Transfer Time!

Hello Everyone!

This email is probably going to be a little short because today was transfer day!! On Saturday we received our transfer calls, and Ses. Andreason got to stay in Brno (lucky!) and I got called to serve in Frýdek Místek (close to Ostrava) with Ses. Behunin!! Crazy! So I spent all morning packing and then on a bus to move all my stuff to Frydek Mistek. I'm so excited for this transfer, it's going to be so great! I don't know anyone, or where anything is, but I'll learn haha. OH! And also, I'm serving here with Elders Lanham and Terry! They are companions and they were both in my MTC group! No one from my group has ever served together and now there are three of us here in Ostrava!

Anyway so last week was pretty crazy. Monday we had to go by me some new suitcases (my old ones died when I moved to Brno). We had training on Tuesday. Friday I had visa work in Prague. And Saturday was the Relief Society conference in Brno. So lots of big things were happening. And then there were all the goodbyes and everything. It was hard for me to say goodbye to Brno. I love that city and the people and the members. And I feel like I really grew a lot there. But I'm so excited to be here in Frydek Mistek/Ostrava. It's going to be a great (and pretty crazy) transfer (full of holidays)!

Last night we had our last district dinner together at the church, and the elders made soup. That was an adventure, and then this morning Elder Baty helped us get to the bus station, and Elder Kleiner and Elder Brittner and Miroslav came to say goodbye to me. :) (Elder Brittner is going home to America, so he doesn't leave until Wednesday.) It was bittersweet. 

I'll try to send some pictures.

The gospel is true, and I know that President McConkie is truly inspired in our transfer calls! I'm a little nervous to go to Ostrava (infamous for people who speak really really fast) but I can still feel that it's the right place for me to be and serve in for the next few months of my mission. I love this gospel and I love my Savior. I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve in His name, wherever I am. :)

Love you all, have an awesome week!

s laskou,

Sestra Schaerrer

 

 Pictures!

 

 

 

 

 Me with Roman, Zbyněk, and then Bara. The elders making dinner and the last time walking away from our Brno apartment. Next week I'll have pictures of my new area!

Wedding #3

Howdy Everyone!

This week was crazy! 

Monday we went to this absolutely adorable town called Znojmo! It's about an hour away from Brno, down by the Austrian boarder, and it is gorgeous there! Everywhere you look is just beautiful! We took tons of pictures!

Then Saturday was Dalibor's wedding! Wedding number 3 for me on my mission, and also number 3 while I've been in Brno. It was a really beautiful ceremony, and we got to be there with President McConkie! And that was really fun.

Time is pretty crazy for me right now because this next week is the last week of the transfer!! Which is crazy both becuase it feels like it just started, and because since I've been in Brno two transfers already, I'll probably be leaving, and I am SO SAD!! I love Brno! I never want to leave! But I'm also excited to see where I'll be going next. And who knows, maybe I'll stay another transfer here in Brno, I'll find out on Saturday, and you'll find out next week!

Sorry for the short email, I don't have tons of time this week. But I'll try to send some pictures, if the computer behaves.

Have an awesome week this week everyone! The gospel is true!

s laskou,

Sestra Schaerrer

 Pics

 Dalibor and his new wife :)

 Here are pictures from last week! Making the cake at the Baty's, making the frosting at home, Tessi's wedding, and our conference set-up. :)

 

 

 And the elevators :)

Piece of Cake

Zdarec Everyone!

Well this week has been pretty crazy! So many things happened, big things! 

Last Monday, we really didn't do anything special for P day. We just went around to different shops and things. Oh! We did visit the post office, which has Mario elevators! They don't stop! Ever! You just hop on and then hop off again! I'll try to send a video I took. :) We also visited a coin shop and I bought some old coins, some were from Germany during Nazism and have swastikas on them (I don't know how to spell those words...). Anyway that was cool. Then we pretty much just ended up on a bench in the center, eating Czech hotdogs, playing 20 questions. But it was fun.

Tuesday we did service in the morning and we were destroyed!! We did the same thing we did a couple weeks ago where we threw bags full of clothes onto a truck, but there were way more bags this time and I swear they were heavier because all four of us missionaries were destroyed afterwards!

Wednesday we had FHE with a family in the branch, the Řezačovi. They are so awesome, we had dinner, and then watched a new Czech mormon message with them, and it was really cool because since the church is really small here, they knew a lot of the people in the mormon message. It was really fun to spend the evening with them. 

Then we went straight to Miroslav's for his usual Wednesday night study group. It was really good, he taught us about the Plan of Salvation, and we talked about the purpose of life on earth. It was awesome. Elder Brittner kind of likes to push Miroslav with harder questions and at one point Miroslav just said, "Viš co? Nemluv. (You know what? Don't speak.)" It was really funny and all of us burst out laughing.  :)

Thursday, Ses. Andreason and I went over to the Baty's to bake Tessi's wedding cake. Tessi's wedding was on Friday and somehow Sis. Baty volunteered to make the wedding cake, and asked us to help her, which ended up in us making the cake, and Sis. Baty decoating it. Anyway so we spent most of Thursday buying the ingredients and then baking the cakes. 

Then Friday, we went over to the church 2 or 3 hours before the wedding was supposed to start so we could frost and decorate the cake. It took a long time, but I think it turned out really well. There were a few minor crisis along the way, but in the end the cake was finished on time and I think it looked pretty good. Sis. Baty did a great job with the flowers and the bride and groom and everything. I even got to taste a little later and it turned out pretty good. 

The wedding itself was awesome! They did so many cool Czech traditions. The ceremony itself was pretty short, just all the legal things. Then they had dinner and did all the traditions. We threw rice at them as they left, then they swept up a broken plate together (doing together their first "work" as husband and wife), then they fed each other soup. Another tradition they did is while they dance, the crowd threw coins at them, and then they got to keep all the money at the end. Tessi is from the Phillipines, so she also showed us her country's national dance, and there were a lot of other dances too. That was probably the hardest part for us missionaries, was not joining in all the dancing. But we just sat and watched. At the end of the wedding they did this thing where the couple sits back to back, and each of them have each of their shoes, then someone asks them questions "Who is the most...?" And they answer by lifting up the shoe of whoever they think it is. We had to leave right as they started that so we didn't get to see much. 

The wedding was so fun! Probably one of the most fun nights I've had on my mission so far. I want a wedding like that! It was pretty small and simple, but full of tradition and so much fun! And it really is like a fairytale ending for Tessi and Bro. Jeglík. They are both so awesome, I'm so happy for them. 

Then Saturday and Sunday we watched conference at the church building. Conference was amazing! If I had more time I'd write a lot more about it, but basically I loved it!! So great!!

I hope you all had an awesome week, and I hope you find time to rewatch or read conference. This church is true and I'm so grateful for the leaders of our church!

Thanks for your love and prayers, have an awesome week everyone!

S laskou,

Sestra Schaerrer

 

Sorry everyone, the computer is being dumb and won't let me send pictures, so you'll just have to wait for next week!

 

It's OCTOBER!

Howdy Everyone!

I can't believe it's OCTOBER!! I opened my mission call on October 1st last year. That was a crazy, happy, exciting, and little bit scary day! I didn't know that a year could go so fast!

Anyway things here are pretty normal. Last week we just played games and things at the building again for P day. We've been pretty lame lately haha. But then President and his wife and two of their kids came from Slovakia, so we got to talk to them for a little bit. And then we went with President and the less active I talked about last week to have a lesson/discussion. I don't really know what to call it. But it was SOOO GOOD!! President is just awesome and answered every single question she had, and explained all of the false information she had read and everything. And she felt so much better afterwards to know that she had the whole story. 

Tuesday we had training. I love training! It's like recharging all your spiritual, missionary energy and afterwards you just want to go out and baptize the whole city! Then later that night we also taught English, except the elders weren't there to teach their classes, so Ses. Andreason taught our beginning class, and I taught the middle class and conversation class combined! It was so hard and awkward! I hadn't prepared anything and it was really intimidating, but I think it worked out haha. I think in the end everyone had a good time. 

Wednesday we had an awesome lesson with our investigator from the Netherlands! He's so cool and we put him on date! He said that he hadn't really received any answers if this stuff was true or not, but if he did, he would get baptized! We're shooting for November 6th.

We also went to work in the archives on Wednesday, because the new couple comes on Friday and after they come, we probably won't be able to work there any more, because they'll finally have enough people. So that was fun, and a little sad that it might be our last time. 

Thursday we had a really good lesson with a member, and his non-member 12 year old son. We talked about the Priesthood, and the dad shared examples of when he used his priesthood and how he felt about it. It was a really good lesson, and soon we're going to ask the son if he wants to get baptized! But he's going to be in England all this week, so next week! Haha

Wednesday night we were doing some calls, and I decided to call this former investigator that pretty much just fell of the planet. She was doing so well and then poof! Gone! She wouldn't answer our calls or texts, nothing. So I just randomly decided to call her, and she didn't answer, but five minutes later she called back! And she asked if we could meet on Thursday and talk! So she came to game night and we talked about what's going on, and now we should be able to start meeting again. 

Friday, the new senior couple came! They are the Birds, and they are from South Jordan, Utah. They were serving a mission working in the archives in Sweden, and then they came here because the Baty's are leaving in about 4 weeks. They're really cool. We helped them carry all their luggage to their apartment (the Archibald's old apartment) and then we all went to a restaurant for dinner, us, the Birds, the Baty's, and the elders. It was cool. We introduced them to Kofola, svičkova, and gulaš. I think they liked it, it was probably a major information overload, but I think they're doing well. 

Saturday we had a singing display and other lessons. Helped the Birds buy groceries and other stuff like that. Then Sunday night all of the missionaries came over for dinner. Ses. Andreason and I made gulaš soup, sliced some knedliky we bought, and the Birds brought a salad, and then for dessert we had Marlenka Medovník, the best cake on the face of the planet!! It was a lot of fun to have everyone over in our tiny apartment haha. 

So that's basically what we did this week. It's been crazy, and it's been good. Time is going so fast right now because we are always so busy! And I think the rest of the transfer is going to be super busy too. We have a wedding next week, a concert in Olomouc the week after, and another wedding. Oh, this weekend is conference because we get it a week late for translation and things, and a whole bunch of other stuff. We're also supposed to have another training before the transfer is over. It's going to be crazy, but it will be good. 

The gospel is so true everyone! I hope you don't get tired of me saying it, because I'm not going to stop! Haha. I'm so grateful to be in this amazing country, doing the work of the Lord with so many amazing people. 

Have an amazing week everyone, thank you for all your love, support, and prayers.

'Til next week!

S laskou,

Sestra Schaerrer

PS - Sorry, no pictures this week. I guess we were so busy I just forgot to take any!