Draha rodino!
It's been the quickest,
busiest, fullest week of my life. It was incredible. It's too bad about
the BYU/Va game, but it happens. What happened with Texas? if you could
email me today, I should be doing my emailing in two chunks, so I might
be able to see it without having to wait for next weekend. Thank you for
your prayers in behalf of me and my investigators. As for specific ones
to pray for, definitely Viktor, also Patrik, Jackson, Jan, Martin, and
Věra (pronounced 'viera'). I love the folks we teach. Happy 50th
anniversary, Grandma and Grandpa! Wow. 50 years. Tanner! I'm pumped for
you to do South Pacific! It's going to be a blast. you'll love doing the musical. I met most of my
really good friends through that. Hunter, good job bearing your
testimony! That's awesome buddy. You sure are brave to do that! Also I
got all your letters this week. thanks guys. You all are the best.
Letters from the family are even better than Australian chocolate and
bow ties, even though those things are pretty good too.
The week! Monday we had a good day. We did all our
busy office stuff in the morning, then got down to business. We met
Viktor, a lady named Ivana, a member named Klara who got back two weeks
ago from her mission in England, and Jan. The meetings were all good. We
also went on a trip for an hour or so to a place called Petřin with a
member and one of our investigators, Veronika. It was pretty fun. Petřin
is this hill with monuments and gardens and stuff, a big maze and a
replica eiffel tower. IT was good because it gave us a chance to catch
up a bit with Veronika who we haven't met with for awhile.
Tuesday we had Mission Leadership Council in the
morning at the McConkie house. It was great. I love the missionaries in
this mission, and the leaders we have here are just great, all of them.
We got a lot of things worked out, planned trainings for this month, and
now it's up to each companionship to prepare, and make the trainings
great! We as assistants won't actually be training at these upcoming
conferences because of time, but it's okay. We don't mind a break every
now and then. IN the afternoon/evening we taught Patrik, got him on
baptismal date!, Martin, and an RC Jitka. it was a solid day. So you
know, Patrik is 26, 6' 6" probably, and works as an accountant for the
czech Army. He is way cool. We're excited aobut him. We also met with
Jackson that evening. Jackson is 40, from China, and I may have told you
about him already, but his job here is selling czech beer and really
high prices to china. But he is such a funny guy, I love him. Martin
has been an investigator for probably 6/7 months now, and is such a nice
guy. He says he will get baptized, but he's not on date quite yet.
Wednesday we had district meeting, a lesson with
Viktor, a lesson with a Mongolian lady named Lygzima, a lesson with
Evgenii, a Russian somewhat less-active kid here, Veronika, the same one
as from Monday, and visited a family from Ukraine, the pavluvovi. they
are one of my favorite families in the branch. In answer to your
question, Mom, this is the same branch I served in last time, there's
just the one in Prague. I'll answer the rest of your questions later on
in the email. viktor is doing so well. He is liking what we teach more
and more, and this week we really focused on the Book of Mormon with
him, and he is going to pray and gain a testimony of it's truthfulness. I
love the guy, pray for him please.
Thursday we finally were able to go to a singing
display again! It's been a long time. We taught Viktor and a less active
guy, Drahomir, in the morning before the display, then headed out to
the place where we were singing and met the others. It went really well!
We found three people that set up with us, so hopefully they pan out!
Michal, Dalibor, and Ina. Later we visited the pavlicovi, Isabel, a less
active family the Tesarovi, and a guy from peru, Ricardo. The lesson
with the Tesarovi was os sad. I'll fill you all in on a secret: When you
don't keep the commandments, you don't have a happy life. and until you
start keeping them, you won't be happy. God does not accept excuses for
disobedience, no matter how well thought out and justified they are.
Why? Because he knows that He will bless you more for your obedience
then you could ever possibly gain for you disobedience. It just is true!
Don't forget it. That is the story with so many less-actives out here,
and probably everywhere. They stop keeping the commandments, enjoy life
for awhile, then EVERYTHING spirals downward. Commandments are to
protect us!
Friday was great! We met with a RC, a young kid who
is way cool, his name is Robert and he is an absolute wizard on the
piano. then we met with Viktor again, and then with a cool young girl
nalmed Marcella. She doesn't want to meet right now anymore, because she
is just so busy and is way stressed out, but we had a really good
lesson on the plan of salvation and she is definitely interested, just
wants to wait a couple months. After the meeting with Marcella we got in
the car and drove. to Zlin. Every year, a foundation calledthe Wallace
Toronto Foundation does a big service project in the Czech Republic or
Slovakia. Since President McConkie and one of his law partners/mission
buddies started it, we got to go. Friday night we arrived there and had a
kickoff fireside, for which I translated the first half, and then all
the elders that were there slept over and the Zlin Elders' apartment. 12
missionaries in one little apartment is a squeeze. The project was on
Saturday, and we helped remodel a childrens' home for children with
Autism and similar disorders. I only translated the first half of the
fireside because then the director of the home got up and started going
into great detail about many things related to mental illness, and my
vocab is not comprised of those words. I understood the gist of what she
was saying, but translating so that others could as well...I was not
passing on everything. So at that point someone else took over, actually
President's law partner who lived in Slovakia and the Czech republic
for awhile as a lawyer, and married a Slovak women. but as for your
question Mom, fluent in all Czech, obviously not. But I can understand
almost everything, and can express myself well. My understanding of the
language and grammar and so forth is pretty good, but I wish I
personally had a bigger vocabulary.
Saturday we worked from about 7:30 to 3:30. It was
great. We did mostly demotition, so I was dirty, bleeding, sweaty, and
happy. It felt so good to get some good work done with my hands. And the
service was great. President told me that we did way more than the
director of the home thought we would, and he said that's what happens
at every project. Mormons work. President's middle son, Hyrum, was there
as well. And yes, we interact a lot with his family, and I love it.
They are so great. The oldest is 15, her name is Evie, then Wilson
(James Wilson McConkie IV) is 13, Hyrum is 9, and George is 7. I love
their kids.
I'll save the rest of the answers for next week due
to time, but I love you tons, I hope this email was a tad longer than
last time, I just tell you, the time goes faster and faster and there is
less and less of it. Hence the emailing on a Sunday instead of
Saturday. Love you!
Elder Knapp
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