The Standard of Excellence... without the ACTUAL Standard of Excellence.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE! I hope you know how thankful I am for each of you!

It was certainly the busiest, most rewarding, most draining, and happiest week of my mission (I think I'm starting to say that every week...). Sister Pearson and I worked harder than ever before, and saw MIRACLES as a result. In every mission, there's something called the "Standard of Excellence," which is a set of specific numbers of lessons taught, Books placed, investigators progressing and at church, investigators with a baptismal date, new investigators, etc. that the mission president sets. In all honesty, it's tough to accomplish and is pretty rare in the mission. BUT, remember how I said that Sister Pearson and I were setting some pretty high goals for the week? Well this week we shot for the standard, and came SO CLOSE. In fact, we GOT the Standard, without actually getting the Standard. We worked our tails off and met every requirement, except that our investigator Maria didn't actually take the sacrament at church (she came late and it didn't quite make it to her) and therefore wasn't able to "count" as an investigator in sacrament meeting. We were more than a little disappointed, but are already excited to try again and we have a new game plan for this week. It's gonna happen!!!

We literally planned out every minute of this last week. At one point, we had fifteen minutes to spare before a meeting, so we made a goal to give out one Book within that short time. And you know what? We gave out two! Another time, we needed a new investigator and had prayed for the Lord's help... as we were contacting at a whiteboard, a woman walked up to Sister Pearson and said, "Hi, I've heard about your Church and I want to meet with you. When do you have time?" Miracle. We also saw many miracles with regards to members helping us on lessons; there were many times when plans changed last minute and members or investigators weren't able to come, but in the end we were able to make five member lessons happen by putting our whole hearts into it and leaving the rest up to the Lord. Yet another miracle was the amount of Books we passed out and people we contacted on public transportation. We made a goal to contact at least one person every bus/tram ride, and we were guided to those who wanted to hear our message. Those are only a few examples... I could go on for hours. It was the greatest week! 

Aside from the Standard, we were able to spend some good time with people who we felt we needed to meet with. For example, we spent our lunch break with an investigator (not yet progressing.. we've only had one meeting) named Maria. She took us on a quick tour of the castle on the Rynek, and we loved getting to know her a little bit better. She's 25 and is really interested in the Gospel, and she also genuinely wants to be our friend. Her hobby is working with the Scouts... what the? We loved talking with her and spending a little quality time.

                                          Our new friend, Mary (Maria)

This week I think I got a taste of REAL missionary work. The kind where you come home at night and hardly have the energy to get ready for bed. The kind where you wake up in the morning at 6:30, sure that the alarm clock is telling a lie because you just barely closed your eyes. The kind where you sacrifice things so that you can witness miracles and see the Lord's hand in each hour of every day. And the kind where there's no place you'd rather be than right here in Poland, doing nothing but furthering this most important Work. It's a good, good feeling.


We are still very excited about our investigator, Kasia... there's nothing that can get in her way now. She's so excited and so happy, and her love for the Gospel makes me appreciate it even more. At church, she went around saying, "Hi, I'm Kasia. I'm getting baptized on December 14th. Will you be there?" The members seem to be very accepting of her. We plan to have different members on her lessons this week so that she can continue to get to know the branch. December 14th, people! She is going to be a wonderful addition to the Warsaw 1 branch.

It really was a very faith-building week. Heavenly Father heard and answered each prayer, and it was incredible to watch Him work through us as we accomplished our goals. It's a week that I will certainly never forget. 

I hope you all enjoy your week and eat lots of turkey. And play lots of football. We have the chance to have dinner with the Edgrens, so maybe some football will be included in the evening. Mam nadzieje! I love you all and will talk to you soon!! 

xoxo,


Siostra Tobler

PS.

It's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!