Hi Family!!
Dzien Dobry! It is a beautiful day in Gdansk! I don't know about the States but everything is blooming here in Poland! It literally is snowing blossoms and everything is green and fresh. The smell is incredible too, I keep inhaling everything! I love spring. Thank you so much for your prayers. Knowing that you all are praying for us here in Gdansk is comforting and strengthening. Thank you all for the love that you give!
Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: being positively grateful. We are striving to see the positive in every situation! It is a very rewarding attribute to work on.
Sister McAdams is such a good example. We had some hard lessons this week but she was so strong even when we encountered hard things. Something I learned from her this week was to use my personality to teach and really be honest with our investigators. Being real and honest sets the tone for the investigators to open up and invites the Spirit because there is nothing pretentious or deceitful in the meeting.
Basically we had to drop 3 investigators this week. It was hard and sad but they did not want to come closer to Christ or read the Book of Mormon. Very sad :(
One especially significant one was with our investigator Aleksandra. She had ordered basically everything possible off the internet. She ordered the pamphlets, books, the Book of Mormon, Restoration DVD, and everything else. So we delivered it to her, had a good lesson and basically we had really high hopes for her. She had a lot of questions like "Why can't women hold the priesthood?" and "What happens after this life?" Our first lesson we asked if when she comes to know the Book of Mormon is true, would she be baptized. She said yes. We were so excited to set a baptismal date with her. However the second lesson was terrible. Not because of what we did...she just kept yelling questions and not listening to us and told us she didn't want to meet anymore and she did not believe and would not believe our message. She said that spirits don't have gender and said it wasn't fair that women could not hold the priesthood and it was pretty terrible. Sister McAdams was crying and I just felt so...empty the whole lesson. We testified that all her questions and answers rest on the Book of Mormon and whether it is true or not. She wouldn't listen. In the end, she said she wasn't interested in our religion so we closed with prayer and as we were going out the door I turned to her. I said "Aleksandra I'm going to say this in English now because I can't express it in Polish. (And I knew she understands English.) I am so sad for you and for what you're giving up. Your eternal salvation depends on this! On the Book of Mormon. And my heart is so sad for you that you are throwing away this. But I want to leave you with our testimonies that WE KNOW this is true. And I hope that one day you will want to come to know it's true too." Something like that. It was terrible and sad but so many people looked at us as we cried on the way home I say it was a good finding tool! Sometimes people avoid us but when they saw us in that state they all stared and wanted to talk to us! hahaha.
Other side: the best thing that happened this week was a member/less active member lesson!
We had a meeting with Bogumila and Elzbieta. Bogumila is 75 and energetic and spunky! I love her so so much. We had a great lesson from the Liahona, we sang a hymn, and the Spirit was so strong. They are so fun and it was powerful to see these two old women supporting each other! Bogumila and I also taught Primary this week to Klaudia and it was so much fun. Mostly the lesson was putting in different sets of earrings on Sister Bezdjian but it was great.
Other news:
*I had a talk this Sunday...I think it was pretty much understood! Hopefully...Hahaha. Oh well.
*Sister Lydia (our new member) gave her first prayer in sacrament meeting!
*Our registering Books of Mormons in local libraries project is going well.
*Marta and Krzystof are still reading the Book of Mormon and we are praying for them a lot!
*Contacting in parks is so much fun with the new beautiful weather!
Something I learned in the Book of Mormon this week was that when Moroni extends his promise and exhorts us to ask the Eternal Father in the name of Christ about the Book of Mormon, he didn't say 'the first time you receive this words' or 'when you read this for the first time.' He said when you receive these words and I know that every time we read the Book of Mormon we can ask and receive that witness from the Spirit even if we already have our own testimony of its truthfulness.
An Idea: So in lieu of the above, I would like to extend a challenge to you all. I've figured out what I want for my birthday this year!! I want you ALL to read The Book of Mormon, cover to cover. Yes this means YOU. I would like us all to finish it by my birthday, October 16th of this year. That means we have around 6 months to do it. Together. I think that's fair. So forget any amazing packages you were going to send me or any fantastic letters you wanted to send. All I want is for you all to read the Book of Mormon. (But you can read AND send letters :D if you want...) So starting this week we will begin together! We just finished it today as a mission and it was such a rewarding amazing experience that I want to have again with my family and friends. I know you will be sacrificing time to read it but I promise it will bless your lives. And it's only around 3 pages a day I think? I'll have to figure out exactly. Anyway this week the reading is the title page, testimonies, and first 2 chapters of 1 Nephi! Milego czytania (happy reading)! I can't wait to hear how it goes with you all.
I love you all! Love,
Sara
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