Odhodlanie

this week was rough. i just wrote my weekly report to president irwin where i reported our numbers for the week. 0s all across the board. that's right. i really don't know what to say other than that i am so disappointed. we went out this week and worked, but who did we teach? nobody, who did we find? no one, how do we feel? awful. every lesson we had got cancelled or was a no show, and contacting was an absolute crap shoot. this was by far the worst week of my mission so far, and it is going to stay that way. i am never every doing this again. it was an absolutely horrible week and i am looking forward to just putting it behind me forever. this week will be better. it has to be. when elder pearson came here and spoke to us, he said "every day you should be disappointed, but you should never be discouraged." elder romero and i are trying our hardest to take that advice this week. i still have high hopes for this week. i think we have some good things lined up and i know that the Lord is going to reward us if we continue to have faith and continue to work hard. every day we get text messages from other elders in the slovensko zone about new investigators, new baptismal dates etc. blessings are being poured out on every other city right now. i have to think that zilina is next in line. the miracles are coming. we just have to be ready for it. that's why the theme for this week (and the subject of this emial) is odhodlanie, a slovak work meaning resolution. this week we are just going to have to do as joel directs in joel 3:10 when he says: "beat your plow shares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, i am strong." that's old testament lingo for "bring it on." the slovak translation of that verse in the bible that i am currently using, uses the phrase "som hrdina" in place of "i am strong." "som hrdina" means "i am a hero." this week is our week to be heros, and that is exactly what we will be if we have faith and humbly seek the counsel and guidance of the Lord. He is with us even when we have a rough week. i have a lot of evidence to back up that statement, but the most recent proof came last night. we were walking home from a members house. we just barely missed the bus going back into the center of town, so we had to walk. the walk takes about an hour, and on top of that it was raining. hard. while we walked i had to call in our embarrassing numbers to elder walker. it was terrible. as we finally walked back into the lower namestie, however, soaking wet, having walked for almost an hour; i heard the joyful sound of "in the stone" by earth wind and fire playing over the loud speakers on the town square. after that the week didn't seem so bad.

ahoj'te
sam