Chris' Special Tie Knot

Chris' Special Tie Knot

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Other Kinds of Work

Nazdar!

Hey so here's a week where I found out WHY I'm glad I was called to serve a mission in Slovakia...again...

So first off, this is the first area I have been in that now is pretty much built. It's still in a group, but we have some members, we have some investigators with sincere interest, and we have some extremely recent converts. The big thing is, that with all of the referrals we're getting from out recent converts, all of the meetings that we're required to have with the recent converts, and all of the investigators that we have at the moment, we have almost NO time to find...and boy is it stressing me out, if I served a mission in a place where stuff like this happened all the time, I would go absolutely crazy. I mean, we haven't been tracting yet this transfer, and it's killing me. I know I'm cursing myself saying this, but goodness, I want to knock on somebody's door and get rejected and then laugh about how they thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses again. Good news!!! I still have a really long time before I'll be forced to leave this place, so I'm POSITIVE that I will have more chances at that. Anyway, enough ranting, on to the week!

We have been teaching K. for a long while now, and he has decided that he wants to be baptized on the 3rd of January. I think that's a little bit too far off, but I'm not going to push him in his decision. You can bet your bottom dollar that he's going to know as soon as he's prepared for it though. He still needs to come to church a couple of times, so he's got a while before that.

V. is amazing! She negotiated with this other Slovenka that she knows to get us free haircuts!!! She wasn't able to meet with us personally though this week, so we'll work on upping the amount of meetings per week this next one and see if we can't get her on track. She's still an atheist at the moment, and our next goal is to find out why, because everyone either has a story or a lack of interest, and in her case, we know that the interest is there.

N. is being stressful to us, we're going to try and make another move to put him into the church. For all reading who aren't actually members of the church, please understand: The church and Missionaries are, in essence, 2 separate organizations. They both have the same leader, but one of them has tons and tons of rules, and the other one doesn't. One of them is happy to teach you all about the restored truths which we have, and the other is happy to help your spiritual and physical well-being. DO NOT STRESS THE MISSIONARIES OUT! They're only like 19 years old, and on top of that, you're nowhere near the only person that they're worrying about. If you have questions about money and housing, and food, the missionaries are literally not allowed to help you, go talk with the local church leaders. Thank you in advance for your cooperation and understanding.


The big highlights of our week were: First, coolest correlation meeting ever, we had lunch in Lefantovce with Brat G. and entered a contest to win our very own Pecatene prasiatko!!! Haha, what in the world kind of missionary work could we come up with using a pig? Chase him around the streets and be like, "look at how cute this pig is! Do you want to be baptized?" haha. #2 was at church, Brat M. is such a stud. Brat C. has been having a rough time because he doesn't really understand Slovak, and so coming to a church meeting in Slovak where the missionaries don't really speak Hungarian that well has been a little stressful for him. He confessed these feelings to Brat M., who bore testimony and took him to the temple. There a miracle happened. At the temple in Freiburg, Germany, the people all pretty much know where everyone is from, and there were some Hungarian members from Gyur there who noticed that there's this one guy from Slovakia who has perfect Hungarian. Long story short, we're moving his records to a Hungarian WARD on the border of the countries, talk about a miracle, he's so lucky.

Anyway, I love you all so much, I hope this letter finds you safe and sound.

Slaskou,

Elder Brousseau


P.S. Taylor, I put you in as an emergency contact, I hope that's chill.

P.P.S. Mom, what in the world is my Social Security number?


P.P.P.S. haha, I've always wanted to write that.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Taking a Deep Breath...


Nazdar (Hi)!

Hey everyone, so here we are, another great week to be a missionary. Well we started off our week with a bang and a big surprise...well actually two. First, K. totally passed his practice baptismal interview with flying colors, that was honestly something I did not expect. The only thing that I feel like he has any trouble with is that he doesn't understand that the Prophet does not equal the Pope. That's ok though, really it's just an easy fix with a great lesson on authority. The other surprise was that O. decided she is 100% going through with her baptism and laid the whole thing on us to plan, because she said she trusts us to make it perfect. What a killer, right? I nearly stressed myself out of the roof trying to decide where it was, but in the end, everything went wonderfully. It really is amazing to see the sort of change that comes in people as they realize that the gospel is true. O. doesn't realize that as she has met with the missionaries, we've seen a big change in her as far as her attitude and confidence go. She started out with no confidence, scared to talk to us 1 on 1, and on top of that, she would always talk about what other people felt/thought, not what she did. Now, she is strong and independent, she has made her first big decision for herself, and I think that she will continue to rely on herself and the Lord, instead of others' opinions. I am so proud of her.

We spent most of our week this week making sure that O. had confidence in her decision and really didn't do a whole lot else, so this email is going to be kinda sorta short. My companion is amazing. He has been helping me de-stress about this whole N. situation we're in, and that has been really nice. We're confident that after the phone call he had, his attitude about rules is going to be a little bit different.

On Thursday, we went to the M. family. It was really good to see them again, they're doing well. Mrs. M. said, as usual, that she wants to stay in the same faith as her ancestors. Honestly, I'm not sure what to do with her, but I think this whole, less frequent meeting thing is starting to do its work. She was very very happy to see us this time. I hope sometime soon she decides that she has had enough signs from God that this is right, and just because she doesn't have the sign she WANTS doesn't mean she doesn't have a sign.

Friday was training and it was AWESOME. I loved it, especially the training. I have felt very strongly about family history and using it my whole mission, I've just never gotten around to using it, so I'll get straight on to repenting and going forward with it.

The baptism on Saturday was wonderful, we had Elder C. come down from Zvolen so he could see it, and it went perfectly, I had a cool spiritual experience there too. The first time I had imagined O. being baptized, I had actually imagined her having a ponytail, when she came to the water. I never told her, or anyone else for that matter, and when the time came, she didn't. I was helping her down into the water when she said, "wait!" and then she ran and did her hair up into a ponytail before coming back. It was so interesting to see, I feel like that was God giving me another one of those little, "Be careful what you wish for, I'm listening," comments, you know?

Anyway, such a wonderful week, I love you all so very much and can't wait to hear back.


Elder Brousseau