Mercedes On A Mission: Hot, Hot, Hot!

Hello Everyone!!

Hope you all had a great 4th of July!! We thought about it, but we didn't really do much. Ses. Holland and I bought a watermelon and some Coke to celebrate America's birthday, but that was pretty much it. :)

Well it has been a busy week! I've been noticing this mission phenomenon a lot more lately, where the days seem really long, but the weeks go by really fast. And I just love it here in Brno, this city is so amazing and exciting!

So this week, on Monday us and the elders went to a big church on a hill here in Brno called Petrov. I'll add pictures, but basically it's just a really really big church/cathedral. It was really cool and really old. The architecture and the art work are all so elaborate, it was really cool to walk around and look at everything. We even got to go up into the bell tower and look out over Brno!

Later we met with Bara, the miracle that walked into sacrament meeting last week. She is so amazing! She just belongs in our church and we can tell she can feel that. She's going camping for like a week and a half, but we gave her a Book of Mormon and we're going to meet with her as soon as she gets back!

On Tuesday I had to go to the doctor cuz I've had a rash for the past few weeks. Nothing big, but no one at the hospital spoke English, so it was kind of an adventure explaining what was wrong and understanding what they wanted me to do. But in the end it all worked out, #missionaryblessings.

On Wednesday it was sooooo HOT!! This whole week has been really hot, but Wednesday was bad because it was hot and we got lost! We were trying to meet with a guy named Albert, he's super cool, he's from Ghana and he looks like he's maybe 25, but he's actually 39!! And on Wednesday we found out he's engaged! Which is cool but we had no idea!! We also found out his friend Michal, who we had also been teaching, is married! We had no idea about that either which is really awkward becuase we think this girl in the branch likes him. We haven't found out how to break it to her yet that he's married...

Then we had a lesson with one of our investigators, Miroslav. He's really cool, we went to his daughter's ballet last week, but we've been having a hard time with him. He's super nice in person and a great guy and stuff, but whenever we teach him with a member, he ends up fighting with the member. No matter who it is or what we're talking about he ends up fighting with the members. And it's really frustrating because if he's going to get baptized, he needs to get along with the members!

Thursday we had training! I love training, and it was here in Brno so we didn't have to go anywhere. It was also cool because all of the missionaries in Slovakia come to Brno for training. So I met a lot of people I had never seen before. And Ses. Ratcliffe was there, and it was really good to see her. Her companions kept telling me, "Oh, you're Ses. Schaerrer, I feel like I know you already, Ses. Ratcliffe has told me all about you!" So I hope it's all good things! Haha

After training we had game night, and we playing Petank (no idea how to spell it but it's like Bacchi ball, don't know how to spell that either) and we also played Ping pong. I'm getting pretty good at ping pong, maybe by the time I come home I'll be a pro. :)

After game night we had a ton of stuff to carry to our apartment, and Vilém, a member in the branch helped us a ton, he carried a box of Books of Mormon all the way to our building for us, which is a pretty long walk. He also has helped us a lot with Miroslav. Vilém is so awesome!

Also on Thursday, the Archibald's went home. They were the senior couple incharge of FHE and YSA stuff and they were so awesome! We're so sad they are gone but happy for them to be home. I'll send the last picture we took together before they left.

Friday was another really hot day, and we spent pretty much the whole day tracting and trying to find less active members. So we were outside for just hours and hours in the hot sun! We were dying! But it was good, we found some good people and we know where some less actives live now, so I guess it was worth it haha.

Saturday was the 4th of July! We did a singing display in the morning with the Baty's (another senior couple, they're incharge of family history and they work in the archives) and that was really fun! Then we went to lunch together afterwards, the Baty's are just so fun to be around!

Then we had a lesson with one of our investigators named David. He's a really strong Catholic, and teaching him can be super hard. We actually should have dropped him by now, but we pray about it and just feel like we can't get. So this lesson we committed him to live like a Mormon for a month. The hardest part for him is not drinking, but he can do it. He's going to follow all of the commandments and come to church every Sunday for a month, we're hoping he'll be able to tell a difference and find out that our message is true. After that, if he really still doesn't think it's true, we'll drop him. We've pretty much done everything we can.

Then we had weekly planning and Ses. Holland and I ate a whole watermelon together. We also had weekly planning in the Archibald's old apartment because ours was so hot and we had like 12 flies in there and it was just bad, so we went to the Archibald's haha.

Yesterday, Sunday, was fast Sunday and boy was it hot! Again! We did our best to fast all day, and we didn't eat food, but after church we just had to have water, for being outside that much and everything we do, we would have had some serious health problems if we didn't have water. David came to church, and a little girl named Fernanda. Fernanda's mom wants us to teach her, even though neither of them are members.

After church, David wanted us to go to a Catholic mass with him (one of his conditions for his month-as-a-mormon) and that was interesting. We talked about it afterwards and I told him that it was all good and everything, but I just feel like something is missing. And I related it to Joseph Smith and how a lot of churches had truth, but all of them were missing something. We had a pretty good discussion and he's still going to live like a mormon for a month, so we'll see how that goes. :)

Well that's pretty much all of the major events of the week. It's not too exciting, but I hope it wasn't too boring either.

I just wanted you all to know that the church is true. I've been kind of tested the past couple weeks, especially teaching David because he askes such deep questions, and all I can say is I don't know all the answers, but I've tested it and I know that our church, and the Book of Mormon are true. I really do know that it's true.

I love you all, I hope that you have a great week wherever you are, and I hope that wherever you are, it isn't as hot there as it is here!! On the bright side, I'm getting a nice tan complete with embarrassing tan-lines. ;)

Talk to ya'll next week!

S laskou,

Sestra Schaerrer

Pictures! From our trip to Petrov.