Czech Mate

Ahoj Everyone! (Ahoj is pronounced like ahoy btw)

Well this week has been significantly less exciting, but I'll try to make it sound interesting for you. BTW the subject of this email has absolutely nothing to do with what happened this week, I'm just running out of puns....

Lately we've been teaching with Sestra Ratcliffe more. Which is always interesting because she's learning Slovak and we're learning Czech, we can understand each other most of the time, but they are definitely different languages! We got a new investigator that we are teaching with Sestra Ratcliffe. Her name is Lucie (not pronounced like Lucy, but I don't really know how to explain how to say it... Loot see uh is my best explanation). She's really cool and it's nice to have someone else in the room that knows the language really well. Not that Sestra Bailey doens't know it well, I just feel like when we teach I have to know exactly what both of us are going to say so I can help Ses. B but with Ses. R I can just relax a little bit more.

The Croatians, Slovenians, and Bulgarians all leave on Monday! It's going to be so sad to see them go, but we're really happy for them. The Bulgarians didn't get their visas though, so they are going to the Chicago Illinois West Mission to wait for them. It's sad, but they are good sports about it. 

This week Ses. B and I had a really great lesson with Viktor. We've recently gotten him to (FINALLY!) start reading the Book of Mormon and pray. Our lesson the other day was going to be about baptism, and we were going to ask him if he was interested in being baptized, when the spirit just took control and we ended up spending the whole lesson talking about prayer. We asked Viktor if he knew why prayer was so important, and he didn't actually know. So we talked about that the whole time, and we talked about how we recieve answers to our prayers. I felt the spirit so strong, and Viktor is normally a pretty talkative guy, but he was quiet for a lot of the lesson. I think that means he was feeling the spirit too. After we left and got out in the hall Ses. B says "That was SOOO BAD!" I had no idea what she was talking about cuz I thought it was awesome! Turns out she had no idea what we were actually talking about the whole time. She thought we were talking about baptism like we originally planned, and when it was her turn to talk she didn't know what to say so she just started talking about prayer. The Holy Ghost is REAL people!! Ses. B had no idea what was going on in the lesson, and she was able to say things that fit in perfectly! It wasn't our best teaching job, but that is the strongest spirit I've ever felt in one of our lessons before!

Last thing, we got to host yesterday!! Our district was selected to be host missionaries for the new incoming missionaries! For hosting we basically just show the new missionaries where their bedroom is, where their classroom is, and help them get their books. I hosted 3 sisters yesterday and they were all going English speaking. One was from Colorado Springs, one was from Paris, France, and one was from Tonga. It was really cool to talk to them and help them with their first day, especially since my first day (almost 6 weeks ago!) is kind of a blur. 

Well that's all I've got for this week! I hope everyone is doing well, and I hope you all enjoy reading my emails. I try to keep things interesting, but it can be hard when you have the exact same schedule every day of every week. 

This gospel is true! I've seen miracles here at the MTC, and I'm sure I'll see many more! Jesus Christ is our savior, and I know he knows and loves each one of us. 

Mate dobře tíden každý! (Have a good week everyone!)

Sestra Schaerrer

 

 

 Sorry, here are some pictures from this week. :) One is of all the sisters in our zone right now, and the other is of our whole zone! We're losing 10 on Monday though! Enjoy!

Sestra Schaerrer :)

They Re-czech-ed the X-rays...

Dobrý Dén Každy! (Good day Everyone!)

Well, first things first. The doctor was wrong about my foot. I don't actually have three cezmoids. I have two cezmoids, like a normal person, one of them just happens to be broken in half. So there ya go. I saw the podiatrist yesterday here at the MTC, and he told me that I had snapped one of my cezmoids in half, and that it's actually really easy to do and not an uncommon injury. He told me that there are a few different options as to helping it heal. The first one is to wear a boot and hope that everything heals on it's own. The second option is to make some custom orthotics that will hold the bones in the right places so that they can heal easier. And the third option is to perform surgery to take out one of the bone fragments. 

So since we don't really know when I broke it for sure, we went straight to the custom orthotics option. Yesterday afternoon, we went over to the podiatrist's office (just across the street from my uncle's dentistry, that was kind of weird) and he took casts of both my feet to send in and get the custom othotics made. We're going to try the orthotics for a few weeks to see if they help, but if they don't then the only other option is surgery. If we do surgery, it could delay my departure, and I would have to stay in the MTC longer. The pain is bearable, just annoying, so I think that I would rather just live with the pain my whole mission (the injury wouldn't get any worse) and do surgery when I get back, than cause a departure delay. I want to get out of the MTC and into the field ASAP! But we'll see if the orthotics help and who knows? Maybe we won't have to do surgery at all. 

I hope this all made sense, my english skills are deteriorating fast.

Anyway, yesterday was my one-month mark!! And tomorrow is the half way point for my whole MTC stay. It's kind of rough because soon the Slovenes, Bulgarians, and Croatians leave in about two weeks. They've been with us this whole time so it's going to be really hard to see them go. It's also just crazy that we've been here a month! That's such a long time, but it doesn't feel like it's been that long. One month of my mission down, 18 more to go! We also found out that the reason that our missions (the Czech/Slovak missions) are 19/25 months is because our mission has 9 week transfers, instead of 6 week transfers.

Last Friday was Elder Oviatt's birthday, so we had a birthday party! It wasn't big, we don't have a lot of free time here at the MTC, but we had a pirate theme (since Hello in Czech is Ahoy) and Elder Lanham's mom mailed us a birthday cake! It was super fun and it was nice to make him feel special. Elder Oviatt is from Canada, so he doesn't get a lot of mail or anything, but he did for his birthday and it was nice to see him super happy!

On Tuesday we had a really great devotional! Don R. Clarke of the Seventy came and spoke to us and he gave us a list of 10 Things Every Missionary Should Know:

1. The Truth of Love - the day you'll be happy (on your mission) is the day you care more about the people than yourself.

2. The Book of Mormon Converts - there should never a day go by in your mission that you do not read from the Book of Mormon.

3. The Principle of Joseph Smith - know that it really happened.

4. Obedience - The First Law of Heaven - why wouldn't you want to be the most obedient missionary on earth?

5. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ - faith divided the Red Sea, it can solve your problems!

6. The Power of the Holy Ghost - your mission will be full of Red Seas, will you divide them, or will they divide you?

7. Family - The Most Important Organization in Time and Eternity - your mission will change your family's lives, but only if you include them in the journey.

8. Believe Who You Really Are - you have access to the priesthood, you have the power to heal others.

9. The Worth of Souls/Help Them Change Their Lives - "it does no good to bring people into this church to have them walk back out again" (Pres. Hinkley)

10. Enjoy the Journey - let people see it in your faces, "happy always, content never"

It was such a good devotional and I wish I could just send you guys everything he told us, but the 10 things are pretty much the main ideas. 

That's really all I've got for now! Just know that I know this gospel is true, and that the gift of tongues is definitely real! We've learned so much in the past month! I know that Joseph Smith really did receive revelation from God to restore this amazing church, and I know that Thomas S. Monson is truly called of God to lead the church and that he does speak for God. I love this gospel, and it's amazing to watch it change lives. I love you all!

'Til next week!

Sestra Schaerrer

 

 

Ahoj Everyone!

So first things first, my toe is NOT broken. On Tuesday we went back to the clinic because I had worn that stupid shoe thing all week and it didn't feel any better. So they sent us to the BYU Student Health Center (we got to leave the MTC!!!) and we got some X rays done. So nothing's broken, there aren't injuries that they can see. BUT there are these bones in your foot call cezmoids (don't judge, I have no idea how to spell that) and most people only have two of them, but I just so happen to have THREE. Weird, huh? They don't know for sure if that is what's causing the pain in my foot, so I'm meeting with a podiatrist next Wednesday to see what he thinks. 

Next, on Tuesday we had our regular Tuesday Night Devotional, only guess who spoke?? Quentin L. Cook!! It was so cool, and since it was an apostle the devotional was broadcast to a bunch of other MTCs. I don't know if it was broadcast to all the MTCs, but a lot of them. He spoke to us on how mission calls are assigned, the importance of our work, and just gave us a ton of advice, it was amazing! We also got to sing in the choir for the devo and we sang Mack Wilberg's arrangement of Praise to the Man, which is one of my favorites. My favorite quote from Elder Cook's talk was what President Hinkley once told him, "Tell the missionaries that if they have more faith, they will have more success." That just really touched me and made me realize how important it is for us to be confident and trusting in the Lord, and that the more faith we have, the more the Lord can work through us, and the more success we will have. :) 

On Sunday for Relief Society, Sister Carol F. McConkie, the first councilor in the Young Women's General Presidency spoke to us. She told us stories of when her husband was a mission president and she gave us a lot of great advice as well. 

One funny thing that happened on Sunday was during Music and the Spoken Word. We watch Music and the Spoken Word every Sunday right before Relief Society, and this week's was quite the adventure. While we were watching it on the projectors with all the lights off, this object came in front of the projector. Something was flying around the room and guess what it was! A BAT!!! A bat had crashed our Music and the Spoken Word party! It flew around the meeting for about 20 minutes and then it just disappeared. A lot of sisters were freaking out, I just thought it was funny!

One more thing about Sunday. Daylight Savings is like 100000000 times worse in the MTC. They give you absolutely no recovery time! I think the whole MTC was a lot more grumpy this week because everybody was definitely feeling that missing hour of sleep!

One of the more serious things that happened this week has to do with my companion. Sestra Bailey heard from her friend that an elder in her friend's district got reassigned to a different mission because he just couldn't learn the language. Sestra Bailey really took that to heart and was freaking out about getting reassigned because she's been really struggling with the language pretty much the whole time we've been here. She had a really hard time when she heard about that from her friend and I had to sit her down and talk about all the amazing things she's done in learning the language so far. She's doing much better now, even though she's still struggling. That was a major bump in our road this week. 

Overall I'm doing well. I'm pretty much over being sick, and even though my toe still hurts pretty bad, at least I know it's not an injury. And it's comforting to know that I can still wreck at foursquare. ;) I actually weighed myself this past week and was pleased to know I've only gained three pounds, which is a lot better than what I had thought!

We're still teaching our two investigators, Viktor and Petra. Sestra Bailey asked Viktor if he'd get baptized in our second week with him and he really freaked out. So we'll see where that goes. Petra is really interested in the Plan of Salvation, and we've had a few really good discussions with her about it. We have high hopes for her.

I also got a calling in our branch this past Sunday. I'm the music coordinator (I can almost hear you all saying "surprise, surprise") so I just have to pick the songs for sacrament meeting and ask people to play and lead. 

Well it's pretty crazy to think that I've been here just over 3 weeks already. In some ways it feels like I just got here, and in others it feels like I've been here for an eternity already. Our zone is kind of at a stand still right now. We got 6 new elders yesterday (4 going to Turkey, and 2 going to Bulgaria) and now we're completely full. So we're not going to get anyone new until the older missionaries leave, but no one leaves for 3 more weeks. And once they leave we will be the "oldest." 

A huge thank you to everyone who has written/emailed me, it really means a lot! I'm sending a second email with some pictures from this week. One is of me and Elder Fairborn, I still can't believe how many times I've seen him around, seeing him actually makes me really homesick, but in a good way. It makes me miss all of my friends that have already been out on mission for over a year, I can't believe they all go home this year! Another picture is of drawings of everyone in our district. Elder Page drew all of us on the board and I think they are pretty accurate! The last picture is of my companionship at the temple on Sunday, with my hurt foot. :P

I hope you are all doing well! I love you all and this gospel is true!!!!

- Sestra Schaerrer

 

 

This week seemed to go by both fast and slow, but I've been told that's how my whole mission will be. I'll try to tell you about all the important events of this last week.

Friday: We found ants in our room. Yup. It was gross, and we don't really know where they came from or why they were there. But we made sure to teach them the Plan of Salvation before we sucked them up with the vacuum. 

Sunday: We had mission conference, and I don't think I've ever been so sore from doing absolutely nothing. I mean I was paying attention and taking notes, but I've never sat in such and uncomfortable chair for such a long period of time before. It was rough. BUT we felt the spirit as the MTC Presidency talked to us about how important our work is.

Sunday Night: We watched the new (I say new because it was new to me, idk how long it's been around though) Joseph Smith Restoration Film. It was so spiritual and emotional. I wish I could have watched it over and over. After the film our district went back to our classroom and a few people bore their testimonies and everyone was crying, it was awesome!

This week we started teaching two new investigators, Viktor and Petra. It was kind of hard, but waaaaayyyy better than our lesson we taught on the second day here! I can definitely tell that we've learned a lot in the past couple of weeks.

Tuesday: I broke my toe. Well, kind of not really. It just started hurting really bad, so we went to the  clinic and now I have to wear this super attractive boot shoe thing for a week and if it doesn't feel better then they'll take an X ray. So yay!

Overall the MTC experience has been good. I've gained weight (surprise surprise, BTW I hope you all read the scripture I sent last week....) I've gotten pro at foursquare, I've learned how to be around two crazy girls 24/7 without going insane, and I've learned a tiny bit of this really weird language that kind of sounds like Russian...

Also I'm sending some pictures. One is of me and my long lost twin Sister Redding, and the other is of our companionship and our New Zealand/Australian friends that are preparing to go to the Phillipines! 

That's all I can think of for now! Thank you to all of those that emailed me this week, it really means a lot! And here's another random fact, if you want to email so that I can read it the same day, use DearElder.com, if you don't use that I can only read it on Thursdays.

I love you all! This gospel is true and the gift of tongues is for real! Trust me! 

Til next week!

- Sestra Schaerrer