Planning For Success

Elder Shirley after giving his first sacrament meeting talk in Czech

Elder Shirley's first talk written and given in the Czech language

November 16, 2015

Ahoj!

This week Elder Petty and I saw some cool things happen here in Jičín!

First, on Tuesday, we had district meeting with the Sisters and with the Gunnells, and then afterwards, we did some contacting on the main street in Jičín. This time, we planned an entire contact lesson and planned that we wanted to find a woman that was pushing a stroller. We planned that she would like our message, but would say that she needed to go home and talk to her husband about it. When we actually went out and contacted, we found a lady with a stroller and she literally said that she liked our message but needed to go talk to her husband first.

Second, on Wednesday, we had a full day of contacting and tracting again. We planned a contact again, this time on Jesus Christ. We planned that we wanted to find a young guy. As we were contacting on the naměstí, the town square, we walked by a guy on a bench. When we had gone a couple yards past him, Elder Petty said that we needed to go back and talk to him. We talked to this young guy about Jesus Christ, and he loved it. 

On Saturday, we planned on contacting an older couple and a 20 year old girl about repentance. After 15 minutes or so, we found a girl that was 21 that wanted to meet again. Right afterwards, we ran into an older couple that liked us and our message and said they would meet again this next week.

It is amazing how what we planned, 3 times this last week, came to pass. Planning and searching for those people that you have on plan for the day can really help you be guided. These three miracles really showed me how the Lord is in this work.

Yesterday, I gave a talk in church on the Spirit of Elijah. I did it all in Czech. And I think everyone understood me! It is a cool topic to study about and it helped me realize how important genealogy work is and how important the temples are. 

That is all for this week! I will be writing again next Thurday on Thanksgiving!

Have a great week everyone and love you all!

-Starší Shirley

We received an email from the Gunnell’s (the senior missionary couple serving in Jicin with Elder Shirley) on Sunday with a glowing report of Elder Shirley’s first sacrament meeting talk in Czech.  Her email is below:

Hello Shirleys,

We just want you to know how much we love your son!!  He is an outstanding Elder!  He’s learning so quickly and is asset to the work here in Jicin.  Starsi Gunnell has taken him under his wing as he reminds him so much of himself when he first entered the mission field in Switzerland 60 years ago!  (As tall and about as thin as well!)

Starsi Gunnell is in the branch presidency and has been given the assignment of finding topics and speakers for Sacrament meeting for the next several months.  The branch is planning a temple trip in February or March to the Bern Temple in Switzerland since the two German temples are closed.  So Starsi Gunnell has decided to assign all talks for the next several weeks on the topic of the temple—all aspects.  Starsi Shirley started it off today with a talk he had written in Czech and delivered all in Czech on the Spirit of Elijah.  We just want you to know he delivered it perfectly.  He spoke all the words clearly and without hesitation.  Besides, we are proud of him and we don’t know how much he will tell you about it.   As you know he is very humble!

Attached is a couple of pictures we took when the meeting was over.  His companion, Starsi Petty said his picture looks like it should read, “Vote for Me.”  He has a fantastic companion and they work hard and well together as a team.  

Much love to your family and thank you for raising a wonderful son. 

Starsi and Sestra Gunnell

I’ve also included an excerpt from an email that Elder Shirley sent to his Mom this week (below):

Hey Mom!

Thanks for all your prayers for my talk. I got it all written up on Thursday I think, and then I had to translate it into Czech. I attempted to translate it, and it was pretty dang hard. I made a bad translation, but then Elder Petty translated it as well and I used his translation for my talk. His Czech is super good, so I'm glad he could be there to translate it better for me. But I felt like I delivered it pretty well. I think everyone understood me, but you never know!

I am getting Thanksgiving dinner from the Gunnells, thank goodness! Basically for exercise every morning, we just do push-ups, sit-ups, and things like that. We haven't been doing any service projects recently, except for sweeping off the church sidewalk this last week. Also, because we are doing a Thanksgiving celebration with the Gunnells and the Sisters, we will be having P-day on that day. So I won't be writing next Monday, but I will on Thursday.