Sepp y'all?
This week was one of the greatest weeks of my life.
Everything absolutely FLEW by! This entire month has flown by, too... on
Wednesday I'll have been here for a month... LIKE WHAT???
So in the Poland, Warsaw mission, the missionaries have a little more
freedom than most missionaries I guess... President is super chill about us
doing whatever we need to, as long as we don't get hurt, and as long as we're
following the rules. Last Monday, Elder Blom, Elder Torres, and Elder White took
me go-carting... like the legit go-carts that go really fast and have a
professional track and stuff... ya those. I am proud to say that I am the
fastest go-cart driver that this District has, and probably has ever had... but
that's besides the point.
I've adopted a 4th Mother... (behind my own Mom, Mamma Wardrop, and
Mamma Dickson, of course). Her name is Malgosza. She is our landlord and she's
fantastic. She is about 50/60 years old, never married, and as grandmotherly as
could possible be... We even came home one day and found her doing our
dishes-she's great! She has us over for the best soup I've ever had in my life,
and even offered to take us to the bazaar to find good fruits and vegetables.
She already called Elder Blom and I her boys.
Elder Blom is super cool. We work really well together, and both try
to be super diligent when contacting and doing missionary work, so I love him!
He is a super big wrestler though. He's got like 45 pounds on me and was a super
good wrestler in highschool-so you could bet I don't stand a chance. He tries to
wrestle me, like every night, and usually I don't fight back(I've discovered
that going "boneless" will usually ward off wrestling companions... but
sometimes I fight back... and we'll go at it for like 20 minutes-destroying the
entire apartment in the process... it's a bunch of fun.
Thursday was one of the longest days of my life, for sure. I got up at
4:30, got ready, and got on a train to Warsaw by myself..... yeah. After a 3 1/2
hour train ride, Elder Pieper and Elder Jaeger picked me up at Warsawa
Centralne. They're the best. They are the mission's office Elders, and we get
along well. (Elder Jaeger was a marine, and could rip my arms off if he
wanted.) I got my legal work done in Warsaw, so I'm finally legal... and then I
got on another super long train ride back to Kielce. Once I got back at night, I
had to do studies with Elder Blom, and that was probably one of the farthest
things from what I wanted to do after my long day. But, we studied and I went to
bed right after planning at 9:30.
Our two possible Priesthood candidates from English last week didn't
show this week, and we were super bummed. But, a really nice lady who NEEDS the
gospel SO bad did come, and I talked to her the whole hour(Elder Blom was
working with another man during English). She is super nice, and we hope to
continue to teach her and bring her closer to Christ, because the gospel could
totally change her life!
I love contacting, but I have found one really terrifying drawback....
I am deathly afraid to talk to groups of girls around my age- because chances
are they'll just freak out and try taking pictures with me and touching my arms
and being all weird and stuff. I don't even know how to handle it. Honestly it
freaks me out... like I'm staying away from girls for two years, no thank
you!
If there was one thing about Sienkiewicza I could change, it would
definitely be the super big club right in the middle. Every time we walk down
that street, there are HUGE innapropriate pictures up on the windows of the
club, and seductive ladies with umbrellas who try to talk to us. OH, and there's
a little problem here with girls forgetting to put pants on in the morning. I
always look at Elder Blom and say: "Man... Don't you just hate when you forget
to put pants on in the morning? Like sweetie, let's get you home quick before
someone sees you." It's nasty and I hate it.
On Friday, The Elders in my district and I did a whiteboard on
Sienkiewicza. We have a huge whiteboard with a question on it. This week's
question was 'What does it mean to Repent/Return oneself(Polish)'. I worked with
Elder White, and the Lord blessed us SO much! We taught like 4 or 5 lessons and
gave out 5 Book of Mormons in just over two hours. The Lord is blessing Kielce,
and I'm so grateful to be a part of it!
Every Saturday night is Rib night with the District. We go to some pub
down Sienkie, and all get ribs and dinner for like 5$. It's glorious. It's one
of my favorite times of the week! Elder White and Elder Torres are super cool,
and we've become super close this transfer!
We see miracles every day in Kielce. Every Day. But, this week, there
were two HUGE miracles that happened. 1) Remember that guy who came up to us a
week and a half ago and wanted to come to church but didn't? Well He Came to
Sacrament meeting yesterday!! WOOOO! He was all banged up bad, though. He had
bruises all over his head and body, and his hand was all bandaged up-I am 99%
positive he got hit by a car. But he came! We gave him a Book of Mormon and set
up a meeting with him for later this week! It was amazing! 2) We do a weekly
service afternoon as a district, which usually involves us traveling out to the
dzialki's(little gardens) and asking people if we can help with service. We went
Saturday afternoon this week, and it was amazing! I was absolutely starving, and
SO thirsty just as we were leaving... which is a shame, because we walk
everywhere, and the walk is about 45 minutes to an hour away. By the time we got
to the gardens, I was dying. (Everybody keep in mind that scripture in D&C
about not taking care of what you shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or
wherewith ye shall be clothed.) Literally the second person we talked to let us
come and serve her. We moved tree limbs and cleaned up her yard, and Elder White
and I went and talked to her about our church at her little house thing. We
explained how we're not Amish(everyone here either thinks were J-Dubbs(Jehovas
Witnesses) or Amish), and some of the things we believe in. We did a lot of
listening because she did a lot of talking. She fed us the strangest and most
amazing fruits from her garden, and gave us as much clean water as we wanted to
drink, and even her own Kompot-which is like special boiled fruit drink that
they use Polish magic on or something. All in all, we got fed, we got things to
drink, we got to serve, we helped a lady come closer to Christ, and we exchanged
numbers and planned to meet later this week. The Lord is blessing us so
much!
One of the biggest blessings in my life, however, is the Polish. I
have nothing to say other than The Lord has blessed me so much. The gift of
tongues is so real. I can't even describe it in words how real it is. The things
I have been able to learn, and to say, and to bear testimony of, while only
being in Poland for less than 4 weeks is a blessing from God. I would have NEVER
been able to do/say anything in Polish without Him.
I love God and I love Jesus Christ so much. I have come so much closer
to my Savior over the past few weeks as I have studied and learned about Him,
and then applied His Atonement in my life to help me through the good times and
the bad. He is real, and He is our Savior. God answers prayers. He really,
really does. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true
church. I am so glad to be a part of it and to be a missionary!
I love you all, and I'm praying for you! Miss you, love you, talk to
you soon
Starszy Quackenbush
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| Their new investigator in her garden |
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| District in Kielce |
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