Another week down. I've been realizing that the fact that
we're so busy is actually the answer to my prayers. I've been praying so hard
that I would be able to finish my mission strongly and have no regrets and
finish the work I needed to do here. We've been so busy that we don't have time
to eat, or work out in the mornings, or actually have real p-days haha. We get
a few hours today just to let y'all know that I'm still alive and that
everything is well, and then it's back to the grind! good things are happening.
This week was crazy(as before mentioned):
It's a little hard to remember
what we actually did, because I'm looking back in my planner and realizing that
our plans got shot(as usual hahaha), and we just got done what we needed to do
that day, and didn't look back. Good things.
Monday: We went out and saw the national stadium, and went
up to the... lookout point...(???) i guess at the top of the stadium. It was
super sweet to get to see the whole stadium and be there. Childhood dream
*check*.
Tuesday: Fixed a bunch of
problems that popped up, and tried to get some studying done, and had district
meeting. It was a good day. We met with our Ukranian peeps and taught them
english, and about the gospel. They're great. Had dinner at the train
station(or rather didn't have dinner), as we picked up Elders Fuhriman and
Kriser from Wrocław. We had an exchange with them from Tuesday night until
Thursday morning.
Wednesday: Got up really early and played some soccer with
the other elders in the district, and the Wrocław elders. It was super fun.
Elder Fuhriman is originally from Ukraine, and balls pretty hard. we had a good
time trolling the other elders. We had a good exchange with an english blitz at
the college, some studies, a fantastic meeting with Klara at Nowy Świat, and
then got flaked on a meeting directly after that. We did a bit of planning for
zone trainings this week, and had a lesson with Agnieszka Ilnicka at the
chapel, and she taught us how to speak polish.
Thursday: Got the elders off to their cities, had some
lunch, and worked on changing the english system. We had a meeting with Ren...
at Nowy Świat, and it went really well. She's awesome, and we're just trying to
help her get to church and trust God. Taught english after that, and got home
in time for Elders Bebel and Garrison to come in for an exchange from
Poznań.They're both bros, so we had a super fun time out on the grind.
Friday: It was independence day, so centrum wasn't safe at
all... which means that we spent a ton of the day out on the streets away from
the center of the city, looking for people to teach. It's been cold as flip the
last weeks, and it snowed almost every day, so that was pretty tough, but Elder
Bebel and I got it done, and had a good time while doing it. Found a Browning store(biggest
surprise of my mission), and taught a cool lady on the street who told us
essentially had the gift of divination or discernment or something. Didn't know
what to think, but she was open and pretty cool, so that was great. I conducted
Bart's baptismal interview over at the Warsaw II chapel. He was ready, and the
Spirit was there strongly, and that went well. Then I went out with Elder
Garrison and we had a meeting with Andrz... and An.... They're so ADHD it's
awesome haha. I love them, and we just have to work really hard to keep them
focused. They gave us this nasty drink from Belarus that Elder Garrison was
having trouble finishing(haha). He also wasn't smart about the speed at which
he was eating this roll thing we were given, so he got another one, and was
trying to make them give me another one too so that I would suffer with him. I
won :) We read an awesome chapter out of the Book of Mormon, and it was a good
meeting. Came home, and sat out in the cold because the other elders took the
bus the wrong way and didn't realize until they were all the way at the end of
the line... and they had the house keys. So that was fun. We had a good talk
though. I love that guy.
Saturday: The elders got themselves off to the train
station, and Elder Mulder and I had a meeting with Jan... He was the
investigator from Szczecin from my first mission that had a baptismal date
while I was there. He just walked into English, and invited us over. We met
with him and his friend, and they are coming to play soccer with us early
saturday morning. It's a great opportunity to talk about the gospel and not
scare them away. Then we went to english class and had a good time. We were
waiting to hear back from our investigator that we were going to be having a
meeting with, so we stopped in and got some warm food on the road while we
could eat lunch that day, and ended up getting flaked... but while there, we
english contacted two girls about coming to english class, and ended up having
a super long conversation over lunch. They asked us out to a museum afterwards,
and I realized that the whole "missionary" term hadn't made it very
far with them. But maybe they'll come to english class and hear the gospel and
give it a chance. We're just going to keep our distance haha. Came home and god
some studies that we weren't going to get, and then went and taught our
Ukrainians. It's interesting. We felt like we really really needed to
teach them english, and sometimes I wonder if it was just the Lord giving us an
opportunity to try out our english system on them before we put it into
practice next Thursday with all of the district leaders, zone leaders, and
sister training leaders. We've been working on it non-stop... but there's still
SO much to do, and we have every second of the next week completely filled
already... which means that we might not get much of a pday next week as well,
as we try to finish up everything monday night until wednesday morning. Pray
for us. It's a big project, and we've gotten so much of it done, it all just
needs to come together now. We need a miracle or two or three or four. (P90X
joke).
Sunday: Church went really well. Mar... came to church, and
finally set up to meet with us on Wednesday(elder mulder will be with someone
else at the meeting, because we have another exchange this week). We also had
Józ.... at church, and he wants to learn about family history and genealogy, so
we set up a meeting for wednesday in a week and a half. Miracles. Hopefully he
wants to learn about the gospel as well. Met with President late that night and
worked through ideas about the english system, and zone trainings, and
mlc(mission leadership council) stuff. It was fun, and good to see the
Turek's.
Today we got groceries for the sisters because Sister A
broke her foot and Sister Dekker dropped a drawer on her toe... so they're
about as homebound as you can get. They're great, and have just had the worst
luck in the world the past few weeks. Pray for them! Then we got together with
the other elders and practiced a song because we're going to be singing in
sacrament meeting on sunday. We get a few hours here to relax, and then we meet
with the ukranians, and then go pick up elders ashworth and dooley for our
exchange this week. After the exchange, there's a zone training on Thursday,
and an MLC with President Johnson from the european area presidency. That'll be
good.
Pray that we don't get sick(ain't nobody got time for that),
and that we'll get everything done with this english project, as well as the
next upcoming projects. We'll need it! Praying for y'all! Love you!
Elder Q
