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.

Week 70 something.

It's been a long time since last Monday, a whole 10 days or something like that. Here's what we've been up to.

After emailing and all that last Monday we went out for some Kebab which didn't really live up to the hype, it just didn't taste that good, so we went round to the local Biedronka for some chocolate. We stood at the side of the road for about 20 mins deciding what to do. We had the squad together, Me, Adriano, Alvarez, Musgrave, Beem and Stahl. We decided to go and find a place for bowling, we thought there'd be a bowling place at Galeria Mokotów but when we got there it turned out there wasn't, classic! So we just chilled at the mall. Hit up the usual shops like Zara and H&M, had a look at all the new gadgets and tech at Saturn, then we came across a Hollister which was pretty funny so of course we went inside. You could actually see where you were going for once, which was pretty unusual. I remember as a young teen trying to pick out a new shirt for the next Huddersfield Stake youth dance, but not being able to tell if the shirt was black or white because it was so dark. We decided to bounce from the mall and go and bounce on some outdoor trampolines by our place. There's a really posh shopping mall and then a park and some trampolines. Sister Beem was jumping away, making a video blog, Adriano took off his shoes for some reason and then Sister Stahl ran straight onto her trampoline which was covered in water, it was like jumping into a pond haha, her feet got soaked. 

Tuesday was a pretty boring day. We had our district meeting a bit later on in the day as we had to drive our cars over to be serviced again and valued at the Hyundai garage which was about an hours drive from our apartment. On the way home from the garage we went the long way home which took us through Praga. we stopped at a red light and out of the corner of my eye I could see this huge brown bear just chilling there, I didn't realise we were right by the zoo. For district meeting I decided it would be good for us to learn from President Eyring and Elder Holland, so we watched that new Face to Face thing they did at the Church history site in Palmyra. It was nice to listen to two Apostles just talk in an environment other than General Conference, much more laid back and they were able just to talk and answer questions. A lot was based on what we can learn from the First Vision, When God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in the grove, what we can learn about scripture study and prayer. 

On Thursday we taught the Intermediate class which was cool, we talked about heroes and what a hero is, we asked the question 'what word comes to mind when you hear the word hero?', we got a lot of solid answers until Adriano throws out 'SPANDEX', there's always one. 

On Saturday we had a huge Sports Saturday, about 20 people showed up so we had to split into 3 teams. The last game we just had everyone playing which turned into a free for all. The turf was pretty slippy too, it was kind of like playing on ice, I fell over so many times and got burns and bruises all over my hands and legs, it was all worth it though. We went home and chilled and studied before heading over to Nowy Świat to teach the advanced class which again was mint! We had a quality game of telephone that got pretty weird in some points, the sentences got so messed up which always made it funny for the last person. 

Saturday night at 17 we had a big Warsaw District dinner as this weekend it was our District Conference weekend. It was good to see some of the members from Lublin again. The talks during the evening session were really good too. President gave a really good and simple talk, again on repentance and prayer. Sunday we had a huge turnout, pretty much all the members from Lublin were there, plus all the missionaries from the other branches too, it was a quality environment and I was able to chat and catch up with old friends. I had a mint opportunity and blessing of ordaining two members of the Lublin branch to the Office of Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood, with authority from President Turek.  Something I'll remember for a long time, in those situations you can't but help feel that Heavenly Father is helping you through the Spirit, as you speak words you didn't even think you could and give council and guidance through that Priesthood blessing. 

Sunday night as it got really late after a dinner at our place with Alvarez and Musgrave, we decided to have a sleepover. Nights like that are quality, I just enjoy good company and laughs, nothing beats it really, we made some solid food too. 

Yesterday night we had the long anticipated English Class at a university. A friend of the sisters hooked us up with classrooms and about 100 interested students to teach. So much good is going to happen because of this. We walked in and we even had time to stand and talk to them all in this huge auditorium before splitting off into different classes. We met so many young students. There was a cool guy from Zimbabwe that came which was sweet. It's going to be a weekly thing now and loads of people are interested in both English and who we are as missionaries.  We met so many solid people and they're all our age too. I can't wait for next Tuesday! 

I'm happy and well. Still trying to do my bit of good each day. Our Branch Missionary Leader has a 'ponderizer', something for us to think about through the week. This time round it's D&C 82:10, which is funny as it happens to be my Dad's favourite scripture. If you've ever listened to him give a talk, you've 100% heard him share it.

We went to the Chopin museum on Friday night with a friend of the Elders.  It was a pretty sweet place.

Looking way back to the days when i was 14. Hollister eventually made it to Poland.

We went on the trampolines by our apartment. Beem said 'high school musical it on 3'. Nailed it! 

Had a lads night on Sunday at our place in preparation for zone training 

Some Pimped out Clubmans

With my favourite Asian person in the world, MICHAEL! He was in town for District Conference 

So Sister Beem decided to draw me. She thought she got it pretty accurate. 'feed me carrots' is all you have to say in order to make her laugh. 

Realised that i've not sent a picture home of two of us yet. Here's Elder Adriano