Miracle in Kiekrz.

So the week.

I'll talk about the main points from the week as we had a long one.

There was a day this week when we sat down one evening to plan, we had no idea what to do with our time, so we prayed about whether we should go tracting in a place called Kiekrz.  After the prayer we both felt good and so the following day we tracted up in Kiekrz. The miracle that happened is that the first house we knocked on, we met a guy called Dominik who let us in and we've built a good relationship with him. He was in church on Sunday, we've had a few meetings with him.  He came to English class, and he came to sports on Saturday too.  My testimony of prayer certainly was made stronger after this experience. 

Wednesday we had President and Sister Turek in Poznań as they were visiting all the branches and holding a small fireside, also they wanted to meet members and investigators. We had it as soon as English class finished so a few of the students stayed, also we had a few members there and Dominik was there too. It was a good night, President had me conduct the meeting which was fun, just the introduction and prayers and things, so nothing much. 

Thursday was the day of zone conference, we left early at 9 so that we could be there for the 11am start. We touched down in Bydgoszcz but then realised that we didn't know the way to the chapel - we set off anyway on a hunt for the chapel.  I eventually called someone to help direct us.  It turns out that we didn't end up too far just by wandering around. The zone conference was good. Very different to the way President Edgren would go about it - not saying that either one is better. There was more on our part to search and find and learn for ourselves. President Turek is a very good teacher. Most of it was in Polish.  When the conference finished we realised that we only had 10 mins to get to the train station for our train, so we all grabbed our things and then had Sister Turek drive us to the dworzec, we made it in time. We also had Elder Garrison and Fetzer with us as they had an exchange with Bebel and Somerfeldt. 10 mins into the ride home the train stopped, and we were informed that there had been an accident involving a person and the train and that we would be delayed 3 hours - so that put an end to the nights activities. Most of the time we were delayed we hopped off the train and chilled on tracks chatting and things. We got home just before 9pm, just enough time to order pizza and settle down for the evening. We bought 4 pizzas. 

Friday we didn't really get up to much. There were still 6 of us in Poznań and we attempted to do some finding but it rained all day. It was dry when we left the house and started contacting but after a few minutes it threw it down.  Things leaked through my bag onto my shirt so now I have a multi-coloured shirt. At first, it was fun being out in the rain, I enjoyed it as it had been so hot, after a while we got really cold, short sleeved shirts too. 

Saturday we had a cool sports day activity.  We had a few people come down and we played some American Football, a sport I'm not too familiar with but I still managed to be better than the Americans. The end result came down to my incredible pace and speed - it was fun though. Saturday evening came and I was shattered.  I fell asleep after planning on the couch still in my sports gear!  I woke up at 4am and then got into bed, the shower I had that morning was one of the best I've had. 

The long awaited fast sunday came - we had a more meaningful fast as we fasted together with one of our investigators which was nice. The testimony meeting was another good one. Having to prepare the schedule and make sure the day runs well is probably the biggest pain for me, so when it all goes well I can relax.

We hit Kiekrz another few times this week, nothing more as of yet but we're not giving up, we know seeds have been planted up there. 

Hope you all have a good week.

Bydgoszcz to Poznań, the Squad!

The day when it lobbed it down with rain! Elder Fetzer and I were brave, the others hid under shelter. Probably the smarter idea

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some of my favourites of the past week:-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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