this week has kind of been an up and down one. we have had days of great success this week, but we also had days of disappointment and struggle. one day this week were able to teach 6 lessons in a day (which is really high here). in total, we taught 11 lessons this week, which is outstanding because hitting double digits for lessons in a week can be pretty rare sometimes. 11 is good, but when you consider that we taught six in one day, we really could've done better. work was also made more difficult this week by the fact that we had to be in brno on sunday for a district conference. because of that we had to travel to bratislava on saturday evening, and then travel all the way back from brno to zilina on sunday. essentially, we missed out on a full day and a half of work because of the conference. anyway, we are hoping that this week is going to be really good. i think this week has the potential to the best week of the transfer if we really dedicate ourselves. we have a lot of lofty goals that i really think are possible to attain. first there is our weekly goal of three new investigators. the last two weeks we have had two, which is good, but it's still not up to par. this week we've set a goal to get four. i really believe we can do it. our other goals are centered around our progressing investigators. one of the people we are teaching right now, ferry, has been investigating the church off and on for about three years now. we met with him once like three weeks ago, and then told him to call us if he ever wants to meet again. this last week he called. we taught him a great lesson on free agency. we just threw out like a million great scriptures from the book of mormon. he thought it was a good lesson too; he was taking notes. after we were done going over the scriptures elder durrant said: "do you think nephi was a real man?" he said yes. after that i said: "that means that you think the book of mormon is true and that joseph smith was a prophet." he agreed to those two things. this week we are going to meet with him again and we are going to issue him a baptismal date. he has had a date before, but we are hoping that this time around he will be more mature and more prepared for baptism. we are also still trying to get eva to move her baptismal date up. we will be able to meet with her more often now that she is done with school, so we are hoping that she can make some really quick progress and find the strength to ask her husbands permission to get baptized. we really want to meet with her husband just so we can explain to him that we are normal guys just like him and that we aren't brainwashed robots from the church like some people think we are. i think once the people of slovakia just know who mormons are, the work will start to take off a little more. everyday we have to explain that we chose to be here, that we aren't brainwashed, and at least 3 times a day we use the phrase "nie sme jehovisty." we are not jehovah's witnesses. anyway, i have really high hopes for this week. we have also set a lofty goal for slovak speaking. we are shooting for 90 hours of slovak this week. we have set that goal for the last two weeks and fallen short, but this time we are getting it. anyway, if all these things work out, it is going to be a marvelous week. i know as we strive diligently to achieve these goals, the Lord will bless us and we will be able to achieve every single goal we set.
ok time for a funny story time. on thursday we went to roman's house. roman is an eternal investigator, who knows that joseph smith was a prophet, who knows that the word of wisdom is from God, but still won't get baptized because of his beliefs about the fall of adam. essentially, he believes that adam and eve were supposed to remain in the garden forever. when satan got adam and eve to eat the fruit, he backed God into a corner. essentially he believes that in the beginning, satan forced God to sand-bag. according to roman, this whole existence, this earth (and the atonement) were all plan B. anyway, beacause of this conflict of belief we quit teaching him but offered to meet with him again if he wants to. so, about a week ago we ran into him and he told us that he was building a house and that he would like us to help him. we agreed, so on thursday we walked across the river and walked up to his "house." we were astonished when we saw that it was just basically a hut made out of tall planks of wood stacked against each other. in the front of the hut he has some vegetables growing, and in the back of his house, he has a solar panel for electricity. i don't feel like i'm doing it justice at all. i mean, the guy lives in a hut on a river bank! what is this, burkina faso? anyway, it was quite the experience. when we were walking back, elder durrant said do you think that hut was big enough to have a shower in it? i said no way. no we know why roman always smells so bad. he is a perfect example of that distinctly slovak body odor, which smells like a mixture of smoked meat and regular BO.
anyway, i hope you are all doing well i hope you will continue sending me letters and emails and such. it's always nice hearing news from across the pond. keep elder durrant and i in your prayers this week. also pray for our investigators. we need some miracles this week, and i know we can get them if we just pray.
sam
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