Mansfield - April 28, 2014

It's strange to me. I may not email you a whole lot today because I'll see you tomorrow! I'm going to be super tired. So basically at 2:00 I'm going to be picked up and taken to Leeds. I guess I'll sleep there and then leave tomorrow morning. I'm sure I'll see President and Sister Pilkington before I leave (I hope). I'm excited, but also a bit sad to leave.

Yesterday at the end of the day we went on top of a hill in a park by our flat. It overlooked a lot of Mansfield. I just realized how lucky and blessed I've been to serve a mission here.

I'm super excited to see you tomorrow.

Love Starszy Ressler

Mansfield - April 21, 2014

So yea, I was wrong, we do get to email on Tuesday. Well that's good I guess, there was a mix up and President changed his mind after I emailed you on Thursday.

Yea, it's amazing that I got to meet Elder Larson. He's really not bad at speaking polish already; I'm impressed. Right now I'm with Elder Hoxha because he won't have a companion until later, so since we're in a trio and he's on his own I guess it makes sense that I be with him.

I have no doubt that Elder Larson is in good hands, I think he'll pick up the language just fine. It's hard to pick up Polish in a non polish speaking country. You simply don't have the opportunity to speak it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But I know that Heavenly Father helps us. I've seen him help me a lot.

This week Buffy was baptized along with two other 8 year old girls. Since it was an occasion where the two other girls were confirmed right after their baptism the Bishop got special permission so that Buffy could be confirmed that day as well instead of waiting until Sunday. It was amazing to see her father, who has recently just come back to church and just gone through the temple and received  the Melchizedek priesthood baptize his daughter. She wanted me to do it, but we talked to her and convinced her to have her father baptize her. She wanted me to confirm her. I admit it had been a while since I'd gotten to participate in an ordinance, I could feel the difference.

I'm now worrying about what to bring home. I have collected a few things here, that I really do want to bring, but really I think there will be a lot that I leave behind.

There is a man named Adam who owns a shop. He is from Poland and he and his wife lived in American for a couple of months. He invited us over for some Polish food and a good chat. We talked and he showed us a lot. He and I have become pretty good friends. I really like that man. He and his wife are so nice. There are just so many good people that we meet. I only hope that I'm planting seeds and that these people will remember us, and how they felt. We both signed a Polish Book of Mormon and gave it to him as a gift. It's perfect because I think that it means more that way. He also gave me a book of pictures of a church in Poland. It was really good. There are a lot of people I'll miss here. He tells me that I really need to go to Poland. I really would love to go to Poland some day.

Missionary work just seems to make me happy. I think I'll miss all the time I have to study. I've really learned a lot. I've read a lot of the bible as well as the Book of Mormon many times.

Easter was just a normal day for us missionaries. I really enjoyed church on Easter,  there was a lot of talk on the Atonement and the Resurrection. That was good because last year there wasn't anything mentioned at all about the Atonement and Resurrection and it was different. I know that some holidays just become too commercialized, but we still shouldn't forget the real meanings of them. Poland has a lot of Easter traditions. It's a good time of the year for them. The Catholics fast from meat and dancing and things like that in preparation for Easter. Then on Saturday they take food to a priest who blesses it. I can't remember all of it, but the food is all symbolic. The eggs represent new life and there's bread and sausage. Then they prepare it to eat it the next day on Easter Sunday.

I really love my mission. I've had so many experiences. (His sister asked if he had an English accent) ha, no I have a polish accent... :)

I'm excited to see you all,

Love Starszy Ressler

Mansfield - April 17, 2014

So I know I emailed you just a few days ago, but because of Easter weekend I won't be able to email you next week. So we were told to email you all on Saturday. Well the thing is that we are super busy on Saturday. So they told us to email you on Friday. Well the Library is closed on Friday. So they told us to email you today.

Not a whole lot has happened except Elder Larson came from the MTC in Provo. He is from California. Elder Mullen is training him and I'm just helping him with his polish. I like him; he's a pretty nice guy.

I've also been sticking around with Elder Hoxha because he is still waiting for his new companion to arrive from America. I hear that he is waiting for his visa.

For sure, we'll have to come back here, I can show you around; I'd love that. I guess you'll only get one more email from me after this until I see you, I think.

I am well though and happy! I hope that you are all doing great, I'm so excited to see you all in 12 days! It's crazy how short of a time all that is. I bet home has changed a little bit since I've been there.

I'm still working hard though. I'm pretty tired all the time though. But I still have fun.

I hope you all have a great Easter weekend as well!

Love,

Starszy Ressler

Mansfield - April 14, 2014

So yea, I'm excited, Elder Mullen is going to train this new Polish Elder on Wednesday and I'll just be there for about two weeks. My companion Elder Mullen comes from a town in Idaho with the population of only 600 people. It's crazy for him here, I think! He lives on a ranch. I definitely want to keep in contact with him.

We are teaching a girl who is nine years old. She passed her interview and will be baptized on Saturday, it's really exciting. That family is amazing!

Something I admire very much in Polish people is that they are extremely hard workers! One of my favorite things is teaching English to Polish people. It's so much more effective than knocking doors. Last week we had four people come. Two of the people are from Warsaw and knew about Mormons and said that they were curious about us and asked us what it is we did the rest of the week. We told them, then they asked a bit about our beliefs. It was so great, all I had to do was answer questions. I got to teach a little bit. I felt the spirit. After the English lesson one of them came and talked to me. It turns out he had been a Monk for two years. Then he met a girl and decided to give that up. He said he's read the Bible and there isn't anything in there that talks about practicing celibacy. He said he's looking for a new path in his life. I gave him a Book of Mormon.

I'm super focused, I love to work here! I feel bored a bit when we don't do missionary work (like lunch) I just think it's fun! I don't want to come home. To be honest, these two years have been one of the happiest times of my life. I realized that some of my most happiest times have been on my mission, and that I don't want to lose all that. I know there will be happy times up ahead after my mission, but I don't know if it'll be the same. But, I'm really excited to see you all again.

Next week the library will be closed due to Easter, so I might not email you till Tuesday.

Love you so much,

Starszy Ressler

Mansfield - April 7, 2014

I had a really great week. It's been crazy busy though.

General Conference was great! I got to see a few sessions, but not a lot. Maybe half of Conference. We had to travel a ways just to watch it. We had to go to Worksop, because it wasn't being shown in the Mansfield Chapel. There were some amazing talks. I really liked Elder Bednar's talk about the truck and the load, even though I only got to watch the first half of it.

It looks like you had a really good time watching General Conference.

Right now I'm with Elder Mullen, and we are awaiting the arrival of that new Polish missionary. Also in the same flat is Elder Hoxha from Albania and he is waiting to train a new missionary as well, who is on the way. So the three of us are in a trio. Elder Hoxha can be very energetic, so sometimes it's quite crazy being in a trio. It's fun though. We're doing great and are so busy. Probably the most busy I've been in my entire mission! It's crazy. But we're doing well.

On the 19th our Ward mission leader's 9 year old daughter is being baptized. It's amazing. The family was less active up until just a few months ago. And now the father has gone through the temple, gotten his Patriarchal blessing and is coming to church every week. That family is so great!

There was some fog from the sand storm, but not really all that bad since we live in a small town with lots of fields around. But it was still there to some effect.

I got to see Elder DeShazer for a moment on Wednesday, I know his companion a little.

It's crazy how fast time flies. Two years from the 18th I would have gone into the MTC. It goes by so fast.

Love you much,

Starszy Ressler

Mansfield - April 1, 2014

Yea this week has been good.

On Monday we went to Newstead Abbey, though we didn't get to go inside (except for a gift shop). The gardens around were really beautiful. I bet they are even more so in the summer though.

I'm sending you a lot of pictures. I loved the Abbey! I took loads of pictures.

Our investigators are great. On Tuesday we took Alan to the Family History Centre (the church) and it had a really positive impact on him. He is now planning to go to places where his ancestors are buried and fill in some of the missing holes in his family history. He also could remember a lot of names and dates which made me really impressed.

We taught the first English class and it was good. Two people showed up, but I liked that, because we could work a lot more personally with those two people. I really like teaching English I find it extremely fun. I love speaking Polish, for some reason it just makes me really happy. Even if the person is rude or just not interested, I still just love speaking to Polish people. My Polish isn't perfect, but it's alright, they can understand me and I understand most of what they say.

So this week was transfer calls and something exciting has happened. Elder Hill is going to Grimsby. And I am now going to serve with Elder Mullen again. And the two of us are going to train a new Polish speaking missionary on the 16th of April. Well Elder Mullen will train him, I'm just assisting I think. But I'll get to end my mission in a fun and interesting way (training my replacement).

I think that we are going shopping today, I might find a suit or something. I'm not too worried about my suitcase weight, there is a lot of stuff I don't really need to bring home that I can give to other missionaries. I'm not 100% positive, but I think I'll be alright. Also, I didn't bring with me a carryon bag and I bought a duffle bag for exchanges and P-days and I can fill that up with stuff.

We got a referral last week. It was in a village super far away, down south. It took most of our day traveling there and back. In fact, it's pretty much on the boarder of our mission. But it was worth it, we taught the man the Restoration, and he listened and soaked it all up. I don't usually see people do that or be too interested like that when we teach. So I liked it. It'll be interesting to go back, except it's super far away. In fact I don't even know if he knew where Mansfield was.... The closer city to him is Nottingham which is out of our mission.

I'm so excited for General Conference! There's still so much work for me to do. We're still working hard.

Love you loads,

Starszy Ressler