They were also selling apples and vegetables. Mind you, this is the 21st of December.
Also on our walk, we passed the Lock Bridge of Warszawa. So here I am standing in the middle of it. It's all lit up at night. We will try and take a picture of it, so you can see it. But here it is during the day.
Also, we have a huge Catholic Church that is being built in our neighborhood. We haven't seen anyone working on it since we have been here. But this thing is huge. We are wondering if they ran out of money or something.
So anyway, we had another baptism on Saturday. This is Lajos. He got together with the missionaries and planned a song to sing. It was "O Come All Ye Faithful". He sang a verse in Hungarian and then in Latin. It was simply beautiful.
All the missionaries with Lajos
And all of them singing
On Sunday, there was hardly anyone at church. They all take holiday at this time of year and go visit family.
Monday was a busy day for us. We did not hold family home evening because I had to help prepare for Zone Conference, which was on Tuesday. I had to make 4 desserts and they had to be frozen. Our freezer wasn't big enough, so I made two of them and Wayne took them over to the office to put in the freezer over there. It took me until 10:30 pm to make all of them. But we had a ham dinner for the sisters and elders at zone conference and they all enjoyed it very much. We have 30 missionaries in our zone.
They always let the sisters go first. What gentlemen!
Sisters Tobler, Young (backs to you) and Sisters Montesinos and Mikalauska
Here's the elders patiently waiting. Too many to name. And here's what they were fed:
They had a gift exchange also. Elder Baranowski got a teddy bear.
Sis. Edgren gave everyone a little package of goodies and a DVD she had put together of all the missionaries pictures that they had sent to her. Some of the pictures were funny and some were showing what missionaries do. It was very nice.
After we cleaned up and everyone was on their way to spend Christmas Eve with someone in the branch, we took Sister Tobler and Sister Wendel and drove out to President Jarosz apartment to spend a traditional Christmas Eve with them.
Here is their Christmas tree. And there were presents under the tree for all the good boys and girls.
But this was the table with most of the food on it. So what they served was cold fish, raw fish and some warm fish. There was carp, salmon and caviar. They had a vegetable salad, too. Oh, and some pierogi and bread. The dish with the tomatoes on is the vegetable salad, The long dish (next in line) was a gelatin-raw carp something. They had smoked salmon (right in front of Wayne- kind of the orange colored dish) and then next to that is raw carp (again) on a bed of onions. So anyway, it is tradition to eat at least 12 different things for each month of the year. Before we started eating, they gave each on of us a thin wafer and we
would go around to everyone, they would break a small piece of wafer from yours and you would break a small piece of wafer from theirs and then you would wish something for that person. It was really kind of a neat thing to do. (By the way, Wayne and I didn't take12 things on our plate.)
During dinner, in came Santa Clause.
He asked us if we had all been good. Of course we all said yes. He started handing out presents, but before you could get yours, you had to sing a song. Here is Santa really rocking out to the music.
Santa even had a couple of presents for Wayne and me. It was so much fun. I sang "Jingle Bells" and Wayne sang "Up on the Housetop". The sisters help us sing.
Rawel, (brother to Sis. Jarosz) wasn't a very good boy. I know you can't see it very well, but he got a twig.
They brought out dessert after that. And I really can't describe what the desserts were, but the one that looked like it was made from apples is the one I took and it was really good.
This is the Jarosz family and Sister Tobler.
Daughter Sara, Grandma, Sis. Jarosz, Sis. Tobler, daughter Ula, and Brat Jarosz and family pet.
We left about 9:00 pm and were very, very tired. We drove the Sisters to their apartment and they told us that they were going to meet some of the elders and go to "Midnight Mass". President Edgren had given all of them permission to do that, but you could tell he was very uneasy about it. Well, about 1:30 am, Sister Edgren's phone rang and it was Elders Waskiewicz and Boyce. Someone had sprayed Elder Boyce with pepper spray and his eyes were hurting and he couldn't see anything. President told them to grab a taxi and come to the mission home. They got a hold of a doctor and he said that they needed to just keep flushing his eyes out with water. It was a very scary time for the Elders, tho.
So Wednesday, Christmas Day, our gift to the missionaries was to feed them breakfast. We took everything to the chapel because it was easier for them to get there than at our apartment. So we fed them scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon, and hash brown potatoes. And President and Sister Edgren showed up and she had made some cinnamon rolls.
Here we are eating and talking and laughing and having a wonderful time.
Since this was a "day off" for the elders and sisters, some of them changed and went outside to throw a football and/or frisbee. It was 44 degrees outside with the sun shining.
And some stayed in and sang some songs
Elder Kotter is playing the guitar.
We got home about 1:00 and died on the couch.
It has been a marvelous week and I've been thinking a lot of what I could give my to my Savior for all that He has done for me. And I finally came to the conclusion that I could give him "me". I can give Him all my time, my talents, and my love. I really don't think he wants anymore than that. So on this day that we celebrate His birth, please remember that He loves you and has given all that He has to you.
Thursday, it's back to work! We love you all. We hope that this next year will bring you joy and happiness.
POLAND is awesome!!!!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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