Hello everyone!
Oh my gosh, this week has been absolutely fantastic!! I'm just going to do
this chronologically, so here goes:
We left Monday morning at 4:30am and were on a few different planes to
Poland. It was amazing to get to talk to the family and others during the
layovers! On the planes, I got to sit next to Sister Kuchar on like every
flight, which is great because she's become one of my best friends! She was one
of the Sisters in my zone that understood me, and we got to talk all the
time!(She's the basketball star who already graduated college if you didn't
remember!) We talked a lot, I slept a lot, and we even had a really cool
experience. On the Flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, we were sitting on the
second-to-last row of the plane. Behind us sat two black(that's the only way to
describe them-I'm not being rascist) girls who live in Denmark. Sister Kuchar
and I started talking to them about the church and some of the things we believe
and such. They were super interested, and it was a funny conversation because
Sister Kuchar and I were tag-teaming teaching in the small open space between
the seats. We taught really well together and even ended up writing our
Mormon.org profile accounts down on the back of a pass-along card of the Salt
Lake Temple, and gave that to them and told them to look us up! I guess we'll
never really know how that worked out, but they said they would.
We arrived in Warsaw Tuesday at noon, and had to work our way through
the airport and get our baggage and such. President and Sister Edgren and the
Assistants to the President(including Elder Caskey) met us at the doors! Elder
Caskey and Elder Fotu are the greatest missionaries! Honestly I learned so much
from them in the day that I've known them! I decided I wanted to be a missionary
like Elder Caskey, here in Poland. We headed back to the mission home to drop
off luggage, we worked on some legal work and had lunch, and then we hit the
streets. I didn't get to work with Elder Caskey or Elder Fotu, but went
contacting with another Elder for about an hour. We actually found a very strict
Bible-believing Christian who didn't speak Polish... so we taught her in
English. She brought up that verse in Revelations about there being no other
standard works or whatever... I haven't actually seen the verse yet... so I
brought up Ephesians 37 about the 2 sticks of the gospel. Essentially, we bore
our testimonies to her and she went on her way. We slept in the mission home
that night. I played the piano while some Elders and Sisters sang, and I played
the song for the devotional that night. In the morning, I asked Sister Edgren
what I could do, and she told me she didn't want me to help in the kitchen, but
she wanted me to go sit down and play the piano for her while she worked. So I
played for a while Wednesday morning until breakfast-time.
After breakfast, we had a meeting and met our trainers and found out
where we would be serving. My trainer's name is Elder Blom(pronounced Elder
Blum), and he's amazing. He's a fairly built guy-he's from New York and he
wrestled and played football. He 's been out a year and a half, and this is his
first time as a trainer. We are serving in the small city of Kielce. There are
only 4 missionaries here, all Elders. We are whitewashing the city-meaning none
of us were in Kielce last transfer, so we're all very unfamiliar. The other
Elders are Elder White and Elder Torres. They're great and I've loved getting to
meet them! There is one main street called Sienkiewicza in the town, and then
there's just smaller streets and apartment buildings. The street's like a mile
long, set on a sort of hill, and there's shops and stores lining both sides of
the streets. Cars aren't even allowed on the street-just a bunch of Polish
people. Elder Blom and I put our nametags on, and walk right down the center of
the street, and talk to as many people as we can. I've made it a goal to not
pass anyone by(within reason), but to talk to everyone I can possibly talk to...
it's hard but I have a good time doing it. People see us coming, for sure, and
it's really funny to see people recognize us and make a run for it. hahahah
Poland definitely isn't anything like South-America! We get turned down time and
time again, but it's great and I love it! Sometimes Poles do this really funny
thing where they bring their hands up to their chests, and then throw
them(limp-wristed)off to the side like they're trying to push you away... It's
really feminine and it's hilarious to watch normal men do it!
Elder Blom sure lets me do a lot- and I'm so grateful for that! I
usually contact the people, and go as far as I possibly can until either I can't
figure out what they're saying or I have no idea what's going on, and then Elder
Blom takes over and I can cut back in when I understand what's going on again.
My Polish has gotten so much better in the last 5 days since all I've been doing
is talking since I walked off that plane.
What makes all the rejection worth it is definitely when people
actually stop and talk to us. Whenever they do, I feel the spirit so strong as I
listen to these people and their lives, and connect with them. I absolutely love
it!
Poland isn't exactly exploding with baptisms, but the Lord is in His
work here. I have seen so many miracles just in the last week, it's amazing. One
of my favorite things so far has been talking to Magdalena. We contacted her
down Sienkiewicza and early in the conversation, she told us she speaks really
good english and to talk to her in English. I don't even know what happened, but
the Spirit took over. I started talking, and ended up asking her
thought-provoking questions(centered around eternal families) and ended up
teaching her the entire first lesson with Elder Blom. We bore testimony, and
gave her a Book of Mormon with the promise that if she read it and pray to know
of it's truthfulness, that God would answer her prayers. She is so ready to hear
the gospel. The whole conversation, she ate up every word about eternal
families. She told us that she tries so hard to be a good mom and teach her kids
to pray, but doesn't know if they will be saved and everything. Like I'll start
filling up the font now. hahaha jk but I can see how much the gospel can bless
her life and the lives of her families. A few days later, we received a call
from her daughter. Magdalena shared the book with her family and her daughter
has already started reading it and absolutely loves it. They are ready to meet,
and we are setting up a meeting with them hopefully this week! There are
miracles in Poland, and I've already seen them!
We have one investigator at the moment. Her name is Sylvia. She's
about 19, and she works in the ice-cream shop down Sienkiewicza. We had a lesson
with her like the first day we were there. Elder Blom was talking to her and I
had absolutely NO idea what was going on. He stopped, looked at me, and then
told me to say something.....now entering a few seconds of freaking out... and
then the Spirit just hit me AGAIN. I bore one of the Strongest testimonies I've
ever born about the Book of Mormon, and promised her that if she would read it
and pray to God, that He WOULD answer her. The Spirit in that meeting was
INCREDIBLE and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything!
Our apartment is definitely interesting. It's tiny and older and
pretty dirty, but I love it! The little kitchen is so small I don't even think
Elder Blum and I can stand next to eachother in it! And as for my stomach-I definitely not worried about it because there's not that much to
eat, Polish people drink so much juice(since the old Russian pipes aren't
exactly good for your health), and we walk all day. I'm definitely going to be
dropping a bunch of weight, but that's good because then I won't have to eat as
much!! hahahah Also, the cooking experience in Poland is quite hilarious. We
went to the store, and Elder Blom essentially told me to plan and make two meals
the first week-which usually wouldn't be a problem. BUT, try making a meal with
Polish ingredients (they don't have SOOO many of the normal things we have in
America-scratch that... they have about nothing. They have the smallest
selection ever, and once you decide you want to make something, you can't
understand the directions to save your life.) Soooo, the meals are interesting
but I've made them work!
One thing about Poland is it's a bit different than Arizona. It rains
like 5 days a week hard, and it's really cold... but I love the change! We're
going to get me a huge jacket right after email time so I won't freeze anymore!
It's so cool to get to walk down Sienkiewicza in the pouring rain and still try
to talk to people... It feels legit and it's one of my favorite things!
hahah
President Edgren and Sister Edgren are absolutely amazing. They're so
kind and grandparent-ly....! haha They actually visited us in Kielce yesterday
for church. We don't even have a ward. We had 16 people in church yesterday,
including missionaries and the branch president. I played the keyboard for
sacrament, and they asked me to play a special musical number, too. So I played
'Have I Done Any Good' and it was super amazing. The branch might be
small...well tiny... but the Spirit was there and it was such a sweet
experience! I also was able to bear my testimony in front of everyone, which was
such a cool experience. It was shorter and limited, but the Spirit speaks all
languages and it was amazing to speak Polish that day.
The Polish is really coming along. I love speaking Polish, and I love
when the Lord surprises me with things that I can say that I had no idea I could
say! There have really been some miracle moments with Polish that I thank my
Heavenly Father for!
My address is a mystery.... I think it's just safest to send things to
the mission home-even though it may take longer to get to me.
I couldn't be happier our here in Poland. I have time to better
myself, to study scriptures, to come closer to Christ, and to learn Polish and
work to bring others to Christ. I'm loving it out here and they're going to have
to drag me out of this place when it's time to leave!
I love you all, and hope you're doing well! Keep up the good work back
home!
Love,
Starszy Quackenbush
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| Elder Quack, Elder Pantalakis, Elder Wilcox Pre-departure to Poland |
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