One reason I came back to Poland.....the boys!

This week was a good one. It was one of those "trying weeks" where everything hit me like a sack of bricks, and I got to pick myself up off the ground a few times. I'm grateful for the experiences I'm having that are allowing me to learn patience and strength, and learning how to rely on the Lord. 

There's this guy in Warsaw... he's famous with the missionaries-we call him the anti-christ. He's essentially really good at(whenever he sees us), walking up and yelling a whole bunch of terrible things at us and those we're talking to. He ruins any street contacts that we have going on, and uses his three favorite(and only) english words he knows... which all happen to be swear-words. Usually we just switch really fast into English and ignore him until he goes away, because we've tried reasoning with him, and his heart is too hard at this point to listen to a single word we say. So this time, he was messing with our boy Bre... He actually has a baptismal date(more info to come), and was out in centrum with us while we were finding more people to teach. Well Bre... took him aside and was talking with him, and our anti-christ got in his head. So that got me going. I didn't see him that night, which is probably a good thing because I was going to let this guy have it. I hate when people mess with other peoples' salvation. Well the next day in centrum, of course this guy finds us there on the patelnia. He starts messing with the sisters, and I wasn't having that.... so I went over and started talking to them really fast in english, putting him right there next to me, closest to me. This guy gets mad and starts trying to physically get at me and stop me from talking. so first, all of the PTSD from my sketchy first-mission experiences kicked in, and then my adrenaline and self-defense tried to start kicking in. The only thing I could do to stop myself from going at this guy was I quickly switched into Polish and rattled off something like "don't you touch me-the police is right there." He was like "whoah, you speak polish??" and I answered him back a little bit, and then switched right back into english. He stopped trying to mess with me and the sisters, and went away, but I was still shaking from the stress and memories of last time. we finished out the finding activity, and I made it home and had some time to pray and work through some things mentally. We made it through that day, and have been working up from there. I'm grateful that the Lord is giving me opportunities to 'fight with my demons'. haha.

So Bre.... is on date! He's 22, and a stud. He like to talk a ton, which means that it's a bit tough to keep our lessons on topic, but he's excited and willing to do what he needs to in order to come closer to Christ. We're excited. He hasn't answered his phone today, so be praying for us!

Also Ren... is on date! It was a miracle. She has known and been meeting with missionaries for ages. She knows the church is true, and just needs the courage to be baptised, and give up some of the traditions of the catholic church. She can get there. Be praying for her as well. 

So we got to do some service yesterday. Ula(that member from Warsaw that I met on the train during my first mission as I was getting close to coming home-the one that gave me the Poland Warsaw tie...), has been telling me for a year and a half about her boys. They aren't members. Her husband is super less-active, although he used to be super super active.  I've been wanting for like a year and a half to get to meet them. At the beginning of this second mission, I felt strongly(as well as she did) that a large reason I needed to come back was for her boys. Well they needed some service to get done yesterday, and I told her that whatever she needed, we would do. They picked us up, and it was her and her husband and her oldest son, K.... He's a bro. We worked alongside them, cleaning out a storage unit that they bought from the city after someone stopped paying rent. We spent the entire morning with them, and a large part of the afternoon. It was awesome, and I think we did what we needed to do. So that was awesome. She was super grateful, and I'm excited to see if anything comes of it. I think her husband really liked us. Prayers please!  That's about it. I sure love you guys. Have a great week. 

Craziest and busiest weeks of my mission so far....and that's saying something!! Sept 12, 2016

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!

"Fishers and Hunters" of all men...haha

Hey,

Elder Cowley and I have definitely had some of the most interesting/weird weeks of our missions this past little while. I don't know what it is... but we run into a whole bunch of random and different situations. It's been a long time of homeless people, and drunk people. Sometimes I feel like that's the only people that actually come up to talk to us... but it's all good. Christ talked about sending "fishers and hunters". It'd almost be too easy if they came to us instead!

There's no time to describe all of the weird things that happened... so I'll just describe our planning session. That should sum it all up. We had transfer planning this week to get ready for this transfer-we both want to work hard, and do what we need to do. We kinda just realized that unfortunately, nothing has been changing. It's almost like we've accomplished nothing. We didn't like that. We started planning, and were doing everything we could to figure out how we need to push forward, and what we need to do to help those around us, and help people change and repent. We prayed and worked and pondered, and then we summed it up with a prayer. We had a bunch of ideas, and took them to the Lord. The Spirit was there throughout the day and the planning, and were excited to get an answer. So we prayed. We got absolutely nothing. Not a single prompting, not a single thought. We looked at eachother, and just had that "stupor of thought". so we went out on the balcony and thought about it... and while looking down, we saw a dude crash on his bike. All of the papers that were on the back of his bike spilled out, and formed a backwards question mark on the sidewalk. It was literally perfect. We freaked out. What is that supposed to mean? So we talked about different things, and tried to just keep going, but we were hitting a wall. It was such a weird moment. Just as we were ready to give up, and move on, I got a call. A guy in the hospital wanted to know about the Book of Mormon. It was an answer. So we set up to come by sunday and talk with him. Turns out, the hospital was all the way in Ząbki... which is outside of warsaw a while. (i guess you're supposed to tell the mission president if you leave your area... but it's okay, because we're AP's and that's cool.).We got all the way out there, and walked in, and figured out (slowly) that it was a mental/psychiatric hospital. We met the guy, and he took us over to his bench, and there was splattered tomato all over it. Then all of his friends slowly came over and talked to us. I felt like I was in a hippie commune because they were all on their meds. Thankfully, this guy seemed the most 'there' out of all of them, and I know that just because people have problems and trials in their lives, does not mean that they're broken or not a child of God! So we'll see what happens, and see what the Lord's plan for Him is! We'll try to teach him when we can, and see where he's at. We'll see what comes from it!

So we don't know what that means. The Lord has a plan, and we're just going to try to follow it. maybe He's trying to teach us about mental illness? or drunk people? or homeless people? We've had a few solid experiences with our friends the homeless and the alcoholics. We'll try to learn something from it, and just keep on pushing through! The Lord's ways are not our ways...! haha. 

Elder Jones is heading home and Cowley and I are getting it done...

We're just out here riding that rollercoaster. It's amazing to me how, within the span of 24 hours, I can hit the highest highs and the lowest lows. BUT, I'm definitely learning a lot, and I'm learning what it actually means to "endure to the end". That whole concept didn't used to mean a lot to me before all of this happened, but it's coming to have more and more meaning for me. I'm hoping to make "enduring with faith and trust" one of my character traits that hopefully should help me throughout my life. They didn't build the temple in a single day, right? I'm grateful for the Lord's help and patience with me during this journey through poland. 

We got to go over and have dinner with Ben Jones and his family for Sunday dinner. That was pretty awesome. I sure love Elder Jones. I'm going to miss that guy. He's great, his family is great, and I realized again just how much I miss my family! all good things.

I love the Lord. I love the gospel. I love the Spirit. I love you all.

AP's handling the Transfer Bags...getting it all done!

August 19th....What a ride!

This week was ridiculously busy and so many things happened that I'm not even going to be able to explain it all.

Last monday we went out to Tłuszcz(translation: Fat. lol) so we spend the pday in a city an hour outside of warsaw named Fat with Kac... one of our investigators, and the district. We hung out and met his family, and we went to the forest. Everybody slacklined while I sat down against a pine tree and enjoyed the weather and the clouds. It was awesome, and a fantastic break.
Tuesday, we met with our investigator Mac... he has a PhD in Chemistry. He's super super inteligent, and it gets me so excited every time I think about it. his english is pretty good, and I have a lot of respect for him because he's one of the only polish people I've met who actually know what their church believes in(it's a huge problem, here, unfortunately.) So that's been super interesting! Then we had culture night with the district. We went to the Copernicus museum for culture night with the district, and had a ball. It was so fun with the district(they are like family at this point). Then on wednesday, we met with president and got ready for this upcoming week, and then I had a meting with the psychologist, and it went really really well. Thursday, we went out to eat with bar to break his fast... and he got an answer on how to proceed... so it's goint to take some time, but it'll all be good. Then I went on an exchange again on Thursday with elder connelly. It was a blast. Friday, we met as a district, and got ready for our special musical number on sunday. Then we had free friday, and went out to visit a deaf referral... and left a book of mormon. saturday was insane. We had an english blitz, and had sports saturday. So many people came that we had to do two games across the whole park. I played soccer, and went for it this time. It was awesome, and I didn't get hurt... and I remembered just how much I miss being sore. Good things. Elder cowley and I also helped Prezydent make transfer calls. It was fun to get to talk to the missionaries and tell them were they are going to be serving! Pretty neat.

This most recent monday, we got some studies done, then we went and picked up elder jones for his last day as a missionary. As tradition holds, we went and got one last Mcdonalds breakfast run, and then we met at the train station, and picked up all the departing elders. It was sad, and pretty tough, but they're gone, so that's good! We had dinner with them that night, and did their final testimony meeting with them that night. We slept the night at presidents  because.....

Tuesday: we got up at 2:30 am and took the departing group to the airport with president. We got all of their stuff done, and got them on their planes. We came home and got a quick nap, before elder jones' family picked him up. I sure miss that guy.  then we went ot the airport again to pick up the new group., 12 missionaries came in, and they're all studs. We took their bags to the mission home, and then took one of the groups to Sadyba to get legal pictures taken, and get some food. Then we switched and picked up the other group to do the same. We then went out contacting with the trainees. I got to go with elder blackwell for like a solid hour/hour and a half. He's a stud, and he's going to be a really good missionary. Then I went on an ap adventure with elder curtis to find Sister Turek the last things that she needed to make dinner. Elder Curtis is awesome, and he hunts, so we had a ton to talk about. He's a great guy, and super chill. then I spent the night helping sister turek make food for a million people, then I was up cleaning up after it all with elder cowley until just before 10:30.

Then we got up the next morning and helped with breakfast, got them all together, and got them to the Wiktorska chapel for the trainer/trainee meeting. The meetings went well, and we got them all off (in a rush) to their trains, just on time. Elder Blunt came up for his trainee, and it was such a good time to get to hang out with him for a little bit. He's a bro. I love that guy.

Thursday, we had MLC. All of the sister training leaders and the zone leaders came into warsaw, and we met with prezydent and sister turek for a few hours and discussed what the mission needs, and how they can teach zone training this upcoming week. Everybody in that room is super special, and I love all of 'em! We had the craziest adventure. So elder cowley and I had a meeting with Kac like right after the meeting... but one fo the sisters didn't have a ticket and needed to buy one and all this stuff... and we didn't want to cancel the meeting. So we got out there, and ahd the office elders drive by, I jumped in the car, and elder mcmaster jumped out. They went ot the meeting, and elder connelly and I raced to our apartment to pick up a bag(that had to make it to one of the cities with one of the sisters). So we had her miss her train and got the bag, all the while sprinting to get to the train station. we rolled out of the car and ran to the lines. We got the one set of sisters on their platform with the bag(their train was leaving in 5 minutes), and elder connelly got the ticket, adn i ran it down to them on the platform, while he was buying the other sisters' tickets. We got them to their platform just minutes before their train left. So in the space of an hour, we did an exchange, went back to the apartment, got a bag, got to the train station, delivered a bag, sprinted around warsaw, and got 4 sisters onto their trains. everything that happened was a miracle, and looking back I still don't understand how the Lord did it... but it was one of those crazy mission experiences I'll probably never forget. Good times.

Today is pday. All we're doing is emailing and going to sleep. I'm so dead tired it's ridiculous. We're trying to have transfer goals done by sunday night so that next week, we can just hit the road running. We only have 2 transfers left, 19 weeks... and miracles are going to happen. The Lord is too good to me.

Adventures in a city named Fat!!

Our Japanese friend.  He just showed up at church on Sunday. He goes on vacation twice a year and visits a different county.  I got to translate for him during church. He said I was a great translator.

Zoo Trip with Agnieszka  Good times!

 

Status Quo.....

Well nothing has changed...! My mission has been the biggest rollercoaster I could have imagined, and saying that,  I realize that I'm still strapped in and got half of the ride to go!  just gotta hold on tight. We are emailing, again, in the middle of the week because our lives are so crazy that we didn't have time until now. I just look at elder cowley all the time and say "what is our mission...?". Good times. Somehow our schedule is almost never full... and it looks like we have huge open spaces in our schedule, which always seem to get filled by random things to get done...! It's insane.  I'm going to do my best to recap everything, obviously leaving out a lot. 

Friday I got super super sick. I barely made it to Free Friday, and afterwards it put me out for a little while. It was an interesting day, but I definitely needed it!

Saturday: we had an english blitz, weekly planned on two church chairs out behind some buildings on nowy swiat (because we didn't have enough time to go home to plan while we were waiting for a meeting).  Got flaked by the meeting we were waiting for, so we went home and got just a little bit of dinner, before we rushed to the chapel. There was President and Sister Turek's fireside for the members that we went to because investigators came as well. It was kinda a let down because 9 people said they were going to come, and the one that did come actually nicely dropped us this last week. Woooooh... so that was interesting. bgut it was a really cool meeing, and we were glad to be there. 

Sunday: I love sundays because of the sacrament, and because of the members. They really are the best. In church i sat next to Ula. She's the one I met on the train my first mission, who is just the best. There's something I need to do to help her boys while I'm here. I don't know what or how... but it has to happen. Then we went over to Agnieszka's and Przemek's house to eat lunch with the other elders. We always feel at home over there. I love them!

Monday: Zone conference in Warsaw. the wasrsaw zone all came in that morning, and prezydent and siostra turek taught us about thankfulness and miracles. It was really really good. Prezydent turek talked for like 3 hours just in polish. It was really cool, and it  really really helps to be able to hear and understand more as time goes on. It was a really good feeling this time. Right after that, we had district meeting over on nowy Świat. We then went to centrum. It was Rememberance Day in Warsaw for the warsaw uprising. It was like 76...(?) years ago. But all of the streets closed down, and for a minute at 5:00 everything stops. All of the cars, all of the people, everything. Everybody is silent in honor of the rebellion. Then they all lit off red flares and chanted to their honor and stuff. It was pretty tight. then we had YSA FHE and things like that, so that was good!

Tuesday: we met with Prezydent Turek and planned most of transfers. It was really cool. Prezydent is a bro! hahhaa we had a good time, and got work done. I love how President takes everything to the Lord. His humble prayers are an example for me. We got studying done, and did an escape room with the district. It was really cool, and we weren't that far off from beating the record. Good times with the fam, I'll send pictures if I can(from my companions camera lol) Then we got invited over with the sisters to some guy's house that elder cowley and sister barney met on the patelnia. He had his.... girlfriend...(???) over as well. He had the most intersting house I've ever seen. He's a world traveler, and has a museum in his house. We got to hold world war I and II helmets that he found out in the forest that we can see from his window. Crazy stuff. He had an old pre-war record player, and I got so stoked to listen to the music and more or less understand what it said... old polish is crazy. We had two desserts, and had a really really good time. He even brought out the guitar. It was a miracle that i needed. Unfortunately they didn't want anything to do with the church, so we won't be going back... but it was a good experience, nontheless!

Wednesday: we made some calls to set up meeting this week, rushed to the patelnia to help out an old investigator. She's really struggling with depression, and it was cool to share some of my experiences that I hope helped her. She's great.... and needs the gospel so bad. We'll be praying for her. We then went and had a meeting with our boy Kac... He's a homie. He's going to start currency trading. He's stoked out of his mind, but also scared to death of losing everything he has. He's awesome. We're working on the foundational truths to help him out. He needs those... kinda like all of us!  And here goes another week! I love you guys! have a good one!

Yep, We're stayig as AP's again.....July 25. 2016.

Yep, we're staying as AP again. It's... interesting. It's been tougher than I thought! we don't really do anything, and we want to help and do what we can... we just don't know what to do! We don't have much contact with the other missionaries, so it doesn't feel like we're making a difference... and most of all... we're supposed to have the best area in the misison and be finding and baptizing people, but we haven't been able to do that yet! We're working with people, they're just progressing so slowly, and we don't know what we have to change to see the results. We're working on that. President is awesome. He's so fun and cool to meet with, and he's a great example. Unfortunately, we've only met like twice so far. He's a busy guy! We'll see if that changes this upcoming transfer. 

There isn't any room for anything but positivity in this life, so this week we're just focusing on the positives and the miracles. Here they are:

• ·         We did an escape room last week with elders mcpherson and jones. It was freakin awesome. The only problem was-the theme was exhorcism. Yeah.
• 
  
• ·         We had a good exchange with elders bebel and sommerfeldt. They're awesome, and good elders. The exchange went fine!
• 
  
• ·         Sister turek called and told me i MUST make myself a workout plan to take care of my body-even if it costs some time out of the day. I needed that... I'm way too stubborn to do that without force. 
• 
  
• ·         I made a new homie, Pio... We've bene talking a bunch, and we're going to meet Sunday after church. 
• 
  
• ·         We went to the zoo with the district. Super fun. it's like a family, I love it. 
• 
  
• ·         We made the entire district chili, and elder jones brought cinnamon rolls. 
• 
  
• ·         We had another exchange with elders jones and mcpherson. it was the weirdest exchange ever, and nothing went according to the original plan, but I loved it. I was able to talk to elder jones about a bunch of stuff. I love that guy-he's a stud. 
• 
  
• ·         We all slept out on the balcony the last night of the exchange because the weather was so nice. We just took all the blankets and pillows and pads we could find and threw them on the balcony. We all fit out there all night. No homo. 
• 
  
• ·         We met with daniel today, had an awesome lesson, and then went and got Indian food. It was pretty fun. 
• 
  
• ·         We met with president turek and started planning transfers. He's a bro, and was teaching us polish during the meeting. It was pretty cool. 

There they are. I have a wonderful family and support group. I love you guys! Have the best week ever.