On Monday, we had a fun pday with all 4 Elders and Wiktor. We all went to this park where there is something called "The Labyrinth." It's basically just a big hedge maze and it's exactly what it sounds like: a labyrinth! So, we all played a ton of games in there like tag, infection, cops and robbers, find Elder Theobald's nametag...... Haha yeah he lost it somewhere in the midst of all that, but by some miracle we found it.
After that adventure, Sister Ludlow and I went to the Rynek (Old Town) and found an ice cream place because we both have been dying to have some for a while now haha. And while on the Rynek, I was able to Skype and talk to my family and even show them the view which was really fun! Oh and throughout the time with the Elders, Elder Stewart and I discovered that we know a ton of the same people, even though he's from England haha. How? Because of the Nauvoo and British Pageant!! He was really involved with the British Pageant at home (in Great Britain...) and yeah, that's how we know all the same people. It's so nice to have someone here who understands, like really truly understands, how wonderful Nauvoo and the pageants are!! If y'all ever get the chance, I highly, HIGHLY recommend going to Nauvoo or even better, being a part of the pageants. Some of the most spiritual experiences of my life were there. :)
A lovely collage that google photos made of me lost in the labyrinth. XD
In the labyrinth.
On Tuesday, we had a really interesting meeting with Julia (from Italy). Now, she's a very logical thinker and if it doesn't make sense logically, she doesn't trust it. We tried to teach about the Plan of Salvation with her, but she tends to interrupt quite a bit and will argue every little point... even if you're agreeing with her..?? She's really hard to teach, especially because we barely get through any material. She just really gets stuck on the little things. Not that it's bad to want to know the details or fully understand something, but when we're trying to explain something she has a question about and she doesn't let us answer the question, I just don't know what I can do to help at that point! Well, one good thing is she says that if she didn't want to come to the meetings or if she didn't feel it was worth it, she wouldn't be there. So I guess it's good that she comes. And she says she reads the Book of Mormon every morning and she feels good when she reads it. So I'll take that as a good sign. She very much is the kind of person who hates being pushed into things, doesn't like being told what to do, and definitely has to feel like she's making her own choice. Anyway, just trying to figure her out a little better. Also on Tuesday, we were able to do our weekly planning at President Turek's favorite naleśniki restaurant! It's called Pattie's. And a worker there told me that he had seen a lot of people with our nametags (missionaries) in the restaurant before. He said we were always very warm (friendly) and had a different spirit about us. So if you or someone you know was a missionary in Wrocław and went to Pattie's.... thanks for the good rep. :)
On Wednesday, we went to visit a referral we had received from a member of the Branch here in Wrocław. As it turns out, she doesn't live there anymore! So we decided to tract the neighboring buildings as well and we actually had a girl (maybe in her 20's) answer the door. Her name is Konstancja. At the door, she said that she believes in science. But then she invited us in for water because it was really hot. She was super nice and just ready to listen. After talking with her a bit more, we discovered that she also believes in God, or "something bigger" in general, and she reads the Bible. She said she believes in a mix of things. Then she told us she wasn't exactly sure what she believes and my guess is, that's why at the door she told us she believes in science. XD She also said she doesn't really go to church because Catholic mass is "too boring and always the same." But she was really interested and asked us if she could come to church!! Of course we got her name, number, and were able to leave her with a copy of the Book of Mormon, and she said she will come to church on Sunday! Oh and the coolest thing she said was that she believes that all churches have part of the truth, but not the whole truth. Sound like anyone else we know?? :)
Also on Wednesday, we did a family history finding activity on the Rynek. I ended up talking to this guy from Egypt for like a solid 45 minutes and it was awesome!! I told him I had never met anyone from Egypt before and immediately he pulled out some Egyptian coins and gave them to me!! What?! So cool! His name is Nader. He was practically fluent in English, so that was way convenient. He also said we were the first missionaries he had ever met in Europe and that we were way different than he thought because we "are actually cool"!! XD But anyway, so he is Muslim and after talking with us, he decided that we actually have a lot of similar beliefs! And he really liked that. We had a really good conversation about the Bible and different things in there. He wants to come to church, but will be out of town. He was asking if we'd be in the Rynek the next day because he really wants to meet us again!! We did exchange contact info and plan to give him our church's website because now he is super interested in seeing what we believe and studying everything about it. At the end, he asked us if we could take a picture together "for memories." Man, he was seriously so cool!!
With Nader from Cairo, Egypt!!
Thursday was pretty good too. We had a meeting with Solomiya. She said she feels really good when she reads the Bible. And so we're trying to get her to read the Book of Mormon and see that she can have that same feeling when she reads it as when she reads the Bible. After that, we went contacting for a bit. We talked to a man from India, named Arwin, and he is a Professor who was heading to Dresden. We had a nice talk about religion and his beliefs. He said that he identifies truth in every religion. He also said that he is a physicist and that as a physicist, he really likes to experiment with things. So of course, we asked him to experiment with our church and the Book of Mormon. He's going to download the Gospel Library app and do some searching on his own. Then if he wants more, he said he would call us. I know that normally means they're not super interested. But this man was so genuine and sincere that I'm sure he will do some searching on his own! Later, we went to Renoma for the free English conversation practice and I got paired up with a guy named Dawid. Now, he actually comes to the English class that we teach as missionaries, so we were able to have a really good conversation. I asked him if he had ever met with the missionaries about our church and he said no. Even though he stays every time for religious discussion after English class, I don't think the Elders have asked him to meet with them. I asked if he would want to meet with the Elders about our church and he said yes!! I love it when people can really get to know us first as normal people and then they feel comfortable enough to meet with us about our church. Then they are actually interested in learning more because they see what we are like and how we live.
On Friday, we all took a train to Katowice!! We had zone conference there today and it was really good! Sister Webber, Sister Eberting, and Elder Olschewski from my MTC family were all there.
When we got back to Wrocław, we were met at the train station by the Einfeldts!!
Quick story about heading home from that: I guess if you say "Szczęść Boże" to a nun, they're like required to say it back to you. Like, they get in trouble if they don't. It means "happiness in God" or something like that. So as we walked to the tram stop we saw some nuns, and Elder Edwards says, "Hey watch this!" And then he says it to them, and they said it back! It's actually pretty funny. And I wonder how many people say that to them just to make them say it back haha. XD
A group selfie at zone conference in Katowice this week!
With the Einfeldts.
Sister Einfeldt was one of our MTC teachers!! It was so good to see them. Of course, we spent some time with them and went out for ice cream in Old Town and had a good time catching up. They both talked to me about Brigham and how they have nothing but good things to say about him. They said he is one of the best people they have ever met. It is so cool to see how many lives someone can touch, especially while on a mission. It makes me so grateful that I have a cousin who is an absolute legend in this mission!! Anyway, we just had the best time with the Einfeldts!
Saturday, we had something called Sports Saturday! But of course, SOMETHING had to happen on the way over. This kinda crazy guy came up and was just staring at my nametag and suddenly said, "Mormons!! From Utah!!" And I just said, "Actually.... I'm from Idaho!" He then started talking to us in slow broken English that definitely came from more than English just being his 2nd language. At one point, he admitted, "Sorry guys.. I'm really high right now." Fantastic. He followed us around on our tram and got off at the same stop. He wanted us to pick him up for church on Sunday, but I was like "sorry dude, not gonna happen." Haha, not actually but kinda. I told him we had some friends we could have pick him up. As we were finally going opposite directions, he very suddenly tried to give me a hug, which caught me off guard and I'm pretty sure I literally jumped out of the way. XD And I explained that we couldn't give hugs because it's a rule we have, but I could give him a handshake. He was really disappointed and stormed off after saying, "F... this rule!!" Oh dear... XD Well, we did get his phone number from it. So we'll set the Elders up with him. XD
Sports Saturday.
After that adventure, Sports Saturday went well! We played some ultimate frisbee with some of our friends interested in the church. After that, we went and visited Babcia for lunch and enjoyed spending some time with her. Then, Sister Ludlow and I taught English class. We taught a girl from Ukraine and a girl from Kazakhstan. Both of them stayed for the religious discussion afterwards and were really interested. We had such a nice conversation about prayer and they are both really faithful! They talked about how they think of prayer as a conversation with God. Which is exactly what it is! I loved hearing that from them. We ended the night going out to dinner and ice cream with a member of the church from Arizona. His name is Jackson Shaver. I guess he travels a ton for work and loves the missionaries that he's met here in Wrocław. He loves helping missionaries out and taking them to dinner. He was a super cool guy and we had a fun evening getting to know him.
On Sunday, we had quite a full sacrament meeting! (Which was a new experience for me to have while here in Poland haha.) We had the Einfeldts, Brother Shaver, Wiktoria came!!, Grażyna (a less active member), and... Konstancja!!! It was so great! Our branch president here, President Kvasnitskyi, had asked me to take 5 or so minutes to bear my testimony/give a short talk during sacrament meeting. And I was really grateful for that opportunity! (Even if it meant that I had to speak Polish in front of my MTC teacher who originally taught me Polish *gulp* haha) After the meeting, I talked to Konstancja to see what she thought and she really liked it! She said it was really different, but she had s really positive experience. She told me that she's really jealous of the faith that we have. She says she wishes she could force herself to believe, but it doesn't work like that. She really does have such a strong desire to believe, which is SO, SO GOOD!! She is fantastic!! Also, she has already read all the introductory pages of the Book of Mormon and also started reading it by doing 3 of the different days of the Book of Mormon challenge. That's at least 3 chapters!! Plus, she said she wants to read the whole thing and that she could read it really fast, but she won't. Why? Because she really wants to understand it. Man, she is so good. Honestly, I just love her so much already!!
And one more funny story from Sunday, we were talking to these 3 old ladies on the street and then this other lady comes up to us and says, "What do you have? Oh, the Book of Mormon! I have one of those." Wait.. you have one of.. WHAT?! Haha, anyway, she is way funny and we had a long conversation. Really long story short, she really likes us and wants to meet with us. She went off about Adam and Eve for a while, but not in the normal "Eve is a terrible person" sort of thing we normally hear. Instead she said something like this, "You know why Eve was good? Because Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, all women are wise!! Boys are just dumb! All boys are "głupi" (dumb or foolish) because they didn't eat the fruit first. Eve ate it first, and so, now we are all wise!" So ladies, if any of you were wondering why boys are dumb... there's your answer. ;) XD She made me laugh so hard... I really hope we get to meet this week. XD
And that's all for this week! Love and miss you all!!
Siostra Shaylin Carroll
A picnic dinner we had.
RIP to Fuego... He will live on in our hearts and on Polish hotel bikes forever...
(@ThoseWhoGetIt.... I love you!!).
Me making Strawberry Pierogi at this service we did on Sunday.
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