This week has only had ups.

Hello from a beautiful Warsaw, it's been so nice these past few days. This week has only had ups, it's been a pretty solid week. 

Actually, thinking about it, there was one down, happened Saturday morning after we ran to the local żabka for some milk. We got home and I ate some cornflakes, classic breakfast, I drank a protein shake and then I felt awful, I knew I was going to throw up, it was just a matter of when haha, so I said to Adriano 'yo give me 5 I'm just going to go throw up', so yeah that happened, kind of random and gross I know, sorry about that. After stretching we went for a game of footy with the team, still feeling dodgy i got off to a slow start, we even lost our first game..'how is that possible with Ashworth on the team' I know you're all thinking, the second game came though and I was back and ready, I smashed into the back of the net the meanest volley ever witnessed by those watching, it will never be as good as the Paul Scholes volley against Villa in '06, but the crowd went wild! 

So let's talk about my birthday a bit. Thanks to everyone who sent a note, or wished me a happy birthday. I know I'm old, 20 years of my life gone, 20 years worth of experience and moments of growth, the physical growth not coming until I turned 20 haha. Anyway...it was a good day, we had lunch together as missionaries at Manekin of course, I got the normal order of a chicken, cheese and onion Naleśnik with an extra order of Nutella and M&M Pancakes, treated myself. Later on in the day I got to spend some time with my Uncle which was nice, he gave me a bag of chocolate and biscuits from Grandma, you know it's from my Grandma when you get given some Rich Tea finger biscuits. Overall it was a good day. 

Thursday was a day full of adventures. We ran around doing some errands in the morning, taught a lesson and then headed out with the sisters to go and visit a member family who live a decent way away. They invited us over as they don't get to church as much as they would like, so we happily accepted an invitation over. Road trip, sun, food, good music, make a sweet day! The drive was incredible, just like driving through the old roads and countryside of England, it's just flat, more open, so many farms and cherry trees and forests, and you can taste the history. We got there and had a good time, some Mexican food and even met a young lad who the family invited over, he was 16 and interests himself in God and being happy because of being obedient to the commandments. The drive home took a little longer as I took a wrong turn, we decided to stay in the woods for a bit to look around and take some pictures and enjoy the peace and quiet. We were in the middle of nowhere, a lady approached on a bike and so Adriano attempted to talk with her about the gospel, she quickly sped off. We were about to get back in the car and I felt something in my shoe, I thought it was a stone or a bit of bark from the woods or something, but nooooo, I took off my shoe to find this huge bug in my shoe...I shouted 'THERE'S A BUG IN MI SHOE' it sounded proper northern so the sisters and Adriano always quote me now and say it to make fun of my accent. We set off again and drove through a few small villages, just farmers and people working in their plots of land in sight, the way the GPS took us was down this cobble stone road, probably the worst road I've been on, 100% made for tractors and that, this road went on for about 6km, nightmare! we made it out alive though, then a few km down the road we were talking about those horror film moments when you'll be driving down the road and see a car in the distance with its hazards on, the people stop to check it out and then it turns out to be a crazy murderer with a chainsaw or something..those moments...well we saw a car with its hazards on in the distance and everyone in the car lost it,  Beem thought it was the end, it was hilarious..turned out to be a woman who stopped to give water to her dog. The drive home was full of funny moments and singing and that. 

Conference was good at the weekend. We spent all day at the chapel pretty much and got through 3 sessions of conference..with some breaks in between. The weather was beaut too, so in between conference me and Alvarez went outside and threw a frisbee around in the sun, caught the attention of everyone who walked past, don't know whether it was because of our good looks or just the fact that two lads were playing frisbee in suits.The Priesthood session was mint! The talks by Elders Bednar and Uchtdorf had a lot of power behind them.

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.

Friends

MTC Group Reunion in Warsaw (4 out of 6) 

Welcome all to this weeks instalment of 'what I got up to this week in Warszawa'.

I'm doing this from memory this week but we'll see how it goes.

Tuesday was the day of Zone Training. It was good to see Elders Huffman, Alvarez and Hanson again. One of the most valuable things of a mission, at least something that I value greatly is the friendships you make with others, whether it be other missionaries or members. I hope that I'm friends with my mission pals for the rest of my life. The best bit of zone training involved all the missionaries and president going to the centre of Warsaw for a huge finding activity. We had a tent, tables, lots of pamphlets, banners and cards, the presence was enough to have people come up to us instead of us having to approach people which was a nice change. President showed us how it's done though, chatting away to people. 

We combined our dinner and language study hour at the end of the night and played 'Apples to Apples' which they have in Polish too, it was a fun district activity,

At the moment we're just working solidly with a man named Janek. He's a recent convert who was baptised on Christmas Eve and is one of the humblest and accepting people I've met here. He's so kind and is very grateful for any help and service we give to him. We're currently helping him prepare to take his own family names to the temple to perform baptisms, which is a really nice process to be involved in. 

Saturday we played football again in the morning, in the snow, and once again it was a mint 90 mins or so. We played world cup, and I played in goal again, it was incredibly slippy this time though as the snow has turned to ice, which made it hilarious. 

I read something this morning that stood out to me. It gave a little boost of energy that helped me get through the morning and gave me a new way to look at things, It was simply this. You can choose to come on a mission, or you can choose to serve a mission.   It was from something called 'the Riciardi letter' and is a series of experiences and stories from a missionary serving in the England Birmingham mission about 20 years ago. He talks about how his trainer changed his life. It's one of the best things I've ever read. you should read it, maybe you've heard of it and read it already

Have a good week.

Back together again Elder Huffman, Ashworth and Hanson

Life is GOOD!

So I guess the big news from the week is that we have an investigator with a baptismal date for the 7th January 😊😊

He's an 18-year-old lad called Bartek.  He used to meet the missionaries about 6 months ago when Elder Dooley was being trained here.  He contacted us and asked us if we could meet again.  He wants to meet so he can work on his English but he has an interest in the church and its teachings.  He wants to find God and 'meet him' as he says.  We've taught him some things and then last lesson we just asked him straight up if he wants to be baptised.  We promised him that he may not understand now why it's important but that we'll teach him and help him understand.  So yeah that's Bartek. We're meeting him again tomorrow.

I had to give another talk at church yesterday and do the translation too.  I was told on Friday that I was speaking but Saturday was busy so I prepared during studies before church.  It was just about personal prayer.  I talked about 3 principles of prayer, making them meaningful, praying for others and I can't remember the last one.  I'm far from fully conversant but I can speak and understand good now - but not in any topic.  We had dinner at the Gladuns house on Friday night, it was good and we spoke about the economy of England and about Trump and all that, I could understand it all you know but it's hard to keep up in words with the conversation.

We went shopping this morning at 6a.m.  There's a huge Tesco not too far from here.  We have exchanges In Warsaw with the AP's tomorrow evening to Thursday.  I've already organised an early morning game of footy on wednesday.  There's going to be 10 of us elders there.  On Thursday we have a big zone conference with Elder Johnson of the area presidency coming to visit.  Then on Friday we have the leadership meeting so I'm not even going to be in Lublin barely this week.

I'm going to get a haircut and maybe buy some new things today.  We're also going to go out for lunch.  Love you all.  I'm doing well.  I'm healthy and I'm enjoying myself.  I'm confident with my Polish now which takes so much pressure off.  Life is GOOD!

Have a good week.

The Cultural Centre in Lublin with the Polish flag.

-2 degrees!

We woke up to snow on Wednesday this week.

Polish Independence Day 11.11.16

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

First Week in MTC

"The language is coming ok, its quite difficult but I know that if I'm obedient that I'll be blessed. On a few pictures I'm sending you'll see it says solo on my badge because I'm the only elder in my district. With being a solo elder you have to teach your 'investigators' on your own which is really hard but its character building and is helping me a lot. I'm in a trio with two of the Slovak speaking elders, Elder Buchoff and Elder Mcclain, one of them is going to Leeds speaking Slovak which is pretty cool, I share a room with them and two other elders. I get on with the sisters really well, they call me 'their starszy' which is funny, its just like being home with all the girls. There's sister Kamp, Demourdant, Lerch, Dekker, Barney and Yochim. I was ill for my first week but I'm 100 per cent now!"

Elder Buchoff on the left, Elder Mcclain on the right

Sister Yochim, Dekker and Lerch, Me Sister Barney, Kamp and Demourdant

 In our zone we have Czech speaking, Bulgarians, Polish, Slovakian, Slovenian, all the eastern Europe countries.
I've learnt some Polish, its really slow progress which can be quite discouraging at times. But i have whilst doing it!  I do personal study in the classroom on my own. companionship study I just join in with the sisters. I got a bag with a bunch of books in it so I have most books in Polish, we try to read from the polish book of mormon every day. I'm up at 6.15 just to give myself enough time to  get ready, lights out at 10.30 but we generally don't sleep till 11. 

Sweater Saturday

We get to go (to the temple) Every Thursday but its your choice. We learn, have class time with a teacher which is all in Polish. Then we have study time on our own, we can do whatever, but most days we teach a lesson in Polish so we have to plan for that, so most of our studying is gospel related. 

Provo Temple

Me and Elder Halverson - Zone Leader

There's a few from England that I've bumped into, Elder Cox from up north, he knows Paige and Abi and Aaron I think. A few lads from the Manchester mission area. so its good. I tried playing football for gym time 2 days ago, it was terrible haha.