I received a text to look at my Boise friend's Instagram and found the following post on Saturday! I was overwhelmed with happiness! The sisters' investigator had been baptized! The small Szczecin Branch grew by one that day! The sisters had met Szymon while contacting on the street - the blog post is April 11.
In my email to Raquel inquiring about the baptism she responded with: "Mom! Can you believe he was baptized! I smiled all week and especially when he was baptized on Saturday! Even though I wasn't there I felt there in spirit! Sisotra Sloan called me and I just cried and cried! My heart kept telling me 'This is why you are here! I am so happy for him. He was seeking and ready!'"
The following pictures are from Siostra Cutting and Siostra Sloan.
 |
| After an opening baptism service of a prayer and hymn they had to walk a kilometer to a pool for the baptism. |
 |
 |
| Look at those smiles! |
 |
| Starszy Lietchy, an investigator, Starszy Garrison |
 |
| Ingredients for cookies...150 to be exact! |
 |
| Guest! |
 |
| Oh Canada! She's great...eh? |
 |
| Bad lighting! But such a fun experience! And great kids! |
 |
| Polish classroom! |
 |
| This little boy made us snowflakes and wanted a pic! |
 |
| Spring! |
 |
| A visit to the Gdańsk Branch from Siostra and President Edgren! |
 |
| Congratulations to Tal for graduating this next week! |
This week went by so fast!! We were busy, busy, busy this week!! When we had planned last week, we had decided that we wanted to do a lot more finding! However, things kept coming up and we weren't able to do as much as we had planned! To be honest we were a little worried we would barely have any time to find at the beginning of this week but I learned this week that when we do our part the Lord will provide! Every single time we went out to find we set an expectation that we would find someone! The incredible miracle was that it happened! Every single time we were able to meet someone and teach them!! This is a huge testimony to me that I am in the Lord's hands! He is guiding us as we go out and is leading us to those who are ready and willing to listen!!
This week started out with tracting!! We went out to an area where we are teaching the family I have mentioned before! We felt really good about the area and decided to tract it! We did and entire building and had no success... until the last door! That is right the very LAST door!!! WE knocked and this young guy opened the door! He was actually the one who had opened the door for us to come inside! We started talking to him about what we believed he then called his friend over to listen too! They invited us inside and we started talking about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration! They had lots of questions and took a Book of Mormon to read! We asked if we could come back and talk more about "the book," they told us that their door was opened always to us! They were so incredibly sweet and really truly listened to what we had to say!! It was such a huge miracle!! Who would have guessed it would be on the last door?
This week we also went to Polish School for a day! We were asked to give a presentation on Canada to a 6th grade, 5th grade and 4th grade English class! In preparation for this we wanted to make something sweet for the kids to try! Little did we know we were getting into more than we could handle!! We ended up having to make 150 chocolate chip cookies! When we went to check out at the grocery store with all our stuff, people were looking at us like we were crazy!! We did it though... 150 cookies down!!!! It was so fun to be able to go and present to all those kids!! It was really amazing to see how much English they could speak already at a young age!! Polish school is very strict and it is based off of a point system, as in participation points! They didn't receive a point though unless it was a grammatically correct sentence!! It was intense! I kept thinking how I would probably be in the negative if I was on the point system as I've tried to learn Polish! They were so much fun though and loved learning about everything! They asked funny questions like "Do you like chicken?" or "Do you play volleyball!?" The one thing they loved though was learning how to speak like a Canadian!! They laughed and laughed when we told them the differences and how they say "eh" (Sister Young confirmed it)!! It was so awesome and we got invited back to do a presentation on Idaho!! My own private Idaho...so proud!
We also had my first branch activity here in Gdansk this last weekend!! We did a giant Family History night! We had the members bring names and we were able to help them put the information in the computer! It has been incredible to see the members latch on to family history work with such fire!! It was a huge success and the members worked incredibly well together!!
President and Siostra Edgren were also able to come up to Gdansk for the weekend!! I was able to have one more interview with him before he leaves to return home and we get a new mission president!! I have loved receiving his weekly emails and having interviews with him! He is truly a man of God! His advice has helped me and comforted me more times than I can count!! I am so sad to see him go!! They both spoke in sacrament meeting and their was just such a strong feeling of love in the room! President Edgren said his talk all in Polish! How humbling is that?! Here they came not knowing a word and have dug in like the rest of us to learn despite their crazy busy schedule! I have heard him do this before and I am always impressed how he came to a country not knowing the language or anyone and yet he has worked to learn it and has truly touched people's lives because of it!! I am so grateful for him and his incredible wife!! I love them!
President and Siostra Edgren were also able to come up to Gdansk for the weekend!! I was able to have one more interview with him before he leaves to return home and we get a new mission president!! I have loved receiving his weekly emails and having interviews with him! He is truly a man of God! His advice has helped me and comforted me more times than I can count!! I am so sad to see him go!! They both spoke in sacrament meeting and their was just such a strong feeling of love in the room! President Edgren said his talk all in Polish! How humbling is that?! Here they came not knowing a word and have dug in like the rest of us to learn despite their crazy busy schedule! I have heard him do this before and I am always impressed how he came to a country not knowing the language or anyone and yet he has worked to learn it and has truly touched people's lives because of it!! I am so grateful for him and his incredible wife!! I love them!
Another miracle that happened was that the women I talked about who came to sacrament meeting last week, came again! She is so incredible! I could tell she felt something during Sacrament meeting and during the talks!! We are going to meet again and teach her this week!! Speaking of sacrament meeting Sister Young and I sang with our young woman in sacrament meeting! We let her pick the song and she chose O My Father!! She has such a beautiful voice and it went so well!! It is so fun having her in our branch!
The final miracle I want to share happened yesterday!! We ended this week also by tracting!! We went back to that same area and we didn't have much success but then we began talking to this young man at his door step!! I have been trying lately to really truly personalize! We talked to him about God's plan and the Book of Mormon! I bore my testimony about how the Book of Mormon has given me direction in my life and has helped me feel Heavenly Father's love for me!! The incredible thing though was while I started talking the words kept coming! I know my Polish wasn't perfect but I felt like I was truly talking to him one on one!! This is when I have honestly felt that as I opened my mouth it was filled!! I don't remember everything I said but I know what I said was true and I felt the spirit testify as I bore my testimony to him!! The promise is real that when we open our mouths they are filled!!! (Psalms 81 & D&C 33)
I love you all so much and I continue to be amazed by the miracles I see daily!!
Kocham Was!!!!
Siostra DeMordaunt
No comments:
Post a Comment