Well made it another week! This past week had a lot in it. I guess that is a pretty common theme out here. We received the transfer list this morning. I will be staying in Lublin, but Elder Beaty will be going to Katowice as Zone Leader. My new companion will be Elder Thomson. He has been in the office for a very long time...I am sure he is excited to get out and do some normal missionary work!
On Wednesday we decided to go contacting in Old Town. During this excursion a group a young kids starting picking on us...lol. They were making fun of Elder Beaty's last name, because in Poland it sounds like a girls name. It was pretty funny. We also had a meeting with Nina, she was devestated to hear that Elder Beaty would be leaving and demanded that she have pictures lol. So she went and got this huge camera from her room and took like 5 pictures of him. It was pretty funny. Then after our meeting with Nina we had English class. Again, Elder Beaty taught the advanced class (1 guy) while I was left to fend for myself with the beginners class. Which consists of 3 of our members here in Lublin. It just so happens that they are all a little slow, just not quite all there. But it was fun because they help me with my Polish too. The class went way over, but I talked a lot in Polish trying to explain how to say "th" and "r" in Polish. I made one of them, Mariusz, say Grrrrrrrr like 20 times lol. It is really funny. They mostly just copy down words and I help them pronounce them, so its not too bad.
Thursday we went to Warsaw for my very first district meeting. I guess they usually have them once a week...but our whole district is in Warsaw except us out here in Lublin, so we never go. (2.5 hour train ride...) It was fun, they made me do the Spiritual Thought... It was short but not to bad I don't think....I hope. After district meeting we went to visit the first church meeting house in Poland. Nowy Świat (New world) because Elder Beaty had never been there, and the Elders we were with had a meeting there anyways. We were just going to chill in the basement until their meeting was finished, because we didn't want to interrupt it. Then, to our great surprise...a member walked into the building and wanted to meet with the missionaries...So he met with us lol. Wasn't expecting that at all. It was kinda weird, because we had no idea why we were meeting. After we finished the meeting we were told by the other missionaries that he spoke perfect english..........now they tell us.....After that fiasco we headed back to Lublin for the night.
Woke up Friday morning, and guess what!!!!!!!!!!!! Back to Warsaw I go! Don't ask why I wasn't allowed to stay the night, I don't know... I was now on exchanges with the Zone leaders. But they are in a foursome, so I get to go with lots of people lol. At one point, Elder Garrett and I were left by ourselves to contact! We walked up and down the sidewalk contacting people. It was pretty nerve racking when someone actually stopped to listen, especially if they started to talk! After a bit, we sat down for a sec and formulated a contacting plan! It worked quite well after that and we handed out lots of pamphlets :D Contacting can be fun, I wish we did it more. Later in the day, after some meetings and such, I was out contacting again! Except this time I was with Elder Brown, who is one of the coolest missionaries I know! We contacted a lot of people, not many stopped to talk, and even fewer showed any interest. UNTIL the last person we talked to. She seemed so prepared to hear the gospel! I was amazed. Elder Brown explained the apostasy a little bit and then asked her some questions. He told her that the priesthood authority had been lost, she then said, "Do we have in now?" to which he replied "We do". Then she stated "Well that means that somewhere in between it must have been restored right?" At this point Elder Brown almost fell over! I am sad I won't get to be the one to teach her, but I feel extremely blessed to have been able to be the one to help find her!
On Saturday and Sunday we had District Conference. I was super surprised to see 5 member from our Branch in Lublin there! I was happy to see them, and that they were able to make it. We had some good talks about how to help the church grow in Poland, a real push for member participation, because we can't really do much if the members aren't helping us. Help the missionaries in your wards at home!!!! They need it!!!!!! Trust me...I know now. Elder Lopez from the Quorum of the Seventy spoke to us a couple times, mostly about his conversion and how the church grew in Spain. We stayed with the Office Elders on Saturday night, this time I made sure to steal a couple blankets so I wouldn't be as miserable as the last time on the couch. Sunday night we headed home after having another meeting with some members in Warsaw. They are way awesome, I wish I could speak polish better so I could be more involved in conversations :( Sometimes I think I know what is going on, but I'm not positive so I am scared to say something, that could quite possibly be completely off topic.
Monday involved more financial work, meeting with the Gładuns (coolest member family in Poland in my opinion) They love the missionaries so much :D and they have 2 boys. One is 19, my age, loves computer games :D And the other is 15 I think, also enjoys computer games :D I like them a lot! lol
Well I think that pretty much sums up the interesting points of my week! Finding Marta on the street contacting with Elder Brown was definitely my Highlight of the week!!! I hope to have a lot more expeciences like that in the near future! Hopefully we will be able to find some people like that in Lublin!
Thanks for reading everybody!
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