Seeing Miracles in Every Day Events

Chris' new, stylish pants

Nazdar vsetci!

Hey so first off, Dad, could you please email me a list of just everyone who wants emails from me (not including missionaries, I've got that one)? I think that I email a different group of people every week... Anyway, so I hope this email finds you happy and healthy.=) I'm just gonna jump right in if you don't mind.

Monday: Got a great awesome pair of pants from H&M on sale, haha. Also found out that I hate being trendy. I always see people walking around with my pants/jacket/younameit on, and I'm always like, "hey! That's mine! Go home and change!" But I'm excited for them because finally I have a pair of pants that's not super warm in the summer! I won't have to worry about sweating my eyes off anymore. Thanks mom!:*

Tuesday: MIRACLE #1! So big story time, we were supposed to meet with that Artist less-active today, but he sounded less than happy about it on the phone, and he was late, so we were going around contacting while we waited for him. I felt super awkward because I'm used to contacting with some sort of prop so people can see it and ask questions about it like a brochure or the Book of Mormon, or something like that, and all I was carrying around was my little drawing book, so I was trying to think of a way I could use it in a contact, but when I tried to use it, it didn't make sense, and so I bailed and just asked a lady if she knew somewhere I could learn how to draw better. She directed me towards a little art shop on the Namestie, and I just sort of feel awkward asking for advice and then not even looking like I'm going to follow it, because then the people are like, "Well looky here, here is a slusny pan (polite/well mannered gentleman), He just asked me where the best ice cream in the world is, and I told him, and now he's going the opposite direction." But we go in there, and there's just the sweetest lady in the world working there, and when she asked why we came in, I didn't know what to say, so I told the truth: "A lady said you could help me learn to draw." That started a nice meaningful conversation, and at the end, she told me I could go to the Synagogue in town, and they might have somebody there (because they use it as an art gallery now because the Jews are either gone or don't want to worship anymore). As we were walking towards the synagogue (because I was having fun just being directed by people), we ran into a former investigator whom I think I've told you about before. He came up and talked to us, and said, he had some time right then so he came to the synagogue with us. When we got there, I started talking to the guide lady and my companion was talking to the investigator and we got *this* close to teaching 2 lessons at the same time, except my companion didn't get into something he could testify about so darn it. Anyway, the museum guide lady is coming to our concert on Tuesday, and might come to church sometime. Then this man and his wife came in, and he heard the amazing acoustics in there and just started singing, it was way cool and he and his wife should be coming to the concert as well! But the great part is: after all this had happened, we were looking through the paintings finally (we had just been talking to everyone and didn't have time), and a lady who came in, heard me say something in English, and started asking if I was a guide or something. I said no, but if she needed help with something, I might be able to help. She said, she was here in Slovakia with her family from Israel from a town right outside of Tel-Aviv, and she was here doing Family History. She came to Trencin to see the memorial to all the people killed in concentration camps here inside the prayer room, but didn't know where it was. I luckily knew exactly where the prayer room was, but unluckily, it was closed for renovations. That didn't stop us, I haven't had a ton of success with Family History here and I wanted some really badly. I asked the guide lady if we could go in for just a second and we wouldn't touch anything, and she said that she would let me, but she didn't have a key, so she called the big head honcho lady who DID have a key. We were able to go with the head honcho, not to the prayer room, but to a really nice office where they were storing the tablets while the room was remodeled. SO COOL! The spirit that came while I was translating for the Israeli family about her family's story was palpable, and best of all, our investigator was there for the whole thing, and is interested in learning more again! best of days...

Wednesday: Went to Zilina to practice for the concert and had Miracle #2! While we were waiting in the train station for our train (the people here say it's tradition for the trains to run late), we met a super cool Romanian student here. Talked with him for a while and then when we got on the train, he sat with us and kept talking, and got the other people in our car speaking with us as well, it was amazing! But from that, we were able to help some of the missionaries in Romania, and I had better get at least a personalized thank you letter from them or something.

Thursday: Ahhh! Less than 500 days left! I know that's more than a year, but considering I started with more than 700, it feels like it's going by way fast. Anyway, I'm really excited, because I'm starting to finally be a pretty good English teacher! Or at least I think so... We have several people who are actually coming to English consistently, and actually wanting to come as well, and we've been consistently having 6 people there, which is AMAZING, especially considering when I first came, the English class had no one ever. I've actually left a positive mark on Trencin, challenge completed.

Friday & Saturday: Ok, here we get into some craziness that I'm not very happy about...So quick bit of advice for anyone who is on a mission. Or wants to go on a mission. Or really just everyone. ANSWER YOUR FREAKING PHONES WHEN SOMEBODY CALLS YOU! We had training on Saturday morning, so we were trying to go to Brno on Friday so we didn't have to get up super early, and we were planning on taking the same train as the Zilina Elders. There was a train that came to our station at about the same time as when theirs was supposed to come, and we called them to see if it was theirs, and they didn't answer, so we got on, and called again and started to search the cars for them because they were saving us a place, and they didn't answer, so we finished searching and found out it was the wrong train and kept calling them and we got off, and they still weren't answering, so there we were stuck in Trencianska Tepla. We went and found out when we could get on a train back to Trencin but the first one back was an hour away, and so we decided to call the Brno Zone Leaders to tell them what was happening, and the Bratislava elders just in case we had to stay with them tonight, and of course neither answered their phones. When we finally got on the train back, we were able to figure everything out with everyone, but we still had a huge train ride to Bratislava ahead of us because our train was delayed by 50 minutes when it arrived, and arrived in Bratislava even later. When we got there, the buses weren't running anymore, so I had to find out the address of the nearest missionary apartment, and rig our phone as a GPS and walk 6.5 kilometers there. We ended up getting to the apartment at 12:15 am, and when I walked into the bedroom, it looked like all the beds were full, so I thought I could sleep in the chair that I like there, but I just couldn't get comfortable, so finally, I just went to sleep lying down on the kitchen floor. I kind of like sleeping on the floor, you never overheat and it's kinda comfy. Anyway, during the night, one of the elders got up for a drink of water. My current companion was his companion before, and he says he drinks kinda loud, which would explain what woke me up. I was awake, but not entirely conscious, so I wasn't really sure what was going on, but I got up, and walked around and noticed there was a bed without a person in it and just totally stole his bed in the middle of the night. Aren't I the best? Haha, but I think for real it's official, I do weird stuff in my sleep... Anyway, Saturday, Zone Conference was great, and we had a fun train ride home.

I think I'm about out of time for this email, but it's ok because Sunday was uneventful, I hope this has given a good impression of a regular week for a missionary. I am so glad I'm here, I'm loving every second of it.

Love you all, hope you're having the time of your lives.

Elder Brousseau