Week of Feb. 24, 2014

The painting job went well, it looks way better than before and we are getting a lot of compliments on it and the Senior missionary who is over all that stuff really liked it so we are happy that that is over.

I can't believe its almost nine months, weird! It is going by soooo fast! I am really enjoying understanding people better, and not having huge headaches after frying my brain decoding what everyone is saying. It is nice to see progress in that way though I know I still have a long ways to go. I am grateful that I have more time to devote to furthering the work and improving myself. They go hand in hand, when you invest yourself in helping others truly, you realize that is where you find yourself and receive the most joy. And the gospel brings that everlasting joy that keeps us buoyant. This weekend was really hard. Long story short. The baptism didn't happen.... and we're still figuring a lot of stuff out. Satan is a big fat loser.

 

Good always wins though, so yay! Faith is the most important thing ever. A favorite scripture of mine this week is Philippians 3:13-14

"This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press forward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 

 

Reaching forth can be hard to do, but it is the only way to grasp the prize of our missionary efforts. I know that we are not alone in the work, that all of us are united in our pressing forward

 

Have the best week EVER!!!

Sestra Schoen

Just a Beautiful Mlada Boleslavternoon...that was a reach.

Hello Everyone!

 

So wonderful to read all your emails! It is so inspiring and encouraging for me :) This week has been a bit rougher...Dallas, totally picking up what you're putting down and smelling what you're stepping in, keep ya chin up and keep on keepin' on! I will also fast for you in March.  

 

Court, those experiences with the sisters, I COMPLETELY understand. And it can be very difficult not to take it personally when they treat you like that. I love the "Licensed to be Awkward" meme, soooo true. Sometimes you just gotta push yourself to do things like that because otherwise you will be kicking yourself for not trying. (I sent Carley this picture of the cute sisters in our ward who asked me to go to a lesson with them this week. The person we went to teach wasn't home, but across the street we could hear music. One of the sister missionaries was like, "Sounds like someone is home, let's go." I was so nervous! We weren't invited, what are we going to do???? Well, I just blindly followed the sisters, who walked right up into the garage of the home that had been blaring music. Two men were chilling in lawn chairs, and Sister D asks, "Are y'all having a party? We heard music." After an awkward introduction and the realization that no, they weren't having a party, the son just came home and his music in his truck was too loud...there was an immediate connection, a future appointment set and a potential miracle began. As we left the home, I turned to Sister D. and teased, "Are y'all having a party?" The sister missionaries both laughed and Sister D. said, "This right here (pointing to her name badge), it's my license to be awkward." I thought it was the cutest thing ever, so with their permission I took this picture. Funny thing is, Sister M. actually looks uncomfortable in the picture, so it's all the better.)

There should be a meme, "100% of the people you don't contact, wont get baptized." (I'll start working on that) But ya, rejection is sadly a very common thing you have to get used to in the field, where ever the field may be. We had an investigator,who had been progressing really well and was on baptismal date, straight-up yell at us when her dad let us in, not very politely, to get out... And then wave us off like we were dogs or something. It really hurt. My initial reaction would have been to give her a piece of my mind... but I controlled the urge...plus, gift of tongues doesn't really work with contention anyways and I would have just started sputtering like an idiot. The field is ready to harvest... you just gotta sort through the wheat..even though it tares you up. I have no idea what caused the sudden change in her, her dad was very apologetic though and we will try again another day. Anywho, I am SO excited for this week!!!!! Dad, you are so right about the groundstone, I know that the edge of this week will be really sharp. One of our investigators is getting baptized this Saturday in Prague!!!!!!!!!!! We are so proud of him. He has really changed his life around. Completely off of smoking and drinking and really studies the scriptures. He is so grateful for the knowledge he has. When Sister Hicken and I start to feel down, that we aren't finding anyone who gives a care... we just remember "S". He was so prepared, and it is wonderful to know that he is really committed to live the gospel forever. He could even teach some of the members a thing or two....We hope that some of the members will come to his baptism. But yes, "S" will be baptized this Saturday and receive the Holy Ghost on Sunday and wants to go to the temple in March for baptisms, and will receive the Aaronic priesthood within the month and then get a calling. All of the above, he is totally stoked for, as are we :D

Also our office will finally be up and running this week! We won't have to meet in the mall, other restaurants, or outside on the benches anymore!!! Yay! But funny thing is.... we are painting it! Yes, I get to put on my painter's hat again and go to town. Just a little worried about the differences of Czech paint vs. American paints... they don't really have Lowes or Home Depot. There is a running inside-joke among all the missionaries here it's called getting "Czech-walled" its when you accidentally brush the walls and the white stays on your coat, jacket, etc.... here they do either "Arctic White " or some shade of Neon... very interesting stuff. The paint-jobs here are pretty awful, they never tape anything and they have cracks all on the walls... you would think they would care more about it but they don't.

Both Sister Hicken and I have experience with painting, so we are pretty confident that it will be great when its all done. We are excited to have it done and get moving on with things here. I am so sorry to here about the families who are going to the new stake from K1 :( Especially with the close proximity. ikes. Here, the members have to go to Jicin (40 minutes plus) and when they did the location move years ago, that is when they lost the MB members. It is heart-wrenching, and you want to blame someone but also you have to remember that the church IS growing and with the expansion, come growing pains. And now that I wear the name of our church all day long, more than ever I find myself reminding myself that the Gospel is perfect, the Church is true, and we love our brothers and sisters even though they are not perfect. Those families will be anchors in the new stake and major contributers even though it is hard to see them have to go through this. A keller stake sounds really nice dad, you're right. I am so excited about this new Jason's Deli (Everyone in my family is just pumped about the announcement of our favorite restaurant opening a new location 1 mile from my parent's house--we literally have frequented 1x/week since I was 11) I would kill for a kid's jane (her favorite thing to eat there since she was 7) right about now. I am so glad the house is doing well and that doesn't have to cause you more grief mom (ask my mom about the recent flooding!). And Cassidia, sorry for not responding last week, I love hearing about how you're doing and so proud of your obvious testimony :) Glad that you all are so integral in the Missionary efforts and ward unity. I appreciate it more now than ever, so on behalf of missionaries everywhere, THANKYOU!!  I love reading your stories because I know that I am not alone, and yáll can relate to my experiences out here, the tests and the triumphs:) I love yall so much and pray for you always. Thankyou for your support. Keep me in your prayers please.

No Email from Carley this Week

Carley just sent a personal e-mail to me this week, no e-mail for the public to share. Sorry! Stay tuned 'til next Sunday.

Mlada More Boleslav and Laughter this Transfer

Pardon my title...it is getting harder to come up with these haha. 

 

Running to catch up to fellow missionaries on the streets of MB

 

 

I am staying in the mighty mighty Boleslav! Woo! With none other than, Sister Hicken! :D I am so stoked! We have so many great ideas for this transfer and it is such a relief that we will be staying together. We can just keep working without a hitch. We are loving our investigators. The one that was in the hospital moved to a different city, so we take buses to get to him now, but sadly enough, there are absolutely no buses that go to or from his city on Saturday or Sunday... -_- so we prayed and prayed and PRAYED that he would be able to get to church somehow... and thankfully a women who is not able to come to church very often said she would give him a ride. She she drove out to get him in that city and to get her mother. It was soooo amazing! So he just loved church and has stopped smoking. He fasted on Sunday and bore the sweetest testimony! And the branch is really putting him under their wing, and even though his medical condition is not getting any better, he has found renewed energy and strength in the knowledge of the gospel:) We are sooo happy for him! I am absolutely loving it here and learning more and more daily. 

 

We went to the Skoda museum today and it was fun :) You know how much I just love cars ;) (Courtney's note: it's super funny that Carley wrote that...she literally has the worst luck and experiences with cars than any 21 year old I know)

 

 

Sestra Schoen and Sestra Hicken

je te skoda = that is a pity = darn = name of the car museum???

 

In a separate e-mail to Courtney (I asked her what she meant by the fact that in a talk last week her mission president "spoke about the growth of the church from Joseph Smith to the beginnings of the church here in the CZ, including all the history and empowering stories of early members here who met secretly during the time of communism. We had the opportunity to meet one of these women this past week, she is in a nursing home and while she can't come to church, her faith is ever-bright. She is 94 years old and learned about the church (like many members here) through yoga!"

 

"Through yoga"? What does that even mean? She explained...

 

The members who joined through yoga, joined at the time of communism. They would seriously be in Yoga and the instructor who was a member would mention gospel principles and then invite people to take the lessons (there were no missionaries at that time) and they would do it in the basements of places and in secret. The members would be baptized in the middle of the night, pull up in their car to a lake, run into the water, be dunked, run back, and that was it. Crazy right?? But they are so strong! There are also many who have gone inactive, which is difficult, so here in MB we do a lot of reactivation work. The members had a hard time being moved to a different city for their meetings (with no cars and only buses that took more than an hour to get there one-way, it was difficult for sure) so they stopped going to church, feeling like the church didn't take into consideration their limitations... It is very hard to refute their excuses, there is some validity, but we are trying to reignite their faith and desire to come-back and forget the past. Hakuna Matata!!!!! 

 

 

But we are seeing success and loving these people. Satan tries really hard to bring it down, but God and good always win! :)

 

I know that no matter what we will be blessed in the long-run and you know we have always loved long-runs ;) Carley is an ultra-marathon runner. Got to love that sweet girl. I miss her!

Don't Worry, it's just a light frost (she highlighted her hair back to blonde!)

This week has been great, alot of snow, but I'm not hurtin' so all is well. :) Glad you got my letter! I will be sending another one hopefully tomorrow, if we have some spare time in the evening. 

 

we went to a cute museum and I was amazed that they let us touch pretty much everything... (like things dating back to the 14th century etc.). Dont worry I didnt go crazy running my hands over everything. It was just very different than my elementary school field-trip "don't even breath on it too long" mentality lol the history is soooo amazing here!

 

 

And I can give a more in-depth account of this mighty crazy week we had. Our amazing investigator who will be baptized in February is in the hospital for a cancerous tumour, so please pray for him. He is really awesome, and so spiritually prepared, it blows us away how much he just grasps everything!  And in the midst of this big trial, he is relying on prayer and scripture study and wants so badly to come to church. It is so inspiring to see how he has progressed spiritually!! We had a fireside in Jicin and President McConkie spoke. He spoke about the growth of the church from Joseph Smith to the beginnings of the church here in the CZ, including all the history and empowering stories of early members here who met secretly during the time of communism. We had the opportunity to meet one of these women this past week, she is in a nursing home and while she can't come to church, her faith is ever-bright. She is 94 years old and learned about the church (like many members here) through yoga! She is a dear women and so spiritually strong although her body is growing very weak. As we were sharing a scripture with her, she got up and began to move to the other side of the room (she has very bad vision mind you) and began pouring us glasses of water (perliva= bubbly...not my favorite, but I have gotten used to it). I just about cried. What a huge heart and strong will. Its amazing! So many of the members here I think are as strong as those early poineers. President put it so well in his fireside when he said, "the fundamental element/principle of our religion is having a personal, convincing experience with God." 

 

Just as we believe and know that Joseph Smith truly saw God, the Father, and the Son when he prayed humbly for an answer to his burning question. We know that each of us, in this life meant for our learning and growth, can likewise (though obviously not necessarily in the same fashion) receive answers to our personal prayers. What a beautiful thing! I know it is true! Though this week has been hard (surprisingly enough, not everyone agrees with this spiritual rationale) but I am growing my spiritual encounters with God in my own "grove". As we all do. When we face trials, let-downs, make mistakes we are carving our own sculpture of faith, made specially by our Loving Father's hands, and more beautiful than we ourselves could imagine. And when we have the final unveiling and see the masterpiece that we unknowingly have become, I know our eyes will be filled-to-the brim with tears of joy. :) 

 

I love you all! I love this gospel! I love my Savior and I pray for you!!!!!!!!!! <3

A Boleslavian Birthday Blast

So this week we were studying humility.... interesting how when you study Christlike attributes they seem to just pop-up everywhere! It's as if I need to learn them or something... strange. This week was awesome and we are kinda not believing that we have been here 7 weeks already??! Craziness. But you know, time flies like an arrow...and fruit flies like a banana.

(Insert Courtney's note: What??? She's so odd, but I love her.)

Bet you weren't expecting that random pun, you're welcome. :)

Yesterday we felt like we should stop by a man who hasn't come to church in a while, we shared a scripture with him and he began crying... not gonna lie, kinda throws me off making grown-men shed tears. He quickly explained (in mostly polish seeing as that is where he is from) that he had just prayed for some help and then immediately we showed up and shared just the right verse. God truly loves His children, alls I gotta say. It feels amazing to be an answer to a prayer, it is humbling though because you realize you have to be striving to do that all the time and it makes you wonder how many opportunities you miss. The language is coming along, not quite fluent, but not fumbling for words anymore, so yippee! My birthday was awesome!!! We had a breakfast that morning in Jicin, we ended up missing the bus.... -_-. If there is anything I have learned, it is that buses are unforgiving (but God is, so that's good). We had all the food with us and we are hauling it up to the main station, and I make eye-contact with the driver, wave my arm in pure desperation and he just proceeds to pull-out anyways.... I may not have had a whole heck of alot of love in my heart at that moment.... But we caught the next one, and the members were sooo sweet and sang happy birthday to me and gave me flowers and chocolate. They are sooooooo amazing!! We then just had a normal missionary day with lessons and contacting but it was AWESOME nonetheless.:) I am so grateful to be here and have these amazing experiences and learn so deeply the importance of faith in a person's life. I am speaking in church this week, so pray for me! And thank you for the prayers that are already being sent on my behalf, I love you all!!!!

We had a ton of miracles this week, we have another investigator on baptismal date and our other one is rocking along and excited to be obeying the word of wisdom and change his life, he is basically teaching us the lessons. It is CRAZY. He is so prepared and fully gets the gospel. It is so amazing to be apart of. But Satan tries really hard about this time so keep "S" in your prayers and "F" too.

A Whole Mlada Miracles!

(Insert Courtney's note: My husband asked me today how long I thought Carley spent coming up with witty titles and subject liines for her e-mails...I told him I'm fairly confident it doesn't take her long, but she is probably doing soft brainstorming all week during her quiet moments. She's so funny and puns come so naturally to that girl)

 

Hello!

Wow, I think I may have had the best week of my mission so far, it has been an AMAZING week. We had so much success, we set some pretty lofty goals, but then with the help of the Lord, we achieved and surpassed them :) It's just remarkable how God helps us to accomplish things, and when we learn to rely on Him, we discover that we are much stronger than anything we can do alone. That concept of "submitting our will to His" and "according to His will", can sometimes stir the pride within us to say, "Excuse me? I don't need nobody and aint nobody going to tell me my business." (My inner pride hasn't shaken the southern accent yet). (Um...that sounded more like a Detroit accent, not Southern, oh well, we'll cut her slack)

 

But really, I have a terrible tendency to reject help from people because I want to prove that I can do it all by myself. But ERRR! wrong answer. It has been a hard lesson for me to learn, and while I admit it takes me more go's than most people, great news! it's finally sinking into this hard-head. Mom and Dad, you have suffered the blunt of this, my apologies. But yes, this week I just let it go, relied on my companion, let myself look like an idiot talking to strangers and having the czech words avalanche out of my mouth, not letting rude comments phase my spirit, but chalking it up as what God wants me to learn...etc. But! Great news, it was not for nought. We were soooooo blessed this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We just can't believe it, ourselves. A man we met on Thursday, came to church with us, and wants to be baptized. Ya. We were blown away, but why? The gospel of Jesus Christ is 100% true, and we know it. But jejda!(wow in czech) And we just ADORE the people here, I was soooo meant to come to Mlada Boleslav, its an amazing feeling to have that confirmation that this was what you were meant to do. I just am on the verge of hysterical, joyous tears just about all the time. And I know this week will be even better (I don't know how, but I am confident...plus, its my birthday).

If you are unsure about anything, just PRAY. It works, I promise, and the scriptures promise it too. Take your problems and worries to the Lord, He is there for you always. I am so blessed for this knowledge, for this opportunity to be here in the CZ and meet these amazing people, have these amazing experiences, and have this amazing knowledge of God's love for me and all of us. I love you all, and I am so grateful for the support you have been for me!