Taylor got to travel with another missionary to Slovakia for a visa renewal.

Happy Birthday Taylor!

 In honor of Taylor's birthday today, I am updating this blog! His last email came on Saturday and here are some excerpts:

 

Monday. We had office meeting, as per the norm, then a very rapid meeting with President, me and the assistants. We ahve to put together a Christmas card, and it is hard. For me. I don't know computers! It shocked me when I got called to the office because I'm not one of those people who spent a lot of time arouond computers before the mission, and I certainly don't have any more knowledge about htem now. So basically, my role is to try and design the card, and then one of the assistants, Elder Mullen, will make it. So, Monday I prepared orders for conference and worked on the Christmas card. That is absolutely everything. 

Tuesday was better. First of all, we had end-of-transfer lunch, with all the district, the Irwins and other senior couples included. It was a blast. Then, we went and did a singing display. Which was less successful than previous ones have been. We as a companionship received one number, and he called us back the same day to tell us he wasn't interested. But it was nice at least to get out of the office and talk to some people.

Thursday was by far the bests day of the week. For a couple reasons. First of all, conference. I love conferences. They are just a feast.  But, right after the conference, we had to help other missionaries with some visa stuff, help the APs prepare some things, and do a lot of those kinds of things, all in less than two hours. But, in the middle of all that, President came up to us and asked us to go get the missionaries from Vysehrad, and area here in Prague, and then come back into his office and talk to him for a second. Now, Elder De Angelis and I found out on Wednesday that I would learn who my next companion would be very soon. With that, and other things the APs told us, we had a suspicion that the new office elder would be someone from our district. And sure enough, we went back into the office and President did indeed inform us. He had to do so, because he wanted Elder DeA to spend all of Friday training the new office elder. My new companion is...ELDER CLYDE! I am so stoked. And shocked. He is the greatest. I'm pumped that we are going to be together again. It is going to be just awesome.

Friday I went on an exchange with Elder Rhees while Elder DeA trained Elder Clyde. It was good. We actually got to do a little missonary work! I didn't have much to do in the office, and it didn't matter anyway, because President banned me from the office that day so that we didn't disturb the intense training going on there. So, we did some finding, had lunch with the rest of the district, did a singing display, taught a few lessons, studied the language... A good day all in all. One lesson was with Kamila, we talked about eternal families and temples a little more. She's great. Also, we taught one of Vysehrad's potentials, this girl named Anna. She's probably 20, and she is soooo cool! She isn't an investigator, but she is awesome. The lesson was good, but she said she can't meet right now. The reason is this: She says she is still a very new Christian - she's been a believer less than a year - and she is too focused on getting comfortable with her new faith to be involved in too many things right now. Even though nothing would help her more than meeting with the missionaries. She did at least take a Book of Mormon and promise to read in it, and also said we can definitely stay in contact with her. She really is great. Down the road, she'll see. She'll have a desire to meet and she'll be baptized. 

Well, boring, I know. It was an okay week, but probably not the most exciting read of your lives. Thank you for your patience. I hope to have some nice pictures for you next week, we're going ot tour Prague today using the same route we did on our first day in the country. Fun!

I love you all, the Church is true,

Starsi Knapp

Kamila was baptized Nov. 10! She is happy and excited to be a member of the church.

More From Prague

A continuation of a story from last week...

Okay, so quickly the tire story.  But anyway, we weren't going to change them due to the clothing situation, but as we walked away, I felt like we should. So, I convinced my comp that we should go back and do it, even though it had started to rain a little. The next day, Saturday, the same missionaries were back again for the baptism. Thus, they had somewhat of a long drive there, and...it was all in the snow. Early early Saturday morning it started snowing, and snowed all day until 10 or so at night. So, I don't know if their winter tires helped them at all, but I have been really working on trying to recognize the prompthings of the Spirit. I decided that it takes practice. Sometimes, we aren't sure if something is from the Spirit or not, but as long as it is a good thing, I believe that at the very least we will grow from the experience, even if we don't directly see the evidence of our action. I was blessed enough in this situation to see that I had been led to change those tires that afternoon. I'm not saying that they would have wrecked or something if I had ignored that prompting, but I did get to feel the peace that comes from following the Spirit.

As I've contemplated the difficulty of this mission, this past week in particular, I was thinking about a talk I heard from Elder Holland. He said we should never, ever expect life to be easy, because it was never, ever easy for Him. I watched it in the MTC, and it has stuck with me since then. And of course, it's absolutely true. If we want to be true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must be willing to suffer all things for Him. If we are not willing to endure all the trials of this world, why should we expect or deserve to enjoy all the glory of the world to come?

Starsi Knapp and Starsi DeAngelis have TWO baptisms scheduled this week!! Kamila and Jitka are both scheduled. According to Taylor, they are "golden" and "solid". He and Elder DeAngelis had decided maybe they should put off the baptism because there were quite a few lessons they hadn't taught Kamila, but then when they met with her she was so excited to be getting baptized on Nov. 10 because that is her birthday! She said, "Nov. 10 is my physical birthday and now it will be my spiritual birthday!" So...Taylor and his companion decided they couldn't put it off. Instead they are having daily telephone teachings with Kamila, as well as meeting with her when she can. 

Taylor's district also does "singing displays". Some missionaries sing while others contact and teach and it seems to be quite effective. He is busy helping the missionaries with visas, supplies, changing tires, etc. but he and Elder DeAngelis have lots of time for teaching still. He loves Prague. I will attempt to put some pictures on the blog!

Taylor is happy--that is evident. When a person lives the gospel and serves, how can he help but be happy? 

The picture of me gesturing at the ground with the sweet statue in the back is me standing on the...Prime Meridian. Yep. I could cut the world in half.

(He didn't say what the statue in picture #1 is all about...)

Update!

Well, what a week. We had some good times, and some frustrating ones. All will be included. First and foremost, congratulations to the marathoners! Wow, what a task. I think I would have died at the first aid station. You should know, you are my desktop background. 

Okey-doke, the week. Monday wasn't a super exciting day, did a lot of office work to get ready for conference, and also had to go with Elder De Angelis to get visa renewals for a missionary, so we did a lot of that kind of stuff. Between that and having to change some more tires, and office meeting, we didn't really do anything that day. We did have an investigator, a young kid named Michal, at Family Home Evening, so that was cool. He's a good kid, just doesn't make much time for us. But anyway. That was really Monday. Whoo.

Tuesday was another frustrating day, but also great. After we did a bunch of work in the office, we had three lessons in a row on plan. The first one was with the flakiest flake of an investigator I've ever met, another guy named Michal. Sidenote, he has the biggest mustache this side of Moscow. Outrageous. So no, he didn't show up. Then, we had one with Victor, the one who loves Bill Gates. He has never missed a lesson before. Until Tuesday. He just didn't show up. We're afraid we're losing him. We have such good ideas with him, we just need to get him to meet! But, all that is fine, because right after that, we had a lesson with Kamila. SHe is the most golden of all golden investigators, bar none. WE finished teaching the plan of salvation, and it was great. She just understand, loves, and wants to live everything. It's great! We come into a lesson with her, and we just leave smiling. Unbelievable.

Sunday night, Jitka called us to tell us that her mother passed away. She was very sad of course, but she still was willing to meet with us on Wednesday. We decided to just review the most important parts of the Plan of Salvation, and read some scriptures about the Atonement and so forth. It was a really good meeting. Her and the the member we taught with, Zoltan, did go on for a little while about ghosts, but we quickly got it back to where it needed to be. The most interesting part of Wednesday was the small finding exchange we had in the middle of the day. With the SISTERS. Apparently, the district leader has to go on a finding exchange with the sisters once a transfer. As his companion, I obviously have to participate as well. I'll admit, and I hope this doesn't offend any former or possible future sister missionaries, that I was not looking forward to this in the least. It turned out okay though. We had a fun time, found some good potentials, learned some things. I don't know if I could handle any more than once a transfer though. Tuesday night we contacted for about 20 minutes while waiting for Kamila, and we found this suuuuper cool guy named Ondra and set up an appointment with him Wednesday at 8. And he didn't show. He didn't have a working phone, so we couldn't confirm, so he is lost. When he didn't show, we went straight back to the park where we found him and looked for him, but he wasn't there.

Thursday we had district finding, and it was great. We found a bunch of cool people, set up a few appointments and so forth. It is one of my favorite events of the week. Right after that we headed to teach an awesome referral we received, a lady named Jana, at her work. She sounds so interested, wants to meet, sounds just great. When we got there, the lady at the front said we couldn't go in because she didn't have us scheduled. We asked her to call Jana, and she did, then said she spoke with Jana's receptionist who also didn't have us scheduled, so she didn't let us go up. We don't have Jana's number, so we have to wait until she responds back to our email so we can set up again. Satan is a tricky guy. That night we had another good lesson with Jitka and Zoltan. We're secretly hoping they get married. We talked about prophets and the 10 commandments, and prophets is one of my favorite things to talk about. It was good.

Friday was a great day. We had a conference, which is always good, and this one was one of the best ever. President's training, and really the APs too, was just great. I have many notes which I must incorporate into my life and work. As I read today from my Gen conference notes, to know is one thing, to do is another, and to become is something else altogether. That's the trick. Learning, than acting on it, then doing so consistently so as to make it truly a part of you. Right after that, we were going to change the last set of tires we needed to. When we realized all of our scrubby clothes were in the van. Which Elder Bohne was currently using to take a missionary, Elder Greener actually, to the doctor. So we didn't really know what to do. We decided to do it today, Saturday, because those elders would be back in Prague for a baptism, and we could get our clothes back. Right after we decided that, I felt that maybe we should do it now. I wasn't sure if it was the Spirit or not, but I decided if it was, I better act on it. If it wasn't, well, it wouldn't hurt to do it anyway. WE did so, even though we weren't really dressed for it at all. More on that later. Then we had to hurry and do some work in the office so we could get it ready for Elder Richards of the Seventy, and of our Area Presidency, to come see President. I never met him, I was in the bathroom when he and President came in, so I missed him. I did meet his wife though. Then we hurried to correlation, then went to wait for Michal. He of the absurdly hairy upper lip. He actually confirmed this lesson, then didn't show up again! For like the twelfth time. That is not an exaggeration. But, all is well, because we had another lesson with Kamila. Gosh dang, she is so great. I honestly can't remember the details of that lesson, but it was amazing.

Today we had a baptism of someone Elder Clyde taught in a city called Jicin. It had to be there because the pool they rented in Jicin broke a few weeks ago, and still isn't fixed. It was a very good baptismal service. I've heard quite a bit about her from Elder Clyde, and she is a fantastic person, very prepared. The Relief Society President from Jicin talked a lot about how it isn't going to be a lot different now that she's baptized because she's been an active member of the branch for weeks already. Her name is Julia, and she truly is a great person. Also, Kamila was there, but I'll talk more about that in the recording. Then, because it was snowing like crazy here today, we went around Old Prague and took some sweet pictures. You may observe them attached. 

That's about all there is folks. It was a great week. The Lord finds those people who are prepared for us. We just have to be willing to be where He has placed them. This is the Lord's work. To quote President Kimball, "Do it."

Love you all,

Starsi Knapp 

Last week in Prague...

MOnday was a bit of a tough day. I did get a haircut for lunch, which was nice and necessary, and now I look better. Elder De Angelis, my companion who is from ITALY, was at the foreign police for a few hours doing visa work for a couple missionaries. . While he was there I taught a couple of way cool kids, Beniamin and his brother Ludek, with one of the APs, Elder Mullen. His companion was getting his visa renewed, so we were on a little exchange. They are way cool, and way interested. The day was a little tough because all three of our lessons fell through. We rescheduled, but it was a bit of a bummer. The worst thing about today was receiving the news that Elder McClellan is indeed going home. He told us he would be back by Christmas, and we all hope it's so. He is a way cool kid. he needs more treatment than is available here, so he is back in America to get everything taken care of.

Tuesday we had office meeting, and afterwards said goodbye to Elder McClellan. Sad. We also had district meeting, which was good. We always practice teaching as a part of it with the senior missionaries, and it is crazy. They are so funny. We were with Sis Bohne, and it was nutso. She's hilarious. We had a lesson set up with a cool kid we met from Georgia, the country, but he was a no-show. We didn't have his number so we couldn't confirm or anything. but we did teach a reeeally good lesson with a girl named Monika with Daniel Askari. We've taught her before, but his lesson she just seemed different, more open, it was better. Then we taught Verka again, and she's doing well. 

Wednesday I went on my second exchange of the week, first full one, while Elder De Angelis was at a new district leader conference in Brno. I was with an Elder Neumann. he's a bunch of fun. We had a really good time. We contacted for a few hours, got a couple numbers, one from a suuper cool 16 yr old kid named Vasek. We are definitely going to meet with him. He only studies in Prague, and is only here monday through wednesday, so we have to work around that, but no worries. WE also talked to a lot of really crazy people. Which is also fun. After the exchange we taught Verka and Jitka, one right after the other, and it went really well. Jitka's baptism is in just a few weeks!

Thursday was district finding, one of my favorite activities. Except today's was really hard. As a companionship we had a goal of three appts and numbers, or A#'s. We got one number. in two hours of work. Rough. One missionary, Elder Rhees, contacted the entire time and got nothing. It was a tough day for us, but overall we did well as a district. We taught Verka again, the Word of Wisdom and it went really well. She only has a smoking problem, and she promised to stop. After that we started the craziest exchange of my mission. Right now there is a threesome due to Elder McClellan's absence, and I exchanged into it. It was nuts

Friday, we taught a really smart, cool young guy named Martin, incredibly intelligent. It was a good lesson. We talked about hte restoration and the other two missionaries, Elder Tenney and Rhees, said there was a huge difference in his attitude from the first lesson to the second. Then, we went back home so they could weekly plan. It was awful. There is no such thing as focus when there are three missionaries, technically from three different areas, Vysehrad, Andel, and the office, trying ot weekly plan for two areas that are going ot be all shook up with 24 hours. It was wild. After all that, we taught a lady named Jana who is really nice and has an insane three yr old daughter. We recruited one of the ysa here to babysit, and she did so well thta when the lesson was over  the little girl absolutely freaked because she didn't wan't to go. In front of about 30 ysa from all over the mission. There is a huge activity here this weekend, and it is killing our member lessons. All of our best teachers are ysa, except for a few, who all decided to go on vacation this week. So yeah, numbers are down a little.

All in all, a good week. Some crazy things, some great lessons, good news and bad. Oh! Some good I forgot ot mention, Elder clyde is coming back to Prague! He is coming here and Elder Egger, and Austrian, is taking his place in Jicin. Elder Egger is a Czech missionary, but he was in a threesome of zone leaders in Slovakia this transfer. They're bringing him back here to be in Jicin. It'll be good to have Elder Clyde back. I'm happy about it.

I love you all, keep up the work. Get excited for general conference, and don't tell me too many details. I get it a week later, so don't tell me everything in your next emails. I think that is my favorite time of the year. Living prophets are one of the greatest testaments of this work.

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.

 

 

 

The Latest from Ostrava

 

A good week this week, no new investigators which is a real problem, but we had some really good lessons. Veronika is amazing. Just amazing. Miriam, her young friend who has a baptismal date, left her Book of Mormon at her Grandma's house, so she couldn't read. So Veronika read out loud to her. Incredible. She is an example, Dad, of someone who has had the Gospel sink into her heart and she is on fire to share it. It's awesome. Which reminds me by the way Mom, I don't get it either. Why doesn't everyone get it? Every doctrine of Christ's gospel gives hope. Every single one makes life better, easier to bear. There is no alternative that man can concoct that could provide more joy, or at least the potential for more, than the perfect plan of the Father. It is unfathomable to me.

 

Michal and Helena come to church almost every week. If they're in town and healthy, they come. I don't know if they have been at a baptism ever, they were both in a city called Liberec on the day of Veronika's. We watched the Restoration film with them, and it was great. It really happened you know. Joseph saw what he said he saw.

 

Lenka is in a rough position. School started today, and her son Tomas probably went without supplies. She doesn't have money to buy them, and his dad hasn't yet either, even though he promised he would. We taught her about hope, and it was great. She wants it, we're just working on helping her get it.

 

We had some really good lessons with Miriam, on frustrating, one where she refused to pray, but she prayed very willingly the lesson after that. We may end up moving her date, but it's far in the future, so we aren't worrying about it right now. We jsut want to make sure she wants to get baptized for the right reasons.