There are struggles....just got to get up and go for it!

So, what have we been up to this week?

Tuesday morning, Elder Dooley decided to make chili, for what reason I'm not too sure, that's Elder Dooley for you. I was on my bed reading some talks when I heard a huge crash and the cry of 'FLIP' from Elder Dooley. I instantly feared the worst and I was right to. He had leant on the extractor fan above the stove top and it fell down, flipping the pan over.  It was an explosion of chili!!   The kitchen floor was covered in this stuff. It took a good 30 mins to clean up, ahh Dooley and his love for making things.

We picked Elder Alvarez and Byrd up from the train station that evening around 8pm. The start of a few days of fun had arrived.

Wednesday I woke up and felt pretty terrible. We had service organised that day in Swidnik which I had no desire to go to, but I went and it cheered me up and made me feel a little better. We had good food as usual and had some rap battles at the table. As we were walking to get the bus, I had an apple in my hand and I said 'what are the chances of me throwing into that bin from here?'..the bin was a good 20ft away, and the target I had to aim for was tiny. I went for it and in DudePerfect style threw the apple straight in. I won't lie, I felt pretty good about myself. 

Thursday we didn't  get up to much. I wanted to get better, I  was tired of being ill so we had a chill day so I could recover. After studies we went out for a bit, but from 16:00 to 21:00 I slept - and I can tell you it healed me. The next day I was feeling better than ever, back to 100%. We also went and bought a fridge for the chapel - life changing! 

Friday we had our thanksgiving meal, cooked by us, eaten by us, it was a good time. We had tons of food. We had a session of contacting, I handed this guy a church pass along card, he was with his friend collecting money for his other mate who was playing the guitar. I told him 'I don't have any money but I have this'. He took the card and looked at it and started laughing, showing his mates and all that. I walked a few yards and heard him laughing so I turned and just stood there staring at him, when he saw he soon shut up and sat down. I didn't think I was that intimidating...must be the 4kg weights I do at home. 

Sunday was funny. We had our branch conference and so the district president was there.  We have new translating equipment for Lublin, so I don't have to stand up at the front anymore.   I can just sit and speak through the mic and people wearing the headphones can hear me.  President Dressler was doing the beginning part where as a branch we sustain all the general authorities and leaders in the church and then all the branch callings and things.  I lost track of where we were as he was speaking super fast so with a loss of concentration, we ended up sustaining a new member of the 12, I said the wrong name. Just as I always say though, when it comes to mistakes made because of a language barrier, Heavenly Father understands what we're trying to get at haha!!

I only have 11 months left.  It's gone quickly,   I feel as though I've had a good go of it up to now.  I've done loads of things I never thought I would.  I've met so many people.  I wouldn't say it's been all as straight forwards as I make it out to be.  I mean it is easy for me.  I enjoy it you know, that makes it easy, but still there are struggles.  Just got to get up and go for it.  

That's all I have for this week.

I'm off for lunch at 'Stoł i Wół'. 

Translating

Thanksgiving meal Elder Hansen, Elder Huffman, Elder Ashworth, Elder Dooley we had it on Friday as we were too busy on Thurrsday

Playing UNO

Had fun posing on the wall

'Painting' the bathroom in Świdnik 

We had Elders Byrd and Alvarez in Lublin this week for a few days. 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, Christmas Lights & Snow.

I’ve just got finished teaching two lessons at TRC, I always come out of it feeling so happy and confident, the volunteers at TRC are pretty cool, our first teacher Brat Jensen came tonight with his wife so that was good to see him and I got to teach them. 

So this week has been good, a lot of the same really, the only difference was celebrating thanksgiving. we were visited by Elder Oaks in the morning which was cool, we all sat down and were wandering who the apostle was going to be, and then we just saw Elder Oaks right in front of us talking to people. We always get front row seats to the devotionals and didn't even realise he was stood right in front of us. The devotional was good, he had all his family come and they're very musical, one of his daughters Jenny Oakes Baker was there and apparently she's quite a famous violinist. He just spoke about America and God bless America and all that, I wasn’t expecting anything different from a thanksgiving devotional, the music was good though.

I found out this week that I’ll be getting a new companion when the next group come in. There's a new Elder coming in going to Slovenia and he will also be a solo so they want me be to be his companion and to train him in the arts of being a solo, so that's something to look forward to. He'll be joining us in our room, so there'll be six of us!  A big bunch of the zone are flying out on Monday and Tuesday.

Sister Yochim had to go home, the sisters are sad but they've dealt with it well. The Polish is coming on okay, still slow but I enjoy it. I'm okay with teaching on my own too, I’ve got used to it.  I’m honestly doing great. I love mostly every minute I have here, just the classes can drag sometimes, but I love learning new things. I would say the experience of being out here is enough to strengthen your testimony alone, the constant study and learning helps a lot though. I wouldn't say my doctrinal knowledge has increased massively, just I’m more confident to share things than I would be at home, I’m more confident to teach. 

The language is coming good, I know a lot more than I think I do. It's amazing how much leaves your memory though when you get into a teaching situation. I can understand the majority of what the teacher is saying in class, which is a miracle in itself really, to think I knew nothing and could understand nothing before my mission just shows that. You don’t need to worry about me though, I’m loving it here! I feel as ready as I’ve prepared myself to be, I feel as though I need to do more but I’m already tired as it is. I'm excited to get to Poland, it's quite daunting though, I’ll be out in the real world teaching real people, scary thought.

The best bit of the week was probably this morning. We did an endowment session at the temple as a zone which was pretty cool. Other than that probably being spoke to by an apostle. Just the feeling of him being in the room with us was special. 

They turned the Christmas lights on!!

Always getting photos with Marcucci

Room 435

I found Elder Walsh, he's doing great!

I can't remember this Elder's name so I just call him Elder Van Der Van Der Van Der, he lived in Hull for 5 years.

Temple walk in the snow.

Last Temple trip together this morning, some elders are leaving on Monday and Tuesday.