Not a bad week. We have happy and exciting, as well as frustrating times, but that's just life. England is getting a lot warmer, that's one nice thing. And we don't have to go out with another jacket all the time, just our suits.
It is hard to believe that it's been over a year on my mission. To be honest, time just goes by really fast and I lose track of it. We've been working hard and my Polish is improved quite a bit from a year ago. I hope I still continue to get better.
I've gotten used to being called Elder and Starszy, it's just natural now to call myself Elder or have someone call me Elder Ressler. In fact, it's weird to be called by anything else. Sometimes Polish people will inquire what my 'real name' is and I tell them Jakub, for Jacob. And they say something along the lines of "Oh, that's a Christian name," or "Oh, like Saint Jakub," and then I end up earning a lot of respect from them. The reason why is because James in the Bible translates to Jakub. I think that Jakub is closer to the original Hebrew translation. But, I end up earning some respect points.
I've been reading the Book of Mormon in Polish, and right now I'm in the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nefi (Nephi in Polish), so that's a bit hard to understand. But, I'm soon to get to my favorite part of 2 Nefi, chapters 29-the end. There's some good and useful stuff that I found on my mission. For example, if someone simply will not accept the Book of Mormon and even try to read it, there is chapter 29 (which is really straight forward and bold) and also chapter 33:10 to the end which is really good.
I haven't had any visiting general authorities come to the mission while I've been here, but I heard that Elder Texiera from the area presidency came and talked to the mission. I haven't had any though.
The Deep was good. It was a bit overrated I think for the 9£ it cost, but it was neat to see a bunch of fish and sharks and stuff. I'm not sure what makes it famous. I think because it's really the only aquarium in England or something like that.
Well we're getting a lot of new missionaries. President has a few more months left. I haven't heard really of any future special training, just that we're focusing on getting referrals from members. Because missionary work is so much more effective if it comes from a member. If a member can help people first learn about the gospel, then they also have a friend who's in it. Also, to be honest, people are more willing to listen to a normal member at first than to someone in a suit and name tag who looks 'official'. That's sort of my opinion, but I see that a bit.
Daniel is getting baptized soon...finally. Patience is a virtue. He's really an amazing person and he's going to be our first Polish baptism and he's so ready for it. He has a testimony that the Church is true, and certainly has a lot of faith. I tell you, he's an example to me with his faith. We looked up where he lived in Poland. He never would have heard the gospel if he hadn't come to England, so I know that there are people, even Polish people, who are put in the right place to accept the gospel.
Friday night we got a message from a Polish man we had talked to weeks ago. He asked us simply, "What are you doing tomorrow?" We told him we were free. Then, he asked if we could meet with him. He's very curious in learning about things. Miracles do happen!
We knocked on a girl’s door and without opening it, she told us to go away. We told her we were missionaries and she was like, "hold on a second" and opened the door. She said it was odd we came by that day because her grandfather died that morning. Interesting, huh?
I got a haircut last week. I tried to tell the guy to use a 4 on the top and 2 on the sides, but I think he only heard the 2, because I basically got a buzz. Not really, it's just really short. I actually like it a lot; it takes no time to do my hair!
Here’s my daily schedule. Normally. we wake up at 6:30 and exercise. At 7:00 we get ready, shower, eat, etc. We study for an hour at 8:00, and at 9:00 we have companionship study. Then, we go out and work. We get an hour for lunch and an hour for tea (dinner) and an hour to study Polish.
One thing I've learned on my mission is patience. Sometimes it's hard and I want things here and now. But truthfully, I need to wait and be diligent.
Love you much,
Starszy Ressler
