Czesc!

After being here all of the descriptions I have heard before are making so much sense. The main one being that days feel likes weeks and weeks feel like days. Days go by quickly too but because we are always doing something it is hard to believe that it all happened in one day. It's strange to think that my district has already been here for over a week - crazy!

My district has grown much closer together - it's strange because in some ways we feel like family because we spend all of our time together and are going through the same things. However, we have only known each other for a week so we are still trying to get to know each other. At first I thought it would be difficult to grow close to them because I felt like my views, tastes, and perspective of the world was so different from theirs. Although we don't see eye to eye we still enjoy each other and can laugh a lot together, which is success in my book. Our teachers Brat (Brother) Tribe, Brat Hillyard, and Siostra (Sister) McAdams really are great. The excitement of the MTC and where everything is "the best" has sort of worn off but my district and teachers really are strong, talented people who I am grateful to be with. We think that we haven't learned any Polish but when we think that it's only been a week it's pretty amazing. Like in French at school most people in my district find it easier to understand than speak but I am the opposite (not that it's easy to speak!) My whole district seems to be enjoying our time here but finding it a challenge - and we are all tired with built up exhaustion. 

So at the MTC we have mock investigators that we teach (they are usually our teachers that pretend to be someone learning about our church and gospel.) This week we taught Jola (Siostra McAdams) for three lessons - Saturday, Monday, Wednesday- ALL in Polish! We teach in companionships so I am with Starszy Whiting. Our first lesson went horrible and I mean HORRIBLE. We both came out of it confused, frustrated, and downhearted. After the lesson we were both talking about how we wish we could just do it all in English so we could actually express ourselves and understand what she was saying. We then kind of sat, pondered and had a really good conversation. What we realized is that we were only thinking about ourselves: it was hard for us, we couldn't understand, and we wanted to be able to speak. We realized missionary work has basically nothing to do with us. Our success doesn't depend on our language skills or exactly what we say it all depends on the Spirit being present. Our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to come unto Christ - to strengthen the investigators relationship with Heavenly Father and Christ. The most important tool is the Spirit - If we have the Spirit: we as missionaries will be guided what to say according to what the investigator needs to hear, we will all feel peace and love from our Father in Heaven, and the Holy Ghost will testify truth to the hearts of our investigators. For our first lesson we planned out exactly what we were going to say, who was going to say it, and when. The second and third times we studied with topics we felt prompted to teach but planned a lot less and so we were able to be guided by the Spirit. In the second lesson I didn't feel any strong waves of emotion but I did feel gently guided. In the third I felt the same but I also had a stronger witness and feeling of the Spirit. We had her read, pray and finally invited her to be baptized on October 7th and she accepted. We learned so much from Jola and felt the ups and downs of missionary work. I think now Starszy Whiting and I are both more confident and comfortable in studying together, teaching, and speaking Polish. Our differing strengths I think are a great asset. We both know the doctrine of Christ but S. Whiting can, in an instant, find a scripture to use in that moment and his Polish is a little better so he is more articulate, whereas I feel like I can connect with the investigator a little better and testify of what I believe in with more heart. (not to say either of us can't do the other but I think the balance is good) This week we will teach Olek (Brat Tribe) to pray for us and I will let you know how it goes. We watched the "Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar on Sunday and it emphasized our need, as missionaries, to forget about ourselves and focus on our purpose of inviting others to Christ. It was AMAZING - our whole district came out with a new sense of direction after it.

I get to see Hermana Dautel everyday and every once in a while we will talk so that's nice. I can now give pretty substantial prayers and testimonies (things I would say in English), teach simple lessons, conjugate three types of verbs, and spit out some vocab in Polish. It is a very different language! They conjugate verbs and adjectives, sentence structure doesn't matter, and their ratio of consonants to vowels in words is unforgiving. 

S. Whiting and I got to leave the MTC this week (for those of you who don't know, that's not really done.) The travel office needed a birth certificate from Tennessee to get my residency card (since we don't need visas to go to Poland - who knew?) but I had to go to Smiths (a grocery store) to get a money order. So S. Whiting and I took a shuttle there and went into the store - it was strange because we were with normal civilians and this time we were the ones with the name tags. Being in Provo we were treated well but even after just a few days it was strange to be back in the real world. While we were waiting outside for another shuttle to come pick us up a man came and started talking to us. He was Hispanic with good English and didn't seem to be a member. He said his mother and sister were baptized and he had some questions. He wanted to know more about promptings and how we can decide whether they are from the Spirit or the Devil. (In English - woohoo) We taught that good feelings that prompt us to do good came from the Spirit and vice versa. It was a short discussion before the shuttle came but it was really fun to be out of the MTC and have a taste of being in "the field." 

I wore my Murcdoch tartan tie and one of our sister training leaders (going to Bulgaria) asked about it and we talked and figured out that we are both related to Mary Murray Murdoch (aka Wee Granny -  a Mormon Trail pioneer) Then another sister (a previous sister training leader going to Slovenia) overheard and she is a descendant of John Wee Granny's son so we are all direct descendants and therefore cousins! We were pretty excited about it, which caused the rest of my district to tease me for the rest of the day. As I said before, in some ways we tease and act like best friends but at times it's weird because we don't actually know each other that well. I feel like I in particular just kind of treat everybody like old friends, which in some cases leads to awkwardness or misunderstanding... but what else is new. 

Our zone (which is made up of districts, for example we are the Polish district) received more missionaries this week with two new districts another Bulgaria and another Croatia. I haven't really had the chance to speak to most of them because they have classes and their residence in another building. 

Please write dear elder so then I can receive and respond via letters during the week rather than just on Fridays.

I love you all! This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father loves us, and the Spirit is a divine gift. This is the way! I feel so blessed and prompted during my time hear and am excited for more to come. God bless you. 

Love,

Starszy Kimball