Well this week I will start with Zone Conference which we had about a week ago now.
Every 6 weeks the Mission has "Zone Conference" when all the missionaries in each zone will get together for some talks and some training. There are 3 zones in Poland, usually 2 zones will be combined for each zone conference because we are a small mission. My least favorite part about zone conference is the fact that we have to sleep over....I may have already mentioned my dislike for sleepovers....but here it is agian...there are never enough beds/blankets. For Example (Na przykład) we stayed at the Office Elders apartment. When it came time for bed, I was still up reading something, thinking they would still be up by the time I finished. Low and behold, they went to sleep early....never happens. So I get ready for bed, planning to just sleep on the couch. I start hunting for a blanket...only to find out that my wonderful companion, Elder Beaty, has stolen EVERY SINGLE BLANKET IN THE WHOLE APARTMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Looking back at it now, I should have just stolen them from him... but... being nicer than that, at the time... I just curled up in a ball on the couch and slept there, like that, for the whole night. Not my best night of sleep...At zone conference I got to meet up with the other Elders from my MTC Group, it was super exciting :D I was so happy to see them again! It would we so cool to be able to serve with them sometime. I hope I get the chance.
After zone conference we headed back to Lublin. I love sleeping in my own bed, nothing like it. One day, can't remember which, we were waiting at the bus stop and I looked up and there were like 5 kids on the bus just waving at me through the window!!! So of course, I waved back! They were so excited :D It made my day, They had an adult with them, she looked happy too :D I love happy people.
We also went shopping this week and I found something remarakable! I found.....a snickers bar.........for........................ .40$!!!!!!!!!!!! How crazy is that!? Ya, I have never seen a candy bar for that cheap, it was amazing.
Since my companion here is Branch President, we have to do lots of financial stuff...not fun. My least favorite thing to do as a missionary, pay bills. Especially since we have to spend half a day doing it all. Not fun, seems like such a waste of time for missionaries, so much else we could be doing. It is amazing how reliant the church is on missionaries in countries with very few members.
On Saturday we went to Puławy again to visit with Irina Żak, a blind member who lives out there and can't make it to church. She was really nice, and I think the first blind person I have ever talked to, not sure though. I don't remember having ever met a blind person before though. She had food for us which is always nice. I find it so odd here that they don't usually have anything to drink with their meals... Which makes it difficult sometimes when you eat dry food...
Sunday, after church my companion asked one of the members, Mariusz, if he would stay for a 20 min lesson. Then he so kindly told me that I had to teach the while thing...he wasn't kidding....He didn't say a word..... I did the whole thing. It would have been okay except for the fact that every single time I would ask him a question he would give me a one word answer...I was looking for like 5 min answers.... I shared my favorite scripture with him, then asked if he had a favorite scripture. Of course I assume I will get a break here and he will talk for a while....nope. He said he doesn't have a favorite scripture....ugh. So I told him my Hero in the Book of Mormon is Captain Moroni. Then I asked who his favorite hero was. You'll never believe what he said..."Nie mam" I don't have one...So then jokingly I asked if he even reads the Book of Mormon. lol I know he does, he knows a lot. I can't figure out why he wouldn't have any favorites, it was weird. But it did make me talk a lot more, and somehow I survived.
On Monday, while doing more financial work, we went to the library to send the e-mail record to Frankfurt, Germany where all the financial stuff is taken care of for Poland. We discovered upon arrival that the library had updated its computers operating systems to Windows 7!!!!!!!! I was really excited because I have heard great things about it, but left before it was really released. I like it a lot and am happy the library has it now.
I also feel I should mention that I have been totally addicted to Milka bars with Hazelnuts in them......they are soooo goood.
Anyways! Thanks for reading again :D I will be back again next week, with yet another update!
Until then :D
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Week 7
Wow...Okay so this has been a really busy week, so I may have to finish updating this post a little later... Also details may be a bit short because of time limit today... Hope you enjoy :D
So in English last week on Wednesday, I was told to teach the beginning class... 2 of our members came to English and that was all. I just find it hilarious that Polish people, and most other countries for that matter have the hardest time trying to pronounce our "th" sound and also a hard "r" sound. They always do "s" for "th" and they roll their "r"s...I think it is so funny lol
Also earlier that day, we got Audited.......all kinds of fun. Elder Beaty, my companion, is also the Branch President in Lublin so we have to deal with a lot of Financial stuff. He was terribly trained by the last missionary Branch President and so was kinda worried about this Audit. Not really stressing out though because he did all he knew how to. President Hapgood did the Audit and he was very nice about it and helped Elder Beaty learn exactly what he was suppose to do. It was not a terrible experience after all :D
We also had excellent weather at the end of last week! It was so warm that almost all of the snow melted!!!! However......Wednesday night....as we were just about to leave for English class......we looked outside......and the largest snowflakes I have ever seen were falling from the sky covering the ground....! After such nice weather too....We walked to the chapel in this snow. We took pictures when we got there....we were plastered in snow. I will post the pictures soon. Then the next couple of days it snowed more, not a lot though, just enough to blanket the ground. Most of it is melted again, and hopefully spring is right around the corner!
We have some girls that we teach that are from Ukraine. We have met a couple times before, I think I have already explained the situation with them earlier, if not, someone tell me. We were getting ready to drop them because we haven't seen much progression, but then at the end of the meeting they asked when we would we would be coming back, and also that they had read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet we gave them. They seem more open than before, so we will continue to meet with them for now :D One time we walked in and asked why thier Polish roommates were so scared of us. Then Nina, the main one we teach told us that is was because "you are very powerful" I thought that was such a cool statement, for many more reasons than I think she meant it to be. People are so afraid to learn the truth and be happy, I think it is so odd. I think it is mostly that we ask people to change so much of their lives, and it is really hard for people to change.
Friday Night we were walking home from a contacting Scavenger Hunt we did and we walked past this group of young adults and one of them told us as we walked by, in Polish "Drop Dead" :( So many people don't like us :( all we ever do is try to help people be happier...is that such a bad thing?
One of the nights, I think it may have been Friday night, we started calling all the people in the Area Books that we had just finished sorting through. Elder Beaty did most of the calls, we got 2 meetings set up, and we were suppose to call a couple people back when they had a calendar in front of them :D A lot of people just didn't pick up :( and a few people answered, and when they found out who we were, magically disappeared!!! Some people are sooooo excited when they find out it is us though :D Which is a really nice refresher! A lot of the records were really old too so many of the phone numbers were no longer correct. We plan on going out to visit some of the people with wrong numbers, that will be an adventure!
Elder Beaty also made me make my first phone calls....in Polish.... The first one....I called, was suppose to be a girl, but a guy answered, I asked if it was the girl I was looking for and he told me wrong number :( go figure.... The second one I called though...screamed for joy into the phone when she found out who we were!!! I asked if she remembered us, "Czy pamiętasz nas" she said "Na Pewno!!" which means like "for certain" or "Certainly". She was so excited that we had called her, but somehow wasn't exactly interested in setting up a meeting....we will try back later I guess, it was an odd phone call lol.
On Saturday morning we headed out for Warsaw for a fireside that evening. The fireside was for the actor who plays Jesus in "The Testaments" and "Finding Faith in Christ". He spoke english perfectly, no accent, I was amazed because he is Danish, usually have pretty thick accents...He also is an amazing singer. In part of his talk he sang a couple songs, they were amazing! He is apparently one of the best singers in all of Denmark. During his talk he talked a lot about Les Miserables too!!! I was so excited because I really really like that musical! He said that he had just finished being the main character in it for a huge production in Denmark. He told us something that President Kimbal once said about Les Mis, he said that President Kimbal said "That musical is an inspired work, second only to Scripture!" I thought that was sooooo cool. He related Jean Val Jean to Jesus Christ as he is going to the Barricades. I love that musical. As his closing song, he sang "Bring Him Home" which is one of the songs in Les Mis that Jean Val Jean sings as he is saving Marius. It was amazing.
We went home for church the next morning, seeing as we have the only keys to the building...and we do everything... This week I: Led the Music (Aka sang soloes...) Blessed the Sacrament, Translated for the Taiwanese speaking English, Bore my Testimony (in Polish), and said the Closing Prayer..............holy smokes.... Then in Sunday School I had to translate again...It is tough...but helps my Polish A LOT! I am learning a lot more and can kinda hold a conversation sometimes.
Monday we had an apartment inspection. They said our apartment was one of the cleanest in the Mission :D Mom would be proud of how sparkly clean I got out bathroom! I cleaned every inch of it! The Hardings did our ispection and later took us out to eat :D We ordered nice food at a nice resteraunt! It was really nice of them :D I learned a lot about them, they are very cool people, and very kind. Elder Harding was a Judge and has done lots of work in Washington DC! They told us the story of how they got married...three time....lol The plan was to get married in the chapel because sister harding hadn't been a member for a year yet, so they would get sealed later. But he didn't have time to get the license where they were living so they went to a neighboring state and had a really small wedding very quickly. But the invitations to the one at the Chapel were already out! So they got special permission from SLC to have a mock wedding!!!!! How crazy is that, and then they were later sealed in the temple! I thought that was such a crazy story :D
His brother once had a copy of a First Edition Book of Mormon!!!!!!!! But he gave it to JFK while he was president for the first edition library in the White House! Elder Harding is still upset about it lol. He also said he was about 30' away from JFK As he gave his famous speech!!!
As we were driving with the Hardings to Warsaw to stay the night before Zone Conference we were stopped at a stop light. There was a car in front of us and a car to our right slightly behind us. The guy to our right got out of his car. Walked in front of ours, to the car in front of us. Openned that car door, pulled the man out (The man he pulled out was bigger than him....) and they started pushing. It got heated and they started throwing fists at each other!!!! The bigger guy practically tackled the other guy into the hood of out car!!! Elder Harding at that point took off between the cars lol, he said he wanted to stay and watch the fight but didn't want a window to get broken lol. It was quite an experience! First real fight I have ever seen!
Well I am pretty much out of time now, but I got a lot in :D I will just start next week at Zone conference :D That will do just fine :D
Thanks for reading and remember to stay happy and enjoy life :D You only get one!
-Starszy Taylor
So in English last week on Wednesday, I was told to teach the beginning class... 2 of our members came to English and that was all. I just find it hilarious that Polish people, and most other countries for that matter have the hardest time trying to pronounce our "th" sound and also a hard "r" sound. They always do "s" for "th" and they roll their "r"s...I think it is so funny lol
Also earlier that day, we got Audited.......all kinds of fun. Elder Beaty, my companion, is also the Branch President in Lublin so we have to deal with a lot of Financial stuff. He was terribly trained by the last missionary Branch President and so was kinda worried about this Audit. Not really stressing out though because he did all he knew how to. President Hapgood did the Audit and he was very nice about it and helped Elder Beaty learn exactly what he was suppose to do. It was not a terrible experience after all :D
We also had excellent weather at the end of last week! It was so warm that almost all of the snow melted!!!! However......Wednesday night....as we were just about to leave for English class......we looked outside......and the largest snowflakes I have ever seen were falling from the sky covering the ground....! After such nice weather too....We walked to the chapel in this snow. We took pictures when we got there....we were plastered in snow. I will post the pictures soon. Then the next couple of days it snowed more, not a lot though, just enough to blanket the ground. Most of it is melted again, and hopefully spring is right around the corner!
We have some girls that we teach that are from Ukraine. We have met a couple times before, I think I have already explained the situation with them earlier, if not, someone tell me. We were getting ready to drop them because we haven't seen much progression, but then at the end of the meeting they asked when we would we would be coming back, and also that they had read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet we gave them. They seem more open than before, so we will continue to meet with them for now :D One time we walked in and asked why thier Polish roommates were so scared of us. Then Nina, the main one we teach told us that is was because "you are very powerful" I thought that was such a cool statement, for many more reasons than I think she meant it to be. People are so afraid to learn the truth and be happy, I think it is so odd. I think it is mostly that we ask people to change so much of their lives, and it is really hard for people to change.
Friday Night we were walking home from a contacting Scavenger Hunt we did and we walked past this group of young adults and one of them told us as we walked by, in Polish "Drop Dead" :( So many people don't like us :( all we ever do is try to help people be happier...is that such a bad thing?
One of the nights, I think it may have been Friday night, we started calling all the people in the Area Books that we had just finished sorting through. Elder Beaty did most of the calls, we got 2 meetings set up, and we were suppose to call a couple people back when they had a calendar in front of them :D A lot of people just didn't pick up :( and a few people answered, and when they found out who we were, magically disappeared!!! Some people are sooooo excited when they find out it is us though :D Which is a really nice refresher! A lot of the records were really old too so many of the phone numbers were no longer correct. We plan on going out to visit some of the people with wrong numbers, that will be an adventure!
Elder Beaty also made me make my first phone calls....in Polish.... The first one....I called, was suppose to be a girl, but a guy answered, I asked if it was the girl I was looking for and he told me wrong number :( go figure.... The second one I called though...screamed for joy into the phone when she found out who we were!!! I asked if she remembered us, "Czy pamiętasz nas" she said "Na Pewno!!" which means like "for certain" or "Certainly". She was so excited that we had called her, but somehow wasn't exactly interested in setting up a meeting....we will try back later I guess, it was an odd phone call lol.
On Saturday morning we headed out for Warsaw for a fireside that evening. The fireside was for the actor who plays Jesus in "The Testaments" and "Finding Faith in Christ". He spoke english perfectly, no accent, I was amazed because he is Danish, usually have pretty thick accents...He also is an amazing singer. In part of his talk he sang a couple songs, they were amazing! He is apparently one of the best singers in all of Denmark. During his talk he talked a lot about Les Miserables too!!! I was so excited because I really really like that musical! He said that he had just finished being the main character in it for a huge production in Denmark. He told us something that President Kimbal once said about Les Mis, he said that President Kimbal said "That musical is an inspired work, second only to Scripture!" I thought that was sooooo cool. He related Jean Val Jean to Jesus Christ as he is going to the Barricades. I love that musical. As his closing song, he sang "Bring Him Home" which is one of the songs in Les Mis that Jean Val Jean sings as he is saving Marius. It was amazing.
We went home for church the next morning, seeing as we have the only keys to the building...and we do everything... This week I: Led the Music (Aka sang soloes...) Blessed the Sacrament, Translated for the Taiwanese speaking English, Bore my Testimony (in Polish), and said the Closing Prayer..............holy smokes.... Then in Sunday School I had to translate again...It is tough...but helps my Polish A LOT! I am learning a lot more and can kinda hold a conversation sometimes.
Monday we had an apartment inspection. They said our apartment was one of the cleanest in the Mission :D Mom would be proud of how sparkly clean I got out bathroom! I cleaned every inch of it! The Hardings did our ispection and later took us out to eat :D We ordered nice food at a nice resteraunt! It was really nice of them :D I learned a lot about them, they are very cool people, and very kind. Elder Harding was a Judge and has done lots of work in Washington DC! They told us the story of how they got married...three time....lol The plan was to get married in the chapel because sister harding hadn't been a member for a year yet, so they would get sealed later. But he didn't have time to get the license where they were living so they went to a neighboring state and had a really small wedding very quickly. But the invitations to the one at the Chapel were already out! So they got special permission from SLC to have a mock wedding!!!!! How crazy is that, and then they were later sealed in the temple! I thought that was such a crazy story :D
His brother once had a copy of a First Edition Book of Mormon!!!!!!!! But he gave it to JFK while he was president for the first edition library in the White House! Elder Harding is still upset about it lol. He also said he was about 30' away from JFK As he gave his famous speech!!!
As we were driving with the Hardings to Warsaw to stay the night before Zone Conference we were stopped at a stop light. There was a car in front of us and a car to our right slightly behind us. The guy to our right got out of his car. Walked in front of ours, to the car in front of us. Openned that car door, pulled the man out (The man he pulled out was bigger than him....) and they started pushing. It got heated and they started throwing fists at each other!!!! The bigger guy practically tackled the other guy into the hood of out car!!! Elder Harding at that point took off between the cars lol, he said he wanted to stay and watch the fight but didn't want a window to get broken lol. It was quite an experience! First real fight I have ever seen!
Well I am pretty much out of time now, but I got a lot in :D I will just start next week at Zone conference :D That will do just fine :D
Thanks for reading and remember to stay happy and enjoy life :D You only get one!
-Starszy Taylor
Monday, March 1, 2010
Week 6
Well another week down, I can't believe I have only been in Lublin for a week and a half!!! We have done so much! Well here are the things I made note of in the week:
On Wednesday we had exchanges :D I went up to Warsaw to be with Elders Garrett, Brown and Tanner. Elder Mathews came down here. Yes, they do have a 4 person companionship up there....very weird. It was a fun exchange, when I got to warsaw Elder Garrett was waiting for me and picked me up. It was great to talk to someone from my MTC group again, especially Elder Garrett. We went to the Chapel and taught English, me and and Elder Garrett had to teach the beginning class by ourselves... there was only one guy... We did pretty well I thought :D he seemed to learn some stuff, and we were able to read a scripture at the end so that was awesome. After that we went back to their apartment for the night. It was fun being with them :D In the morning after studies I went with Elder Tanner, we were headed to the outside parts of warsaw to meet with an inactive member. It took a while to get there, but eventually we found it. He was a way cool guy, and totally wants to come back to church. He has noticed his life not go as well since he stopped going to church. It is hard though because it is pretty far away and he is pretty busy. He has a daughter who was there while we met, she was funny. Later after we got back into the main part of Warsaw we had lunch at Elder Tanners favorite Milk Bar. My first, it is essentially a place where they have home cooked stuff, you pick what you want, they put on a plate and then you pay for it and eat it. It was really good. Elder Tanner is way awesome! He is a great guy, and missionary. After eating we headed to the old chapel (the church still leases it, they use it for meeting with investigators) to teach a recent convert. He is from Mexico and is very smart, he had a way cool conversion story and has a lot of great insights into the Gospel, it was a privilage being able to talk with and meet him. We headed to the Dworzec after that, I had a train to catch. I had a great time up in Warsaw on the exchange :D It is so nice seeing people accept the Gospel and then see how much their lives improve because of it!!!
I have also noticed my laguage skills coming along, I can understand parts of what people say and I can say a lot, and a lot more when no one is around me that speaks english. I continue to learn words everyday and read tons of signs.
We had a meeting with an investigator named Nina this week too. We go over to her apartment and meet with here and some friends. She has some very tainted views of the church, her Polish roommates absolutely hate us for some reason, they are scared to be in the same room with us (I may have wrote about this last week...) Everytime we meet with Nina we try to teach Gospel topics but she usually steers the conversation very far from it. She has been getting better though. But still is not very open, I think she just likes talking to us in English... We will see how the next meeting goes, but if she is not willing to listen and learn then we may have to discontinue meeting with her.
We have done TONS AND TONS of area book work this week.... For anyone who doesn't know, an area book is where all the records of investigators are kept. We went through ALL the old records and read them all.... and sorted them. We split the ones that were pretty open to the church but needed time from the ones who won't answer when we call, or have told us never to call them again... :( We have done sooooo much area book work, this next week we will be working on calling all the people we have gone through, hopefully someone will be ready to be taught the Gospel :D
On Saturday it was Raining!!!! Not Snowing!!!!! It is so much warmer now!!! I love it, it is between 40-50 each day! All the snow is melting. I have found out Grass actually does exist here. I am so happy it is getting warmer, and the sun is Shining :D It helps me be happy :D We also went to the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Saturday. We have an investigator who keeps inviting us. Probably last time though, they think they are trying to convert us...
Then later on Saturday we had a meeting set up with a member, but she never showed up x_x ugh... so we went home and did........MORE AREA BOOK WORK!!!! Surprise right.... We finished sorting and started calling a few. Most people just don't answer :(
On Sunday we had church. It is usually pretty short because we only have 1 speaker each week, and then sunday school or priesthood/relief society. Not both each week, because the Branch is still small. We also almost ran out of Sacrament cups! We need more...we used everyone one this week and I had to pass on the water...lol whew...
After church we had a meeting with the investigator who is a Seventh Day Adventist. He brought a small book of something or other with scriptures in it to try and prove our church wrong? We weren't exactly bashing, it was a calm discussion but we showed him clarification scriptures for all the ones he presented from his book. We still think he is just trying to convert us... We may have to stop meeting with him if he isn't progressing soon.
Monday we did lots of Financial stuff again, I would not like being Branch President just because of all the extra financial stuff you would have to do....yikes.... We also had a kind of thing similar to Family Home Evening but for anyone in the Branch who wants to come, it went fine.
Today we had a meeting with Mariusz, we talked to him about the Word of Wisdom and he was fine with it and has been living it since starting talking with us again :D We also were able to set a Baptismal Date!!!! My first one!!!! April 24, 2010!!! It is kinda far away but hopefully he will stick to it! He is a really awesome guy in his 20s I think. Would be a great member here in Lublin :D I am really excited for him!!!
Well thanks a ton for reading :D I will do my best to keep updating each week :D
-Starszy Taylor
On Wednesday we had exchanges :D I went up to Warsaw to be with Elders Garrett, Brown and Tanner. Elder Mathews came down here. Yes, they do have a 4 person companionship up there....very weird. It was a fun exchange, when I got to warsaw Elder Garrett was waiting for me and picked me up. It was great to talk to someone from my MTC group again, especially Elder Garrett. We went to the Chapel and taught English, me and and Elder Garrett had to teach the beginning class by ourselves... there was only one guy... We did pretty well I thought :D he seemed to learn some stuff, and we were able to read a scripture at the end so that was awesome. After that we went back to their apartment for the night. It was fun being with them :D In the morning after studies I went with Elder Tanner, we were headed to the outside parts of warsaw to meet with an inactive member. It took a while to get there, but eventually we found it. He was a way cool guy, and totally wants to come back to church. He has noticed his life not go as well since he stopped going to church. It is hard though because it is pretty far away and he is pretty busy. He has a daughter who was there while we met, she was funny. Later after we got back into the main part of Warsaw we had lunch at Elder Tanners favorite Milk Bar. My first, it is essentially a place where they have home cooked stuff, you pick what you want, they put on a plate and then you pay for it and eat it. It was really good. Elder Tanner is way awesome! He is a great guy, and missionary. After eating we headed to the old chapel (the church still leases it, they use it for meeting with investigators) to teach a recent convert. He is from Mexico and is very smart, he had a way cool conversion story and has a lot of great insights into the Gospel, it was a privilage being able to talk with and meet him. We headed to the Dworzec after that, I had a train to catch. I had a great time up in Warsaw on the exchange :D It is so nice seeing people accept the Gospel and then see how much their lives improve because of it!!!
I have also noticed my laguage skills coming along, I can understand parts of what people say and I can say a lot, and a lot more when no one is around me that speaks english. I continue to learn words everyday and read tons of signs.
We had a meeting with an investigator named Nina this week too. We go over to her apartment and meet with here and some friends. She has some very tainted views of the church, her Polish roommates absolutely hate us for some reason, they are scared to be in the same room with us (I may have wrote about this last week...) Everytime we meet with Nina we try to teach Gospel topics but she usually steers the conversation very far from it. She has been getting better though. But still is not very open, I think she just likes talking to us in English... We will see how the next meeting goes, but if she is not willing to listen and learn then we may have to discontinue meeting with her.
We have done TONS AND TONS of area book work this week.... For anyone who doesn't know, an area book is where all the records of investigators are kept. We went through ALL the old records and read them all.... and sorted them. We split the ones that were pretty open to the church but needed time from the ones who won't answer when we call, or have told us never to call them again... :( We have done sooooo much area book work, this next week we will be working on calling all the people we have gone through, hopefully someone will be ready to be taught the Gospel :D
On Saturday it was Raining!!!! Not Snowing!!!!! It is so much warmer now!!! I love it, it is between 40-50 each day! All the snow is melting. I have found out Grass actually does exist here. I am so happy it is getting warmer, and the sun is Shining :D It helps me be happy :D We also went to the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Saturday. We have an investigator who keeps inviting us. Probably last time though, they think they are trying to convert us...
Then later on Saturday we had a meeting set up with a member, but she never showed up x_x ugh... so we went home and did........MORE AREA BOOK WORK!!!! Surprise right.... We finished sorting and started calling a few. Most people just don't answer :(
On Sunday we had church. It is usually pretty short because we only have 1 speaker each week, and then sunday school or priesthood/relief society. Not both each week, because the Branch is still small. We also almost ran out of Sacrament cups! We need more...we used everyone one this week and I had to pass on the water...lol whew...
After church we had a meeting with the investigator who is a Seventh Day Adventist. He brought a small book of something or other with scriptures in it to try and prove our church wrong? We weren't exactly bashing, it was a calm discussion but we showed him clarification scriptures for all the ones he presented from his book. We still think he is just trying to convert us... We may have to stop meeting with him if he isn't progressing soon.
Monday we did lots of Financial stuff again, I would not like being Branch President just because of all the extra financial stuff you would have to do....yikes.... We also had a kind of thing similar to Family Home Evening but for anyone in the Branch who wants to come, it went fine.
Today we had a meeting with Mariusz, we talked to him about the Word of Wisdom and he was fine with it and has been living it since starting talking with us again :D We also were able to set a Baptismal Date!!!! My first one!!!! April 24, 2010!!! It is kinda far away but hopefully he will stick to it! He is a really awesome guy in his 20s I think. Would be a great member here in Lublin :D I am really excited for him!!!
Well thanks a ton for reading :D I will do my best to keep updating each week :D
-Starszy Taylor
Monday, February 22, 2010
Week 5 (Transfer!!!)
Okay well, this was quite an exciting week, so I hope to be able to actually finish this blog before we run out of time on the computers today.
On Wednesday morning we got a call saying that there were only going to be 1 companionship in Kielce for the time being so we had to clean out the other apartment because we weren't going to use it anymore. That took up most of our day, it was quite an ordeal cleaning the whole apartment out, lots of missionaries had left random junk there....
Later on Wednesday, as I was packing all my stuff up for the Transfer the next day. I realized again that the zipper on one of my bags had broken (One side had come off, so it was only connected to half of the zipper part). I hate it when zippers break....So I was determined to fix it, an impossible task... I discovered the source of the problem to be a bend in the metal part on the zipper, it had been bent back, which had allowed it to jump off the track. After fiddling with it for about 15 minutes, I was able to get it back on the track, but wouldn't zip anything still....x_X I needed plyers to get the metal forced back into position... Luckily, for some unknown reason we happen to have a pair of plyers in the kitchen drawer...perfect >:) I carefully chose where to place the plyers, positioned them, and clamped down hard on them. After a couple readjustments I was able to actually get the zipper to work!!!!!!!!!!! I felt so accomplished so I went around telling everyone about it. No one seemed very impressed, which made me sad, but I was so happy with myself. No one ever fixes a zipper, when a zipper breaks, you replace the bag....After fixing it I proceeded to pack up all my stuff. My bags are really heavy....
Thursday morning I got up and got ready, had my last shower and breakfast in Kielce and we headed out for the Dworzec. Got me all loaded on the train, Elder Anderton is very kind and helpful. We said our goodbyes and he got off just before the train left. It was just over a 3 hour ride from Kielce to Lublin. I slept for most of the trip. When I thought we were getting closer I asked the girl in the cabin with me if this was Lublin and she said it was, we were both getting off so I helped her get her bag down, then I got my 2 monsters down....Almost knocked me clean off my feet when I pulled them down off the rack above the seats. I pulled my 2 bags to the train exit and somehow...got both off and still intact :D Then Elder Beaty came over and grabbed a bag and we headed for my new home. At the exit to the Dworzec there was a young man, early 20s, standing there asking for money in broken english, he was going to go buy alcohol with it (That is why he said he needed it), so we couldn't give him any. Took a bus to our apartment and I got aqcuainted with my new living space and unpacked my bags. After I got unpacked we went out contacting for a while :D :D :D :D :D Yay. The third or fourth person we contacted gave us her number and even set up a meeting with us on Monday. (She cancelled on us later though and said she was no longer interested :( ) At 5:00 we had a meeting scheduled with Nina, and her friend. Both are from Ukraine and speak English fine. They asked a lot of questions, as usual apparently. It is way funny because they live with 3 other Polish girls and the Polish girls told them about us....how we were going to hypnotize them and make them believe everything we say, and that we are a cult, and that we push people off balconies......lol I don't even know where people get this stuff, her roommates were generally concerned for her safety meeting alone with us... It was really weird. She knows we are just normal people though, not trying to force our religion on anyone, just out here to introduce it to people who may be looking for answers. As we were leaving the building, a guy in the parking lot overheard us speaking english and he stopped us!!!! He stopped US...ya..... We talked to him for a bit and told him we teach an English class, he was quite interested and asked how much it would cost, we told him it was free and he was shocked he didn't believe us lol. He asked why we would do such a thing, so we told him we are missionaries and we do it as a service. He seemed really interested, so hopefully we will see him in English this week :D Then we ran into another guy we know, who wanted us to come over sometime soon to meet again :D I love it here in Lublin!!! Thursday was pretty much an awesome day :D
Friday we had a meeting scheduled with a member who can't come to church often because of work and the travel time. So since my comp in the Branch President also, we go out and visit members too. On our way to the Bus station (long walk) we get to go through old town, which is absolutely gorgeous, it is just like walking into the past. We also passed this Larry that started talking to us and just wouldn't stop, he was relentless, we told him we had to go but he wouldn't even stop talking to breathe...Eventually we had to leave so we just walked away. For those of you who don't already know, a Larry is a Polish man that has become so dependent on Alcohol that they have no home and no manners and will do ANYTHING to get money for more alcohol. We went to Poławy where this member lives and we had a heck of a time finding her house... Way out in the boonies lol. She was way nice, she cooked this awesome food for us, Potatoes, Meatballs, and Tomato Slices :D It was delicios, she also gave us some of the best candy I have ever had...it was Ukrainian too. Sooooo good, must find out how to get some...They had a really cute dog named Misia (I think that is how you spell it, it sounds like Misha) She had just had 3 tiny little puppies, absolutely adorable :D And she was really friendly too lol. She jump up on my lap and laid down, she put her head in my hand and took a nap. It was really cute.
After we got back into Lublin and were walking home from the bus station, there was this girl next to us that kept looking over and smiling at us....So I said "We should talk to her, she keeps looking at us" Low and behold she speaks English, so she started talking to us, we told her where we were from and why we are here, she invited us over to meet with her and 5 friends!!!! Right up until she realized we weren't catholic....lol, she dropped us like a hot patatoe...
Saturday we went to Zamość. About an hour and half bus ride out there. We went to meet with a member there, Maria, who can't come to church because it is too far. She made food for us, sooooo much food.....I couldn't eat it all I felt bad, I had half a Pierogi left (kinda like a ravioli) But she gave us each like 12.....yikes and this other thing, not sure what it was but is was pretty good :D We talked for a while, I could understand parts but I really didn't get the context of what was going on. She talked directly to me a couple times, which is always scary lol. Before we left, we prepared the Sacrament for her and she was very grateful for that. She is so nice to us :D We caught a Taxi back to the bus stop. Our Taxi driver was a girl too! I had never had a girl Taxi driver before, she was nice to us. Then as we were walking back from the bus stop to our apartment I asked the retoracle question "Why is it snowing again" (Because we had had such nice weather lately and the snow was melting) Somehow, I said it just as we were walking past these 2 girls and a guy and one of the girls said in a kinda harsh annoyed voice "Because it's Poland" Me and Elder Beaty just busted up laughing, it was absolutely hilarious. What are the odds that someone walking the opposite direction would actually hear what I said and then, speak english and be able to respond, I was really funny.
We had institute with some of the members here, Cody and Jasmine came. They are from Taiwan but are here studying medecine, they brought their friend Grace who is one of out investigators. They don't speak Polish so we were speaking in English, which was nice. They also know some Japanese!!! How crazy is that :D There ya go Dad, I found them ;) lol.
On Sunday we had church. I had to conduct the music, which is easy in English with songs you know....but in Polish, when it is songs you don't know, and played to a CD, it becomes much more difficult, especially since no one else really sings very loudly...I felt like I sang 3 solo's on sunday.....x_x I also happened to be the only "Speaker" in Sacrament meeting....I gave my into, and a little tiny talk and my Testimony, I don't think I butchered anything too badly. And then at the end...Elder Beaty asked me to give the closing prayer..! Holy Smokes I did practically everything except conducting....I don't even speak Polish yet..........We have pretty cool members here in Lublin, there are 2 young men :D one is 19 and the other is like 15. Everyone here seems to think I am like 16.... x_x they all say I look soooooo young.... which I guess isn't a bad thing......
We had 3 meetings on Monday after doing like 3 and half hours of Financial Work x_x So we had a pretty busy day. Hopefully they will be able to get a member Branch President here soon so the missionaries don't have to do it anyomre.
Well that is it for my very exciting week here in Lublin :D I love it here and am super excited to find a teach more people. We have a meeting on Wednesday with an investigator who was at church on Sunday, he said he had been thinking a lot about baptism and wanted to meet with us :D so hopefully everything goes well :D
I love you all, thanks for reading :D
-Starszy Taylor
On Wednesday morning we got a call saying that there were only going to be 1 companionship in Kielce for the time being so we had to clean out the other apartment because we weren't going to use it anymore. That took up most of our day, it was quite an ordeal cleaning the whole apartment out, lots of missionaries had left random junk there....
Later on Wednesday, as I was packing all my stuff up for the Transfer the next day. I realized again that the zipper on one of my bags had broken (One side had come off, so it was only connected to half of the zipper part). I hate it when zippers break....So I was determined to fix it, an impossible task... I discovered the source of the problem to be a bend in the metal part on the zipper, it had been bent back, which had allowed it to jump off the track. After fiddling with it for about 15 minutes, I was able to get it back on the track, but wouldn't zip anything still....x_X I needed plyers to get the metal forced back into position... Luckily, for some unknown reason we happen to have a pair of plyers in the kitchen drawer...perfect >:) I carefully chose where to place the plyers, positioned them, and clamped down hard on them. After a couple readjustments I was able to actually get the zipper to work!!!!!!!!!!! I felt so accomplished so I went around telling everyone about it. No one seemed very impressed, which made me sad, but I was so happy with myself. No one ever fixes a zipper, when a zipper breaks, you replace the bag....After fixing it I proceeded to pack up all my stuff. My bags are really heavy....
Thursday morning I got up and got ready, had my last shower and breakfast in Kielce and we headed out for the Dworzec. Got me all loaded on the train, Elder Anderton is very kind and helpful. We said our goodbyes and he got off just before the train left. It was just over a 3 hour ride from Kielce to Lublin. I slept for most of the trip. When I thought we were getting closer I asked the girl in the cabin with me if this was Lublin and she said it was, we were both getting off so I helped her get her bag down, then I got my 2 monsters down....Almost knocked me clean off my feet when I pulled them down off the rack above the seats. I pulled my 2 bags to the train exit and somehow...got both off and still intact :D Then Elder Beaty came over and grabbed a bag and we headed for my new home. At the exit to the Dworzec there was a young man, early 20s, standing there asking for money in broken english, he was going to go buy alcohol with it (That is why he said he needed it), so we couldn't give him any. Took a bus to our apartment and I got aqcuainted with my new living space and unpacked my bags. After I got unpacked we went out contacting for a while :D :D :D :D :D Yay. The third or fourth person we contacted gave us her number and even set up a meeting with us on Monday. (She cancelled on us later though and said she was no longer interested :( ) At 5:00 we had a meeting scheduled with Nina, and her friend. Both are from Ukraine and speak English fine. They asked a lot of questions, as usual apparently. It is way funny because they live with 3 other Polish girls and the Polish girls told them about us....how we were going to hypnotize them and make them believe everything we say, and that we are a cult, and that we push people off balconies......lol I don't even know where people get this stuff, her roommates were generally concerned for her safety meeting alone with us... It was really weird. She knows we are just normal people though, not trying to force our religion on anyone, just out here to introduce it to people who may be looking for answers. As we were leaving the building, a guy in the parking lot overheard us speaking english and he stopped us!!!! He stopped US...ya..... We talked to him for a bit and told him we teach an English class, he was quite interested and asked how much it would cost, we told him it was free and he was shocked he didn't believe us lol. He asked why we would do such a thing, so we told him we are missionaries and we do it as a service. He seemed really interested, so hopefully we will see him in English this week :D Then we ran into another guy we know, who wanted us to come over sometime soon to meet again :D I love it here in Lublin!!! Thursday was pretty much an awesome day :D
Friday we had a meeting scheduled with a member who can't come to church often because of work and the travel time. So since my comp in the Branch President also, we go out and visit members too. On our way to the Bus station (long walk) we get to go through old town, which is absolutely gorgeous, it is just like walking into the past. We also passed this Larry that started talking to us and just wouldn't stop, he was relentless, we told him we had to go but he wouldn't even stop talking to breathe...Eventually we had to leave so we just walked away. For those of you who don't already know, a Larry is a Polish man that has become so dependent on Alcohol that they have no home and no manners and will do ANYTHING to get money for more alcohol. We went to Poławy where this member lives and we had a heck of a time finding her house... Way out in the boonies lol. She was way nice, she cooked this awesome food for us, Potatoes, Meatballs, and Tomato Slices :D It was delicios, she also gave us some of the best candy I have ever had...it was Ukrainian too. Sooooo good, must find out how to get some...They had a really cute dog named Misia (I think that is how you spell it, it sounds like Misha) She had just had 3 tiny little puppies, absolutely adorable :D And she was really friendly too lol. She jump up on my lap and laid down, she put her head in my hand and took a nap. It was really cute.
After we got back into Lublin and were walking home from the bus station, there was this girl next to us that kept looking over and smiling at us....So I said "We should talk to her, she keeps looking at us" Low and behold she speaks English, so she started talking to us, we told her where we were from and why we are here, she invited us over to meet with her and 5 friends!!!! Right up until she realized we weren't catholic....lol, she dropped us like a hot patatoe...
Saturday we went to Zamość. About an hour and half bus ride out there. We went to meet with a member there, Maria, who can't come to church because it is too far. She made food for us, sooooo much food.....I couldn't eat it all I felt bad, I had half a Pierogi left (kinda like a ravioli) But she gave us each like 12.....yikes and this other thing, not sure what it was but is was pretty good :D We talked for a while, I could understand parts but I really didn't get the context of what was going on. She talked directly to me a couple times, which is always scary lol. Before we left, we prepared the Sacrament for her and she was very grateful for that. She is so nice to us :D We caught a Taxi back to the bus stop. Our Taxi driver was a girl too! I had never had a girl Taxi driver before, she was nice to us. Then as we were walking back from the bus stop to our apartment I asked the retoracle question "Why is it snowing again" (Because we had had such nice weather lately and the snow was melting) Somehow, I said it just as we were walking past these 2 girls and a guy and one of the girls said in a kinda harsh annoyed voice "Because it's Poland" Me and Elder Beaty just busted up laughing, it was absolutely hilarious. What are the odds that someone walking the opposite direction would actually hear what I said and then, speak english and be able to respond, I was really funny.
We had institute with some of the members here, Cody and Jasmine came. They are from Taiwan but are here studying medecine, they brought their friend Grace who is one of out investigators. They don't speak Polish so we were speaking in English, which was nice. They also know some Japanese!!! How crazy is that :D There ya go Dad, I found them ;) lol.
On Sunday we had church. I had to conduct the music, which is easy in English with songs you know....but in Polish, when it is songs you don't know, and played to a CD, it becomes much more difficult, especially since no one else really sings very loudly...I felt like I sang 3 solo's on sunday.....x_x I also happened to be the only "Speaker" in Sacrament meeting....I gave my into, and a little tiny talk and my Testimony, I don't think I butchered anything too badly. And then at the end...Elder Beaty asked me to give the closing prayer..! Holy Smokes I did practically everything except conducting....I don't even speak Polish yet..........We have pretty cool members here in Lublin, there are 2 young men :D one is 19 and the other is like 15. Everyone here seems to think I am like 16.... x_x they all say I look soooooo young.... which I guess isn't a bad thing......
We had 3 meetings on Monday after doing like 3 and half hours of Financial Work x_x So we had a pretty busy day. Hopefully they will be able to get a member Branch President here soon so the missionaries don't have to do it anyomre.
Well that is it for my very exciting week here in Lublin :D I love it here and am super excited to find a teach more people. We have a meeting on Wednesday with an investigator who was at church on Sunday, he said he had been thinking a lot about baptism and wanted to meet with us :D so hopefully everything goes well :D
I love you all, thanks for reading :D
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Week 4
Okay I am going to try something a little different this week since the day by day is getting a bit tedious. I am just going to write about things that stuck out to me in the Week that I wrote down somewhere to keep track of :D And hopefully this will turn out to be a bit more meaningful and less monotonous.
On Thursday this week was something in Poland that they call Tłusty Czwartek (Greasy Thursday) Where all the stores make tons of Pączki (Doughnuts, kind of) and people eat tons of them. They do this before the month long fast where they can't eat some meats on Fridays. It was fun we had some and they are way good. Later that night Our landlady Małgosia had us over to eat some of her homemade ones...WOW they were soooo good, ate like 8 of them x_x so good. It was a very intersting Holiday. We also did a lot of my legal work on Thursday, or at least tried...Had to go back on Friday to actually get most of it done, Małgosia was kind enough to help us figure out exactly what we had to do. Now I am just waiting for them to decide if I am okay to stay in the country, will check back in a couple weeks to see what they decided lol.
Saturday we had another adventure. We had previously received a referral from the office in Warsaw for someone who lives in "Kaczyce" Took forever just to find the little city... One of our members here, Sławek, was kind enough to offer to drive us out there. An hour and a half later we got to where it should have been...We asked around only to discover that the place doesn't exist........sad day. Hopefully it was just a miscommunication on information and not someone playing a prank on the church. We did find a really really old (800 years old) Catholic church nearby though. So Sławek being the history buff he is wanted to check it out. We walked around and then as we were leaving found someone that could open the doors and let us in. It was way shinny inside. Lots of gold plated stuff everywhere and pictures. Rather odd pictures actually, There was a skeleton with a scythe on one wall, and above it was a large mural of an inquisition....there was a man lying on the ground in the picture with his head chopped off and blood gushing out.......pretty weird for a church if you ask me. After that we returned home we went to Sławeks house for some tea and dinner. He is so nice to us :D And he is always at family home evening to fellowship the investigators and he brings his son.
Well the last big thing that happened this week occured when we got a phone call from President. He talked to Elder Andterton for a while, then Elder Handley, then Elder Anderton, then....me.....? It was weird cause no one ever asks to talk to me on the phone...weird. He talked to me for a bit, asked how things were going. Then he informed me that because so many Elders are going home in the next transfer there needs to be a mini transfer to make sure that none of the areas have 2 new Elders that don't know the city or people. Then he told me that I would be leaving Kielce to server in Lublin with Elder Beaty. I was so excited inside I could barely keep my composure. I have heard only good things about Edler Beaty from Elder Garrett who was in the MTC with me. I am excited to get there and be able to get out and do a lot more missionary work than we have been doing here in Kielce. Hopefully Elder Beaty is still excited to be here!!! I am pumped for this next transfer even though I will be leaving all the people I have gotten to know here in Kielce.
Well that is it for my Update this week, sorry it it shorter but I think it has the juicy stuff of the week. I will see if I can keep this up :D
Thanks for reading, I will be back next week with another update!!!
Starszy Taylor
On Thursday this week was something in Poland that they call Tłusty Czwartek (Greasy Thursday) Where all the stores make tons of Pączki (Doughnuts, kind of) and people eat tons of them. They do this before the month long fast where they can't eat some meats on Fridays. It was fun we had some and they are way good. Later that night Our landlady Małgosia had us over to eat some of her homemade ones...WOW they were soooo good, ate like 8 of them x_x so good. It was a very intersting Holiday. We also did a lot of my legal work on Thursday, or at least tried...Had to go back on Friday to actually get most of it done, Małgosia was kind enough to help us figure out exactly what we had to do. Now I am just waiting for them to decide if I am okay to stay in the country, will check back in a couple weeks to see what they decided lol.
Saturday we had another adventure. We had previously received a referral from the office in Warsaw for someone who lives in "Kaczyce" Took forever just to find the little city... One of our members here, Sławek, was kind enough to offer to drive us out there. An hour and a half later we got to where it should have been...We asked around only to discover that the place doesn't exist........sad day. Hopefully it was just a miscommunication on information and not someone playing a prank on the church. We did find a really really old (800 years old) Catholic church nearby though. So Sławek being the history buff he is wanted to check it out. We walked around and then as we were leaving found someone that could open the doors and let us in. It was way shinny inside. Lots of gold plated stuff everywhere and pictures. Rather odd pictures actually, There was a skeleton with a scythe on one wall, and above it was a large mural of an inquisition....there was a man lying on the ground in the picture with his head chopped off and blood gushing out.......pretty weird for a church if you ask me. After that we returned home we went to Sławeks house for some tea and dinner. He is so nice to us :D And he is always at family home evening to fellowship the investigators and he brings his son.
Well the last big thing that happened this week occured when we got a phone call from President. He talked to Elder Andterton for a while, then Elder Handley, then Elder Anderton, then....me.....? It was weird cause no one ever asks to talk to me on the phone...weird. He talked to me for a bit, asked how things were going. Then he informed me that because so many Elders are going home in the next transfer there needs to be a mini transfer to make sure that none of the areas have 2 new Elders that don't know the city or people. Then he told me that I would be leaving Kielce to server in Lublin with Elder Beaty. I was so excited inside I could barely keep my composure. I have heard only good things about Edler Beaty from Elder Garrett who was in the MTC with me. I am excited to get there and be able to get out and do a lot more missionary work than we have been doing here in Kielce. Hopefully Elder Beaty is still excited to be here!!! I am pumped for this next transfer even though I will be leaving all the people I have gotten to know here in Kielce.
Well that is it for my Update this week, sorry it it shorter but I think it has the juicy stuff of the week. I will see if I can keep this up :D
Thanks for reading, I will be back next week with another update!!!
Starszy Taylor
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Week 3
Blog Post (Week 3)
Well welcome back!!! Here is my weekly report for my third week in the wonderful, frozen country of Poland. The language is still coming along, slowly but surely :D
Wednesday:
Ended up spending the night at the Kraków apartment... I sooo love doing that... They don't have enough blankets for people to stay there.... Of course then they slept in in the morning, we caught a bus at 12:20 that was heading to Kielce, aparently buses are cheaper and faster than trains, just not as smooth I guess. I really enjoyed the ride, got to see the coutryside if Poland. It was pretty, all covered in white snow. I would have taken pictures but my camera died just after Auschwitz and I was lucky to get them onto the computer to upload them. We got home and later had a meeting with one if the members who is about to receive the Melchezidek priesthood :D exciting stuff! Then we spent a long time looking at maps trying to find a city where supposedly a member lives. Finally found the city we were looking for and found a way to get there. Plan for tomorrow :)
Thursday:
Woke up this morning and had studies. Me and Elder Handley read and translated part of PMG and then did the same thing for 3 Nephi 11 :D I really enjoyed it, he and Elder Anderton helped explain some of the words to me. We got all ready to leave and headed out fir the Bus Dworzec. We got there and found out when our bus was suppose to come and where and so we waited. No bus, found the next one...waited.......no bus... We did see a Larry (drunk Pole) at the station though, he was so drunk he could hardly even stand... Time came for the bus to come and!!! Nothing... Again 2 more times... We then decided to wait for 1 more bus and if it didn't co e we would head back after our hour and a half waiting in the cold. Time came for the bus, no bus... Okay... 5 more mins then we are leaving. Waited the five minutes then turned to leave. As we start walking we look back and if course... The bus pulls up... Go figure. Pay 4zł for the ticket and off we go, I slept fir most of the 90 minute ride. It was a very full bus. When we got to the city we located the address we had been given for this member so we go up and knock, so excited that we finally made it. Only to find out that the girl we were looking for had moved away 7 years earlier...................... :( Sad day. So we turned around and now had to find a way back to Kielce. We start hunting for the bus station. We are walking all over the place, it is dark now so we are asking people for directions. Finally we talked to someone who actually knows what they are talking about and we somehow (after saying a small prayer) manage to catch the last bus if the day headed to Kielce...... Whew... I was worried for a while there. Got home and had food, had a discussion between the 3 if us about whether or not there was rain before the great flood. then we got ready for bed and slept.
Friday:
Woke up in the morning and since we have been out of milk for the past like 4 days I ate the cereal dry, was so sick if no breakfast. Low and behold my companion decides to make pancakes today for us :D they were way good too. I am in the Isaiah chapters of 2 Nephi right now... Tough stuff. Since we were then completely out of food and didn't have time on our P-Day to shop we headed for the grocery store to get more desperately needed food. It was actually sunny outside too, the snow has melted a tiny bit so everything is slush now, wrecking our shoes :( and it is still cold, humidity doesn't help, neither does the wind... We carried our groceries home and Elder Anderton made some Pasta and Kielbasa for us to eat :) it was way good. After that we cleaned up for English class. We tried to find an english "Apples to Apples" game to play for English class but couldn't find one :( English class went well, Wojtek is so funny lol, and happens to be a very good photographer, we watched a short DVD of his work a little while ago, pretty amazing :D I was impressed. Afterwards we went over to Małgosia's house, the landlady (right next door) we had awesome soup and fruit tea lol I have had so much tea since being here.... Stayed there for a while and then came home, I was tired so I got ready for bed and fell asleep quick.
Saturday:
Had a scheduled appointment with Wojtek at 1:00 and since it is still sooo cold outside (no one is outside) we just stayed in and studied Polish. Wojtek came over at the designated time and we read the Book of Mormon with him for 2 hours, we talked about it as we went. It was great. After he left we had lunch, compliments of Elder Anderton :D then decided we should go out contacting... We did... The only problem being is that it is so cold outside no one was out... And if we did see someone they were in such a hurry to get inside they wouldn't stop to talk :( and then we had to head back before we froze, the humidity here plus wind makes it really really cold :(
Sunday:
Had a pretty good Sunday :) wojtek came to sacrament meeting again :D seems to be a regular occurence for him :) it was good too because it was Fast and Testimony meeting today :) so we all got to bear our testimonies :) I even did it in polish! I was surprised with how much I can say when it comes to gospel subjects lol, that must be what we crammed in at the MTC lol. Too cold for contacting again :( which is so sad... As much as I love reading the scriptures and studying polish words and grammars I would really like to get out and meet people. Later on in the day we had dinner scheduled with Małgosia our neighbor and the landlady for the other Kielce apartment. She is so nice she cooks for us all the time :) and helps me out with my Polish. She has a bit of a lisp and a very interesting personality so our visits are always interesting. She absolutely loves the missionaries :)
Monday:
Got up in the morning and first thing we were picked up by the landlord for our apartment and he took us somewhere to help me get legalized in Poland. He had to come anyways to give them some information. That took about and hour or two. Then he dropped us off back at our apartment. We then headed off to the bank to deposit the fast offerings from Sunday (always have somekind of finances on Monday). Then it was off to the library to submit the financial report. It takes a long time to walk from the bank to the library. They are in complete opposite directions from our apartment... And I have also discovered that my left knee does not like the cold weather... When we walk far in the snow my knee starts hurting :( which is definitely not good... Hopefully it will warm up soon and that will go away. Later we had FHE. Our attendance has been low this week for our meetings :( but at least Wojtek came :) he is always early. We had a good lesson on the Good Samaritan :) always a good parable. That ended about 8:30 or 9:00. We talked amongst ourselves and then we were informed that the Kraków Elders were coming over for a sleep over before P-Day... I really don't like when they do that, or when we have to sleep down there. That is not how it should be... I went to bed early so I wouldn't be sucked into staying up late with them... Almost worked too... But they were noisy and it took me a while to fall asleep... But eventually I did :)
Tuesday:
Well this morning I got up and showered and then hopped back into my bed to read my scriptures because they were all still sleeping out int the normal place I read....ugh.... They got up 2 hours after I did :( but at least I got to read in silence :) yay. Then we all got ready and headed out. Me and Elder Handley split off to head to the internet cafe while the other 3 went somewhere to play pool again. Pretty much just chilling today apartently... It is really cold outside still, I am really looking forward to warmer weather.
Well thanks for reading again :D I will be back next week with further updates :D
-Starszy Taylor
Well welcome back!!! Here is my weekly report for my third week in the wonderful, frozen country of Poland. The language is still coming along, slowly but surely :D
Wednesday:
Ended up spending the night at the Kraków apartment... I sooo love doing that... They don't have enough blankets for people to stay there.... Of course then they slept in in the morning, we caught a bus at 12:20 that was heading to Kielce, aparently buses are cheaper and faster than trains, just not as smooth I guess. I really enjoyed the ride, got to see the coutryside if Poland. It was pretty, all covered in white snow. I would have taken pictures but my camera died just after Auschwitz and I was lucky to get them onto the computer to upload them. We got home and later had a meeting with one if the members who is about to receive the Melchezidek priesthood :D exciting stuff! Then we spent a long time looking at maps trying to find a city where supposedly a member lives. Finally found the city we were looking for and found a way to get there. Plan for tomorrow :)
Thursday:
Woke up this morning and had studies. Me and Elder Handley read and translated part of PMG and then did the same thing for 3 Nephi 11 :D I really enjoyed it, he and Elder Anderton helped explain some of the words to me. We got all ready to leave and headed out fir the Bus Dworzec. We got there and found out when our bus was suppose to come and where and so we waited. No bus, found the next one...waited.......no bus... We did see a Larry (drunk Pole) at the station though, he was so drunk he could hardly even stand... Time came for the bus to come and!!! Nothing... Again 2 more times... We then decided to wait for 1 more bus and if it didn't co e we would head back after our hour and a half waiting in the cold. Time came for the bus, no bus... Okay... 5 more mins then we are leaving. Waited the five minutes then turned to leave. As we start walking we look back and if course... The bus pulls up... Go figure. Pay 4zł for the ticket and off we go, I slept fir most of the 90 minute ride. It was a very full bus. When we got to the city we located the address we had been given for this member so we go up and knock, so excited that we finally made it. Only to find out that the girl we were looking for had moved away 7 years earlier...................... :( Sad day. So we turned around and now had to find a way back to Kielce. We start hunting for the bus station. We are walking all over the place, it is dark now so we are asking people for directions. Finally we talked to someone who actually knows what they are talking about and we somehow (after saying a small prayer) manage to catch the last bus if the day headed to Kielce...... Whew... I was worried for a while there. Got home and had food, had a discussion between the 3 if us about whether or not there was rain before the great flood. then we got ready for bed and slept.
Friday:
Woke up in the morning and since we have been out of milk for the past like 4 days I ate the cereal dry, was so sick if no breakfast. Low and behold my companion decides to make pancakes today for us :D they were way good too. I am in the Isaiah chapters of 2 Nephi right now... Tough stuff. Since we were then completely out of food and didn't have time on our P-Day to shop we headed for the grocery store to get more desperately needed food. It was actually sunny outside too, the snow has melted a tiny bit so everything is slush now, wrecking our shoes :( and it is still cold, humidity doesn't help, neither does the wind... We carried our groceries home and Elder Anderton made some Pasta and Kielbasa for us to eat :) it was way good. After that we cleaned up for English class. We tried to find an english "Apples to Apples" game to play for English class but couldn't find one :( English class went well, Wojtek is so funny lol, and happens to be a very good photographer, we watched a short DVD of his work a little while ago, pretty amazing :D I was impressed. Afterwards we went over to Małgosia's house, the landlady (right next door) we had awesome soup and fruit tea lol I have had so much tea since being here.... Stayed there for a while and then came home, I was tired so I got ready for bed and fell asleep quick.
Saturday:
Had a scheduled appointment with Wojtek at 1:00 and since it is still sooo cold outside (no one is outside) we just stayed in and studied Polish. Wojtek came over at the designated time and we read the Book of Mormon with him for 2 hours, we talked about it as we went. It was great. After he left we had lunch, compliments of Elder Anderton :D then decided we should go out contacting... We did... The only problem being is that it is so cold outside no one was out... And if we did see someone they were in such a hurry to get inside they wouldn't stop to talk :( and then we had to head back before we froze, the humidity here plus wind makes it really really cold :(
Sunday:
Had a pretty good Sunday :) wojtek came to sacrament meeting again :D seems to be a regular occurence for him :) it was good too because it was Fast and Testimony meeting today :) so we all got to bear our testimonies :) I even did it in polish! I was surprised with how much I can say when it comes to gospel subjects lol, that must be what we crammed in at the MTC lol. Too cold for contacting again :( which is so sad... As much as I love reading the scriptures and studying polish words and grammars I would really like to get out and meet people. Later on in the day we had dinner scheduled with Małgosia our neighbor and the landlady for the other Kielce apartment. She is so nice she cooks for us all the time :) and helps me out with my Polish. She has a bit of a lisp and a very interesting personality so our visits are always interesting. She absolutely loves the missionaries :)
Monday:
Got up in the morning and first thing we were picked up by the landlord for our apartment and he took us somewhere to help me get legalized in Poland. He had to come anyways to give them some information. That took about and hour or two. Then he dropped us off back at our apartment. We then headed off to the bank to deposit the fast offerings from Sunday (always have somekind of finances on Monday). Then it was off to the library to submit the financial report. It takes a long time to walk from the bank to the library. They are in complete opposite directions from our apartment... And I have also discovered that my left knee does not like the cold weather... When we walk far in the snow my knee starts hurting :( which is definitely not good... Hopefully it will warm up soon and that will go away. Later we had FHE. Our attendance has been low this week for our meetings :( but at least Wojtek came :) he is always early. We had a good lesson on the Good Samaritan :) always a good parable. That ended about 8:30 or 9:00. We talked amongst ourselves and then we were informed that the Kraków Elders were coming over for a sleep over before P-Day... I really don't like when they do that, or when we have to sleep down there. That is not how it should be... I went to bed early so I wouldn't be sucked into staying up late with them... Almost worked too... But they were noisy and it took me a while to fall asleep... But eventually I did :)
Tuesday:
Well this morning I got up and showered and then hopped back into my bed to read my scriptures because they were all still sleeping out int the normal place I read....ugh.... They got up 2 hours after I did :( but at least I got to read in silence :) yay. Then we all got ready and headed out. Me and Elder Handley split off to head to the internet cafe while the other 3 went somewhere to play pool again. Pretty much just chilling today apartently... It is really cold outside still, I am really looking forward to warmer weather.
Well thanks for reading again :D I will be back next week with further updates :D
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Second Week in Poland!!!
Okay so still going with daily schedule so here we go
Friday:
Woke up a little late again and finally decided that in order for me to be able to get up out of bed when my alarm goes off I am going to need a specific plan. So during my study time I created a schedule for the first hour and a half of my day. After that I did A LOT AND LOT of language study....for like most of the day....not sure why we didn't go out and do something....we just waited around until it was time for English Class with our investigators. English is apparently the way all our investigators were found so we are going to advertise for it again and hopefully find more people intersted. Rather uneventful day...
Saturday:
Well I got up at 6:30 right on the dot, according to the plan of course then started my 10 mins of cardio...all I could come up with for my limited space was jumping jacks........I dare you to try and do jumping jacks for 10 solid minutes....I stopped after like 5. Then moved on to my upper body. Did my Handstand pushups, Curls and Tricep pulls with a theraband, 3 different types of pushups.....then lost all will to work out.... I hurt bad at that point. Hopefully I can work up to the point where I can do the full hour workout. This was Elder Trost's last full day in Poland before heading off to Switzerland to finish off his mission speaking his native German. (Polish is really hard) We pretty much did what he wanted. We had lunch at Pizza Hut. Yes they have it in Poland and it is a lot better than in the US. They glorify it here...full sit down restaurant with gourmet Pizza's way good. And like 12$ for a huge pizza. Later that day we watched the movie Katyń with some of our investigators, they have been bugging us about it for a long time so we did, it was polish history so we figured it would be okay. Nothing happy occurs in that movie x_x.... just very sad.... lots of death :( People were so mean in WWII.
Sunday:
So I must say I had some pretty crazy scripture study on Sunday. Always fun when you get lost in the scriptures. We had church, in our apartment of course again. I keep understanding more and more of what they give talks on. One was on tithing the other on Joseph Smith. Good talks, from what I understood. Didn't understand any of sunday school on Forordination.... We spent some time with Elder Trost then he left to go finish packing. We started heading for the Dworzec and actually contacting people as we went, I was so excited, we never contact, everyone turned us down and one guy was even deaf... lol I was still happy. We said bye to Elder Trost, it was sad. We miss him a lot. We headed home as a new Threesome with Elder Handley. We went to his apartment and got his stuff then we went back and help him get settled. I made Green Bean Cassarole with my makeshift Polish ingedients. It turned out to still be really good, not the same but still way good. Last we went over to our landlady's apartment to talk with her again, she loves us so much for some reason lol. It helps me a lot with my Polish.
Monday:
We got up in the morning got ready and everything, and then had to head off to the bank (forever far away) and deposit the tithing we got on Sunday from one of the members. Such a long walk....After that we went to the Library to send out the financial report for the branch. We went home after that and went over to our landlady's again, she had made a special soup for us :D it was actually really good, except for the slimy nasty chicken skin I had to eat that was in it....I would take raw fish over that any day.....x_x I also fixed her wifi for her lol, of course I would have to do that on my mission. We had Family Home Evening with our investigators after that. For the Activity we played BS, so funny lol, I love them all so much, absolutely hilarious. Then at the end me and Wojtek were playing Blink, I beat him like 4 times in a row, even with people helping him lol, he was learning quickly though. Right before he left I went really slow to let him win, but I kept it close. He was so happy to win :D I told them all that my mom is najlepszy at the game (best) and my sister is really good too, I told them in Polish :D BS helped me learn my numbers really well, numbers are sooooooo hard in polish, they change everytime you use them......Then we got ready to head to Kraków to spend the night so we could go to Auschwitz in the morning. Walked around for about an hour checking the bus stops and trains only to find out there were no more and we would have to catch a train at 6:00 in the morning. While we were at the Station checking times we saw a Larry (drunk Pole) and he stood there and growled at us......lol....then he asked for a cigarette :( poor guy. After that we headed back and went to bed.......
Tuesday:
Well today we got up at 5:00 and got ready and headed out for the Dworzec. That train was so odd... The seats were heated and plastic...but too heated....like they burned.....so it was weird...I tried to sleep. We got to Kraków and then met up with everyone else at the station and then got on the next train to Oświęcim where Auschwitz is. On the train there Elder Handley accidentally got off too early and had to wait for the next one for 40 mins...we had to wait too at the station. We got some food and then headed off for Auschwitz. A pretty decent walk too... Not as cold as it has been so that was good. Auschwitz was so sad, I can't even really comprehend what happened there, especially being there....completely in-humane what occured there. Being in the courtyard where thousands of people were murdered was....well not sure how to describe that.... Hopefully my pics finish uploading. We spent a long time going through all the buildings there, they have it set up as a museum now, still terrible....After that we went to a Billards place and had Pizza and played Pool. After like 2 hours of that we headed home. And now we are in Kraków until we travel home. It is very pretty here, and they don't have as much snow as we do in Kielce!!! Very beautiful Cathedrals here. This is the only city Hitler didn't wreck, this is where he stayed so he kept is nice. Well that is pretty much it for my week. Will be back later to update again!!! Stay tuned!!!
Friday:
Woke up a little late again and finally decided that in order for me to be able to get up out of bed when my alarm goes off I am going to need a specific plan. So during my study time I created a schedule for the first hour and a half of my day. After that I did A LOT AND LOT of language study....for like most of the day....not sure why we didn't go out and do something....we just waited around until it was time for English Class with our investigators. English is apparently the way all our investigators were found so we are going to advertise for it again and hopefully find more people intersted. Rather uneventful day...
Saturday:
Well I got up at 6:30 right on the dot, according to the plan of course then started my 10 mins of cardio...all I could come up with for my limited space was jumping jacks........I dare you to try and do jumping jacks for 10 solid minutes....I stopped after like 5. Then moved on to my upper body. Did my Handstand pushups, Curls and Tricep pulls with a theraband, 3 different types of pushups.....then lost all will to work out.... I hurt bad at that point. Hopefully I can work up to the point where I can do the full hour workout. This was Elder Trost's last full day in Poland before heading off to Switzerland to finish off his mission speaking his native German. (Polish is really hard) We pretty much did what he wanted. We had lunch at Pizza Hut. Yes they have it in Poland and it is a lot better than in the US. They glorify it here...full sit down restaurant with gourmet Pizza's way good. And like 12$ for a huge pizza. Later that day we watched the movie Katyń with some of our investigators, they have been bugging us about it for a long time so we did, it was polish history so we figured it would be okay. Nothing happy occurs in that movie x_x.... just very sad.... lots of death :( People were so mean in WWII.
Sunday:
So I must say I had some pretty crazy scripture study on Sunday. Always fun when you get lost in the scriptures. We had church, in our apartment of course again. I keep understanding more and more of what they give talks on. One was on tithing the other on Joseph Smith. Good talks, from what I understood. Didn't understand any of sunday school on Forordination.... We spent some time with Elder Trost then he left to go finish packing. We started heading for the Dworzec and actually contacting people as we went, I was so excited, we never contact, everyone turned us down and one guy was even deaf... lol I was still happy. We said bye to Elder Trost, it was sad. We miss him a lot. We headed home as a new Threesome with Elder Handley. We went to his apartment and got his stuff then we went back and help him get settled. I made Green Bean Cassarole with my makeshift Polish ingedients. It turned out to still be really good, not the same but still way good. Last we went over to our landlady's apartment to talk with her again, she loves us so much for some reason lol. It helps me a lot with my Polish.
Monday:
We got up in the morning got ready and everything, and then had to head off to the bank (forever far away) and deposit the tithing we got on Sunday from one of the members. Such a long walk....After that we went to the Library to send out the financial report for the branch. We went home after that and went over to our landlady's again, she had made a special soup for us :D it was actually really good, except for the slimy nasty chicken skin I had to eat that was in it....I would take raw fish over that any day.....x_x I also fixed her wifi for her lol, of course I would have to do that on my mission. We had Family Home Evening with our investigators after that. For the Activity we played BS, so funny lol, I love them all so much, absolutely hilarious. Then at the end me and Wojtek were playing Blink, I beat him like 4 times in a row, even with people helping him lol, he was learning quickly though. Right before he left I went really slow to let him win, but I kept it close. He was so happy to win :D I told them all that my mom is najlepszy at the game (best) and my sister is really good too, I told them in Polish :D BS helped me learn my numbers really well, numbers are sooooooo hard in polish, they change everytime you use them......Then we got ready to head to Kraków to spend the night so we could go to Auschwitz in the morning. Walked around for about an hour checking the bus stops and trains only to find out there were no more and we would have to catch a train at 6:00 in the morning. While we were at the Station checking times we saw a Larry (drunk Pole) and he stood there and growled at us......lol....then he asked for a cigarette :( poor guy. After that we headed back and went to bed.......
Tuesday:
Well today we got up at 5:00 and got ready and headed out for the Dworzec. That train was so odd... The seats were heated and plastic...but too heated....like they burned.....so it was weird...I tried to sleep. We got to Kraków and then met up with everyone else at the station and then got on the next train to Oświęcim where Auschwitz is. On the train there Elder Handley accidentally got off too early and had to wait for the next one for 40 mins...we had to wait too at the station. We got some food and then headed off for Auschwitz. A pretty decent walk too... Not as cold as it has been so that was good. Auschwitz was so sad, I can't even really comprehend what happened there, especially being there....completely in-humane what occured there. Being in the courtyard where thousands of people were murdered was....well not sure how to describe that.... Hopefully my pics finish uploading. We spent a long time going through all the buildings there, they have it set up as a museum now, still terrible....After that we went to a Billards place and had Pizza and played Pool. After like 2 hours of that we headed home. And now we are in Kraków until we travel home. It is very pretty here, and they don't have as much snow as we do in Kielce!!! Very beautiful Cathedrals here. This is the only city Hitler didn't wreck, this is where he stayed so he kept is nice. Well that is pretty much it for my week. Will be back later to update again!!! Stay tuned!!!
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