31 Oct 2013

Happy Halloween

And a very special Happy Birthday to my dear friend, Sandy Nelson.  Hope you have a wonderful day Sandy.

Last Friday, the Sisters and I met with a wonderful young lady by the name of Tamara.  She is from Azerbaijan (near the Caspian Sea).  She speaks Russian, the Turkish language and very good English.  She wanted to know why she has such a good feeling when she meets with us and hears about the gospel.  We all bore testimony to her of the Holy Ghost and the power and influence it can have in her life.  She promised she would read in the Book of Mormon and meet again with us on Monday.  Here are Tamara and Sis. Poklinkowska.

Also on Friday, I baked two pans of brownies and a pan of raspberry bars for District Conference on Saturday and Sunday.  Wayne and I chopped up a few onions and some celery and then cooked 10 packages of hamburger and made sloppy joes for the conference also.  On Thursday, I had taken a note down to our little bread stand to order 13 dozen Kaiser rolls.  I thought the girl understood what I wanted and she said (in Polish) that they would be ready Saturday morning.  When Wayne went over to pick up the 156 rolls, they only had 15 packaged up for us.  Wayne kind of shook his head and held up his hands and started counting to 156.  The girl brought out our note and she pointed to the number 156 and Wayne said "tak" (which means yes).  Well, her and her helper started packaging all of the Kaiser rolls they had and some other rolls.  We were lucky to get 13 dozen rolls.  We spent about $180.00 for the food.  We picked up our branch president about 9:30 am on Saturday and traveled to Katowice.  Our car was packed with all of the food we took.  We fed about 35 people on Saturday between the meeting for all of the branch presidencies and the general adult meeting.  We had the sloppy joes, grapes and pineapple, potato chips, drinks, and the brownies and raspberry squares.  We put everything else away for Sunday.   Since people come from far away, the District President wanted them to have something to eat after the Sunday meeting.  We stayed in the apartment that was vacated by the Katowice Senior Couple.

So Sunday, there were about 79 people all together at the meeting which started at noon.  (We did get an extra hour of sleep that night.  Poland turned the clocks back on the 27th).  We had the rest of the sloppy joes, ham and cheese sandwiches, the rest of the fruit and potato chips, the rest of the drinks and the deserts.  Everything was gone except for a few grapes.  I'm glad that weekend is over.

Monday night was so much fun at FHE.  We had a short lesson and then went right in to carving our pumpkins.  Here are some pictures of that awesome event.  Everyone enjoyed themselves.  Oh, and I made another batch of brownies for the treats.

Here is Sis. Poklinkowska, Lucinda, Crystina (she's being baptized on Saturday), Sis. Blake (standing), Sis. Malinowska, and Albieta.  They are all working very hard.

And at the other end of the table; Elders Jaeger and Smith and their investigator Marjin.  Here's pictures of each individual pumpkin and then our group picture.

The Elders did this one.  It's suppose to be Elder Durrant!

I forgot to get a picture of Ola carving her pumpkin.  She is the tall one in the middle.  She is an awesome member of the branch.  Very fun to be around.  She was very sad when I told her that we were leaving.

After FHE, we met with Tamara.  I cannot tell you how wonderful she is and what an awesome member she will be.  I know that she is going to get baptized.  She made a commitment for the 23rd of November.  During the lesson, she wanted to know if she could be a missionary.  Not too many investigators are thinking about missions when you are teaching them.  I wish I could be here for her special day.

Tuesday was our last District meeting in Wroclaw.  It will be hard to say goodbye.  After our meeting the Elders, Sisters and Wayne and I went out to lunch with Ola.  It was her 20th birthday.  We had a lot of fun.

Wednesday, we stayed home and did some packing.  We sure have accumulated a lot of junk in the past 7 months.  Our English class was wonderful.  When we told them that we wouldn't be here anymore, two of the girls had tears in their eyes.  They all told us they would miss us. 

So here are some pictures of some very special people in our lives right now.  We truly have grown to love everyone here.  

This is Marzena.

This was taken in Katowice at District Conference.  Sis. Call, Sis. Kuchno, Sis. Malinowska, and Sis. Zan.  Beautiful and faithful women of the Wroclaw Branch.  

Well, goodbye for now.  I don't know what I will be doing next week, or if I will have time to do the blog.  But we miss you all and love you.

24 Oct 2013

Hello everyone.  We have some exciting news this week, but you will have to keep reading to find out what it is.

Last Thursday we went over to the chapel to clean because we drove up to Warsaw on Saturday to visit with the YSA group that is part of the committee for the conference next year.  We didn't do very much on Friday, but prepared an agenda for our meeting and tried to put some ideas down for discussion.  We left at 6:15 am Saturday morning and arrived in Warsaw at 11:45 am.  The fog was so bad in the morning, especially out near the open farm land, that we could hardly see the road.  And yet we had people passing us on a two lane road.  CRAZY!!!!!
Our meeting with our committee was very good.  They really have some wonderful ideas.  The whole conference will be planned around the Plan of Salvation and each day will represent a part of that plan.  Like day one will be pre-mortal life, etc.  It was also District Conference for Warsaw so we went to all of the meetings.  We stayed overnight in the Mission Home and attended the Sunday meeting also.  Warsaw has the only chapel that is built and owned by the church.  All of the other branches just rent buildings.  So we took a picture of the chapel.  It is very small.

They have an organ. (I almost forgot what organ music sounds like)  And the chapel was full.  They had to open up the back into the cultural hall and set up chairs.  (I've forgotten what 80 or more people look like in church also).  So here is a picture of a lot of people.  What I now consider a lot of people.  They even had a choir on Sunday.  

Our District Conference is this coming weekend.  Oct. 26th and 27th.  It will be held in Katowice.  So Elder Durrant and I are in charge of the food.  The Reeds, who use to be serving in Katowice went home the first part of this month.  On Monday, we planned what we were going to have and then got FHE together in between shopping for ourselves and doing laundry.  FHE was on Free Agency and making good choices and then we played UNO.  It's fun to watch these people play games that they never have before.  Late on Monday night, we got a call from President Edgren.  When we stayed with them at the mission home over the weekend, we got to talk with them about the mission in Poland and what some of his plans were.  So on Monday night, he told Elder Durrant that he was thinking about transferring us to Warsaw to be the Mission Office Couple.  He said that the couple serving now needed a break and he felt that we would be able to learn everything quickly.   Elder Durrant told him that we were initially called to be in the mission office, but President Nielsen changed our calling.  He also told Pres. Edgren that we will go wherever the Lord wants us to serve.   Well, he said it wasn't for sure, but that he would get back with us.  I started crying.  I really have grown to love this beautiful city of Wroclaw and all of the wonderful people here.  

Tuesday morning, Elder Durrant picked up Pres. Cielenski and they drove out to a little town called Zielono Gora.  They needed to go visit with a person out there that was having some problems and to see what could be done.  So that was another long driving day for Wayne.  Also in the morning, President Edgren called Elder Durrant and told him that he would like us to pack up and head to Warsaw.  He told us that we were an answer to his prayers.  Hopefully, we can lighten his burden and help him with the whole mission of Poland.

Right now, we will have the next 9 days to get everything packed, the apartment cleaned for the new Senior Couple, District Conference this weekend and preparing the food and serving 50-60 people, our last FHE here, our last English class here and trying to say goodbye to everyone.  For FHE we have bought some little pumpkins and are going to have everyone carve one for Halloween.  Even though they don't celebrate it.  They celebrate "All Saints Day" on the 1st of November.  But we do get an extra hour of sleep.  We will be turning our clocks back on Sunday the 27th.

We will be getting 9 new missionaries in on the 5th of November and we will be there to welcome them along with President and Sister Edgren.  By the way, one of the missionaries coming is a Spencer Kimball.  He is the great-grandson of Spencer W. Kimball who dedicated this land of Poland for missionary work in 1977.  

Okay, one last thing.  We found another gnome just walking around again.  In this one, the gentleman on the left in just laying back listening to the gentleman on the right play his ukulele.

Have a wonderful week.  We love you and miss you all.

17 Oct 2013

HAPPY 10 TH  BIRTHDAY KAMERON!!!!

This has been a wonderful week.  Last Friday we were going to meet with the sisters and one of their investigators at 11:00 am.   The sisters were going to meet her at the Opera House and then walk over to the chapel.  Well, guess what, she didn't show up.  But she did have a good excuse.  While the sisters were waiting for her, they started talking to this 18 year old.  She told them that she wanted something more in her life, but she wasn't willing to listen.  As she was leaving them, she turned around and asked them if we (LDS) believed in angels.  The sisters said yes and she asked for the BOM and told them she would meet with them the next day.  And they did, and she wants to be baptized.  The sisters have 3 baptisms set up for the 2nd of November.  We are all crossing our fingers or enclosing our thumbs in our fists.  (That's what they do here for good luck)

Sunday was interesting.  We had all gone to class for the second hour when Wayne came into the nursery and said some people visiting Poland had come in late.  He wanted me to meet them after nursery.  So when I went out in the hall, he was standing with them.  He introduced the first gentleman (can't remember his name) and then the second one as a Brother Durrant from Saratoga Springs.  He is related to the American Fork Durrants, but his Great-great grandfather is the same John Durrant as in our family.  It's weird to meet a relative in Poland!!!!  Even if he isn't a close relative.  We had the sisters and elders over for dinner also.  

Monday morning we got up and packed some things and left for Torun for a Senior Missionary Conference. It was wonderful.  This is the way the fields outside of Wroclaw look every day.  I'm sure it's because of the humidity.  Once the sun warms the air up, it starts to clear.  But it really looks cool as you drive through the mist.

We drove for 3 hours to Poznan where Elder and Sister Sheley are serving and then drove with them for another 3 hours to Torun.  Torun is famous for its gingerbread and it is the birth place of Copernicus who was a Polish astronomer and mathematician.  He is the one that found that the earth and the other planets actually revolved around the sun.  

Anyway, here is a picture of the hotel we stayed in and our room.  We were right in the middle of the old ruins of a Teutonic Knights castle.  These Knights were one of the many groups of countries/people that ruled over Poland.  

So here is the entrance gate of the old castle.  This is how you drove into the hotel.  And another picture of part of the ruins.  The Vistula River runs right through the town.  So here is another picture looking down on the river from just down the street of our hotel.  We really didn't have any time to sight see, but maybe we will go back.  It certainly was a quiet and peaceful little town.

We had dinner in the restaurant.  It was fabulous. Here is everyone getting seated.  And a picture of Wayne's salad.   They presented the food very well.

So on to the purpose of the conference.  First of all, a new senior couple arrived on Friday and they were introduced to us.  Their last name is Gay and they are from the city of Joseph.  They said they had 13 kids and I can't remember how many grandchildren, but they also told us that there were about 350 people in the city of Joseph and we all laughed when President Edgren said that it sounded like the Gay family made up the whole population of the city. 

Sorry, I took this picture.  I still shake a little.  (ha,ha)

   Secondly, President Edgren wanted to talk to us about our roles of leadership in the branches and how we are there to teach and train the members of the branch so when we leave they can continue to function properly.  That is easy when there is enough priesthood in the branch, but most of them only have two or three priesthood leaders.  Two of the Senior Elders and two Elders are Branch Presidents here in Poland.  There were tears shed as stories were told of trials and triumphs.  It is very easy to want to come in here and take over, but that isn't our purpose.  Wayne and I have a lot of growing to do in that area.  It was an awesome two days and hated to see it come to an end.  It was good to be with others our own age and learn from them.  

Here we all are in front of the hotel.

 Pres. Edgren, Wayne, me, Sis. Tufts, Elder Tufts (Gdansk), Sis. Edgren, Elder Lloyd and Sis. Lloyd (Lodz), Elder and Sis. Sheley (Poznan), Elder and Sis. Gay (Szczecin), Elder and Sis. Jensen (Warsaw), Pres. Jarosz and Sis. Jarosz (he is the 1st counselor in the Mission Presidency) and at the very top is Elder and Sis. Hutchinson (Warsaw).  Good looking group, huh?

We left right after the meeting and got home about 7:00 pm.  On our way home we stopped for a little while to see a place called Wielkopolski.  It is a village made to look like a pilgrim (colonial) settlement.  Something like Jamestown in America.  Anyway, Wayne and I had to have our pictures taken next to the wooden pilgrims.

Also on the route home we say a lot of windmills.   You would have thought we were in Holland.  We just took a picture of one of them.  

Our English class on Wednesday was awesome again.  One of the girls brought her fiance so that he could listen to our testimonies and read a little about the church.

We tried to get a picture of where we run, but it turns out too dark.  The leaves and falling and we are walking/running on a thick bed of colorful leaves.  The acorns are falling off the trees and we can hear them hit the ground all around us.  We haven't been hit on the head by one yet.   

Well, that's it for this week.  Wayne and I will be driving up to Warsaw this weekend to meet with two of our YSA committee.  We think we have found the hotel, so we need to get our theme and get the website up and running for 2014 YSAC.  

We love you and miss you all.  Have a good week!

10 Oct 2013

We have had a wonderful week with conference and spending time with some investigators.  Last Friday, Wayne and I went over to clean the chapel and get ready for conference.  Those who live in town and don't have any family came over on Saturday to listen to the "live" session of Saturday morning.  We had ordered some Pizza for those who came.  We had 5 investigators there.  We had some excitement also.  Wayne and I had taken our computer over so that we could watch conference in English.  So we were in the Primary room and everyone else was in the chapel.  When the choir and congregation started singing the rest hymn, one of the investigators came and got more pizza and decided to heat it up in the microwave.  Well, he put it in for 5 mins and left the room. Needless to say, it was burnt to a crisp!  All of a sudden the smoke alarms were going off and the main fire alarm in the building went off also.  There was smoke everywhere and it smelled horribly.  The guard from downstairs came running up and he was yelling at us.  Luckily, the Fire Dept. didn't come.  The branch would have had to pay for them coming out to a "false alarm".  After everyone left, we took the microwave and stuck it out on one of the window ledges.  We had all the windows open and the fans going.  At least the Elders, Sisters and Wayne and I got a kick out of it.  When we came back on Sunday, it didn't smell too bad.  Everyone came at noon on Sunday.  We played the Saturday afternoon session, the Priesthood session for the men and the General Relief Society meeting for the sisters and then we got the Sunday morning session "live" again at 6:00 pm.  It made for a pretty long day.

Here we are enjoying our pizza!

On Monday for P-day, the sisters came over and we all watched the Sunday afternoon session.  The sisters also watched some of the previous talks in English.  We served them bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches along with a chicken macaroni salad.  By the time we were done with that, we all had to run over to the chapel for FHE.  We knew we were going to have 2-3 investigators at FHE and some of them attended conference with us, so Wayne and I decided we would talk about the Holy Ghost and how you can recognize him in your life.  There was an awesome feeling in the room Monday night.  Sis. Malinowska bore her testimony of her conversion story and she was crying and so was I.  Here is Sis. Malinowska (center) and our 2 investigators,  Albieta on the left and Krystyna on the right.  On Wednesday at English class, the sisters told us that both of them have accepted to be baptized.  The three of them are all alike.  Short and full of energy.  It will be good for Sis. Malinowska to have some close friends.  She is the oldest one in the branch and she doesn't have any family close by.

After our lesson, we played "Spoons".  I don't think the Polish people play any games, except for soccer.  Anyway, the elders explained the game to them and Albieta really struggled to keep up, but everyone had a good time.  Elder Yaeger won the game.  We had ice cream and cookies afterwards.

On Tuesday, the elders and sisters went to Katowice for Zone training, so Wayne and I took lunch over to President Cielenski at the chapel.  He never tasted Buttermilk syrup, so I made some and some pancakes for lunch.  He really enjoyed it.  He wasn't feeling very well, so we didn't stay with him very long.  He had TB six months before we came and so every time he gets a cold, it goes right to his chest.

So on Wednesday at our English class, we had a very special night.  We had found a story in an early Ensign about a 17 year old Ukrainian girl who was caught up in the war between Russia and Germany.  She had to travel about 500 miles to find her family.  It was a very touching story and filled with her testimony of the power of prayer and guidance from the Holy Ghost.  After we had the class read the story, they all wanted to just talk about it.  So we had the golden opportunity to testify to them of the gospel and what it means in our lives.  For the third time this week, we felt the spirit very strong in meetings that were attended by non-members.  We love it here in Poland.  We love it when we get the chance to bear our testimonies and the people can understand our English.    

Here are a few pictures that we took Friday on the Renik.  This person stood in this position forever.  I don't know how he did it.  But this is the way some of them make money.  People would watch for a while and then go up and throw some change in his cup.  

You would think as many times as we have been over to the Renik that we had seen all of the gnomes.  Wrong!  Here are a couple we missed.  I think these two are robbing the store.  Or they are hoisting something up to deliver.

And this guy captured a pigeon and is ready to take off.  They are millions of pigeons on the Renik.

The leaves are starting to change.  Here is the view right outside our window.  The tree is a lot prettier than the picture.

Well, that's all for this week.  Once again, Happy Birthday Desiree.  

We love you all and miss you.

3 Oct 2013

This week went by fast for us.  As of 10-01-13 we reached our 6 month anniversary.  WOW!!!!

Last Friday Elder and Sister Sheley came down from Poznan and asked us to meet them at the chapel.  Sister Sheley has ancestors from Poland and she wanted to use the history center in our chapel and look up on some of the microfilm that we have in the center.  It was good to see them.  We cleaned the chapel while they were there and got things all ready for Sunday.

On Saturday, our branch held a grill at President's Cielenski's apartment again.  It was kind of chilly, but the sun did manage to break through every once in a while.  The chicken and polish sausage was excellent.  And everyone had an enjoyable time.  The sisters put some candy in balloons and then tied them together to make like a pinata.  It worked.  The kids really had fun.

We tried to get everyone in the picture, but didn't have a wide enough lens.  But here is most of the people that came.

It even got cold enough for some of the sisters to come over to the grills after everything was cooked and try to get warm.

We did have a good time and everyone got plenty of food.

On Sunday, we invited the sisters over for dinner because we had fed the elders another night.  So Sister Blake wanted some pancakes and buttermilk syrup.  We scrambled some eggs also.  So after they left and all the dishes were done, guess who showed up.  You're right, the elders.  I did have some pancake batter left so we fed them also.  I think one of the reasons we are here is to support and be like parents to the missionaries.  They sure do seem to enjoy the times we are together.

We went bowling with the elders on Monday.  I won the first game with a score of 139.  And I tied with Elder Jaeger on the second game with a score of 104.

We got a call Saturday night from Elder Hutchinson (office couple).  They had received a call from a sister in Virginia that wanted to know if we could help her friend over here in Poland.  And since the friend lives in our branch boundaries, Elder Hutchinson asked us to help.  So the friend that lives here in Poland lost her husband a couple of weeks ago.  (He committed suicide)  Now her 9 year old son is threatening to take his life also because he wants to be with his dad.  And the mother was beside herself and didn't know where to turn for help.  So we were asked to go and visit with this lady to see if there was anything we could do.  The problem we have is that we don't speak Polish and she is about 2 1/2 hours from Wroclaw.  We called Pres. Cielenski to see what he wanted us to do.  Wayne and Pres. "C" will be going out there next week.  Hopefully, they will be able to help and who knows once again, maybe a seed will be planted.

We had a wonderful English class on Wednesday.  There were 8 people there.  We played a matching game and they all seemed to enjoy it.  It is fun because we not only teach them, but they also teach us some polish.  We keep telling each other how difficult each others language is.

Well until next week.  We hope you all have a wonderful week and listen to conference.  We will only get two live sessions and then have to wait for the others.  I did get to watch the General Relief Society meeting already.  It was wonderful!

HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY DESIREE!  Grandpa and I love you very much.

We love you all and miss you.