30 Oct 2014

What a fun and spiritual week we have had.  First of all, on Thursday we had a Halloween get together for whomever wanted to come.  The missionaries brought investigators and we had a lot of fun.  Sister Tueller and I made chili, cornbread and some cookies and cake.  We had 40 people there.  We consider that a big success.  Sisters Poklinkowska, Kuchar and Tobler help set everything up.

Everyone gives hugs and kisses when they arrive.  It's awesome.  Everyone is made to feel right at home.

Here's everyone sitting down to eat.  After we cleared everything up, we had them make caramel apples.  They could decorate it with lots of candy and cookie sprinkles.  They really had fun.  Most of them had never done anything like that before.

Then we had a pumpkin carving contest.  Although everyone won.

Here's Emil.  We hoped we didn't have any emergencies with cut fingers, etc.

They all saved what they took out of their pumpkins for the seeds.  They'll go home and bake them.

Some got really creative.

We took all of them outside and lit candles in them

It was just a fun night.

Wayne and I were walking the other day and thought it would be fun for you to see the street signs we come across all the time.  I dare you to try and pronounce these two streets.

On Sunday they sustained Wayne as the Executive Secretary.  He basically is just going to help the new branch presidency get their feet planted and learn all they can from him.

Monday we left for Torun for a Senior Couples Conference.  We drove up with the Tuellers.  They are leaving on November 4th, so it was good to get to talk to them about what their plans are and their family.  This is the city we have been to before, but it was good to be with everyone.  On Monday, we met at 3:00 pm and the President had given us all assignments to speak.  The Tuellers started talking about Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, we talked next about repentance, the Shaws talked about baptism and the Gays were last and they spoke about the Holy Ghost.  It was a very special meeting and testimonies were borne and felt.  I think we all needed that.  It certainly gave me a new perspective on why we are here and the sacrifice that we have made as a missionary couple.  

Monday night we all had dinner together.  Here's pictures of my dinner and dessert. 

It was awesome.

Sister Tueller really wanted some dessert, but didn't want anything big.  There was some ice cream on the menu and she asked the waiter if it was a lot and he said no.  It was very small.  So this is what he brought -

We all just laughed.  Needless to say, none of them finished the ice cream.

We also went to the middles of town, but on the way we saw a mural painted on one of the castle walls -

And this is what we saw when we looked out our window -

Tuesday morning when we met the President had a wonderful message on enduring to the end.  He also asked for suggestions from us about how we can be a support and spiritually help  the missionaries.  It was awesome!

Here we all are:

Wayne and me, Elder and Sister Gay, President and Sister Edgren, Elder and Sister Tueller, and Elder and Sister Shaw.  Last year, there were nine couples.

After the conference, we went up to the center of town with the Tuellers and showed them around.  We found a donkey that we all had to get a picture with and of course, the pigeons.

And here's Sister Tueller and me trying to straighten up the leaning tower.  It didn't work!

Wednesday was back to the office and a lot of work.  After being gone for 2 days, things really pile up.  

We love it here.  We love all of the people we have gotten to know and especially our missionaries.

We love you and miss you all.

23 Oct 2014

Wayne and I left a little early on Friday from the office.  We were pooped!  Saturday was very busy.  We got up, did laundry, went shopping, made some cookies, went to a baptism at 2:00 pm, and then had the adult session of District Conference at 6:00 pm.

The baptism was for Janusz.  He was very excited and his mom and sister came to be part of his baptism.  It was awesome.  So here is Janusz with Elders Wright and Wride.

Also, during the program all of the Warszawa Elders and Sisters sang.  They do such a wonderful job.

I can't see the Elders well enough to name them all.  The Sisters are Tobler (with her back to the camera), behind her is Sister Moncur, then Smith, Poklinkowska, Benson and Kuchar.

Saturday's adult session for District Conference was wonderful.  President Edgren gave a talk on the struggles that each of us face and how we can overcome them.  He showed the video - "Mountains to Climb" that was given by President Eyring.  Very touching.

Sunday was a very sad day.  Everyone said goodbye to Sister Jagard.  They had a little get together after District Conference for her.  Their family will be missed greatly.

So when we got home on Sunday, it was right to cooking for FHE.  We made three batches of chili and I found some corn flour so I decided to make some corn bread.  The texture was a little bit different than in the US, but good none the less.  And everyone seemed to enjoy it.   Our lesson was on Brat Jorg Klebingat's talk at conference on Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence.  It was really a good lesson and everyone participated.

Monday, right before we left for FHE, President called and said that he had moved our Zone training meeting from Thursday to Tuesday.  The one Elder who didn't come in last week with his group  arrived on Monday at 5:00 pm.  He was assigned to one of the Elders from Lublin.  Lublin is in our Zone, so the President had all the missionaries from Lublin come up on Tuesday for Zone Training.  It was easier than sending Elder Park down to Lublin by himself and then having all of them come up on Thursday.  Hope that makes sense.  So after FHE, Wayne and I went shopping for the luncheon we would feed to the 18 Elders and Sisters after Zone Training.  We made chicken noodle soup and bread and brownies.  We didn't get to bed until 11:30 pm.  And we forgot to take pictures.  

On our way home from the office on Friday, as we crossed over the Lock Bridge, we saw a corn maze that they had put up for the kids that live in this little subdivision.  It wasn't much, but the kids will have fun, I'm sure.  

They had all of the corn stalks held up by wire or string.  And of course they had a lot of pumpkins.

And bales of hay.

So President and Sister Edgren are in Portugal at a Mission Presidents Seminar.  And we are in charge.  Ha, ha!!!!!

The Tuellers and Sisters Tobler and Benson started to plan a Halloween party for the YSA.  Actually, the sisters took over and they have planned a lot.  Of course they asked if we would help with the food.  So yesterday after work Wayne did the chopping and I did the cooking and baking.  We made some more chili.  This time it was 4 batches, another pan of corn bread and a carrot cake.  We will leave the office today about 4:30 pm so we get to the chapel by 5:30 pm.  They are planning on having a pumpkin carving contest, let them make some caramel apples and decorate them.  They have games planned and some songs to sing.  We hope a lot of the YSA show up.  It really sounds like it will be fun.  We will take lots of pictures.

It rained yesterday and was very cold.  The weather says its suppose to snow today.  Nothing on the ground yet.  

On Monday, the 27th, we will be having a Senior Missionary Conference in Torun again.  It will only be for four couples this time and the Tuellers leave for home shortly after the conference.  

It's 41 degrees outside right now.  Winter's a comin'.

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

16 Oct 2014

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON FRIDAY KAM  CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'LL BE 11!

HOPE YOU HAVE A MOST WONDERFUL DAY

Okay last week was very slow and this week, it's been run, run, run!!!!.  There's doesn't seem to be a happy medium.  But honestly, I like the run, run, run a little bit better.  Our Area Seventy - Elder Adler came in on Friday and spent the night at the mission home.  On Saturday, he held a special meeting with the missionaries that were serving in Warszawa.  It was awesome!  He told us to continually seek for the Lord's help in the language, in keeping our faith, in getting along with your companion and loving everyone.  We need to ask ourselves if we are truly converted and have a strong testimony.  And if not, than we need to do some praying until we can answer yes.

Sister Edgren asked me to make some cookies for afterwards, so I was doing that most of Saturday morning.  These missionaries can sure go through the cookies.  Sisters Benson and Tobler and Elders Retallick and Garrett sang a wonderful version of Come, Come ye Saints. Lots of talent here.

Sunday was sad.  The branch said goodbye to some wonderful missionaries - Sister Hemming and Elder Peacock said their final goodbyes and both gave powerful testimonies.  And others are leaving because of transfers.

Love Sister Hemming

And Elder Peacock.

Also, Elder Kimball is being transferred.  He will be going to Gdansk.

Patty got in on the picture also.  She was the one in charge of the YSA Conference.  She has just put in her mission paperwork.  We're hoping for the US.

Also, on Sunday, we got a new Branch Presidency.  Here is President Pogorzelski, 1st Counselor (left) Cezary and 2nd Counselor (right) Godfrey.  They will do a marvelous job.

And because our old branch president's family is leaving, they had a short Primary program.  Sister Jagard is the Primary President and she will be leaving this week.  We are going to miss our little Isaac.

And here's the Primary children singing.

On Monday, all of the missionaries that were going home came in to Warszawa for their final P-Day. 

They can get a little crazy at times when they know their going home.

 Elders Caskey, Jaeger, Wolfley, Smith, Fotu and Pieper.

And then here's the sisters -----

Sisters Ott, Hemming, Petherbridge, Whiteley and Mikalauski.

We did get a new office elder and AP.

Here is Elder Wolfley - office elder.  He seems to always be eating

And our new AP - he's ready to call it quits already and its just been three days since he took over for Elder Caskey.

Elder Swicegood.

Tuesday morning we learned that the new missionaries arriving would be delayed by 3 hours.  So they didn't come into the office until about 4:00 pm.  They were really wiped out.  But they sat through our presentation and signed all of the legal paperwork.  

So here's our new group - Elders Berlin, Taylor, Sister Simkins, Elders Larsen, Jones and Lanterman.  Elder Park got sick and the MTC is holding him back until next Monday.

Then on Wednesday we had MLC with the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders.  Another round of Subway sandwiches, too.  Here they are enjoying those sandwiches.

Elders Hubbard and Allen.  Sisters Petersen, Tobler, Owen, and Poklinkowska.

And Elders Fotu, Swicegood, Retallick, Whiting and Garrett.

So one more week down.  We will have some new elders and one new sister in the Warszawa district.  They should have all arrived by last night.  Sister Kuchar came in from Szczecin.  I think she was the farthest one out.  We learned that the train that Elder Owens was on hit a car and he would be delayed, but we didn't know for how long.  There's always something going on.  

We love you and miss you all.

9 October 2014

Happy Birthday tomorrow, Desiree!



I must say, this has probably been one of the slowest weeks on our mission.  I am already for the new missionaries to arrive. - legal work done and waiting for signatures, Polish Bibles and Saychelle bottles arrived last week.  (We give each new missionary a Polish Bible and a filtered water bottle) 
And all I have to do for the missionaries departing is print their boarding passes next Monday morning.  We are losing 9 missionaries and getting 7.

We have been doing apartment inspections this week.  We went to the sister's apartment on Wednesday morning at 8:00 am.  They forgot we were coming, so things were a little messy.  And one of the sisters is going home next Tuesday, so she was trying to sort out everything.  We told them we would come back after church on Sunday.  We are going down to Lublin (5 hour round trip) today to do two apartments.  The church has purchased filter systems for each apartment that attaches right to the faucet.  It has a network of three towers and each tower has a filter in it.  Numbered 1,2,and 3.  We change number 1 filter every transfer, number 2 filter every other transfer and number 3 filter once a year.  So it is time to change all 3 filters this week. 

We were able to watch all of conference live except for the Sunday Afternoon session and we are watching that when we eat lunch here at the office.  It was wonderful.  But we did notice President Monson didn't say anything about Senior Missionary couples this time.  We loved being able to hear a few of the talks in their native language.  We did fix lunch for the missionaries and fed them after the rebroadcast of the priesthood session and the rebroadcast of the women's meeting.  I loved the videos that were shown.  And all of the messages and testimonies that were borne.  I really enjoyed Elder Scott's talk.  He just talked about the things we should all be doing constantly - family prayer, reading scriptures, FHE and temple attendance.  We need to continue to do these things.  If not we will be open to the temptations of Satan.  I can't wait to get back and be able to go to the temple.  I miss that a lot.

We should be able to look at the transfer board today also.  We know we will be getting a new AP, and it will be exciting to see who is going where and with whom.

So last Saturday when we went to the store, I went to get some eggs.  When I opened the box to check the eggs for any broken ones, they were white eggs.  And I was afraid to buy them.  They were white and not brown!  Poland has brown eggs not white ones.  So I looked until I found some brown ones.  Maybe next week, I'll try the white ones.  I know - it's all in the head.

At FHE, we talked about conference and then I gave a little spiritual thought on patience.  We played a game with candy bars and dice.  If you rolled a 1 or a 6 you could take a candy bar from the middle or from one of the players who took the candy bar you wanted.  It was fun.  Andrew won 7 candy bars.   I made biscuits and gravy, macaroni salad, cut up vegetables and banana bread for dessert.  I think most of the people come just for the food.

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

2 October 2014

Happy October everyone!  This is going way too fast!  It's getting cold and it's starting to be dark by 5:00 pm.  We turn our clocks back on the last Sunday of this month, so it will be darker even earlier.

On Saturday, I went with the Relief Society to an exhibit called "Invisible".  It was at a place called the Millennium Plaza.  Very nice and very "ritzy" stores.  Anyway, we went up stairs to the exhibit which took up the whole one end of the floor.  This exhibit was being presented by the Poland Blind Society and it took you through some rooms with all of the lights off.  You couldn't see a thing.  As we walked from room to room, our guide (who was blind) told us to find certain things in each room.  We went into a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, outside, cabin, forest and restaurant.  All you could do was feel your way around and try to recognize the articles you were feeling.  It took us about an hour and it was quite enlightening.  When it got to be about 9:00 Saturday night, I was exhausted.  I think it was because I had to use my other senses like they had never been used before and I knew my muscles tensed up a little because you didn't know what you would run into.  I know that I would truly hate to be blind.

Also on Saturday at 5:00 pm we had a baptism.  She was one of the "golden investigators" as the missionaries call them.  I made a carrot cake because I had to use up some carrots before they went bad.

Sister Benson, Anna, Sister Tobler.

Sister Benson just arrived in Poland in August and she was able to teach and prepare Anna for baptism.  That doesn't happen too often around here.  Sister Tobler will be going home in December.  She is a very special missionary.  She will be missed a lot.

Sunday when we left for church we noticed a whole bunch of cones along the streets.  It was another marathon and bike race together.  So we made a mental note to come home another way.  The problem was when we left church we forgot.  It took us 1 hour and 40 mins to get home.  They block everything off here and don't let cars turn anywhere.  

We also learned at church that on the 12th, our branch will be getting a new Branch President.  President Jagard has been here for 5 years and was laid off from his job working for Mattel Toys.  So he started a job search and realized that they needed to go back to the United States.  Poland just doesn't pay enough.  He will be leaving today back to the states.  His wife and 3 kids will be leaving in a couple of weeks.  She has to finish a couple things here in Poland.  I will miss little Isaac.  I won't have anyone at church to bring apples for.  

About a month ago, my printer at the office died.  So the church gave us permission to buy another one.  This has been a joke.  On Sunday we asked Sister Jarosz if she could help us find one and then go with us to buy it.  She came in on Tuesday with her husband and I now have a new printer sitting on my desk.  It is huge.  

We held a planning meeting with the President and Sister Edgren yesterday.  We planned as much as we could through December.  We will be having Zone training the week of Christmas.  But it will be a special one for the missionaries.  And they will probably be able to skype home to their parents.  I will make breakfast for them also.  

We had a wonderful FHE on Monday.  We copied off some conference talks and talked about what we, as members of this church, have been counselled to do.  And if we are doing it!  Everyone participated.  It was a very good discussion especially when we talked about "everyone a missionary" and going to the temple with family names.  We talked for an hour and 15 minutes.  I wish you could meet these wonderful people and the testimony that they have and the love they share.  Wayne and I are very blessed to have been given the opportunity to come to Poland.    It was quite funny when we ate.  I made hamburger soup and had a raspberry salad.  But the soup is what got them.  They couldn't believe I made soup out of ground beef..  They did enjoy it though.  And for dessert we had some Oatmeal Fudge bars. 

After everyone was gone, Wayne and the APs had the wonderful experience of giving Sisters Polinkowska and Moncur blessings.  Wayne gave a beautiful blessing to both of them. These are the special moments of our mission.  We really love these elders and sisters that we serve.  

 So that's it for this week.  We will be doing apartment inspections next week.  Traveling down to Lublin and doing half of the apartments here in Warsaw.  With only 4 senior couples, we each have to cover a lot of territory.  

We love you and miss you all.