Hi everyone! Sorry I've been slacking on emails. It's just so much more fun to skype my family and tell them about my week. And after I finish skyping, sometimes I lack the desire to write it all down in an email.
BUT
If y'all remember the babcia we met a few weeks ago on a Sunday--she has now become a major part of our lives here in Kato.
Two days after we met her, we got a phone call at 5:30 in the morning. And I don't usually answer the phone at 5:30 in the morning, but I did, and some guy was on the other end. He explained that he worked at the train station and he had found a chunk of money and a card with our number on it. Even though I was half asleep, it struck me that it was probably our babcia's money. We had seen her open her wallet and put our card into it. And we had seen a good bit of cash in there too.
So I told the guy we would come by later and try to figure it out. A few hours later, we called our babcia and tried to convince her she was missing her money, but she didn't believe us. Until she called us back 15 minutes later because she hadn't found it.
Long story short, we went to the dworzec and tried to sort everything out. And our babcia loves us now. She thinks we are angels (maybe we are?) We met with her a couple days later, and she wanted to take us out to lunch, but the restaurant she had in mind was closed. So we walked around with her for about 45 minutes and tried to find a place to eat. When I suggested a panini, which we were admiring in a display window, she fixed her eyes on my face and passionately exclaimed "Nie! Obiad jest obiad!" (no! lunch is lunch!) Here in Poland, lunches are really big, and she wanted to go all out for us. Eventually she ended up buying each of us half a rotisserie chicken and some potato salad. I was able to eat about 3 bites of my half-chicken.
But we've had two lessons with her and she's been in church twice! Yay! We really do feel like she is a miracle from God.
We had a second meeting this week with an interested lady named Monika who lives in Bytom. She had a delicious meal prepared for us: potato pierogi, some really good herbal tea, and gingerbread cookies. Which unfortunately Sis. Jenkins doesn't like any of these. So while Monika was in the kitchen we spread some onions and oil from the pierogi on her plate so it would look like she had eaten. I drank 3/4 of her cup of herbal tea so it would look like she had drunk it (but saving 1/4 so that Monika wouldn't refill it). But the most stressful part was the gingerbread cookies. We decided the best tactic was to stuff them into my backpack. They're covered in chocolate, too, which is dangerous to put into your backpack when it is 90 degrees outside. Right as I was stuffing them into the abyss, Monika walked back in--but I think she didn't notice. These are scary things we missionaries sometimes have to do.
We had exchanges with the sister missionaries in Krakow, so we got to see their city. Which is beautiful and chock full of mosquitoes. But I guess ours is too. ;)
One of the things I've been thinking about a lot lately is repentance. I guess I've been thinking about repentance for the last 7 months quite a bit, because as missionaries, we ask people to change every day, or in other words, repent. At the same time, we missionaries are always trying to repent and become better people and better followers of Jesus Christ. Sometimes I feel like my own progress, my own daily repentance, is really slow. Sometimes I feel like I've completely forgotten how to do missionary work and have to relearn everything all over again. Sometimes I feel like I have to relearn life all over again. But we can all have hope that God really is shaping us into who we need to be, even if we maybe sometimes feel stuck in a rut. We can't see what God sees, what His plan for us is. So basically, we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves.
Love,
Siostra Eberting
Pictures:
1.Us with our rotisserie chickens and potato salad
2. So a friend had given me and Sister Harmon some soup (zurek) about a month ago. We only ate it once (a lot of people were feeding us because it was the week Sis. Harmon was going home). A few days later Elder Morgan found some mold in it. So I left it in the fridge for another 3 weeks (I know, that makes sense, right?). This is when I finally decided to flush it down the toilet.
3. We went to Auschwitz last P day. This is the entrance. Not gonna say much about it, you can probably imagine what it was like to go there.
4. This is in Berkenau
More Pictures:
