Baptism!

haha so Siostra Grgich and I decided to play a little trick (a nice one , don't worry) on the elders this week- we swapped clothes, shoes, and even did our hair like the other. It was quite effective might I say. The picture still throws me off! haha. So we are wearing each other's hats, scarves, shoes, skirts, tops, coats- and for the picture's sake, the others' bags. She curled my hair, I straightened hers. :p Funny enough, the day we did it, the elders came to sneak up behind us, and freaked out when we turned around hahaha. Throughout the day, we all made comments- oh my gosh, it happened again! The little trick worked on the 2 of us as well haha. Made for a good laugh.

here we are at a "Polski Smak" restaurant-celebrating elder Kimball's (front right) birthday :)

so Gdańsk totally had a baptism on Saturday! from left to right are : Prezydent Kempa, Elder Kimball, Dawid (the "baptisee") , and Elder Platter. Such a great experience-iinvestigators, Dawid's friends, members came.. it was so nice. :) More pics to come. :)

here are more ppics of baptism. kind of awkward that Dawid's friend arek put his arm around me.. (he doesn't know that not hugging the sisters is a thing methinks- so don't judge, or judge that I look extremely awkward in the picture haha.)

from left to right: me, arek and kuba (friends of dawid), dawid, elders kimball and platter, members waldek and jadwiga, sister grgich

Wioletta is making a funny face hahah she's super awesome and we get along really well (she loves Queen and the Beatles so we bond over that ;)) This is at the hotel for Dawid's baptism

first few photos of me at the library giving a presentation on my Australian culture :)

This week was super amazingly awesome :D The biggest highlight was Dawid's baptism and confirmation. We hired out a room in a medieval-looking hotel (it was the only place available that we were able to find!) and used that for the service, and then used the hotel pool to do the baptism. It was a really special occasion for everyone. One member in the branch was baptised exactly 20 years ago to the day, and we had our mission president and his wife attend, and a progressing investigator and some others who'd never seen a baptism before. Yesterday Dawid was confirmed a member of the church and given the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and the room was filled with such a great spirit. After church, Sister Wood and I were able to have a lesson with our progressing investigator (we met him tracting a couple of weeks ago) and it was just a great lesson with Andrzej saying a beautiful, heart-felt prayer at the end. It's so refreshing hearing the simple testimonies and of investigators and new converts- they notice the things that sometimes I take for granted, like how great it is that we can say prayer in our own words because we are directly communicating with our loving Father in Heaven. It's also so good to see how the branch here are willing to fellowship new members or guests and help them feel loved.

That reminds me, we're starting a new 9-week transfer this week and I got the news that I'll be staying in Gdańsk yet again with Sister Wood, and Sister Bąk will be joining our companionship! :D I'M JUST OVERJOYED!! Firstly, I love Gdańsk and I never want to leave hahah. Secondly, Sister Wood and I've managed to get super tight this transfer and we work pretty well together in my opinion! Thirdly, SISTER BĄK!!! Ahhh MTC bud buddies :) hehehe, so yes, I'm super excited about the upcoming transfer. We'll have Christmas and the New Year, and this beautiful city and branch to enjoy.

This week, I had a really nice opportunity to talk about my Australian culture with Polish people! I was invited by a public library to give a short presentation on Australia, so I did :) I got to talk about Aboriginals (and I of course mentioned my beautiful nieces) our modern culture (including our multiculturalism) and why I'm here in Poland on a mission. I had my guitar and sung a few Aussie songs (Give Me a Home Among the Gumtrees, We Are Australian, Click Go The Shears, and Sister Wood and I sung acapella, that Aboriginal song that's on Bran Nue Dae). Everyone was really nice and complimentary afterwards (about the music, my Polish, and my ANZAC bikkies) and it just felt so good. I encouraged everyone to be proud of their country too, because Poland truly is a beautiful place. The day before the presentation, I also just happened to hear an Aussie on the street around the Christmas markets, so I interrupted his conversation and said "ARE YOU AUSSIE?" and he said yes and then we spoke for a bit (his dad is actually a Christian minister in Wollongong so that's cool) hahaha it was a tender mercy that I was able to hear that familiar accent. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE it here so much, but hearing that Aussie accent is pretty comforting sometimes :)

This week, Sister Wood had an idea that we should swap outfits for a day, so we did haha. It was pretty funny because we kept fooling ourselves and the elders into thinking that we were the other companion. It was also nice because Sister Wood has a super warm jacket and we went tracting that night, so it kept me warm :) I've been so blessed to know all these amazing missionaries so far on my mission (both in the MTC and my companions in Poland) and I'll really miss my trainer Sister Montesinos (she's going home tomorrow)- I've just had such positive experiences here. I'm so excited for this upcoming transfer. I see a lot happening in this branch, and it will be a sad day when my time comes to leave it!

Well time goes on and my will to work hard only gets stronger in this Polish winter! I love you so much and I'm so grateful for all your awesomeness. Excited for our Christmas Skype call (you've got to invite the nieces too)!

Love from Sister Grgich