Week 69: Tvoje zmeskanie autobusov nie je mojím problémom.

Saturday morning. The previous night we had decided that we would need to wake up early enough to catch a city bus at 5:45, which would take us to the train station, from where a bus would leave to Trenčín at 6:35. 

In Trenčín, there would be the "zasvätenie", which is that yearly event celebrating the dedication of Slovakia for the preaching of the gospel. I was excited to return to what had been my home for 4 months. President Raymond is still banished there, as I say. Classic. 

As much as we tried, we were not able to make the bus at 5:45, but there was still hope: another bus would leave at 6:15, but would only get us there with six minutes to get to the bus station, which was a six-minute walk from the train station. But I was happy to have more time to get ready. 

Since this was a special event, we had to wear our full suits. Just as I was fitting my tie snuggly around my neck, my companion called out to me from the other room: "Elder, there's no bus at 6:15."

"Yeah there is," I said, "I checked the times last night."

"But that wasn't according to the weekend and holiday schedule," he answered, "so we don't have a bus. Do you wanna run for it?" 

"Well, my GPS says it's a 45-minute walk and we only have 25."

"So do you wanna run?" 

"Yup."

We scrambled to get the rest of what we needed and took off. 

Now imagine running in a suit. You'd probably want to check at some random bus stop along the main road to see if anything would take you to the železničná stanica. That's what we did! As luck would have it, there would be a bus in one minute, so we relaxed the rest of the journey. 

***

In Trenčín, there was a wonderful program. Testimonies were born, musical numbers were given, but the highlight was probably when Elder Rasmussen stood up to play his musical number on the violin. He started, and to be honest I wasn't paying too much attention to what he was playing. But all of the sudden, I started to tune in and recognized the melody as "Family History" from the children's song book. That also happens to be the same melody as the tribute song I made for him called "Starší Rasmussen." The same one I would sing non-stop in the MTC and also played at the Christmas talent show for half of the mission. It was a highlight of my mission. 

***

I just can't stop missing busses! Earlier today, we had finished most of everything we needed to do for P-day, and now we needed to get to the železničná stanica once again, since we were trying to see a cool castle near Žilina. As we left our apartment, we checked the first bus station. There wasn't anything that would get us there in time. We started toward the second bus stop and saw bus #26 leaving. Well, that was something that could get us to where we needed to go. But it was gone.

Being the classic guy he is, Elder Barton said, "Do you think we could catch it?"

"Maybe, do you?"

"Probably not."

But we ran for it. We had to take a shortcut between paneláks, but we came through and saw #26 at a stop. We made it. Now as I type this email, we are on our way to the castle where they filmed some Dracula movie. I have great pics from last week and maybe from this week, but I can't really send them for now. You'll have to wait til next week.

From the left: Tyler (one of my MTC teachers), Sestra Dobiášová, Shae, Людмила, Elder Barton, me, Brat Ragan

Week 68: You're a number!

Last week while emailing our families, President Poho sent me a message on Facebook. That either means something really good or really bad. I opened the message. It was a forwarded message from the mission president in Finland. He wrote about someone whom the missionaries there are teaching, but she would soon move back to her home country, Slovakia. She had been taught everything and had a solid testimony of the Book of Mormon.

We got in touch with the sister missionaries in Finland, and we set up to video call at a certain time. This is exciting. When the video came up, the lady immediately started speaking Slovak to us. The Finnish sisters were lost. But then when the lady switched to Finnish, we were lost. 

But holy cow! This lady spoke Slovak, Russian, Finnish, and English. And probably Czech if we're being honest. She was really funny! So I told her. There's an expression in Slovak: "Vy ste ale číslo!" That means, "You're a hoot!" but literally translated, "You are a number." The lady laughed so hard she couldn't speak for a moment. When she finally gathered enough air to speak, she told the sisters, "He called me a number!" But that didn't help, because we don't call each other "numbers" in English.

Week 67: My guy!

Last Saturday: We were returning from the city of Zvolen to Banská Bystrica when all of the sudden, three old men started talking to us, recognizing us as missionaries. One was even trying to speak to us in English.

"Where are you from?" said one.

"Connecticut."

"Huh?" they all said.

"Konektikat."

"What even is that?" Oh, they usually understand Konektikat. 

"New York."

"Ahhhhhh! You're from New York!!"

***

Rewind to last transfer: Elder Newell and I receive a text from someone saved as "P Martin" in our phone.  We had no idea who he is or when/how we met him.  But he wanted to meet up, so we set up.  Then we receive a text like this:

"Hey Tom, I'm going to have to cancel our meeting because I won't be in town."

So we responded: "That's okay, but there's no Tom here."  We looked back into the records of former missionaries who had served here, but we found no Tom.

He replied: "I didn't know your name, so I just saved you as Tom."  So we didn't know him, and he didn't know us.  But we were going to meet up.  We finally met with him this past week, and he's way solid.  Cool guy.

***

Back to Saturday: We got on the train and found a nice spot.  There were a lot of students returning to BB as well.  Out of nowhere come those three old men saying, "Where are those American boys?  Ah, there you are!"  They drew all nearby eyes to us as they sat next to us and blabbered on.  They were funny guys, making everyone around us laugh.  Then one got up and walked down the isle while the other two continued talking to us.  The other could be heard down the isle, advertising us to a group of teenagers.  Oh my.  My face turned pretty red, which happens when these things happen.

The old man returned and said excitedly, "I found a pair of able young girls!  Come talk to them!  They've never seen a boy from New York before!"  The old man went back for a moment and then returned, the two girls beside him.  The three old men excused themselves and the girls sat down.  So that was interesting, the old men thought they were setting us up, but they were really finding people for us to teach our message.