Saturday, December 19, 2015

Letter: 19 December 2015

Vesele vanoce!

I hope you are having a wonderful week preparing for Christmas! We are so excited here in Prague (even if the weather thinks it is still the beginning of October) since the next week will be filled with visiting members and less actives! We get to share our testimonies with them and leave them with the new Christmas video! Did you know that it is even in Czech? You try watching it and see how crazy of a language I speak all day every day! I cannot believe that something which once sounded like gibberish is a language I now try to speak. Miracles really do happen! 



 

I love my mission! Remember that Book of Mormon Challenge I wrote about 2 months ago? Well we finish reading it this week! And I am so excited! It has been incredible reading it as a mission because we are all able to talk about what we have been learning and are helping each other. This week sis D and I had the opportunity to study with our mission president. He is amazing!!!! Truly called of God to be here and he has helped me in so many ways to become a better missionary and to stretch myself as far as possible. I love the truly inspired nature of our calls no matter where we serve or what we do, I know that we are exactly where Heavenly Father wants us to be. He is proud of us as we magnify our calling and serve to the best of our capacity. And this is all possible because of His Son Jesus Christ.

I am grateful for who He is and what that means for me. Because of Him,I know that I can become better each day. I know that I can be with my family forever, sealed to those I love for eternity as I keep my covenants and rely on Christ. I know my Saviour lives and loves me.

I hope you have wonderful Christmas and remember your Saviour. He loves you very very much!

Best wishes,
s laskou,
Sestra Manners

P.S. we went to an amazing concert this week as our culture night and saw the Prague symphony play the Nutcracker! It was amazing! 



Also sister D and I are still in awe that this guy (see photo) is now a member!! He is amazing!!!) 



Monday, December 14, 2015

Letter: 12 December 2015

Hello everybody!! 

Life is grand!  This week has been incredible! Time is truly flying by but I love it!!

I just wanted to share 3 miracles that happened this week!

First of all, we had our Christmas concert. The missionaries were entirely in charge of it and we had little time to practice and did not sound very good as we did so. But somehow, I say it was by the spirit, we had a beautiful concert and the Spirit was so strong! It brought many people to tears and helped remind me of the true meaning of Christmas. I loved it! Music really in incredible and I love singing about my Savior.

Secondly, I met this dear sweet lady on the metro last week after feeling prompted to just open my mouth and speak and we ended up exchanging numbers and set up to meet this week. She came to our lesson and we showed her the building and we felt the holy ghost so so strongly. She is a believer but does not have a concrete faith neither is she baptized. But she wants to be! There and then we committed her to prepare for baptism in about two months and she accepted!!! Sister D and I know for sure that that was a tender mercy of the Lord after a long missionary day!

And then today the most amazing thing happened!!! Our dear friend that we have been teaching for the past two months got baptized!! It was incredible! We have helped him find Christ and I was honored to be there as he made that promise with God to always follow him! He was an atheist when we first met him and it has been miracle after miracle seeing him grow and embrace the gospel.

I am so grateful that we met him and that I am a missionary. I love being able to testify of my Saviour with my whole heart and helping others to be able to do that too! I know the church is true and  love it!

S láskou,

Sestra M

P.S. my last name also translates as obedience in czech and so there is a member that calls me 'Sestra poslušnost'!!! I love it!!

mám vás moc rada! 


 

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Letter: 5 December 2015

"Who kneels before God can stand before anyone"

I LOVE MY MISSION!!!!

It seriously is so amazing and with every passing week that flies by in the matter of what feels like seconds, I am seeing more and more why I was called to serve here. The people I meet and teach have become a part of my life that will never be inseparable. I am having the most spiritually uplifting lessons with people who once never believe that God existed and are now preparing for baptism! Miracles are happening each day!

I am feeling the spirit so strongly as a testify to others no matter the language or situation. On the street, in a warm room or on the metro. If the spirit prompts me to testify and I act upon it, it really helps to soften hearts. I am so amazed each day at the experiences I am having with the Spirit and I love them!


One of Prague's many Christmas Markets
I cannot believe that Christmas is soo soon! Three weeks! We are so excited and are eagerly preparing! So is Prague! There are stands everywhere with all sorts of yummy smells and we are thoroughly enjoying all sorts of little treats during our lunch hour. One of my favorites is Trdelnik! It is sort of like a cinnamon roll but it is rolled out dough, wrapped around a pole and baked over an open flame fire and then covered in sugar, almonds, vanilla and cinnamon and then the inside is usually spread with Nutella! Soooooo good! Definitely look up what they are because they are amazing!
Christmas packages under the tree!
I love my mission so much! I am in awe of my calling. I get to represent the Savior each and every day! There is no greater calling! I am literal evidence of the restoration! 

So we finished Family Home Evening and finished a lesson and were heading towards the metro to go home with some Young Single Adults. And we see all these people come up the elevators and hear that the metro's down because someone jumped in front of the train (which was really weird because we had just talked about how we never hear that happening and then it happened). So we head back up the elevator and run into the Morgans (our other senior missionary couple) and we were going to help them get home. And then this man that noticed the Morgans comes up and tells us that he is going to help us get home safely (the city was madness since there was a football game and a bunch of drunk people everywhere... it was like 9 o'clock which feels like midnight for missionaries). This guy walked a little ahead of us all and didn't really talk to us but he got us safely home to where we needed to be, completely leading us away from all sorts of dangerous things. We went a way home that we had never gone before and we would have gotten soo lost without this kind man. And when he got us to a safe place (a few stops from home but we knew where we were) he just disappeared. It was crazy! But such a miracle! After talking with the Morgans and the Holts about it, they are all really convinced that it was an angel. Since people are not that kind here or so well dressed or like that at all. It was pretty amazing now that we look back on it and it really truly was a miracle that we got home!

I love you so much and am grateful for your examples, kindness and prayers. I hope you have a wonderful week and remember why you are grateful that Christ was born (sis D and I tell each other one reason every day... it is an advent calendar of sorts and I love it!).

S laskou,

Sestra M

Sister Daugirda's Grandparents spent a couple of days with us!