I'm super excited for Brendon! He'll do great!
Ah, the Olson’s! I love them. That is so good of them to go visit you! Elder...Brother now...Olson has his way with people, and when he shakes you're hand, it's like he is reading your soul! He is such an amazing man! And Sister Olson is a fire ball and she is so loving and caring. I miss them as well. You'll have to tell them hello back! and that I love them. The Gibbs are doing great; they are starting to settle in a bit and yes, they are kind enough to let us still teach English in their flat.
Justina is good. She came to church a week ago, but other than that I don't ever see them much. Daniel is still coming to church and is really doing terrific.
I've been thinking lately of all that I've grown on my mission. I can honestly say that I've changed a bit, but I've changed for the better. I'm a lot better and stronger person. I know that what we're doing is good and I know that I'm here to plant seeds. It's really funny when you try to talk to people on the street and it ends up that a lot of the people you've already talked to! So you can say "Ah, I remember you! How are you doing? Do you think you'd be interested this time?" Sort of funny; I've found that one of my strengths as a missionary might just be talking to people on the street, because I'm sort of doing that a lot and getting pretty alright at it. (Jumping in front of them to get their attention, sort of helps sometimes, especially if they are wearing headphones).
Ha, I know I'm in a foreign land, but it really doesn't feel like it anymore. Strangely enough when I imagine driving a car, I imagine all the cars on the left side of the road; it's now strange to switch over (even though I don't drive). Yea, I know what you mean about Hull. It's not the prettiest city and when I tell people I'm from America they usually say something like "then, why did you come to Hull!?" Then we can tell them why (and share a bit of Heavenly Father's love with em!).
There's a scripture D&C 90:11 that talks about the gospel preached in all languages. What a miracle that is, that that is possible. Here in Hull there are people from all over the world. I've given Book of Mormons in so many languages to people from all over the world! There are people from Africa, Asia, South America, Europe, Eastern Europe, all over!
I think member missionary work would be a lot different in a place like here, where the majority of people aren't members, but a lot different in a place like back home where the majority of the people are members, but I suppose the principles are the same. And there are a ton of missionaries in just our ward alone; ten full-time missionaries, not including the senior couple. That's a lot of hastening of the work, I think. And the ward is starting to grow a bit more rapidly; well we'd like to hope that. This past week our district went on exchange with the mission assistants. There are three assistants at the moment, so one team was a three person team and the others just normal two. Elder Olsen said that the elder he worked with said that this city seemed a bit crazy. So that was sort of humorous.
Oh yea! So Starszy means "old" in Polish. And I gave our number to a Polish man last night and he speaks good English, so he translated it and wrote "old Ressler" in his phone!!!
Love you much,
Starszy Ressler
