Thursday, January 23, 2014

January 20, 2014 - Zilina

Hello, hello!

This past week was pretty awesome and of course super busy!!

This week, Sister Krauel and I taught our investigator Fi. He's really cool but busy so we only meet once a week. Which means he's not progressing very quickly.
We spent lots of time traveling this past week: we have some members who live in villages/towns outside of Zilina so we take the train to visit them. We also had a conference this week!! We had a crazy cleaning kick night before conference...right after planning Sister Krauel and I deep cleaned our apartment, which may have not been the best idea, we really should have gone to bed early because we woke up the next morning at 4:00!! But that's okay. We were still full of pep and step for conference! ;)  And conference was the best! President changed our schedule a bit on Saturdays and Sundays so we'll have more proselyting time. We also received new mission vision statement cards. Our vision statement for 2014 is: "With vision and a sense of urgency, we will build towards a stake of Zion in the Czech-Slovak Mission as we trust in God, see His hand in our work and love the people". President challenged us to have 10 meaningful conversations daily. It was an amazing, spiritual conference and it was awesome to see everyone in the zone. (which means all of the missionaries from Slovakia!!) Also I've been working on my Slovak levels and both Sister Krauel and I received our 1st level at conference!!! YAY!!!

We have a koncert this week (two of them really-one in Trencin and one in Zilina) so the Trencin district came to practice and advertise with us. And of course it was the same day the Zone Leaders came for exchanges with the elders! More or less that means we had a lot of amazing singers in town! ;) We all went to lunch and our group was HUGE!! It was us from Zilina (Elders Hammond and Clark, Sister Krauel and I, and Elder and Sister Wrightson), the Trencin district (Elders Ellingson and Lamb and Sisters Kane and Belibi Minya), and the Zone Leaders (Elders Utley and Barber). Afterward had a singing display and it was such a sight to see all 14 of us singing, passing out flyers and talking to people.

Sunday was crazy stressful because I had a talk!!! It is terrifying every single time I have to speak in Slovak in front of people and sometimes frustrating because I know what I want to say and I know what needs to be said but often times I don't have the vocabulary for it! My talk was about potential and member missionary work. I used President Uchtdorf's talk from April 2011 General Conference, "Your Potential, Your Privileges" and Elder Anderson's talk from April 2013, "It's a Miracle!". I think it was pretty good but the awesome thing about speaking in church was that I learned something too! You see, I was really nervous and normally that means my mind goes blank, I get really red, my voice and hands sometimes shake, and I just can't formulate normal sentences or read normally but before (and during) my talk I prayed so hard that I could say what the members needed to hear. All through my talk I was fine, calm, understandable (even if I did repeat myself) and the instant I sat down afterwards I flushed bright red and my hands started to shake! It just shows that Heavenly Father can help us overcome every little thing if we need the help!

Well I think that's more or less it! This past week was busy and this coming week will be even busier!
So to end this letter I'll just tell you a little about the Relief Society lesson Sister Krauel taught. It was about our Savior and His Gospel. She shared the scripture  Helaman 5:12 and it's so true!! In this crazy world we have one sure foundation, our Savior, Jesus Christ! I know that as we center our lives on Him, live as He would have us live, and become who He wants us to be, we will find true and lasting happiness. We will have a sense of direction and we will understand what we need to do! It's the great and glorious plan of our    Heavenly Father! So remember the church is true and I love you!!!

S Laskou,
Sestra Whitney Sarah Johnson <3

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