I Can't Think Of A Title But It Was A GRRRREAT Week

Dzień Dobry everyone!!

This week has gone by like a blur. A few happenings:

One day Sis Harmon and I only about 15 minutes to contact on the street before we had something else scheduled--the kind of time that can be easy to waste if we aren't focused on our purpose. But we went out and started talking to people. We found a little old lady sitting on a bench, and told her we were missionaries, and she waved us away. But I kept talking, and then she started talking and opening up to us. Basically, this woman was feeling so alone. She wasn't from Katowice, and I don't want to explain her situation, but she really needed someone to talk to. We ended up talking to her for about 45 minutes and had a really deep conversation. We shared Alma 7:11 with her and I think it really touched her. We gave her a Book of Mormon Probably one of the highlights of this week. Morals of the story: always be looking for people who need help. Moral #2: use your time WELL! This is something I'm definitely working on--using every single minute as well as I can. I know God blesses us when we put our best efforts into our work--missionary work or otherwise.

We went over to a friend's house this week, and she fed us homemade pierogi! Mmmm, they were really good. We've gotten prepackaged pierogi, and I think those are pretty good, but those homemade pierogi were a whole new level of yumminess.

We serve at a Dom Pomocy every week, and this week, when we arrived, one of the workers recognized us from a tram ride conversation, and she is so nice! When we were getting ready to leave the dom pomocy, she came in and gave us some food and offered us tea, and then she went hunting for 15 minutes to find us some herbal tea when we explained that we don't drink normal tea (Mom, I've drunk so much herbal tea since getting here. You would be proud of me). She really made us feel welcome there, and I'm super glad we have started to develop a relationship with her. We had been feeling like none of the workers wanted us there at the dom pomocy, and maybe we were secretly considering discontinuing our service there. But I'm so glad we have started this relationship, because that is a big reason why we do service (obviously our #1 reason is to help people, though).

So, if you remember my email from last week, I talked about how we had a great day in Będzin. Well, we returned twice this week, and both Times were wonderful. I really like Będzin. The first time, we went to meet with an interested man. We went with the elders (basically to transfer our responsibilities. We only teach women here, and elders only teach men). Basically, that meeting was...really interesting. This man was disappointed that we brought the elders haha, and he talked and talked for a whole hour, even when we interrupted. BUT, he has been reading the Book of Mormon, and that's good.

Our second time in Będzin was yesterday. We went over to the apartment where a member used to live, but her mom now lives there, and her mom is interested. This lady is SO cute. She loves to talk about all her little grandbabies, and she loves God. And she already knows quite a bit about us because her daughter is a member. She is going to start reading the Book of Mormon, and we're coming back in a couple of weeks. I'm really excited about her, because she is so sweet.

Also, I feel a need to apologize for my English. I've almost stopped caring about it. But also my Polish isn't that great either.

On a tram ride back from Chorzów to Katowice, Sister Harmon was standing next to a lady who was sitting. The lady looked at her, looked at me, and (with a very Southern drawl) exclaimed "Dzień Dobry! Co słychać!" That NEVER happens here. So while Sister Harmon and I were looking at each other in shock, she asked "now where are all y'all girls from?" Turns out she is from the US and knows all about us and is in Poland for some reason (she said to practice her Russian? But that doesn't make sense, because people speak Polish here). She even lived in Logan for a while. She doesn't have a phone and never checks her email and didn't seem interested in learning about the Gospel, but she said she is often at this library where I am emailing right now, so I'm excited to run into her again.

I love you all! Keep reading the Book of Mormon. It's a really good book. I promise you'll like it.

Love,

Siostra Eberting

I Ate A Homeless Person's Sandwich

Katowice Week 4

Cześć!!!!

Our week began wonderfully. It started with exchanges in Wrocław. So far, I'd only been in Warsaw and Katowice, so it was so fun to do missionary work in Wrocław (Vroe-tswav) with our Sister Training Leaders (sister missionaries who are leaders in the mission), Sisters Sjodin (spelled wrong) and Gornichec. They are both so cute! And Wrocław is just beautiful!! President Turek says Wrocław is the most beautiful city in Poland, but maybe he says that because he was raised in Wrocław. It was beautiful for sure, though. On Tuesday we went over by a bridge where there was a good walking path, and we drew chalk about how everyone has deep questions and how we can find answers in the Book o Mormon. There weren't a lot of people walking because it was a little cold, but that ended up being good because we were able to try to stop everyone who came by, instead of just one in every 15 or so. Sister Gornichec is good at chasing down people on bikes.

I've started trying to have a Book of Mormon out every time we're walking places, and it's already started a few conversations. When we were getting off a tram a few days ago, a girl was looking at it, so we started talking to her. She was really nice. She was trying to convert us to Catholicism, and she told us she would pray to Mary for us. That is very kind of her.

For Valentine's Day (oh, happy Valentine's Day last week, everyone!) we cut out hearts with Ether 12:33-34 on tchem and asked people what the evidence of God's love in their lives was. I am proud to say I had 2 extended conversations with people--in Polish--by myself. Hold your applause, ladies and gentlemen. No really. Hold your applause, because whatever gibberish that comes out of my mouth and actually makes sense to people--that wasn't me, ladies and gentlemen. That is called the gift of tongues, and that is a gift from God. Naprawdę, I have felt it after being here for a month.

On Wednesday evening, we made sandwiches at a Catholic church (we do this every week) and went to a park to hand tchem out. There were a lot left over, so Sister Harmon and I volunteered to go and find more homeless people on our way back to the apartment and give tchem sandwiches. We gave away all but one, but then it was almost 9'o clock. So we were running around, trying to find more homeless people, but all the people we stopped wouldn't take a sandwich. I hope they weren't offended that we thought they were homeless. So we took it back and put it in our fridge. And then the next day, I was hungry. And so I ate it.

On Friday, we had Zone Conference, and I got to see Elder Cheal and my beloved Sister Webber, both from the district at the MTC.

Saturday was a miracle day! It all started with our planning session at 8:30.  We were going through the day and writing things down in a way that made sense, and Sister Harmon looked at me and said "Do you feel good about this plan?" And I didn't. She didn't either. So we switched around our plans, but still, nothing really felt right. So we asked the elders to teach English and looked up the addresses of less-active members. And still, nothing felt right, but we decided to take a train to Będzin to visit a promising less-active member. We barely made the train (us running to tram/bus/train stations is a pretty common occurrence). When we got there, it was so sunny outside; it was glorious, and we decided to just talk to people on the street as we made our way to the address.

We gave a Book of Mormon to a guy who was maybe a little muddled in the head, but he still needed the gospel. Another guy was walking by with earbuds in his ears, but Sister Harmon stopped him. He glanced at the Book of Mormon I was holding and asked "Can I have that?" so we were like "YES PLEASE!!!" And the next guy stopped us as we were hurrying to the member's apartment, and he was super interested, too. And when we finally got to the member's apartment, she didn't live there anymore, but the lady who did was super interested and already had a Book of Mormon (which the member had left behind. So a bad thing, but also a good thing.) So we're going back to visit her. And then, on our way back to our train station, we talked to another man and gave him a Book of Mormon. Wow, Będzin is the promised land.

And, that night in Katowice, we gave 2 more copies of the Book of Mormon to people!

So here's the question: did we have such a wonderful day because God only has plans for his missionaries on 1 Saturday out of every month, or did we have such a wonderful day because we knew God had a plan for us, and we worked hard to try to figure out what that plan was/ worked in the way we knew how to work? Actually, that's a rhetorical question. You don't need to answer it, because God always has a plan for His children--missionaries and non-missionaries. If we put God first in our lives, if we are working hard and making the best decisions we know how, He will guide us through His plan. We can TRUST that God has a plan for us. Sometimes that's the hardest part. But eventually, we will be able to look back and see how we were guided by the Spirit. I know that because I experienced it this week. God loves you, and He has a plan for you!

Love you all!

Siostra Eberting

First picture is calling home with the new communication guidelines for missionaries!

Dino Man

Poland Week 3 (Katowice)

Cześć, my wonderful family! This week has been absolutely phenomenal!

So I know a few weeks ago, I talked about how people here don't smile, but I'm worried that y'all are getting the wrong impression of this, because I did too, my first week. These people are wonderful and beautiful and I just love tchem. And Sister Harmon and I have been able to have some pretty open conversations with many people on the streets this week.

Example #1:

We were on our way to buy something to eat and we were handing out English lotki (flyers for our free English class). I handed one to a lady and said something in Polish (are you impressed that I can say some things in Polish?) and she said "I can't speak Polish..." so we stopped and had a conversation with her, and basically, her name is Astrid, she's from Mexico, and she owns a company with her dad that sells chia seeds. So she goes all over the world selling chia seeds to companies, and she was here in Katowice for four days, and she was looking for something to eat. So, of course, we took her to our favorite Polish restaurant. And she loves God--she wanted to be a nun for a really long time and kept trying to be one, but one way or another, it didn't work out. She didn't seem too interested in our beliefs, but we exchanged emails, and we told her that if she's ever in Poland again, we could send missionaries to her to help her out. 

Example #2:

We were street contacting Saturday evening (talking to people on the streets about our beliefs) and we stopped a lady and her 6-year-old son. When we mentioned we were from America, the little boy's eyes lit up and he shouted, "ALJK;DA ASDFJ; ASLJDF;LKAJF; ESUIRAPOEWUPROAUIPEW FJAOEWIJFA!" meaning "That's where my favorite dinosaur is from!" (I found out later from Sis. Harmon). And then he proceeded to do a very good impersonation of a T-rex, running in circles around us. I think even Kalare would've been proud. We had like a 15-20 min conversation with the lady and her son and we gave her our number. Don't know what will come of it, but he is probably one of the cutest little kids I've seen.

I could send more examples, but basically, people here are really cool and fun to talk to, and it's no excuse to not talk to people just because you can't speak Polish.

On Tuesday we met with a woman named Zosia, who is in chargé of historical archives in Katowice. She showed us a lot of archives, and it was really cool because she told us a lot of history. She showed us death certificates of people (who died in like 2003), but each person had an envelope that included their death certificate, but also a ton of information the government had collected about tchem during communism. They'd know if a man was cheating on his wife or if he had anti-government sentyment, and when they needed to destroy someone's reputation, they'd just pull out their file, and they'd have all the resources they needed.

Another set of documents she showed us were post-WWII surveys the government gave citizens and had tchem fill out their losses/things taken by the Germans. You would look down the survey, and they would have lost their clothes, their furniture, their piano, and a sibling in a concentration camp. It just made their history so much mroe real to me.

One thing she told us was that when Germany took over Poland, they told the Poles they could decide if they were "German" or "Polish." "Germans" got free health care and other perks, and she showed us some of those WWII era health documents with the Nazi swastika on top.

She and her coworkers use FamilySearch a ton. She said "If we can't find what we need on our own website, the Mormons will have it." She's going to help us learn how to do family history here in Poland.

Wow. This email is long, but I still have a lot more to say.

Thursday was a very busy day. We visited 3 people in Zabrze (and got fed 4 different Times! Does that even happen in Poland???). We took a bus to get to the train station so we could go to Zabrze, and the bus was pretty crowded. Sister Harmon was behind me, and I was just gazing out the window, having this really good thought conversation in my head. When it was time to get off, I turned to find Sister Harmon right behind me. But this so-called Sister Harmon was actually a guy with a ponytail. Sister Harmon was not on the bus. So with a little dread, I got off at the stop and asked a nice lady, with my broken Polish, if I could borrow her phone. Thankfully I had our phone number on the inside cover of a Book of Mormon (don't worry, Dad, I'll have it memorized soon). Turns out she had gotten off 1 stop earlier, turned around, and seen the bus driving away with me leaning against the window lost in thought. But it was a little miracle because we had talked about this exact situation the evening before, so minimum panic was involved. And we were reunited after about 15-20 minutes, which only meant we missed our train and waited about 45 minutes for the next one (and befriended a girl! Maybe it was meant to be.).

We met with Martyna for the second time this week! She is wonderful. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how it blesses families. She doesn't have the ideal family situation, but she really longs to create a good family environment when she gets married and has kids. At the end, we asked her to pray, and she did! It was such a sweet prayer. She prayed for her family and prayed that she was grateful for the nice time she had with us. She is super open with everything, and she basically set expectations with us before we could. She's that awesome.

Yesterday, I gave a talk in Polish. For the first time. And of course, who would be visiting our branch except for President Turek and all of his family! So that was a little nerve-wracking. Especially when I read the wrong verses from Mosiah 18. I had no idea what the verses I was reading meant, even when I read the right ones afterwards (I understood tchem at one point, when I wrote the talk). But the rest was pretty good. And the Tureks are such a wonderful, cute little family. For some reason, little kids are cuter to me when they speak a foreign language.

Bascially, I had a wonderful week because I decided to quit worrying about embarrassing myself, 'cause I know God works through His missionaries, even when they speak a weird gobbledegook that strangely resembles Polish to other people. God has a plan for these people here in Katowice. But He doesn't just have a plan for these people. He has a plan for you! And when you do those little things--praying, reading your scriptures, attending the temple, you will feel His guidance in your life. Often, His guidance comes through the form of other people whom you trust and love. But don't worry about things too much. It'll all work out okay, if you are living a life close to God.

Love y'all!

Love,

Siostra Eberting

Moja Kochana

Poland Week 2 (Katowice)

Cześć!!!!!

So I didn't do a good job writing in my journal this week, and that's what I use to write about the week, so this might be a slightly vague email....

This week was pretty busy. We've been going through our area book (a binder with all the records of people who used to learn about our church) and we started going to various cities to try to get in contact with tchem. So our district covers a HUGE area and I-don't-know-how-many milion people, so there are a lot of cities around Katowice with less-active members and formerly interested people that we can visit. Unfortunately, we weren't actually able to talk to any of the formers/less-active people we tried to visit this week, but we will keep trying!

The story of the homeless couple:

So one evening we were in Dąbrowa Gornicza (probably spelled wrong) trying to find a less-active member. And everyone in Poland will always give you directions, even if they don't want to hear about their eternal salvation. So we asked this couple for directions, and as they came closer, we could tell they looked a little...different. Mostly like they needed a bath, and maybe like they were drunk. So that was that. End of story. Except on Sunday, we were serving at a Catholic soup kitchen for the homeless, and THAT SAME couple was there, even though it's like a half hour away from the city we had been in. And then today, we were walking through the mall, and THAT SAME couple was coming down the escalator behind us. I realize as you're reading this, you're wondering if we shared the Gospel. Well, as I'm typing this, I'm realizing that that would have been a really good thing to do, but we didn't do it. But on the bright side, we will probably see tchem again.

We also went to a Dom Pomocy this last Friday with our friend Agnieszka. Polish old people are so cute. One sweet babcia kept saying "Ja bardzo kocham cię!" (I love you very much) and "Moja kochana," (my sweetheart) and that was about 1000 times sweeter because it was in Polish.

Fun fact: everyone here is named after saints. If it's their saint's day, they get to celebrate like it's their birthday. So it's hard to keep track of all the different Olas, Anyas, Agnieszkas, Mareks, Marias, etc.

We've started teaching a new girl named Martyna, whom we met on the streets. We taught her about the Restoration on Saturday, and we had a really good, open discussion about it. Well, mostly Sister Harmon and Martyna did, because I'm still working on that Polish, but we're excited about her.

Sunday was really good. We had a wonderful testimony meeting, and after church we had lunch together. Sandra, one of our closest friends in the branch,made some delicious food from her home country of South Africa. Mmmmm...that was good. Sister Harmon and I made cookies for the lunch with Anya, another member. And you should be proud of me, Dad, because I put in less sugar than it called for. But there is no such thing as chocolate chips in Poland, so we cut up a chocolate bar.

Well, I know a lot of other things happened, but I can't recall tchem at the moment. However, I CAN recall the consistent peace I have felt, especially as I study the scriptures. It's obviously a little hard and a little stressful to adjust to a new country, new language, new everything, but I know that God is helping me through it. He also knows everything that is hard/stressful about your lives, and if you turn to Him in prayer and scripture study, you can feel His constant, deep love for you. And that can make any time of your life, no matter how difficult, joyful.

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Eberting