Week 68 - I'm not a good singer

(just a few snippets this week, it's a busy life working in the office!)

I'm doing good, it's been a decent week.  Church was good yesterday, we had about 70 or maybe 80 there and had a few missing which was really noticeable.  President Peterson asked the Missionaries to sing a musical number, for some reason I think people assume that missionaries can sing just because they're missionaries.  I mean I can hold a note and I'm not tone deaf but I'm not a good singer. We sang an arrangement of Be still my soul and Where can I turn for peace. It was pretty confusing, Elders Haskett, Einfeldt and myself sang the tenor part and it was so high - bad choice! Elder Bebel played the piano.

We had an 8 man sleepover this week which was mint! Hansen, Barlow, Dickson and Sister Beem all had legal appointments in Warsaw so we had Einfeldt, Me, Huffman, Hansen, Haskett, Barlow, Michael from Lublin who is serving a mini mission and Dickson all in the same apartment onTuesday night. It was so cramped, even in our mansion apartment, but it was sweet having all the elders round, some good friends too. 

On valentine's day we had a district dinner, plus Elder Dickson and Bart. We went to that Toto place. It was a solid night.  And after legal work this week we all went to Manekin.  We've eaten out so much this transfer and it's 'eaten' my money. So I didn't buy anything this time, but kindly Dickson and Beem gave me some left over peanut m&m pancakes which were so good! 

Today we're going to Adam's ties, the guy that sells ties all across Poland but his warehouse is here in Warsaw and he sells them for dirt cheap to missionaries. Getting some food and I might buy a Legia scarf. 

Week 67 - A trip out to Białystok

Markus is in Warsaw.  It was mint seeing him on Sunday.

snow

We had more snow! - this park is right by the chapel.

Białystok - Old Town - it was a 3 hour drive - President told us
to drive out there to visit a referral and some members.  We were
the first missionaries in that city for 2 years.  Just me and Elder Einfeldt went.

Białystok - Old Town

God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost in the form of a Dove.

Quack

Oreo pancakes from Manekin.  It tasted as good as it looks.

Wanted to get a picture in front of this since I saw it.

This book cracks me up.

The others crossed without us.  Sister D. felt really awkward. lol.

Białystok 

We had a talent show on Saturday.  Elder Jones' talent involved all the elders, of course.
he played a joke on us.  We had to roll our ties up and then have a race to see who could
unroll it the fastest, he would count down from 3 but always go early.  Elder Jones is hilarious.

I think it's Pope John Paul II - I'm not entirely sure what the writing means.
It's like Thank God and quench of the spirit - something like that.

Warsawa Branch - courtesy of Bro. Szabo

Branicki Palace

Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland - we took a trip here on Saturday.

12 Missionaries in one branch is pretty crazy!

Things that happened this week.

Monday we went to a trampoline park, it was sweet. We had an hour there and went as a district in the transporter driven by Elder Einfeldt. The 4 in the back were all so car sick by the time we got there. We had a good time there, jumping around and attempting back-flips into the foam pit. We also had a few games of knockout basketball, the net was so high but it felt mint getting up there and dunking it. 

Tuesday we had a boring day in the Urząd (legal office), we had a 5-hour wait, so we left after 2 hours of waiting to do some jobs, but timed our trip back perfectly as our number was called as we walked through the door. We picked a number when we got there and got B187, it was on B38, that was a whole lot of people to go before us. I hate that place. 

On Thursday we went to Janek's home for some dinner and to chat and have some time with him. It was a decent 45 min drive out to his house which was nice, we got to see some countryside and more to Warsaw than just the city. 

A few weeks back someone in our English class said that I speak as if I have potatoes in my mouth, maybe I already mentioned that, I guess that's what you get for being from England. 

One night this week I fell asleep in my normal clothes. Elder Einfeldt woke me up as he went to bed and said I probably should get changed, I agreed with him but then instantly fell back asleep. I woke up at 2.30 and changed, and also put my clothes on the drying rack. It was a weird night. 

Elder Alvarez was in town this week on an exchange with Bebel and Musgrave so it was good seeing him. 

MLC was on Wednesday and so we had to make sure that everyone got in fine and that they all had their packages and resources from the office. A bonus of this is that we get free food when we go there, so this time we took a whole pizza. 

Saturday nobody came to play footy in the morning. We got there and started kicking this frozen solid ball about, it hurt so much to kick it. After that we dipped and went to McDonalds. we had vouchers and so I got 4 bacon and egg McMuffin's for pretty cheap. Should probably cut out the McDonalds haha. 

Then came the big day on Sunday. We finally combined and had our first meeting as the Warsaw Branch. So many days spent moving and shifting furniture and supplies and materials from the other chapel to the big chapel on Wolska. It was a good day though. Many new callings, one being President Peterson as the new Branch President. We had a huge turnout, so many new faces to meet and 12 missionaries in one branch is pretty crazy. 

Peace, Elder Ashworth

Manekin again with the District,  I had OREO pancakes they were bomb!

Car ride with the squad.

At Janek's place, he had this huge fireplace and shotgun - made for a good photo.

Sweet Chinese restaurant that we went to #TOTO