Early Transfers!!

So one of my companions got a call from president yesterday morning, and he moved to Jičín today! so that was pretty exciting.  Yup.

Also my birthday was yesterday!! i was so excited! i made a german pancake! it was so freaking good, we didn't have any syrup though, so i went with the healthier side of things and melted a chocolate bar and had that on it instead, it was good.  I got some amazing presents also from my friends here! so cool! opening those in the morning was probably the highlight of my week! they were just amazing!

Then i had a baptizm this week, well not me but i went to one from my old area, it was so awesome, this kid (23) was just so amazing, like when asked if he knows it's true he was just like no. i don't. but i believe most of it is true and what i don't believe is true i want it to be so badly so his missionaries promised him that everything that he doesn't know when he is baptized he'll gain a testimony of. And he did. and his baptism was so awesome and so spiritual for him, so was his confirmation at church! Really, just cool.

the rest of my week besides those three, points wasn't as important or exciting so yeah but i did go to Prague, so that was good, i also got my visa so i'm legal now.  Also i had zone conference, we watched a video, go watch it right now, it's called Because of Him ​it's in czech* and english, and it's like literally 3 mins and it's just amazing! so go check it out, but seriously go watch it guys.

but that's all for today thanks all for the birthday wishes, and for the presents!!! they were amazing!!!

Love you all,

               -Spencer.

 


*(Mom note - I can't find the Czech translation of the video link... I'll work on it.)

rainy days

So it was raining all week here in Ostrava so that was pretty awesome, I just love the rain!  anyway the rest of the week went well, at the start of the week one of the investigators from my last area decided to get baptized!! so we'll have another baptism on saturday! and then church was really good yesterday.  We had a family come in from Bountiful whose daughter came here on a mission.  So that was way cool and we had two Polish people show up and a member from Olomouc! it was a good day!

but the rest of the week was just same old same old, savin people's souls and what not.  we had some pretty good lessons with a girl who came to our last baptism and she is just so ready and excited to progress towards baptism, she's just turning her whole life around, it's so cool! she's just like, "what do i need to do to be baptized? no drugs no sex? k done. what's next?"  she's pretty awesome!!

but baptisms are so cool and so spiritual, if you haven't been to one in a while you should go to one sometime. They really, even if they're not your own, open your eyes to why this all matters. and they are just so spiritual! and also the confirmation (the next day in church for us) is just so so cool! but really, hit one up sometime, because it's so peaceful and nice.  The one thing about baptisms is that all of the people who we teach as missionaries don't see baptism as a beginning, as a way to come closer to God; they just see it as a huge deadline or final cut, and that's not how it is at all. not at all. baptism is only the beginning, it's just the third step in the gospel (ok well actually faith is the beginning but...) without baptism we as people can only get so close to God, we could follow all of the commandments, read, and pray daily but if we didn't eventually make a promise with God, then we cannot go further. We cannot, because God wont let us; because if He wants to bless us, and He does, He does so badly, then He hast to put us in a higher position of accountability, a position which can only be reached through covenants, the first one being baptism. So if you find yourself in any kind of spiritual low, first of all ask yourself, "Am I in a spiritual low, or have I just gotten to the point of no growth?"  (and if you've been baptized there isn't that point to attain.) then ask yourself if you are following all the laws and statutes pertaining to your covenants with God, and if you have made none, then, if you're following all of the commandments.

Then, if you feel like you're doing everything you should but you can't feel God's presence in your life, ask Him to make Himself and His works known unto you.  Because He truly "giveth to men liberally and upbraideth not," to those who ask of Him. I know that this simple promise from Jakub 1:5 is true.  I've seen it work in my life, and in the life of the people I've taught on my mission. I  know it will work for you all as well.  If there is ever a question, or a spiritual decision to be made, God will direct you and He will help you in every aspect of your life and make you strong enough to carry the hardships that sometimes come along with following His way.  He will bless you.  He will bless you with an immeasurable amount of blessings that will help you in your life. I know it. I tell you these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Elder Spencer Edman Petersen

Oh hey i forgot...

So i forgot to tell you all yesterday when i called for mother's day,  
we had a baptism on saturday!! 
yeah! so that was way cool! anyway i thought you guys might want to know

The rest of the week was kinda average, well for missionary work.  we talked to people, we had meetings, atd. umm yeah i don't really have much to say, ... well yup, i don't know. 

Oh, so we were going to go teach this guy, and he's from austria and for like 20 minutes i was trying to say his name correctly and i wasn't apparently because my swiss companion was just like, "no it's not hugler, it's hugler..."  i'm just like we're all saying the same thing josh!! haha yeah but that's like the best story i have from the week hahah i'm pretty boring i guess.

but the baptism was good so that's pretty cool.

that's pretty much it for this week, i'm sorry guys i don't have any other stuff.

but hey, this is what i do have to say,  God exists. Thomas Spencer Monson is a prophet. This church is the only fully true church on the earth today. The knowledge I have of these 3 things is all that's important. If you don't know these three things for yourself, send me an email.

-Spencer.

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO

so for the 5th of may today we celebrated by going out to a fancy restaurant but i can't upload pictures from it because i am doing something with my camera and external drive so sorry, but needless to say it was dang good and 500 crowns so also for a missionary and for czech in general it was pretty expensive but that's ok i can eat bread and cornflakes and rice for the rest of the month!! haha but seriously. no but seriously now that we have 2 companions we can eat better food for cheaper because we can buy in bulk...  haha who am i kidding this is europe there is no bulk haaha they don't even have a gallon of milk here lulz.  for you europeans that'd be like a little less than 4 liters in one container haha crazy right?

well now trevor is talking to me so i can't focus on what i'm writing where was i? oh yeah and then we were in the nike store and there was this sick green hoodie i want it so bad oh oh oh while i'm on the subject for my birthday if you've already sent a package thank you so much if you don't send a package that's fine to but if you are still going to i don't need any food. it's really good and i enjoy it but i have a lot of like candy and food here and i feel like i don't have as much of a 6 pack as i use to :( so don't worry though Coach Mac was my tennis coach and i know how to do ab workouts. oh yeah back to my birthday though, if you guys could get me a Team liquid shirt that'd be so cool, just because here the mascot of the city is a blue horse and if you don't know what team liquid is just ask andrew.  and nothing like fancy just t shirt but other than that for my birthday i don't really want anything i'm fine.

so i wrote a list of things to tell you this time so i wouldn't forget again, team liquid, czech.

PMG are you guys reading pmg like they told you to at last conference, if not repent and do better.

i wrote the word peace on my list but now i can't remember.

So we had this meeting with a woman in my branch who hasn't been coming to church in a while and she started talking to us about the people in our church, and at first i was like oh no someone offended her because they were being judgmental... ok here we go.  but then it totally flipped around and she just started crying and was telling us how great the members of our church are and how nonjudgmental they are and how loving and kind they are and how they always overlook each other's downfalls with the true love of Christ to love each other... and it's so true, we in this church do just care about everyone, no matter what religion if you break the commandments or are  a liar or belong to another faith everyone is a child of God and it's so amazing that we have that knowledge and are able to oversee everyone's downfalls and view them as something higher.  it reminds me of a poem.  I was going to write it but i forgot how the start goes, i'll send it next week.  But it's just amazing the amount of charity that the hearts of the people in our church have, in czech charity is said pravá láska (true love) so try to keep true love in your hearts because it goes noticed, when we were meeting with this woman she was pointing out some of the things that we do that i didn't even realize we do, but it's because we are trying to be full of charity.

     From that lesson though, i've learned that this church has the best and nicest people none of us are perfect but we're all trying to be, and it's amazing, we don't have to tear down others to make ourselves higher we just have to love everyone so that everyone is higher and i know that we do in this church and it's so amazing to me

so i'll see you all next week, have a good one. umm oh and i'll call yall next week at 6 from my skype account or maybe face time. at 10:00 in the morning for you.

-Spencer Edman Petersen

ps sorry for the bad spelling this time this computer only has a czech and russian spell checker.