'TRUST PROPHETS'

The week!!

So Monday night was made good as at 'most teatralny' we saw an SLS Mercedes, it was loud and then he set off and bombed it and I love cars so....

I got a message from Marcin saying that he's back in town which is good news. He's the recently baptised member from a few months back. Good to have him back. We did some English contacting on Monday night as our English class has been low these past few weeks..maybe because it's summer break. We checked out the park but there weren't very many people there, it was a perfect day to be in the park too. There was a lad on the deptak playing his cello with a loop machine and he sounded mint - not every day you see someone with a cello on the street. Poznań has a bunch of good street performers.

We helped out Kasia on Wednesday morning at her new place. I love going round to hers to serve and also because she has 'Krowa' her huge dog that we're bros with. We had classic Polish milk bar food for lunch before doing some contacting. We had a sweet English class that we had to teach alone as Elders Bebel and Somerfeldt were in Warsaw. We had both the advanced and beginner classes together and just had some fun by playing games and making fools of ourselves haha, something I enjoy doing when it comes to English, being funny and loud and energetic helps them be more comfortable in class. We taught the plan of salvation in a lesson that day too which was good. When people tell us it makes sense, of course it makes sense, it's Heavenly Father's Plan of happiness. We had an intense religious class after English and we were so tired and were being asked all sorts of questions.  Our Polish was tested but we both got through it. It helped that we had a member there with us in the discussion. That day was so tiring so as soon as I got in, planned, I hit the sack. 

Thursday was your usual service day, we headed over to the hospice nice and early.   We cut some apples for the patients there which they were grateful for, we do the most random stuff there and then we headed to the supermarket to do some shopping for the patients and buy things they put on their shopping list, which is surprisingly harder when it's in Polish. We then had a few hours before we met Marcin at the chapel and had a chat with him for a while, had a catch up and saw how he was doing. We hit the streets afterwards and he joined which was good. 

Friday we had a good service opportunity given to us by the hospice. We went to a house where there lives a lady who within the last year has become very ill, so we hung out with her for a bit before carrying her downstairs in her wheelchair and took her on a walk to the park. Her carer was there with her daughter and the dog came too. We had ice cream and spent an hour chatting and sitting in the sun.  She was thankful for us being there and spending time with her. Hopefully,  it won't be the last time we get to do that. Also that night we had a sports night at the park where we played football and basketball. I popped the football whilst kicking it at a fence but then the miracle of the day for me was that I found a euro football in the bushes that had been left there.  GET IN...it's now sitting in the chapel waiting to be kicked around. 

Saturday we had another sports activity at park Cytadela this time. There was a huge cultural event of the park where we played sport. Spanish, American and Canadians were all there and it was a pretty cool looking event. We started playing frisbee at first but then I whipped the football out, next minute about 9 Spanish lads came over and asked if they could play, of course we said yes and we had a big game of footy on the park.  Of course, they beat us - I had 2 Americans and a Canadian on my team.  I showed them how to play the English way though and scored a few goals. They were good lads I just wish the people here were that enthusiastic about playing football and as open. We spent the evening out with Maciej, he's a member here who's not too much older than us.  We went out to dinner and had sushi which was super good. 

Me and my Spanish footy pals.

This is Krowa, the Airedale Terrier

Then came church, just your standard Sabbath day here. We had 13 at church though which was good to see. It makes the day better when the members come. I gave a talk which went ok and then Elder Bebel gave a good talk too about patience.

I got a really cool message from Malgosia this morning, our investigator.  We had a meeting with her last night and talked about prophets and then extended her a baptismal date which she wanted to talk further about on Wednesday but we asked her to pray about prophets and baptism and she said this morning she was riding her bike and saw a sign that said 'TRUST PROPHETS' and so she took that as her answer - ha ha!

We had a good week here and a lot of good has happened - it's tiring of course, but as I say - you've just gotta do it.

Pozdrawiam,

Elder Ashworth 

We Have To Live What We Teach

Welcome everyone to this weeks events from Poznań. We've had a good week here, as always full of laughs and memorable moments.

Tuesday was a good day..so after our usual district meeting we had lunch and then had a cool opportunity to help a girl called Kasia who just moved from Gdańsk to Poznań. She's in a wheelchair and so needs help moving things around her apartment. Of course, we always love service opportunities. She has a huge Airedale Terrier too and he's so friendly and just wants to play all the time.

On Wednesday all four of us went to Iza's house to share a message with her and also so we could sing her to mum which Iza is very appreciative of. We had Mcdonalds for lunch which is always something to look forward to.  Just had your standard big mac meal. English class was fun, we had the beginner class and decided to do a spelling test with them. The 12 words they had to spell they have to learn and remember for the next class. It's always fun teaching the beginner class, you can have a laugh with them. After the class we went English contacting in town and Małgosia came out with us.  She's a friend/someone we're working with, and it was fun., she went crazy talking to everyone. I met a bloke from north east Yorkshire too which is rare, you meet a lot of Americans but not many English. We had a good chat and he said he knows Oldham well and has been around Saddleworth and all...small world. 

Thursday was an interesting day which started with service at the hospice as usual, although this time we hopped in a van with our pal Włodek and hit the roads. We drove to a place outside Poznań, a nice little village where we met a family who we collected an electric hospital bed off. Then we drove back to Poznań and went to a ladies house where we rearranged some furniture, took her couch down 4 lots of stairs and then brought the electronic bed up the stairs - nightmare it was!  The bed was in pieces too so we had to build it. Beats picking weeds in the garden so I was happy. Thursday night I looked through all my old planners, went on a trip down memory lane. Things I'd forgotten about but then read, shows the importance of writing down the experiences you have. I've experienced a lot in the past 7 months here in Poland.

Friday was a day, we had Elders Liechty and Rowley here in Poznań on exchanges. It makes a difference having 6 Elders here, there's more of a presence and I'm sure it doesn't go unnoticed by the public. I decided to significantly increase my water intake which only has the consequence of being in the bathroom every 10 minutes.  I felt a lot better through the day instead of living off energy drinks.  We spent the evening on the Deptak contacting. We wanted more of a presence there though so I carried a table down there and we brought books and pamphlets and things and had a 'free table' thing going on.  It definitely brought more people to us. Spoke to a nice lad who told me that he really respects the work we do, although he wasn't religious we had a good chat and he told me he just doesn't feel as though he needs a religion or faith in something in his life at the moment, which is a common theme amongst the younger people here I feel. I learnt a good lesson from him though - he told me that he sees all these people around of which maybe 70 percent claim to be Catholic. They teach and talk of principles and doctrine but then don't live what they teach.  

We have to live what we teach!

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day and we played sports in the afternoon for a few hours in the park. The 4 missionaries were there with Markus, his girlfriend Eva and then her two dogs. We played footy and frisbee and then joined some guys who were playing frisbee too and had a game of ultimate with them. Hopefully,  we'll be able to make a weekly thing where we play with them and get more people involved, they seemed game for it.

Sunday was a day of church, studies, eating and planning. Sacrament meeting went well.  I had Bożena, Markus and Elder Alvarez give talks on prayer and then we had a good lesson led by Sergiusz. 

Take care and do good.

Warsaw Zone Training - Speak only in Polish and study only in Polish!

So on Saturday we had the chance to go to leave Poznań for the day and go to Warsaw for zone training. We're not part of that zone but there was some confusion with the travel and plans so instead of going to Gdańsk for training we went to the Capital. We left early that morning at around 8, I had McDonald's breakfast which is a must before train rides. We got to Warsaw and it was cold and it had rained..there was also a NATO summit going on so the streets were closed and there were Police everywhere and every few minutes a police escort would drive past. It was the first time in the Warsaw chapel.  

We actually have a church building, not just a rented out office space. It's pretty nice too. It was good to see missionaries I've not seen for a while, even some from the mission I've never met before. President and Sister Turek were running late so we had lunch and chatted before the meeting. I got to see my bro and trainer Elder Taylor one last time, which we thought would never happen. Sisters Kamp, Dekker and Barney were there too so it was good to see them. 

Elder Taylor - bro and trainer

The training meeting started, we had some reading and preparation to do on faith for the meeting - and so faith is exactly what we spoke about. The whats, the whos and the whys of faith. It was short but we were taught a lot and it sparked a lot of thoughts in my mind. President and Sister Turek are great people and it's going to be good working with them. We took some things home with us, one of those things being,  speak only in Polish and study only in Polish, this is going to help us all progress a lot.

Warsaw Zone Training - President and Sister Turek front right

We left training with the Lublin Elders and we did it in perfect missionary style by setting off late and then having to get across Warsaw to the station in world record time. We got the first tram and then had to get off and sprint to the metro and catch an underground train and then get off that with a final 300m sprint to the station. It was tense, tiring, funny, and probably a funny sight for the public to see,  7 smartly dressed missionaries carrying boxes and bags running across Warsaw!  So in the end the Lublin Elders missed their train by literally 1 minute, and we made ours with 3 minutes to spare. 

Church was good yesterday.  We had 3 members show up and also we had someone we invited there too which was a miracle from the week. Karol and Sergiusz both spoke on the topic of leadership in the church and then I finished the meeting by talking about how we can remember the Saviour using the talk from Elder Gong from the  last conference. 

Other things that have gone on this week. We had a really nice lunch on Tuesday after district meeting at this Indian place, it was really nice.  I had something similar to tikka massala maybe. I got bit again, twice on my shin and then one down by where my ankle meets my foot, and they've swelled up a lot, quite annoying and they're itchy as flip but I'll get over it.

We played football on an actual 3g pitch with goals on Friday, kicking a ball about is the best way for me to relieve stress I feel. 

We've decided to focus on the members and less active work as our biggest effort, we've not been having much success with finding and contacting so we feel member and less active work is what we should do. We're still going to find and contact but we're trying to find new ways in which we can make those finding activities successful.

Warsaw Chapel

All I've got time for, have a boss week!

Pozdrawiam,

-Starszy Ashworth

It's a bro district here and the district unity is strong!

Elders Alvarez, Bebel, Somerfeldt and me

So this week has been a decent week.  It's a bro district here and the district unity is strong. On Monday I got a sweet new haircut from a local barber just round the corner from our apartment. She was a younger lady working there and we chatted with her the whole time we were in there, joking around and stuff.  You can never escape the awkward barber small talk.

Tuesday we had our district meeting lead by Elder Alvarez. We spoke about the power of authority and our calling as a missionary. We also discussed goals and what we want to see happen this transfer. We had a cool meeting later that day with a 19-year-old guy named Konrad, who brought his girlfriend along too, I thought he was way older than that until he mentioned that he just got out of high school. We just spoke with them for an hour about us and things that we believe as members of The Church of Jesus Christ, usually the first thing I tell people is that 100 per cent we believe in Jesus Christ.   Also on Tuesday my bro Elder Garrison and his companion Elder Fetzer were in Poznań for a few minutes as they had a short stop here before hopping on a train to Szczecin. We had a family home evening activity planned that nobody showed up to, so we just went out and English contacted for the night.

Wednesday through the day we decided to hit up a new tracting area out by the airport. We spent a few hours out there, it's a really nice suburb outside the centre. We had an English class with the beginners in which we tried to mad-libs with them, but they didn't understand the concept of them, so were determined to make the sentences as correct as possible, ha-ha. The religious discussion went ahead also after a few weeks of not having it, Elders Bebel and Somerfeldt ran that. Other than that, Wednesday was just your normal Wednesday.

Thursday we had a day of service, we didn't wear white shirt and tie the whole day. Felt a bit weird. In the morning we had the usual stuff down at the Hospice, chopping down more trees and doing things in the garden, always fun. We had lunch with Bozena afterwards and then after we had to help a friend of a member move into her new apartment in Poznań.  She brought the whole shop with her, never seen so much stuff in my life, boxes after boxes, filled with all sorts. She lived on the sixth floor of the building and so we packed and unpacked the lift a good 5 times. It was a good workout, we had to pack the lift and then chase the lift to the sixth floor as we couldn't fit in. She had a huge snouzer looking dog, it was a big'n. That went on until the evening and then we celebrated our efforts with McDonalds.

the fridge was a nightmare to shift!

sevice day

Friday was cool as there was a thing in town called GranTurismo, basically it involved people who own the fastest and most expensive cars. They literally just drove around Poznań in their cars all day. Ferrari, Lambo, Mclaren, I saw them all.  On the bus out to the tracting area cars were just flooding in to the centre, counted about 16 Ferraris whiz past. The highlight of the night was when an old lady answered her door and came out and stood on her doorstep in nothing but a long t-shirt, it was Elder Alvarez's turn to do the talking and as soon as she stepped out I lost it and had to turn around because I was laughing. He did well to keep it together though.

Saturday was the usual English class followed by a short religious discussion with a couple that stayed behind. We spoke about prayer, it's nice to talk about the simple principles of the church with people. We changed sports to Saturday but had to cancel as it started lobbing it down with rain. It's been a theme throughout the week for it to be hot and sunny through the day but then to have a storm later on in the day.

                                  It's a Ślimak

Sunday was good as always. Stress free on my part as it was fast and testimony meeting so I didn't have to assign talks, just fill the time that was left after all 9 of us had shared our testimonies. Took care of some branch stuff and then headed home for studies, I took a short nap.  We had a brobiad at 4 and ended our fasts. A brobiad is a mix of the words 'bro' and 'obiad', the word obiad meaning lunch/dinner. Good to spend some time with the other elders at their apartment.

For all you Americans, go do whatever Americans do on 4th July.

I'll try and 'celebrate' 4th July with the district the best way an Englishman can.

-Elder Ashworth