Polish people are crazy

Hello friends and family!! I have officially completed my first transfer on a mission haha! It feels like I just got here yesterday, but at the same time feels like I've been here a life time! It's all good though, and we had another solid week this week! 

Monday- We finally decided to try out a place called the Greenway! It's a super pretty bike path that starts here in Waterford, and we've just been to lazy to try it out the last few weeks haha. But we finally decided to do it this week, and it was amazing! I felt like a newbie though cause I'm not all that great at riding bikes, and my comp is a pro, but hey it was still fun! Afterwards is when the day got interesting, and also where the title of my email comes from. So some of you might remember the Poish guy who stopped us on the street one of our first weeks here and asked for one of our "Mormon Bibles" in Polish. Well for the last couple of weeks we've been stopping by his house and just keep missing him. So we finally decided we were just gonna go by and leave the book there if he wasn't home. But sure enough this time he was there, and he invited us in. We get to talking, and we start to see this guy is a little crazy. He is first off a Communist, and told us he thinks religion is the dumbest thing ever, cause we're all just animals and there is no God and all that good stuff. There was just a lot going on with him, and he just wanted the book to add to his collection of religious books he has. He actually knew a lot about the church, and has met missionaries in the past when he lived in Poland. But ya that was a very strange visit, and a great way to start off the week haha! 

Tuesday-We had the awesome opportunity to teach a man named Syed the first lesson. He was a Muslim, but is now simply searching for the truth. He seemed to really enjoy the lesson, and asked all the right questions. It was just amazing, and we can't wait to continue to meet with him! The evening was a bit crazy. So since Elder Carlisle got called as a District Leader again, he had to skype in to a leadership meeting at the church that night. We had also arranged to meet with Lisa that night at the church. So what ended up happening was he was in the meeting, and I got to solo teach Lisa haha! We had brother Mutebi and his kids there as well, and we watched restoration video and talked more about prophets with her. I was just very strange cause I'm used to having a comp to fall back on, but I had to teach it all this time! It actually went really well though, and she is beginning to understand all that we're telling her and seeing that it's true. She is so amazing, and we're so excited for her!

Wednesday- We were able to meet with Dion and his grandma this morning. He is doing really well, and his grandma was starting to get interested as well in what we had to say. We are really hoping that we can begin to teach his family, cause they're all so amazing. That afternoon we met with a less active named David Kaye. We got there and he actually had a friend over that was able to join in the conversation. They are both HILARIOUS!! Oh my word I was laughing so much, they are just two African friends, and I already love Africans! Haha but it was cool as he actually opened up and shared his conversion story with us. We really want to help him come back into the church, and his friend also said he wanted to come to church as well. It may be because he wants to find himself a God fearing wife, but hey we can work with that. ;) 

Thursday- This was a LONG day of finding. We had had a few things set up for this day at the beginning of the week, but they all either fell through or got moved to another day. So we went out and hit the pavement all day! It was good, and we were able to get a few people that were sincerely interested in what we had to say. So hopefully we will be able to meet with them throughout this next week!

Friday- We started early today! We had to take our car in to get serviced at around 9 in the morning, and had to ride our bikes back from it. It was quite a ride to get back, and by the time we got to our flat we were both drenched haha! We had a lesson right after we got back with Jon. We're still not entirely sure what Jon's intentions are with meeting with us, and that's one thing we're gonna focus on in our next meeting with him. After him we were able to go and meet with Lisa, and we had an awesome lesson with her on tithing. She already knows what it is haha! So she eagerly accepted the commitment to live the law of tithing. We hoping to get her interviewed in the coming week, and the 9th of September is looking more and more real for her! That night we had dinner with the Ryans, and man do I love that family. They are so funny and just love the church, and they help us so much as missionaries! That night, we had another interesting experience. So earlier in the day we got a call from the Zone Leaders in Dublin. They told us that they had called a number in their phone, and the person lived here in Waterford. So they set up an appointment to meet with him that evening. We get the number from them, and it is actually Hassan, a man we met one of the first weeks we got here! So we show up at where they said to meet, and its him and his friend sitting in their car. They told us to get in and they'd take us somewhere to meet. We just got in without really thinking about where they might take us. We ask where we're going, and him and his friend just start speaking in Arabic. We get a little nervous, but they just told us "No it's ok you're safe." They then just took us to their friends take away shop, and they bought us burgers haha. They were all really nice people, but not very interested in what we had to share. It was just a very strange bunch of circumstances haha. And to top it all off, Clean Bandit came to Waterford and was performing just down the road that night. So the city centre was packed with a very crazy crowd. It was just a wild day haha. 

Saturday- This was a day of service haha! We picked up Alex Espejo to come with us for the day, and then headed to a members home to do some service. We painted an entire room in their house, and then they fed us lunch after. Then we drove an hour our to Dungarven to help Sister Porter with her garden again. She is so nice, and it was nice to help her out around the house. We also got to go visit her less active son and his wife again, and they love having us over. They just find it hard to make it out to church on Sunday's cause it's an hour bus ride there and back. It made me grateful for living in Thatcher where we could walk to the church in 15 min from just about anywhere haha! We really are more blessed then we know. But ya by the time all that was done and we were back in Waterford it was already 7 at night, so it was just a full day of service!

Sunday-It was a bit of a bummer, cause we didn't have any investigators make it to church this week. Lisa's kids were both sick, so she couldn't make it. And Kristen had a fever so she couldn't make it. Dion was there though, and he really is doing amazing! We also had a Less Active lady there that was refered to us from mormon.org. She has been in Ireland for a year now, but hasn't been able to find out where the church is or how to get there. So we got her a lift from some members and she was able to make it out! She really enjoyed it, and we should be able to meet with her and her family soon! We ended the day by planning out this next week, and also the next transfer and set some goals for ourselves!

Well there's all that's happened to me this week! I just want to say that I really do know that this church is true. I have seen the difference it makes in my life, and the lives of others. I hope you all come to see how blessed you are for having the church so close, and to have its influence in your life. This church is amazing!! Love you all, and hope you have a great week!

-- 

Elder Palmer

Scotland/Ireland Mission

13 Neptune House

Canada Square

Waterford, c/o Waterford

Republic of Ireland