Final Transfer

Missionaries on funky coloured benches!

Sister Young and I got tired so we sat down in the sand

Our district went to the zoo for 'culture day' of the transfer

Sister Young, Sister Grgich, Giraffe :)

Sometimes we pretend to be zoo animals (when in Rome, right?)

So it's transfer time, and I'm staying in Gdańsk with Sister Young for my final transfer in the mission :D That's right, 7 out of 8 nine-week transfers in the country, I'll have served in the beautiful northern coastal town of Gdańsk! Haha, it's sort of comical how long I've been here (it's not so common for young/solo missionaries), but of course I'm so grateful to still be here and to have the privilege of continuing to work with my companion, the investigators and members in this area. I would feel torn if I had to leave this area, because I've really come to love the branch so much and I feel a great responsibility to it. Heavenly Father has blessed me over and over again, and I can't imagine my life without the experiences I've had with the lovely people in the tri-city area.


I want to talk a little about yesterday because it was such a beautiful Sabbath day! First of all, the weather was great- the sun was shining and the temperature increased a tad, so I even got to wear my lighter jacket! ;) We had 2 great talks in Sacrament Meeting- one from a member from Sopot, Magda. She spoke about temples and family history and her mum came to church too (haven't seen her in a while so that was lovely!). The other talk was from Elder McPherson who's getting transfered to another city- he spoke about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith in Him, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end)- it was a perfect topic, because we had an engaged couple visit us (he's from Ukraine and she's from Poland), and they're not members of the church, so it's a pretty good summary for them to have heard :) They said they'd come to English class this week too, so we're excited to see them and we'll ask if they're interested in learning more about the church. He had met with missionaries before in Ukraine and managed to find us on google maps here in Gdansk- pretty cool guy!


Then during Sunday School we got to teach a lesson for Young Women's- it was about patience and we read the story of Job and watched the Mormon Message associated with Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk "Continue in Patience" (the one about the experiment with kids and marshmallows). I'm just so inspired every time we teach her- she really wants to live a Christ-like life, and she's so open to learning and growing and changing for the better. I'm so grateful for the examples of the youth in the church- it definitely makes me want to be better and remember to consistently and constantly apply the principles of the gospel in my everyday life. I'm so grateful for the example of Jesus Christ- to know that He is still relevant in a world where the values are everchanging and separating from those of God. He is still the Master, it is always from Him we can find solace and to Him we can look, so we can pattern our lives with the same charity, obedience and diligence that He had and has.


Yesterday evening we got to meet with a girl we found tracting a couple of weeks ago. We got to show her around our modest chapel, and then got to explain a little about the Restoration and Book of Mormon. We had such a great meeting with her- she was patient with our Polish, asked honest questions and even wanted to know the best place to start reading form the Book of Mormon! Sister Young and I were amazed haha- we're excited to meet with her again and teach her more, and we pray and hope that she will come to a knowledge and testimony of the truth for which she's searching.


Today there'll be a baptism in Gdańsk!!! We've been teaching her for a couple of months and today's the beautiful day she has chosen to follow her Saviour by being baptised in His restored church. Her husband has been a member for quite a few years now, and she has had a lot of contact with the church and has been building a testimony of these things. Words can not describe the excitement we have for this married couple to start their new life together on the path of the gospel. I know that they as a family will be blessed as they apply Christ's teachings in their lives, and one day I know they will look forward to being sealed for eternity in the holy temple of the Lord. Ahhhh we're just so excited for them and we love them so much! God is aware of His children, and He unconditionally loves us all. His work is continuing to roll forth, and I'm so blessed to be a part of His sacred work and see the miracles and blessings that come into my and other's lives because of Jesus Christ.


Wishing you all a lovely week, I love you so much!!
Siostra Grgich

Kangaroos and Curiosity

A meerkat. Aren't they just so cute!?

An elephant and me

Me patting a donkey

Wallabies at the zoo!

Me at the kangaroo enclosure

Kangaroo chilling

Last week after emailing, we went to the zoo in Gdansk, hence all the photos! Of course we all went for the kangaroos ;) Sister Smith was super excited, I think it was her first time seeing them. And I was excited because I was able to lure one over with my accent and pat it through the fence :D We also had a pretty fun time looking at the elephants (one of them was totally dancing, moving its trunk and legs back and forth hehe) and the meerkats were pretty funny too! I've realised how grateful I am for animals- they make me so happy!


This past week we went out to a place called "Brzeżno" to find a former investigator family. After going to the house (no one was home unfortunately) we walked around the area trying to find people who might be interested in our message, when we found a man at a bench near the beach. He was polite and listened to us, took a pass-along card, said he didn't want to have lessons with the missionaries, and then we went seperate ways. Sister Smith wanted to go up to the shore for a quick breather so I stood nearby on the deck (I didn't want to get sand in my shoes) and the man we had previously spoken to came up to us. He saw on the card that it had a Book of Mormon, and he asked if we were affiliated with Mormons. I said well yes, we are Mormons! He then proceeded to ask more questions about us and what differences exist between us and the Catholic church etc. He was very friendly and we were able to teach him a quick lesson about the Restoration right there on the deck, and he agreed to take a Book of Mormon and said he'd be interested in coming to church! What was even more of a miracle after him coming up to us, is that another random lady came up to us having this conversation and started listening too! She unfortunately went away mid-conversation, but it was still a pretty cool experience to have 2 people come up to us and ask us about what we believe! It normally doesn't work that way haha (as much as that would be awesome!).


This week my companion and I decided to try something new- we both love to sing, and I play guitar, so we wanted to find a good way to use our talents in finding activities. There's a pedestrian tunnel (well-lit enough) with a good amount of traffic near our home. We had just eaten lunch and had small amount of time to spend before going out to a meeting with someone. So we decided to go to this pedestrian tunnel, sing primary songs and hand out pass-along cards. The acoustics were great and everyone was smiling at us :) We were able to get a few people to take cards, one lady even stopped to look up the website (mormon.org/pol) on her phone, and one man stopped to talk with us about our message of the Restoration. So far we've only tried this attempt of finding people once, and it was only for a short time, but in this upcoming week, we are hoping to try it with the Elders in our area, and with a 'free-table' where we put copies of the Book of Mormon, English class advertisements and brochures on the table for people to take for free (of course!). I'm hoping that this will help people be more open to come up to us (the power of music is an incredible thing!), and eventually lead to people taking the lessons.


This week we were able to visit a family member of my friend Stan who lives in Germany. He gave me the contact info for his sister-in-law who lives a half-hour busride south of central Gdansk, and so I gave her a call and she invited us over for dinner! So we went there yesterday and got fed a really wonderful, traditional Polish meal. We were able to speak a bit about our beliefs and message, and encouraged them to read the Book of Mormon for themselves to find out if our message is true. Unfortunately the parents weren't interested, but the daughter gladly took a Book of Mormon and said she read it. We were so impressed by the family's hopsitality and kindess, and although none of them are ready/willing to take the lessons from us at this point in time, it was a great learning experience for me, in knowing how precious and important member-referrals are. People are generally more open to listening to the missionaries when they have a friend or family-member in the church. (Of course that's not always the case, but statistically speaking, there is a lot more success that comes through referrals than from finding from the missionaries' own efforts). So just remember- when the missionaries ask you for referrals, know that they're praying for you to find friends/family with whom you can share the gospel, and know that they will treat those referrals with care!


Today we're thinking of going on a hike after emailing (the weather's getting much warmer, and the tourists have been flocking into Gdansk!) so I'll let you know how that goes next week if we end up actually going! This week we'll also be having Zone Conference, so my companion and I are very excited to be going to Poznan for that. Hope you all have a wonderful week :) Love you so much!
Sister Grgich

Kangaroos at the Zoo

Elder Wright with his kangaroo coin purse... and the kangaroos...!

Kangaroos at the zoo! I tried speaking aussie to them, but they were just chilling, doing their own thing. Didn't even look at me! Haha oh well

Kaja giving us a tour at the Museum of the History of Jews in Poland (not sure if that's what it's officially called..)

My companion Sister Johnston and I with the Kosonavich family (they're Americans but with a Croatian heirtage, and they did the same thing like we did with adding an 'h' on the end of their name!)

This week will be the start of a new transfer for me in the beautiful city of Gdansk, in which I'll be serving with the magnificent and even more beautiful Sister Smith! Sister Johnston and I had just finished visiting a less-active member in our branch, and were waiting for the bus when we received our calls from President Edgren. I was so excited to learn that I'd be getting to serve with my MTC companion again, and whilst it's a little sad that I only got to be here for 1 transfer, Sister Johnston and I both feel good that we have left this area a little better than we found it :) (which is always the goal!) and we're excited for the new Sisters to come and do the same. We're both so grateful for the opporunity that was given us to work with and amongst so many different people here, and we're really going to miss it!


So I sent you some photos- including some at the zoo! I actually forgot to bring my camera, so these were taken from my companion's camera. So last week we went to the big zoo in Warsaw and got to see a lot of awesome animals! I was especially excited about the kangaroos, wallabies and emus (they unfortunately didn't have koalas), but I also really enjoyed the hippos, monkeys/baboons, seals and flamingoes :) I don't know how people think all of these incredible creations just came about by chance- they were CLEARLY created. And how grateful I am for all of God's beauty in the world :)


After the zoo, we met with an American member family and an investigator Molly for a lesson and dinner. It was really nice, but also a little sad because Molly's since gone back to the States (where she's from) and we really miss her! What's cool though, is that she might work for an Australian family who live in Utah, so I told her that they'd of course naturally be awesome because they're Australian ;)


This week we were able to have some really amazing lessons with less-active members in our branch. We were able to teach a lady and her non-member husband and son about prayer, and encouraged them to pray as a family- the lesson went so well, and they were appreciative of the songs my companion and I sung at the end :D We were able to teach a single lady about forgiveness and how freeing and enabling the Atonement really is. The Spirit was felt so strongly during our lesson with her and we have been so blessed to see so much progress in this woman's life as we have met with her this transfer. It's such a beautiful thing to hear from people, when they tell us they once had a problem with something and now, because of the gospel, it's gone. I'm so happy to have been a part of helping someone with that. We were able to teach another woman about family history and temple work (it's starting to be a favourite topic of mine!) and I'm just always so appreciative of the hospitality and kindness of the members here in Poland towards us as missionaries (and others in general!). I love teaching, and meeting people and just being a missionary :) P.S. mum and dad, I totally suggest you two going on a mission some day together. You could go to Bosnia, it'd be so awesome! Hahah ok that's just what I see in my head that would be really great!


Well I'm not sure what else to say, except that I love you and appreciate you and pray for you often! I hope you all have a wonderful week - tell Baba "volim te" (I think that's correct).


Love Sister Grgich