WEEK 29: Thankful for Elder Peck

This week was a fun week for me with all of it coming to an end with a stellar Sunday. We started off the week on exchange with Elders Poggemann and Peck. I got to be with Elder Peck again which made me so happy. He is one of the best missionaries I know. Coming into this week I had felt like I was hitting rough spot for some reason and I wasn't progressing or learning much at all. Basically, my time felt ill-used. Then, with Elder Peck, I saw such an awesome example of faith and diligence. For example, translating sacrament meeting is a bit nerve-wracking for us all, especially the first time. Elder Peck and I have yet to translate a full sacrament meeting. But he has set a goal to do it on the 5th of February and is always working on his language by practicing  with the people and his companion and by using every minute of the hour we get for language study. As well, his prayers are so sincere and humble in asking the Lord for his help and understanding that he sees miracles helping him learn. I was so impressed and I know he is going to do a great job on the fifth.

The day was really fun as well. We saw a few people investigating and some members. I mostly just enjoyed being with my first companion again. He really helped encourage me and built me up. We were on exchange Monday and Tuesday since Monday is P-day. Then Wednesday was full of meetings and we only got to talk with one person, but we made it count and had a good chat with Rasťo who is one of my favorite people here. He loves to talk with us, but is having trouble following what he knows is best. He is still a great man and I am glad to have had the chance to get to know him, but we always hope that he can take the next step forward.

Over the next few days, we saw our friends Ramonka, Anton, Helena and Danelka (Martina daughters), and Alex several times to help worm through some concerns and support them. The most fun was helping Anton who is the husband of a very faithful member named Monika. They are moving neighborhoods, so we helped out. We cleaned windows and vacuumed, and carried couches, the works. Monika was crying because it meant so much to here. The most fun part for me was climbing through the little window in the kitchen above the sink to get into the "garden". We had to take the window because the back door was locked and that is the only way into the garden. It was a new experience for me. We tried to put up curtains for them, but they didn't have stuff to hang them, so they asked us to be creative and we used some rope from the garden to tie it to some bar that was on the ceiling. It looked ghetto, but it stayed up, so what are you going to do right?

The miracles all came on Sunday. We found out that a missionary who had served here previously was visiting again. This guy is Czech and was my trainer's trainer's trainer. In mission terminology, he is my great grandad. His name is Zdenik Šyndílek and he is pretty cool. I couldn't understand all of what he said which made him sad when I told him. He said he was trying to speak very simply for us. It helped that he also threw in more Slovak words and spoke a Czech Slovak hybrid.  But I still didn't get all of it. His little sister who is 11 came with him and she spoke straight Czech. She gave us a tongue twister.  Sadly I forgot it already. It was hard though. I understood her less since she spoke all Czech and spoke quickly. It hurt my pride to be honest that I couldn't understand an 11 year old girl. But, the Róma people have a different vocabulary and phrases and accent when they speak Slovak so it makes sense that it is hard to understand a non Róma speaker of the language. The miracle with him was feeling how much he loved us and these people and having a sense of how great this work was. It also helped me be humbled more about the language as I realized how little I know and really understand.  Another miracle was that Helena and Danelka came to church. This was the fourth week or so we have tried to get them to come. They loved it and are excited that they can be baptized soon. They have been saving money as they find it in the road so they can have enough for the bus ticket to church. We have been helping them. I have picked up so many one pence coins this week. But they had enough to come. They are so awesome and have lots of faith.

I know that God has helped me out so much this week and has really given me some good experiences at the end to help me get on through. I have been studying lots about the Atonement of Christ and it has touched me how much God and His Son love me and each one of us! They
are always there to help us and to lift us out of our trials.  Sometimes, it takes longer than we hoped, but I know that taking the pain of each of us and facing the consequences for all of my stupid
mistakes took more exertion and suffering than was fair for the Savior. For us, we have to suffer a small part of what He did because it makes us grow. He hates seeing us suffer, but He lets us for our
own good. I am so grateful for what He has done and still does for me.

Love you all,
Elder Pace

WEEK 28: Slovak Language Still a Struggle

 Elder Pace, Elder Peck (MTC companion), Elder Armstrong (current companion), Elder Poggemon (Elder Peck's companion and their district leader)....the four current Slovak missionaries (Elder Buckhoff, the other Slovak speaker was sent to Leeds and Elder Rhea was converted to English speaking)

It was a good week this week. Not gonna lie, we tried our best but still have some areas to improve quite a bit. For us right now, we both aren't the best at finding new people who want to learn. This
means that we only have a few people to teach at the moment and we are trying to change that. The problem for me at least is that I feel awkward talking to people on the street about our beliefs. My Slovak skills still aren't good enough to allow me to have a nice flowing conversation about whatever, so a lot of the time if I try talking about our message it is kind of abrupt and rude sounding. I am working on it. Hopefully this week will be better.

As for some good things, an old friend of ours, Fero, got back in touch with us and that made us happy since he was always a nice guy and we were sad that he cut ties. As well, we were able to get a paper with Hungarian phrases and their Slovak equivalents from this nice older man also named Fero. His first language is Roma, followed by Hungarian, and then Slovak. His Slovak is kind of iffy. His grammar is pretty sketchy, but we get the message. He was so excited to help us learn some Hungarian. On top of all that, Fero writes his own songs in Roma and Hungarian and occasionally Slovak. He has quite a few and he assures us every time we see him that their is absolutely nothing
vulgar in them. He has also told us that if everyone could hear his music, it would change everyone's lives. He is hilarious and wants to make a CD of his music. He told us we could get copies from him once he has it so I am stoked. It is going be awesome. Elder Armstrong and I are anxious to get some of his world class jams so we can spread his brilliance and change the world.

Martina is still doing well and is excited to keep learning. Her two daughters, Helenka and Danelka are both excited to learn, too. They are funny and know a mix of Slovak and English which is pretty common among the younger ones. All of them know Roma perfectly though. We have been using object lessons for them. It is right hard to hold the attention of two girls aged 9 and 10 in a house with 13 people running around in it. We do our best. They are great, but we have to be careful to not use too many symbols or it all gets lost on Danelka.  She starts to forget what they symbolize and just takes it literally.  We went through our lesson on faith to get to the end and realize she was caught up thinking we were actually talking about a tree. That was a let down.

Alex, who is still my favorite person here in Rotherham, is doing well. I keep trying to sneak attack him with the camera so you can see a picture of him. He always catches me and doesn't let it happen. He finally managed to get dark matter for his guns on Call of Duty Black Ops 3 which he has been working on since I got to England for 6 or more hours every day! He was so happy, and now moved on to get a job.  Needless to say, we're so proud! Dark matter is such an accomplishment, but the job is nice too. We have labelled everything in our flat by its Slovak name so we are getting more used to everyday vocab. Alex hooked us up on that since we can't trust the dictionary we have. It told me the word for whisk which turns out to actually mean broom. And the word it told us for some body part (I think the stomach?) turned out to actually be the word for Jaundice. So we have to clear everything we learn by Alex.

I have been reaping the rewards of a few of the gifts from Christmas.  Every morning I have a glass of Nesquick chocolate milk and it has really been pulling me through my mornings. Such a blessing. I missed that more than I realized. And we finished the 1000 piece puzzle we had of a Christmas scene. It has been horrible watching it slowly come together because we never have time to just sit down and crank it out.  We sacrificed some lunch times to finally put it all together so we could focus again and the satisfaction after that thing is crazy.

Also, I met a lady today who sounded like Minerva McGonagal from Harry Potter. And Alex said they have Harry Potter in Slovak so I know what I'm watching when I go back to America. This email has been really long. Sorry about that. And I didn't even have a spiritual thought.  I'll try harder next week.

Love you all,
Elder Pace

I asked Tyson questions and here are his responses....

 1. Q)  With the zone leaders gone you mentioned you are by yourself. How far away is Poggemon/Peck from you?  Do both sets of you serve the same branch?

A) Elder Peck and Elder Poggemann are about 1.5 hours away on public transportation which is actually really close by car. We serve in the same branch but in different areas of proselyting.

2. Q) Has Tim figured out a way to still worship?  He sounds like a wonderful person.  Is he Roma as well?

A) Tim is an English man and he is probably going get a ride with another member to the nearest ward. At least I hope someone will be kind enough to give him a lift.

3. Q)  What is the weather like over there now?

A) It isn't very cold, but we have a light misty rain that doesn't stop so you still need to wear your raincoat.

4. Q) How long do you think your chocolate milk mix will last you?

A) It should last me a while. The glass I drink every morning is a small one so it will be a while

5. Q)  Do you think you got all your Christmas packages?  Did you get your calendar and your Christmas Stocking and the nativity activities (the ideas in the pockets) and the "I'm trying to be Like Jesus especially at Christmas time" program etc?  Did you get any of that in enough time to do any of it?  If not maybe this next Christmas?

A) I think I got it all. I got the stuff and I did do as many activities as I could from the calendar and I am trying to be like Jesus

6. Q) Have you heard from Niver's friend?  Or have you written him?  March will be here soon so you guys will have a couple more elders to mix around.

A) We are emailing him today and I emailed Niver too

7. Q)  I saw the announcement of our new mission president.  He is the CEO of Costa Vida restaurant so a business man.  Have you had more dealings with your President to know more about him?  In stake conference President Griffin said the missionaries say he is Justice and Sister Griffin is Mercy :)  How would you describe President Turvey?

A) President Turvey is so cool. I still haven't had too much interaction with him, but I love him. His teaching still reminds me of dad.

8.  Q)  Have you been served any food that you have really liked?

A)  I haven't had actual Slovak food, just snacks. English food is okay, but a lot hasn't had too much flavor. The carvery is like a big thanksgiving over here and that is good.

9. Q) What has even your favorite pday activity so far?

A) Chair football easily. I love it. I would play normal football, but I can't talk enough people into it. Football meaning soccer by the way.

10. Q) Do you think since all of you are English speakers and speak English to each other when you are together that Slovak has been harder?  Brittany said now that she is home speaking English if someone starts speaking Spanish to her it takes a few minutes for her brain to switch over.  I would think going back and forth every day between Slovak and English would be tricky!

A)  Switching does get tricky. We are trying to speak more Slovak so we get more used to it.

11. Q)  Do you have very many service opportunities?  If so, what kind of service do you give?  Is the shoe shine business still working?

A) We barely have any service opportunity other than translating for President.

WEEK 27: "My Light Year"

This year while I will be out in England the whole year, is called my light year because it goes by so fast. I am excited for it. This week was great, but had some bumps. The Zone leaders used to live above us, which was so much fun, and they worked in the Rotherham branch. The Rotherham branch closed this week because it wasn't making progress and it was decided to be more effective if the members went elsewhere for church. This means a few things. One, the Zone Leaders no longer
live by us. They are working in the Sheffield 1 ward now and live in Sheffield, so we are alone out here in Rotherham. Two, some really good members in Rotherham are going to have a hard time going somewhere else. The one that makes me the most sad is a man named Tim. Tim is a man with cerebral palsy but has a heart of gold. He has such a strong belief in God and such a dedication to do whatever he can to follow the Lord. He has had many trials, but keeps going faithfully believing that it will be better. He has such a positive outlook on everything. Tim is an inspiration. On the bright side, we had a busy week and it was fun. Elder Armstrong and I are still having a blast.  Martina is still doing great and her daughters and husband were interested by how they felt at the baptism. It is such a strong feeling and it is so hard to explain. This week has been great, even though my email hit on a few of the downsides we saw. I am grateful for the chance to serve. It is such a blessing and I grow so much. I am also really grateful for the chocolate milk mix I got from home for Christmas. It takes my breakfast to a whole new level!

Love you all,
Elder Pace

WEEK 26: First Baptism!

Pictures from the baptism and "whomping willow" (Harry Potter).  Pictures from baptism of the whole group, Martina and Iveta her friend, Marcos (I'm thinking that's her husband) and Kolomon his friend along with Martina and Elder Armstrong and Elder Pace.

This week was full of holidays and baptisms. Really just one baptism, but it was one of the coolest experiences of my life. The holidays are great, but trying to meet with people and talk to them about the gospel is not what they are on about. No one had time for us, but we had a good week over all. We celebrated the new year with tacos and cookies. It was a good time.

As I said, we had a baptism. It was for Martina who has really become a great friend of ours. So many miracles had to happen for her baptism to go through. As of the day before, we were not going to be able to do it, but our Zone Leaders (Elder Klingler and Elder Boswell) helped us out. They did everything they could to make sure Martina could have her special day. A zone leader is kind of a weird mission word if you aren't familiar with mission terminology. Each mission is divided into zones which is then divided into districts and then into areas. The mission president is in charge with two assistants and then they are over the zone leaders who are responsible for their respective zones. Each district has a leader who reports to he leaders of the zone they are in and each companionship
is part of a district. My district leader is Elder Poggeman . Now that we have gone over that, back to the baptism. The day of we got there early and were in time to watch the baptism for another ward. They had the font filled already but suggested we put some more water in so someone turned on the water. Everyone started showing up, and they forgot to turn it off again. When we came out later, we saw water all over the hallway. The ward was right upset with us. As well, the police showed up to bring some guy back to the mental health ward. So that happened. The actual service was good, but we had pulled the plug on the font to let the overflowing settle. When we put it back, it wasn't fully in and so we had less water than normal for the baptism.  I performed it and it only came up a little above my knees. I had to lower her down so far so that she could go fully under the water. As
well, Dezider just didn't show up for the talk that he was going to give at the service so I gave an impromptu talk. Martina, despite all this, loved the night. She was so grateful for the chance to be
cleansed from sin. She felt the Spirit and so did we so strongly. She has changed her life around like crazy. We are so excited for her to keep moving forward as she follows Christ.

Love you all,
Elder Pace

WEEK 25: Christmas in the Mission

This week was Christmas and it was spectacular. I loved it and the time over here in England serving people has been great. The best part easily was the half an hour or so that I got to talk with my family.
They are so special and I am so blessed to have them in my life. I am grateful for the blessing of a family especially at Christmas Time. As we have had the chance to go caroling and do other Christmas activities, we were able to feel closer to Christ and appreciate everything He did for us. I don't want to take too much time away from everyone's celebrations, so I will keep things short.

This week was really fun and we were able to see Martina pass her interview for baptism. She is still on track to be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. We are so excited for her and
can't wait for her to take this step towards Christ.

We were able to reestablish contact with some people who have lost some of their faith in God and are excited to help them. They are still wonderful people, but they have so much more that is available to them if they turn to God. It is like that for us all. I have often been sad when people reject our offer of learning about the Savior saying that their life is good enough. If we only seek God when we have tried all else and failed, we are just like the people lived with Christ. He was there among hem and was willing to bless them immensely, but they refused to see it. They missed out on so much
healing and peace and relief in their lives. Sometimes, I think I miss out on a lot as well. I hope that we can all make that the goal of our Christmas season: to decide on the next step we can take to become more devoted in our service of the Lord.

Love you all,
Elder Pace


Tyson told me on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas)"I got a high quality suit on a killer sale from one of the nicer stores. It was £45 total and it is a classic black suit. I am glad for the chance we had to find it. I am going to try to keep it nice for a long time by only wearing it for meetings and such. It has a little bit of texture, but it is still a normal suit and is definitely still conservative in every way. Don't worry." :)