Wow!! Of course this week was a rollercoaster! Czyli: lots of valuable lessons were learned! You know, to be perfectly honest, I have been pretty stressed about "finishing strong"... This whole transfer, I've been trying to decide and seek revelation about what that actually means. This past week, I made the mistake of thinking it meant "go unto your legs give out from underneath you and you fall asleep in contacts because your so tired" or "talk to every thing that breathes while you still can". After a spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically painful few days, I realized that for me at least, that is NOT what "finish strong" should mean. After talking to President Edgren and to his sweet wife (who is seriously one of my best friends!) and Alex Modzylewska, I realized that "finish strong" should mean "keep going strong". I have been going strong my whole mission! Going any harder would honestly put me in the hospital! (or so i found out this week!) The last thing I want to happen is for me to not have any fuel left when i get home... because if i had no fuel left when I got home, that would mean that I wouldn't want to or be able to keep doing missionary work when I got back! That sounds awful! I know my mom would NOT be happy if i ran myself so into the ground that I slept for 3 days when i got home and didn't have the energy to speak to anyone... No no no. Talking to president really helped me understand that my mission has been for me a training ground! I get to go onward with the tools and lessons I've learned from my mission into the rest of my life! My mission isn't ending! It's just beginning! I need to just keep being invested in the mission! Keep being excited that i'm a misisonary! and love enery moment! And look for eternal friendships!
Speaking of searching for eternal friendships, I was actually fasting and praying that I'd be able to do so... that I'd be able to have love for the people that I met! My prayers were answered! I met a girl named Monika in the tramwaj in May. It was actually pretty funny: I was in such a good conversation with her that i didn't notice my companion getting off the tram and I drove away without her (don't worry, we pretty easily reunited after a minute). But after tries and tries of getting ahold of her for the past few months, we finally did and we had a meeting yesterday! She is 23 and so cute and looking for her purpose in life! The gospel has touched her heart and she got goosebumps when we told her Joseph Smith's first vision! She was so excited when we invited her to baptism on September 20th (the day after my birthday!)!! I know the Lord wants us to be eternal friends! I'm SO SO SO grateful that He answered my prayers because Monika is so wonderful and I already love her so much!
The second opportunity to love was when we decided to do something totally outside of the box! My friend Ella who is serviing a mission in the United States, set up a finger painting stand or coś w tym stylu in a park and had been having success! So we decided to try it out!... IT WORKED LIKE MAGIC! It was so awesome! We lugged and dragged and carried this table and 6 chairs to the park and invited little girls and their mom's to get their fingernails painted for free by yours truly! It was the best thing ever for so many reasons: a) people actually came and once their nails were wet with polish, they couldn't leave! muahaha! I was able to have some really REAL and Genuine conversations with some amazing women! that leads me to point b! b) in my whole mission i have had the hardest time contacting and having success with stopping moms on the street..but they're the ones that need the peace and guidance from the gospel the most as they try to raise children! These women flocked to US!!!! and they listened! Oh my it was wonderful! I got to really get to know and love the people whose nails I painted!
Another amazing thing: On August 1 was the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising!! Oh my goodness I feel so grateful to be here in Warsaw during that!!! The Polish people are so interesting: theynever really speak their emotions, but inside they really feel a lot of passion! Especially for their heritage! The past few days, everyone has been wearing their Poland / Warsaw uprising tshirts. Everyone was parading around the streets paying tribute to their grandpfathers who had the courage to stand up for their freedom! I pretty much ahd the goosebumps all day! I grew in so much love for Poland, the Polish people, and the brave people who fought in the warsaw uprising! We went to a giant gathering of people during our dinner break and got to sing with thousands of polish people songs that were banned during that time about freedom and God and courage! I felt so honored to be a part of it all!!
Funny: an elder in our distrykt is really flexible and we were trying to come up with out of the box finding ideas... basically we were starting to run out of ideas and one of the ideas thrown out there was: Elasti-elder! hahaha
pic #1: nail painting
#2: MONIKA!
#3: Warsaw Uprising Anniversary
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