I can't believe I have been in the country for 7 months already!!! (Well tomorrow it is 7 months actually...) Time flies by super fast when you are busy all the time!
Well, due to the fact that we are trying to go out and see a Castle today in a city about 2 hours away, I don't have a lot of time today for the Blog, but here is one good thing that happened this week
We finally had some success with some Street Contacting (Different than whiteboard) Elder Allred and I had been doing pretty lame on our contacting so we set some goals to start at 1 each and then add 1 per day after that. (We have been spending a lot of time helping Sister Kimball out in the Family History Center and soon we should be completely redesigning how the finances get done here... it is a mess and Elder Allred and I are going to fix it, with Presidents permission :D) So we went out on Saturday and had not had time the days before to contact because of other stuff so we had to do 20 on Saturday. Elder Allred does not exactly like contacting. So I had to take the initiative to get us out there and going, I contacted 6 before he got his first lol. Eventually around 10 contacts each we finally got someone to stop! He asked if we were Jehovas Witness... and then told us that he was looking for where their address was because he said he would go to church with them on Sunday... We told him we were Mormon but that we knew where an internet cafe was (He needed to check his e-mail for something) so we walked with him accross the Rynek to the internet cafe and there we showed him the church website, and I gave him a Book of Mormon! And we got his number. He actually seems like he has time and isn't rushing life, so I believe he will meet with us :D
We also were able to help with some service the Mission is doing for the Flood victims here in Poland. We were informed that Sister Nielson (Mission Presidents Wife)would be coming down to buy food for people that were in need on the border of Germany. So we got to go out and help load up cart after cart after cart of supplies for them to take out there! I have pictures and one of the members from Warsaw, Dorota, said she would e-mail me more :) It was a lot of fun.
Well, that is it for this week, sorry that the entries keep getting shorter and shorter each week, I will try and have a long one next week, like they use to be lol.
Love you all!
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Week 29
Hello Again everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful week :)
Well I guess I will just start with the sad news... Remember that really cool contact I had last week, with Patryk, who said he wanted a Book of Mormon so he could read it? Well, he never showed up to our meeting :( And when we tried to call him he told us that when he had time he would call us... Sad day huh (Now that I think about it, I may have said that last week...)
As for slightly better news... Last week we were headed out to see if we could meet with an inactive member named Robert. On our way out to where he lives, a decent amount of time away, actually ran into him! We didn't even really know what he looked like, but as we were waiting for a bus to take us a bit further he walked up and said, "Are you going to my house?" We were like "what!?...are you Robert?" He said he was and we got that all sorted out. He told us that he didn't have time to meet right then, but that we could meet on Thursday. We were bummed but had hope for Thursday. Thursday rolled around and at the scheduled time he wasn't there... So we waited...and about 30 mins later he actually showed up!!! I was super excited. We had a nice meeting with him and I think it was good for him to just have someone listen for a while. We are now scheduled to have lunch together each Thursday :D
We also had another pretty good experience this week when we were headed back to our house one night. We were walking by one of the buildings and there was a group of about 4 people standing outside one talking and smoking. One shouted out to us, which is usually a bad sign, but it sounded like he was actually curious and nice. So we went over and they asked us some questions about the church and why we are here. They were pretty nice to us and willing to listen. They also really loved the fact that Elder Allred is from Alaska :) We gave them some information and ended up talking with them for about 45 mins :) It was a nice treat at the end of a day. And an answer to a lot of prayers. They said they would definitely call us so we can talk more, and even if they don't, we walk by them almost every day ;)
I am still playing the piano in Sacrament meeting...ugh...but at least I am learning a new skill :D Talk about magnifying talents sheesh
Well, that is pretty much it for the week. This week we are going to the Calls house about 2 hours away, (The kids you see in my pictures are the Calls) on Saturday, should be a blast :D
Thanks for reading :D
-Starszy Taylor
Well I guess I will just start with the sad news... Remember that really cool contact I had last week, with Patryk, who said he wanted a Book of Mormon so he could read it? Well, he never showed up to our meeting :( And when we tried to call him he told us that when he had time he would call us... Sad day huh (Now that I think about it, I may have said that last week...)
As for slightly better news... Last week we were headed out to see if we could meet with an inactive member named Robert. On our way out to where he lives, a decent amount of time away, actually ran into him! We didn't even really know what he looked like, but as we were waiting for a bus to take us a bit further he walked up and said, "Are you going to my house?" We were like "what!?...are you Robert?" He said he was and we got that all sorted out. He told us that he didn't have time to meet right then, but that we could meet on Thursday. We were bummed but had hope for Thursday. Thursday rolled around and at the scheduled time he wasn't there... So we waited...and about 30 mins later he actually showed up!!! I was super excited. We had a nice meeting with him and I think it was good for him to just have someone listen for a while. We are now scheduled to have lunch together each Thursday :D
We also had another pretty good experience this week when we were headed back to our house one night. We were walking by one of the buildings and there was a group of about 4 people standing outside one talking and smoking. One shouted out to us, which is usually a bad sign, but it sounded like he was actually curious and nice. So we went over and they asked us some questions about the church and why we are here. They were pretty nice to us and willing to listen. They also really loved the fact that Elder Allred is from Alaska :) We gave them some information and ended up talking with them for about 45 mins :) It was a nice treat at the end of a day. And an answer to a lot of prayers. They said they would definitely call us so we can talk more, and even if they don't, we walk by them almost every day ;)
I am still playing the piano in Sacrament meeting...ugh...but at least I am learning a new skill :D Talk about magnifying talents sheesh
Well, that is pretty much it for the week. This week we are going to the Calls house about 2 hours away, (The kids you see in my pictures are the Calls) on Saturday, should be a blast :D
Thanks for reading :D
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Week 28
Whew... with that fiasco last week trying to get the blog posted I feel like I just did this and don't have very much to talk about.
One pretty cool thing did happen this week though. We were doing a whiteboard. It was raining a little bit and so we weren’t really that excited to be outside. Our first question was pretty much a flop, so we decided to change our question to an English invitation. Shortly therafter I had like 3 different people come up to me and ask how long it was free, lol I told them it is always free, they were shocked. Later a guy stopped nearby so I went up and talked to him. He asked a few questions and I told him who we were and why we’re here. I told him a little about the Book of Mormon and he seemed slightly interested. Just before he walked away I handed him a pass along card and invited him to our English class. He left after what was a reather awkward contact. We continued our whiteboard for about another hour with little to no success. Then right before we were leaving the same guy walked by again, I said Hi to him and he shyly came over to me and asked how he could get the book that was on the pass along card. I practically jumped out of my skin... If you have ever seen "The Best Two Years" I was like the older Elder when the guy accepted a committment. I told him we could meet with him and give him one and he replied that that would be great. He told me that he needed the Book so that he could read it! I was super excited and took down his information so I could call later and set up with him.
That was the miracle part.
The sad part is that he didn't show up for the meeting we had set up and when we called him he said that he didn't have time and that "he would call us...". And that right there is the story of my mission thus far, as sad as it is. All you can do is just keep chugging along I guess and hope that someone actually finds 30 minutes in there life to stop and talk to us. Because lets face it, no one is actually THAT busy...
We also went to TGI Fridays this past week :) Yes, we did find one :) I used some of my birthday money to buy a nice meal. Which was the most expensive meal I have bought in Poland. It was like the most expensive thing on the menu actually... like 46 zł!!! That is a lot for a missionary, but when I think about it in dollars it is like 15$!!!!!! Would be like 30+ in the states I think. It was really good...
I also got to see the Gładun's this past week :) They came through Wrocław on their way back to Lublin from their first visit to the Temple :D How great is that :) They are sooooo cool. I love them
We also climbed a tower with about 2.34 billion stairs in it. (jk, it wasn't really that many...but it was A LOT) Got pictures of Wrocław from a great perspective, will upload them soon, perhaps even now, for my poor mother.
Well, I think that is pretty much it for this week. The weather still can't decide if it wants to be cold or hot or humid or rainy...yesterday was hot, today is rainy...weird stuff
Love you all :D
-Starszy Taylor
One pretty cool thing did happen this week though. We were doing a whiteboard. It was raining a little bit and so we weren’t really that excited to be outside. Our first question was pretty much a flop, so we decided to change our question to an English invitation. Shortly therafter I had like 3 different people come up to me and ask how long it was free, lol I told them it is always free, they were shocked. Later a guy stopped nearby so I went up and talked to him. He asked a few questions and I told him who we were and why we’re here. I told him a little about the Book of Mormon and he seemed slightly interested. Just before he walked away I handed him a pass along card and invited him to our English class. He left after what was a reather awkward contact. We continued our whiteboard for about another hour with little to no success. Then right before we were leaving the same guy walked by again, I said Hi to him and he shyly came over to me and asked how he could get the book that was on the pass along card. I practically jumped out of my skin... If you have ever seen "The Best Two Years" I was like the older Elder when the guy accepted a committment. I told him we could meet with him and give him one and he replied that that would be great. He told me that he needed the Book so that he could read it! I was super excited and took down his information so I could call later and set up with him.
That was the miracle part.
The sad part is that he didn't show up for the meeting we had set up and when we called him he said that he didn't have time and that "he would call us...". And that right there is the story of my mission thus far, as sad as it is. All you can do is just keep chugging along I guess and hope that someone actually finds 30 minutes in there life to stop and talk to us. Because lets face it, no one is actually THAT busy...
We also went to TGI Fridays this past week :) Yes, we did find one :) I used some of my birthday money to buy a nice meal. Which was the most expensive meal I have bought in Poland. It was like the most expensive thing on the menu actually... like 46 zł!!! That is a lot for a missionary, but when I think about it in dollars it is like 15$!!!!!! Would be like 30+ in the states I think. It was really good...
I also got to see the Gładun's this past week :) They came through Wrocław on their way back to Lublin from their first visit to the Temple :D How great is that :) They are sooooo cool. I love them
We also climbed a tower with about 2.34 billion stairs in it. (jk, it wasn't really that many...but it was A LOT) Got pictures of Wrocław from a great perspective, will upload them soon, perhaps even now, for my poor mother.
Well, I think that is pretty much it for this week. The weather still can't decide if it wants to be cold or hot or humid or rainy...yesterday was hot, today is rainy...weird stuff
Love you all :D
-Starszy Taylor
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Week 27
Sorry it is late everyone, had some internet issues on our end here, but it is all fixed again :D Don't worry nothing bad happened :)
Again, not much to report back on this week, lots of finding going on, still. But we did hav some fun stuff happen this week. It was Elder Holden's Birthday this past week. When we went out to Pizza Hut for dinner we had just finished eating and low and behold and missionary from 5 years ago notices us and comes over with his family! It was cool talking to them, what are the odds they would be able to find us in such a large city. They had met the new mission president when they were at Auschwitz earlier in the week and the AP's had told them that there were no missionaries in Wrocław...The Dad must have pronounced it wrong or something... because we are definitely here... It was cool seeing them. Later that night on mine and Elder Allred's way home we were sitting at the tramwaj stop waiting and this old lady comes and sits down next to me. I had our left over pizza in my hands and I offered some to her. She didn't look like she was in good shape. She asked if I wanted a cigaratte in return, I politely declined and told her that we are missionaries. As soon as she realized what I was talking about she just took off. It just goes to show how closed the people are here most of the time.
On thursday we had a meeting with the Shin family. They are from Korea, the kids (16 year old daughter, and 9 year old boy) both speak great polish and Korean and can understand English. But the poor mother, she speaks this interesting blend of polish and english. It makes it really interesting when trying to communicate because we don't know if we should speak in polish or in English. They were great, we stayed and built lego's with them after lunch. They are great, and so nice to us. Then we headed back to the chapel and helped Sister Kimball out with some stuff on the computer, which I am always so willing to help with ;)
Saturday we helped Sister Kimball get all of her stuff to the Dworzec for her train to Szczyrk (ya try and pronounce that one ;) for the YSA Activity they have this week. Luckily the weather wasn't too bad that day and the train wasn't rerouted or late or anything like that. Back to the weather though... We just went through a heat wave here where it got suuuuper hot. Then the next day it poured rain and cooled off a lot! It has been raining for like 4 days now, but today the sun is out and it isn't too hot. It has been really crazy weather, never seen anything like it. There really isn't a nice happy medium that is stays at here, its really weird. I also called someone that had stopped us on the street earlier in the week and asked if we could set up with him. He said that he would be in church on sunday :D so I just said we would talk about it then.
Sunday rolled around, Stanisław didn't (that was the guy I called) hopefully he is okay, he is pretty old and apparently has come to church before so...we'll see. The openning prayer for Sacrament Meeting was given by 8 year old Cynthia Call, so I don't wanna hear any complaining out of you guys back home when you are asked to give a prayer in Sacrament Meeting :P And yes, I played the hymns again, and will probably do it again this week. The Branch President here said to me "If I keep forgetting to do those CD's you are going to get really good at playing the piano!" lol...
Well, that is pretty much it, I hope it was longer than last weeks... I had to type this one up in a text document because the internet is currently down...so hopefully it comes back up soon so I can post it :D
Love you all!
-Starszy Taylor
Again, not much to report back on this week, lots of finding going on, still. But we did hav some fun stuff happen this week. It was Elder Holden's Birthday this past week. When we went out to Pizza Hut for dinner we had just finished eating and low and behold and missionary from 5 years ago notices us and comes over with his family! It was cool talking to them, what are the odds they would be able to find us in such a large city. They had met the new mission president when they were at Auschwitz earlier in the week and the AP's had told them that there were no missionaries in Wrocław...The Dad must have pronounced it wrong or something... because we are definitely here... It was cool seeing them. Later that night on mine and Elder Allred's way home we were sitting at the tramwaj stop waiting and this old lady comes and sits down next to me. I had our left over pizza in my hands and I offered some to her. She didn't look like she was in good shape. She asked if I wanted a cigaratte in return, I politely declined and told her that we are missionaries. As soon as she realized what I was talking about she just took off. It just goes to show how closed the people are here most of the time.
On thursday we had a meeting with the Shin family. They are from Korea, the kids (16 year old daughter, and 9 year old boy) both speak great polish and Korean and can understand English. But the poor mother, she speaks this interesting blend of polish and english. It makes it really interesting when trying to communicate because we don't know if we should speak in polish or in English. They were great, we stayed and built lego's with them after lunch. They are great, and so nice to us. Then we headed back to the chapel and helped Sister Kimball out with some stuff on the computer, which I am always so willing to help with ;)
Saturday we helped Sister Kimball get all of her stuff to the Dworzec for her train to Szczyrk (ya try and pronounce that one ;) for the YSA Activity they have this week. Luckily the weather wasn't too bad that day and the train wasn't rerouted or late or anything like that. Back to the weather though... We just went through a heat wave here where it got suuuuper hot. Then the next day it poured rain and cooled off a lot! It has been raining for like 4 days now, but today the sun is out and it isn't too hot. It has been really crazy weather, never seen anything like it. There really isn't a nice happy medium that is stays at here, its really weird. I also called someone that had stopped us on the street earlier in the week and asked if we could set up with him. He said that he would be in church on sunday :D so I just said we would talk about it then.
Sunday rolled around, Stanisław didn't (that was the guy I called) hopefully he is okay, he is pretty old and apparently has come to church before so...we'll see. The openning prayer for Sacrament Meeting was given by 8 year old Cynthia Call, so I don't wanna hear any complaining out of you guys back home when you are asked to give a prayer in Sacrament Meeting :P And yes, I played the hymns again, and will probably do it again this week. The Branch President here said to me "If I keep forgetting to do those CD's you are going to get really good at playing the piano!" lol...
Well, that is pretty much it, I hope it was longer than last weeks... I had to type this one up in a text document because the internet is currently down...so hopefully it comes back up soon so I can post it :D
Love you all!
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Week 26
Well there is another week come and gone, just like that, I can't believe how fast everything goes by when you are out on a mission.
Again, we have spent pretty much all our time searching, and looking, and have not had many opportunities to teach other than our short little lessons we sometimes try to teach to people on the street who seem interested.
So not a whole lot to report about this week, we did have Zone Conference on Friday, that was great. It was our first one with the new mission president. I like him a lot, I think he is great and as much as I loved President Engbjerg, it is nice to have an American mission President. We talked a lot about how the whole mission is in a state of finding right now and that we really need to do our best to find those who are searching. It can be pretty tricky sometimes, especially when it seems like everyone hates us and doesn't want anything to do with us. On the bright side, it has cooled off a bit here.
On Saturday we did have a Culture night with Sister Kimball, we went over to the fountain by our house out in Biskupin and watched the fountain show that they have there at the beginning of every hour. It was raining too, and we didn't have umbrellas so it was an adventure. I took lots of pictures for you Mom, don't worry, and I posted pictures too!
Well, I will try to write some stuff down this week that we do so that I will have more to talk about next week!
Thanks for reading!
-Starszy Taylor
Again, we have spent pretty much all our time searching, and looking, and have not had many opportunities to teach other than our short little lessons we sometimes try to teach to people on the street who seem interested.
So not a whole lot to report about this week, we did have Zone Conference on Friday, that was great. It was our first one with the new mission president. I like him a lot, I think he is great and as much as I loved President Engbjerg, it is nice to have an American mission President. We talked a lot about how the whole mission is in a state of finding right now and that we really need to do our best to find those who are searching. It can be pretty tricky sometimes, especially when it seems like everyone hates us and doesn't want anything to do with us. On the bright side, it has cooled off a bit here.
On Saturday we did have a Culture night with Sister Kimball, we went over to the fountain by our house out in Biskupin and watched the fountain show that they have there at the beginning of every hour. It was raining too, and we didn't have umbrellas so it was an adventure. I took lots of pictures for you Mom, don't worry, and I posted pictures too!
Well, I will try to write some stuff down this week that we do so that I will have more to talk about next week!
Thanks for reading!
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Week 25
I can't believe I am already about 8 months into my mission!!! In this wonderful country already for 6 months! It goes by so fast! But that probably has a lot to do with the fact that in those 6 months I have had 5 companions!!!Holy Smokes, And I probably won't be staying with Elder Allred after this transfer because the other 2 missionaries here are dying (going home) at the end of this transfer, So the most likely thing to happen will be that me and Elder Allred stay here and get new companions, and one of us will most likely get a trainee! Since I heard there are 9 coming in and then 2 months later 11!!! Holy Cow! We will finally be at mission quota instead of a major deficit right now.
So this week has been....HOT...
about 35 degrees Celsius... which is about 95 degrees F!!! And the humidity is terrible! I am sweating all day and there is nothing you can really do to cool off because Airconditioning is essential non existent in this country... Except we kind of have it in the Chapel, so we tend to spend a lot of free time there, helping out with the Family History Center, since Sister Kimball cannot speak Polish. We try to do some whiteboards but it is sooooooooo hot outside we can barely stand it. We are still always looking for people to teach, most of my mission has been finding, and not teaching. Missionaries who go to places where there are lots of members are so lucky because they get tons of referals and rarely have to go contacting, or tracting, and they probably don't even know what a whiteboard is! lol. It is so amazing to me how different missions can be, even between mission presidents. We have a Zone Conference this Friday, the first one with President Nielson.
More stories about lessons have been requested, and I would love to talk about all the lessons we teach each week, the only problem is that we don't teach tons of lessons each week... When Elder Allred and I got here in Wrocław, we were both new to the city and the previous missionaries here did not have any investigators when they left. So we came into to essentially nothing. Almost all of our time has been spent talking to people, trying to get them to set up with us, and occasionally we find someone who will set up with us, we show up and wait...and wait...and wait... until we realize they are not coming. However, occasionally the Lord does bless us with a miracle. Like the lesson with the Korean last Sunday! Well this week, we got a call from the member, his name is Aaron, who said he had found someone at the Train Station who would like to meet with us! Amazing how the Lord will require you to work so hard, see so little come from it, and then all of a sudden someone you just met a week earlier, who speaks no Polish calls up and says he has an appointment for us! We were suppose to meet yesterday, but something came up on his end and he called to let us know, we are rescheduled for later this week. More on that next week! Pray for those who are searching for the truth to be able to find us here in Poland, we search, but it is so hard to find them, so pray for them to be able to find us! They need all they help they can get!
Well, I think that about sums it up this week. I sure hope it cools off soon... It is so hot even at night that I can't sleep under anything... And for anyone who knows how I sleep, that is really odd, and a testiment to how hot it really is here...
Thanks for reading!
-Szczery
-Starszy Taylor
So this week has been....HOT...
about 35 degrees Celsius... which is about 95 degrees F!!! And the humidity is terrible! I am sweating all day and there is nothing you can really do to cool off because Airconditioning is essential non existent in this country... Except we kind of have it in the Chapel, so we tend to spend a lot of free time there, helping out with the Family History Center, since Sister Kimball cannot speak Polish. We try to do some whiteboards but it is sooooooooo hot outside we can barely stand it. We are still always looking for people to teach, most of my mission has been finding, and not teaching. Missionaries who go to places where there are lots of members are so lucky because they get tons of referals and rarely have to go contacting, or tracting, and they probably don't even know what a whiteboard is! lol. It is so amazing to me how different missions can be, even between mission presidents. We have a Zone Conference this Friday, the first one with President Nielson.
More stories about lessons have been requested, and I would love to talk about all the lessons we teach each week, the only problem is that we don't teach tons of lessons each week... When Elder Allred and I got here in Wrocław, we were both new to the city and the previous missionaries here did not have any investigators when they left. So we came into to essentially nothing. Almost all of our time has been spent talking to people, trying to get them to set up with us, and occasionally we find someone who will set up with us, we show up and wait...and wait...and wait... until we realize they are not coming. However, occasionally the Lord does bless us with a miracle. Like the lesson with the Korean last Sunday! Well this week, we got a call from the member, his name is Aaron, who said he had found someone at the Train Station who would like to meet with us! Amazing how the Lord will require you to work so hard, see so little come from it, and then all of a sudden someone you just met a week earlier, who speaks no Polish calls up and says he has an appointment for us! We were suppose to meet yesterday, but something came up on his end and he called to let us know, we are rescheduled for later this week. More on that next week! Pray for those who are searching for the truth to be able to find us here in Poland, we search, but it is so hard to find them, so pray for them to be able to find us! They need all they help they can get!
Well, I think that about sums it up this week. I sure hope it cools off soon... It is so hot even at night that I can't sleep under anything... And for anyone who knows how I sleep, that is really odd, and a testiment to how hot it really is here...
Thanks for reading!
-Szczery
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Week 24
We just met the new Mission President! We had interviews this morning and we were able to eat lunch with him as well. He is a great guy and I can already tell he loves us as the missionaries and the polish people as well. I am greatly looking forward to having him as our new Mission President.
This week has been really fast. I can't believe I have already been here in Wrocław for almost 2 weeks now! Elder Allred and I get along great. We finally found time this past week to really clean up our apartment, it has just been really hectic here because we don't spend a lot of time at home because it is so far away. By far away I mean at the end of the tramwaj line. It takes roughly an hour to get from our door to the chapel door. So a lot of the time we find ourselves staying at the other apartment here with the other Elders, who live much closer. We have been doing lots of contacting as well, lots of whiteboards which is great.
We had set up a couple meetings this past week, but all of them flaked on us... (didn't show up) but then on Sunday we had a miracle! Randomly at the beginning of church these two asian guys show up in normal clothes for church. We happily invite them in and get to talking, well, Elder Allred did because I was stuck behind the piano playing some prelude music. (Yes I did have to play in Church again, but I had a little time to practice this week and I didn't make any mistakes through 3 songs all with 3 verses! I was so happy and so nervous) He found out that they were Korean and that one of them was a member who served his mission in New York, and so he spoke English. His friend with him only speaks Korean so all the communicating we did with him was through his friend. They stayed for fast and testimony meeting, which was great. The Member bore his Testimony, and told us a story of how his sister barely missed being victim of a recent terrorist attack in Korea. It was a touching story. After Sacrament meeting we had the opportunity to watch the Restoration with them both. Bless the member, he was able to translate the English copy we had into Korean in real time so that his friend, who seems to be pretty interested could understand. Afterwards we bore our testimonies and explained a bit more about the Book of Mormon. When we asked if we could give him one he practically jumped out of his seat! He was so surprised that we would be willing to give it to him for free! And in Korean too! Unfortunately we didn't have a copy in Korean at the Chapel so we gave him an English one, which he was also just as grateful for, we will be getting a Korean copy soon. It was so amazing how Heavenly Father blessed us like that, even though the appointments we did have flaked us we were still able to teach someone!
English is also starting this week and we hope to have a lot of people show up for that! Sister Kimball is so great, she doesn't speak much polish so the people she speaks to usually communicate in broken English and she always invites them to our English class, so hopefully we have a lot come since we are just starting it this Thursday. On Whiteboards yesterday I really noticed that I can actually communicate with people here! I can understand most of what people are saying to me, and I can say what I want and I am getting to the point where it makes more sense to say it in Polish than in English. Occasionally I have to pray in English, and it is always so weird, I feel more comfortable praying in Polish now, its great! I know that Heavenly Father is really blessing me with the Gift of Tongues! How else could I possibly pick up a new language in just 6 short months!? I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn a new language, it is such an amazing experience.
Well, I think that is pretty much it for this week. We haven't been teaching a lot, been spending all our time looking for people who will let us teach them, which actually seems to be pretty hard here in Wrocław. We are trying though, and I know that as we keep trying the Lord will bless us with people who are prepared to receive the full Gospel.
Until Next week!
-Starszy Taylor
This week has been really fast. I can't believe I have already been here in Wrocław for almost 2 weeks now! Elder Allred and I get along great. We finally found time this past week to really clean up our apartment, it has just been really hectic here because we don't spend a lot of time at home because it is so far away. By far away I mean at the end of the tramwaj line. It takes roughly an hour to get from our door to the chapel door. So a lot of the time we find ourselves staying at the other apartment here with the other Elders, who live much closer. We have been doing lots of contacting as well, lots of whiteboards which is great.
We had set up a couple meetings this past week, but all of them flaked on us... (didn't show up) but then on Sunday we had a miracle! Randomly at the beginning of church these two asian guys show up in normal clothes for church. We happily invite them in and get to talking, well, Elder Allred did because I was stuck behind the piano playing some prelude music. (Yes I did have to play in Church again, but I had a little time to practice this week and I didn't make any mistakes through 3 songs all with 3 verses! I was so happy and so nervous) He found out that they were Korean and that one of them was a member who served his mission in New York, and so he spoke English. His friend with him only speaks Korean so all the communicating we did with him was through his friend. They stayed for fast and testimony meeting, which was great. The Member bore his Testimony, and told us a story of how his sister barely missed being victim of a recent terrorist attack in Korea. It was a touching story. After Sacrament meeting we had the opportunity to watch the Restoration with them both. Bless the member, he was able to translate the English copy we had into Korean in real time so that his friend, who seems to be pretty interested could understand. Afterwards we bore our testimonies and explained a bit more about the Book of Mormon. When we asked if we could give him one he practically jumped out of his seat! He was so surprised that we would be willing to give it to him for free! And in Korean too! Unfortunately we didn't have a copy in Korean at the Chapel so we gave him an English one, which he was also just as grateful for, we will be getting a Korean copy soon. It was so amazing how Heavenly Father blessed us like that, even though the appointments we did have flaked us we were still able to teach someone!
English is also starting this week and we hope to have a lot of people show up for that! Sister Kimball is so great, she doesn't speak much polish so the people she speaks to usually communicate in broken English and she always invites them to our English class, so hopefully we have a lot come since we are just starting it this Thursday. On Whiteboards yesterday I really noticed that I can actually communicate with people here! I can understand most of what people are saying to me, and I can say what I want and I am getting to the point where it makes more sense to say it in Polish than in English. Occasionally I have to pray in English, and it is always so weird, I feel more comfortable praying in Polish now, its great! I know that Heavenly Father is really blessing me with the Gift of Tongues! How else could I possibly pick up a new language in just 6 short months!? I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn a new language, it is such an amazing experience.
Well, I think that is pretty much it for this week. We haven't been teaching a lot, been spending all our time looking for people who will let us teach them, which actually seems to be pretty hard here in Wrocław. We are trying though, and I know that as we keep trying the Lord will bless us with people who are prepared to receive the full Gospel.
Until Next week!
-Starszy Taylor
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