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!
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