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!

'You have to enjoy the small things in life, make the most of every opportunity!'

So how has this week been? It's been your classic week, just your ordinary activities and fun, in one of the most beautiful cities in Europe! Sometimes I overlook how lucky I am to be in a place like Kraków, but then I start to focus and get side tracked thinking I'm a tourist and wanting to do all the touristy things. Time is moving, Elder McMaster has moved in and we've had a solid week together, getting used to how we both teach and do things, it's always an interesting part of each new transfer. Being around him in his last transfer is all but reminding me that after him, I'm next. We often talk about the start of our time in Poland, how much energy we had, how much we relied on our trainers, how not knowing Polish made everything hard but yet so enjoyable. It's still kind of the same now, we rely on our companions and instead of worrying about not being able to speak Polish, we're more concerned with how we can use it for the good of others. 

Some things I'll share from the week:

One morning we were walking and we'd just left our apartment, there was a guy in front of us with his headphones on, one of these where you can hear what he's listening to it's that loud. I walked up next to him and just started a conversation with him, saying hello, speaking English, he couldn't hear me so I thought it was hilarious, I kept going but then he took his headphones and I was still chatting away to him..I realised that now he could hear me and the most awkward conversation started ha ha, caught me off guard. 

One of the days this week we were English contacting and ended up inviting some girls from Liverpool to the class, they laughed and told us where they were from, I got chatting with them with McMaster in awe at what was going on, two English people having a conversation. we helped them find a place to drink, they had no idea where they were, can't say I've ever done that before. I hope they remember their trip to Kraków.

I'm happy. This transfer has a totally different feel. We cleaned our apartment properly and then the landlady sent round an actual cleaner who spent 13 hours scrubbing the place, it's so fresh.  The lady that cleaned our apartment has to be one of the nicest ladies I've met. She was friendly. She had us meet her family over skype and as we left she even joined and knelt down in prayer with us. When we got back at the end of the day, after all day cleaning, she welcomed us home with a smile and asked us how our day was, if we managed to do some good for people. As she finished and packed her things up and left we gave her a book of Mormon in Ukrainian and hid inside a bit of money. We wanted to thank her in some way for the service she offered and for being a genuinely nice person. We don't know if she'll read it but we told her as she left that it will bring her joy and happiness.

Saturday was cool. We went to the park to play some footy but of course, as it does every Saturday it started hammering it down with rain, we got soaked but we played on. The surface we play on too get's proper slippy, I could run and slide about 10 metres. Anyway we had a good time and it taught me a small lesson that you have to enjoy the small things in life, make the most of every opportunity.

I taught a joint Priesthood and Relief Society lesson on Sunday. I taught about Baptism and started off by asking everyone present if they remembered their baptism, pretty much the whole hour went by,  us just talking about memories from our baptism. Maybe that's something we could all do more.  I don't know..just food for thought.

Have a good week!

Remember that you are all missionaries and disciples of Christ and should be actively engaged in the hastening of this work.

The week...

We've been lucky this week in that we've had 4 lunch/dinner appointments. One with Alex, our mate from Indonesia, one of the most solid members in Poland and wants to go on a mission. He's a good example of what every young 20-year-old lad should aspire to be doing. He spent some time with us on Friday and we went to this cool little pizza place by the chapel. 18ZŁ for a huge pizza and the guy that served us was impressed that 3 foreigners were speaking Polish. We set up a meeting with a recent convert, she didn't want to meet at the chapel or in the park or at her place so she chose KFC instead, I wasn't complaining. On Saturday we had some goooooood food made by Lucas, another solid member in the Branch, Alex helped prepare a few dishes too making some Indonesian style food. He lives in a nice apartment overlooking the Wisła and it's so nice chilling on the balcony having a good chat with everyone. The other reason I love going over to Lucas' house is for the Massage chair, sometimes you get a bit tense out here. Next, we had a potluck dinner get together thing at the Stroble's house. Brother Stroble served here on his mission a decent while ago and is here with his wife and their two almost 1-year-old boys who happen to be twins. It was good company and a good evening spent with friends of the branch.

On Wednesday we went to print out some more English fliers, 100 pages of them with 10 on each which means another 1000, the lady at the Xero was overworked so we had to cut them out with scissors ourselves at the chapel, absolute nightmare, we had one good pair of scissors and another tiny pair of yellow ones for little kids, I took those ones and by the end of it my fingers were wrecked..but now we have an extra 1000 fliers to hand out, even if they are all terribly cut out.

On Friday we were riding the tram to the chapel for a meeting, we didn't know the weather report and so weren't informed that today a huge storm would hit at the exact moment we stepped off the tram. It started off light and Hadfield had his umbrella so we were at least safe from the water, all though we thought...it started lobbing it down, not joking when I say that the roads turned into a river within minutes, it was crazy! The wind was so strong too that the rain was coming sideways and there was nothing the little umbrella could do. We were soaked! I couldn't even save the hair. That night I sang to elder Hadfield whilst playing the guitar we have in our apartment, I sang to him about the day and about how he was tired, he's always tired, it's his catch phrase.

On Saturday we turned up at the park for sports and there was a huge street ball tournament going on. Loud music, loads of guys playing ball, it was good to watch and at one point we were considering filling in for a team that was missing, we would have got destroyed but would have made a good mission story.

We've been meeting with a lad this week who referred himself to meet with us and he is honestly one of the most sincere and honest people I've met, just so open to listening and sharing what he learns. he's been to church twice and each time he's made notes and really involves himself. I hope we are what he's looking for and will be able to help in whatever spiritual guidance he is searching for.

Remember that you are all missionaries and disciples of Christ and should be actively engaged in the hastening of this work.

Have a good week and do some good

we got lunch with Alex at this solid Pizza place. 

Bought this huge bread croissant thing for 2ZŁ, so cheap!

It's Easy to Spread Happiness!

I didn't have much time last week to write an update about everything I got up to. I'll write about this week and then go back a week and talk about our visit from Elder Anderson.

This week has been a bit of a pain! The heat has been intense and it wears you down, but we soldiered on and got things done! We had a few meetings fall through as well which is always fun, an hour that you didn't have to spend outside on the streets just got opened up. It really tests your determination and drive and even testimony..always come out feeling positive when you know you've worked hard!

So back to last week and the events of the few days in Warsaw! As soon as we found out that Elder Anderson would be visiting us we were all hyped! I remember calling all the Missionaries I'm close with and talking about how we were going to be able to see each other, that was probably the initial thought of every missionary when they found out it was a mission-wide conference. We were asked to prepare for the meeting, not given any specific topic to study or anything..just told to prepare spiritually. I guess we were given that council for the reason that whatever message was shared by Elder Anderson, whatever he taught us, Whatever council he gave us was as is in every case to be understood and taken in through the Holy Ghost. Our train was late, we had planned to go get food with some of the missionaries that were waiting at the train station but that didn't end up happening. It was a good job I'd bought some snacks from the shop before getting on the train. We arrived at the Church to see every missionary pouring out from the front doors to come and greet us. We were the last bunch to come in. It was so good to see everyone. I ran around like a crazy man hugging everything and anyone. we got a whole squad photo outside before taking our seats in the chapel. Looking around gave me such a huge feeling of unity and strength. When you're one of 4 elders in a city, a whole city, especially one the size of Kraków, it's easy to feel a sense of inadequacy and weakness, but looking around helped me to see that I'm part of a 60 or so man army sharing the gospel in Poland.

After waiting for Elder Anderson and President Turek to arrive we had a solid musical performance from some of the Missionaries, it invited the Spirit 100%. Elder Anderson was accompanied by His wife Sister Anderson and also Elder Sabin of the 70 and his wife. He walked amongst us, teaching us about the importance of Faith in this work. He talked highly of President Turek, which again affirmed to me of his inspired calling, President Turek is a great man, humble and teachable, looks to us for help just as much as we look to him. We were reminded by Elder Sabin of the amount of help we have, from both sides of the Veil, we don't just have our companions, in fact we have Angels on our right and on our left, the families of those people we are teaching, members of our own families, we have the faith of the missionaries and members of Poland pushing us along. Elder Anderson asked us and encouraged everyone to celebrate the success of every baptism across the mission as though it was you who helped teach and baptise. We were taught that we can answer our own prayers..our prayers are always answered, but if we want to receive the answer we have to show God that we want it, we have to get out and work and pray more and do everything we can to answer our won prayer. 

Having Elder Anderson there was a miracle of its own, his visit wasn't planned, it was by promptings of the Spirit and by confirmation of prayer that they scheduled the visit into their busy lives. It wasn't by chance that it happened which made it ever more special. He said that this day would be a historic day, that good things will come, it all depends on our faith though. The presence of Elder Sabin was appreciated as what he had to say and his addition to the teachings of Elder Anderson were just as inspired. He told a story of the first man to break the 4-minute mile, people thought it was impossible, he tried and tried and tried until he eventually did it, now that it was possible, people saw that it was possible they believed that they too could break it. In the next few months, over 100 people broke the 4-minute mile, something that until that point in time was seemingly impossible, a lot about the work of God and faith can be learnt from this story. Elder Anderson then asked us all, if it were possible, to stay for the meeting he was doing for the members and friends of the church. His reasonings being that today is going to be a historic day. That would mean that 60 missionaries would have to be split between 5 apartments and the Mission Home. It all worked out though, even if it did mean I was out till almost midnight driving missionaries around in the transporter to where they were staying for the night, it's certainly a day I won't forgot. So many more things I could write about this day, but I'll end there.

The next day we had to get ourselves back to Krakow, no money as it was the end of the month, no way of buying tickets as the mission cards weren't working, a bit of a nightmare really.  I was up all night too as you could imagine what it was like having 10 elders in one apartment. We managed to get back though, Elder Groseclose came in and saved the day. When we got off the train and was walking home with Elder Hadfield it honestly felt like a dream, everything we got up to all dragged into one day, there's no way it was a whole 24 hours earlier that we were walking down the same road on our way to Warsaw. 

The funniest thing that happened this week has to be the mirrors we found in the mall. We stood in front of them for a good 10 minutes laughing and taking pictures. I was in stitches, people were laughing because I was laughing haha. I love that about laughter, it reminded me of a video I saw on that thing they call the internet nowadays. It was a video of a lady on either the tube in London, or just some form of Public transport, it was set up, but she started laughing and then within a few minutes everyone around her on the tram or bus or whatever was laughing, some crying with laughter, it's such a good video, shows how easy it is to spread happiness, shows the importance of serving with a smile.

I'm just a lad from England who kind of speaks Polish.

So on Tuesday the new elders came in! it was so funny just watching them and their facial expressions and just seeing how they were taking everything in. I don't really remember much of my first day and so it just reminded me that I was probably just as dazed as the two new lads that came in. 

We had a cool little meeting with a lad called Maciej on Tuesday night. We met at a little Georgian restaurant and had a good chat about the gospel and book of Mormon over some various flavoured lemonade. Would I pay 12zl again for the same drink? probably not, but it was good. We had to eat out again, so we had McDonalds, just the quickest option as we had to get somewhere, can't remember exactly where, I would have chosen somewhere different if we weren't in a rush.P day came on the Wednesday, Adriano paid 70zl for a haircut and got part of his ear cut off too which was funny.

On Thursday the new elders found out who their new comp would be, Elders Kriser and Baldwin were chosen this time round as trainers, two fine missionaries to have as a companion, so they're both in good hands. We had a huge 15 missionary district meeting which was kind of hectic, so hard to stay focused although we did get sorted what we needed to get sorted. It had the feeling of a zone conference or training.  We went for Manekin again that evening and then I had to make it home in record time, I had to take Kriser and his new comp Jabłoński back to the mission home, I got there pretty quick. 

All the legal work and appointments happened on the Friday, it went pretty smooth. Kind of weird how I'm the legal representative for new missionaries that come in now, I'm just a lad from England who kind of speaks Polish, but walking around those buildings with a briefcase in hand looks pretty cool. We chilled in the mall until we sent the trainees and trainers back home. We had a lesson that night over skype with a newly baptized brother and sister who live in Spain. It's pretty cool chatting and teaching them as they are so grateful for anything we do for them, and it's nice for them to speak with us as they don't have any opportunity to speak Polish with anyone in Spain, plus they don't speak Spanish, they're pretty solid and have changed their lives for the better and they see that. We chatted with them about the Europe area plan that was given us a few years ago, it's really helping us create unity here in Poland and working with members is effective when you have them use the area plan.

We had the morning footy match on Saturday, it absolutely wrecked me, I'm still so sore even now. I scored a load of goals to help drive our team to a win. We played against a bunch of cool lads from Belarus who come to our English class. It was the first time this year we've been able to play without snow. The sun came out too which was so nice, when the sun comes out here in Poland, everyone comes out and it's so much easier to talk with people. People ride bikes everywhere and get round on their rollerblades, I don't know how they're so good at it. I know i'd for sure fall over if my mode of transport was some blades. The warmer it gets the more I think about and am reminded of how good last summer was in Poznan. This week I had contact with some people I met and became friends with in Poznań. One lady sent me a picture and update of her house that we helped paint, the work is finally done and now she has a sweet place for her family to live, so that was nice to see and she invited me round for Fruit Tea if I was ever again in Poznan. And that I had a chat on the phone with a man called Krzysztof. He and his wife are some of the nicest people I've met in Poland. If you remember, it's the couple that we would teach English to at the park and also we would talk about the gospel a lot with them. I'm grateful for these little moments I had this week to chat with and catch up with people who have impacted my life just as much as I may have impacted theirs. 

Sunday was just your average sunday in Warsaw. We had a big attendance at church and then me and Bebel translated for the last hour in primary. Some of the things the kids come out with are hilarious, sometimes even make you think, there's a lot you can learn from young kids.

We headed out for a finding activity at the park as the sun was out and the people of Warsaw were out, I guess they sensed that us missionaries were ready to preach to them the good word. So much nicer being in a park outside centrum where the families are and nobody is in a rush. Bring on summer! 

This lad was from the Ukraine also doing his own preaching.  Notice the fire dancers in the background.

Zone conference a few weeks back - so good seeing these brothers!

I've never been so cold and wet in my life!

Things we got up to this week. 

We had zone training on Tuesday. The last of this transfer, it was a big one this time round and I'm happy to get it out the way, although it was fun preparing for it and teaching. It was a fairly peaceful day too, we got to the dworzec on time, no running was needed, zone training went smoothly, we had bags of time to get back to the station in centrum, so again...no running was needed. Then we got back to Lublin a bit later than usual, after a nap on the train we went home and had food and went to sleep. 

Thursday we had a bomb Polish lesson with our good friend Magdalena, she's great!

Friday I washed all my clothes, all of them! here in Poland there's no such thing as a drier, so everything is air dried on a rack of sorts. I had to wait all morning for my clothes to dry which meant I was in a towel for the first half of the day haha. 

On Saturday we had a cool day! We had a branch party in the evening, so after studies we went over to the other elders place to prepare 'BOSS MEAL', a meal that was created when we had our exchange with Elders White and McPherson last transfer. If you want the recipe..let me know, it will change your life! Then we were invited to attend another 'Variete' at the Cultural centre, it was another epic show with some solid performances and humour. After that we went to the chapel for the branch party.

Sunday was a cold and wet day! Church was good, a nice service with talks based upon the sabbath day. From 16:30 to 19:00 we went to the end of line #4 and knocked on doors. It was dark and cold, and we were in an area with no street lights, and we had no way of getting home, even if we wanted to as the buses rarely came out here. We made the most of it, trying to keep ourselves motivated. I've never been so cold and wet in my life. I had a race with elder Dooley to keep myself warm and gave him a 30 yard head start, I caught him in no time! So that was my Sunday, not the Sunday I would have had back home. but it was fun I guess.

Take is easy, have a good week. 

My brother Elder Quackenbush

Dworzec Lublin

Dworzec Lublin

Bathroom selfie with DoolMaster 3000

I like this place, a lot!

This week was transfers - I'm staying in Lublin and that makes me happy. I like this place, a lot! My new companion is the slightly crazy and loving Elder Dooley. He's joined me in the reign of ZL of the Warsaw Zone so it'll be a good time.

On Tuesday President Turek joined us in Lublin for our District Meeting and he also spoke with us all individually. The main reason was to let Elder Lange know of his new assignment. Elder Lange along with Elder Cowley will be serving in a new area in a city that sits on the border of Poland and Germany. Elder Lange is happy as this means he gets to speak his native language, which will only be an asset to the work in this mission. We were all so happy for him when he told us on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we went to Świdnik and did some service again at Beata's house. More of the same stuff, heading down the woods and collecting trees. there was a new adventure this time in that we broke their drain pipe dragging these trees and branches past their house, so we had to fix it. We went to the shop round the corner to buy the parts needed, borrowed some ladders from the neighbour and then went to work. Huffman and I took on the job but had no idea what we were doing, we managed to get it fixed though. We were tightening the bolts and screws to hold the pipe in place and the pliers slipped and lost grip and I nearly lost my finger, just 2 small holes in my finger was the result. I kind of yelped like a little dog. 

On Thursday we said goodbye to Elder Lange. 

Friday we had a day in the wind, rain and cold finding less active members and former investigators. We also spent 1 hour on a bus getting from one side of the city to the other. The traffic here is terrible at the moment. Friday evening we were invited round to our friend Marek's house. He is a priest at a big local church in Lublin. He's one of the nicest guys I've met. He fed us cake and gave us hot water to drink, we chatted and shared some Mormon messages and conference talks with him and we watched some of the videos he showed us. It was a nice evening. 

Sunday we had church and Elder Huffman, Myself and Elder Kapela had to give talks, although we didn't find out till 7pm Saturday night. In the morning at 10am President Belo phoned me and asked me if I could speak on something else instead of what I had prepared for. I said yes and had to talk about the restoration, he asked me to 'teach' a restoration for my talk as I would on a daily basis, we don't teach a full restoration much to people here, so it was the first time for a while I ran through a full restoration. It was in Polish, I had no notes, I just went for it and it worked out just fine.  I didn't struggle with getting my words out or sharing testimony, the words just came out, they made sense. A real moment I was able to see the Gift of Tongues working.

Yesterday, after studies, we contacted for a while and then I arranged  for us to go out for lunch with a friend of ours called Magdalena. She's cool and took us to this fancy restaurant where I bought some over-priced soup. She gave us an invitation to a huge circus show, so we'll be going there this saturday. After that we had another appointment with a girl named Małgorzata, she brought her friend with her and we chilled in KUL (look 'KUL' up on the internet) and had a laugh and chatted about religion. They're interested in coming to our sunday service in exchange for us going with them to theirs. Her friend Michał was a nice guy. So that was the day - then we picked Elder Dooley up.

Saying good-bye to Elder Lange

Day of former investigator finding, terrible weather but we had Dominos for dinner though

I got a bit 'atsy' with some glow up balloons and glow sticks

Thursday evening at the Dworzec. Sending Elder Lange off to his new area 

Michael invited us round for lunch

Bus ride home from Świdnik to Lublin

22nd August 2016

Hello,  so a week has been and gone already out here in Lublin! It's crazy how fast the time goes by.  We've been up to some good stuff here. I think I've settled in pretty well and am just about getting my bearings with the place. That's the thing I least look forward to with moving cities, having to figure out how to get around. Being Zone Leader means that I'll have the opportunity to have exchanges with each of the district leaders and his comp in the zone..so that's Łódź, Warszawa 1, Warszawa 2 and Lublin. Looking forward to having them come here and work with some different Elders. I'm lucky to have a Polish companion. We try to speak Polish at least half the time. He has me doing all the calling too which is good practice. 

Tuesday night we had a finding activity on the deptak here in town. It has a different feel to the deptak in Poznań, although there are more students and young people out.  I had a good experience  with a lad from Belarus. He spoke really good Polish, I almost didn't believe him when he told me he was from Belarus. We had a chat for a while, I got his number and told him we'd be in contact. 

Every day at the start of comp study we have a call session, just so we can confirm meetings and also try and set other meeting up. It's early so most of the phone calls are interesting, sometimes the words just don't come out. Wednesday we had English class, like probably most of the cities here, we don't have a huge turnout but that's something I want to change here. We're going to hit English contacting hard, that's how you meet people and make friends. I also had my own stamp made, with my name and number, it's a pretty cool thing to carry around with you.

Thursday I had an early trip to Warsaw. My train left Lublin at 6:50.  I got up at 5am which gave me plenty of time.  The train was terrible, just so hot and there were 6 people in the carriage I was in. I finally got to Warsaw and was met by Elders Cowley and Quackenbush, we got KFC for breakfast. Also there's a shop in the mall there that sells foreign foods..THEY HAD IRN BRU! 5zł well spent, I also had Elder Quackenbush buy a can, that first sip was heaven. MLC was good, all the leaders from the mission in a room discussing what the mission needs. It was cool as through discussion we determined ourselves what we would be teaching at zone training. President and Sister Turek are wonderful teachers and examples.  They were there with their children too which shows they're just a normal family who live and love the gospel. We realised after MLC that we were all late for our trains as the clock in the room was an hour behind.  I had a while for my train but those going back to Szczecin and to Katowice had 20 mins. Sister Barney and Gheen admitted defeat and so had to get new tickets.  Elders Garrison and Fetzer were determined not to miss their train so we hopped in presidents car and he drove us to the dworzec where we had a final sprint to the platform before it set off - classic missionary style. I had to go with them as I had nobody to stay with at the chapel. So when they got on the train I had an hour by myself at the station before my train left. It felt weird not to have someone by me but I didn't mind it.  It's so strange for any normal person to think..'how can it be strange being alone', honestly for a missionary you feel lost haha!  Eventually, Sister Barney and Gheen arrived at the station so i just chilled with them for a bit until my train left. I had a good laugh with Barney as usual.

Nothing much went down on Friday.  We had a few lessons and went to the mother of a members house, she's a sweet little old lady that loves the missionaries. We had a chat with her and she showed us all her photo albums from years ago and family trips and things. 

Saturday we had a pretty slow day.  Most of it was spent in the chapel as Elder Kapela had to do his branch stuff. I studied and played the piano whilst he did that. It's nice just to have some time outside of studies to sit and read the scriptures, even better in Polish. We had a lesson planned with someone who turned up late, which was unfortunate as that meant we couldn't teach, we had English which he stayed for and then had sports afterwards. For English we had some story making fun, we each had to add 4 words on to keep the story going, some strange things came out. I have a picture of the story that I'll send. Sports was alright.  It went from 6.30 to the end of the night. There were a few young lads playing football there and we had those from English come with us. We don't have a real football here which is a nightmare.  I'll have to buy one soon. We threw the American football around for a bit which is actually pretty fun.  I got the hang of it too, maybe I'll change sports. 

Sunday was solid, we had a good turnout. I had the chance to introduce myself and share testimony. I also was in charge of the music which was a flop. The piano has hymns loaded into it but it's a pain trying to get them to play. Also, I had to conduct to which I don't know how to do, so i just did 4/4 and made it fit the hymn haha. The branch here is bigger which is nice, we have members to work with and members to do things on sunday which always helps. 

Today we're going to Majdanek, a concentration camp from the war.  It's one of the biggest in Poland and is mostly still in tact. Should be a good cultural day.  I'm looking forward to it as we did nothing but the mall and chill in Poznań.

Introducing Elder Huffman

Everybody say hello to Starszy Kapela

Huge pomnik at the entrance to Majdanek concentration camp

Long straight barbed wire fences at Majdanek

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.

Szczęśliwego nowego roków

Szczęśliwego nowego roków is how you wish someone a happy new year. You can practise saying that.   So it has been an incredibly crazy past few days!

Our flight in Munich was delayed so we arrived in Poland a couple hours later than expected. Sister Edgren and the Assistants (one of the assistants Elder Jones is from Wales) went home so it was just President that greeted us at the terminal. As soon as I hopped in the car he told me where I would be serving and who with. I was a bit taken aback, but he could tell me because I was the only elder coming in so his decision was pretty easy. The sisters had to wait till the next day to find out with who and where they would be. 

I stayed over at the Office elders apartment that night which apparently is a first. They usually have the missionaries stay over at the mission home, but it was just the sisters that did. I went out to work with office elders until 9.00pm.

The next day we all went into Warsaw to apply for a citizen card of some sort. Whilst we were waiting, I went out contacting with Elder Campora (one of the office elders), it was really enjoyable. First taste of rejection haha.  I got on a train, I met my trainers in Warsaw and we got the 3-hour train ride together. My trainers are Elder Garrison and Elder Taylor.  Elder Garrison has been here in Kielce 14 months.   Elder Taylor was the Zone Leader and Branch President up in Poznan before this.  Elder Taylor has been out around the same time as Jake, he seems so old yet I’m 2 months older than him, it's crazy.  He goes home in July I think and then this transfer is Elder Garrison's last transfer. We live in a tiny flat in a tower block not far from the city centre and Sienkiewicza. It's cosy but it's fun. They're both super cool guys. 

We've done a lot of walking. My feet are feeling the effects but it's good. The Sienkiewicza is a long street that runs through the middle, you should check it out, it's impressive. We walk up and down there daily to get to and from contacting areas and to church. 

The language is nothing like I’ve ever heard. They speak so quickly and so I'm struggling even to pick out words. I make the initial contact but then hand over to my companions to do the talking haha. 

At church on Sunday we had a grand total of 9 people there. It was a strange experience but I got to meet a few of the members which was nice. I played the opening hymn and then also introduced myself and shared a testimony. It went okay from where I was standing.  Prezydent Najburg is the president. He's such a good man! we have English classes on Wednesday night, so looking forward to that. It's a good finding tool.

President and sister Edgren are both really nice. They just welcomed us in and got us all ready and then just shipped us off to our areas. I just found out that we're getting a new Polish mission president when the Edgren's time is up in summer.  I’m in the South zone with Krakow, Katowice, and a few other cities, We don't have a district because the 3 of us are the only missionaries in the city. We have the whole city to ourselves. Sister Kamp is in my Zone, I’m not sure who else of the sisters are. We have a zone training meeting on Thursday in Katowice so we get a nice day out and i get to meet the zone. From the missionaries that I’ve met up to now, which is a good bunch of them, they're all mint. Everyone says it's like a family here and it definitely feels that way.

So a usual day is up at 6;15, Pres likes us to be up early. We're out by 12 usually after studies and lunch break. Then it's contacting or tracting till dinner, and then after dinner we sometimes have lessons, we head back to flat to do member book work or we head out to do more tracting. We currently have 2 investigators that we're teaching. I've only met one of them, we're teaching him tonight actually after emailing. 

We try and do all the contacting and tracting through the day because it is so cold, it was -14 the other night. This big coat that I have does the trick though, just my toes and face and hands that get cold. We went food shopping today at TESCO, they have a tesco about a 5 min walk away from the flat. We spent 175 zlots and got so much food.

Look forward to letting you know about my week on Monday.  I’ll make it a good week!

Do widzenia

You have to be prepared for the -15 degree weather.  Photo taken at the chapel.

Elder Coxx and Buckhoff

In the little town square.  Each city has one., it has another name , like a rynek or something.

Out contacting in the city. Elder Taylor, me and Elder Garrison.

I don't know much about this place or  what the buildings are but its a nice park.