Polish Kebabs, man, gotta get these in America!
HELLO
Yeah, every night before planning, Elder Berlin and I do a think where we think back on the day and write down a time where we saw the hand of the lord in our life "Ręka Pana"
I actually adjusted to the tiny branch really quickly! This week we had as many nonmembers as we did members in sacrament meeting, and as many missionaries as the Poles, but it didn't really seem strange to me. Sacrament meeting is still an hour long, and then we have sunday school for another hour. And then it ends, so church is two hours, and we have institute, and mututal on thursday and wednesday respectively. We have about five strong members- Dagmara, she's been a member for three years, and is endowed and is pretty great. Jan, who has been a member for about a year, and seriously has more faith than anyone I have ever seen in my life. And twins- Nick and Alex (we call her Ola, though) and their mom, Joanna. They're from Florida, actualy, but their Joanna and their dad are Polish, so they know both languages realy well. And they're all pretty recent converts, maybe six months for the kids, and about three for the mom. maybe less. And we're working with their dad.
I'm still loving it, but honestly it's getting harder. It's taking much more effort to be upbeat every day. But the few little moments when I am able to see the Lord's hand in the work are making it possible. I try to serve, but maybe not as much as I should. There's definitely things I could be doing more.
In other news, we got a crazy cool and accepting new investigator yesterday!!
AND WE WERE TRACTING! That's supposed to never work! But we were going around, tracting this nice looking neighborhood, and we met this lady who was from the US, and she gave us cookies, but also was very Catholic, so no success there, BUT THEN we met this guy who has met missionaries before and had a Księga Mormona, and had a relationship with the senior couple who was here before the Cuttings, and he said he would come to family home evening tonight! AND THEN we rang the bell on this one house and the guy let us in and we were able to meet with him right there and talk about the restoration of the gospel and we got a date that we could meet again! Needless to say, it was a good night!
Being the pianist is tough. I do get to choose the songs, but I don't have time to practice, so I can only play the songs with the top hand. But it's getting better! One of the sister missionaries- Sister Sloan- leads the music. But she has no musical background, so everything is a little rough. Yesterday we had three members, and three nonmembers. So... nice? I guess? I don't know if it's good to say that we had as many nonmembers as we did members in Sacrament meeting. Also, after sacrament, another investigator came in (Mikołausz), making nonmembers outnumber the members. But then a different investiator (Mateusz). I haven't really met with any of the people, so it was a little awkward. But oh well. Thus is missionary work.
It was a little rainy this week, but it was never a problem. We were always inside wehn it was worst, and we have umbrellas if it gets really bad. Also, I'm buying gloves and other things today, so it's not a problem. I'm dry AND warm! Go team!
We do have an english class, but there are only two people who come to it, but we did get to snag onto one lady who kind of wants to hear the gospel. The other guy has no interest. Just wants to learn American slang and stuff. But three of our members did become members because of that english class, so we keep doing it! And we hold it in the Chapel, so we have to tell people that it's not a trap, and that we won't force religion on them if they come.
We haven't been able to talk with young Piotr... He says he's busy, but will have time when the winter holidays come up. But he said he didn't get an answer to his prayer. I'm not sure how hard he tried, or with how much sincerity, but we need to get to him that he can't give up! Old Piotr is still as scared for the future as always. We're meeting with him on Friday. We don't do a lot of seeking out inactives. Some people are inactive just because they live expensively far away from the chapel, so I don't really know what to do about that... And a lot of others just want nothing to do with the church. But I think there's a lot more we can do with them, and we're just scared because inactive members are tougher to bring back.
That dinner was probably the best food I've had for the last three months! It was with the Pakoras - Alex/Ola, Nick, and Joanna- the ones that came out of English- and it was really good. And we were able to teach them a lesson! I think the missionaries here are looking for immediate results, like that with a single, perfect lesson we can get someone to accept the whole gospel just like we do. But not so much. All the lesson is supposed to do it bring the people close to Christ. And setting up another lesson is helpful, too.
Polish comes very slowly. I can speak, I can testify, and I gave a talk in it yesterday (which went not terribly!) But I still can't understand Polish people. It's rough.
There is this one store, called Safari, where we have two guys who are kind of interested, but kind of not. They work there, and they're both from Egypt. And muslim. They're names are Amr and Muhammad. They're the coolest people in Poland, though. And they make the best Kebabs! They're just having the hardest time believing that 1. Christ is the actual son of God, 2. Joseph Smith and everyone else are real prophets of God, and 3. That the Kuran isn't in the accepted canon of scripture. So it's hard getting past those walls.
And life is actually much harder than I thought it would be! But don't let that scare the people who are planning on going on missions! Just be expecting that it will be TOUGH! But Christ went through everything. Literally everything. And then some. He knows how you're feeling, because he lived through it. And thanks to that, he knows exactly what it is that will help you get through that. You just have to ask for help. And if you do that, it comes. You just have to work a little more than you thought you would have.
Więc, I dont have much more to say now, BUT I LOVE YOU! loads. OH! and speaking of loads, in Szczecin, instead of saying the word that means "socks" they say the word that means "toast" So some people say "you stink, put your toast in the washer"
And that is what makes this place great.
Starszy Liechty
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