I loved getting to see the Prague Branch in action today. When we trudged downstairs at 9:00AM (after staying up WAY too late watching Narnia), the chapel was so full that we had to sit in the very back. It was Will's confirmation day so I think there were a few visitors (including us), but it was still a great turnout.
In retrospect, I think they did have someone translating, but we didn't use the headphones. Will's confirmation was done in English and that was the most important part, so we were okay just sitting and feeling the Spirit as the others spoke in Czech.
Then we had an all-English Sunday School down in the basement baptismal font room. There were like 30 of us in there, with another room full of Czech speakers upstairs. The lesson was given by the missionaries, and it was about obedience. More specifically, about how we need to obey without any kind of incentive or explanation other than that we love God and He loves us.
It was a great lesson, especially with all of us sharing personal experiences and testimonies from all over the world and from all walks of life. There were people there from the U.S. and Prague as well as Australia, Russia, and Ecuador. It was really cool, and helped me to see that gospel principles are the same everywhere.
Finally we had Relief Society, which was in Czech again but a member translated for us, which was nice. She had a really soft voice though that almost put me to sleep. I sadly didn't get much out of it, but Mom told me afterwards that she feels inspired now to always have FHE, even if it's just her and Dad at home.
Since we came back from the Church, we haven't done much. We ate lunch, then cleaned the house for the McConkies' return later in the afternoon. Dad had us start packing for Austria, too, which is both exciting and really sad.
The McConkies came home at around 5:00PM, and then even though they'd been driving and teaching all day today, the first thing they did when they got back was fix us a huge gourmet goodbye meal. It was entirely gluten free for Sarah, and super delicious for all of us.
James made a leek, mushroom, chicken stroganoff over rice (it was so good that I actually ate the mushrooms!), a salad, garlic bread (not gluten-free of course), and roasted nuts with Milka chocolate for dessert.
It was amazing. And Laurel set the table beautifully, with a little candle and name card for each of us. It felt like a Christmas feast. I'm sad it was our last meal with the McConkies.
So we didn't take many pictures today, but here are some of our amazing meal.
The McConkies were the best hosts ever.
After dinner we watched the first half of "The Sound of Music" to get ourselves pumped for Austria tomorrow. It really got me excited. I almost forgot we were going, because we've felt so at home here in Prague and it's been so fun.
At the Intermission of the movie, Laurel, Ashley, Sarah, Dad, and I went for a walk to the park. We wanted to look out at the city one last time, and Dad was hoping to get some great night shots. Unfortunately it started pouring rain soon after we left (it had been raining off and on all day), so Ashley got soaked and it wasn't ideal for picture taking.
But we still got a spectacular view of the city at night, and it was fun to talk to Laurel some more. She and James have loved showing us this city and their lives. I'm so glad we got to do this.
We finished the night with Laurel showing us a TED talk about power poses. We didn't want to go to bed, because it meant having to leave in the morning. I can't believe we only had a week together. It both felt like we'd been there forever and that we weren't there nearly enough.
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