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