Running Through the Finish Line

Draha rodino,

That's so cool about Dallin! Is he already 18? I have no idea anymore. I realized awhile ago, and this is no joke, that I have legitimately forgotten the names of some people that I used to hang out with before the mission. That's going to be awkward..."Hi! Yeah, it's good to see you...what's your name again? Disregard the fact we've known each other for years, tell me your name!"  Real quick, before I get started on the week, yes Mom, we did teach a record number of lessons. It was intense. We were pretty excited about it. President was proud of us.

The week! Sunday we had a meeting before church, then met Ary and Viktor after church, then made a couple of visits after singing with the missionaries at the train station. We taught our 41st lesson at seven o clock Sunday evening. The previous record was 35. Also, we had the first ever Sunday without our late night calls to all the zone leaders! It was nice to go to bed on time.

Monday was pretty normal. We had a meeting with President, then office meeting. After office meeting we went to Elder Boysen's first driving lesson!!! I may have mentioned this already, but the new AP doesn't have a driver's license, so Elder Boysen is getting one. It's an adventure haha. We had a nice lesson with Vera once we got back, ate some lunch, then went to the Cambelovi. Whew.  We went to FHE later, and taught Maxim. We started teaching Vera's son, Sergei, today. he's a good guy, a really really good guy. He  is making fantastic progress.

Tuesday we had a lesson in the morning, it went okay. It was with a really nice guy, who claims yoga as his religion. He has a lot of interesting ideas, which mostly just means that he is confused about the world. I think we're making progress with him though. His name is Michal. We taught Vera again, then visited the Cambelovi. We had a really good lesson with Sergei after that, the Restoration. He's going to get baptized, I can feel it.  We had a good lesson with Artur as well, who is also going to get baptized, he's making great progress.  After that we had a nice lesson with Maxim again, and then we had a part inthe mission prep class here, so we went to that. 

Wednesday we taught a first lesson with a waaaaaaaaaaay cool guy I found last week at singing display. He's a self-employed accountant, well-off, searching for the truth, two kids, cool cool guy. His name's Lad'a. We had another driving lesson, taught Vera, skyped with Veronika in England, got dropped by the Cambelovi, taught a family history class, then visited Jitka Zahradnikova. The Cambelovi dropped us by leaving their Book of Mormon in a plastic bag on the church door. I've never had that happen to me before. I've heard Elder Holland talk about it, but this was the first time for me. But we're not licked! We are so not done there. They were doing so well, then they got attacked by this catholic guy that comes and waits outside the chapel every Sunday. It shook Sis Cambelova pretty bad. We were annoyed. And are. But not finished!

Thursday we had a good day. We had a big lunch together with both Prague districts, then we had a short singing display. It was good, got some good potentials. Then we headed back to the building to meet with one of our Italian investigators, Eleanora. She is currently working on her PhD thesis, which sounds like a total nightmare. She will be defending it in three different languages, Czech, French, and English. Then we met with Sergei, had a good lesson with him, watching the Joseph Smith film. We then went and visited our Filipino investigators, Millette and Maricel. We had a good lesson with them about the First Vision and what it means. They are extremely attached to their Catholic traditions. Tradition seems to be as binding as doctrine at times. 

Friday we had good lessons with Vera, Pet'a, Sergei, Ary, Viktor, and Maxim. We started the Plan of Salvation with Sergei, and he is great. We asked if he'd read in the Book of Mormon, and he said, "Yeah just a little...the first seven chapters." We were pleased with that, but he was way low-key about it, and was just like "It's no big deal, I just had 30 minutes free at work, so I read some." We asked how he'd understood it all, and he proceeded to summarize in great detail the first seven chapters of the Book. It was great.

Today we have fun things on plan. A hike at a nature preserve, a baptism, and then dinner at the McConkie's.

Love you all,

Elder Knapp

Breaking Records

Draha rodino,

This week has been absolutely crazy! We have been working our tails off running around, teaching, finding, doing everything we can. We have taught more lessons this week than ever before. I'm stoked. We've been busy, and we are pretty excited to see how the week ends out.

Sunday! We had a nice meeting with Vera about the nature of God before church. She had met some Jehovah's Witness lady the day before and had questions about who God is and that sort of thing. So we cleared some things up, and she really enjoyed it. I love talking with people about the nature of God, because it's such a great doctrine that makes so much sense and gives us such personal meaning. We also had a good meeting on the same topic with a recent convert named Eva after church. We were actually on splits, I taught Eva with a different missionary while Elder Boysen taught Viktor with the other missionary's companion. We also visited Jitka and her daughter Maruska that evening and had a nice lesson about the last couple points in the Plan of Salvation. Then, we went to the office and had last ever call-ins! Most missions in the church have stopped having Sunday night calls, preferring to have the missionaries report their own numbers on pdays. So, we have officially made the switch, which means no more late nights on Sunday. We are glad. But call-ins went well. I get frustrated from time to time when people, be it missionaries or others, just don't get it. It's sad to see missionaries who aren't having the experience they could be having on a mission. 

Monday we had a very nice lesson with Vera and the wife of the first counselor in the branch presidency. We have started going through the baptismal questions with her, simultaneously reteaching the lessons. It's been good. She's so great! You'll get to meet her when we come in the spring. We also had good meetings with Ary, Maxim, and Viktor

Tuesday we met with Elder Boysen's driving teacher in the morning to get the last steps of registration done before he starts driving lessons. After that we finished our studies, then went to district meeting. It was a good meeting. The new format is just great. President is a genius. By that I mean spiritual. After District meeting we had a good lesson with Artur about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It went really well. He still has growing faith, but he's come along really well, and I really think he will get baptized. He's a great kid. We then had an interesting experience with President. He had a meeting with an ex-member who wants to be rebaptized, and the meeting was to determine whether or not he could. Because of his history, president wanted us there. There were certain criteria that the branch president requested be explained to this man, and he didn't take them well. He ended up saying some things he shouldn't have and storming out of the office. But, so it goes. He needs to humble himself a bit more before he can really come back. But we had a nice visit with Jitka and her daughter again, visited the Pavlicovi, and met with...a recent convert later taht night, but I cannot for the life of me remember who it was. It was one we set up later in the day, so I don't have it written. Hmm.

Wednesday we met our Buddhist friend Michal in the morning, had a relatively nice meeting with him. It was much more under control than usual, and we think it's because he came to churhc this week. We then met with Vera, had a singing display and met some really cool people, taught a guy from Cameroon named John, and had a very interesting experience...Earlier in the day, we got a call from the Mendenhalls saying that a man had showed up at the church building wanting to talk to missionaries. He was a former from like four or five years ago. He wanted us to get him in contact with a religious TV network so he could preach the Gospel to the world. We made a deal with him. If he let us teach him the restoration, we would help him get in contact with the network. His name is Steve, or at least that's what he calls himself. He's czech, but he goes by Steve when speaking English. I would guess his real name is Stepan, the Czech equivalent to Steven. He has...interesting ideas. Probably an after-mission discussion.

Thursday we taught Steve again. For the lasst time incidentally. But then we went to sing again, at a place called namesti republiky. It was not as successful as the one yesterday, but we did find a cool lady from Ukraine. We then taught Vera, and had a cool thing happen. There was a random lady waiting with Vera and the member we taught her with. We didn't think much of it because we needed to start the lesson, but she joined us! After the lesson, I talked with her more, and it turns out she is the nonmember wife of an inactive member here! We set up to visit her the next day. We also taught Jitka again, then a really cool half-Czech half-Italian girl named Karolina with Sister Munro. We then visited our Filipino investigator at her home, taught her the Restoration. We then had a good lesson with a less active girl about some of her friends who are inactive so that we can start finding them.

Friday we had Polar Bear (joint language study) with the district, a great lesson with Pet'a, visited the Cambelovi (the part-member family from Thursday), taught Ary, Artur, and then Viktor. Nothing quite so exciting as the rest of the week, just the norm. Some good lessons.

Tomorrow is Australia Day, so for P-day we went to the Munros today and celebrated. I can't wait for you to meet them. They are the greatest ever. I love them so much. We had a blast with them. They made the food they have ever year at the barbecue, did some trivia with us (did you know that our ancestor, John Murdock, was one of the two missionaries who opened Australia for missionary work?), taught us some songs, just an all around good time. We taught Vera, her daughter in law, and the Cambelovi again this morning. Now, for the goal. We have a record in this mission. The most lessons ever taught in one week was by Elders Clyde and De Angelis a few months ago. 35. Two weeks ago, we taught 32. This week, we've taught 35 so far, and we're shooting for 40! We have a few on plan tomorrow, we should get even more than that.

Well folks. I love you. I look forward to hearing from you next week.

Elder Knapp

Bittersweet

Draha rodino,

Thanks to all who emailed me, it was good to hear from almost everyone.  It's been a good week. Everything seems bittersweet now a little, I think I've come to that point in my mission. The week itself was great, the bitter part was that I gave my last departing testimony, four in all, at a zone conference this week. It's hard, but I've been thinking a lot about it lately, and I am feeling more confident and at peace about the near future. But there will be time for a lot of that later, no need to go into that now.

Sunday was a good day last week, we were way busy. we taught two lessons before church, and three after. We had solid, solid week last week, 32 lessons in total, a personal record for both of us. We feel really good about it, because we found some new people, and had two zone conferences, and still managed to, as President would say, teach our brains out.

Monday we had the normal office work, had some nice lunch, and then we had a lesson with one of our really cool new investigators from last week. Only problem, she tried to give us her Book of Mormon back. She had talked to her teenage daughters, and they said she was crazy for wanting to study a religion. Don't ask teenagers about those things. But! We didn't let her get away. Not only does she still have the book, but we are hoping to visit her and her husband and kids next week! After her lesson, we drove with President to Brno to get ready for zone conference and meet with the zone leaders and the Sister Trainer Leader to basically train them for our training the next day. 

Tuesday! We just had zone conference in Brno, and then we waited for President to finish interviews, and then drove together to Bratislava. When we got there it was the same drill as Monday night, met with the zone leaders and two sisters and talked about our training. Training in Brno went really well, it's all about a stake and what we need to do in order to get a stake. I think I mentioned that to you last week. Our training went well, which I believe I also already told you about, the fake district meeting and all.

Wednesday we had the last zone conference, and then President let Elder Boysen and I take a quick look around Bratislava while he finished interviews. It is not as pretty as Prague. After he finished we headed back home, to Prague, and then we had a lesson with Maxim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He'd been called to Kazakhstan for a family emergency, but he's back, we talked to him a couple days before and then we were able to meet Wednesday night. He's so great. We had a good lesson, caught up with him a bit, and he's doing fine. 

Thursday we had a pretty busy day. We've been really pack-scheduling lessons to make up for the first half of the week. Before anything else though, we needed to take Elder Boysen to get a physical. He needs to get a driver's license, and he needed a physical. We had a good district meeting, and then taught some lessons. We taught a new lady named Anya, Vera, Marek, Katka and Miguel, and Martin. It was a good full day.

Friday we taught Isabel and Cristina, Michal, Vera, Pet'a, had a singing display, tuaght Drahomir, and Ary. It was also a very full day. We had such a good lesson with Pet'a! She's great. We answered some of her questions, and it was good progress I think. We also had a good lesson with Vera. We talked about prophets and gave her a couple talks by President Monson so she could be familiar with his teachings. Ary is getting the Priesthood!!! He didn't wnat to at first, didn't feel ready, so we sat him down, and compared preparing for the Priesthood with preparing for baptism. He is set to get the Priesthood on the first of february. WE also refound Marek, the one with the crazy hair and glasses, if you remember the picture I sent awhile ago. He's such a good kid, I hope he can make it this time.

Today we had a really good lesson with Vera about tithing, and she committed to pay it after baptism. She also read both of the president Monson talks, and loved loved loved them. For Pday we all went to Karlstejn the castle near which the mission was dedicated. IT was fun, the castle was closed though. But we enjoyed each others' company, and the senior couple came with us too. We have a couple more lessons on plan tonight before the day ends.

I love you all so much, I pray for you always,

Starsi Knapp

__________________________________________________________________________________

 Counting down....

And a few snippets from last week's email, which I forgot to post....


Monday we had a good office meeting, it's really a fun meeting. I love all of the people involved in the office, and we just have a good time discussing issues and stuff. We had lunch at my favorite restaurant with the office elders, the sisters in our district, and President. We had a nice meeting with Drahomir, we taught him the Word of Wisdom. We've really focused on him getting the Melchizedek Priesthood, and it was a really good lesson for him. He admitted that he didn't see anything wrong with small transgression of the WoW, like the occasional toast, or coffee with his mom and that kind of thing. It went well though, but we didn't find out how well until later. We also visited a new investigator, a very old lady, but she is sweet. She is really lonely, so it's really good for her that we visit and give her a chance to talk to someone.

Wednesday we had a singing display, then hurried back to teach Drahomir again. He started off by just talking about how last lesson was a real wake up call for him, and he was determined to live the commandments 100% no matter what. We started to watch the full Joseph Smith film with him, because one thing we really want for him is to strengthen his testimony of the Prophet Joseph. We had afirst lesson with a super cool lady named Eva. She is married, has two daughters, and is a nurse. It was a fantastic first lesson, she loved it. We visited Jitka again, and had good lesson about the Fall and Atonement. We've been going through the Plan of Salvation with her, and it's helping her understand a lot.

Thursday we had the first of four Zone Conferences. It was great. Our training was a demo district meeting, at which we discussed the progress of our investigators and really received inspiration for them. IT was awesome. Before us President trained on our vision for 2014, and what we need to become a stake. It was intense. The tough part of the training, and the tough part of the week, was the fact that missionaries, in their last training bear their testimony of their missions. So, Elder Strobel, Elder Greener, and I, closed the training with our testimonies. It was not fun. After the training we taught Vera, Alena, Jitka again, and a new kid named Alan. He's czech, but he actually lived in Farmington, Utah for awhile. He's a cool guy, but not really very religious. He is way excited to read the Book of Mormon though, so there is hope.

Friday we had another zone conference, with the same elements as the first. It was also great. One downside to being assistant is that I have to bear my testimony in all four zone conferences. It doesn't get easier. We did have good lessons with Vera and Pet'a, and Martin Novak. 

This morning we taught Vera the WoW, and it was so great. She has grown so much in her faith and testimony, it's amazing. we are going shopping right now, and then on to...the BRAZILIAN RESTAURANT!!! We're making a return. 

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

Email from two weeks ago

Monday we had the annual Mission-wide Christmas conference here in Prague. It was a blast. We got to see all the missionaries and President's parents were there and their whole family did a presentation, piece by piece, on the birth of Christ. It was awesome. I love the McConkies so much. We also had teh talkent show, which we're always a little worried about because you never quite know what missionaries can come up with in their spare time. But it went well, nothing too nuts haha. We did sing one of our quartet numbers, Away in a Manger, as arranged by the other elder in the quartet.

While ago, President had teh idea that on Christmas Eve we should just spend the whole day going around visiting people and sharing the Nativity with them. When people get really into their Christmas preparations, they have not much time, so it was an easy way to say, 'hey, we know you don't have aton of time right now, can we share this five minute DVD with you and sing a Christmas song?" It was pretty successful across the mission. WE got to teach five lessons in part due to the plan, wihich is kind of unheard of in this mission at Christmas time. Coolest thing though, when we were looking for an inactive lady, we found her address, but none of her neighbors had any idea who she was. But, as we were chatting to some of the people there, they said, "Well, if you're going to talk about Jesus, come back some time!" So we did, and we got to start teaching a couple, Eva and Mirek, and their friend Honza. They are sos funny. They are Evangelicals, and they are way into the whole preach-a-sermon-shout-amen-and-praise-the-Lord kind of stuff. Whenever we said anything they liked, even in prayers, they would chime in with a good alleluia or amen or whatever else popped into their minds.

Wednesday was of course highlighted by our conversation. Again, it was great (and slightly eerie) to see you all again. We actually started teh day off at a rest home, I may have mentioned this, where we sang for the...inmates isn't the right word...patients? But it was nice. We then split, our district to the Munro's and the other to the Mendenhalls'. We had good food and good fun. Sister Munro and the sisters left early because they were invited the the Nutcracker ballet by a member, so we men jsut stayed behind and played some Phase 10. I won. I did hold in my laughter about the Nutcracker in until after the ladies had left though, because they were all pretty excited to see it. I jsut remember two things about that ballet: My awkward experience being exposed to ballet attire for the first time, and, of course, Paige Albrecht's.

Thursday we implemented another of President McConkie's new ideas, singing displays all day, but mostly without contacting, just making people's after Christmas Day with a bunch of carols, Czech and English. It was awesome! We spent the whole day with crowds gathered around us listening intently. We actually want to use it every Sunday to try to spread our name and maybe get a few people to church. We also taught a few lessons at night, and one in the middle of the day. We had way sweet experience at lunch. The Munros came with us, and after lunch Elder Munro had something to say. He, after all the amazing things that they have done for us, stood up and thanked us all for all we do and are, got very emotional which is not like him, and payed for everyone's meal. I love those two so much i cannot express it.

Friday we had a pretty normal working day. We did another singing display, just to try, and it went okay. Not a ton of people were out, but we got a few. After that, we started teaching. We went all over the place. We taught the Pavlicovi, Mirek Eva and Honza, Phuc, Isabel, a guy named Josef, and one other person I can't recall...hmm...oh well. But it was busy and good. 

Today we went to the bone church again! It was fun. I just love spending time with the other missionaries. We had a blast, and my favorite part was just chatting with them and talking about everything, having good laughs, but also serious discussions about the Gospel and missionary work. Such a great time. Some pics are included in the next email.

Okay my dear family, I love you so much. I did actually ask president about the possibility of getting an extension, so...we'll see.

Elder Knapp

All Caught Up Now With Elder Knapp

So! Sunday we didn't do much. We went to churhc and took a lot a lot a lot of pictures because so many missionaries are leaving Prague. Other than that, Elder Sewell and I did some weekly planning, then we went ot pick up Elder Boysen, my new comp! He is big. 6'8" or so, English. I don't know why so many of my companions have been so tall. But he's a good guy, I like him a lot. He's the same age as Elder Prymak, and he was trained in Ostrava when I was there training, and he was in my district when I was DL in Prague.

Monday we began the craziness. We got a bunch of missionaries on trains, got a few more off trains, had office meeting, taught four lessons, met with President, trained Elder Boysen a bit, and went to FHE. First week is always so nuts. It was good though. We've been really trying to touch base with as many people as we can before Elder Sewell left, so we had some good meetings.

Tuesday we did all our studies and things, Elder Sewell packed, we did some cleaning, then we met President for lunch. It was good. I love him tons. I love being around him and drinking from his wisdom. After lunch we went back the the building, met Sister McConkie, and...drove to the airport to pick up new missionaries!!! I love doing that it is absolutely the greatest. I love seeing them come out of the tunnel with all of their stuff, excited, nervous, and totally unaware of what awaits them. I love 'em! We get a lot of opportunity to chat with them one-on-one while we tour Prague with them, and this group is going to be great, really great. It's good to see, because I've had the feeling of 'what are we going to do without all of these amazing missionaries who are going home?!' but recently I just felt, God is going to take care of this mission. New ones will come in who will be great, and the ones who are here will step up and become the next leaders. This group has many of the future leaders of the mission.

Wednesday we paired them with their trainers, and sent them off to their new areas! We have one of the new sisters in Prague, and she is great, fearless. We had good lessons with Maxim and Tomas, we were able to meet Patrik and have a nice lesson about the 10 commandments, taught Isabel and Drahomir, Michal, and Viktor! A busy busy day. We finished with the departing missionary dinner at the McConkies. It was a lot of fun, but also sad obviously. So many great missionaries. I did the math, and more than half of my mission, not including the MTC, I served with missionaries that went home this week. It was a blow.

Thursday was a very sad morning. We got up early, 4:30, which is the first sad part, and then drove to the airport. It was an emotional time for all present. Elder Clyde, Elder De Angelis, and Elder Sewell all went home. I love those guys so much. Elder De Angelis was possibly the saddest departure for me, because unlike with the others, I don't know when I'm going to see him again. I talked to President about it after wards, asked him how he was feeling, and he said, "You know what? This is dumb. This is really really dumb. I hate this." But, life goes on, the millenium approaches. That afternoon we had District Meeting, taught Vera, Pavel, and Maxim, and practiced for our concert coming up this week. I'm doing another solo, O Holy Night.

Friday we had a busy day. We taught six lessons, had a singing display, practiced for our concert, and drove to Brno. Sorry for lack of details, but I'm running out of time.

We were in a town called Uherske Hradiste today for a volleyball tournament that the branch there puts on each year. We are not good volleyball players. It's not that we're not good, but rather that we have no experience playing together. We had the most athletic team by far, including three people who played vb in High school, one sister who played at BYU, we just didn't have good coordination and stuff. We went 1-5. But, we came back safely even though it was snowing, taught a new investigator named Martin, and that's been the day!

I love you all tons, if you want to skype, fine, if not, also fine. It would be nice to talk to everyone individually, and there is something about being able to say that we literally haven't seen each other for two years. It's up to you, I'll send possible times for a call/skype next week. Love you all so very much,

Elder Knapp

Draha rodino,

Sunday we had a pretty normal day. Taught a bit after church, did some planning and things after that, then met with President. They were in brno this weekend, so we met them in their house to give President a little surprise. I don't really know how do describe it. It's a glass cube with my and Elder Sewell's faces engraved on the inside. I don't know how they do it, but it had President laughing for a good 10-15 minutes. Every time he looked at it he just lost it again and again. He's not usually like that, so it means we done good.

Monday We had a nice lesson with Ary before we went to FHE. We also had athe opportunity to give a YSA girl here a blessing, which is always a nice thing. We had some good meetings with President earlier in the day, discussing transfers and such. It's tonight we make the calls, I'm so excited! I love doing this.

Tuesday we had a conference here in Prague. It went really well. We talked about the importance of planning and preparation, specifically in getting ready for Christmas because the mission historically goes through a dip around this time of year. I love listening to President McConkie. He has such vision, and is so inspired. I wish we all had a similar vision to him, because the mission would explode. I think that we often don't realize how willing the Lord is to bless us, and how many of His children are prepared. If we all could grasp that, and the power of the Holy Ghost in conversion, we would baptize hundreds, all over the world. We also had some really good lessons, one with Elianora, our Italian, one with Artur, one of our Russians, a way cool new guy named Pavel, and Maxim! Maxim is so great. His baptism is today. He's in, he's going to do it. I love the guy so much. Pavel is going to be awesome. He's a successful man, and is just cool. He's going to really embrace the message I think. Also after the conference President called the new AP, but I can't say yet, hehe.

Wednesday morning I had my transferly interview with President, which I was very excited for. It was great. I love to learn from wise men. We had a great talk, just chatting about different things. I am determined to learn as much as I can from him. We met later with another cool new guy, his name is Tomas. He works just across the street from the building, and I have a lot of hope for him as well. We had a good lesson with a youong guy named Ondrej, answered a bunch of his questions and talked more about the Restoration. It went well. We also had a good lesson with Drahomir, Isabel, a slightly struggling sister named named Jitka, and then visited Viktor at his work. He had gotten the sauna all ready for us and was going to give us a free session in the sauna. We didn't feel comfortable with that, called President and received confirmation that we should avoid that. I felt bad because Viktor tried hard to do something special for us and we couldn't. He's such a good guy, he was actually called to the YM presidency here last Sunday.

Thursday was awesome. We helped Isabel move a little bit, payed some dental bills for Elder Sewell, then started teaching. Maxim had his interview, and then we taught him a short message, then had a great lesson with Mirek and Lukas. We were talking about baptism and the Holy Ghost, and at the end we asked if they had questions, and Lukas said, "No, I don't. Well, maybe a small one. I've never been baptized, could I get baptized?" Yes Lukas. You can. You have to understand folks, these two are not believers, or rather, weren't. We have been very sneaky with them how we've taught them, but you know what? The Holy Ghost is REAL. And they have felt it. We're so stoked for them. Both 23, both cool, smart guys. We refer to these sort as kingdom builders. We also had a really good lesson with Patrik, who has recently returned from Mali and Afghanistan on Army assignments. He's such a good guy. He is going to be baptized. Really. Pray for him though. We also visited a member family that night, the Matejckovi, and had dinner and shared a thought of course. We also looked at a bunch of stuff from Bro Matejcek's mission in Arizona. Good times. Happy Thanksgiving.

Friday we met our investigator Vera after a long pause, and it was great. She's coming to church this week, and we're excited to start teaching her again. We went to a really good burger joint, then sang some songs on the street. WE found a really cool mom, we'll start teaching her next week. Added bonus, her husband is Nigerian. We had such a good lesson with Pet'a! She is going to start the Book of Mormon for the third time and try praying and studying again. Please pray for her!!! SHe is so great, once she's baptized she'll be a great member. We had a Czech lesson with a member, then taught Ary a good lesson, he may go on a mission! We'll talk with him more about that later of course. Then we went and had end-of-transfer-we-love-the-office-missionaries-and-APs-dinner at the McConkies. It was of course enjoyable.

Today we had a turkey bowl.  It was a way fun time and now we're getting prepped for a feast, and two baptisms. We have six through the mission this weekend, some real miracles. This is the greatest work! I love you all, keep strong.

Love,

Starsi Knapp