This is it....the final post!

I'll start by sharing two experiences we had this week. The first taking place on Wednesday as we were in an area of Krakow called Chełm. We had a few hours to knock on doors and so we got a bus not really knowing exactly where were we going but knew the general direction. I felt as though we should keep going and so we went almost to the end of the of the line. We got off in the middle of nowhere and walked up the hill, I tried talking to a man walking towards us but he said he had no time, that's the classic response here, I don't know what he didn't have time for as we weren't close to anything haha. We kept going and found this sweet little road with a few houses on it and at the bottom of the road was a load of farmers fields, quite the scene it was. It was about the 6th or 7th house we knocked on and this lady opened the door, so I introduced myself and told her that my companion is learning Polish and would like to share a message with her and her family. To my surprise, there was no hesitation at all and she invited us right in. We met her 3 children and proceeded to share a message about family, what made it even better is that the father of his family was from Wales so his wife and all his kids spoke wonderful English which made it nice for Elder Asendrych as he could share a message with them in English. We were asked to stay a little longer as she was making some food and so we stayed and ate with them before leaving a copy of the Book of Mormon, saying thank you and heading back out on to the streets. I was happy that Elder Asendrych was able to have such an experience.

Another cool thing that happened this week took place in Costa Coffee not far from the rynek. We planned to do weekly planning there whilst enjoying some hot chocolate, it's getting colder now! Anyway, we sat down at the table and I walked over to hang my coat up when this lad asked me what the name tag was all about, so I told him we were Mormon missionaries, we were speaking English because he was from England. He looked at our hot chocolates and said 'Mormons drinking coffee?' we laughed and told him it was hot chocolate which he thought was funny. we ended up having a good chat and got talking about how he used to live in Manchester and was given a tour of the new YSA building there when it was first opened. The missionary gave him the tour was only Sam Bytheway who I know very well from his time in Oldham. It's a small world, I bet whilst Sam was on his mission he never thought he'd give a guy a tour of a building who would then meet me on my mission in Kraków.

We had our district conference in Katowice this weekend and it was a time of learning, listening and reflecting. We were able to listen to two talks given by our mission president and a number of other talks from leaders. members and recent converts. It was also a time of goodbyes, this trip to Katowice was the last time I saw a lot of my friends and people that I've grown close to over the past two years. I was able to see President Najberg, the first Polish man I met in Poland, and my first Branch President. I approached him after the meeting asking him if he remembered me, his response was one that put a huge smile on my face, he said 'of course I remember you, I remember like it was yesterday! are you still kicking a football around these days?' It was nice to be able to speak with him and understand him, as I couldn't do either in my first transfer. 

Now for some concluding words. I've learnt a lot during my time of service, a lot of things about myself and a lot of things about other people. Happiness is one of the greatest feelings in life and we experience it when we serve others and live close to our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. This church is the true church of Jesus Christ, restored through a living day prophet. My favourite scripture as of recently is found in D&C 19:23. Peace is a word I've given much thought to because peace can come in many forms. The true peace that we find in Christ is through having a sure knowledge and clear conscience that our sins have been forgiven and forgotten. Conversion is a lifelong process that continues even after this life, let's not forget that only through daily repentance can we reach our true potential. 

I love this work, this church, my family and friends, and I love this country!

Don't stand still, Walk!

Hello people of the World, to all within the sound of my voice. We've had a solid week in the Krak. Kraków is the kind of place where it's easy to get distracted, so many times I just want to stop what I'm doing to go and see something, get some good food, go for ice cream, sometimes I catch myself just staring at things, there's just so much going on. I set a goal to write in my 'journal' every day, I did it 4 days out of the 7 this week which is an improvement.

I'll start with explaining why I chose to title the email this week 'Don't stand still, Walk!' It's come from a few lessons I've learned as we've been out and about on the streets. Finding activities are a daily thing here, and it tends to be the case unless you have a scheduled meeting with someone. The last few finding activities we've done here, we just tend to stand around and let the people walk by and try and stop them, it's good if you want to try and speak to as many as you can but not always the most effective. Each morning when we leave the house we pray that we may be led to those who have been prepared and those willing to listen to us. The question came to mind..how are we supposed to be led if we're just standing around? we won't be unless you have that much faith that people will come to you, but it doesn't work like that unless you're Elder Huffman of course, who has the most faith of anyone I've ever met. We decided this week to walk around as opposed to standing, and lo and behold we've met some quality people, people who are searching or just so open to talking. A man who wants to believe but doesn't know quite how..he is open to inviting us round to his house to visit him and his wife. A Student who claims to be Atheist but then was so open that the message we shared with him softened his heart just enough that he is willing to meet and talk with us further. It's not much, but I've learned a valuable lesson from this that you can apply even to life itself. Standing still and waiting for things to happen, or for people to come will only get you so far. Moving, pressing forward, searching, showing faith in this life on earth is what will bring you the blessings of God. alright, enough of that let's get on to the real stuff that happened this week.

I SPRAINED MY ANKLE AGAIN! I'm so mad. We were running for the tram on our way to play sports in the park on Saturday, I put my foot in a ditch and it felt as though my foot fell off haha. It hurt so bad and I was jumping around shouting all sorts, people in their cars and on the street were probably finding it quite entertaining. So now I have a fat ankle, I should probably be careful and do stuff to make it heal, do the whole RICE thing, but I'm stupid and went and played footy anyway. so that happened. 

We helped out at the hospice place again, picking up more rocks, they got mad at us because we walked all over the ground where new grass was trying to grow and it was wet too so we kind of made a mess, I feel as though we just make life harder for them when we go there but it's good fun. I've had a lot of funny phone calls with Alvarez this week, most of them end up us just talking about Poznań and Warsaw, can't wait to see him on Wednesday when we have the conference. Had a lady shout 'Ja perfect English' after we invited her to our English class, the typical response here in Poland. 

My farmer tan/missionary tan is doing well. I'll send some pictures to show you how ridiculous I look, especially when I put on a normal t-shirt. Also this week we met a proper cool guy from Austria who we chatted with on a park bench for a good 40 minutes. It felt as though I knew him, the conversation was so easy and spoke about all sorts of things and shared our opinions and beliefs. He's a photographer and we talked a lot about pictures and journals and the importance of keeping a record, so I asked him if he would take some pictures of us so he would have a record and a memory of our meeting. He accepted and so for about 20 minutes we walked around old town in Kraków whilst he looked for spots that would capture a good image, one of the more memorable street contacts I've had. With each person you meet you have to find a common ground, something you can connect on, with the photographer we didn't connect on a spiritual level, our views on God and religion were different, but we connected on the basis that we were both human, people, children of God. Even though he doesn't believe that, at the end of the day, what connects us all together is that we're children of a loving Heavenly Father.

Moments from the week...here we go!

We had another 'Dank' district meeting on Tuesday. Talked about focusing on what we're here to do and to forget about the things that aren't in our control. We stress too much over the things we have absolutely no control over, it's dumb really, even as people, we do that, but we've just got to focus on what we have and where we want to go. 

We were contacting afterwards and there was this really loud and funny Ukranian lady handing out Subway fliers, every time we had a good conversation going with someone she would come over, interrupt and hand the person we were talking to a flier - it was so annoying. We saw the funny side though, we laughed about it for a while afterwards and now we consider her our friend, whenever we're on the deptak she's up there with us but we talk to her. We've taught her all sorts about the gospel.

We've had a few good contacting sessions this week. Some more successful than others, that's a given though. On Thursday we managed to hand a few books out and teach some lessons on the street. The first guy Elder Huffman and I stopped, gave us some time to talk and was really open to our message. We had a solid conversation.  We were able to throw so much truth out and share our testimonies with him, but nothing came of it.  It's moments like this that make me think, how could he have possibly passed on this opportunity to take a book and change his life for the better. To find the true path that leads to salvation. .how!? I take comfort in knowing that it just wasn't that persons time, Heavenly Father is preparing that individual, we just found them too early, they will have another opportunity to listen, maybe years down the line, but they will.

Another time this week we had a bizarre contacting session, this time involving a drunk man..his first words to us were 'jestem po piwie, ale słucham'..we spoke to him for a while..then alone I spoke to him for longer..and a little longer, until finally I managed to end the conversation. He wasn't super drunk, he asked me some good questions and we managed to teach him things he understood. He took a book and I challenged him to read it and pray. We'll see what happens. Next came a guy, very passionate about his faith in Christ, but convinced that he is already perfected in Christ and saved through his grace alone. I told him many times that he's wrong and that there are still things we have to do in order to receive salvation - and to tell me he's already perfect was something I've never heard before. He also tried to heal a man we were talking to that had a throat problem. Like I said it was a bizarre bit of contacting. I also got targeted by a bird - if you know what I mean - left a nice mark on my shoulder. Haha.

On Saturday we picked up a load of supplies from President Belo's house and took them to the chapel.  The supplies included 3 huge packs of toilet roll.  I don't know why, but carrying toilet roll around has always made me feel uncomfortable. We all have our trials right? It was embarrassing 

English class was good this week. Both times we had people come, not as many but enough to have fun. We had some members there too. 

On Sunday 1000's of bikers drove down the main road that the chapel is on.  It was during conference but the noise was incredible and I had to check it out. It was a nice sight.  We spent a total of 12 hours at the chapel watching conference. 

Time well spent! 

Saturday night we had cake at the chapel for Elder Huffman's 20th. We sang happy birthday in 4 languages. Chinese, English, German and Polish. 

We spent 12 hours at the chapel yesterday watching conference. I'm happy to have spent it in Lublin with these people.

6.30am view from our balcony

Michael is back in town. He's our Branch Mission Leader. He's from Taiwan. Love the guy already. We have such a laugh together.

making pancakes at the chapel. 

29th August 2016

Hey how's it going? We've had a pretty ok week here in Lublin. Not too much going on, still finding my feet, trying to figure out what goes on around the city.  Every day this week was a day closer to zone training, all my thoughts and efforts were on that, so my focus was a bit off centre but that's not a problem. We spoke about the topics at MLC, how hard could it have been to plan a 3 hour zone training that was to be done in Polish - it took a look of thought and effort, and calls between me and Sister Demordaunt, but we got it. It didn't stress me out.  I don't get stressed out. I just wanted it to be good and spiritual and for the zone to actually take something away from it. The Polish made it a bit more awkward to deliver, but at the end of the day we're all friends and nobody is judging. With everything, I saw the funny side and tried to have a laugh with it. So the meeting took place in Warsaw at the Chapel.  We had an early get up.   The train was uncomfortable and hot and sweaty. It was good to see everyone there, new missionaries too who I got to meet for the first time. Everything went well and smoothly. 

Another night this week we had a meeting with a member out at his działka, a little plot of land he owns which has a  shed with a patio and table. We sat out in the sun amongst the bugs and crops he was growing, it was a nice evening. 

I gave another talk in sacrament meeting this past Sunday, didn't have too much time to prepare as I found out the night before, all was well though I just preached some simple doctrine, you know, the good kind, the fundamentals of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We had a good Sunday evening too.  We were invited round to a members house for tacos.  They're solid members and fed us well. We sat out in the garden, had some visitors there too, some good conversation, a good Sunday night. 

I'm off to Warsaw for an exchange with the APs.  I'm looking forward to spending some time with them - maybe teach them a thing or two haha.

All in all, I'm doing well.  Every day brings new tasks and challenges but we know that Heavenly Father doesn't give us challenges that we can't work through - obviously we can't do it alone but our love for Him and our willingness to submit to Him is ultimately what helps us succeed. 

Życzę miłego tygodnia

Lublin Castle

the courtyard inside the castle

I Love This Place!

Things that happened this week...

Tuesday - I lead my first district meeting on the transfer. I thought about what I wanted to talk about and prayed and all that..the answer was to teach about motivation, diligence, perseverance etc....I started by sharing a couple of scriptures that get me hyped and ready to work and then we just spoke about things and I asked questions and I showed a talk called 'perseverance' by James E. Faust which is a good talk. Then we set goals..one goal for how were going to improve ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually. We were also graced with the presence of Tanner and Joseph. Tanner being Elder Jeffs' cousin and his friend Joseph who were visiting Germany as he had served there on his mission. Something else interesting was the opportunity I had to give Marcin his baptismal interview. Just a rare experience to have as a 20 year old lad serving a mission and conducting the interview in a 2nd language. FHE was good also as we had a good turnout, around 10 people showed up.

Wednesday - We went round to Iza's house after studies and sang with her and to her mum for a while before teaching her. I thought about reading the introduction of the book of Mormon with her and talking about it. It was a good little meeting. Before English class we went out English contacting, seeing if we could get new people to come to the class..we were told that something had happened with the trams and so we had to get off the one we were on, we walked down to Fredry to see the no.8 tram had come completely off the tracks..mental..and it caused the biggest pile up of trams, maybe 20 in a row. For English class we taught direction and getting around town as we have a blind lady in the class who asked us kindly if we would go through some vocab. We created a maze out of the chairs and furniture in the chapel and had them direct each other through the maze blindfolded, all in English of course..it was mint! 

Thursday - We went and did service again at the hospice..it's a good opportunity for us to help out around the city and get to know knew people but my fingers are hurting from picking weeds 3 weeks in a row for 3 hours straight, I pulled out the mother of all weeds though, the root was as long as my arm. I may have slightly over exaggerated but it was a huge thing. We had an interesting Bożena meal in which she presented us with a new soup of hers...it was pink..and then in the evening we had a meeting with Monika..the half English half gospel kind of meeting.  I went through the Plan Zbawienia with her. 

Friday - Morning in the Park with Krzysztof and Irena learning Polish and teaching English. I look forward to Friday lunch time every week as I get to chill with them and have a laugh. Sport also happened, Elder Jeffs and Campora came this week which was good..we had our Branch mission leader, Markus, there too and we played football and frisbee until we got tired, which didn't take too long as it was roasting. I picked up a pretty good tan that day, just my face though haha. That evening we had a lesson with a lady named Alicja, it was funny as it was the end of a long day, straight after sport, I was tired and sweaty and we were teaching English and yeah..I laughed a lot. 

Saturday - Saturday we didn't get up to whole lot as Elder Freeman got sick through the night. We taught the advanced class and by taught I mean I gave them a list of long words they had to spell and it was fun to see them try and do it. We have a good bunch of people who come to the advanced class sometimes and I get on with them all and it's fun. We went home as Elder Freeman couldn't work so he slept and I worked out, I  studied and then prepared my Sunday School lesson. It was a beautiful day too so I put a chair out on the balcony and sat out in the sun for a bit. 

Sunday - We started church at 10 this week, an hour earlier than usual, we're experimenting in the branch. We had a good service in which both Elder Jeffs and Campora gave talks. I then taught Sunday School on 'praying to our Heavenly Father' and it went pretty well. I used a lot of scriptures to answer all the why, what, when, who, how questions. We went home so Elder Freeman could rest and I cleaned up and made food and caught up on studies. Then came the skype call home. I loved every minute of it and it was nice to see everyone's faces and hear their voices. 

Something extra that happened through the week. We were waiting for a tram and there was a crazy guy doing kung fu chops and kicks on whatever he saw as a target haha. He would do the splits and then stand up really quickly and poke the eyes out of all the big metal poles around. Flipping hilarious. Many Lampposts and fences felt the wrath of him that day. 

You see all sorts of nonsense in Poznań, I love this place.

We're small in number in Poland but big in heart and testimony.

Culture Day in Toruń

It's been another good week here in Poznań. There seems to be a direct correlation between how warm it is and success of finding.

Things that happened this week...

We took Pday on Tuesday. After emailing I took Elder Couto and Elder Freeman to Tylko Nas, A typical milk bar by the rynek. The food there is so good. The rest of the day was spent shopping as I needed a few things, and I bought myself a new pair of shoes, which are too big, always happens when buying shoes, they fit just right when you try them on but then when you get home they magically grow. We had a fun FHE in which just Iza turned up. So there were the 5 missionaries and Iza, we had a little spiritual thought and then played a few fun games.

So on Wednesday I hit my 6-month mark. That's a quarter of my mission gone already. We had a very successful day and taught 6 lessons, 4 of them being on the chalk talk we did. I had a really good lesson with this one girl, I went and joined her by where she was sitting and introduced myself. I then showed her the scripture we wrote on the ground (Proverbs 3:5-6) and she shared how it completely fit with some circumstances in her life. hopefully we'll be able to set up this week. Elder Freeman also had a good laugh with contacting people. I remember he came up to me and said 'I just stopped this guy and told him that God is our loving Heavenly Father, then I didn't know what to say so the guy just walked away’. It was funny haha. We had another fun English class as always and then Elder Couto led a short religious class afterwards in which we spoke about trials and hardships. Depressing I know but it was good because everything came back to the atonement and how we can find peace and happiness through the Saviour.

So Thursday was a good day. We started by saying goodbye to Elder Couto and then had a McDonalds breakfast. We had service at 10 down at the hospice. On the way I called all the sisters from my group and wished them a happy 6 months. It was cool and they all told me that I made their day haha. What would they do without me aye? in the evening we had an individual lesson with a lady from English class. We went through some English with her and then taught her about the Restoration. I really felt the spirit guiding me through that lesson, it was a good experience.

We kicked the day off on Friday with some standard exercise and studies. After that we met Krzysztof and Irena in the park and had a good hour or so with them going through English things and just general chit chat. They're the nicest people I've met in Poland by far. We had an unsuccessful sports Friday as nobody showed up, but we took our dinner hour and played frisbee for a bit, it was nice to take some time to relax. We had weekly planning with pizza and then went tracting for the evening.

Saturday was fun. At 8 we got a call from the other elders saying they had missed their train to Warsaw. Of course they didn't have enough money to pay for new tickets so I had to step in and save the day. We had 40 mins to get to the other side of the city on a day when the trams aren't as frequent and Poznań is just mental to get around anyway. We made it though, it was incredibly dramatic with a final sprint across the bridge to the dworzec, I was definitely on par with Usain Bolt. We treated our heroics with a McDonald’s breakfast and headed home. Elder Freeman and I taught both English classes combined which was both terrible and really fun at the same time and we had a bunch of new people show up again. That night we had a chill night with the Poznań YSA. We sat in little park in the centre of town by the theatre and huge fountain and had pizza and just chatted and had a laugh.

Sunday was a good day, with a really spiritual testimony meeting. We're small in number in Poland but big in heart and testimony.