Things are good here in Leeds.
I'm training Elder Eisert, who is English speaking. He is from Salt Lake City, Utah and is the first companion I've had who is from Utah. He is 18 and has four older sisters. He's really energetic and excited.
Yea, our flat is super small. Elder Eisert bumps his head in most of the doorways. I don't really have a problem though. I've hit my head a few times. It's alright though. Our neighbor is really nice.
Right now we're not teaching a ton of people, but that's alright. We're working with the people we have and in our spare time (the rest of the time) searching for families. This ward really needs a few more good families.
This week we offered to do some garden work for some people. So we borrowed a mower from Bev (she's so great) and carried the thing (it was in a box) all the way to our flat (which is about a 20-30 min walk) then to the lady’s house (another 15 min) she wasn't home, so we tried again the next day. My arms were so tired. So it's been a strange week. Luckily the zone leaders have a car and they drove it back to Bev's two days later for us.
I talked to a Polish guy the other day and actually had a decent conversation with him; first one in a while. Sometimes I get to speak Polish but only like "hello", then they say that they are busy, so it's "goodbye". But I really enjoyed the conversation. He said he'd heard about us and would like to look us up on the Internet. I gave him Mormon.org/pol which is the Polish Mormon.org page. Thanks for your prayers and fasting.
This week I've had three people try to argue religion with me. You know at first on my mission people would do this ("bashing" we call it). I hate it. Why are we arguing religion? It doesn't really matter what we think, only what God thinks. But to be honest, at first I didn't know what to say or how to cope with it. But being a "dinosaur" of a missionary I've gotten a bit of experience. You know it's really true what Nephi prophesied in 2nd Nephi 29 about people saying "a bible, a bible!" I experience that quite a lot actually. But I've learned to just handle the situation calmly and I find if you can do that then you have a better chance of the spirit being there. I don't know, I think it just frustrates me. But I've learned a lot.
You know it's true I don't feel as naive anymore, meaning that I know a lot more about life, I think. I'm sure I've still got tons to learn. I figure that in life we are continually learning new things and growing. I like to learn.
It's really true about what you said that we learn from the experiences that we have. I've grown so much here. It's like Heavenly Father knows what type of person we need to be and he gives us experiences to prepare us for becoming that type of person.
You know I think of you all often. I think of how much I love you and how much you have helped me grow and learn. I've also learned about living on my own. I'm grateful for what you've taught me. I'm super grateful for the fact that you've taught me how to work. I love to work hard. I'm grateful you taught me how to do a job right. I'm grateful that you and mom taught me how to clean (we cleaned the flat this morning).
It really doesn't feel like I've been out 18 months. I love my mission. I'm sure you know the feeling. What a great experience.
Love you
Starszy Ressler
