This is it....the final post!

I'll start by sharing two experiences we had this week. The first taking place on Wednesday as we were in an area of Krakow called Chełm. We had a few hours to knock on doors and so we got a bus not really knowing exactly where were we going but knew the general direction. I felt as though we should keep going and so we went almost to the end of the of the line. We got off in the middle of nowhere and walked up the hill, I tried talking to a man walking towards us but he said he had no time, that's the classic response here, I don't know what he didn't have time for as we weren't close to anything haha. We kept going and found this sweet little road with a few houses on it and at the bottom of the road was a load of farmers fields, quite the scene it was. It was about the 6th or 7th house we knocked on and this lady opened the door, so I introduced myself and told her that my companion is learning Polish and would like to share a message with her and her family. To my surprise, there was no hesitation at all and she invited us right in. We met her 3 children and proceeded to share a message about family, what made it even better is that the father of his family was from Wales so his wife and all his kids spoke wonderful English which made it nice for Elder Asendrych as he could share a message with them in English. We were asked to stay a little longer as she was making some food and so we stayed and ate with them before leaving a copy of the Book of Mormon, saying thank you and heading back out on to the streets. I was happy that Elder Asendrych was able to have such an experience.

Another cool thing that happened this week took place in Costa Coffee not far from the rynek. We planned to do weekly planning there whilst enjoying some hot chocolate, it's getting colder now! Anyway, we sat down at the table and I walked over to hang my coat up when this lad asked me what the name tag was all about, so I told him we were Mormon missionaries, we were speaking English because he was from England. He looked at our hot chocolates and said 'Mormons drinking coffee?' we laughed and told him it was hot chocolate which he thought was funny. we ended up having a good chat and got talking about how he used to live in Manchester and was given a tour of the new YSA building there when it was first opened. The missionary gave him the tour was only Sam Bytheway who I know very well from his time in Oldham. It's a small world, I bet whilst Sam was on his mission he never thought he'd give a guy a tour of a building who would then meet me on my mission in Kraków.

We had our district conference in Katowice this weekend and it was a time of learning, listening and reflecting. We were able to listen to two talks given by our mission president and a number of other talks from leaders. members and recent converts. It was also a time of goodbyes, this trip to Katowice was the last time I saw a lot of my friends and people that I've grown close to over the past two years. I was able to see President Najberg, the first Polish man I met in Poland, and my first Branch President. I approached him after the meeting asking him if he remembered me, his response was one that put a huge smile on my face, he said 'of course I remember you, I remember like it was yesterday! are you still kicking a football around these days?' It was nice to be able to speak with him and understand him, as I couldn't do either in my first transfer. 

Now for some concluding words. I've learnt a lot during my time of service, a lot of things about myself and a lot of things about other people. Happiness is one of the greatest feelings in life and we experience it when we serve others and live close to our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. This church is the true church of Jesus Christ, restored through a living day prophet. My favourite scripture as of recently is found in D&C 19:23. Peace is a word I've given much thought to because peace can come in many forms. The true peace that we find in Christ is through having a sure knowledge and clear conscience that our sins have been forgiven and forgotten. Conversion is a lifelong process that continues even after this life, let's not forget that only through daily repentance can we reach our true potential. 

I love this work, this church, my family and friends, and I love this country!

Let's be mighty in word, in deed, and in faith!

Mum! Just let everyone know that I'm alive and well and that we've had a solid week! 

We've had a good few days. So on Saturday we had Elder Erickson and Hansen come up from Mielec for a few days, church and pday so we've had them at our place. Saturday we played footy in the park for 3 hours against all sorts of people, Mexicans, Polish, I have the biggest blister and I'm sure I've broken my foot but it's all good. We just had our 4 elders and had a lad come and play on our team so we had 5. I was going 100% so nobody could stop me. Then today Kielce came up, so Alvarez was here for the day. We went to this mirror labyrinth, got some milkshakes, went up to Wawel castle again, its' been a good day.

Scripture from the week Helaman 10:4-5. Let's be mighty in word, in deed, and in faith! 

'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!

Kraków keeps getting better and better

I say that the Krak keeps getting better and better, mainly because it's hot and the sun is out. It's so easy to have fun here. We've been up to a load of random stuff this week. Here we go.

Monday evening after Pday was over it was our turn to put on an activity for Family Home Evening. I decided that it would be good for those that come to memorise a scripture. The scripture I chose was just your classic 1Nephi 3:7..Wtedy Ja Nefi, Powiedziałem memu Ojcu: Pójdę i Uczynię co Pan nakazał, bo wiem że gdy Pan daje ludziom przykazania, umożliwia im wykonanie tego co nakazuje. I don't know it in English but I have it in Polish. It's a good scripture to have on your mind, knowing that God will always provide for us a way to do something, if we have faith that he will of course. 

Tuesday we had a good district meeting. We had random bursts of laughter throughout, not too sure why, but it happens you know. We were asked to prepare a 5 min part each talking about how we can each become a better and more powerful missionary. I was studying in Nephi about the vision of Lehi about the Tree of Life. In that chapter, we learn a lot about the plan of God and our path to happiness. It's written that Lehi wandered in a dark wilderness for hours until he decided to pray, when he prayed things slowly started to become known unto him and he started to see and understand the mysteries of God. This principle can be applied in our lives too and is what I shared with the Elders during district meeting. If we ever feel as though we're in darkness, we can pray and lightness will fill our lives, that which is good for us is full of light. Prayer is a gift from God that is an invaluabe source of direction and council. We had our English class in the evening. To Elder Hadfield's disgust, I taught them some good 'British' English. They love it but they don't understand a word I'm saying. At one point in the lesson, I said 'neither this nor that', the look on their faces....they asked me to pronounce it properly..which I was..it wasn't until I said it in Polish that they understood.

Wednesday in the morning we did some service. Kind of similar to what we did in Poznan. We went to this old people's home and helped out in the garden. We had to make the land flat and get rid of all the huge stones. We got handed our shovels and rakes and other tools and went to work. The lads that had been hired to do the work on the garden asked me to help them out, they thought I was the only one who understood Polish. There was a fella down a hole who filled up my wheelbarrow with sand and mud and whatever else he dug up, then I just dumped it in random spots all over the garden..just spent a few hours doing that which was hard work, I thought I was fitter than I am!

Thursday we had another English class, the class was so hyped! So we played this game involving questions, and there was a bunch of rules that I won't explain..pretty much everyone wrote 3 questions, 3 random questions which were thrown into a basket and then each person, in turn, would pick a question and depending on what number card you picked from a deck determined what you did with that question. I started out, it so happened that I picked a card that allowed me to make up my own question and ask whoever I wanted..so me being me I asked Elder Hadfield what happened to his field. The last question asked was by a new lad that came to the class, he gets up and says 'ok seen as you started with a pun it's my turn, he singled me out and looked straight at me saying..how much is your ash worth?' the class went wild and I'll give it to him, I've not heard that one 1000 times. I laughed though and shook his hand haha.

On Saturday Maciek, my mate from Warsaw came to Kraków for the weekend and asked if we could meet up. We spent a few hours together which was quality. He's a good lad. 

Sunday I taught the Priesthood lesson at church. It was a good lesson about being converted to the Lord, and the characteristics of these people. I like teaching here, for some reason it feels different than it has in the other cities that I've served in. Hadfield skyped home for Mother's Day so I got to meet his family. It's nice meeting the families of the people you serve around.

That's pretty much what we did this week. I wish you all a solid week, I hope you enjoyed reading this weeks post because it took me ages to type.😉

Do kiedyś

Kraków is the place to be!

Cześć wam! Another week has come and gone, quicker than most I would say. I would like to say it's been a huge eventful week but the first week of every transfer, especially after moving to a new city isn't always the most exciting or eventful. I've met some great people though, some we teach, members from the branch here, people that come to our English class, and then the other Elders in my district are quality lads. One thing that's been a blessing of moving to kraków is my bed, that thing is so comfy it's hard to get out of it each morning, I've got some good sleep in though helping me be ready to take on each day with 100%.

On Tuesday night we had our English class, not many people showed up as it was the end of another Polish holiday. Something nice to see is that everything shuts during most of the holidays, shops, restaurants, even the people shut themselves away. The Polish people really celebrate their holidays, with most of them being religious holidays too it's nice to see the respect they show. Kind of makes it a nightmare for us as missionaries though..no shops open to get a snack during the day and the only people on the streets are tourists and homeless people. The English class was good though. It's the same everywhere I go, it takes people a few weeks to get used to my accent, especially the people in the beginner class. It's so funny having me say a word and then listening to an American pronunciation of it, it confuses the heck out of them.

Wednesday night we heard about an event going down on the small rynek. It was a night of singing patriotic Polish hymns, how could we not go and check it out. So at 5:30 we turned up and there were so many people there, there was a huge stage too with people up there who could actually sing, their job was to lead so that people knew what to sing, they probably knew that we were going to show up. They handed out free hymnals too which was a little bonus. The downside to the evening is that it started raining, that's springtime in Poland for you.

Thursday was a solid day. So hot outside and we spent pretty much all day outside until our English class at 18:30. We printed off 1000 English fliers and handed them all out within about 3 days. Elder Fuhriman said he'd had 6 or 7 people call him to sign up, decent ratio if you ask me, has Poznań beaten by a mile! Before English we had a meeting with a 20-year-old girl who is pretty cool. We teach her English and then she's open to gospel discussion afterwards in which we just teach her our doctrine. A lot of people hold back when it comes to listening to our message. Our message isn't that we want to change the faith of others, it's not that we want to force others to join our church, the desire to change will come naturally as you listen with intent to what the messages we share have to offer. Our message is one of turning outward, loving others and showing faith in making the right steps towards something even better than what you think you already have, nothing is greater and more rewarding than the blessings Heavenly Father has for us.

The branch here is quality, we had about 35 people in church this past Sunday which is mint! A lot of international members so lots of translating. Some good testimonies were shared by the members, I got up too just to introduce myself. One of my MTC teachers Spencer Kimball who served here a few years ago was there so it was nice for him to see how much my Polish has improved since the terrible days of the MTC haha.

I'm looking forward to what Kraków has to offer. There's nothing better than going out for the day with the mindset of doing some good.

We got up and went to Auschwitz this morning.  It was a good trip out there, maybe 1 hour on a bus.  We got up at 5.15am to get out there early.  It felt weird being there again, I know it was 6 years ago I was there last but it seemed as if it wasn't too long ago.  

(note from mum:- our local newspaper wrote this article about Josef visiting Auschwitz in 2011 on a school history trip and how his great grandad had escaped from there during the Second World War)