Friends

MTC Group Reunion in Warsaw (4 out of 6) 

Welcome all to this weeks instalment of 'what I got up to this week in Warszawa'.

I'm doing this from memory this week but we'll see how it goes.

Tuesday was the day of Zone Training. It was good to see Elders Huffman, Alvarez and Hanson again. One of the most valuable things of a mission, at least something that I value greatly is the friendships you make with others, whether it be other missionaries or members. I hope that I'm friends with my mission pals for the rest of my life. The best bit of zone training involved all the missionaries and president going to the centre of Warsaw for a huge finding activity. We had a tent, tables, lots of pamphlets, banners and cards, the presence was enough to have people come up to us instead of us having to approach people which was a nice change. President showed us how it's done though, chatting away to people. 

We combined our dinner and language study hour at the end of the night and played 'Apples to Apples' which they have in Polish too, it was a fun district activity,

At the moment we're just working solidly with a man named Janek. He's a recent convert who was baptised on Christmas Eve and is one of the humblest and accepting people I've met here. He's so kind and is very grateful for any help and service we give to him. We're currently helping him prepare to take his own family names to the temple to perform baptisms, which is a really nice process to be involved in. 

Saturday we played football again in the morning, in the snow, and once again it was a mint 90 mins or so. We played world cup, and I played in goal again, it was incredibly slippy this time though as the snow has turned to ice, which made it hilarious. 

I read something this morning that stood out to me. It gave a little boost of energy that helped me get through the morning and gave me a new way to look at things, It was simply this. You can choose to come on a mission, or you can choose to serve a mission.   It was from something called 'the Riciardi letter' and is a series of experiences and stories from a missionary serving in the England Birmingham mission about 20 years ago. He talks about how his trainer changed his life. It's one of the best things I've ever read. you should read it, maybe you've heard of it and read it already

Have a good week.

Back together again Elder Huffman, Ashworth and Hanson

I'm the new designated translator - English to Polish, Polish to English...

Here's the week for you. Some things that happened.

Wednesday was my first proper day with Elder Dooley and we had a full but fun day. It started off with a tense trip to the dworzec, we barely gave ourselves enough time to get to the station and Huffman was stressing out haha. He has a train to catch to Warsaw to collect his new companion. We got to the train in time but it wasn't without a final sprint from the bus to the station...classic. 

We went to visit a less active member, it was a struggle finding his apartment but we got there eventually. The guy wasn't in, but we found a good Autumn setting and had a photo shoot instead. We had to return home quickly as a guy was coming to 'fix' the heating at our place. I say 'fix' because all he did was change the batteries in the Thermostat thing, if I knew how it worked I could have done that..he spoke to us as if we were stupid too. But we have heating now,I don't have to sleep in that bear onesie anymore. For English we had 3 people come, the numbers have dropped but he we still had a great time. We did a scavenger hunt, we hid around 50 letters all over the chapel and had them search for them, we even forgot where we hid some of the letters.

We had a mint lesson with a young lad named Bartek on Thursday. We taught him English by teaching a first lesson in Polish and then having him translate it into English. It worked so good, also it helped him understand the doctrine and what we were teaching as he had to translate and make sure he understood.

Friday I was in Warsaw all day with Dooley for MLC. We have Zone Trainings this week and so we met to talk about what we will be teaching.  President and Sister Turek introduced us to EDPER.  Explain, Demonstrate, Practice, Evaluate and Repractice.   I guess it's a new way of teaching that can be applied to any situation. For the train ride home I bought some Irn Bru! 

Saturday we took an early culture night and headed over to the cultural centre in town for a show/circus event that we were invited to by one of our friends. It was so cool and had a load of cool acts and performances. Probably the best thing I've done for culture night so far on my mission.

Sunday we had church. I think I'm the new designated translator now that Kapela had gone. From English to Polish or from Polish to English, I did the lot. It's a lot of speaking and listening but it's good practice.  I had to translate Sacrament meeting.  Now that Elder Kapela isn't there someone has to do it.  President Belo only speaks Portuguese and English, so when he conducts he does it in English, so I had to stand at the front and translate for the Polish members.  Then Elder Dooley and Elder Hanson gave talks so I translated that into English for the English speakers and then President Belo filled the time with a talk which I had to translate into Polish.  It all worked out.  

We have All Saints Day coming up this week and they have 'dzień zmarłych'  too.   It's a time for the Polish people to remember their loved ones who have passed. It's a beautiful holiday to have and a beautiful time of year. The Cemeteries here are being decorated, flowers and lights and candles of all colours are being placed on graves by family members. At night time it's a wonderful sight. It's a sign that there's hope of life after death, and we as members of the church are blessed to have this truth and knowledge restored. That we can be sealed together as families and live with them forever. Tuesday night is the night to go as it's the day of the holiday - I'll take pictures.

Have a great week!

last week you asked what Autumn is like here

Elder Dooley

we burnt things for my year mark, not a shirt though because I like all my shirts.  We burnt a few socks and a dictionary that we found.  I'm surpised that somebody in our complex didn't phone the fire service, there was so much smoke.  We had it under control though, Elder Dooley is an Eagle scout (whatever that means).

at the cemetery which has been decorated with flowers and candles by the families - it looks so nice

quality time at the show/circus