Cześć!!
On Monday, we were able to do our normal pday. And for those curious, that usually consists of grocery shopping, exercising, getting ready, cleaning, sometimes eating (but sometimes I forget to for a while on pdays haha), emailing, messaging, and talking to our families. Nothing super exciting or adventurous these days. Just resting, relaxing, and communicating with family. But come next transfer, I'll be in a new place, so I will probably be going on more adventures and exploring places haha. Anyway, we had our English class that night and had a bunch of people there and it was all guys too, I just realized. Man, hanging out with mostly guys before the mission gave me lots of good practice for now. XD Anyway, it was Vova, Sergey, Marcin, Wilbert, Przemek, and James/Marek. Later, Solomiya came for game night and it was really fun! But for the spiritual thought of family night, I shared a video and talked about prayer. Then I asked others to share their thoughts on why prayer was important. Przemek answered, which really surprised me! And his answer was perfect! It makes me think that maybe he really has had some experiences with God in his life, even if he hides it really well. He said something like, "Ask questions with trust, and answers will come. Trust is crucial. Answers can come in lots of different ways: through another person, a thought, a feeling, something that happens to you, anything! Sometimes answers are all around you, but we just can't see them yet. They will come in their own due time. Trust that they're there." And I was blown away by his answer. Wow! It was beautiful! Later, we had a Zone Conference Call. It went well and they said we're doing a good job and that we're seeing a lot of improvements and success in the mission. Yay! We also got news that we're allowed to watch "The Fighting Preacher" on pdays now. And that was definitely exciting news! Anything different we can watch is always happy and exciting haha. We've seen everything we're allowed to watch and like... 10-20 times each hahaha. So new stuff is great!! XD
Tuesday was pretty typical. During personal study, I was reading the Book of Mormon, but in Polish. And it's weird, but... I almost feel the Spirit more strongly when reading the Book of Mormon in Polish! Maybe it's because the Gift of Tongues is working on me as I do that. And... cool thing. I feel like I understand Polish better and more easily on the days when I study the Book of Mormon in Polish. It's really interesting! Well, basically, we did our weekly planning and had a very busy week planned! Kamil (the uber driver Michael met) is soooo excited to meet with us! He's awesome! Also, when we were at the chapel, we were able to talk with Mariusz Kotliński for a while. He is such a sweet, cute old man. And he just LOVES doing family history ALL the time! Seriously, any chance he gets, he just does family history. It's so sweet! He reminds me of a Grandpa. I love it. And he loves telling us all about his life and all these stories. He's seriously the sweetest! I'm so grateful to know him.
Wednesday we started out with District Council. Our District Leader, Elder Baer had asked us if we would do a section about Facebook and how we've been finding all these people through that lately. So, we walked them through the process of finding a group and making a post and having them actually post it right then. We did a post too, but I'll talk about that more later. I hope they had some success with it too! Then, we had a meeting with Asan in Renoma. We taught him about the rest of the Plan of Salvation. It was.a good lesson. He's still keeping commitments and striving to become a better person. He even has goals for himself that he is keeping and having success with. We're so excited for him! He's just progressing really well and smoothly, it's great! Later in the evening, we had self-reliance with Wilbert. We were on the lesson that talks about serving others. Part of the lesson is that, as a group, we have to talk about someone we all know, who we could serve. So we talked about people... and then Wilbert suggested Doni. So we went forward with that and tried to figure out what he needed. We thought that he might need to feel love, that he isn't alone, and that he has friends. His birthday just happened, so Wilbert suggested we do a surprise party for him! And as soon as we had that idea, the ideas and inspiration just FLOWED!! Isn't it so cool how you can take these little steps and feel good about them and just keep going even if you aren't entirely sure what you're doing. And then you just hit a point when the ideas, inspiration, and revelation flows. And then you know for sure that you're on the right track and doing the right thing. It's the coolest thing and coolest process. I love it!
Okay, so back to Facebook! We decided we wanted to post about our English classes on a Ukrainian page and see if they would be interested. For the initial post, we had the help of Solomiya for the first one, but then for responding to comments and messages, we just use google translate. And it seems like it's doing a pretty good job because people's questions are getting answered. XD Maybe I should study Russian or Ukrainian too... XD But basically a summary of this entire experience of posting this page could be summed up like this.... WARNING: DO NOT POST ON UKRAINIAN PAGES UNLESS YOU HAVE A TON OF TIME TO ANSWER THE FLOOD OF MESSAGES YOU WILL RECEIVE FROM SUCH WONDERFUL, OPEN, AND WILLING PEOPLE!! IT'S THE BEST!! Sooooo yeah, awesome stuff!! Within the first 30-60 minutes, we had about 70 "likes" and a ton of comments. And then, it just grew exponentially from there! We were receiving friend requests, messages, comments, requests for us to share it to other Ukrainian groups, "likes" and "loves" on the post, people "tagging" their friends and saying "Let's go!", and so so many interested people!! If everyone shows up who said they would, I honestly don't know if we'll have enough space for everyone!! :) Even the next morning, we were still getting friend requests and messages and everything from people. Plus, the average post on there would normally only get about 2-10 "likes". Just to give you an idea of how big a deal this is, let me give you a few statistics. These are from January 16, so it has probably grown still!!
"Likes" and "loves": 421
Comments: 105
So, as you can see, those are some pretty high numbers! It was just SUCH a contrast to the reaction we got on other pages. (Primarily Polish pages) When we posted on other pages, we got lots of mean comments, "angry" faces, and eventually our posts would get taken down from the page haha. We luckily would have some success through that before the post got taken down, which is good. But yeah, basically it was the COMPLETE opposite reaction when we posted on a Ukrainian page! (No angry faces, ONLY "likes" and "loves", tons of comments and responses, no mean comments, etc.) It was AMAZING!! I'm definitely doing that in my next area too!!
Thursday we were STILL responding to the overwhelming number of people interested in our free English classes! Also, I started getting an exponentially higher amount of friend requests from random Indian and African and Middle-Eastern men. XD I guess if you put yourself out there you're gonna get the attention of ALL TYPES!! XD I got hit on and hit up by a few different random guys. A guy from Algeria told me he wanted to get to know me and he actually CALLED THROUGH FACEBOOK!! Of course, I immediately ended the call. XD Another guy told me he was coming to Warsaw and I should be his tour guide because "why not." XD Sorry, I don't think so buddy. Also, I don't even live there! And probably the best/funniest one was a guy from India who went through and "liked" ALL of my profile pictures ever (good thing I don't even have that many haha) and of course messaged me. My friend actually posted something on Facebook a few days before this happened that I thought was all to perfect. It said, "Approach life with the same confidence that random Indian men approach women online." Too too true. XD I took a screenshot of the conversation I'll attach it to this email. Please enjoy. XD
Please enjoy my conversation with a random 28 year old, single, Indian man. XD
Okay! So as for the rest of the day, it was fairly normal! We were able to have a meeting with Kamil. He was Michael Gray's Uber driver. It turned into a 2 hour meeting, but it was good! He had lots of questions about everything. But we were able to teach him about the Restoration. He's interested and open which is great! He also wants to come to our English class. And get this!! He asked US if he could bring people to the lessons with us!! And if he could give our number to interested people!! Um... yes please!! You can bring referrals to us!! He's so awesome!! Also, we had Max and Anna on the meeting with us and they were seriously perfect and it worked so well with Kamil. Later, we met with a man named Hameed. He is from Libya and comes from a Muslim background, but like many of the Muslims we are teaching, is leaning more towards Christianity. He was also very interested. He wants to read the Book of Mormon and pray and find out if this is the right way to God. He says he knows that there is one right way to God, somewhere out there, but is still trying to find it. When we asked him if we could meet again, he excitedly said, "Of course! I want to learn more." I'm so grateful to be teaching all these incredible and prepared people! Also, in the evening, Mehdi randomly called us and said he was in a bad place mentally and didn't know what to do. He said he thought of reading the scriptures, but couldn't do it. At the same time, Sister Aramaki and I had the distinct impression that we needed to send him a conference talk to listen to. And then we both thought of the exact same one! Wow, the Holy Ghost and his influence are so powerful and so so cool!
Friday was super busy! **Hint: It was another one of those "lunch past 16:30 kind of days" haha! XD In the morning, we had interviews with President Chandler. It's kinda crazy because the last time we had interviews with him was towards the beginning of October, so the beginning of last transfer and we still had Elder Moody and Elder Baer here! And now, here we are towards the end of January and the end of the second transfer together here. It's so crazy! Anyway, interviews were good. We talked a lot about having a vision for where and who I want to be by the end of my mission. So I've been thinking about that a lot. He also asked me an interesting question. He asked me if I could serve anywhere, where would it be. President Turek asked me the same question in my first interview. President Chandler just wants to see what we're thinking and see how it lines up with what he's kind of been feeling. He didn't reveal anything though. When I gave my answers, he said, "Interesting." And moved on. XD So I have no idea what THAT means. He then asked me WHO I would want to serve with. And I told him that I had no preference. I did get one thing from him, I basically am 100% transferring and my next city will probably be my last city. So I'll be finishing out my mission wherever I go next. So we'll see what happens!! Also, when I told President about our crazy successful Facebook post and showed him, he was shocked and said, "Are you SERIOUS?? That's incredible!!" He was so excited about it and wanted me to post about it on our mission's facebook page so all the missionaries could know about it and try it too. After interviews, we went to visit Babcia. She really wanted to meet President, so we took him to visit. Oh my goodness, they both LOVED it!! They just chatted up a storm and had such a good time together. It was a really good thing for everyone. I loved seeing them interact!
Babcia and President talking when we visited her. It was so cute to watch them interact! Aww!!
Babcia and President again.
After that, President headed to Legnica for interviews and we went to Agnieszka's for a meeting with her. We talked about and introduced the "Come Follow Me" booklet and program. She was so excited about it! She wanted to get started that day! She loves that it has a study plan and will help her understand the Book of Mormon better. She's also really excited to do the program with Daniel and help him learn and understand. This is so good for them! It makes me so happy to see how excited she is to learn and study the gospel. Also, during our conversation, I felt like I could just speak Polish so much better. The gift of tongues truly flows when I need it to. I'm learning that it's not always when I want it to, but when I need it to. Well, when God needs it to and when He needs me to say something. I'm still learning to trust that and to trust the promise that if I open my mouth, it will be filled and the words will come. Later, we had our English class. We had 11 new people come!! (And out of those 11, we had 10 people stay for religious discussion after class!!) And they are all AWESOME!! Holy smokes.. so we had a total of 14 people come to English. Which means we had about a 466.67% increase from our regular 3 people haha. Hey, that's pretty good! ;) XD Anyway, it was a really busy, really good day!!
Our super awesome English class on Friday!! :) Looked about the same size on Saturday too.
Other half of the English class.
Saturday was great too! In the morning we were able to study and do some great work on the main Facebook page. After that, we had our Beginner's English class. We had 11 people at class. All new!! It was such a good class! All of them are from Ukraine and I think 3 of them, it was their first day EVER learning English. So that's really exciting! And guess what?! For religious discussion after class....THEY ALL STAYED!! And during that class and discussion, there was just such a special feeling there. These people are just so special. They're so humble and open and willing to learn!! And they are good people. They are so good! I was just sitting there, nearly being brought to tears by the love I felt for them. And only knowing how much greater the love our Heavenly Father has for them is. Incredible. By far, one of my favorite English classes I've taught on my mission. It was seriously so special! After English, we got even more happy news! Agnieszka Kukurenda called and asked about English classes. She said that she wants to come next week with Daniel!! This is so good! Because that means she'll be coming to the chapel!! And it's been YEARS since she's even been there!! The next step is naturally, being there for church!! I was so excited!! Then, we were able to have a meeting with Lucyna. We read the Book of Mormon and watched the "Come and See" videos. I asked if there was anyone she wanted to invite to church. At first, she said no. Then, I remembered that her brother would be visiting her that night. I asked if she wanted to invite her brother. She said yes! So we did a little roleplaying and helped her practice how she would invite her brother to church. She did well! Afterwards, Sister Aramaki told her that now she could invite everyone. And Lucyna agreed but said that the most important is her brother. She really wants her brother to come to church and it's very sweet to see that. :)
Later in the evening, we met with Doni and taught the end of the Plan of Salvation. He was way interested and focused on this lesson. (With him, sometimes it feels like teaching a deacon/12 year old haha, but it's good! That's just Doni and we love him!) But yeah, he asked really good questions about the Plan of Salvation and seems to understand it pretty well. So that's awesome! We had a good time together and talked and laughed too. Doni's an awesome guy and I'm so glad I've been able to teach him from the beginning, see him get baptized, and continue teaching him. It's an amazing thing and I'm gonna miss him when I leave! As a missionary, there is just such a special bond you have with the people you teach. It's beautiful. But I'm gonna miss all these people so much when I leave!
With Doni!!
Okay well, I think I had one of the happiest Sundays ever!! For many reasons.... here it goes. Dhiva came to church! He was a person I randomly ("randomly", right?) friended on Facebook and started talking to. I had invited him to come to church and he came!! He also wants to meet with us this week. He's just a very sweet, humble guy. Also, Kamil came to church! He just fit right in and was participating and had a great time. He also told us that he's learning how to play the piano and asked us if he could play in church on Sundays!! Um... yes!! If you give them a job, they'll stay!! He even took a hymn book home with him so he could practice! I love it! We also had Iryna's friend, Svitlana. She's an atheist who had nothing better to do, so she came to church!! What?! Awesome! Then, Mariusz wanted a picture with me because he knew he would be out of town and gone when I leave. He also had me write in book that nobody has written in since Sister Gornichec was here a year ago!! (I also found Brigham Kriser's (my cousin) note to Mariusz in there! So that was cool!) It was so sweet that he wanted to say goodbye. I guess that means we had a pretty good connection and that makes me so happy!!
Me and Mariusz.
And one other person came to church today. Someone who hasn't been to church is probably almost a year. Wiktoria came to church!!
Wiktoria came to church!!
Me and Wiktoria!!
Me, Sister Aramaki, and Wiktoria.
She said she had to come to see me before I left. She will probably be coming back to church now. Also, I gave her a "Come Follow Me" book because she really wants to do the program. She was excited about it even! We're going to do something together this week too. And when I move, she says she wants to come visit me in my next city. Aww, I love her so much and I'm so so so happy she came to church today. My heart seriously felt like it was bursting with joy. I think the last time I really felt that was when I got my mission call. It was amazing to feel that again. Just when I thought this week couldn't get any better!! My joy is full!! I can't help but feel that God is blessing me with these experiences so close to the time when I'll be leaving Wrocław, so that I will never forget these people or this place.
Love and miss you all!!
Siostra Shaylin Carroll
P.S. Our current numbers for the Facebook post are these. "Likes": 504 Comments: 132
Me and Sister Malinowska.
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