Velkanoc...Druha Kola!! (Easter...2nd Round!!)

Nazdar!

Hey everyone, I am SO excited to tell you about Easter this year, it's been the best one of my life! Haha, I am in the funniest environment right now. People are being n00bs and playing random internet games and just swearing, and I am laughing my head off remembering how much I used to love those (minus the swearing, ask my friends, I don't do that). It is really really quite interesting to think of how empty a life filled with just a computer can be. Somebody really needs to find out how to combine the fun and entertainment of computer games, with life lessons and work, like make a fun, not stupid school game, where you like teach people calculus or something. Or teach Bible stories in an epic fashion, that would be pretty sweet, I'll probably do that. Well anyway,

Monday last week we went to Devinsky Hrad, which was pretty sweet, except the top portion has been closed for the last 5 years due to a lack of funds to repair it. How dumb is that?!? But we've become the district that does fun things together on P~Day, which is SWEET, I've been dreaming about that my whole mission, and it is just as fulfilling as I thought it would be. We went to Narnia pub afterwards, have I mentioned that they sell Kofola there in LITRES?!? So great...

Devinsky Hrad

We haven't really had a ton of lessons in the past week, which was pretty sad, but I think we needed it, as a little wake up call, not to sit back in a great area, that we still have to work to break 20. I think we got 17, and I have been thinking about this a TON. I don't know if I've already mentioned this, but when I first came here, Elder B. (his trainer) and I had one of the better areas in the mission, especially Slovakia, and we were fighting, FIGHTING every week for like 12 or 13 when the standard was 14. We were putting everything we had into it, and falling short all the time, at the same time when a lot of people were fighting for 4 or 5. Now we had a "bad week, where we only had 17 lessons and 3 baptismal dates." This mission has progressed so hardcore, and I think the main factor in it all is the attitude of the missionaries. Something I talked about with Elder K. a bit, is the whole, 97 no's and 3 yes's. You have to go through the no's to finally find the yes's, and it's so nice to go out with that attitude and then get like 16 yes's right in a row at the beginning. So nice.

We had our concert this week. I am so embarrassed, I feel like I'm worse at sight-reading than I was at home. That is definitely my weak point on the piano, however, Elder W. (current companion) and I KILLED it on the finale. We played a modified (both musically and lyrically) version of "Below my Feet" from Mumford and Sons THANKS MOM, and we're working on doing the same thing with Neon. It is amazing how these concerts can really bring people closer to Christ. We invited tons of people to it, and on top of that, we had T. R. (a less active member who happens to be a virtuoso) play with us, and he had a spiritual experience doing it. We even had a deaf member stay for most of it, just because he loved the spirit he felt there! I love music. Unfortunately I have no pictures nor video of the concert.

So, Easter, we had a very very interesting Saturday, but we got to make a velkonocna baba, which is a traditional Slovak Easter Food that I learned from Sister P. last year, and then today, we actually got to go and do the Easter visit, where we "whip" a girl and wish her to be healthy and pretty for her whole life. SO fun, also, we added spiritual to the list of good qualities. You tap the girl with a whip made out of reeds, and say a poem, and then you have the option of pouring water on them to give them beauty health and fruitfulness for their lives, and they give you eggs/money/chocolate, its pretty great. Then the girls get to do it to the boys the next day. I am TOTALLY making that a tradition in my family, it is so sweet. Also, highlight of everything, we went to the zoo today with FOUR investigators. So much fun, turns out they had a Dinopark right in the middle which was of course my favorite. It's just like Vernal but smaller. The animals also seemed to be really acting up just because all the missionaries came to see them, it was so great.

Well I'm pretty much out of time. Love you all, thanks for reading and being a part of my mission with me! Este, I apologize again for the lack of wifi, I am going to try my hardest to get pictures as quick as I can.

Hrda Lasky,

Elder Brousseau

Blava (Bratislava, Slovakia)

Nazdar,

Hey all! Well, I'm hoping that this week I'll be able to be a little bit more in detail and eloquent than last week. I am SO happy to be serving in Bratislava now finally. My companion Elder Williams is always more and more surprised about how many people I already know here, and it's just because this is a place I've been waiting to serve in my whole mission.

A little bit about the District: Myself, Elder W. from Cincinnati, Ohio, Elder J. from Brigham City, Utah, Elder R. from Virginia/Qatar, Sister A. from Highland, Utah, Sister E. from Hollister, California, and our Senior Couple the C.'s from Idaho Falls, Idaho. So far we get along very well, and I'm very happy to be able to work with these wonderful people! Elder W. went to BYU before his mission and studies saxophone performance, and also plays guitar and piano, so we get along pretty nicely, I'm teaching him currently how to cook. I've already served with Elder J. (way back in my first transfer), and Elder R. (2 transfers in Nitra), so needless to say there are some great inside jokes that go about. The C.'s are the sweetest things ever, and they're SO helpful, I'm so lucky to be in a city with a senior couple again, WE NEED MORE OF THOSE!!!

About the week, here are some highlights:

W.: She has been meeting with missionaries for quite a long time now, my previous companion Elder S. actually was one of the 2 missionaries who found her, and she has decided that this Saturday is finally the day that she's going to be baptized. I can hardly wait! She's an awesome journalist who is peppy and ready for the church. Pray for that to happen, because she's had dates before and every time something seems to get in the way.

M.: She has ALSO been meeting with missionaries for a while. She is the biggest sweetheart though. O. was visiting Bratislava, and they became really really good friends during the course of the time, and as far as I can tell, she is ready for baptism. The C.'s told us during our last meeting about how impressed they were with the change they've seen in her, she's done something very similar to others in gaining confidence, and being visibly happier than when they started. I can't wait to see how things will play out in her life.

There is a Ping-pong table in our church building. We invite people to come and play for game night, and boy are there some seriously professional players who come whup up on us. I think I'll be a lot better by the time I get out of Blava.

We've had a lot more random people who know a lot more anti-material here than in any other city I've been in, which makes me feel for people who serve in places like New York, or Chicago, or Indianapolis. That's got to make it harder than you want it to be. We did get to meet a super deep level Free Mason the other day though, that was pretty sweet. What is even sweeter is getting to re-iterate myself from earlier. There is no anti-material without answer. About 97% of it is fallacious, doing things like mis-quoting people and taking things completely out of context, and the other 3% is truth used to "prove" the rest of it.

I am again, so happy to be serving a mission. I'm getting into a little bit of a harder stage, having realized yesterday that I really don't have much time left, but I'm letting that sorrow motivate me to work as hard as I can. We blew standards of Excellence out of the water this week, and I can't wait to send some more pictures home of people whose lives have been changed for the better by the gospel, because gosh, does Slovakia have a LOT of elect. I am so proud to be able to say that I am a Slovak missionary through and through.

Nebo je modre, cirkev je pravdiva, a ja som stastny. (Or is blue, the Church is true, and I'm happy. (Thanks, Google Translate))

S Laskou,

Elder Chris Brousseau

When the Student is Ready, the Teacher Appears

Nazdar!

Hey all, I had actually forgotten and was completely surprised to remember this Wednesday that this last week was the big transfer week! My companion went back to his first area, Košice, a place, I would really enjoy ending my mission. Goodness, I think I may have just jinxed myself. Anyway, So we had a really great week, I don't know if I want to keep doing that whole day by day analysis, that feels kind of boring, so Im just going to point out some awesome miracles from this week.

So first off, our man who's on date for baptism is unfortunately not going to make his date because he didn't come to church, but I just want to share about how he became an investigator because he's a miracle man with lots of faith and interest in us. So he had decided to leave the Lutheran church, and went out on a walk to be alone in Bratislava. He just happened to decide to say a silent prayer and as he looked up toward heaven to ask where on Earth truth could be found, he saw our building sign. The Elders from Dlhe Diely were taking a bathroom break there when randomly this person came up and asked them to please teach him everything. They found out he actually lives in Nitra, and this amazing South American genetic scientist is now our most promising investigator.

Also, this week someone else became officially a new investigator. We have high hopes for her because in the past, she has been less than happy to discuss gospel topics with us, but it seems like she's genuinely interested, and we have had some seriously great lessons with her because she really wonders about these things. KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS, THERE ARE ANSWERS!

Our concert on Tuesday was an amazing success! We had 35 people come for it, and only 1 of them was a member, they just ADORED it. Our performance was spectacular, despite us not practicing very much for it, the Lord really helped us, but the best part was the spirit that was felt. To introduce every song, we didn't even do anything special, we just read straight out of the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson as written in Preach my Gospel, just in Slovak. I was floating on cloud nine afterwards, it felt so amazing to see the spirit touch that many people through the musical talent of our district. My favorite songs that we performed were: "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring," "O Divine Redeemer," and "Pane Chcem T'a Nasledovat'" ("Lord, I would follow Thee").

Later, my favorite miracle happened, I was having a pretty bad day, I'll fully admit, I was questioning my ability to be a missionary. I had been told by someone to, "Go home and change your terrorist country, Yankee," but that had just been one of many contacts and other things that had gone wrong that day. Then the Lord decided to lift some burden from my shoulders and to give me a wonderful feeling that I couldn't explain of just utter gratitude to be in Slovakia, and gratitude to be a missionary. At that point, people started to see that, and we were able to teach 2 crazy-good double-lessons, one in a hotel with 2 bartenders there, both of which now testify that they know that Joseph Smith was called of God, and 1 committed himself to read the Book of Mormon through and through in a week. The other one was a part of that war that I mentioned a while ago, where we by chance met the man who owns the biggest auto quality control firm in all of Europe. He and his friend decided that they were terribly curious about why they've been hearing about the Mormoni, and what our fuss was all about. They both as well committed THEMSELVES to reading the Book of Mormon, and as if the day couldn't get any better, another person we've been trying to work with texted us out of the blue, and decided they wanted to talk with us about God's plan for us. Just too good to be true.

Last of all, I just wanted to talk about something that last transfer taught me. I have noticed a huge difference between the people who are just Catholic on paper, and the people who are actually Catholic. I think that that came in part to the wonderful family that I have in Vermont. The people who actually act according to their faith, and aren't just a part of it because of tradition are people that I am proud to know, regardless of which faith that is. As the Article of Faith says, "...Let them worship, how, what, or where they may." That leads me to an important question? Why do we expend so much time and energy into missionary work when we claim to let everyone worship in their own fashion? In answer to this question I would first encourage anyone curious to read Our Search for Happiness by M. Russell Ballard. But second, we love other religions, we recognize that our religion actually wouldn't be possible without other religions and their ways of worship. Can you imagine what it would have been like if Joseph Smith had been born during the Spanish Inquisition and claimed to have that vision? I figure it like this: someone who lived as best they could in this life is someone that Christ knows and loves, regardless of faith.

Love you all,
Elder Brousseau

The Right Words at the Right Time

Elder Brousseau at home in Nitra, Slovakia

Nazdar!

I don't have much time, so I apologize in advance for the shortness of this letter. We've been having crazy and unnatural storms here, where we see HUGE clouds, which aren't supposed to be here this time of year, and we can see circulation going on in them as well, like a tornado is about to start, and they've been flooding our streets, but it hasn't been stopping the work thankfully.

Pondelok: Went to an antique shop and realized that I actually LOVE antique shops. They had army packs from Vietnam there, I wanted to buy one, but I thought, "where would I put it..." so I didn't. Afterwards, we met again with someone. Unfortunately, we're not going to meet with him anymore, he's not interested in the church at all, and we're a little bit fuzzy about what his actual occupation is. We know he's a singer, but he might also be some kind of...recruiter for something illicit...anyway, yeah, not meeting him any more.

Utorok: ZAZRAK, we got a referral from another elder, who is in Dlhe Diely Bratislava right now, a man from Venezuela who lives in Nitra and really wants to meet with us. We set up a meeting for the next day. Later, my companion and I had another miracle, where we went to the Metsky Urad to check up on our concert, and the people there got SUPER angry at us. I don't have time to explain the whole situation, but President wasn't able to answer his phone to tell me what to do, so I said a quick prayer and had the words of an article of Faith come to my mind. When I told them about how, "we believe in being subject to kings...in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law," which means that we want to co-operate and we're willing to do whatever they asked, the whole situation diffused. The anger immediately left, and the main angry lady actually sat down with me and helped me fill out a legal form step by step very patiently and happily. Articles of Faith are worth it to memorize.

Streda: Set up our meeting with someone, but he came 2 hours late, when we were actually starting to teach English. Before English, by the way, we had the very unique experience of walking into the building a half an hour early to begin to set up, and seeing the other Elders standing in the hall looking awkward. Upon asking, what's up, they were just like, "we're not sure what to do," and when we went into our place, there was a lady we had contacted, just whaling away on our little keyboard on the organ setting, and singing some random Slovak song. It was unforgettable. But then we taught English, and I got a super duper triple lesson afterward, where we were starting an Exchange, but everyone was interested in our church, so my companion and another missionary taught one man, another elder taught someone else, and I taught two other people. They were all solid lessons, and now we have a lot of New investigators who have good expectations and real interest.

Štvrtok: Had the Exchange in Chrenova with another elder, we ended up not being able to do a whole lot, but we DID get some really good exercise running from the building to the city park for sports night, which is like 4 kilometers. We did it in pretty ok time too, if I do say so myself.

Piatok: I had left my planner in the building yesterday because we had to just drop our stuff, get changed, and run to sports night, so there's nothing written there. All I really remember is getting this AWESOME potential. So first off, there are not many black people here. In fact, there are so few that tons of people stare at the ones who are here, and I honestly feel kind of embarrassed for them, because that's just dumb, they're still normal, wonderful people. Anyway, so the few who are here, are either African and Muslim, or American/English/French and have heard of Mormons before, so I make an effort to speak to ALL of them. It's one of the ways I've been improving my French here. Anyway, I contacted 2 men on the way to the Námestie, who were both Muslim, one from Sudan, and another from Ethiopia. We had an AMAZING conversation with these men, and got a lot of publicity from it because people were staring at them, and then at us, and wondering, "wait, I thought Mormons were racist," but the most important thing was, one of the men is now an interested potential who is extremely smart and actually lives in the rich sector of town.

Sobota: Today was kind of one of those "Meh...days" where nothing really happens because you have weekly planning, AND Ladovy Medved, AND it's your turn to clean the building, AND you go tracting but everyone thinks you're Jehovah's Witnesses. That has started to get on my nerves. But nothing really to report that day. except for the end, where, when we thought the day was over, the Lord sends a guy our way with his son on our walk home who contacted us, and upon finding that we teach people about Christ, asked to be taught the next day.

Neďuľa: Church was cool today, we only had the missionaries and a sister there because everyone is out of town for the end of the summer, so testimony meeting was where everyone there bore their testimony. But during Sunday School, one of the other Elders' investigators showed up, he's really cool. Later, that lesson with another man was awesome, we've set up again for Wednesday and it was cool, we went in expecting to get uber-haggled about everything because everyone in the building came to the lesson wanting to hear what we were saying, but we just testified and everyone loved it and will probably come back next time as well.

Anyway, loving it here, I hope you all have an amazing week. It's amazing to see really how much we are blessed just for putting forth a little effort in the face of opposition and pushing just a tiny bit further ahead, people come out of the wood-works to find out why you did that, because it isn't normal.

Love you all,

Elder Bruso

Owns Town Square

Elder Brousseau & his companion own the town square

Nazdar!

So cutting to the chase, I really don't have a kopec of time at the moment. Just a quick flash-back, I remember how hard it was to go without English in the MTC and how people said I sounded like I was already in the mission, and I felt like I was forgetting English then...I didn't know what I was talking about. I can't wait to see how bad it is when I come home, haha, it's your job to help me get back to normal, deal? My sister's going to help me with the whole normal person thing.

So Monday: Had an awesome contest to see who could take the most awkward picture of everyone else, specifically, our group leader. I won by a long shot, haha. But besides that, we got a new investigator, but he's going out of town for a while, so I don't really know how much is going to come from that. Maybe he'll find more missionaries on his trip and talk to them.

Elder Brousseau

I'm really relating with another missionary at the moment, keep pushing through buddy, just because an investigator isn't progressing at the moment, and you have to drop them doesn't mean you're doing badly or that you need to give up hope. I just got some news that a cute little family that I found in Trencin is about to be on baptismal date, even after they had to be dropped because of lack of effort on their part as far as keeping commitments. It showed them that we were serious about the blessings that came from them. Also I might be able to go there for that and take some pictures, maybe, I really really hope so.

Tuesday: Weird and slightly disappointing day if you look at it in a bad light. Basically all we did was have lots of stuff fall through (including District Finding), and then my companion taught a lesson for the other area...But I got to see more from my influence in Trencin when another missionary and I (who I was taking care of because he was sick) got contacted by 2 people who recognized me. They had been in Trencin for not even a whole day, but they saw me and how happy I was, and heard from someone that I taught English, so they came up and asked us about it. Then they came on Wednesday and loved it. Hoping that they start to ask us questions like, "What does it mean to be a missionary, like, what do you do?" Because people here really don't understand what missionaries are. Also, I finished writing an AWESOME version of Amazing Grace for the concert. I'm accompanying another missionary on the guitar, so it's written for a bass, and it's in Drop-D tuning and just wonderful I can't wait to perform it.

Unpredictable Slovak weather

Wednesday: Honestly, my memory is just failing me so hard right now, all I remember was a 6 hour contacting block, because we're literally making a war on all other missionaries right now. We decided that we want to contact so many people that all of the other faith missionaries, and even the companies will recognize that main street is our turf and just back off. So far it's working well, I can proudly state that there are no more JW's on our street, haha.

Thursday: Another lady attacked us, but we're getting better at the positivity thing at the moment. we're making sure to stay positive and loving, even in the face of people who really hate us.

Friday: This is another day I honestly don't remember, I really should bring my journal when I email, the days are all just a blur of contacting and bench lessons.

Saturday: A man didn't come to another Ladovy medved unfortunately, because we really need the help, but the good thing is, we were able to do a group practice, which is amazing, and definitely needed, we need more of those.

Sunday: Another 6 hour contacting block, but considerably more successful, I've been focusing my study on 5 minute lessons from Preach My Gospel, which are a LIFESAVER, people need to hear the restored truth, and it gives you a bunch of little phrases that really pack a punch.

Anyway, my companion is rushing me away, so Love you all lots, and I hope your week is wonderful!

Starsi Bruso

Beautiful Slovak sunset

Nitra, Slovakia washed clean

Nitra, Slovakia: City of Miracles

Chris teaching Sunday School

Nazdar!

Well, hey, everyone, Here's a quick run-through of everything going on here, also, happy Father's day!

Monday got our situation figured out, where I had been asked to play at a conference in Bratislava, which was great. A wonderful Hungarian student helped us to find and obtain a keyboard as a loan so that I could practice, so that's what we had on plan, but then we ended up teaching a man we found on the street in front of the building named instead. He's awesome, I hope to teach him again.

Tuesday: really did practice, but more importantly, we got our 2nd progressing investigator here for the transfer, I think 1 more a week is a pattern I can live with, haha. We got to talking with a sort of awkward man and he ended up taking us to a Piano Cafe, where he and I gave like an hour long concert to the people there, he is very good, and he's self taught, it was really cool. I have a special feeling about him as well, I think he will be baptized.

Wednesday: Got the Metsky Urad all figured out so that we can do singing displays here. We got a good couple of spots, and it doesn't cost us anything, so that's good. Also, I met someone today. He is a young son of one of our members, who I'm not sure if he's mentally handicapped or not, because he seems smart, but he's ridiculously rude to everyone, especially his mom. It's really quite sad, and we'll be working on helping him be more calm and happy around us this transfer.

Chris loves the Slovakian clouds

Thursday: Went to Bratislava for the training, where I played beautifully as well. I loved the training, the authority's wife trained us on the importance of morning exercise daily, and the authority trained us on breaking mental and traditional barriers. He talked about how they train Elephants in India, where when they're young, they chain them with big chains to a strong pole until they decide that it's in their best interests not to try and run away, so that when they're huge and older, the trainer can simply put a small stick in the ground, and tie a string around his leg, and as long as the elephant feels something on his leg, he won't move. We can't be that way as missionaries. We are big and strong and we were made to break the traditions in Slovakia. Afterwards, had a once in a lifetime experience of teaching 3 teenage boys the Restoration during a singing display and having them beatbox to how firm a foundation while we sang it.

Friday: Friday was full of finding, which was very fun but tiring. So many people say that they feel that they should meet with us, but they won't because they're scared of breaking the status quo.

Saturday: Went on a 2 hour bus ride to Zeliezovce to teach our other progressing investigator with one of our members. Crazy stuff, great lesson, I can't wait till our investigator is baptized.

The church building in Nitra

Sunday: This is where I get the title. Our members are the members that you hear about in General Conference talks. One member: Hopped across a mine-field in the dark with nothing but a flashlight and a compass to escape communism, fled to Germany where he learned about the church and was baptized. Came back to his home town where he stayed for like 15 years and was re-found and re-activated by missionaries. SO energetic and ready to share the gospel. Another member: This man is a rock. Lives on 60 Euros a month, and somehow found and got ahold of the Book of Mormon, Preach my Gospel, and all of the Other Standard Works and referred himself. Was baptized and comes 3 hours to church. Before the church was aware of his finances, he was selling his clothes and possessions in order to get money for the bus fare, just so that he could come take the sacrament. He doesn't even speak Slovak, he's a little Hungarian man, but you should hear his testimony. The church is working on giving him permission to baptize the people he has been working with in his hometown and starting a group out there. I would go into the details of our other members, like the longest living member in Slovakia, she was baptized when she was 8 and now she's in her 80's, but I'm out of time. Love it, this

place is where miracles are taking place.

I'm so happy to be here, I wish I had more time, but I'll tell you more next week, Nitra is the place in Slovakia where the Catholic MTC is and it is so cool to see how the Lord and Satan are contending every day on the streets here, and how futile every effort of Satan is and will be. I am so ready to help the Lord change this city in a very big way. Get ready for some General Conference talks being written about this area very soon.

Lots of love,

Starší Brúso

Out Of The Frying Pan...

Nazdar,

Wow. This week has truly been one of a kind. I literally don't know the right words I could say to describe everything that's been happening. I'll just go from the beginning and see where it all ends up. First off, HAPPY TWENTY-SECOND ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!!! Can you believe it, that means I'm 19! Haha, but seriously, I adored reading the stories that my mom sent this week, and all I have to say about them is, Gosh, I think I'm going to go to my dad more often for advice with girls. I love you both so much, and wish you everything the best.

Monday: We went up to the castle as a district finally, and had an investigator show us everything, and he just had the biggest blast doing it all, it was so cool, I'll try to get the pictures to you at some point.

Tuesday: So today we had a huge miracle for me. For every  person who came, they had no idea Why the missionaries were so darn happy at English. When I came to Trencin in February, English was a joke. We had one person show up every week, IF we were lucky. I hated that, and so my companion and I began to go to work, because Trencin was basically a dead zone, and we figured that first we needed people to trust the missionaries and distinguish between us and the J-dubs, before we could get them to actually want to meet with us. We began to do things that had never been done in this mission before, like tabling, and advertising for music lessons and the like. We worked our tails off, and started to get 1 person consistently, and finally, we had 3 people twice. A new companion then came at transfers, and nobody showed up again. So we went to work harder. We several times for tabling, instead of having 1 person sit at the table, and 3 people contact around it with clipboards, we just had everybody sit at the table with a couple of signs that say free english, and just speak english really loudly, and me play my guitar, just so that we could get our name out. Then we had the concert where more non and less active members came than ever before because we worked so hard for it, and now, on Tuesday, we have officially three functional, thriving, and GROWING English classes. We had 17 people at English, coming straight out of nothing. It was amazing for me to be able to see that I HAVE made a difference here, and it WILL continue to be a tool for the Lord.

Wednesday: I don't really remember because the days around it were so huge.

Thursday: Went to Bratislava for a conference. The rule for missionaries was: you are not allowed to come unless you bring a Slovak, so our District just brought our whole branch, haha. We all went to Bratislava so we could hear THREE General authorities speak to us: Sister Wixom, I think general Primary President, Sister Reeves I think she's in the General Relief Society Presidency, and Elder Kearon, who is the coolest General Authority I've ever met. Remember that General Conference talk about the scorpion, and wearing your shoes? That was him. The spirit there was absolutely amazing, especially being surrounded by members from Slovakia, and oh my goodness, there were several amazing things that happened there. First, during Sister Reeves' talk, she asked everyone to listen to several of our primary children hum a primary song, and to stand up when they recognized it. There wasn't a member in the room besides those children who had grown up in the church, and none of them had the opportunity of going to Primary, but when we recognized "I am a Child of God," there wasn't a SINGLE person sitting down. I almost started crying, it was so amazing. Elder Kearon's talk was about crabs, and how when they're caught, they all go into a big bucket, and pay absolutely no attention to each other until the time that one of them wants to get out. Then multiple crabs pull the one trying to leave down back into the bucket. He said that we all have to deal with crabs in our lives, and that we can't let them spiritually pull us down, even if they do physically. After that, I had the wonderful opportunity of introducing Sister Wixom to 3 YSA members in Bratislava, and then to an amazing sister from Banska Bystrica, I can't explain the spirit I felt translating between these two rocks in the gospel, it was amazing. Then I got sidetracked on my way to Elder Kearon with one of the General Authority's husbands. I'm not sure which one (Br. Wixom), but he said that he knows Grandma and Grandpa and I was able to just have a wonderful talk with him where he gave me some amazing advice, and had me write a quick note to my grandparents, I was just amazed with how small the world is. (The Wixoms work with Chris' grandparents in the SLC Temple and delivered his note to them last week.) Then the most meaningful thing for me happened, I was approached by several members from Bratislava, most of which I'm unfamiliar with, who told me that I need to tell President that Bratislava needs me. Apparently the member there, even though I don't know them, know me, and they want to have my influence there. I was so touched that they want me there, and that they're so excited for the sharing of the gospel. I really really really want to serve in Bratislava now.

Friday: Again, can't remember because it's surrounded by miracles.

Saturday: Wow. wowowowow. Saturday, my companion and I went out to contact, both so nervous about transfers and what's going to happen. We went out and actually got to teach a bench lesson and get a potential who is really very cool. Afterwards, while we were weekly planning, we got the call like 6 hours earlier than we thought that we would. When I found out what was happening, I flipped out and just started calling people. I needed lessons to take my mind off of my complete fear. We ended up because of that, doing something I've never done before, and having 4 solid solid amazing lessons within a 3 hour period, and most surprising of which, we ended up cooking halusky for an investigator in his house, where he told me I was his favorite missionary. All of this happened on a day where, had we been outside, we would have had to deal with lots and lots of harrassment from drunks because it was a national drinking holiday, but when we were walking home after the lessons, we ended up getting a really solid potential as well, who was curious as to why everyone was yelling at us, and decided to investigate to see whether we know anything about God. I was so happy.

Nitra is right under the word "Slovak"

Sunday: Best day I ever could have asked for, I desperately need to write about it in my journal.

I love you all, and here's the big announcement>>>.......I'm writing all of this in my new area: NITRA! I'm in the Klokocina part of Nitra, and I'm really excited to be serving this transfer with my new companion. I'm gonna give it my absolute all and see if I can't walk away with at least a new friend.

Hope this is your best week ever!

Elder Chris Brousseau

Summer Concerts for Slovakians

Nazdar,

Hey all, so to start off, this week has been just a rollercoaster. On Monday if you look at my pictures, there was this HUGE rainstorm that came out of nowhere that just tore through Trencin and blew out the power, so that was kind of crazy. We survived, but it helped remind us that we need to get on our flipping landlord a little bit more heavily. Our Italian landlord has trouble with both Slovak, and English, so I'm not completely sure he realizes how serious of a situation he's in. Our oven hasn't worked all transfer, which has made me very sad. I can't make pizza, or banana bread, or cake, or cookies, or pizza, or lasagna. Or pretty much anything that uses flour in it, so no German Pancakes either. But on Tuesday before our concert we had apartment inspections, and the the couple missionaries put on their report that our oven hasn't worked for the whole transfer, and then a missionary from the office called us, and now the church's lawyer calling our landlord finding out if there's going to be a legal issue over this because he knew when he sold the apartment to the church that he was responsible for all of the appliances except for the washing machine, which the church owns, but anyway, that's just craziness that added into the week, that's like the only semi-bad thing that happened, thank goodness.

Our concerts were fantastic. The one here in Trencin was a straight-up miracle, where we had more investigators and non-members there than members INCLUDING missionaries, and we had all the missionaries from Zilina there as well! Our Branch President, said to me afterwards that he was very impressed with our concert and that that was the most non-members he had ever seen at a church activity the whole time he's lived here, so woot-woot, representing a hard-working example, haha! The music was wonderful, and this is honestly almost the best group of singers and musicians possible in our mission, it was really cool. I arranged versions of the songs Nearer my God to Thee, There is a Green Hill Far Away, Somewhere over the Rainbow, What a Wonderful World, and For the Beauty of the Earth for the concert, and I am REALLY proud of how everything went. We even got the Kebab guy and the haircut girl to come, it was awesome! Another really cool thing was something that the Sisters in Zilina came up with, which was to record a CD of missionaries playing and singing hymns in Slovak before-hand, and then have a sign-up list for the CD there at the concert, it has been a very successful tool here to get more lessons. I have a very strong testimony of using music to spread the gospel, nothing can touch and soften people's hearts to the spirit quicker. The concert in Zilina was spectacular as well, they had a lot people that they didn't expect come to it, for example, a 19-year-old student who they just handed a flier to on the street, who was way cool. I really really love doing these, and I hope that I continue to have the opportunity at least once a transfer.

Snap, thinking about the concerts and stuff, I'm having trouble remembering exactly what happened on Wednesday and Friday, and I don't have my journal with me so that makes it harder...Oh yeah, on Friday that idea finally had it's first fruits! We had the idea here to make a letter explaining who we are, and why we're here, and basically telling people to not get us mixed up with Jehovah's witnesses (who have a really bad name here), and drop them off in places we want to tract and then go back a week later and tract them. We actually out of 10 houses we did this to, 2 of them had read our letter and were really interested in learning more, which is a higher percentage than just going door to door, I was really happy. We have a new investigator from that, which brings our teaching pool up to 17 different people with whom we're working with at the moment. I really need all the work to pay off though, and hopefully in a time-frame in which I can see it.

On Saturday, we went and got to go with a sister from the area to a Kastiel in Dubnica nad Vahom, a smaller town on the outskirts of Trencin (Trencin is both a state in the nation, and the capitol city of that state). It was really really pretty, but I don't know what I would do with all of my time if I ever owned a house that big, I would waste the whole day just walking between all of the rooms. Afterwards, we got to go to see a Catholic chapel, and I got my first real taste here of the Slovak cult of Pana Maria. I'm not entirely sure how connected they actually are with the Catholic church, but they seem pretty connected, especially because all of the cult members I've talked to here say that they're Catholic, so I don't know. That's a question we have to be really careful with here is when people ask whether or not we worship panu mariu, we usually try to avoid the question by saying something like: "we worship God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and we do NOT worship Joseph Smith," because people are liable to get really angry with us on the street when they find out we don't worship her. It's really quite weird to me, because it doesn't really make any sense to worship her, but apparently it's a really important thing to them. Anyway, after that, we went through this crazy cool park and I got to take some great photos, which was sweet, and we all went for pizza and Hot Chocolate afterwards. I love vylets, they're the best non-threatening tool for teaching less-actives and investigators because it's a place where they feel comfortable telling you what they actually think, and they actually listen to you, I think it's because they feel more on their own terms.

Anyway, that's all for now, I love you lots,

Elder Chris Brousseau

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

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