Sister Kane's First Letter in Slovakia 06/03/13

Ahoj!

So this first week has been a crazy experience. I will start from
leaving the MTC and work my way up to now. There probably wont be tons
of details cause I dont have tons of time, but Ill give it my best go.

We went through about a day 1/2 to 2 days without too much sleep.
Mainly traveling on the plane. SOOOOO long. It was fun though. I
contacted 2 french basketball players on the plane and one woman from
Utah who was headed to Africa to do some work in orphanages. She was
awesome. I want to be like her. I am constantly amazed by how many
good people there are in the world doing amazing things for the world
just because they want to :)

Experience: As we stepped off of the plane in the Prague airport
Starši Talbot suddenly realized that something very important was
missing from his pocket... HIS PASSPORT. We began to look everywhere.
It was no where to be found. The security let all of us through into
the Czech Republic, but Starši Talbot was stuck on the other side of
the gate, passportless. What do we do??? WHAT DO WE DO?? We searched
and searched for the passport. No where to be found. Sestra Baird
suggested "lets say a prayer"  ... a pause... "I will say It" I said.
We gathered in a circle and said a prayer in the middle of the
airport. We asked for guidance to find the passport and that whatever
God willed, it would work out for Starši Talbot. The SECOND we said
Amen, a voice came over the intercom saying "some important
documentation had been found for a "Talbot" and he was needed at such
and such place." His passport had fallen out of his pocket and luckily
some one turned it it.
I know that there is great power in the faith of a few. Faith is a REAL power.

Then we arrived in Bratislava. Met our wonderfully british mission
President Irwin and his wife. They are so sweet and have the cutest
accents. We drove to the mission home, had a quick meeting, and then
we met our companions. I am companions with Sestra Sears and Sestra
Krauel. Sestra Krauel was with me in the MTC. Sestra Sears is in her
last transfer and she is from Texas. She has only been in slovakia
since January. She was in the Czech Republic before, so she speaks
Czech and is learning Slovak now too. When she goes home at the end of
the transfer, the sister missionaries in Slovakia for quite the next
while will only be me, Sestra Krauel, Sestra Baird, Sestra Johnson (we
were all in the MTC together) and then 2 sisters who have been out 2
months, Sestra Jones and Sestra Belibe Minya. (These two sisters are
teaching french classes in žlina right now !!) We teach English on
wednesday nights here in Bratislava.

The buses here give you free hot chocolate and candy that tastes like
couch drops.
The chocolate here is to DIE for :) One member here, Vlado is his
name, gives us chocolate every saturday when we play soccer with the
members. Hes very nice.
Bratislava is the biggest branch is slovakia. There are about 30-40
members. I think there are 4 families in the branch. Work here is
tough. Our investigators cancel on us A LOT. We spend a LOT of time
tracting and contacting. I would love to work more through the
members. We are going to try it more. We got one referral last week
from the Elders in Nitra, so that is cool :) We are meeting with him
tonight and I am super excited :)
NEW INVESTIGATOR

Also, we arent teaching any slovaks right now. Which is sad because I
actually havent used the language much since I got here. We are
teaching 2 muslims, a man from Ethiopia, and some other people I
havent met yet. We actually teach in French, English, and Slovak. It
makes for quite interesting lessons. 2 of our investigators speak
french better than english, so I end up translating difficult concepts
into french for them, we read from the book of mormon together in
french, english and slovak, and then we discuss some things in english
and slovak. French is actually such a blessing to me right now. You
will never regret learning another language. EVER.

Our first couple days here were spent doing practical stuff. We spent
a good 7 hours or so at the foreign police taking care of our visas.
Mainly just waiting in line.
Then we spent a couple more hours at the hospital. Super awesome. It
was like being in a communist movie from the 70s or 80s. We would walk
into this dark room where the nurse would direct us to stand infront
of this giant machine. The doctors stood behind this glass wall and
then they started to take xrays. It is hard to describe. Probably one
of the most trippy experiences of my life. I contacted a lady at the
hospital though. We talked about family history.

One of the elders in our zone has nicknamed me "Sestra Sukriky" which
means "Sister Candy" because we were trying to introduce ourselves via
cellphone and he kept saying "sister king?" "no, Kane" i would say.
"King?" "no, KANE. You know. Like a candy cane?"  !Oooo you mean
Sestra Sukriky" haha it was funny.

The people  here are fascinating to me. I keep making cultural
observations, but hey, thats what good anthropologists do.
People here like to wear colored pants and colored high top sneakers :)
Everyone here is SUPER skinny. Slovaks must not eat. They are mainly
blond with blue eyes. Girls tend to paint their ring finger fingernail
a different color than the rest. Must be a trend or something. Most
people here that I have met work with computers. They love to dye
their hair red.
People here tend to be atheist or catholic. When we talk to people on
the street they say "I am already a believer" or "I have no reason to
believe"
We talked with one man for a long time about God. I find its almost
impossible to try and teach some one if they dont even have the
slightest inkling of a desire to care about this life or the next life
or if God exists. I dont know how anyone could live like that. My
faith in God is everything to me.

lets see what else...

My district leader is from Highland. We went to Elementary together
haha, small world right?

It rains here every day. We usually go home pretty wet :)

The members here are really nice. I love the slovak people. They are
very polite. They are friendly too. We get rejected almost always, but
at least people are really nice about it :)
We met a lovely man at the farmers market today when we were buying
Honey. We started talking to him and then he asked "you are believers
yes?" yes we said. "Mormons?" we giggle and again said "yes. How did
you know?" He said that we look different. He can tell when he sees a
mormon. He then pulled out his bible he had been reading just a moment
earlier and started to talk to us about the scriptures. I didnt
understand a lot of what he said but he asked us if he could pray for
us and then if we could pray for him. He said such a sweet lovely
prayer to bless us and help us in bringing people to know our Lord,
Jesus Christ. Then we prayed for him :) It was a lovely experience. I
think he was a minister of some sort :)
There was also a lady that I bought some pasta and goat cheese from.
She found me quite funny when I tried to ask her what her favorite
pasta and cheese were in slovak. She told me my slovak was "handsome"
:) People here are very pleased when you try to speak slovak to them.
Its awesome :)
It makes me happy since the language is so hard and its hard to feel
like I am progressing. But I am trying!

One last thought then then I am off.

The first week in the field is always hard, just as you would expect.
I have been fervently praying everyday for strength, and the Book of
Mormon helps me so much. I find myself wanting to never put it down. I
love love love that Book. It can change ANYONE for the better.
I have been pondering why God sent me here to Slovakia. What
specifically is about me that is needed here in Slovakia, and what do
I specifically need from Slovakia.

The answer I have received is Courage.
As I have studied Nephi, Abinadi, Esther, and even Joseph Smith, I
have seen that great faith leads to great acts of courage. God tested
my courage immensely by asking me to leave everything behind and serve
a mission. It took a LOT of faith. But I did it. And He was so proud
of my courage, but he is not done with me yet :) Again, he is testing
my courage. Do I have what it takes to wake up every morning and face
rejection day after day only to spit in Satans face and say "God has
some one prepared and I WILL find them"? Of course I do. If I didnt,
God would have sent me to a mission with higher baptismal rates. I
have the courage to succeed. And the Slovak members are some of the
most courageous people I have met. Many of them are the only members
in their families. Some of them have been disowned by their families
for joining the church. Some of them are the only members even close
to their age for miles and miles. They are a strong people. A firm
faithful people. I love them.
I know that part of my mission is to strengthen this courage. God has
things planned for me that will require more courage than what I have
now. He is preparing me. I can see that there will be things in the
future, not sure what, that will require me to be brave. God is
preparing me now for harder things to come.

I know that Jesus Christ lives. :) I love him with all my heart. I am
grateful for the gift of personal revelation and I cannot wait for the
miracle of slovakia to continue

Love you all!

Sestra Kane