Week 62: That Family

Earlier this transfer:

Elder Newell and I decided to switch things up.  Two years of not switching things up can get old.  We decided for that day, we would try to relate principles of the gospel to a sandwich and use that in as many conversations as possible.  For each new conversation, I would ask myself, "What gospel principle is like a sandwich?"  It was fun to see what we could come up with.  What was funnier was that no one but Elder Newell and I seemed to think it was weird.  

Later that same day, we got to a block of three small paneláks (panelák = apartment complex).  We tract the first one.  Nothing.  In the middle one, there was a girl cleaning the stairs.  She had interest neither in our message nor in free English, but Elder Newell managed to let her know that sendvič in English is sandwich.  You sly dog.  

In that very middle panelák, I ring a zvonček (basically a glorified doorbell), and a little girl answers.  She gets her mom.  Did she have interest?  Maybe, but she was handling four little kids, so she had no time.  But she was really cool, we had on plan to return one day.  

***

Only a few weeks ago:

Elder Newell and I were walking in a suburban area when we came across a man working in his garden outside his panelák.  As we were talking, we brought up some points of doctrine of our church, to which he replied, "I know all of this already."  So it didn't look like there was a chance of meeting, but we continued to talk.  He had two little girls with him, but he actually had six total.  Whoa.  He was impressed by the level of Slovak we had achieved in the short period of time we'd been in Slovakia.  He turned to his daughters: "How come you've been learning English for 8 years and you don't speak as well as they do?"  

"They're older!" said one daughter.

"Oh," I said, "so when I'm 80 I might learn a language in a day."

"Yeah, by that logic," said the dad.  What a cool guy.  We actually exchanged numbers and agreed to come back in a month, no sooner because of a busy schedule.  

***

The past couple days:

Me: "Remember that family?"

Elder Newell: "Which one?"

Me: "That mom with the kids with whom I talked about babysitting while you were on the phone?"

Elder Newell: "Yeah?"

Me: "We should visit, at the very least deliver a brochure."

Elder Newell: "That's what I said a couple days ago."

So we tried.  For the first few days, we just didn't have time.  Finally, we were determined to make our way over.  On the way, we run into the dad of those two little girls, but this time more of his daughters were outside, including his oldest.  The two that we met before came running over and we gave them fistbumps.  The dad was chill, as always.  

The oldest daughter gave us a "dobrý deň".  Hm, she looks familiar, I thought to myself.  Well, we decided to move along because we still needed to visit that family.  We walked to the other side of the panelák.  Wait a second, this is the place!  Well, that other family is still there, so we'll wait until they leave before entering.  So we talked to a few more people to pass the time, but the family just wasn't leaving!  Now they're standing right in front of the door we're trying to enter.  Then they went inside.  Hm...