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
Monday, February 22, 2010
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!!!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Second half of the First week...
Okay, so to finish off my post from last week :D
After we found out where we were going to serve we paid for our bedding and then went and picked it up. Then we kinda dawdled around then finally left for the dworzec (train station). Waited forever in the freezing cold for the train to come x_x then there was a 4 hour train ride to Kraków where we were going to stay the night before going to Kielce. Slept the whole way.... Got to Kraków and spent the night on the floor with just a comforter... Terrible sleep...woke up like every hour...
Friday-
Woke up at like 7:00 after a terrible night... Did all my studying, and got ready, just kept waiting for them to wake up...they finally got up at like 10:00...they did pull an all-nighter the night before so they could come pick us up at the mission office. We caught a train for Kielce around noon. We had the other Elders going to Kielce with us. Elder Handley and Elder Trost are hilarious, I love them lol. We talked about Anime we had watched while we waited for our train in the cold. It was snowing too :( On the Train I talked with Elder Handley for most of the time. We arrived in Kielce and took a taxi to our apartment, and I finally got to unpack!!! We have a really nice apartment :D probably because it is the chapel as well. It is really nice though I really enjoy it. We have the most Ghetto clothes washer though, but at least it works. We had English class later in our apartment our 3 investigators came over and I got to meet them :D they are pretty cool. After they left I went back to more studying, this language is really hard.....but I am getting it, I am really surprised with how much I can understand and how much I can say. That's the power of prayer right there for ya :D Thanks family!!! I went to bed early, because my head was so exhausted from all the polish around me. I didn't even write in my journal until the next morning....
Saturday-
Woke up a little bit late, still working on the schedule here. Did all my studying again, I love having so much time set asside for it. At 1:00 we had Book of Mormon reading with Wojtek, he likes reading with us then asking questions :D We did our best and he seemed satisfied. It is fun talking with Poles, its amazing they can actually speak this language!!! At 2:00 we went grocery Shopping because we had no food. So some things about Poland... No canned soup...how terrible is that... No canned green beans... No shredded cheese... and no normal hamburger, it is always mixed with something else... After shopping the other Elders came over and we talked with them for a while. At 7:00 we met with our landlady, she loves the Elders but not the church... I got to speak some polish with her. A lot of people here speak decent English, some none at all... We had tea with her and this really weird salad... she had very interesting mannerisms and a slight lisp. And these crazy glasses, she would say something funny and then slap her knee, it was funny. Went home after 2 hours of that and crashed....again.......journal in the morning, hope this isn't going to be a habit lol.
Sunday-
Woke up and got ready, the showers here are nice and all the bathrooms have this awesome rack for towels that heats them :D built into the wall :D I'm happy about that. Around 10:30 people start showing up. We had 2 investigators show up :D I was asked to give the opening prayer...I did fine though. Then had sacrament meeting. I accidently left my music on in the background...so you could hear it slightly...I was so embarrased.... I barely understood any of the talk that was given. Then all the new missionaries to the city introduced themselves. Apparently mine was really good, better than the one that the 1 year old missionaries gave...lol During Sunday School I took the kids that had come with their dad and we talked about Book of Mormon stories for "Primary" They spoke perfect english and polish...I was jealous lol, but I love learning from little kids, the oldest was a girl who was 10, they were really smart I was impressed with their knowledge of the Book of Mormon. We had Pierogi for dinner, way good, similar to ravioli but different. Other Elders came over again and we talked about branch stuff. I fell asleep at 8 for 40 mins then woke up and got ready for bed then crashed about 9:00...so tired.
Monday-
Still waking up a bit late...still working on it. Studied for a long time then I went over to the piano we have in the chapel and I learned How Firm a Foundation on the piano :D It made me happy I remembered how to play. Then we did some odd stuff... We went to the Airsoft Store to see if they would replace my comps broken clip for his airsoft gun... then we headed to an internet cafe to turn in the financial report for the branch but the comps didn't have excel, so we had to go somewhere else. Had my first Kebab on our way to the second place. It was way good but hard to describe... My comp jailbroke his iTouch (many missionaries here have them) we spent a long time on the comps there... I wish we could go contacting or tracting but it is sooooooo cold outside, president told us not to stay outside for very long at all. We went home and had FHE with our investigators and 1 member :D We had a good spiritual thought from my comp (Branch President) and then we played Uno, Poles are so funny lol. 2 of them lingered after it was over for a long time.... Other Elders came over and we shared jokes lol, Elder Trost is so funny with his German Accent lol I love it. The Elders from Kraków came over late...and then they stayed up forever.... I went to bed at like 1:00...and then they kept waking me up...for no reason x_x...
Tuesday-
Woke up at about 8:30 :( I am setting goals for this week... They woke up even later because they stayed up so late...I was upset because that was less e-mail time we would have, turns out we ran out of time on tuesday.... Later on we went to Warsaw to stay the night before Zone Conference. Didn't do much for most of the day...just sat at the apartment....not very happy about that.
Wednesday-
Had Zone conference in the morning :D it was enjoyable I really liked it, I think it got my comp and Kraków trainer a bit pumped and willing to work a bit harder this week. We had an awesome lunch with sandwiches and Juice :D chips and salsa and all kinds of cookies :D Later on we were talking to the young women in warsaw, they are kind to the new missionaries that are learning to speak, I was impressed again with how much I understood and how much I could say :D they were way nice to us :D. We ended up having to stay in an unused apartment that was freezing.... I had to sleep in my big coat, my beanie and gloves and had to have 2 pairs of socks on, and my scarf wrapped around my cold toes x_x.
Thursday-
Came home this morning, took a long time to wake up. We caught a train at like 11:00 it was a long ride too....like 3:30 hours....we got home and had a long walk down the main street to get all the way to our apartment. We got there and dropped our stuff off, then since we had no other plans today we headed to the library to finish our e-mailing from Tuesday. :D We are going to meet with Wojtek a lot this week and see if we can't help him be baptized, he has been investigating for a long time and he knows it is true...just has family issues, they don't approve. That is a major problem in Poland. Hopefully he can get past it.
I love the work out here, I am hoping to be able to get out more as soon as it warms up a bit, right now we are just tyring to have as many meetings as we can.
Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts. I'm greatly looking forward to the next 22 months :D
-Starszy Taylor
After we found out where we were going to serve we paid for our bedding and then went and picked it up. Then we kinda dawdled around then finally left for the dworzec (train station). Waited forever in the freezing cold for the train to come x_x then there was a 4 hour train ride to Kraków where we were going to stay the night before going to Kielce. Slept the whole way.... Got to Kraków and spent the night on the floor with just a comforter... Terrible sleep...woke up like every hour...
Friday-
Woke up at like 7:00 after a terrible night... Did all my studying, and got ready, just kept waiting for them to wake up...they finally got up at like 10:00...they did pull an all-nighter the night before so they could come pick us up at the mission office. We caught a train for Kielce around noon. We had the other Elders going to Kielce with us. Elder Handley and Elder Trost are hilarious, I love them lol. We talked about Anime we had watched while we waited for our train in the cold. It was snowing too :( On the Train I talked with Elder Handley for most of the time. We arrived in Kielce and took a taxi to our apartment, and I finally got to unpack!!! We have a really nice apartment :D probably because it is the chapel as well. It is really nice though I really enjoy it. We have the most Ghetto clothes washer though, but at least it works. We had English class later in our apartment our 3 investigators came over and I got to meet them :D they are pretty cool. After they left I went back to more studying, this language is really hard.....but I am getting it, I am really surprised with how much I can understand and how much I can say. That's the power of prayer right there for ya :D Thanks family!!! I went to bed early, because my head was so exhausted from all the polish around me. I didn't even write in my journal until the next morning....
Saturday-
Woke up a little bit late, still working on the schedule here. Did all my studying again, I love having so much time set asside for it. At 1:00 we had Book of Mormon reading with Wojtek, he likes reading with us then asking questions :D We did our best and he seemed satisfied. It is fun talking with Poles, its amazing they can actually speak this language!!! At 2:00 we went grocery Shopping because we had no food. So some things about Poland... No canned soup...how terrible is that... No canned green beans... No shredded cheese... and no normal hamburger, it is always mixed with something else... After shopping the other Elders came over and we talked with them for a while. At 7:00 we met with our landlady, she loves the Elders but not the church... I got to speak some polish with her. A lot of people here speak decent English, some none at all... We had tea with her and this really weird salad... she had very interesting mannerisms and a slight lisp. And these crazy glasses, she would say something funny and then slap her knee, it was funny. Went home after 2 hours of that and crashed....again.......journal in the morning, hope this isn't going to be a habit lol.
Sunday-
Woke up and got ready, the showers here are nice and all the bathrooms have this awesome rack for towels that heats them :D built into the wall :D I'm happy about that. Around 10:30 people start showing up. We had 2 investigators show up :D I was asked to give the opening prayer...I did fine though. Then had sacrament meeting. I accidently left my music on in the background...so you could hear it slightly...I was so embarrased.... I barely understood any of the talk that was given. Then all the new missionaries to the city introduced themselves. Apparently mine was really good, better than the one that the 1 year old missionaries gave...lol During Sunday School I took the kids that had come with their dad and we talked about Book of Mormon stories for "Primary" They spoke perfect english and polish...I was jealous lol, but I love learning from little kids, the oldest was a girl who was 10, they were really smart I was impressed with their knowledge of the Book of Mormon. We had Pierogi for dinner, way good, similar to ravioli but different. Other Elders came over again and we talked about branch stuff. I fell asleep at 8 for 40 mins then woke up and got ready for bed then crashed about 9:00...so tired.
Monday-
Still waking up a bit late...still working on it. Studied for a long time then I went over to the piano we have in the chapel and I learned How Firm a Foundation on the piano :D It made me happy I remembered how to play. Then we did some odd stuff... We went to the Airsoft Store to see if they would replace my comps broken clip for his airsoft gun... then we headed to an internet cafe to turn in the financial report for the branch but the comps didn't have excel, so we had to go somewhere else. Had my first Kebab on our way to the second place. It was way good but hard to describe... My comp jailbroke his iTouch (many missionaries here have them) we spent a long time on the comps there... I wish we could go contacting or tracting but it is sooooooo cold outside, president told us not to stay outside for very long at all. We went home and had FHE with our investigators and 1 member :D We had a good spiritual thought from my comp (Branch President) and then we played Uno, Poles are so funny lol. 2 of them lingered after it was over for a long time.... Other Elders came over and we shared jokes lol, Elder Trost is so funny with his German Accent lol I love it. The Elders from Kraków came over late...and then they stayed up forever.... I went to bed at like 1:00...and then they kept waking me up...for no reason x_x...
Tuesday-
Woke up at about 8:30 :( I am setting goals for this week... They woke up even later because they stayed up so late...I was upset because that was less e-mail time we would have, turns out we ran out of time on tuesday.... Later on we went to Warsaw to stay the night before Zone Conference. Didn't do much for most of the day...just sat at the apartment....not very happy about that.
Wednesday-
Had Zone conference in the morning :D it was enjoyable I really liked it, I think it got my comp and Kraków trainer a bit pumped and willing to work a bit harder this week. We had an awesome lunch with sandwiches and Juice :D chips and salsa and all kinds of cookies :D Later on we were talking to the young women in warsaw, they are kind to the new missionaries that are learning to speak, I was impressed again with how much I understood and how much I could say :D they were way nice to us :D. We ended up having to stay in an unused apartment that was freezing.... I had to sleep in my big coat, my beanie and gloves and had to have 2 pairs of socks on, and my scarf wrapped around my cold toes x_x.
Thursday-
Came home this morning, took a long time to wake up. We caught a train at like 11:00 it was a long ride too....like 3:30 hours....we got home and had a long walk down the main street to get all the way to our apartment. We got there and dropped our stuff off, then since we had no other plans today we headed to the library to finish our e-mailing from Tuesday. :D We are going to meet with Wojtek a lot this week and see if we can't help him be baptized, he has been investigating for a long time and he knows it is true...just has family issues, they don't approve. That is a major problem in Poland. Hopefully he can get past it.
I love the work out here, I am hoping to be able to get out more as soon as it warms up a bit, right now we are just tyring to have as many meetings as we can.
Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts. I'm greatly looking forward to the next 22 months :D
-Starszy Taylor
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
First Week in Poland
Okay well here we go, this post is essentially going to be my first week in Poland, I have compiled a list of things I did each day. So here we go...
Tuesday-
After Endless flights and crying babies....we arrived in Warsaw, Poland around 11:00 am on Tuesday Morning. We left SLC about 26 hours ago...including time change. We were welcomed at the airport by the two Assisstant Presidents and then a bit later, President Engbjerb. They packed up all our baggage into the big white mission van and took us to the Mission Home. We dropped all our stuff off in the garage on the basement level. Then it was off to the Rynek (Old Town Square) where we would have our first real interaction with the Polish people. We were paired off with a veteran Missionary serving in Warsaw and off we went, using the little polish we actually know. "Excuse me for a moment, I know you're in a hurry and I don't want to interrupt...but have you heard about the Book of Mormon? ...Our Church?" Over and Over.....got 3 phone numbers in 2 hours....not bad I guess. It was really cold... I talked mostly to girls, they are a lot nicer, and kind and will listen out of pity for the poor american boy that barely speaks any polish lol. We ran into some girls that spoke english too!!! I was so excited I started telling them about the Book of Mormon and they set up an appointment right there!!! Only to later find out they were sister missionaries just messing with us x_x....After that experience we went back to the Mission Home and had Pizza for Dinner and then went to the basement and all crashed on our beds....So tired.....
Wednesday-
We woke up in the morning at 6:30 and got ready and went on a short run with the Mission Pres. out is the freezing cold....We went to a catholic church nearby on our run for a bit...it was weird...they had a huge mammoth bone hanging in the back, no idea why. We had an awesome breakfast with cereal and warm bread, cheese and meat when we got back. Then we traveled to the mission office in Warsaw and had our missionary orientation. Then it was back to the Rynek where we watch a short film on the history of Warsaw...quick summary: Warsaw got rocked in WWII, completely wrecked, then rebuilt. There ya go, I kid you not that was the whole film...Then we had lunch at Subway...ya random...in Poland...whatever...they spoke english too...and had english music playing...I hear more english music here than I do Polish music... After lunch we went to visit the only chapel (its own building) in Poland, it was nice. Then it was back to the mission home for Interviews with president and Dinner. I just had a short interview, it was pretty much just me telling him what my parents do then he read the letter the Bishop and the Stake President wrote for me, that was it. We had an amazing dinner from Sister Engbjerb and then a wonderful testimony meeting. I went first after President and his Wife just to get that one off my chest lol. And then it was off to bed.
Thursday-
So Thursday morning was a bit odd....Morning rolled around and somehow none of us heard any of the alarms that went off...so we all woke up when president was yelling down stairs asking if we were ready....we all scrambled to get up fast and get ready. This run, I would describe as śmierć...or death in english....I just about died... Running is not my thing.... running in a foot of fresh snow is my hell....my ankles hurt sooo bad by the end of it, somehow I lived...no idea....angels I swear. After and eternity of running through that crap we finally made it back to the mission home for another wonderful breakfast :D We got our stuff all packed up and then stuffed into the van and we headed off to the Mission office to meet our trainers and find out our first area. President took his sweet time (On purpose) talking about anything that would come to mind to delay him telling us what we were dying to find out. Finally he ran out of time and had to tell us who our trainer would be and where we would server first. I was paired to be Elder Anderton serving in the city of KIELCE!!!
....yikes...well I guess I am out of time, Will see if I can't write more sometime during the week. I love you guys. More info to come later :D
Starszy Taylor
Tuesday-
After Endless flights and crying babies....we arrived in Warsaw, Poland around 11:00 am on Tuesday Morning. We left SLC about 26 hours ago...including time change. We were welcomed at the airport by the two Assisstant Presidents and then a bit later, President Engbjerb. They packed up all our baggage into the big white mission van and took us to the Mission Home. We dropped all our stuff off in the garage on the basement level. Then it was off to the Rynek (Old Town Square) where we would have our first real interaction with the Polish people. We were paired off with a veteran Missionary serving in Warsaw and off we went, using the little polish we actually know. "Excuse me for a moment, I know you're in a hurry and I don't want to interrupt...but have you heard about the Book of Mormon? ...Our Church?" Over and Over.....got 3 phone numbers in 2 hours....not bad I guess. It was really cold... I talked mostly to girls, they are a lot nicer, and kind and will listen out of pity for the poor american boy that barely speaks any polish lol. We ran into some girls that spoke english too!!! I was so excited I started telling them about the Book of Mormon and they set up an appointment right there!!! Only to later find out they were sister missionaries just messing with us x_x....After that experience we went back to the Mission Home and had Pizza for Dinner and then went to the basement and all crashed on our beds....So tired.....
Wednesday-
We woke up in the morning at 6:30 and got ready and went on a short run with the Mission Pres. out is the freezing cold....We went to a catholic church nearby on our run for a bit...it was weird...they had a huge mammoth bone hanging in the back, no idea why. We had an awesome breakfast with cereal and warm bread, cheese and meat when we got back. Then we traveled to the mission office in Warsaw and had our missionary orientation. Then it was back to the Rynek where we watch a short film on the history of Warsaw...quick summary: Warsaw got rocked in WWII, completely wrecked, then rebuilt. There ya go, I kid you not that was the whole film...Then we had lunch at Subway...ya random...in Poland...whatever...they spoke english too...and had english music playing...I hear more english music here than I do Polish music... After lunch we went to visit the only chapel (its own building) in Poland, it was nice. Then it was back to the mission home for Interviews with president and Dinner. I just had a short interview, it was pretty much just me telling him what my parents do then he read the letter the Bishop and the Stake President wrote for me, that was it. We had an amazing dinner from Sister Engbjerb and then a wonderful testimony meeting. I went first after President and his Wife just to get that one off my chest lol. And then it was off to bed.
Thursday-
So Thursday morning was a bit odd....Morning rolled around and somehow none of us heard any of the alarms that went off...so we all woke up when president was yelling down stairs asking if we were ready....we all scrambled to get up fast and get ready. This run, I would describe as śmierć...or death in english....I just about died... Running is not my thing.... running in a foot of fresh snow is my hell....my ankles hurt sooo bad by the end of it, somehow I lived...no idea....angels I swear. After and eternity of running through that crap we finally made it back to the mission home for another wonderful breakfast :D We got our stuff all packed up and then stuffed into the van and we headed off to the Mission office to meet our trainers and find out our first area. President took his sweet time (On purpose) talking about anything that would come to mind to delay him telling us what we were dying to find out. Finally he ran out of time and had to tell us who our trainer would be and where we would server first. I was paired to be Elder Anderton serving in the city of KIELCE!!!
....yikes...well I guess I am out of time, Will see if I can't write more sometime during the week. I love you guys. More info to come later :D
Starszy Taylor
Monday, January 25, 2010
Beginning of my Mission in Poland
Well, I arrived in Polska about 7 days ago after 2 months in the Missionary Training Center (MTC). While there we learned the basics of Polish among learning Gospel principles and how to teach them in Polish. Also had a lot of time to study the Scriptures which was so much fun reading it all at once so many things all came together. The Book of Mormon is such an amazing book I absolutely love reading it now.
Well I must say it is absolutely FREEZING in Poland....no surprise there though right..... kinda expected that. But man, it is really cold here.... at least our apartment is warm. Our apartment happens to be the chapel too because we only have like 7 members or something so It is one of the nicer apartments from what I hear, but they are all nice. The food isn't that much different that something you might get in america other than the fact that there is no canned soup.....I was upset....how can you just not have canned soup? I mean isn't that like a must...its so cheap and only requires water.....why not have canned soup everywhere....Oh ya and there are no dryers here...just washers...I thought that was pretty odd. I am enjoying my time here so far, don't do much tracting or contacting because of the freezing weather but we still have occasional meetings and such. My companion is Elder Anderton, he is way chill and we get along just fine :D whew.
This is where I will be doing my weekly updates so if you want to keep posted just check back every so often, if you want to respond please e-mail me at football80@gmail.com Thank you :D
I love you all and look forward to doing the Lord's work here in Poland :D
-Starszy Taylor
Well I must say it is absolutely FREEZING in Poland....no surprise there though right..... kinda expected that. But man, it is really cold here.... at least our apartment is warm. Our apartment happens to be the chapel too because we only have like 7 members or something so It is one of the nicer apartments from what I hear, but they are all nice. The food isn't that much different that something you might get in america other than the fact that there is no canned soup.....I was upset....how can you just not have canned soup? I mean isn't that like a must...its so cheap and only requires water.....why not have canned soup everywhere....Oh ya and there are no dryers here...just washers...I thought that was pretty odd. I am enjoying my time here so far, don't do much tracting or contacting because of the freezing weather but we still have occasional meetings and such. My companion is Elder Anderton, he is way chill and we get along just fine :D whew.
This is where I will be doing my weekly updates so if you want to keep posted just check back every so often, if you want to respond please e-mail me at football80@gmail.com Thank you :D
I love you all and look forward to doing the Lord's work here in Poland :D
-Starszy Taylor
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