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

Week 45

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 :)

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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