'You have to enjoy the small things in life, make the most of every opportunity!'

So how has this week been? It's been your classic week, just your ordinary activities and fun, in one of the most beautiful cities in Europe! Sometimes I overlook how lucky I am to be in a place like Kraków, but then I start to focus and get side tracked thinking I'm a tourist and wanting to do all the touristy things. Time is moving, Elder McMaster has moved in and we've had a solid week together, getting used to how we both teach and do things, it's always an interesting part of each new transfer. Being around him in his last transfer is all but reminding me that after him, I'm next. We often talk about the start of our time in Poland, how much energy we had, how much we relied on our trainers, how not knowing Polish made everything hard but yet so enjoyable. It's still kind of the same now, we rely on our companions and instead of worrying about not being able to speak Polish, we're more concerned with how we can use it for the good of others. 

Some things I'll share from the week:

One morning we were walking and we'd just left our apartment, there was a guy in front of us with his headphones on, one of these where you can hear what he's listening to it's that loud. I walked up next to him and just started a conversation with him, saying hello, speaking English, he couldn't hear me so I thought it was hilarious, I kept going but then he took his headphones and I was still chatting away to him..I realised that now he could hear me and the most awkward conversation started ha ha, caught me off guard. 

One of the days this week we were English contacting and ended up inviting some girls from Liverpool to the class, they laughed and told us where they were from, I got chatting with them with McMaster in awe at what was going on, two English people having a conversation. we helped them find a place to drink, they had no idea where they were, can't say I've ever done that before. I hope they remember their trip to Kraków.

I'm happy. This transfer has a totally different feel. We cleaned our apartment properly and then the landlady sent round an actual cleaner who spent 13 hours scrubbing the place, it's so fresh.  The lady that cleaned our apartment has to be one of the nicest ladies I've met. She was friendly. She had us meet her family over skype and as we left she even joined and knelt down in prayer with us. When we got back at the end of the day, after all day cleaning, she welcomed us home with a smile and asked us how our day was, if we managed to do some good for people. As she finished and packed her things up and left we gave her a book of Mormon in Ukrainian and hid inside a bit of money. We wanted to thank her in some way for the service she offered and for being a genuinely nice person. We don't know if she'll read it but we told her as she left that it will bring her joy and happiness.

Saturday was cool. We went to the park to play some footy but of course, as it does every Saturday it started hammering it down with rain, we got soaked but we played on. The surface we play on too get's proper slippy, I could run and slide about 10 metres. Anyway we had a good time and it taught me a small lesson that you have to enjoy the small things in life, make the most of every opportunity.

I taught a joint Priesthood and Relief Society lesson on Sunday. I taught about Baptism and started off by asking everyone present if they remembered their baptism, pretty much the whole hour went by,  us just talking about memories from our baptism. Maybe that's something we could all do more.  I don't know..just food for thought.

Have a good week!

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.