Elder Anderton Weekly Email

Hi Family,
Things have been going really well for me this week. Elder Brown and I have been really busy meeting with in-active members and referrals. It has been amazing we have gotten referrals! ha ha we got this email from the office that this lady had sent to them. She talked about how she heard on the radio 15 years ago or so, this guy was talking about our church and she became really interested and some how got a hold of a book of Mormon and an ulotki and she tried to find the church here in Kato but it had changed addresses so she had just been reading the book of Mormon and waiting for us to find her. On Saturday Elder Brown and I went out to her apartment and we were ringing her domafon but there was no answer or anything so we rang her neighbors domafon and talked to her. Elder Brown mispronounced the ladies name of whom we were searching, he said Urena so the lady we were talking to told us that she was dead and we were like no way we got this email last week! Then I said Irena then the lady told us that Irena lived next to her but we would have to come back another time. We went out there yesterday and we met with Irena and her son. Irena is about 90 years old ha ha she was really cool though, she has read the Book of Mormon 3 times already and knows it really well! She believes that it is true and wants to come to church really bad so we gave her the address and she should be coming on Sunday. It was way cool! We met this guy the other day that did luge for Poland a couple times in the Olympics and was a paratrooper and now he is a professor at a university in Kraków and is writing two books right now, he has lead a very full life and was way cool, he wants to meet with us more. We have been meeting with lots of cool people this week, it has been a really good week!
Our district changed a little bit this transfer, Elder Hughes is now an AP so now Elder Stroben from Vegas is here as a Zone Leader with Elder Rushton. Elder Brown and I are still together. And Sister Hearth went to Warsaw to train a new missionary and Sister Rouse is still here and she is training a new missionary, Sister Brown. She is from Sandy. It is cool to see what it is like for new missionaries, it makes me see that I have improved and gives me hope that I will keep improving. Sister Brown is doing really well with the language though! She is a lot better than I was when I got here ha ha. On Sunday she bore her testimony in sacrament meeting and she did a really good job. I feel like each week I have been improving as I lead sacrament meeting, I keep asking everyone for suggestions of things that I can do to make it sound better and more proper. It has been helping a lot and people have been more than happy to offer advise. I feel like my Polish has been improving, there are still times that are very humbling very often, but I have been changing some things and working on some things and I can feel it helping a lot.
I think that it would probably be the best thing to write me through the mission office right now. I don't trust the mail in Sosnowiec, I don't really trust the Polish mail at all right now, but I would feel safer with things being sent to the mission office. I will be staying here in Sosnowiec for another two months, the next transfer is November 17th.
I was going to try to send you some pictures today but I'm on a dumb computer so it wont let me, I'm sorry about that. I will have to try again next week.
That isn't good that everyone has been getting sick, I'm sorry about that. I have been luckily staying pretty healthy, I hope that it will stay that way as it is getting colder now. The weather is looking more and more like it did when I got here. Each morning the air is really thick and not foggy but misty or something, I don't know what to call it ha ha. It is really cool looking though in the morning. Right now I am feeling really good, I have been working a lot this past week on my spiritual self and I can feel the difference it is making, things are getting easier as far as the work goes, as far as the language goes and it feels so good. I find myself at the end of each day really excited to kneel down in prayer. I can really feel the spirit and my heart bursting when I pray. It feels so amazing I can't describe it! I feel like physically and mentally I have been maturing a lot. I feel like my body has been filling out more and I need to start working out more but I feel like I have been maturing a lot. Things feel really good right now! Elder Brown and I have a really good balance together, we work hard and it is heard to explain, but I feel like we work hard because we want to be helping people and not just because it is what we are supposed to be doing. I have worked with people out here that don't seem to care that much about what we are doing but they do it because it is what they understand is expected. I feel a difference when I work with Elder Brown, we work because we love helping people! There is nothing better than seeing some one smiling because we helped them have a better day:) I love working with Elder Brown, he is by far my favorite companion thus far!
I thought of one other thing I would like for Christmas if I can ask for this. I really want a hacky sack! ha ha when I was in Poznań I found one in the apartment that a missionary left, I forgot how much fun it was and I started to get really good at it! Elder Nelson was good at it too so we would play hackysack and invite kids people to play with us on whiteboards as creative contacting method ha ha. I gave my hacky sack to Sebastian here the other week because he really wanted it, he is Anna's son. It is almost impossible to find them here in Poland. I have heard of people finding them but I haven't ever been able to find one. I really want one that is filled with the really fine beach sand and the outside is a really soft leather type stuff. If you could find one of those I would love that!
If you thing I brought craziness in the home then you would love Elder Brown! He is way crazy and always says the funniest things that leave me laughing for ever I have so much fun with him! He is such a fun guy!
As far as I know they don't really celebrate Halloween here, they celebrate this holiday called day of the dead, where for one night I think Nov 1st. Everyone puts candles on the graves of their ancestors and stuff like that and as long as there are candles burning on the grave the spirit of that person is believed to be able to wander. I am so excited to see it this year! I have seen peoples pictures and it looks so pretty, there are graves that end up with hundreds of candles on them.
Have a great week!

Love, Elder Anderton