Zvolen

it's a city just about a thirthy minute drive south of banska. a few of the members in the banska branch live down there and we have investigators down there too, so the missionaries in banska spend a decent amount of time down there. very soon, however, we will be spending even more time down there. it's been so hard keeping this in for the last few weeks, but now that i have approval from president we can tell everyone that.....(drumroll) we are starting a new branch in zvolen! yay! ok so here's the low down: there are a lot of investigators in the zvolen area who would be baptized, but just don't have the money to attend church in banska bystrica, so the zone leaders will be moving down to zvolen over the next little while. elder smith and i will still live in banska (in what used to be the zone leaders' place--it's a lot nicer so i'm pretty excited about that), but the presiding priesthood holder in this new unit of saints will be yours truly. we will have a full 3 hour block here in banska, but then after that in the afternoon we will also be holding a weekly sacrament meeting in zvolen for these investigators. since all of the people that will be participating in the sacrament meeting aren't members (yet) the band of people in zvolen will be not a ward, not a branch, not a unit, but a group. meaning that it will be "The Zvolen group of the Banska Bystrica unit of the Zilina branch of the Brno district of the Czech/Slovak mission." i'm going to have a hard time fitting all of that on the program. that thing has more layers than an expensive wedding cake. but all jokes aside, we are really excited. things are really looking good and so we really look forward to seeing the miracles that are going to be coming out of central slovakia for the next little while.

 

ahoj'te

sam

Blow, blow, thou wint'ry wind

the title of this blog is fittingly "if you think logan is cold...welcome to slovakia." those inspired words uttered by kinsey after the opening of my mission call came out in full force this week. we have been experiencing recently what they call here the "siberian frost." it's a weather pattern that occurs about once every forty years and brings a nice wave of freezing air over from russia. now, i want to be clear here--this next part is not a complaint, it is merely a statement of fact. anyway, story time...they had a conference for all of the leadership in the mission in brno this week (district leaders, zone leaders, etc.). since my leadership responsibilities technically aren't responsibilities as far as the mission is concerned, i wasn't invited. so, we worked out a little exchange that put me working in zilina this last friday. my one-day companion and i didn't have much on the plan, so for most of the day we were outside on the square contacting most of the day. it was freezing cold. it wouldn't have been that bad had there not been such a bitter wind the entire day. after a few hours i had the pain in my head that comes to every person who comsumes a "slurpee" too quickly, and yet i hadn't eaten a thing (again--this is a statement of fact, not a complaint). so, i did my best to just think of it as a big adventure; and what an adventure it was. the week, however, wasn't a completely a siberian wasteland. for example, elder smith and i have a new baptismal date. so, although i'm not too excited about winter, there is always something that a missionary in the czech/slovak mission has to be excited about.

 

maj'te sa

sam

The Causse cause

we had a great conference this week in brno. elder causse of the
seventy came to speak to us and he had very nice things to say about
our mission. among other things he said that we have the most obedient
and the happiest mission in europe--so how about them apples? in all
seriousness, though it was a great conference. i sand the song "where
love is" from the primary songbook and i think it went pretty well. we
also got to hear a lot of great messages from president and sister
irwin and from elder causse himself. he encouraged us to increase our
faith, because it is after faith that we see miracles. he told us that
we need to have a vision that we need to picture the future of the
church in this country--stakes, temples, etc. there was a very tender
moment for all the slovak missionaries after that. elder causse took
out his ipad and called up elder nichol so that he could show him the
picture displayed on his ipad. he asked elder nichol to describe the
picture. elder nichol began to describe the slovak branch that has now
been established in sheffield in england. the first slovak man in
england was found a year ago, and yet they already have 70 members and
average of 80 people attending church every week and 30 baptismal
dates; every one of them a slovak. Heavenly Father loves all of his
children, and he certainly hasn't forgotten about those from Slovakia.
we will find them, we will teach, them we will baptize them, and the
church will grow. all it takes is just a little faith

ahoj'te
sam

Ocova

it's a little tiny town about an hour outside of banska bystrica. just a teeny village with a store, a city hall, and about 10 houses around it. every time i'm there i feel like i'm going to see a seven-year-old boy walk out in front of me with a shotgun and tell me about how his farther has instructed him to shoot anyone who is from the bank, or about how he has just recently "knicked" the census man. anyway, one of the members in the branch here lives in this little town, so we go out there to help her on her little farm sometimes over the weekends. it's pretty fun work sometimes. i don't know what it is about manual labor, but there is just a pretty good feeling of satisfaction that comes from doing it. this week we took the hatchet and chopped up a bunch of firewood. elder smith and i had quite a bit of fun doing that. even though i got a pretty rough pain in my knuckles that was reminiscent of the pain i got after a long session of batting practice in my baseball playing days, it was still (for whatever reason) quite a bit of fun. so, if anyone needs some firewood chopped, elder smith and i would be more than happy to oblige.

 

maj'te sa

sam

French Toast

there are many blessings that come from serving a mission. obviously there is a myriad of spiritual blessings that come from serving the Lord full time, but there are also quite a few temporal blessings that come from serving a mission. these are just practical little things that make the chances of you being a loser when you get home much smaller. one of these practical little skills is the ability to cook. i could cook pretty well before my mission (who could forget all of my complicated culinary creations such as cereal, toast, and sandwiches?), but thanks to the last year or so, i know my way around the kitchen much better. i'm no wolfgang puck or anything, that's for sure, but i can do a few good things here and there. serving with elder smith has been really fun because a few times a week we have just been experimenting with something that we have never tried cooking before. my favorite experiment this week had to be french toast. we were both so excited. i hadn't had french toast since...well...the previous life that happened before my mission. we even made our own maple syrup. that topped off with the skippy peanut butter that dad sent me for christmas made the whole ensemble just great. speaking of french stuff, i have to mention this week that elder gerald causse of the seventy is coming to do a mission tour at the beginning of the month. i called president irwin to ask him a question the other day, and when he picked up the phone he just said "elder meredith, i'm glad you called me. i want you to sing!" half-jokingly i replied by saying "right now?" "no," he replied, "but when elder causse comes. you can sing whatever you want, just make sure it's something good." so, i'm singing for the conference, which brings me back to our conversation about food. at the beginning of my mission i was confused about what i should cook for myself while i'm here, so i asked elder williams (who is well known for his cooking skills) what i should cook. he gave me some interesting advice. he said: "think of something you want to eat, and then make it." when i first heard that i thought it was the lamest advice ever, but now, 8 months later, i realize that it was actually very wise. so wise, in fact, that i think i will apply the same principle when i sing at our upcoming zone conference--i'm going to think of something i want to sing and then sing it.

 

maj'te sa!

sam