Cześć, my wonderful rodzina! This week has been absolutely WONDERFUL! I feel like I say that every week, but I'm just so happy to be a missionary!
On Wednesday we had interviews with President Turek. He is a phenomenal man and just makes me really excited about being a missionary here. It was so nice to be able to discuss the work here with President Turek, because he gets inspiration for his missionaries and for the work here.
Sister Harmon and I had set a goal to find 3 new potentials (that means basically exchanging numbers and hopefully setting up a meeting with someone) on Wednesday, and we were just talking to as many people as we can. I mean, we try to talk to as many people as possible every day, but sometimes you just feel a drive in you, and a confidence that you're gonna be successful. And for some reason, even though all the same people were on the streets that day, we found our three potentials! One of tchem was actually a Jehovah's Witness who was probably trying to do the exact same thing that we were, but that's beside the point. This missionary work is often half a mind game. Having the confidence to be successful is super important. This is my little motivation to y'all, whether you're a missionary or not. Sorry about my English.
On Friday we went to Kraków and got some training about a self-reliance course we're going to start teaching. It was super fun to be there with a few of the other missionaries, and I'm really excited about this.
On Thursday (I think) we were talking to people about the Book of Mormon, and a guy came over and asked us if we were talking about religion. We were like "of course!" and then he proceeded to go off on a 10-minute explanation of his beliefs, which are scattered, and, quite honestly, strange. They include the following: 1) Buddha is God. 2) Mohammed was a prophet. 3) Confucious and Jesus Christ were also prophets 4) Mormon is a prophet (he added that one to the list after we showed him a Book of Mormon). He kept trying to convince us to go to some 2-hour religious meeting with other Buddhists (?), but unfortunately (?), we did not want to cut 2 hours out of our day to go to that. After asking us repeatedly if we believed Vladmir Lenin was a prophet, he accepted a Book of Mormon, and he seemed excited to share it at his meeting that evening. As we parted ways, he proclaimed, with outstretched arms and a smile on his face, "Buddha awaits!" Well, probably still waiting, because we didn't go to that meeting.
After that strange conversation, the next person I stopped was a young teenage boy. His eyes were opened so wide, and they didn't blink. And his mouth looked like he was trying not to laugh. But I think I also misjudged him, because I'm pretty sure he didn't speak Polish. Meaning, I thought I was talking to him in Polish, and I think he thought he was answering in Polish, but we mixed up the words for "hour" and "family" somehow (rodzina and godzina). I said "Families are the center of our church" and he replied something about how "time is the center of everything." So things were getting really philisophical really fast, and I wasn't sure if my small brain could handle a conversation of that magnitude, so we said "Good day" and he said "Good day, Bye, Have a nice day" (all the pleasantries meaning goodbye). So another strange conversation to add to the book.
Remember that confidence thing I mentioned earlier? Well, one of the things Sister Harmon and I have been trying to work hard on this week is inviting people specifically to church. This past Sunday was also the anniversary of Relief Society, so our Relief Society president wanted us to have a lunch as a branch after church. So we invited people and prayed that we would have people in church on Sunday. And I just felt that confidence that we were doing the best we could, that God could see our efforts, and that He was going to bring people to church.
And then the miracle happened. We had 34 people in church. Somehow, only one of tchem was a person we had invited, but members brought friends/family/less-active members, and the elders had all five of the people they teach in church. We usually have about 12-15 people in sacrament meeting. Our little chapel was so overjoyed to be full of people. And I'm sure the smiles on our faces showed how overjoyed we were, too. I think that God answered our prayers in the best way possible, by bringing people who already have connections with our active members. Ah, what a glorious day. And the lunch afterwards was wonderful, too. We had some classic American brownies and mac 'n cheese (credits to Sister Harmon's recipe book from her sister) and ham and salads. And people just talked to each other and made friends, and I couldn't have imagined anything better.
I love you all! Keep holdin' strong to your faith in God. He's always aware of you and knows when you're going through hard times.
Love
Siostra Eberting
