How can we 'cast our nets on the right side of the boat'?

Hello, welcome one and all to this weeks update. It's been a solid week, much better and more productive than other weeks here. We've been really focused as a district this past week, as to finding how we can 'cast our nets on the right side of the boat'.  We've been praying and acting and showing faith, so hopefully it will be given us soon!

Tuesday we had a solid district meeting lead by Elder Huffman, we spoke about prayer and also figured things out as a district as to how we can better work together. After that we went and printed off some new English fliers, 2500 to be exact!  We then found a new burger place for lunch, pretty decent, not the best, but it was tasty. We went for an hour or so handing out English fliers, it's something I really enjoy doing, you can just chat to people about English, in English.  If they don't understand then you just speak Polish, but the young people love it here. We had to go to tesco to pick up a few things for the apartment to make it more comfortable for those that come here on exchange. 

Being a Zone Leader I have the opportunity of working with each district leader and his comp for a few days, so they can learn from me and also so I can learn from them. Honestly,  it's more of the second I feel. We work our hardest through the week and sometimes see no results, it's hard to stay focused and driven.  Exchanges also allow us as missionaries to see that the work is the same in each city across Poland.  It's not just you that is going through these trials, we can be leaders and show them hard work and fun.

On Wednesday I had another trip to Warsaw, been doing a lot of travelling recently. We had another MLC that was based on helping President and Sister Turek plan for zone conference. It was a good opportunity to be with the leaders of the mission and council together, there was a good solid presence. I had the giggles through the opening hymn though, I don't know why, but I was struggling to keep a straight face, haha. We had Pizza Hut for lunch before shipping out to Lublin. I went with Elders Garrison and Fetzer back to the Dworzec, I introduced Elder Garrison to Irn Bru, he said he wasn't that impressed. 

So yeah back to the exchange stuff, after zone conference and when I got home, we had Elders Reid and Dooley from Łódź come down for a few days. 2nd exchange of 4 to get through. Elder Dooley is a group below me, we met in the MTC as our groups overlapped.  Elder Reid is in his 3rd transfer and is a boss at Polish! 

Wednesday we spent the afternoon at Beata's house - a lady who the missionaries have had contact with for a while.  She lives on a big plot of land and so we go regularly to do yard work or whatever. This week we had to turn mounds of rocks and clay and mud into a nice flat bit of land she could start growing things on.  So we went to work, tools and shovels, 2 hours later we had what she wanted. The Americans loved the yard work, I wasn't a huge fan but I got a sweat on. We also went into the woods to get some wood for her, czyli she had us bring a whole tree from the woods into her garden. just picture 6 Elders carrying a huge tree, it was so heavy.  They fed us, traditional Polish food, potatoes and salad with a big old Kiełbasa. Between Elder Huffman, Reid and Myself we drank like 6 litres of sparkling water too, they just kept bringing it out.

After service we spent the night doing some English contacting.  The Deptak and old town was so packed as there was this 'Taste festival' going on, so just loads of wooden market stalls selling all kinds of foods, it smelt so good, such a good feel to the place. We slept over at the other Elders place, just to have a bit of fun, so 6 elders in one place, with no sleeping arrangements!  I slept on the bare floor with my jacket as a pillow but it was all worth it! We had a good night just chatting together - we were still in bed on time though.

Saturday evening was cool.  We had a lesson with a guy named Marek.  We opened his eyes to a new way of planning. He came to the English class but was the only one there, so we decided to teach him, asking inspired questions and seeing where it lead us.  It was a cool experience and Marek is a nice guy. We taught him how to pray, the way the Saviour taught, he prayed to finish off the meeting and it was a really sincere prayer.

Sunday was the big one, the turning point in the work here. President Belo and his wife are back in town, as school has now started.  They're both young.   President Belo is at medical school here, and they're such cool people. They had us round for dinner last night and we had a good time just getting to know each other and all. Look forward to the next few weeks. 

Peace,

Elder Ashworth

Elder Dooley

Elder Lange.

Me and my twin!

Elder Huffman and his twin.