Czesc!!
Monday was pretty chill and relaxed for us, especially since we weren't transferring or anything! Yay! So we did our normal weekly things. We also hung out with the Legnica Elders in the chapel for a bit, which was fun. We taught a fun English class which included a Jeopardy game created by Elder Jenkins and Elder Frank. Elder Jenkins was SOOO excited about it! He would get so excited about everyone's answers and everything. He was hilarious to watch! XD
Tuesday wasn't too adventurous haha. We did our studies, weekly planning, and worked on Facebook for a while. We actually got Wiktoria to answer the phone! We had lost contact with her again sadly... but she answered when we called from a different number. We set up a meeting with her, so we hope we can talk to her this week. We were also able to have a meeting with Anna, so she could practice more English and we could talk about the Gospel. It was way good. Anna has really good insights about everything and I love hearing her thoughts. Later, we went to Pizza Hut for lunch/dinner. And wow, Pizza Hut here is like a normal sit-down restaurant!! It felt so weird!! Like... they have waiters and menus and everything! The crust is still classic Pizza Hut crust, so thank goodness for that! Only complaint... they took like 5 years to bring us the check haha. We finally just had to ask them. We think they forgot about our table... But yeah, that's one thing I still haven't figured out how it works here in Poland is how to get the waiter to bring you your check! Because apparently it's rude to wave at them here. Instead you have to make eye contact and kinda smile at them... WHAT?! Anyway, still figuring that out haha.
Pizza Hut with Sister Aramaki
Oh! So at home, finishing Facebook work, I was able to get Karolina in touch with the Sister missionaries in Lublin! Karolina is a lady I met through working on the main Church Facebook page. Anyway, Karolina had contact with the Elders but didn't ever set up a meeting with them. And then, once I got them in contact, the Lublin Sisters already have a meeting set up with Karolina for this week. Yay!! So glad I could help with that. :)
Wednesday, I'm going to write things a bit out of order on purpose. So, we ended with our self-reliance class. Wilbert was the only one, so we had to take the class to a public place (so we weren't alone). So, we went to a cafe and had the class. And I'm pretty sure the lady who was working there spoke English, so basically she was part of the class too! (As we left, she said, "Have a good one!" after we had previously only spoken in Polish with her haha.) Anyway, this lesson was about obedience and repentance. It was really good! And we were able to have a really good discussion about things. I love classes when we can just have good discussion. It's the best!! But, earlier in the day, we had a lesson with Mehdi about the Plan of Salvation. And it went so well!! (It was definitely better than last week haha.) All 3 Legnica Elders were with us for this lesson and it was way cool! Again, we had lots of good discussion and we were able to keep it on track. The Spirit was very strong, but it was especially present towards the end when we were teaching about Jesus Christ's Atonement. We watched the video by Elder Holland called "He Understands Me." It is such a powerful video! At the end, Mehdi seriously looked like he was about to cry. Whoa.. this coming from a guy who "has no emotions"... that's powerful stuff! But he kind of covered it up when we asked what he was thinking. He said, "Nothing.." and kinda had to compose himself. The rest of the lesson went well. And after the Elders were gone, Mehdi came over to us and admitted, "Hey, I didn't want to say it in front of the guys... but I DID feel something during that video! I almost cried. Actually I thought I was going to." To which we responded that we knew he was feeling that way and that he didn't need to hide his emotions around us or the Elders, and that we understand. He said that he did have to hide it around the Elders, but also said, "I actually had to hold back a lot not to cry. It was really hard!" Wow, I am just so grateful that the Sisters are now able to teach him. If we had Elders in Wrocław, we wouldn't be teaching him, so I'm grateful. He never would have shown emotion to Elders. He needs Sisters! He is so open with us!! And he just is honest. He always tells us when he is feeling something and what he is feeling. It's so cool to see his trust and openness. And seriously, it's just so cool because we are literally watching him change!! We are watching the Spirit work on him, change him, and he is really starting to believe! I'm so excited to see his progression!! :)
Thursday was great! We met with Lucyna in the morning and read from the Book of Mormon with her. It's good that we can do that with her. There really is a power in the Book of Mormon and I can feel it every time I read from it. Later in the day, we had a sweet meeting with Wilbert. Sweet in both senses haha. Sweet because it was super cool and sweet because it was also tender. We taught the Plan of Salvation today. (For those who don't know, that's basically just God's plan for us and our lives.) I love teaching this lesson because it really gives us a clear purpose of why we're here on earth and what is going to happen next. Most of all, I love it because it gives us hope that we will see our families and friends again after we die! That is such a special thing to know! During the lesson with Wilbert, the Spirit was very strong. It was especially powerful when we spoke of Jesus Christ, His Atonement, and His role as the Savior. It was such a special meeting and I know we all felt that special feeling. It was wonderful. Later that evening, we went to Renoma. There was some confusion with pairing people up to practice English together, so this guy just asked me if I was free. I said yes, and immediately I felt pretty strong impressions that I needed to invite him to come to English class and to Church. So, his name is Ömer and he is from Turkey. We started talking religion pretty much from the start, so it was very easy to get to the invitation. He asked what our church was. When I explained that we believed in Jesus Christ, but we weren't Catholic or specifically a "Christian church", but we were something else... he said, "I could listen to you until morning! Seriously! This is so interesting to me!" Turns out, he believes in Jesus Christ, but isn't a part of any religion. He says he has some problems with organized religion. I just casually said, "Well, hey, we have church every Sunday at 10:00. You could come and check it out if you want?" He said, "Okay! I can come! Oh, and I'll bring my friend with me too!" (WHAT?! Is this even real life?!!) It was SO EASY! AND he's bringing a friend with him. We exchanged phone numbers. And then he asked, "How do I find you on Facebook?" (He wanted to be connected on there too! And later, he "friended" Sister Aramaki too!! Yay!) He also wants to come to our English classes and practice with us there. Okay, Ömer is seriously so cool! And he is so open! Ahh! I'm so excited for him to come to church!
Friday was really good! We had Zone Conference basically all day. We had a visiting General Authority. Elder Erich W. Kopischke came to visit our mission. He is in the Europe Area Presidency. He's from Northern Germany. He is so cool! And he talked so much and had so many stories about how to successfully find people to teach, specifically in this area of Europe. He used to be a mission president in Eastern Germany, so he knows exactly which types of things we are dealing with. He taught us so much about just being like the Savior was. He would first observe and then go to the people who he saw were in need. We learned that we should be doing this too. Not only is it being like Jesus Christ, but it will make us very real and genuine as we do our missionary work. And the people we come in contact with will truly be the people who are prepared to meet with us. Hard to sum the whole experience up, but I loved being around Elder Kopischke today. He is such a wonderful person!! And I just kept feeling that he truly is a servant of the Lord and he truly has been called by Him. During zone conference, Sister Aramaki and I were actually able to perform a musical number. It was crazy (or, inspired, rather) how perfectly the song fit the entire theme of the conference! We performed "Like Him" and it was powerful! It was just perfect. Later in the evening, after Zone Conference, we had a meeting with the Branch and with Elder Kopischke. And that meeting was really good as well. So Friday was basically a day full of inspired counsel and teaching from Elder Kopischke. And it was wonderful!
Elder Kopischke doing a roleplay with Elder Reed Stewart.
Also, funny thing... so, President Chandler used a short scene from Star Wars IV in our Zone Conference!! 😱😱😱 I was so surprised haha! It was the scene where Luke is using the Force to lift the ship out of the water and he just gives up. Then, Yoda does it, no problem. Then, we applied practically the entire thing to missionary work. Everything from "Judge me by my size, do you?" (Saying we can do a lot more than we think we can as missionaries) to "You must unlearn what you have learned" (meaning we have to learn new and better ways to do missionary work). And then of course the exchange between Luke and Yoda. Luke: "I can't believe it." Yoda: "That is why you fail." (Meaning we need to have faith as we go about doing our missionary work!) There were a lot more than that, but those were the basics of it all. So, for all of you people out there who love connecting Star Wars to the gospel.... you're welcome. XD
Saturday we spent some time with Agnieszka and Daniel. We talked about the Book of Mormon, they both asked good questions, and we watched "The Christ Child" with them. They loved it! Oh! And Daniel even asked if he could say the prayer!! I was so excited!! We've actually seen a lot of progress with him. :) Then, we played a bit of "hangman" with Daniel. They wanted to do one to guess my name! It was so funny because after almost every letter, Daniel said, "Oh, I think I already know!!" Haha, he didn't. XD One time he guessed, "Karolina!!" I said, "Karolina Carroll??" Then he and his Mom laughed a lot. It was funny. Hey, the same thing happened at home. People probably thought I was Carol Carroll. XD Oh also, that reminds me! Elder Jenkins calls me Siostra Kolęda. Because kolęda means "carol." Yup. He calls me Sister Carol... like... Christmas carol... the jokes never end! Haha! XD Later, we had our English class with Andrzej. He brought us some chocolates to say thank you. He is going back to Ukraine to visit his family. We thought it was only for 2 weeks, but turns out he'll be gone for 6 months! So this is like.. GOODBYE goodbye... aww!! We gave him a Book of Mormon in Ukrainian. He loved it and he wanted us to sign it so it was personal and so he'd remember who gave him the book. He said he was excited to read it. We're going to try and get the missionaries in Ukraine in touch with him. He is seriously such a sweet guy and I really believe he will want to be baptized sooner or later.
Sunday, when she got to church, Sister Malinowska gave us some chocolates for Mikołajki!! (A holiday that happens on December 6th where Santa visits all the kids and leaves chocolates and treats in their shoes.) She said to us, "Sisters! This is from Santa Claus! He didn't know where you lived, so he left it with me. He says he's sorry it's such a small amount, but he hopes you enjoy it! Santa wanted you to have it." She is the CUTEST EVER!!! So nice of her to bring it to us from Santa. ;) :)
Sunday we had a few people in church. We had Grażyna Kelly and her family, Mehdi, and Wilbert came!! We were so excited! Church went well and then after church, I was talking with Lucyna for a while. And okay, funny story: She was telling me how she found some pictures of me from a while back (Polish people love to Facebook "stalk" you haha). I pulled them up on my phone to find the ones she was talking about. It was my prom pictures from 2017!! Wilbert was there too. Lucyna said, "You look so beautiful!! Wilbert, doesn't she look beautiful??" Before he could say anything, I looked at him and quickly said, "DON'T say anything!!!" I did NOT want him to answer that haha. We all laughed and yay! Awkwardness was avoided!! XD We were also able to have a meeting with Wilbert. We finished up teaching the Plan of Salvation and we ended up talking a lot about the Holy Ghost and how we receive answers for ourselves. It was a really good conversation. And throughout, I definitely had the words I needed to say given to me. (Even in English it works!!) Sometimes I don't know what to say, but then I just open my mouth (show faith and courage) and the words come! And it's not my thoughts, but it's exactly what God needs me to say. It's so cool!! I love being a missionary!
Love and miss you all!!
Siostra Shaylin Carroll
Another random picture at service.
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