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
