One reason I came back to Poland.....the boys!

This week was a good one. It was one of those "trying weeks" where everything hit me like a sack of bricks, and I got to pick myself up off the ground a few times. I'm grateful for the experiences I'm having that are allowing me to learn patience and strength, and learning how to rely on the Lord. 

There's this guy in Warsaw... he's famous with the missionaries-we call him the anti-christ. He's essentially really good at(whenever he sees us), walking up and yelling a whole bunch of terrible things at us and those we're talking to. He ruins any street contacts that we have going on, and uses his three favorite(and only) english words he knows... which all happen to be swear-words. Usually we just switch really fast into English and ignore him until he goes away, because we've tried reasoning with him, and his heart is too hard at this point to listen to a single word we say. So this time, he was messing with our boy Bre... He actually has a baptismal date(more info to come), and was out in centrum with us while we were finding more people to teach. Well Bre... took him aside and was talking with him, and our anti-christ got in his head. So that got me going. I didn't see him that night, which is probably a good thing because I was going to let this guy have it. I hate when people mess with other peoples' salvation. Well the next day in centrum, of course this guy finds us there on the patelnia. He starts messing with the sisters, and I wasn't having that.... so I went over and started talking to them really fast in english, putting him right there next to me, closest to me. This guy gets mad and starts trying to physically get at me and stop me from talking. so first, all of the PTSD from my sketchy first-mission experiences kicked in, and then my adrenaline and self-defense tried to start kicking in. The only thing I could do to stop myself from going at this guy was I quickly switched into Polish and rattled off something like "don't you touch me-the police is right there." He was like "whoah, you speak polish??" and I answered him back a little bit, and then switched right back into english. He stopped trying to mess with me and the sisters, and went away, but I was still shaking from the stress and memories of last time. we finished out the finding activity, and I made it home and had some time to pray and work through some things mentally. We made it through that day, and have been working up from there. I'm grateful that the Lord is giving me opportunities to 'fight with my demons'. haha.

So Bre.... is on date! He's 22, and a stud. He like to talk a ton, which means that it's a bit tough to keep our lessons on topic, but he's excited and willing to do what he needs to in order to come closer to Christ. We're excited. He hasn't answered his phone today, so be praying for us!

Also Ren... is on date! It was a miracle. She has known and been meeting with missionaries for ages. She knows the church is true, and just needs the courage to be baptised, and give up some of the traditions of the catholic church. She can get there. Be praying for her as well. 

So we got to do some service yesterday. Ula(that member from Warsaw that I met on the train during my first mission as I was getting close to coming home-the one that gave me the Poland Warsaw tie...), has been telling me for a year and a half about her boys. They aren't members. Her husband is super less-active, although he used to be super super active.  I've been wanting for like a year and a half to get to meet them. At the beginning of this second mission, I felt strongly(as well as she did) that a large reason I needed to come back was for her boys. Well they needed some service to get done yesterday, and I told her that whatever she needed, we would do. They picked us up, and it was her and her husband and her oldest son, K.... He's a bro. We worked alongside them, cleaning out a storage unit that they bought from the city after someone stopped paying rent. We spent the entire morning with them, and a large part of the afternoon. It was awesome, and I think we did what we needed to do. So that was awesome. She was super grateful, and I'm excited to see if anything comes of it. I think her husband really liked us. Prayers please!  That's about it. I sure love you guys. Have a great week. 

Craziest and busiest weeks of my mission so far....and that's saying something!! Sept 12, 2016

What a week!!  We had one of the craziest, busiest weeks of my mission this week. It was absolutely FULL of miracles. The Lord is pouring out blessings... we're doing our best to catch all of them!

So early in the week, we had Mission Leadership Counsel with all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders in the mission. It happened in warsaw, and everything went so well!. It was really good to see all of the elders and sisters, and get to counsel together with them. It's also pretty cool having all the meetings in full polish. That always keeps things interesting and active. So Elder Garrison and Fetzer from Szczecin had an exchange with us immediately following MLC. We had a great time, and it was awesome to get to work with both of them. It was way fun to see and serve with elder fetzer. He's changed a ton since I trained him 5-6 months ago...and he's doing great! He's had some trials and health issues that he's getting through. He looks good. Elder garrison is an absolute homie as well. I really like that guy. So they had a train that left Thursday afternoon, after studies. Elder Cowley and I had just about no time to get so much done, because elders Hill and Liechty from Bydgoszcz were getting in thursday night. We planned as much as we could, and had to get a bunch of other random things done, but it went well. We had a meeitng with Re.... our investigator(she's awesome, and she knows the church is true... she's just searching for a baptismal date, and the courage to make the step), and Clara came on the meeting with us. She's perfect for Re... because Clara has no fear. I freaking love her. She is one of those huge blessings of my mission. So Re... is praying for a baptismal date, and we have another meeting on Thursday. We then had our last english course that night, and said goodbye to all of our old friends. (we told them they can visit us at church if they want to see us lol). Then the Elders got in, and we had a great night. On Friday, we did some weekly planning with them, and had a finding activity on the patelnia. I was with Elder Hill before that, and we had some extra time, so we walked over to the side of the road, ad nprayed for direction about where we needed to go and search for prepared people. We felt good about heading to a huge park in the middle of Warsaw. we got over to the park, and started teaching in the direction we felt was right. We stopped this kid who was our age, and had a fantastic lesson with him in the park. Elder Hill(a trainee) was testifying using all the polish he had, and the Spirit was there so strongly. That elder has the spirit. He's going to do awesome things in Poland. We got done, gave him a book, got his number, and talked about meeitng this week. after wards, elder hill looked at me and said "that was one of the first times someone's actually stopped and really talked to me on the street." It was pretty epic to do that with him. Then we went to the patelnia to find people. there were all the missionaries from warsaw 1 and 2 there. We were everywhere, and talking to everyone. I teamed up with elder white(he's one of my favorites... he's elder mcpherson's trainee, and he's ijhlarious I've talked about him before in my emials), and got him hyped about missionary work. He is still adjusting to missionary life, and like everyone, didn't want to talk to people at the start. So I started pushin his buttons and getting him pumped up, and by the end, he was going out of his way to get to people and track them down and stopping them. It was epic. He looked at me at the ned of it and said "thank you, elder quackenbush". It was a cool reminder that we actually do make a difference. I love that guy!

So they shipped out saturday morning. Elder cowley and I finished up weekly planning,and went and hit a few language stores for Prezydent to try to find the best dictionaries for misisonaries. They're wanting to change the dictionaries that the misisonaries are getting in the mtc(they're so bad that noone uses them), and to figure out good pocket dictionaries for the road, and good home dictionaries. So we visited a few shops, and are trying to find the best dictionaries. So then we went to sports saturday. My hips weren't feeling particularly good, and there weren't a bunch of people there or investigators... so I was standing there in the field, praying for the Lord's help to be productive, and this older gentleman walked by with his dog. I saw that he was well-put-together, and not too old, and had his life in order, so I just gave him a "good evening" comment as he was passing by, and smiled. He got about 10 steps, and turned around and asked if we knew eachother. I said "well not yet!" So he had me go on a walk with him, we sat on a bench, and chatted. We talked about the church, and I learned that he is a colognel in the army, a doctor, and a professor. He wants to do a presentation for the churhc-members with his students, and we want to go to his college and teach all his students about hte gospel. We're thinking about doing a trade. We're talking with prezydent turek about it a little bit later... so that's cool. We also met with this guy named Zdzi.... He's a dual citizen of the US and Poland, and he's pretty cool. The church really helped his good buddy get over his alcoholism, so he's very simpathetic to the church. We met with him , and had the most amazing lesson. it was led by the Spirit, and we just testified  about the things we know to be true. He could feel it. He is reading the book of mormon, and we're going to meet when he can find time! It was awesome, and the Spirit was SO STRONG. The gospel is so good.  Sunday was the biggest miracle. If you remember. you probably don't), I had that miracle that happened like 2 months ago with that guy named Pio.... We were standing at a zebra waiting for the crossing light to turn green, and he walked up with a bunch of bags. I  just looked at him and said someting stupid like "wlel you've got a lot of bags there, huh?" And we tlaked and he gave me his number and wants to meet. So we've had contact for a long time, and I don't know what it us, but I feel a connection with this guy, despite barely knowing him.  So I felt like I needed to call him saturday night, so I did, and he set up a meeting with us for sunday the next day, out by the river. I explained our purpose and all, just to make sure he knew we weren't just trying to hang out or something haha. And we met out there. We sat down on some stadium seats leading out o the Wisła, and we talked. The lesosn was completely led by the Spirit. I felt so ogod the whole time. We testified from the bottom of our hearts about the gospel and about how it has chnaged my life. He opened up. He told us that he's 20 years old, that for 10 years, he was a ministrant in the catholic chruch.(the definition in our dictionary is an altar-boy... which goes along with what he explained) he said that he knows he probably shouldn't have done it, but the day before he met us, he had prayed to God and asked for a sign. he wanted to know if God really listens to Him. Then He met us the next day. he told us that it wasn't a coincidence, and that god led us to eachother. We taught a large part of the restoration, and he ate it up. At the end, he opened up again. He said... "i'm scared". I asked him what he is scared about. "I'm scared that God is changing something huge in my life". If that's not real intent, then I don't know what is. He knows that God is leading him, and he knows that God is wanting to change his life. He's already thinking through the consequences of this road he's begujn. We bore testimony about the power of God, and about the truthfulness of the gospel. He asked if we could meet again soon, and this time at the chapel. I think we can make that work.. ;) haha. it was a miracle. We walked away, and you couldn't have wiped the smile off my face if you tried. I just felt the Spirit so strongly, and the love of God, and the truthfulness of this restored gospel. I am so grateful that I am so grateful to be a member of this true church, and to be able to share my testimony with the people of poland right now. I know that this church is true. God is good, and God has an individual plan for each of us. I am so happy to be a part of it. Love y'all. Have a great week!