Week 88: -20: The Hassle Zone

In our mission, we have two zones: the west zone and east zone. The west zone consists of most of the Czech Republic (CR) while the east zone has part of the CR and all of Slovakia. This past week, each zone had a zone training. Here on the east, however, because we wanted to reduce travel time for everyone, we split ours into two; one we held in Bratislava and the other in Košice. If you know anything about geography in Slovakia (and I can't imagine who wouldn't), you might know that Bratislava and Košice are just about as far away from one another as they can be.

In preparation for the training, we texted the zone chat on Facebook, encouraging everyone to read in the introduction to Preach My Gospel the section on study journals. We promised that if they came ready to take notes, they would get a lot more out of the training.

First, we had the zone training in Bratislava. Everything was going wonderfully. Something cool we changed was that instead of having someone stand in front of everyone and give a thought from the Missionary Handbook, we had a companionship put on a short skit, illustrating a principle from the handbook.

Finally, after most of the leaders gave their trainings, President got up to give his. To teach a principle about getting our of your comfort zone, he made an analogy about "Comfort Island." He said that on Comfort Island, everything is great (I suppose you could compare it to the Garden of Eden), but there's a catch: on Comfort Island, there is no growth or opportunity to learn. Going farther away from Comfort Island means going into progressively deeper waters, but the farther out you go, the greater the opportunity for growth. The stages are as follows:

-Comfort Island: fun for a little while, but no growth.

-The Hassle Zone: here are water levels up to your knees or waist. The main obstacle here is just the inconvenience of getting off the island. Maybe you'll step on an oddly shaped turtle or something. It's mainly just a hassle. Limited growth is available here. 

-The Fear Zone: here the levels are up to your neck. Perhaps you'll hit a sharp reef. Fear of what could be at this point and beyond. Great opportunity for growth. 

-The Deep Blue Ocean: uh-oh. You can't even feel the ocean floor, but here is the most growth available. Also, whales. 

As he was drawing all of this up on the board, the thought came to my mind of renaming our zone group chat. Genius! I was stuck on deciding between "The Hassle Zone" and "The Fear Zone", but I ultimately settled on the the former. Only one problem: half of the zone hadn't yet had the chance to hear the analogy. So to them, my renaming of the group chat to "The Hassle Zone" would be completely out of context. I did it regardless. 

***

The next day, we were in Košice going through the same program. During his training, President told the analogy of Comfort Island to the eastern half of the east zone and along with that drew the whole diagram. When he wrote "the Hassle Zone" on the board, a quiet "aha!" swept the room and a few heads turned to me and nodded as if to say, "It all makes sense now." Then, continuing with the analogy and completely oblivious to the fact that we named our group chat what we did, President said something to the effect of "I don't like the Hassle Zone at all. Not a huge fan." Maybe the laughter that followed didn't make a lot of sense to him, but it must not have been too distracting, because he continued normally with his training. 

***

This past weekend, General Conference was broadcasted across the world in many different languages. Here, the prophets and apostles address the entire church. We still haven't seen the whole thing, as we don't watch it live (they don't translate it into Slovak that fast.) Maybe some of you remember that a choir from BYU-I sang at General Conference back in 2016 (when I was in it). Rewind to about a year ago: President Pohořelický called to inform me that he found me in that session of General Conference. How did he find me and why was he watching a session from 2016? Turns out, a girl from that choir was going to shortly arrive in this mission, and while President Pohořelický was looking for her, he found me.

When we had our final conference with President Pohořelický, we met as a mission in Štamberk, Czech Republic. The sister who had sung in that choir had written a song and was to perform it at Štamberk. The performance was recorded on the spot. I've included the recording in this email.

Joy to be Loved

In these photos you'll find 1. Charles Bridge in Prague and 2. evidence for my mom that I am committed to this healthy-eating thing. When on an exchange in Prague, we ran to Charles Bridge early in the morning before it was packed with tourists.