Since transfers are coming, Sis. Malinowska asked us all over for lunch last Thursday. This was a good test for Wayne. She made this awesome Polish dish with vegetables, meat, and a kind of sour sauce. It really tasted good and soft enough for Wayne to eat. So here is our picture. This may be the last time we are all together.
Elder Smith, Sister Ellis, Sister Blake, me, Wayne, Elder Stumpf and Sister Malinowska. She is one awesome lady. We love her to pieces.
Elder and Sister Lloyd from Lodz made reservations for us to go with them to the Salt Mine in Wieliczka for Friday and they had to pay when they made the reservations. So we traveled about 2.5 hours in the car on Friday to just outside of Krakow to visit the Salt Mines. Wayne was still on pain medication, but he drove and everything worked out well. And we were glad that we went. This is still a working salt mine, but they have made it a tourist attraction also. The workers have sculpted statues and other things out of the salt. When we entered the mine, we walked down 365 steps to the first level. There were chambers connected by corridors that measure over 155 miles. Our tour took us to 7 of those chambers. We were walking on salt and the walls and ceiling were all salt also. We tried to take some pictures. Hopefully, you will be able to see some of the things we saw.
This is what we walked through.
This is the Last Supper carved in the salt wall.
This is looking up in one of the chambers at all of the wood columns and walkways they built.
This was our lowest point. It is a little under a football field length and a half of another one down in the ground.
Here we are waiting to ride the elevator up. I don't know why we chose to stand in front of this place, but they had statues of Mary and other saints all over the place.
We also drove into Krakow to eat lunch and try to see one of the biggest castles in Poland, the Wawel Castle. Here is the fortress part facing the Vistula River.
Here is the middle courtyard. This place was huge. We went through the state rooms, but they wouldn't let you take any pictures. It was very castle-like. Big rooms and very old furnishings They had huge tapestries hanging in every room, each depicting a scene from the Bible, starting with the creation.
Here is the whole castle. Or the best we could do.
Here we are standing on the stairs going up to the tower.
And here is the Vistula River. Many of the invading countries of Poland used this river to enter the country.
Saturday was a stay home day, because Wayne was still hurting. At least the puffiness had gone away.
Sunday we had the sisters and elders over for pancakes. Elder Smith's family makes syrup, called Uncle Bob's Butter Country Syrup and he is always bragging about it. So his mother sent him 3 bottles of it and we decided to try it out. It is actually buttermilk syrup, but they have done something to the processing so that you can store it on the shelf and the butter doesn't separate like it does in homemade syrup. It was very good. I had to make three batches of pancakes to feed everyone. So after dinner, I went contacting with the sisters and Elder Durrant went with the elders. We walked so fast and so far that I got a blister on my toe. We didn't really get to start a lesson with anyone, but the sisters gave out 1 BOM. The elders didn't have much luck either. In fact, someone actually told them where they could go.
Monday - Pday. The elders asked if we wanted to play basketball with them and the sisters. We just laughed. They did get two of the YW to play with them, though. Wayne went and got his stitches out also. The dentist said that it was healing very nicely. By the way, the dentist actually called on Saturday to see how Wayne was doing. Very awesome!
We finally got a hold of the four YSA's we wanted on our committee. One lives in Bialystok, one is in Szczecin, one in Lodz and one in Katowice. Two of them have only been in the church for 10 months. It will be very difficult to meet in person. So lots of emails and hopefully skype. All of them said they would be happy and excited to help. We told them that their first assignment was to find a place. So that is what they are doing. We have been in contact with Elder Adler (Area Authority) to find out our budget and what countries we specifically invite. I guess anyone can come to the conference, but there are 10 countries that we are responsible for. And we don't know for sure which 10 they are.
Tuesday, we had our last district meeting of this transfer. Sunday, all of them will learn if they are being transferred or not. Elder Durrant and I will hate to see any of them leave. We have grown to love these young men and women. They are all dedicated and sure try hard to help these Polish people try to see the truthfulness of the gospel.
Wednesday we were meeting an investigator with the sisters before English class. But they cancelled at the last minute. After English class, we had a "linger longer" with all of the people that attend. The sisters made some cookies, we brought some fruit and the elders brought the drinks. It was really fun. The English classes start over every nine weeks (correspond with transfers), so the beginning class will move up to intermediate, and intermediate to ours. Usually the same people just keep coming to ours after the nine weeks, because it's a good way to keep up on their English.
After that, we went with the sisters over to the Renik. And of course, we had to get some ice cream. Every transfer the missionaries get one day for "Cultural Day". This is besides their normal Pday. So the sisters went to a music forum in the cathedral. We haven't talked to them today yet, so we don't know how it was.
Wayne just went over to the Post Office to pick up a package from Jeremy. Yeah, more brown sugar. I can make some more cookies. And they sent Peanut Butter, marshmallows and rice krispies. I'll have to make Rice Krispy Treats for the nursery on Sunday. They won't even know what they are, but I'm sure they will like them.
Well, have a good week. We love you and miss you.
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