TRANSFER #10

Hello, everyone! It's the start of a new transfer. This morning Elder Groseclose and I helped put Elder Hadfield on his train to Łódź. It's about time President kicked him out of his second home. I'll miss his constant tiredness and how he was always just so hot, I'll also miss how he walked, he has a funny walk and slams his feet down, sounds like an Elephant haha, I wish him all the best in Łódź and hope that he'll find his field. My new Companion is Elder McMaster, he's in the group ahead of me and I've now served with 4 of the 5 elders from that group, I've been blessed with some quality companions.

We had a good last week together. On Wednesday Elder Fuhriman got a call from President telling him that he'll be going to the office, that he had to pack up his stuff and be ready to leave by Thursday. So from Thursday morning, we were in a trio. It was funny because all week we were winding him up saying how he'll be the next Office Elder. 

On Wednesday Elder Hadfield and I was cleaning our apartment because we had inspections at the end of the week. It was like 4 pm and someone rang our doorbell, we let them in the building and had no idea who it could be, I peeked through the eyehole to see a few Jehovah's Witnesses standing at our door waiting to share whatever message they had planned. As it's what we do here, try and talk to people, I gave them time and allowed them to talk to us about the Bible and what it teaches about the resurrection, as we replied and told them that we too are missionaries for our church their whole demeanour changed and they started asking us questions about the Book of Mormon and what it has to offer on the Resurrection, asking us 'what if; questions..we had a good discussion and bore testimony on what we know is true, i ended up giving them my number as they want to set up a meeting with us but with English Speakers from their side, we'll see how it goes. That evening we met up with the Elders and had some solid dinner at that pizza place we went to with Alex, also it was kind of last week of the transfer celebrations and Fuhriman's last night in Kraków.

Thursday was the start of the adventures of the Mighty Trio. Groseclose (aka Big Dumplings), Ashworth (aka The English man that nobody understands) and Hadfield (aka Tired man). Honestly, we had a blast together. We sent Furhiman off on his merry way for his 4-month spell in the office, long live Elder Furhiman!  Alex came to Kraków to spend some time with us, he met us at 3 pm and we went out and did some contacting for a bit before it started to throw it down. We headed over to the chapel and found Rafał, one of our mates, just sat outside the lift waiting for us, he told us he wasn't going to be at English nor would he have time to meet with us but he showed up which was nice, we just sat down and chatted before English class started. We hadn't planned anything so I pulled something out the air and we played just a memory game, hid loads of random items under a blanket and then they had to try and remember as many of the items as possible, it was good for vocab and pronunciation, it worked out decent. A nice touch to end the day was meeting Dallin Jeffs and his parents, Jeffs was my second companion and I have some good memories from serving together in Poznań all that time ago. Weird to think that I'm further on in my mission now than he was when we served together, time has flown by. Anyway, his parents were sweet and were kind enough to buy us some dinner, Jeffs loves his Kebabs so of course we went to the 'go to place' for missionaries and had some good food, certainly filled me up. We talked about all the things we got up to in Poznań and talked of his experience with coming back with his parents. if you're reading this Jeffs family, thank you! 

Friday we had cleaning checks and we did ok, enough that our apartment is safe to live in. We had an appointment set up with this fella in a town called Myśleniec, about 45 mins outside Kraków, this man is a member that got baptised in Austria but recently moved back and wanted a visit from the missionaries. The pictures of us eating lunch with the little fluffy dog are from this trip. It took us absolutely ages to get out there as the traffic in Kraków is terrible, we were sat on the bus for an hour before we even got near the border of the city, I took my shoes off and had a nap. We got there and the man was waiting for us at the bus station with his bike, this is all the info he gave us, we had no idea who or what we were looking for, in a foreign city, looking for someone we've never seen before, we turned the corner and out of the crowd of people we picked him out, we knew it was him, he greeted us, and we started the few km walk back to his place. We were greeted then by his 1 and a half-year-old fluffy puppy named Czarek. The sweetest thing I've ever met, reminded me so much of our Oscar back home, just in the way he acted and how he thought he was the toughest thing about. Myśleniec is a beautiful place, small and quaint, reminded me of Springhead, hills and small houses, few schools knocking about. I think I played with little Czarek the whole time. Piotr made us food and was happy to have us round. We chatted about his life and we told him about ours, all whilst sat in his front garden. He then walked us back to the bus stop and sent us on our way home. Nice guy, hope we can go out and visit him often, help him out with the work he's doing on his house and in his garden.

Saturday was the day of transfer calls, the day all the missionaries are stressed out, wondering when President will call. I was sure I was staying so I was cool and wasn't expecting a call from him, Hadfield, on the other hand, had his phone in hand all day waiting. To take his mind off things we went to Bobby Burger for lunch, the burgers they have there are solid! he called during our few hours in the park playing footy. We found a bunch of lads and made some 5 a-side teams and played for a few hours, getting to know them, talking to them about why we're here and that, it's a good way to talk to people about our church, at least I've found it to be effective. When they see how I play on the pitch, they think to themselves..how is this guy a missionary, I've gotta figure him out and ask him questions..always works. I love a game of footy! President eventually called and told Hadfield his fate, He's off to the Boat (that's what Łódź means in Polish).  That evening we had another Lucas dinner at his home. Ribs, shepherd's pie, goats cheese and bacon, salad, smoothies, he made the lot! 

It's been so hot this week. I have a video of me pouring water all over myself in the street to deal with the heat, ask my parents about it if you want to see it. It felt so good, but I wouldn't recommend it if you don't fancy being wet all day. 

We had a good week, I'm ready for this new transfer! 

Wish you all a good week, do some good! 

Elder Groseclose

Elder Hadfield

Dallin Jeffs was in town

can you see us?

A week of laughs, rain, snow, freaky devil man, style points and good byes

Hello everyone, sorry it's been a few weeks since I've blessed you with the opportunity to read about my week. It's good to be back. 

We can start with last Monday. As it was the last Pday before transfers we had a shopping list of things to buy. We took the transporter too so we could fit everyone in, we had to clean it too. On the list were Ties from Adam's Ties, Scarfs from the Legia store and Lapel Pins from the Uprising museum. After emailing we went for lunch, we just settled for some Mcdonalds, which is always a good choice until after eating it. We went to pick the rest of the district up from a metro stop, whilst waiting we were blasting music and going over transfers with eachother..we were shown the transfer board that morning whilst emailing..so from that point we had all the knowledge that everyone else wants, I liked it but then didn't as you know what people want, but then you also know exactly what is happening with them. We took that privilege a bit far by shouting our districts transfer calls at them as they were approaching the car, we had music on and they couldn't hear us but it was funny, we continued to do that all throughout the week. we managed to check off the scarfs and ties from the list, but we didn't make it to the gift shop of the museum in time. Picked up some pretty nice ties, so I was happy. Trips in the car this transfer have always been a blast when we're all together, whether because of Einfeldt and his sketchy driving or because of us making a music video or whatever, they've all been quality. Favourite song of ours at the minute is Hallelujah done by Pentatonix, we listened to it 6 times in a row one time and many more times after that. 

We had a district meeting on Tuesday, the last of the transfer..a lot of 'lasts' happened this week. Haskett asked us all to share testimony after his bit, which was a nice end to the meeting. 

Elder Adriano came in on Wednesday. We went to pick him up from the Dworzec and then had a meeting at the office with President and the Jones' and the Assistants about transfers. More of a coordination meeting, figure out how everything was going to go down. We met the rest of the district at Nowy Świat before heading out to do some finding on the Patelnia...Oto Freaky Devil Man story. It was raining and I had no coat on as it had been warm, so I took Elder Barlow with me into a Rossman where I could buy an umbrella, done this so many times, they're cheap and I must have about 10 of them across Poland that I'd bought just for that day because it started raining. Anyway..so the others had walked on so it was just the two of us. We were on a really busy street in town and we walked past this guy who then from behind us shouted "Oi do you read the Bible", I didn't think he was talking to me but I turned around anyway to see him approaching us..he again asked us "do you read the Bible?", I answered and said 'Yeah I read the Bible do you Sir?', even though he spoke to me in English he didn't understand my English...story of my life...so we started again in Polish, we got to the same point, yeah I read the bible, do you..and all that and then he starts talking about all these problems he's having, that he doesn't know God, that he feels bad, that he feels as though we can never know him, that he's abandoned us, that he's punishing him. Just as I'm about to start talking again he just yells and starts swearing in English, every bad word under the sun, Barlow looked at me as if to say 'is this guy alright', I start talking to him again and then all of a sudden he starts saying the word 'Where', for whatever reason this was his new favourite word. He started off quietly saying this word before gradually getting louder and louder, his eyes were legit yellow and he was spitting everywhere and foaming at the mouth, he was screaming the word 'where' and when you thought he couldn't get any louder he got louder, it sounded like some crazy wolf monster. Everyone around us was looking at us like 'what the heck is going on', I was lost for words until I told him to shut up, that made him made and he came right up to my face, I thought he was going to swing or something. After a few giggles we left the scene..all that over a question about the Bible. 

On Friday we took Culture night. We spent 1 hour walking to the bowling alley in the pouring rain and snow and it was so windy. Sister D almost passed out a few times. Bowling was fun though, after that we went to Toto again for food. 

It's been really good weather for the most part this week. This past Monday  it was 14.5 degrees. I was driving round with the windows down and everything.

Saying goodbye to Sister D

Fat Thursday

@ Adam's Ties - never seen so many ties in one place

Last Sunday photo shoot with Elder Barlow,  I'll miss this guy, hope he is enjoying himself in Bydgoszcz.

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Saying our farewells to Sister D on Monday - side note..I'm not swearing, I'm doing the American one.

Wszystkich Świętych - Lipowa Cmentarz

Are you all ready for this weeks adventures - 

On Monday after emailing we walked around for a bit before meeting Michael in the Old Town, we booked to go and do an escape room. It was called Jail #3, so we were locked in a big jail cell and we had to get out. It stressed me out big time as we couldn't figure out one of the clues. We made it out in time though. We met a bunch of youth from Philadelphia on the Old Town, we just followed the noise as we figured it couldn't have been coming from Polish people. There was about 60 of them. Turns out they were all Jewish and were here in Poland visiting all the Jewish history and things, reminds me of when I was in Kraków 5 years ago on my history school trip. They encircled us and were asking us all sorts of questions.  I had one guy who was a Chelsea fan asking me to report on what I thought of the united defeat to Chelsea..the cheeky beggar haha.

Tuesday (Wszystkich Świętych) was a good day. Started off with a classic district meeting, followed by a long lesson/bible study we had been invited to by the other elders. The purpose being to help this individual gain an understanding of scriptures in the Bible that she struggled to understand properly, also we helped her understand how the church teaches these parts of doctrine. Then came the night time, we headed over to Lipowa Cmentarz with Michael, of course, and just enjoyed the beauty of the flowers and lights. We were there for a while as this Cemetery is huge, and the lights were endless.  

Wednesday was a hit. We had a meeting with a guy called Bartek. Just an 18-year-old lad who wants to learn English. We read through the Przedmowa of the Book of Mormon with him and then he translated it into English. English class was sweet, it was CLASS if I may say so. We had a poetry night. We went and bought a load of candles after studies from Tesco to use. We turned all the lights off, it was dark outside, only the candle-light lit the room and we just let words flow freely onto paper. I was given the topic and had to write a poem about a tree I fell in love with. It was a masterpiece. 

Zone Training happened on Thursday. It was a good time. Although we got there only by a miracle. We got up and prepared ourselves on time, left the house on time, but traffic got in the way and there was no way we were going to make it. We pulled up at the station at 7:53, with just under a minute to go before the train left. My job again was to sprint as fast as I could from the bus and try and hold up the train. I got to the platform but there was no train. The train hadn't arrived yet, it had been delayed a couple of minutes,  i guess our prayers were answered.

Some of the new Elders in my zone - Dickson, Hansen and Barlow

Warsaw Zone

Infamous MTC group

Friday not much happened, we had a meeting get cancelled and just weekly planned and did a bit of contacting. Marlena had us round at her place again for dinner. We were there most of the night and then she drove us home. The food was soooo good! We had Russian style Pierogi to start with and then boiled fish for main. The fish came out whole - head, skin, bones, everything.  It was interesting to look at, but tasted so good! 

On Saturday instead of English we had a late branch halloween party. There was a load of food there, loads of people, it was a good time. We had a few friends come from English. We also had a few investigators there and friends of the church which was good to see. I was the DJ for a bit, I'm sure my choice of music got the party going. 

Sunday was a long day, as most fast sundays are. We planned a missionary coordination meeting at 9am, so we were there but Michael was an hour late, of course we forgave him haha. Decent testimony meeting. The translation went well for Elders Quorom. Then came the long wait for 5pm..the time we'd arranged as a branch to have a 'break the fast' at the Belo's home. We filled our faces with the leftover food from the previous nights party. Spaghetti and red sauce has never tasted so good! 

So that's me for this week. 

Do some good.