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

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

The Best Week Yet!

Nazdar,

Hey everyone, I'm really excited to email you this week, I've got a little bit more time, and I'm going to try and make the best of it. First off, has anyone here heard this name before: Saint Irenaeus? If not, that's ok, but you should really read his stuff. If you have, good on you, you're a little bit ahead of me. Saint Irenaeus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irenaeus) is the first disciple of the original disciple of John the Revelator, and the Catholic church claims him as a Saint because of the miracles he performed, despite the fact that almost everything of what he teaches goes against their doctrine, especially concerning Adam and Eve, and Human Deification (Theosis Greek). We discovered him last week, and his words have made our lesson plans a lot more interesting. I have said this quite a bit last week, but throughout my mission, I have gained this THIRST for every bit of information I can find about the gospel. I've found here, that to every bit of anti-Mormon material (at least that to which I've been exposed) has answers, and more importantly, every bit of pro-Mormon material is backed throughout history, including the early Saints like this man Irenaeus. I love the words of President Uchtdorf, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." Well with that sort of boring pre-face, I'd like to get into the best week yet (besides Christmas and New Years).

So highlights: We started out the week with a bang by visiting Oravsky Hrad (http://www.oravskemuzeum.sk/), the castle in which the very first Black-and-White Silent Dracula was filmed!! It was SO cool. I now understand why I wanted to live in a castle when I was little. I understood a whole lot more then about living in style. Now all I need is to find a place to put my Jacuzzi when I get that castle. Favorite part of the castle? A wax figurine of the original actor: apparently this German guy was SO ugly that they hardly needed to put any make-up on him, and the nails? Totally his, he never cut them anyway. "I'm so nefarious, that means I'm evil!"-That guy.

Further than that, we went clipboarding for our Family History course, and boy, you wouldn't believe what happened. I had absolutely no success, and I was getting kind of bored of clipboarding and wanted to contact instead about something people actually want to hear about, like the gospel, so I went to find my companion and I find him helping Elder B. to talk to a man. I walk up, and within 60 seconds, this man has me talking to his friend on the phone in French, and we've gone into this man's work for a meeting, we ended that hour with a solid new investigator, and two referrals with meetings set up (which they later showed up to, the man with French, is the leader of a Christian Community in Martin, a city a little south-east of Zilina). So cool.

M. is doing awesome, she is STOKED for her baptism on February 14, which is right at the end of the transfer. What a good way to end a transfer, right? She has completely stopped smoking (going from 10-15 cigarettes daily), and is loving the blessings of living all of the higher laws. I really wish that we would be able to be there, or at least see it, but we've been told by our 70 that we aren't allowed to Skype into a baptism, even though we're the ones who taught her. We'll figure something out though, Probably the Sisters in Germany (Frankfurt mission) will just email us some good photos.

We had the best day ever on Friday... So we went to Martin (for that one meeting with the minister), and our meeting went extremely well, he had read the beginning of the Book of Mormon, and had some self-made anti-Mormon material, which we cleared up, and he decided to interview us to find out what we really believe. Really cool. He accepted a Book and committed himself to finding out if it was true. But then our second meeting cancelled. And we were stuck. In Martin. For more that an hour. What to do? Then Elder Brousseau had a plan:

Elder B: We should totally call D.

Elder S: What? No!

Elder B: What? Are you scared of being Kidnapped?

Elder S: Well, yeah, but more like being murdered.

Elder B: BUT WEEEE NEEEEED CLOOOOOSUUUUURE!

Elder S: Fine, but we don't know where he lives.

Explanation: D. is this dude who showed up here last transfer. I have never previously met him. He's from Nigeria, but lived in England for quite a while. He claimed he was a member, and the church was helping him a little bit, until some verification was done, and he's definitely not a member. After being told that we knew he wasn't a member, and offering to help him become one, he got ticked and stormed off. [The legend is that he has a very "checkered" past.]

We then called the other Elders to find where he lived and went and visited him. Turns out he was totally home, and really happy to meet with us. I don't personally think he was actually involved at all [in the legendary illegal activities], but he's definitely not a member.

Later, our train back was delayed half an hour because it DUMPED like 8 inches of snow in like three hours, which was really bad for the shoes I had picked to wear because when we left the apartment it was totally dry. I really wish we would get the technology we've been approved for already so that we can check the weather. But we eventually got back and guess what?!? We got to go to a professional orchestral concert playing music from Čajkavský (Tchaikovsky or however they spell it the wrong way in English). SOOO sick. I was very very impressed, especially with this violin soloist. If Lizabeth is half as good as he was, she's in for quite a career in music.

Our last couple of days were pretty good, but I'd rather end with this. Here's an excerpt from our weekly mission [president's] email this week:

"Dear Friends,

I spent the weekend in Nitra with our wonderful members and missionaries there. Following the pattern set in Doctrine and Covenants 109, we dedicated a new space for the Nitra group. It is right on the main square and the space for sacrament meeting has two large windows that look down on the square and the people of the city. 

Snow is everywhere and it is cold, but there was a sense of excitement and opportunity amongst the members and the missionaries. We expect great things from them. Good things are happening in Nitra and elsewhere in Slovakia and our mission.

Nitra is an area that has been open to missionary work for approximately two years. In that time, the missionary force there has grown from two to four, a local member has been installed as group leader, a brother baptized in Germany but lost in Slovakia is now active and was recently endowed, three individuals have been baptized and are active, two of those new converts have been to the temple for baptisms or their endowment, there is a strong priesthood base in the group, the group has a strong matriarch who has been a member for more than seventy years, and the group has moved from weekend space in a library to permanent space on the main square well suited to missionary work and sacrament services or other public gatherings. In all this we see God laying the foundation for a thriving branch. The first missionaries to work in Nitra likely never imagined a group this structurally sound and strong would be established this fast.

Sometimes the perspective that comes when we take a step back to see the bigger picture is important. We get caught up in the day to day of our work and fail to see the great blessings of our overall missions and lives. Lack of perspective can diminish our sense of gratitude and, as president Hinckley explained in Forget Yourself, "[t]here is nothing that dulls a personality so much as a negative outlook." Take the time today to consider ALL your blessings and those of the branches and groups in which you work. 

We build branches. We do it with gratitude, perspective and faith. We do it with the kind of hard work and faith that makes of us collectively "an intelligent force . . . [that] is superior to and overrules all other forces of which we know." Elder Cook,Agency, Opposition and Faith, p. 6."

I love this mission. O. (one of the new members referenced in the email) was able to go to the temple, and sent me pictures. That building that I found and helped secure that was perfect for our vision, is now in place, Nitra has come so far, and in part the Lord was able to use me and give me an attitude of perseverance to create a place where missionary work can thrive. I love that area, and I love this mission.

Have a wonderful week,

S Laskou,

Starší Brousseau

Natural Consequences of Hard Work

Nazdar!

Haha, gosh, I've been sitting here for like 13 minutes (actually exactly that long) just wondering how to start this. I've been looking for something clever or funny, but I've kind of failed on that one, so we'll see, maybe something clever will come out later. This week has been amazing, I feel like I've learned some really valuable lessons, and some other ones I've been reminded of. The biggest of all of these is that fact that when you put your time in and actually try to work hard (for example finding, finding, finding with no visible success, or trying your very best to teach lessons to people on the busses or trains to and from trainings), the Lord doesn't make you wait long to feel blessed. Here's a quick run-through of our week.

Monday: P~Days are honestly such a blur to me, I really need to take more pictures, we just did fun stuff all day and then emailed.

Tuesday: We had training, where I had the misfortune of getting a really really bad migraine and having to step out and throw up during President Hinkley's talk "Forget Yourself." Embarrassing, but more than that, my parents might be getting a call from my mission President about it, but no worries. Sister McConkie and Sister Cottle came to my rescue with a wet cloth and some Ibuprofen (I have no idea how that writes itself). Afterwards I had a crazy awesome interview, probably the best one I've had on my mission, after my headache had gone down of course. We then were able to teach 2 people on the way home, I really hope something comes of it.

Wednesday: Today was great, we got out early to contact like normal, and literally the first lady we stopped was interested enough to talk with us for like half an hour and let us pray with her, she's going to be a very cool investigator in a little bit. Later, we taught P., who is seriously just the cutest guy! I wish I could be here to see where life takes him, he's the greatest of members. The crowning point of the day though was going to Rosina just like we planned, and going and sitting for like 15 minutes in Omsa and then talking to Pan F. when it was done. Catholic priests are seriously prepared. He told us that he had urged his...ward? Flock? What do you call a group of Catholics (editor's note: congregation)? Not important. He told them that if they wanted peace in their lives to shut their doors to the Moonies, and when these people had heard we were from America, they just jumped to conclusions. As soon as he found out we WEREN'T Moonies, he immediately said that if we were here to strengthen faith that he wanted every member of his to speak with us. He also invited us to come speak with him whenever, but I don't know if we're going to take that one up after the success we have started to have there. We have found several people there.

Thursday: Well, we started our exchange at the end of the day, after we had had the best Plan Spasy lesson ever with P.! This kid is seriously the coolest, he had defied all the norms with us. He wasn't baptized as a baby, but like 4-5 years ago because he felt it was good. He was a super awkward contact back in December, who, after one meeting, left for the holidays. But not only did he want to meet with us again after he came back, but he has read through 1st Nephi 13, and says he really likes it! I am so excited for him to get baptized, it will just be the best experience of his life, he's a really spiritual kid.

Friday: Exchange with Elder B.: the poor kid. He has a District filled with the best speakers in the mission, and he feels so very left out that he has kind of lost his interest in learning Slovak. I tried very hard to "beat that out of him," and it went very well. One particular instance of this was while we were waiting for a meeting, I taught him all the directions and had him lead me through a panelak (panels) jungle, and I wouldn't go anywhere until he told me where to go in Slovak. He wasn't having a great time with it at the beginning, but as soon as he got the hang of it, he had a blast leading me across benches and over railings, and down stairs and back up the stairs backwards, and I continued to do my best to help him love this language as much as I do during the exchange. He is a very special missionary, I hope he gets that. People stop and talk to him, despite them not understanding completely what he's saying, and he not understanding what they're saying hardly at all, so cool.

Saturday: Kind of a normal missionary day, some inactive members ignored us and didn't want us to help them with anything, and some people were mean and rude on the street, and my companion and I loved it. Europe is so very different than America, on nearly every level, including the mindset of people. Admittedly, I have a very limited knowledge of people in America, but these Europeans have a different mindset than everyone I know. We meet SOOOO many people who find out that their church isn't true, be it Catholic, JW, Adventist for 6th or 7th day, Evanjelic, Lutheran, Hussite, everything, and they decide immediately that because their first guess wasn't 100% right, that no church on the whole Earth can be. Something I've learned through some tough experiences is that if we earnestly seek out the Lord, He will find us. The weird thing is that we meet so many people, where, earlier that day, they pray that the Lord will show them their path, and literally we are lead right to them, and then they're like, "No, that can't be it, God doesn't actually answer prayers, I just do that so my Priest will stop bugging me." L O Freaking L! Haha, Prezident said at training that according to the #'s, out of every 100 new investigators in our mission, 2.9 of them get baptized, and I've noticed seemingly the same percentage out of every type of finding. It seems like it's better to just accept a no with a smile and say, there's one more down, 95 nos left before we get another investigator.

Sunday: Ok, seriously so cool. We sat down to plan Saturday night and just said, ok, nothing on plan? Tracting. All day, but the Lord had other plans. His plans were for us to just teach all day from random  people calling us and then setting up. We only got to tract one house, and that guy even let us teach him, this was our day where the Lord said, "Ok, you've been working hard, you get to decide how today goes," and we decided to have miracles. The best one came at the end of the day, where we came back into Zilina to teach a guy English after tracting that one house, his English lesson went great, but we didn't really have time for a spiritual thought because our next lesson (it's now 8:30) was there. This guy really really wanted a spiritual thought, so he asked if he could stay in our lesson. Turns out, these two men we're teaching totally know each other, and had both spent the week in Germany together! The English guy then proceeded to teach the other guy about faith and gave him this huge pep-talk about how meeting with the missionaries will change his life for the better and that if he follows what we teach about faith that he will have confidence and everything will go well for him. Way chill, I can't wait for them to be part of the Branch Presidency here.

I am constantly having a blast, and I really hope that you are too, please, I would love to know how each of you is doing, so if you read this far in the email, send me a quick one back just telling me some highlights of your week! I love you all so much!

S Laskou,

Elder Chris Brousseau

Chlap ó chlap... (Czech for "Man Oh Man")

Nazdar, and man am I enthusiastic.

Sorry, none of you are going to understand that reference, but someday I'm going to read this after I've forgotten that I wrote it and just bust up laughing, haha. Hey future self...You sure look enthusiastic. ;)

On a less selfish/prideful/conceited/distasteful note, here I am, in the last week of the transfer! This one has been a wild ride. My goodness, my companion has been Elder R. He is from the Philippines, and his family moved to London when he was around 10, so he's spent about half of his life in both places. We have had the biggest blast doing missionary work together, and I would say that our experiences together have made us closer than I've been with any other companion. Love Elder R. to death.

Highlights of the week!!!

#1 Had pizza because we went on exchange. SO GOOD!

#2 We're such nerds in this district, when we get together the things we talk about would put nerd wannabees to shame. Love me some Star Wars.

#3 The Christmas Market here is so COOL! We got literally commanded to experience a Slovak Christmas, so we get to go see everything!

#4 Our English class is so great, I LOOOOVE teaching it! The best part is, they seem to love us teaching it too, S., another Hungarian girl who is about to become an investigator brought us all a really thoughtful gift on Wednesday to say thank you for teaching, it was so sweet.

#5 Elder R. (the other one in the district) and I were on exchange in the Chrenova area of Nitra on Thursday and we were very very worried. Elder K. is still a little nervous to speak Slovak because he's brand new, and Elder R. (my companion) is still learning English, and so learning Slovak from English is pretty difficult for him. We prayed so hard for them to get the gift of tongues, and guess what? They did! They went and taught K. and Sister Z., and didn't need to ask for any help the entire time. SO cool!

#6 Friday. Just, the whole day. Amazing. I took some videos that are too long to send. It was so great. We went to the home of the M. family, and we're getting to actually have a good relationship with Brat M's son, A., he's a man after my own heart. We were also able to have a crazy district dinner with a zaujemkina named A., who is just the sweetest of things, she's like a 23 year old Slovenka version of my sister Maddie. It was her mom's birthday and she asked us if we would sing happy birthday to her mom, it was great!

#7 Service tracting again, it wasn't as effective as last time, but boy is that so fun. Go out and just see people's faces when you ask if they need any sort of help around the house, they're always thinking something like, "THIEVES! Well guess what, you're not getting in my house toDAY, dobrovolnici (volunteers) my boot, I don't even think you're really from America!" I love it to death.

#8 Cleaning the building, we ended up having an awesome samurai battle with brooms. I felt like I was 6 again.

#9 Church on Sunday, Brat H. convinced his mom to come somehow. So cool, she really just loved it, and we may be going on a vylet (trip) with them sometime this week.

Anyway, its great to be a missionary, We're still enjoying every second of it (even the hard parts), because really, there's no place we'd rather be. I love serving the people of Slovakia, and I know this church is true.

Starší Brúso

A Nitra Thanksgiving

NaaaaAAAzdar!

Haha, can you tell I'm in a good mood yet? This week has been nuts, I agree totally with Elder Brooks; the blessings come after the storm. So to start off, I love you all so much for your Thanksgiving wishes, and other holiday tomfoolery; it makes me proud to know you. Also, thank you thank you Taylor and Daniel for visiting my family! Congratulations Daniel on an Honorable Full-Time mission, that's what we were going for. I realized as well that I've been a bad brother and forgot one of my siblings in my Thanksgiving letter. So SARAH, here you go! Thank you for being so outstanding. You are an amazing dancer, who is nerdy just like her older siblings, you won't find that combination anywhere else. I love you so much for your attitude of gratitude, you're always telling me thank you for things, so I'm glad I get a little turn. Thank you also for asking me questions every time you email me, it always makes it easy to write back. I love you!

OK, now on to the week.

Monday: P~Day, nothing seemed to go right, except we DID get to play some games in the building as a district. Always a fun activity, but no miracles were noticed by me during the day.

Tuesday: For some strange reason, every single time we have apartment checks, our day just kind of seems to drag, and not go the way we want it too. The day was really good, don't get me wrong, we continued to help J. build his garage, and we had a crazy good game night where S. brought his friend and we had a blast. But it just wasn't what was expected. Miracle of the day was the busses. Despite our lack of sticking to our plan because the apartment checks went like 2 hours over, the busses all came exactly when we needed them. Good stuff.

Wednesday: YEHEHEHEEES! Taught P. again, and he's amazing as ever, LOVED the Plan of Salvation, and is happy to continue meeting with us, I think what would be best is to establish some daily contact with him, if that needs to be by phone, so be it. Also, English went really quite well, S. is getting less shy with us, which makes it nicer.

Thursday: Vdakyvzdanie!!! (Thanksgiving!!!) So fun, we had 2 chickens because turkeys cost like 30 Euros for a little one, and just had a blast. During the day we had a miracle and taught like 5 lessons, which doesn't usually happen on holidays and then we got to go to the other Elder's apartment (we claim to have the best District Unity in the mission), and Elder K (the baker's son) and I (the sick samurai) cooked 1 chicken marinaded in Vanilla Kofola, and another one that he did a lemon garlic onion rub to, and made some glorious mashed potatoes and gravy, and finished it all with bread pudding while Elders R & R played games. Before my mission I would have been a little urazeny (upset) that they just let us do all the cooking, but I really just loved joking around with Elder K and hearing them play. It was just so great, even if the end result wasn't as good as grandma's.

Friday: MIRACLE!!! Ok, this isn't going to make a whole lot of sense if you aren't in a missionary position here, but we went to teach sister P., and she was a little offended that we didn't have more than an hour for her, so when we called Brat M. to tell him we were ready to go, she yelled into the phone inviting them to come to her house. Sister P. is not a super strong member, and she has never met the Majtanovci, nor most of the members in the group. But get this: They CAME, and they MET, and they BORE TESTIMONY! It was so cool to teach Sister M. with 2 strong members who backed up everything we taught with testimony and personal experience, and she didn't feel ganged up on either just because she felt so loved by everyone in the room. I really hope we can get her on date this week because the experience was even cooler when we realized that if they hadn't come to Levice, we wouldn't have had enough cash to get home that night. Ridiculous blessings all over the wazoo!

The weekend was just as good as that day, we're on kind of a spiritual high, a Senior couple came from Brno to visit us on Saturday and took us out to dinner at Golden Hoffer, this wonderful expensive place, and then on Sunday Elder R. and I translated for them as they gave wonderful talks on Sunday during church. They were so sweet, they left us all with Milka and Kinder treats, and chapstick of course. Later last night we had another miracle: when we went to visit N., he lost the key to his gate, and that complicated our situation a little bit, but somehow it worked out and ended up with me giving a half hour long concert on the piano to a congregation of I think Born-Again Christians. Cool stuff, and impossible to tell where it was going from the start. We're really getting a good relationship with J., and I hope we'll be able to make a stir in his Ward, where he's an Elder of his church. Wish us luck, I'm praying for you, and I can feel your prayers for me!

Love you, happy holidays!

Elder Brousseau

"Jéééj!" (Yaaay!)

(Lol, that's the least happy "yay" (Jeeej) I've ever seen, and guess where I saw it? Tesco! Haha, that's right. Christmas season is here.)

Nazdar!

So here's a good place to say thank heavens I did my thanksgiving letter last week. Thank you all for all you do, I know I wasn't able to get to everyone, but no worries, I'll eventually get around to it, haha. This week has been pretty weird, just with training and new things, but not bad, even a little bit, even though honestly I kind of expected it to be. It has been really cool to have these great experiences with prayer that are so potrebne (necessary) for missionaries and really for anyone lacking some sort of peace. We've been following a commitment from a leader to the mission and praying at every given opportunity, and boy has it been great.

So on to some highlights, I don't really have many highlights from the work other than this: The Lord answered my prayer, and we've been able to go at least contacting every single day this week!!! Haha, it's been so great. It's a little bit difficult right now, because we're trying to set the expectation right off the bat that we want to meet THROUGH the Christmas season, and that's kind of a put-off to a lot of people, but goodness, it feels good to be rejected again. Haha, that sounds sort of depressing, but seriously it's my #1 highlight from this week.

Another! I am sick and tired of hearing from different people that I'm prideful. Humility is not something you can just "reach," and I don't appreciate people telling me that I'm not completely there yet. However, working on it again is never a bad thing. Something happened this week, where, during personal study, something stuck out on a page in Preach My Gospel. It was 2nd Timothy 3:1-4. I went to the scripture with the attitude of, "ok, I'm going to be honest with myself and try to recognize which of these traits I can work on." Then came the big one, where I read through it and saw in myself not one, not two, but every single bad trait there was. I just sort of broke down, I was so struck. The awesome news is why it's a highlight of my week, I'm taking like two things at a time and working on them until somebody says, "wow, Elder Brousseau you are (example) very obedient to your parents!" It might take the rest of my life, but why not? In fact, I'm sure it will take the rest of my life, so I'm glad I started now.

Best news ever!!! R's back in the game! For those of you who don't remember, R is the most prepared man I've ever met, and he actually found us and approached us on the street a little while ago to say that he wants to meet, that the things that his wife said weren't true. I am so so so very excited to be able to continue this man's journey in the gospel. We'll see where it goes.

Anyway, that's pretty much everything I can think of, we had training this week, where Elder C introduced me to a wonderful game called Boss Monster, I strongly recommend it. Also, training was great. We talked about improving the little things in work. We found out that the church is now asking all missions to do exactly what we did last year to spread the success that we saw everywhere. That is, find people who are willing to meet during the Christmas season, and give the missionaries something with which they can do Christmas Eve unannounced visits. It's going to be cool, President told us that last year we taught more lessons on Christmas Eve than any other single day throughout the year, which is normally unheard of. We're going to do it again, this time with the "Because of Him" thing the church is releasing for Christmas. We don't get any special previews though unfortunately... Anyway, things are going very well for us in Nitra Klokocina. I love you all to bits, and hope that somehow this email helps you out.

Have the best of weeks,

Elder Bruso

Giving Thanks

Nazdar!

Hey all, I hope that this letter finds you safe and sound like always. I'm in Nitra at the moment, but there's a chance that could be changing real soon, so I'll keep you posted. This week I don't really want to talk about my end of the spectrum, but more I wanted to have a little thank you session and try to get every person I'm emailing, so look out for yourself!

Taylor: Thank you so much for your support, even though it must be difficult for you. You are the best guy I know, so thank you for your example. Thank you as well for being constantly willing to help me out with whatever I need. I'm planning on cashing in on some more of that when I get to see your beautiful face in person again. Try and make sure your life is always pretty ok, but if it's not, that's rough, buddy, and I'll be here for you. Thanks for coming with me on all those random and sometimes really stupid adventures, like all those times to Lagoon and the zoo and wherever else we went. Thanks for letting me be right all those times, too. Heaven knows I needed it.

Dad: Thank you for everything. I don't know how to say it better. I am so grateful for you being a father figure for me. I was noticing the other day, it seems like throughout my life, whenever you haven't had a job, it was because you were needed to take care of me. If you hadn't been there my senior year, I would not be on my mission right now. I feel like as well, if you weren't sending me prayers and encouragement, I wouldn't be staying out here. Missions are hard, but I know, because of you, that they're worth it.

Maddie: Hey, girlie, thank you so much for your kindness to me over the years. When I get back I'm going to need a movie night with you. Thank you for never being ashamed to be my sister and for never looking down on me, even though I make all sorts of mistakes. Thank you for laughing with me so much on that lunch date I took you on before I left. I love you to pieces and then put you all back together again.

Alexis: Thank you for being such a dear. You don't know how much it means to me to have someone like you. My surrogate little sis, haha. Thanks for being Hermione, and for letting Taylor and me be weird. Thanks for always being willing for a party. Thank you for paying attention--I was talking to my companion last night about how grateful I am for that time you asked me to the dance using Legend of Zelda (was it Sadie's?). You mean tons to me, and thank you for it.

Lars: Thank you for pushing yourself all the time. One of the things that has been so amazing for me is reading your emails every week and seeing your example of perseverance. Thank you for being supportive as well, missions are hard and it's easier if you've got other missionaries to look up to. Thank you for being so intense as well. It's uplifting. I remember driving with you everywhere just rocking out to your music. It's great to be able to just feel free like that.

Chels: Thanks so much for being so willing and humble! I haven't really known you for too long, but your emails have meant a lot to me, especially to hear how every week you seem closer to the Lord. Thank you for being a light in Mexico. I wish I could be there to see it. Also, thanks for finding the good in every situation, like all the problems with your house there. You don't seem like someone who wants to complain, and I'm grateful for that.

Daniel: Oh goodness, where do I start? Thank you for being patient with me. We've known each other for more than 12 years, and I know from my family that I'm not exactly the easiest person to deal with. Thank you for serving in Peru. I always looked forward to your emails just because they were so YOU. Thank you for always being ready to laugh, even when it was ridiculous and sort of stupid. Thanks for being a good sport, too. I remember when you came up to the cabin with me, how I KNEW you didn't want to play Halo because you weren't winning, but you did it anyway so that it would be fun for everyone. Thank you for being accepting. You never seem to judge people, no matter how far into the dark side of the nerd realm they drift. Thanks.

Paul: Hey, man, thank you for being such a bang-up good person. It really seems like you love people. Thank you as well for helping me through the MTC. I wouldn't be here now if you hadn't been there back then. Thank you for keeping me in mind. It's cool to know I've got a real friend in you. Remember you've always got a room in my house, whenever you're in the mood.

Elizabeth!!! Thank you for being my life at family gatherings! Haha, you're always so good at making me be happy even when I don't want to be. Thank you for teasing me. That April Fool's joke is legendary. Thank you for your wonderful humility even though you're a freaking prodigy at everything you try. Thank you for always supporting me as well. I can feel your trust every time we talk, and it makes me trust you implicitly. Thanks for your wonderful smile. It brightens everyone's day. Keep calm and carry on, haha.

Favorite Uncle: Thank you for everything. I stand by my statement at my Eagle Court of Honor 100% that you have been an amazing example to me of always treating me like an equal. Thank you for playing chess with me, even though I called you Satan once or twice. Thank you for being ready to have fun all the time. I love your attitude. Thank you as well for being excited for me whenever I've been excited about something. It means the world.

Ryan: Thank you so much for being the most sincere guy I know. That's not saying other people aren't sincere, but I feel like no one is ever going to be able to convince you not to be you. Thanks for being such a stud. Whether it's guarding, the MTC, Halo, Left 4 Dead, or a mission, you always do it great. I love having your example to look up to, so keep it up. Steadfastness in all things.

Mark and Alisa Brousseau Family: Thank you so much for being the first to do things. I've been getting a very strong testimony of being the first to say yes, but more importantly, being the first to do. It always seems like when someone needs help in our family or when there's a gathering to be done, you're the first to volunteer service or help for it. Thank you for being so into sports as well. That's always helped me to push myself in everything I do, just remembering the attitude of, "It doesn't hurt that bad! Walk it off! Rub some dirt on it!" Haha. Most of all, thank you for being accepting of me. I have always felt very welcome with each member of your family, without regard to the situation.

Britta: I don't know where to start. Thanks for being such a help all the time. It seems like you are always building others up. Thank you for being supportive and loving, even when I haven't been doing strictly the smartest things, and sometimes, even when they were plain dumb. Thank you for being such a good example of loving your family. It has helped motivate me to strengthen my own family relationships, especially with my parents. Thank you for always asking permission as well. You're really not a person to force yourself into things, and it helps me remember that I shouldn't force my way into everything. Thanks for everything.

Steve: Oh boy. Thanks for your ridiculous smile, you can always tell when Steve is happy. Thanks for laughing at my stupid jokes. You make my day. Thanks for telling me all about Canyon View and video games and movies. Thank you for forgiving me so many times. You are the perfect little brother for me, and I wouldn't ever want it to change. Thank you.

Ricky and Karin Burton Family: Thank you for being so happy towards me all the time. Thank you, Uncle Ricky, for laughing at me whenever I deserved it, even if I didn't want it. Thanks for being so kind to my parents. It's amazing to me. Thank you as well for telling me all about the boys. I always get the perfect picture in my head for what's going on there, and it makes me proud to know you.

Poop, I'm running out of time, I'm gonna try and go quicker.

Gavin: Thanks for being the best Scout leader ever, your advice has helped me so much out in the field. Thank you for being supportive and humble, and for helping me to see the potential of the priesthood. I love you to death.

Grandma and Grandpa Burton: Thank you for being so happy! Thank you, grandma, for always being loving and for being so careful. I am confident that I am still alive because of my grandma's prayers. Thank you for hanging out with me and helping me to always remember my family and where I come from. Thanks for giving me a great family I can brag about to everyone I meet.

Kennen: Wow, buddy, thank you for being my bro. Thank you for being excited to be friends all the time. I am super grateful we're so close. Thank you for being the type of guy you can just chill with. I remember going to school with you for a day and having it be super fun and just the best de-stress. Thanks for being so freaking talented. It helps me push myself to be better. Thanks for your example on your mission. Make sure you find those Brousseaus and baptize them! Thanks most of all for helping me all those many years ago to feel accepted. You and Alan Phillips in Mrs. Siebach's class helped me so much. Love you.

Katie! Thank you for being so much like another mom! You have got to be just the best companion ever. You just take care of everyone. Thanks for being so impressed with me. It never ceases to amaze me how good you can make someone feel. Thank you for coming with me to do baptisms. That was something I'll never forget. Thank you for helping me with all those girls that I dated, too. You are just a miracle worker, and your excitement is contagious. Thanks for including me. You're the best. Never forget it.

Cesar: Thank you for everything, man. You're always the guy I think of if I want to know how to be happy in a random situation. Thanks for being kind to me, even if I wasn't being kind back. Thank you for always saying hi when we saw each other places. You really help people know they're your friends. Thanks for beating me at chess. I've always needed a little help being humble. Thanks for playing scum on the scout trips, and for tanning out in the sun at Lake Powell, and for teasing me about dating people. Those memories are amazing for me, and I hope they are for you too.

Drake: Thank you for being persistent. Thank you for always making an effort to be my friend. I remember back when you were in 7th grade, walking over to your house a half hour before the bus came, just so we could talk and mess around. Thanks for seeing something fun in every little thing, even plasma cars and trash cans. Thanks for being so sincere, too. I'm really looking forward to seeing how that blesses you on your mission.

Ok, well, I think that's everyone. Time to go!

Love,

Elder Brousseau

(Editor's note: this last paragraph was a full page below the rest of the email, and we only stumbled upon it accidentally. Chris has always loved to tease his mother and this is no exception...)

P.S. Thank you, MOM!!!!! Haha, I bet you thought I forgot you, huh?!? Well, NOT TODAY! Thank you for being so brilliant. You are the reason that I want to be better at things, because I see your thirst for knowledge. Thank you for always being excited for me, and proud of me, and supportive of my craziness, and happy for me. Thank you for being there, all the time. I've been giving a lot of thought to the day, when, I called you during the middle of school and you checked me out and took me to Apollo Burger just so we could sit and talk about how I was scared to go on a mission. That helped me so much. Thank you for pushing me to be better. Thank you for being so good at English. I could always ask you anything, and now it's paying off when others need help. Thank you for never freaking out at me when I told you something I did, like when I broke my window, or when I broke my leg, or when I got hit by that car, or when I wanted to go have a sleep-over at the cabin. I love you to death, and I wish I could remember everything I want to tell you thank you for. You're the best. Also Happy Birthday again.

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.