6 Months to go...

Well!!! Sorry everyone that I haven't been posting on here, but life in the office, as fun as it is and I love it...time just gets away from me, especially on P-days. Forgive me for not writing. I thought I would just give a quick little update on life...


I have a new companion as of just over a month ago, his name is Elder Murphey, he is just like Elf! I think I have just under a month left serving in the office, President hasn't said anything to me though....and he really likes that I am here solving all of his problems...so....we'll see. Which reminds me, I recently finished the 4th edition of the Dobra Strona (which I will post at the end of this blog entry.)

With all the work that Elder Darowski and I were able to accomplish spending evenings in the office, Elder Murphey and I are now able to get out a tiny bit more to do some more missionary work. We are currently not teaching anyone, all of our free time is spent contacting people in downtown Warsaw. Just the other day we contacted someone who was convinced that houses in America are crap...because they are made from trees and metal and blow over....not like strong buildings in Poland that are made of Solis Cement....lol all we could do was laugh.

I am still taking care of all the bills here in the office, I have a giant pile sitting in front of me right now...fun...good life training though :D I am super grateful for the opportunity to serve here in the mission office!

I also just passes my 18 month on a mission mark! Wow time does fly....which also means I only have 6 months left to go...so short...... I have also started my intense training so I can come back in good shape lol I actually have to watch what I eat now! lol it is funny. I recently also bought a new grey suit (Picture below), and I have been told I look quite good in by many members of the branch here, both young and old :D And yesterday, I bought a new outfit for a whopping 60zł (20$) but then had to go back this morning and buy some shoes because my other ones didn't work with it....the shoes were another 60zł or 20$ so all in all a very cheap outfit :) Also below is a picture I just took of myself :)

I hope that after I leave the office I get to serve with someone really cool, and hopefully in Kraków or Gdańsk so keep your fingers crossed for me and Trzymajcie kciuki dla mnie!!! The Gospel is really taking off here in Poland right now, we have a few baptisms every Saturday! It is amazing the contrast from last year at this time to now... I hope everyone has a great day!

-Starszy Taylor

Oh :) And here is the Dobra Strona for May 2011


Dobra Strona May 2011 -

Week 56 (The Baptisms!!!)

On Saturday, February 19, 2011 our investigators, Stanisław and Wiesława, were baptized along with 3 other people to make up the largest baptismal service in recorded history in Poland!!! Thanks to amazing planning from the Sister Missionaries in the Warsaw I Branch the Baptism was super smooth. All the people getting baptized showed up early, just as they were instructed too. All of them were excited for their baptism. Of course we were nervous and anxious for our investigators but also knew that they were totally ready. It came time for pictures, the time I was personally dreading…because Stanisław got pretty worried at the last baptism when he saw how many cameras came out (he is kinda self-conscious). I had told him I would tell everyone that he only wanted ONE picture taken. I did tell them. It didn’t help… the cameras seemed to simply come out of the walls… I still can’t figure out why EVERYONE and their mother needs a picture on THEIR camera… especially since they all know that all the pictures are going to be on Sister Nelson’s Blog. Anyways…somehow we made it through that…but Stanisław doesn’t exactly look happy in those pictures.

Anyways… they also brought their daughter to the baptism. She is 16 and is apparently not super anti-church but still not exactly interested, but she came to support her parents, which I thought was really nice of her. We started the baptismal service and had the two speakers. The other people getting baptized chose the speakers because our investigators said that they didn’t really have a preference for who should speak and that maybe someone else would. How thoughtful. They were great talks on Baptism and also the Holy Ghost, one from a 5 year member and another from a recent convert. The spirit was great, the music was nice, and everyone knew that this was a very special day for these 5 people.

After the talks we all got up and went into the baptistery to watch the Baptisms. Of course at this time no one can help but have a big giant grin on their face, it is kind of a really special moment and anyone there can feel that. The first one to get baptized was the little girl, I think she is 8. Then her mother was next. Then it Wiesława came out with Brother Magnuski, whom they had asked to baptize them both. It was so amazing to see her standing there in the water. And of course, as is always true, poor Brother Magnuski messed up her name twice…poor guy, but she was a good sport about it and everything was totally fine! :D Then it was Stanisławs turn, Brother Magnuski baptized him as well. All went really well and then finally the Assistants investigator, Emmanuel, was baptized by Elder Garrett. It was truly touching to see 5 people be baptized all at the same time! While they were all drying off and changing back we all went back into the Chapel and watched The Restoration on a projector (which I thought was a great idea!). We had a ton of people show up to support the new members it was really great.

When they were ready our new members came out and joined us until the movie finished. Following the movie each new member was kindly asked to share a brief Testimony. All of them were amazing but I must say that our two new members bore simply Amazing testimonies! Wiesława said there were 2 things that she would like to see happen in the next couple years. The first was that her children would come to knowledge of the Gospel and join the church, the second was that she would like to see the second chapel built in Warsaw and then progression towards a Temple here!!! How amazing is that! She is so cool. Stanisław also bore an amazing testimony about baptisms in different churches he has seen but how the baptism he went through, though similar in act sometimes, was much much different in feeling. He also then went on to talk about the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood and the authority to baptize. He was throwing church history and dates all over the place! It is truly staggering the shear knowledge that these two have coming into the church.

After the meeting we had refreshments and they stayed and tried out all the American refreshments, lol because all the missionaries made them. It was fantastic to see them mingling with other members and really getting to fit in. They are just so amazing, I don’t think I will ever stop saying it! Well, that pretty much does it for the miraculous day of baptisms in Warsaw!

Until next time!

-Starszy Taylor

Week 54

This week was a very busy week for us here in the office. Zone Conferences were this week so we were busy getting things ready to be shipped out to the mission, gathering up all the mail for all the missionaries. We had to pick up someone from England at the Airport. She came to help get all the financial stuff in order here in the Office, Elder Richards was very grateful for the training and help. We also had to take her back a few days later.

A few of our days this week were quite literally planned down to the minute, which is kinda odd here because we generally have some spare time somewhere.

On Monday we had planned with 2 other missionary companionships (Elders Lundin, Kalinowski, Hancock and Waits) here in Poland to go to Adam's Ties :D there are more ties there than I ever dreamed to see in one place... And they are gorgeous...and super cheap. 28zł for one tie, that is about 10$ and these things are top quality, it is amazing, I am going to come home with enough ties that I won't have to wear one twice in a year :) It was a super fun trip and we should be going again towards the beginning of February when everyone has more money again.

We had a great lesson with Stanisław (Staa-nee-swaav) and Wiesława (Vee-eswaa-vaa) (the aa sounds like the "o" in "on") on Tuesday at the Chapel. We talked about the 4th lesson and the Commandments. They already knew all of them and were extremely accepting. It feels kinda weird teaching them sometimes because they have prepared themselves so well over such a long period of time that they already know everything, which is totally opposite of anyone else I have ever taught out here. We also talked about what they thought of the baptism that they attended with us last Saturday. They really enjoyed the opportunity to see how everything goes. We set up with them to have their interviews on the next Tuesday. They are super prepared and I don't think that there is anything that could stop them at this point, they have already overcome a lot and made the decision to be baptized before even meeting with us again. It is so amazing to me how some people are so prepared to hear the Gospel while others can't even begin to fathom changing their ways in the least.

We have been keeping busy here in the Office, I am still on mission tech support lol. Elder Darowski is on a mission to get peoples records where they should be and the Branch Boundaries in the right places. Elder Darowski was also able to finally pick up his Decision that says he is now legal in Poland!!!! He was super happy, no more flights to England for him! We took care of our weekly office duties including all the stuff at the Post office...lots of fun...

Today for P-Day we went and did Yoga!!! It was super fun, and there were WAY more people there than we expected. I think we may be doing that kinda regularly for a P-Day activity. We also had the hope to go to the big park here in Warsaw because the sky was actually blue this morning and the sun was out! But when we got out of Yoga all relaxed and everything the sky was grey and kinda bleak so that plan got shot down

Well, that is pretty much it for this week, in a week we will be having our baptism for Stanisław and Wiesława! It will be amazing! Pray for them to have an amazingly spiritual experience as they follow Christ's example.

Have a Great week!!!!

-Starszy Taylor

P.S. I posted a few pictures :)

Week 52 Stanisław and Wiesława

Okay so first off, some background on our two investigators.

Stanisław: Met the church somehow about 20 years ago as he was looking for things he realized needed to be in the true church. Upon his searching he stumbled across our church. He then continued to read just about anything about our church that he could get his hands on; he can read English but doesn’t speak it. He has known the church is true for a very long time now, but has been waiting on his wife, Wiesława, to come to the same realization before he gets baptized. He has recently decided that he has waited far too long and started meeting with the missionaries just before I came to the Office. Then Holidays hit and we didn’t meet with them for a couple weeks. He told us that he still wants to get baptized along with his wife, and he will make sure she is ready for the missionary lessons before we actually start meeting again in the New Year. He also told us that he would very much like to be able to go to the temple with her on the next Temple trip at the beginning of March to do Baptisms for the Dead there, which is really cool.

Wiesława: She is married to Stanisław and was born Catholic (like pretty much everyone else in the country) She recognized that there were some things missing from the Catholic church and eventually converted to the Green Witnesses (Pentecostal). All of their children are very against them joining the church. She reads a lot of the church material with her husband and now also feels that our church is the true church and is ready to get baptized now. She worries a lot and asks a lot of questions about what will happen to people who don’t accept the gospel here on earth.

So now for the story part.

Almost 2 weeks ago we had a meeting set up with Stanisław and Wiesława. We went into the meeting with the goal to get them to pretty much teach us the Restoration through us asking questions. We got to the meeting and were very pleased to see that they both had come (Wiesława had been very reluctant to meet with missionaries before this). We sat down and got to know them a little bit better and then Elder Darowski asked Stanisław the question, “So how did you meet the church?” He then jumped right into a 20 summary of why this church must be true and that the Restoration had to occur, based entirely on reasoning and logic! We were completely shocked. We were kind of just expecting something like “I was reading on the internet one day and discovered this church and then wanted to know more” or something to that effect. We knew he was ready, and that he knew a lot, but he still pretty much blew us away on that one. During his summary Wiesława had just been sitting there listening, so we were a little worried that perhaps she wasn’t as ready and was just here because she knew that her husband wanted her there. Until she started talking about deep church history along with him, and clarifying things he said. One of the things they brought up was how they noticed that the probable reasoning behind Christ being so blunt about all the other churches being false was because at the time he was talking to a 14 year old boy, you kind of have to be blunt and say it very plainly. I personally had never thought about that, but it makes total sense. Anyways, this just shows how carefully they have studied not only the Book of Mormon, but also Doctrine and Covenants! Which is amazing.

As we were talking about that stuff, a member (her name is Oksana) knocked on the door and peeked her head in saying “Czy mogę?” which means something like “May I?” so we nodded and she came in, we thought maybe she had forgotten something in the room, but then she sat down in a chair on the other side. I told her that she was welcome to join us if she would like. She said that she would love to; she hadn’t been on a lesson with the missionaries since her baptism about a year and a half ago. She launched right into a bit of her conversion story and her history, testifying along the way. It was amazing, especially for never having been on a lesson before and also not having had missionaries explain before what she should do to help. It ends up that she was born catholic as well and then eventually joined the Green Witnesses (Pentecostals)!!! Just like Wiesława! It was really cool to see the effect that had on her. We ended the lesson on that high note and had Wiesława pray at the end, we are focusing really hard on having investigators pray on the first lesson, and since it was one of her first (not sure if she did actually ever meet with the missionaries before) we were excited when she did. We set up with them for the same time next week and parted ways feeling very excited. Oksana later told us that she had a very strong impression that she needed to be in there and tell her story and that she felt almost pulled to the room we were in.

Our next meeting with them was also very good, we went over the Plan of Salvation which was really good because even though they both already knew it, we were really only meeting so that they can actually have all the lessons from missionaries before being baptized. Wiesława also told us that she would like to hear it from the missionaries and how we explain it rather than having them teach us this time. So we went through a great Plan of Salvation (it was the most balanced lesson, as far as taking turns teaching goes, between us missionaries). After we finished with the Plan of Salvation and answered questions they had about that, they asked us some questions about cultural stuff in the church, like do we still celebrate things like New Years and Christmas, we told them something along the lines of “Of course, but we skip some parts like drinking alcohol and the more reckless parts of some parties.” Then they asked some questions about Missionaries and who is expected to go on missions and how it is decided where we will go. So when you ask a missionary about how it is decided where we go, you never get a short answer. We explained that we submit information about ourselves and then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve prays about where we should serve and then we get a letter telling us. They were surprised to hear that I took 5 years of Japanese and didn’t go to Japan. I simply told them that I am where I need to be and while they do ask about languages you know, it doesn’t play a very large part in where you will serve. Simply put they now know how it is decided, and who decides. At the end of the lesson we asked them if they would like to set a specific date to be baptized and told them that the Temple trip they want to go on will start on the 28th of February so a good date would be the 19th of Feb. They thought about it and decided that that was good. So unless something happens and they move it closer or further away, the Office Elders will be having 2 baptisms at the end of February! Very exciting for them and for us.



Well, I hope that everyone is doing well. I have been pretty busy lately getting things formatted and able to fit in the new Mission Newsletter that will be going out by mail to all the missionaries. We are keeping busy here in the Office and still somehow find the time to get out and teach occasionally

Thanks for reading this week!

-Starszy Taylor

Week 50

Huh it just occurred to me that I seem to have missed a week in my labeling of blog posts… seeing as this week is my 1 year in the Country mark and it will be post 51…oh well

And just so everyone knows I posted another post underneath this one labeled week 49. I had it typed up and everything last week but somehow forgot to actually post it… so there it is.

As for this past week, it was yet another busy week of office work and since we are still catching up and getting things set here we didn’t get a whole lot of actual missionary work done. As for some of the many projects I worked on this week, as well as all my other day to day tasks, here is a short explanation 

So last week I was working on getting my computer all up and running nicely again after just having put Windows 7 on it. This week I was able to successfully put Windows 7 on two more of the computers here in the Office. Elder Darowski’s computer was first after mine because when he saw how cool Windows 7 was he kept pestering me to upgrade his next, which went a lot smoother than my installation because I had solutions for all of the hiccups  already from the experience with my computer. Next was Sister Richards, which I upgraded last night, and that one had some new bugs and fun stuff to fix but eventually I got around it all and got the operating system loaded and everything. Then when I went to use the church provided program to install Microsoft Office I very quickly discovered that it wasn’t working…so I called my good friends at the Global Service Desk and asked them what was up. Of course it had nothing to do with my end; they had recently taken the church servers down to fix some apparently major problems they were having… And I also had a nice little issue with one of the printers… bugger just would not install correctly and I spent over an hour searching for the dang driver. Eventually found one that would suffice and now both of her printers work again 

I was also assigned recently to design the format for the new mission newsletter, which is coming along nicely. I also had to design a new mission header thing for documents and such and I think it is kind of cool, I have had to edit and revise it a couple times because people keep changing their minds of what they like and what they want… oh well. I am still working with both President Nielson and Sister Nielson to get the newsletter format to work just right for what they want.

I also submitted our monthly orders this week and had to do a lot of cleaning in the supply room to figure out what we actually need and what we had tons of. And now as a result of that, the mission supply room is clean now  and almost organized how I want it.

I was also giving the special assignment recently from President to learn more about something called “Mifi”. I have thus discovered how much I have missed since being on my mission lol… Mifi is a device that can take a 3G signal and convert it into a broadcasting Wi-Fi signal!!! For those of you who are wondering why that is so cool let me explain. Normal internet can be broadcasted through what we call a wireless router so that things like iTouches and laptops can get an internet signal wirelessly. A couple years ago when the iPhone first came out a new system called 3G was also released, it is essentially a connection to the internet through the cellular system so that things like smart phones can get internet signals. Now the question, why would anyone want a 3G signal to suddenly be a Wi-Fi signal? One of the main reasons is the new iPad, which has 2 versions, one that has a 3G receiver built in and one that doesn’t. The one that doesn’t have it built in can only get internet through a Wi-Fi signal. So to solve this problem people use this device, Mifi, to put a 3G network enabled SIM card in so they can then broadcast a Wi-Fi signal so they can still have internet on the go on the iPad. It turns out the internet is generally faster as well, and there are some apps like Skype that won’t let you run them if you are connected to a 3G signal but will if you are hooked up through Wi-Fi. So President asked me to find out about the Mifi and see if he can get one to use with his iPad, we will be buying one this week 

Those are some of the big things that I did this week 

Some of the other things that have been done/ worked on in the past couple weeks are listed here 

• Updated the mission directory
• Cleaned up and improved phone directory
• Losing track of time in Office
• Working on buying new phones for the Office
• Working on getting some new comps and printer

More to come next week, unless I have enough pictures to post  and if you didn’t already know I post some a little while ago

http://picasaweb.google.com/football80/ChristmasToTheNewYear#

Until next time :D
-Starszy Taylor

Week 49

Okay so I still haven't gotten around to posting those pictures but I should be posting them sometime this week. I have been really busy doing a lot of other stuff in the week and I figured that today I would just write a bunch of the stuff I have done here in the Office :D (Mostly in the past 2 weeks...time is blur here)(And there is no inherant order here either...just as I remembered them)

When I first got this computer it was a mess, and because I am weird...my brain is only as clean as my computer files are...so I have been itching to format this computer and then we suddently got in the mail and installation disk from the church for Windows 7 :D The very next thing I did was ask president if it was okay for me to put windows 7 on my computer he said it was fine and so I backed up any important files and wiped the whole hardrive!!! :D That was the easy part lol. I then proceeded to instal Windows 7 from the CD supplied by the church. The first couple times it got stuck at installing the actual Operating System image... I let it run all night thinking maybe it just took a long time... the day after I learned it only takes about 30 mins lol. So I finally got the Operating System installed and as it was trying to instal all the church programs it got stuck again...so I just figured I could instal those on my own. Which wasn't too much of an issue until I got to Microsoft Office...which needs an activation key... After a couple calls to the Global Service Desk I got it all running and everything was great :D

The way the internet was set up here in the office we had to use some dumb program called Odyssey in order to view and connect to the signal here. Which was fine and didn't cause too many problems...still made no sense to me and I couldn't figure out why it had to be that way. After I had installed Windows 7 on my computer I called Global Service Desk to find out why odyssey wasn't working nicely on Windows 7. Turns out that even if I had been even better at computers than I already am (I'm working on Humility okay...) I still wouldn't have been able to fix it because Odyssey simply isn't compatible with Windows 7... And then I very quickly learned that there is this other way the router can be set up that would let us access the Wifi (LDSAccess) simply using Windows built in interface to connect. When I heard about that I just about flipped out and started asking myself why on earth it was ever set up any other way... The tech guy on the phone agreed with me fully :) we then spent the next 3.5 hours working on rescripting the firewall and setting up the router to broadcast the new network. I also had to move my whole computer to the other room where the router box is due to some very strange ways Polish people design buildings... and I wouldn't be able to unplug the router box in there without going to the floor above to do something...and we don't have a key to there...ya no sense...anyways...I moved my computer :) I have pictures. After lots of working on it we finally got it all working and set up how Salt Lake thought we had it set up (Don't know why it was the other way to begin with...) So now our internet works a lot faster, we have less problems, all computer will be able to connect now when I put Windows 7 on them and the kicker! I was able to finally hook up President's iPad to our wifi here at the office :D He was pretty much ecstatic when I told him I would be able to do that and it scored me major tech points in the office :D So now he officially asks me about all things technical for the most part :)

I have a lot more things to write about but am now out of time for today. I will try and write some things each week about what I did in the Office recently and hopefully we will find time to meet with some investigators soon...it is tough in the office and was impossible over the Holidays... So hopefully soon, but Elder Darowski and I are really working hard to kick this Office into shape since it was recently kind of neglected so that missionary work could thrive more for the office...which is great and all...but the Office kind of needs to work or the whole mission kind of suffers. So we are on a bit of clean up at the moment...

Until next week! Have a Great New Year!!!

-Starszy Taylor

P.S. I posted this a week late...I actaully typed this last week just didn't click the post button...lol

Week 48

Well... it has been a crazy flurry of business in the Office here especially over the holiday weekends. And unfortunately I am totally exhausted right now because we have just spent most of the day driving to and from Białystok to drop off baggage for an Elder out there. So i'm pretty beat.

Christmas was great, especially being able to talk to my family at home :D and between Wegilia (Christmas Eve Dinner) and all the food we ate on Christmas I was absolutely stuffed...as in I ate more food than I ever want to see again. And of course, I have pictures that I should hopefully be posting soon, since last week should have been blog but got offset because it was Christmas Day. So I have a bunch of pictures that need to be uploaded now, including a couple movies from what I recorded last night for Sylwester (New Year's Eve) The movies really say it all...it was quite an event, nothing like I have ever seen before.

We are staying busy here in the Office, I am still helping everyone out with their computer problems and all is well :) It was really sad to say goodbye to the last group of departing missionaries because I have so many friends in that group. Our Mission is sooooo young right now. About 52% of our whole mission is at about 4 months or less in the Country and about 90% at about a year. It is insane. There are only 6 Elders in the whole mission that have been here longer than my group! Crazy huh. Well, I gotta get to uploading those pictures and also to fixing my computer, I am installing Windows 7 on it, but the instal disc is scratched...so I have some things I have to fix...of course :)

Love you all and have a Wonderful New Year!!! Życzę wam szczęśliwego nowego roku!

-Starszy Taylor