deti

kids. not something i have a lot of experience with. i suppose that's what happens when you are the youngest in the family. oddly enough, though, serving in banska bystrica has even given me a little bit of experience entertaining the little ones. i've mentioned several times the church service that we hold every sunday morning for people living near the city of zvolen. well, a lot of the people that go to this church service have kids, and somebody needs to keep them occupied while their parents are attending sunday school. so, the four of us take turns every week taking the kids into the back of the 1-room school building where we hold church and teaching them primary. it's been pretty fun. here are some of the highlights of primary in budca so far:

 

"if you could have anything in the world what would you kids have?...yes, kristian..."

"a sword!"

"right on! good answer! what about you, zdenka?"

"my family."

"...also really good, but swords are cool too, kristian, don't worry."

 

 

"so, children, why do we need faith in Christ?"

"so we don't swear!"

"so we don't smoke!"

"so we don't drink alcohol!"

"so we don't drink green tea!"

"or black tea!"

 

so as you can see, working to teach the primary has been quite the pleasure. we even had a baptism into the primary in zvolen this week. little kristian still doesn't have his sword, but he does have the gift of the Holy Ghost now.

 

maj'te sa!

sam

I'm too young for this

a mission is a funny thing. sometimes when i have a quiet moment i like to think of all the different ins and outs of missionary service--all of the important things that are entrusted to us. being a missionary is a lot of responsibility, and yet that responsibility is placed upon the backs of young men and women who aren't even old enough to have attained a bachelor's degree. i know that it says in the doctrine and covenants that the Lord calls upon the "weak" things of the world to thrash the nations, but still when i think of the level of my maturity when i started my mission the word "weak" would have been the word used to describe me if somebody wanted to make the understatement of the 21st century. as missionaries we are very young, inexperienced, and immature, and yet we are out here bringing the gospel to the whole world. it's pretty amazing when you really think about it. i have served around incredible people on my mission and yet all of them are only in their twenties. to me it is just big proof that when we are dedicated to the gospel and we exercise faith in the Lord he can help us be a part of marvelous works and wonders. sometimes when i think about how harsh the difficulties can be and how enormous the obstacels are i'm prompted to stop for a moment, take a break from the thoughts have been constantly coming at me over the last eight months as i've tried to run a branch of the church, and say: "i'm too young for this." it's a good thing i've got access to heavenly help along the way, because i'd be absolutely clueless otherwise.

s laskou

sam

hudba

that is the slovak word for music. my mission so far has given me a lot of wonderful opportunities to share and develop my musical talents. i really think the Lord has blessed me for my missionary service in the form of helping me develop my musical talents further. i think i'm probably a better singer than i was when i left even though i don't sing nearly as much as i did when i was living in logan. i've also become a much better piano player (i have had to play the piano at sacrament meeting A LOT), and by virtue of serving with elder  macneish for two transfers, i have even learned how to play a good amount of chords on the guitar. it's wonderful. there has been, however, one downfall to serving in banska. we have a really small district of only four people and i'm the person who has always had to run sacrament meeting. so, i haven't had nearly as many musical numbers in sacrament meeting here as i have in my other areas. i always thought that the missionaries should all do a quartet in sacrament meeting, but we have never really had a district of four  strong singers--never, that is, until now. elder tenney has quite a nice voice, so yesterday i had my first sacrament meeting musical number in quite a while. the four of us sang "o Boze my ti dakujeme" (we thank thee, o God, for a prophet). it went really well, and everyone really enjoyed it. the rest of sacrament meeting was great too, in both banska and zvolen. sunday, once again proved to be the best day of the week.

 

maj'te sa!

sam

Svadba

i don't have much time to make a journal entry today (to make a long story short i really dislike computers sometimes) so, i'll just share a quick experience that elder macneish and i had this last weekend. we were out contacting on the square when we saw a great crowd of people coming out of the catholic chapel. there are weddings there fairly commonly on saturdays, so i've seen a lot of wedding processions on my mission so far, but this one was my favorite. the slovak tradition is that you get married in the church and then you walk (with all your guests behind you) into the town hall where everybody celebrates as you sign the marriage contracts. this procession to the town hall, however, was led by a slovak folk string quartet all dressed in slovak garb with tradtional slovak dancers parading around them to boot. it's a shame i didn't have my camera because it was quite the sight. this country has so many beautiful traditions. it's a pleasure to be able to serve these people.

 

ahoj'te

sam

Usvit

hello from bratislava!
i randomly had to come here today to renew my visa which expires soon, so elder macneish and i are taking care of our normal p day activities here before we catch the train back to banska this afternoon. we had another wonderful week this week. we were able to attend a wonderful specialized training in zilina. after our training i was able to have an interview with president irwin, something which has become one of my favorite things in the entire world. we had a good chat. the first thing he asked me was: "how long have you been in banska bystrica?" looking at the date written in my planner i realized that it has been over seven months since i hopped on the train with elder bacon and rode into banska. both president irwin and i were surprised that it had been so long. as the conversation went on president went on to tell me that it would be a good idea to get everything in order (plans, paperwork, etc.) because fairly soon somebody else may have to blind into my position here in banska. i certainly won't tell you about everything that happened in our interview, but i wanted to tell you all of that so that you can know where my mind has been ever since then: i actually have to leave banska bystrica. i knew that it was going to happen someday, but now things have all of a sudden become much more real. i have loved serving in this city so much. i don't think i have ever learned more in a period of 7 months. banska bystrica (and in particular the banska and zvolen units) own a huge chunk of my heart, and i want nothing more than to give them the best that i have. i have tried to do just that over the last months, and know my time is running low. my time in banska is coming to a twilight (usvit), and i want to leave it all on the floor as we say in basketball. i am pleased with my service so far but just as in music in missionary work i sure do love a good finale. tak do toho!

maj'te sa
sam