30 Jan 2014

I'm sitting here this morning listening to the wind howling outside.  The wind is always blowing here.  And right now it's cold.  Someone told us at FHE this week that the temperatures in February will probably be around -20 to -30 degrees C.  We are not looking forward to that!

Last Friday, we left the office a little bit early and went shopping so that we could have Saturday for a "see some attraction day".  It was very cold, but we decided to go downtown and walk around the largest mall in Poland.  Wayne and I are on the third level when we took this picture.

And here is the escalator that we took to get there.

We couldn't get the whole thing in the picture.

It was very big and very busy.  This mall is right by the main train station in Warszawa.  And when we went out the side doors to walk past the train station, look what we found -

Who would have thought there would be a "Hard Rock Cafe" in Poland!?!?  That's me standing in front of it.  

We also went to the most famous street in Warsaw.   It's call Novy Swiat.  It is a very wide street and everyone goes there.  There are many stores and restaurants on it. 

Also on this street is the first chapel for church when it was established in Poland.  The church still owns the building and many of the missionaries use it for lessons.  The missionaries go to this street a lot to do contacting.

We didn't bring the key to get in, But that door is the door to the chapel.  

So we took a picture of the Stalin Museum.  This was built by Stalin to give something back to the people of Poland.  The ironic thing about it is that he destroyed over a 100 homes (where people were living) to build the thing.  It is very big and this picture only captures a little portion of it.

It's been snowing for the past 3 days.  Just little flurries all day long.  It really doesn't accumulate to a lot but it sure messes up the cars from driving on the road.  We had to take a picture of their snow shovels.  It is just a piece of wood attached to a stick.  They just kind of push the snow off of the sidewalks.  Here I am in front of the chapel on Monday.

Yesterday, the new senior couple came to the office so that we could have them sign all of their legal paperwork and tell them a little about Poland.  

Here are the Shaws, Sister Jensen and me.  They will do a wonderful job in Poznan.  They have already served a mission a couple of years ago, so they are prepared to serve again.

So another week has gone by.  We have been in Warszawa for 3 months.  We are looking forward to this brand new year.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CASSIUS!

We love you all and miss you.

23 Jan 2014

Hello everyone.  We finally got some measurable snow.  It was so fun, we had to take a picture of it.

This is looking out of our living room window down on the center court of our apartment complex.  The snow was nice but the temperature dropped also.  This was last Friday and since then it has rained so the snow is gone.  And by the way, this is the only picture this week.  We just didn't take the camera with us.  

We are preparing for a new couple coming in on the 28th.  They are from Idaho Falls and the president thinks Elder Shaw probably knows how to drive a "stick shift", so he's giving him the only car in the mission that has a standard transmission.  They are replacing the Sheleys, who will be going home on Tuesday the 4th of February.  We also got news of another couple that will be arriving on the 9th of March.  They are from Canada and she is 17 years younger than her husband.  

So Friday night, we went grocery shopping.  Our landlord was coming on Saturday to fix some things in the apartment and we didn't want to miss him and we also had to go and inspect the AP's apartment.  But anyway, when we left the store we thought we would take a different way home.  And it was really nice until we hit the "traffic jam"!  We were in line for over 40 mins.  When we finally got up to see what was causing the back up - it was a stalled truck in the middle lane.  It really is frustrating because they just leave things in the road instead of trying to move them out of the way.  Good thing I didn't have anything frozen.  

On Sunday, our branch president - Pres. Jagard asked Wayne and I if we would go and do some shopping for a lady that needed help and bring the food to FHE where we could meet her and give her the food.  He said he would pay us back the next Sunday.  So we had to run over first thing Monday morning to the grocery store.  Pres. Jagard told us to spend about 100 zl, which is about 35 dollars.  We got some things for her and then ran over to work.  We left work at 4:30 pm because I had made Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner and I needed to heat up the chicken sauce.  And guess what, we got into another traffic jam.  It took us from 4:30 to 5:50 to get to the chapel, which is normally 30 mins down the road.  Another car in the center lane.  FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!

Wayne and I have been trying to clean out the office a little bit.  There are 3 ring binders in every nook and cranny with accounting paperwork in them.  So on Wednesday, Wayne asked Germany how many years we had to save.  They came back and told us we needed to keep 6 years.  I cannot tell you how much stuff we can get rid of.  We're going to have a huge bonfire.

Our English class went really well this week.  We played a game call Typhoon.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it and they had really put their English speaking "caps" on.  

Well, that's it for this week.  We love you and miss you all.

16 Jan 2014

Even though the missionaries did not come in on Tuesday, the President carried on with the transfers and the other meetings that he had planned.  On Thursday he held an MLC (Mission Leadership Council) in the office.  I had to order lunch for everyone.  This time we ordered Chinese and everyone loved it.  Here is our Elders and Sisters who are the Zone Leaders, APs, Sister Training Leaders and the President and Sister Edgren.

Some of the Zone Leaders traveled 8 hours on a train to get here.  So they arrived on Wednesday and stayed at the Mission Home overnight.

We were really anxious to get our new missionaries in and make sure they were okay.  The President was in constant contact with the Mission President in Denver.  These missionaries didn't have any other clothing than what they had on their back, so it was not too fun for them.  And we worried about their luggage and where it was.  Anyway, on Saturday morning, Wayne and the office elders went to rent a transporter (huge van) so that we could transport all the luggage and some missionaries back to the office. They were very glad to be here and all of them got their luggage except for one missionary.  So here's a couple of them.  They were so tired.

This is Elders Taylor and Wride.  Elder Wride is from Spanish Fork.  They were waiting their turn to be interviewed by the President. 

Here are the APs trying to help them stay awake.

Elders Garcia and Weggersen are sitting down.  And our APs Elder Wilson and Vernon are asking how many of them left girlfriends back home.

They went to have dinner at the mission home after this and we were told the next day that all of them were in bed by 7:00 pm.

President had all of the new missionaries, the APs, Office Elders, and the companions of the new missionaries meet at the chapel that we go to.  No one knew who they were going to be with yet until after Sacrament meeting.  Here are some of them out in the foyer.  It was crazy!

I think there was a total of 27 missionaries at church that day.  We met in the Priesthood room after Sacrament meeting and the President match up the "greenies" with their trainers.  Here is Sister Pearson with her trainee Sister Stratton.  They are staying in Warsaw.

After the meeting, Wayne, the APs and Mission President took everyone to the train station for their rides back to their new homes for the next 14 weeks.  

We only had 4 people at FHE on Monday, but we had a very good lesson and I made French Toast for them afterwards.  They all enjoyed the meal.  

Yesterday was Wayne's birthday.  But we had so much to do in the office and English class to prepare for, that we didn't get to do anything for him.  So this Saturday, we will go and do something fun.  It also started snowing.  It is a very wet snow and most of the roads were just slush.

By the way, James and Jill sent us a puzzle at Christmas time.  We put the last piece in Tuesday night.  Here is a picture of our BYU puzzle.

I think that's all for this week.  We did learn that our home ward got a new bishopric on Sunday.  We are excited for our new Bishop and his counselors and pray that the Lord will be with them as they lead the members of the Salem 7th Ward.

We love you all and miss you.

9 Jan 2014

This has been one crazy week so far.  I will tell you more down in the blog.  Last Friday, Wayne and I got a train to Katowice.  It was a 3 hr. ride.  Very nice.  We were the only ones in the cabin.

In Katowice, we met up with President Jarosz and his daughter Ada and Patrycia.  Patty is the head chairperson on the committee for the YSA Conference.  President Jarosz drove the 5 of us to Szczyrk to see the hotel we wanted to stay at for the conference.  That was another hour.  The hotel is on top of a mountain.  It was a beautiful place.  This is the room we stayed in.

We met with the manager on Saturday and she took us to see some of the rooms for the YSA's and some fancier rooms for like Sister Dalton and husband would be staying.  After about 2 hours, we sat down and negotiated some prices and some other things that we needed and came away with a wonderful deal.  Now we have to submit to Germany for their blessing.

Here is the view from our window and part of the hotel.  It is huge!

See - there's no snow.  It's like spring time here in Poland

We missed a baptism in Warsaw on Saturday, but learned Sunday that everything went well.

So back to work on Monday.  We had to get everything finalized for the 8 new missionaries coming in on Tuesday.  Where they were going to meet for a meeting with the President, how to get all of them from the airport to the mission home with luggage and people.  We had everything done and organized when we left to go to FHE.  The AP's were still at the office making a chart for Sister Edgren when we left.   FHE was wonderful.  We talked about the power of prayer and everyone joined in the discussion.  Dinner was served and we took the Sisters home to their apartment so they wouldn't have to ride the tram.

On Tuesday morning, President and Sister Edgren had to take one missionary to the airport to send him home.  Meanwhile, we got a message from Salt Lake City that the 8 missionaries were in Denver and could not fly out.  And they wouldn't get a flight until Friday.  The Mission President from the Denver North Mission was notified also.  And he said he would take care of them for the next couple of days.  A little while later, we were notified that Elder Tiner (the one that left in the morning) was stuck in Frankfurt.  His flight had been cancelled to Chicago.  We didn't know what to do about that.  President Edgren got on the phone to Lufthansa Airlines to see if they could get him on a different flight.  So parents had to be notified and the president was in constant communication with SLC.  President was finally notified by Lufthansa that they got  Elder Tiner on another flight that went to San Francisco and then on to Las Vegas (his home).  This is the week of transfer also.  So we went ahead with the transfer today and we have a lot of 3 companions right now until the new missionaries arrive on Saturday.  

On Sunday, I had to get a picture with Sister Wendel and Sister Tobler.  We knew that they both would be leaving, but they didn't know yet.  These two sisters are wonderful.  They both work so hard and have beautiful testimonies.  

We will miss them a lot.

Today, we will have all of the missionary trainers in for a meeting.  I have to order lunch for everyone.  We decided on Chinese this time.  Wayne has to go to the train station and pick some of the missionaries up and take them back also. 

It's been crazy and really fun too.  Oh by the way, I had to change some of the legal paperwork because of the different day the new missionaries would be arriving in Poland.  There is never a dull moment in the Mission Office.  

And it was the Festival of Lights in Warsaw on Saturday and Sunday.  So once again there were fireworks and bands playing all around us.  Then on Monday, it was a Polish Holiday called "3 Kings".  So everything was closed, again!!!!!!

Well, that's all for now.  I can't think of anything else.  We love you all and miss you.

2 Jan 2014

Happy New Year again.  Last Thursday and Friday were crazy at the office.  We got so many packages for all of the missionaries that we looked like Santa's workshop, except everything was packaged up and ready for his sleigh.  The problem was that most of the missionaries did not get their packages.  They are still sitting in our office.  And unless the President goes to visit the towns that the missionaries are in, they won't get them for weeks.  One of the cities is Szczecin and it takes about 8 hours to drive there.

Saturday night, we went with the other Senior Couple here in Warsaw to visit the gardens at the summer palace.  They have a light show that is set up to look like the maze from Alice in Wonderland.  Once again we passed by our lock bridge, so we took a picture with the lights on.

Then we had to wait in line to visit with Santa.

He was really hard to talk to.  I don't think he heard anything I said!

After we had a really nice dinner with the Jensen's then we went over to the light show at the palace.  There was a very long line.  I think we waited for 30 minutes just to get to the entrance gate.  But here is the keyhole that we went through to start the maze.

Hopefully, you will recognize some of the things we have taken pictures of.  It was a wonderful display and they keep it up until the end of March.

And here are Sister Jensen and me in front of the  ??  We couldn't tell what it was suppose to be. 

It was fun and we had a wonderful time.  The weather was awesome, too.  I do wish we had a little bit of snow.  

On Monday, we got notified by the Post Office that we had 29 packages waiting for us to pick up.  The postman refused to deliver them all.  So we all went to the post office to pick them up.  The Office Elders and Wayne and me.  Now our office really looked like Christmas again.  I really feel bad that some of the kids didn't receive any packages in time for Christmas.  But transfers are coming up on the 7th, so maybe some of them will get them then.  But we did get a package from our son, Jeremy.  In it we found a whole bunch of notes from the people in our ward back home and a beautiful pillow case that was made by them.  And it actually fit the pillows here in Europe.  So here is a picture of our wonderful pillowcase.

Up in the left hand corner it says:  Salem 7th Ward as the return address and the envelope is addressed to Elder and Sister Durrant

Poland Warsaw Mission

Thank you everyone from the 7th Ward.  All the cards and good wishes made me cry.

Monday Night we held FHE.  There were only two people there and we talked about making our house a "house of order".  We did have a good discussion and then we ate.  I made spaghetti for them and some brownies.  It was a good evening.  People are starting to set off fireworks all over the place.

On New Year's Eve, the branches had a party at the Wolska chapel.  We went until 10:30 pm and then came home.  We had to be back to the office on the 1st.  No rest, whatsoever.  But there was a lot of dancing and people having lots of fun.

One of the dances they had was where each couple had to have an apple between their heads and dance until the music ended.  So here is Elder and Sister Jensen dancing.  And we found out on Wednesday that they won the dance.  

Fireworks were crazy around here.  And of course there was a party on the floor below us, so needless to say, sleep didn't come easy.  And they were still setting off fireworks on Wednesday night too.  Good thing it was a quiet day in the office. 

We held our English class last night and all we did was ask some questions about their lives and some "what if" questions so tthey could just talk and practice their English.  It actually turned out very well and everyone said they enjoyed doing that. 

Tomorrow, we leave for the mountains in southern Poland to check on the hotel for our YSA Conference this year.  We'll be taking some pictures for you to see.  

It's been a wonderful year for us in 2013 and we hope that 2014 will bring us added joy and peace as we continue to serve and and watch Poland grow in the gospel.

We love you all and miss you.