Week 2 Of Being A Missionary

What's good everybody, this week has been really good! It started off a little hard because one of my comps/trainers left on monday so it was pretty sad but this week has been great. I'll start off with a really cool story that happened to me on Tuesday morning that started my day off really good. We were on our way to the church on the metro. The metro might actually be my least favorite place on this earth hahaha. It's the worst, I feel like nobody is ever in a good mood and so it's so hard to talk to people, especially with the little Czech that I know. Well we were talking to this one dude that spoke English so it was going really good. It was like a 5 minute conversation and then out of nowhere this 60 or 70 year old man stands up from his seat. He looked at us dead in the eyes and started yelling at us and saying that we were a cult and a lot of other stuff. When he was saying that, the other dude we were talking too was on our side which was pretty cool. He said that we were really cool guys and he enjoyed talking with us. He didn't care if what we believed was true or not, he just enjoyed having a good conversation with us. The old dude wasn't having it and continued to yell at us. I tried asking him some questions but he didn't answer and continued with his nonsense. It was a great way to start my day tho, especially since instead of being discouraged, me and my comp got off the metro and laughed and were so confused with what happened. 


We are teaching quite a few people now, we have one 20 year old guy named martín on date for December 16th but we want to make sure he is super comfortable so we are going to ask him how he is feeling and if he needs more time. There is another guy named Peter that is ready to be baptized rn and he is literally the perfect member, but he wants to wait until like February when life gets a little less busy. It's super exciting because I got to teach him so much more and it's all in english so i can really share my testimony and what I believe with normal words and sentences. It sounds so dumb but it's so nice to teach in czech. 


That leads to my next part. On Saturday we had 3 lessons. The first one was superrrr good. We got another guy that is pretty much ready to be baptized as well and he's been in the special ops for Ukraines army for a longggg time. We had a lesson with him and my mission president joined us for the lesson, the one problem is that the dude can only speak Russian. So I already can't understand Czech and then you throw some Russian in there and it's just game over for me. Good thing my comp speaks perfect Russian so he translated pretty much every word for me and my mission president. The nickname that this guy gave me is Arizona, because when he was in the military, one of his closest buddies' nicknames was arizona. When I told him I was from Arizona that name has just stuck with me, i don't think he knows how to pronounce my last name so he just sticks with arizona. It is super funny because when he's talking with his comp, I'll just see him look at me and say a bunch of words with arizona thrown in there and they'll laugh. And then my comp will translate and usually it's a good thing which is nice.


Later that day we had a lesson with a dude where we walked around Prague. I was stoked because I got to see some parts of Prague I've never seen before and it was beautiful. The only problem was, the guy we were with told us 30 minutes into our walk that his goal in life is to be a Monk. We tried to explain to him that our religion believes in families and that families are super important. He didn't really understand and that's ok but It was a very interesting experience.

 Later that day we had one more lesson and guess what. That dude also only spoke Russian. It was another really good lesson and he is super promising. It's just a little hard when I don't understand a single word said. My comp really loves contacting Ukrainians, and he can tell right away when he sees one, so when we talk to them I'm literally useless. I just stand there and smile and then afterwards ask him how it went. Most of the time it doesn't go good, but we(my comp) will get the one person that needs us eventually!!


One thing I did notice is that its super easy for me to contact people that have little kids or a stroller. I love kids and so when I see them ill smile and wave at them. And i think every single time I've done that here they've laughed or smiled and waved back. And then boom, I ask the parent what his name is and start a basic convo with all the words I basically know how to say. They are always good conversations and I talking to parents now. 


I'll end with a couple thoughts that I had and were shared with me this week. We had a district council and I was in charge of sharing a 15 minute spiritual thought. I decided I was going to talk about something that I needed a little help with at the time and he gave me the perfect answer that I needed to hear. He said that when times have gotten rough on his mission, and he's been out for about 21 months now, he told me that he's had really hard days and there hasn't been a day on his mission where he didn't think about what he did before his mission or what he will do after it. He said that sometimes we forget that missionaries are on missions to make the world a better place and sometimes people aren't ready to hear the gospel. So when you are having a hard day, make the world a better place by complimenting people and making their day better because that is something Jesus would do. Even if they don't want to hear about our church rn, thay small interaction will stick with them forever and they will remember the light that he brought them that day. 


"Mortal lifetime is hardly a nanosecond compared with eternity. But, my dear brothers and sisters, what a crucial nanosecond it is!" This mission is such a small amount of time even if it may feel like a long time right now. It will change others' eternal lives and make them forever grateful for My efforts and make it all worth it. That is why I am on my mission and that is why I'm spending these next two years here and it will all be worth it for me, and the people I share the gospel with. If you read this entire thing, I'm super impressed and let me know if I should make them shorter cause I can definitely do that too. I don’t even know what they are long because I actually hate writing.


Love all you guys!! Have a great week and email me if you want! @hayden....@missionary.org 

 

Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/mkQPbkQxZK5isYKQA 


Photos this week:







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