I'm the new designated translator - English to Polish, Polish to English...

Here's the week for you. Some things that happened.

Wednesday was my first proper day with Elder Dooley and we had a full but fun day. It started off with a tense trip to the dworzec, we barely gave ourselves enough time to get to the station and Huffman was stressing out haha. He has a train to catch to Warsaw to collect his new companion. We got to the train in time but it wasn't without a final sprint from the bus to the station...classic. 

We went to visit a less active member, it was a struggle finding his apartment but we got there eventually. The guy wasn't in, but we found a good Autumn setting and had a photo shoot instead. We had to return home quickly as a guy was coming to 'fix' the heating at our place. I say 'fix' because all he did was change the batteries in the Thermostat thing, if I knew how it worked I could have done that..he spoke to us as if we were stupid too. But we have heating now,I don't have to sleep in that bear onesie anymore. For English we had 3 people come, the numbers have dropped but he we still had a great time. We did a scavenger hunt, we hid around 50 letters all over the chapel and had them search for them, we even forgot where we hid some of the letters.

We had a mint lesson with a young lad named Bartek on Thursday. We taught him English by teaching a first lesson in Polish and then having him translate it into English. It worked so good, also it helped him understand the doctrine and what we were teaching as he had to translate and make sure he understood.

Friday I was in Warsaw all day with Dooley for MLC. We have Zone Trainings this week and so we met to talk about what we will be teaching.  President and Sister Turek introduced us to EDPER.  Explain, Demonstrate, Practice, Evaluate and Repractice.   I guess it's a new way of teaching that can be applied to any situation. For the train ride home I bought some Irn Bru! 

Saturday we took an early culture night and headed over to the cultural centre in town for a show/circus event that we were invited to by one of our friends. It was so cool and had a load of cool acts and performances. Probably the best thing I've done for culture night so far on my mission.

Sunday we had church. I think I'm the new designated translator now that Kapela had gone. From English to Polish or from Polish to English, I did the lot. It's a lot of speaking and listening but it's good practice.  I had to translate Sacrament meeting.  Now that Elder Kapela isn't there someone has to do it.  President Belo only speaks Portuguese and English, so when he conducts he does it in English, so I had to stand at the front and translate for the Polish members.  Then Elder Dooley and Elder Hanson gave talks so I translated that into English for the English speakers and then President Belo filled the time with a talk which I had to translate into Polish.  It all worked out.  

We have All Saints Day coming up this week and they have 'dzień zmarłych'  too.   It's a time for the Polish people to remember their loved ones who have passed. It's a beautiful holiday to have and a beautiful time of year. The Cemeteries here are being decorated, flowers and lights and candles of all colours are being placed on graves by family members. At night time it's a wonderful sight. It's a sign that there's hope of life after death, and we as members of the church are blessed to have this truth and knowledge restored. That we can be sealed together as families and live with them forever. Tuesday night is the night to go as it's the day of the holiday - I'll take pictures.

Have a great week!

last week you asked what Autumn is like here

Elder Dooley

we burnt things for my year mark, not a shirt though because I like all my shirts.  We burnt a few socks and a dictionary that we found.  I'm surpised that somebody in our complex didn't phone the fire service, there was so much smoke.  We had it under control though, Elder Dooley is an Eagle scout (whatever that means).

at the cemetery which has been decorated with flowers and candles by the families - it looks so nice

quality time at the show/circus

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

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

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

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

1) Receiving revelation 

2) How we can get our investigators in church

3) The Gift of Tongues

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elders Kapela, Ashworth, Huffman and Lange

Do good.

Elder Ashworth

Moments from the week...here we go!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time well spent! 

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

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

6.30am view from our balcony

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

making pancakes at the chapel. 

How can we 'cast our nets on the right side of the boat'?

Hello, welcome one and all to this weeks update. It's been a solid week, much better and more productive than other weeks here. We've been really focused as a district this past week, as to finding how we can 'cast our nets on the right side of the boat'.  We've been praying and acting and showing faith, so hopefully it will be given us soon!

Tuesday we had a solid district meeting lead by Elder Huffman, we spoke about prayer and also figured things out as a district as to how we can better work together. After that we went and printed off some new English fliers, 2500 to be exact!  We then found a new burger place for lunch, pretty decent, not the best, but it was tasty. We went for an hour or so handing out English fliers, it's something I really enjoy doing, you can just chat to people about English, in English.  If they don't understand then you just speak Polish, but the young people love it here. We had to go to tesco to pick up a few things for the apartment to make it more comfortable for those that come here on exchange. 

Being a Zone Leader I have the opportunity of working with each district leader and his comp for a few days, so they can learn from me and also so I can learn from them. Honestly,  it's more of the second I feel. We work our hardest through the week and sometimes see no results, it's hard to stay focused and driven.  Exchanges also allow us as missionaries to see that the work is the same in each city across Poland.  It's not just you that is going through these trials, we can be leaders and show them hard work and fun.

On Wednesday I had another trip to Warsaw, been doing a lot of travelling recently. We had another MLC that was based on helping President and Sister Turek plan for zone conference. It was a good opportunity to be with the leaders of the mission and council together, there was a good solid presence. I had the giggles through the opening hymn though, I don't know why, but I was struggling to keep a straight face, haha. We had Pizza Hut for lunch before shipping out to Lublin. I went with Elders Garrison and Fetzer back to the Dworzec, I introduced Elder Garrison to Irn Bru, he said he wasn't that impressed. 

So yeah back to the exchange stuff, after zone conference and when I got home, we had Elders Reid and Dooley from Łódź come down for a few days. 2nd exchange of 4 to get through. Elder Dooley is a group below me, we met in the MTC as our groups overlapped.  Elder Reid is in his 3rd transfer and is a boss at Polish! 

Wednesday we spent the afternoon at Beata's house - a lady who the missionaries have had contact with for a while.  She lives on a big plot of land and so we go regularly to do yard work or whatever. This week we had to turn mounds of rocks and clay and mud into a nice flat bit of land she could start growing things on.  So we went to work, tools and shovels, 2 hours later we had what she wanted. The Americans loved the yard work, I wasn't a huge fan but I got a sweat on. We also went into the woods to get some wood for her, czyli she had us bring a whole tree from the woods into her garden. just picture 6 Elders carrying a huge tree, it was so heavy.  They fed us, traditional Polish food, potatoes and salad with a big old Kiełbasa. Between Elder Huffman, Reid and Myself we drank like 6 litres of sparkling water too, they just kept bringing it out.

After service we spent the night doing some English contacting.  The Deptak and old town was so packed as there was this 'Taste festival' going on, so just loads of wooden market stalls selling all kinds of foods, it smelt so good, such a good feel to the place. We slept over at the other Elders place, just to have a bit of fun, so 6 elders in one place, with no sleeping arrangements!  I slept on the bare floor with my jacket as a pillow but it was all worth it! We had a good night just chatting together - we were still in bed on time though.

Saturday evening was cool.  We had a lesson with a guy named Marek.  We opened his eyes to a new way of planning. He came to the English class but was the only one there, so we decided to teach him, asking inspired questions and seeing where it lead us.  It was a cool experience and Marek is a nice guy. We taught him how to pray, the way the Saviour taught, he prayed to finish off the meeting and it was a really sincere prayer.

Sunday was the big one, the turning point in the work here. President Belo and his wife are back in town, as school has now started.  They're both young.   President Belo is at medical school here, and they're such cool people. They had us round for dinner last night and we had a good time just getting to know each other and all. Look forward to the next few weeks. 

Peace,

Elder Ashworth

Elder Dooley

Elder Lange.

Me and my twin!

Elder Huffman and his twin.