Dzień Dobry! Mówi tu Siostra Blake!
Wowee!!! That's how every single one of my journal entries starts these days! This week flew by...i cannot believe that it's already Pday again!
Something really really cool happened this week!! (well...a lot of things did, but this is especially cool!) So we were deciding on a place to eat...there's this one place that we've been wanting to go for dinner since like the very first day that we got here...but we sat down and something didn't feel exactly right. We ended up making the excuse that we didn't have time for a sit down dinner so we went to a different place that we walk past every single day but have never had the desire to go in! We decided to eat there (even though this place was a sit down place too of sorts) and ordered food from this Thai man. He spoke English better than Polish so we started speaking in English. We ordered our food and then he said "Are you two girls mormon missionaries?"...our tags happened to be under our scarves and coats... "YES!" He recognized us as messengers and representatives of the Lord without our nametags even showing! He said, "I thought so...there's something about you two...something..higher".... AHHH!! "...yes i actually have a chinese book of mormon at my house! Would you like to come over sometime and meet my wife and children and father?".....OH MY GOSH!!! we were in shock!! I was nearly in tears!!! Johnny Li...sent from heaven! Put right in our path! We are set up to meet with him and his family this upcoming week!
Another amazing thing happened this week! We met a man named Faruk walking on the street the other day. He speaks probably about 8 languages but not Polish. He's Turkish (we think....) but he travels a lot for work. He lives part of the time in Sweden and part of the time here in Wrocław. So we met him on Saturday and set up a meeting with him for Sunday. Sunday came and we met with him. He LOVES people and is so Christlike! He says if he had a million dollars, he would keep 1000 for himself and then give the rest to people who truly need it. He really is so amazing! Anyways, we started teaching him a first lesson about the Restoration because it was our first meeting and usually that just makes the most sense...but not during this lesson! We started teaching the first point about God being our literal Father and that He loves each of us...as the words were coming out of my mouth, it just didn't feel right...I knew that it was me teaching...not the Spirit. Sister Bezdjian and I continued on in the lesson despite this, however, and started talking about how the Lord calls prophets to bless families and reveal the full gospel during dispensations...everything did not feel right. It felt like we were trying to build something with legos and the pieces were just NOT fitting together. All the while, Faruk seemed pretty open and receptive to it all....nodding his head and seemed interested. But -- like i said -- something just wasn't fitting. So finally, I listened to the Spirit and started talking about who knows what! I think I was saying something about how people are individuals and how the purpose of our life here on Earth is to have joy. I honestly don't really even remember what I said, but the Spirit was so strong in the lesson, and even though I don't know much about him or his life, I think that something rang true to him because I looked in his eyes and saw tears welling up in them. Near the end of the discussion...Sister Bezdjian felt prompted to invite him to baptism! And he accepted!! We proposed a date and he said "Yes! I'll be there!" ...WOW! We were so in shock that we showed him a picture of Christ being baptized to make sure he knew what we were talking about and he said, "Yes! I want that!"...WOW! We were amazed!! I don't actually know if we technically even taught a real "lesson" or if he fully understood what we were saying...but all that mattered is that the Spirit spoke to him and told him that this is good...this is right...this is how you can become a better person...this is what you have been searching for.
The principle I learned this week was love. I found another key to happiness. My sweet cousin Allie gave me some really great advice that she learned while she was on a mission. One of the things that she said was to truly love the people around you. Even if it is just one investigator or one ward member. If you truly love someone, you will feel joy! I realized that I really do love so many people here in Wrocław! And whenever we have a meeting set up with one of those people, I just look forward to that meeting so much! And looking forward to that meeting and being in that meeting with the person I love really makes me happy and actually does give me joy like everyone says! It really is an amazing thing. Love is the true language of the universe.
Okay all you future (or even current) missionaries! I did something this week that I wish I would've done before I left. Make a list of what kind of missionary you picture yourself being. What do you imagine missionary work will be like, and what do you imagine yourself as as a missionary. Write this out and then bring it with you on your mission to refer to now and again so you can check yourself and say..."I'm not working as hard as I always thought I could..." then change it! I did this this week and realized that I always pictured myself relating with the investigators...realizing this, I began to change things about the way I taught and interacted with investigators! Writing out goals for what you want to become are so helpful and can really be life changing (even if it only changes your life in that one day) if it is done by the direction of the Spirit.
Something I have learned from the amazing members of this ward is to shareyour testimony with everyone! When ever we take a member with us to a lesson and if the lesson falls through, the members still are wanting to share their testimonies! They do all they can to share their testimony of this wonderful gospel and our wonderful Savior everyday...even if it's to a complete stranger! Tip: always keep a Book of Mormon somewhere so when the time comes (wether it's once in a lifetime, once a month, or once a week), you will be ready to share the light that the Lord has given you in your life!
Funny Moment of the week: for lunch one of the days this week, we went to this thing called Europe on a fork! It was so fun!! There are tons of booths each representing a different European country and its cuisine! It was so much fun! Such a cool idea! Well it started to rain in the middle of it but there was still music blasting! I turn around and the entire city square is empty besides this one lone man with a fadora on and no teeth dancing in the rain by himself! He was SO hilarious! I thought of Avery and Nicole and I KNOW that you two would be dancing RIGHT beside him!! hahah
Well, sorry for how long this email is this week, but life is just wonderful and miracles happen all around us every day! I just had to share a couple of mine with you this week! I love all of you so much! Miłego Dnia!
Love, Sister Blake
pictures:
sister bezdjian and I teaching in wrocław!
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