Week 17

It's Christmas everyone! Can you believe it?! Back to being the new guy this week but I love the people here. The branch is pretty small here and church is only 2 hours. But one of the members brings lunch for after becuase he doesn't want to eat alone.haha! He's a pretty good cook too. Anyways, I've been getting aquanted with ceske budejovice and loving my new companion. We are embracing the czech culture this christmas. We don't have any members houses to go to on christmas day, so we are taking matters into our own hands. Today we are buying a carp, We've already bought a kiddy pool. On christmas we are going to kill it and gut and everything. We named her Jezebel. Tomorrow we will be in prague all day so hopefully she doesn't die on us. We are going to do some other stuff like the golden pig and cutting apples.. we are pretty excited about it. This week was pretty normal. Our service the elders found is pretty cool. It's sort of like a sweatshop and we take apart computers. They just showed us how to do everything this week and after christmas we will get to work. And they all brought in cukrovi which is SO good. They are just a bunch of different kinds of little cookies.. and a czech woman's worth sort of depends on how good her cukrovi is so they are pretty incredible. Its pretty sad all the czech mothers hate christmas because they just spend days in the kitchen. Literally DAYS.

Merry christmas family! love you tons and see you in 3 days by the means of skype!

Ahojčka!

Sestra Holland

Holly's lovely District

Week 16

Hey everyone! No time this week but I got this boot this transfer. I'm in české budejovicé (not even sure how to spell it yet). Haven't seen much of it yet.. just got here this afternoon. We had an AWESOME culture night in Pardubice as a district. Man i loved my district. It was a childrens concert and when we got there they told us it was for families only but they let us stand in the back and it was AWESOME. so czech.. it ended with everyone cheering for hell and all of us missionaries just looked at each other and kind of shrugged and started clapping along. Sister frampton left saying "so typical.. the czech people just feel so comfortable there." I love that woman. Miss her already. I sure will miss my birthplace.. good ol pardubice.

Love you family! Can't wait to talk on Christmas!

Sestra Holland

Week 15

Hey Everybody! It's been a pretty good week. Everything here is getting christmasafied. We got to be super careful because the cobblestones just get completely iced over and it is super slippery. We usually are walking with an old lady on our backs (not literally but almost) We did quite a bit of tracting this week which was a good experience. We took the bus out of the city part of pardubice to the homes with lots of families. Hopefully those appointments go well this week. There are a lot less crazies over there. One of the elders in our mission made these awesome christmas contacting cards and people are really digging those. It's getting sufficiently cold but boy is it beautiful. A lot of the people we visit are getting sick and go to "spas".. its so strange they have like this whole town in czech republic where people go when they are sick. they just leave their families for a couple weeks and stay in this spa town where they get paid to do nothing. And the worst part is we can't contact them because they drop off the face of the planet. I don't understand it. But ya, it's really pretty here. The christmas markets are up in the náměstí. OH and this week was saint nicholas day or something like that. saint nicholas (not the santa we know) and the devil and an angel come to kids doors. if they were good they get a present if they are bad they get coal. We saw people dressed up everywhere that night it was fun. This is our last week before next transfer. Man how fast time flies. Sister framp and i don't want to part but we will see what happens. Pardubice is my birthplace and man do i love it. We will see what happens and next week we can figure out christmas call and everything. Enjoy the christmas season everyone! And remember what its all about. Love you. Stay classy

Sestra Holland

Week 14

Hope Thanksgiving was awesome. I'm sure thankful for all of you! Missed you all. Thanksgiving was surprisingly American here in Czech Republic. First we did service and built some furniture for a childrens shelter kind of thing. We had 2 thanksgiving meals. First with our district at the senior couples house, and then at a less active members house from kentucky. His wife is czech so they have lived here for like 5 years. I think he was just happy to speak to someone English.I don't know how he stays sane. It was fun. We played the "Because of Him" video, but in czech it's diki němu so more like "thanks to him" so it was perfect for thanksgiving. We are teaching Ceneks friend Teresa. She is so cute and SO SMART. She is way insightful and just sort of gets it already. We are getting excited for her. We went to prague twice this week, once for training and once to listen to an area 70 speak to us. He's from Germany and he gave a bomb talk. After zone conference I got a flu shot at the canadian medical center so dont worry.. im not getting sick again! I don't know if I told you yet but ive been sick like 3 times since entering this darn country. its just too stinking cold. After training we went on splits with Sister Shun and Sister Birkeland. Sister Birkeland was from my mtc group and Sister Shun is in her last transfer. I got to go contacting with her and she taught me a lot. It was good. At lunch that day one of the elders dared me to tell the waitor i was visiting from america and to ask if i could take the cup home with me as a souvenir.. I got it! boom. We are teaching a french dude who is SO FRENCH. He sort of looks Roger and speaks with a heavy french accent. When he reads out of the livre de mormon or however you say it he sort of yells really loud and we just love him. I just also have to try really hard not to laugh when we teach him. Lukaš is still awesome. Ah man i just love these people. Theyre all crazy. 

Love you all. Missed you this week. 

Love Sestra Holland

xmas tree is going up in our naměstí!

christmas tree: vanocní stromeček

Week 13

I got to play soccer this week!! It felt like the best day of my life. We played with the young men and it was so great. it was just kind of surreal because i havent played soccer in a really long time. We got a new investigator this week. She's a referal from cenek, our rockstar recent convert. She is so cute i just love her. We had a singing display with only 4 people this week which means 2 singers and i was one of them. Ive never really like to sing but im getting over it. Kreepy old man jiri gave me a pernik that said princess on it.. then in his broken english said "you are my princess". sister framp and i chucked it out the window. its ok pernik is gross. We went to prague again this week for sister framps visa. Loxman the indian guy i contacted on like my first day here is totally progressing its awesome! We went trakting this week and its my new favorite thing to do. Its like trick or treating but people just yell at you instead of giving you candy. everyone has a zvonek so we just ring it and they stick their head out the window and talk to us. if they don't answer we just talk to their dogs who come bark at the gate. we even vykat them. its a good time. sister framp and i have a little too much fun i think. 

Have an amazing thanksgiving everyone. love you

sestra holland