Before I start talking about what a sweet week I had this week, I want
to start something new with my weekly emails. I've had a list of some
things that I feel inspired to work on for the next little while, and
I've struggled to find a way to apply them into my life. As I've
searched for inspiration on how I can best apply these Christ-like
attributes to my life, and how to improve myself, I've been blessed
with some good things I can do. The last step in applying some of
these things to my life is making myself accountable-first to the Lord
and to myself, and then to you all. With that being said, this week
I'm going to work on 1) Not Judging others(even if they're not exactly
being Christlike to me in the first place) 2)Finding Joy in the
Journey(if you haven't watched or listened to that talk, go right now.
It'll change your life.) and 3) Getting up in the morning, no matter
how tired I am. I'm going to focus on improving these things this
week, and I'll get back to y'all next week with how I did! Thanks for
your help! Love y'all!
So this week was a really good week! I really had a chance to
learn a whole lot! So Monday morning(which may or may not have also
been my birthday), I messed up my back pretty bad.... like I could
barely walk. It was pretty awesome. It was actually an answer to
prayers, because for the past little while, I had been praying and
asking for "mountains to climb" out here on my mission. I had fasted
and prayed for those trials on Sunday, and God Definitely heard my
prayers. I have had an awesome time learning to rely on the Lord, and
learning to know my limits.(I guess I hadn't learned that lesson
during all of the other trials I've had... So I think Heavenly Father
was giving me another chance to actually learn something) Other than
that, my birthday was awesome! Elders Weiler, Blunt, and Berlin helped
me have the best birthday ever! They snuck into my apartment and
jumped me as I walked in the door, and we ate cake and sang and had a
real dandy time. It was awesome!
We also had Zone Training in Poznań this week. I got to see my
boys Elder Wilcox and Elder Jeffs, and we were taught by the zone
leaders and sister training leader(the one and only Sister Grgich). It
was exactly what my district and I needed, and we have some really
good ideas, now, that we can apply to our missionary work.
Our English class killed it this week! We have been English
Contacting a lot, recently, trying to get people to come to our
English class so that we can teach them the gospel via spiritual
messages and feeling the Spirit in the chapel. We had a bunch of
really cool people come, and I was even able to teach a sweet guy
named Michał the restoration while we were talking(I switched into
Polish, just because it would be SO much easier to teach it in
Polish... lol). He's really cool, and he's coming back this next week!
On Thursday(as a birthday present from Elder Blunt), I was able
to go out to visit Jan T. with Elder Weiler and the Gay's.
He's the long-lost member that Elder Weiler and I were blessed to find
last transfer. He's my favorite. We taught him the Plan of
Salvation(he wants us to re-teach him the lessons since it's been so
long), and he played the accordian for us. It was literally the
sweetest thing I've ever seen. I was also able to give him a blessing
of health. I love exercising my priesthood, and I absolutely love the
feeling of being led 100% by the Spirit in knowing what to say and
what to bless him with. It was such a neat experience for me.
On Friday, we were able to have a meeting with Jacek and his
grandmother at his grandmother's home. She made us legit Polish
food(literally the best food ever) and we talked and visited for a
while. That morning, actually, while Elder Berlin and I were preparing
for our lesson with them, I felt prompted that we should prepare a
lesson on prayer. Lo and behold, we finish eating, and what does he
want to talk about? Prayer. Dzięki Bogu, we were able to be prepared
to have a wonderful lesson with Jacek, and able to strengthen
eachother.
Saturday was a super sweet day, because we got to have some really
good meetings with some recent-converts and less-actives. We hadn't
been able to get a hold of Zbyszek for a little while, so we just
showed up at his apartment earlier in the morning, and he let us in
and we had a wonderful lesson about the Restoration. We are trying to
reteach the less-actives the missionary lessons, hoping and praying to
strengthen their testimonies and help them into activity through
building, and remembering their testimonies. We also had an awesome
lesson with Lech about how to deal with addicts, and people not of our
faith who have different beliefs and ideas than we do. Literally I
almost cried when I saw just how much he's grown and matured in the
gospel in the last 3 months. That's my boy! Dagmara also taught us how
to do indexing and family searching in Polish so that we can teach
Tadeusz and Ula sometime how to do that.
PAWEŁ CAME TO CHURCH............
now stop and everybody fist pump and dance and say a prayer of
gratitude for life for me. He came and he loved it and he couldn't
stop smiling, and he's meeting with us on Tuesday, and life is just so
good. I love that guy, and I am so excited to see him progressing so
well!
Oh yeah... we also kinda got stolen from by a drunk guy. We were
talking to this 28 year old guy, and everything was normal, and then
things just got so weird. He kept trying so hard to get us to go to
this one place where we could meet "cool people like him", and
everything. We told him we had a meeting, and tried to just get his
email so that we could try to talk to him some other time when he
wasn't completely off his rocker. He ended up taking Elder Berlin's
planner, and telling us he was going to call the cops and keep the
planner if we didn't go with him. Thankfully I didn't actually fight
this guy-I was really like 3 seconds away from punching out a drunk
guy in the middle of a public square. So that was pretty sweet.
Actually miraculously, the next morning we saw him just outside the
apartment walking his dog. We talked to him, and he apologized for
being drunk, and went and got the planner for us(He lives across the
street in an apartment)..... good times...!
I absolutely love my mission, and I love the gospel so much! i
know that this church is true, and that the gospel of Jesus Christ has
been restored in it's fullness upon the earth-and that it changes
lives. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have, and that nobody can
take that away from me. I love y'all, I'm so grateful for you, and
make it the best week ever!
Love You,
Elder Quackenbush
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