Merry Christmas From the Czech Republic!

We listened to a Christmas concert performed by a group called Smetana. Apparently they are a super famous group and it was really good. Catholic Kostels {churches} are freezing cold though! {Notice how everyone is bundled up in coats and hats!}

Inside a Catholic kostel (church)

 It is the start of Christmas week and we already have a ton of food from the members! Everybody here makes cukroví. They are these little cookie things. I'll probably be a little heavier after the Christmas season!

December 21, 2015

Ahoj everyone!

This past week was great! A lot of preparing for the Christmas time. We have been trying to set up with everyone to get a visit in during the Christmas time. I'm really excited for this next week as well! Past week highlights:

-Monday we had Family Home Evening again. We got a few people to show up. We read the story of the birth of Jesus in Luke. We have basically been reading this passage to everyone that we meet with. I love how in this story, that the angel says that Jesus Christ's birth is a gift for ALL people. The Savior was born for each one of us individually. 

Tuesday- We had district meeting like usual in Jičín. Then we went out and tracted for a few hours. We found a couple potentials which was great! We finished the night with our weekly game night at the church building. 

Wednesday-We did some less active work and contacted all day. One of our less-actives has a handicapped man that she takes care of, and he decided that he wanted to arm wrestle. So I arm wrestled him and he was way stronger than I thought. We figured it's probably because he pushes himself around in a wheel chair all day! Definitely one of the hardest workouts I've had in a while haha.

Thursday-We went to Nova Paka and did some finding there. We also set up with an older couple and they are now new investigators! We had English class as well.

Friday- Half of the day Friday was spent moving a member. They bought a new house outside the city so we helped them transfer over all of their furniture. It reminded me of my family moving! We also went to a Christmas concert later that night.

Saturday- Met with our new investigators and had a good lesson. They declined our baptismal commitment though. But we'll work with them! We met with some less-actives again as well.

Sunday- We had our Christmas church service. We ended up having 8 investigators and 7 less actives show up for it which was awesome! Elder Petty and I did a musical number in sacrament meeting, and I was pretty nervous, but it turned out alright! We also helped out in the Primary's Bethlehem. I was King Ceasar! 

Tubs of carp came out onto the town squares yesterday! We have a couple tubs in Jičín. Pretty crazy. I'm not sure if we'll get fed for Christmas dinner so I don't know if I'll get to try it. {Carp is the traditional Christmas meal in the Czech Republic and several days before Christmas, vendors set up tubs on street corners filled with water and live carp since Czechs like to eat their carp as fresh as possible} 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! Love you all!

-Elder Shirley