25 July 2013

Hope everyone had a great day yesterday.  We taught our English class about the Pioneers and the handcart treks.  It was fun. 

Our Internet connection went down last night.  We realized how much we depend on it, because we were lost without it.  At about 9:00 pm we started playing a game of Scrabble.

Last Thursday night, Elder Stumpf called us and told us that he had some good news and bad news for us.  He said the good news was that we had some firewood.  Elder Durrant asked them why we would need firewood.  He said we probably didn't and the bad news was that his bed broke.  So we went over to the elders apartment to see if the bed could be repaired.  And it couldn't.  We asked what happened and Elder Stumpf confessed that he had pretended to be Superman and jumped and flew one too many times.  So off the Elders and Wayne went to IKEA to buy a bed.  It was quite hilarious.  They put the six foot box into our little car and Elder Smith had to scrunch around it.  The Elders put the bed together and took the old one down the stairs and put it by the big trash bin.  As they were climbing the stairs back up to their apartment, they just happen to look out the back window and saw someone hauling it away.

Friday, we went down to Katowice to be with Elder and Sister Reed and Elder and Sister Lloyd.  We decided that the six of us would go visit Auschwitz that day.  We got to Auschwitz about 11:30 am and there was a huge line for tickets.  When we got in the door, one of the workers looked at us and told us to come with her.  She took us right up to the front of the line.  We're sure it was because of our name tags.  Anyway, we got into a tour group for English speaking tourists.  Needless to say, it was a very sobering day.  Can't really express the feelings I had or really tell you about the things we saw.  We were able to take some pictures, which follow:

This is the famous entrance with the words, "Arbeir Macht Frei"  Work makes you free.

 

This is the barbed wire/electrical fence that went all around the camp.

Here is a picture of some of the clothing that was used by the prisoners.

This bedding was used by the "elite" prisoners.  Those who were the ones chosen to look after a group of prisoners.

 

This is where everyone else slept.

 

This was their bathroom.

 

This is known as the "killing wall"  When prisoners disobeyed they would be either hung, hung upside down or brought here.  They would face the wall and the Germans would shot one bullet in their head.  There were glass cases full of shoes, eye glasses, crutches, braces, and prostheses that they took from the prisoners, women's hair that had been cut, and the suitcases that they were told to bring their belongings in.  Each suitcase had the person's name, age and address written on it. 

 

This is the crematorium at Auschwitz.  It is the only one in tact from the war.

This is the inside of the crematorium.

 

After we went through Auschwitz, they took us by bus over to Birkenau, which was a mile away.  It was the second concentration camp and the one that had the Zycon B gas chambers.  You should know the picture below.  This is what is usually shown in books for Auschwitz.

 

 

This place was huge. It held 90,000 people.  Most of them Jews.  The people would arrive by train, which sometimes took up to 9 days to get there.  They were told they would be relocated.  The trains were so crowded, the people had to stand the whole time and they weren't fed anything.  When they got to the camp, there were two or three doctors on the platform and they would look at each person, if they were healthy they would be sent to the barracks, if not healthy and/or carrying a baby they would be sent immediately to the gas chambers.  They were all shaven and told to undress, because they were going to get to take a shower and get rid of the lice and filth.  The Germans even made the gas chambers look like showers.  When they filled the rooms the gas would come in through vents in the ceiling.  It would take about 11 hours to drag all of the bodies out of the chambers and to the incinerators.  This happened everyday.  They would gas about 8,000 to 9,000 people a day.

 

This is a picture taken by the Germans.  These are Jews arriving from Hungary.

These are the stairs leading down to the gas chambers.  The Germans blew up the gas chambers and crematoriums 7 days before the Russians came.  This is what is left of one of them.

 

We took more pictures, but I think that this is enough.  It was really sad to think that men could do what Hitler wanted done to so many people.  

 

On a lighter note, Sunday was awesome in church.  We had people there from Russia, Holland, Brazil and France.   Most of them had gone to the temple in Kiev.  It was fun to sit and listen to all of the languages being spoken.  But we had over 50 people at church.  WOW!!

 

Monady was our P-day and we decided as a District that we would spend some of them all together.  So this one we went to the zoo.  They say the zoo in Wroclaw is the biggest in Poland.  So here are a few pictures of animals that you have already seen, but it was a fun day for all of us.  We went to McDonald's afterwards.

 

 

And here we are being silly.

 

Late Wednesday night, Sis. Blake called and asked us if we would be able to drive her to the doctors  office on Thursday.  She got an infection under her nail on one of her fingers and it looked terrible.  She had to call the mission office first and get permission and they also told her what medical facility to go to.  So Thursday, Wayne went to a meeting with Pres. Cielinski to discuss Home Teaching and then we went to pick up the sisters.  The doctor gave her a prescription for an antibiotic cream. Hope it works.

 

We hurried back to the church because the 4 of us had a meeting with a mother and son.  It was a very good meeting.  I was able to bear a little bit of my testimony in Polish to them.  The sisters are hoping that they will accept a commitment to be baptized.   And so are Wayne and I.

 

Well, next Tuesday we leave for Slovakia for the YSA Conference.  We hope we have the internet, so that we can keep in touch.  We are really excited for this opportunity. And we really hope we will be able to find the place.  We'll let you know what happens. 

 

We love you all and miss you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

18 July 2013

Wayne went out with the Elders last Thursday to search for the "Less Actives".  Once again, they didn't have any luck.  It looks like Pres. Cielinski will be putting quite a few names in the "lost" files of the church.  Once Poland joined the EU, everyone was free to travel from country to country and a lot of the people left Poland because of its depressed state.  Anyway, we have two baptisms coming up in our branch, so that is GOOD!

Friday, we took off and went to visit a castle.

This is the Zamek (castle) Ksiak

 

It is the third largest castle in Poland.  It was built at the end of the 13th century.  The Hochbergs had it for 3 centuries.  A part of the castle was reconstructed in the 18th century.  That is the pink looking part out front.  Here are some pictures of the interior.

The stairs are the original.  The walls have been re-marbled.

I can't remember where these stairs led to, but they had all kinds of little corridors running throughtout the castle.  It would have been very easy to get lost.

This room was used for receiving guests and great dinner parties.  The fireplace is the original.  (That's not me in the picture)

This is the ceiling of that room.  They took many years to restore the painting.

This fireplace is in the sitting room of the Duchess.  They have not done anything to this fireplace.  It was made from pink marble and it has a lot of cracks and pieces missing.  But they gave the duchess the best, because on the interior of the fireplace are stones which held the heat for a longer period of time. 

 

These next pictures are of the gardens and the back side of the castle.

All I can say is:  it was huge.  We spent over two hours in the castle and only saw 23 of the rooms.  When you entered under the main gate (below) it was almost a mile to the actual castle itself.  For as far as the eye could see was castle grounds.  During the war, the 3rd Reich confiscated the castle and used it for one of Hitler's headquarters.  They removed all of the furnishings and built tunnels underneath which is still a mystery as to why.

 

Monday morning we went shopping and it's still amazing what we find.  I was looking down the milk isle and in the cooler section I saw a small carton that I thought was cream for whipping, so I bought it.  But it was cottage cheese.  I was shocked.  So now I buy one everytime we go to the store, because the container only has two servings in it.  Also, we found a huge park here in Wroclaw that we now go and do our exercising in.  Wayne walks and I run.  On Tuesday we went there for an hour and we didn't even cover the whole park.  There are lots of people walking, running, biking and strolling their kids. 

 

We held lessons this past week with the elders and sisters.  One was with Roman and the other with Lucyna.  They are both of our baptismal candidates.  They are both ready, too.  Roman has some kind of problem with his feet so the elders are trying to find him some white shoes he can wear.  We suggested that he could wear socks, but he said they wouldn't work.  It's hard to find a pair of white shoes.

 

During District meeting, Sis. Ellis (she's only been here for 3 weeks) said that she just didn't feel like she was doing anything and that she didn't have the spirit.  Does that sound like the devil was working on her?  We all tried to make her feel better.  One of the last things that Elder Smith told her was:  "it's not you or me, it's WE"  Even Wayne and I felt that way after a couple of days.  We wondered why we were here and what we were supposed to do.  But that passes after you get totally engrossed in the work.  And we know it will for her, too.

 

Well, it's time that we go.  Here's a nother couple of gnomes.  Have a good week.  We love you and miss you all.

 

I can't tell what he is doing. Sorry

 

This used to be where the slaughter house was.  So they put all of these animals there as a memorial?!?

 

One last thing:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR GRANDSON BENJAMIN ON THE 22ND AND OUR DAUGHTER TERI ON THE 23RD.

 

 

11 JULY 2013

It's overcast today and sure feels good.  It has been VERY HOT and muggy.  Can't walk anywhere without everything sticking to you.  In fact, here is our air conditioning unit.  So far it has worked wonderfully.  It's only been up to 82 degrees in our apartment.  We open our doors about 5:00 am so that the fans can blow in the cool air and then close them about 7:00 am when it starts getting hot.

 

So, last Thursday we got our residency cards and celebrating a little by going to the Renik to see what was happening.  There was quite a huge crowd congregating at one end of the Renik and multiple policemen surrounding them and police cars with officers in them all over the place.  Of, course we had to find out what was happening.  It was a political rally for the Solidarity Party.  They were shouting and jumping up and down.  I don't know if the police were there to protect them or keep them in line.  Anyway, it was scary so we left quickly.

 

Sunday was an awesome Fast and Testimony meeting.  There were three families that came in and almost filled up the one side of the chapel.  The spirit was so strong.  All of the 3 men stood to bear their testimony.  They were friends who had all served in the Polish community in Chicago on their missions 14 years ago and they all had made a promise to each other that they would visit Poland one day.  They came to Wroclaw, because that's where most of the members of the branch in Chicago were from.  They all spoke Polish still and were very emotional.  One of the investigators that the Elders are teaching was there and he even got up and bore his testimony.  It was a very special day.

 

Cindy Call, one of my Young Women, showed me her project she has been working on.  She has never used a sewing machine or embroidered anything in her life.  But, thanks to my daughter-in-law, Jill and my daughter Tracy, who sent thread and patterns, she was able to do this.  I think she did a marvelous job.  She did it all by herself.  Here is a picture of the completed project.  It reads - "Stand in Holy Places."

 

 

Monday, we left our apartment at 6:30 am and caught a Tram to the train station.  We decided to go with the Elders and Sisters on the train to Katowice.  We were having Zone training and going to meet our new mission president, President Edgren.  So here we are, all smiles:

 

 

Zone training was wonderful.  Pres. Edgren told the missionaries to use the language constantly.  Even in their apartments.  And he will be doing the same.  We had some pizza for lunch and then Pres. Edgren started interviewing all of the missionaries.  Our four were the last to be interviewed.  We had to catch a 3:00 pm train back to Wroclaw.  We were running to the train station.  Good thing it was delayed by 5 mins. or we wouldn't have made it.  Anyway, we got home at 7:30 pm.  The train ride is three hours there and three hours back.  And the train doesn't have any air conditioning so we left the window down most of the time.  Still hot.  Our camera didn't have any juice left in it when we got home, so I can't show you how we looked when we got home.  I think we'll take the car the next time we go.  It only takes an hour and a half to go one way.  Needless, to say it was a long day.

 

President and Sister Edgren are very down-to-earth.  They both still had that "lost in the headlights" look.  Good thing the AP's were with them.  Pres. Edgren talked to us about the YSA Conference that will be coming up the end of this month.  Elder Durrant and I can't wait to go.  We did received information on the program, and it looks like we are going to have a big undertaking for the 2014 Conference.  But we are totally excited! This year's conference is being held in Lirtovsky Mikulas, Slovakia and atthe Hotel Junior Jasna.  If you get the chance look it up on the Internet.  It looks awesome!

 

Since our P-day was Tuesday this week, we cleaned and shopped and then met the elders and sisters for Ice Cream on the Renik.  They have the best ice cream here and the best bread.  No wonder I can't loose weight!!!!!!!

The place that we had our ice cream was a cross the street from the old city prison and of course they had a gnome by it.  He looks so forlorn.

 

 

Wednesday, we had to mail a package to our grandson, Benjamin, for his birthday.  We got into the post office at 4:00 pm, thinking we would have plenty of time to do that and make sure we made it to our English class by 5:00 pm.  At 4:40 pm I left Elder Durrant in the Post Office and started running to our class.  We had told the clerk 3 times to send the package "Priority" and she didn't do it.  So gratefully, there was a person there who spoke a little bit of English and she helped Elder Durrant.  I made it to class with 5 mins. to spare. 

 

We had a new person in our class.  It is vacation time here in Europe, so we don't know if anyone will show up.  But we did have three people and had a lot of fun.

 

One last gnome.  Here is a street cleaner picking up fallen branches and garbage.

 

Elder Durrant and I have been reading past conference talks.  One of the talks in October 2011, "The Time Shall Come" said the following: "the Lord told Joseph that the keys of the kingdom of God had again been committed unto man on the earth.  He said the gospel would roll forth unto the end of the earth, as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands. . . until it has filled the whole earth, just as Daniel had told Nebuchadnezzar."

 

It's very hard sometimes to know that and then see what is not happening here in Poland.  A very difficult land to be in right now.  We know that His promises will come to pass and that the Polish people will one day accept this marvelous gospel.  I need to tell you about Elder Smith and his experience yesterday.  They were contacting people on the street and he had stopped a very fine looking young man.  He started to tell him about the restoration and the BOM.  The young man said that he had heard of our church.  Elder Smith asked him if he would like to read the BOM and the young man said no and then asked Elder Smith if he would like to read his pamphlet.  He pulled a very unsavory pamphlet from his pocket and showed it to Elder Smith.  When we met with the Elders at English class, you could tell that Elder Smith was very upset and sad.  After he relayed this story to us, my heart just went out to him. He knew it would be a while before he could rid his mind of that awful image.  We had a lesson with the Elders and Roman (hopefully he will be baptized in August) after English, and Elder Smith did a marvelous job of bearing his testimony to Roman.  I'm sure that he had said a lot of prayers within that hour to help him focus on his purpose for being here in Poland.

 

Elder Durrant and I love this gospel and the time that we have been given to be here and do all that we can to teach the wonderful people that are prepared to listen.

 

One last thing - We send our love to everyone, but especially to our grandson Wayde and our great-granddaughter Arianna.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BOTH OF YOU!

 

We miss you.  "by small and simple things are great works done"

 

4 July 2013

 Happy 4th of July.  We won't be celebrating here, but we hope all of you have a fantastic time.

So Thursday we drove Sisters Bezdjian and Blake to Katowice so that we could pick up our new Sister and say goodbye to Sis. Bezdjian.  It was a happy and sad trip.  We were all excited for Sister Bezdjian to be going home, but were sorry to see her go.  Talk about a "ball of fire".

Here's Sis. Bezdjian getting on the train and here is........

our new sister...Sister Ellis

She was still feeling the effects of "jet lag" so we let her sleep in the car on the way home, after she told us all about her.  This will be a good experience for both of them.  Sis. Blake has only been out for 8 weeks and Sis. Ellis fresh from the MTC.

Here's our gnomes getting married. 

  Last Friday I spent most of the time shopping and getting ready for the Relief Society meeting that I was going to show them how to make an American dish.  So I prepared one and then took the ingredients with so that the sisters could make one there.  Thanks to Sandy Nelson, I used a Mexican Lasagna recipe that she had given me and everyone just loved it.  We had a salad and some bread with it.  The one we made at the church, we left and they heated it up on Sunday after church for anyone who wanted some.

Here are the sisters putting it all together.  Sis. Cielinska is sitting down in the back, Sis. Kuchno is in the dark red sweater and Sis. Call is pouring on the salsa. 

Here is Sisters Blake and Ellis making the salad.  And here we all are eating our feast....

 

It was really fun.

 

Saturday was a clean up day for us.  But Saturday night we went over to the Centrum to watch the colored water show.  It was awesome.  We tried to take some pictures.  But none of them really worked.

 

On Monday, we took one of the branch members shopping.  She is really struggling, but she told us that she finally found a job.  We were really excited for her.  She asked us a lot of questions about how the church works in the USA.  She said she has been a member for over a year and hasn't had any Home Teachers.  The main problem is that this branch only has three Priesthood holders and the Missionaries.  So we thought we would discuss this with Pres. Cielinski and see if we can be her home teachers for the time we are here. 

 

Here's some fireman gnomes. 

 

Tuesday was District Meeting.  Our meetings are wonderful.  Elder Stumpf brings the spirit to our meetings and everyone feels so good.  Next week we will be going to Katowice for Zone Training and get to meet President Edgren and his wife.

 

One of the highlights of our week is English class.  We have a lot of fun and get to know these people very well.  I baked some cookies to take with.  I put M&M's in them.  Only the red and blue ones.  It was my feeble attempt to celebrate the 4th.  We talked about Americas Independence day and about the Pioneers.  We read a story about Pioneers to them for class.

 

Here's our last gnome for today.  He's going to sleep.

 

Have a good day!  We love you and miss you.