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

Dangers of too much halusky...

Beautiful Trecin, Slovakia

Nazdar! 

Haha, now my family knows how to say that and what it means!

Weight pre-halusky

Heaping Halusky!

On the downside, I don't want to have to go through the process of having my language skills decrease like almost every return missionary has to worry about when they get home... But good news, I got to Skype yesterday with my family because of a huge miracle that's happened here! The miracle involves my upstairs neighbor, a retired biochemist who really misses her kids, and my mission president who gave us permission to do something usually completely forbidden to missionaries (use a non-member's computer). Just cool stuff.

Conundrum!

Unbelievable finish!

So into our week. Monday was basically just a huge Zazitok. My companion and myself had the family home evening that every missionary dreams of: New family that we tracted into, beautiful young married couple who have 3 darling children, all of them, even the 3 year old are bi-lingual, and they just love you on sight. We played a game (in English) called Shadows under Camelot or something like that, it was kind of a weird game, but I liked it, it was nice. Afterwards, to reward ourselves for our hard work/success, we decided to use an extra potato making Halusky. Holy crap. I made so much I felt prompted to take a picture of my weight before I started eating. There was 4.2 pounds of Halusky that was on my plate and I ate it all and then we couldn't really do anything the rest of the night but lie down, I don't think I'm doing that again anytime soon...

Weight post-halusky

On to conference with President McConkie

The rest of my week has actually been pretty boring up until a couple of things that have happened. 1: We received a paper this week from our Lawyer in Bratislava with proof that we are a real registered church here, and that we really do have the right to preach and advertise and tract and contact people, because some missionaries have been running into the problem of people calling the police on them when they tract their houses. I refuse to say whether or not I was one of these. 2: We got to take a walk around Trencin with a man and see all of these really cool things that you would never think of looking at if you weren't a Slovak who lives there, such as these pill boxes that are all over the place because this city is constantly prepared for war, but doesn't want to look like they are. Kinda scary, but really cool.

Standing room only

On Friday, all of the Elders who are serving in Nitra came and stayed in our little apartment overnight, and we had interviews with President. Our President is SO inspired, and I just love him to death, it's so cool. On that note from before though, most entertaining night of my mission so far, five other missionaries and myself all in the same little flat just being crazy missionaries, it was so great. Then the next day we had the anniversary party for the day Slovakia was Dedicated by President Uchtdorf. That party was crazy, I don't know if I can describe it in words, it was just amazing to see all these members from all over Slovakia filling up our ward-house, it was so cool, and spiritual. And then we had gulas. I think I'm going to be the illest gulas-maker when I get home. Or maybe not. I haven't actually tried cooking it yet.

Celebrating the church in Slovakia

Then Sunday happened. Just had an awesome talk that I gave and a cool day at church where we finally had an actual full presiding...spot, it was really cool, and our investigator came to church and I could tell he had a really good experience, so that was exciting. I hope that you are all doing very well and that my mom gets very healthy.
Love you all so much,

Elder Chris Brousseau

Follow Spiritual Promptings

Angels of Slovakia!

Čauko!

Hey all, gosh, I know I've been saying this my whole mission, but everything is going by SO fast. So first off, I want to start off with a shout out to some angels in my life, I love you mom, you're SO wonderful! I was talking with my companion earlier this week about how weird it is for me to think that you served a mission, and how much it's helped me to respect you more. Two of my favorite gals, don't think I forgot about you 2, there are always letters in the mail, I just can't wait for you to get all of them! My favorite cousin my age, thank you SO much, your emails mean the world to me, they're always so thoughtful and entertaining, and gosh, you are a good storyteller, you're probably the best princess ever. Anyway, I'm just super grateful that I've been surrounded by such amazing people and I'm very grateful for each of you that I'm emailing as well, believe it or not, each of you has been a very good influence on me, and I appreciate it.

District Conference in Czech/Slovak

So I don't have very much time to write, I hope that I'll be able to get my ideas across quickly in ways that make sense. So this week we had a whole lot of crazy. We had to switch up like 9 lessons because we had Zone Conference & District Conference on the days we were supposed to have them. On the bright side, Zone Conference was awesome, we had a visit from the temple president in Freiberg, Germany, and also an area 70 from Finland. The Finnish man's talk was very weird, I think it made sense in Finnish, but translated into Czech it kind of seemed to lose a lot of meaning which was unfortunate. We had the opportunity on Saturday to go to the adult session of District Conference, which was AMAZING, and I was so blessed, I got to meet a lot of the youth in Slovakia, with whom I have not yet had the privilege of serving, especially those in places like Bratislava and Kosice. I'm so grateful for that opportunity to go to both sessions of District Conference, and I heard that they're from now on allowing all of the youth to go to it as well. I'm not sure why, nor if it is true throughout the world, but it's a very cool opportunity.

Following spiritual promptings

New Friends

We've had a lot of miracles this past week, one of which stands out particularly in my mind. We had just had a lesson cancel on us, and we were left with nothing to do but contact along this little path next to the river for 2 and a half hours, which I was not looking forward to at all. We went all the way up the path to the edge of Trencin, without meeting a single person who would even say hello to us. When we turned back however, I had an impression to go check out a little park they have for Cub Scouts here, and when we went there, down on the riverbank we saw a man taking pictures of the sunset. We watched him for a second, and I had an impression to go talk to him about Easter. We went up and started a conversation about Slovak traditions for Easter, and he was sort of awkwardly talking with us, because he already knew missionaries (like everyone here), and didn't really want to talk, but he was surprised that I wasn't trying to talk to him about what I believe about Easter, but what his people believed, so he talked to us despite his lack of interest and let us teach a lesson on the Savior, and then while we were ending our lesson, another man walked up and said hi to the first man and asked him who we were and the first man introduced us. The first man left then and thanked us for talking with him, and the second man immediately asked us what we were talking about and we told him and he proceeded to teach us everything about Slovak traditions, even cutting branches off of trees to show us how to make korbaciky, and asking questions about our church the whole time. Apparently, he had heard and met with us before, but he also was very surprised by the fact that we wanted to talk to him about him. I think I'm going to try this strategy more often, it got me 2 solid lessons.

I love you all, hope that helped your day a little.

Elder Brousseau

Spring rains in Trencin

Beautiful Slovak Sunset

Easter in Trencin, Slovakia

Springtime in Trencin

Nazdar!

Hey all, so the past week has just been a blast, let me tell you a little about it. So first off, it's starting to just be BEAUTIFUL outside. All these trees that just bugged me in the winter because of how black and ugly they were are turning out to have just gorgeous pink and purple blossoms all over them, it's awesome! Also, I think I see a metaphor in that last sentence. Dang it...But anyway, Let's talk for a sec about the Slovak Easter, they have some pretty off-the-heezy traditions that I TOTALLY want to get into when I get home, here are just a few of them:

1. First of all, Easter lasts a week here. Like not the whole, "Oh, this is big Saturday, or green Friday, or whatever else people celebrate for that week," It's EASTER all week. They call it Velkanoc, which translates as big night, which is kind of weird for me because the only record we have of a big night happening at any point in history is in the Book of Mormon...0_o...

Velkunocna baba--a traditional Easter meal

2. On Saturday morning is when the first of the festivities start, everyone is supposed to decorate their trees with painted eggs and ribbons and stuff until it's all completely gic, just great. That night, they also make this special dish called Velkunocna baba, which I went and learned how to make with a member. It's basically potatoes, eggs, bread, sausage, and parsley with some special water you put on it before you bake it that had onions and garlic and beans soaking in it for a while. It's WAY good, haha.

Easter meal with a Slovakian church member

3. Sunday is the day everyone sits around and enjoys each other's company, and so of course we had a great Easter program at church, we watched Nachadzanie viery v Krista, which is just classic. It reminds me a lot of every Sunday back home with my sister. Then our neighbor upstairs invited us over and said she wanted to be our Slovak grandma because she's lonely and we're 2 nice, polite young American boys, so she cooked us this wonderful lunch and talked with us for a while, it was wonderful, and then for dinner, we got invited over to a member's house. She is just a little angel, I have no doubt she's going straight to heaven when she dies, and I don't care where I am in the world, I want to be there at her funeral. She always makes the Elders eat a TON of food though, so that was pretty hard, especially considering we had had that big lunch only like 2 hours before she invited us over...But the tradition is just sit around and be lazy unless you have guests.

Meal number two on Easter

4. This is the cool one, on Monday morning, all the men in Slovakia have prepared these special little whips called korbaciky, and they go on what they call "Easter visits," where they run into somebody's house, find the women, and whip them with the thing and pour water on them. Obviously they don't whip them hard--that's mean. It's just supposed to be a symbolic thing. But here's the cool part. After they get whipped, the women are supposed to give the men chocolate and eggs and if they don't have those, money! It's awesome! And before all you feminists back home start getting indignant, the women get to do the same thing back to the men on Tuesday, no worries.

So this past week, we've just been relishing the culture. Our investigators are doing ok, it's really difficult to get people to church here, but we got one investigator to come to church, and also several less-actives we've been working with were able to come, but not one lady we've been teaching. I'm starting to be really worried about her. She's having more and more doctor's appointments, but it doesn't seem like she's getting any better. Keep her in your prayers so she can be baptized. Another investigator doesn't want to stop drinking and smoking, even though he hardly does it anyway, and whenever he does, he feels SUPER guilty, but he's not drinking coffee anymore, so we're making steps. We have a new investigator who says he's an aetheist, but it's really cool. He taught us God's entire plan for us in perfect sequence, almost word for word, having never met missionaries before or heard of Mormons. He just used a little bit different vocabulary. For example, instead of saying that God created us, he said we are a genetic experiment of an extra-terrestrial. The cool thing is he believes that the genetic experiment is for US, not for God (he calls God 'Frankie'), so that we could see if we were able to follow our "codex" or inner rule-book, which our creator imbedded in our subconscious. SO cool, I'm really excited to keep teaching him, and he speaks the 2nd best English of any Slovak I've heard, and he learned just from listening to American music like Red hot Chili Peppers and the Beatles, he's just awesome.

Trencin, Slovakia

I love you all so much! I have a lot more time to write, but I really have no idea what to say. Um...mom, I put in my lasagna tomato sauce, which I make, I use basil and bay leaves and oregano, and romano cheese, it's pretty good, and I found this place where I can get some meat that's really close to beef (I'm scared to ask what it actually is, but it's way good), and then I use these 2 kinds of cheese that you won't be able to get in America because it's illegal to sell unpasteurized milk products there, but Edaim and Bryndza, and yeah, it is pretty fabulous. My companions so far have all been really really grateful that I know how to cook, especially things like pizza and that french toast. I also figured out how to make Pirohy, I'll have to send a picture sometime, they're like ravioli, but you make it from potatoes and you can put stuff inside, it's way good. I swear, if anybody ever asks me what I did on my mission, I'm just going to say, "dishes." I do SO many dishes, just because I don't really mind hand-washing things anymore...weird, huh? Tell the future missionaries in my ward back home I'm so proud of them. I can't wait for those guys to get out into the field, they're just going to love it. And to my brother, you're going to love going on a mission someday, I can just see it. Does anyone know how a missionary in Tonga is doing, he won't respond so my emails. Anyway, Love you lots again, I hope you feel that every day.

Lubim t'a, Zelam vam vsetko najlepsie,

Elder Chris Brousseau

Birthday Gifts!

1st Counselor in the Branch Presidency

Nazdar!

Hey all, just winding up wondering how every week here except the ones I don't like seem to go by SUPER fast. I'm so happy to be able to continue being in Trencin now that I have a chance to explore it all here! My companion has been out for 2 months longer than me, so we're both just barely out of training, and our Slovak and Czech has already started to drastically improve being together because we were both really good coming into the transfer, and I'm really excited to continue feeling that improvement. He is exactly the kind of missionary I love serving with. He's hard-working like I am, he loves music, he's not scared of telling me his opinions, he doesn't give the flipping silent treatment, and he wants to explore the city as much as I do. Try new ideas like going tracting with a survey in parts that I still haven't seen? He's ready and raring to go. I really like President McConkie's idea here as well. He figures if he splits the work, e.g. I'm the head of the church (1st Counselor in the Branch Presidency), my companion's the head of the district (DL), then we will both be less stressed and able to get more done. So far, he's exactly right. Honestly, I'm still not looking forward at all to having to be a district or zone leader, and I'm grateful that so far that opportunity hasn't fallen on my shoulders, but I'm starting to look at the idea of training (especially follow-up) with a little less harsh view. All of my companions so far have told me they wish that I had trained them, so maybe that's a sign.

Playing antique pianos--we miss his music at home!

As far as this week goes, our numbers weren't too good because we have been getting so many activities ready for the coming transfer. Napriklad, we have a concert in TWO days!!! AAAAHHH! I'm SO not ready, especially for all the new songs, and I'm probably going to be taking a lot of time today and tomorrow to practice and get ready for that. But tonight we also have an idea from the Sisters that I like and we're trying. We've noticed that when new people come to watch conference, they're not sure what to expect and they kind of get overwhelmed by 2 hours of crazy spirit filled wonderfulness, so we decided to try something new. We handed out a MILLION fliers this last week for a sort of, Come-find-out-what-we-actually-believe-because-those-DVD's-the-J~Dubs-pass-out-are-super-rough-and-there's-nothing-even-close-to-right-on-them night. 

#followtheprophet#conference#mormons#REPRESENT#supyo#instareal#IheartMadsters

So chic!

Speaking of conference, just want to tell everyone, if you didn't watch it, you get up off your couch and go give that thing a hard look, there wasn't a single word said out of place, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, EVEN during Richard G. Scott's talk, which is surprising because I think he could make a KILLING charging to read bed-time stories. I've got myself a new favorite speaker now too, this is coming since the MTC: Russell M. Nelson, Holy quotable! His talk on truth POUNDED something I've been thinking for years: that religion and science shouldn't be enemies in any sense of the word, they both describe truth and the only way to excel in either is through revelation. Just google the cotton gin and find out how that guy finally figured it out. My favorite talk during conference was President Uchtdorf on gratitude. That really hit home for every Slovak missionary as we've just had a recent convert get her records removed from the church. She was baptized here in Trencin in December, but she got into a discussion with a member about some really really deep, controversial doctrine, and decided that she never had a testimony and refused to let her children be baptized, and removed her records. The antidote for grief is gratitude. The antidote for fear is faith. The antidote for pride is simplicity. This conference gave us every answer we needed as a mission to continue in faith and to get work done. I am so grateful that we have prophets on the Earth. Real. Living. Prophets. It's just an added bonus that they don't seclude themselves in some cave because everyone is trying to kill them.

Birthday packages!

I love this gospel so much. We should be baptizing one investigator either on this Saturday or next, and another investigator is working toward May 10th. I am so grateful to be a part in these investigators conversion processes, and I can't wait to share happy news with you in the (very) near future. 

Even the sister missionaries were captivated by the haul.

As for right now, I got 2 packages delivered to me by angels from Prague, and I am very happy to announce that I have REAL AMERICAN FOOD!!! Haha, oh my GOSH, everything was so PERFECT! I got some TIES, and some MAC and FLIPPING cheese. I unwrapped some BEEF. I got some MAPLE SYRUP oh, and you have to be careful with Mapleine. If you haven't heard how Bill Cosby talks in the beginning of his chocolate cake for breakfast routine, go listen to it, because that's how I'm talking in my head writing this. I was astounded by how much joy can come to missionaries with just some noodles and boullion in a package. You know if anything my mission so far has really increased my patriotism, America is just amazing, it could use a little clean-up in the politics area and the "whose-country-are-we-going-to-save-from-communism" area and the "tell-its-people-everything-it's-doing" area, but otherwise it's fantastic and I'm blessed to be a part of such a great nation. I love you all, and I want to throw a shout-out to my uncle, thanks for your email, haha, to my cousin, really got me good, huh? And to her again, WHAT THE FLIP WERE YOU THINKING?!? Rats, you got me good. And Thank you so much to Grandma and Grandpa, leave it to my grandparents to just see a need and fill it. I had the best French Toast ever last night because of you two, thank you thank you thank you SO much. And thank you also to my aunt's family, your prayers are felt every day, I'm excited to use your present for a finding technique I have (Teenagers here really love American gum, but they don't sell it here). Thank you also to another aunt's family, I don't remember if I thanked you already, but your advice about the soccer players got us a new investigator, so thank you so much, I'm really grateful, and so is the Lord.

Milujem t'a tak vel'a,

Elder Chris Brousseau

Have you ever seen anyone so happy to eat mac & cheese??!!

Happy birthday, Elder Brousseau!

Beautiful hike in Slovakia

Ahojte!

Hey so first off, it's my B~Day tomorrow! Jééééj...Lol. I don't think it's very fair considering I've pretty much forgotten everyone else's birthdays while I've been gone, so I'm working to make sure we don't celebrate at all, because basically the Sisters haven't been able to get out of me when my birthday actually IS, and I just got a new companion, so that's no prob. I'll celebrate on a day when we're not working. Beyond that, big news. So on Monday last week, we didn't really do anything, but TUESDAY... Haha, that was the Sister's year mark, and boy did we celebrate. We went to the Hotel Alžbeta for district luch, and I spent 30 Euros on my plate!!! We saved up for it all transfer so that it wouldn't mess with our weekly shopping, and haha, I'm so grateful that we did, because afterwards we were able to have a really successful day, and that was just the icing on the cake.

Sr. Missionaries in Trencin, Slovakia

The Kebab man

Wednesday: We went on a vylet with a guy who works at my favorite Kebab stand. He took us to a couple of castles where we learned about the lady who has the world records as the biggest serial killer of all time, it was nuts, but the important part is that we were able to really just talk with him, and he's such a cool guy. He's been all over the world, places like Nepal and New Zealand, and basically the philosophies he's gained from staying in tiny villages and just working with people his whole life are basic doctrines of our church, for example: don't push anyone into anything they don't want to do, all you can do is invite, everyone has their agency. On top of that, he invited his friend to come and meet with us afterwards, which went great, and she is VERY friendly, oh my goodness. Within 5 seconds of meeting me, she kissed me, I was NOT expecting that and I almost flipped out, but I just held it and said that she shouldn't do that because I'm a missionary. Anyway, that's my surprising announcement of the week, on a better note, I'm getting a haircut from her tomorrow, and I'm hoping she'll become a new investigator.

A sister teaching wreath weaving

Thursday we went up to a member sister's house, the one who's teaching us how to make the baskets out of newspapers. She lives in the Czech republic, it was really cool, and she has such a strong testimony, I can hardly describe it, suffice it to say, she doesn't have a lot of money, but she bought an old car, and drives about a half hour to church every Sunday, crossing the border between the countries. Awesome lady.

Acting Branch President Brousseau

Friday We got ready for general conference. No, I haven't seen it yet, we'll be watching it this week because it's not translated into Slovak yet. I heard there was supposed to be some big announcement that happened. Suffice it to say, they no longer send us DVD's so I'm in charge of making the dvd's for conference for our branch. Other big news, for about 2 weeks, I'm serving as Branch President in Trencin, how weird is that?

My new companion from Cedar City

Saturday was transfers. My former companion is now serving in Kosice, and I have a new companion who came just a few hours ago. He's from Cedar City, and he's pretty cool. I'm excited to serve with him. That's everything I can think of right now. One of the sisters in the branch confessed to us yesterday that she now feels ready to start working on her testimony again, and honestly, I'm so grateful and excited for her, she really is a saint. We're going to continue working with our investigators, and I would be surprised genuinely if we saw less than 2 baptisms this transfer, we are in a wonderful position with our investigators.

I love you all, thank you for the Birthday wishes, they mean the world to me!

Elder Chris Brousseau