Elder Daniel Boyce: June 15, 2015 - In which everything that can happen happens

Dear family,

This has been one of the craziest weeks ever! Last Friday the other elders' investigator, A, got baptized. It was a hectic week trying to get that thrown together, because she was sick throughout the week and wasn't able to meet to have a baptismal interview. We were hoping to have it last week, but she was sick even then. The updates on her health created a day-by-day drama because we didn't know at what point we would need to call off the baptism and it was extremely stressful.

We managed to meet, though, Thursday at the last minute to have the baptismal interview. On Friday we had a nice baptismal service at a nearby lake, and about fifteen members came. Elder Smith and I sang "How Great Thou Art" in Czech during the service, Elder Petersen baptized A, and Elder Nelson confirmed her yesterday.

The week was still more hectic, though. Thursday the other Elders had to go to Prague for a doctor's appointment unexpectedly, so Elder Smith and I taught three lessons and had A's baptismal interview in the span of two hours, but. Right after everything fininshed Thursday Elder Smith and I ran to the train station (when the other Elders were getting in to Olomouc) to catch a train to Prague. Elder Smith had visa work there on Friday, and we had an exchange with the assistants Elder Earl and Elder Cowley... until Elder Smith and I had to catch a 1:40 train back to Olomouc to catch the baptism at 5, which we caught again just by the skin of our teeth.

Elder Earl and I had a great lesson with L there in Prague during our exchange (she was there for an exam). We talked about doing hard things and obedience. I shared an experience from Wednesday. Wednesday at the end of district meeting A texted and told us that she was still sick and couldn't make her baptismal interview. There wasn't anything we could do, and there was of course no one at fault, but we were all feeling pretty grey and frustrated. After that we weren't feeling excited to get back to work and to talk to people. We were feeling discouraged and it was unbearably hot that day. We got out off the building, though, and Elder Smith and I headed towards a stop where we would need to catch a bus an hour later. We tried talking to people about the gospel, and we didn't have a really miraculous experience finding someone that is interested to learn more, but we did teach someone. Afterwards it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of our shoulders. It was a great learning experience for me about how doing the simple things that I know that I need to be doing, and especially when it's difficult to make myself do that, makes me so happy! I think L also appreciated hearing that, as well.

Sunday we had quite a few investigators at church. J from English class and the S couple both made it and they seemed to enjoy it. We had a great meeting with J where we talked about the Gospel of Christ. We weren't able to meet with the S family or with J, but we hope to see them again soon.

Thanks for the photos of Suzie's graduation! I hope that all of the details flying around today made sense, but we had a good week overall :) We're going to be in Prague again this weekend for the combined district conference. All of the members in the Czech Republic have been in invited, all of the missionaries are going also, and President Kearon will be there to speak, as well. We're hoping for a good conference :) This is also the last week of the current transfer, so we'll have to see where I'll be next week!

Love,
Elder Boyce