Sunday, January 5, 2014

And the latest...

Draha rodino,

Well, we haven't had any snow yet. Nor is it in the forecast. It's been unnaturally warm here this winter. Of course, everyone says it's due to global warming, but I believe that just as much as I believe...dunno I can't think of a fitting comparison. The point is, I don't believe it. Thanks for setting up the gmail account, it's very helpful. My license arrived! It's different, I was surprised actually. 

Sunday we ran around and taught like crazy. We wanted so badly to hit 21 lessons, and we jsut scraped by this week. It was the real test. Christmas week presents a lot of different challenges, so we wanted to make sure we had a good, successful week. We did. When we told President that we hit 21, he was way pumped. We really wanted to get it so that we could show that the time of year doesn't influence the success of the missionaries.

Monday had a pretty good day. We had a few meetings which is always important for Monday. You have to start the week off right so as to ensure taht it's a good week. We had a couple people cancel, but we had a kid, Artur, text us and say he had time to meet so, we met. It was a pretty solid lesson. He's a good kid. We also met with Jitka at her house with her daughter, and Drahomir.

Tuesday we had a curfew of 5 o clock because, yes Mom, Czechs celebrate New Year's with drinking and riotous living. So we had to get in early. We Did teach Phuc and also the Pavlicovi before heading home though. We tried to get a haircut because my head is starting to look ridiculous, but the place is closed all week, so I'll have to just try again. So we didn't watch movies on Christmas this year, but on New Year's eve. We had the office Elders stay at our place, and borrowed a projector and President's speaker, and had a little theater night. It was pretty great. We watched The Best Two Years, Monsters University (I recommend it if you haven't seen it) and Holes. 

Wednesday the city was quite quiet. We had a good district meeting, and then did some singing displays in various places in the city. Not a ton happened, and besides, I left my planner at home that day, so I don't have anything written down and don't much recall what all we did.

Thursday though, was good. And frustrating. I don't know what real Buddhists believe, but European Buddhists drive me totally up the wall! It is so nonsensical. I cannot fathom what leads a person to believe in this kind of stuff. All this undefined and unnamed and unknowable trash about who God could possibly be. They don't really know what they believe, so when you ask them, it's just them, their imagination, and the two and a half minutes they think they need to fill. We heard some pretty crazy things today. We had two different, back-to-back lessons with Buddhists. Or at least with people who share eastern idealogies. They are Korihors with an abstract belief in some higher, undefined (that's a very important point in their doctrine. It's very difficult for undefined energy to make demands and give commandments, you see.) power. But we also met with Artur and gave him a date! February 1st. We taught Phuc again, had a nice lesson with him, and also visited Katka and her family in the evening.

Friday was a miraculous day. We had mission leadership council, which was fun. It's always a good meeting. Immediately after we had a lesson with Vera. Chastity. We were nervous about this one a bit, because we know that she lives with her boyfriend, her baptism is only two weeks away, and if she didn't move out, then we needed action fast, no time to convince either one that they need to get married. but, when we taught, she accepted everything, and then I said these exact words: "You can't get baptized while living with your boyfriend." It took her aback somewhat I think. She said they've been together 15 years, and that because of various paperwork sort of things and complications it would cause they jsut haven't tied teh knot. So, the member and Elder Boysen told her how she could very easily avoid all such problems, and then I asked, "Would your boyfriend be willing to get married?" a little afraid of the answer. From all taht we knew about the boyfriend, we thought he might be stiff opposition. she said, "Oh, he's been telling me for years that we need to get married, he wants it!" We were overjoyed. So, things are in progress, and hopefully we can get her married soon.

Today has been fun. we played football this morning after teaching a couple lessons, and then went to this really good burger joint. I love being with the other missionaries. Our football game was a bit anticlimactic. We tied. No one likes a tie. We've got some more lessons on plan tonight, and otherwise we're just kind of relaxing, nice and easy.

I love you all so much, have a great week,

Starsi Knapp



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