Monday for pday, we were able to go and explore the Jarmark Bożonarodzeniowy in the center of the city on the Rynek!! (The Christmas Market!!) Holy smokes it was incredible!! So many small wooden shack/shops (they get set up just for Jarmarks), food, Christmas music, LIGHTS (my favorite), Christmas trees, and even amusement park rides!! It was magical!! And man, Europe does Christmas right!! Seriously, they go all out and it is so much fun! (There are even lights and decorations spread throughout different parts of the rest of the city too.) It's seriously SO COOL! And for those of you who don't like having Christmas set up before Thanksgiving... Thanksgiving isn't a thing here obviously haha. So, soon after All Saints Day... the Christmas season begins!! :D
Christmas Jarmark
JARMARK BOŻONARODZENIOWY!!!
Me and Sister Aramaki with our friend goat cheese and jam! It's way good stuff...
Oh, funny thing... for those who care... I had a friend message me to ask me out on a date for when we get home. Hahaha!! It's been over a year since I've been asked on a date, so it was kind of surprising and like, "oh yeah, I forgot that's a thing." And... That is something I NEVER thought would happen while I'm on a mission, but hey, guess I was wrong. So... I guess that means if people wanna start asking me out, they can definitely do that. XD
Tuesday, we did our studies and weekly planning. We also had a mission wide, 4 hours of deep cleaning our apartments in order to get ready for transfers. (I guess some of the apartments *ahem... Elders!!* have been pretty nasty when President has checked them out. So after this one on a Tuesday, he has now designated the last pday of the transfer as deep cleaning day! Whoo! Haha!) Anyway, we were able to gather up all the JUNK in our apartment (all the stuff that people have just left here for YEARS) and put it into trash bags to throw out. We had 4 (or more?) big, full trash bags!! It was so much junk!! But holy smokes, it feels so much better now. Then, we had a meeting with the Facebook missionaries and President and Sister Chandler. We talked about some plans we have with that. And then, President Chandler told us that we've been selected to run another pilot program. We're actually the first mission selected to do that right now. Basically, the "higher-ups" are creating a video (like a movie trailer for the Book of Mormon). They'll be using clips from the Book of Mormon videos. And then we'll be using it as advertisements for our Facebook pages here in Poland and also using it to show to people we meet in person. And then getting them interested in reading the Book of Mormon! It should be pretty cool!
Wednesday we were able to go on a walk with Lucyna. It was good to spend some time with her and to get her outside for some good, fresh air!
Sister Aramaki and I on our walk with Lucyna!! :)
Later, we had a lesson with Mehdi. It didn't go as well as last time. It kind of turned into more of a conversation or discussion. (Which, it's good that he talks and participates! But he talks a lot!! Haha) And we were barely able to say anything. So, next time, we plan to establish some good expectations of what our meetings should look like haha. It'll be good. We just need a quick course redirection or something. Anyway, we also had our self-reliance course. Doni, Wilbert, and Mehdi all came to that. Then, Jami came and joined us as we all went to the Jarmark together! We were able to go explore and hang out. It was awesome!
Jarmark on Wednesday night with everyone
(back row L to R: Jami, Mehdi, Wilbert, and Doni. Front row: Sis. Aramaki, and Me)
I even got to try some food there. (They surprisingly have some free samples of things! Nothing is free in Europe!!) But I also bought a few small things haha. So I tried this Hungarian bread called Langosz. And I tried natural toothpaste haha. (The guy gave me a mini glass jar of a bit to take home and try! It was pretty good haha) I also tried Laddu. I don't know how to describe it, but it's Indian and it's a coconut based treat. (Like a little round ball) I really liked it.
All these super good Indian treats and macaroons... they were seriously the cutest, sweetest Indian couple!
Thursday was Thanksgiving!! So Happy Thanksgiving y'all!! XD We woke up and at 7:00am we received our transfer calls from President Chandler. Oh my gosh.... I'M STAYING IN WROCŁAW WITH SISTER ARAMAKI!!!! I am SOOOOO HAPPY!!! We felt like we really hit our stride this transfer, so this next transfer is going to be even more epic than the already epic transfer we just had!! Ahhh!! Oh! AND Elder Baer is coming back from Bydgoszcz!!! He will be in Legnica with Elder Frank!! We're getting the gang back together!! Ahh sorry, I'm just so so excited!! Wow, it'll be AWESOME!! WHOO!!
But okay, so Thursday, we had a meeting with Wilbert. We had the Elders come and teach with us which was awesome! We basically had a really good discussion about Joseph Smith and the First Vision. It was pretty powerful. And Wilbert is so genuine. At the end, we asked him to keep reading the Book of Mormon (he's been reading it every day! Yay!) and to keep praying. He said, "I will." And we could all feel it. It was a pretty cool feeling that rushed through the room as he committed to do that.
Wilbert, Solomiya, and Me.
(I still thought I was gonna leave Wrocław at that point... still haven't told Solomiya that I'm actually not leaving haha. She'll be surprised at English tonight!)
Later, we were able to work on Facebook and for that, Sister Aramaki and I recorded the song "Like Him." It's one of the new Youth songs for 2020. So that was a lot of fun! And if any of you want to see that, you can watch it on my Facebook page because it's posted on there. :) Later, we taught a fun English class. There were only 2 people, Kuba and Wilbert, but it was still really good! We had fun. Then, we were able to go home and Skype our families for Thanksgiving!! Yay!!
Friday was kind of like... a tender mercy the way it worked out. We did have a meeting set up with a guy named Maciek, but he had to cancel last minute (we rescheduled). But! Also, Mehdi had called us yesterday because he's going through a really hard thing right now and asked if he could meet with us today because he "needs some guidance." Wow. We also had a Thanksgiving party with the Branch out in Legnica, so we would be able to spend a lot of time with him if he came with us to that. He said he didn't want to do anything, but stay at home. But he came with us! And we went to Legnica for the Thanksgiving party. They had a short program at the beginning. (They have a pretty talented musical family in the Legnica Branch, which is awesome!) So we all watched that and then we had Thanksgiving dinner. With all the traditional things: mashed potatoes, this INCREDIBLE gravy, turkey, cranberry relish (not nearly as good as yours, Mom), something that tasted way similar to "Sunshine Salad" (something my family sometimes has), and even stuffing!! The stuffing tasted just like home and it was SO GOOD!! And on top of that, the Elders there had been advertising the party on Facebook, so they had a TON of people who weren't members of the Church who were there. It was pretty incredible! So, the night was a complete success. And now it feels like I had Thanksgiving because I had the food haha. ;) But today was so good for Mehdi as well! By the end of the night, his countenance had completely changed. He went from being so sad and down and angry to being smiley and happy and kind of skipping away as he waved goodbye to go catch his Uber. Wow. Today was for Mehdi for sure. And God made it work out so perfectly.
Thanksgiving Dinner.
Saturday morning, we were able to spend some time with Agnieszka and Daniel again. We had a good conversation about the Book of Mormon again. Even Daniel had questions!! And he prayed! He said, "I want to try!" It was so awesome!! Then, we helped Daniel sort through his Legos and find pieces that he needed. It reminded me of my little brother. Daniel and Ethan are pretty similar. They're both funny 10 year old boys, they both love Legos, and they both love Star Wars. They'd be great friends! :) I love spending time with the Kukurenda family. :)
Daniel wanted to send us a picture of his Lego creation later in the day, so here it is. He's so cute!
After that, we met up with Elder and Sister Małachowski for lunch with 2 of their non-member friends. We had a fun time together! Later in the day, the Małachowski's were able to give them a Book of Mormon which is exciting. Then, we taught our English class with Ivan and Andzrej, these 2 awesome Ukrainian men. They are the sweetest!! I seriously love Ukrainians so much. They are so sweet, humble, genuine, grateful... need I go on? They're awesome people and I love teaching them! Then, we had a lesson with Lucyna and she was so happy to see us. Aww!! Later, we had apartment inspections with the Małachowski's. They were impressed with how clean and tidy we had kept our apartment. This is coming from 2 British people... I don't know if that means anything.. but I always imagined Brits to be pretty clean and organized. So I'll take that as a compliment! ;)
Sunday we had 35 people at church!!! (I might have missed a kid or two even!) It was awesome!! Among them were people like Doni, Mehdi, Lucyna (investigator), and the entire Estes family! Ewa and her 4 girls, Alina, Danielle, Nevada, and Ashlyn came. AND Ewa's husband, Dan, came!! It was the first time I had met him, so it was really exciting! He's way nice! Anyway, church was good. Mehdi ran off after the first hour again, but that's okay! We're working on it haha. Later, we went and did service at the soup kitchen and spent time with Jami. That's pretty much it!
Hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Now go and do the next right thing and set up Christmas decorations! ;) Love and miss you all!
Siostra Shaylin Carroll
P.S. Agnieszka and Daniel taught me that in Polish Buzz Lightyear (Buzz Astro in Polish), instead of "To infinity and beyond!", he says, "Na koniec świata i jeszcze dalej!" (Translation: to the end of the world and still further!) Pretty cool huh??
My typical weekly grocery shopping at Biedronka. It's so Polish and normal here. I wanted a picture of it haha.
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