A Bible Bash And A Blessing

Dobrý den Everyone!

It has been a CRAZY week here in Brno! I love it here! I loved Liberec, but it's just so different here and I love it!!

My first day here was nuts! I got to email, go to FHE, teach an investigator, unpack a little, etc. After we emailed, we went to the church to help the Archibald's (the senior couple that work with the YSA) get dinner ready for YSA FHE. Then we had FHE. It's pretty weird for me to have a YSA program. We only had two YSA girls in Liberec, so we didn't ever do anything just for them. It's also really new to have so many members my same age, it's really fun though, the YSA here are great!

On Tuesday we had an interesting lesson with a mom named Nataša (Natasha) and her family. Her husband had asked two of his cousins, who are leaders in another church, to come over and talk to us. We tried to get a member to come with us but no one could. So basically we went there, introduced ourselves and what we believe to the cousins, and then we got yelled at for two hours. We tried to just explain what we believe and share our testimonies, but we were just getting destroyed. It was like a bible bash but we weren't saying anything back. One of the cousins was just pulling out scripture after scripture and yelling at us about how what we believe isn't true. We kept trying to leave but he just kept yelling. So we sat and got yelled at for over two hours. 

Near the end he was talking about how they pray in his church and that they pray in angelic tongue, and we were kind of curious so we asked him if he would pray so we could see how he does it, and then we asked if we could show him how we pray afterwards. We were hoping that we could bring the spirit that way and maybe he would calm down. So he agreed and he said "I will pray and bless you that your eyes will be opened to the truth and God's will." So he put one hand on Ses. Holland's shoulder, and one hand on my shoulder and started to pray. At the beginning it was normal. He prayed to God that our eyes would be "opened to the truth" basically just saying that what we believe is wrong and he wants God to show us the right way (aka his way). Then he just started yelling gibberish! Not Czech, not English, just straight up random noises were coming out of his mouth. This went on for about 45 seconds to a minute, and then he ended with "Haleluja Jesus!" And it was over. 

He had explained to us why they use angelic tongue in his church, he said "I don't know what I'm saying, other people don't know what I'm saying, but God knows what I'm saying." Basically it was one of the weirdest experiences of my life. Then we showed him the way we pray and tried to bring the spirit, but it really didn't work. He just went back to yelling at us about how wrong our religion is and how the Book of Mormon can't be true, and that there can't be any prophets after Christ. Just nonsense. 

If we learned anything from that visit, it's that the gospel is true. The only reason a grown man would yell at two 20 year old girls about what they believe for over two hours, is because it's true. People absolutely despised a 14 boy for saying he saw a vision, because it's true. I know it is, and even though we got yelled at for hours about how wrong we are, I'm only more sure now that we're right. 

Anyway, one of the miracles we saw this week was that as we were coming back from that lesson we just felt defeated (the mom and family that we were teaching ended up dropping us and gave us back their Book of Mormons) and we ran into President McConkie at the church building. He really helped us brush it off and just get back to work. He is amazing, he helped us feel so much better.

I'm only on Tuesday and this letter is already getting really long, so I'm just going to skip to another miracle we saw on Sunday. 

Sunday morning we're in church meeting and talking to everyone before sacrament meeting starts, when this teenage girl walks in. I didn't know her, but I don't really know anyone yet, so I just assumed she was a member of the branch. Ses. Holland greets her and talks to her and they end up sitting together during the meeting. After the meeting is over I go outside to talk with them and it turns out that this girl walks to school past the church building everyday and just felt like she needed to come. She told us how her parents wouldn't want her there, but she just always felt like she should come. She also told us about how her life has been really rough the past few years, she has a sister in the hospital and some other things, and that her parent's church doesn't ever help her feel better. She told us that she's been having suicidal thoughts and things, but that during sacrament meeting, she didn't have any of those thoughts or feelings. She really loved sacrament meeting and she sang with her heart and it was just awesome! She even started crying while we were talking about how good she felt during the meeting. We set up to meet with her the next day (which means later today!!) and when we went to say goodbye she asked if she could give us hugs! It's so crazy that she just decided to come to church all by herself! She's only 18, I definitely wouldn't have done that when I was 18!! We're so excited to talk to her and teach her more about how the gospel can bring us comfort! :)

Anyway, a lot of other stuff happened this week, and I'll send some pictures and briefly describe what they are. I'd write more but writing about the bible bash lesson really wiped me out, it was a very emotional night. 

On a happier note I'm so excited for this transfer! I already love Ses. Holland (no relation to Jeffrey R Holland) and I already love Brno!

The gospel is true everyone, and Satan wants to stop us from spreading it. But I know that this is the Lord's work and that anything is possible with Him on our side. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Also, make sure to party extra hard this Fourth of July weekend for those of us that can't really do much! Happy Birthday 'Merica!! 

S láskou,

Sestra Schaerrerová

Pictures! We went to an investigator's daughter's ballet concert (sorry it's a really bad picture in a really nice theater), and we found that pirate cut out thing in the lobby. Our district: Elder Brittner, Elder Galbraith, Sestra Holland, and me. And a piano playing marionette on the streets of Brno.