A Good Week in Warsaw

Serving in Warsaw this week has been good, now that it's warming up and we have more and more friends each week,  it makes activities we do and Pdays even better. 

Tuesday we had our University English class which turned out better than the turn out, ahh see what I did there..? We had one lad show up to our advanced class, our mate Paul, but then I got drafted to teach the Beginner class with Alvarez and Musgrave. The students wanted a proper English accent as they had no idea what Alvarez and Musgrave were saying half the time haha. We did the Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich challenge, took me back about a year to when Myself and Alvarez did this for an English class in Poznań. In a nut shell, I pretend to be a robot and do anything the class tells me to do, they have to guide me in making a sandwich, sometimes it gets really wild and the jam goes everywhere, this time it wasn't too bad, I did end up putting my hand in the jam jar though which was pretty gross haha, the reaction of the class was hilarious! It ended with me having to feed the sandwich to Alvarez.

Other things that happened:- I printed some 900 fliers for an open house we had at our chapel on Saturday. It looked like we were advertising for a pool party by the look of the flier, I went for that look on purpose as I thought people might then show up. On the streets we were inviting people to our 'Mormon party', we got all 900 out in about an hour, with the help of all the missionaries who were down for MLC of course. Got to spend some time with Elder Liechty too which is always a pleasure. 

Been at the Legal offices this week two times, twice more than needed, we got everything done though and we got to hang out with Elders Wójcik and Mandla for the day. Mandla is the lad from Australia, so we connect on the basis that we're not American, it would be funny serving with him and our slang would come out more and nobody would be able to understand us haha. 

The open house on Saturday wasn't as successful as we would have hoped, most of it came down to the lack of preparation and planning that we put in, but we just didn't have much support and it wasn't announced in church so nobody really knew about it. We managed to get a few people inside but not enough. 

We're having another one 20th May, so get the word out! Ul. Wolska 142, 20th May, open house! 

Miracles can happen and will happen as long as we have faith and do everything we can to do good.

So this week has really been a hit and miss week, bit of a blur too, the weeks all seem to be connected as if it's just a long line of days that don't end. We've just been really busy recently and not busy with things that we should be busy with..just other things come up. 

We had a new fridge delivered this week, the first delivery day we missed as we were teaching our English class which meant we had to call and arrange a new day and time, the thing was I messed things up with the delivery time between 11-16, luckily it came pretty early on..but a 5 hour estimated delivery time is pretty pants..how are you supposed to plan the day with things like that? 

We've also had a new senior couple in, so we've had to run around and do things to make sure they had a comfortable first week, we had them down at the legal offices for some meetings on Monday and we've spent a lot of time in the office with them running them through how things go down in the office and what to do and things...the goal is to have them trained and independent by the end of the transfer or as soon as..just so we don't have to spend much time or any time at all in the office, hopefully it will be soon so we can get out and spend most of our time working with members and finding people to teach.

We picked up our new car early last week, we were out with Alvarez and Musgrave doing I'm not sure what..but we got a call saying that it was ready and that we could go and collect it. The place was a decent drive away and so we met the Assistants and a member who takes care of this sort of stuff and we drove over. We have a nice brand new Hyundai i20, it's pretty slow and doesn't have a turbo like the Meriva, it's automatic too which is a bummer. But it's brand new which is nice, i've already put almost 400km on it in the first week. on the way home the others left without me and I had no idea where I was and had no GPS or anything so I was going off my instinct, I missed our turn and so we ended up miles away from where we had to be, heading on the road towards Poznan haha. We turned around and eventually made it home, the road was pretty empty too and it was a motorway so I put the car through its first max speed test on the road. 

One night this week we spent with Alvarez and Musgrave again visiting libraries and leaving copies of the Book of Mormon and some fliers for our open house. Just some chill time in the car driving around the city in search of these libraries, it was so fun. I got to see more of the city that I've not seen before and I'm sure I have this city and the roads figured out now so getting around is not a problem. One of the libraries was located slap bang in the middle of old town, I've only walked around old town and the rynek once, which is a bit of a difference compared to Poznan where we were on it every day and night, we practically lived in Old Town. So yeah we had a chill night walking around old town and the Old Town walls and castle and forts and things. The weather was proper nice too. 

On Saturday we had our classic Saturday sports day. It was a special day as I played in my boots that I asked my dad to send me. It was so nice having a firm footing underneath me, not having to worry about falling over or anything. I managed to sprain my ankle though, which is like the 3rd time on my mission I've done that, kind of a pain but I'll get over it, it'll be good in a few days. I woke up Sunday morning and my ankle was spherical because of the swelling. 

We had a meal out one night this week with all the missionaries and a member and a friend of ours from English class. We went to this place in the centre of town that's more quality than quantity. 25zl for this weird burger and 5 potato wedges. This place also sells this raw meat and egg dish that is considered a delicacy, it was legit a piece of uncooked meat the same shape as a small pork pie, weird if you ask me. The night was good fun though, although we did have some troubles with parking and then finding this place thanks to terrible directions given by the others haha. 

I've not finished all the goodies you sent me yet, the Oreo Mint chocolate is so nice though so I'm making it last, all the Americans go crazy when I show them the oreo peanut butter chocolate. 

I called Elder Huffman on Sunday just because I call him almost every day, and he told me that the tiny branch of Szczecin had 36 people in church. Miracles can happen and will happen as long as we have faith and do everything we can to do good. 

Also it's my birthday in 8 days, the big 21st. Weird to think that I turned 20 almost a year ago with Elder Liechty in Poznan! Time really does fly!

We Have To Live What We Teach

Welcome everyone to this weeks events from Poznań. We've had a good week here, as always full of laughs and memorable moments.

Tuesday was a good day..so after our usual district meeting we had lunch and then had a cool opportunity to help a girl called Kasia who just moved from Gdańsk to Poznań. She's in a wheelchair and so needs help moving things around her apartment. Of course, we always love service opportunities. She has a huge Airedale Terrier too and he's so friendly and just wants to play all the time.

On Wednesday all four of us went to Iza's house to share a message with her and also so we could sing her to mum which Iza is very appreciative of. We had Mcdonalds for lunch which is always something to look forward to.  Just had your standard big mac meal. English class was fun, we had the beginner class and decided to do a spelling test with them. The 12 words they had to spell they have to learn and remember for the next class. It's always fun teaching the beginner class, you can have a laugh with them. After the class we went English contacting in town and Małgosia came out with us.  She's a friend/someone we're working with, and it was fun., she went crazy talking to everyone. I met a bloke from north east Yorkshire too which is rare, you meet a lot of Americans but not many English. We had a good chat and he said he knows Oldham well and has been around Saddleworth and all...small world. 

Thursday was an interesting day which started with service at the hospice as usual, although this time we hopped in a van with our pal Włodek and hit the roads. We drove to a place outside Poznań, a nice little village where we met a family who we collected an electric hospital bed off. Then we drove back to Poznań and went to a ladies house where we rearranged some furniture, took her couch down 4 lots of stairs and then brought the electronic bed up the stairs - nightmare it was!  The bed was in pieces too so we had to build it. Beats picking weeds in the garden so I was happy. Thursday night I looked through all my old planners, went on a trip down memory lane. Things I'd forgotten about but then read, shows the importance of writing down the experiences you have. I've experienced a lot in the past 7 months here in Poland.

Friday was a day, we had Elders Liechty and Rowley here in Poznań on exchanges. It makes a difference having 6 Elders here, there's more of a presence and I'm sure it doesn't go unnoticed by the public. I decided to significantly increase my water intake which only has the consequence of being in the bathroom every 10 minutes.  I felt a lot better through the day instead of living off energy drinks.  We spent the evening on the Deptak contacting. We wanted more of a presence there though so I carried a table down there and we brought books and pamphlets and things and had a 'free table' thing going on.  It definitely brought more people to us. Spoke to a nice lad who told me that he really respects the work we do, although he wasn't religious we had a good chat and he told me he just doesn't feel as though he needs a religion or faith in something in his life at the moment, which is a common theme amongst the younger people here I feel. I learnt a good lesson from him though - he told me that he sees all these people around of which maybe 70 percent claim to be Catholic. They teach and talk of principles and doctrine but then don't live what they teach.  

We have to live what we teach!

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day and we played sports in the afternoon for a few hours in the park. The 4 missionaries were there with Markus, his girlfriend Eva and then her two dogs. We played footy and frisbee and then joined some guys who were playing frisbee too and had a game of ultimate with them. Hopefully,  we'll be able to make a weekly thing where we play with them and get more people involved, they seemed game for it.

Sunday was a day of church, studies, eating and planning. Sacrament meeting went well.  I had Bożena, Markus and Elder Alvarez give talks on prayer and then we had a good lesson led by Sergiusz. 

Take care and do good.

'Things that happened in the life of Elder Ashworth who is serving in the Poland Warsaw in the city of Poznań with Elder Alvarez'

We're back with another edition of 'Things that happened in the life of Elder Ashworth who is serving in the Poland Warsaw in the city of Poznań with Elder Alvarez'...long title I know.

Introducing Elder Alvarez.

TUESDAY - As Elder Alvarez coming in messed everything up, joking it didn't really, we went food shopping as we literally had nothing in the apartment. We spent a bit of time cleaning up and doing some house chores before settling down for studies. The apartment is clean now which is good.  We've had some boss weather this week, which was the case on Tuesday..so we had a chalk talk down on plac wolności..I have a right good tan and the classic missionary tan lines. I have one on my wrist too from my watch. For FHE we played frisbee in the park and I bought everyone ice cream. So funny story of the day...I split my pants as I went to pick the frisbee up, right up the back..must be putting on a bit of weight.

Elder Garrison and I.

WEDNESDAY - We had zone training which involved role plays and being with the zone which is always a good time. I was able to return to Elder Liechty all of his ties and frisbee that he left when returned to Szczecin, he's a dope. We had a quality English class in which I had them tell me in English of course, how to make a jam sandwich. It was so funny as I pretended as if I knew nothing and was stupid. Jam ended up everywhere and I made such a mess but they loved it. 

THURSDAY - We picked weeds again in the sun for a few hours at the hospice for service. It's all good serving but I may need a change of activity soon. Every time I see a weed I want to pick it now. After we had a meal prepared by the lovely Bożena which as always was nice. Later that evening we had a meeting with a lady named Monika who thanked us for the English class on Wednesday as she had a hard days work and we cheered her up. Who new making sandwiches and trying to be funny could make someones day. 

FRIDAY - Typical Friday..weekly planning..sport in the rain, but it was really hot outside which was cool..then for the evening we spent a few hours on the deptak playing guitars and contacting. 

SATURDAY - We had the baptism of Marcin which was a good occasion, the first I've attended in Poland. Not much happened, we taught English class and spent most of the day at the chapel with the baptism and cleaning and running around after things. 

The legend that is.....Elder Campora!

SUNDAY - Another Sunday has been and gone...not many turned up but that never seems to matter here, the service still goes ahead and the spirit is still with us and we all come away with some sort of spiritual growth. Church here is mint! The rest of the day was spent tracting..we met a few nice people who we spoke to for a while..one guy from Australia and another who was interested in checking out one of our church services..

We have a goal this week as a companionship to prayerfully find one person on the street that we can help bring closer to Christ...I look forward to a week of hard work..

I climbed a tree. Nothing much more to say really.

We've had some crazy weather these past few days including rain, sun and some lightning storms. It's just like being home.

Beautiful night out on the Rynek.

Elder Liechty and I joined the marathon for a few seconds.......

So another week is down. We're into the last week of this transfer and I really can wait for Saturday, transfer call day last transfer killed me. 

So it'll have to be a quick one this week as we're off to Toruń today. It's going to be a good trip, plus the weather is beautiful today!

Monday - Just the usual Pday stuff last week. There was a fantasy/gaming event going on at the world trade centre in Poznań, bunch of people around all dressed up in costumes. I noticed a group of people dressed as wizards from harry potter so i did what anybody else would do, I ran up to them and started shouting spells and doing wand actions at them. They were so confused as to what was going on. That's how I amuse myself these days. Also had some fish and chips that didn't look or taste anything like fish and chips. 

Tuesday - Had the usual district meeting. Tuesday was a slow day, didn't really get up to much exciting. Just contacting and things. It's been a tough week for contacting, there just hasn't seemed to be anyone around to talk to or that wants to talk. We managed to get a few numbers through the week though which is good. FHE after dinner with just the four elders and Iza. We played an intense game of Uno. All rules go out the window when playing with Iza haha.

Wednesday - We had a pretty good lesson with our investigator Dawid. We taught him about baptism and how it's essential and the first step to the goal of eternal life. We read through 2 Nephi 31 with him and talked about it. He's slowly progressing. To finish off the night we had a boss English class with the beginners and then had an even better religious class. We had them translate from Polish to English a few short stories, we split them up into teams to make it more of a competition as to who could translate and write better English. We spoke about the God head for religious class. Who they each are and their roles etc...

Thursday - We spent most of this day cleaning the mess that was our apartment. We had the best news all week in that we could move into the new one a day early. We had so much to do and it took us a good 5 hours to get everything ready and strip the place. We took a break in-between and went to Bożena's for Lunch, probs the best Bożena lunch I've had yet. Just chicken and Potatoes but it was gone in about 30 seconds. 

Friday - Time to move house. We went to the new apartment to collect the keys around midday. We also had the first of our sport Fridays which we're starting to get up and running. We had a few people turn up which was good. We played frisbee in the park and then I brought a footy as well. I just enjoyed smacking it up in the air as hard and as high as I could. Great stress reliever and it just felt good as I've not been able to that for a good 6 months. After sport with help from Markus (member) we moved all of our belongings to the new flat. It took a lot of effort and a few trips but we made it. The new place is incredible. 

Saturday - Not a lot happened. We had a poor turnout to English class. Probably because we had nice weather. Not a lot happened this day but we had a few funny moments. We took a random 2 hours tracting and bumped into an old guy who shouted at us for a good 30 mins as we tried to tell him why we have prophets. We spoke to a guy who just poked his head out of the window, literally just his face, nothing else, for a good 10 mins as we tried to convince him to listen to us. We got locked in an old ladies front garden haha and then got invited into a party, which was tempting, but we decided not to in the end. 

Sunday - Probably the best day of the week. We left the house for church. We had a meeting at 10.15. We noticed as we stepped out of the building that there was a marathon going on. We had no idea this was happening and all the roads were blocked. We were cut off from the side of the city that we needed to get to. We stood and watched for a bit and tried to figure out how we were going to get to the chapel without trams or buses. We had to walk, which was pants as it was raining and it was a good few miles away. So to get into the bit of the city we needed to be in, Elder Liechty and I joined the marathon for a few seconds haha, it was flipping hilarious. We arrived at church and your standard Sunday as a missionary happened. 

That is my week. Sorry it's short but that's all I have time for. 

Things that happened in Poznań this week.

Hello one and all, welcome to the first instalment of 'things that happened in Poznań this week'.

I call it 'things that happened' because sometimes as missionaries we look back on the day and write down all the 'miracles' that happened through the day. It just ended up us writing things that weren't really miracles, so I changed the miracles section in my planner to the 'things that happened' section. Creative, I know.

It's finally getting warmer here which means tracting without coats.
We look like proper missionaries now.

I don't even know.....

After Emailing on Monday we went to Park Cytadela and played frisbee or disk or ultimate, whatever you want to call it. Then topped the night off with a bit of tracting in an area I've never been to. We didn't have any success but we spoke to an old-ish man for a while. We chatted about all sorts, after talking for a while he realised we're not Polish and brings it up by saying 'you speak kind of crappy, you're not from here are you?' I just said assumed he was complimenting our Polish and didn't realise till afterwards he just straight up said we were bad haha. They’re to the point are the Polish.

This is the Grand Old Library.

Took this this morning of 'most teatrainy'. The busy tram stop where we do a lot of English contacting.

more of the city

Through the week we re-watched all the sessions of conference in English. So Tuesday for district meeting we put one on and had a relaxing morning before hitting the city and doing some contacting. On the chalk talk we drew another puzzle on the floor to get people's attention. It involved numbers and a pyramid but no maths was involved. It was fun, hard to link to the gospel, but we had a laugh with it. Elder Liechty and I managed to place 2 books and get 2 numbers, which is a good use of time on my eyes. We should be setting up with at least one of them this week, the other guy was interesting as he had no belief in any God, by the end of it we managed to get him to agree that there is a God and he took a book. The night ended slowly with a poor turnout for FHE, and then some English contacting. Tuesday was our best day numbers wise.

We got to the chapel early on Wednesday to watch another session of conference. I think we watched the priesthood session. After that we went for a classic KraszKebab lunch, 15ZŁ for what missionaries say is the best kebab place in Poland. We had another decent contacting session after lunch with the other two elders. We had a lesson with one of our investigators before English. English was ridiculous. We did an overview of the 9 tenses we've done with them over the past couple weeks. It was stressful but we managed to get through it. We also had 5 new people in the beginner class who had no idea what was going on haha. Then you get the regulars who just argue with each other, it's a good mix. 

Thursday we got up and did all the normal business, eating, washing, eating, studying, eating and probs some more eating. The weather has been kind of crappy so we watched another session of conference and combined it with lunch. After that, you guessed it, we went contacting. We didn't have our usual Bożena meal again, so we went to the chapel to go over our lesson plan for a man named David, who referred himself. He seemed pretty set for the meeting but then didn't show as he had work. Spoiler alert...we eventually met with him on Saturday and he came to church on Sunday!! We met one of the sickest guys whilst out contacting around tea time. A man called Maciej, he was so open to talk and was asking us all sorts of questions. He couldn't remember his number so we had to give him ours but we had no pen...So I went and asked a lady in my best Polish if I could borrow a pen, she ended up letting me keep the pen which was nice of her. Maciej thought i was 'brave' and slightly weird that I’d just go up to a random person and ask them for a pen. I’ll tell you something, it's a lot easier asking for a pen than it is to go up to someone and talk about The Restoration haha.

mmmm pizza

Friday we had out weekly pizza planning session. This time we just settled for 2 pizzas. The highlight of the day was going to Iza's house and teaching her a lesson on the church and Joseph Smith. She's a member but sometimes forgets things. Also we had to walk her 93 year old mum around the front room. I didn't know she could move. We were in another room and I heard moving, next minute she's standing with her walking frame, it freaked me out big time. Friday night tracting turned into a miss when we got on the wrong tram, we decided to hit some blocks close we could see which is where we took the cool sunset pictures.

This view is from the top of a tower block that we tracted.  We had a beautiful sunset
and had a good view of the Lech Poznan Stadium.

The stadium is huge.

Saturday is just your standard advanced English class day. We did tongue twisters with them and it was flipping hilarious, we also asked for some Polish tongue twisters so they could have a laugh at us too. We managed to meet with the referral David after arranging a new time. We taught him a good first and invited him to church. He's excited about all the new doctrine and teachings we're showing him which is nice to see. He's incredibly difficult to understand though which makes teaching him real fun!

David came to church!! He stayed for all 3 hours too which was mint! It worked out well to as Elder Liechty and I ended up having to teach Sunday school. With only 2 mins of prep we taught the plan of salvation which happens to be the second lesson and David was there to listen. We tried contacting after church but everywhere around the city there were these post Easter Catholic festival things going on. People singing about Christ and dancing. I wish I had my camera on me, it was definitely interesting. It made talking to people about our church tough though as everywhere was highly populated with Catholics. We finished the evening with the last session of conference. We watched the Saturday Afternoon session. Elder Bednar’s talk was quality.

Till the next instalment of 'things that happened', seeya!  

One of the best, funniest yet most exhausting English contacting sessions yet!

This is Sławek. He's coming to Manchester on the 17th to live and work. He comes to the English class but has never investigated the church, but wants to be in contact with the church and the missionaries in England. I've given him info about where to go and things, hopefully he goes to Oldham, I told him to anyway.

Monday 7th - After Pday ended we had a meeting with a young college lad.   We met him at his place, He's been investigating for a while but hadn't had a meeting with the missionaries for about a month. We just spoke with him about the importance of reading and praying daily, also church attendance and why we go to church, Moroni 6 explains that pretty well. We committed him to continue to read and pray and invited him to church but he didn't show up to church. 

Tuesday 8th - We had a really good district meeting in the morning after studies, led by our DL Elder Vance. We've been focusing on contacting and how we can make every contact a good one. Last week we focused on the initial first impressions. This time we focused on getting them interested whether it be through a question or being funny. After that I gave a Christ like attribute section, I prepared something about diligence and the importance of being physically and more importantly spiritually diligent in our missionary efforts. Later on that day we had a meeting with a lad called Marcin. He's the brother of Carolina, a girl that was baptised in Canada. We taught him in the mall in the food court, and it went as well as you could imagine haha. Tuesday evening is Branch FHE. Iza, our investigator Marcin and Carolina showed up. We don't get the best turn out but we're working on improving it. We gave a short spiritual thought on the sacrament, and then had a paper plane contest for the activity, although the 'contest' part didn't happen and it turned into kind of dodgeball but with paper planes. 

Wednesday 9th - We had a bomb contacting session, Elder Liechty and I teamed up. We had 3 good contacts, using the points that we'd learnt from District Meeting the previous day to get people hooked. English class was fun as always. We sang with them, there were some mixed reactions when they found out we were singing haha. Most of them got involved though and asked if they could do it next time. Maybe we will. 

Thursday 10th - Thursdays are the Wednesdays in the week for missionaries I think. Bożena had us round for lunch as usual, we went contacting for an hour before leaving for institute. We had a pretty stressful evening as we had to organise how we were going to get the branch to district conference in Bydgoszcz. We spent the night calling members and trying to buy bus tickets and then we managed to get it all sorted. Get in! We saw that we had tracting planned but it was late and we couldn't be bothered trekking to our area, so we decided to English contact between the two busiest tram stops in Poznań. It turned out to be one of the best, funniest yet most exhausting English contacting sessions yet, but a great way to relieve stress. 

Friday 11th - Planned for the week. All the usual stuff. Went tracting in the evening again and swapped comps, so Elder Liechty came with me. We had a mint night. Some strange situations though. We had an old woman come out of her house having just woken up, she was so confused as to what was going on. She went back in and then came out again, this must have happened 2 or 3 times. Her neighbour then came out and she started waffling on to him saying how she's called the police and that. I was thinking 'what is happening', it was a funny yet weird 15 mins. Then from half 7 till the bus home at 8:15 we spoke with an old guy out walking his dog. One of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

Saturday 12th - English class. We taught them fruit and vegetables and just went through every single item you could imagine. With the fruits it was funny because they would be like 'oh raspberry, we have whiskey that flavour', I swear they said that with every fruit haha. 

Sunday 13th - The day of my talk. It went okay apart from me saying 'Dobry Wieczór' (good evening) instead of 'Dzień Dobry'. We had Marcin in church, it's always good to have an investigator in church. After church Bozena had the Elders and Karol (Elder Jeffs 1st councillor) round for one of her famous Bożena feasts.

Some of my favourites of the past week:-

Favourite word of the week -  Czołem, it's an older word that can be used to mean cheers, or thanks. We heard an old man say it that we contacted and Elder Jeffs got excited so we use it now.

Favourite scripture of the week -  John 14:15. Simple scripture, you show God you love him by doing what he says and keeping his commandments. 

Favourite journey of the week -  We took a trip up to a college campus just north of the city. We contacted up there for a couple hours. It was freezing but we want to teach young people. 

Favourite shop of the week -  Żabka...just a little newsagent’s kind of shop. They're everywhere and this past week mars bars were on sale.

Favourite moment of the week -  singing Hallelujah with the English class.

Best testimony builder of the week - my testimony of obedience has increased this week as my sacrament talk was about the commandments. Agency and the choice to be obedient plays a vital role in whether or not we receive the promised blessings of heaven. In every situation in the Book of Mormon, those that are obedient and keep the commandments are blessed. Those that are not are usually punished, or destroyed as it was back then. It's hard to be exactly obedient, but I know that we will see so much added to our lives if we do everything we can and 'strive' to be obedient and keep the commandments.

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