Date
January 26, 2021
Area
Bratislava, Slovakia
Companion
Elder Leavitt
The week of driving
Hey everyone! I have no idea how I actually want to start off this email so I guess that I will just get started.
This week we did a lot of traveling for some reason. On Thursday went and got new covid tests because they are starting to "require" them from now until February 7th. The only dumb thing is that out of all of the times that I have had to go and get a covid test, I have never actually been checked by police or anyone to see if I even have a test. But as President Gehring said, "It's all in the name of good citizenship." So after we got our tests we had to go to the other apartment that is here in Bratislava and pick up a car that we had parked there so that we could take them in this next week to have them appraised and everything so they can be sold. Well we got there and decided to look around the apartment to see if there was anything worthwhile in there. It turns out that there were a couple things. One of my favorites is that someone had left a brand new container of vanilla ice cream in the freezer. So you already know Elder Leavitt and I at that whole pint of ice cream while we were there. It was so good. We did get the car and everything and brought it to our apartment that we are staying at. That was a fun few hours of traveling down to get it as the other apartment is like 40 mins away by bus.
On Friday we went to Trenčín to go get the other car that is there and bring it down here to get appraised so that it can be sold. We went to Trenčín, got there at like 12:30, took the Sisters their bikes, then went to this really good restaurant there that I really like called Kuki. It is so good. They have some good sweet potato fries. We ended up staying there and hanging out there till like 15 and then started coming home. On the way home we had a Europe wide SMS call to join on to so we did that, and just listened while we drove. It was good. We got home and yeah, that was our entire day. Fun stuff.
Then the next day on Saturday, President Gehring was going around Slovakia hitting everyone for interviews and on his way home he wanted to stop and pick up a ton of the stuff that we had here in the Nitra apartment as they are closing it. So, we went to Nitra that morning at 9 am to go and get stuff ready for President to just take it. Then he was running a little behind schedule so we stayed there for an extra hour waiting for him. He got there and we loaded a lot of the contents of the apartment into the back of his car, and then went on to have a few hours worth of interviews with him. I really enjoy interviews with President. I feel like I say that a lot but I can honestly say it. He is such a good man who gives amazing advice. And it is always so helpful. I am so grateful that he is my mission leader, along with Sister Gehring. She is awesome too. We then drove home from Trenčín and now have 3 cars sitting next to our apartment. Hopefully nobody else needs those spots.😬
Translating on Sunday this week was super fun. One of the speakers spoke half Ukranian half Slovak with some English thrown in there. You already know that made up like 75% of that talk due to the fact that I didn't understand at all what was going on vôbec. That was a fun experience. The rest of the church meeting was nice to understand and translate. It was all pretty straightforward and the Sunday School lesson was just reading a talk so... That's good I guess.
We also had an event that the mission put on that is called "Why I Believe". You may have heard of it before but basically it is where recent converts share their story and how they came to receive their testimony of the restored gospel. It is really cool. It was on Facebook and we had it translated into English as well so if you would like to watch it let me know and I can send you the link to the post.
Zone Conference was also this week. It was all online this time which sucks but it is what it is. We made this really good video for our SMS training. It's just full of memes. I won't send it here, but if you wanna see it, hit me up and I will give it to you. It's just too big for an attachment here with all the pictures as well. But we spent our whole Tuesday afternoon making it so that was really fun.
Just a little thought from my study this week. It comes from Matthew when Jesus is walking on water and the Apostles are all scared then Christ says, "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid." Then Peter asks "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water." Then Christ just tells him to come. But as soon as Peter starts walking on water the wind picks up and gets scared and starts sinking. And Christ then just says "wherefore didst thou doubt?" From this I learned that we really need to trust in Christ. We need to trust everything he tells us to do. Peter actually did walk on water because he trusted in Christ. But as soon as he started doubting, he started to fall. In our life, it is the same. We might not be walking on water, but there are still always faith-filled actions that we need to complete. We will be able to do the impossible when we trust in Christ, but when we doubt, that is where we start to fall. But one thing that I really liked is that when Peter started to fall, Jesus "immediately stretched forth his hand, and caught him," How amazing is that? Christ didn't let Peter fall into the depths of the ocean only then to save him. He saved him as soon as he realized he was sinking and was in trouble. For me, this shows how merciful Christ is. Christ knew that Peter had doubted him, but Christ never turned away. I know that Christ is merciful. He is here to save us. He wants to save us.
That is everything that I for this week so I'm gonna go ahead and end this email. Hope you guys enjoyed. Love you and talk to you next week. Čau!