April 27, 2015 - In which I am a proud parent

Dear family,

Last week was pretty exciting! I felt overall quite a bit more healthy after last Tuesday, though after that day my stomach drove me crazy and I was pretty nauseated most of the week. It was very distracting when trying to stand and talk to people :) Our district is doing pretty well. Elder Petersen and Elder Nelson's miracle investigator, A, is doing well and continues to race towards her baptism on the eighth of May. I'll probably have my first baptismal interview ever with her on Friday or so.

L is doing pretty well. I haven't been out to see her myself during the last week. Considering how I wasn't feeling well most of the week and how she's undergoing chemotherapy, we didn't think it too wise to go out. Elder Smith and Elder Weyland went out to see her on an exchange, though, and she was doing better on the health end. She's struggling to read, etc. but she is keeping the other commandments, from what she says. She's still excited for her baptism on the sixth of June, and is counting down to it. Her mother, who seems to have at least a little bit of dementia, lives with L now. She also REALLY wants to get baptized, but we need to make sure how much she's understanding everything :)

H continues to do well. He blessed the Sacrament for the first time on Sunday. We had practiced it together during the week. He's twenty-five years older than me, but on Sunday I felt like a proud parent :')

(Speaking of being a proud parent, Elder Smith introduced himself in Czech during Sacrament Meeting yesterday. His went a little more gracefully than mine, in case you all remember how that went two months ago, but you know that I was shooting him thumbs up and don't-forget-to-smile-gestures from the back row. I'm probably unbearable as a trainer.)

L is also doing well. I haven't mentioned anything about her in a while, but we went to see her yesterday after church. She didn't make it to church, but we had a nice meeting together.

I'm feeling a little derailed from being sick. Just a little bit disoriented from our goals, we haven't had very good contact with the people that we would like to have contact with, etc. It's going to take a lot of work to get back entirely on track, I feel like, but we'll definitely try. I'm feeling a little doubtful that that will be enough, but I'm also trying to ignore those thoughts! Elder Smith and I both want to teach! :)

Thanks for all your prayers on behalf of me, the other missionaries, and my investigators! We definitely appreciate and need the strength from that. I hope that you had a great week, and that this will be, too!

Love,
Elder Boyce

On exchange in Brno

Today we went bowling for P-day.  Poor Elder Smith only got 35 points the first game. :'(

ONE ROLL ONE STRIKE!!!

I'm starting to get fancy about my breakfasts (I need to send you Czech fruit tea, also, because it is soooo gooood. That cup is plum with cinnamon. Yummm)

Taking a break at a less-active member's garden. She showed us how to make dandelion crowns (because she about 100,000 of them)

April 21, 2015 - In which we make some plans

Dear family,

I can't believe it's only been a week (I suppose now eight days) since the new transfer has started. It feels like a lot has happened in a very short time and it's been unbelievable. My new district is great. Elder Nelson and Elder Petersen are doing really great work and have been very blessed already in their new transfer. They found a new investigator, A, that is progressing along at lightning speed. Elder Petersen is doing especially well in the transfer with a new companion. Elder Smith is also doing well.

We're all excited for a fresh start here in Olomouc. Last week duing his weekly letter to us President McConkie invited us to set some goals and a vision for this transfer. We did that in our companionships and also to a degree at district meeting. It was helpful for us to do that. I feel like we'll have the Lord's help this transfer, it will just be important for us to continually renew our commitment to serving Him.

We've put a focus this transfer on finding a couple of people from our vision and working with a couple of less-active members. We really feel the need to help L come back to activity this transfer and work with J so that he can progress. L was in a hospital for several months until the end of last transfer, when he was released and he came to church several weeks in a row. He's struggling to stay on the boat, though, so we want to try and help him come back. Last week we set the goal to with him to work on preparing for the Melchizedek Priesthood and to attend the temple, so we're hoping for progress there. J is a less-active member also on the vision that we had never had contact with until during priesthood session last weekend, when he suddenly walked into our building (I don't think that I had time to tell you about that last week). We also feel impressed to focus on finding from our vision families of four and YSA males that could strengthen the branch. We realize that after this transfer the year will already be half over!!

H is doing well. On Sunday he was ordained a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood and next Sunday he'll bless the Sacrament. We are excited for him! We have homework from our branch president to practice it with him.

L is not doing well on the health end of things. She's had cancer for many years and recently it's come back out of remission. Last week she started chemotherapy again. She has good days and bad days, but she's not doing to well. We're not certain how long her treatments will last, but it's very difficult for her. The branch is already reaching out very well, particularly the Relief Society president. We hope that she'll be well soon and that her health will remain good enough for her to be baptized.

I had a nice spiritual experience last week when I remembered something that happened almost ten years ago. I hadn't thought of this experience for a long time. In 2007 around the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows we went to Palmyra to see the Palmyra Pageant and some of the history there. We stayed for a couple of days, and one day we went into the Sacred Grove. I remember that we walked in and found a bench where we could sit together. We sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" and we had some time to think and pray. I remember feeling the Spirit very strongly and when the memory of this came back to me when teaching about the Restoration this week, I knew that in the forest where I stood in 2007 Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Yesterday I taught Elder's quorum and we talked about the great blessings that came from the knowledge about the First Vision. I'm grateful for such knowledge and that I get to share it!

We're facing some new challenges, but we're glad to be here in Olomouc. I've been sick for a couple of days (101.8 degree fevers aren't recommended, just in case you didn't know), but thank you for your love and support.

Love,
Elder Boyce

April 13, 2015 - In which I stay in Olomouc to follow-up train

Dear family,

We had quite the whirlwind week! I unfortunately have very little time to tell about almost anything it feels like, but we had a pretty good week. Transfers were today. I'm still the district leader in Olomouc, and I'm follow-up training Elder Smith. That means that Elder Smith has only been here for eight weeks so far and we have some stuff in the First Twelve Weeks program. Elder Petersen is still here, and will serve with Elder Nelson who was my companion in the MTC. With process of time I'm getting reunited with all my old companions! :)

H is continuing to do well. We're continuing to teach him the lessons again, but last week we also took a little time and showed him how to add his family history information to familysearch.org and we showed him how to prepare names to take to the temple. He has very little living family, but is looking for his ancestors. He's really excited to take his father's name to the temple when he receives his recommend.

L, to whom we gave a baptismal date last week, is still doing pretty well. We met with her twice last week and she came to General Conference on Sunday. She seemed kind of burdened and weighed down last week. Last Monday when we gave her her baptismal date, she was really excited to be baptized. She still is quite excited to be baptized, but on Friday she told us about some problems and things that she saw as severe sins that she had in the past. Most of it seemed like just worry She quite fervently believes that she can be healed through the gospel, but she still hasn't found the relief that she's looking for.

We really enjoyed Conference last weekend. I thought the talks on families were wonderful as well as the talks about repentace, the Savior, and His grace. We felt the Spirit and there were some people there at Conference that had never been to church before.

We had a great week overall. I sent a lot of pictures, and we had a culture night at the puppet theater, service at L's house, and a nice trip to visit a member family whom we home teach. We had some technical difficulties at the library, so I now I have no time at all to tell you about it :) Sorry!

Lots of love until next week,

Elder Boyce

One of our English students is a part of a puppet theater group. She really wanted us to go and see it last Thursday for our transfer culture night. We actually ended up just seeing a rehearsal, but even though it wasn't quite what we expected we got to play with the puppets before and it.

Old props!  

Old puppets!

We named this one Jasmine.

Our English student was one of the gossiping townspeople. A bunch of other people kneeled down behind her and they would gossip with each other.

The hills in the background are in Slovakia!

​For snacks between sessions at General Conference we made a triple batch of pancakes... We needed four pans going at once!

The missionaries with President Zatloukal

CZECH FOOD!! :)

Happiness!

Service project last Friday at our investigator L's house; working on making an extremely large hole to put in a fountain. We were ripping out all the bricks.

Elder Boyce, Elder Petersen and Elder Prohaska

April 6, 2015 - In which we're April Fooled

Dear family,

Last week has been pretty exciting! It's been pretty difficult some days, but I'm learning a lot. The weather played April Fool's on us last week and a couple of days it dumped snow in the morning and then was mostly melted off by the afternoon. It's still been very cold and windy, though. I had to get out my long underwear again! Last Wednesday we went to the M family to do service in their garden. It was cold, but a lot of fun!

H continues to make good progress. He actually seems to be very on top of his own progress. He's still "anxiously engaged," I would say. The other day he asked us who his home teachers are, he's doing visits to archives to try and find his ancestors for family history work, and he reads just about everything Church-produced that he can get his hands on. He still needs to have an interview for the Aaronic Priesthood and needs a calling, but we're working with the branch for that.

Last week I told you about one of our less-active member's girlfriend, L. L is making progress really fast. She has come to church four times now and loves it. She feels extremely welcomed into the branch and loves attending and meeting with us. She has a lot of health issues and has had some tragedies in her past, but she sees how the gospel can help her overcome them and understands how it can heal her. The members also notice how she notices it and they LOVE her (it helps when she bears her testimony at fast and testimony meeting about how she believes that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on the face of the whole earth!). They want her to be baptized really bad! She also wants to be baptized and this morning she accepted a date for June 6.

L also continues to do well. We went and visited on Sunday. She fasted for a baptismal date. She's still not too certain, but wants to be baptized and is just trying to decide when. She's excited for General Conference this weekend.

We've had a really nice Easter. We've been thinking about what happened 2000 years ago all week. Thursday one of the other Elder's investigators invited us over to her home with her family (who are all very Catholic) and they reenacted a traditional Passover meal with us in remembrance of the Last Supper. That was a memorable experience. Yesterday was fast and testimony and there were a couple of wonderful testimonies.

In the Czech Republic the biggest day, however, for Easter is Easter Monday. Today boys braid twigs into whips and walk around to women's and girls' homes to whip them (lightly) on the the rear end and to recite a funny poem. In exchange for their gracious whipping the men receive colored eggs. I don't get it exactly, either, but it's a funny tradition that they really enjoy. Missionaries aren't supposed to whip the ladies, but we went with a couple of members to other members' homes to watch, at least recite the poem, and share an Easter message. It was a lot of fun! Next week I'll need to send photos of the whips and the pretty eggs we received.

We're doing well here. I'm always working to be better and see miracles. Though I don't feel like we necessarily deserved them, lots of important blessings seemed to suddenly come out of the woodwork last week. It's already the last week of the transfer, but like Jesus during His last week we're going to keep going strong :)

Thanks for the love and emails. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Boyce

PS Attached is the photo of our April Fooling :(

March 30 , 2015 - In which Slovakia becomes an independent district

Dear family,

Last week went well! We had a few really crazy days! Last Wednesday in particular was really exciting. During the morning Elder Prohaska, Sister Keppner, and I went to help S, a long-time investigator do a little cleaning in her house. I haven't said much about S, but she's very nice and has probably known the church for five or so years. She struggles to smoke a little bit, but we had a good lesson with her about fasting and prayer. S has a young daughter, who has a lot of energy. It's exciting to try and teach or serve when she's at full energy, because she's a little like a tornado. After we met S said that hasn't smoked, though she didn't make it to church.

After going to S's we went and visited a nice member in a town 30 minutes away by train. She invited the two other young missionaries also, and on the way back into town after our visit, the tram doors closed in front of Elder Prohaska with me and the other two elders on the tram. We had to spend an hour looking for Elder Prohaska! It was pretty memorable.

After that we went and served in a former's garden, taught G and H, and then we went and visited a less-active member, L. L has recently returned from a stay in the hospital and is now living with his girlfriend. Since he's come back two or three weeks ago, however, he's come to church every week with her. Wednesday we were able to meet with them both and L's girlfriend, L, told us that she wanted to get baptized and was already living according to the Word of Wisdom. We were pretty surprised when she told us that! :) We taught her again on Friday and had a good meeting.

Thursday we had a zone conference in Brno. We talked about teaching in whatever situation we find ourselves in. It was a wonderful conference and perfect for me and my district.

Sister McConkie also got up and had a segment at the beginning of training. A lot of times she gives a health announcement or something like that at the beginning of training, but this time she gave a pretty emotional training about the dangers of pornography and how we need to make plans for how we can avoid it and stay strong when we get home from our missions. That was also really good. We were all glad to talk about that.

H is doing well still. He's fitting more and more into the branch, and he's continually more interested in the priesthood and temple work as we teach him. He's still continuing to grow very steadily. Overall he's doing well.

L is also doing well overall. We don't teach her too much because she lives in Prague during the week, but yesterday after church she invited us to her home in Prostějov. We met her parents and they STUFFED us with delicious Vietnamese food. She is thinking a lot about baptism. She hasn't quite settled on a date yet, but she's moving in that direction.

A stake is coming in the Czech Republic! Yesterday the first independent district was organized in Slovakia, and so now they are completely self-sufficient as a country and not part of the Brno district. In June a combined Prague District/Brno District conference has been announced... so we think that the first stake is about to organized in our mission! We are so excited! The Lord is hastening His work here in our mission.

I'm about out of time, but I'm doing well. Thanks for the letters and pictures. Lots of love,
Elder Boyce

March 23, 2015 - in which H gets baptized

Dear family,

Last week went well! H's baptism was on Saturday, which was a really nice service. There was probably 80-90% of the members there. We had a couple of wonderful talks and I think it was strengthening for everyone to be there. It was different from the last couple of baptisms that I've been to because only the members and the missionaries currently serving in that branch were there, and it was very good. A member baptized H and yesterday the branch president confirmed him and gave him a really nice blessing. We're excited for H to start growing in the branch and it seems like he's going to do very well. Lots of people came up to him and congratulated him on his baptism. It's already been decided that H will be a home teacher with us for now, but we'll try and work with the branch so that he'll be assigned to home teach with one of the Czech members. We think that the second counselor in the branch presidency would even be a good fit.

Right now we are teaching an investigator named L. She's from a nearby town and has been meeting with missionaries for a long while. She studies in Prague right now and mostly meets with the missionaries there but she's started coming to church every week now and seems to be growing a lot spiritually and growing in her faith in Jesus Christ. It's really great to see her grow, even though we don't meet with her much.

Other than that last week was pretty crazy. We were running all over town and it was pretty hectic. Elder Prohaska was feeling pretty ill a couple of days, which was a bummer. We feel like we're kind of struggling to help people progress along in the gospel. We need to do a lot of finding!

We don't have too much time again already, but thanks for the support! Pray for miracles during the next week :)

Love,
Elder Boyce

There was a solar eclipse during weekly planning.... pretty dramatic, as you can see :) The sun was supposedly 75% covered in this photo, but I can't tell! It was pretty dark outside, though.

This is another good photo that I didn't send last week.

March 16, 2015 - In which we eat cake, get beat up, and accidentally end up in a different area.

Dear family,

We had an INSANE week! Last Friday was Elder Prohaska's birthday, and he somehow planned it so that he managed to have cake just about every day of the week. His family also has sent mountains of Swiss candy (they have it easy from inside Europe) and so we were drowning in (really delicious) cakes and candy last week. Elder Foster's greenie still hasn't come yet, but a couple of them finally arrived into the mission, so there's been another shuffle. Elder Petersen (who's in his second transfer) came from Ostrava and will be serving with Elder Foster here in Olomouc as long as it takes for the new missionary to come (they won't be switching back and forth between Olomouc and Ostrava, though).

H is doing well! He had his baptismal interview on Saturday and did well. He's going to need a lot of support after his baptism, but he has really honest desires and with time he'll be a solid member. The branch president also seems really excited for him. They talked for a while before church yesterday, and Honza also seems to respect him a lot. We're getting the baptism ready for this Saturday, and it sounds like a good number of members will be able to come (it helps that there will be a family history event at the building right before the baptism!) He seems to be fitting in more step by step so we're excited for a good transition into the branch.

We had exchanges last week, and while Elder Prohaska was in Brno with Elder Sylvester, someone attacked them! They tried to stop a man, who seemed very normal, but then they asked if he believed that families could be forever. He started to freak out and gave Elder Sylvester a black eye and kicked Elder Prohaska. He chased them around and screamed at them for about 10-15 minutes. The bystanders did nothing. Elder Sylvester kept repeating, "Sorry, sir, have a nice day," which infuriated the man even more! They finally got away, though, but Elder Sylvester was bleeding everywhere and they went to the hospital (Elder Prohaska was fine). He didn't need stitches, but has a wicked three-inch-cut (and is a great example of not reviling against those who revile against us).

Yesterday we tried to visit a member family near the Slovakian border. We had a few incidents on the way, and missed our stop (the train only stopped for about 30 seconds, and left while we were still trying to make it to the door). We had quite the adventure, and accidentally ended up in a completely different city. Three train tickets later we finally ended up at the member's home (who is a solid single mom that has the strongest youth in our branch) and had a nice visit (they also gave us cake for Elder Prohaska's birthday!!!)

Last week I feel like my testimony of the Savior has really grown. We've been showing some investigators and members that speak English well a youth video about the sacrament https://www.lds.org/youth/article/always-remember-him?lang=eng that's really powerful and talks about the Sacrament and the Atonement. This past week I've been struck with what it means that Christ has suffered the pains of all men and how He's taken upon himself our pains, sicknesses, afflictions. As I try to write about what I've learned it sounds a lot like the things I've known and believed all of my life, but I've really felt the Savior lifting me during the past week. I believe more know that He suffered everything that we will ever suffer, and I'm grateful that He helps US to change so that WE can change our circumstances. It's been great to see that, I'm excited to help others have similar experiences with the Savior.

I'm afraid I've gone pretty overtime, but I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Boyce

Last P-day we went on a walk through the forest... we found this bird-stalker over a field of rotten corn!

We also found this "beaver castle" near a hunter's cabin in the middle of the forest.

You had to crawl through this tunnel...

To get to into this beaver's home. There were some family photos on the walls.

We went with Elder Foster, Elder Gashler, and one of their investigators, D. She stole my nametag and wore it the whole time :( :(

Nature!!!

Ooohhh

Ahhhh

Pretty!

Yesterday we tried to go visit a member after church. It was going to be a very complicated trip with all the transfers that we had to make, but on the first train it only stopped where we needed to get off for about thirty seconds. We were still making it to the door. So we accidentally went to Ostrava yesterday! (There's a strong branch there and that's also where Elder Prohaska started his mission.)

Today we went to the very top of this cathedral!

There was a very large bell.

This was about halfway up. There were several sets of stairs, and this was the tallest and most dangerous-looking that we had seen so far. We thought it was the last one, until...

...we had to go up this one! Here it was DARK.

It was a beautiful day. There might be a storm blowing in, so it was extremely windy but we had a great view of the city and the clouds.

Olomouc + gargoyle.

More views of Olomouc and gargoyles.

The other two elders came a little late :)

We were as high as it's possible to go.

The other two towers.

If you look carefully, you can see the ring of a balcony where we were.