Week 3

Blog Post (Week 3)

Well welcome back!!! Here is my weekly report for my third week in the wonderful, frozen country of Poland. The language is still coming along, slowly but surely :D

Wednesday:
Ended up spending the night at the Kraków apartment... I sooo love doing that... They don't have enough blankets for people to stay there.... Of course then they slept in in the morning, we caught a bus at 12:20 that was heading to Kielce, aparently buses are cheaper and faster than trains, just not as smooth I guess. I really enjoyed the ride, got to see the coutryside if Poland. It was pretty, all covered in white snow. I would have taken pictures but my camera died just after Auschwitz and I was lucky to get them onto the computer to upload them. We got home and later had a meeting with one if the members who is about to receive the Melchezidek priesthood :D exciting stuff! Then we spent a long time looking at maps trying to find a city where supposedly a member lives. Finally found the city we were looking for and found a way to get there. Plan for tomorrow :)

Thursday:
Woke up this morning and had studies. Me and Elder Handley read and translated part of PMG and then did the same thing for 3 Nephi 11 :D I really enjoyed it, he and Elder Anderton helped explain some of the words to me. We got all ready to leave and headed out fir the Bus Dworzec. We got there and found out when our bus was suppose to come and where and so we waited. No bus, found the next one...waited.......no bus... We did see a Larry (drunk Pole) at the station though, he was so drunk he could hardly even stand... Time came for the bus to come and!!! Nothing... Again 2 more times... We then decided to wait for 1 more bus and if it didn't co e we would head back after our hour and a half waiting in the cold. Time came for the bus, no bus... Okay... 5 more mins then we are leaving. Waited the five minutes then turned to leave. As we start walking we look back and if course... The bus pulls up... Go figure. Pay 4zł for the ticket and off we go, I slept fir most of the 90 minute ride. It was a very full bus. When we got to the city we located the address we had been given for this member so we go up and knock, so excited that we finally made it. Only to find out that the girl we were looking for had moved away 7 years earlier...................... :( Sad day. So we turned around and now had to find a way back to Kielce. We start hunting for the bus station. We are walking all over the place, it is dark now so we are asking people for directions. Finally we talked to someone who actually knows what they are talking about and we somehow (after saying a small prayer) manage to catch the last bus if the day headed to Kielce...... Whew... I was worried for a while there. Got home and had food, had a discussion between the 3 if us about whether or not there was rain before the great flood. then we got ready for bed and slept.

Friday:
Woke up in the morning and since we have been out of milk for the past like 4 days I ate the cereal dry, was so sick if no breakfast. Low and behold my companion decides to make pancakes today for us :D they were way good too. I am in the Isaiah chapters of 2 Nephi right now... Tough stuff. Since we were then completely out of food and didn't have time on our P-Day to shop we headed for the grocery store to get more desperately needed food. It was actually sunny outside too, the snow has melted a tiny bit so everything is slush now, wrecking our shoes :( and it is still cold, humidity doesn't help, neither does the wind... We carried our groceries home and Elder Anderton made some Pasta and Kielbasa for us to eat :) it was way good. After that we cleaned up for English class. We tried to find an english "Apples to Apples" game to play for English class but couldn't find one :( English class went well, Wojtek is so funny lol, and happens to be a very good photographer, we watched a short DVD of his work a little while ago, pretty amazing :D I was impressed. Afterwards we went over to Małgosia's house, the landlady (right next door) we had awesome soup and fruit tea lol I have had so much tea since being here.... Stayed there for a while and then came home, I was tired so I got ready for bed and fell asleep quick.

Saturday:
Had a scheduled appointment with Wojtek at 1:00 and since it is still sooo cold outside (no one is outside) we just stayed in and studied Polish. Wojtek came over at the designated time and we read the Book of Mormon with him for 2 hours, we talked about it as we went. It was great. After he left we had lunch, compliments of Elder Anderton :D then decided we should go out contacting... We did... The only problem being is that it is so cold outside no one was out... And if we did see someone they were in such a hurry to get inside they wouldn't stop to talk :( and then we had to head back before we froze, the humidity here plus wind makes it really really cold :(

Sunday:
Had a pretty good Sunday :) wojtek came to sacrament meeting again :D seems to be a regular occurence for him :) it was good too because it was Fast and Testimony meeting today :) so we all got to bear our testimonies :) I even did it in polish! I was surprised with how much I can say when it comes to gospel subjects lol, that must be what we crammed in at the MTC lol. Too cold for contacting again :( which is so sad... As much as I love reading the scriptures and studying polish words and grammars I would really like to get out and meet people. Later on in the day we had dinner scheduled with Małgosia our neighbor and the landlady for the other Kielce apartment. She is so nice she cooks for us all the time :) and helps me out with my Polish. She has a bit of a lisp and a very interesting personality so our visits are always interesting. She absolutely loves the missionaries :)

Monday:
Got up in the morning and first thing we were picked up by the landlord for our apartment and he took us somewhere to help me get legalized in Poland. He had to come anyways to give them some information. That took about and hour or two. Then he dropped us off back at our apartment. We then headed off to the bank to deposit the fast offerings from Sunday (always have somekind of finances on Monday). Then it was off to the library to submit the financial report. It takes a long time to walk from the bank to the library. They are in complete opposite directions from our apartment... And I have also discovered that my left knee does not like the cold weather... When we walk far in the snow my knee starts hurting :( which is definitely not good... Hopefully it will warm up soon and that will go away. Later we had FHE. Our attendance has been low this week for our meetings :( but at least Wojtek came :) he is always early. We had a good lesson on the Good Samaritan :) always a good parable. That ended about 8:30 or 9:00. We talked amongst ourselves and then we were informed that the Kraków Elders were coming over for a sleep over before P-Day... I really don't like when they do that, or when we have to sleep down there. That is not how it should be... I went to bed early so I wouldn't be sucked into staying up late with them... Almost worked too... But they were noisy and it took me a while to fall asleep... But eventually I did :)

Tuesday:
Well this morning I got up and showered and then hopped back into my bed to read my scriptures because they were all still sleeping out int the normal place I read....ugh.... They got up 2 hours after I did :( but at least I got to read in silence :) yay. Then we all got ready and headed out. Me and Elder Handley split off to head to the internet cafe while the other 3 went somewhere to play pool again. Pretty much just chilling today apartently... It is really cold outside still, I am really looking forward to warmer weather.

Well thanks for reading again :D I will be back next week with further updates :D

-Starszy Taylor