SMILE

So we went out to Ogrodzieniec again today. There was a big group of us and I got to see Alvarez before he leaves this Friday. We literally just got back to Kraków.

Elders Einfeldt and Alvarez leave this Friday. The others from his group not till the 28th, so I have Elder  McMaster for a few more weeks. They're all good. 

Sorry there's no long post but there was no time.  Have a good week, read the scriptures, and most important of all SMILE and enjoy yourselves.

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.

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.

Week 68 - I'm not a good singer

(just a few snippets this week, it's a busy life working in the office!)

I'm doing good, it's been a decent week.  Church was good yesterday, we had about 70 or maybe 80 there and had a few missing which was really noticeable.  President Peterson asked the Missionaries to sing a musical number, for some reason I think people assume that missionaries can sing just because they're missionaries.  I mean I can hold a note and I'm not tone deaf but I'm not a good singer. We sang an arrangement of Be still my soul and Where can I turn for peace. It was pretty confusing, Elders Haskett, Einfeldt and myself sang the tenor part and it was so high - bad choice! Elder Bebel played the piano.

We had an 8 man sleepover this week which was mint! Hansen, Barlow, Dickson and Sister Beem all had legal appointments in Warsaw so we had Einfeldt, Me, Huffman, Hansen, Haskett, Barlow, Michael from Lublin who is serving a mini mission and Dickson all in the same apartment onTuesday night. It was so cramped, even in our mansion apartment, but it was sweet having all the elders round, some good friends too. 

On valentine's day we had a district dinner, plus Elder Dickson and Bart. We went to that Toto place. It was a solid night.  And after legal work this week we all went to Manekin.  We've eaten out so much this transfer and it's 'eaten' my money. So I didn't buy anything this time, but kindly Dickson and Beem gave me some left over peanut m&m pancakes which were so good! 

Today we're going to Adam's ties, the guy that sells ties all across Poland but his warehouse is here in Warsaw and he sells them for dirt cheap to missionaries. Getting some food and I might buy a Legia scarf. 

Week 67 - A trip out to Białystok

Markus is in Warsaw.  It was mint seeing him on Sunday.

snow

We had more snow! - this park is right by the chapel.

Białystok - Old Town - it was a 3 hour drive - President told us
to drive out there to visit a referral and some members.  We were
the first missionaries in that city for 2 years.  Just me and Elder Einfeldt went.

Białystok - Old Town

God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost in the form of a Dove.

Quack

Oreo pancakes from Manekin.  It tasted as good as it looks.

Wanted to get a picture in front of this since I saw it.

This book cracks me up.

The others crossed without us.  Sister D. felt really awkward. lol.

Białystok 

We had a talent show on Saturday.  Elder Jones' talent involved all the elders, of course.
he played a joke on us.  We had to roll our ties up and then have a race to see who could
unroll it the fastest, he would count down from 3 but always go early.  Elder Jones is hilarious.

I think it's Pope John Paul II - I'm not entirely sure what the writing means.
It's like Thank God and quench of the spirit - something like that.

Warsawa Branch - courtesy of Bro. Szabo

Branicki Palace

Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland - we took a trip here on Saturday.