Jak sie macie?

Hello!

This past week I have developed out of survival mode and now feel like I am getting to work. I'm now thinking a lot about this transfer and things I want to do. I'm no longer pining for the end of my mission to come because I have so much I need to do before that comes!

Something I forgot to mention last week was how fun it is to finally be in Poland. In the MTC we talked a lot about Poland: the people, the language, the culture etc but it's so great to finally be here. Polish is everywhere, people are speaking it, it's on all the signs everywhere, its real now!

So just a lowdown of life here... Our apartment is super nice, we live next a funeral parlor but haven't seen any hearses drive past or anything so it's not too glum. We are really close to the chapel and the town square so it's convenient. I'm not sure if I mentioned the chapel last time but it's in a pretty office building. It's a good size and has everything we need, it even has one of two family history centers (which is open to the public) in the country. The gmina (branch) here is awesome! Our Branch President is Pres. Cielenski, he has Cerebral Palsy so is on crunches, has a lazy eye, speaks English fluently, is the biggest jokester, and is the best. He has a wife and two daughters but we haven't met them yet because Sister Cielenski is housebound, expecting their third really soon. The Calls are an awesome family. The mom is Polish and their dad is American (but lives in the states, they don't see much of him) so the kids all speak perfect English and Polish. There is Cindy 17, A.J. 14, and Cynthia 11. They run the show: they play and lead the music, translate for speakers (like our senior couple,) in priesthood A.J. taught last week. They are great. Poland needs more families! Sister Kuchno is 50ish and the only member in her family, she is the nicest person in the world. Sister Malinowska is about to retire, she's been a member for 22 years and is super cool too. Ola is 20ish, she's in college here. In the MTC when I taught Brat Tribe as "Olek" he was actually playing Ola so it's super cool to meet her and hear her real story. She likes to hang out with the missionaries, like this past week for our dinner hour she took us and the sisters to this cool hot chocolate place - knowing locals is the best because they know all the best places around. Mariusz is kind of a quiet, odd man but he's there every week doing the sacrament and besides President he is the only other priesthood leader I know of besides the missionaries. We also have the Lee family. They are Korean, the kids speak Polish and English but the parents only really speak Korean. We stopped by one evening to say hi and then they were at church yesterday - I hope they come regularly Pres. made it sound like they were sort of less active. It must be hard though, I definitely sympathize with them about language difficulty.

Polish is hard. I feel like I haven't really improved since being here. All of our MTC teachers said that we would learn more in the first 3-4 weeks than our whole MTC stay but so far that hasn't happened. I know I need to work harder and be patient. The hardest thing is understanding people. I can sort of express what I want but understanding what other people are saying is super difficult. It makes talking with investigators really hard, and building those relationships even harder. I'm trying though. So far it's the small talk that's been the hardest. It's interesting because I thought that it would be the hardest to go up to people on the street and boldly invite them to come unto Christ, and although that takes practice, for me it's harder to spark conversation. I feel like finding people would be a whole lot more successful if I could start conversations and be relatable - especially on trams or somewhere when we have more time to talk. The language barrier is hard. I kept thinking this week, I will just start doing all of that later once I can speak. Then I realized that's how I will learn. Plus I can't wait, I need to talk to people and act upon promptings now. Work here is just hard. It's physically hard walking all-day; mentally hard trying to figure out what people are saying and stressing my brain to flip to Polish; and it's emotionally hard being a weirdo and receiving a lot of rejection. The thing is despite how hard it is I'm happy and I'm excited to get out and work everyday. I remember dreading this stuff before coming on my mission but being here, acting as a representative of Jesus Christ comes with such power and blessings. It's incredible.

Investigators! Sadly, we haven't found anybody from "finding" (contacting, tracting etc.) yet but we are still working. We have two progressing investigators. Marcin is 18 and was found by the last elders here. He has a lot faith and a testimony of the Book of Mormon but has doubts still. He comes to church and Family Home Evening (a monday night spiritual activity with members of the church here)  every week. He is ready for a baptismal date but we can't extend one because the police are currently investigating him. His cousin had some drug bust and he was there or something so he's being omnitored, hopefully that will be over soon. He has a lot going for him though so I'm excited.

Jarek is 50ish, he's got a wife (who seems a little anti-church) and three kids all about 17-22 I think. He's been investigating the church for a LONG time. He's been taught all the lessons, has had multiple baptismal dates but keep getting cold feet and backing down. Starszy Godwin stressed that baptism isn't the pinnacle to your journey. It's just the first step, it's very necessary but he doesn't need to be so apprehensive about it. He's already living most if not all of the principles he's been taught: he prays, reads the Book of Mormon and comes to church pretty regularly. Once he is baptized and confirmed his life will generally stay the same except he will have the gift of the Holy Ghost which will strengthen and help him. He's a taxi driver but is unemployed right now unfortunalty. His house was about half an hour away by tram. It was a fun experience, when we went inside all the lights were off (except for a lamp on the kitchen table) and the heating wasn't on. It was messy with questionable sanitation. He fed us though, with dirty silverware and plates but it was all fun and good. We had kilbasa so I have officially had that incountry now, it was delicious. He is kind of rough around the edges but is a really nice guy and he has a testimony, which is really all that matters. I'm excited for him.

Radek is in our private English classes on Thursday. There are usually 3 students but two of them (college guys) missed this week so it was just us and Radek. He is 32, a bus driver, has a wife and two kids. He's coming to English to get better work so he can better support his family. Since it's private on Thursday our spiritual message is longer. We taught him about the restoration and watched the 20 min Jospeh Smith - Restoration movie. He didn't really seem interested and told us that he didn't want to offend us but faith isn't that important to him. We both felt that he and his family needs the gospel (well everybody does) but them especially. He's really cool and he's someone I really want to focus on.

This past week we did a whiteboard. Meaning, we go out on the street write a question on a white board, or we did the plan of salvation too, and then we ask people to answer it or whatever - it's absically a converstation starter. For me so far it ws the most successful method of finding. There was one Catholic couple who had never heard of us and I they stopped and talked to me for about half an hour. It was cool because we were all in the same area but split up to talk to people. The couple were super open and faithful themselves. They were also extrememly patient with me as I tired to formulate sentences or asking them to repeat themeselves 3 times. The sisters got their info because I don't have a phone so we will see if anything comes of them but I am excitd to do whiteboards in the future.

So just a few random thoughts to tie things up:

Polish people are just as bad as mixing up Sweden and Switzerland. My companion is have Swedish so whenever either of us talk about our bakcground people mix things up. I don't know what it is that seems to prevent the rest of the world from understanding the difference. 

Elder Godwin is awesome. I may have mentioned before but we are similar in some ways and opposites in others. I like it because in some ways I really look up to himand in other intances I see how I would have done things differently. I think this is good for me to cause me to think for myself. With Brat Tribe in the MTC I basically just wanted to be him whereas here I am learning a lot of Elder Godwin and we get along well but I also am growing in confidence and figuring out how I would do things. 

We had zone training in Katowice (about 3-4 hour strain ride away) which was fun to meet new missionaries here and learn.

The cold here is beginning. When I first got here it was really pleasant but it's already begun to get colder and colder - looking forward to this winter...

The gospel is light. I love it. I love you all.

Starszy Kimball