28 August 2014

We had MLC on Thursday.  Our office becomes real crazy on those days.  Sister Edgren was feeling a little under the weather so she didn't make it, but sent over a tray of cookies and juice to drink.  We ordered sandwiches again at Subway.  They called about 30 minutes before we left to go pick them up and said they would be about 30 minutes late.  So we told the APs to stretch out what they were talking about.

This is everyone gathering.  Zone leaders, APs, Office Elders and companions that will go out contacting during the meeting.

These are some of the wonderful sisters we have in our mission.  Sister Bak (holding the water filter bottle) is one of the new ones that just came in on Tuesday.

Here's everyone enjoying their subway sandwiches.  So starting in the corner is Elders Fotu, Whiting, Hubbard, Allen, Sisters Petherbridge and Poklinkowska, Elders Garrett and Kimball, Sisters Ott and Tobler, Elder Retallick.  Some of the Elders who are now Zone Leaders have just been out for 7 months. 

These are the companions back from contacting and waiting to go home.  In the very back is Sister Benson.  She just came in on Tuesday and is stilling feeling the jet lag.  She is sound asleep in the chair.

Saturday, we went back over to the office to finish up the budget report for the YSA Conference.  We had submitted a budget of 30,000 Euro, which is about 39,000 USD.  We spent about 26.000 USD.  We thought we did pretty good for 180 people.  

We also found out that Tuesday both Warsaw I and Warsaw II Zone were having their Zone training and since Wayne and I are the only Senior Couple here, we had to cook a lot of food.  Besides having FHE to cook for also.  We finally got to the store about 5:00 pm and bought everything for all three meals.  I sure hope the Lord understands and forgives us for working on Sunday - cooking.  So we made some soup for FHE and a chocolate cake. It was only 64 degrees on Monday, so soup sounded really good.   For Zone training, we made more soup for one and a casserole for the other.  And I baked two loaves of zucchini bread and one loaf of banana bread.  And then we went and bought rolls to go along with each meal.  (Monday morning).  

We had a huge crowd again at FHE.  We really enjoy being with everyone.  Even though someone has to translate, it is fun.  We had a lesson on repentance.

Here's everyone enjoying the meal.

Good, good people.  Barbara (new member), Alania (non-member), Teresa (new member), Andrew (non member, Stan (non-member), Ewa (non-member), Stanislaw (new member), Krystyna (non-member) and Godfrey (long time member)

Tuesday, I stayed in the office and Wayne went to both chapels to drop off the food.  He stayed at our chapel because the casserole had to be cooked in the oven.  Wayne didn't bring anything home from either place, so I guess they enjoyed what we made.

Wednesday was "legal day".  We brought 5 of the new missionaries back into Warsaw to start their legal process.  One of them was on a 7 hour train ride from Wroclaw.   And Elder Meherg left to go to his new assignment.  Everything went very smooth.  We had all five of them through the process in 2 hours.  Elder Jaeger and Pieper were thrilled.

We had a short meeting with President Edgren , the office elders and APs.   Got things all planned out for September and most of October.  

It's President Edgren's birthday on Sunday.  All of us have been trying to think of something to do for him.   It's hard to know what to do.

Anyway, that was our week.  We are planning on going somewhere next week for 3 days.  Don't know where yet.  

We love you and miss you.

21 August 2014

When we got back to the office on Monday, Wayne's desk was loaded with bills that needed to be paid and receipt for train tickets for the missionaries that were coming into Warszawa to leave on Tuesday.  And our emails went on forever.  And by the way, it was Elder Smith's 21st birthday on Sunday so we got some balloons and a little gift and decorated his computer station.  He will be leaving us on Wednesday.  It will be sad to see him go.  After I got all of the returning missionaries packets done and all their letters to the President downloaded on a CD, Wayne and I went over to the mission home to say goodbye and to hand the packets to the President.  He has an interview with everyone of them and also gives a temple interview and Polish Temple recommend.

Here's a picture of Elder Durrant with Elders Stumpf and Smith.  These were the first elders we served with in Wroclaw.  Elder Stumpf was heading home.

Boy it's hard to see them go.

There were 12 missionaries going home on Tuesday.  One of the missionaries was going home early because he was getting headaches all the time and they couldn't figure out what was wrong so Germany decided to send him home to get proper medical attention.

Sister Edgren fed all of them Monday night.  Here is Elder Caskey helping her serve up the desert.  Her wonderful pie.

And here they all are

Elder Johnson, Sisters Blake, Wendel, Young, Elders Kotter, Stumpf, Stockford, Finch and Lanham.  And the Sisters sitting are:  Barth, Lidtka and Pearson.

So Tuesday, we had the excitement of receiving 13 new missionaries.  One of the Sisters had to stay back in Utah, because she had to testify at a trial.  Hopefully, she will be here in a couple of weeks.  They brought the Elders over first and took the Sisters to have their pictures taken and to have a bite to eat.  So here they are just talking to everyone and trying to get settled.

And here are the Elders:

Elders Wilcox, Summers, Quackenbush, Coutu, Jeffs, Campora and Wright.  They weren't as tired as some of the groups that come in.

And here are the Sisters:

Sisters Woodward, Bak, Benson, Grgich, Kuchar and Slagowski.  Sister Smith is still back in the states.

Very exciting day and they were all ready to get going.  Sister Woodward had a very bad sinus infection and a  mild case of mononucleosis.  (Don't know if that's spelled right)  She really needed to go to bed.  

There's some handsome guys and beautiful girls.  They are all going to be awesome.

We got our final bill from the hotel in Szczyrk, so now it's time to put everything together and submit our final expenditures to Germany.  That took us most of the day on Wednesday.  And I had to put together the legal packets so the Office Elders could go start the process for the new missionaries.  Busy day.

  They will have their 1st P-day on Monday and will get to email home and let their parents know where they were assigned.  The trainers the mission president has chosen are wonderful missionaries and will get these elders and sisters working hard right from the start.

We didn't hold FHE or English class this week.  Just too much to do and a lot to make up from last week.  I think I want that vacation now.  

Love you and miss you all.

18 August 2014 - YSA Conference

WE MADE IT!!!!!!!  It was a wonderful week and it's great to be home.  Well, this is how our week went.  We were able to take the mission transport down to Szczyrk.  It was full to the top and we took Patti and Czarek down with us.  They are the ones that did everything.  We got an early start on Monday.  Patti had a meeting with the mayor to coordinate our service project.  The mayor said that because it will probably rain that day, he was not going to let us do what he had planned.  We were going to paint  a fence and help with some things that needed to be done at an elderly home. First disappointment for Patti.  We did spend  a little bit of time down in the center of town waiting for the Tuellers to arrive.  They were the other Senior Couple helping with the conference.  So here is Patti and Czarek sitting and waiting for some ice cream.

Here are a couple pictures of the stores and main street in town.  It is quite quaint.

There are souvenir shops all up and down the street.

Here's Elder Durrant and I in front of the one of the many carvings in town.

We went back up to the hotel when the Tuellers arrived and decided that we needed to put together their welcome bag and do the name tags.  It took us quite a while to put together 168 bags.

Elder and Sister Tueller filling bags with a T-shirt, lanyard/name tag, pen and paper and a couple of "I am a Mormon" uloki.

And here is the table where the name tags were put into the plastic covering.

Marcin, Adrian, Patti and Elder Tueller.

We held a short meeting all together after this and all got our assignments for the week.  Patti was very well organized.  And we had to decide what to do for a service project. 

Tuesday morning all of the people started to arrive.  It was a madhouse at times.  Slovenia had 23 people come and Moldova had 16 people.  They all came at once.  The bus ride for both of those countries was about 23 hours.  They were very tired.

Hungary came next and they had about 40 some kids come.  It was awesome!  Czech Republic and Slovakia came together at the same time also.

Here is Poland kids arriving.  They were about 4 hours late.  They had all of the welcome games, so a lot of the people were just sitting around most of the day.  2nd disappointment for Patti.

This is Cindy Call. She was in charge of the choir for this year. 

This is our first meal together - dinner on Tuesday.  Everyone was laughing and having a wonderful time renewing friendships and making new.

Tuesday evening at the Fireside we had Brother Schutze speak to us.  He is from Germany and was an Area Seventy.  Very good speaker and the kids really enjoyed him.    

This is everyone gathering for the Fireside.  We had four translator stations for the kids that didn't understand English that well.  

Then the dancing began.  We asked a young man from Hungary to come and teach them a few dances and everyone really had fun.  This is Victor teaching them the "Happy Dance"

Everyday we had institute classes that were taught by the S&I teachers throughout Europe.  There were six teachers and the kids had a choice to make everyday.  This is the missionary preparation class that was offered everyday.  Quite a few kids are preparing for missions.

We were suppose to hike one of the days, but it rained very hard.  So we played the "Get to know you" games that the Polish kids had brought.  It worked out very well and after a while the rain ceased so some of the kids walked down the mountain to town.  They had  a lot of fun.

Sister Elaine Dalton spoke to us on Wednesday night.  She was awesome and everyone flocked around her after she spoke.  Here is Czarek and Patti with the Daltons.

 

That night we had a talent show.  WOW! Wayne and I were very impressed with the talents that were displayed.  Here is a sister and brother singing a song that they wrote.  They are from the Czech.

Here are some singers from Hungary.  They were very good, also.

The kids didn't get to sleep every night until about 3 am.  Wayne and I were dead to the world by 11:00 pm.

On Thursday, the Kosanowich's spoke to us.  They are both from the US and have decided to live here in Poland.  He makes video games and they love it here.  They spoke about the joy we can have by living the gospel and what a blessing it is to have the Plan of Salvation.

After they spoke, the kids left and went to change into costumes, if they brought one.  Here are a few of the costumes.

Two beautiful young ladies from Moldova.

These two young men were very fun to be around.  They were from Slovenia.  They kept the party going.

On Friday night, Elder Adler spoke to the kids.  He is the Area Authority now.  He told the kids that he didn't care if they went to BYU or some other school outside of their country, but please come back.  He told them that they were the leaders of the gospel in their countries and they are needed.  It was a wonderful talk.  

Here are the Footes (YSA Couple from the Area Office), the Tuellers from Lodz, Poland, us and then the Adlers.  They Tueller came with us to help.  And they were a big help.  We had so much fun with everyone.  It was a big boost to our testimonies.

Friday was also the testimony meeting. But before they began, Patti had a surprise for everyone.  When President Uchtdorf was here in June, Patti got to talk to him and asked him if he could record a message for the Eastern Europe YSA and he did!  So they played the video that Pres. Uchtdorf sent to Patti.  Everyone was very surprised and it was very, very quiet when he started talking.  A big PLUS for Patti!  

I wish I could have recorded all of the testimonies.  These kids have so much faith and dedication to the gospel.  They truly are the leaders of Europe.

  

That night they held a kind of formal dance.  Here, Victor is teaching them a dance that they did in a big circle.  It was fun.  And everyone joined in.

Saturday morning, we had to get lunches ready for everyone to take with them on their buses. We were all outside putting in fruit and rolls, pretzels, cookies, candy bar, bananas, and a big bottle of water.  Most of the kids stayed up all night.  There were quite a few that held a sunrise service also.  

Sister Bair (Slovenia) and Sister Tueller.  The Bair's  were at the conference because they will be the couple in charge of the conference next year in Slovenia.

Here's Elder and Sister Adler helping us too.  Everyone pitched in.

It was a long trip home on Saturday.  We didn't leave until about 2:30 in the afternoon.  We had to take the Adlers to the airport in Katowice.  And then a long trip to Warszawa.  We got to our apartment about 10:30 pm after putting everything away.

On Sunday, Sister Dalton agreed to give two more firesides.  One for the missionaries and another for the people in Warszawa.  Here are a few missionaries that prepared a song for the fireside.

Sisters Tobler and Petersen and Elders Finch and Brown.

And here is Brother and Sister Dalton with "her girls" as she called them.

The week was over so fast.  And Wayne and I know that another busy work awaits us on Monday.  We can't wait to see what the office elders left for us at the office.  And on Tuesday, we get our new missionaries.  I will have another blog on Thursday.  

Poland is so awesome!  We didn't really know what to expect when we read in our mission call that we would be going to Poland.  But we are so glad that the Lord put us here.  The missionaries are wonderful, the people are wonderful and all is right.

We miss you and love you.

7 Aug 2014

4 more days till we leave for Szczyrk.  I am on the phone constantly with our committee chair Patti, trying to get the last minute things done.  And wondering how we are going to get everything down there.  Our car is going to be packed tight.  And then I checked the weather and it doesn't look very good.  So we are trying to come up with plan B for some of the things we have planned.

Last Friday was a day for the Polish people to commemorate the Polish Uprising.  We were told that at 5:00 pm all traffic - cars and pedestrians - would stop for one minute.  And they really did.  We walked to work and at 5:00 pm on the way home cars started honking their horns and just stopped in the road and everyone on the sidewalks stopped also.  It was really kind of neat to see and be part of.

You can't see very well.  But cars are stopped down the road and nothing is moving.

Then as we passed the cemetery close to our apartment, they were having a memorial for those that gave their lives during the uprising and some of their living heirs.  The cemetery was full of people.

This took place right where there are graves just for the uprising victims.

Saturday, we had another baptism.  While they were getting changed, Elder Finch played the violin.  We have a lot of musically talented missionaries.  

This is Wioletta in the middle and Sisters Petersen and Tobler.  It was a very spiritual meeting.

Sunday was a wonderful testimony meeting.  It seems like after there is a baptism, people remember what it was like when they were baptized and how they felt.  So it is always extra special.

So the President gave us a name of one of the new office elders.  I got 10 of the 14 legal packets complete for the new missionaries coming in.  The government will only let one person do 10 people.  So now I have to wait until the President decides on the other office elder.  I will probably have to do that on Monday the 18th when we get back to the office.

The President called on Sunday night and asked me how I was feeling and if my health was good.  I said that I was fine and all was well.  He said "good, I'm glad" and then he told me that another one of our Senior Couples was going home and it would probably be this week.  They have only been here for 3 months.  

On Monday, when I got to the office, I started doing all of the necessary things to get a missionary ready to go home.  And when the office elders came in, we had to discuss what was going to happen.  Then the president came by the office and said that they couple would not be going home until after the 9th of August.  This is not good.  We won't be here and neither will the president.  He will be down in Szczyrk with us.  So now we are making arrangements for the office elders and the APs to make sure that the two couples get on planes and trains at the right time and place.  So the Kowalskis are leaving on the 12th by plane and the Roulstones are leaving on the 13th by train to Frankfurt, Germany.  Boy this is fun!!!!  You never know what to expect.  We are sad to see these wonderful people go home though.  The Kowalskis have done a wonderful job in Wroclaw.  The people just love them.  But, health comes first.  And sometimes it just doesn't work.

Tuesday after work, we went with Elders Smith and Meherg to the Copernicus Museum.  Elder Smith had never been and they took their "Culture Night" to go there.  So we went for the ride.  Here are some pictures we took.

This is Elder Smith and Meherg in the earthquake simulator.  They both had to hold on after it got really bad.

This is me and Elder Smith playing like a video game.  He kept telling me to shoot, but I couldn't hit anything.  Needless to say we lost.  I can't do video games.

Elder Meherg is usually taller than Elder Smith, but not this time.

 

Elder Smith got into the mouse wheel and I started turning the wheel.  He hung on for dear life.  Made it all away around though.

You could do crazy things with bubbles.  Elder Smith covered me completely.  It popped right after Wayne took the picture.

This is one of the bridges over the Vistula River with the stadium behind it.  This is on the back side of the museum.

On Wednesday night we were sitting in English class when the door opened and in walked Elder Vernon.  But this time he was in shorts and a T-shirt.  He left the mission in June and came back with his family.  They all came in and we had a very nice visit with everyone.  It was good to see him and to meet his family.  Came to find out that Elder Vernon's dad works with Susan Ivie.  Very small world.

Well, that's it for this week.  The hotel doesn't have internet service so there will be no blog next Thursday.  These next two weeks are going to be quite busy.  Hopefully, I will get one done on the 14th.

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