Som na Slovenska!

hello from...(drumroll) zilina!
i have finally made it to slovakia, after nine long weeks in the mtc and a super long plane/ train ride, i am finally in my first area as a missionary in slovakia. we traveled from salt lake straight to paris where we had a two hour layover. i don't want to judge an entire country by its airport, but if i was going to, i would say that france sucks. there was only like 2 feet between the security line and the gate where we took off so we pretty much just had to crowd around the gate close to a bunch of smelly french people to get on the plane. our filght to prague was short, only about an hour and a half, but  it was so hard to stay awake on the flight. i didn't get much sleep on the plane ride to paris because i can't sleep when i'm sitting and the guy that sat next to me snored like it was nobody's business. i did have a cool experience in the airport while we were waiting for our flight to paris to board. a kid came up to us and asked who we were, we said we were missionaries going to the czech republic and slovakia. he said that he was from slovakia, which was a surprise to me, since he looked like he was hispanic, spoke very good english, and was wearing a lebron james jersey.he must be a gypsy. i spoke to him in slovak for a few minutes and talked to him about the church. i gave him a pass along card and told him to go to the church's website if he wants to learn more. i should have gotten his phone number but i didn't. maybe he will call the missionaries anyway and hopefully soon the missionaries in bratislava will have a good referral soon. first thing when we got to prague, we went on our prague walk with the aps. i have been a lot of really cool places in my life, and although i've never been out of the country before now, i have seen some really beautiful places. however, i can now say that prague is the most beautiful city i have ever seen. all the old architecture is so amazing. the only thing i wish is that we could have had more time to tour  all the cool buildings we saw. prague castle is absolutely amazing. it's hard to believe that building like that could be built so long ago in a time when they didn't have anywhere near the same technology that we have now. we didn't go through the cathedral, which was disappointing, but i'm sure i will get to go someday. after we walked across charles bridge, we came into the main namestie in prague and started doing some contacting. we contacted for about 20 minutes. it went pretty well. we got rejected by everyone, but a few people talked to us and i was able to give a pass along card to a lady, who i think may have had at least some interest in the gospel. after that we had our first czech meal, which was very delicious. i had some spicy beef goulash, which was very good. i know that i am going to have to cook most of my food here, but the food that someone else cooks for me, will be very good if it is anything like our dinner yesterday. i will try to send some pictures of everything as soon as i can. i also met president irwin for the first time yesterday. he seems like a great guy. he's a spiritual giant, so the mission will definitely do great things with him at the helm. after our tour and everything yesterday, we got our bags and we got put up in a small hotel just around the corner from the mission home. it was pretty good. the interior decorating was definitely reminiscent of a home once owned by grandma joleen. we got to go to bed at like 845 and we didn't have to wake up this morning until seven, so that was very nice. i haven't slept that  well in  months! this morning, we had breakfast with president irwin at his house, and then had our interview with him. after that i met my trainer. he is a young man by the name of elder durrant. this is only his second transfer, that's right, hie SECOND transfer. he is a legend in this mission already for just being a straight up whiz kid. he is already very capable at the language and president irwin assures me that i am a very  lucky man. after getting to know elder durrant on our five hour train ride today, i think i would definitely have to agree with that sentiment. he seems like a great guy, with a strong testimony and work ethic. i think we will make a really good team, and that we  will see some real success while we are here in zilina. we have two investigators right now, both of whom have baptismal dates, so right away we will have some teaching to do. most of our work, however, will be concentrated on finding new people to teach, meaning a lot of tracting and a lot of contacting. i should be very good at contacting by the end of this transfer. elder durrant seems to be really excited about our prospects this transfer. he says that my slovak is really good for a greeny and that by the end of this transfer, i should be speaking better than a lot of older missionaries. that was really assuring. zilina is a beautiful city, at least what i have seen of it thus far is. our apartment is pretty nice too. this apartment that i will be living in is affectionately called "the palace" because it is so much nicer than most missionary apartments. it will be a really nice place to live. tonight elder durrant is going to take me around the city and we will maybe do some contacting, but the real work will start tomorrow, when we are pretty much going to hit the streets all day. i think i am going to lose that 5 pounds that i gained in the mtc pretty darn quick. i can't wait to start getting to know the town, the people, and the culture here. it's an absolutely beautiful country unlike anything else that i have ever seen. it is definitely going to be a nice place to spend the next few years. i'm sure that i will have a lot to tell you when i send my email next week. now that i have more time to email every week, feel free to send me an email. i can only respond to emails from family, but if you want to say hey or update me on what's going on, you can send me an email, and i can respond via snail mail. i also love getting hand-written letters though, so i'm happy to receive them if you would like to send them. i will let you all know what my address is as soon as i can. until then you can send mail to the mission home. i will see the president again next Thursday, so if the mail gets there by then i will be able to get it from him. i look forward to hearing about everything that is going on in your lives. as for me, just know that i am alive, i am in Slovakia, and i am excited to get to work.

milujem vas
sam