30 May 2013

Wayne and I decided to do some sightseeing on Friday (24th), but before we left we had to do a few repairs at the elders and sisters apartments.  Both of their showers leaked and trying to get the landlord to fix something is very difficult.  So we went and bought the tubing and decided to fix it ourselves.  Here is Wayne fixing the elder's shower.

So about 9:00 am we left for Swidnicy to go see the Kosciot Pokoju (oldest all wooden church in Poland).  We put the address in our trusty GPS and headed south.  It was a beautiful church.  It was started in August of 1656 and the first service was held in June of 1657.  It is built completely of wood, sand, clay and straw.  Here are some pictures. 

 

The church can hold up to 7500 people, 3000 of whom can sit

This is me, sitting all by myself.  Wayne was shaking because it was really cold in there.

 

Here is the altar where the priest conducts the service from.

 

Here is one of the three organs they have

 

This is one of the paintings they have on the ceiling.  It is of God and Jesus Christ.

 

Here is the baptismal font.

 

The pegs that you see are the actual wooden nails they used

 

 

All around the outside of the church is a cemetary.  Most of the headstones were down on the ground or broken.  It needs a lot of work before the grounds look nice.  We walked through some parts of the cemetary and found a headstone that had the same name as our Elder Stumpf, so we took a picture for him.

 

 

On Saturday, we had the baptism of Cynthia Call.  Since she was 11 years old, they count it as a convert baptism.  Almost everyone in the branch came.  It was awesome!

 

 

Here is Sisters Bezdjian and Blake, Cynthia Call and Brat Kotlinski.  They had to rent the whole swimming pool for an hour.

 

A little side note.  Wroclaw is known as the city of gnomes.  They are all over the place.  We will have to start taking pictures of them and put them on the blog every once in a while.  Anyway, here are quite a few of them in front of one of the government offices.  They usually aren't all together like this, but this one is fun

 

They even had some in the swimming pool area.  Here is one fishing and one swimming under the water.

 

So President Nielson comes to all of the baptisms in the mission and of course, he was at this one.  While Cynthia was getting changed, Pres. Nielson asked Wayne and I to come talk to him.  First thing that ran through our mind, was he was going to transfer us to Katowice, because the couple that is there right now will be going home at the end August.  So he just wanted to prepare us.  But that was not the case.  He assigned us to be over next year's YSA conference which will be held in Poland.  This year it is being held in Slovakia at the end of July.  So he is sending Wayne and I there to be observers.  He will put another couple on our committe to help us and then the other 4 countries will add YSA's to our committee.  So the other countries besides Poland and Slovakia are the Ukraine, Czech Republic and Hungary.  He is giving us a year to plan the week long conference.  We are very excited and scared.  What a wonderful opportunity the church gives to these YSA.

 

On P-day, we went bowling with the elders.  The sisters chose to rent some bikes and went over to Catholic Island.  Anyway,  here I am.  I'm sure I just threw a strike!

 

 

 And here is Elder Smith.  He just threw a gutter ball.  He didn't do too good.  I think his best score was 45.  But on Tuesday all of us had aching arms and legs.

 

In the same place as the bowling alley, they had a children's play area.  This horse was out front of the place and of course, boys will by boys.  Here is Elder Stumpf proclaiming the gospel on his white steed!

 

Tuesday, the Sisters asked us to meet them at the chapel to help with a discussion.  It was a "No Show".   So Wayne went on home and I went with the sisters to a couple of less active members apartments.  We met the sweetest woman and her husband.  She doesn't come because she has diabetes, her apartment is on the 6th floor and there is no elevator in the building.  And let me tell you, I wouldn't walk up and down those stairs either, if I didn't have to.  Very old and scary.  But they fed us some soup and we will probably go back and visit this Friday.  We went to another apartment to talk with Thomasc, but he wasn't home.  His son let us in to wait for him and the sisters taught him the first lesson and even got him to kneel with us and he said the prayer.  I was amazed!

 

Wednesday was our English class.  The sisters had to catch a train to Katowice for training and didn't think they would have time after English to make it to the train station, so they asked us for a ride in the car.  Normally, we walk to the chapel which is about a mile away.  We left the apartment at 4:30 pm.  Class starts at 5:00 pm.  It took us 45 mins to get to the chapel.  Traffic was horrible.  I now know why we walk alot.

 

It's been rainy and cold this week.  Not the spring weather I was thinking we would have.  I missed going to Manti, to place flowers on my parents graves.  And also Provo, for Wayne's parents.  But Jeremy and Heather went down and so did my two brothers.  Here's a picture of Manti cemetary and my awesome brothers.

 

 

And one last thing.  I thought our car was small!

 

Miss you all.  I can't believe it's June! 

May 23, 2013

Last Friday night, Wayne received a call from President Nielson telling us that Elder Weir was being sent home (he's been out for 11 months) because of a medical problem and asked if we wouldn't drive him down to Katowice on Monday to put him on a train to Warsaw.  We couldn't sleep very well that night.  We have really grown to love Elder Weir.  We also know that he will deal with this situation and come back to finish his mission.  We had the Elders over for dinner on Sunday and he told us a lot about his life and his family.  It came very apparent that we all have problems but we also know that Heavenly Father is aware of us and that He can make everything right.  On Monday, Elder Weir asked us to keep his winter coat at our apartment because he wanted it here when he came back.  It was a long drive down to Katowice, very quiet.  At 12:40 pm, we both gave Elder Weir a hearty handshake and put him on the train.  We know that young man will be back in 6 months.

So on Sunday, I had prepared a little lesson for the nursery and Sis. Zan was going to teach the YW.  During Sacrament meeting, I didn't see Sis. Zan come in so I started getting a little worried.  There was only Mila in the nursery that day.  So I tried to teach her the best I could, with the few Polish words I know.  I talked about Josef Smith and the restoration.  I stood up and pretended I was a tree, swaying back and forth and then told her about Bog and Jezus Chrystus appearing above him.  Good thing I had some pictures I could point to.  We sang some songs, had a little treat and then colored some pictures.  I hope she got something out of what I did.  So then for YW, I told the girls that we would just go into RS, because I couldn't teach them.  But Pres. Zan came in and said he would put the YW General Conference on the computer and the girls could watch some of that.  It was all in Polish.  So all in all, Sunday was not a good day for me.  But here are some pictures of our small church. 

This is the chapel

Relief Society Room

Primary

Young Women

And finally the nursery

 

On the way to Katowice, there are fields and fields of these beautiful yellow flowers.   We tried to get some pictures, but it just doesn't do it justice.  Come to find out that they use the flowers for Canola Oil.

 

 

While we were in Katowice, we had lunch with Elder and Sis. Reed.  While we were there, the phone rang.  It was the Elders asking Elder Reed to come over to a field close by.  One of the Elders, while throwing a football back and forth, tripped and hurt his ankle.  They will be sending that missionary home also for surgery on his ankle.  He broke it in two places. 

 

Monday night and Tuesday, we went with the Sisters to two appointments.  One of the investigators was also talking with the JW.  It seemed like she only wanted to compare Mormonism with the JW.  We didn't feel too good about that lesson.  But the other one was with a nice little family.  The problem they are dealing with is why they need to be baptized again.  We are hoping that their question was answered.  We felt good when we left and they are going to meet with the sisters again.

 

Our new Elder came in on Monday.  His name is Elder Smith.  And Elder Stumpf was made the District Leader.  Here they are in a meeting we had on Wednesday before English class.  Also a picture of President Cielenski. 

 

 

 

Elders Stumpf and Smith

 

President Cielenski

 

Oh by the way, they had a Harley Davidson motorcycle convention here last week.  They were all over the place on the Renik.  They had bands playing on Saturday and also some fireworks.  We thought that another war was starting. 

 

So here are some food experiences.  The Elders kept telling us about this place called "Kabob".  We pass the place on our way to the church.  So we went in and ordered a "Frittortilla".  And this is what we brought home.  It was huge.  We divided one for lunch and the other one for dinner.  Anyway, they put french fries, meat and sauce in a flour tortilla and wrap it all up.  It actually tasted very good.

But very filling.

 

 

 

Look what I found.  I had my first glass of chocolate milk this morning.  It was awesome and the milk didn't taste like cardboard.  I think I'll survive now.

 

Also, we bought this ketchup the other day and Wayne put some on his eggs this morning.  He said it tasted kind of strange.  So we looked up the word "pikantny" in our dictionary.  It said "hot".  So we'll go back to the store to see if we can get plain ketchup.  I guess we'll take the dictionary with us.

 

Once again, we love it here.  We love the experiences we are having.  We love the people.  We miss all of you, but know this is where we should be. 

Do widzenia!

May 15, 2013

So this week has been a lot of fixing things at the chapel and cleaning things out.  President Cielenski's desk had two drawers that wouldn't close and a couple with broken handles.  Siostra Cielenska also wanted locks on the cabinets in the primary rooms and nursery, so that that the kids wouldn't pull everything out.  Wayne and I went over to the hardware store (OBI) and bought some locks and screws and headed over to the chapel.  The locks were easy to install and it looked like they would work very well.  We went into the president's office to see what we could do with the drawers and handles.  As Wayne was trying to figure out how to fix the drawers, one of the drawers that wouldn't close was on the left side of the desk and the other one was on the right.  So yep, you guessed it, he just switched the drawers to each side and guess what?  They closed!  Those drawers had been like that for a couple of years.  We just had to laugh.  We cleaned out old books and papers from one cabinet.  It filled 3 large garbage bags.  They don't throw anything away here.

Anyway, on Sunday, the president asked me if I wouldn't help in the Primary.  So now the 2nd hour I go into the nursery or Primary and the 3rd hour, I go in with the YW.  I taught the lesson this past Sunday and Sis. Zan translated for me.  I will try to get their picture this coming Sunday so you can see the beautiful girls I'm with.  I had made some cookies on Thursday so I thought I would take some to the kids in Primary and the nursery.  They were chocolate chip cookies but I didn't have any chocolate to break up for the chips, so I put in some M&Ms.  They were a hit.  I even had one of the Sisters come and ask me for the recipe.  WOW!!!

After church, Sis. Kuchno (RS Pres) asked me if I wouldn't be in charge of an activity for the sisters and she wants me to show them how to cook something American.  So I thought of maybe some kind of casserole.  Any help anyone can give me would be appreciated.

Monday night we got a call about 9:00 pm from the APs.  They were on their way here to Wroclaw to deliver our summer tires for our car and to spend some time with the Elders.  We have to change the tires on our car from the winter ones to summer ones.  This will be a new adventure for us, too.  Hopefully, someone at the tire place speaks a little English.

Tuesday we met with everyone for District Meeting.  After our meeting we went with the Sisters to eat lunch and to an appointment and then did some contacting with them.  They have these little dumplings here that are fillled with a variety of things.  They are so good.  I ate 8 of them at lunch.  Next time we order them we will have to take a picture and show you.    We easily walk between 5 and 10 miles a day.  Hopefully it's doing us some good.

Here's a picture of the APs and our Elders and Sisters.  Elder Mikolyski is on the left and Elder Tiner is the second in on the right.  They are the APs.

We went over to the Renik again.  It's the place to be.  But we noticed something that we hadn't before.  Here is a picture of one of the oldest churches in Poland.  It has an underground system that was used during the war.  It is still being used, but there are stores and restaurants down there now.

 

This is the steeple of the church.  We can actually see this from our apartment and wondered what it was and what it was attaced to.

 

By the way, we had to buy a backpack because of everything we take over to church with us.  So this is what everyone uses here.  I told Wayne it looks like he has a manpurse.  What do you think?

On the way home from tracking with the sisters, we have to walk by one of the rivers here in Wroclaw.  When we came to one of the bridges, we noticed that they had stopped the flow of the river and was cleaning the river bottom.  It looked like oil sledge on the river bottom.  But, we came across a dump truck trying to get back up from the river bottom after being filled with this sledge.  It just wasn't going to make it.  So the back hoe was helping it up the hill.  It finally made it after about 4 attempts.

Wayne and I love it here.  We love our branch and feel the spirit of its wonderful members.  We miss you all. 

 

 

  

May 8th

Well back to the government offices to try and get our Residency Cards.  We started out at 11:30 am on Tuesday with the Elders in tow.  They had to communicate for us.  First we went to the city government office.  Along the way, we split with the Elders and did a little bit of contacting on the street.  I stopped a few people and told them we had an important message for them and then Elder Weir took over.  No one really listened, but we passed out a lot of cards.  Wayne didn't have much luck with Elder Stumph either.  It was something different and I now know what it feels like to really be ignored.  Anyway, we finally got to the desk and the lady kept saying that we didn't have a person who was our power of attorney with us.  We finally convinced her that Elder Weir was our POA, but then we didn't have the right paperwork.  So we walked back to our apartment, had some lunch with the Elders, got in the car and went back to the State Government office.  They had us fill out a POA with Elder Weir and then made us pay 17 sl. for each one of us.  It was now 3:30 pm and we had to go back to the City office and have them input everything in for us.  We waited for about 20 mins. before our number was called.  We gave all the paperwork to the lady and she said we needed our landlord with us to verify that we lived in his apartment complex.  We thought we had cleared all of that up with our first visit in the morning.  Elder Weir was a little peeved.  Then came our little angel.  One of the ladies that was helping us in the morning came over and told the lady we were dealing with now that everything had been cleared and it was okay to put our names in the computer for the government to make a "decision" on whether we can stay.  By the time we left it was 4:30 pm.  They had already locked the doors.  When we left we passed by our little angel and we all said thank you very much.  So here is our picture leaving the City office.  We have smiles on our faces because I think we are good for 90 days until our "decision" comes back.  If it takes longer than that, we have to fly to England and get a stamp in our passport and then fly back. 

 

So our new Sisters arrived also.  Sis. Bezdjian (dark hair) has been here since March 2012 and Sis. Blake is her trainee.  They are working very well together and seem to never stop.  Here they are with Julia presenting a lesson.  Hopefully Julia will be baptized on the 25th of this month.

 

The work is really slow here.  With most people being Catholic or they just don't want to listen.

Anyway, after this meeting we went with the Sisters down to the Renik to pass out papers that advertize the English classes that we teach on Wednesday nights.  Sister Blake had the 8 weeks of language training and she arrived here last Friday.  She was awesome.  She went right up to people and spoke to them in Polish like she had been living here forever. We took some pictures of the Renik so that you can see the old buildings.  We did pass out some cards also.

 

Monday is P-day and after cleaning the apartment, washing clothes, going shopping, preparing our English class, and go over to the chapel to clean, it was time to relax.  We have a nice little deck on the backside of our apartment.

All those buildings in the background are apartment buildings. 

 

Well that's all for now.  Love all of you.

 

May 3, 2013

May 1st and today are holidays for the Poles.  No stores are open and there is hardly anyone out on the streets.  It has been raining for the past couple of days and very muggy.  We will be having the new sister missionaries over for dinner tonight.  I can make spaghetti without ruining it, so that's probably what we will have.

We went to the city government building yesterday to try and finish up our paperwork for our residency cards, but were not successful.  We needed to show them a copy of our lease and of course we don't have it.  We called the mission home and they faxed one over, but the date on it was November 2011.  And the Brother in the office that would have had the current one is in Germany on a Temple trip.  So now we have to wait until Monday.  We didn't get much accomplished this week because of the holidays and the mission transfers. 

We did have to inspect the missionaries apartments,  When we went to the Elder's apartment there were two stacks of empty pizza boxes in one corner.  One stack went from the floor to the ceiling and they were starting on the second stack, which was about waist high.  They told us that Thursday was "Pizza Thursday" and that's all they ate on that night.  They had been saving the boxes since they started three months ago.  The pizza comes from a place called "Pizza Capone"and it actually tastes like American pizza.  We joined them for dinner last night.

Here are some pictures that we have taken and I didn't post. 

This is the view from our chapel windows.

This is the crazy parking that happens on all of the streets.  People park any where they can.

This is our little bread store we go every other day.

The first picture is the flour and sugar.  They come in very little bags.  The picture above is the mile aisle.  No refrigeration here.

This is what all of the sidewalks and streets are made of.  Very hard to walk on and women do it with high heels.

Monday is laundry day.  Hang it up on Monday night and fold it up Tuesday morning.

 

I forgot to tell you about Sis. Malinowska.  She invites all of the missionaries over for dinner the Thursday before transfers.  She had soup, stuffed cabbage leaves, potatoes, sauerkraut, carrot salad, and dumplings.  When you cleaned your plate she would just add more.  Then for dessert she had an awesome apple pie and ice cream.  Needless to say, we were all stuffed when we left her home.  You can see how tiny the apartments are.