Can I train the british kid?

this week was an up and down one. like any normal missionary week, there were  some definite disappointments, but also some great triumphs--triumphs, which of course outweighed the disappointments. we have tried really hard now to set up meetings with our investigators with baptismal dates. we got "beaked" again quite a bit this week.we didn't meet with any of our progressing investigators this week at all, but that wasn't for lack of trying. we had so many meetings set up with all of them, but they didn't come to a single one. i'm not really sure what to do. i'm not wholly opposed to meeting with them, but if they aren't going to show up, then elder romero and i shouldn't waste our time preparing lessons for them. we are thinking really hard about dropping them all. when i called in our numbers this week, i called in that we have 0 progressing investigators. in essence, this week we started at square one. we did a lot of finding. we spent hours out on the town square contacting people, and we were definitely reawarded for our diligence. we picked up a few new investigators this week that we are pretty excited about, and we have quite a few good potential investigators lined up too. this saturday my boys from cajakova (zilina south; whenever someone send me a letter they are actually sending it to the other elders' apartment because we dont' have a mailbox at our apartment--just so you know), had a baptism. we did the baptism again in the river, and it was marvelous. i am so lucky to have had a front row seat for silivia's progression as an investigator. she has so much faith and i think she will be a strong member for the rest of her life. i sang for the baptism in a quartet with elder macneish, elder butler, and elder walker. we sang the slovak version of "i am a child of God." it sounded great. after the baptism, silivia bore her testimony. she sounded like someone who had already been a member for most of her life. after the baptism we went to the Seidls' house for refreshments as always. we may not have too many members here in zilina, but the members that we do have are absolutely marvelous. just before i came to the internet cafe to email, we threw a surprise birthday part for petka, another one of the great members here in zilina. the other elders had asked her for help teaching a "lesson" this morning, but instead of having a lesson, we all yelled surprise, sang, and had cake. i think petka really enjoyed it. she deserved to have a great bithday with all the effort that she puts into the missionary work here in zilina. anyway, i think it's time for the funny mission story of the week. this weeks story isn't so much funny as it is worthy of a twilight zone episode. i got a letter last week from my good friend anna. it had been a little while since i had heard from her, but apparently a lot has happened since we last corresponded. she told me that she got set up on a blind date with this british kid who her dad knows through work. the date went really well and they hung out a few more times before he went back home to england. soon they started talking about the possibility of anna coming to visit him in england, which she did a few weeks later. while she was there, he got his mission call to serve in (you guessed it) the czech prague mission speaking slovak. can you hear the twilight zone music? i sure can. i was pretty shocked when i read that. he's in the mtc at this very moment. i had an interview with president irwin this week when he was here for the baptism. he asked me if i had any questions. jokingly, i replied: "my one question is this: can i train the british kid?" president irwin laughed and said: "well we are going to need four trainers this next transfer." he would be the easiest greeny ever! if he didn't want to go contacting or something, all i would have to say is: "that's fine, but i'm telling your girlfriend that you were too much of a wussy to go contacting." advantage: meredith. anyway, i hope you are all doing well across the pond. hope to hear from you all soon.

ahoj'te
sam