Hi Family,
This week we saw some great miracles. I wanted to start by telling
you of the biggest one that I saw. Saturday night marks probably one of
the greatest (if not the greatest) nights of my mission so far. We were
working all week, all day, and now it was after dinner and we were going
out again to try to find those who had been prepared. At about 18:15
not far from our house, Elder B stopped a girl and began teaching
her the restoration. I could see that he was doing a great job and she
was being very patient in listening to him and so I just stood by and
listened. She was listening pretty intently and every once in a while,
Elder B would ask me for a word or phrase and I would help him out.
Once we had pretty much gotten through the points of a first lesson, she
looked at me and asked if I spoke really good Polish. I said that I
could hold a conversation. She then asked to both of us "What is it that
the restoration has given you personally?". I wasn't sure at first how
to answer, but I figured I would just go with the spirit. I told her for
me it brought a knowledge of what God expects from me. I know where I
came from, what I am supposed to do and where I am going. I told her
that this is called the Plan of Salvation. She said I was being too
general, she asked what that meant specifically because every religion
has some theory on what our purpose is. Honestly I did not feel very
prepared to give a lesson about the Plan of Salvation at that point, I
told her that we could spend hours talking about that and that we would
love to set up with her and talk to her at some point on that topic. She
then asked if we would have just 30 minutes to talk right then because
she is really busy, but had just gotten off work and has the whole
afternoon. We said of course and we went and sat on a nearby bench.
Elder B explained some things about the Plan of Salvation we
explained that the goal in this life is to live worthy and to take upon
us the ordinances that are necessary to return to live with God. She
found that to be very interesting. We got into a detailed discussion of
Who God is and how we can come to know Him. She had always had faith in a
higher power but it seemed that she mostly believed He was just that, a
power. I asked if God had a body, according to her. She said "well...
No, I believe He came down as Christ and that he died and is more of a
governing force". She said He had a will and a "mind" like a perfected
man, but she didn't imagine that he had a tangible body. I was able to
testify that this truth was restored with the rest of the restoration.
We talked about the Holy Ghost. She said she has always had a hard time
gaining faith in any solid points of doctrine. She believes in God, but
cannot easily gain a testimony in things like the restoration or the
Book of Mormon, or even the Koran, or other religions that she has
looked into. I told her that only the Spirit could bring that testimony
to her and only after earnest seeking. I felt like I could very
personally relate. My whole life has been a struggle for faith. It is
not something that comes easily to me, it is something I had to work
very hard for and continue to work very hard for. I have always had
desire, but I am naturally a doubter and a skeptic. I testified that if
the Holy Ghost brought me this testimony, He would do the same for her.
We had a wonderful discussion, and we set up to meet with her again this
week. For me it was one of those moments where I could feel the Spirit
work through me, I wasn't teaching the lesson, I was just carrying the
words of God. It began to flow much more smoothly, less mechanical in
presentation. I have only had a few such instances on my mission, but it
is those experiences that I value the most about this work.
The rest of the week, we saw a lot of work with little
visible fruit, but a lot of spiritual rewards. I had some particularly
rough days where people were just more mean than usual. One day we went
out and tried to talk to every person we saw and they did not just deny
us, they completely ignored us. One person after the other. We would
walk up adn just say "Hey, good day..." and they would walk by eyes
straight ahead as if we didn't exist. It became almost comical like they
had planned it. That was a rough day and A LOT of walking, but I feel
like I learned a lot. I learned a lot about dilligence in the face of
all opposition and relying on the Spirit to do the talking, not your
mouth. It was a good week, we worked hard, we got a couple of really
good conversations and we are looking forward to meeting with some of
these people again.
Love you all,
Starszy Godwin
Here are some goats that are always by our apartment.
The "Spodek" or flying saucer, one of the tourist sites in Katowice.
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