Tomas Update: Week 10 in Žilina

Ahojte všetci! Writing this one on the train again. It’s been yet another crazy week, and it’s wild that it’s Monday again. The days can be kinda slow but the weeks go by soooo fast. Okay, here’s the stuff we did this week:

First off, we went out to Blava (Bratislava, the capital) for an exchange with the elders there. We were out that way because Elder Noftle had to do his medical work for his visa and so did the elders there so we went and got that done (got up at 5 for it). We got to see the fun classic really old hospital buildings and they all got to get xrayed by this guy that was like in a separate room and just filing people in from three different little little locker rooms. Everyone would just go in, get told “nedýchaj” (don’t breathe) and that was that. Pretty classic experience for like all the missionaries I guess. The same guy has been on the xray for years. Besides that, me and Elder Waisath went and taught at an English speaking school and just presented about the church to some students in a religion class. They were actually super respectful and it was a decent experience. Putting together the slides how that day reminded me of like school projects which was fun. After that we hit the streets for a bit and didn’t get much success but the city is pretty. Got some good photos. Also some lady came by and really liked the picture of Mary we had out front from the Christmas display because “it was the best Pana Maria she’d ever seen” so we sent her the link to the video it’s from. Then we managed to miss our train back so we got stuck there for 2 more hours but we got chicken Alfredo out of it so basically a plus. Read Pán Prsteňov (Lord of the Rings) on the train back. That was a long day and like 6 miles of walking.

Okay after that we had a pretty regular day and then after that we had zone conference which is when everyone from the zone (in this case just all of Slovakia) meets in Trenčín to like talk about doing missionary work. It snowed a ton that day so it’s really nice out now. Besides that we talked about workinhg with the members here more, budgeting, improving our teaching skills, and the “Long Kroj Line” which is just remembering the legacy of missionaries here (which goes back to 1884 weirdly enough). That was fun and we got to see everyone as usual, plus me and Elder Noftle performed with Sister Openshaw without rehearsing at all due to train times. Fun to see everyone though.

The day after that, President Skousen (the president of the mission here) spent the day with us in Žilina. We had a really good pancake lunch and then proceeded to get absolutely roasted in like the best way possible about how we plan our weeks here. He’s go very high expectations but like in a good way, the kind that make you want to be the best that you can. Our planning is gonna be way better from here. Then he helped us teach Peter which was super cool and it was a really good lesson. Hopefully we can continue to do lessons like he did, a great example.

Okay then after that we had a pretty regular day but we did manage to make it out to a members house here who we hadn’t seen at all since I got here. It was good to see her. Also the town she was in was pretty with all the snow and her house was like the most Slovak cottage I’d seen in a while. 

Okay then today we headed out to Banská Bystrica to go and sled on bags for a while, that was fun and I’ve missed snow. We also grabbed pizza and just admired the view from the hill there. I’ll add those to the photos. 

Other little things throughout the week:

I’m trying to learn Cyrillic on duolingo because I figure it would be kinda useful, also maybe some Ukrainian phrases since we meet Ukrainians a lot actually. 

There’s some cool water damage in the church building (which has walls now inside, it used to be all open) which I guess always comes back.

Hopefully I’m gonna fix my camera today and out some more film through it. 

Anyways, that’s about it for this week. I’m still doing really good out here and I love being in Slovakia as usual. Hopefully everyone is okay back home with all the insane cold and everything. As usual, the link for my photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qYoYaKPmkqFZHoVM7

Love you all, 

Starší Cundick