This was a great week, but it will probably be a short email. One of our
friends, named Julia, is excited to be working to baptism. She has been
progressing tons. She reads the BoM and enjoys coming to church. She
is looking for greater stability for her family as she is a single mom
with a young boy. The gospel has been able to help her and we are
excited.
We had lots of fun this week and I had the chance to go on exchange with
Elder Peck. That is always a great chance. He is so great and I always
learn lots from him. Nothing super crazy happened this week on
exchange, but I had a blast being with Elder Peck again. He also had the
chance to translate sacrament meeting again. We are switching weeks so
that our language and translating skills can improve and we can be ready
for when the new Elders come in a few weeks.
Love you all,
Elder Pace
His answers to my questions....
1. In a family history book, I imagine it being full of stories and pictures of everyone. We are planning on making our own Slovak genealogy for the mission. We only have a few lines to track, so we have much better records than everyone else. We are going to include how everyone is related, including adoptive fathers and than leave it in every Slovak flat to be remembered.
2. Yeah we do. We have tea with the Nettleships. This is the first time we have been there since Christmas. Our schedule and their schedule doesn't work as well together anymore so it has been hard. Tea is the same thing as dinner just in case I forgot to clarify
3. (Regarding contacting the new elders coming in March) Yes we have, I email Niver's friend Elder Eberhard. He seems like a nice guy
4. (Regarding how often they meet with their mission president) We meet with him for interviews once a transfer period. This was a change from before as passed down from the first presidency. Any more than that is luck. We do see him at zone conferences, but it isn't personal interaction.
5. No more snow. The day we did have it, nothing stuck, it was just flakes. But I take what I can get
6. I think my favorite meal had been crepes with Nutella and fruit. I also enjoyed chicken croissants which I made and ate on Valentines Day to keep the tradition alive
7. I am fine. They have some stuff here that you can't get in America and vise versa. The American stuff over here is notably turned down in flavor though. Whenever we get actual American food, we have a good time getting used to the increased flavor. But we don't miss anything over here. Don't worry
8. Way more people take public transportation than in America, but there are still enough cars to cause some traffic issues. That may also be do to their road system. It makes no sense. They out traffic lights in the roundabouts which defeats the point of the roundabouts since it stops the glow of traffic.
9. Living in a rainy place hasn't gotten down on me. It just makes me appreciate the sun when it comes. I do prefer a bit dryer of an area since that would mean I don't need a raincoat all the time and the extra layer makes me pretty hot since I have a full suit underneath
10. (I asked what his companion's favorite treat was.) He says he loves ice cream
Love,
Starší Pace
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Saturday, February 18, 2017
WEEK 32: Slovak Translation
We began a recording of the Book of Mormon in Slovak since a decent number of people we come across can't read or seriously struggle with reading. We are up through 1 Nephi. It has been such a cool experience to take the time to go verse by verse of the Book of Mormon in Slovak. You really come to appreciate some of the words more and get to learn more about the meaning from how it is phrased. That's been fun.
Also, I translated sacrament meeting this week. It was great since the only two speakers were really prepared to help me. Elder Poggemann was very kind to me and Sister Wills/Denisa had their talk printed out with scriptures already found for me so it was easy to translate since I could look at what the thoughts were ahead of time. The second talk was interesting. Sister Wills is the Young Woman advisor and started the talk. Denisa is the only young woman that comes with any sort of regularity. She is normally super shy, but she had the courage to get up and give a mini talk within Sister Wills' talk. She even gave it in English which is her third language. I was at first surprised by the change in her, but then I gave it some thought. Sister Wills is such a great example of charity. Charity changes us. Even though Denisa is shy and has not previously been too interested by the church, Sister Wills constantly loving her even when Denisa didn't care made her decide to give it a try. She got ready to go on a trip to the temple with Sister Wills and she loved it. They had a great time and Denisa felt the Spirit of God tell her there that this was right. It told her that this is where she wants her family to be and this is where she will be the most happy. Feeling God's love and His approval for what she is doing gave Denise the courage to take more steps forward and begin to change. She stood up in front of a group of people who she was nervous around and spoke about how amazing the temple was in her third language. She told me after about how shaky she was and she was terrified. She did so great and you can see in her eyes that she is happy. She was always a bit upset and sad before this trip, but since then, she has a light in her eyes. It comes from the love that she feels from Sister Wills and our Loving Father in Heaven. I was grateful for the lesson I saw from this. Helping people be happy is only going to happen when we love them like God does. It doesn't matter to him what we are like, if we want Him to care, if we listen, if we try at all to do what he asks. He loves us still. That love is what makes me want to be better and it is what changed Denisa so much.
For anyone that is having a hard time, I invite you to pray somewhere quiet, out loud. Ask God to help you know what He thinks about you. Then go to church to have the sacrament. That is the bread and water. It is a representation of Christ's sacrifice. If you do that, honestly trying to find out, God will speak to you in the most profound and personal way. And what he will say is that He loves you more than anything, and whatever you are struggling with, He, the most powerful being in the universe, is there to help. That is my promise as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I love you all and I want to give a shout out to Brittany and Jesse. They just had their first daughter, Adalae, and I am so excited for them!
Starší Pace
Some additional information from his responses to me...
It snowed this week, I was so stoked even though we had to run in our suits for about two miles to catch the bus and we still missed it. Snow is awesome.
This was a better week. Sunday really lifted my spirits. Most of the week was good, but Saturday had me really frustrated. I was getting on myself for some shortcomings that I repeatedly have. But our last lesson that night helped me to think it through more and realize what the problems I needed to change were. I did my best to prepare for church, especially the sacrament, since I knew I would need the Spirit as I tried translating. Church was then one of the greatest spiritual meetings we had despite a few incidents which we will not go into. Just stuff between a few members. I finished off church by getting to talk to this little eight year old girl named Dominika. She is so great. She is one of my favorites. She shared her skittles with me and gave me a little pep talk. It was pretty awesome.
I don't think that Elder Armstrong would only speak Slovak with me that frequently. It really stresses him out and our conversations are limited. He really likes our conversations so I don't think so. We
have talked about it before and I have gotten him to agree to a monthly English fast with me, but any more than that I don't think he is going to be excited about. It is a good thought. I wish we would.
That would be the most beneficial.
I was just realizing that I am starting to drop the word "the" and other articles since they don't exist in Slovak. Also, is "realizing" spelled with an s or a z? I can't remember and the British spelling is killing my gut instinct.
We both had studied "Charity" this past week and here are his thoughts from his studies.....I liked his view on correction from Heavenly Father as a form of charity...
Elder Pace
This is from Elder Peck's letter this past week. He and Tyson are always such a great support system for each other...Here is Elder Peck's view on how Tyson did with translating...
ELDER PACE TRANSLATED SACRAMENT MEETING. He did a right good job translating the entire sacrament meeting. He was not even phased. He was able to translate everything with out even struggling at all! He is a great speaker of the language and I learn a lot from Elder Pace with the Language. Since Elder Pace and I are taking over the translating for Sacrament meeting, that means I am back on deck for Next Sacrament Meeting. I can already feel the butterflies.
Also, I translated sacrament meeting this week. It was great since the only two speakers were really prepared to help me. Elder Poggemann was very kind to me and Sister Wills/Denisa had their talk printed out with scriptures already found for me so it was easy to translate since I could look at what the thoughts were ahead of time. The second talk was interesting. Sister Wills is the Young Woman advisor and started the talk. Denisa is the only young woman that comes with any sort of regularity. She is normally super shy, but she had the courage to get up and give a mini talk within Sister Wills' talk. She even gave it in English which is her third language. I was at first surprised by the change in her, but then I gave it some thought. Sister Wills is such a great example of charity. Charity changes us. Even though Denisa is shy and has not previously been too interested by the church, Sister Wills constantly loving her even when Denisa didn't care made her decide to give it a try. She got ready to go on a trip to the temple with Sister Wills and she loved it. They had a great time and Denisa felt the Spirit of God tell her there that this was right. It told her that this is where she wants her family to be and this is where she will be the most happy. Feeling God's love and His approval for what she is doing gave Denise the courage to take more steps forward and begin to change. She stood up in front of a group of people who she was nervous around and spoke about how amazing the temple was in her third language. She told me after about how shaky she was and she was terrified. She did so great and you can see in her eyes that she is happy. She was always a bit upset and sad before this trip, but since then, she has a light in her eyes. It comes from the love that she feels from Sister Wills and our Loving Father in Heaven. I was grateful for the lesson I saw from this. Helping people be happy is only going to happen when we love them like God does. It doesn't matter to him what we are like, if we want Him to care, if we listen, if we try at all to do what he asks. He loves us still. That love is what makes me want to be better and it is what changed Denisa so much.
For anyone that is having a hard time, I invite you to pray somewhere quiet, out loud. Ask God to help you know what He thinks about you. Then go to church to have the sacrament. That is the bread and water. It is a representation of Christ's sacrifice. If you do that, honestly trying to find out, God will speak to you in the most profound and personal way. And what he will say is that He loves you more than anything, and whatever you are struggling with, He, the most powerful being in the universe, is there to help. That is my promise as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I love you all and I want to give a shout out to Brittany and Jesse. They just had their first daughter, Adalae, and I am so excited for them!
Starší Pace
Some additional information from his responses to me...
It snowed this week, I was so stoked even though we had to run in our suits for about two miles to catch the bus and we still missed it. Snow is awesome.
This was a better week. Sunday really lifted my spirits. Most of the week was good, but Saturday had me really frustrated. I was getting on myself for some shortcomings that I repeatedly have. But our last lesson that night helped me to think it through more and realize what the problems I needed to change were. I did my best to prepare for church, especially the sacrament, since I knew I would need the Spirit as I tried translating. Church was then one of the greatest spiritual meetings we had despite a few incidents which we will not go into. Just stuff between a few members. I finished off church by getting to talk to this little eight year old girl named Dominika. She is so great. She is one of my favorites. She shared her skittles with me and gave me a little pep talk. It was pretty awesome.
I don't think that Elder Armstrong would only speak Slovak with me that frequently. It really stresses him out and our conversations are limited. He really likes our conversations so I don't think so. We
have talked about it before and I have gotten him to agree to a monthly English fast with me, but any more than that I don't think he is going to be excited about. It is a good thought. I wish we would.
That would be the most beneficial.
I was just realizing that I am starting to drop the word "the" and other articles since they don't exist in Slovak. Also, is "realizing" spelled with an s or a z? I can't remember and the British spelling is killing my gut instinct.
We both had studied "Charity" this past week and here are his thoughts from his studies.....I liked his view on correction from Heavenly Father as a form of charity...
I did get through it all, and I thought the cold within poem was
good. It was interesting to think about at least. I agree that the
attribute of charity really is central to the gospel. The Atonement was
an act of perfect charity, and in Moroni, we learn that without charity
we are nothing. I think charity comes partly from a relationship with
Jesus and a relationship with His sacrifice. If we understand, or strive
to understand what he did for us, we naturally and filled with
gratitude, hope, and forgiveness. These will then drive us to forgive
others, to teach them this message of hope, and to brush off any mean or
unfair thing that happens to us. Knowing that it will all be made right
through Christ and knowing that He is willing to change us with His
love is what makes us so willing to love others.
Charity
is a changing element. As I think of an example of this, I think of
Sister Wills or Brother Nettleship in our branch. Sister Wills is the
Young Woman advisor and she goes to visit all of the young women even
though only one ever comes to church. Her parents take her. But,
recently, Denisa, this girl, has had more of an interest and has taken
great steps forward. Sister Wills loves her so much and does everything
imaginable to help her that Denisa is willing to try things for Sister
Wills. They recently prepared to go to the temple and were able to
perform Baptisms for the dead. The Change in Denisa is amazing. She is
happier, was more confident, and even gave a talk, in English, this
week. Sister Wills through her unending Christ like love and service was
able to help Denisa see what our Savior wants for and feels about her
and that is what led to her changing and going to the temple. From
there, God's love made some more changes. Our love takes people to the
love of God and gives them the courage to change.
Charity
is hard for us to accept sometimes. In His perfect charity, Christ
corrected his apostles on several occasions and He corrects us as well.
This may be through His servants or through revelation. If we aren't
humble and reject the love He shares, we will only see the correction
and we will be offended. This was the case for Laman and Lemuel. If we
humbly accept, then we feel His love since we see He wants us to be
better
We
can work on charity by doing little charitable acts. Just like any
other attribute, as you do it, you develop it. Like dad says, "that
which you persist in doing becomes easier, not that the nature of the
thing has changed, but your power to do has increased" I would change
the end in this case to say that the nature of the thing hasn't changed,
but you have. It is like studying the Book of Mormon. It
is a lifetime pursuit. We learn more and enjoy it more the more we go.
It is an everyday effort. If we try to be charitable once a week, we
won't be charitable. If we try getting our spiritual nourishment from
reading once a week, we are being daft. It won't work
Those
are my thoughts. I did my best to describe my thoughts on the example
of Sister Wills' charity, but I don't think it all came across. Sorry
about that.
This is from Elder Peck's letter this past week. He and Tyson are always such a great support system for each other...Here is Elder Peck's view on how Tyson did with translating...
ELDER PACE TRANSLATED SACRAMENT MEETING. He did a right good job translating the entire sacrament meeting. He was not even phased. He was able to translate everything with out even struggling at all! He is a great speaker of the language and I learn a lot from Elder Pace with the Language. Since Elder Pace and I are taking over the translating for Sacrament meeting, that means I am back on deck for Next Sacrament Meeting. I can already feel the butterflies.
Monday, February 6, 2017
WEEK 31: Martina's Daughters
I don't have much time. We had some fun today, but more importantly, this week was the week that Helenka and Danelka were able to be baptized. They are Martina daughters and it was so much fun to be with them. I will send some pictures as well.
We have been using the new missionary schedule this week so that had been exciting. I have some more time in my day so I use that for extra study time and cleaning.
Elder Peck translated for sacrament meeting and it was awesome. He did so great and I know how hard it was for him to get up there even though he didn't feel fully ready. His faith was so inspiring to me and I am grateful for His example.
I think that this week has been a bit of a growth week. I have been a bit frustrated this week to be honest. I needed some help. I am grateful to work with Elder Armstrong, but there have been times this week that I felt a tad fed up. I am feeling better and I know it is only because of the sacrament. I was doing everything I could all week. We didn't see success. My finding efforts were unaffected
because I am still super awkward at talking to people that I don't know. Alex didn't come to church again and all of these things just began to weigh on me. At church on Sunday, during the sacrament I was able to think about all of the things that happened and as I prayed, the Lord was able to comfort me and help renew me so that I am ready for another week of efforts.
Mom: you wanted a recording, but we haven't had the chance to be at a computer for me to send it. I will try this next week.
Love,
Elder Pace
Friday, February 3, 2017
WEEK 30: Farewell Elder Dobbs
Yeah, it was a great week this week. We have met a few new people who
seem excited to learn about our message. Elder Armstrong and I also
found out we are staying together in Rotherham for another transfer. I
am excited. We have made some good progress and even got back in
contact with my old friend Ondrej. I have thought a lot about him
recently so I am glad to visit him again.
This week was the last week of Elder Dobbs as the assistant to
President Turvey and we are sad to see a legend go. In his place will,
be Elder Klinger who is a great missionary and was my zone leader.
This week has been a great one to learn about truly keeping the
Sabbath Day Holy and to pray sincerely. We saw lots of miracles.
A thought that Elder Dobbs shared:
We all have problems and sometimes we say we will hold off on
following God completely until we fix our problems since we are too
busy or too stressed. The secret to being happy is that the path to
follow God is really the same path that will fix our problems. He
loves us so much and will help us in whatever as we do what he asks.
We never are too busy or stressed or too sinful for God to help.
Love you all,
Starší Pace
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
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
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
Saturday, January 21, 2017
WEEK 28: Slovak Language Still a Struggle
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?
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?
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!
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?
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
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
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