September 22, 2014 - Bratislava

Getting an apartment ready for the Cottles.

Editor's note: we received many photos (with comments) this week - which might explain the very short letter.

 

 

Hello, hello!

    This week was fun because we got a senior couple here in Bratislava!! The Cottles arrived on Wednesday. They're really sweet and excited to be here. They are going to be so good for the branch and the area.  Senior couples are the best because they always give love and support! 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm making calls while waiting for a bus - can't beat the view!

 

Something boring but rewarding we did this week was calls. We have so many numbers and potentials so I just started calling through the numbers and we set up a bunch of appointments for the next coming week. 

I only got through A, B and C but we've a long train ride tomorrow so hopefully we'll set up more. :)

We had district conference on Sunday. It was really awesome because we set up a feed to Brno so we were able to stay in Bratislava. Another cool thing happened at this conference...the entire thing was in Czech or Slovak!! Of course we have many native leaders and Prezident McConkie speaks Czech because he served his mission here, but Sister McConkie spoke as well in Czech. She did such a good job! It was amazing and I'm very impressed, Czech is hard!

So sorry that this is short this week so here's a picture of the cake Sister Wilson and I made for Conference in Kosice! 

I hope you enjoy the pics I sent and I love you!!

S Laskou,
Sestra WhitneySarah Johnson <3

September 15, 2014 - Bratislava

Ahoj!!

    This past week has flown by. I think it's rained every single day this past week (wait, minus Tuesday-that day the weather was excellent). And it goes from clear-ish skies to down pouring in a matter of seconds. Really! The rain is not a lot of fun when the bottom half of your skirt is soaking wet but I agree with something Elder Christensen said--Slovaks are happier when it rains.

Anywho we met a lot of really cool people this past week...

We met with a member from Croatia. She lives here because of her husband's work. She normally travels to Croatia to go to church because it's close and she wants to support the branch there. She's soooo nice and very generous. While we were visiting her we started talking about music and she loaned me some piano music. We are really glad she's here too because we're getting a senior couple soon. She has a pretty open schedule and speaks excellent English so she'll be very helpful introducing the senior couple to Bratislava. 

We had a lesson with a bookstore owner. Sister Baird and I contacted him on exchanges and he said we could bring a KM [Book of Mormon] to him. He's super nice and told us we could return to start teaching him. He has a lot of potential plus his store isn't open on Sundays so he'll be able to come to church! :) We're really excited for this coming week. He also gave me a fairytale book in Slovak as an "exchange" for the Book of Mormon! [editor's note: Sister Johnson LOVES books.]

Sister Wilson and I also visited a less active member.  She's very sweet and has a good heart.  It was a great meeting-we found out a little more about where she's at doctrinally. As we were leaving she handed us a bag filled with apples, bread and cake for the "boys" (our elders).

A few things we did this week:

Our district had interviews with Prezident McConkie (except for me :(.   I only get a departing interview this transfer. He was in town interviewing a few potential missionaries from our branch and to set apart Bajo from Zilina who left on his mission to Germany.

We did service at the Red Cross. We worked with mentally handicap adults and sang for them and chatted with them. We'll be going back in a few weeks.

We had lunch with the branch prezident and family. We were going to serve them and do some yard work but surprise, surprise, we got rained out. They still asked us to come over for lunch though and it was amazing! They are wonderful people-so nice and try to assist us in our work. 

Our concert is getting closer and closer. It's going to be really cool if it all comes together in time! It will be fine but we're just trying to coordinate with members now. 

Next week is conference in Kosice and I'm so stoked! And this week we've lots going for us so I'll let you know how it goes next week! I love you all! 

S Laskou,

Sestra WhitneySarah Johnson <3

September 8, 2014 - Bratislava

Ahoj Everyone!!

 Well this week was fun and a little crazy. We started our week out with big plans for a district vylet to a castle which we had to cancel due to all the rain. :( So instead we played Bang! Yeah!)

 The next day was district meeting which was excellent as usual! Elder Christensen is an awesome district leader. He gives very spiritually uplifting district meetings. We talked about motivation and how to be of assistance to the branch....As a mission, we're working towards a stake. It's really cool to see that the work is hastening here and that the church is making progress.

 On Wednesday, Sister Wilson was a little sick...not much just a little head cold and a cough. We didn't have a very hard day (we had service at someone's shop...we're helping them move). Then that evening the sister training leaders arrived. They were in Prague for a meeting and came to stay the night and then the next day, we had exchanges.

Thursday (early in the morning) Sister Krauel and Sister Wilson went to Trencin while Sister Barid and I stayed in Bratislava. It was really fun to be with Sister Baird again. We had an awesome day-found a bunch of people, found some service opportunities, taught a few lessons. It was really funny too because the Zone Leaders were also on exchange so we had one of the elders from Trencin in Bratislava as well-Elder Asay. He's been out about a year. He's a really nice elder and so sincere. He gives the best complements because he always means them and he's so happy all the time! Elder Asay is just a really great example for everyone! Sister Baird and I had a great time serving together one last time...we had a few interesting experiences like running into a girl we met together in Zilina or finding lots of service opportunities (something which Prezident told us to focus on).

On Friday we switched back and we went on with our missionary work. We had a singing display on plan but forgot to bring the form with us and didn't want to risk getting a fine so instead we just contacted. I met this really nice lady named An during it. I just smiled at her right as she was leaving a shop and she stopped because she thought we knew each other. She was so sweet and gave me like 3 hugs during our conversation and kept patting my arm. She told me she loves people and especially friendly people. She didn't want to meet with us but said she'd love to come to our concert in October.

 Saturday was long...we had weekly planning which sometimes makes me restless because we're inside for a longer amount of time then usual. We also had sports day and I slightly injured myself (I bruised my knee pretty badly and it's really tender right now). It was actually right before sports day while we were waiting for everyone to arrive and a few of us were playing volleyball with the soccer ball. I completely forgot that we were on grass and sort of dropped to my knees in order to save the ball. Well turns out a grassy field is a lot harder than a sand pit. :)  Sunday was the same as it normally is...church and contacting.

 Thank you for all your notes! I love hearing your news!

I love you all so much!

S Laskou,
Sestra WhitneySarah Johnson

September 1, 2014-Bratislava

Ahoj!!

This week was wonderful! Partly because we had zone conference in Brno so I got to see everyone. It was a little weird too because it was the last time I'd see a few Czechs until after the mission! But I loved conference. Prezident gave a wonderful training. I absolutely love being a missionary! We are so immersed in the Gospel and it's great! I love being able to have the gospel as first priority. It's wonderful to be in the mission bubble, surrounded by other missionaries and to focus only on missionary work, the members, the investigators. Prezident gave us an awesome talk from Elder Bednar (Becoming a Preach My Gospel Missionary). Prezident also gave the best news ever!!! Our training in September will be in Kosice, the city of miracles! I'm so excited to go back!

 We also worked on our concert and it's going to be really cool! We've asked a few members to tell their conversion stories and they a few of us missionaries will share our testimonies. And of course we'll all sing! We more or less picked all the songs that have good harmonies and that we sound great on. We're also making I'm a Mormon profiles for everyone and a few big posters with things like the Articles of Faith and what not. 

A few of your questions:

1.  When is the concert?

A. October 1st! 

2. Are they running the “I’m a Mormon” campaign there?  I thought it went through UK but didn’t realize it was being run in other parts of Europe.

A. They haven't...we're doing our own. We're creating profiles for the members to fill out and to use at the concert. 

3.  Did finding open up more this week?

A. Well yes and no. We got more numbers this week and taught a little more than last week but only first lessons and no re-set-ups. But one specifically wants to meet again but he's not sure when seeing as he's very busy with work. 

Well that's it for today. I'll send pics soon.

S Laskou,

Sestra WhitneySarah Johnson <3