4 Sept 2014

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!  HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!!

We had a great week, this past week.  On Thursday night, the Tufts came to Warszawa to stay at the mission home before going home on Friday.  President Edgren asked us if we wanted to join them for dinner.  We had a wonderful time.  We will miss the Tufts.  They spent the full 18 months in Gdansk.  It was very hard for them to leave.  We are though, enjoying our dinner.

Elder and Sister Tufts, the Edgrens and us.  It was a good night.

On Saturday we got up early and took the mission transport and drove down to Lodz to help the Tuellers move some of their stuff up to Warszawa.  They will be spending the last two month of their mission here.  It will be fun to have them here.

While we were in Lodz, we went and saw some of the sights.  They have one main street that is in the center of town.  It is called "P Street".  We had seen it before, but most of it was under construction.  Now they are done with all of it.  Couldn't get a real good picture, but the street was laid all by hand.  It took forever.

Also on a lot of the buildings they have allowed artists to come and paint murals.  Here is one of them.  Lodz means boat in Polish.  So here is the mural representing Lodz.

Then we went to the train yard where the Jews were loaded on trains and taken to one of the seven death camps they have in Poland.

These are a couple of the actual train cars they used.  Very sad.

When we got home, Elder Stumpf, who went home on the 19th, called and asked if we wanted to go out to dinner.  His family wanted to meet us and take us out.  Elder Stumpf was with us in Wroclaw and then in Warszawa.  We met them down on the Renik and had a wonderful time.  They spoke German most of the time, but it was fun.

Elder Stumpf's dad and mom, Elder Stumpf and us.  That's the palace behind us.  By the way, on the way to the Renik, we passed an outside wedding.  This was waiting to take the bride and groom to their reception.

Sunday was President Edgren's birthday.  Sister Edgren just had to have a surprise birthday party for him.  So all of the Elders and Sisters from Warszawa got to join in.  She had us go downstairs and cram into her storage room.  This is us before the president came down.

So here's who I see.  Me, Sister Tobler, Moncur and Hemming. Elders Caskey, Weggersen, Kimball Peacock, Wright, Garcia and Garrett.

It was very hot in the room waiting for him.  There's more people you can't see in the picture.  Anyway, when the president opened the door, and we yelled surprise, he almost fell over backwards.  We are glad he didn't have a heart attack. 

We had barbecued chicken, salad homemade bread and potatoes.  It was very good.  Then we all sang happy birthday to him.

Sister's Poklinkowska, Hemming, Tobler and Moncur made up some new words to "Follow the Prophet" for the president.  It was really cute.

This is them singing the song.

When we got home from that, I started making a casserole for FHE.  And then I got up Monday morning and made some brownies.  So our lesson was on testimonies.  We talked about what a testimony is and what you need to do to keep it strong.  At the end of the lesson, I bore my testimony in Polish (kind of).  After I said amen and they said amen, then they all started to clap.  It was funny.  What a group!

Monday, of course, was P-day for the office elders and APs.  They decided to go golfing.  Here's Elder Pieper and Elder Caskey already to go.

And here's the four of them just before they left.

Elders Pieper, Fotu, Caskey and Jaeger.

Here's a better picture of our Office Elders.  Jaeger and Pieper.

Tuesday our last missionary arrived from the group that came in on the 19th .  She was very tired.  I'm sure she is sleeping very well tonight

Sister Smith with her trainer Sister Hemming.  She'll do great!  We're going to be leaving this afternoon for our little trip.  We are going to stop at the biggest castle in Poland and then on to Gdansk.  Hope to have lots of pictures.

Love you and miss you all.