[Dear family and friends, here is the letter we received from Joseph this morning. We appreciate your support of Joseph! I have included a couple notes of explanation below. Joseph's editor BWS]
Good Morning to Everybody,
My P-day [Editor's note: Preparation Day - which is the one day each week that the missionaries write letters, do wash, go sight-seeing, do shopping, etc.] is on Saturday this week, so my letter home is coming out to you at this time. (In the future though, it will usually be on Monday).
This week has been exciting. My new companion, Starší Roubíček [Editor's note: Starsi is the term for "Elder".] is a cool missionary. He is from Fresno, California and is a super funny individual. His last name is Czech, as his Grandfather was Czech and was the mission president here during Communism. He has been on his mission for almost a year and has already been very helpful in helping me improve my Czech speaking skills. Elder McGowan is headed off to Olomoc and is looking forward to working with new people in a new city.
We are having some great success with our teaching. The people we are working with are slowly realizing that the things we teach really can help them. The understanding that they gain about life and their new visions for the future are such great things to see in their lives. As they read from the Book of Mormon it is really amazing to see how they realize that the things it contains can really bless their lives when the lessons they learn are applied in their lives.
Last Thursday, we met a man from Germany. His name is Norman and he was intrigued by what we were teaching about. We talked to him about how, through learning and understanding the scriptures, we can learn much more about God. After that, when combined with prayer, our personal relationships with God can improve and we can see the love he has for us in everything we see and do. He is coming to Church this Sunday and we are looking forward to meeting with him in the future.
Now that the weather is (more or less) permanently warm/nice, we have been able to spend a great deal of our time outside in parks talking with people. We still try to set our meetings up at our building, which actually is really easy since the building is not difficult for people to get to. Apparently, this is not always the case in other cities, so I have begun to appreciate having the building as a good place to teach people (and get free water). One of the many nice things about Prague is that the transportation system is well set up and easy to use. We rarely take buses, except to go out and visit the college dorms, but the metro and tram systems are great for getting around. There are stops all over the city and we really can get anywhere we need to fairly quickly and directly.
Another cool thing about serving in Prague is that I get to see several other missionaries during the day and during the week. There are ten full-time missionaries working in the city, plus two senior missionary couples and the Slováčkovi [Editor's note: I think this may be the mission president and his family - though I could be wrong]. It has been helpful to work around them as each missionary has something different that they can use to teach and help each other. Plus, they are all a ton of fun to be around so it has been great to have friends here as well.
We are having our Zone Conference [Editor's note: This is a meeting of all of the missionaries in Joseph's Zone. A zone would probably include approximately 20 other missionaries.] this Monday (that is why P-day is today). Zone Conference is a great experience since I get to see many other missionaries and hear from President Slováček as well as our other leaders about how we can do better work and be better missionaries.
Well, that is all for now, so I will talk to you all in a little over a week.
Sincerely,
Elder Joseph Schindler
My P-day [Editor's note: Preparation Day - which is the one day each week that the missionaries write letters, do wash, go sight-seeing, do shopping, etc.] is on Saturday this week, so my letter home is coming out to you at this time. (In the future though, it will usually be on Monday).
This week has been exciting. My new companion, Starší Roubíček [Editor's note: Starsi is the term for "Elder".] is a cool missionary. He is from Fresno, California and is a super funny individual. His last name is Czech, as his Grandfather was Czech and was the mission president here during Communism. He has been on his mission for almost a year and has already been very helpful in helping me improve my Czech speaking skills. Elder McGowan is headed off to Olomoc and is looking forward to working with new people in a new city.
We are having some great success with our teaching. The people we are working with are slowly realizing that the things we teach really can help them. The understanding that they gain about life and their new visions for the future are such great things to see in their lives. As they read from the Book of Mormon it is really amazing to see how they realize that the things it contains can really bless their lives when the lessons they learn are applied in their lives.
Last Thursday, we met a man from Germany. His name is Norman and he was intrigued by what we were teaching about. We talked to him about how, through learning and understanding the scriptures, we can learn much more about God. After that, when combined with prayer, our personal relationships with God can improve and we can see the love he has for us in everything we see and do. He is coming to Church this Sunday and we are looking forward to meeting with him in the future.
Now that the weather is (more or less) permanently warm/nice, we have been able to spend a great deal of our time outside in parks talking with people. We still try to set our meetings up at our building, which actually is really easy since the building is not difficult for people to get to. Apparently, this is not always the case in other cities, so I have begun to appreciate having the building as a good place to teach people (and get free water). One of the many nice things about Prague is that the transportation system is well set up and easy to use. We rarely take buses, except to go out and visit the college dorms, but the metro and tram systems are great for getting around. There are stops all over the city and we really can get anywhere we need to fairly quickly and directly.
Another cool thing about serving in Prague is that I get to see several other missionaries during the day and during the week. There are ten full-time missionaries working in the city, plus two senior missionary couples and the Slováčkovi [Editor's note: I think this may be the mission president and his family - though I could be wrong]. It has been helpful to work around them as each missionary has something different that they can use to teach and help each other. Plus, they are all a ton of fun to be around so it has been great to have friends here as well.
We are having our Zone Conference [Editor's note: This is a meeting of all of the missionaries in Joseph's Zone. A zone would probably include approximately 20 other missionaries.] this Monday (that is why P-day is today). Zone Conference is a great experience since I get to see many other missionaries and hear from President Slováček as well as our other leaders about how we can do better work and be better missionaries.
Well, that is all for now, so I will talk to you all in a little over a week.
Sincerely,
Elder Joseph Schindler
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