Last week in Warsaw..Kraków here I go

I couldn't have asked for a better last week to finish off the transfer and my time in Warsaw. I'll miss being around the likes of Alvarez, Beem and Bebel but I'm looking forward to spending summer in Kraków. You can't not find history in Poland, but Kraków is pouring with it. I was in Kraków a long time ago, maybe even 6 years ago on a school trip. I remember the teachers gave us a help sheet with phrases and words on it..we all thought it was hilarious that the word for yes is 'tak'. I remember we would walk around saying that non-stop. I never thought I would be here in the future with a knowledge of this language, it's quite incredible to think about really. The word 'tak' came in handy my first few weeks in the country haha.

Tuesday we had our English class down at the university which was boss. Adriano and I were late as we had to get through the Warsaw traffic, something I won't miss at all. We got there and joined in with the joint advanced/intermediate class that the sisters were doing. Sister Beem looked at me and said 'ok Ashworth, you have the question of the day for us', I had to think of something on the spot, 'I ended up asking what your dream sandwich would be', creative I know. Anyway, we had some terrible answers, people just have weird desires when it comes to their favourite sandwich, black bread, fish, and onion on one, peanuts and peanut butter on another..one guy answered and said 'I've never had a dream about a sandwich', he had us all in hysterics, hilarious. After the class we chilled for some time chatting with the students and took pictures, we also arranged to go out for food with them all on saturday.

Wednesay night we went to theatre to see a show about an old rich lady that comes back to a small town and takes over. We were invited by a friend of ours who works there as a costume designer. It was a legit show, so many old people, we turned up in our suits and looked the part. Cool experience. 

Thursday I spent most of the day with Elder Alvarez as Elder Musgrave was being run through things in the office. We went to tesco to buy a new chair for his apartment. Ended up buying an outside garden chair you'd find around a little table, it was cheap and does its job. We had our English class in the evening that we have every Wednesday and Thursday at 18, Saturday at 14, ul Nowy Świat 38/1. We didn't teach though as we hadn't eaten all day and someone brought a long board that we messed about on for a bit. Alvarez and I went for Kebabs in the center before heading back for a sweet meeting with Maczek.

On saturday we had sports in the morning. The night before we had 6 elders at our place. We were making the most of the remaining time we had together before transfers. Sport was lit! I smashed in a few more goals past Einfeldt, a half volley on the left foot and a sweet edge of the box strike in to the top corner. It was the last time I would see some of the brothers too so we stopped behind for a bit afterwards chatting and kicking the ball about. We did some service at a members house. Painting and cleaning and sanding, all the tools came out. There were about 9 missionaries there, so a full house, and even a few members came which was nice to see. From there we quickly got ourselves home to change for the chill night with all our friends. We ate at Toto, there was about 22 of us and we filled the whole back part of the restaurant. We went to the park close by afterwards and took some pictures and said goodbyes to some of them we wouldn't see again after transfers. 

Sunday we just had church, a small turnout because of the long weekend but it was nice. After church we had a linger longer, got to take some pictures with members and chat with them. The food was good too, someone prepared a nice pasta tuna salad which I had a few bowls of. Sunday night Alvarez and I ended up sleeping at the assistants place to make the logistics easier in the morning. We didn't get there till late as I had to pack all my stuff up which took a while, then we had to grab the big transporter and find parking down at their place. I brought all the food I had and started cooking as I hadn't eaten since the tuna pasta thing. I just fried a huge 600g polish sausage and ate it with rice. Another good night chatting and having a laugh with some good mates, time that as you know I value a lot. I didn't leave Warsaw till a bit later on in the day so that I could see the sisters from my MTC group who were finishing their missions and going home.  We went out for some food and it was nice to see them all together for the first time in 18 months.

Elder Hadfield is my new comp.  He's from Orem in Utah.  He's in his 3rd transfer and I'm his 2nd companion.  He's been in Kraków for 4 months.  Our apartment isn't too far away from the train station.  Just a 5 minute tram ride and a bit of a walk.  It's about 4 tram stops from the old town too, we drove past it today on the way to the library.  It has a completely different feeling to Warsaw being here.  Church is held in a big apartment rented by the church somewhere not far from the other Elders place.  

Warsaw gave me a good run, I did a lot, saw a lot, laughed a lot, scored a lot of goals, taught a lot..lets hope Kraków brings the same!

Me and Elder Hadfield

Filip Borowski. This man is a legend. He recorded himself reading the entire Book of Mormon for people to listen to. It has Chopin playing in the background too.

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!

12 Missionaries in one branch is pretty crazy!

Things that happened this week.

Monday we went to a trampoline park, it was sweet. We had an hour there and went as a district in the transporter driven by Elder Einfeldt. The 4 in the back were all so car sick by the time we got there. We had a good time there, jumping around and attempting back-flips into the foam pit. We also had a few games of knockout basketball, the net was so high but it felt mint getting up there and dunking it. 

Tuesday we had a boring day in the Urząd (legal office), we had a 5-hour wait, so we left after 2 hours of waiting to do some jobs, but timed our trip back perfectly as our number was called as we walked through the door. We picked a number when we got there and got B187, it was on B38, that was a whole lot of people to go before us. I hate that place. 

On Thursday we went to Janek's home for some dinner and to chat and have some time with him. It was a decent 45 min drive out to his house which was nice, we got to see some countryside and more to Warsaw than just the city. 

A few weeks back someone in our English class said that I speak as if I have potatoes in my mouth, maybe I already mentioned that, I guess that's what you get for being from England. 

One night this week I fell asleep in my normal clothes. Elder Einfeldt woke me up as he went to bed and said I probably should get changed, I agreed with him but then instantly fell back asleep. I woke up at 2.30 and changed, and also put my clothes on the drying rack. It was a weird night. 

Elder Alvarez was in town this week on an exchange with Bebel and Musgrave so it was good seeing him. 

MLC was on Wednesday and so we had to make sure that everyone got in fine and that they all had their packages and resources from the office. A bonus of this is that we get free food when we go there, so this time we took a whole pizza. 

Saturday nobody came to play footy in the morning. We got there and started kicking this frozen solid ball about, it hurt so much to kick it. After that we dipped and went to McDonalds. we had vouchers and so I got 4 bacon and egg McMuffin's for pretty cheap. Should probably cut out the McDonalds haha. 

Then came the big day on Sunday. We finally combined and had our first meeting as the Warsaw Branch. So many days spent moving and shifting furniture and supplies and materials from the other chapel to the big chapel on Wolska. It was a good day though. Many new callings, one being President Peterson as the new Branch President. We had a huge turnout, so many new faces to meet and 12 missionaries in one branch is pretty crazy. 

Peace, Elder Ashworth

Manekin again with the District,  I had OREO pancakes they were bomb!

Car ride with the squad.

At Janek's place, he had this huge fireplace and shotgun - made for a good photo.

Sweet Chinese restaurant that we went to #TOTO

The weather is slowly getting better and the days are getting longer, so I'm happy!

My mum told me I had to make sure I wrote a blog post for this week.

Hope all is well wherever you are in the world. The weather is slowly getting better and the days are getting longer, so I'm happy. 

On Tuesday we went and got our car washed as it was filthy. We just did a drive through automatic one. We were debating whether to get out or stay in the car, other people were getting out but we decided to stay in as it was cold outside. We made a bad decision and soon enough worked out why everyone got out, it smelt horrible and eggy inside. I got out my spray and was spraying inside the car to cover the smell but it didn't work. Worst 7 minutes of our lives. We chilled on old town with Erickson and Sommerfeldt, which is when I took all the pictures and we had Amrit Kebab for lunch which is the missionary favourite in Poland. KraszKebab in Poznan still wins for me though. Also that night I got a call from Sister Demordaunt, 'Elder, honest question, would you be down to get pedicures next Monday during Pday?', to which I answered 'Heck Yes', Einfeldt on the other hand wasn't as game, so we made a deal, if Einfeldt was to get a pedicure Sister D has to wear white shirt and tie to zone conference, the deal was made..so we'll see what happens. 

EINFELDT PASSED HIS TEST! We just made it on time to the exam too with about 1 minute to spare, it was a tense ride.

We had the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast on Thursday which we all watched with President from the Wolska Chapel. Some cool new changes, well at least to missionaries they're cool. The changes give us more flexibility within our day to adjust if needed. The big change is on Pday, we don't have to study anymore which gives us an extra 3 hours to get things done. Everyone is going mad as we have so much time. Nightly planning has now changed to morning planning which means when we get in at the end of the night we can just eat and chill which is nice. The first night of the changes it was a bit weird, we didn't know what to do with ourselves.  I just ended up going to bed for an hour and then watching some Bible Videos. 

We had our District meeting after the broadcast which was the usual district meeting in which we couldn't  stop laughing. Sister Beam spilt all her chips on the floor too, which happens all the time. We met a guy from Vegas in the mall who stopped us and said that he just got here a few days ago and that he saw us and recognised us as missionaries and wanted to speak with some 'AMERICANS', people are always so shocked when I say I'm from England.

We did a lot of English contacting on the Patelnia this week..the best of the week being when I carried Bebel around on my shoulders as he handed out fliers. A crazy lady came over and started to fight us, she started hitting Bebel and tried to pull him down, I didn't really know what to do so we just laughed, which is the usual response here.

The two Warsaw Branches combine on Sunday, so this past Sunday was the last meeting to be held in the Warsaw 2 building. It's cool to be around for this kind of event which will be spoken about for a while.

Everything is going well. I'm loving it here in Warsaw. Keep praying and doing good!

Manekin!

Manekin with the District. Yes Elder Haskett has some M&M Pancakes

The only plus to driving a Smart Car.

I feel GREAT! seriously it's good to be here.

(So we decided to do things a bit differently this week and mum asked some questions)

What was your favourite activity of the week? favourite activity of the week was probably the sports finding activity we did on Plac Wolności in the centre of town. We set up a table in the middle of the square and we had the frisbee, American football and then the good old real football that you kick with your feet. All 4 of us were out trying to draw attention to ourselves and get people to come to our sports Saturday activity which has been low on numbers recently and not as effective as it could be. I don't think we'll be able to top last weeks sports day. This could probably be the favourite story and funny story at the same time..so there were a load of people out but then about 15 mins in it started to throw it down..it really rained hard and the streets cleared, but we continued to play as heavy rain fell, we got soaked and then about 15 mins later it stopped and the people came back out. 

What was something you learned about yourself this week? I learned that no matter how much I try I can't learn from reading text-books, it just doesn't work. I'm still trying to find a way to effectively learn Polish and improve.   Also, bugs are attracted to me, I've got a load more bites that are irritating the flip out of me.  Maybe it's because I smell so good, not too sure though. 

How many people were at church and who gave talks etc? We had a decent number of people at church yesterday, maybe 13 of us. Karol shared a few words on faith, loudly and with much expression as he likes to do which is always a good way to start the meeting off, then Sergiusz gave a good talk on the Holy Ghost and following the promptings to do good and then Elder Sommerfeldt shared a few words which was good of him..not easy being in your first transfer and having to prepare a talk. I remember giving a talk in Kielce in my 3rd week in Poland, it was a scary thought, it still is now even though I'm more comfortable speaking in Polish.

What has the weather been like? The weather has been good for the most part with the odd storm here or there.  It's really humid still though and even without the sun shining on you, it's hot and sticky.  I'm going through so much water.

Best teaching moment of the week? We had exchanges this week and I had a good lesson with someone we're teaching with Elder Bebel. Talking is good and bearing testimony is powerful but silence sometimes works just as effectively, there's a spirit that is invited through silence that really gets you thinking and allows you to be receptive to promptings.

Anything funny happened? We had an exchange with Elder Bebel and Sommerfeldt as Bebel is our zone leader, we both went over to their apartment and stayed there two nights. It was fun.  We didn't get up to anything sketchy but we had a laugh within the limits of being missionaries, which was fun. Sometimes it's good to relax and chat about life with good lads, whilst on exchanges. The Exchange turned out to be really effective too.

How is the Polish language coming along - have you learnt any new words etc this week? The language is coming on well, sometimes I take for granted the progress that occurs. I've just learnt that if you pray for help every day and you act in a way that is in accordance with Heavenly Father then you will be blessed. I've not really learnt any new words off the top of my head, just the fluency and understanding is coming on. Sometimes I still don't have a clue what people say but that's just the way it is.  I'm not striving for perfection anyway because it would drive me crazy.

How does it feel to be 9 months in? I feel GREAT! seriously it's good to be here.

What is it like being the Branch President and what responsibilities do you have? Being Branch president is a funny experience, you're always thinking about the members and other things, nothing that I stress over.  I've been blessed, I just don't really ever get stressed about things.  I'm laid back and casual with everything, I blame that on failing my college exams though haha!  I'm enjoying the experience though, it's not one I thought I would be having this early in my mission.

How are the other elders in Poznań doing? They are doing well.  Elder Bebel and Sommerfeldt are a good match, they work hard and have had a lot of success with having meetings with people.  Elder Alvarez is a bro for life and I love his family.

We've been up to a place called Kiekrz recently knocking on doors, it's a 30 min bus ride outside of Poznań and is a little lakeside town, it's really nice out there. We're praying that we'll find a family out there to teach.  We have a trip to Bydgoszcz for zone conference this Thursday which will be good.  It's a 2-hour train ride.  The missionaries in the north zone will be there:- Poznań, Gdańsk, Szczecin and Bydgoszcz.  

ft. Elder Campora's tie, he also goes by Dominik now.

ALVAREZ..who does he think he is?  haha

burgers for p-day

Lakeside in Kiekrz.