Week 11: Harvest Week Take 2 and Book of Mormon Blitz CHALLENGE (Hastings)

Felt like a pretty quick week on this side of the pond.

Thursday we had zone conference all day. It's always great to get to see other missionaries, especially elder Murtonen! Love that guy! After a long day we took our train (which was delayed by 10 years) straight to the chapel in Hastings to help out with the youth activity. It was a blast. We played some like minute to win it activities and was a party!

Friday we went out to the boonies and has a teach with our friend Margaret who's an eternagator (eternal investigator). She's like 73 and just asks questions the whole time but she's like the sweetest old lady and is so nice. She's a work in progress... we also had dinner at bishops house. It was legit. We had burgers and bbq in the backyard since it was like sunny and 75. It was so great! Really felt like home which was nice!

Saturday not much happened in the morning and then we headed to Maidstone for stake conference! We got there around 4 and then had dinner with 4 other elders at Kokoro! It was pretty good! Stake conference that night was a lot about ministering, but still good. Then the party began... 6 elders in one small flat sleeping. It was nice and cozy!

Sunday morning we had extra time since conference didn't start till 11 so after studying the Book of Mormon we played some monopoly deal! It was lit. Conference was great. By far my favorite was when the young women sang the theme song for 2018, whatever that is, and it was so good. Man I had goosebumps all over and felt the spirit so strong. Man it was good!

Monday was the start of another harvest week! We went to do some service for one of our new friends named Soraia! Man her garden is a mess. We're gonna have to go back multiple times. I did get to cut and trim the yard though which was so great! Place looked so much better after we were done. Oh yeah how could I forget... in the morning we met with our friend Oli who is now on date for May 26th baptism, so pray for Oli! He actually plays American football here in Hastings! Pretty sure he as well as the team are terrible, but hey I'll take it.

Tuesday we had some good success. After not finding anybody on the first day of the harvest week we were behind. After doing our comp study at the chapel with the Maidstone elders via Skype I started calling some people. We found two new friends over the phone! We then went to lunch with a member of the bishopric, the Varrows, and went to a place called the carver. They have all this fresh meat and it was so delicious!! The rest of the day we did more finding and found two new friends we're hopefully going to see later this week! Fingers crossed. At night we had ward council and it was weird. Lots of heated arguments, but hey it's the memories that matter right??

Today has just been shopping, emailing, and home cooking. We have a teach tonight with a girl named Zoe! Hopefully it goes well! She seems legit so we shall see!

Now the good stuff... as the end of the month approached I'm pushing hard to finish the Book of Mormon before May! It should happen! I Love this book. It's so true and brings so much joy and happiness! With that being said I'd like to Invite all to start a 3 month book of Mormon blitz with me starting may 1! The goal would be to finish before August! I would invite you to get a brand new book of Mormon (I prefer the card cover ones) they cost like $5 and just use that one for this specific blitz! I'll send you the topic of the 3 months best week hopefully, so while you're reading you focus specifically on that topic or question. I'm really excited to do it and hope you all will as well!

Well that's me... I love you all and appreciate all the support. I have the best family and friends! Remember get that new book of Mormon ;) pray for Oli and Zoe!

With love,
Elder Hruby

Week 10: Luxurious Life (Hastings)

It was a quick week it seemed like this week. Well, we are finally moved in to our new place. Man we are living the good life... this place is one of the nicest in the mission and is 100x better than our old place. We have so much space and it was just remodeled

After moving all day last Wednesday, on Thursday we went to Tunbridge Wells with our district to watch the missionary broadcast from President Nelson and Elder Holland! It was legit. The freaking London missionaries got to meet him in person and shake their hands and such... bunch of wasters! The highlight from that was probably from sister Nelson and she said that we need to change the way we pray. Instead of praying to be guided to those who are willing to listen, pray to he guided to those whose ancestors have accepted the gospel and are now cheering them and you on. I thought that was so cool and really shows how important temple work is!

Later that night we got to watch the broadcast to all of the UK. It was sick as well! Again I think the highlight would be from sister in Nelson. She talked about basically what life had been like ever since her husband was called as a prophet of God. She talked about how sometimes at night he would wake up and say "Honey it's happening" then he would grab his notebook and she would leave and he would start receiving revelation for the church. It's so cool because you never really hear anybody talk about that kind of stuff! It was a cool thing to be apart of!

Saturday we did some service for a member and made his front garden look real nice! On Sunday I spoke in church about how we can be diligent that we may win the prize. I think it went really well! We actually got some referrals from members after since they said what I said really affected them, so that's sweet!

Monday we headed to Maidstone for exchange which is always a blast. I went on exchange with our new district leader, Elder Rhee. He's flipping sick! It was a fun time! Tuesday we finished up exchanges and then we headed back to Hastings. We went straight to sister browns house to do some more work in her garden. She had two sons and both of them committed suicide and Tuesday would've been one of their birthdays, so she loved spending it with us. We even bought her a little present for her garden in memory of her son! She loves us as well as we love her. She bought us some fish and chips for dinner while we worked. We've gotten pretty good at this whole gardening thing and hooking it up for the members!

After that we went to Samules house and just sat out front for hours because we haven't seen him or heard from him in like 10 days and he's been ignoring us. At about 8:40 We needed to start heading home and as we walked by I was pretty upset and just yelled "Samule!" Towards his window... he ended up looking out and came downstairs and talked to us. He let us in for like 30 minutes which was a proper miracle in itself. Sad news is he doesn't want to meet us anymore or learn anymore which hurt me, but he'll come around eventually.

Now we're back to square one with no people to teach, but hopefully we'll find some soon. We hope these member referrals will be able to go somewhere as well, because that's where the most success is...through the members!

The weather is glorious today and we might go play some basketball on the beach front! Zone conference is tomorrow and then stake conference this weekend, so it should be a good next little bit! Love you all!

With love,
Elder Hruby

Week 9: This is the Place (Hastings)

We finally had a break in the weather! It's a freaking miracle! It felt like sunny and 75 even though it was really just partly cloudy with some sun and 55... basically the same thing when you've had a lack of sun in your life for weeks. Man the sun just puts you in a better mood that's for sure!

To have some fun in the sun we did some garden work for our nana of the area, sister Brown. We even had a cute little classic lunch by grandma in the garden while we working! I even ate tomatoes on my ham and tomato sandwiches she made us... I know I'm growing up.

The rest of the week was filled with the standard missionary work. Doing some some street contacting, teaching Samule, and we taught this new girl named Aga at the beach on Monday! I found her in the old area books and just decided to call her and met with her. She's from Poland! Raquel would love her.

Yesterday we had a dinner appointment with the Meacham family. He's from west Virginia so of course of they're American they are cool and usually normal. He just bought a bench press so we worked out on it after dinner. We're gonna go workout again some other time with a nonmember and teach while working out. It wasn't enough weight though for me ;)

Today we are currently packing and getting ready to move into our flat today! Finally it's a miracle! That's what the plan for the day is!

That's really it for this week... Love you all and enjoy the week!

With love,
Elder Hruby

All the weight

Week 8: Easter Week! (Hastings)

My first holiday in the field!

Well peeps I'm back. It was General Conference this week, so fun it was a good week!

We were on exchange last week in Maidstone which is always a blast! We spent the night there Wednesday night and then on Thursday after exchange we had our district meeting. The zone leaders, STL's, and our senior couple were all there as well. It was pretty good. At the end we all shared experiences in our lives when Christ has been there for us and it was very spirit filled which was awesome.

Friday it was pouring all day so we did not have any success outside. We did a lot of planning and did some packing in our flat to get ourselves ready to move by next week... which we still don't know where we are moving yet! Oh how joyful it's been not knowing where we are gonna live!

Saturday we spent most of the day helping a family move flats. After that we got ready and then headed to the chapel for General Conference! We got there about an hour early because there was a baby shower and the member told us to come early and eat all the leftovers, so knowing me of course we went and feasted. It was awesome. We then watched the Saturday morning session! It was freaking fantastic. All i know is when we sustained President Nelson as the new prophet of God I got goosebumps and could just feel and know that he is a prophet of God.

Sunday was spent all day at the church. We had a priesthood breakfast before the priesthood session which was flipping dank. Bishops wife was cooking all this food for us. It made it hard to stay awake during that session. Our friend Samule came with us and stayed for 6 hours! He doesn't even really understand what was being said yet he stayed that long! Elder Tollestrup and I were at the chapel from 9-7. It was quite the day.

On Monday we found out we had to go to Maidstone that night because our district leader, Elder Lopiano, was getting transferred to Brighton. We had to go stay the night there Monday so when he left in the morning elder Kápolnási wouldn't be alone. We thought we would just be spending part of the day there until our new district leader, Elder Rhee, got there. He didn't end up getting to Maidstone until 9:30 P.M. we had to stay the night again! It was a freaking party.

We work up this morning and took a train back to Hastings. We went on a run today, like we do every preparation day, and got some groceries and such. The weather is supposed to not be as rainy and as cold this week which is a positive!

The good news is I know that the church is true and that the Book of Mormon is true. It's such an awesome book that I would highly recommend to anyone who requires oxygen to breathe.... oh wait. Anyways love you all!

With love,
Elder Hruby

Week 7: Sun's Out, Gun's Out (Hastings)

Hello all!

It was another good week! Thursday last week we headed to President and sister Gubler's house for interviews. It was a good time. They live in a very posh area which was a change from where we are... Hastings is like the hood. There are a lot of drugs and violence. Somebody actually got killed here last week so that is always good. Interviews were fun though and we had a good time! We watched the videos of everyone opening their calls. When I was talking about mine it made me pretty emotional. It made me realize how lucky I am with the friends and family that I have. You guys are the absolute best and I am blessed with the best!

We only have 1 progressing friend and that is Samule. He came to church again this week and we have met with him several times. He is on date to be baptized on April 28th so hopefuly we can continue to progress towards that date. We finally got him a book of Mormon in Amharic which should help!

The weather has finally gotten nice for a little! We actually saw the sun and it was glorious When the sun is out we go to the beach and it is so beautiful there! We had lunch/dinner at the Hobbs home sunday after church. They are probably the most normal family in the ward, so it was nice being around them!

Other than that the week was pretty normal. We are in Maidstone today and then tomorrow as well due to exchanges. It should be a good time!

People it is time for General Conference this week!! We get to here from prophets and apostles of God on Saturday and Sunday! I encourage you all to watch as much as possible and to prepare yourself for it. You get out of it what you put in. You can find answers to so many questions if you pray and ponder them before the sessions begin. It is going to be an amzing time!!

Well I love you all! Talk to you guys soon!!

With love,
Elder Hruby

Week 6: Harvest Week (Hastings)

People what is up?

It seemed like a quick week did it Not? Well maybe not for you guys since you get to enjoy freaking March madness! Are you kidding me?!?! The games this year are amazing! Hope you all are watching extra just for me!

So I have finally figured out why people in our ward don't seem to great. It's because the missionaries in the past were terrible. Like for a good while they haven't has good missionaries here. We had 6 dinner appointments in a row this week! The members really like us and know we're legit unlike those in the past. We don't have as many scheduled this week, but they definitely like us more in 3 weeksthan they did others in months. So that's pretty amazing! After dinner at our bishops house Wednesday we were walking home when brother Marshall called us. Now brother Marshall and his family remind me of the honey boo boo family, but instead he is the mom. They have like 8 pets and they literally live in a pig sty. Like imagine hoarders hurried alive and that's them. Anyways he called us and seemed very frantic saying he needed us immediately, so he said he would come pick us up. Meanwhile my companion and i are thinking we are about to give a blessing (Brother Marshall doesn't have the priesthood) and getting ourselves prepared. He pulls up and skids to a stop and says hurry get in! While driving he told us the story that a local shop got all their deliveries of sandwiches on the same day and were selling them for 20 pence (about a quarter) and they bought 60 pounds worth (about $80) of them. He needed us to come take some home because he had already eaten about 10 and couldn't handle it. So that was that night... They are literally the funniest group of people I have ever seen in my life.

On Thursday we met a man named Samule from Ethiopia! He doesn't speak the best English and can only read Amharic! But he came to church on Sunday and seemed to like it and we taught him yesterday again. He accepted a baptismal date... We think. It's hard teaching him and getting him to understand everything clearly but we are working on it.

We had dinner with an older woman Thursday night and she took us out which was awesome. We got some fat bacon burgers, fries, and onion rings!! She hooked it up real nice and went on to tell us her life story and how the missionaries in the past nobody liked and how much she liked us already! She's so great and we have dinner with her next week as Well! Her name is sister brown and she's my nana for while I'm here and I'm not even mad!

Friday we had a teach in a nearby town with a man named Dave who's in his 70's. He literally talked the whole time and we could barely say anything. Basically he told us at the end of it that he was never gonna change what he believes so that was a bust... Oh well

Friday and Saturday were nothing special and our dinner appointments were with some weird people, but hey you gotta love them and the food!

Sunday we had Samule and a guy named James show up to church. We had never met James but he just showed up. I guess he has come before and decided he wanted to come. He's a really odd dude who wants to start his own yoga religion, but hey he was still at church. There was a munch and mingle after church but we were fasting so we didn't get to participate. The members hooked it up though and gave us a lot of the leftovers that we devoured after our fast. We were fasting for the harvest week.

Harvest week is where everybody in the entire mission focuses on getting as many friends in one week. Our zone has a goal of 90 friends in one week, which is 10 per companionship. It's definitely tough but we've already got 4 so far. Not sure how solid they all are but it's just a big push week. That's what we are doing this whole week basically is just finding!

We do have interviews at presidents house tomorrow as a zone which should be fun. It's always nice when you get together in a big group with everyone!

I appreciate the prayers from everyone... I can definitely feel the power of them helping me through!! I love you all and miss you all so much. You guys are the best and I'm blessed to have you guys in my life!

With love,
Elder Hruby