Letter: 21 November 2016

Dear all,

This week was so so good!! I feel like all the hard work we are doing is being seen and it is such a blessing. We had four investigators at church!! That was a miracle in itself! We had a friend of a member come that we are trying to teach named Patricia, and then our investigator that we met this week who is preparing for baptism named Maria (she is friends with a less-active member we also started working with this week named Lenka) and then our dear sweet friends Jarka and Erik who are mother and son. We went over to their home this week to help Erik with English and we invited them to church over text and they came!!  And they loved it. They even participated in Sunday School more than some of the members, asking questions, answering questions and reading passages from the Book of Mormon. It just felt like they had been coming for years! I was beaming from ear to ear. I really know that Heavenly Father has been working right beside us and is helping us to get this area prepared for the gospel. 

Something that I have come to learn on my mission and strive to do each day is talk to everyone. That is how miracles happen. I know that as we have opened our mouths and spoken with everyone, that we find those who are prepared. Usually they happen to be the very last person we talk to before we go home for the night, or the very last phone call. But all is so worth it! 

One of our Elders outside the small church building in our town.

We got to meet with Radka again this week and she has been reading and praying about the Book of Mormon.  She shared an experience she had as she walked to her car after our first lesson.  She said that she had a feeling and a thought that what we had shared with her was true!!  It was so sweet to hear that. But then she said that she had feelings of doubt after.  We were able to testify to her of the power of the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of its message and the spirit was so strong. This woman is such a sweetheart and I love seeing her face light up as we share the gospel with her. When we shared our testimonies of the atonement with her, I could see it change her and give her hope. 

We drew this on the pavement to explain where the Book of Mormon comes from!

So this week we went through all the less-actives in our phone and I called a lady named Lenka that said we could come visit. We asked for her address and she seemed a little confused. I could not find her address anywhere on the city map and a day later sestra Taylor looked out the window and said, "I found that street!".  Lenka lives across the street from us! We will always be able to take her to church with us! She even came this week! She hasn't had missionaries there for a while but she is lovely. She loves to talk but we are living to love her.  Love really must be the motive in order for missionary work to function. I love it!! She has a big heart and she is coming with us tomorrow to go and teach her friend Maria. 

This week we have come up with a good challenge as a district. We are only speaking Czech. For every word we say in English, we have to do ten pushups (there are a few exceptions such as English speakers, and English class). This will be a fun challenge week! I will let you know how many pushups we had to do.

I love the Gospel and I love this work.

s laskou, 

Sestra Manners