Welcome to Brno!

Elder Shirley and Elder Hudson near Uherske Hradiste

Elder Shirley enjoying the Czech countryside near Uherske Hradiste

Early morning soccer - a regular occurrence

Last district meeting in Uherske Hradiste

Elder Shirley's companion was sick for three days

Packing up for the transfer to Brno

Brno cathedral.  This is pictured on the back of the Czech 10 crown coin.

Last picture taken from the Uherske Hradiste town square

September 5, 2016

Hi!

So the big news....I will now be serving in the big city of Brno! It is the 2nd largest in the Czech Republic next to Prague. It'll be quite the change from what I have had my whole mission. I will actually be opening up a new area here with Elder Hymas. It should be quite the adventure. We will be starting with nothing really and we'll have to go out and find people in a big city that we are not even familiar with. I'm pretty excited! Elder Hymas is great and we'll get along really well. He is from Pleasant Grove Utah. Oh, and even though we are opening up a 'new area' we will be living in the apartment with the zone leaders here in Brno. I don't think this happens almost ever that 4 missionaries live in the same apartment in this mission. It should be a blast.

Even though I am super excited for the change and the new transfer, it was pretty weird to leave Uherske Hradiste. I have been there so long that it was a little hard to go. They also closed my area in U.H. so my comp and I both packed up and cleaned the apartment. We had a chance to say bye to the members and they are super awesome. I can't wait until we go back and get to see them again. 

But of course, you can't dwell on the pass. You take what you can from past experiences and move on to a better future. I like a quote from Elder Holland. He said "Faith is always in the future." My mission will continue on and I have to have the faith to move on and work hard this next transfer.

I can't believe school has already started again! Good luck to everyone! :) Abrea and Dan sound like they have good soccer teams this year. Enjoy going to the Blackfoot fair; I always looked forward to that. It's worth going just for the fair food haha. I get a few emails every so often from friends. Nobody is really consistent, but I'm still remembered :) 

This last Sunday, the Freiburg, Germany temple was rededicated and all of us got to watch it through a broadcast. I have never been involved in a temple dedication so it was a really cool experience. Temples are such a blessing, especially having them so close in the United States. It is awesome to know that with temple blessings. We can receive all the blessings that our Heavenly Father has for us. Families can be together forever

Love you lots!

-Elder Shirley

 I missed posting Elder Shirley's email from last week; I've posted it below.

August 29, 2016

Hi!

We had zone conference yesterday in Bratislava. It was great! I got the package as well. Thank you! I enjoyed the letters and I’m excited for the mac and cheese tonight. You guys are the best! Transfers are coming up but I’m trying not to think about it or have any expectations. You never know what could happen! As far as investigators, we don’t really have any. We have a few grandmas that we visit every so often but I don’t think any would be considered as investigators. This week was a little weird too and we didn’t have as much time to find people due to Elder Hudson getting sick. On Wednesday all day he felt pretty sick and then in the evening after our English class, he threw up a few times. He slept all of Thursday and most of Friday. Those are usually are two big days of finding to go teach and find people on the streets so our numbers were pretty low this week. It was pretty tough to be inside that long! I got pretty bored with all the time in my apartment alone while Elder Hudson slept. I ended up studying quite a bit. I also cleaned the entire apartment. I called most of the numbers in our phone. Made homeade breadsticks. And then studied some more haha.

We had a cool experience on Saturday though. We went tracting for service and on the 6th or 7th house, they let us in. It was a family, and 3 generations lived there in a few different houses that were connected. They ended up not even needing service, but we had a good talk with them and they really enjoyed our company. We left a pamphlet too so hopefully they read it! That was pretty much it for the week. 

Oh, and so you know, I’ve lost quite a bit of weight. I’m at 167 or so which only puts me up 10 since leaving home.

I’ll let you know where I end up after transfers next week! Love you lots!

-Elder Shirley

Elder Shirley sent some additional pictures of a cultural event that they attended in Uherske Hradiste, a castle that they visited, and a balloon festival that was going on in the area.  Those pictures are included below: