Last time we had to cut our email time in half and do the rest another day and I tried sending some photos to all of you but Im not exactly sure if it worked. The internet was super slow and I have no idea what photos actually made it and what didn't. We are finally back in the library where we usually email and Im going to start sending all of my photos next week. I was going to send them today but something is wrong with all of there computers because its the first day "back up and running" so there are some bugs with the emailing.
There are so many things that I could tell you about the work but (a) there is too much with too little time to tell and (b) Im not sure if I can remember all of the experiences. I guess Ill read all of it to you guys someday from my journal when Im back home :). One of the things that I will tell is about Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve here in Slovakia and the Czech Republic is big, in many ways bigger than in America. Its also known as the day-- along with Christmas and New Years-- where us as a mission teach the lowest amount of lessons in the entire year. People are gone and on vacation, families are together and don't wish to be disturbed, and its one of the busiest times of the year by far. Not really the best recipe for a fantastic week of teaching for missionaries. President McConkie looked at this before December actually started and told all of the missionaries, at one of the trainings before December, to plan and set up appointments for the last two weeks of December-- the hardest two weeks-- during the first two weeks of December. Almost all of the missionaries did so and by this simple planning ahead of time gave us so much more the advantage. It was fantastic and I definitely saw miracles as the days went by. But the most amazing thing happened on Christmas Eve. Each companionship was given a 7 minute video of the Nativity scene before hand, one that is really well done and brings the spirit in easily, to go out and make surprise visits to people on Christmas Eve. Its very difficult to set up meetings on Christmas Eve because of how big holiday is here so the idea was to catch them off guard at their door step and just explain that we had a 10 minute message about the Savior to share with them that day. 10 minutes is nothing and is hard to say no to when you realize how important it means to the missionaries who want to give you a more spiritual christmas. So this is what we did.
Each companionship planned on several families/individuals of whom they could go and visit on Christmas day. My companion and I prayed for and planned on at least 7 people we could meet during the day. Many of the people that we visited were sadly gone but we got into two peoples homes and were able to share a very brief, peaceful, and spiritual message about the greatest thing message of all time, Jesus Christ. Explaining all that happened will take too much time but I can say that by this effort alone, our companionship was able to gain 2 new investigators from it and we've been seeing them ever since. A couple days later I was on the phone with our President discussing some things and I told him about our experiences. He was ecstatic and then I asked him about the entire mission. He told me that every companionship in the entire mission who thoughtfully planned, prayed, and worked toward Christmas Eve really spiritual meetings. He then told me that on Christmas Eve, the day that the mission usually teaches the lowest number of lessons in the entire year, the mission taught more lessons than any other day in all of the year 2013. Miracles happened on that day and I can testify to all of you that those little steps of planning and praying for whatever lies ahead is not only worth it but necessary.
I love all of you and hope that the holidays were as miraculous for everyone else.
P.S. Shout out to my older brother Mark, his wife Bre, and their first daughter Allie!
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