We visited the Forest in Poland May 15th, 2016

Man it's great to hear from you... always one of the best parts of my week! It sounds like life back there has been crazy! Jeremy Did it!  Not that anyone was ever worried, but he did an amazing job! I was just thinking about that... there's only going to be 4 at home here in a little bit, and 2 of us will be out on missions at the same time...that's crazy! Thanks so much for the pictures. It's awesome to get to see what it's actually like back there. Jeremy is such a funny kid hahaha I miss him.

Things this week were great. Miracles are happeneing, and we're just plugging along. It's flying by out here... I just realized that a year has turned into only 7 1/2 months... and then it's all going to be over. The good thing is, I'm finally starting to feel good doing missionary work. It's still hard and painful, but I'm starting to enjoy different parts about it that I didn't see coming. It's been good. We stayed out late(I called president haha) on Saturday night bbecause they had a Museums night across poland, and people were just walking into our chapel. So we spent a solid 4 hours teaching lessons with memebers, and leading them around the chapel. Itw as awesome. It is finally Spring, and the weather is amazing. Zone trainings went well, and yes I got to play the piano. Tell Colby that he HAS to keep playing. It's SO worth it to be able to play all the hymns, and ot know chords to mix things up. He'll be grateful one day! I remember those days all too well... ;)

Whats new.... we have an exchange with Elders Haskett and Einfeldt this week. They are both super young in the mission, and are zone leaders in the south. We are excited to get them stoked about missionary work, and give them some things to work on that will help them and the members of their zone. We met with a guy named Kas(abbreviated, of course). He's a bible scholar, and knows the bible better than anyone I've ever met... he's probably only 24. He agreed to take the lessons from the missionaries, so we're really excited to meet Thursday. Other than that, we're headed out to the forest today, which I'm super excited about. It'll be fun to hang out with the district and have a good time. :)

The National Forest in Poland.

Week of May 9th...Baptism and Mother's Day

Yeah, this was a definitely a surprise! I didn't think that I had actually had that big of an influence on Clara, but I was super happy for her. Her testimony was so cool about how the Book of Mormon has changed her life, and how she has felt a change since the very beginning when we gave her the Book of Mormon.  It felt great to hear that we made a real difference! All of the members came out to see it, and it was amazing! So cool!

The Baptism of Clara

                                                                                 Oh Clara!

I sure miss you guys. It was amazing to see your face on Mother's Day! I was sad I wasn't there to do anything with y'all for mothers day, but this will be the last one I'm away for! I can't wait to see y'all! :)

Elder C and I hit our STANDARD....with help from the Lord!

Hello. Hello.  So fastest update of my life:  This week was so good. Miracles after Miracles after Miracles happened. I'm just going to highlight the big stuff since we talked last...

So on Friday there was the funeral for the branch president of the 2nd Warsaw branch. He was an amazing man, and died of cancer this last week. It was so sad to see him go. Lots of people had a hard time with that. But, in preparing for the funeral, we went on an "AP Adventure".

We've always heard so much about them, but didn't really know what to expect. But we were studying in the morning, and got a call that we needed ot be to the chapel in 15 minutes.... and I didn't even have pants on at that point... so that was an interesting sprint to the chapel. Once we got there, president and sister edgren and the sisters were there already, which was unexpected. Then, two minutes later, our branch president came rushing into the chapel freaking out and saying "Oh rany Oh rany. CO JEST GRANY?????".....  oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh WHAT IS GOING ON??? It was definitely a new experience! We needed to go pick up 2 human-sized flower arrangements from some shop, and the van isn't at the chapel right now to carry them... so we jumped in our car, and president edgren and the branch president jumped in president's car, and we raced over to this sketchy flower shop on the side of the road. We finally get these flower arrangements in the car(with all the seats down), adn then have to pay... and they don't have enough money... So I pulled out the reserve fund(thanks Pampa and Dad for teaching me to always carry that) and we got it done.

President gave me a huge fist-bump and payed me back later... but it was hilarious! He said" This is why you're the assistant" lol. So then we get in the cars, and instead of driving on the road like a normal person, I'm following the branch president, and we throw on our hazards and literally drove through the middle of the national cemetery/warsaw uprising park.... like it was nothing. It was ridiculous... but we made it back to the chapel. THEN, the missionaries were told we had a musical number, and didn't even get to run through one verse before we found ourselves in front of the whole congregation singing some hymns in parts. That was crazy, but a miracle and it worked out so well! It was awesome!

On top of that, Saturday was MLC and it went really really well! the Spirit was there, and it was so good to be done with it all! Haha we made it through "H*ll week" as the past AP's have called it!

The most miraculous thing of the whole week.... Elder Cowley and I hit our standard. It hasn't been hit since they changed it while I was back home for surgeries... and the Lord just lined everything up on the craziest week of our lives, and made it happen. I literally don't understand how He did it, but we had 3 people in church, and 2 baptismal dates, and a bunch of new investigators... and it wasn't anything we did at all. We didn't even really have time to meet with people, but the Lord is a God of miracles! It was really cool to see how much He really is in charge of the work!

I don't have like any time this week because we're going as a district to the national park. It should be fun! But it takes a bunch of travel time, and so it's going to take most of Pday... but we'll talk either on Sunday for Mother's Day, or next monday! love y'all!

AP's and Piano playing....APril 25th, 2016

Okay, So I don't have a whole ton of time this week... we aren't even getting most of our pday until like Friday.... and let's be real-we probably won't get it then either hahaha... so this is just going to be an information bomb of my feelings and experiences this past week, and this upcoming week. Here I go.  (It's a good thing I'm a fast typer!)

So Elder Cowley and I are working together with President to plan and conduct Missionary Leadership Training this next week, so a lot of our time this week was spent planning and preparing for that. We have literally been so busy we haven't had time to get all of our meal time, or studies... so that's been interesting! Every second of free time has been spent pondering or studying, or discussing what needs to be shared, and how the meeting needs to proceed. It's 4 hours long, so it takes a little bit of preparation.

I learned how to drive stick-shift for reals this week. Our car is a stick-shift and I had a solid hour to practice on it one night, but we got it down, and now it's a piece of cake. It's great because it feels the same as that old 450 quad we had... except the clutch is with my foot instead of my hand. No life-endangering experiences yet, but I'll keep you updated! ;) lol jk we've got this mom.

We had a meeting with K. (we're not supposed to actually say people's names anymore since all of the legal things... so I'll just use first letters). He already had a baptismal date for this upcoming weekend, and has been preparing for that. He is a university professor, and is thus very analytical and logical. It was really cool to be led by the Spirit on that lesson, and be able to have different ways that I think about the gospel be able to help him understand how he can apply it to his life. He won't be baptized this week, but I am confident that he will get there in the near future.

We met with a less-active YSA this week that has been missing for ages. Nobody has had contact, but we set up a meeting and went and had lunch with him. It was awesome to see him. There has been a lot of drama with him lately, so we are hoping that he is okay. We'll keep working and praying for him!

I conducted the baptismal interview for Brother Mazurowski. His wife has been a member of the church od dawna. He has been taught by Elders Burdick and Jones, and was baptized this last Saturday. He is awesome, and the interview went great, and he's going to be a great addition to the branch.

We met with W on Saturday-he's 21 and a college student studying law... he's a stud. We had an amazing meeting with him, and were able to practice some of the things that we're going to be teaching in MLC this next week during the meeting. We're working on setting expectations with investigators and putting the ball in their court, essentially. It went really well! He just about picked a date, but wanted to think about it more before he gave a decision.

There was a ward picnic this week. I really feel like we're making it "in" with the members. I was talking a ton with President Pogorzelski, and we had a great time. We also got invited to dinner in the future at the District President's house(Dresler's), and to the Jarosz's house again... they are some of my favorite people on the earth, and we're so excited!

Brat Mazoriwski's baptism happened Saturday night. It was crazy. There were SO many people there. We had K there, so I was sitting next to him helping to explain things, while simultaneously translating the meeting using the wireless microphone for all of the non-polish speakers. Then I had to put that down to go up and lead the music, after which I said the opening prayer. It was a crazy meeting, but everything went so well and the Spirit was there, strongly!

Yesterday was a MIRACLE. We had church, and noone unfortunately showed up.. but we did have a meeting with my man E..... He is from Azerbaijan. He speaks Japanese, English, French,some Polish, Russian(i

think) and Azerbaijanian. He's a stud. He lived in America for a year during high school with a christian family. He is studying for his MBA here in Poland, and is a stud. I had gotten a prompting to go out of my way to get him last friday while we were shining people's shoes for service on the patelnia(the 'frying pan' in polish... but it's the place between both metros and the tram stops, right in city centrum.) He was stoked, and I shined his boots, and there was a french BOM there right on the table next to him. He has already been reading it, traveled an hour to our chapel to meet right after church. We met with Agnieszka(she's the best ever.. I've talked about her before) and him, took him on a chapel tour, introduced him to all the members, and then met with him. He is gold. Literally he's so ready it gets me hyped. He wanted to meet all the members, was asking if he could bring all of his friends, said he loves the church, and he loves how he always feels so good there. "It's like I'm coming home"... yeah I almost died. He picked a baptismal date for June 4th, and we felt prompted to promise him that if he does everything he needs to do, that he can know in in 3 weeks that the church is true and get baptized. He's amazing. We are so excited for him, and cannot wait for what is in store!

This week is literally the most crazy week of my life. We stayed the night at President's house(we've been spending a lot of time over here preparing for MLC), and then met this morning. We are in charge of getting the departing group off...(Elder Burdick is leaving. I love that guy more than anything... I'm super sad about it, but he lives way close to BYU and we'll for sure stay in touch). Then tomorrow, we have to get to the airport to pick up the new missionaries, take them to the mission home,get them organized, get them to get legal pictures done, get them lunch, get them to the office, take them contacting, and then have a testimony meeting and get them to bed. We're staying over that night so that we can take 2 of them in the morning back with us. We are getting 2 trainees to stay with us all day Wednesday to show them the ropes, and hopefully give them a good example of missionary work that they can use in their missions. Thursday we are playing a large role in the trainer/trainee meeting at the Wiktorska chapel. Friday we probably won't get pday because we have to weekly plan, transfer plan, clean the apartment for the first time in forever, shop, prepare for MLC, and meet with people. And then Saturday is MLC. It's going to be quite the week, but I am so happy and so ready to do what needs to be done. I haven't felt better in a long, long time. The church is true, the work is good, and miracles are happening!

Funny moments with president and sister edgren this week: I was in the kitchen getting something to eat when sister edgren dropped a glass bowl. President had house slippers on so he gave me a piggy-back ride out of the kitchen. I tore my pants jumping onto his back.

Also, while staying the night last night, I ran upstairs just to the front room to get some letters from my bag just in my G's... and of course president was right there. We played it off so cool, though...

it was hilarious. On top of that, we had a kinda family prayer with the edgrens this morning... and then held hands to start the prayer, so jokingly I reached for sister edgren's hand to say the prayer and then just played it off... but then she grabbed my hand and we ended up holding hands during the prayer. So that was great...! hahaha I love them.

This week might actually kill us, but it's going to be a huge adventure! Thanks for your prayers and letters and support. Then mean the world! Love you all! Sorry I won't have any time to write back individually this week.. .duty calls! Love y'all!

ps: last funny story. President calls me 'Dr. Q on the piano'... so I'm also playing the piano for MLC this week lol.

Whitewashing as AP's.... With my man Elder Cowley

This week was absolutely crazy, Mom. Absolutely crazy. There were so many miracles and so many great things that happened. I'm not telling hardly anybody-I don't even think I'll tell the boys because it really doesn't matter-but I got my transfer call early and already moved apartments. Elder Cowley and I are whitewashing as Assistants for this transfer (and President said probably next transfer too with the new mission president as long as things don't change). It's been absolutely crazy. We moved in last night, and have already met with president and have started planning all of the crazy intense things we're going to be doing over the next few weeks. It's absolutely flying by, and I'm loving every second of it.

I'm so excited to get to work with Elder Cowley. President called me in beforehand and I saw the whole transfer board that he was working on, and he asked me who I could build a "model area" with. he told me that the training for how to choose AP's is that you pick 2 of the best missionaries you have in the mission, and their job is to create a fantastic area that they bring other missionaries introducing exchanges, and inspire them/teach them how to do the same. He asked me beforehand who I could do that with, and far and away Elder Cowley is the right guy! So we're serving together this transfer, and I'm stoked to get started. People are going to get baptized, and we are going to teach everybody we can find! I can't wait! I'm pushing things off with the psychologist. I haven't had a problem in a long time, and I've been feeling so great! it'll be 3

weeks before my next meeting! guess what... I played soccer on Saturday and went HARD. I've been able to walk ever since and have felt great. It's such a miracle. I think the Lord has taught me what I need to learn about controlling my mind for the time being, and I think he's going to let me just go for it this transfer! I'm so excited, and feel SO GOOD! :)  I love you mom! Have the best week ever! Your son, 

Justin

A FANTASTIC WEEK!....April 4th

Hey Mom!

This week was fantastic. It absolutely FLEW by, and I don't know how it's already Pday again! It's such a blessing! Elder Fetzer and I are working hard, and learning to love our missions! It was really really cool, and we saw a bunch of miracles! We went on an exchange with the ZL's Elder Cowley and Bebel, and had an absolute blast. It was really cool! We've gotten to see 3 sessions of conference, so far... and they've been AWESOME. I've gotten a lot of things to work on and change, but I'm excited to apply them to my life!

Jeremy and Sarah look like they had an absolute blast! How fun! I CANT WATCH CARTERS VIDEO THAT IS SO FRUSTRATING. I wish I could see that so bad! I'm so glad to hear that Colby is killing it, and that they destroyed Campo. That's awesome!!! Go Colb!

I'm not meeting with the psychologist for 2 weeks... I'm trying to spread it out, and see how well I do not meeting every week. So far it has been going well!

OH SO COOL! On Friday, I took some money out, and we took a Culture Night(we're allowed one culture night every transfer), andn our district went and had a barbeque at the church, and then we went to a French pantomime called Gogol. It was So Cool. I loved it! I really enjoy going to see plays and being cultured. It was super fun.

Well... I love you! I hope you have a great week! Love you ma!~ Elder Q

Elder Quack and Elder Cowley

March 25th update...

Hey guys! 

We're doing really well. This week was one of the best weeks I've had since I've been back here in Poland. The situation is still pretty tough, but I'm learning how to deal with the bad situations and keep working through them despite the challenges. I've really been working on controlling my thoughts and my attitude and keeping a good perspective, and that has been helping absolutely Everything. My pain levels have been only around a 1-2 this week, I've been happier than I've been in the last 3 months, and I feel great... and the thing is:

nothing has changed. We STILL  have nobody to teach-we are still getting flaked on lessons and we are still getting turned down time and time again... but I can handle it. It doesn't but me as much when people are nasty to us. It doesn't bug me as much when nothing goes our way. I'm just here to try my best and follow the Spirit... and the rest really doesn't matter. It's been great to get to the end of the day, regardless of what happened that day, and know that I was successful  because I had  the Spirit, and because I did what I needed to do. 

Little miracles happen every day that make me excited to be a missionary, and excited to be learning the things I am learning. Life is good. The weather has been so nice the past 2 days, and I think we're finally crawling out of the dark winter this year-which is fantastic! Elder Fetzer and I have a super-open week this week, which we are hopefully going to be filling with good things to look forward to, and we're just going to keep on going! Elder Fetzer and I are doing well. No problems there! Time is flying by this week, so I'll talk to y'all in no time! Love you all!