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
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