leadership council and Elder Saben was there as well. He led a great discussion about how our mission can improve.

A few highlights of this last week. We had an exchange with Elders from Jihlava. We went and picked them up in their city on the way back from MLC. So I got to see a new part of the Czech Republic. A boy in our primary here was baptized this last week. It was a great service and was well attended. We did service at a less active members house. They were moving apartments and we moved a ton of boxes. As it turns out, I lost one of my missionary tags somewhere in the midst of it all. We found 2 awesome new investigators this last week. Both college aged guys who are open to hear more.

About an hour ago we were contacting in the city and I met a guy that thought he knew the Bible so well that he could prove that we were wrong. We ended up having a pretty good conversation but he just kept denying the thought that God called another prophet. It was a testimony to me about how the gospel is simple. When people are confused it is because they try too hard to understand the simple doctrine that it really contains. God loves us. Jesus is our Savior. We have his authority on the Earth and we can return to Him. The simpleness of the way!

My companion Elder Carlson is great; fun to be around. And we will be together for the holidays so we are preparing for that. He came out into the country 2 months after I did, so he’s just a little younger in the mission than I am. 

(We told Josh about how we spent the weekend in SLC and left Dan and Abrea home)
Dad does know you well. That sounds like a great and relaxing weekend. You are definitely a shopper! :) You left Dan and Abrea home alone as well? That was brave of you two. 

I'll be missing you guys during the holiday season. Our holidays here will be good too. This district will be together for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas; it should be a fun time. We have Sisters in the district that know how to cook so we are lucky!  That is definitely something to be thankful for.  We'll see what we can manage to make. 

The Czech Republic is great because of the people. There really are great people that live here. The buildings and cities are beautiful. The food is delicious. 

Dan is really still sitting it out from basketball? (due to an ankle injury) That's hard. Hopefully the team manages without him. Abrea seems to be doing great too! That's awesome that she is starting (on the freshman girls basketball team).

This week will be packed, so we'll for sure stay busy! Love you lots!

-Elder Shirley

We Need to Come to Know Our Savior

The Brno district at the famous Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in Brno

Pictures from the Brno ossuary - all of the wall are made of human bones and skulls!

Elder Shirley's Halloween costume

At the ward Halloween party

The Brno missionaries eating out

From what I've been able to figure out, Limona Dovy Joe (translates to "Lemonade Joe") is a 1964 Czechoslovak musical comedy film that is a parody of the American Western. Apparently, the film enjoys a near-iconic status in the Czech Republic

Haha! Missionaries don't get to watch movies like this while serving.

November 14, 2016

Hello!

This week for us was probably one of the most successful on my mission. We have a lot of people that we are teaching and working with right now. A little different than what I am used too, but I am definitely happy for the blessings we are getting right now. This week we will be in Prague and in Bratislava so we will see how things turn out this week. 

The biggest thing that happened this last week was on Thursday. All the missionaries gathered in Brno to have interviews with the mission president. There were about 18 of us here and since only 1 goes at a time, we all went and did finding together. We went to the busiest spot in town with about 14 of us at a time and we sang on the street. Half sang and the other half contacted people. Because interviews last a while, we were out doing that for a few hours. We also ate lunch as a zone. It was really fun and I enjoy working with all of the missionaries together. I think sometimes, it is hard to feel that we are connected to something bigger and better than just our work in our city, but we got to see and feel how strong the missionary work here is in our zone when we all come together. And a big “thanks” to all the missionaries for coming to our city and helping us here. 

Being a zone Leader is great! We are in contact a lot more with President and with the APs. We call all of our areas in our zone every week and have to check on their work and get information about people they teach. We go on exchanges with District Leaders and with new missionaries. At some point, we will also lead a training session when all the missionaries get together. We also go to mission leadership councils (MLCs) and talk about how we can be more successful in our mission. Oh, and President wants us to visit all the districts this transfer and go to their district meetings. So we will be traveling quite a bit in the near future. Definitely a little more planning, but still mostly just the same missionary work.

Our area right now is doing really well! We have 2 people on baptismal date and they are looking good. We found a few new people this week as well. Elder Carlson is an awesome missionary. He just gets out and works hard. He talks to everyone all the time and is a good example for me. 

Recently, I have taken quite a bit of interest in the life of Jesus Christ. It is amazing to me how many opinions people have of Him in the world. So I think it is our job to come to know our Savior for who He really is. Like Elder Bednar has said, "We can come to know the Father by coming to know His Son, Jesus Christ." I know that as we study Jesus Christ and as we read of Him, we can come to know Him for who He is and what He did. We can know that He really did live and perform miracles. And as we come to know Him, our relationship to God, our Heavenly Father, is strengthened. Jesus Christ is the foundation of this church and leads it through His living prophet. 

I can't wait to talk to you at Christmas either, even though it is still a little more than a month out haha! I'm sure we can get something arranged to make it work! Congrats to Dan and Abrea in basketball! I hope to hear good things about both of their seasons. Every time I see pictures, I can't believe how much they have both changed. It'll be weird to see them again!

I'm not surprised to hear about the election. We have literally been hearing about the election for months. Literally everyone, once they find out we are from America, asks us what we think about the elections. I am honestly pretty glad to be a missionary and to not have seen all of the election process. All I know about the elections is that everyone, at least as far as the Czech Republic goes, thinks both candidates are bad haha. I am just pretty glad that the elections are over already and people can calm down a little. 

We did get snow one day this week. It has been sooo cold!

Thanks for the packages! I'll be in Bratislava tomorrow for training and then in Prague on Thursday for MLC (mission leadership council), so I'll probably be getting them soon! 

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Shirley

Below are some beautiful pictures Elder Shirley has taken from around Brno recently:

A New Companion And A New Calling As Zone Leader

Sisters Valentine and Cyrier and Elders Hymas, Hanis, Carlson (Elder Shirley's new companion) and Shirley

Elders Shirley and Chapple

November 7, 2016

Hi!

Transfers came! The call came on Saturday while we were in the car. Elder Hymas and I were both new in the area, because we opened the area this transfer, so we had no idea who was going and who was staying. It turned out that Elder Hymas left and went to Prague. But I "left" the area as well. They actually closed that area after the one transfer it was open. But even though my area was closed, I stayed in Brno. I will be serving with Elder Carlson, who was in the apartment with me last transfer. I will be moving into his "area" and will be zone leader with him. So it kind of sounds like a big change written all out, but I will be in the same apartment with one of the Elders that was there last transfer. It should be really fun! Elder Carlson and I got along last transfer living together and we are looking forward to this one. 

Thanks to the fact that my area was closed down, there is now only one Elders area here in Brno now. So we are just combining our investigator pool. It looks like we should have a lot of people to teach. We have 3 people on baptismal date and a few others progressing. It should be quite the change from what I am used to. We'll see how it goes!

Cooking is going great! I ate a really good dish this last week at a member's house and I'm going to try and do it this week. It's called potato goulash. Other than that, nothing new, except Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming so I'll probably be trying something new in the new future.

The weather has been pretty cold lately. It might not look too bad, but when we are outside for 2 or 3 hour intervals, it gets cold pretty fast, especially in the evening!

I have a question for you guys! As in you and Dad and the family. Multiple times a day, probably too many too count, I have the opportunity to promise people blessings that the gospel brings. What kind of blessings, specific, do you have thanks to the gospel? What kind of blessings can I promise to an atheist or an agnostic person to help them want to believe and live the gospel? Your answers will be much appreciated :)

Yesterday, we drove to Prague and our first real stake conference was held! The Republic gathered and heard talks from our newly sustained leaders. It was a great meeting and awesome to see the members of the stake gathered together for the first time after the stake being established. 

Other than that, I probably just have one experience that I would like to write about this week. On Tuesday, I was on an exchange with Elder Carlson, (the Elder who is now my companion - haha). We had a meeting with one guy that evening at his house. He had given us his address and said he would be there. So we drove to his neighborhood, parked, and walked down the street that he lived on. This street was right behind a big and beautiful church. We saw a group of people outside one of the houses there and as it turns out, that house was the address that we had. We walked by pretty awkwardly, not knowing what to do, until one of the people standing in the crowd broke off and came and talked to us. He said he knew the guy that had invited us and that they were having an activity with a bunch of students in that house. He invited us in and we sat around a big table. As it turns out, this group of 20 students meets pretty often and has an activity probably comparable to mutual or seminary. We prayed, read in the Bible and then played a Bible trivia game with them. It was pretty fun and really cool to see these college students meet and have this kind of activity on their own. After the game, they gave us the floor to speak. They knew we were Mormons and were a little curious about what we believed. So we had the opportunity to teach these people the Restoration. We taught for about 20 minutes and then they all had questions for about another 20 minutes. You could totally tell that a few people were really feeling the Spirit and had interest in our message. It was an awesome experience, probably one of the coolest I have experienced here. 

Halloween was this last week! I hardly even realized because nobody celebrates it around here. I actually dressed up this year! We had a Halloween party with the ward on Friday. We had like 10 minutes to run home and find a costume so we just grabbed some sheets and wrapped them around our bodies and put a pillow case on our heads with a tie tied around it and we called ourselves Nephites - haha. The Halloween party was pretty fun! At the end of the party, the ward made us do a "Fear Factor" kind of a thing. We sat at a table in front of everyone and they made us eat 2 things. The first was called Olomouc cheese. It basically is the worst cheese ever, but the Czech people like it. It smells like a wet dog and it is so strong. We six missionaries were all gagging trying to swallow this piece of cheese down. The members thought it was super funny. The 2nd thing ...I forgot what it was called, but it was a little cube of meat that is in Jello. I don't know how to describe it. It is like half meat and half gelatin. That was pretty bad too. (I suspect this may be head cheese or something similar that he is describing here) Anyway, fun Halloween experience for me! 

The Church is true! God really does bless us.

Love you!

-Elder Shirley

Members Play An Important Role in Missionary Work

Elder Shirley with Elder Cardon, who is from Duvall, WA and from the same ward as Elder Shirley's uncle and aunt Bostron

Elder Shirley and Elder Carlson

One of the town squares of Brno

A cool statue in the Brno town square

Elder Shirley's companion Elder Hymas

Elder Shirley says this was a "pretty good dish" that he ate this week.  He didn't elaborate on what is in it.

An iconic picture of Brno

October 31, 2016

Hi!

My testimony of member work has grown this week. We had testimony meeting yesterday and I love hearing about how the members support us as missionaries. I know that we are supported and I also know that the work will be hastened as members work to bring their friends to the gospel. 

Our ward mission leader has got to be one of the best out there. He is a returned missionary and a really cool guy. After our correlation meeting with him this last week, he actually contacted on the street a little bit with us. That was a cool experience for us to know that he is behind us and willing to work with us. Members help the work so much!

We have 2 new investigators this week! We met with both of them this last Friday. They both say that they are "atheists", but they are willing to at least talk about God. I think that the problem here is finding people that are willing to sit down with us and meet the first time. The public’s perception of people that believe in God here isn't very good. But if people just give us a chance to explain a little, I think that they realize how faith and how the idea of God isn't too weird, but is actually beneficial for them individually. Our new investigators are both YSA (young single adult) college student-aged guys and are really cool. I'm excited to see them progress and at least think about and try believing.

One day this week we did a chalk display in the middle of the city. We drew the plan of salvation on the ground and had contacted people about it. I met a really cool guy from Brazil that might have interest in the future. We had a nice drawing on the ground and everything was going well, and then some little kids ran up, grabbed some chalk, and started scribbling all over our picture. Then they started drawing on the buildings. We couldn't do a whole lot to stop them because they wouldn't listen, so we just had to run and grab some water and erase everything.

We had a great training day and correlation meeting with our ward mission leader. We also had another big service day on Saturday. We dug a big hole in this one guy's garden and also ripped another tree out of the ground. That seems to be the favorite activity for the missionaries to do. 

Church was great yesterday. Bishop invited us over to have dinner with his family after church. That was really fun. A meal from the members is always a great opportunity for us to get to know them and have a good meal. 

Zone conference was awesome! The focus was on baptism. Our last training was about the importance of God and about how people can't progress in the gospel without a good foundation. This training was about baptism to let us know that we still need to talk about baptism with people early and often. Baptism is our purpose! Three things that someone needs to have in order to be baptized: 1) desire; 2) trust in the missionaries/members; 3) a personal testimony. 

Here are some responses/reactions to questions that we asked Elder Shirley and information we told him in our emails this week.

Good to hear that Sugar is still winning! (We told him about Sugar’s state championships in both volleyball and boys’ cross-country this week). I hope basketball tryouts go well for Abrea! Sitting the bench would be hard but getting cut would be harder, I think. Sitting the bench would at least push her to be better! 

Abrea is already going to be taking Drivers Ed? When can she have her license? Before I get back? 

Tell Joe (Andreason) hi for me as well! It’s crazy to think that all of them are home already. A few missionaries here did a similar fireside about their missions as well. Those seem to be good experiences! 

Transfers are next week! It is so up in the air as to what is happening. So I can't even expect to stay. We'll see! This week should be a little crazy and I'm sure it will fly by. Hope you have a great week as well!

Love you lots!

-Elder Shirley

Happiness Is Found In The Family

Enjoying lunch at a zone meeting

Elders Shirley, Hanis, Carlson, Hymas

October 24, 2016

Hi!

This week was great! We have our free English classes on Tuesdays here in Brno. The other two Elders were sick and at home so I covered their class this week. It was conversation class and so we just kind of talk together. They started off talking about politics and money and then with time the conversation turned into how we can find happiness. I asked everyone in the class how they find happiness. Keep in mind that none of these people are members of the church. We went around the room and it was interesting to hear from all of them that real happiness is found in relationships and in the family. I had to pause and stop them. I told them that that was the real purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It strengthens relationships here and allows those relationships to continue on. The gospel applies to everyone because everyone has loved ones. We know that knowledge of the plan of happiness allows us to have joy. It was a really cool discussion with them.

We went tracting this week without a whole lot of success on Wednesday and Sunday. And our family that we found last week appears to not have a whole lot of interest, unfortunately. They said they will call us and let us know when they can meet. That is a line that we don't like to hear from people haha. Sometime I'm sure somebody will actually call back and have interest.

I had an exchange with Elder Hanis this last week. We went through the MTC together and are pretty good friends so it was a good time. We taught one girl in the evening in a tea shop. She had the wrong idea of why we wanted to meet, I think, but we ended up teaching a good lesson and I think she has interest. I love talking to people that are open to learn more and that have questions. I have realized recently how much I love teaching first lessons! 

We had service on Saturday. We ripped a massive tree out of the ground. It took 3 hours to dig it out and cut all the roots. But the lady was so happy that we could do it and we had a good gospel discussion afterwards. 

{Below, Elder Shirley  responds to some info and questions that we had sent him}

I was looking forward to hearing about state soccer all week! Sad to hear how it ended up, but I'm sure it was a fun and exciting tournament. That actually hurts a little to read the recap of the games. That's hard to get scored on only by PK's. And then the fact that Teton won it all....that's too bad haha. But I'm sure Dan's team played great! I'm honestly really excited to see Dan's senior year of sports. I think I'm looking forward to that almost more than anything else haha. I just need to re-live high school sports again through him. Basketball season is awesome, I'm excited to hear about it. I'm sure Abrea will make the team! She sounds like she has turned into quite the athlete since I have been gone.

Hey, sounds like it should be a fun Thanksgiving! Tell everyone I love them! 

Wow, that is big news that you got the bathroom textured! I remember taking all that wallpaper off! It sounds like you guys have done good work on the house since I have been gone.

I am feeling totally better this week! Elder Carlson, one of the missionaries in our apartment got super sick this week though.

Free time? I don't really have any honestly. I guess in the evening from 9:30 to 10:30, we usually just end up talking. Having 4 missionaries can be pretty distracting haha. We still exercise every day, but I'm sure I'll definitely have to exercise back into good shape when I get back home. I played a little basketball the other day on the hoop behind the church building here and I'm not too good haha. And it even hurt my back a little. My body is not at all used to that anymore.

Best thing about Brno? I don't know. There are always people to talk to here because it is such a big city. That has been nice. It’s great to not go and walk the same streets every single day. The ward is also awesome here. We had the Primary program yesterday and it was cute. The ward here is also singing at stake conference in Prague on the 6th of November and they asked us, the missionaries, to sing with them. So I am a member of the choir. That was fun! 

I'll be watching for the packages! Tell everyone thanks! I have a journal big enough and I also have clothes. I appreciate anything!

It was a great week all in all. I know the church is true! It blesses the lives of people. Love you lots! Have a great week!

-Elder Shirley

Faith Requires Us to Have Patience

P-Day bike ride

Bike ride selfies

Elder Shirley says "Sorry about the inappropriate statues"

At a mansion/chateau along the bike path

October 17, 2016

Hi! 

As for me this week, I got sick at the start of the week. It has gotten really cold and on Tuesday we were outside for about 5 hours or so in the rain. That evening I was really cold and couldn't stop shivering. I ended up with a fever and a sore throat. So I spent half the day on Wednesday sleeping. That was my first time sick on the mission. 

We did a little bit of less-active finding this last week. This ward is bigger here so there are quite a few less actives to contact. We split up the ward list and we are trying to visit them all. It actually takes quite a long time to find some of these addresses and then quite often the person either doesn't live there or isn't home. We are seeing new parts of the city though and finding people in new areas of the city as we travel. 

On Saturday we had service at a lady’s garden that we tracted into the other week. We ripped a few big trees out of the ground. It was some good hard work. And then we shared a spiritual thought with her at the end and she sounded pretty interested. Service is a successful and effective way to find people who are waiting to hear the gospel.

The coolest thing this past week was probably today. It's P-day so we decided to do something pretty awesome. We took a train to a nearby city, Breclav, rented some bikes, and then biked for a while and saw a castle, a chateau, and a few other cool sites. We ended up biking 18 miles or so. My body isn't used to all that biking so I'm sure we'll be sore tomorrow. But it was probably the coolest P-day I have had on my mission. I'll send lots of pics. 

Overall, it was a pretty slow week with the sick day. We're hoping this week to have a few more lessons. We'll see.

We talked this last week about urgency and a better attitude. With a better attitude and a little more “skip in the step" or urgency to get out and talk with people, we show our faith to God that we are here to work and find people. It can be hard sometimes to work without immediate results, but I've definitely learned something out here about that: faith requires us to have the patience to wait and work for the promised blessings. We may not know when, but we can be certain that the blessings are there for us.

You and Dad are both asking about journal writing haha. I actually have been pretty bad this transfer. For the most part, I would write at least every other day, but this last month has been pretty bad. I'm averaging about once a week right now. But I'll get better! I still haven't received any packages. Training is on the 27th so I will get then then. There really hasn't been any investigators to teach this week. Potentials come and go pretty quick. But we are still working hard to find the one solid one. The 4 of us living together is still great. We're enjoying it. This transfer has definitely gone by super fast. Time really does go faster the longer you are out. Yep, I'm the chef here haha. I don't make anything too special. We had mashed potatoes and gravy this last week though. Elder Hanis got gravy packets in a package and it was so good. My white shirts are still in great shape! I don't think I'll have to buy any of those out here. Shoes are going strong as well. But I'm planning on buying European shoes at some point. You are correct, I haven't really worn my glasses this transfer. I just wanted a change. And I've also heard from other people that I look better without them. Not that I really need to look good right now, but you know haha.

Love you all!

-Elder Shirley

Here are some more pictures taken during the P-day bike ride: