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
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Week 43
Wow... this has been one heck of a crazy week.
We started off with a Zone Conference in Katowice on Wednesday and one of our Area Presidency Members was there, President Kopischke. He was awesome. He told us we couldn't write down anything he said, only what we felt, and had us write down a question we would like answered during the conference and that if we would listen to the spirit our questions would all individually be answered and in different ways. It was a really cool meeting :)
On Thursday before English we had a really great meeting with a girl named Gosia. She comes to english class and is super nice. She is reading the Book of Mormon and seems to enjoy our meetings and she really listens. I asked her if it would be okay if she prayed for us next time and she said she would practice this week lol. She is great. Right before that though we found out that Elder Hillyard was randomly invited to Warsaw for some extra meeting. So we were in a threesome for a while. We also got to teach the intermediate english class which was awesome because I could actually teach something other than helping them simply memorize some words...
So we are in the first threesome of the week...
Then Friday Morning during studies, one of the office elders calls us and tells us that Elder Sheridan does, after all, have to go to England for legal work reasons. Bummer...kinda wrecked our whole day. So now it is just me and Elder Allred. Later that day we were suppose to pick up Elder Liemer our Zone Leader because he was coming in for an exchange and an interview. We waited at the Dworzec for something like an hour and a half, almost 2 hours for him...his train was 80 mins late...ugh. We got home at like 11:30 and crashed. We are now in the second threesome of the weekend.
We spent Saturday with Elder Liemer doing stuff, for lunch we went to a new place called "City Fries" all they do is sell fries, and sauces, but they have one of the coolest little tray/holder things ever, I will take a picture later. Then we also had the interview later which went perfectly fine. Then we had to yet again travel to the Dworzec and drop him off. Then we waited a bit and we were back at the Dworzec to pick up Elder Hillyard who was finally back from his meeting and exchange. He also found another girl on the Train who seems to be extremely interested in the Gospel as well! Her name is Asia and she plays the Cielo(sp?) She is really cool and super nice. So now we are yet again in a threesome, number 3.
Church on Sunday was great, President Nielson showed up rather unexptectedly for church and that was great, we had 2 investigators in church so that was good for them to hear President Nielson.
And now, as always I am out of time, but at least I was able to sum up all the threesomes I was in this weekend...it was crazy like I said. Hopefully that doesn't ever happen to us again, kinda interrupted everything. Oh well, the work goes on.
Until next week!
-Starszy Taylor
P.S. Happy Birthday Allie!!!! 12 years old!!! Woot!
We started off with a Zone Conference in Katowice on Wednesday and one of our Area Presidency Members was there, President Kopischke. He was awesome. He told us we couldn't write down anything he said, only what we felt, and had us write down a question we would like answered during the conference and that if we would listen to the spirit our questions would all individually be answered and in different ways. It was a really cool meeting :)
On Thursday before English we had a really great meeting with a girl named Gosia. She comes to english class and is super nice. She is reading the Book of Mormon and seems to enjoy our meetings and she really listens. I asked her if it would be okay if she prayed for us next time and she said she would practice this week lol. She is great. Right before that though we found out that Elder Hillyard was randomly invited to Warsaw for some extra meeting. So we were in a threesome for a while. We also got to teach the intermediate english class which was awesome because I could actually teach something other than helping them simply memorize some words...
So we are in the first threesome of the week...
Then Friday Morning during studies, one of the office elders calls us and tells us that Elder Sheridan does, after all, have to go to England for legal work reasons. Bummer...kinda wrecked our whole day. So now it is just me and Elder Allred. Later that day we were suppose to pick up Elder Liemer our Zone Leader because he was coming in for an exchange and an interview. We waited at the Dworzec for something like an hour and a half, almost 2 hours for him...his train was 80 mins late...ugh. We got home at like 11:30 and crashed. We are now in the second threesome of the weekend.
We spent Saturday with Elder Liemer doing stuff, for lunch we went to a new place called "City Fries" all they do is sell fries, and sauces, but they have one of the coolest little tray/holder things ever, I will take a picture later. Then we also had the interview later which went perfectly fine. Then we had to yet again travel to the Dworzec and drop him off. Then we waited a bit and we were back at the Dworzec to pick up Elder Hillyard who was finally back from his meeting and exchange. He also found another girl on the Train who seems to be extremely interested in the Gospel as well! Her name is Asia and she plays the Cielo(sp?) She is really cool and super nice. So now we are yet again in a threesome, number 3.
Church on Sunday was great, President Nielson showed up rather unexptectedly for church and that was great, we had 2 investigators in church so that was good for them to hear President Nielson.
And now, as always I am out of time, but at least I was able to sum up all the threesomes I was in this weekend...it was crazy like I said. Hopefully that doesn't ever happen to us again, kinda interrupted everything. Oh well, the work goes on.
Until next week!
-Starszy Taylor
P.S. Happy Birthday Allie!!!! 12 years old!!! Woot!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Week 43
Wow, Hump Day is on Thursday! And we have a Zone Conference on Wednesday. Ja nie mogę wierzyć jak szybko czas może lecieć! Ale wszystko jest w porządku tu, mieliśmy kilka spotkań ostatnio i kilka nowych zainteresowanych. Mam nadzieje że będziecie dowiedzieli się o Google Translator żebyście tłumaczyli to. Poniważ nie miałem dużo czas ostatny tydzień, pisałem karteczką niektóry rzeczy robiliśmy.
Okay, so this is a really long story about 2 of our investigators, and frankly I just don't have time to tell the whole thing, so here it is in a nutshell. This older man named Goerge Contacted the missionaries on a tramwaj, in english lol, he later came to church and we found out he was an investigator from a long time ago and that he lives in a city an hour or so outside of Wrocław called Legnica. After many calls we finally were able to set up a concrete time to meet with him out there. We got out there and met up with him. We had been planning on like a little hour long lesson with him or something, but he had other things in mind. He had like a whole day planned out for us, and so to be nice we just kinda went along with it. His first plan was to take us to meet his fiance Jenny. We headed to her work at a library where she is the librarian and she was really nice and interested in us. We tried to talk to her a bit whenever George was in a different room because whenever she would try to speak to us in Polish he would cut her off and tell her to speak REALLY slow because "they don't understand ANYTHING" which was really funny cause I understand her better than him in polish lol. Anyways, we eventually went back to their house for a dinner they prepared which was really good. After Dinner we got talking, I was talking with George (Aka, keeping him distracted long enough for Elder Sheridan to have a convo with Jenny) He was really upset that the church could put missionaries in a city and then build the church later to pull the missionaries out to watch the church kinda stop functioning there. It took a while to explain to him but I think I got through in the end. Jenny essentially said that it was a miracle that we came when we did and that it was a sign from god that she needs to listen to us because of a lot of things that have been happening lately for her. She said we were always welcome in her home. It was pretty awesome. Later about a week later we went back and had the opportunity to speak to just Jenny, and she told us about a dream she had where her late husband and her parents came to her dressed in white and were about to tell her something very important that they needed from her here on earth, then a text woke her up. We were awe struck it was crazy, we taught her the plan of salvation after that, it was great. Unfortunately we can't meet again until early december because they are super busy with the wedding and stuff, we have to ask president if we can skype with her or not, that would be great. She really likes us a lot and is so grateful and kind, she even said we were like drops of honey to her heart :) which is a really nice thing to say in polish. Well, yet again I am running out of time... and I had like a bajillion more things planned to talk about, I will have to type them up later I guess :)
I will leave a short list of them here if you just want to know what we have been up to :)
Lunches with Szczepan
English party
Sports in the Rain
Wrocław Lacrosse game
Darek
17 points flyers
Museum w/ Ania and Green Way
Allred going to Katowice for Training
Independance Day on the Rynek here
Tracting and lesson with Jacek
Hours with call kids on sunday
Legal work and (Sheridan has to go to England now)
Well thats it for now :) leave in comments anything else you would like me to expound upon :)
Laters
-Starszy Taylor
Okay, so this is a really long story about 2 of our investigators, and frankly I just don't have time to tell the whole thing, so here it is in a nutshell. This older man named Goerge Contacted the missionaries on a tramwaj, in english lol, he later came to church and we found out he was an investigator from a long time ago and that he lives in a city an hour or so outside of Wrocław called Legnica. After many calls we finally were able to set up a concrete time to meet with him out there. We got out there and met up with him. We had been planning on like a little hour long lesson with him or something, but he had other things in mind. He had like a whole day planned out for us, and so to be nice we just kinda went along with it. His first plan was to take us to meet his fiance Jenny. We headed to her work at a library where she is the librarian and she was really nice and interested in us. We tried to talk to her a bit whenever George was in a different room because whenever she would try to speak to us in Polish he would cut her off and tell her to speak REALLY slow because "they don't understand ANYTHING" which was really funny cause I understand her better than him in polish lol. Anyways, we eventually went back to their house for a dinner they prepared which was really good. After Dinner we got talking, I was talking with George (Aka, keeping him distracted long enough for Elder Sheridan to have a convo with Jenny) He was really upset that the church could put missionaries in a city and then build the church later to pull the missionaries out to watch the church kinda stop functioning there. It took a while to explain to him but I think I got through in the end. Jenny essentially said that it was a miracle that we came when we did and that it was a sign from god that she needs to listen to us because of a lot of things that have been happening lately for her. She said we were always welcome in her home. It was pretty awesome. Later about a week later we went back and had the opportunity to speak to just Jenny, and she told us about a dream she had where her late husband and her parents came to her dressed in white and were about to tell her something very important that they needed from her here on earth, then a text woke her up. We were awe struck it was crazy, we taught her the plan of salvation after that, it was great. Unfortunately we can't meet again until early december because they are super busy with the wedding and stuff, we have to ask president if we can skype with her or not, that would be great. She really likes us a lot and is so grateful and kind, she even said we were like drops of honey to her heart :) which is a really nice thing to say in polish. Well, yet again I am running out of time... and I had like a bajillion more things planned to talk about, I will have to type them up later I guess :)
I will leave a short list of them here if you just want to know what we have been up to :)
Lunches with Szczepan
English party
Sports in the Rain
Wrocław Lacrosse game
Darek
17 points flyers
Museum w/ Ania and Green Way
Allred going to Katowice for Training
Independance Day on the Rynek here
Tracting and lesson with Jacek
Hours with call kids on sunday
Legal work and (Sheridan has to go to England now)
Well thats it for now :) leave in comments anything else you would like me to expound upon :)
Laters
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Week 42
Well lots has happened this week, and my Dad will be so happy to hear the I finally got around to writing most of it down in my Journal. Which is great but also means that I have wiped my brain of it since I know it is written down X_x.. so we'll see
And...now I am out of time....sooooo... I think I will go to writing in the blog every other week so I can plan it out a bit better and get some really good information each post :D
Thanks
-Starszy Taylor
And...now I am out of time....sooooo... I think I will go to writing in the blog every other week so I can plan it out a bit better and get some really good information each post :D
Thanks
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Week 41
Sorry everyone that I just have not found the motivation lately to find things to write about and actually do it. And I'm sure my mother has told anyone that reads this blog that I had a bit of a rough patch but am doing a bit better now. So, as for what has happened in the past couple weeks.
I finished out a really fun transfer with Elder Loosli, we didn't get a lot of missionary work accomplished in the sense of contacting and teaching, but we did finally finish off the Mission Papers for Czarek Gładun and those are now submitted and we are waiting. We are all hopeing that he can get called to somewhere in the US where the church is really strong and he can learn how it all functions correctly and then bring it back to Poland and help build the kingdom here. Elder Loosli and I talked about a lot of things that I just had to get out of my system and we became great friends in the Process and will be doing things together after I get home.
One week near the end of the transfer, on a Thursday, we got a call from President that said Elder Lewis would be coming down on Sunday and would start training to be the new Branch President, which was a bit odd because we both thought that only I was going to be leaving Lublin, but as it turns out we would both be leaving. I was told I had about a week, and Loosli had about 2. Then on Sunday when we were waiting at the Dworzec to pick up Elder Lewis we got another call from President... He told me that I had to have my stuff packed up and be in Warsaw on Monday... That was a bit of a shock. So I gave a small on the spot talk in Sacrament Meeting and then afterwards I got to take pictures with the whole branch :) It was really sad to have to say goodbye to them :( Especially Beata. One part was funny though, I gave my camera to Brother Gładun to take a picture, and I had it on rapid fire shots, so if you hold the button down it will take up to 11 pictures in one second, yes, that is quite fast. He about fell over, in shock, and asked if I had bought a weapon instead of a camera lol.
I packed up and left my beloved Lublin and the Gładuns yet again and for Warsaw this time. I was told I would be staying with the AP's there, the wierd thing being that there was really only one AP (Assistant President) at the time due to some weird other transfer stuff and the other AP having to be somewhere else. So now I am living with an AP, in Warsaw...talk about a major change. I spent the next week with Elder Stohel, having no idea how long I would be there. It was difficult and frustrating at some times, but we got along okay, and he taught me a lot, both about being a missionary and about Polish. On that Saturday we went and picked up Elder Tribe from the Dworzec, he was going to be the new AP when transfers happened and we would have 2 again. Then at the Office Meeting on Monday, which was slightly hectic because the office is moving, and the office couple (Senior Missionaries) are going home and they are training the new couple. So everything was all crazy. At one point I went out with Sister Nielson, with no companion... It was weird. We went shopping for some stuff and then went to go pick up lunch for everyone that was there. We had ordered from this Naleśniki (Crepe) place and there was only one guy working there at the time. Poor guy was making those things faster than ever before. Sister Nielson and I just stood there and watched him for a while. It was nice to get to know her a bit better, she is really cool. Finally he finished all of our order and we packed it all into the car. Later in the evening I found out that I would be going back to Wrocław! The city I was in two months ago with Elder Allred. I was told to check bus times because I had to be on my way there the next day...holy traveling... I called them up and told them I was coming back and when I would be there. So, because this is now getting confusing...let me map out my transfers
Kielce (Anderton) 4 weeks
Lublin (Beaty) 4 weeks
Lublin (Thomson) 2 months
Poznań (Kontor) 4 weeks
Wrocław (Allred) 2 months
Lublin (Loosli) 7 weeks
Warsaw (Stohel) 1 week
Wrocław (Sheridan) 1 week and counting
I think that is it. Last time I was here I was with really old missionaries, two of which finished there missions here. It was a weird two months. It is completely different here now, with 2 brand new missionaries who are just excited to get out and work. Both of them speak fantastic polish too, like really really good polish, I still know more, but only because I have been here longer. They are just fearless when trying to say something new.
So ya, I am now back in Wrocław, the place where I had to play the piano last time I was here, Elder Hillyard plays now, he is much better. I was so happy that I would have the opportunity to see the Call kids again, Cynthia and AJ. They are way cool, and I wish I had a picture of their faces when they saw me on Sunday :D it was priceless, they looked back to see who the new guy was, then had to double take when they recognized me :) then they both got these huge smiles on their face and could barely contain themselves during Sacrament meeting. It was awesome. I translated for Sister Kimball, which I can do for the most part now, it is hard for me to listen, translate and speak at the same time...so I miss a lot when I translate sadly.
My new companion is really cool, we get along great. His name is James Sheridan, he is from Ogden, Utah. Likes hiking and being outside, but isn't a dummy on a computer. He is also a hard worker and ready to convert all of Wrocław. He also plays Viola and violin and quite a few other string instraments aparently. I look forward to being able to serve with him. And yes this also means I am Senior Companion.
Well I think that pretty much sums up what has happened recently... now for some stuff I have done since I got back to Wrocław.
We have a girl here with a baptismal date! She is so cool, about 20, speaks English and has been so prepared for the Gospel. She does lots of stuff with us, her name is Ania. Last night we went out to a Cemetary for Day of the Dead, which you may have guessed is kinda huge in Poland. It was really beautiful and I have lots of pictures, which I will post as soon as I can. It was quite amazing, and only the pictures will really be able to portray that, so be excited! We also had a really cool whiteboard the other day, and instead of going with some gospel question that people just ignore, we went with something that would just catch people offgaurd and was kinda fun. Our question was... Who would win? A Mage or a Jedi? Oh ya! It was so much fun asking people about that one, and it was a great ice breaker. Some of the older people just looked at us like we were insane or something, but most people thought it was totally awesome. We also talked to a guy who plays on a Football (American Football) team here in Poland, and his family. They were cool and pretty open and the guy said he was looking for ways to come closer to Christ and be a better person. We gave the family 2 Copies of the Book of Mormon and a couple pamphlets! Too bad they live in Poznań...we gave them the Elders Number there. We had fun on Sports Saturday too. We went to a park and played Soccer with some elementary school aged kids. They ended up kicking our trash... but we had to stop early because they were starting to kick each other and it wasn't just fun for them anymore. I woke up on Sunday soooooooooooo sore... That was the first actually physical exercise, as in Cardio and running that I have done in the past like 10 months... everything was sore... even my ribs... It was tons of fun though.
Well, I think that suffices for now.
Again, sorry I haven't posted in a long time, hope this makes up for it :D
Love ya all
-Starszy Taylor
I finished out a really fun transfer with Elder Loosli, we didn't get a lot of missionary work accomplished in the sense of contacting and teaching, but we did finally finish off the Mission Papers for Czarek Gładun and those are now submitted and we are waiting. We are all hopeing that he can get called to somewhere in the US where the church is really strong and he can learn how it all functions correctly and then bring it back to Poland and help build the kingdom here. Elder Loosli and I talked about a lot of things that I just had to get out of my system and we became great friends in the Process and will be doing things together after I get home.
One week near the end of the transfer, on a Thursday, we got a call from President that said Elder Lewis would be coming down on Sunday and would start training to be the new Branch President, which was a bit odd because we both thought that only I was going to be leaving Lublin, but as it turns out we would both be leaving. I was told I had about a week, and Loosli had about 2. Then on Sunday when we were waiting at the Dworzec to pick up Elder Lewis we got another call from President... He told me that I had to have my stuff packed up and be in Warsaw on Monday... That was a bit of a shock. So I gave a small on the spot talk in Sacrament Meeting and then afterwards I got to take pictures with the whole branch :) It was really sad to have to say goodbye to them :( Especially Beata. One part was funny though, I gave my camera to Brother Gładun to take a picture, and I had it on rapid fire shots, so if you hold the button down it will take up to 11 pictures in one second, yes, that is quite fast. He about fell over, in shock, and asked if I had bought a weapon instead of a camera lol.
I packed up and left my beloved Lublin and the Gładuns yet again and for Warsaw this time. I was told I would be staying with the AP's there, the wierd thing being that there was really only one AP (Assistant President) at the time due to some weird other transfer stuff and the other AP having to be somewhere else. So now I am living with an AP, in Warsaw...talk about a major change. I spent the next week with Elder Stohel, having no idea how long I would be there. It was difficult and frustrating at some times, but we got along okay, and he taught me a lot, both about being a missionary and about Polish. On that Saturday we went and picked up Elder Tribe from the Dworzec, he was going to be the new AP when transfers happened and we would have 2 again. Then at the Office Meeting on Monday, which was slightly hectic because the office is moving, and the office couple (Senior Missionaries) are going home and they are training the new couple. So everything was all crazy. At one point I went out with Sister Nielson, with no companion... It was weird. We went shopping for some stuff and then went to go pick up lunch for everyone that was there. We had ordered from this Naleśniki (Crepe) place and there was only one guy working there at the time. Poor guy was making those things faster than ever before. Sister Nielson and I just stood there and watched him for a while. It was nice to get to know her a bit better, she is really cool. Finally he finished all of our order and we packed it all into the car. Later in the evening I found out that I would be going back to Wrocław! The city I was in two months ago with Elder Allred. I was told to check bus times because I had to be on my way there the next day...holy traveling... I called them up and told them I was coming back and when I would be there. So, because this is now getting confusing...let me map out my transfers
Kielce (Anderton) 4 weeks
Lublin (Beaty) 4 weeks
Lublin (Thomson) 2 months
Poznań (Kontor) 4 weeks
Wrocław (Allred) 2 months
Lublin (Loosli) 7 weeks
Warsaw (Stohel) 1 week
Wrocław (Sheridan) 1 week and counting
I think that is it. Last time I was here I was with really old missionaries, two of which finished there missions here. It was a weird two months. It is completely different here now, with 2 brand new missionaries who are just excited to get out and work. Both of them speak fantastic polish too, like really really good polish, I still know more, but only because I have been here longer. They are just fearless when trying to say something new.
So ya, I am now back in Wrocław, the place where I had to play the piano last time I was here, Elder Hillyard plays now, he is much better. I was so happy that I would have the opportunity to see the Call kids again, Cynthia and AJ. They are way cool, and I wish I had a picture of their faces when they saw me on Sunday :D it was priceless, they looked back to see who the new guy was, then had to double take when they recognized me :) then they both got these huge smiles on their face and could barely contain themselves during Sacrament meeting. It was awesome. I translated for Sister Kimball, which I can do for the most part now, it is hard for me to listen, translate and speak at the same time...so I miss a lot when I translate sadly.
My new companion is really cool, we get along great. His name is James Sheridan, he is from Ogden, Utah. Likes hiking and being outside, but isn't a dummy on a computer. He is also a hard worker and ready to convert all of Wrocław. He also plays Viola and violin and quite a few other string instraments aparently. I look forward to being able to serve with him. And yes this also means I am Senior Companion.
Well I think that pretty much sums up what has happened recently... now for some stuff I have done since I got back to Wrocław.
We have a girl here with a baptismal date! She is so cool, about 20, speaks English and has been so prepared for the Gospel. She does lots of stuff with us, her name is Ania. Last night we went out to a Cemetary for Day of the Dead, which you may have guessed is kinda huge in Poland. It was really beautiful and I have lots of pictures, which I will post as soon as I can. It was quite amazing, and only the pictures will really be able to portray that, so be excited! We also had a really cool whiteboard the other day, and instead of going with some gospel question that people just ignore, we went with something that would just catch people offgaurd and was kinda fun. Our question was... Who would win? A Mage or a Jedi? Oh ya! It was so much fun asking people about that one, and it was a great ice breaker. Some of the older people just looked at us like we were insane or something, but most people thought it was totally awesome. We also talked to a guy who plays on a Football (American Football) team here in Poland, and his family. They were cool and pretty open and the guy said he was looking for ways to come closer to Christ and be a better person. We gave the family 2 Copies of the Book of Mormon and a couple pamphlets! Too bad they live in Poznań...we gave them the Elders Number there. We had fun on Sports Saturday too. We went to a park and played Soccer with some elementary school aged kids. They ended up kicking our trash... but we had to stop early because they were starting to kick each other and it wasn't just fun for them anymore. I woke up on Sunday soooooooooooo sore... That was the first actually physical exercise, as in Cardio and running that I have done in the past like 10 months... everything was sore... even my ribs... It was tons of fun though.
Well, I think that suffices for now.
Again, sorry I haven't posted in a long time, hope this makes up for it :D
Love ya all
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Week 34
It is truly amazing how fast time goes by... Even as it seems to take a long time during the day... This week was back to my good old Lublin travel schedule lol.
We took a trip to Puławy on Wednesday to have a meeting with Irina Żak, the Blind Member out there. She has decided to move to a more convenient location and was mostly packed up when we arrived. She is moving to Łódź to live with her son for a while until she can find her own apartment there. We had a nice meeting with her, and I was happy to know what was going on this time lol, since my polish has improved significantly since the last time I was here in Lublin. In Łódź she will be closer to the church, more members and have her son around to help her out. It Puławy she is all alone and it is really hard on her, especially since she is blind. She is so nice though, cooked us some great Polish food, it was awesome :)
On Thursday we had another trip planned, but this time to Zamość to see Maria Pusiek. She is so great to us aswell, always cooks us TONS of food...Like more food that I can fit in my stomach...we always leave there feeling bloated lol. At least it is good food, really good food. We had a nice meeting with her as well. She loves to talk, and it was a lot better this time too, because I can understand and contribute to a conversation... as opposed to sitting there and nodding my head...lol. She remembered me and was happy to see me back. She was amazed when I told her where I had been for the past 3 months. On "vacation" to Poznań and Wrocław, two of the prettiest cities in Poland :D. It is too bad that she lives so far away and can't come to church, but she is still a solid member, loves the church, reads her scriptures and prays. She is great.
Saturday we had a meeting at Noon with the Taiwanese members :) Which now consists of 3 people! It was so amazing to see Grace again, she has a new confidence and feeling about her, it is great. She always seemed so shelled up and quiet before and now she smiles more and just seems so much happier, I guess that is really what the Gospel does for people who let it. We set up a time to have an advanced English class with them to help them out with their schooling which is all in English. And we should be starting up Institute again here soon :) which will be great. They are so fantastic, the Branch here is very blessed to have them here as a part of it.
Sunday, we had our good old Lublin church. Had a decent amount of people come, about 8 member I believe. Marlena was there again, which makes 3 weeks in a row, which is great because Elder Thomson and I spent quite some time reactivating and working with her. Good to see something has come from it :D And of course I am back to doing most of the church service lol...I blessed both again this week, and also had the One talk... I gave my one on Diligence that I wrote in Poznań but I spent a lot of time the day before editing it... amazing how much you can learn in 3 months... Then we had a Sunday School Lesson from Beata :) She is a great teacher. Then church was over, about 70 minutes after it started... lol. We have been instructed to only have 1 Talk in Sacrament meeting in the small branches... So... we do what we can.
Well, that pretty much sums up most of this week. We are going to try and meet with Beata (investigator) this week, because she had to reschedule from last week because she had an Aunt die, pray for her. We have Zone Conference Tomorrow and that should be exciting.
Until Next Week,
-Starszy Taylor
We took a trip to Puławy on Wednesday to have a meeting with Irina Żak, the Blind Member out there. She has decided to move to a more convenient location and was mostly packed up when we arrived. She is moving to Łódź to live with her son for a while until she can find her own apartment there. We had a nice meeting with her, and I was happy to know what was going on this time lol, since my polish has improved significantly since the last time I was here in Lublin. In Łódź she will be closer to the church, more members and have her son around to help her out. It Puławy she is all alone and it is really hard on her, especially since she is blind. She is so nice though, cooked us some great Polish food, it was awesome :)
On Thursday we had another trip planned, but this time to Zamość to see Maria Pusiek. She is so great to us aswell, always cooks us TONS of food...Like more food that I can fit in my stomach...we always leave there feeling bloated lol. At least it is good food, really good food. We had a nice meeting with her as well. She loves to talk, and it was a lot better this time too, because I can understand and contribute to a conversation... as opposed to sitting there and nodding my head...lol. She remembered me and was happy to see me back. She was amazed when I told her where I had been for the past 3 months. On "vacation" to Poznań and Wrocław, two of the prettiest cities in Poland :D. It is too bad that she lives so far away and can't come to church, but she is still a solid member, loves the church, reads her scriptures and prays. She is great.
Saturday we had a meeting at Noon with the Taiwanese members :) Which now consists of 3 people! It was so amazing to see Grace again, she has a new confidence and feeling about her, it is great. She always seemed so shelled up and quiet before and now she smiles more and just seems so much happier, I guess that is really what the Gospel does for people who let it. We set up a time to have an advanced English class with them to help them out with their schooling which is all in English. And we should be starting up Institute again here soon :) which will be great. They are so fantastic, the Branch here is very blessed to have them here as a part of it.
Sunday, we had our good old Lublin church. Had a decent amount of people come, about 8 member I believe. Marlena was there again, which makes 3 weeks in a row, which is great because Elder Thomson and I spent quite some time reactivating and working with her. Good to see something has come from it :D And of course I am back to doing most of the church service lol...I blessed both again this week, and also had the One talk... I gave my one on Diligence that I wrote in Poznań but I spent a lot of time the day before editing it... amazing how much you can learn in 3 months... Then we had a Sunday School Lesson from Beata :) She is a great teacher. Then church was over, about 70 minutes after it started... lol. We have been instructed to only have 1 Talk in Sacrament meeting in the small branches... So... we do what we can.
Well, that pretty much sums up most of this week. We are going to try and meet with Beata (investigator) this week, because she had to reschedule from last week because she had an Aunt die, pray for her. We have Zone Conference Tomorrow and that should be exciting.
Until Next Week,
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Week 33
And another week passed just like that. I had the opportunity to go on an exchange this past week to Warsaw. It was a little odd because it was scheduled for a Sunday, so I was going to be able to go to church in Warsaw for the first time. On the train there and the train home I took lots of really cool pictures of the Sunset and posted them online in my Mission picture album located here:
Mission Pictures
Enjoy, I uploaded hundreds of pictures recently so, I hope you all like them.
Church on Sunday was great, it was amazing to me to see how many people were there! I am use to church being about 10 people, and in Wrocław it was huge to me at about 20-25. Warsaw had like 70-80 people show up! We all barely fit in the Sacrament Room! Pretty much all the chairs were filled. It was also odd to not be playing a major part in every meeting. The members there actually ran church, it was fantastic to see a place where if the missionaries were not able to be there anymore the church would still function. Afterwards we had a great Break the Fast and tons of peole (as in practically the whole branch) stayed for that. It was great to see some of the members there in Warsaw that I have seen a lot because of how often I have gone there. Then afterwards the Young Single Adults were having a fireside at Presidents house but President had a problem hooking his computer up to the TV... so of course they came to me to see if I could come and fix it. Sure enough I ended up going over with Elder Lewis, who is an office Elder (I was technically an office Edler for a Day I guess) and I fixed it after a bit of tinkering. President was really grateful, and I was just happy to be able to still fix computer problems lol. After that I headed back home on the Train and took not quite as many (battery was almost dead) but very beautiful Sunset pictures.
Elder Loosli and I have lots of meetings this week including visits to the members who live in the neighboring cities of Puławy and Zamość. We are also going to Paul's English class later today just like I did 3 months ago :) It should be great. Well, I think that pretty much does it for this week. As usually we are always looking for people to teach, pray for us, we need it. People here are soooooo set on their culture that they don't really listen to anything you say. They have become so numbed to religion over the centuries that they don't really view it as an important part of their lives anymore. We are here to change that but need a lot of help, so pray for the Polish people, they have had a very hard History.
Until Next week!
-Starszy Taylor
Mission Pictures
Enjoy, I uploaded hundreds of pictures recently so, I hope you all like them.
Church on Sunday was great, it was amazing to me to see how many people were there! I am use to church being about 10 people, and in Wrocław it was huge to me at about 20-25. Warsaw had like 70-80 people show up! We all barely fit in the Sacrament Room! Pretty much all the chairs were filled. It was also odd to not be playing a major part in every meeting. The members there actually ran church, it was fantastic to see a place where if the missionaries were not able to be there anymore the church would still function. Afterwards we had a great Break the Fast and tons of peole (as in practically the whole branch) stayed for that. It was great to see some of the members there in Warsaw that I have seen a lot because of how often I have gone there. Then afterwards the Young Single Adults were having a fireside at Presidents house but President had a problem hooking his computer up to the TV... so of course they came to me to see if I could come and fix it. Sure enough I ended up going over with Elder Lewis, who is an office Elder (I was technically an office Edler for a Day I guess) and I fixed it after a bit of tinkering. President was really grateful, and I was just happy to be able to still fix computer problems lol. After that I headed back home on the Train and took not quite as many (battery was almost dead) but very beautiful Sunset pictures.
Elder Loosli and I have lots of meetings this week including visits to the members who live in the neighboring cities of Puławy and Zamość. We are also going to Paul's English class later today just like I did 3 months ago :) It should be great. Well, I think that pretty much does it for this week. As usually we are always looking for people to teach, pray for us, we need it. People here are soooooo set on their culture that they don't really listen to anything you say. They have become so numbed to religion over the centuries that they don't really view it as an important part of their lives anymore. We are here to change that but need a lot of help, so pray for the Polish people, they have had a very hard History.
Until Next week!
-Starszy Taylor
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