My First Czech Prayer

So, there I was minding my own business, preparing my Gospel Doctrine lesson in the few minutes before church started (jk... kinda). The branch president came up to me and asked me if I would say the opening prayer for sacrament meeting. I said, "in English?" and he said, "can you do it in Czech?"... I said, "well, I can do it in English for sure...", he then said, "ok, do your best."

I began to think of the words I have learned so far in Czech to help me get along. I'm limited on vocabulary, but began to run through a possible prayer in my mind. I came up with a few things and after the opening song, I walked up to give the prayer and it went as follows: ver batim (english translation in parenthesis).

Dear Heavenly Father (I did this part in English... don't know how to say it in Czech yet),

Dekuji rodina (thank thee family, wasn't quite sure of the appropriate article i.e. "for families")
Dekuji Nedele (thank thee for Sunday)
Dekuji Ovoce (thank thee for fruit)
Dekuji Zmerzlina (thank thee for ice cream)

(by this time I was sure i had already traded my birthright for a mess of pottage, but I still tried to redeem my prayer by switching to English and followed up with...)

And thank thee for the opportunity to be here.

In the name of... Amen. (also in English)

I've never heard such a stir of people talking and snickering after an opening prayer, even in my singles student ward... but the branch president gave me a huge smile and big friendly slap on the back which must have meant he approved.

I sat back down and put on the translator headphones (someone translates the Czech into English) and I could tell they had been laughing on the translation. I would love to have heard them cracking up when attempting to translate for all of the English speakers.

I'm not quite sure if the two sisters that were doing the translation ever really got it completely back together for the duration of the meeting. I was thinking after that I basically dared myself to do it... and it was a double dog dare which I usually don't back down from, so I went for it.

Nah, if I was Heavenly Father, I think I would have laughed too. Then again, I guess this is what it is like not being perfect.

However, lest ye think I require a ton of repentance, I did hear that the Czech people are more happy when you actually try to speak their language because they themselves know it is not an easy language and I am truly grateful for Ice Cream. So, all but the most staunch were uplifted that day.

I think they may think twice before asking me to pray again. ;)