Serving in a fairytale

I love my little companion. I do her hair and dress her up and we just make each other laugh and I see her take her first "steps" she solo contacted yesterday as we were singing and faced rejection after rejection but kept going and talking to more people and I was on the verge of tears watching from afar. We are buddies forever. She even tells me that she prayed for a good trainer and even though I don't feel like it all the time she says I am. so I am happy:)

We have had a good week this week and will be in Prague on Thursday. Our p-day today is us going to the building and watching the full length Joseph Smith movie. woo! I am actually strangely really excited for that. This morning my plans of a good long run were foiled by a torrential down-pour. bleh. My comp likes Diet Coke so we have Coke light here(the european edition of DC but I don't think quite as good)

I hope you have a great week and I keep you in my prayers!

s Laskou, 

Sestra Car <3

 

We are serving in a fairytale

 

Update on Mission Stuff

Hey Family! 

(This e-mail was sent in response to e-mail requests from family members requesting more info on investigators and ward/branch members and the YW she serves in Ostrava, Czech Republic. It has been edited with people's names changed/shortened)

Investigators- I don't often include specific info on investigators because we have been asked not to just in case they get on the internet somehow. But I definitely shy on the overly vague and not-even-mention them at all side, sorry! Ma bad. Anywho, we have several progressing investigators (which means they keep commitments and are progressing towards baptism) We have been meeting with someone named "M" for over 4 months now and he enjoys studying the church and knowing all the info, even coming to all the activities, but doesn't want to be baptized too quick. We are helping him understand the importance and he has been making much more progress lately so yay!

Then there is "L", he is one of our member's boyfriends who we gave a Book of Mormon to and have been meeting with him ever since this transfer started, he is going to school and working. He started out as an avid atheist who wouldn't pray. Now he is reading, praying, attending church and is on baptismal date for the 11 of October woo!!! We are very confident that he will make it. He is solid and will make a great member!!! It has been awesome seeing his faith and relationship with God grow.

Then we have "N", my beloved "N". She is the mom who I met a couple months ago then she texted us after our prayer, so we met her husband who remembered meeting the missionaries 12 years ago before he was a believer. He is really interested in how our church works and the doctrine of how the priesthood is received and used. Anywho, she came to church on Sunday! Woopeee!!! It is so awesome that she came all that way, also really stressful for me notgonnalie.

She got there late to the train station so we ran there to get her to bring her back then we walk back to the building with her and as we come in to go into the chapel, an older member straight-up starts waving at us through the door scream-whispering "go away! you're interrupting!!! ' over and over. I about had a conniption, with all the force of will I could muster, I looked him in the eyes and said "we are coming to church" and walked in. He caused such a scene and poor "N" felt immediately awkward and unwanted... the talks were wonderful but it was hard overcoming that. :(

I've decided I just think sometimes we need a workshop of what to do with investigators around. It isn't changing what we teach, but how we teach/say it. Like asking them if they are an investigator when you first meet them. lol I hope she gets back soon to us I have no idea what her overall view of it was. She is soooooooooo amazing though! Keep your fingers and arms crossed for her please!!!!!! She is seriously so golden. So that is some info on a couple of our investigators!

The YW are amazing. The practically teach us. 2 angels. "M" (15) and "V" (almost 18) we are working on Personal Progress with them so V has it finished by her birthday at the end of this month.

We as a duo (Sister Daugirda and I) are doing wonderfully. She has taught me a lot about simple faith. I was freaking out stressing about "N" on Saturday night and she just turned and said "How about lets just pray about it and put it in the Lord's hands.' Sometimes we get so flustered when we really don't need to be. I have a bad habit of almost thriving off a little stress to keep me going and feeling like I am doing things but! that isn't necessary. So I am still learning that. But I really had to humble myself and not respond back with a snappy remark (you know exactly what I mean) but really accept the obvious truth and be more Christlike. I am so grateful for her, she is a keeper. Plus we laugh all the time. So that is great :)

But if I could ask one thing, if you could from here on out not directly say how much time I have left. You can be excited but, I don't want to be tempted by any form of "trunky'' ness. Which does happen. So no numbers. Thankfully my entire mission, my incompetency with guesstimating has helped me feel oblivious to the approaching deadline of leaving, but kinda hard to ignore these decreasing numbers. I think it is also hard for my companion who just got here and is now thinking how much time I have left and comparing it to her's. We will all see each other and it isn't as long away as it was from day one and that day will come. No worries there:) and of course I am excited, but I also want to keep my eye on the prize and set a good example to my companion. So I would lovingly like to ask that we all become "obliviots'' until the final couple of weeks :) Thank you!

I love you all and I keep you all in my prayers!

s Laskou,

Sestra Schoen

Ostravattitude of Gratitude!

What an amazing week I tell ya! We had an amazing training on Tuesday in Prague - Sister Kapora was there. She is one of the leading ladies, if not the leading lady in the development of the Church here in the Czech Republic. She has written a book about it, I am told. Anywho Sister D and I got to practice teaching her and it was so neat to talk to her one on one, she is seriously such a spiritual giant and so sweet! 

Sister D stops and smells the roses (zoom in on that beautiful, dew-drop rose!)

I also got your packages you all sent me, Mom and Court I love EVERYTHING!!! I nearly had a melt-down they were all so cute and thank you Grandma Kent for the cute shirt and note:) After training we went on exchanges with the Sister Trainer Leaders- I was in Prague and Sister Daugirda stayed in Ostrava for a day with my MTC Comp Sister H which was neat. It was cool to be in Prague for a little bit and seeing as this was my second time on an exchange there, I think that should suffice for saying that I served in Prague if I don't get the legit chance to. But, I am perfectly happy with that. :) 

It was really hard to be away from my beloved Ostrava, even for a day. When we got back, and came into the, for lack of a better adjective, "jank" train station, I felt oddly right at home, as my interim-companion commented on, "only in ostrava" features ie, an exposed water pipe and puddle of water=artistic fountain. side note: Sestra D and I may have had an epic run and embrace moment...  

On Thursday we taught the Book of Mormon study class again and got great reviews on it from the participants so that was fun. On Friday we saw a load of miracles. That morning we each, Sister D and I, studied faith and prayer and even the same talk without knowing it until comp study. We specifically prayed for people with whom we are meeting.

I think this is a picture of the YW in Sister Schoen's branch, as her and Sister D were called to be YW leaders.

About a month ago I met a wonderful Christian mom in a city outside of Ostrava and had the privilege of talking to her for a bit (it was actually on my year-mark anniversary in the country and before then I had been seeing a ton of rejection until her) then she went on vacation, then Sister D and I went out and had a wonderful lesson with her. But a few weeks had gone by and we had had no new contact with her and were feeling a little blue about it. So Sister D says the most heartfelt and beautiful prayer and no joke...within 15 minutes our phone goes off and she texted us saying she had been thinking about us and wanted to meet any day that week. WHATTT??? wowza. So of course we begin happy-dancing about our living room. It was such a glorious moment!!! Then we get ready to go, we made our bus to get to the tram stop and on that bus we notice a guy and a prolly 13-year-old girl reading our nametags from across the bus. The bus ride lasts maybe 5 minutes- they got off at our same stop and I ran to catch them. We talked to them for maybe a minute quickly and hurriedly explaining who we are and why we are here and he says he's not a believer, we say "that's okay! we can help with that!" we switched numbers then ran to catch our tram. Then on Sunday we had a lot of contacting time. We met and talked to this wonderful mom with two daughters, they were really interested in meeting, we exchanged numbers and I called the number while we were standing there but her phone wasn't with her. We walk away a ways and I get a text back from that number asking who it was...my heart sank. But I didn't want to tell my sweet companion that the lady gave us a fake number so I assure her that I likely typed it in wrong. But I was a little disappointed/confused that she did that... fast-forward to Sunday night- a random text...from the man on the bus asking when we could meet and then setting up with him for Tuesday. We were so happy!!! Still are! He contacted us first!  (that doesn't happen so often haha...)

Then this morning around 7am we went to our grocery store nearby our flat and as we are walking out Sister D starts elbowing me in the side saying "its the lady from yesterday!" And there is that woman, who had given us the wrong number...or so I thought. I was like "play it cool sis" and we strolled up to her, she was so excited to see us and we talked for a sec then I said how strangely that number was from some guy named Luke. With genuine surprise she looked at the number and said "its a 5 not a 6". So it really was my fault! It is so crazy-coincidence that it was definitely not an accident! I have never met her before and yet within 24 hours in completely different parts of a big city like Ostrava we *happen to meet again. (Insert angelic chorus here)

But wait there's more! This morning we wanted to go someplace to quickly print-off our emails so that we could devote more time to writing later so we went to find a local library closer to where we live. Welp, had no idea where to go so we just hopped on a bus and decided to ask the locals. We asked this older lady and she gladly offered to show us a great knihovna (library) near where she lived. So the angel walks us to the most random of places that I am sure you couldn't even find with google maps. So we offered service to this nice woman and had a great convo with her then went in to the library. This library was so cute!!! We walked in and the librarian was so nice and wanted to chat with us more. She was happy to see we were from a church (not common) and let us even print for free although we pressed to let us pay. She was a gem. We have been seeing so many miracles and being so blessed we just keep pinching ourselves. Of course I am loving my companion, we get along seriously a little too well and I am sooo grateful for all she is teaching me. I sometimes forget who is training.



I am not going to profess to be the most put-together trainer, sometimes I feel like a chicken with my head-cut-off, but thankfully she just laughs with me and we just make the spiritual-most of a crisis. We love the people we are meeting with, trying to get into the swing of things organizationally but always feeling like we are improving so I am a happy camper. I love the Czech Republic and I am so grateful to be having these faith building experiences and helping others recognize the influence of our Heavenly Father in their lives. It is truly an honor. I am so happy with the gospel and I feel like that should be a simple enough tell-tale sign that it is true. If you're not sure, pray about it. Even if you are sure, still pray about it. Your cup is never completely full! I love you all and I pray for you always. Have an amazing week and notice your own heaven-sent miracles!