November 9, 2015 - In which we do some teaching and know the Word of Wisdom is true

Dear family,

We had quite the week! We were working hard, and had some really funny experiences, and some really spiritual teaching moments. Lately it's been feeling like a lot of our current investigators haven't been able to meet, so we've been looking for others. Last week we had some particular showing a brand-new Mormon Message that's only in Czech, and all the footage is with members in the Czech Republic. It introduces the Church and our beliefs and we show it on our portable DVD player we have to watch the District. We left some letters explaining who we are and that we want to show this video at x time in this a part of town that, while still on the city bus lines and in city limits, feels strongly like a village. We taught quite a few people on their doorsteps and one older lady let us in. Her husband is suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's, and she takes care of him. He's very weak and doesn't seem to take much in or remember much anymore. It places a great burden on her and she feels trapped taking care of her husband who doesn't know her anymore day and night. When we first visited in the middle of last week we showed her the video, and we talked about the plan of salvation. It was a curious meeting, because when we turned on the video the Spirit entered the room powerfully, probably more than I had ever felt while teaching before. We weren't there long (we say on the letter that we leave that we only want to be there for 10 minutes), but she agreed to pray about our teachings (she didn't pray much before) and we set up to come back.

We went back last night. The lesson started pretty well. We were going through the plan of salvation, and she seemed to understand, and the Spirit was there. All of a sudden, a huge amount of bitterness came out of her, and she was sad and upset and angry about the situation that she has with her husband. The strange thing was that I never felt the Spirit leave. In fact, it was at least as strong as the first time we were there. We listened to her, and bore testimony about how God actually does care, how He does know her and her husband, and how His teachings could give her a new beginning that she so desperately seemed to want. She chose to terminate the lessons, but deep down I know that she knows that God loves her. It was one of the most interesting experiences I've had teaching so far on my mission, because even though she choose to terminate the lessons, it was one of the most spiritually strong experiences I've had while teaching.

In other news, D came to church yesterday for both hours! We weren't able to meet with him last week, but he surprised us by coming. He was the first one at church after us, and came in a nice suit. It was the first time that he had come in a long time. Sister D was also at church still, but we won't be able to visit her for the next couple of weeks. Her daughter is going through a delicate health situation, and so she's helping her daughter. She says we'll see each other at church, though :)

Last Saturday we had a great correlation meeting! A couple of weeks ago a regional leader was here and he encouraged our branch mission leader to involve some of the other branch leaders at correlation. Saturday we had at correlation our branch mission leader, the elders' quorum president, and a member of the Relief Society presidency. It was great! It felt like we really strengthened our unity with the branch.

I've been feeling overall pretty good during the last week. I've been thinking a lot about the difference between weakness and sin, and it's helped me to have a more honest look about my own struggles, and it's helped me to rely more on the Savior. At the moment I'm truly trying to just stay focused on Zlín's needs and help my new missionary! :)

Thanks for all you do!

Love,
Elder Boyce

P.S. I completely forgot to tell you about this funny experience we had! We were waiting for a bus one night last week at the end of the night and across the street we saw a few drunk people come out of a pub. They were throwing up and a little rowdy so we kept our distance. We kept waiting for the bus to come, and then we saw the most curious thing. A group of three people wearing matching blue T-shirts were jogging towards the same pub, and when they came close the drunk people that were already there started to cheer them on. That's when we realized that the first group was also made of three people who were wearing matching black T-shirts. When the blue group ran in the black group high-fived them and (rather loudly) said, "YEAH GOOD JOB HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU THROWN UP ALREADY?" "SIX TIMES!" "YEAH WE HAVE FIVE TIMES!!" then the blue group jogged into the bar, and a few moments later walked out with beers. They were literally taking part of a sponsored event to run from pub to pub. Don't run and drink at the same time! The word of wisdom is true :)