From Coast to cOstrava

Hello all!!! So yup. I am officially training! Its so easy when you have such an adorable and sweet companion. Seriously, I am so grateful for her fresh and optimistic view on everything. I absolutely adore her and am feeling very blessed. 

 

Sestra Schoen and Sister Daugirda

 

Missionaries in the Czech Republic

Our normal place to email is closed so we found this place but bad news is that we can only be on technically for 30 minutes and if someone boots us off we can't get back on... :/ so I am freaking out about now. But it is fine, if I don't get to tell you much more than that I am loving this transfer already and really excited about all the things we will accomplish, that should suffice. I want to send my love to you all and thank you for your thoughtful and inspiring emails. I love you!!!! I love being here and constantly finding more and more to learn. I am really growing so much closer with my Savior and my testimony is really deepening. 

 

I love the gospel! Faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end, all we really need to know in order to be saved. It really simplifies a lot I think, but at the same-time it means we have more personal responsibility to progress. 

 

We are not just simply saved because someone blessed us, we have to use our agency, ability to choose, at every stage. To believe is a choice, to repent is a continual process of action, baptism must be cognitively decided (I may have made that word up...) and in order to keep the companionship of the Holy Ghost, we must stay worthy and follow its influence. And of course to continue that every moment for the rest of your life, ya that is alot. I guess that is why some would rather just ignore the existence of God completely. But they are missing out on soooo much! We know that when we learn to sacrifice a broken heart and a contrite spirit we are guaranteed, assured eternal life and all that our Heavenly Father wants for us. It is beyond worth it. I am so grateful to be here and work with these wonderful people. 

I Love you all and I keep you in my prayers always:)

S Laskou,

Sestra Schoen

 

THEN...in her e-mail to me (Courtney, her sister)...

Not much time to respond back much, I had to jump off for some guy then wait to get back on, had to coerce the librarian a bit to let me...kinda a ridiculous system and I could tell she was hesitating to let me pay again to get back on after his time had expired, but I love her anyway!!! grin and bare it. literally, I feel like we just grin and bare our testimony, I might have spelled that wrong. 

 

I love my little trainee, Sister Daugirda, the name is really throwin the czechs for a loop lol. She is really sweet, its like being with Giselle as a companion from Enchanted. She is from SLC Utah and this is the most opposition she as faced in her life, so I just want her spirits to stay up. We love studying together though from the scriptures so it is awesome. Looked outside just now...its raining. poop. no umbrella. yay!!!! haha my companion is going to love this. :) I love you all and I am glad you and mom are buying everything for me:) and the sleeper sofa sounds awesome. Excited to visit:)

Shostravan my little one around :)

IM TRAINING!!!!  :D Dream come true! I am so stoked to train in Ostrava. I also am emailing from.... MLADA BOLESLAV!!!! Funness. I am here with Sister Smith, she is from Logan, Utah and shares my first name, her brother served in my home mission, and she knows the Brenchleys and the Warnicks (insert Courtney's note: the Warnick and Brenchley families were two families from our ward in Keller, Texas, that moved to Logan, Utah after spending years in Keller) Crazy right? She was follow-up trained by the amazing Sister Woodworth :)

So we have just been loving the past couple hours travelling back from Prague to my old stomping ground. She is a doll. I will miss Sister Senkane but she is off to bigger things and more adventures and we will still see each other around so its fine. She is in Pardubice opening up a Sisters area. So it was fun to talk to her about that. I am so excited to meet my greenie! I don't know her at all so it will be a surprise. She is getting in tomorrow and I will meet her on Wednesday and head back to Ostrava to do some WORK! It'll be awesome. 

 

Have I mentioned how excited I am about this??! We had a lot of investigators at church on Sunday and I am excited for them all to meet the new sister. We are going to see miracles for sure this transfer. I love Ostrava but it is really awesome that I can be in MB for a day and a half because Sister Smith is also waiting on her trainee so we are hitting it hard here until then. MB still has a huge part of my heart, like every city but I miss it still. I love the people in Ostrava too, they are so fantastic and supportive for the missionaries, I have never felt so loved by a branch. I love being a missionary, its so awesome.

This weekend we did service at an older members property. It was hard work...woooo!!!!! I have missed the "get in there and get your hands dirty" kind of work so ripping out weeds a mile-long and pruning hedges and clearing brush was much needed and therapeutic almost. All that was missing was some late 70's early 80's  classic rock from the Bose stereo in the background and I would have thought I was home. She was really grateful and we were soooo happy we could do it for her, we are going to go back out likely this Saturday to do some more. 

Yay! I am sorry these messages are so out of order, and scatter-brained. I just type what comes to mind. I love you all so so sooo very much!!!!!! I am beaming at the screen at this very moment. I am nervous for training but if there is anything my awesome trainer taught me, its to love the people, never quit trying and love the work!!!! So its exciting to remember this basic, foundational things. Let's go!!!

Ostravalue your time

Hello everyone! It is a rainy-day in Ostrava again! I thought Texas had bipolar weather...yikes! This is the last week of the transfer and who knows what will be happening next week. Stay tuned on that one! But this past week was awesome we have some new progressing investigators and even more miracles! I love how miracles are never-ending. Heavenly Father doesn't have a limit to how many He can give. He is truly a God of Miracles. I am finding this more and more every day.

I know that He loves His children and provides a means for us to accomplish whatever is for our good. I have also come to learn more and more why we refer to Him as our Father in Heaven so often. When we understand what that role truly means, we come closer to him. It is not simply a one-sided title, it implies a strong connection, you cannot be a father without children and you don't often refer to any man as your father... unless it is on accident, in which case it then hits the awkward-level rather quickly... anywho. The role of a parent is to nurture, protect, teach, and most importantly to love. So that means that the Creator of all things the infinite and eternal Being perfectly fills all those qualities. We know that His purpose is to bring to pass our eternal salvation, that does not sound like a lazy parent who allows His children to run a muck and cause havoc. So when we comprehend what His role is, we then must introspectively discover what our role as His children is. Because as children, we ultimately rely on our parents for more understanding and wisdom than we currently have, no matter how much of a prodigy-child we are.

I recommend to all to thoroughly contemplate how to better fulfill our roles as children of a Heavenly Father and then recognize how your overall happiness and satisfaction in life improves. I know this is true and I am so grateful for the knowledge that I am a daughter of God who loves me and I love Him. I love you all and I am so grateful for your examples of spiritual strength<3

s Laskou, 

Sestra Schoen