From Prague to Pardubice

Taylor has been transferred from Prague to Pardubice. (pronunciation: Par-DOO-beechay). He is now about 70 miles from Prague. Here are some segments of this weeks' email...

WHat a week! This new area is wonderful. I do miss Prague, but Pardubice is awesome. AS far as size go, it is the second smallest city we have missionaries in in the Czech Republic. I don't know the exact figures. This week has been great though.

Okay! So MOnday. We only taught one lesson that day, but it was to a kid named Ludek, 25, in school and working, way cool kid. He's the type that has about 10,000 questions, so the struggle is to not try and answer every question, but rather just teach him the saving doctrines.

Tuesday, we taught 5 lessons. I don't know, nor do I wnat to know, how many were normally taught in Paraguay, but let me tell you 5 is great for us. They were all nice lessons, but the real miracle was when we were contacting. We didn't have a lot of time to do so, but we found the coolest young kid. His name is Filip, he's 19, and he is my dream investigator. My goal before going home is to baptize a future missionary. Filip is going to be the one. We stopped him, and he kind of wanted to just keep going, didn't really want to talk to us. But, we talked a little about our message and so forth, and he said he'd met missionaries three times already, but was a little curious. We set up with him, and taught him on Wednesday. He's great. We also taught English tonight. It was good. We don't have a very big class, but a family comes to it, the Zlesakovi. They are going to become investigators tomorrow. They're so cool. Jana, Petr, and their four year old daughter Eliska.

Wednesday was also a good day, another five lessons.  We taught one of our baptismal dates today, Ondrej. He's a nice guy, really close to baptism, just needs to kick smoking. He's so close. We meet with him about four times a week.

Thursday we taught four lessons. One was to the branch President and his family of 8. They are great. WE also had the first district meeting of the transfer. I don't know if I told you this, but our district leader is Elder Coleman, who has been AP for the past 8 months. He's amazing. And slightly intimidating. It's great though. The first was really inspiring, and I cannot even tell you how pumped I am to learn everything from him that I can. He's a supermissionary. That is supposed to be one word.

Friday four again. Elder Sewell and I also went to the hospital to get his stitches out. He cut his head last week and got stitches. WE taught Ondrej again and also this less active lady named Sister Evansova. She speaks perfect English and married an English man.

Saturday we had many lessons fall through. But it's okay. We did get to teach our other baptismal date, a young kid named Vlasta. He's been sick, but we visited him at his house and had a nice lesson with him about the plan of salvation and repentance. He's a good kid with a sincere desire to follow Christ, so he'll make it.

Sunday. We don't actually have a branch here. We og to nearby Hradec Kralove to church. It was for me one of the most spiritual sacrament meetings I've ever been in. Answers and other things of a spiritual nature like crazy. It was great. We taught Ondrej again afterwards. He's so close to quitting smoking! Ahhh  That night we were studying, and had some serious revelation. The Book of Mormon. All of our investigators need to start reading the Book of Mormon more intensely. It is the key for them all. They won't go anywhere if they don't. 

 

Love you tons, keep pressing forward. This Gospel means more than any of us know, but as we live according to the knowledge we have, Our Father, in His mercy, reveals just a little more. It is a sweet process of growth and gratitude.

Starsi Knapp

Another week in the life of our missionary..

Monday. Sort of an exciting day. Not because of actual missionary stuff, but because we had to go to the foreign police and start the renewal process for my visa. It took a long time, but there was good group there, so we had a nice chat. Other than that, we just studied and planned because we didn't get a chance to on Sunday. Then, we went to FHE. That's that.

Tuesday was a nice day, last district meeting of the transfer. It was good, but a little sad. I've really liked being District Leader. It's almost like the difference between being a seminary teacher and being an institute director. As a District Leader, I have daily close contact with the members of my district. They're awesome. As Zone Leader, which President has already told me I will be, I'm sure there are great things about it, but I'm going to miss the association with the individual missionaries. We also sang on Tuesday, and taught our golden investigator, Marie. It was great. After that we taught Kamila about the Plan of Salvation and preparation for the temple, and promised that we would do what we needed to to get a date when she can go to the temple for the first time. Then I started an exchange! With Elder Boysen, the talllll British Elder.

So, Wednesday was exchange day. It was fun. Elder Boysen is a party all by himself. We contacted quite a bit, then taught a lesson to their most difficult, and consistent, investigator, Martin. He's young, extremely intelligent, and refuses to pray. The reason? Elder Tenney, who found him and taught him for quite awhile, says that Martin is scared to pray because he knows he'll receive an answer. Which means he will have to change his life. I agree one hundred percent. It's a very interesting situation.

Thursday we all went to lunch for Elder Mullen's birthday, courtesy of his parents. It was real good. After that we sang again, then hurried back to the building to teach a lesson. the lesson we had on plan was with a verrrrry old man, Mojmir. He's great, I really like the guy, but he got confused and thought that we were scheduled for next week. So he didn't come. But we set up for Friday! We contacted for a bit after Mojmir didn't show, then taught a super cool Italian! His name's Alessio, and he is so cool. He's 35, and teaches Italian here in private schools. I love him už. 

 

Friday we went to lunch with the Bohnes, who leave in a week and a half. It's sad. But, we helped them move last week, so they took us to my favorite restaurant EVER. Someday I'll have to take you guys to it. We then taught Lada, the handicapped member, then Mojmir was scheduled at 3. He didn't show. I called him and asked where he was, and he said the meeting was scheduled at 4. Oh well. We keep trying with him. We're set up for Tuesday now. We shall see haha. That night we ate dinner at a member's house with two other Elders, then had Polar Bear.We had a blast!

Today we went on a trip! I'll send some pics. But more importantly, we taught Marie again, and gave her a baptismal date. She is just amazing. As we were leaving, she thanked us over and over again for the meeting, then said, "Every time I come here, it's wonderful. It's like a rock for me, something I can stand on. Our trip was to a church made mostly of...bones. Enjoy.

I love you all so very much,

Love,

 

Starsi Knapp

 

P.S.

Taylor really does know how to spell. He types fast so as to maximize the amount of time he has to email so there are errors. I suppose I could take the time to fix them all...or not.

A few days in the life of Starsi Knapp

 Here is an excerpt from Taylor's last email. He is doing great. He enjoyed Christmas in Prague and we all enjoyed talking with him for a few short minutes. Our allotted time went by too fast. He is happy and faithful.

 

Wednesday was great. We didn't actually teach any lessons, we had none on plan and a bunch of office work to do, but our contactin was grrrrreat! We found some really cool people, three acutally. One was a lady named Lenka, one was a yound kid from India named Alok, and our miracle Potential, Jana. Also young, and so prepared. She knew us before, not us specifically, but misionaries, and has a book of Mormon, and is excited to meet with us. We haven't set up yet because she doesn't know her next week's schedule yet, but we will. We were contacting on the metro, heading for a place called Jiriho z podebrad, but because we were talking to people we missed our stop. As we walked from the stop we got off at to the stop we planned to go to, we found her. That is not a coincidence! Do what you're supposed to, and the Lord blesses.

Thursday was a good day too. We bought three new cars for the mission, a process that has been going on since before I came to Prague, and everything went smoothly. That morning we taught a man, Jarda, and his wife. Whose name I don't know. but that's a family! They are very sweet people, and it was their first lesson and it went well. WE also taught a lesson that night, to an ooooollllld man. He's hilarious. His name is Mojmir. the lesson wasn't great because he took two phone calls during it, and that took up most of the time, but at the end he had us and the member with us sign his Book of Mormon we gave him. He's a nice guy, and felt bad about wasting the time. We're meeting iwth him again next week.

Friday was good too. This whole week was. We taught a guy named Jan Kristek who has been an investigator for almost, no over, two years. The lesson was about repentance, and it went really well. He liked it. He's been taught everything, but we thought that maybe there were a few things we could focus on, simple blessings of the Gospel, that would touch him. Repentance was one of our ideas, and it seemed to go well! I also had the privilege of conducting a baptismal interview. The APs have been teaching a Jitka as well, btw ours is still out of town, and her baptism was this morning,, so last night I interviewed her. It was wonderful. She's a great lady and has been well prepared for baptism. She has come to church every week for over two months.

So, a baptism this morning. It was a beautiful service. Elder Mullen and I sang Lord, I Would Follow Thee, and it went great. The talks were wonderful, the baptism of course was great, and we had three investigators there! Chris from Greece came, Jan Kristek, and Marie. They all really enjoyed it. One of President Irwin's ideas for this year is to emphasize exposure to the ordinances of the Gospel for everyone, new, less active members, and investigators. There's a reason for that. The Spirit is present, so people learn. We saw it today with all three of them, but especially Marie. It was great. she was talking after to Elder clyde, and said things like, "I've never felt like that before. I don't remember my baptism as a child at all, it's so much different as an adult. How long does it take to prepare someone for baptism?" She is totally in. She'll come to church tomorrow for the third week in a row, and be on date this week! Exciting.

Well, I love you all. Those emails didn't make me homesick at all, because there is no place I would rather be than right where I am. This is the place for me, for at least the next 13 months, maybe the next 70 years, who knows :) Send in your questions so I can write accordingly in my letter, the Church is true. 

s laskou,