Tuesday was our pday this week which was kinda cool, but still weird haha. And I realized, I got to talk to everyone... except Hailey.. haha. Darn high school, right? Anyway, we did some work in the morning instead of at night. We had some people come from Poznań to use our family history center. So we worked on Facebook and called the last of the people in our area book. Yay!! Finally finished that last little bit of things haha. Then, we went grocery shopping and talked to our families. Tuesday basically just felt like a day full of a ton of communication. I feel like I talked to EVERYONE! And it's so awesome!! I love that we can Skype and call our families every week. :)
Wednesday we did a Finding Activity with the Elders. They were on exchanges today so we had all 4 Elders from Legnica and Wrocław. (Baer, Moody, Frank, and Jenkins) For the Finding Activity, we had printed out pages of the Book of Mormon and asked people on the street to read them and mark the things they like. Now, I think some missionaries in the States do this and they call it "the Book of Mormon experiment" or something like that. Sister Aramaki and I couldn't stay for too long because we had a meeting, but it was cool to see all the people who actually stopped and read the pages! We had a good conversation with this girl named Maja. She read the page and marked something. We were able to talk to her about the Book of Mormon. She isn't super religious and didn't really want to meet with us, but she said she wanted to read more of the book, so we gave her a copy and our phone number. After that, we had a meeting with a less active member, named Kasia. It was an interesting meeting. She's just an interesting person haha. We're really trying to get her to come back to church right now, but she has some problems with some people in the Branch, so she doesn't really want to come back. Which is sad.. but we were able to read the Book of Mormon with her and try to help her understand that at church, she can feel the same thing she does as when she meets with us! After our meeting, we headed to the chapel and taught our self-reliance course. Doni and Wilbert came this week. It was really good and we had some wonderful discussions. I don't know Wilbert's full history with missionaries, but he's read the entirety of "Preach My Gospel" (basically our missionary manual of what we teach and everything) and he loves going out talking to people with the missionaries!! He has definitely had some spiritual experiences and loves being around us. I hope the Elders will start meeting with him.
Thursday did not go as planned.. well.. tell me one day that actually does haha. We started out by having District Council like normal. After that, we were in the middle of our companionship study and planning our lesson for Ewa. When.. guess who walks in the door 30 minutes early! Ewa and Alina!! (Ali) Haha, I was just so happy to see them honestly. Let me preface this by saying.. man, those 2 are TALKERS. Our meeting with them ended up being.. 3 HOURS!! Whoa!! But it was really good. They told us about things they're dealing with and going through right now. And wow, Ewa seemed to actually be taking and applying the things she's learned from missionaries over the years. It was cool to hear her talk about it. We talked a lot about life, trials, repentance, forgiveness, and prayer. We asked Ewa to prayer for guidance as to how to move forward with a lot of things. And she was so willing to do it. (More willing than when I first met her, so that was cool to see!) Anyway, it was a long meeting, but just way good. Later, we didn't have much time for our original planned things, but that's okay. The meeting with Ewa and Alina was seriously so good. And... oh yeah, Thursday was my year mark!! I've officially been on my mission for one whole, entire YEAR!! WHOA!! That's 365 LONG days without a single hug from my Mom!! Definitely hard, but always worth it. :)
Friday was crazy!! Okay, so we had planned with Przemek (this man who comes to our English class) to go visit his school. He asked us to come and be special guests for his English classes. (He's an English teacher.) We thought it was just 2 or 3 classes, but no!! We ended up being there for the entire school day!! So... I went to school in Poland!! Actually, the more accurate statement would be... I taught at a Polish school for one whole day. Maybe I should add that to my resume?? Haha! Anyway, it was way fun and I loved it!! Basically, we were their "special guests from America." Now... I've heard that Poles LOVE Americans. And for the most part, that's true and I've seen that. But today, it was just SO MUCH LOVE!! Holy smokes, these kids were amazing and so cute!! After every class, they all gave us cards they had written and they gave us treats!! Like.. not just one or two small things, but like... an entire cake, a loaf of sweetbread, huge bags of candies, homemade chips, muffins, more candy.., pastries, cookies, and on and on and on... seriously.. it was so sweet!! But in all reality... how on EARTH do they expect two 20 year old girls to eat all that?! Hahaha... (We just brought it all to our party the next day.) What we did with them all day was.. we did a presentation about ourselves, our lives in America, we talked about America, etc. And with the younger groups, we even taught and sang songs together. (Did y'all know that Baby Shark was so viral, it made it to Poland?!) It was a blast!! The Elders had some videos of American football players getting tackled and the kids were DYING!! They thought it was HILARIOUS!! And my cheeks haven't hurt this bad in a while, that's how hard I was smiling!! :) But man... my favorite part of it all was just spending time with these kids and feeling not only their immense love for us, but feeling my overwhelming love for them (and just a small taste of God's love for them.. and THAT is already overwhelming!!). It was so awesome!! Later that day, we were, of course, exhausted from teaching all day (hats way way off to all you teachers out there!!). But then, we taught again!! We had our English class haha. It was great!!
These pictures are from our day at a Polish school with Przemek's classes.
The boy in the blue shirt next to me is Kamil. The super sweet kid who loves to cook and made us homemade chips!! I love those kids!! :)
This one is of all the girls fangirling over American boys... XD
A super cute card one of the students made for us.
Saturday we were able to go and visit Agnieszka and have a good lesson with her about the Book of Mormon again. We always have really good and interesting conversations with her about the gospel. After the lesson, her son, Daniel had been DYING to play a game with us. So we played Sequence with them. We played on teams. I was on Daniel's team and... WYGRALIŚMY!! WE WON!! Haha, it was really funny to watch Daniel throughout the game. He always makes noises and bounces around and stuff. Basically he can't JUST play the game; he's gotta be doing something else haha! (So Mom, if you thought that was just a "Zach or an Ethan thing" to make random noises while playing board games... It happens all over the world. So.. I guess it's just a boy thing!!)
Later, after English, we had a pancake party!! And thankfully we had it because we were able to use a ton of the treats we got from Przemek's school!! The party was fun and a lot of people came. Oh Lucyna made this ciasto.. it was like a cream puff cake or cream puff bar. I don't exactly know what it was, but holy smokes it was good!
Me making a million pancakes for our Pancake Party!!
After the pancake party, we went and visited Lucyna. She talks so much more with us now, than she used to. She's really shy, so this is awesome! Then, we went back to the chapel to open it for the Young Single Adults (YSA). They had just gotten back from a YSA temple trip. They had dinner and played some games. Then, they shared their testimonies or thoughts and feelings about the gospel and/or the temple. So, Doni actually went to the temple with them. It was his first time!! It's so exciting!! He said he loved it! Oh! And he actually shared his thoughts with everyone! That's the first time I've heard him do that in a public setting with a larger group!! It was so cool, he said something like how he loved doing temple work because he knew he was helping people on the other side to get on the right path and he was helping them on their way. He said he felt happy and proud to be able to help them with that. Awww!! I feel like a proud mama! That makes me so happy!!
Sunday all the YSA came to church so we had a HUGE Branch of about 35 people!! WHOA!! It was awesome! So, church was great and I had a lot of fun talking with so many people. (I feel like this week I just talked with like a million people, holy smokes, it's been crazy...) After church, we were able to go to service at Magnolia Park and make food for the homeless again. Oh, and the news station was there. I guess they wanted to do a segment on "Zupa na Wolności" (the organization who runs the whole thing). There were news cameras and everything. They got some good shots of us cutting up food and working and yeah! So... I'll be on the Polish or Wrocław news, which is cool. It's funny... I come on my mission and then I'm on the news more than I've ever been in my life haha. (About this time last year, I was interviewed for Deseret News when I was in the MTC. I guess it's just a November thing?)
Anyway, on our way back to the chapel.. craziest thing happened! Holy flip, Sister Aramaki almost DIED!! Here's the story:
The News came to the soup kitchen where we do service.
Our light to cross the street was green and the car in one lane was stopped. Then, another car came speeding through the red light. Sister Aramaki didn't see it and almost stepped out in front of the car!! Ahh!! Luckily, I saw it right before. I threw my arm out in front of her, held her back, and stopped her from walking into the road. Pretty sure I hit her kinda hard, but hey, gotta save a life, right?? But.. oh my goodness it was scary close and I'm just so glad my reflexes were so quick. No doubt it wasn't me, but I had help I'm sure. Guardian angels are looking out for us. We were both pretty in shock afterwards. And people around us as well. I'm pretty sure everyone was pretty mad at the car haha. Anyway, we're safe and alive and unharmed, so... BLESSINGS!! Pray for protection, but remember to be aware and do what you can to take care of yourself too!!
Love and miss you all!!
Siostra Shaylin Carroll
A blast to the past... remnants of communistic Poland... (I just took the picture in black and white, but a lot of buildings here in Poland still look like this.)
Me and Isabel.
Me, Isabel, Sister Aramaki, and Solomiya.
"Yea, and all the earth shall see the salvation of the Lord, saith the prophet; every nation, kindred, tongue and people shall be blessed."
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