Finding

Hi mom and dad :) .  Thanks for the package, I really liked it.  That notebook case you sent was actually exactly the thing I was looking for these past few weeks, and I have no idea how you found it.  Kudos on that one, inspiration while gift shopping works!  Thanks for the contact lenses.  We do have means of listening to CDs in our flat, and new variety would be much appreciated :) .  Thank you :) .

This week's been pretty long and difficult because of a lot of things, but that didn't stop the miracles from happening.  Unfortunately, our investigator dropped us two days before his baptism, which was obviously really rough.  It was over the phone, so it made it difficult to try and help the situation.  At the time that I spoke to him, however, we were actually in a neighborhood doing some finding.  This neighborhood has been largely untouched by missionaries from the Slovak side of things, and things started off pretty slowly.  We had looked at some maps and decided to go there, and in the beginning we were just asking everyone if they knew of any Slovakian people living in the area.  At first it was just flat out "no"s, but we kept pushing farther into the area.  We started getting vague answers and small clues of places we might try, so we followed the unspecific directions as best we could.  It was a bit like playing hot and cold, and eventually we started getting very specific instructions.  We'd knock on doors and English people would answer who would immediately be "not bothered", but we'd hurriedly ask if the knew of any Slovaks around.  For some reason they'd usually actually try and think of some with honest effort, and we got some specific doors to try that ended up having Slovak families living there.  We didn't get to teach any of them yet, but just a few hours spent doing some digging turned up some good results.  We'll be going back there very soon.  The reason we didn't return already was because I was sick Friday night through Sunday, Saturday being literally slept away in an attempt to recover.  I did go to church in spite of continued illness on Sunday.  It's a good thing, too, because a bunch of people who wouldn't have made it otherwise were able to come.  There was some construction going on on the tram lines, so the usual stop was changed, and nobody would've known without me calling them upon finding the posted papers and telling them.  Thus, that sacrifice wasn't in vain.  After church I had to go home because I was feeling pretty lousy, but I'm back up and running now.  This week's set up to be pretty good, I think, and I'm feeling optimistic about the new area we've opened up.  We also received news that a new native Czech missionary has been called to this mission, so we're really excited for him.  He won't come until later this year, but it's a good thing he's coming because Elder Sindylek will soon be leaving.

That's all I've got time for today, so I'll wrap things up.  I love you very much, and I know that God's part in our family is inexpressibly instrumental.  We have a strong bond of love between all of us, and it's centered in our faith in truth.  Have an amazing week, you're always in my prayers :) .

Love,

Elder Brown