Cześć!!
Monday was a normal pday. I was able to talk to all of you except Ethan, but I still saw him sleeping haha!! I was introduced to the strangeness of the pufferfish eating a carrot. Oh! And probably best of all, I was able to witness my brother falling off the bed as he tried to smell his toe. 😂😂 Highlight of the day for sure!! In the evening, we had a good English class with Marcin, Anja (Marcin's fiancée), and Marek/James... whatever he wants to call himself haha. Then, for game night, it was like we had a changing of the guard. We had Solomiya, Adam, and Isabel.... who are also fiancees!! (How do you pluralize that??) But yeah, pretty funny! We played signs and Mafia. I was the narrator and I had to make it a Christmas theme, because that's what they wanted. It was pretty funny! And then, we were blessed with a fun ride home from Adam and Isabel!
Tuesday was Christmas Eve!! And it was probably the strangest Christmas Eve of my life. Actually, no... I KNOW it was the strangest. I can confidently say that. XD First, we went to help out at a service with the Elders, to help with Christmas Eve dinner (Wigilia). It felt like I was living in a movie or video game for a bit. We walk in there and there are just old homeless men roaming the halls, laying on beds, and staring at us. (Keep in mind that we don't hate these people, it's just... Sister Aramaki and I were the ONLY girls there.. and it was kinda freaky haha. So we love the people and wanted to serve them, but weren't expecting to walk into all of them right then. So keep that in mind as I tell this story.) Anyway, so after that initial entrance, we tried to find another door where we could find the people in charge. Instead, we just passed 2 old men. First they just stared... then, one said *yelled* directions at us and the other just stared at us from a blue eye and from a completely white eye! (Creepy at the time, but looking back, it's pretty cool!) We walk in the door, and it looks like we just entered a psychiatric hospital or asylum or something. (Probably because this place was SO OLD!! Like, pre-war building.) We finally find the caretaker and he says almost nothing to us.. he takes us into a room and tells us to wait there for 15 minutes. So we wait there while hearing the scuffle of feet and metal dragging on the floor and the all too often rattle of the door handle... I felt like I was in an escape room and was supposed to look for clues haha. Then, the caretaker finally comes, scares us all!!, creaks the door open, and just stares at us without saying anything. We stare back. He stares more and then says, ".....idziemy??" (We going??) And then he took us to the kitchen for us to help. He would give us a small task and then disappear for another 15 minutes or so, leaving us alone with nothing to do. By the end, we had met and talked with another man who volunteers there. He was excited to talk to us. His name is Janusz and he was a very sweet man. So maybe that's why we were there, to visit with this nice man. Later, we left the place and headed to Babcia's. But wow, we all couldn't help but feel like we had survived something big haha. Adventures in the life of a missionary.
At the creepy service place, just some pictures to give you an idea of the surroundings. (Featuring Elder Frank because he somehow ended up in all of these.)
Legnica Elders Frank and Baer and us at the creepy place on Christmas Eve!!
Well, we spent some time with Babcia, sang carols, talked, ate treats, and we helped her to get on her computer to Skype her daughter who lives in the states. They were so grateful!!
Everything was closed on Christmas Eve!! Even Żabka!!
Later, we went home and worked on some things and then went to sleep for 2 hours before getting up again to go to Midnight Mass!! I was so excited! I had never been to any mass before (besides a 15 minute Easter mass). So we went with a group of a few members and friends. Doni, Wilbert, Vova, Max, Anna, and Vova's friend Sergei. We went to this big popular cathedral by Most Tumski. And as we walked in, we saw a news camera. We were trying to avoid it and just go inside, but no dice. It was almost as if they directly targeted us haha. We told them we weren't from Poland, hoping that would make them not want to have us on there. But no!! Seemed like they only wanted us more haha. And the reporter spoke a bit of English, so there was no escape. It was kinda fun, but Sister Aramaki felt so awkward. And I was just thinking, well I hope I don't say something dumb, I just woke up an hour ago. (But I didn't say anything dumb, don't worry.) And our nametags were very visible, so hopefully some people who watched will look us up! ;)
Pictures from going to Midnight Mass.
Featuring... us on the News for Midnight Mass!! Haha!
But anyway, Midnight Mass was quite the experience. It was very cool. Very interesting. But oh! I really liked the listening to the choir! It was really cool! (It sometimes sounded like the choir at the beginning of Frozen. Like at the coronation.) It was very pretty! And yeah! Then, we went home, made it home at 2:30am, and made it to bed by 3:00am, and had to wake up at 6:30 still. Wow, what a night. Once again.. adventures in the life of a missionary.
Wednesday was Christmas!! Merry Christmas!! Wesołych Świąt!! It was still a "normal" day for us missionaries, but we still did a few fun things. We started out by planning and open the stockings that Sister Aramaki's mom had sent us!! She is so sweet! And then, we did some of our weekly planning. A bit later, we went to visit Babcia again. We had lunch with her and watched this concert on TV. Yup, we watched TV!! XD It was just a bunch of Christmas carols, so we were 100% allowed to watch that. And it was awesome!! I loved it! Also, random thing, but I would get a bunch of random texts and Facebook messages wishing me a Merry Christmas. They were all from people here, who I have met, but a lot of them I don't know super well. So, I thought it was way nice that they would send that! Anyway, then, we went to the chapel and kind of had a sort of Christmas party. Basically, a bunch of us got together and played games while listening to Christmas music. It was super fun! It was the same group as our Midnight Mass group, but we also had Mehdi and Irek come too. We all had a good time together!
Christmas Day game party.
Then, we came home and finished our studies and FINALLY I could call my family!! It was so fun to talk and watch them open presents. I opened presents they had sent me, and they opened presents they are going to save for me for when I get home. It really felt like I was just chilling with them on Christmas morning as they opened their presents. Best thing ever, seriously. So so grateful for technology!!
Christmas gifts my siblings gave me.
Gathered around the breakfast table with my family Christmas morning (for them).
Thursday was the 2nd day of Christmas!! Yes! They have 2!! Anyone wanna start that with me in the states..?? ;) Anyway, we didn't do a whole ton. We were able to finish planning our week (yes, I know it's Thursday.. it's been crazy!), we worked on Facebook for the main church page, and we visited Babcia to practice Polish with her for our language study. We also had a meeting with Mehdi over the phone. It's hard because, we're really just not sure what to do with him anymore. He commits to things and says he really wants to know if these things are true. He says he's reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it, but that he isn't getting answers. We basically just had another long talk with him about how he really needs to have a true desire to know and real intent to act on the answer he receives. We know he was feeling the spirit throughout our phone call because often, he would change the subject quickly or just start rambling on about something so that he could distract himself from the feeling. We're really trying to get him to stop running away from feeling the Holy Ghost, but I'm still not quite sure how to do that. We'll keep working with him as long as he keeps reading and things like that. But I'm really trying to get answers from God and from the Spirit to know as to which direction we need to take things with Mehdi.
Friday we were supposed to go to Legnica for District Council... but the train ended up being late, so we had to just Skype in for that. But it was still good!! After that, we were able to do some work on the main Facebook page and such. And.. okay, I'm gonna skip around a bit now. In the evening, we taught our English class. And funny thing: I asked Lucyna what kind of music she liked and she listed a few. She said she like REGGAE!! What?! I did NOT see that coming!! She's this Polish lady, in her early 60's, and she likes Reggae... haha surprising and kinda funny! XD Okay, but before English, we had a meeting with a guy from India named Mayur. He was one of the people we met through a random group on Facebook. He was so kind and so open and interested! He gladly accepted a Book of Mormon and told us he wanted to read the whole thing. He said, "Okay, I will read this in 2 months max." (WHAT?! This guy is AWESOME!!) And he said he would pray about it and see if he feels that it is true. It's really interesting because he said he is Hindu, but he also loves and really believes in Jesus Christ. So it's very interesting. Also, he prayed at the end of the lesson. We were even in a public place and it was the first meeting, but he still did it! I was so impressed! (Lately, it's felt like pulling teeth to get people to pray at the end of lessons, but not even succeeding at that unfortunately.) Oh! And we asked Mayur if he wanted to come to church and he said, "Yeah sure! I can be there, no problem!" He's so awesome!! And oh my goodness, he was just soaking up everything we were telling him and explaining to him. It was so cool to see that. It's good to have a reminder of what teaching a prepared person is like. :)
Saturday morning, we had a meeting with Joanna and Kajtek. And it was pretty clear that they really aren't looking to change religions right now. They have a good relationship with missionaries and the church, but yeah. They know where to contact us if they do want to change. :) We're of course still friends with them and love them, but we just won't be meeting with them anymore. Okay, later we taught English class to Anna and Viki, and their friend... Anna!! Haha popular name! XD And later, we had a meeting with Lucyna. We had her go shopping to get prepped for doing the Stop Smoking Program. We plan on starting that sometime next week. Yay! We also read the Book of Mormon with her and at the end of the lesson, she gave a really sweet prayer. Probably the most genuine I've heard from her, where she just expressed to our Heavenly Father that she wants to quit smoking, but how it's really hard and she needs His help. It was very sweet and real. And I love that.
Sunday.. wow.. Sunday.. that was a bit of a rough day for us at first. I won't go into detail because it's just frustrating. But basically we got accused/blamed for things that we didn't do and we also got told that we need to be doing certain things that the missionaries aren't actually responsible for. And yeah, it was really rough. Basically, sometimes people here think that the missionaries are supposed to do everything here and that's not true. We end up doing a lot of things to help, even when it's not actually our job. But yeah. I guess they're just still learning here and trying to figure out how to make things work. So, anyway, then, right after that we had a meeting with Lucyna. Some other missionaries had told us that she told them that she wanted to get baptized. So we were asking her about it and then she and Agnieszka (from Legnica) totally FREAKED out on us saying how that is NOT what she said and she doesn't want to be baptized. And we were just saying how that's fine if she doesn't want to get baptized, we just wanted to ask, and we didn't know it was bad to ask.... but off they went. And Sister Aramaki and I just broke down after both of those things. And we couldn't hold it together. We just cried and we had to end the meeting quickly. And then we cried more... yeah... rough day. BUT!! Later, we had the BEST MEETING EVER!! (Seriously mission life is just a very exaggerated version of "real life." And the highs are very high, and the lows are very low. Talk about opposition in all things, right??) Anyway, so we met with a man named Asan. He is originally from Pakistan, but is now living in Wrocław. He's been meeting with the missionaries for a while. But holy smokes.. this guy!! You guys!! This guy is PREPARED!! If any of you have watched "The District" or you're lucky enough to be in a mission that actually looks like "the District" in real life, then you know what this guy is like. He is by far the most prepared person I have met on my mission and he will for sure be baptized in the next month or so. Here's just a few of the highlights from our meeting with him: He studies the Book of Mormon and loves it. He really prays to receive answers and guidance. He has a real desire to change and become better and he recognizes the need to change. He asked about all the "perks" of being part of the Church and so we told him (having spirit always, healthy lifestyle, etc.) and he said, "That sounds amazing! That sounds like something I need in my life." He loves meeting with missionaries and always comes out of it feeling more knowledgeable and fulfilled and asked us how much/often we can meet. And when we asked him if he would be baptized, he said, "Yes, definitely! I want to be! I need to be worthy for it though. But then, I will for sure be baptized." AMAZING!! After the meeting, I said the Sister Aramaki, "Um.. I'm watching the District. This isn't real life. I'm literally watching the District. He is AMAZING!!" So, we definitely ended the week on a really high note. :)
Love and miss you all!!
Siostra Shaylin Carroll
I ❤ Wrocław (yup I'm in there somewhere).
Me and Sister Aramaki in front of the sign!
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