Ceske Budevice

hey!! THIS COUNTRY IS SO TOTALLY AWESOME!!! so after i talked to you guys at the airport, we got on the plane and headed for austria, it was the longest flight ever!! completely not fun. 8 hours of boredom on a plane that i couldnt watch the movies on, it kinda stunk but it was cool that i was with the guys from my district and the croatians and the slovaks so we were able to socialize on the plane. that was one super long day though. we spent the night on the plane over the ocean, and then went straight from our terminal in austria that we got out of to the next place we had to go to get on our flight to the czech republic. at the airport in austria, we were all super thirsty but none of us had any euros so we had to pay with my card, but the guy told us that we had to at least buy 5 euros for some reson. idk but it was cool, i got my first taste of european Fanta. it was pretty good becuz it doesnt have as much carbonation. but yeah so we had to say bye to every one that was not going to our mission, it was kind of a bummer but it was ok. then we hopped on a prop plane and headed out for the czech republic. it took us about 40 min which wasnt bad at all comparitively:) there we met the mission president, president Slováček and his wife sestra SLováčkova and the two assistants. they took us back to the mission home which is also the church biulding in praha, we put our stuff there and then we headed out for our prague walk and tourist day thing. i took a lot of pics so i will send those home soon. i was so tired at that point taht i think i took a pic of the same building three times but idk. then we went contacting that day and we, me and my companion elder anderson were able to talk to this one guy on the street about the gospel for like 20 minutes!. it was an awesome experience. then we went back to the mission home and paased out, it was only like 630 ish.haha the next morning we werre at the missiopn home and that morning we were assigned to our companions, i became comps with elder Hill, hes a way cool guy from utah. and we were going to serve in české buděvice in the waz south end of the country. it took us about 2 and a half hours to get here from praha and it was on the first train that i have ever ridden. it was pretty cool. and that day we went contacting again in this city and it was pretty cool but the people here dont speak as much english as the ppl in prague do so i have to rely on my comp al ot to answer questions they have about what we are talking about. its pretty cool. our appartment is right in the middle of town which makes contacing really nice. we are like 2 blocks away from the naměsti which is the town square thing where we do the bulk of our contacting. well i have to go so i will have to finish this up in a letter. i love you very much and i cant wait to hear from you agian. i know that this is the true gospel and that through the atonement we can return to our heavenly father. i know that joseph smith was a true prophet and that he saw GOd and his son Jesus Christ in the sacred grove. i love this gospel so much.
starsi vivona

9-22-09 Email home!

Dear family:)
So today is my P-day once again (YAY) and I’m sorry about not writing real letters I know that you like that a lot more, so I’ll write one today. Well this morning we went to the temple (chrám) and it was awesome. When you stand outside the temple on the front step you can see provo valley and the lake in the middle and it is a pretty cool sight to see cuz the temple is on the base of the mountain so its higher than everything around it:) we went to the 8 oclock session so we had the rest of the day to do all of our other stuff like laundry (which im getting pretty amazing at BTW) haha but its been really fun here. If there wasn’t so much stuff to keep me busy all the time I would probably be crazy home sick. And I mean seriously, we have a weekly planning session every Friday morning and we plan all of our language and PMG lessons and then every night we plan out what we are going to do in our personal (osobní) and our companion (studium se společnikem) and our language study (jazykové studium) times. So our days are so full of stuff to do that is insane. My brain is about ready to explode by the end of the day;) and last week our TRC was entirely in Czech if you remember and then every week till the end of my time here will be the same way so itll really be challenging. But its all good I guess. Last week we had elder Holland instead of the President Monson, but it was still super awesome:) I think he might be one of my favorite speakers. He always gets so into it that he pounds his fists on the podium. It was really powerful (mocný) (haha I know how to write most of this letter in Czech, but I don’t really feel like having to translate this whole thing, sooo, yeah) and his wife got up and spoke just before he did it was pretty cool she’s Just as amazing as he is. And then this Sunday we got to watch another movie (we get to choose between like four every week) and this week we chose the prophet of the restoration (I think that’s what its called) but it was awesome:)
And yeah the glasses that we got are really strange for me to wear, haha cuz apparently I have a slight stigmatism and the glasses correct that (and my other ones didn’t) so its one of those things that Im just gonna have to get used to I guess:) and im not going to need to buy a bike for my mission cuz it’s a walking/public transportation missions. So im really glad about that cuz it cant be fun to have to ride a bike in a suit (its uncomfortable enough as it is just to wear one haha). And my companions thought I was crazy for wanting that Hollister cologne, but once I put it on they kept wanting to smell me, haha it was kinda gay, but apparently it has the same affect on guys as it does girls;)
So the mtc is a blast and I pretty much love the food, but the more that I stay here the more I just want to leave. We’ve seen two groups come and go within the time that we’ve been here. All engliash speaking of course, but its kinda depressing to think that they are already in the field and we’re not. Oh, and I haven’t had to give a sinlge talk since ive been here! Its so awesome! Every week everyone has to prepare one and then in the announcements in sacrament meeting, they announce who is going to speak (its pretty much on the spot, so theres really no time to even get nervous, I like it a lot more;) ). And yes:( I have gained weight, Im at 200lbs, but its muscle weight;) and I still haven’t gotten used to only being able to listen to the tab choir, its kind of just getting annoying now, but im thinkin that ill just kinda tune it out soon. For choir, we’re not singing in this years’ general conference, I was knida bummed about that but its still totally fun to sing with that many elders and sisters. (theres usually about 500 or so that show up for choir). We sing every Tuesday for devotional.
So as I said, my brain usually is about to explode at the end of every day cuz of all the learning, but itspretty cool cuz all of the teachers on this floor of the building we are in speak relatively similar languages and evertime my teachers speak I can understand about 90% of it so it’s a good feeling:)
And its awesome to hear about how every ones doing, especially my nieces:) I cant wait to get pictures of them:) well, im just about out of time so I gotta wrap it up. I want you all to know that I love you all so much, and ill write a couple of snail mail letters today. I know that this gospel is true and that through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can return to live with our Father in Heaven. And that we can live as an eternal family in this world and the world to come. I knoe that Joseph smith was a true prophet and that he saw God the Father and His son Jesus Christ, so that he could restore the fullness of His gospel on the earth. I love you all again, and I will write again soon:)

Love,
Starší Vivona

How to send Christmas packages to Prague

Dear Parents and Loved Ones of the Czech Prague Missionaries,

President Slovacek and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of your missionary. Your communication with them is vital to their well being. When they know they are fully supported by loved ones at home, they are much happier missionaries. They have a clearer focus. They are free to work harder because their attention is not being diverted by wondering how things are going at home. So thank you again for your loving and sustained support.

Though it may not seem like it, the holiday season is close at hand. Many of you will want to send a Christmas package to your missionary. This is highly encouraged; so we would like to send along a few reminders concerning the mail. Please notify friends and family of these reminders as well.

Mail packages early. If you send a package in September or October, it will arrive on time without an enormous shipping cost. Your missionary will also receive the package before Christmas. We make a special trip the week before Christmas to take packages to the missionaries. If a package arrives after we have made our deliveries, the missionary will not receive the package until January.

Address all packages to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and send to the mission home. This cannot be stressed enough. Last year, several packages were either lost or sent back to the sender because this simple request was ignored. Packages have a way of disappearing off missionary apartment doorsteps in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. They are much safer here in the mission home. Please be assured that we will do all we can to keep the packages secure. We have set up a new security system with many locks and limited access to keys to the missionary closet.

Put their name second on the mailing label. Your mailing label should look like this:

Cirkev Jezise Krista Svatych Poslednich Dnu
Elder Matthew Vivona
85/95 Milady Horakove
Praha 170 00 Czech Republic

I hope this is not confusing. Please take a few minutes before you mail your package to get the address label right. It will make all the difference to your missionary at Christmas time.

Thank you again for your continued support. We love your missionary! In December, we will be posting a slide show of all the missionaries throughout the mission on our blog: www.theslovaceks.blogspot.com

Many thanks,

President and Sister Slovacek

A New Niece!

Matt is an uncle, AGAIN! Welcome Mckinley Addison Peyton to the family. McKinley was born 9/10/09 at 9:22pm to Megan and Jared. Matt has been asking every time he writes "is she here yet?" Well here she is!

Starsi Vivona is rapidly learning Czech. The MTC teachers are longer speaking English to the Elders. They now must really learn the language. matt said last week when they first stopped speaking english he was only getting about every third word. This week he is beginning to understand a bit more. He has had several occassions to teach (in English), by working in the Referral Center (RC). The referral Center is where phjone calls come in from people seeing the church's commercials on television and wanting to know more. Matt told us that last week he spoke to a woman in Texas for over an hour on the phone and when they were finished speaking she had agreed to have missionaries come to her home to discuss more of the gospel. Matt gladly sent the referral to missionaries in her area. He was excited to be able to speak with her and teach by the Spirit. He looks forward to going to the RC to work. He really likes his companions and they are getting along well. Last week a couple of the Elders had gotten sick and had to spend some time in the infirmary. Whiel they were recovering, Matt and his companions had to take notes for them to study from. He said that was quite a challenge, as now they were only getting to hear czech, and missing every other word and had to take notes. But he said they were able to take down enough to pass on to their fallen companions. He really loves being in the MTC and learning.

Last Tuesday was P-day and he had some time on the computer to send us an email. Cynthia was with clients when Matt's mail came through. Thinking she had missed him quickly sent a simple reply, "r u still there?". To her surprise he was and they were able to exchange a few emails. Cynthia said it was almost like having him in the room and speaking directly to him. He has about 4 more weeks of training before heading overseas. He is looking forward to teaching the Czech people.

Starsi Vivona's Testimony

Letter from the MTC

Hey everybody! The MTC is awesome!! Sorry if this is in txting format but I only have 30 min to write so I have to do it as fast as possible. This past week has been amazing, the spirit is really strong here, although I am kinda getting sick of church music.... haha jk. The czech is so cool, I can read the BoM (Book of Mormon) (I may not understand everything, but I can still read it) and I can pray and bear my testimony. Both my companions and I get along pretty well and all the elders in my district are really cool. Today is p-day so we got to visit the temple today. The Provo Temple is really pretty and probably the better part about going was that we got to leave the MTC grounds haha. All of our learning is done all in one class room so looking at the same boring walls for 12 hours straight gets boring fast. We are learning a lot from PMG (Preach my Gospel) and teaching ppl (people) is starting to get really fun. They have this place called the RC (the Referral Center) and we go there once a week for about two hours. And all we do is answer the phones of the ppl that see the church's comercial and want to get a free BoM or have the missionaries come talk to them. My first time going there I didnt like it at all because I dont like talking on the phone, as all of you know, but this last time we went it was a lot better. There is also this other thing called the TRC which is when your companionship go to teach one of the instructors the first lesson, or whatever you need to work on the most. Last week we practiced door contacting and street contacting in czech! It was a lot of fun and we didnt do too badly:) speaking czech is getting easier too. All of my teachers are way cool too. Almost every day we have "culture time" unintentionally of course;) its when one of our teachers gets into one of their mission stories. Its a ton of fun to learn about the czech republic. I may have already told you this, but we have three teachers, Bratr (czech for Brother) Brown, Bratr Johnson, and Bratr Cardon. And every once in a while Brother Ruda comes in and teaches us, he's a native czech, so he has some cool stories about his childhood and finding the church. So hows everything been? Has Megan had her baby yet? Is everything going alright? Oh and I love getting all those letters from dearelder.com, its so cool to see how everyones doing:) Well my times just about up so I have to start wrapping this up unfortunately:( I was sitting in the celetial room today and for some reason got really home sick, more than I had been for my entire time being here. But I know this is where I need to be and that its the right thing to do. I love you all sooo much and I just want to leave you with my testimony that I know that God is our eternal heavenly father and that he loves us. And that this church has the fullness of the gospel and that we will all be blessed if we follow the council of the prophet. I love you all and I will write again soon bye:)

We got our first letter from Matt last week. He had just gotten to the MTC, actually, he got there 2 hours early. He was given his name tags. Strasi Vivona, which is Elder Vivona. He has 2 companions, Elder Anderson from Katy, Texas and Elder Osborn from American Fork, Utah. He got settled into his dorm room and immediately began his classes. He said dinner was "crazy early". He eats at 4:45, we're barely taking food out of the freezer at that hour! I'm sure by now that he has gotten used to his daily schedule. He sends his love to all.

This is the MTC (Missionary Training Center)where Matt is learning to speak Czech, and all he needs to know to go out and be a missionary. He can receive your email letters everyday while he is there. Here's what you need to do.


Go to the following website:

http://www.dearelder.com/index/inc_name/home

Register for a free account. Go to the tab labled "Write a Letter". Under letter sselection choose "Provo MTC". Fill in the information asked for. Elder Matthew Vivona, mailbox number 152, Czech Prague (mission), 10/12/09 (departure date). You will then be able to compose an email to Matt. If you do this before 12:00 (noon) mountain time, Matt will get your letter the same day. Anything posted after noon he will get the next day. Care packages can be sent to him as well. Just remember to not send anything that he would need to pack into his suitcase to take to Prague. His bags were extrememly full when he left home today. So full we had to pay for overweight charges on one of them.

He will love to hear from you. He is going to be very busy for the next 8 weeks. He has one day a week to send us an email, but he can write everyday, if he has the motivation. Hopefully, we will all hear from him often.

Bookmark the dearelder.com website for use and be sure to bookmark this blog page and check back often. I will try to keep it updated weekly. You will also be able to register on the blog page and post comments. We are not sure if Matt will be able to check the blog page while he is away, but he may. And it will be fun for him to read our posts and your comments. Once he gets to Prague, I will update everyone on where and how to send mail and packages.

Elder Vivona & Family

This was taken last night, right after Matt was set apart as a Missionary by Stake President Paul Sinclair. (Matt - front, Cynthia, Ashley & Ashlynn - middle, me, Megan, Jared - back).

Proud parents.

Headed for the MTC

This morning at 6:45 we said farewell to Matt. We are so proud of him. The past few days have been tough, but family bonds have been strengthened. We had some of the best family time together as he prepared himself for his mission. Lots of laughs, lots of tears, lots of hugs. The whole family will miss him tremendously, but we know that what he is about to begin will be the greatest thing he will ever do. He will make an AWESOME missionary. Once he arrives in Salt Lake City will we post his mailing address. He will be at the MTC for about 8 weeks.

We just got a call from Matt from the Salt Lake airport. He had a good flight, but was not able to sleep. He will be tired tonight. It was good to hear his voice. He had tried to leave a voice mail (a prompting of his mother's) but the answering machine wasn't working. Unfortunately, this will be the last time we will hear his voice until he calls home at Christmas. We will all be looking forward to then. He has about a 45 minute ride to Provo and then the work begins. Almost immediately upon arrival, he will be assigned to a companion, shown around a little, find his dorm room and then off to the business at hand. Quickly diving into work will keep his mind occupied on things other than home. We wished him well, encouraged him to work hard and left him with our love. Our son--Elder Vivona.