Sunday, January 31, 2016

Letter: 30 January 2016

It says 30 seconds in glowing letters on the announcement board. I can feel the wind start to blow and feel like I am in a wind tunnel. The ground starts to shake a little and I can smell pastries, the smell of melting snow and I start to smile. who am i going to meet today? What do they need? How can I use my testimony to help them? I see the metal carriage arrive and hear the screeching as it comes to a halt. The lovely sounding lady starts to speak and the doors open, out poor a swarm, of people. Sister Andreason and I part ways for our journey because we plan on talking to as many people as possible. And so the day on traveling on the metro begins.

A new experience, Kiwi soup!
Every day I have this experience and every day I get to meet incredible people and find ways to share the gospel with hem. I love my calling. I have no doubt that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I love my calling and I love my mission. I love finding ways to related absolutely everything someone tells me in the fist thirty seconds of meeting them to the Gospel. I love leaving our conversations with a smile on my face.

This week I was studying in Jacob and came across this verse: (Jacob 1:7)
7 Wherefore we labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake-of the goodness of God,
I get to do this!! I labor diligently to invite others to come unto Christ and love it!

I am grateful for my testimony and for the opportunity to serve others. This week we are helping our dear friend Lucka prepare for baptism. Nothing brings her more peace then when we testify of her savior Jesus Christ. I know that He brings us great peace.

I love you all and thank you for your love and support.
have a great week!

s laskou,

sestra manners 


Just before I wrote this email at the internet cafe on P-day!  Sister Andreason likes P-days, as you can tell!
 

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Letter: 23 January 2016

I love my mission!!! There is no doubt about it! 

This week we got a lot of snow!  It has made the city so beautiful and white and also has made a lot more people use public transport instead of walking so we have met some incredible people this week! I love it! 


This week feels like it went by before it even started!!

We got to go teach my favorite family in Prague twice this week! Daniel is our recent convert and Hanka is his wife and they have two darling kids! The toddler (he is adorable!!) kept on putting toys on my lap during our lesson and I loved it!  He is such a sweetheart. The spirit was so strong even with a toolbox and a ball on my knees. 



We are also covered in snow here and are spending most of our time (if possible) inside. that includes finding fun things to do on P-days! We went to a really awesome museum here in Prague today, "The  and our dear sweet friend Ondrej made us brunch this morning! He has such a  rock of a testimony and it has been amazing to be here the entire time of his spiritual growth so far.

I am so grateful for my calling and for the opportunity I have each day to testify of Christ. I know that He lives and loves us.

S laskou,
 

sestra Manners 

An almost "Full English Breakfast"!

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Letter: 16 January 2016

Dear all,

I love life!!! it is so great! Every day is full of different adventures and challenges and this week has been just alike.

I love being able to talk to everyone and anyone I see and being able to relate their lives or what they tell me to the gospel. This week I met a yoga instructor and I was able to tell her about the yoga classes that members held during communism to teach others about the gospel. She was really interested and we are now teaching her more about the gospel. I love being able to testify no matter where I am or who it is and seeing them feel the Spirit. 


This is Linh and she joined the church last summer! She and I are really good friends and I love her to bits!
I love being able to see people pray for the very first time. This week I had the special opportunity to hear two young girls pray. One of them had grown up in a family full of members of the church and the other has little experience with prayer. Those prayers were both so simple and sincere and it reminded me of the simplicity of the gospel. We are so blessed to know who we are and what our potential is. I am so grateful that i can teach others about their Savior Jesus Christ.

I also have the chance to teach a German beginners class every week! This is one of my students named Blanka! 



She is a sweetheart and often brings her dog, Sunday! 


I love them both and she always has funny stories to tell me!

I love my Savior Jesus Christ and know that he lives and loves you.

I hope you have a  wonderful week!

S laskou,
Sestra Manners 


 

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Letter: 9 January 2016

Dear all,

I seriously love my mission sooo much! We had the most interesting week filled with meeting people that you thought only existed in movies (both amazing and interesting) and many opportunities to share our testimonies and make people leave their encounters with us with a smile on their face.

there really is nothing better than the way I feel as I testify and I know that the person I am sharing that with can feel of the love their Savior has for them because of my testimony and most importantly because of the spirit.

This P-day we went to the zoo! Again! I loved it and it was definitely a different experience with snow! But among all the fun things we saw and the many things we laughed about (I have an amazing district.. well 9 missionaries, two senior couples and the MCConkies do make things an adventure!) we took this fun picture! 



I love you all so much and am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here. Life is too short to be anything but happy!

S laskou,

Sestra Manners 



Thursday, January 7, 2016

Letter: 2 January 2016

Dear all,

Happy New Year! I hope that you are having a wonderful 2016! I am lucky enough to say that I will be spending the entire of this year on my mission! Isn't that amazing? I am already seeing the many miracles that this year has to bring and I look forward to the 363 left! 


My new companion Sister Andreason
So far I have seen so many prayers answered. Each day I pray to find people who are ready for the gospel and this week we found 4! A man and his wife walked past us at a singing display on Tuesday and were interested in the book of Mormon. They then showed up at the building the next day during district meeting to get one! we taught them the following day and then we just taught them again! They are amazing!!! It really was a moment that felt like those stories that you always hear from returned missionaries. They came with so many questions and every time we have seen them, they always have another friend with them! We are teaching them a lot using the bible and the book of Mormon so we are definitely learning a lot!

I also have seen the power of testimony so much already! I have short lessons with people on the metro as we are traveling places and make sure to always find something in their life that they need to hear a testimony about. It has changed my mission so much! And softened so many hearts!

I also had the opportunity to use my German a lot this week! Not only did I teach a beginners German class but yesterday a young girl and her friend broke down in front of the chapel and they only spoke German! They were there for a while and along with help form the Elders we helped them to get on their way and to a mechanics. I had the opportunity to testify to them about the book of Mormon and plant some seeds of faith. I love being a missionary!

this week was the start of a new transfer and we had the opportunity to make a transfer vision- things we wanted to accomplish this transfer. Like people to teach, things to learn and it reminded me a lot of new years resolutions! It is really important to make goals since they help us to progress and improve- which is the main reason why we are here on earth as part of our mortal experience. As we make goals with clear precise ways of measuring them, we can continuously progress and become more like our creator. I know that He loves us and that as we share our goals with him prayer, we can receive help both from heaven and from the angels who are round about us.

I hope you have a wonderful week and enjoy this little video! 

"Look Not Behind Thee"
 

S laskou,

Sestra Manners

P.S. it finally snowed in Prague! But it melted about an hour later! But Sis Andreason and I loved waking up to it on new year's day! 


I got a surprise Christmas package from my German school friend Dannielle!


 

Letter: 28 December 2015

Hello everybody!!!

Guess what?? Sestra Manners is yet again in Prague!! And loving it! My companion gets here tomorrow and I am excited to be with her this transfer. Not much but Christmas has happened this week but I loved it and want to make sure you hear all about it!

Christmas eve is practically christmas here so we spent the day surprise visiting members and less actives and it was the best! we spent the morning with a senior missionary couple and traveled all over the city and visited the sweetest lady who was alone for the day and I just felt me love for her growing as I sat in her one room apartment drinking grapefruit juice and I even teared up when she said that she had never had a visit from the missionaries on Christmas eve. I will forever think of Sestra Vandrackova on Christmas Eve!  She was a lot like Aunt Suzann and it made my day! And then we had a Czech Christmas ever meal with the most adorable couple ever that are for sure going to be the patriarch couple when my mission turns into a stake! The typical Christmas Eve meal here is potato salad and carp... it is definitely different! But we had that except the carp was replaced by schnitzel since Sister Cankova's sister was there and she is mentally handicapped but an angel! She would not stop telling us how pretty we are and it was adorable!!! And then we went to my mission President's home (which is above the chapel) and were there with most of the missionaries, his family and some YSA who were alone for the day. We ate, had raclette and listened to President read us a Christmas book ("Tom and the Christmas Carp".... It is seriously adorable and sooo czech!! look it up!) and then Elder Holt (he is practically me dad here... he is married to the amazing Sister Holt and they are our office couple) read us Luke 2 and we sang silent night. And then President drove us home, we opened presents and went to bed! 



CHRISTMAS DAY: We woke up, got ready, left and went to a member's home fro breakfast! They are a family with three sons and a daughter (Gabbi, she has taught with us before and I adore her!) and they made breakfast casserole!!!! We have that every year back home so it meant the world to me to have that! And then after that we drove around Prague trying to find the place to do service which ended up being right next to the castle! We helped feed 200 homeless people lunch at the archbishop's home. It was amazing!!! i have always wanted to help with something like that and it was such a humbling experience! I saw people sooo grateful for this food that they cried. And then afterwards they had found presents for every single person that came and they were very personalized. I saw a lady open a pair of plain sneakers and cry because she was so excited for them. She opened them, asked me if they were for her. And I got to tell her that they were for her to keep forever. And then she turned to the ceiling and blew kisses exclaiming "Thank you Jesus!!". And that is when I started crying. I just about lost it because I was so happy for these people. It was such a simple thing as a meal and a pair of shoes but it meant the world to them. They knew that they were going to survive the winter with food in their tummies and clothes and shoes to wear. It was the most special and humbling Christmas ever. And I am so lucky that I get to do it all over again next year. After that we traveled down the castle towards the metro and saw the most amazing Christmas view of Prague. I live in a fairy tale! We grabbed  hot chocolate  and headed towards the Holt's home to Skype family and spent the evening with them. It was the most magical, humbling, spiritual Christmas of my life thus far.

I love my mission, I love the Gospel and I love Jesus Christ.

s laskou,
Sestra Manners