Happy New Year 2017!

 A few pictures of the Brno district (plus an investigator) on P-day at Pernstejn castle

Close-up of Elder Shirley

Reunited with the missionaries from Elder Shirley's original MTC group

The original MTC group that began their missions in June 2015. Elder Shirley says, "We've come a long way since then!" The sisters all go home next week after completing their missions.

January 2, 2017

Hi!

New Year’s Eve here was great! Just a normal missionary day with street contacting. It was actually pretty successful with people on the street, but we could definitely tell that it was New Year’s Eve. Everyone was preparing and walking home with beer haha. We were told to be home early and we just did our weekly planning and language study in the evening. And then ate dinner, planned, and went to bed at 10:30 like normal; nothing too special. We didn't really feel like it was worth it to stay up until midnight. But Happy New Year’s to all of you! There were a ton of fireworks though. From 5 o'clock on we heard them constantly. I slept great though! And then on the 1st, nobody was outside. On our way to church we only had 1 guy on our tram and he was drunk and sleeping haha. 

Something cool that happened this week was that the entire mission got to together. We had a 2 day conference at a hotel/resort kind of a thing that is owned by a member here. We got together, had a training, talked about goals for this next year, had a big talent show, and things like that. It was definitely something that I bet doesn't happen almost in any other mission. It was fun to come together as a mission and get to know everyone. I definitely think that we will be benefited by working in unity and have a love for the work. Oh, and right before our Sisters go home, our whole MTC group made it back together. We've come a long way since then!

It has been a tough few weeks with investigators because a lot of them are students or are young single adults. So a lot of people traveled home for Christmas and the New Year, so we haven't had too many lessons.

This next week is transfers here and I have no idea if I will go or stay. It will be exciting to see! The Sisters in my MTC group are going home this week....pretty crazy.

Thank you so much for the money for the suit and shoes that you sent! You are too great! :) You know how I am though; I can never make decisions when I go shopping. My comp basically had to pick out the suit for me and tell me to buy it. But I do like it and it was quite cheap! It is a dark blue. I'll probably buy brown shoes from a company called Baťa. They are a Czech company.

My favorite Christmas gift was probably either the pictures or the socks! I have been in need of some socks haha. Thanks for everything you sent! You spoil me even when I am halfway around the world. The best candy was either the Butterfingers or the Sweettart chewy ball things.

As for goals, I still have to get them finalized and written down. This year will be a pretty big and exciting year for me! 

For P-day today, we went to a castle called Pernštejn. It is massive and was really cool. Too bad castles aren’t opened in the winter!

Love you!

-Elder Shirley