Letter #8

Family!

I apologize, I don't know how much time I'll have to write. We're going to Krakow today and we have to catch a bus pretty soon, but I will write all that I can.

First off, we've seen a lot of great success this week! We had an investigator in church! Well, two, kind of. But one for real. The second one is a couple of members younger brother. He's super cool, but not all that interested in the gospel, so we think. He hasn't shown interest yet, but he did show up to church yesterday, in a suit and tie and everything, so maybe! We have hope. The other real investigator is named R. He's awesome. We've been meeting with him for a while and we finally got him to church. It's been a long time coming, but totally worth it. We really hope he'll continue to change his life and continue to grow in this gospel.

In other news, the Sisters in our district challenged someone to baptism today. She's super ready and such, but they want to baptize her on Saturday, before the end of the transfer, so that's super soon. We all hope she accepted and will be baptized, but we haven't heard anything from them yet, so we aren't sure what will happen. We fasted for her as a district this past Sunday, so we all have faith that things will work out in the Lord's timing and in His way.

Speaking of the end of transfers, next week I will know what is going on with transfers. As in if I am moving cities, or getting a new companion or what not. Crazy huh? Can you believe I've already been here for almost a transfer? I can't. It shocks me. We get transfer calls next Sunday night, so we will know by then. It's still so weird to me that all this passes by so fast and things can change in an instant. Our transfers here are 9 weeks, as opposed to 6. Transfers are commonly 6 weeks everywhere else. That being so, it's common for missionaries to move around a lot here. Now, that being said, one of the Assistants right now, Elder J, was in Kato (Sosnowiec to be exact) for the first 10 months of his mission, so nobody knows what will happen. It's weird to think about though.

I got a lot of letters this week, which was great! Mom, I got your second letter that you sent with Grandma's funeral stuff and blog letters, plus another letter with blog letters and Emma's letter. It was great to get all of that. I also got a letter from Corwin and from Carly and Gordon, which was super great! Still no package from Grandma Honey or package of soup and hot chocolate, but hopefully I will get those soon. I also got my Fiszki cards, so all is well there. They're awesome too! I hope I will be getting everything else soon. Dad, I don't know how many letters you've tried to send, but I still have just gotten the one with the Holland and McConkie talks.

Also, I sent some voice recording this week and some pictures last week, both by email. One of them is me with a member, and I'm totally rocking the man purse! It's super cool to do here. It's a black leather nike bag, and it's super awesome for contacting. You put a couple of copies of the Book of Mormon in there, a few pamphlets, and you're good to go.

So, a couple of cool stories from this week. First, we did run into Jalene and Lincoln Taylor. He served her almost 5 years ago and was super cool. He also gave us a few less-actives that he baptized to go contact. They were just traveling through Poland on vacation and we ran into them at the chapel on Wednesday night after English. They took us out to Pizza and a good time was had by all. They're super awesome.

Next story. We went to contact a referral on Tuesday. It took us forever to find him. He lives in an old little house hidden in the back of this street out in the boonies, but we persevered past angry dogs, grumpy old people who didn't want to give us directions, and the like. We found him, and when we did, he was this little old man who didn't have hardly any money for food and was so scared he was going to have to pay for a Book of Mormon. It was a humbling experience. He was in an accident and is supposed to be paralyzed, but isn't. He says that God gave him a second chance and he wants to change for God. How ungrateful am I for everything that I have, and I'm not even willing to change at times? Well, needless to say that "gosh darn natural man" in me was very humbled and I was thinking about this poor little man all day. This is the Poland I was told about, I just hadn't seen it yet. Now that I have, my desire to share this gospel is even more apparent.

Another cool little story about referrals. We went to contact another one last night, but to no avail. We made it to his klatka (building) but we couldn't find him. We were able to, however, run into another man who is super religious and wanted to hear all about our message. He was super cool, and named P. Just goes to show that even when things don't work out, the Lord places people in our way for us to teach!

Heath, I'm glad surgery went well and that everything is on the up and up. Sounds like you've had all kinds of fun with visitors! Good luck navigating the halls this week! I know you can do it. Crutches aren't any fun, but you'll be a pro by the end, I just know it! I'm glad things are good and that you're positive about all of this. I love you.

Hannah bear! You're super cool. I love you lots. Keep rocking the ripstick and I'm excited for you learning cursive!

Emms, the developmental center is great! I'm glad you're having such spiritual experience and you are learning so much. I'm also glad the cabin was so much fun! I hope you gave everybody a big hello for me. I love you too.

Mom, I'm so grateful you put Pres. and Sis. Nielson's names on the Temple list. That's a huge blessing for them. It was a pretty good scare for all of us here, but we are glad everything is going well. There have been a lot of prayers said on their behalf. It's so weird how time is flying by here. I can't even believe it. If things keep going like this, I'll be home before no time. I've got so much to do before then and so much to learn. I love you and am grateful for all you do for me. Oh, and I'm doing much better with cooking, don't worry ;). I'm excited to get this letter from Matt as well. He sounds like he's doing great from the blog letters. Have you heard anything from Aaron? I'm curious about how things are going out in Chuuk. I love you and am so grateful for everything you do for me.

Anyway, I love everyone and I hope everything is going well. I've decided to start sharing my spiritual motto/motivation for the week. This week's came from Mosiah 22:4. It's Gideon speaking and he says "I will be thy servant and deliver this people out of bondage." That's what I'm doing here as I declare religious freedom to this people. I love you all and hope everything is good! The Church is true, Christ lives, and I know what I am doing here is what I should be doing.

With lots of love,

Elder Spencer Vernon