Hunters & Fishers of Men -- MTC Week 3

Ahoj Rodina a Kamarad! (Hi Family and Friends) 

This week was pretty awesome. 

Friday: We had an incredible lesson with Zdenek. We planned to teach him about the Kniha Mormonova but his questions led the discussion elsewhere... like to repentance. We followed up on the commitment we gave him last time to pray and he said that he felt good when he prayed. He asked what the next step was, so we talked about repentance and baptism. We had a hard time explaining it with our limited Czech, but I think he got the jist of it. We related those topics back to the Kniha Mormonova so that we could teach the lesson we had planned. Half way through our lesson, our teacher stopped us, THIS NEVER HAPPENS!!! Our teacher (who was acting as our investigator) paused, got super choked up and tears came to his eyes, then he said, "I am feeling the spirit so strong right now. I want this to build your testimony that the Holy Ghost is the teacher and you help direct the conversation. With your very basic Czech, the Holy Ghost can fill in the gaps and teach people what they need to know." I honestly can't really tell you what we said in that lesson, because it wasn't us saying it. The spirit was so strong and at the end of the lesson, we invited him to pray, his sweet, simple prayer was incredible. We also gave left him with a Kniha Mormonova to read. I learned in that lesson that it is important to just listen, don't worry about trying to figure out what you are going to say next. The Holy Ghost will tell you the things you need to say. 

Saturday: We had service early in the morning and cleaned bathrooms. Then at exercise time there was an intense soccer game against the Russians. There were people cheering on the sidelines and people running around with their countries flag. It was so fun! In class we practiced teaching the entire restoration in Czech which was really good for us. We also learned more cases and spent a lot of time studying TALL which is an online program that helps us learn Czech. You can pick words and phrases you want to learn and they are all pronounced by a Czech and then you can record yourself and repeat them back to make sure you are saying it right. It helps a lot.

Sunday: We taught the relief society lesson about recognizing and understanding the spirit. It went really well. My companion and I really work well together. I just love her to death! We also had an opportunity to go on a walk to the temple. I think we get to do this every Sunday now which I am super excited about. At the temple, we had a little devotional and took a zone picture. I learned that the Provo temple is designed after the story of Moses and how he led people through the wilderness with a pillar of fire and a cloud. The top of the temple with the angel Moroni represents the pillar of fire and the round shape of the building below represents the cloud. We also had a devotional that evening by Gary Crittenden. He shared a scripture... Jeremiah 16:16 that reminded me of my dad and brothers. It talks about being Hunters and Fishers of men. Hunters go out looking for something. Fishers put something tasty on the line to lure the fish in. He related it to how we find people to teach the gospel. I thought it was pretty cool. We also watched a video from Elder Bednar about recognizing the Spirit. He said, don't worry about whether it is you or the spirit. He told an inspiring story about how he left a stake presidency meeting and took an Elders Quorum president to go watch their boys play in the championship basketball game. He didn't know why they left the game, and felt a little bit bad about leaving. 6 months later, the Elders Quorum President's son passed away and the man thanked Elder Bednar for taking him to go watch his son because it was the last time he was able to see his son play in a game like that. It really touched my heart. 

Monday: We met our new teacher Sister Heap. She is so nice!!! I love her so much! She speaks mostly in Czech to us, which has really helped me be able to understand a lot more. 

Tuesday: We taught Zdenek the Word of Wisdom. He has a problem with Alcohol so this will be fun to work with him and watch him change. He is progressing and praying, but he doesn't like reading, so reading the Kniha Mormonova is going to be a slow process. We will probably just start reading more of it with him during lessons and explaining difficult concepts. We also practiced contacting for the first time. IT WAS SO AWKWARD. It was all in Czech and luckily it was only to our teacher, but there were long periods of dead silence. We just didn't know what to say, or even how to say it. haha. We are working on it though and are getting better every time we practice. Tuesday Evening was one to remember. We had a devotional from a member of the Quorem of the 12 Apostles. Elder Christofferson came and spoke to us. He spoke about calling the Church by its full name. We are no longer supposed to use the terms Mormon or LDS. I am sure President Nelson will talk about that in the upcoming General Conference, so watch for that! 

Wednesday: We taught TRC. We taught Petr (native Czech) and Justin (return missionary from Czech Republic). We taught them about prayer and asked a lot of deep questions that forced them to think. It was really enjoyable. Justin complimented our Czech and said we had come a long ways since last week. It really is hard to see your own progress in the language. Also, Summer Chappell is here! She is in the room right next to mine! As soon as I walked in the residence and before I had even seen her, she came running and gave me a huge hug. It was so cute. She is going to Croatia. I'm super excited to have her here. 

 Sorry this email was so long! So much as happened this week! I hope all is going well for you, you are in my prayers.

Love,

Sestra Guymon