Cześć!!
Monday was pday once again. As I told y'all on Monday, we went to this place called MaluMika and painted pottery! We're excited to see how they turn out. Even as much as I don't like arts and crafts, it was still pretty relaxing and I can see why people do it, even if just for that aspect. Also, the shop was super cute, so that helps. But yeah, I haven't painted pottery since that random birthday party I went to for Sierra Rich back in Oregon. So that was cool to do it again.
Pday at MaluMika, this cute pottery shop (aka me totally out of my element and doing something with arts and crafts...)
Later, I was able to get a bunch of pictures and videos downloaded onto that flash drive. (Thanks for sending that, Mom!!) And then I was able to clear up a ton of storage on my phone which in turn cleared up a lot of stress. 👍 Also, crazy thing we found out on Monday night. Apparently, we have unlimited data.... WHAT?! So I could have been skyping you whenever and wherever I wanted!! But hey, at least we know now. So, that'll be nice!! And it opens up a lot of options, because now basically we only need to go to the chapel if we want to research pday activities (because every non-church website is blocked..) or to send our group emails!! Sorry, that's probably more info than you wanted, but I was way excited about all that!
Tuesday we just did weekly planning like normal. I used to enjoy that, but now it kinda stresses me out. Maybe because there's just so much to keep track of? Either way, I'm always glad when our week is planned and I have a good idea of what we're doing that week. The one really annoying thing about it, is a ton of Polish people are really bad at answering their phones. And at calling back when they say they will. And at responding to texts... so basically it's really hard to set up meetings with people. Even when they ARE interested!! We normally don't know until the day of, if we will have a meeting with someone, so it's always an adventure. But yeah, that night, we went to Skytower for English conversation practice. I talked with a super nice girl named Marta! We clicked pretty fast and were joking around with each other about things. I even got her to open up about religion, which she says she normally tries to avoid that topic. But she's great! She asked about my hometown and when I told her "Boise," she said, "Oh! I've heard of your town before!!" But then she was embarrassed to say why! Then she told me that she heard them talk about it in "La La Land"!! And then after discovering we shared a love of that, of course, we clicked even more! I guess she's the only one in her family or out of her friends who likes musicals and Disney and stuff. She said I was the first person she's met who loves it all as much as she does! So that was really fun to talk about! Haha leave it to "La La Land" to make sure people around the world have heard about Boise, Idaho. XD
Wednesday we had a lot of errands to do. First, we went to return the fan we had bought because Sister Ludlow said it was missing parts. I should have double checked before believing that... it literally said on the instructions the contents of the box and how much of each part it had. And it did indeed have all of them as we discovered at the store with a bunch of workers and their super mean boss lady. My goodness, as a result of that, I got yelled at by this lady. Their customer service was like a big fat zero. Especially because I'm obviously not from here and just trying to figure out a problem!! But anyway, we figured it out and these 2 workers were WAY nice. But yeah.. I just wish people would be more observant with everything. (Zach, work on this so you don't drive your companions crazy. ;) I say this because I love you.) Anyway, moving on... we went to this restaurant that President Chandler recommended. It's only been open for 1.5 months and it's called "The Pancake House." And they make American pancakes!! It was amazing! The owners are Alexi and Jana (this super cute Ukrainian couple who have been married for 1 year). They are seriously just the sweetest people ever! They work ALL the time, so don't really have time to come to church or learn more about ours. But they very gratefully accepted a Book of Mormon and invited us to come back and visit them. I don't know if they'll meet with missionaries while I'm here. But hey, it's a start. And big things can come from small beginnings.
AMERICAN pancakes at this cute new restaurant with the nicest, sweetest owners. Alexi and Jana is this super cute, newly married, Ukrainian couple. :) They are the best!
That evening, we met with Joanna. She was the lady we met when we were tracting and were invited in to this apartment where the whole family of 6 was just hanging out! She said she's read a bit of the Book of Mormon. Basically, she's very Catholic, but just the nicest lady ever!! We had a good conversation with her. She also shared some things about her religion with us. And I was able to ask some questions I've had about the Catholic church. Well, mainly just a few about their belief in Mary. I asked how the tradition of praying to Mary even started. Like, where did they get the information that they were supposed to do that? Because it's not in the Bible... First, she told me that they don't pray TO Mary, but that they pray to Jesus THROUGH Mary. They believe that because she was the Mother of God, she was without sin and so that makes her a good "go-between" for Jesus. Which was still a bit confusing, but then I remembered that they believe in the Trinity! So, not only do they believe that Mary was the mother of Jesus, but that she was the literal mother of God. Because Jesus was part of the Trinity and so by Jesus being her son, she was (according the Catholic belief) the mother of God the Father AND "God the Son" (or Jesus). This being said, and if this were the case (which it isn't), when we pray to God, we would also be praying to Jesus. And because in the minds of Catholics they are the same, there would be no "go-between" for that. So instead of praying to God in the name of Jesus Christ, they pray to Jesus through Mary (or the name of Mary? I don't know...). Which I guess makes sense (not to me) but I could see how it makes sense to them to have some sort of "in-between." I think this is the perfect example of how even the simplest truths can and have been distorted in other churches. Such a simple truth and practice as PRAYER!! Probably one of the most basic and fundamental parts of religion and faith, and that has been distorted. We pray to God, our loving Heavenly Father, in the name if Jesus Christ because in the end, Jesus Christ is the mediator. He is the "go-between." And in all things, He always directed the glory and focus to God, our Heavenly Father. It's even the same in prayer. I even think there's some symbolism there. We always learn that there is no other way to receive salvation than through a belief in Jesus Christ. In Mosiah 5:8 it says, "There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ." And then even a little bit later in verse 10, it says, "And now it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall not take upon him the name of Christ must be called by some other name; therefore, he findeth himself on the left hand of God."
Now, I know this is referring to joining the Church of Jesus Christ and taking the name of Christ upon us, but I think it can apply to prayer as well. Who is our focus? Who is going to help us come closer to our loving Heavenly Father? If there is no other name by which we can receive salvation, wouldn't we want to always use that name when we pray? Anyway, those were just some thoughts I had on that whole subject. Hope it was enlightening for y'all. I know that God has asked us to pray to Him through the name of His only begotten Son. I know that we can come closer to our Heavenly Father through prayer and also through Jesus Christ. They want us to be happy and have eternal life!! And prayer is the perfect way to start that journey to eternal life, peace, joy, and salvation. I know that there is power in prayer. There really is someone listening. And that someone is our LOVING Heavenly Father.
Thursday morning, I tried out the exercise videos to see if they worked on my phone. And... oh my goodness! Now that we have unlimited data I can use these on my phone!! YES!! After 9 months, I can finally use it. Thanks so much for these Mom! Winter is gonna be so much better now that I have more options than just running stairs... Haha!!
Thursday we had a meeting with Agnieszka. She wanted to talk about the Plan of Salvation with us. So we taught it to her and she asked a ton of questions. Either she's forgotten a lot or wasn't originally taught some things because she said she learned a lot of new things from our lesson today. And I think it's just making her realize, even more, how important it is to come to church and to go to the temple. Because it's crucial to the Plan!! She still had a plan to come to church on Sunday. Which will be HUGE for her! Especially since she hasn't been to church in something like 8-10 YEARS!! Crazy!! Later, we did a little Book of Mormon finding activity and ended up talking to this lady named Wanda for a while. We might end up meeting with her. Funny moment from that conversation though: she was asking how we pray and if we said "The Lord's Prayer" in our church. I was clarifying with a question to see if she was talking about that. So I said, "Ojcze Nasz?" And then she started saying the prayer just out of habit! Basically, me saying "ojcze nasz" triggered her into reciting the Lord's Prayer. We both realized that and had a good laugh about it. XD Watch out for those vain repetitions folks... they'll get ya!
Later, we checked out some senior care facilities (only found one modern one like the ones we have in the U.S. so that was interesting). We might be able to do some service there, which would be pretty cool! After that, we went contacting in some parks. Met this super nice, older lady who was pushing her grandson in a stroller. Her name is Zofia. She at first wasn't super interested, but the longer we talked the more interested she became. She had a TON of really good questions. So we were just able to talk for a while and answer a lot of them. Now, she wants to read the Book of Mormon, be in contact with us, come see what church looks like, and even meet with us. So cool how these things just flip around after people understand just a little bit about who we are and what we believe. Right after her, we met a Polish guy and a guy from Belgium speaking English with each other. So of course, we talked to them. The Polish guy had actually met the Elders a few years ago, in the same park, in about the same location in the park. Kinda cool!! But yeah, they weren't interested, but they asked a few questions and we had a good conversation with them. They were nice and super chill, so it was fun.
Friday, we had District Council in the morning and did some Book of Mormon contacting. A bit later, Sister Ludlow and I went and picked up our pottery! Yay!!
Then, we went to a park and talked to this one lady, Grażyna, for over an hour. She seems pretty interested, but couldn't set up right now because her apartment is being renovated. Later, we went to the chapel to get ready for English and.. Elder and Sister Williams were there!! Sister Williams ran over to give me a hug!! I was soooo excited to see them!! (They were there to do an audit for the branch.) But Elder Moody and I were able to catch up with them and ask about all the members and people in Szczecin. Ahh, it was so good to see them and spend some time with them. Then, we had another huge English class. (12 people this time, but still huge!!) It is SO AWESOME to have all these people coming! After that, we went to dinner with Marzena, a member from our branch. Man, she's got a cool story. Such a motivated and driven lady. And oh my goodness, she is just SO FAITHFUL!! She just keeps doing her part and doing the right things she needs to do to be living the Gospel. And then, she just has such faith and hope that things will work out for her. She kept saying how she has no doubt of that. Marzena has such a desire to be sealed in the temple. She goes to the temple a lot, and really wants to receive ALL the blessings of the temple by being sealed. And she moves forward with faith that someday she will have those blessings. She is such an amazing lady and I love her so much!
Saturday, on the way to the park for Sports Saturday, this totally drunk dude sat down next to me on the bench while I was waiting for the tram. He was so drunk he was falling over as he was sitting still!! You know, before my mission, I would have been terrified by this drunk guy sitting RIGHT next to me and practically falling all over me. But I'm way too used to the weird things by now haha!! Anyway, this guy starts talking to me and pretty soon we're having a "normal conversation" with each other. At one point I asked him, "Are you drunk?" Basically what he said was, "Haha yeahhhh!! 'Are you drunk??' Psssshhhh, yeah, OF COURSE I am!!" Then we both laughed a ton. And I asked him, "Why?!" And he didn't have a good answer other than "life is sooo hard." But then he went off about how hot it is and took off his shirt. Then, the tram came and I got up to get on. He said, "Oh! We're going? Okay!" And he got on the tram, sat down at the back, and passed out (asleep, I think). Ahh Poland... I just love your drunk people. How come the only attention I can get is from crazy drunk men?? XD
Anyway, we also had lunch with Babcia today. Wiktor and I went through her refrigerator to clean it out and look for old, moldy, or expired food. And holy smokes, let's just say we basically cleared out the entire fridge... yeah.. it was pretty bad haha. But she was really grateful for the help! Later, we had a lesson with Lucyna (a member). We read and discussed a conference talk together. After that, we had a meeting with another Lucyna (not yet a member). We went to dinner and talked to her about baptism. She loves our church, knows it's true, and heck, she even wants to go to the temple!! But she feels like she needs to know everything about the church before joining. She only wants to strengthen her relationship with God and you "can't put a date on that." (Ex. Baptismal date) So she plans to keep coming to church like she has been doing. She said, "We'll see. Time will tell." So, that's always frustrating because we know that this is the ONLY way to return to God and it's definitely the best way to strengthen our relationship with Him. We'll keep working on her.
Dinner with Lucyna! We were trying to convince her to look at the camera (and to get baptized haha), but she's shy about that I guess.
Sunday we had an adventure trying to figure out what to do about these bites on my leg. I got in contact with the Chandlers about it. They had me take a pen and draw around the border of the rash. Later, we checked again to see how much it had spread and I drew another border. Pretty soon my leg was starting to look like the weather maps of hurricane Dorian!! XD
My spider bites on my leg. Look at how much it was spreading. 😅
Anyway, we hurried to church and enjoyed fast and testimony meeting. The testimonies were just beautiful!! And a bunch of them covered topics that we talked about with Lucyna last night, so it was PERFECT!! After church, I played the violin a bit because of Vova's request to hear me play. Then, we headed to Park Południowy to do some music contacting for a while. Then, we headed home to do all our studies, break our fast, and just have a nice Sunday evening. All the while, I was trying to figure out what to do about my spider bites.
Basically, if I come home with random super powers, please don't be alarmed. The same thing happened to Spiderman and he turned out just fine!! ;) XD
Love and miss you all!!
Siostra Shaylin Carroll
A cool house I saw.
A typical street in the center of the city of Wrocław.
Nope, not a church. It's actually a library inside.
Carousel in this park. So pretty!!
Our Branch President's daughter, Mira, and her super cute ladybug shoes!!
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