Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Hey all,
Really there are absolutely NO words to describe this week. None at all. Elder Weiler and I have been blessed beyond comprehension. We started off the week suuuper pumped about the week. The Spirit just hit me and got me all excited, and Elder Weiler and I decided to do a "Heaven Week"...working even Harder than we did last week..(if that's possible)... We wanted to get the "Standard of Excellence"....which includes 2 investigators with baptismal dates, 2 progressing and in sacrament meeting, 3 recent convert/less active lessons, 3 new investigators, and 4 lessons in the presence of a member(sorry that sounds awkward...this is Polish we're talking about)......... Many missionaries Never make the standard their whole mission, and some only make it once. It is special enough that it was one of the first stories Elder Blom told me during our transfer together. We knew it was a HUGE goal, but we worked our tail off for it.
   This week we kept meeting with Lech(the younger)... he's progressing SO well, and so ready to get baptized, confirmed, and to receive the priesthood on Saturday/Sunday. We gave him his last 2 commitments on Sunday, and he's ready to get Baptized! His interview is on Tuesday, but we've already done a mock interview and he passed with no problems at all.
    We also met with Paweł. He's a very soft-spoken guy from Ukraine, and he's awesome. I sure love that guy. (He's the guy to my right in the pictures at the Gays home). Lessons with him are super hard because his Polish isn't that good... so a bunch of the words are Ukrainian... and I thought Polish was hard enough. We met with him, and talked a lot about the Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, how it is the "good news" from Christ on how we can make it back to him. We invited him to be baptized, and he said he would just like to read and pray first! We're so ready for him!
     Bartek. We met with this guy twice this week. He's an atheist that we found in the area book, and we're trying SO hard to get him to read and pray. We'll keep working with him.
     Old Lech. This guy we also found in the area book. He was also an old investigator, who used to have problems with the Word of Wisdom. We met with him last week, and invited him to baptism and to change his life, and said not yet. We met with him again, yesterday. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he loved it. He accepted a baptismal date for the 13th of December. We also found out in the last 2 meetings that he's been changing his life. He no longer drinks, and barely smokes. He even read out of his Word of Wisdom pamphlet that he had kept, and was pumped about the blessings. We're so excited for him!
     So when Elder Weiler and I were out teaching in the parks one day, we gave an Ulotka to some guy and his wife that weren't really interested in the gospel. Later, we were walking through the park, praying at most of the crossroads to know where to go, and felt that we should go back up these steps back into the park. We saw Romald and this lady Again, and they talked with us this time. We talked for a while about the church/what we're doing. Then, a day or two later, we saw him AGAIN. We talked for about an hour about Everything... Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, Everything. He told us he wanted us to come teach him and his sister in their home on Saturday. We went on Saturday, miraculously found his house, because his Sister showed up at the perfect time, and helped us get there. He had invited us to Family Dinner. His two sisters, one of their husbands, the lady we had met in the park, and his Father. We had some amazing conversations about the church, and invited them to church, and to Lech's baptism on Saturday. At that dinner, they (forced us to) allowed us to eat Sledge. Yeah... it tastes worse than it sounds. It's pickled, raw herring. And they made us eat a lot. It's like a Polish favorite, and it's terrible. It's a missionaries worst nightmare. Literally I'm still tasting it.
    By Sunday night, we were finally able to take Lunch at 6 o'clock at night. We knew full well that we could take the night "off" due to the fact that we had another meal hour and some studying that we could have done. But, Elder Weiler and I were both impressed that we needed to go out and put that last bit of effort in for the week... to try to find our last two needed Investigators. We had very little success that night, until about 8:30. We met the most prepared girl named Sophie, who didn't speak Polish, but spoke really good English. She was Really interested in our beliefs, and in the Plan of Salvation. We taught her, and then set up to come back to that same spot on Tuesday night with an English Book of Mormon. I'm really excited to see how that meeting goes. Then, we kept looking and looking, knowing our time was running out, and praying at every crossroad to know where to go. We felt like we needed to go a certain way, and the Last possible guy we could have talked to was incredibly open, accepted a book, liked what we taught, and set up with us again. Miraculously, we made the standard, knowing full well that everything that happened was a blessing from God. I am so grateful for this week!
The Lord is really blessing us. I know He is leading us, and protecting us every single day. I am so grateful for the enabling power of the Atonement. Literally it carries me when I'm sooo out of energy during these hectic days. Wiem że ten kościół jest prawdą. Kocham tę ewangelię, i błogosławi mi każda dzień. Kocham to, że ja mam okazję aby głosić że możemy żamieskać razem że naszą rodziną na wieczność, po smierci. Kocham moją rodzinę! trzymajcie się

Elder Quackenbush





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