Hello everyone! It's been a crazy (crazy good) week in my new city: the one and only Poznań!
My new companion is Sister Baldwin, and she's really awesome. We also have a senior couple, the Womacks in Poznań. And let me tell you, I'm gonna have to be careful. They've already given us cinnamon rolls, toblerones, ice cream, and they made a ton of french toast yesterday...
But it is so fun to have them here. They're going to be our grandma and grandpa.
Recently in Zone Conference, President Chandler talked to us about how to make our street contacting more effective. He told us to look each person we pass in the eyes and if we feel like we need to stop them, stop them. Well I've been trying really hard, and nothing's happened. But, Sister Baldwin stopped a random guy who was taking a smoke and he was really interested! He came to English on Saturday to.
I got to meet Bożena!!!!! Bożena is a legend in the Poland Warsaw mission. She is a convert of about 15 years here in Poznań. She's babcia-age. She has had a really hard life and has many problems in her life today, but she is rock-solid. And so cute. We get to visit her every week, and I'm really excited about it.
We don't have elders in this city (it's only us and the Womacks) so we are pretty busy. There are a lot of people we're working with right now, and I've gotten to meet some really cool people.
Yesterday Sis Baldwin and I went and handed out food to homeless people and talked to them. We were talking to a lady, and when she found out we spoke English, she pointed us to another, rather beaten-up lady who was sitting down a little ways away. Well, we started talking to her in English. I'm sure what she told us was not the full story, but she is from Scotland and came into Poland and someone stole her passport, so she can't leave the country or get a job until she has a passport. I started telling her about how sometimes we Americans try to imitate British accents 'cause they're cool, and she stopped me mid-sentence and said "DON'T ever try to be something you're not, because you will always fail." Really good advice, which lately has been kind of hard for me to apply. Especially with having such a small mission, it's easy to compare, compare, compare. At least for me.
But the thing is, we all have the same goal. Every single one of us missionaries is fighting a battle against Satan. Not just us missionaries, but everyone on this earth. And one of the easiest ways for Satan to counteract this is to make us think we're fighting against each other instead.
This has been something I've been thinking about for a long time, especially when I've talked with other missionaries and they've felt like they're not good enough, that they'll never be good enough missionaries. They're comparing themselves to other people's strengths, and ultimately, to some idealistic missionary that does not exist. I do that too. It's so much more important for us to ask how God sees us rather than try to figure out how other people see us. In this way, it's so much easier to be united. 'Cause each of us has different talents, different strengths. And we each are going to help build God's kingdom in a different way, whether we are a missionary or not. "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:12, would recommend the rest of the chapter, too).
I think all of us are in the middle of learning this lesson. But it's so much nicer to not have to worry about what other people think about us, and to only worry about what God thinks about us :)
Love,
Siostra Eberting
Pictures:
1. I love Polish streets
2. Sister Miller left this for me in my planner. She's so thoughtful. ;)
3. We ran to Cathedral Island a couple days ago. It used to be the city center hundreds of years ago, I think?
4. I LOVE Biedronkas.
5. Me and Sister Baldwin
More Pictures
