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.

Culture Day - Poland vs Holland - so fun to be there!

I managed to keep up with my Journal and Planner writing this week, so I have things to talk about. Woo! 

So earlier this week I broke my already broken bed, so I've been sleeping on the couch. It's probably comfier than most of the beds I've had throughout my mission.

On Wednesday I spent another day in Warsaw as we had MLC for the upcoming Zone Trainings. Ours is tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it as we have everything planned out and we're teaching and going over 3 really simple and important aspects of missionary work.

1) Receiving revelation 

2) How we can get our investigators in church

3) The Gift of Tongues

President Turek and myself had another chat about things he may have tried in England on his mission. We then tried to explain to everyone what 'egg and soldiers' are.   When I got home I went straight to English which was such a good activity. We had around 20 there again and played games and things. We played a game where we each had a piece of paper that was passed around and every time we had to write any instruction for someone to do. When they had all been passed around there was probably around 10 instructions on each sheet of paper. We then one by one chose a random sheet from the pile and had to complete what was written down. Some of the things were hilarious and we were all in stitches.

On Thursday we spent the morning cleaning our apartment as we had cleaning checks the next day. This place looked and felt clean but when I got down and properly cleaned it, it was so gross! As if it hadn't been cleaned for a few years. I'm glad it's clean now,  though. Elder and Sister Jones came to inspect, we passed which is a relief and then they treated us to lunch. We hopped on a bus and headed to the old town to this burger place. The food there is good and so cheap.

After lunch,  we said goodbye to Elder and sister Jones and then Elder Kapela and I had to go over to President and Sister Belo's home to help him with some Polish Homework he had. This is on Friday by the way...

He's studying to be a doctor and had to do some role plays of him talking with patients and doing check ups, but in Polish.  He had a script written out and we were there to translate and help with his pronunciation. It took a few hours as they fed us too which we were grateful for. Elder Kapela was the patient and I was the camera man. They turned out pretty good. I don't think President Belo will be getting a certificate in Polish anytime soon haha.

Saturday morning after studies we had lunch at a members home. She lives in a beautiful house just outside of Lublin.  We met her husband and her 18-year-old son who are both cool guys. The food was good too. Classic Polish potatoes with Chicken, salad,  and soup.

Then came the culture day activity. The football game was so good, the quality wasn't great.  Elder Huffman compared it with High School football in America. The occasion was good, it was really cold though. It was Poland vs Holland, so international level.  Poland won, by a long shot!   The Dutch QB got sacked so many times.  It was so fun to be there.  After, we went out for food and Michael came with us, he's with us all the time, it's great! 

Elders Kapela, Ashworth, Huffman and Lange

Do good.

Elder Ashworth