Finally! An Update!

Time flies by and then one day I realize I have not updated this blog for many weeks! Taylor is still happy and doing well. Here is the last part of his email from Sept. 10:

 

Saturday, not much. Another lesson with Lenka, it went well again. She didn't have a lot of time, so Elder Prymak gave a quick spiritual thought, then I talked a little more about it (agency by the way), and that was it. But it was really good, and she  was really impressed by it. After that, we went contacting for a bit because Veronika is sick and couldn't meet like we normally do, then sports day. Let's just make it known taht I am on a six game win streak in soccer, spanning three weeks worth of games. Also, it's interesting, as I go through a week where I see almost nothing from contacting, I still think to myself, but this is the week! We're going to find them this week. Why do I feel so optimistic? Don't know. but it's the Lord's work, and he's over it.

Sunday was awesome! Sister Krizova, the one with the ancient dog, came to church for the first time in way over a year! She was so happy and all the branch members were allstars in greeting her, making her feel welcome and so forth. And she absolutely loves the Mills. No wonder, they're fantastic. President came by taht afternoon on his way back from a place called Zilina in Slovakia, so the four of us who hadn't been interviewed were. I love President.

The letter should be on it's way soon! I'm sorry, letters take a long time. Also, yes, transfers are next week, so no email until Wednesday. 

I love you all, the Gospel is true. I agree with Savannah one hundred percent, why doesn't everyone get it? It's so clear, so simple.

Go Cougs!

 

After the Sept. 10 email we didn't hear from Taylor until Sept. 22. He was transferred from Ostrava to Prague to serve in the mission office. Here is how he felt initially about the change:

Draha rodino,

First off, yes. I am in the office. I can't say I was super excited about it, I dreaded coming here. I had totally convinced myself I wasn't going to be here, but here I am. I was bummed, and maybe I haven't gotten rid of that completely yet, but I understand. It means a lot more than computer work. President was quick to tell me that he only calls certain missionaries here. Not because we're better or worse, but because they have things they need to do in the future. I've also heard from other elders here in the office, me my comp and the APs btw, that when a missionary enters the field, President creates a two year plan for them. He sees where he wants them to go by the end, then already assigns them companions, positions, and areas to get them there. So, unless President changes his ways, which would be nice, I already know what I'm going to be doing for the next six months. And yes, I know I need a haircut. I'm getting one soon.

 

We did get a picture and that's how we knew he was in need of a haircut! His email was suuuppeerrrrr long, which was wonderful, but I won't try to fit it all here. He enjoyed his last days in Ostrava, went to a castle, found a great lady to teach, taught Veronika, the girl he baptized, one last time, and met with his other investigator, Lenka. He packed up and moved to Prague and got some whirlwind training and began his new assignment. The following excerpts are from his latest email:

His duties:

 

My duties include everything not encompassed in visa work and most computer things. I am the office manager. it's only me and my companion here, along with the APs. I order and distribute supplies, buy and sell cars, maintain them, and negotiate with people. It's interesting. I do have alittle time for proselyting, depending on the day. I love Milka. P-Day was pretty regular. We are going to check some stuff out today though. I'll take some pictures!

  

FYI:  AP's refer to two missionaries who are Assistants to the President--they work closely with the mission president. "Milka" is a type of European chocolate that Taylor loves and told us about. A friend of ours just returned from Germany and brought us Milka chocolate and yes, it is delicious!

 

Despite all of the office duties Taylor is doing, he will still be able to get out and teach every day. Here is his experience from last Monday:

 

So, Monday. Monday was a really good day. The best part about it was that we set up and had a lesson with the lady I found last week during district finding. Her name is Verka, she's probably late 40;s early fifties, actually I have no idea how old she is, and she is very accepting. She has really no religious background, so we have to teach extremely simply and go over things a couple times now and then, but she loves it. She especially likes hearing about Christ. We talked a lot about Him during the first lesson because her knowledge of Him was pretty nonexistent, and you could just see the Spirit touching her heart. She still doesn't understand everything, and things are very new to her, but she knows this is important and she knows it's what God wants for her. And she is on baptismal date. Other than that, I just got a ton of work done for conference and stuff, and some other office issues  They had to do with negotiating with a representative from an office supplies company we order from often. It involves finances, and I'm not budging! I'm not supposed to, I have very strict instructions. We are getting everything worked out though, and it's good.

And a couple more days....

 

Wednesday was training day. I always love trainings. Today's was really good. There are, as far as I have decided,  two kinds of trainings, and each training fits into one of the two categories for different missionaries. There are the feel good trainings, and the slap in the face ones. Feel good trainings are those when you go, take lots of great notes, and the Spirit is there, and you just feel like you can go out and do whatever. Slap in the face ones are the ones where President Irwin stands up and delivers a training that pinpoints the aspect(s) of missionary work that you as an individual need the most work on. The whole time, the Spirit is also there, but this time He says to you, "Are you listening? Do you realize that these are the things you aren't doing as well as you should be? Are you paying attention? What are you going to do better?" In case you haven't gathered, it was a slap in the face training. Way good, just what I needed. It's always good to go and get a little perspective, which is, thankfully what I was given. We also taught Jitka a lesson, the first part of the Plan of Salvation. Her and Verka are really the same person, just two bodies. Their situations are almost identical, the way they understand things, the things they struggle with, all exactly the same. It's crazy.

Thursday I took care of some more things in the office, namely ordering materials for our inventory from Church Distribution, and getting a bunch of office supplies as well. Well, I ordered them, but we don't have them yet. Then, we actually got to go contacting! We talked foreverrr with this girl, way cool, not interested. She had weird ideas about how there is no such thing as good or bad people because we shouldn't judge. Okaaay...whatever. Then we had a lesson with Verka, the one where we watched the Finding Faith video. It was great. After the film, we talked about prayer and it's role in accessing the blessings of the Atonement.