I don't even know where to start holy cow!!!! The week was crazy!!! So I guess I'll start from the beginning. Flight was way long but that's alright Iwas exhausted and slept most of it; then we got to Amsterdam there was a nice guy that works for family tree kinda helped us make our way around the airport and then he took a pic an sent it to all our moms for us!! It was a quick 2 hours from Amsterdam to Prague and I slept the whole flight!! We got there and President was waiting for us there with his wife and the assistants!!! Nicest people I have ever met!! So we got all loaded up in the van and headed to the mission home!! We unloaded then took a pic with president then we headed out to the Prague walk!

Lets just say that Prague is the most beautiful city that I have ever seen in my life!!! I will set up my camera to the church wifi so i can send pics i just haven't had any time to send any this past week ha been go go go!!! Old buildings and Castles everywhere!!! After that we headed to dinner and had svickova which was weird but way good!!! The food here is way different but I like it so far!! A lot of bread!! Then after dinner we had a little time and went contacting in the metro! Pretty scary the first time but thank goodness the first guy i talked to could speak English!!! He heard my piece but wasn't interested! We headed to a hotel and slept there for the night! 

The next morning we headed back to the the mission home for breakfast and to know where are areas would be and to meet our trainers!! 

Ok the moment you have all been waiting for I am serving in Ostrava!!!! My Trainers name is Elder Mueller and he is way sick!! He is from Alaska and loves to hike.  The nicest guy I have ever met!! I have already learned so much!!! My brain hurts!! I also don't understand anything!! SO how it usually goes while contacting is Elder Mueller will stop some people then I will ask them a question and then it goes on from there!! Yep Czech is way hard! And the people here in Ostrava take a lot of pride in how fast they talk and that makes it even more hard hahaha!!! I thought I had bad headaches in the MTC hahah i was wrong!!

I had my first lesson last Thursday with a Lutheran missionary and thank goodness that was in English!! I could actually understand and what not!! It was way cool she seemed pretty interested with it all and hopefully we can set up another lesson!! So there is a guy named Anis that Elder Mueller has been teaching and he has a Baptismal date for October 14th!!! SO we are way stoked about that!! 

Ummm what else! WE get around by public transportation so a lot of tram contacting and bus!! If we aren't on the trams we are running to them!! Hahaha I am way out of shape!! But it also is alot of fun running around! Today is the first day since ive been here that the sun has been out it has rained everyday since I've been here in Ostrava and I love it!!! Except holy cow, it is way cold after we are done emailing we are going to get me a nice warm coat!! 

Sunday was an adventure!! Church was awesome but  long and hard to follow along because of all the Czech! But my district is awesome! There are six of us 4 elders and 2 sisters they are all way supportive and it helps a lot when i get frustrated!!

Yesterday was my first day tracting and it wasn't that bad!! Everyone has a sick dog!! So we actually got let into a house and we could tell that this lady was already a little tipsy but we went in and at first it was great she was asking why we are here and what we wanted to talk about!! So we started to talk about the plan of salvation and it was going well then all the sudden she just started to freak out!! I had know idea what was going on because it was all in Czech and then she pointed to me and asked why am i here and I said one of the only things I knew how to say! I said to testify of Jesus Christ then she started screaming at me!!! Yeah we got out of there as soon as we could!!! Hahaha it was an adventure! 

Well that was my week!! If you have any Questions let me know!!! And ill try to answer them next Moday!!!

I love you all!!!

Elder Heywood

I don't understand Czech

Ahoy rodini a kamaradi!!

Pre letter:  Wow so much has happened this past week and it sounds like a lot of fun!!! I really wanted to read that book because Chad Lewis came and talked to us on Sunday and it was a stellar talk one of my favorites by far!!!!  I really wanted to read it after his talk!!! Thanks for sending!  Last email i got from Kennedy she was enjoying her job a lot better; the pictures of the kids were super cute!! SO EXCITED ABOUT LAUREN!!!  Can't wait to come home to a brand new kid that I've never met!! Yeah crazy about Gilbert! Dawson tanner and some of the other kids have been sending me their highlights because i asked them too!!! This week was pretty great and will get into it more at 3! you don't have to send cheetoes ill be fine and we leave monday morning anyways!! I don't know when I'll be able to call but my guess is around 10-2 then maybe again in Amsterdam!! Cant wait to get out of here even though my Czech is pretty bad! 

Love you! Will send a couple pics from the temple this morning!! this was my last session for 2 years!!

Love, Starší Heywood

Letter:   Sounds like everyone had an eventful week with the Arizona reception and all!!!! From the sounds of it it sounded pretty fun and I hear the Mexican food was a huge hit! I want some! the only real food I get is when we go to the temple cafeteria after a session!! Oh and on that note today was my last time at the temple for 2 years so that was a little depressing!

So overall my last full week in the Mtc has been really great! So last friday we got our flight plans if you all didn't know! we leave the Mtc Monday at 9:50 am and take a nice long flight all the way to Amsterdam then we have a layover then head on over to Prague!! Cant wait to get over there!! An Elder in our districts mom has been sending us weather updates so we are getting pretty excited for the Prague walk, Ill be sure to take tons of pictures! Also I'll have plenty of time to call you guys!

The Skinners are here in the Mtc and it was so nice to see a face from home!! I have seen them everyday and they take a picture every time I see them and send it to mom so I'm sure she has a bunch pics of me from this week!! It was really funny when I first saw them in the cafeteria andIi ran up and Kathy gave me a big hug and I was not expecting that because you know I haven't given a woman a hug in 9 weeks so that was really funny!! Its been nice chatting with them for a little bit everyday. they are leaving Saturday so only a week for them!

So for this past Sunday devotional it was awesome Chad Lewis came and spoke to us! It has got to be one of my favorite talks from the mtc he just told a lot of mission and NFL stories and it was awesome he also talked about hiking in the Himalayas and that was awesome too!! It made me miss football when he was talking about his career!! I hope ASU doesn't do too well so I don't miss anything hahaha!!

Czech is still super hard but i am getting better as bad as I am at it.  I honestly can't wait to get over there and use it!! My teachers tell us that they love it when we try to speak it so that will be a fun experience!! 

On Tuesday we got to here from Elder Patrick Kearon of the Presidency of the Seventy. he gave a fantastic talk on just how important prayer is also that you have to have a firm testimony in the gospel and if you dont then you wont be able to teach it!

I would just like to say that i have a firm belief in this gospel and I cannot wait to share it with the people of the Czech republic! I know that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has been resurrected and that he lives and that through his atonement our sins can be washed away so that we can live with him and our Heavenly Father again and through this gospel that I love so much we can become like them and live with them again for all eternity!!

Love, Starší Heywood

Pre letter:  Holy cow that was a jam packed week full!! Sounds like all is going well though! I got an email from Kennedy and said that they are going to be fine, hopefully that is true i was kinda worried when she told me that just because all the flooding in Texas (thank goodness for Mormon newsroom) but i have a feeling she will be all safe over there! yes the lst pictures you sent of the wedding were the best I appreciate all the pictures! I wish I would have been able to go I hope sometime during my life I will be able to get over there I love all that history! That's funny about dad and Brookes dad bonding and all over war movies!! When is the reception in AZ?? Are the fullers going to make the trip down to the heat?? I got some pictures from Jared of the honeymoon in New York looks like it was treating them very well!! Sorry about the videos i cant send them through my camera so i had to do it through email! Only a week half more of the mtc and i could not be more ready to leave this place! we should get our flight plans tomorrow evening so ill send a pic so look for it!! I gotta switch my laundry so I'll be back on about 3 so if you have any question send them over! 

Letter:  Hello all!! I hope everyone had a fantastic week of vacation and wedding and honeymooning(Brooke and Jared) Dana hope you are safe on your way up to school! So my week was as good as it can get in the MTC when youre here 8 weeks! But big news we should receive our flight plans tomorrow evening so hopefully that will push through this next week and a half!

So highlight of the week was Tuesday night Elder Dallin H Oaks came and spoke to us! It was amazing his talk covered so many topics but the one that stood out to me was when he talked about the resurrection. He called it one of our fundamentals of our beliefs and that just really hit me, Its true then he talked about like why do we have temples if we don't believe in the resurrection because if we didn't then all the temple work we did for people of past generations would be pointless! I dont know he just explained it so cool it was an amazing talk! He also talked about the Book of Mormon being the best conversion tool and I have a testimony of that it is so true!!

Other than that nothing really happened other than we got a new teacher so now we have 3 which is pretty nice so we can focus more on the language and get more help when needed which is quite a bit! Yeah the MTC isnt too exciting and that's ok I'll be out soon!!

The wedding in DC looked awesome, I loved getting all the pictures Jared and Brooke you guys looked pretty good!! and man The DC Temple is beautiful!! I also hear Grandpa did a fantastic job on the sealing; I wish I could've been there with all you guys. But I know that this is where the Lord wants me and I love learning more of the Evangelium Ježiše Krista Každy Den a jeho Usmíření!!

I love you all!! have a great time at the reception down in good ole Arizona play some pickleball at the Bakers for me!!!

Love Starší Heywood