Whew... you'll never believe what happened to me this past week... I got transferred... ya... AGAIN!!!
On Thursday night I got a phone call from President Nielson and after asking how I was doing, he told me that I had to have my bags packed and be on one of the first trains out of Wrocław on Monday morning... I was in complete shock. He called at like 10:20 and I couldn't fall asleep till like 3:00 it was insane... one of the biggest shocks of my mission, I was totally hoping to stay in Wrocław at least for 2.5 more months! So now the question you are all asking is "Well where is he going to then?" President told me that I would be going to Warsaw to be an Office Elder!!! Which was a shock and also not a shock at the same time. My whole mission people have been predicting the Office in my future because I work really well with computers and can solve lots of problems that come up in the Office. (And in my short couple days here already I have solved plenty of problems and am working on getting everything running and connected right :D ) It makes sense for me to be in the office and I am truly grateful for the opportunity to be around computers again, even if I am just doing mission stuff on them, computers are just that awesome :)
I am currently in a threesome with Elder Torke (he just got told he is going to Poznań in a week) and Elder Darowski (My MTC companion! We are back together about a year after our last time together) We are doing well, we all get along fine, and Elder Torke is almost as excited to get out of the office as I am to come in :) I will also be driving again now! Which is fun. This also means that my second Polish winter will be spent mostly indoors or in a car!!!!!!! Which I will not complain about one tiny bit :D
Being in the office also means that I will be able to get any mail sent to the Mission Office instantly :) which is awesome. Here is the new address for anyone who cares:
Poland Warsaw Mission
Ul. Wiertnicza 135 I Piętro
02-952 Warsaw
Poland
And also the DearElder service still works while we are in Poland, and those all come to the mission office as well :) I am right at the hub of everything right now.
We have a couple people we are teaching right now, and we actually get member referrals here so it should be awesome. I will start to talk about them more after I have actually met them and kinda get my feet set in Warsaw. If I am here as long as normal Office Elders are, I should be here till about May or June. Did I mention I am looking forward to a Winter indoors!!!
I uploaded a couple pictures the other day and they should be on the website if you would like to check them out.
http://picasaweb.google.com/football80
Everything is going good :) Looking forward to Christmas here in a couple weeks, should be great. I hope everyone is happy and having a good time.
Until Next week
-Starszy Taylor
P.S. My P-Day is on Saturday now, only because I am an Office Elder though :) So expect these updates on Saturday now, not on Tuesday :)
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Week 44
This week had its upsets but also some great things happen, so lets see if I can get it all typed out before I run out of time again...
We had a meeting somehow set up with Jenny, the one who lives in Legnica, for Wednesday, but when we got out there she had just barely received a call reminding her of a meeting she had to be at right then! Bummer... so we didn't get to meet with her at all, which was too bad cause we had a great lesson planned and were going to extend a baptismal commitment. This next week she is getting married so we will have to wait about 2 weeks before we will be able to meet with her again.
Then on Thursday we had a pretty much AWESOME Thanksgiving Dinner in Poland :) I have pictures so don't worry. We had tons of food and it was all really good. We even got Szczepan to show up for all the free food lol. He enjoyed it. After all the food and we were totally stuffed we sat down and wrote out things that we were thankful for in the people in our district. It was cool. After that we were suppose to have a meeting with Gosia, our other investigator, but she texted us earlier saying that she didn't have classes the next day so she would be going out to visit her family a day earlier. Bummer... But we still had English class and that went well. I let Elder Sheridan do pretty much all the teaching this time because he always seems like he wants to but even though he prepares tons he seems to get stuck and not know what to do at parts, so normally I just come up with something on the spot to keep things going, and it is always pretty good. But ya, they stopped him midway through teaching some position prepositions and said they would like to first learn how to read english lol. So I suggested he teach the alphabet, but he started going into every vowel sound...which is a joke in English, so I stopped him and suggested we read the Book of Mormon in English, and all the students practically jumped at the Idea. It went well and we were able to give them some polish ones as well because they were curious what they were reading. I thought it went over quite well :)
And then finally the amazing day came of Ania's Baptism. I don't really know what to write other than it was fantastic, everything worked out quite well, nothing terrible happened :) Elder Allred baptized her in a pool that is near the chapel. They got a ride from the Moons (Senior Couple here now) and the rest of us walked from the chapel where we started the meeeting and had the talks. Ania had asked all 4 of us missionaries to split the topic of baptism between all of us, which we did and it worked out alright. We got to the pool and they got all changed and ready. I was asked to be one of the witnesses for the baptism which I had never done before, but it wasn't too stressful lol. All we had to do was make sure everything was done the write way :) And of course it was. Afterwards we went back to the chapel for closing song and prayer. It was a great day and I hope to be able to see more people come unto Christ through baptism while I am here in Poland.
Ania was confirmed the next day in Church and all of us missionaries were able to be part of the ordinance when she received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is such a great thing to see someone join the church and find the happiness that comes along with it. Later Sunday Evening we had our normal dinner at Sister Kimballs apartment. It was just us missionaries and Ania this time. Sister Kimball made, yet again, awesome food, this time it was some kind of taco soup, it was delicious. After dinner and helping clean up Elder Allred made Cinnamon Roles for all of us :D they were super good, but take so long to make. Ania and I made these things called "Fairy Cakes" while he was doing that. (They are just really small cupcakes) It was a fun night to end a good week.
Well, that is about it for my time now, but at least I got it all out this week :D
Until next week :)
-Starszy Taylor
P.S. My mother is right, I do <3 comments :D
We had a meeting somehow set up with Jenny, the one who lives in Legnica, for Wednesday, but when we got out there she had just barely received a call reminding her of a meeting she had to be at right then! Bummer... so we didn't get to meet with her at all, which was too bad cause we had a great lesson planned and were going to extend a baptismal commitment. This next week she is getting married so we will have to wait about 2 weeks before we will be able to meet with her again.
Then on Thursday we had a pretty much AWESOME Thanksgiving Dinner in Poland :) I have pictures so don't worry. We had tons of food and it was all really good. We even got Szczepan to show up for all the free food lol. He enjoyed it. After all the food and we were totally stuffed we sat down and wrote out things that we were thankful for in the people in our district. It was cool. After that we were suppose to have a meeting with Gosia, our other investigator, but she texted us earlier saying that she didn't have classes the next day so she would be going out to visit her family a day earlier. Bummer... But we still had English class and that went well. I let Elder Sheridan do pretty much all the teaching this time because he always seems like he wants to but even though he prepares tons he seems to get stuck and not know what to do at parts, so normally I just come up with something on the spot to keep things going, and it is always pretty good. But ya, they stopped him midway through teaching some position prepositions and said they would like to first learn how to read english lol. So I suggested he teach the alphabet, but he started going into every vowel sound...which is a joke in English, so I stopped him and suggested we read the Book of Mormon in English, and all the students practically jumped at the Idea. It went well and we were able to give them some polish ones as well because they were curious what they were reading. I thought it went over quite well :)
And then finally the amazing day came of Ania's Baptism. I don't really know what to write other than it was fantastic, everything worked out quite well, nothing terrible happened :) Elder Allred baptized her in a pool that is near the chapel. They got a ride from the Moons (Senior Couple here now) and the rest of us walked from the chapel where we started the meeeting and had the talks. Ania had asked all 4 of us missionaries to split the topic of baptism between all of us, which we did and it worked out alright. We got to the pool and they got all changed and ready. I was asked to be one of the witnesses for the baptism which I had never done before, but it wasn't too stressful lol. All we had to do was make sure everything was done the write way :) And of course it was. Afterwards we went back to the chapel for closing song and prayer. It was a great day and I hope to be able to see more people come unto Christ through baptism while I am here in Poland.
Ania was confirmed the next day in Church and all of us missionaries were able to be part of the ordinance when she received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is such a great thing to see someone join the church and find the happiness that comes along with it. Later Sunday Evening we had our normal dinner at Sister Kimballs apartment. It was just us missionaries and Ania this time. Sister Kimball made, yet again, awesome food, this time it was some kind of taco soup, it was delicious. After dinner and helping clean up Elder Allred made Cinnamon Roles for all of us :D they were super good, but take so long to make. Ania and I made these things called "Fairy Cakes" while he was doing that. (They are just really small cupcakes) It was a fun night to end a good week.
Well, that is about it for my time now, but at least I got it all out this week :D
Until next week :)
-Starszy Taylor
P.S. My mother is right, I do <3 comments :D
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Week 43
Wow... this has been one heck of a crazy week.
We started off with a Zone Conference in Katowice on Wednesday and one of our Area Presidency Members was there, President Kopischke. He was awesome. He told us we couldn't write down anything he said, only what we felt, and had us write down a question we would like answered during the conference and that if we would listen to the spirit our questions would all individually be answered and in different ways. It was a really cool meeting :)
On Thursday before English we had a really great meeting with a girl named Gosia. She comes to english class and is super nice. She is reading the Book of Mormon and seems to enjoy our meetings and she really listens. I asked her if it would be okay if she prayed for us next time and she said she would practice this week lol. She is great. Right before that though we found out that Elder Hillyard was randomly invited to Warsaw for some extra meeting. So we were in a threesome for a while. We also got to teach the intermediate english class which was awesome because I could actually teach something other than helping them simply memorize some words...
So we are in the first threesome of the week...
Then Friday Morning during studies, one of the office elders calls us and tells us that Elder Sheridan does, after all, have to go to England for legal work reasons. Bummer...kinda wrecked our whole day. So now it is just me and Elder Allred. Later that day we were suppose to pick up Elder Liemer our Zone Leader because he was coming in for an exchange and an interview. We waited at the Dworzec for something like an hour and a half, almost 2 hours for him...his train was 80 mins late...ugh. We got home at like 11:30 and crashed. We are now in the second threesome of the weekend.
We spent Saturday with Elder Liemer doing stuff, for lunch we went to a new place called "City Fries" all they do is sell fries, and sauces, but they have one of the coolest little tray/holder things ever, I will take a picture later. Then we also had the interview later which went perfectly fine. Then we had to yet again travel to the Dworzec and drop him off. Then we waited a bit and we were back at the Dworzec to pick up Elder Hillyard who was finally back from his meeting and exchange. He also found another girl on the Train who seems to be extremely interested in the Gospel as well! Her name is Asia and she plays the Cielo(sp?) She is really cool and super nice. So now we are yet again in a threesome, number 3.
Church on Sunday was great, President Nielson showed up rather unexptectedly for church and that was great, we had 2 investigators in church so that was good for them to hear President Nielson.
And now, as always I am out of time, but at least I was able to sum up all the threesomes I was in this weekend...it was crazy like I said. Hopefully that doesn't ever happen to us again, kinda interrupted everything. Oh well, the work goes on.
Until next week!
-Starszy Taylor
P.S. Happy Birthday Allie!!!! 12 years old!!! Woot!
We started off with a Zone Conference in Katowice on Wednesday and one of our Area Presidency Members was there, President Kopischke. He was awesome. He told us we couldn't write down anything he said, only what we felt, and had us write down a question we would like answered during the conference and that if we would listen to the spirit our questions would all individually be answered and in different ways. It was a really cool meeting :)
On Thursday before English we had a really great meeting with a girl named Gosia. She comes to english class and is super nice. She is reading the Book of Mormon and seems to enjoy our meetings and she really listens. I asked her if it would be okay if she prayed for us next time and she said she would practice this week lol. She is great. Right before that though we found out that Elder Hillyard was randomly invited to Warsaw for some extra meeting. So we were in a threesome for a while. We also got to teach the intermediate english class which was awesome because I could actually teach something other than helping them simply memorize some words...
So we are in the first threesome of the week...
Then Friday Morning during studies, one of the office elders calls us and tells us that Elder Sheridan does, after all, have to go to England for legal work reasons. Bummer...kinda wrecked our whole day. So now it is just me and Elder Allred. Later that day we were suppose to pick up Elder Liemer our Zone Leader because he was coming in for an exchange and an interview. We waited at the Dworzec for something like an hour and a half, almost 2 hours for him...his train was 80 mins late...ugh. We got home at like 11:30 and crashed. We are now in the second threesome of the weekend.
We spent Saturday with Elder Liemer doing stuff, for lunch we went to a new place called "City Fries" all they do is sell fries, and sauces, but they have one of the coolest little tray/holder things ever, I will take a picture later. Then we also had the interview later which went perfectly fine. Then we had to yet again travel to the Dworzec and drop him off. Then we waited a bit and we were back at the Dworzec to pick up Elder Hillyard who was finally back from his meeting and exchange. He also found another girl on the Train who seems to be extremely interested in the Gospel as well! Her name is Asia and she plays the Cielo(sp?) She is really cool and super nice. So now we are yet again in a threesome, number 3.
Church on Sunday was great, President Nielson showed up rather unexptectedly for church and that was great, we had 2 investigators in church so that was good for them to hear President Nielson.
And now, as always I am out of time, but at least I was able to sum up all the threesomes I was in this weekend...it was crazy like I said. Hopefully that doesn't ever happen to us again, kinda interrupted everything. Oh well, the work goes on.
Until next week!
-Starszy Taylor
P.S. Happy Birthday Allie!!!! 12 years old!!! Woot!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Week 43
Wow, Hump Day is on Thursday! And we have a Zone Conference on Wednesday. Ja nie mogę wierzyć jak szybko czas może lecieć! Ale wszystko jest w porządku tu, mieliśmy kilka spotkań ostatnio i kilka nowych zainteresowanych. Mam nadzieje że będziecie dowiedzieli się o Google Translator żebyście tłumaczyli to. Poniważ nie miałem dużo czas ostatny tydzień, pisałem karteczką niektóry rzeczy robiliśmy.
Okay, so this is a really long story about 2 of our investigators, and frankly I just don't have time to tell the whole thing, so here it is in a nutshell. This older man named Goerge Contacted the missionaries on a tramwaj, in english lol, he later came to church and we found out he was an investigator from a long time ago and that he lives in a city an hour or so outside of Wrocław called Legnica. After many calls we finally were able to set up a concrete time to meet with him out there. We got out there and met up with him. We had been planning on like a little hour long lesson with him or something, but he had other things in mind. He had like a whole day planned out for us, and so to be nice we just kinda went along with it. His first plan was to take us to meet his fiance Jenny. We headed to her work at a library where she is the librarian and she was really nice and interested in us. We tried to talk to her a bit whenever George was in a different room because whenever she would try to speak to us in Polish he would cut her off and tell her to speak REALLY slow because "they don't understand ANYTHING" which was really funny cause I understand her better than him in polish lol. Anyways, we eventually went back to their house for a dinner they prepared which was really good. After Dinner we got talking, I was talking with George (Aka, keeping him distracted long enough for Elder Sheridan to have a convo with Jenny) He was really upset that the church could put missionaries in a city and then build the church later to pull the missionaries out to watch the church kinda stop functioning there. It took a while to explain to him but I think I got through in the end. Jenny essentially said that it was a miracle that we came when we did and that it was a sign from god that she needs to listen to us because of a lot of things that have been happening lately for her. She said we were always welcome in her home. It was pretty awesome. Later about a week later we went back and had the opportunity to speak to just Jenny, and she told us about a dream she had where her late husband and her parents came to her dressed in white and were about to tell her something very important that they needed from her here on earth, then a text woke her up. We were awe struck it was crazy, we taught her the plan of salvation after that, it was great. Unfortunately we can't meet again until early december because they are super busy with the wedding and stuff, we have to ask president if we can skype with her or not, that would be great. She really likes us a lot and is so grateful and kind, she even said we were like drops of honey to her heart :) which is a really nice thing to say in polish. Well, yet again I am running out of time... and I had like a bajillion more things planned to talk about, I will have to type them up later I guess :)
I will leave a short list of them here if you just want to know what we have been up to :)
Lunches with Szczepan
English party
Sports in the Rain
Wrocław Lacrosse game
Darek
17 points flyers
Museum w/ Ania and Green Way
Allred going to Katowice for Training
Independance Day on the Rynek here
Tracting and lesson with Jacek
Hours with call kids on sunday
Legal work and (Sheridan has to go to England now)
Well thats it for now :) leave in comments anything else you would like me to expound upon :)
Laters
-Starszy Taylor
Okay, so this is a really long story about 2 of our investigators, and frankly I just don't have time to tell the whole thing, so here it is in a nutshell. This older man named Goerge Contacted the missionaries on a tramwaj, in english lol, he later came to church and we found out he was an investigator from a long time ago and that he lives in a city an hour or so outside of Wrocław called Legnica. After many calls we finally were able to set up a concrete time to meet with him out there. We got out there and met up with him. We had been planning on like a little hour long lesson with him or something, but he had other things in mind. He had like a whole day planned out for us, and so to be nice we just kinda went along with it. His first plan was to take us to meet his fiance Jenny. We headed to her work at a library where she is the librarian and she was really nice and interested in us. We tried to talk to her a bit whenever George was in a different room because whenever she would try to speak to us in Polish he would cut her off and tell her to speak REALLY slow because "they don't understand ANYTHING" which was really funny cause I understand her better than him in polish lol. Anyways, we eventually went back to their house for a dinner they prepared which was really good. After Dinner we got talking, I was talking with George (Aka, keeping him distracted long enough for Elder Sheridan to have a convo with Jenny) He was really upset that the church could put missionaries in a city and then build the church later to pull the missionaries out to watch the church kinda stop functioning there. It took a while to explain to him but I think I got through in the end. Jenny essentially said that it was a miracle that we came when we did and that it was a sign from god that she needs to listen to us because of a lot of things that have been happening lately for her. She said we were always welcome in her home. It was pretty awesome. Later about a week later we went back and had the opportunity to speak to just Jenny, and she told us about a dream she had where her late husband and her parents came to her dressed in white and were about to tell her something very important that they needed from her here on earth, then a text woke her up. We were awe struck it was crazy, we taught her the plan of salvation after that, it was great. Unfortunately we can't meet again until early december because they are super busy with the wedding and stuff, we have to ask president if we can skype with her or not, that would be great. She really likes us a lot and is so grateful and kind, she even said we were like drops of honey to her heart :) which is a really nice thing to say in polish. Well, yet again I am running out of time... and I had like a bajillion more things planned to talk about, I will have to type them up later I guess :)
I will leave a short list of them here if you just want to know what we have been up to :)
Lunches with Szczepan
English party
Sports in the Rain
Wrocław Lacrosse game
Darek
17 points flyers
Museum w/ Ania and Green Way
Allred going to Katowice for Training
Independance Day on the Rynek here
Tracting and lesson with Jacek
Hours with call kids on sunday
Legal work and (Sheridan has to go to England now)
Well thats it for now :) leave in comments anything else you would like me to expound upon :)
Laters
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Week 42
Well lots has happened this week, and my Dad will be so happy to hear the I finally got around to writing most of it down in my Journal. Which is great but also means that I have wiped my brain of it since I know it is written down X_x.. so we'll see
And...now I am out of time....sooooo... I think I will go to writing in the blog every other week so I can plan it out a bit better and get some really good information each post :D
Thanks
-Starszy Taylor
And...now I am out of time....sooooo... I think I will go to writing in the blog every other week so I can plan it out a bit better and get some really good information each post :D
Thanks
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Week 41
Sorry everyone that I just have not found the motivation lately to find things to write about and actually do it. And I'm sure my mother has told anyone that reads this blog that I had a bit of a rough patch but am doing a bit better now. So, as for what has happened in the past couple weeks.
I finished out a really fun transfer with Elder Loosli, we didn't get a lot of missionary work accomplished in the sense of contacting and teaching, but we did finally finish off the Mission Papers for Czarek Gładun and those are now submitted and we are waiting. We are all hopeing that he can get called to somewhere in the US where the church is really strong and he can learn how it all functions correctly and then bring it back to Poland and help build the kingdom here. Elder Loosli and I talked about a lot of things that I just had to get out of my system and we became great friends in the Process and will be doing things together after I get home.
One week near the end of the transfer, on a Thursday, we got a call from President that said Elder Lewis would be coming down on Sunday and would start training to be the new Branch President, which was a bit odd because we both thought that only I was going to be leaving Lublin, but as it turns out we would both be leaving. I was told I had about a week, and Loosli had about 2. Then on Sunday when we were waiting at the Dworzec to pick up Elder Lewis we got another call from President... He told me that I had to have my stuff packed up and be in Warsaw on Monday... That was a bit of a shock. So I gave a small on the spot talk in Sacrament Meeting and then afterwards I got to take pictures with the whole branch :) It was really sad to have to say goodbye to them :( Especially Beata. One part was funny though, I gave my camera to Brother Gładun to take a picture, and I had it on rapid fire shots, so if you hold the button down it will take up to 11 pictures in one second, yes, that is quite fast. He about fell over, in shock, and asked if I had bought a weapon instead of a camera lol.
I packed up and left my beloved Lublin and the Gładuns yet again and for Warsaw this time. I was told I would be staying with the AP's there, the wierd thing being that there was really only one AP (Assistant President) at the time due to some weird other transfer stuff and the other AP having to be somewhere else. So now I am living with an AP, in Warsaw...talk about a major change. I spent the next week with Elder Stohel, having no idea how long I would be there. It was difficult and frustrating at some times, but we got along okay, and he taught me a lot, both about being a missionary and about Polish. On that Saturday we went and picked up Elder Tribe from the Dworzec, he was going to be the new AP when transfers happened and we would have 2 again. Then at the Office Meeting on Monday, which was slightly hectic because the office is moving, and the office couple (Senior Missionaries) are going home and they are training the new couple. So everything was all crazy. At one point I went out with Sister Nielson, with no companion... It was weird. We went shopping for some stuff and then went to go pick up lunch for everyone that was there. We had ordered from this Naleśniki (Crepe) place and there was only one guy working there at the time. Poor guy was making those things faster than ever before. Sister Nielson and I just stood there and watched him for a while. It was nice to get to know her a bit better, she is really cool. Finally he finished all of our order and we packed it all into the car. Later in the evening I found out that I would be going back to Wrocław! The city I was in two months ago with Elder Allred. I was told to check bus times because I had to be on my way there the next day...holy traveling... I called them up and told them I was coming back and when I would be there. So, because this is now getting confusing...let me map out my transfers
Kielce (Anderton) 4 weeks
Lublin (Beaty) 4 weeks
Lublin (Thomson) 2 months
Poznań (Kontor) 4 weeks
Wrocław (Allred) 2 months
Lublin (Loosli) 7 weeks
Warsaw (Stohel) 1 week
Wrocław (Sheridan) 1 week and counting
I think that is it. Last time I was here I was with really old missionaries, two of which finished there missions here. It was a weird two months. It is completely different here now, with 2 brand new missionaries who are just excited to get out and work. Both of them speak fantastic polish too, like really really good polish, I still know more, but only because I have been here longer. They are just fearless when trying to say something new.
So ya, I am now back in Wrocław, the place where I had to play the piano last time I was here, Elder Hillyard plays now, he is much better. I was so happy that I would have the opportunity to see the Call kids again, Cynthia and AJ. They are way cool, and I wish I had a picture of their faces when they saw me on Sunday :D it was priceless, they looked back to see who the new guy was, then had to double take when they recognized me :) then they both got these huge smiles on their face and could barely contain themselves during Sacrament meeting. It was awesome. I translated for Sister Kimball, which I can do for the most part now, it is hard for me to listen, translate and speak at the same time...so I miss a lot when I translate sadly.
My new companion is really cool, we get along great. His name is James Sheridan, he is from Ogden, Utah. Likes hiking and being outside, but isn't a dummy on a computer. He is also a hard worker and ready to convert all of Wrocław. He also plays Viola and violin and quite a few other string instraments aparently. I look forward to being able to serve with him. And yes this also means I am Senior Companion.
Well I think that pretty much sums up what has happened recently... now for some stuff I have done since I got back to Wrocław.
We have a girl here with a baptismal date! She is so cool, about 20, speaks English and has been so prepared for the Gospel. She does lots of stuff with us, her name is Ania. Last night we went out to a Cemetary for Day of the Dead, which you may have guessed is kinda huge in Poland. It was really beautiful and I have lots of pictures, which I will post as soon as I can. It was quite amazing, and only the pictures will really be able to portray that, so be excited! We also had a really cool whiteboard the other day, and instead of going with some gospel question that people just ignore, we went with something that would just catch people offgaurd and was kinda fun. Our question was... Who would win? A Mage or a Jedi? Oh ya! It was so much fun asking people about that one, and it was a great ice breaker. Some of the older people just looked at us like we were insane or something, but most people thought it was totally awesome. We also talked to a guy who plays on a Football (American Football) team here in Poland, and his family. They were cool and pretty open and the guy said he was looking for ways to come closer to Christ and be a better person. We gave the family 2 Copies of the Book of Mormon and a couple pamphlets! Too bad they live in Poznań...we gave them the Elders Number there. We had fun on Sports Saturday too. We went to a park and played Soccer with some elementary school aged kids. They ended up kicking our trash... but we had to stop early because they were starting to kick each other and it wasn't just fun for them anymore. I woke up on Sunday soooooooooooo sore... That was the first actually physical exercise, as in Cardio and running that I have done in the past like 10 months... everything was sore... even my ribs... It was tons of fun though.
Well, I think that suffices for now.
Again, sorry I haven't posted in a long time, hope this makes up for it :D
Love ya all
-Starszy Taylor
I finished out a really fun transfer with Elder Loosli, we didn't get a lot of missionary work accomplished in the sense of contacting and teaching, but we did finally finish off the Mission Papers for Czarek Gładun and those are now submitted and we are waiting. We are all hopeing that he can get called to somewhere in the US where the church is really strong and he can learn how it all functions correctly and then bring it back to Poland and help build the kingdom here. Elder Loosli and I talked about a lot of things that I just had to get out of my system and we became great friends in the Process and will be doing things together after I get home.
One week near the end of the transfer, on a Thursday, we got a call from President that said Elder Lewis would be coming down on Sunday and would start training to be the new Branch President, which was a bit odd because we both thought that only I was going to be leaving Lublin, but as it turns out we would both be leaving. I was told I had about a week, and Loosli had about 2. Then on Sunday when we were waiting at the Dworzec to pick up Elder Lewis we got another call from President... He told me that I had to have my stuff packed up and be in Warsaw on Monday... That was a bit of a shock. So I gave a small on the spot talk in Sacrament Meeting and then afterwards I got to take pictures with the whole branch :) It was really sad to have to say goodbye to them :( Especially Beata. One part was funny though, I gave my camera to Brother Gładun to take a picture, and I had it on rapid fire shots, so if you hold the button down it will take up to 11 pictures in one second, yes, that is quite fast. He about fell over, in shock, and asked if I had bought a weapon instead of a camera lol.
I packed up and left my beloved Lublin and the Gładuns yet again and for Warsaw this time. I was told I would be staying with the AP's there, the wierd thing being that there was really only one AP (Assistant President) at the time due to some weird other transfer stuff and the other AP having to be somewhere else. So now I am living with an AP, in Warsaw...talk about a major change. I spent the next week with Elder Stohel, having no idea how long I would be there. It was difficult and frustrating at some times, but we got along okay, and he taught me a lot, both about being a missionary and about Polish. On that Saturday we went and picked up Elder Tribe from the Dworzec, he was going to be the new AP when transfers happened and we would have 2 again. Then at the Office Meeting on Monday, which was slightly hectic because the office is moving, and the office couple (Senior Missionaries) are going home and they are training the new couple. So everything was all crazy. At one point I went out with Sister Nielson, with no companion... It was weird. We went shopping for some stuff and then went to go pick up lunch for everyone that was there. We had ordered from this Naleśniki (Crepe) place and there was only one guy working there at the time. Poor guy was making those things faster than ever before. Sister Nielson and I just stood there and watched him for a while. It was nice to get to know her a bit better, she is really cool. Finally he finished all of our order and we packed it all into the car. Later in the evening I found out that I would be going back to Wrocław! The city I was in two months ago with Elder Allred. I was told to check bus times because I had to be on my way there the next day...holy traveling... I called them up and told them I was coming back and when I would be there. So, because this is now getting confusing...let me map out my transfers
Kielce (Anderton) 4 weeks
Lublin (Beaty) 4 weeks
Lublin (Thomson) 2 months
Poznań (Kontor) 4 weeks
Wrocław (Allred) 2 months
Lublin (Loosli) 7 weeks
Warsaw (Stohel) 1 week
Wrocław (Sheridan) 1 week and counting
I think that is it. Last time I was here I was with really old missionaries, two of which finished there missions here. It was a weird two months. It is completely different here now, with 2 brand new missionaries who are just excited to get out and work. Both of them speak fantastic polish too, like really really good polish, I still know more, but only because I have been here longer. They are just fearless when trying to say something new.
So ya, I am now back in Wrocław, the place where I had to play the piano last time I was here, Elder Hillyard plays now, he is much better. I was so happy that I would have the opportunity to see the Call kids again, Cynthia and AJ. They are way cool, and I wish I had a picture of their faces when they saw me on Sunday :D it was priceless, they looked back to see who the new guy was, then had to double take when they recognized me :) then they both got these huge smiles on their face and could barely contain themselves during Sacrament meeting. It was awesome. I translated for Sister Kimball, which I can do for the most part now, it is hard for me to listen, translate and speak at the same time...so I miss a lot when I translate sadly.
My new companion is really cool, we get along great. His name is James Sheridan, he is from Ogden, Utah. Likes hiking and being outside, but isn't a dummy on a computer. He is also a hard worker and ready to convert all of Wrocław. He also plays Viola and violin and quite a few other string instraments aparently. I look forward to being able to serve with him. And yes this also means I am Senior Companion.
Well I think that pretty much sums up what has happened recently... now for some stuff I have done since I got back to Wrocław.
We have a girl here with a baptismal date! She is so cool, about 20, speaks English and has been so prepared for the Gospel. She does lots of stuff with us, her name is Ania. Last night we went out to a Cemetary for Day of the Dead, which you may have guessed is kinda huge in Poland. It was really beautiful and I have lots of pictures, which I will post as soon as I can. It was quite amazing, and only the pictures will really be able to portray that, so be excited! We also had a really cool whiteboard the other day, and instead of going with some gospel question that people just ignore, we went with something that would just catch people offgaurd and was kinda fun. Our question was... Who would win? A Mage or a Jedi? Oh ya! It was so much fun asking people about that one, and it was a great ice breaker. Some of the older people just looked at us like we were insane or something, but most people thought it was totally awesome. We also talked to a guy who plays on a Football (American Football) team here in Poland, and his family. They were cool and pretty open and the guy said he was looking for ways to come closer to Christ and be a better person. We gave the family 2 Copies of the Book of Mormon and a couple pamphlets! Too bad they live in Poznań...we gave them the Elders Number there. We had fun on Sports Saturday too. We went to a park and played Soccer with some elementary school aged kids. They ended up kicking our trash... but we had to stop early because they were starting to kick each other and it wasn't just fun for them anymore. I woke up on Sunday soooooooooooo sore... That was the first actually physical exercise, as in Cardio and running that I have done in the past like 10 months... everything was sore... even my ribs... It was tons of fun though.
Well, I think that suffices for now.
Again, sorry I haven't posted in a long time, hope this makes up for it :D
Love ya all
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Week 34
It is truly amazing how fast time goes by... Even as it seems to take a long time during the day... This week was back to my good old Lublin travel schedule lol.
We took a trip to Puławy on Wednesday to have a meeting with Irina Żak, the Blind Member out there. She has decided to move to a more convenient location and was mostly packed up when we arrived. She is moving to Łódź to live with her son for a while until she can find her own apartment there. We had a nice meeting with her, and I was happy to know what was going on this time lol, since my polish has improved significantly since the last time I was here in Lublin. In Łódź she will be closer to the church, more members and have her son around to help her out. It Puławy she is all alone and it is really hard on her, especially since she is blind. She is so nice though, cooked us some great Polish food, it was awesome :)
On Thursday we had another trip planned, but this time to Zamość to see Maria Pusiek. She is so great to us aswell, always cooks us TONS of food...Like more food that I can fit in my stomach...we always leave there feeling bloated lol. At least it is good food, really good food. We had a nice meeting with her as well. She loves to talk, and it was a lot better this time too, because I can understand and contribute to a conversation... as opposed to sitting there and nodding my head...lol. She remembered me and was happy to see me back. She was amazed when I told her where I had been for the past 3 months. On "vacation" to Poznań and Wrocław, two of the prettiest cities in Poland :D. It is too bad that she lives so far away and can't come to church, but she is still a solid member, loves the church, reads her scriptures and prays. She is great.
Saturday we had a meeting at Noon with the Taiwanese members :) Which now consists of 3 people! It was so amazing to see Grace again, she has a new confidence and feeling about her, it is great. She always seemed so shelled up and quiet before and now she smiles more and just seems so much happier, I guess that is really what the Gospel does for people who let it. We set up a time to have an advanced English class with them to help them out with their schooling which is all in English. And we should be starting up Institute again here soon :) which will be great. They are so fantastic, the Branch here is very blessed to have them here as a part of it.
Sunday, we had our good old Lublin church. Had a decent amount of people come, about 8 member I believe. Marlena was there again, which makes 3 weeks in a row, which is great because Elder Thomson and I spent quite some time reactivating and working with her. Good to see something has come from it :D And of course I am back to doing most of the church service lol...I blessed both again this week, and also had the One talk... I gave my one on Diligence that I wrote in Poznań but I spent a lot of time the day before editing it... amazing how much you can learn in 3 months... Then we had a Sunday School Lesson from Beata :) She is a great teacher. Then church was over, about 70 minutes after it started... lol. We have been instructed to only have 1 Talk in Sacrament meeting in the small branches... So... we do what we can.
Well, that pretty much sums up most of this week. We are going to try and meet with Beata (investigator) this week, because she had to reschedule from last week because she had an Aunt die, pray for her. We have Zone Conference Tomorrow and that should be exciting.
Until Next Week,
-Starszy Taylor
We took a trip to Puławy on Wednesday to have a meeting with Irina Żak, the Blind Member out there. She has decided to move to a more convenient location and was mostly packed up when we arrived. She is moving to Łódź to live with her son for a while until she can find her own apartment there. We had a nice meeting with her, and I was happy to know what was going on this time lol, since my polish has improved significantly since the last time I was here in Lublin. In Łódź she will be closer to the church, more members and have her son around to help her out. It Puławy she is all alone and it is really hard on her, especially since she is blind. She is so nice though, cooked us some great Polish food, it was awesome :)
On Thursday we had another trip planned, but this time to Zamość to see Maria Pusiek. She is so great to us aswell, always cooks us TONS of food...Like more food that I can fit in my stomach...we always leave there feeling bloated lol. At least it is good food, really good food. We had a nice meeting with her as well. She loves to talk, and it was a lot better this time too, because I can understand and contribute to a conversation... as opposed to sitting there and nodding my head...lol. She remembered me and was happy to see me back. She was amazed when I told her where I had been for the past 3 months. On "vacation" to Poznań and Wrocław, two of the prettiest cities in Poland :D. It is too bad that she lives so far away and can't come to church, but she is still a solid member, loves the church, reads her scriptures and prays. She is great.
Saturday we had a meeting at Noon with the Taiwanese members :) Which now consists of 3 people! It was so amazing to see Grace again, she has a new confidence and feeling about her, it is great. She always seemed so shelled up and quiet before and now she smiles more and just seems so much happier, I guess that is really what the Gospel does for people who let it. We set up a time to have an advanced English class with them to help them out with their schooling which is all in English. And we should be starting up Institute again here soon :) which will be great. They are so fantastic, the Branch here is very blessed to have them here as a part of it.
Sunday, we had our good old Lublin church. Had a decent amount of people come, about 8 member I believe. Marlena was there again, which makes 3 weeks in a row, which is great because Elder Thomson and I spent quite some time reactivating and working with her. Good to see something has come from it :D And of course I am back to doing most of the church service lol...I blessed both again this week, and also had the One talk... I gave my one on Diligence that I wrote in Poznań but I spent a lot of time the day before editing it... amazing how much you can learn in 3 months... Then we had a Sunday School Lesson from Beata :) She is a great teacher. Then church was over, about 70 minutes after it started... lol. We have been instructed to only have 1 Talk in Sacrament meeting in the small branches... So... we do what we can.
Well, that pretty much sums up most of this week. We are going to try and meet with Beata (investigator) this week, because she had to reschedule from last week because she had an Aunt die, pray for her. We have Zone Conference Tomorrow and that should be exciting.
Until Next Week,
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Week 33
And another week passed just like that. I had the opportunity to go on an exchange this past week to Warsaw. It was a little odd because it was scheduled for a Sunday, so I was going to be able to go to church in Warsaw for the first time. On the train there and the train home I took lots of really cool pictures of the Sunset and posted them online in my Mission picture album located here:
Mission Pictures
Enjoy, I uploaded hundreds of pictures recently so, I hope you all like them.
Church on Sunday was great, it was amazing to me to see how many people were there! I am use to church being about 10 people, and in Wrocław it was huge to me at about 20-25. Warsaw had like 70-80 people show up! We all barely fit in the Sacrament Room! Pretty much all the chairs were filled. It was also odd to not be playing a major part in every meeting. The members there actually ran church, it was fantastic to see a place where if the missionaries were not able to be there anymore the church would still function. Afterwards we had a great Break the Fast and tons of peole (as in practically the whole branch) stayed for that. It was great to see some of the members there in Warsaw that I have seen a lot because of how often I have gone there. Then afterwards the Young Single Adults were having a fireside at Presidents house but President had a problem hooking his computer up to the TV... so of course they came to me to see if I could come and fix it. Sure enough I ended up going over with Elder Lewis, who is an office Elder (I was technically an office Edler for a Day I guess) and I fixed it after a bit of tinkering. President was really grateful, and I was just happy to be able to still fix computer problems lol. After that I headed back home on the Train and took not quite as many (battery was almost dead) but very beautiful Sunset pictures.
Elder Loosli and I have lots of meetings this week including visits to the members who live in the neighboring cities of Puławy and Zamość. We are also going to Paul's English class later today just like I did 3 months ago :) It should be great. Well, I think that pretty much does it for this week. As usually we are always looking for people to teach, pray for us, we need it. People here are soooooo set on their culture that they don't really listen to anything you say. They have become so numbed to religion over the centuries that they don't really view it as an important part of their lives anymore. We are here to change that but need a lot of help, so pray for the Polish people, they have had a very hard History.
Until Next week!
-Starszy Taylor
Mission Pictures
Enjoy, I uploaded hundreds of pictures recently so, I hope you all like them.
Church on Sunday was great, it was amazing to me to see how many people were there! I am use to church being about 10 people, and in Wrocław it was huge to me at about 20-25. Warsaw had like 70-80 people show up! We all barely fit in the Sacrament Room! Pretty much all the chairs were filled. It was also odd to not be playing a major part in every meeting. The members there actually ran church, it was fantastic to see a place where if the missionaries were not able to be there anymore the church would still function. Afterwards we had a great Break the Fast and tons of peole (as in practically the whole branch) stayed for that. It was great to see some of the members there in Warsaw that I have seen a lot because of how often I have gone there. Then afterwards the Young Single Adults were having a fireside at Presidents house but President had a problem hooking his computer up to the TV... so of course they came to me to see if I could come and fix it. Sure enough I ended up going over with Elder Lewis, who is an office Elder (I was technically an office Edler for a Day I guess) and I fixed it after a bit of tinkering. President was really grateful, and I was just happy to be able to still fix computer problems lol. After that I headed back home on the Train and took not quite as many (battery was almost dead) but very beautiful Sunset pictures.
Elder Loosli and I have lots of meetings this week including visits to the members who live in the neighboring cities of Puławy and Zamość. We are also going to Paul's English class later today just like I did 3 months ago :) It should be great. Well, I think that pretty much does it for this week. As usually we are always looking for people to teach, pray for us, we need it. People here are soooooo set on their culture that they don't really listen to anything you say. They have become so numbed to religion over the centuries that they don't really view it as an important part of their lives anymore. We are here to change that but need a lot of help, so pray for the Polish people, they have had a very hard History.
Until Next week!
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Week 32
Well, as it has so been decided, I am officially back in Lublin :D My companion is Elder Loosli, and as it turns out, he was the one who took me out contacting my first day in the country. He speaks exceptional polish and I am SUPER excited to learn as much as I can from him. He is a Marine in the US Armed Forces. He loves Cars and Photography, wants to own a race track as his dream job. We have a lot of fun talking about lots of random stuff. He is also 25 I believe, I think I have just had the 2 oldest missionaries in the mission back to back as companions lol. He is great though, we get along fantastic already.
So Ihad a really cool experience that I didn't have time to write about last week, but I still wanted to share it so here it is. Experience that Elder Allred and I had last Sunday (About 9 days ago). Earlier in the week we had a whiteboard and had gotten a contact and set up a meeting with a nice gentleman and Elder Allred wrote down all of his information into his planner so we could find his house later. On Saturday we had gone out to an activity at a members house about 2 hours away. And it just so happens that Elder Allred forgot his suit coat there, which had his planner in it! So when Sunday came around and it was getting close to the scheduled time we had set up to meet with Rysiek, we did not have his exact address or phone number, simply the street that he lived on. So we decided to go out a little bit early and start tracting the buildings hoping that maybe the Lord would lead us to his home. After walking the street many times and tracting 4 buildings we decided we were not going to find him this way. So we stopped on the side of the road and I said a short prayer asking humbly for the Lords help finding Rysiek. Right after the prayer Elder Allred had the impression that we should walk the street 4 more times, I felt that was a good number as well, so we started down the street. First time, nothing, second time, nothing again, and the third time, nothing, as we were finishing the fourth round we were about to cross the street in defeat and head home. Right at that moment Rysiek rounded the corner on his bike!!! Elder Allred and I just turned to each other in unbelief. We proceeded to have long meeting with him, during which he mostly just talked to us about his immense knowledge of the Bible, he didn't seem very willing to just sit and listen to us and learn something new. We both felt afterwards that that prayer had been answered more for us that for Rysiek. It was a great testimony builder about the power of prayer, and that god is always listening to us.
Church this past Sunday was great too, we had about 10 people come, but the real cool part was that Marlina came (Elder Thomson and I had just barely reactivated her before I left) and so did Paweł and his wife! I had never met his wife before, they live in Zamość so can't come very often and they have been pretty inactive for a while, but thanks to the diligent work of the Gładuns here in Lublin they were there on Sunday :D It was cool to see everyone again. The Gładuns are happy to have me back, and I am happy to be back, they are soo cool.
Well, I think that is about it for this week. I think the Thawainese members are back from their stay in Taiwan so we should be seeing them soon and working with Grace as a new member :D I am really excited for it.
Thanks for reading
-Starszy Taylor
So Ihad a really cool experience that I didn't have time to write about last week, but I still wanted to share it so here it is. Experience that Elder Allred and I had last Sunday (About 9 days ago). Earlier in the week we had a whiteboard and had gotten a contact and set up a meeting with a nice gentleman and Elder Allred wrote down all of his information into his planner so we could find his house later. On Saturday we had gone out to an activity at a members house about 2 hours away. And it just so happens that Elder Allred forgot his suit coat there, which had his planner in it! So when Sunday came around and it was getting close to the scheduled time we had set up to meet with Rysiek, we did not have his exact address or phone number, simply the street that he lived on. So we decided to go out a little bit early and start tracting the buildings hoping that maybe the Lord would lead us to his home. After walking the street many times and tracting 4 buildings we decided we were not going to find him this way. So we stopped on the side of the road and I said a short prayer asking humbly for the Lords help finding Rysiek. Right after the prayer Elder Allred had the impression that we should walk the street 4 more times, I felt that was a good number as well, so we started down the street. First time, nothing, second time, nothing again, and the third time, nothing, as we were finishing the fourth round we were about to cross the street in defeat and head home. Right at that moment Rysiek rounded the corner on his bike!!! Elder Allred and I just turned to each other in unbelief. We proceeded to have long meeting with him, during which he mostly just talked to us about his immense knowledge of the Bible, he didn't seem very willing to just sit and listen to us and learn something new. We both felt afterwards that that prayer had been answered more for us that for Rysiek. It was a great testimony builder about the power of prayer, and that god is always listening to us.
Church this past Sunday was great too, we had about 10 people come, but the real cool part was that Marlina came (Elder Thomson and I had just barely reactivated her before I left) and so did Paweł and his wife! I had never met his wife before, they live in Zamość so can't come very often and they have been pretty inactive for a while, but thanks to the diligent work of the Gładuns here in Lublin they were there on Sunday :D It was cool to see everyone again. The Gładuns are happy to have me back, and I am happy to be back, they are soo cool.
Well, I think that is about it for this week. I think the Thawainese members are back from their stay in Taiwan so we should be seeing them soon and working with Grace as a new member :D I am really excited for it.
Thanks for reading
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Week 31
I still can not believe how fast time seems to fly by. Well, a TON has happened this past week, it seems like it has been a month. And I was good and wrote a lot of it down so I have stuff to write about today :D
Last Tuesday, we went to a castle :D in a city about an hour and a half away, the inside was way boring...huge...but mostly empty... But the outside was simply amazing. I have posted the pics of the castle here:
Castle At Wałbrzych Pictures
It was way awesome, a super fun p-day. We even went in the elevator and tried going to the lowest floor, which we didn't think it would because it was labeled -2... It did do it though... the doors opened and we were in somekind of tunnel system under the castle!!! It was quite obvious we were not exactly suppose to the be there... but it was way cool anyways. There were also a bunch of kitties running around the grounds :D I got a cool picture with one :)
On our way to zone conference this past week, we were on our 6 hour train... x_x and about 4 hours into our ride, we hit a tractor!!! it was crazy! We thought our train was getting derailed or something. I will post some pics I took of the train a bit later. We were stopped in the middle of no where for like an hour and then finally another train came to get us... changed our 6 hour ride into a 7.5 hour ride... ugh
Also when we were in Warsaw for Zone Conference I stayed the night with the Zone Leaders and once again went searching for my polish notebook that I lost there 5 months ago and look for everytime I am there. Lo and behold I actually found it this time! I was so happy, I felt like a part of me had been found again... yes I know I'm crazy.
At Zone Conference we found out that the church is changing missionary work a little bit more, to focus even more on teaching by the spirit and less by memorized outlines. I am excited because I always felt like I wasn't doing it right when I was always trying to talk about the Restoration, when the investigator clearly had questions about the Plan of Salvation. Hopefully this will work even better than the last system :D We also had the opportunity to hear the dying testimonies of the missionaries going home soon. They were all great but the one that got me the most was Elder Thomson's, my companion from Lublin. He told a story about how he was doing a Temple interview for Jasmine, one of the Taiwanese members in Lublin and that he found out that she had only been baptized a year ago! I was shocked, I thought she had been a member for life. Then he found out that the missionary that baptized her was Elder Thomson's best friend from home who is serving in Taiwan. They both broke down in tears. What a wonderful blessing from the lord to find out about things like that. And then Elder Thomson told us how a girl named Grace, whom Elder Beaty and I taught a few times in Lublin, was going to be baptized soon in Taiwan, with most of her family! At this point I am a wreck, tears of joy streaming down my face, finally someone that I taught, even only a few times, had come to a realization of the truth of the Gospel! It was overwhelming the joy I felt for her and her family, and the gratitude I felt to the Lord for helping everything work out in the end. I gave Elder Thomson a great big hug later after the meeting, he really is a wonderful person, and I am greatful for the time we had together, even if I got frustrated sometimes.
Well, I get the feeling that I have to go soon, but I hope that was a little bit longer than the past couple. I have a lot more stories but no time to tell them right now. We had another miracle on Sunday that maybe I will write about next week if I don't have anything else to write about then :D
Thanks for reading ^_^
-Starszy Taylor
Last Tuesday, we went to a castle :D in a city about an hour and a half away, the inside was way boring...huge...but mostly empty... But the outside was simply amazing. I have posted the pics of the castle here:
Castle At Wałbrzych Pictures
It was way awesome, a super fun p-day. We even went in the elevator and tried going to the lowest floor, which we didn't think it would because it was labeled -2... It did do it though... the doors opened and we were in somekind of tunnel system under the castle!!! It was quite obvious we were not exactly suppose to the be there... but it was way cool anyways. There were also a bunch of kitties running around the grounds :D I got a cool picture with one :)
On our way to zone conference this past week, we were on our 6 hour train... x_x and about 4 hours into our ride, we hit a tractor!!! it was crazy! We thought our train was getting derailed or something. I will post some pics I took of the train a bit later. We were stopped in the middle of no where for like an hour and then finally another train came to get us... changed our 6 hour ride into a 7.5 hour ride... ugh
Also when we were in Warsaw for Zone Conference I stayed the night with the Zone Leaders and once again went searching for my polish notebook that I lost there 5 months ago and look for everytime I am there. Lo and behold I actually found it this time! I was so happy, I felt like a part of me had been found again... yes I know I'm crazy.
At Zone Conference we found out that the church is changing missionary work a little bit more, to focus even more on teaching by the spirit and less by memorized outlines. I am excited because I always felt like I wasn't doing it right when I was always trying to talk about the Restoration, when the investigator clearly had questions about the Plan of Salvation. Hopefully this will work even better than the last system :D We also had the opportunity to hear the dying testimonies of the missionaries going home soon. They were all great but the one that got me the most was Elder Thomson's, my companion from Lublin. He told a story about how he was doing a Temple interview for Jasmine, one of the Taiwanese members in Lublin and that he found out that she had only been baptized a year ago! I was shocked, I thought she had been a member for life. Then he found out that the missionary that baptized her was Elder Thomson's best friend from home who is serving in Taiwan. They both broke down in tears. What a wonderful blessing from the lord to find out about things like that. And then Elder Thomson told us how a girl named Grace, whom Elder Beaty and I taught a few times in Lublin, was going to be baptized soon in Taiwan, with most of her family! At this point I am a wreck, tears of joy streaming down my face, finally someone that I taught, even only a few times, had come to a realization of the truth of the Gospel! It was overwhelming the joy I felt for her and her family, and the gratitude I felt to the Lord for helping everything work out in the end. I gave Elder Thomson a great big hug later after the meeting, he really is a wonderful person, and I am greatful for the time we had together, even if I got frustrated sometimes.
Well, I get the feeling that I have to go soon, but I hope that was a little bit longer than the past couple. I have a lot more stories but no time to tell them right now. We had another miracle on Sunday that maybe I will write about next week if I don't have anything else to write about then :D
Thanks for reading ^_^
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Week 30
I can't believe I have been in the country for 7 months already!!! (Well tomorrow it is 7 months actually...) Time flies by super fast when you are busy all the time!
Well, due to the fact that we are trying to go out and see a Castle today in a city about 2 hours away, I don't have a lot of time today for the Blog, but here is one good thing that happened this week
We finally had some success with some Street Contacting (Different than whiteboard) Elder Allred and I had been doing pretty lame on our contacting so we set some goals to start at 1 each and then add 1 per day after that. (We have been spending a lot of time helping Sister Kimball out in the Family History Center and soon we should be completely redesigning how the finances get done here... it is a mess and Elder Allred and I are going to fix it, with Presidents permission :D) So we went out on Saturday and had not had time the days before to contact because of other stuff so we had to do 20 on Saturday. Elder Allred does not exactly like contacting. So I had to take the initiative to get us out there and going, I contacted 6 before he got his first lol. Eventually around 10 contacts each we finally got someone to stop! He asked if we were Jehovas Witness... and then told us that he was looking for where their address was because he said he would go to church with them on Sunday... We told him we were Mormon but that we knew where an internet cafe was (He needed to check his e-mail for something) so we walked with him accross the Rynek to the internet cafe and there we showed him the church website, and I gave him a Book of Mormon! And we got his number. He actually seems like he has time and isn't rushing life, so I believe he will meet with us :D
We also were able to help with some service the Mission is doing for the Flood victims here in Poland. We were informed that Sister Nielson (Mission Presidents Wife)would be coming down to buy food for people that were in need on the border of Germany. So we got to go out and help load up cart after cart after cart of supplies for them to take out there! I have pictures and one of the members from Warsaw, Dorota, said she would e-mail me more :) It was a lot of fun.
Well, that is it for this week, sorry that the entries keep getting shorter and shorter each week, I will try and have a long one next week, like they use to be lol.
Love you all!
-Starszy Taylor
Well, due to the fact that we are trying to go out and see a Castle today in a city about 2 hours away, I don't have a lot of time today for the Blog, but here is one good thing that happened this week
We finally had some success with some Street Contacting (Different than whiteboard) Elder Allred and I had been doing pretty lame on our contacting so we set some goals to start at 1 each and then add 1 per day after that. (We have been spending a lot of time helping Sister Kimball out in the Family History Center and soon we should be completely redesigning how the finances get done here... it is a mess and Elder Allred and I are going to fix it, with Presidents permission :D) So we went out on Saturday and had not had time the days before to contact because of other stuff so we had to do 20 on Saturday. Elder Allred does not exactly like contacting. So I had to take the initiative to get us out there and going, I contacted 6 before he got his first lol. Eventually around 10 contacts each we finally got someone to stop! He asked if we were Jehovas Witness... and then told us that he was looking for where their address was because he said he would go to church with them on Sunday... We told him we were Mormon but that we knew where an internet cafe was (He needed to check his e-mail for something) so we walked with him accross the Rynek to the internet cafe and there we showed him the church website, and I gave him a Book of Mormon! And we got his number. He actually seems like he has time and isn't rushing life, so I believe he will meet with us :D
We also were able to help with some service the Mission is doing for the Flood victims here in Poland. We were informed that Sister Nielson (Mission Presidents Wife)would be coming down to buy food for people that were in need on the border of Germany. So we got to go out and help load up cart after cart after cart of supplies for them to take out there! I have pictures and one of the members from Warsaw, Dorota, said she would e-mail me more :) It was a lot of fun.
Well, that is it for this week, sorry that the entries keep getting shorter and shorter each week, I will try and have a long one next week, like they use to be lol.
Love you all!
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Week 29
Hello Again everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful week :)
Well I guess I will just start with the sad news... Remember that really cool contact I had last week, with Patryk, who said he wanted a Book of Mormon so he could read it? Well, he never showed up to our meeting :( And when we tried to call him he told us that when he had time he would call us... Sad day huh (Now that I think about it, I may have said that last week...)
As for slightly better news... Last week we were headed out to see if we could meet with an inactive member named Robert. On our way out to where he lives, a decent amount of time away, actually ran into him! We didn't even really know what he looked like, but as we were waiting for a bus to take us a bit further he walked up and said, "Are you going to my house?" We were like "what!?...are you Robert?" He said he was and we got that all sorted out. He told us that he didn't have time to meet right then, but that we could meet on Thursday. We were bummed but had hope for Thursday. Thursday rolled around and at the scheduled time he wasn't there... So we waited...and about 30 mins later he actually showed up!!! I was super excited. We had a nice meeting with him and I think it was good for him to just have someone listen for a while. We are now scheduled to have lunch together each Thursday :D
We also had another pretty good experience this week when we were headed back to our house one night. We were walking by one of the buildings and there was a group of about 4 people standing outside one talking and smoking. One shouted out to us, which is usually a bad sign, but it sounded like he was actually curious and nice. So we went over and they asked us some questions about the church and why we are here. They were pretty nice to us and willing to listen. They also really loved the fact that Elder Allred is from Alaska :) We gave them some information and ended up talking with them for about 45 mins :) It was a nice treat at the end of a day. And an answer to a lot of prayers. They said they would definitely call us so we can talk more, and even if they don't, we walk by them almost every day ;)
I am still playing the piano in Sacrament meeting...ugh...but at least I am learning a new skill :D Talk about magnifying talents sheesh
Well, that is pretty much it for the week. This week we are going to the Calls house about 2 hours away, (The kids you see in my pictures are the Calls) on Saturday, should be a blast :D
Thanks for reading :D
-Starszy Taylor
Well I guess I will just start with the sad news... Remember that really cool contact I had last week, with Patryk, who said he wanted a Book of Mormon so he could read it? Well, he never showed up to our meeting :( And when we tried to call him he told us that when he had time he would call us... Sad day huh (Now that I think about it, I may have said that last week...)
As for slightly better news... Last week we were headed out to see if we could meet with an inactive member named Robert. On our way out to where he lives, a decent amount of time away, actually ran into him! We didn't even really know what he looked like, but as we were waiting for a bus to take us a bit further he walked up and said, "Are you going to my house?" We were like "what!?...are you Robert?" He said he was and we got that all sorted out. He told us that he didn't have time to meet right then, but that we could meet on Thursday. We were bummed but had hope for Thursday. Thursday rolled around and at the scheduled time he wasn't there... So we waited...and about 30 mins later he actually showed up!!! I was super excited. We had a nice meeting with him and I think it was good for him to just have someone listen for a while. We are now scheduled to have lunch together each Thursday :D
We also had another pretty good experience this week when we were headed back to our house one night. We were walking by one of the buildings and there was a group of about 4 people standing outside one talking and smoking. One shouted out to us, which is usually a bad sign, but it sounded like he was actually curious and nice. So we went over and they asked us some questions about the church and why we are here. They were pretty nice to us and willing to listen. They also really loved the fact that Elder Allred is from Alaska :) We gave them some information and ended up talking with them for about 45 mins :) It was a nice treat at the end of a day. And an answer to a lot of prayers. They said they would definitely call us so we can talk more, and even if they don't, we walk by them almost every day ;)
I am still playing the piano in Sacrament meeting...ugh...but at least I am learning a new skill :D Talk about magnifying talents sheesh
Well, that is pretty much it for the week. This week we are going to the Calls house about 2 hours away, (The kids you see in my pictures are the Calls) on Saturday, should be a blast :D
Thanks for reading :D
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Week 28
Whew... with that fiasco last week trying to get the blog posted I feel like I just did this and don't have very much to talk about.
One pretty cool thing did happen this week though. We were doing a whiteboard. It was raining a little bit and so we weren’t really that excited to be outside. Our first question was pretty much a flop, so we decided to change our question to an English invitation. Shortly therafter I had like 3 different people come up to me and ask how long it was free, lol I told them it is always free, they were shocked. Later a guy stopped nearby so I went up and talked to him. He asked a few questions and I told him who we were and why we’re here. I told him a little about the Book of Mormon and he seemed slightly interested. Just before he walked away I handed him a pass along card and invited him to our English class. He left after what was a reather awkward contact. We continued our whiteboard for about another hour with little to no success. Then right before we were leaving the same guy walked by again, I said Hi to him and he shyly came over to me and asked how he could get the book that was on the pass along card. I practically jumped out of my skin... If you have ever seen "The Best Two Years" I was like the older Elder when the guy accepted a committment. I told him we could meet with him and give him one and he replied that that would be great. He told me that he needed the Book so that he could read it! I was super excited and took down his information so I could call later and set up with him.
That was the miracle part.
The sad part is that he didn't show up for the meeting we had set up and when we called him he said that he didn't have time and that "he would call us...". And that right there is the story of my mission thus far, as sad as it is. All you can do is just keep chugging along I guess and hope that someone actually finds 30 minutes in there life to stop and talk to us. Because lets face it, no one is actually THAT busy...
We also went to TGI Fridays this past week :) Yes, we did find one :) I used some of my birthday money to buy a nice meal. Which was the most expensive meal I have bought in Poland. It was like the most expensive thing on the menu actually... like 46 zł!!! That is a lot for a missionary, but when I think about it in dollars it is like 15$!!!!!! Would be like 30+ in the states I think. It was really good...
I also got to see the Gładun's this past week :) They came through Wrocław on their way back to Lublin from their first visit to the Temple :D How great is that :) They are sooooo cool. I love them
We also climbed a tower with about 2.34 billion stairs in it. (jk, it wasn't really that many...but it was A LOT) Got pictures of Wrocław from a great perspective, will upload them soon, perhaps even now, for my poor mother.
Well, I think that is pretty much it for this week. The weather still can't decide if it wants to be cold or hot or humid or rainy...yesterday was hot, today is rainy...weird stuff
Love you all :D
-Starszy Taylor
One pretty cool thing did happen this week though. We were doing a whiteboard. It was raining a little bit and so we weren’t really that excited to be outside. Our first question was pretty much a flop, so we decided to change our question to an English invitation. Shortly therafter I had like 3 different people come up to me and ask how long it was free, lol I told them it is always free, they were shocked. Later a guy stopped nearby so I went up and talked to him. He asked a few questions and I told him who we were and why we’re here. I told him a little about the Book of Mormon and he seemed slightly interested. Just before he walked away I handed him a pass along card and invited him to our English class. He left after what was a reather awkward contact. We continued our whiteboard for about another hour with little to no success. Then right before we were leaving the same guy walked by again, I said Hi to him and he shyly came over to me and asked how he could get the book that was on the pass along card. I practically jumped out of my skin... If you have ever seen "The Best Two Years" I was like the older Elder when the guy accepted a committment. I told him we could meet with him and give him one and he replied that that would be great. He told me that he needed the Book so that he could read it! I was super excited and took down his information so I could call later and set up with him.
That was the miracle part.
The sad part is that he didn't show up for the meeting we had set up and when we called him he said that he didn't have time and that "he would call us...". And that right there is the story of my mission thus far, as sad as it is. All you can do is just keep chugging along I guess and hope that someone actually finds 30 minutes in there life to stop and talk to us. Because lets face it, no one is actually THAT busy...
We also went to TGI Fridays this past week :) Yes, we did find one :) I used some of my birthday money to buy a nice meal. Which was the most expensive meal I have bought in Poland. It was like the most expensive thing on the menu actually... like 46 zł!!! That is a lot for a missionary, but when I think about it in dollars it is like 15$!!!!!! Would be like 30+ in the states I think. It was really good...
I also got to see the Gładun's this past week :) They came through Wrocław on their way back to Lublin from their first visit to the Temple :D How great is that :) They are sooooo cool. I love them
We also climbed a tower with about 2.34 billion stairs in it. (jk, it wasn't really that many...but it was A LOT) Got pictures of Wrocław from a great perspective, will upload them soon, perhaps even now, for my poor mother.
Well, I think that is pretty much it for this week. The weather still can't decide if it wants to be cold or hot or humid or rainy...yesterday was hot, today is rainy...weird stuff
Love you all :D
-Starszy Taylor
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Week 27
Sorry it is late everyone, had some internet issues on our end here, but it is all fixed again :D Don't worry nothing bad happened :)
Again, not much to report back on this week, lots of finding going on, still. But we did hav some fun stuff happen this week. It was Elder Holden's Birthday this past week. When we went out to Pizza Hut for dinner we had just finished eating and low and behold and missionary from 5 years ago notices us and comes over with his family! It was cool talking to them, what are the odds they would be able to find us in such a large city. They had met the new mission president when they were at Auschwitz earlier in the week and the AP's had told them that there were no missionaries in Wrocław...The Dad must have pronounced it wrong or something... because we are definitely here... It was cool seeing them. Later that night on mine and Elder Allred's way home we were sitting at the tramwaj stop waiting and this old lady comes and sits down next to me. I had our left over pizza in my hands and I offered some to her. She didn't look like she was in good shape. She asked if I wanted a cigaratte in return, I politely declined and told her that we are missionaries. As soon as she realized what I was talking about she just took off. It just goes to show how closed the people are here most of the time.
On thursday we had a meeting with the Shin family. They are from Korea, the kids (16 year old daughter, and 9 year old boy) both speak great polish and Korean and can understand English. But the poor mother, she speaks this interesting blend of polish and english. It makes it really interesting when trying to communicate because we don't know if we should speak in polish or in English. They were great, we stayed and built lego's with them after lunch. They are great, and so nice to us. Then we headed back to the chapel and helped Sister Kimball out with some stuff on the computer, which I am always so willing to help with ;)
Saturday we helped Sister Kimball get all of her stuff to the Dworzec for her train to Szczyrk (ya try and pronounce that one ;) for the YSA Activity they have this week. Luckily the weather wasn't too bad that day and the train wasn't rerouted or late or anything like that. Back to the weather though... We just went through a heat wave here where it got suuuuper hot. Then the next day it poured rain and cooled off a lot! It has been raining for like 4 days now, but today the sun is out and it isn't too hot. It has been really crazy weather, never seen anything like it. There really isn't a nice happy medium that is stays at here, its really weird. I also called someone that had stopped us on the street earlier in the week and asked if we could set up with him. He said that he would be in church on sunday :D so I just said we would talk about it then.
Sunday rolled around, Stanisław didn't (that was the guy I called) hopefully he is okay, he is pretty old and apparently has come to church before so...we'll see. The openning prayer for Sacrament Meeting was given by 8 year old Cynthia Call, so I don't wanna hear any complaining out of you guys back home when you are asked to give a prayer in Sacrament Meeting :P And yes, I played the hymns again, and will probably do it again this week. The Branch President here said to me "If I keep forgetting to do those CD's you are going to get really good at playing the piano!" lol...
Well, that is pretty much it, I hope it was longer than last weeks... I had to type this one up in a text document because the internet is currently down...so hopefully it comes back up soon so I can post it :D
Love you all!
-Starszy Taylor
Again, not much to report back on this week, lots of finding going on, still. But we did hav some fun stuff happen this week. It was Elder Holden's Birthday this past week. When we went out to Pizza Hut for dinner we had just finished eating and low and behold and missionary from 5 years ago notices us and comes over with his family! It was cool talking to them, what are the odds they would be able to find us in such a large city. They had met the new mission president when they were at Auschwitz earlier in the week and the AP's had told them that there were no missionaries in Wrocław...The Dad must have pronounced it wrong or something... because we are definitely here... It was cool seeing them. Later that night on mine and Elder Allred's way home we were sitting at the tramwaj stop waiting and this old lady comes and sits down next to me. I had our left over pizza in my hands and I offered some to her. She didn't look like she was in good shape. She asked if I wanted a cigaratte in return, I politely declined and told her that we are missionaries. As soon as she realized what I was talking about she just took off. It just goes to show how closed the people are here most of the time.
On thursday we had a meeting with the Shin family. They are from Korea, the kids (16 year old daughter, and 9 year old boy) both speak great polish and Korean and can understand English. But the poor mother, she speaks this interesting blend of polish and english. It makes it really interesting when trying to communicate because we don't know if we should speak in polish or in English. They were great, we stayed and built lego's with them after lunch. They are great, and so nice to us. Then we headed back to the chapel and helped Sister Kimball out with some stuff on the computer, which I am always so willing to help with ;)
Saturday we helped Sister Kimball get all of her stuff to the Dworzec for her train to Szczyrk (ya try and pronounce that one ;) for the YSA Activity they have this week. Luckily the weather wasn't too bad that day and the train wasn't rerouted or late or anything like that. Back to the weather though... We just went through a heat wave here where it got suuuuper hot. Then the next day it poured rain and cooled off a lot! It has been raining for like 4 days now, but today the sun is out and it isn't too hot. It has been really crazy weather, never seen anything like it. There really isn't a nice happy medium that is stays at here, its really weird. I also called someone that had stopped us on the street earlier in the week and asked if we could set up with him. He said that he would be in church on sunday :D so I just said we would talk about it then.
Sunday rolled around, Stanisław didn't (that was the guy I called) hopefully he is okay, he is pretty old and apparently has come to church before so...we'll see. The openning prayer for Sacrament Meeting was given by 8 year old Cynthia Call, so I don't wanna hear any complaining out of you guys back home when you are asked to give a prayer in Sacrament Meeting :P And yes, I played the hymns again, and will probably do it again this week. The Branch President here said to me "If I keep forgetting to do those CD's you are going to get really good at playing the piano!" lol...
Well, that is pretty much it, I hope it was longer than last weeks... I had to type this one up in a text document because the internet is currently down...so hopefully it comes back up soon so I can post it :D
Love you all!
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Week 26
Well there is another week come and gone, just like that, I can't believe how fast everything goes by when you are out on a mission.
Again, we have spent pretty much all our time searching, and looking, and have not had many opportunities to teach other than our short little lessons we sometimes try to teach to people on the street who seem interested.
So not a whole lot to report about this week, we did have Zone Conference on Friday, that was great. It was our first one with the new mission president. I like him a lot, I think he is great and as much as I loved President Engbjerg, it is nice to have an American mission President. We talked a lot about how the whole mission is in a state of finding right now and that we really need to do our best to find those who are searching. It can be pretty tricky sometimes, especially when it seems like everyone hates us and doesn't want anything to do with us. On the bright side, it has cooled off a bit here.
On Saturday we did have a Culture night with Sister Kimball, we went over to the fountain by our house out in Biskupin and watched the fountain show that they have there at the beginning of every hour. It was raining too, and we didn't have umbrellas so it was an adventure. I took lots of pictures for you Mom, don't worry, and I posted pictures too!
Well, I will try to write some stuff down this week that we do so that I will have more to talk about next week!
Thanks for reading!
-Starszy Taylor
Again, we have spent pretty much all our time searching, and looking, and have not had many opportunities to teach other than our short little lessons we sometimes try to teach to people on the street who seem interested.
So not a whole lot to report about this week, we did have Zone Conference on Friday, that was great. It was our first one with the new mission president. I like him a lot, I think he is great and as much as I loved President Engbjerg, it is nice to have an American mission President. We talked a lot about how the whole mission is in a state of finding right now and that we really need to do our best to find those who are searching. It can be pretty tricky sometimes, especially when it seems like everyone hates us and doesn't want anything to do with us. On the bright side, it has cooled off a bit here.
On Saturday we did have a Culture night with Sister Kimball, we went over to the fountain by our house out in Biskupin and watched the fountain show that they have there at the beginning of every hour. It was raining too, and we didn't have umbrellas so it was an adventure. I took lots of pictures for you Mom, don't worry, and I posted pictures too!
Well, I will try to write some stuff down this week that we do so that I will have more to talk about next week!
Thanks for reading!
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Week 25
I can't believe I am already about 8 months into my mission!!! In this wonderful country already for 6 months! It goes by so fast! But that probably has a lot to do with the fact that in those 6 months I have had 5 companions!!!Holy Smokes, And I probably won't be staying with Elder Allred after this transfer because the other 2 missionaries here are dying (going home) at the end of this transfer, So the most likely thing to happen will be that me and Elder Allred stay here and get new companions, and one of us will most likely get a trainee! Since I heard there are 9 coming in and then 2 months later 11!!! Holy Cow! We will finally be at mission quota instead of a major deficit right now.
So this week has been....HOT...
about 35 degrees Celsius... which is about 95 degrees F!!! And the humidity is terrible! I am sweating all day and there is nothing you can really do to cool off because Airconditioning is essential non existent in this country... Except we kind of have it in the Chapel, so we tend to spend a lot of free time there, helping out with the Family History Center, since Sister Kimball cannot speak Polish. We try to do some whiteboards but it is sooooooooo hot outside we can barely stand it. We are still always looking for people to teach, most of my mission has been finding, and not teaching. Missionaries who go to places where there are lots of members are so lucky because they get tons of referals and rarely have to go contacting, or tracting, and they probably don't even know what a whiteboard is! lol. It is so amazing to me how different missions can be, even between mission presidents. We have a Zone Conference this Friday, the first one with President Nielson.
More stories about lessons have been requested, and I would love to talk about all the lessons we teach each week, the only problem is that we don't teach tons of lessons each week... When Elder Allred and I got here in Wrocław, we were both new to the city and the previous missionaries here did not have any investigators when they left. So we came into to essentially nothing. Almost all of our time has been spent talking to people, trying to get them to set up with us, and occasionally we find someone who will set up with us, we show up and wait...and wait...and wait... until we realize they are not coming. However, occasionally the Lord does bless us with a miracle. Like the lesson with the Korean last Sunday! Well this week, we got a call from the member, his name is Aaron, who said he had found someone at the Train Station who would like to meet with us! Amazing how the Lord will require you to work so hard, see so little come from it, and then all of a sudden someone you just met a week earlier, who speaks no Polish calls up and says he has an appointment for us! We were suppose to meet yesterday, but something came up on his end and he called to let us know, we are rescheduled for later this week. More on that next week! Pray for those who are searching for the truth to be able to find us here in Poland, we search, but it is so hard to find them, so pray for them to be able to find us! They need all they help they can get!
Well, I think that about sums it up this week. I sure hope it cools off soon... It is so hot even at night that I can't sleep under anything... And for anyone who knows how I sleep, that is really odd, and a testiment to how hot it really is here...
Thanks for reading!
-Szczery
-Starszy Taylor
So this week has been....HOT...
about 35 degrees Celsius... which is about 95 degrees F!!! And the humidity is terrible! I am sweating all day and there is nothing you can really do to cool off because Airconditioning is essential non existent in this country... Except we kind of have it in the Chapel, so we tend to spend a lot of free time there, helping out with the Family History Center, since Sister Kimball cannot speak Polish. We try to do some whiteboards but it is sooooooooo hot outside we can barely stand it. We are still always looking for people to teach, most of my mission has been finding, and not teaching. Missionaries who go to places where there are lots of members are so lucky because they get tons of referals and rarely have to go contacting, or tracting, and they probably don't even know what a whiteboard is! lol. It is so amazing to me how different missions can be, even between mission presidents. We have a Zone Conference this Friday, the first one with President Nielson.
More stories about lessons have been requested, and I would love to talk about all the lessons we teach each week, the only problem is that we don't teach tons of lessons each week... When Elder Allred and I got here in Wrocław, we were both new to the city and the previous missionaries here did not have any investigators when they left. So we came into to essentially nothing. Almost all of our time has been spent talking to people, trying to get them to set up with us, and occasionally we find someone who will set up with us, we show up and wait...and wait...and wait... until we realize they are not coming. However, occasionally the Lord does bless us with a miracle. Like the lesson with the Korean last Sunday! Well this week, we got a call from the member, his name is Aaron, who said he had found someone at the Train Station who would like to meet with us! Amazing how the Lord will require you to work so hard, see so little come from it, and then all of a sudden someone you just met a week earlier, who speaks no Polish calls up and says he has an appointment for us! We were suppose to meet yesterday, but something came up on his end and he called to let us know, we are rescheduled for later this week. More on that next week! Pray for those who are searching for the truth to be able to find us here in Poland, we search, but it is so hard to find them, so pray for them to be able to find us! They need all they help they can get!
Well, I think that about sums it up this week. I sure hope it cools off soon... It is so hot even at night that I can't sleep under anything... And for anyone who knows how I sleep, that is really odd, and a testiment to how hot it really is here...
Thanks for reading!
-Szczery
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Week 24
We just met the new Mission President! We had interviews this morning and we were able to eat lunch with him as well. He is a great guy and I can already tell he loves us as the missionaries and the polish people as well. I am greatly looking forward to having him as our new Mission President.
This week has been really fast. I can't believe I have already been here in Wrocław for almost 2 weeks now! Elder Allred and I get along great. We finally found time this past week to really clean up our apartment, it has just been really hectic here because we don't spend a lot of time at home because it is so far away. By far away I mean at the end of the tramwaj line. It takes roughly an hour to get from our door to the chapel door. So a lot of the time we find ourselves staying at the other apartment here with the other Elders, who live much closer. We have been doing lots of contacting as well, lots of whiteboards which is great.
We had set up a couple meetings this past week, but all of them flaked on us... (didn't show up) but then on Sunday we had a miracle! Randomly at the beginning of church these two asian guys show up in normal clothes for church. We happily invite them in and get to talking, well, Elder Allred did because I was stuck behind the piano playing some prelude music. (Yes I did have to play in Church again, but I had a little time to practice this week and I didn't make any mistakes through 3 songs all with 3 verses! I was so happy and so nervous) He found out that they were Korean and that one of them was a member who served his mission in New York, and so he spoke English. His friend with him only speaks Korean so all the communicating we did with him was through his friend. They stayed for fast and testimony meeting, which was great. The Member bore his Testimony, and told us a story of how his sister barely missed being victim of a recent terrorist attack in Korea. It was a touching story. After Sacrament meeting we had the opportunity to watch the Restoration with them both. Bless the member, he was able to translate the English copy we had into Korean in real time so that his friend, who seems to be pretty interested could understand. Afterwards we bore our testimonies and explained a bit more about the Book of Mormon. When we asked if we could give him one he practically jumped out of his seat! He was so surprised that we would be willing to give it to him for free! And in Korean too! Unfortunately we didn't have a copy in Korean at the Chapel so we gave him an English one, which he was also just as grateful for, we will be getting a Korean copy soon. It was so amazing how Heavenly Father blessed us like that, even though the appointments we did have flaked us we were still able to teach someone!
English is also starting this week and we hope to have a lot of people show up for that! Sister Kimball is so great, she doesn't speak much polish so the people she speaks to usually communicate in broken English and she always invites them to our English class, so hopefully we have a lot come since we are just starting it this Thursday. On Whiteboards yesterday I really noticed that I can actually communicate with people here! I can understand most of what people are saying to me, and I can say what I want and I am getting to the point where it makes more sense to say it in Polish than in English. Occasionally I have to pray in English, and it is always so weird, I feel more comfortable praying in Polish now, its great! I know that Heavenly Father is really blessing me with the Gift of Tongues! How else could I possibly pick up a new language in just 6 short months!? I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn a new language, it is such an amazing experience.
Well, I think that is pretty much it for this week. We haven't been teaching a lot, been spending all our time looking for people who will let us teach them, which actually seems to be pretty hard here in Wrocław. We are trying though, and I know that as we keep trying the Lord will bless us with people who are prepared to receive the full Gospel.
Until Next week!
-Starszy Taylor
This week has been really fast. I can't believe I have already been here in Wrocław for almost 2 weeks now! Elder Allred and I get along great. We finally found time this past week to really clean up our apartment, it has just been really hectic here because we don't spend a lot of time at home because it is so far away. By far away I mean at the end of the tramwaj line. It takes roughly an hour to get from our door to the chapel door. So a lot of the time we find ourselves staying at the other apartment here with the other Elders, who live much closer. We have been doing lots of contacting as well, lots of whiteboards which is great.
We had set up a couple meetings this past week, but all of them flaked on us... (didn't show up) but then on Sunday we had a miracle! Randomly at the beginning of church these two asian guys show up in normal clothes for church. We happily invite them in and get to talking, well, Elder Allred did because I was stuck behind the piano playing some prelude music. (Yes I did have to play in Church again, but I had a little time to practice this week and I didn't make any mistakes through 3 songs all with 3 verses! I was so happy and so nervous) He found out that they were Korean and that one of them was a member who served his mission in New York, and so he spoke English. His friend with him only speaks Korean so all the communicating we did with him was through his friend. They stayed for fast and testimony meeting, which was great. The Member bore his Testimony, and told us a story of how his sister barely missed being victim of a recent terrorist attack in Korea. It was a touching story. After Sacrament meeting we had the opportunity to watch the Restoration with them both. Bless the member, he was able to translate the English copy we had into Korean in real time so that his friend, who seems to be pretty interested could understand. Afterwards we bore our testimonies and explained a bit more about the Book of Mormon. When we asked if we could give him one he practically jumped out of his seat! He was so surprised that we would be willing to give it to him for free! And in Korean too! Unfortunately we didn't have a copy in Korean at the Chapel so we gave him an English one, which he was also just as grateful for, we will be getting a Korean copy soon. It was so amazing how Heavenly Father blessed us like that, even though the appointments we did have flaked us we were still able to teach someone!
English is also starting this week and we hope to have a lot of people show up for that! Sister Kimball is so great, she doesn't speak much polish so the people she speaks to usually communicate in broken English and she always invites them to our English class, so hopefully we have a lot come since we are just starting it this Thursday. On Whiteboards yesterday I really noticed that I can actually communicate with people here! I can understand most of what people are saying to me, and I can say what I want and I am getting to the point where it makes more sense to say it in Polish than in English. Occasionally I have to pray in English, and it is always so weird, I feel more comfortable praying in Polish now, its great! I know that Heavenly Father is really blessing me with the Gift of Tongues! How else could I possibly pick up a new language in just 6 short months!? I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn a new language, it is such an amazing experience.
Well, I think that is pretty much it for this week. We haven't been teaching a lot, been spending all our time looking for people who will let us teach them, which actually seems to be pretty hard here in Wrocław. We are trying though, and I know that as we keep trying the Lord will bless us with people who are prepared to receive the full Gospel.
Until Next week!
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Week 23
It is so amazing to me how much can happen in a week, how fast it can go by, and then looking back on it seems like forever ago...
Well, this past week I was transfered to Wrocław to be companions with Elder Allred! It was hard to say goodbye to Poznań and the members there, they are fantastic. I was also super sad to have to leave just before the sisters were going to have a baptism! Elder Contor has told me how great the baptism went! Oh how I wish I could have been there... such is a mission. I was able to say goodbye to some people which was nice. I was so sad that I didn't break the Contor Curse... He has never had a companion longer than one transfer...Until now! But it is weird cause he is going back with an old companion... oh well. I really do like it here in Wrocław though. We have a much larger branch here, it has about 15-20 people. Which is super nice because for the past 5 months I have been in church with less than 8 people...lol, and I have also had to do a bunch of stuff each sunday... I was expecting a bit of a break this sunday... Silly me...
Right before Sacrament Meeting was going to start the Branch President came over to me and Elder Allred and asked us if we played the piano... I don't know what came over me... but I said I played a little bit... Now for the background on my Piano playing "career"... When I was little my parents diligently tried to get me to go to Piano lessons, and practice at home. I did for a while, but eventually refused to go, I didn't like practicing... years went by, occasionally I would hear a song I liked and try and relearn how to read music so I could pick out a few notes here and there. I also played Percussion in Elementary School and Junior High, so I had a bit of music reading practice there too, but again...I didn't practice. Since being on my mission I have found time occasionally to try and pick out some songs on the piano. First in Kielce, then a bit in Lublin. In Poznań, for some reason, I was doing it more...Sister LeFevre was also doing it a bit. I was suddenly able to read the top line of a song and sight read it!!!! Holy Smokes how the crap did that happen....so ya... Sunday came around and as I said before, I told him I could play a little bit. "Great" he said (He speaks English too) "would you be willing to play for us today in Sacrament meeting, it is you or nothing." I should have said no... But I did it. I played the piano in Sacrament meeting for the first time ever! Aren't you so proud Mom and Dad :) all those lessons weren't for nothing! Never thought I would play the piano in church... It went...alright... I had to sight read 2 of the songs...had never played them before then...that was scarry... The members were really patient and grateful :D The Branch President told them it was my first time playing in Sacrament meeting.
Monday we did a Whiteboard, which was fun, always is...I swear I attract the crazy people or something... It is also always great fun when someone tells you "Your Wasting your time, we don't need your help, go home" All you can do is keep smiling :D Family Home Evening was great though! There is a really cool member here named Adam :D He is in charge of Activities in the branch. We also had the Korean Family come to FHE :D They have a daughter and a Son who is 9. He is so funny. The Dad was at work so he couldn't come. Sister Kimball (She is an Elderly Sister who is serving here in the Family History Center) Cooked Chicken Enchiladas for us!!! They were really yummy! At the end of FHE I was teaching the boy how to do a handstand! In Polish! I am so happy to be around kids again! this branch has quite a few! He picked up pretty quick :D I really like it here.
Haven't had any meetings with investigators yet, Elder Allred and I are still trying to figure out where stuff is here... We both are new to the city, so we have been spending a lot of time getting use to everything. We also live really far away... sad day. The weather is great here! Short sleeves are on and the sun is Shining :D Hopefully we can get out contacting soon and find some really cool investigators! I am excited to finally have a normal companion who isn't also Branch President. I should probably be staying in this city for a while too :D I may very well train here! When the next group of Elders come in (They are in the MTC now) there will be 9 of them! Which means that only 4 Missionaries will not train this next transfer! How crazy is that! Well, that is pretty much it for this week. I love you all!
-Starszy Taylor
Well, this past week I was transfered to Wrocław to be companions with Elder Allred! It was hard to say goodbye to Poznań and the members there, they are fantastic. I was also super sad to have to leave just before the sisters were going to have a baptism! Elder Contor has told me how great the baptism went! Oh how I wish I could have been there... such is a mission. I was able to say goodbye to some people which was nice. I was so sad that I didn't break the Contor Curse... He has never had a companion longer than one transfer...Until now! But it is weird cause he is going back with an old companion... oh well. I really do like it here in Wrocław though. We have a much larger branch here, it has about 15-20 people. Which is super nice because for the past 5 months I have been in church with less than 8 people...lol, and I have also had to do a bunch of stuff each sunday... I was expecting a bit of a break this sunday... Silly me...
Right before Sacrament Meeting was going to start the Branch President came over to me and Elder Allred and asked us if we played the piano... I don't know what came over me... but I said I played a little bit... Now for the background on my Piano playing "career"... When I was little my parents diligently tried to get me to go to Piano lessons, and practice at home. I did for a while, but eventually refused to go, I didn't like practicing... years went by, occasionally I would hear a song I liked and try and relearn how to read music so I could pick out a few notes here and there. I also played Percussion in Elementary School and Junior High, so I had a bit of music reading practice there too, but again...I didn't practice. Since being on my mission I have found time occasionally to try and pick out some songs on the piano. First in Kielce, then a bit in Lublin. In Poznań, for some reason, I was doing it more...Sister LeFevre was also doing it a bit. I was suddenly able to read the top line of a song and sight read it!!!! Holy Smokes how the crap did that happen....so ya... Sunday came around and as I said before, I told him I could play a little bit. "Great" he said (He speaks English too) "would you be willing to play for us today in Sacrament meeting, it is you or nothing." I should have said no... But I did it. I played the piano in Sacrament meeting for the first time ever! Aren't you so proud Mom and Dad :) all those lessons weren't for nothing! Never thought I would play the piano in church... It went...alright... I had to sight read 2 of the songs...had never played them before then...that was scarry... The members were really patient and grateful :D The Branch President told them it was my first time playing in Sacrament meeting.
Monday we did a Whiteboard, which was fun, always is...I swear I attract the crazy people or something... It is also always great fun when someone tells you "Your Wasting your time, we don't need your help, go home" All you can do is keep smiling :D Family Home Evening was great though! There is a really cool member here named Adam :D He is in charge of Activities in the branch. We also had the Korean Family come to FHE :D They have a daughter and a Son who is 9. He is so funny. The Dad was at work so he couldn't come. Sister Kimball (She is an Elderly Sister who is serving here in the Family History Center) Cooked Chicken Enchiladas for us!!! They were really yummy! At the end of FHE I was teaching the boy how to do a handstand! In Polish! I am so happy to be around kids again! this branch has quite a few! He picked up pretty quick :D I really like it here.
Haven't had any meetings with investigators yet, Elder Allred and I are still trying to figure out where stuff is here... We both are new to the city, so we have been spending a lot of time getting use to everything. We also live really far away... sad day. The weather is great here! Short sleeves are on and the sun is Shining :D Hopefully we can get out contacting soon and find some really cool investigators! I am excited to finally have a normal companion who isn't also Branch President. I should probably be staying in this city for a while too :D I may very well train here! When the next group of Elders come in (They are in the MTC now) there will be 9 of them! Which means that only 4 Missionaries will not train this next transfer! How crazy is that! Well, that is pretty much it for this week. I love you all!
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Week 22
Whew...as usual...don't have much time! Guess that has kinda been something you all have gotten use to by now lol
Okay...So, last monday I went on an Exchange with Elder Tribe, who is a zone leader in the zone, but only 1 group ahead of mine. He is so cool and tons of fun to be around and a great missionary. I went out there to Bydgoszcz and we had some meetings and then passed out a lot of English flyers! Came back the next day in the Morning for a crazy P-Day in Poznań because the Elders from Wrocław and the Zone leaders came in for the day! We had lots of fun and played some sports in the park. The only problem was the bugs.... never have I seen so many... It was like playing in fog...of bugs...disgusting... But the sports were fun!
We have also done a lot of whiteboarding this week! Which is great because it is by far my favorite contacting method! We always whiteboard with the Sisters, they are great! So dedicated and brave. I have never seen anyone contact like Sister Spear, she truly has no fear and will contact anyone no matter how awkward I think it would be. She is great. Sister LeFevre is fantastic too, both are super funny and we laugh all day long. It is such a step up from serving along in a city with just your companion, which can get really boring even if you are the best of friends.
On Thursday the weather finally worked out and we were going to FINALLY go try and have our sports Thursday! We changed our clothes and headed out with the Basketball and Volleyball. After walking for about 20-25 minutes we arrived at the park....only to find it completely under water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes...the entire park was flooded... If you don't know Poland has had a ton of really weird rain lately and for a couple weeks now everyone has been on Flood Warning and the river is practically over flowing! I was absoutely crushed that the park was flooded and we then had no where to play sports. On the way back we passed an indoor pool! ...and no we didn't go swimming lol, but we did go in and see if we could reserve it for the Baptism the sisters have on the 26th! They have been teaching Marta for about a month and she is so ready! Practically teaching herself the lessons! She is a miracle, and exactly what the church needs here in Poland. On Monday she had her Baptismal interview and will be baptized this Saturday by Elder Contor! He is super nervous :) I am super sad though because I will be leaving Poznań before then though :( And even worse, so will Sister LeFevre... ;_; We found out Transfers today! And I will being going to Wrocław! To be companions with Elder Allred! In a District with my trainer Elder Anderton! It should be a super fun transfer! I just hope it lasts a lot longer than this last 4 week one... I can't believe I have to pack again...
This week Elder Contor and I have been handing out literally hundreds of Free English flyers. It is so funny handing them out because everyone automatically says no when we start talking to them, and then they pause turn around and take the flyer after they realize we just told them we teach a FREE (Bezpłatny) English Class... it is really funny :D We better have a ton of people in English tonight!
On Sunday I had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting on Diligence. I used the story of Job, talk about a rough life and never giving up... shoot. Then later on Sunday we did another English Whiteboard, and more flyers! Right at the beginning we had these 2 either crazy or drunk (or both) guys stop and talk to us. They were funny, I took them aside and was talking to them so they wouldn't scare off anyone else that stopped to talk to us. They were crazy... and Polish people are notorious for being able to pull alcohol out of no where, and so he did. He tried to get me to drink it, thinking he was being really nice as a friend or something. I explained to him that we don't smoke or drink, they both shook my hand and told me I was a great man...lol. Then two girls walked past, who weren't exactly modestly dressed, I saw both of their eyes lock on them and they started muttering things between themselves. I knew what was going on so I firmly told them "Bądź Miły!!!" They both snapped to attention and looked right at me and said "Jesteśmy Miły" I thought it was funny. They respect us a lot and like us, One of them started cussing in English and Polish and I told him to stop that too, they were shocked at how high our standards were and kept shaking my hand and bowing their heads. They were really goofy, like 2 stooges really. Well that is my funny story of the week :D
Everything is going pretty good, sad I am leaving but always excited to get to know a new city... But this is the second time in a row I have only used 3 weeks out of my month on my bus pass...grrrr. Oh well
Thanks for reading :D
-Starszy Taylor
Okay...So, last monday I went on an Exchange with Elder Tribe, who is a zone leader in the zone, but only 1 group ahead of mine. He is so cool and tons of fun to be around and a great missionary. I went out there to Bydgoszcz and we had some meetings and then passed out a lot of English flyers! Came back the next day in the Morning for a crazy P-Day in Poznań because the Elders from Wrocław and the Zone leaders came in for the day! We had lots of fun and played some sports in the park. The only problem was the bugs.... never have I seen so many... It was like playing in fog...of bugs...disgusting... But the sports were fun!
We have also done a lot of whiteboarding this week! Which is great because it is by far my favorite contacting method! We always whiteboard with the Sisters, they are great! So dedicated and brave. I have never seen anyone contact like Sister Spear, she truly has no fear and will contact anyone no matter how awkward I think it would be. She is great. Sister LeFevre is fantastic too, both are super funny and we laugh all day long. It is such a step up from serving along in a city with just your companion, which can get really boring even if you are the best of friends.
On Thursday the weather finally worked out and we were going to FINALLY go try and have our sports Thursday! We changed our clothes and headed out with the Basketball and Volleyball. After walking for about 20-25 minutes we arrived at the park....only to find it completely under water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes...the entire park was flooded... If you don't know Poland has had a ton of really weird rain lately and for a couple weeks now everyone has been on Flood Warning and the river is practically over flowing! I was absoutely crushed that the park was flooded and we then had no where to play sports. On the way back we passed an indoor pool! ...and no we didn't go swimming lol, but we did go in and see if we could reserve it for the Baptism the sisters have on the 26th! They have been teaching Marta for about a month and she is so ready! Practically teaching herself the lessons! She is a miracle, and exactly what the church needs here in Poland. On Monday she had her Baptismal interview and will be baptized this Saturday by Elder Contor! He is super nervous :) I am super sad though because I will be leaving Poznań before then though :( And even worse, so will Sister LeFevre... ;_; We found out Transfers today! And I will being going to Wrocław! To be companions with Elder Allred! In a District with my trainer Elder Anderton! It should be a super fun transfer! I just hope it lasts a lot longer than this last 4 week one... I can't believe I have to pack again...
This week Elder Contor and I have been handing out literally hundreds of Free English flyers. It is so funny handing them out because everyone automatically says no when we start talking to them, and then they pause turn around and take the flyer after they realize we just told them we teach a FREE (Bezpłatny) English Class... it is really funny :D We better have a ton of people in English tonight!
On Sunday I had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting on Diligence. I used the story of Job, talk about a rough life and never giving up... shoot. Then later on Sunday we did another English Whiteboard, and more flyers! Right at the beginning we had these 2 either crazy or drunk (or both) guys stop and talk to us. They were funny, I took them aside and was talking to them so they wouldn't scare off anyone else that stopped to talk to us. They were crazy... and Polish people are notorious for being able to pull alcohol out of no where, and so he did. He tried to get me to drink it, thinking he was being really nice as a friend or something. I explained to him that we don't smoke or drink, they both shook my hand and told me I was a great man...lol. Then two girls walked past, who weren't exactly modestly dressed, I saw both of their eyes lock on them and they started muttering things between themselves. I knew what was going on so I firmly told them "Bądź Miły!!!" They both snapped to attention and looked right at me and said "Jesteśmy Miły" I thought it was funny. They respect us a lot and like us, One of them started cussing in English and Polish and I told him to stop that too, they were shocked at how high our standards were and kept shaking my hand and bowing their heads. They were really goofy, like 2 stooges really. Well that is my funny story of the week :D
Everything is going pretty good, sad I am leaving but always excited to get to know a new city... But this is the second time in a row I have only used 3 weeks out of my month on my bus pass...grrrr. Oh well
Thanks for reading :D
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Week 21
Holy Smokes another week past just like that.
This past week really is just a blur it happened so fast! On wednesday we helped Clean up the chapel after the new floor was done being installed. We were really happy to finally have it finished and not smelling like rotting wood in the chapel... Then we had a lot of other Branch President stuff we had to take care of at the chapel so we spent a lot of our day there, cleaning and organizing everything for Sunday when we would have Branch Conference and coincidence would have it that we would have the entire mission presidency there with us.
Thursday we were finally going to have a sports day!!! And then the sisters forgot their sports clothes! And no one showed up anyways ;_; sad day. We also had our regularly scheduled meeting with Bożena on Thursday. She is so fun and somehow finds a way to stay happy even though she has such a hard life. She has to have dialasis every other day... But she is always so fun and happy. It is always wonderful to go visit with her.
Friday we had some lessons and they went okay, again only with members. I have not yet had a lesson with an investigator since being in Poznań... I blame the fact that we spend so much time doing Branch President work, like I have done my entire mission... It would be nice to have a normal companion that isn't also Branch President... they are always so stressed out. Later we went out looking for a place we had been told about where we could rent bikes for "free". We found it, then discovered it was not free, but 5 zł which is about 1.50$ so still really cheap but...not free :( We had an activity planned for Saturday to go on a Branch Bike ride, so we needed to scout it out and plan it a bit more. We decided to rent the bikes for a bit and explore, see where we could go. Saw some cool places, it was really nice to finally ride a bike on my mission lol. The activity on Saturday of course fell through because no one showed up... The branch has a unity problem here... So on Saturday we spent a long time contacting on the street. I am getting better, I can speak just fine, it is just hard to say the first words, always the scariest part.
Sunday we finally had the Branch Conference and all the Leaders showed up and we had pretty good church attendence. The Sisters investigator (who has a baptismal date!!!) Showed up and had a great experience hearing from the church leadership in Poland! After church we had to stick around for some meetings, then later we had a small whiteboard with no whiteboard lol so a no board... just group contacting really, it was fun.
Monday I had an exchange with Elder Tribe in Bydgoszcz, it was fun he is great. And now I am out of time and still have to write my letter to president!!! YIKES!!!
I love you all! We are trying to get 15 baptisms this month as a mission goal before president goes home at the end of the month, pray for us! We need a miracle!
-Starszy Taylor
Thursday - Sports fell through
Friday - Found bike place and rode them
Saturday, activity fell through, contacted instead
Sunday, branch conference
This past week really is just a blur it happened so fast! On wednesday we helped Clean up the chapel after the new floor was done being installed. We were really happy to finally have it finished and not smelling like rotting wood in the chapel... Then we had a lot of other Branch President stuff we had to take care of at the chapel so we spent a lot of our day there, cleaning and organizing everything for Sunday when we would have Branch Conference and coincidence would have it that we would have the entire mission presidency there with us.
Thursday we were finally going to have a sports day!!! And then the sisters forgot their sports clothes! And no one showed up anyways ;_; sad day. We also had our regularly scheduled meeting with Bożena on Thursday. She is so fun and somehow finds a way to stay happy even though she has such a hard life. She has to have dialasis every other day... But she is always so fun and happy. It is always wonderful to go visit with her.
Friday we had some lessons and they went okay, again only with members. I have not yet had a lesson with an investigator since being in Poznań... I blame the fact that we spend so much time doing Branch President work, like I have done my entire mission... It would be nice to have a normal companion that isn't also Branch President... they are always so stressed out. Later we went out looking for a place we had been told about where we could rent bikes for "free". We found it, then discovered it was not free, but 5 zł which is about 1.50$ so still really cheap but...not free :( We had an activity planned for Saturday to go on a Branch Bike ride, so we needed to scout it out and plan it a bit more. We decided to rent the bikes for a bit and explore, see where we could go. Saw some cool places, it was really nice to finally ride a bike on my mission lol. The activity on Saturday of course fell through because no one showed up... The branch has a unity problem here... So on Saturday we spent a long time contacting on the street. I am getting better, I can speak just fine, it is just hard to say the first words, always the scariest part.
Sunday we finally had the Branch Conference and all the Leaders showed up and we had pretty good church attendence. The Sisters investigator (who has a baptismal date!!!) Showed up and had a great experience hearing from the church leadership in Poland! After church we had to stick around for some meetings, then later we had a small whiteboard with no whiteboard lol so a no board... just group contacting really, it was fun.
Monday I had an exchange with Elder Tribe in Bydgoszcz, it was fun he is great. And now I am out of time and still have to write my letter to president!!! YIKES!!!
I love you all! We are trying to get 15 baptisms this month as a mission goal before president goes home at the end of the month, pray for us! We need a miracle!
-Starszy Taylor
Thursday - Sports fell through
Friday - Found bike place and rode them
Saturday, activity fell through, contacted instead
Sunday, branch conference
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Week 20
Holy Smokes! Already on Week 20! And that is just weeks I have been in the country!
This week was fantastic! We had a mission conference, which is like a zone conference but very rare because the whole mission comes together. It was great to see literally everyone. We took a picture which I am almost sure my mother has sent out by now. Then we had some great talks from President Engbjerb and also from Elder Kerr of the Seventy. He is Scottish so he has a great accent, and was very energetic it was great. We had catered lunch and dinner, which never happens, but it was Presidents last mission conference before going home so he spoiled us. After Lunch we had the once in a lifetime opportunity to have a Video Conference between our mission, and Elder Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles!!! It was the first time in history that something like that had ever been done! It was great, we got to talk with him through the churches video chat system, this was the first time it had been done with a mission though. I got a lot of great notes and insights, it was wonderful.
I guess I didn't say much about my new companion Elder Rourk Contor last week so here is some stuff on him. He has a heck of a family tree, between a couple divorces and remarraiges he has 8 siblings and no matter how you slice it he is smack in the middle. He really likes cars and water skiing was also a runner in high school, long distance. He has never had a companion for more than a transfer! So hopefully I will break the cycle and stay here in Poznań. He goes home in December this year. He is a worry worm, lol, but I think being a missionary branch president does that to a lot of people. He also worries about the sisters we have in our district, always making sure they are in safe each night. He is really funny and thus far we get along great. He hates Warsaw, anytime we have to go there we are always the first to leave lol, no one really knows why he doesn't like it so much. He is also a great cook and cooks for me all the time! Any questions? Just e-mail me them :D
We still don't do a lot of teaching here, I think it is a pretty common theme outside of the main cities like Warsaw and Katowice. We spend most of our time finding new people to teach and working with members to strengthen the branch. We have a member here named Wiktor, he was baptized a couple years ago and is a bit younger than me. He is awesome! He speaks perfect English and Polish so we get to learn from him, and he is really funny, he combines english and polish to make stuff funny only to people who are bilingual in the languages, it is really funny. He is great. He plans on going to BYU this next winter semester So we would head to the US in December this year I think. It will really be great for him to see how the church opperates on a much larger scale! And what a strength that will be for when he comes back to Poland!
For all of you who have been telling me about weird weather you have been having listen to this... Yesterday we were out doing a whiteboard and it was nice sunny weather...finally... then about 15 minutes after we had started contacting and trying to talk to people we noticed off to the right that there was a a very ominous looking cloud swell coming right for us... Shortly thereafter the sky darkened... we felt the first drops of rain and new what was coming next. I sprinted for my umbrella, I pushed the button to open it and just as it was popping open this massive wind storm came out of no where, halted the expansion of my ubrella completely... I had to push it open and even then the wind was so strong that it was pushing it half way back down again! By now these huge rain drops are also attacking us at almost horizontal angles. We hopped the wall next to us and ran for cover. The poor sisters with us were having such trouble with their skirts, I felt bad for them but was so grateful that I get to wear pants... Luckily we were able to take shelter under a large building until the storm passed about 25 minutes later. Then the sun came back out and we continued our whiteboard. It was awesome see how even terrible weather like that cannot stop the progression of missionary work, we just toughed it out, then got right back to work, I was impressed with the sisters, they didn't complain at all, just laughed and had fun. Then later in the same day it rained on us again... and then stopped and more blue skies. It is absolutely crazy here!
So ya, our weather in nuts, but it is a nice temperature and not as humid as Japan was, so I can't complain lol. There is a really cool kind of event, marketplace kinda thing, going on in Rynek (main square) this week so we will be heading over there to check it out shortly, then we have a meeting with one of our members baptized last year later. Thanks for all the Birthday Wishes last week! It was really great to hear from everyone :D
I love you all! Always remember to be happy because the sun always rises the next day!
-Starszy Taylor
This week was fantastic! We had a mission conference, which is like a zone conference but very rare because the whole mission comes together. It was great to see literally everyone. We took a picture which I am almost sure my mother has sent out by now. Then we had some great talks from President Engbjerb and also from Elder Kerr of the Seventy. He is Scottish so he has a great accent, and was very energetic it was great. We had catered lunch and dinner, which never happens, but it was Presidents last mission conference before going home so he spoiled us. After Lunch we had the once in a lifetime opportunity to have a Video Conference between our mission, and Elder Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles!!! It was the first time in history that something like that had ever been done! It was great, we got to talk with him through the churches video chat system, this was the first time it had been done with a mission though. I got a lot of great notes and insights, it was wonderful.
I guess I didn't say much about my new companion Elder Rourk Contor last week so here is some stuff on him. He has a heck of a family tree, between a couple divorces and remarraiges he has 8 siblings and no matter how you slice it he is smack in the middle. He really likes cars and water skiing was also a runner in high school, long distance. He has never had a companion for more than a transfer! So hopefully I will break the cycle and stay here in Poznań. He goes home in December this year. He is a worry worm, lol, but I think being a missionary branch president does that to a lot of people. He also worries about the sisters we have in our district, always making sure they are in safe each night. He is really funny and thus far we get along great. He hates Warsaw, anytime we have to go there we are always the first to leave lol, no one really knows why he doesn't like it so much. He is also a great cook and cooks for me all the time! Any questions? Just e-mail me them :D
We still don't do a lot of teaching here, I think it is a pretty common theme outside of the main cities like Warsaw and Katowice. We spend most of our time finding new people to teach and working with members to strengthen the branch. We have a member here named Wiktor, he was baptized a couple years ago and is a bit younger than me. He is awesome! He speaks perfect English and Polish so we get to learn from him, and he is really funny, he combines english and polish to make stuff funny only to people who are bilingual in the languages, it is really funny. He is great. He plans on going to BYU this next winter semester So we would head to the US in December this year I think. It will really be great for him to see how the church opperates on a much larger scale! And what a strength that will be for when he comes back to Poland!
For all of you who have been telling me about weird weather you have been having listen to this... Yesterday we were out doing a whiteboard and it was nice sunny weather...finally... then about 15 minutes after we had started contacting and trying to talk to people we noticed off to the right that there was a a very ominous looking cloud swell coming right for us... Shortly thereafter the sky darkened... we felt the first drops of rain and new what was coming next. I sprinted for my umbrella, I pushed the button to open it and just as it was popping open this massive wind storm came out of no where, halted the expansion of my ubrella completely... I had to push it open and even then the wind was so strong that it was pushing it half way back down again! By now these huge rain drops are also attacking us at almost horizontal angles. We hopped the wall next to us and ran for cover. The poor sisters with us were having such trouble with their skirts, I felt bad for them but was so grateful that I get to wear pants... Luckily we were able to take shelter under a large building until the storm passed about 25 minutes later. Then the sun came back out and we continued our whiteboard. It was awesome see how even terrible weather like that cannot stop the progression of missionary work, we just toughed it out, then got right back to work, I was impressed with the sisters, they didn't complain at all, just laughed and had fun. Then later in the same day it rained on us again... and then stopped and more blue skies. It is absolutely crazy here!
So ya, our weather in nuts, but it is a nice temperature and not as humid as Japan was, so I can't complain lol. There is a really cool kind of event, marketplace kinda thing, going on in Rynek (main square) this week so we will be heading over there to check it out shortly, then we have a meeting with one of our members baptized last year later. Thanks for all the Birthday Wishes last week! It was really great to hear from everyone :D
I love you all! Always remember to be happy because the sun always rises the next day!
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Week 19
Well, today is my Birthday! finally out of the Teenage years!
So I have some stuff planned to do with my district (yes I have one now) so this won't be a very long post this week. (Kinda a common theme sorry) I wish I had more time on the computers but my companions are always wanting to go do something else... lol
I said goodbye to Lublin on Wednesday, it was sad but we had a great meeting with the Gładuns in which Sister Gładun threatened me saying that if I didn't come back later with my family that I would be dead...lol I told her I would be sure to return, since my mom pretty much told me the same thing. They were sad to see me leave, but they have seen this happen many times so they were prepared. Then on Thursday I caught an early train at 7:00 and said Goodbye to Elder Thomson and Lublin. The train was 6 hours long.... and I was in a cabin with 3 exchange students... who all spoke English, one from Mexico, Canada and Alaska. I can't tell if all English speakers are just really loud or if it is just because I am a native English speaker and don't have to think so much to understand. They were really loud though.
The transfer went well, I met Elder Contor on the Peron along with Sister Lefevre and Wiktor, who is an awesome member in Poland who has just applied to go to BYU in December. He speaks great English and helps a lot with our Polish it is wonderful. I like him a lot. We headed to our new apartment, which believe it or not, is better than the last one lol. This one has 2 seperate closets for us which is nice and we each have our own desk, which will help studies a lot lol. It is really nice to not always be in the same room. Elder Contor cooks too! Which is really nice :) but I have spent so much more on food since being here already.... So that will be interesting...
We do a ton of contacting here, most of which we do Whiteboards. Which entails setting up a whiteboard and writing a question on it and then contacting people and asking them the question. I like it a lot more because more people stop... and then we lead it to a Gospel subject :)
Sunday was fun, good to see some of the members, the Branch is pretty much exactly the same as in Lublin, size wise. After Church we went home to plan and then on an adventure around Poznań. On our adventure, we brought our ubrellas because we knew that it was very likely that it would probably rain...little did we know, they wouldn't help... right at the point where we were the farthest from our house, the rain came down, skies openned... I have never before seen rain like that... And I have been in some pretty bad rain in the past couple weeks. We got completely soaked. Shoes were soaked through, which has never even been close to happening before. Pants up to my knees soaked. It was funny, had to scream to hear each other because it was so loud. We had quite the adventure.
And of course, yet again, my companion is Branch President, which means I will be on the computers again on Mondays for Financial work. And go figure, just as I finished my legal work last week, my companion has (due to a mistake) to redo his legal work... so we worked on that on Monday too.
Everything is great, except that the sky is not blue...its grey...which is not how it is suppose to be on my birthday!!! Good grief it is June for heavens sake! Where is my sunshine!
Until next week!
-Starszy Taylor
P.S. (Sorry for any typos again...or grammatical discrepencies....)
So I have some stuff planned to do with my district (yes I have one now) so this won't be a very long post this week. (Kinda a common theme sorry) I wish I had more time on the computers but my companions are always wanting to go do something else... lol
I said goodbye to Lublin on Wednesday, it was sad but we had a great meeting with the Gładuns in which Sister Gładun threatened me saying that if I didn't come back later with my family that I would be dead...lol I told her I would be sure to return, since my mom pretty much told me the same thing. They were sad to see me leave, but they have seen this happen many times so they were prepared. Then on Thursday I caught an early train at 7:00 and said Goodbye to Elder Thomson and Lublin. The train was 6 hours long.... and I was in a cabin with 3 exchange students... who all spoke English, one from Mexico, Canada and Alaska. I can't tell if all English speakers are just really loud or if it is just because I am a native English speaker and don't have to think so much to understand. They were really loud though.
The transfer went well, I met Elder Contor on the Peron along with Sister Lefevre and Wiktor, who is an awesome member in Poland who has just applied to go to BYU in December. He speaks great English and helps a lot with our Polish it is wonderful. I like him a lot. We headed to our new apartment, which believe it or not, is better than the last one lol. This one has 2 seperate closets for us which is nice and we each have our own desk, which will help studies a lot lol. It is really nice to not always be in the same room. Elder Contor cooks too! Which is really nice :) but I have spent so much more on food since being here already.... So that will be interesting...
We do a ton of contacting here, most of which we do Whiteboards. Which entails setting up a whiteboard and writing a question on it and then contacting people and asking them the question. I like it a lot more because more people stop... and then we lead it to a Gospel subject :)
Sunday was fun, good to see some of the members, the Branch is pretty much exactly the same as in Lublin, size wise. After Church we went home to plan and then on an adventure around Poznań. On our adventure, we brought our ubrellas because we knew that it was very likely that it would probably rain...little did we know, they wouldn't help... right at the point where we were the farthest from our house, the rain came down, skies openned... I have never before seen rain like that... And I have been in some pretty bad rain in the past couple weeks. We got completely soaked. Shoes were soaked through, which has never even been close to happening before. Pants up to my knees soaked. It was funny, had to scream to hear each other because it was so loud. We had quite the adventure.
And of course, yet again, my companion is Branch President, which means I will be on the computers again on Mondays for Financial work. And go figure, just as I finished my legal work last week, my companion has (due to a mistake) to redo his legal work... so we worked on that on Monday too.
Everything is great, except that the sky is not blue...its grey...which is not how it is suppose to be on my birthday!!! Good grief it is June for heavens sake! Where is my sunshine!
Until next week!
-Starszy Taylor
P.S. (Sorry for any typos again...or grammatical discrepencies....)
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Week 18
Well I finally got pictures uploaded! I have not added tags yet to them, but if I have time after writing this, that is what I will start working on
http://picasaweb.google.com/football80
As for this past week we had worked really hard to set up a lot of meetings, but like the past couple weeks here we were flaked by nearly everyone, sad day. We had our regular weekly meeting with Sister Kopeć on Wednesday, it went well, she is great but has back problems so can't make it to church right now :(.
On Friday we met with a man named Marcin, who we found in the Area Book. He is an amazing guy! He breeds gerbiles as a hobby, and travels to China every 3 months for a month long stay for work. He makes ties, and says Adam (someone who loves the missionaries and the missionaries all love his ties) is stiff competition. He is very culturally knowledgable and was amazing to talk to. He speaks 4 languages including English, at the end of our lesson he also gave me a Tie as an early birthday present! I was really happy because I don’t exactly count on getting many presents this year, not physical ones at least.
On Saturday we had a meeting set up, but when the time came he didn’t show up, and would not answer his phone. We also went around to the people who we had visited before, have been in contact with, but unable to set up an appointment. We thought it would be a fun idea to surprise them by stopping by. As expected though, they were busy... but I am sure that they know we actually do care about them.
On Sunday we were able to have Branch Conference so we had called everyone we know in the branch and any possible investigator who might come. We were expecting a huge turnout, but only 6 members showed up.... how lame is that... We were greatly disappointed, but what else can we do but call and remind people and encourage them, and pray of course. After church we went contacting and had a great lesson on the street with a man named Przymek. We gave him a Book of Mormon and after talking for quite some time asked for his information. He said he doesn’t give out his info, but said that he would like to read the Book of Mormon before talking further with us, we gave him our number and hope for the best. He had great questions and seemed really interested. The funny thing was that when we set out to contact it was perfect weather, high 60's and sunny. Throughout the contact/mini lesson it got significantly colder...and windy... and cloudy... shortly after parting ways we headed for the park since it should be nice this time of year and have plenty of people there. Shortly after reaching the park, we new it was coming...the rain....... We turned tail and headed straight home. It picked up a bit... we were on a bus. Got off the bus and crossed the street, pulled out the ubrella, knowing what was coming very shortly. The sky openned...and the water fell. We took off running, I used my ubrella as a shield against the rain in front of me, it was really fun I was laughing the whole time, super windy too. We got inside just before it really let loose! We sat and watched it for about 20 mins and then it stopped. We later went tracting and had a good experience with that, getting let in at the third door and being able to talk to the people that lived there. They wanted to know somethings about how Mormon live, and they were really interested because we were from the states lol.
Monday we had a meeting with the Gładuns, which was great, I got to say Good bye to them. It was sad, I hope sometime in the future to be able to return to Lublin. We also had finally set up with Mariusz, who use to have a baptismal date but we haven’t seen him in over a month. The time came, he didn’t. We tried repeatedly to call him, but each time we have tried that we find that his phone is turned off... That stinker...he has done this to us a ton of times now... We cannot figure out what is going on with him. Elder Thomson is really frustrated with him right now.
Well that is pretty much it, everything is going well. I am excited to see a new city with a new companion, but as always it is hard to say good bye to those whom I have come to know and love here in Lublin. I know that wherever the Lord sends me, that is where I need to go.
Thanks for reading everyone :D I am off to comment on those pics now :D
-Starszy Taylor
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