Ahoj Merry Christmas

Well it was awesome to see you all over skype!! Thanks Kennedy and Mom for making me cry!! Shout out!!! Sounds like everyone had a super Christmas and all that!!!! Czech Christmas was good but I wish I could have been in a little bit of a prettier town but that's alright it was still a blast. Zone conference was pretty fun just a big party the whole time with spiritual thoughts and Czech fairytales because those are like tradition I guess!! We watched Popelka(Cinderella) It was pretty funny!! It was weird caroling and contacting to people in a different country; good thing Slovak and Czech are super similar and I could communicate with people!! It was fun!!! Slovakia is pretty cool!

Because of the holidays there arent a whole lot of people outside so the last couple days have been kinda slow and what not but they will start to pick back up again!! Only 3 more weeks left in this transfer that is insane time has flown by!!! Be interesting what city I will serve in next. Well that was about my week I have a lot of pictures so they are coming soon we went to a sweet castle today with a view but it was closed so we couldn't go inside but still it was amazing and then got some good Czech food after!!!

S Laksou

Starší Heywood

Snow

Well hey everyone, had an alright week here in the Czech.  We didn't have a whole lot of success but its alright more people will come in time! None of our Investigators could meet last week every time we called they have work or something!! Dang Holiday season I guess! 

 

Contacting in the snow

Lot of contacting this week in the cold! And its only going to get colder! I had some amazing conversations with some people this week but no set ups or anything sadly! Also kinda weird but I thought people would be happier to talk about Christmas but I feel like people have been a little meaner so we started just going around and asking people if they liked Christmas that went a little better but was still surprised when some people would say no!  It was kinda cool when Elder Robinson was in Brno for progressive training with his greenie they gave every district a portable tv and so this weekend we went around and shared the light the world video with people.  We did get a number and a set up but the guy didn't show! That was about our week just a lot of talking to people in a language I don't know all that well! But I'm still loving it! 

So my week started really rough actually you all remember that guy I met in the park David that I was so excited about? Yeah well he sent a text Monday night saying that he didn't want to meet anymore because he didn't feel comfortable talking about God. What kind of lame excuse was that! I sent a text back just saying can we meet once and if you don't like it you can leave. No response.. I was completely heart broken I had the best feeling about him! I though he was the one. Maybe he will come back around later in the mission I really hope he does!

SO yeah rough start but I'm all good now! Highlight of the week was having district meeting in Frydek Mystek then going group contacting for a while!! That was Thursday and it literally snowed all day like from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed! And it wasn't just a light snow like it was coming down!! So that was actually really fun cold but fun! Man its hard to speak Czech but then when your mouth is frozen it gets 30xs harder to pronounce some of these words haha!!

Ghetto Christmas tree by our church building.

Yeah that was about our week! Christmas is coming to town!! Cant wait to see yall over skype! They just sent us an email for us we are suppose to find out what time works out best for our family then we will figure it all out! so let me know what time works best for all of you!!

Have a great week everybody!!!

Starší Heywood

Ostrava Celebration for turning 750 Years old!

Ajoj !!

This past week was the last in transfer!! SO the news i stayed here in Ostrava!! And my new companion is Elder Petersen and is from Michigan just got here about 4 hours ago! Elder Mueller went to PLzen ZL. Elder Robinson stays here and will be training and sister Wilson will be training also here!! SO I'm no longer the greenie here!!! SO yeah it was good week! Last Monday we went to a sweet castle that looked like the one at Disneyland so that was awesome!!

Yeah then just a normal week not a whole lot happened just a lot of contacting and stuff like that. So we had a miracle on Wednesday! WE had a lesson with a less active named Petr and his girlfriend was over and he has been talking to her about the church and she has read in the Book of Mormon and it was sweet she wanted to meet with us and we were about to set a bapt date with her but she had to leave and just kinda felt wrong to ask her as shes putting her jacket on and everything! But we will probably meet this week sometime! Also petr told us that he wants to baptize her so I think that will give him some motivation with the  word of wisdom because that is what he is struggling with right now! SO I'm hoping we will teach them together so that will be awesome if we can put her on date!!

Then we did more contacting! We did a chalk display about freedom and I drew a sweet Czech flag! Then a lady named Eva set up with us so that was cool!!! But then she didn't show so that was also cool!!(sarcasm)

Saturday we contacted and just kinda waited for the transfer call to come around to know where we were going and new companions and what not so kinda a stressful day! Sorry this email is short and stuff but today was a hectic day getting everyone off to thier new areas and waiting for my comp at the train station and getting him all situated here and so this week will probably be crazy because h'll be relying on me to get around and stuff so that is going to take some getting used to haha! Haven't got lost yet in big ole ostrava so that is good!! Well that is about it for me Talk to you all later! Everyone have a sick Thanksgiving weekend!! 

Love Starši Heywood

Castle in Ostrava

Starsi Heywood

Dobry Rano!

Hope Everybody had a fantastic week! Kennedy I hope you had an amazing Birthday yesterday! A lot happened this week so I will try to get it all in but no promises!

I will start off with Wednesday we started the day off with some group finding with the sisters just in the Naměstí Elder Mueller talked to this amazing guy. He was believer so that was cool. He asked us the normal question what makes your church different then others so of coarse we went into the Restoration and we taught the whole restoration with him. He was very interested but got a little nervous when we pulled out the Book of Mormon because he told us the believed that the Bible is perfect with out error and that there cant be more scripture so we answered those questions. So this was like a hour long Contact and at the end he asked us if we could pray together and in his prayer he asked god to show him the way. It was a very spiritual experience! WE got his number he wouldn't set up with us just because hes super busy with school and said he had no time(the usual) but he told us to call in a week! So you know what we will be doing on Wednesday!

Thursday we did a group contacting activity with the district and we wanted to go a little out of the box so we did sušenky s mormoní (cookies with mormons) so we made a ton of cookies and handed them out to people and asked them about joy and we had some amazing conversations!! we got a couple numbers so you could say it was a success! Don't worry I will send pics later! It was fun giving the cookies out to little kids! Czech children are so cute!! I envy them though because they speak better than me! 

Cookies in the Park

Friday we had Zone Conference! It was amazing the theme was about laska(love) just about loving the people your area and the mission. I honestly don't think I have felt the spirit so strong it was amazing. Yeah I love my mission and feel so blessed to have been called to this amazing country! Also it was fun to see Schmutz and Jarvis and all the Slovaks were there so it was fun to meet them and see some other people from the mtc! The way home kinda was rough though the train was overbooked so we had to strand for like 2 hours and wait for people to get off so we could sit the rest of the way! It was fun though district bonding!

Together again!!

Saturday YSA around the country came to Ostrava for an activity. They asked if we would come to so we did! We went on a vilet to a WWII museum it was really cool but all in Czech so the stuff I understood was cool! The coolest part was they had a bunch of tanks so we took some sweet pics with them! After that we went and did service with them at a retirement home just raked leaves and stuff like that it was fun but man I was cold!! Then we had lunch with them all then went and did some good ole missionary work after. It was a fun but tiring day we went to bed at about 9 that night!

World War II museum with the YSA's

Sunday was good all the YSA were there so our ward was popping and testimony meeting was lit! This dude got up twice it was hilarious!!! Then we went tracting that night and it rained the whole time and we forgot umbrellas so that was super fun!! Nothing like tracting in the rain for 3-4 hours. It was good though we got let in and we are going back Wednesday!!

All around good week! Now we are going to go to a castle! 

Love this pic because I received it from 4 different people.  Elder Nielson in front is related to some great families here in Gilbert so they saw it and noticed Chris in the background.

Also this is the last week of the transfer so idk how emailing is going to work and all that next week. Ive never been though a transfer so we will see what happens. My guess is I stay here in Ostrava and Another elder comes and follow up trains me! WE will see!! 

I Love You All

Starší Heywood

Whats up everybody! Pretty good week here in Ostrava! Its turning into winter real fast!! I've only seen the sun once this week so that is pretty cool! I've got most of my winter shopping done but having a hard time finding thermals that aren't super expensive! Wearing a jacket and scarf everyday to block the wind! I've never worn a scarf before so elder Mueller had to show me how to tie one! But yeah its been like 6 degrees celsius everyday idk know how cold that is but it feels cold! 

So I'll just sum up the week! Tuesday was a pretty rough day we went contacting for a solid 4-5 hours and the longest conversation we had was probably about 5 mins so that was an extremely long day! But we also had a lesson with a man named Karel who was interested but is only in Ostrava once a month for like a week because of his job! Thursday we had district meeting but before that we went and did some service  for a less active named Petr! He has a hard life and talks super fast so as usual i didn't really understand but that's alright its getting better everyday! After Setkani Okrsku (District meeting) we went group contacting about family history and some people were actually interested and wrote down there numbers so that we could contact them and give them the website for familysearch! Friday we stayed in all day because Elder Mueller got sick so that day was pretty boring. Although I forgot to say in the beginning of the transfer President has challenged us all to read the old testament and finish on the just a little bit after next transfer and as we read we have to look for examples of the light of Christ and attributes of DC 4 we have to read about 13 pages a day to stay caught up! So Friday i got all got up so that was successful! At least Elder Mueller felt well enough to go to game night were we had the spiritual thought so i did it this time and it went actually not bad we talked about Prophets and who's everyones favorite was and why we need them! It went way better than I planned! Saturday was pretty good Elder Mueller felt better so we got to go outside which was awesome and we found this guy named Alex who is from Romania and set up with us! He was a very interesting man we have a lesson with him tomorrow so that should be good and its in English!!!!!! Sunday we had stake conference which was really cool it was in Brno but it was broadcasted to all the wards!! President gave a super awesome talk on his vision for the Czech Republic on how the vision he has is having two stakes and that is going to only happen if the members help the missionaries! It was awesome! I didn't understand it but the my district filled me in on the stuff I didn't understand!! So that was really cool!!

Today we actually had another presentation but this time it was at a high school!! It went really well they had a lot of good questions about like why there is so much evil in the world and what not. I had to explain baptisms for the dead in czech so that was pretty cool I would just like to testify that the gift of tongues is real!! I only had to ask for help on one word so that was really cool!!

Yep so that was my week! Sounds like everyone had a stellar Halloween!! All the boys looked super cute!! I didnt even recognize Russell at first he is huge!! Seth Congrats on the 2 goals thats awesome!!! Parker you looked disgusting in that costume!!! It was hilarious!!! Brooke congrats on the new job sounds like you guys are just "Chugging along". Also everyone Its Kennedys Birthday next week so everyone wish her a Happy Birthday!! 

I didn't take a single picture this week sorry but I'll send some that I haven't sent yet!

I love you all!! Peace

Starší Heywood

Hey everybody this week was pretty crazy but a good one! So yeah crazy week here in the Czech! A good one though. Our lessons last Tuesday went good! For Daria we taught the rest of the Restoration and emphasized on the Book of Mormon and committed her read it. She said that she would love too and we gave her a specific chapter to read. Krystoff we kinda had a mutual drop because he just wanted us to come to his business seminar thing so that happened then our lesson with Josef went well and he told us that he would come to church but not till next month which was kind of odd but whatever he is a nice man and is really interested!

Wed. the lecture at the college went well no new investigators but a couple potentials! They had a lot of good questions about the plan of salvation about the kingdoms and our type of hell which we tried to answer as best as we could! It was nice we had the Frydek Elders with us so that helped to have them there. WE also had interviews with president Wednesday and it was awesome I tried to speak as much Czech as possible but when i got stuck it was alright because president speaks really good english! I learned a lot and he gave me ideas on learning the language that i will be trying out.

Thursday was definitely the highlight of my week during group finding after district meeting we went out to the park and.... I set up my first lesson with this guy all in Czech! We talked about families and about how god has a plan for you and how family can be together forever i could really feel the spirit helping me because I don't know how to explain it. It was amazing!! I got his number and set up a time and everything. but the bad news he didn't show up Saturday for the lesson so that sucked i was really excited to meet with him he was super nice! He hasn't replied to any text or calls so we will see what happens! All good you gotta have a good attitude here or else you will die! I love it here even though its starting to get super cold!! It snowed a little bit today but not enough to get on the ground but still it snowed!!

Saturday was good we had our ward Halloween party and about 20 people showed up so you could say it was a success it was actually pretty fun!! We just played ping pong and cards and just talked with the members!

Sunday was good we went Tracting and set up with this lady for Thursday so that was sick! And we taught this nice old lady on her porch the book of Mormon and i gave away my first Book of Mormon so I was happy!

SO my favorite person in the ward is this 17 year old named Filip that was baptized in January! I love him he acts like he is 12 and is crazy hahaha he always comes tracting with us and makes it bearable!!! haha He caught this cat last night it was hilarious, I have pics!

So yeah pretty good week here in Ostrava looking forward to this week! Oh and also out transfers are 9 weeks so i have 3 more weeks in my first transfer!!! I'll send pics!

I love you all!!

Elder Heywood

Dobry Den everybody!!

I had pretty good week! So I'm just going to get right into it. So this week none of our progressing investigators could meet  so we focused on finding. Wednesday was pretty rough we contacted all day and got nothing also people were super mean so half way through the day we took a bit of a breather and bough a couple mila bars to get our spirits back up! Then the sisters called and asked if we wanted to go English finding because not many people showed up to English last Tuesday. So we went and did that and had pretty good success a lot of people said they would come so i guess we will find out tomorrow at English who all will come!

Thursday we had district meeting In Frydek so we took a train over at about 11:30 but right before elder Mueller took me to the house where president Uchtdorf was born so i took a pic don't worry I'll send it. He was born like half a mile away from our apartment actually so that was pretty sick. Then we had district meeting then went group finding and did a singing display. Singing displays are were we will just go sing in a town square then half of us will go contact while the other half sings then we switch like every 15-20 mins. So solo contacting is pretty scary but I've learned to like it and it makes me stretch as much as I can which i am improving leaps and bounds on. My Czech still sucks but its getting way better. I got this kid to actually set up we talked about the plan of Salvation and he set up with me. But the Frydek Elders said that he didn't show the other day so that was kinda a bummer.

Friday was alot of finding and 0 success we found no one that day so that was pretty hard. 

Saturday we didst have much time to contact but we found this sweet ysa girl named Kristina who actually lived in the US for 18 years so it was nice to talk in English and know exactly what she was saying instead of just the main idea haha. But she set up with us for this Wednesday I am so pumped!! She had awesome questions about just god and who he is. Super excited!!

Oh I almost forgot that we had a lesson Tuesday with our new guy Krystof! we only got to meet for like 20 mins but it was way good we talked about God and that we can talk to him through prayer. But the best part was that at the end he asked when we could meet again!!!! WAY PUMPED!!! 

So this upcoming week is going to be crazy!! We have 3 lessons tomorrow with Daria, Krystof and Josef so that is way good because we weren't able to meet with Daria or Josef last week. Then Wednesday we have to give a presentation at a university about the church and all that good stuff so we are pumped but it has to be in Czech and I'm pretty nervous about that. Then we have a lesson with Kristina that afternoon. Then Thursday we don't have much planned but will have a busy Friday and Saturday with finding ideas and a Halloween party that we have planned!! So I'm looking forward to this week!!

So everybody should set aside some time and read Two Talks By pres Uchtdorf "bearers of heavenly light" and The one were he talks about the path back to God cant remember what it was called. But those to two talks and the story in the Book of Mormon about Alma and the city of Ammonihah and how he was rejected and visited by Angel saying Hey Alma your fine man just continue to work and share the gospel and the Lord will give you people to teach and will be blessed. Those 3 things really carried me this week!!

Everyone have a great week!!! Mam te rad!!

Starší Heywood