Surprise Visit, Baptism, and BYU Dancers!

JULY 27, 2015

Nazdar!

Vazeni citatelia (Dear Readers), I hope that these letters please themselves to you! Here we are at the start of another amazing week in the life of a Slovak missionary, and I'm feeling that most important thing that I can write today to you is about the scriptures that have influenced my life and mission. But we'll get to that in a minute.

First, we have some sweet progressing investigators, first, M4...Haha, M4... He is the greatest of guys, he said a quote the other day that is just so him, I asked him what his childhood was like and he said, "I did not have a childhood, and so I am living it now." He really is such a child. But he had a really spiritual time talking to my companion the other day during a concert practice, and has decided to be baptized. We'll see what happens, but he put a deadline on it, that it needs to happen BEFORE September, so chances are I'll get to see it.

M1 is currently having a rough time, which has become pretty usual. She currently is wondering why the members gossip and keep secrets from each other if it's "Christ's church," which is fun because I think we all wonder the same thing at one time or another. The fact is, that no one is perfect, and we can't condemn a church because it let sinners come. He who hath no sin may cast the first stone, right? Worthiness does not require perfection, but honest and unceasing effort. She's doing really well, just not currently on a desirable path for us.

I. is awesome! She is so very honest, which is something I've come to value so much more here. Being honest is something where, when you're dealing with matters of a sensitive nature, for example, religion, is completely a must. Think about trying to lie directly to God. That's something which we all agree is less than appropriate e.g. Satan, Cain, etc. Anyway, back to the subject at hand, She doesn't believe in God STILL, however, we're trying something a little bit different with her. We just want her to talk to God, be as honest with him as she is with us. Like, if she hates him, tell him, if she doesn't believe in him, tell him, if she feels stupid about talking to him, let him know. The theory is, that no matter what she's saying, if she has a sincere heart and real intent, God will manifest himself to her. So now we just wait.

1.) Ok, now "to the nitty-gritty." I'd like to start with my mission plaque scripture: 1 Nephi 13:22. When you read that you might think I'm joking, but wait, there's more to it than just a sweet answer to JW's (they never want to read it, but you tell them they won't get an answer from God other than through the scriptures, it's so fun). So basically, imagine a slightly bigger but younger Elder Brousseau who's not an Elder yet. He is desperately scared to go on a mission. He has everything in life that he considers needed/good (e.g. Food, Parents, Piano, Girlfriend, Swimming, Xbox, Good High-Quality Friends), and doesn't see what he will gain going through two years without that stuff, talking about something he doesn't feel he understands. He tells his Mom he's scared, and she takes him to Apollo Burger during school (bloopbloopbloopbloop Level Up+1!) and she tells him that he doesn't really need anything other than a basis in testimony, and maybe it would be a good idea to read the Book that you're going to be talking about again. So I get there and realize something monumental: Nephi didn't understand the meaning of the [Bible]. Isn't that interesting? He was doing missionary work, essentially just trusting God that he would let him know what it was all about later. And God does! Really sweet. Fast forward a while. I'm so glad that I read that and allowed it to influence me the way it did, that is SO important to me. God hasn't revealed everything to me, in fact, the more I learn, the more I thirst to understand better, but I know that there is a sense to everything and that patience many times is more important than immediate results.

2.) 1 Corinthians 9:20-23 SOOO profound. I felt unsuccessful in much that I did as a missionary until I read this and realized what I was doing wrong. It's not wrong to be proud of being American, especially from Utah (I've never been more proud of that in my life), but it is wrong to be more proud of that than love the people of your mission. Missionary work changed for me when I started trying more than anything to be Slovak. People see, and people recognize your efforts. They feel your love more poignantly when you express it in their native way. You become more Christ-like trying to love people in the best way that they will understand. For me, being a consecrated missionary has been trying to be Slovak. Trying to be Slovak has deepened my love for God, and the scriptures, seeing them applied in the lives of more than just me and my family/friends. I love love love this application.

( 20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;

 21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.

 22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

 23 And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.)

Hey, I don't have much time, so I'm going to just end, which is sorta awkward, but just know I'm so happy to be here, and I know the church is true. Be good!

Elder Brousseau

JULY 13, 2015

Nazdar!

Dang, well, I don't have much to say, I had a great week, and I am very tired. We're going to a BYU dance concert tonight, in which Cayel Tregagle is performing. I got to give him a tour of Blava earlier, and his group took first place in Praha last week, so that's cool. The dance group here is so full of life and energy, it is SO cool.

Monday: I already told you about Monday last week, but the fun thing is: in the last week, we've given 3 tours to big groups of Mormons in Blava, so I daresay I'm getting kind of good at it.

Tuesday: Nothing super big of note happened, other than our lesson with M1. We thought it was totally obvious that she prayed for us, but when I pointed it out during the lesson, it totally blew her mind. We'll hope that quickens her progress.

Wednesday: We had a really strange experience, where the lessons we thought were going to be absolutely terrible turned out amazing and the ones where we thought would be great turned out nasty. Haha, we taught a super flirty girl who we thought had bad expectations, but when we showed her the white handbook, she immediately took it as her mission to help us keep all of the rules. GREAT! We also taught a kid who we think might be a drug user, but he agreed to change and be baptized, we'll see what happens.

Thursday: Tried to contact the 2nd of the referrals Dad gave me. Turns out she moved a long time ago. Not sure what to do with that, but we got some great pizza. The first referral just sort of slammed their door in my face and yelled at me, then pretended like they weren't home, I'm not sure why, they just probably had a bad day.

Friday: We had a really fun day, the best part by far was heading up to the Batkovci to have dinner as a District. There's such a special spirit in the homes of the Branch Presidents here. They are all such elect men, I love it. Also, there's a return missionary who is staying with them while doing an internship here, in something that really interests me. Maybe I won't be majoring in computer science after all...

Saturday: We helped out S., and taught M1 again, then had a blow out at game night, there were 18 people there! So much fun, we almost didn't have enought activities!!!

Sunday: Wonderful as always, we taught W1 after church. The only hard thing is: M1 is still having a super rough time coping with the sacrament, and it's eating away at her resolve. Please pray for her, we know that if she doesn't take the step now, her life will go downhill really fast.

I'll tell you about today next week.

I love you guys, and I'm really proud of all of you.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Brousseau

JULY 6, 2015

Nazdar!

Well, in the words of an apostle, this week I think has been embodied by a phrase: "Go to the edge where miracles happen. Turn to the Lord in prayer, and go to the place where you will cry, "Without thy help I will fall. Help me fly." Welcome to the apostolic work." This week I feel like I appreciate the idea that the only Elders in the church are the apostles and the missionaries. Our mission president at training talked about how his job now for the church is to keep track of us for the rest of our lives, so we've been blessed/cursed with a young mission president who will live for quite a while, and one of my previous companions told me that, like it or not, coming to this mission in particular is training for us to be used later. Learning the things that we learn, seeing and feeling the culture and the church and the spirit here seem to be especially potent.

There's something special about serving a mission that really allows you to receive a deeper understanding of who you are, who you were, and who you're meant to be. I have found on my mission a real love for the gospel, and an appreciation for the connectivity of all things. I'll get to this more later.

So first in the week, I found out that I had been volunteered by my district to try and improve upon the gift of tongues. We had a "Meet the Mormons" night planned for Wednesday night, and previously in every other area, people who don't speak English have been presented with a paper that has a summary of the events in Slovak or whatever language they speak, just with main ideas so that they can continue to watch. In ours, they wanted something a little bit more, so I was volunteered to do a live translation into Slovak of the whole movie, so on Monday, we got ahold of a copy and watched it during language study and dinner so that I could write down the main ideas and remind myself of how to say certain things. It was one of the hardest things I've done on my whole mission, it was a lot more demanding than I thought it would be, but I got it done, and I'm really happy with the work I was able to do. I'm so grateful for the gift of tongues, and the abilities that the Lord has blessed the missionaries with throughout the world, this work would not be possible without his help and guidance. I really like a quote from a previous general authority, "If this church were not true, the missionaries would have destroyed it a long time ago."

We got to help out Brat V. last week, which is a special opportunity for us, he just barely moved into Bratislava, and he's not really one to ask for help, but it was really cool. We helped him clear a lot out behind his apartment.

We got to meed Elder Ferrell's family, who are really cool. I really like Elder Ferrell, he is a great man, and you can tell how much he loves his mission. I would greatly like to make a similar impression when I leave. His sister was really entertaining too, she had gone on her mission to San Antonio Texas right after the filming of the first District, so she got to tell us some funny stories about the missionaries we've been watching for our whole missions.

M1 has had a real roller-coaster of a week. She had her Birthday on the thirtieth, and on that day, her parents came to take her away and sever contact with us. Suffice it to say, she stayed, but she's pretty stressed. She was in fact, so  stressed that she couldn't even answer the phone on Friday without crying, so she wouldn't even answer when we called. But Sunday was great, she came to church, where she had a pretty good experience, and tried to take the sacrament. The best though was teaching her with the entire Burton family. Uncle Ricky was really involved, making sure that she felt understood and comfortable, which he's really good at, and Johnny bore awesome testimony that she should be baptized. At the end of the meeting she was so happy, she has changed her attitude from No, I won't be baptized to, I want to be baptized. Isn't that a stark contrast?

The Burtons also helped out with M2. She has been kind of out of the loop the last little while, but this opened the door to keep talking to her, we're going to start trying to get her more integrated, specifically by making the decision to give her to the Sisters to teach. We hope that this will make her journey to baptism a whole lot shorter and more bearable.

On Thursday we had training, which was awesome, my favorite part was the AP's segment, where they went over extremely awkward contacting situations and how to deal with them. Mine was really great, I had to contact someone in a tram who would then yell at me to stop bothering everyone. It was so scary even in a practice, especially thinking of the memories I have of things like this happening before. It was a real spiritual builder to know there were other missionaries who have found ways to push through it and be truly fearless, and it's helped me to be better since then. The best part was, we were blessed to be put in cabins where there were people interested in the church who are often in Blava both to and from training, and we came out of it with a new investigator and an almost new investigator (she just needs to set up again).

On Friday we got to go with the Sisters to S's apartment, which was SWEET. She is an inactive member from really complicated reasons, because she is one of the most faithful people I've ever met. She just needs to come to church in BLAVA a little more often. She has a special talent of making everyone feel like they're the most important person in the world, which I am so jealous of, she's like Aunt Alisa and Aunt Karen.

We had a really cool fourth of July, where we celebrated in the building with sloppy joes and potatoe salad and soda and listened to traditional American music, super great. We also had a cool meeting with GM, a less active, who it seems doesn't really want to become active, but is slowly coming around. We'll continue to work with him. He came to church this week, so that's good.

Sunday was so special. After church, we tried to go out to Dlhe Diely to contact a referral, but the tramlines were closed that direction for some reason, so we ended up walking back to the building, and on that walk, I had a really bad feeling. It was HOT, I was not happy, I didn't think anyone would want to talk to us, and so of course, without us contacting anyone, a horde of people wanted to talk to us. Literally. It started with about 10 or 12 girls from Austria who came to Blava to as part of a dance group, then on the way back, a Tina Murphy from South Carolina who was part of a tour, and a couple of other women from the same tour group. Then a man stopped us in the heat of the sun on the main namestie where slowly a group gathered around us to talk to us. So cool. We almost missed the Burtons because we were talking to this group of people. Then we walked to Hviezdoslavovo, where we first saw Papa Johns and one of his daughters, and we got to talk to them for a little bit and the Cottles happened to walk by so we introduced them, and then the Burtons came up. I remember how absolutely surreal it was for a second, seeing my family in the place where I was serving, and not thinking it was real life, but that quickly went away. It was SO cool. We showed them a couple of cool little things here in Blava, and went to dinner at a really traditional Slovak place, it was cool, but the best part was sitting in the building for about an hour and teaching M1 with my family. Missionary work is by no means just for missionaries. Members are the best, if you're a member, help your missionaries, and if you're a missionary, put some trust in your members, they won't let you down.

Then today, just in time to practice for next week, we were taking a quick walking tour when of course out of the blue, about 12 people show up all happy to see the Elders. A couple of families in the Air Force stopped here in Blava on about a 4 hour lay-over, and we were able to show them around. Again, SO cool, I asked Sister Cottle after, why are Mormons just the best people ever? I don't know if I'll ever have an answer, but I think it's because of the gospel. I'm so excited as well, both families have oldest daughters about mission age, one of them has her call waiting for her right now while they travel, and the other one is trying to decide whether she should go. Elder Cahoon and I were able to help her get a little bit closer to the decided end of serving a mission, and that was cool. Also, I've been shown that missionaries have a much stronger taste for Halusky than normal people, about which I have mixed feelings.

Anyway, I'm so happy this week, it truly has been full of miracles. It's funny how the Lord works, on the weeks where you need absolutely no pick up, because you're working hard, and you feel good because you're working hard, he just sends you a whole lot of people just for kicks and giggles. So cool.

Lots of love,

Elder Brousseau

JUNE 29, 2015

Nazdar!

Wow, I am so excited to still be able to write to you! This week has been quite bittersweet for me, but thankfully a lot more sweet than the former. We had the pleasure of entertaining Elder Cahoon (my new companion) and Elder Sherf (going home with Elder Ringger) in our apartment last Monday and Tuesday before they left for Prague, and we were all able to go teach M2 together. That meeting was kind of tough, it started out with her being super excited for baptism, like SUPER excited, we were planning everything out, and then we got to our lesson portion for the day: tithing. That was probably a poop decision, throughout the week she disappeared again, didn't show up for her baptismal interview and is being kind of hysterical, and I'm attributing it mostly to that bad timing. Too bad, now we're going to have to wait another month for her to calm down.

M1 is having a pretty hard time as well, her Mom when she went to Ziar nad Hronom left her standing on the doorstep at night, just because she hasn't completely split off contact with us. We love M1 so much, and she knows that, which is why she hasn't, after a year of meeting, she's finally starting to trust the missionaries, which means a lot to us, but now at this critical time (her date is on Tuesday) her parents have started to just kind of play with her feelings. Her mom sent her a letter saying that, "If you come back home and break off contact with the Mormons, then I will truly believe God is loving and good to us." She's an atheist, which can help us understand why that's hard for M1, who desperately wants her mom to believe in God, but at the same time wants to do what's right. Really interesting, but we're trying to be the best support we can be, and make sure she knows that we'll be her friends no matter what happens, but to listen to the Holy Ghost.

M4 is a little nutball. He just needs to be baptized. According to the things he says, he still doesn't completely understand what that means, and if he DID understand the cleansing and sanctifying power of christ manifest through baptism, he would have already been baptized a long time ago. He needs to let go of a lot of his pride, but that will come, no problem.

We randomly got like 9 referrals on Saturday night, and then I open my email, and what do you know? A couple more. It's like the Lord wants to make up for no referrals my whole mission here in my last little stretch. On a completely different note, M1 went to the hospital for a few days, but she still managed to pass her tests and is doing completely fine now. Also, suck it anti-material, we found out that part of the reason that W. decided to be baptized was watching the stupid temple video things online, and she's curious as to how it feels to actually go there. Instead of scaring her away, it made her want to join!

I'm doing great otherwise, things are going well with Elder Cahoon, and I'm having fun being a missionary. Thanks for your support and all you do. Steve, stop laughing.

Love,

Elder Brousseau

God is Love--more growth in Bratislava, Slovakia!

June 14, 2015

Nazdar!

Hey! So guess what? I only have 25 minutes to write all of my letters today, so we'll cut straight to everything, first, thanks MOM for sending me those essay questions, I'll think about what to write for them and respond when I can. LARS, That may have been the best question anyone has asked me on my mission, I'm sorry I don't currently have an answer. KENNEN, be a good Zone Leader! Remember to write in your journal, even though you don't have much time. Ok, on to the good stuff.

We've seen a lot of miracles this week, randomly things start to just be falling into place again, and we can only be grateful they're this way right now, and hope they stay in place long enough to see some more success and fruits. I really hope that I stay in Blava, seeing as we have transfers next week, and an area will need to close because no one new is coming in at the moment. Blava has the most missionaries in it right now, so my guess is that they close either an area here, or one in Nitra. On the very bright side, the missionaries here are going to be so much more well equipped spiritually, and I'm excited for the spirit to help us out a little more seeing that our numbers are going down even more. We were actually talking about this today, that there are probably less than 50 Americans in the whole world who actually know how to make Halusky in the traditional Slovak way from potatoes and everything. It's a pretty select group. :)

M1 had a cool experience this week, where she basically said goodbye because she was going to Ziar nad Hronom (Banska Bystrica district) to do some Catholic church stuff, and she felt like she wouldn't be coming back for a while, then she felt really badly there, and came back the next day. We're helping her right now to gain some spiritual confidence to take the next step on her own.

W. is getting closer and closer, we had a meeting with her today, where we had planned not to really bring up baptism at all, because she doesn't really want to talk about it, but the person we were teaching her with started in on her without any prompting from us at ALL. It was pretty great, he was all like, "When is YOUR baptism happening, I want to come and see." He's not even a member, so that was a pretty sweet experience.

M2 is back in contact with us, I hope that we'll be able to get an exception for her to be baptized and come to church in November, because her contract really is preventing her from visiting church pretty hardcore. Not fun. But she's still pretty positive about the whole thing, so that's great.

Elder Ringger and I have been eating Halusky almost every day this week. It has been heaven. On Monday, we made halusky for W. and the Cottles at the Cottles' apartment, and they said it was the best they had ever had. Later, a member took us to, "Help him move," even though he had no intention of moving, really really annoying, and a big waste of a day, but he did take us to 2 different restaurants and get us halusky, so that makes up for the one day we didn't have it.

Overall, I really don't have anything to complain about, which is nice. I don't like complaining very much. Also, about the title, Elder Ringger and I are thinking of making a T~Shirt/Bryndza import company. We're talking millions here. Or at least 12. It'll be pretty ok.

Well, I love you guys a lot, Thanks for telling me about your dream PAUL, That must have been pretty cool.

S Laskou,

Elder Brousseau

June 21, 2015

Ked ma ini kolac, zlato, blahobyt...Vedz, ze Pan nemoze od zmluv odstupit. (Google Translate did a horrible job with this one...)

Nazdar!

So...First I need to thank you for your prayers in my behalf. They've been very helpful. This last week, we've had several miracles which make me want to laugh and cry at the same time.

Missionary work is such, that you will put all of your efforts into trying to find someone new who is interested and ready for baptism, while the Lord laughingly prepares someone behind your back who will come of their own volition.

I love my mission, it is literally everything to me. Elder Ringger decided with me that he could be trunky when he's dead (when his mission ends), and we stuck out our transfer together. We worked hard, we found, we taught, and we baptized. It was so special to me to see a real live "Best Two Years." The missionary about to go home, no girlfriend waiting for him, literally signing up for classes during emailing, who has lost his faith in finding because of a lack of perceived success decides to give it one last shot, and it pays off. W. got baptized last week on Saturday at 15:40 and was confirmed [a member of the church] yesterday, on Sunday. From the looks of things at the moment, in the next several weeks we should be having 3 more just like it as well.

I am still in Blava, still District Leader, and I have a pretty green companion, Elder Cahoon from Brigham City, Utah. He seems a like a missionary after my own heart, so we'll see how things go with him. He just came out of Nitra, and he's a happy guy so far.

M1 is getting ready for baptism, but she's still scared and really distrustful, which is totally understandable, considering she's living in an apartment with a girl who constantly looks up anti-mormon things, and is currently finishing up 6 years at Catholic school, so no one blames her. The date she's picked is June 30th.

M2 Is getting ready for her baptism next Monday on the 29th, which will be great, we're just working on getting her to church for her confirmation. Because of her contract with Devin Castle it could be a little bit harder than wanted.

M3 is M3, he's going to be baptized, it will be great. He's currently scheming as to how to marry a Mormon girl from Southern California once he's a Mormon too, which is pretty entertaining.

Anyway, I'm really quite content with this transfer, it's been really fun. Last week we got to go and watch a Flamenco guitar concert on a boat in the Dunai for Culture Night, which was pretty sweet. Heavy metal is so very boring compared to what a Classical guitarist can do.

I love you all so much, be Good!!!

Starsi Brousseau

Nezmenitelne evanjelium (Immutable Gospel)

June 8, 2015 

Nazdar!

We have seen such great success this week, I just want to thank God first for the help he has given us. Our investigators all seem to be progressing, we're finding new ones, and our burdens are being made light. I love the gospel, and all of the things it contains. I love my family and everything they do for me. Well, off of the serious note, I'm sick of serious things.

Let's get right to it, yesterday at church M1 took the sacrament, and actually CAME, all because W. helped her come. A. and Y., two Thai girls that we found a little while back came also, and had really great experiences. We also had 2 pretty big visits from a former missionary, and a family from Arizona who used to live here. Needless to say, church was awesome. Elder R. and I were able to teach Young Men's during the 2nd hour, which was a great learning experience, I have trouble believing that I acted/act like these boys, but whatever, I'll just do better.

We have had a really interesting week full of different types of missionary work. We had contacting, teaching, and tracting of course, but we also had weird things that I haven't really done a lot of before, like randomly going on splits, giving baptismal interviews, and trusting investigators testimonies to stand the test. I know that that sounds really sad, but I just wanted to illustrate how different and great this week has been, I've been really stoked about it. Also, there's a good chance that M (future missionary) will come back this week in order to help me team-teach priesthood.

Well, Monday, I don't honestly remember a lot of what happened, mainly because we haven't really been doing super fun things as a District because none of us really have time and also it's REALLY hot, like yesterday it was about 30.5 degrees out, and I was in a suit. Not fun, that's why winter is better.

Tuesday, we got to start out by going and supporting one of our members who runs a kebab stand here, he's from Afghanistan, and his name is M4. The poor guy was gunned down for being a Christian in his home country, and then kicked out from Switzerland, where he found the church, and lives here now. He's so humble, it's great. We also had a meeting with M1, which went really well, she has become a whole lot more humble and accepting during the time I've taught her.

Wednesday we had a meeting with M5, this guy we've known for a while, and it went about how we expected it to go, but he's steadily showing more interest, which is a good thing. We also taught English, which is always a joy.

Thursday was where things started to get a little bit interesting if I remember correctly. We gave a heartfelt note from Sister Cottle to a member who has recently become less-active, which turned into a little bit of a fiasco, but that's fine, we're all ok now. The other portion of it was having a second meeting with M1, where we established a date for her AND W., who has been meeting with her outside of our lessons. We've been trying and are still trying to decide how to work with that situation, because sometimes, like on Sunday it looks good, but other times it looks like it could be a hurt to both of them. In any case, we're hugging it, and doing our best to help both of them come closer to Christ.

Friday I gave I. his baptismal interview, it was really spiritual. He doesn't feel ready yet, so we'll see what happens there, but his baptism will probably need to be pushed back a bit again.

Saturday was really cool, a former missionary here was visiting and helped us teach W., it was pretty cool.

Then Sunday happened, which I talked about earlier. So cool to have a full building again, and it wasn't even a conference or anything.

I love you all a lot, have a great week.

Elder Brousseau

June 1, 2015

Stastie je nieco tazko opisatelne, ale lahko pochopitelne. (Happiness is something hard to explain, but easy to understand.)

Nazdar!

You know, it seems that the Lord sends random stupid things that he knows are going to make me happy and keep me going more often than I ever seem to expect. It's a game he's been playing with me for a very long time, and I've decided I appreciate it. The example that's fresh in my mind today is this week. Last week, I was getting hit pretty hard with feeling inadequate because of the lack of results that came from last transfers hard work. I felt like it was because I had slacked off, or because I wasn't good enough, and then I began to see good things in other people and forgetting about good things in myself. In order to save me from my own self pity, the Lord decided that just because he knew I would appreciate it, even though it's stupid, he helped people to start complimenting my Slovak again. I know it's dumb, and I promise I'm not comparing myself to anyone except for myself, but He knew I would appreciate it during this weird time for me. So yeah, that's pretty cool, I've had several people in the last week tell me I'm from central Slovakia according to accent, so that's really nice.

I'm doing a lot better than last week, and I'm not just saying that because Elder R. was reading my letter last week and said that it sounded like I was in the depths of despair, and I guess I can see why he thought that. Also, I got like 90 emails from people thinking that I need some sort of encouragement. I wish that I sounded as happy in my letters as I actually am. Because I am SO happy. I really love being here. I love Slovaks so much. It astounds me how surprised people are to hear that. For example, this lady today at a bus stop refused to believe that we were here for so long because we loved Slovaks and wanted to help them. Admittedly, she had had a little bit of alcohol, but she just decided that that information didn't compute, and therefore didn't believe it. I wish that Slovaks weren't surprised in a bad way to find someone who loves them. I want their surprise to be more of a, "Wow! Thank you! What makes you love Slovaks? How do I get part of that love?" Instead of a, "No one loves Slovaks, go back to America." But I love it to death.

Well, our investigators are doing pretty ok. M1 is introducing us to her friends and growing in determination to come to church and understand the sacrament. I am so proud of the progress I've seen in her, last week we also had a really cool lesson, where we were able to  actually teach her with W., which we're hoping helps both of them.

W. has done another weird, where she wanted to meet out of the blue, and then wanted a blessing, and then helped us teach, and now isn't really texting us back...not sure what to do with her other than wait.

M2 has come back into the picture, she has been texting us all week, and is hoping to start meeting again in order to work towards baptism. So great.

K. has also come back into the picture, I recognized him from a bus, and we immediately ran off the bus and after him. Turns out, he doesn't hate us or anything, in fact, he still wants to be baptized, his phone just hasn't worked since he came back from Turkey, and he couldn't remember where the new building was. We'll see what happens with him.

M3 is currently not meeting with us, which we are pretty ok with, mostly because she doesn't want to meet as a family as far as we can tell. Not usually a good sign.

On another note, where do [people] all get the same Anti-Material from? I've been having to debunk the same stupid papers like 4 times since I've come to Blava, and every time they are so convinced that everything in them is true. Dumb, but whatever, they're not hard to break.

I wanted to ask you to tell Elder Kearon thank you from me personally, I told him that he wasn't thanked enough for the work that he does, and then afterwards realized that I never actually did thank him for it. If you could do that for me, I would be grateful. Training was great, It gave me several pieces of inspiration I was really grateful for, a good example of which is: How can we help our investigators feel more cared about? Answer: Daily SPIRITUAL contact, give them little things to read and a nice note daily every day that you don't meet with them. I have high hopes for this, if that really is the main thing to be felt in conversion like Elder Kearon said, we should have several new converts soon.

Anyway, lots of love,

Elder Brousseau

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

Nazdar!

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

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

Devinsky Hrad

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

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

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

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

Hrda Lasky,

Elder Brousseau

Tyzden Skoro Krstu (Baptism Last Week)

Nazdar!

Hey so cutting right to it, W. didn't get baptized this week, and D, and her family are not getting baptized next week. It's too bad, just because we got so close this time, but the good news is: they all still WANT to have that happen because they know it's right, so we're going to continue working with them towards that goal. I was SO, SO, SO stressed last week because our investigators were having some trouble communicating with us. My great companion Elder Z. W. probably hates me at this point just because of how much I was stressing out, but you know, I'm totally ok with that, haha. Just kidding, we have a really good relationship, which is super nice, and he's really really helpful as a companion. Here's our week, I hope you like it as much as I did:

Pondelok (Monday): We went on a tour of Bratislava, the same one we went on last year, because the same lady (E.) still comes to English, and invited us to come again. She's so great, and man does she know a lot about Slovak history. We also taught S. I'm not quite sure if I've mentioned him before, but he's the coolest guy ever. He's a less-active member here, who is deaf, and slightly mentally handicapped as well, and he's the funnest ever to teach (Thank you Elder J. for teaching me ASL!!!). We also got a new investigator named H., who's from Vietnam. Speaking Slovak is a little harder in Blava (Bratislava), because there are so so many people that you meet who don't speak Slovak or any language similar to it, so you just kind of have to speak English...

Utorok(Tuesday): We had District lunch at the Narnia Pub. Pretty much the similarity with Narnia ends after you walk through the cloaks to get into the restaurant, but they do have one thing going for them: They serve capovana Kofola in liters. So very sick nasty cool. Later in the day, we taught D., who is very prepared, but very not married, so we're figuring out how to help her best at the moment.

Streda (Wednesday): Exchange in Centrum with Elder J. Something that really helped my mood though was teaching T. This kid makes me SO jealous of American missionaries. He's absolutely golden, he even defends us to his roommates and friends outside of lessons, and he and his twin brother are planning on getting baptized...in the U.S....That's right. He doesn't want to right now, even though he already knows it's true, and reads church sites and magazines and stuff, he's going to just make some missionaries in Philadelphia so happy. Dang you American missionaries, this isn't the first time I've run into this sort of thing...

Stvrtok (Thursday): We found the coolest people today, and I can't wait to get in contact again. One of them, when we contacted them said, "You know, I was just thinking about Adam and Eve, and that snake. If God knows everything, how didn't he know about that?" She was fascinated by our answer that indeed he did, and is excited to meet with us this week. I also was presented with one of the anti-material pieces of literature floating around in Slovakia trying to convince people not to talk to us. It's really not very good either, most of it is just fallacious information presented in a way that implies the wrong thing. The good news is, now one of our investigators has a whole lot of answers, and a faith destroying attempt was turned into a faith-building exercise.

Piatok (Friday): M. is not happy with us...Today we talked about the apostasy, and she was not happy with our claim that it had to happen. The good news is, she's still really really happy to meet with us, and we brighten her day every time, but she is just scared of new doctrine. It's completely understandable, if I were confronted with the idea that what I believe isn't founded upon scripture and the teachings of Christ, I would be a little bit disgruntled as well to say the least. We'll continue to work with her, and she's agreed to study and make sure she does her part to know God's will. K. is totally progressing too, he's so fun, he has a totally different attitude. He's a little Deist from Turkey, and his attitude towards the gospel is that it agrees with and adds to everything he already believes. It is so refreshing, he commits himself to do everything before we even ask, and then he keeps commitments like nobody's business. W. had her interview today as well, which she didn't pass, but we'll keep working to make 100% sure she's prepared.

Sobota (Saturday): We had a sort of scattered day today. Highlights: Ping-pong with A., he's a Ukrainian beast at the game. T.R. was apparently so impressed with me last time that he brought two dictionaries of Music and Musical Terms for me today, he's a really sweet guy. And we met another Turkish guy named M.A. Super sick, he's a real Muslim, you know, not the terrorist type lots of people THINK are Muslims. He's also really open to new ideas.

Nedela (Sunday): Finally had dinner at the D. family. They are an amazing family of Russian Angels here in Blava. Both parents have served missions, and they have 3 beautiful adorable kids. I really hope that some of the people that I've helped here turn out in a similar way as them, they are seriously just the coolest. Later, we finally got to meet with W., and gosh, she was sad to not be able to be baptized on the 7th, but she is very very ready to work hard and get a new date fixed. I'm so grateful to be working with her.

I love you guys so much. CONGRATULATIONS ALEXIS!!! I'm really grateful to be here serving, even though I can't see awesome things like Maddie performing, or Steve stuffing people, or Sarah dancing, or friends getting engaged.

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

Za Bieleho Dna... (In Broad Daylight...)

Nazdar!=D

So first off, M. got baptized!!! Haha, I'm totally just on top of the world about it, it's so fun. She had to get baptized twice because her hair came up, and I can only imagine the difficulty they had explaining that to her, because she really doesn't speak German all that well. On another note, Mom, which areas in Germany did you serve in, and is there any way you could get me a list of converts and re-activations from your mission? The Sisters in Germany were curious. #2!! I totally just got transferred... So I'm not in Zilina anymore... I'm not sure how I feel.

Well anyway, last week was awesome. Monday we just sort of didn't have time to do anything, we met with R. the man I mentioned last week, which was entertaining, but at that point it had started to wear on me a little bit. I've decided that I really don't like teaching someone about God and having them argue whether god is all-knowing and all-powerful or not. If you don't believe in those things, I don't think you really believe in God, more like some blundering extra-terrestrial scientist. But enough of that.

On Tuesday, we taught Z. again, and Elder S. took pictures with her and everything because he thought he was going to be leaving (ha!), and it went really well. We've decided to work on the basics with her again, not the basic lessons, because she gets those, but like reading and praying, and just mainly to try and strengthen her relationship to God, because a stronger relationship to God means a stronger motivation to act on the feelings of the spirit. We also taught P.M., and I think it went kind of mediocre, mostly because when we taught him again on Friday he had all sorts of questions about the End of the World. I don't actually know if it was because of our teaching, but we WERE going over the apostasy, so it might be... We told him to read Revelation and it would answer all of his questions. Totally joking, we DID tell him to read, but meanwhile, we're going to find answers to the questions that can be answered concerning that subject.

Wednesday: I really honestly don't remember very much besides finishing going over the Baptismal Interview questions with M.. She is so prepared, and it just goes to show how the Lord works. A little bit about her story: She moved to Germany with this guy she had had a kid with. Things didn't work out, and they broke up, but she doesn't speak German and still lived in Germany. She found and started dating the first man she could find who spoke Slovak AND German, and the Sisters there later contacted that man, and he agreed to meet and discuss the gospel. He went to church a couple of times, and brought M. along, as well as let her sit in on the lessons. They found that it was a lot easier for them to understand the gospel in Slovak, and gave the APs here their Skype # and they began to teach them because Elder B. (Chris' trainer) was an AP and he spoke Slovak. He eventually hit a roadblock where he didn't want to commit to living certain commandments, and no longer wanted to meet, and on top of that, Elder B. had left, and the APs could no longer understand very well. They transferred them over to Zilina, and the man still didn't want to meet, but M. still did. Meeting with her was hard at that point, mainly because they were living together and he really didn't want us to talk to her. Then, in December, he hit her during an argument, and she called the police. He went to jail and she got a restraining order. That made it much easier for us to start meeting, and for her to overcome problems like smoking and drinking, and eventually to get baptized. SO cool, and she was never "found"...

The rest of the week is likewise pretty much just a blur until Saturday. We had a really awkward baptismal interview with M. on Thursday, awkward just because the Elder was giving his first one, I'm sure he'll do better in the future. On Saturday though, she got baptized, and it was so cool, even though we weren't there, but then Jan P. called us up for a meeting and said, "I want to show you something." weird, but he had done this in the past, and it was usually just like a restaurant or something. This time, he drove us like 25 minutes outside our area in order to show us this statue of Janosik, the Slovak Robin Hood. Really cool, but quite a weird, unwelcome feeling to sit in a car and have to ask, "Where are we going?" and get the answer, "Just relax and enjoy the ride." Throughout this whole week though, we've been teaching L., who, goodness, just needs to accept baptism. He keeps talking about how he needs a new start, and how we've introduced him to feelings and things he hadn't thought a person could actually feel, and he knows that it's true. Interesting, I feel like all of those things motivate to baptism...

Anyway, that's all I can think of to say at the moment, I've got to go, we're going to go do some teaching.

S Laskou,

Elder Brousseau

(Editor's note: Here is last week's email. We included it in this letter to avoid a transfer cliff-hanger.)

February 23, 2015

Blava, Mila Blava (Blue, Blue, Mila)

Nazdar!

Well, here's the big surprise, I'm in Bratislava with Elder W., that's right Kennen, the same one you played sax with at BYU, and I'm the District Leader in Ruzinov South. Now that that's up, a little bit about the city:

Blava is by far the biggest city I've ever served in. It's about the same size (I would guess) as Orem and Provo combined, both as far as inhabitants and land size, but maybe I'm overestimating that. Everything is super old. It's a lot more ghetto than every other city I've seen, but that's probably just another side-effect of more people. Our building is a lot bigger than in other cities, and that's because the branch has "a lot more members" which, it does, just not a ton more active. It's the biggest one I've been in, but not by much. The main differences I've seen in the last week have been that we RELY on busses for transport, which makes me a little bit anxious, just because I don't really like at all having to rely on public transportation (I know, I know, it saves the environment...whatever), and I don't at this moment have a great love for tram/bus contacting, but I'll work on it.

I don't have a lot of time today, I'll let you know more next week, LOVE!

S Uctou,

Starsi Chris Brousseau

Last Transfer in Zilina, Slovakia

Nazdar!

Hele, I'm sure you're all surprised that I didn't email you on Monday, but it's because of this: We are literally teaching too much to have the full hour and a half of email time, and usually the first hour is spent emailing President, and replying to other emails, and we only had about 45 minutes, so here we are now on...I don't remember, but I think Wednesday, and here's my email.

Well. Last week was crazy, just like it seems every week is now. I've noticed that the more time you spend diligently finding, the less time you actually end up spending. I'll explain myself real quick. At training we discussed a principle that I was really quite impressed with. The principle discussed was that we don't set apart hours of our day for "finding," we should be finding 100% of the time, we set apart specific hours for "contacting," or "tracting," not finding. I had noticed before then that around 40-60%, I'm not willing to commit to an exact estimate, of our new investigators are found either through teaching someone else, or through us talking to people about the gospel while we're doing something that isn't contacting or tracting. Contacting and tracting are not super effective missionary activities in actuality, however, they become more effective in proportion to how much you do them. It clicked in my head when I heard that, that if we diligently find, even when we're not "finding," that then we will have more people to teach, and we'll have to "find" a whole ton less. This is extremely true, and the best part is seeing it work.

So, we totally went bowling on Monday. It's super inexpensive here, because they found that if they put the same prices on bowling here as they did in America, no one goes bowling, so it's actually around the exact price of what it's worth. I was reminded yet again of how absolutely terrible I am at bowling, I had the lowest score both games.  Later we taught Z., who is awesome, and she's totally going to get baptized, she's just scared of what her Catholic friends would do if that happened. We talked about Adam and Eve, which is always a really fun discussion, especially when she doesn't actually agree with the Catholic belief, and thinks ours is way better.

Another highlight of every week is P.M., this now completely active member here. This guy is seriously Branch President status now, he's preparing to go to the temple, and he has started to have enough confidence in his knowledge of the gospel to actually put forth his own ideas and comparisons during priesthood in church, which, I must say, are spot on. I am so happy to have him to work with, we're working on teaching him about every apostasy the world has gone through in as much detail as we can find in the scriptures, from the apostasy between the dispensation of Elijah, in which the Pharisees and the Sadducees as well as Buddhism and Taoism were all founded, to the apostasy right after Adam, in which (according to the Liahona magazine, I'm not actually sure where they got this info), Hinduism was started with the followers of Cain and Satan "plotted with his followers from that time hereafter."-not an exact quote from Helaman 6:26-27. Love him to death, we're going into the Great Apostasy tomorrow.

M. is doing awesome, she's still completely on track to her baptism on the 14th, and she really is prepared. We were going through the baptismal questions with her, and we started and it went sort of like this:

Elder S: Do you believe in God the Eternal Father, in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost?

M.: and I say, "Yes."

Elder B: Gooood....do you ACTUALLY belive that?

M.: Starsi Brousseau, why in the world would I be trying to get baptized if I didn't?

It was so spiritual.

J.P. is normal, still obsessed with ghosts, and doesn't really feel a need to pray or really do anything religious. He has some really cool ghost stories though, it's fun. We're planning on giving him the best ghost story ever next time: The one where a guy was brutally and illegally murdered, but came back from the dead.

L. survived a crazy car accident last week, and this week is still doing really well. He's in sort of the same situation as Z., where he's TOTALLY going to get baptized, and he has nothing holding him back except for a crazy complicated situation with Sister S. being best friends with his ex-girlfriend all the while still being sort of in love with his ex-wife, with which he has 2 kids. We're praying pretty hard that something in that situation will change quickly so that he no longer has a problem with Sister S., and it's going to take a miracle, but at the moment he's progressing quite well.

P.K. is totally on track! We had the lesson last time that like, "You realize we're not Catholics and we want to baptize you right?" and he was all like, "Yeah, I knew that from the start, I kind of want to know why." So cool! He's this sort of old guy, like early 50's, and he tries so very hard to do what he knows is right, it's great.

M. is doing pretty well too, last time we taught him with Sister S., and it went pretty well, we showed him the "Your potential, your privileges," video from President Uchtdorf, and talked to him about trying to find out exactly what his privileges are BEFORE he no longer has them. He still doesn't have a huge desire, but he's totally getting baptized as soon as he realizes what the church organization specifically can offer him, which is friends who care about you and would like help you in quite literally every country on the planet. Teaching M. has really improved my English again as well, because, while he doesn't really speak English, he always has super great questions about the differences between words, and which word is best to say in certain contexts, I really like him.

I got to teach the W. family!!! This is a way-cool young family the other Elders are teaching, and our district is doing well enough in both companionships, that we've started having to go on splits so that we can all teach all of our lessons that our scheduled, so great. Elder F. has been very inspired with how he has gone about teaching them, people (Zone Leaders) keep trying to push him into trying to speed things up, but having gone there and having taught them myself, I am convinced that he has been taking the spiritually correct path with them. They are so amazing.

R., ok, well, we found out this guy is apparently a "real" Jehovah's Witness...I asked him during our 2nd lesson if I could see his new world translation because he was using a rohacek translation, and that has tons of stuff missing, but doesn't have the little asterisks telling you that they're missing, and he was all like, "Pozor pan Bruso, real Jehovah's Witnesses don't even let that thing come into our hands!" and proceeded to rant about all this corruption with the bigger JW church in Brooklyn and denouncing all they're "abominable creeds" and stuff, I was torn between confusion and a strange desire to record everything he was saying. Turns out, there are 2 JW churches, and the mission of one of them is to entirely discredit the other, but they call themselves the exact same thing, so there's no way to distinguish between them. Kind of crazy, but he's a joy to teach, he knows the Bible pretty darn well, so when we use the Bible to reference things and explain our point of view, instead of not understanding and getting caught up in random little reference battles, he understands the bigger picture and it makes sense to him. I really love this guy.

L. has gotten so hard-core into Anti material, which he doesn't completely understand. He is not in an amazing position to join either, because he's a minister for another church, but he is interested as to why he doesn't have the sorts of feelings about our church when he's meeting with us, as he does when he's reading bad things about us. Interesting.

R. is great, he's this awesome 21 year old kid who does MMA, and he's had some really cool experiences with God. He says he already has a Book of Mormon, but we're going to give him a new one, just in case. I'm really excited to see where he goes, we've only had a couple of lessons so far, but he has in every single case showed that he has a very open heart, and a sincere desire to do right with God. He knows L., which is a little iffy, but as far as I can tell, he doesn't really listen to anything he says, so we'll hope and pray he doesn't get into the same kind of stuff.

Sunday we gave our demonstration on Music History, Music Theory, and Conducting, and it was a success. We were in the building that day from 9 in the morning until past 7 in the evening just because of Church and then the activity, and then we were teaching the rest of the time, which illustrates my point at the beginning, we didn't have time to go out and tract like we normally do. Such a great week, and such a great feeling.

Lots of love,

Starsi Brousseau