Tyzden Vymien (Exchanged Week)

Nazdar!

Well guess what?!? Haha, we have waded our way through all the Anti-Stuff finally!!! We told the Ex-member we were meeting with that we didn't want to meet anymore if he wasn't interested in anything other than "opening our eyes," and we told our Anti-Investigator that he needed to cool it or he would never become a member, which surprisingly enough worked. Special thanks to fairmormon.org for providing very useful, true, and respectful information. On another note, thank you (my family) for the birthday package! Yeah, I accidentally had no idea why I had a package and opened it. I appreciate the Hymn Book. Also the Mac and Cheese and Kool-Aid. I also loved your letter, I'm glad that I was an entertaining baby, because if I hadn't been, you probably wouldn't have had patience for me later in life.

Ok, on to the rest of the stuff. First, I finally finished writing about last transfer in my journal!!! Haha, yeah, that's February 15th, thank heavens for planners or that would never have gotten done, I'm doing my best to catch up as quick as possible without forgetting any important details. I will probably need a new journal and memory card soon. BTW, I found a fun thing to do to help people from getting trunky (I'll explain why this came up in a little bit). When you have 138 days left in the mission, start reading the Doctrine and Covenants, one section a day, backwards. It will keep you more and more focused in and grateful for serving a mission. President Holland said it best, "Don't you EVER let ANYONE take your mission away from you! My mission is EVERYTHING to me, and maybe you think I'm crazy, but it really is. Do not go home, and do NOT give it up for anything!" I really love that talk, it really gets me fired, up, especially when he speaks about loving the people. I have a strong testimony that the gift of tongues will NOT come in it's fulness until you really love the people you serve. I love these people here, and I have some very big news today.

1st, M. and M. are still going on missions. M. got her call to Salt Lake City, Utah, and she is still freaking out. I promised her that if she serves in Farmington, or near Skyline, that my grandparents would LOVE her to visit them. Story time! Satan didn't want her to go to the temple. How did he show this, you ask? He had the driver taking them to Frankfurt get in a car accident in the Czech Republic. Scared the living daylights out of everyone there, but no one was hurt, even though the car was totalled. But, as in 1 Nephi 3:7, God provided a way, and she went to the temple and loved it. M. hasn't gotten his mission call yet, and is currently in Germany, so I don't have new news on him.

We had Elders R. and B in our apartment ALL WEEK, it was prettty fun. Everyone came down Tuesday night for the training, and we thought it would be easier to have them just stay with us all week, rather than take the 10 our train back, and then have to come back for the conference on Sunday. So they helped us work in our area, which was pretty sweet. It was really fun to be with them the whole week too. Also, my companion Elder W. was able to teach S. the Deaf member with Sister McConkie on Tuesday! He's so great, and they just had a blast.

Neither W., nor I. was baptized on Saturday unfortunately, we'll keep working with them, W. just needs to realize that Elder C. is leaving and she doesn't have time to procrastinate anymore. I. more needs to realize that he knows it's true. M. keeps flipping back and forth between all sorts of opinions, so we'll see where things head with her. We made contact with N. again. Teaching Muslims is SO fun, they kind of live in a little bubble, and it's great to see a light come on in their eyes. They make really really strong happy members as well.

I am getting better at Ping-Pong, and I hope to continue in that, that's one of the most entertaining activities I've ever participated in. I almost beat A. on Saturday, it ended 19-21, which is great considering normally it's like 7-21. The Zone Leaders are practicing all the time, which makes it really fun to have super good (better than me) people to play against whenever we have time for it.

Members from the Nitra Branch at the Slovak reorganization!

Ok, big news. On Sunday it was announced that Slovakia is being re-organized. We are no longer part of the Brno District, but instead the Bratislava District has been created. That means, no more traveling to Brno for conferences, or Youth activities (Trainings will still happen there), or anything like that, but that Bratislava will be in charge of things like that. This means enormous progress for the church here. I was crying so hard when they made the announcement, this means we are one giant step closer to Slovakia being it's own Stake and it's own Mission. I can't wait, these members are so strong, and they work so hard. I can't believe how much the church has grown here, just in the time that I've been here. At the beginning of my mission, we were fighting every week to have 13 lessons when standards were 14, and we were in the best area in the Zone, most were fighting for 4 or 5. Now we are sad and disappointed when we haven't had at least 20. I am SO proud to be a Slovak missionary during this pivotal time for the church here, it is AMAZING to witness the courage and dedication of the members. I love this place.

I don't really have anything more to add, have a wonderful week, thank you Grandma Burton for supporting me so much, I love you to pieces! Also, thank you Mom and Dad for keeping me so informed. I am so grateful for my family. BE EXCITED FOR CONFERENCE!

Zo Slovenska s Laskou,

Elder Brousseau