Being Thrown In At the Deep End!

Hello one and all, welcome to this week’s edition of Elder Ashworth's Blog run by his mum. 

Let's start with Tuesday.

Tuesday - We would usually have had district meeting but not this week as we had Zone conference the following day. So after studies we went and did some contacting down at the spot known as 'Fredra'. It was another good experience contacting and I managed to get a few numbers and give someone a Księga Mormona. Later on that evening we had FHE, we played Pictionary, a standard FHE game which is needed in this branch as for some reason understanding how to play games is something they struggle with ha-ha. After FHE we went English contacting and I got hugged by a random Irish girl that heard me speaking. The favourite bit of the day happened as Elder Jeffs and I were planning for Wednesday, the phone started ringing, it was the AP's calling from outside at the gate asking which number we lived at, about 2 mins later they turn up at our flat and decide they're staying for the night. The perks of being AP I guess. We had a top night with them though. 

Wednesday - The day of Zone Conference, we continued the theme of miracles from Zone Training. President showed a video about butterflies and the change that occurs with the caterpillar. He likened it to missionary work and the change that happens in both us as missionaries and in the people we teach. The caterpillar has the potential to become a butterfly, we have the potential to become like Jesus Christ. We had a pretty bomb testimony meeting too, in which we all had the chance to bear a short testimony. Missionary Testimony meetings I think are how every Bishop wants his ward’s fast and testimony meeting to go. Also as part of the Conference, all 18 of the missionaries present did a huge 1 hour long English blitz, in which we handed out and spoke to an incredible amount of people about our free English class. 

Poznan Zone Training - photo courtesy of Sister Edgren

photo courtesy of Siostra DeMordaunt

Photo courtesy of Siostra DeMordaunt 

Thursday - Good standard day all around. The other Elders had a baptismal date accepted by one of their investigators. We did more contacting out in the sun. The weather was really nice. The weather changes contacting so much, people actually stop to you and talk. 

Friday - The weather kind of dropped off a bit which was pants but the day was still good and interesting. We had a meeting in the morning but the guy didn’t show, it’s becoming the norm. So we took a trip to Tesco and bought 12 huge sticks of chalk as we had an idea of how to advertise for the open day on Saturday. That evening we went tracting down in Świerczewo, we were having no luck and then floods of people started leaving their homes for mass, so we decided to follow them and attend an Easter Mass at the local Catholic Church. I was on edge as I didn’t want to get locked in. There were hundreds of people there and then it all kicked off and people started doing things and priests came so we quickly left ha-ha. That's the interesting part to the day. 

Saturday - What a beautiful day! It's always a good start to the day when the sun is shining through the window! After studies, we put the huge chalk that we bought to use and decorated the city of poznań advertising for the 'Dzień Otwarty'. We drew arrows from tram stops and busy roads leading them to the chapel, it was a fun hour or so and it turned out to be really effective. The Open day went well...we did it straight after English class so we would have more people there. People showed up through the day and enjoyed it. We had a free table where people could take pamphlets and Books, we had Meet The Mormons showing in one of the rooms and had a question and answer session in the chapel. 

Sunday - We had a really nice Sunday service at church. We had 13 people there which was surprising as it's Easter and nobody does anything during Easter weekend, the streets were so quiet, I’ve never seen a big city be so empty. So at Easter, they just spend time with family and eat food and drink. A lot of flowers are sold. People carry baskets of food round through the day as they get the food blessed by the priest so they can eat it for breakfast the next day. It's tradition to eat this kind of plant too, it's a fluffy looking seed, we had them at Bożena's.  The water fight thing is something they do, but I didn't see any of it going on.  It was a beautiful day and after church one of the younger members of the branch, Marta, made a little Easter treat hunt for us down by one of the little parks which was incredibly sweet and kind of her. Bożena then had us round for her special Easter Sunday meal. I've never had a food coma hit so hard than the one I had after that meal. I think I fell asleep on her couch afterwards. 

Last pictures with the man himself - Elder Jeffs

So some news for you, I'm no longer serving with Elder Jeffs. We got a surprise call from president on Sunday in which we were told that he's mixing things up in Poznań. In my call with him he told me he's throwing me in the deep end. I'm now serving with Elder Liechty and we are now the youngest companionship in the mission I believe! (Elder Liechty came out just one transfer before me). We were saying this morning how it's going to be fun with making calls as we both don't speak that well.  Bring on the next 4 weeks! 

My new comp. Elder Liechty - probably not the best view of him.