WEEK EIGHT: Flight Plans Are Here!

 Most of the Croatian elders

 Elders Isom & Crapo (Croatian)

 Our Zone

 The new Croatians

 A spilled queso can in our room (not sure why this was picture worthy?!)

 Our flight plans!!!

This is weird. I have quite a bit of time today for my mass email. I will try to get a good description of our week.

The devotional on Sunday was the Nashville Tribute Band. I am not gonna lie, I was not looking forward to it. This is the second time we have heard them and I didn't enjoy too much the first time. This time though, I really loved it. i don't know what the difference was.

Then on Tuesday, our devotional was by Elder Juan Uceda of the Seventy. He was a phenomenal speaker and I learned a ton from him. The biggest thing I took away was something he said that I really loved. He told us to connect with heaven. The last time I heard that was on trek from President Holmes and I really tried that week to do it. The result was amazing. The Spirit was so strong as I prayed more and always poured my heart to God. It was the best and hearing that in the devotional reminded me of what I could be experiencing.

This week was a tough week as a Zone Leader. I am supposed to help the other Elders with companionship problems and also make sure we follow the rules. I don't like asking people to stop doing something if it is a small rule because it makes me fell like I am trying to stop their fun, but I have tried and they have responded really well and that has helped me. We had to help one of the Elders in our zone with a companionship issue that surprised us so much. It always seems like they get along, but I guess some really hurtful things have been done and said and it was hard to know how to help them.

We got our flight plans this week!!! I am so excited. We leave on September 5th and we fly from SLC straight to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. From there we have a small layover and then go to England. I was really worried since sometimes the England missionaries don't get to go with the rest of their district which would be sad. I love them all so much. We have spent these last 9 weeks together. Luckily, we have the same flight to Amsterdam.

I am still feeling a little sick, but it is getting better. Nothing that is holding me down anymore! 

The new people in our zone are great. 

Skype TRC (we teach a lesson via Skype to a Slovak or an RM) was good. We got a Rm this week and we understood just about everything he said. I hope next week we get a native though. The first guy we had is notoriously hard to understand. Two of our teachers still have trouble with understanding him since he mumbles and slurs his words. That gave me hope.

Our lessons are improving and the more I reflect on it the more I see I have to improve. I have really let off on my diligence this past week and I can feel the effects. I haven't felt that overwhelming sense of love that I used to when I was giving it my all. That is another thing the devotional on Tuesday talked about. Dedicating our hearts, might, mind and strength to the mission.

Love you all,

Elder Pace

WEEK SEVEN: New Responsibilities

Elder Peck and Elder Pace doing the Skype lesson with Jan (pronounced Yawn) in Slovakia

Elder Pettit (one of his favorites)

Elder Toone

Elder Mandla (one of his favorites)

Elder White (he knows Tyson's cousin, Ethan, since they both went to Lehi High)

Elder Byrd (one of his favorites)

Elder Curtis

Elder Blackwell

Elder Hill

Elder Larsen who is in England Leeds right now (I think this is one of the Polish elders)

With Elder Holmes (not in his zone but still one of his favorites!)---He said he sees Elder Holmes all the time and loves it!

Elder James (one of his favorites) with Elder Holt dabbing in the back

Sister Locey (one of his favorites) with Sisters Benion, Dahl and Yergensen

A few of the Polish elders

Elder Baldwin

Elder Morrise

Elder Clark

The Zone

(Tyson sent a lot of pictures of the missionaries that left.  He had a lot of favorites! :)

This week was really good. We got new people in the zone and more are coming this Wednesday again. These new guys changed the dynamic of our zone. We are a lot more musically gifted now. I love them all. They are super nice and even are willing to play soccer! That is good news. 

We said goodbye to all the old ones and it was sad, but we knew they were going where they needed to. On Sunday, I gave my first priesthood blessing to a Sister in our zone. It was easily one of the scariest things I have ever done, but it was a super spiritual experience. I felt like I was able to be directed by the Lord in what to say and how. 

The devotional was great. It was by Bonnie L Oscarson and I enjoyed listening to her. The spirit was really present even though we all had hoped it would be Elder Holland. We did skype TRC which means we taught a member in Slovakia. We skyped one of the 60 or so active members in the entire country and had a 40 minute lesson with him. He was super hard to understand since the connection was bad and he mumbled like crazy. Our teacher knew him and said that he sometimes can't understand him so we had no hope. I understood maybe 2% of the conversation. 

Anyways, I am a Zone Leader and it is new and kind of weird. I am grateful for everything I learn because of my chance to serve though. The mission is great.

Love you all,

Elder Pace

Sister Wilson's mom just sent this to me.....I love that Tyson gets to see so many faces from home!

Tyson said it seems like everyone thought he was depressed from his last email but he assured me he is fine and doing well.  He was sad to see friends leave but he reminded me that is normal :)

He doesn't enjoy writing so email time is one of the most stressful times of his week.  I asked him a bunch of questions last week hoping to give him some ideas of what to write about.  He just answered them question by question to me.  I'll include them here since they give some additional info to the email above....

#1 The language is coming alright. It isn't super easy, but I understand grammar principles and can memorize and use vocab without needing to work harder than you would expect. One day this week, the grammar hurt my head a little, but after some prayer and thinking about it, I got it down. I have to think about it real hard, but it comes. 

#2 Me and Elder Peck get along great. He is an awesome missionary and a good friend. We are pretty open and are understanding of what each other do so that way we don't have any tension between us. He is super funny and nice and I am glad to have him as a companion.

#3 (Last week Elder Peck's letter talked about how they were just made the Zone Leaders so I asked what that meant.)  We are the Zone Leaders. Forgot to mention that. We interview district leaders and pray about our zone and have a responsibility to help make sure we all follow the rules and we make sure everyone is spiritually and physically okay.

#4 This was not a question. (Sounds like Tyson!  He is very literal!) But, I will try better to write about devotionals. Usually, if something stands out to me, I try to write it. I keep my journal and write my thoughts and impressions so I have it all there. I usually just forget to talk about it when I email.

#5 (I asked if he still liked the type of garments he selected) I am totally fine with my garments. I lost a pair somehow. I don't know how, but so did another elder in my room. We wonder if someone took them on accident from the laundry or something.

#6 We have one elder in our zone who is injured. He is getting better though. I don't do anything stupid or go hard enough to where I would get hurt. I know you would be super upset if I did.

#7 (Tyson could never wake up to his alarm clock in high school so I asked how he was doing with that.) I  think this letter jinxed me. I had woken up every day on time or a few minutes early until the day after this letter. I didn't hear any alarm and woke up 5 minutes late. I felt bad but I am back on top of it. The schedule is fine, but sometimes I get a little tired. I am feeling just a little sick right now.

#8 We have 3 teachers. I only have a picture of the one. He is my favorite. He is Brat Utley. The others are Brat Sharp and Sestra Palenikova (she is a native Slovak and is trying to start a Slovak class at BYU)

WEEK SIX: Sorrow for Departures

with Elder Holt (Bulgarian)

with Elder Plewe (Czech)

with Elder Plewe (Czech) and Elder Byrd (Polski)

Elder James (from AZ) in his makeshift hammock

I am not sure what to write about this week but here it goes. We played Australian handball with the zone for last time. It was super fun but kind of sad. Over half of them leave on Monday. Australian handball is super fun but don't have time to explain it.

Anyways, I have been struggling since I got to the MTC to know that England Leeds is the mission I am supposed to go to. I keep hearing from our teachers about Slovakia and all the miracles and amazing experiences they have there. It made me really want to be there. Also, there is a great opportunity for the work to move forward there and they could use extra missionaries. I have been able to talk to one of the missionaries speaking Slovak that is in Leeds right now and he has helped me to feel at peace with it and I have been able to feel an answer that this is where I am supposed to go! I am so glad for that.

I have chocolate milk every day so I love it. My teachers wonder how I am not fat since the chocolate milk is really creamy and delicious and therefore terrible for you, but its so worth it. I run every day so I can keep drinking it. 

We had a chance to be part of a demonstration with some of the teachers. They were practicing teaching skills so we got to observe. I really learned a ton about how I can improve myself. I need to be way more diligent at all times and most importantly turn to God for help. I need to be better at humbling myself and honestly seeking his help. That will help me be the kind of missionary that God needs me to be and I will learn what He needs me to learn

Love you all,

Starší Pace

WEEK FIVE: Faster Typing Skills Required!

Pictures of our zone's tie raffle.  We found out later that it isn't allowed so we won't do it again.  But it was so cool

Pointing at our missions on the big map...

 All the Czech/Slovak speaking missionaries:  Elders Hammer, Arens, Peck, myself, Johnson Gauldin and Plewe.  Then there are the sister:  McDonald, Huff, Miller, Miller, Brown, Taylor, Herrington, Valentine

Me with the new Bulgarians

The entire Bulgarians

One day this week was "Macedonia Day" so our one Macedonian Elder went all out!

Half our class sleeping.  It was a rough day!  Me, Elder Peck and Elder Hammer were still awake and taking pics :)

Not sure why his time was so limited this week...maybe he was able to reach out individually to some but this is what we got...

I have 2 minutes for this so it will be short. I am doing well and I saw Elder Holmes this week which was the coolest experience ever. I am learning more and more Slovak and have some funny stories but no time. Sorry. I will do better next week. I love you all and hope you are having a great week. I miss you. Thanks for the prayers that are sent my way!

Love,

Elder Pace

Together Again!

Looks like Tyson had a chance to be "Host" for Adam's MTC arrival!  I'm sure having the chance to see many of his friends during his long MTC stay has been a blessing for Tyson!  They look so happy!