What I'm Made Of...

Nazdar!

Hey all, this week has been a great one, I'm so glad to be here on another P~Day in my church building writing to my fam and friends. So to start off the week, my companion and I went walking around Trencin with one of our members. He is the biggest diva in the world, and he knows a lot about history and mythology, and took us all around the town (I think I sent the pictures last week) and told us about everything there, it was really cool. Also, I tried a Slovak hamburger (I've been too scared up to this point, I've only had them in the 1 American style resteraunt in Bratislava, and McDonalds, and McDonalds is NOT good), and I have to say...I was spectacularly unsatisfied. It was small and not beef and altogether unAmerican which made it total chuff. I mean, what the flip, why would you call something a hamburger, when clearly the person making it has never even seen a hamburger before, let alone knows how it's supposed to taste. Suffice it to say, I'm missing Wendy's. 

Hotel Alzbeta, Trencin, Slovakia

Tuesday was pretty boring, we just contacted and taught and stuff, but whoohoo, Lord's work is slowly getting done. Wednesday, I took my companion on an adventure. We decided to delve into the unknown world known as Piescany! We got a referral there, and since I've already been to Piescany once, I felt like I knew the city well enough to find my way to the referral. The truth is...Of COURSE I knew the city well enough, are you kidding me? Last time, I was there, we spent all day there because the referral was fake and we weren't sure what to think so we kept switching numbers around and searching for that address instead. Anyway, we found the referral but he wasn't home, BUT we did get to be the guinea pigs for the entire European Zone and try out a new rule: Whenever you go to contact a referral or less-active member whom you haven't met before, you are supposed to tract 10 doors in both directions. I feel it's a little bit sad that they had to actually make this a rule,
because it kind of just felt like a reflex, but oh well. That went great, it was fun. 

Elder Brousseau and his Zone Leader

The next day was an exchange with the Zone Leaders, which was kinda crazy. I was with an elder who is 6' 8" and English. That was weird, but fun. We tried out this thing he calls "fear contacting." It's where you contact people that you 100% *know* are going to reject you, like big groups of high school girls (they're so scary to contact here, they just make fun of you), just to prove to yourself and the Lord that you can work through your fear to fulfill his purposes. I think he had as much fun as I did on the exchange, and at the end, he shared some really cool experiences with me, and gave me a talk to read, it's by David Stewart called the Action Guide to Finding. He and President McConkie both told me to take everything he says there with a grain of salt, but the talk is really good, it's basically just fighting for the art of contacting and tracting, because lots of people don't do them anymore. Also, forgot, on Wednesday we had all the missionaries from Zilina come and practice for our concert next week, which is going to be awesome (sorry mom and dad, I've been working on getting some of these arrangements recorded and sent, but they haven't worked out well so far.=S). 

After that, on Saturday, we were able to have a great meeting with a lady, she's doing so well, she's just worried about committing to a date at the moment. Keep her in your prayers, I'm going to be exercising my priesthood and making a big promise to her pretty soon, so we'll see where that miracle will take us. 

Walnut Candles

Sunday is where I got the title for this email, so hold onto your seat-belts, it's gonna get bumpy. Sunday was a pretty bad day, in that we had church, where the members got mad at me for not coming before them and cleaning everything up for church, even though I live a half hour away without bikes or a car. We had no investigators show up for church, even though like normal, all of them said they would. The lesson in priesthood meeting made NO sense at all, and was full of speculation that I wasn't able to calm down and do away with. After church, we went contacting, and no one wanted to talk to us to the point where the whole time we only gave out 2 fliers for our concert and nothing else. After that, we went over to a member's house and helped her shell walnuts, and in the middle of it, a sister missionary cut her finger really deeply on accident. She had to get stitches this morning, and has a wonderful story I'll have to tell you when I get home, I'll write it in my journal. After that, my companion and I just went home and plopped into bed because we were so tired and downtrodden.

But here are the miracles: The Branch President has made a full recovery, in part due to the blessing I gave him, and is PHYSICALLY ABLE to beat us to church and lead the branch again. We have officially re-activated 2 less active members, and we had 2 other less actives show up to church, where we had wonderful talks from members. Our branch continues to do as the prophets have directed us and ASK questions, and seek for truth, I'm not condoning speculation, but the important part is they're pondering the gospel. When we went contacting, we re-established, completely "by chance," contact with that dropped investigator from last transfer, and we were able to meet a young mother who is interested in coming to the concert, because thank heavens, the family is being attacked here in Slovakia and is a huge subject of debate among the politicians at the moment. Almost all of the super strong Catholics here have dug in their heels for the family as ordained by God, and are becoming at least more interested in our churches stances on the family. 

Notice the sister's finger...

At the member's house, I was able to put all the first aid I've been learning throughout my whole life being a lifeguard and a scout, getting all those merit badges, and taking medical anatomy in school into action. I saw her cut her finger and realized after a minute that everyone was just standing around looking at her, and she was turning white, so I just took control of the situation and helped her out. I didn't do very much more than talk to her about her family and wrap up her finger with tape, some antiseptic and a gauze pad, but it was enough to keep her calm and help everyone else there keep calm too, and the best part was, after she was feeling well enough to stand up and come sit at the table again (She lost a LOT of blood), the member was so impressed by us and the way we handled everything, we started a spiritual discussion, and she shared with us her favorite chapter from the B of M, which is Moroni 8 about children being alive in Christ. So cool, I loved that feeling when I got home, even though I had been rejected and beaten, I knew that I had spent that day in the complete service of the Lord. No satisfaction could be greater than literally not being able to stand because you've walked and talked for the Lord so much. I love this work, and I love this gospel and I'm so grateful to have family and friends behind me who are there to support me every step of the way.

Milujem vas vsetkych, vy ste kazdy tak dolezity pre mna a boha. Viem ze tato cirkev je naozaj ta prava, a zelam uz kazdym aby to vedel. Ja som tak vdacny za to, ze som mohol sem prist, a za to, ze som bol pripraveny sluzit. Ja viem ze zije spasitel a, ze to je najdolezitejsia znalost po celom svete. Toto hovorim v mene Jezisa Krista amen.

(Google translate: I love you all, you are each so important for me and God. I know that this church is really the right one, and wish that everyone knew it. I am so grateful that I was able to come here, and that I was ready to serve. I know the Savior lives and that this is the most important knowledge around the world. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.)

Elder Chris Brousseau