Okey doke, the week. We had such a week on plan! Why do people misuse their agency? It was still a good week, but not as good as I would have liked.

Monday we had office meeting and stuff like that, then worked like crazy on the Christmas slideshow. We got the first stage done, all that's left is fixing anything that President doesn't like. Which is namely all the silly stuff we put in quoting him. He watched it and laughed in all the right places, but did ask us to take out one picture of him. It was of him holding a stuffed turkey, and we added text to it, quoting him saying, "The question is, which one is the turkey?" He laughed, but said Sis Irwin wouldn't like it. He said, "My wife always tells me I need to be more dignified. She says I need to act more like the President of a mission." I thought it sounded a lot like things that you say, Dad. It made me laugh. We had a kid that was going to come to FHE, but he didn't come because he had to leave town. He sounds so cool, he's a referral, and he's going to let us know as soon as he gets back in Prague. So, that immediately changed our plans for lessons this week. His name's Martin.

Tuesday was a nice day. We had district meeting, and it was good. It was on the Book of Mormon, which is my favorite topic. It's nice to teach about something you love, and know well. So, even though it was hard to plan for a little, it went well because the Spirit was present. One of my most recent goals is to use the Book of Mormon in every situation more, finding, teaching, study and planning, everything. That book has power, and the proper use of it will lead people to Christ. WE also started an exchange, us and the zone leaders. I was with Elder Gabrielsen, Elder Clyde's trainer actually, and he's great. We talked to some great people, including set up an appointment at this guy's house that we met on the street. We also taught Kamila, and of course it went well. 

Wednesday was traveled back to Plzen, where Elder Clyde was with Elder Osterloh, the other zone leader. We had five lessons on plan! That is an amazing day. Three fell through. But we taught this former, Jan Kristek, a really nice guy. We are going to baptize this man. We have to! We also met with an inactive guy named Philip, he's from Nigeria. He's great! He works a lot, but said that he was in the process of working out his schedule so that he can be free on Sundays. We're happy about that. The man we met on the street, who invited us to visit him, wasn't home, and his phone was off. Shoot.

Thursday was fun. We went to Bratislava again! This time to sing. We performed our various Christmas numbers for the branch there, and it was great. It was a little tough, because the space we were supposed to stand was smaller than we were, but oh well. WE sounded quite nice.

Friday, Jitka cancelled on us again, but promised to come to church. We're super worried about her. She just got fired, and we think she might be moving. She can't! She needs to stay here, because if she moves, she'll probably go live with one of her daughters, neither of which live that close to a branch. We're a little scared. But we also taught some good lessons. Two of the elders in the district are leaving early so they are home for Christmas, so they are figuring out who to give all their investigators to. We taught two lessons with them Friday to people they want to give to us, but one of them said that one meeting was good enough for him for now. But, we're teaching another one tonight. The one that's meeting with us is named Pavel, and we're meeting with Mario tonight.

For Pday, we just went around and looked at all the nice Christmas things that are everywhere. Prague at Christmas is quite pretty. I'll send you a picture I took last week. 

that's about it folks, I love you! I can't wait to hear from you soon. Remember what I said up top about the Book of Mormon. One of the most powerful talks, no two of them, were given about the Book of Mormon in the same conference, one by Elder Holland, one by Elder Callister. That book is true. It is, and must be personally, the basis of testimony. It is the testament of Christ, and the testament of His latter-day work. I know it to be true.

I love you all again,

Starsi Knapp

Missionary Update

 Here are a few pieces of Taylor's email. He was called to be the district leader, as you will read. For those who don't know, as district leader he will help teach and train the other missionaries in his district and have other leadership responsibilities.

Anyway, the week. It's been a good one, an interesting one, and one where I've grown a lot. As I surely hope you know now, you should have received a letter, I am the district leader. It's quite an experience. Prague district is the biggest one in the mission by far, and it's quite the responsibility. It's given me a lot more to do, but I've had some grrreat experiences, especially in studies while preparing for district meetings. That's my favorite part. 

Tuesday was my second district meeting of the transfer. It went okay, we talked about the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion. There was one really cool part of it, for me at least. I had separated the role of the Holy Ghost into three parts: What role He should have with the missionaries in preparation, His role in the lessons, and His role with investigators between lessons. I faced a problem. I asked three different missionaries to each talk about one of those, but also had some things I wanted to say. I was worried that they would give their bit, then it would seem like the district leader was saying, "that's nice, that's nice, but I'm going to say what's right." But, the Lord knows. It was so cool to hear how each of their things fit so perfectly with what I had had in mind to say, that we didn't contradict each other at all, but just supported each other in all of it. It was awesome. We then had a singing display, and we got six numbers! In case you don't know, that is a ridiculous amount in one display. We were pretty pumped up.

Friday was a good day, but also a little frustrating. We had a fantastic lesson with Jitka, all about baptism and what it is and why it's important and why she wants it, and it went soo well. She says for her, remission of sins is the most important. She says she knows that baptism cleanses us, and that's what she wants. She also said she was almost afraid of being baptized because she doesn't wnat to be clean, then make mistakes and be dirty again. Which was great because our plan was to talk about the sacrament and how the promises are the same and we can experience the blessings of baptism every week when we partake of the sacrament and renew that covenant with God. The Spirit was there. Now, she did say that she wants more time to prepare spiritually, so she wants to wait until the 15th. We weren't stoked on that idea, but it is her baptism, and it does no good to try and force her. But, since we know she is ready, we won't let her postpone again. More time for temptation, and we don't want that. It was a little frustrating, because both lessons with new people fell through. We received more potentials this week than any other week in my mission, and by far more than any other companionship in the district, and we got exactly nothing from it so far. Oh well. It happens.

That is about the run of it. We went to this monument/park/cool view of Prague thingy today, and I have no pictures. My camera is dead! But, I'll be getting pictures eventually from other missionaries, so you'll see them someday. Also, a cool moment in studies today. I was again preparing for district meeting, and I had had tons of good ideas, but wasn't sure how to connect them all. The topic is Revelation through Prayer. The cool thing was just that I was lead to some things in Preach My Gospel and in the Fundamentals booklet (Kaitlin, do you know that) I got when being trained and when training that let everything just fall into place so beautifully, it was awesome! I love studies.

I also love all of you, keep the emails coming, and letters if you feel so inclined

The Church is true, the Lord is it's Head and our Savior. Love you guys,

Starší Knapp

P.S. In the pictures, the small one in white is Kamila, the older, bigger one is Jitka, and the tiny little guy by Kamila baptized her. He's 29. Yep, I know. Unbelievable, right? 

 
 And in the above picture, far right, is Taylor's former companion Elder DeAngelis. He is from Italy. They got along great. He even recorded an Italian tongue-twister for us!