26 Sep 2013

This past week has been cold and rainy.  I guess winter is on it's way.  And we are not looking forward to that!

Last Thursday was Sister Blake's 21st birthday.   We had all of them over for dinner to celebrate.  Sis. Blake loves beef stew so that's what we had for dinner and banana splits for desert.  Elder Smith gave her a Rubik's cube, which was all pink.  They really give her a bad time for being "blonde".

Everyone helps.

We had cupcakes also.

She couldn't quite blow out the candle Elder Smith was holding

Here is the pink Rubik's Cube and a really old jar of pickles that the Elders gave to her also.

I threw the pickles away.  They were gross!

It was a fun hour and of course, we sang Slo Lot!

On Friday, Wayne and I took off for a city called Sobotka to look at a ski resort that we could possibly use for the YSA Conference next year.  It was beautiful up in the mountains, but there was only 1 lodge and it only had 25 rooms.  Not enough for what we need.  Here is a picture from the mountains looking down on Sobotka.

On Saturday, we had 4 kids show up for the English class and it really was a lot of fun.  The kids are so anxious to learn.  Also, President and Sister Edgren came to Wroclaw.  President Edgren spent the morning with the Elders at their apartment for companion study and then went out with them contacting.  Then at 4:00 pm, he met the Sisters at the chapel where they had a meeting scheduled with an investigator.  Her name is Marta and she is awesome.  I hope that she will accept their challenge to be baptized.   We went over to the chapel at 5:00 pm to meet with all of them and go out to dinner.  We learned then that Marta had not come (very disappointing).  We took the Edgrens and the sisters over to the pasta restaurant and had a very enjoyable time.  President Edgren talked about his trip to Paris last week, where he met with 6 other mission presidents and Elders Oaks and Ballard.  They met in the room where the Treaty of Versailles was signed.  Elder Ballard was there also to organize another stake in Paris.  It is very disheartening to see stakes being organized all around Poland.  Especially when in President Kimball's dedicatory prayer opening up Poland, he said that chapels would dot this land.  That was 20 years ago and there has only been one chapel built in Poland.  We know that the missionaries are working hard.  And we know that the gospel will take hold eventually. We kind of wish it would happen while we are here.

After dinner, we had tickets to see an extravaganza of ballet performances at the Opera House.  Sister Blake had bought tickets for us and Pres. Edgren.  The opera house is awesome and the dancing was okay.  At least Wayne and I can say we have seen ballet.  Here are a couple of pictures taken in the building.

On Monday night for FHE, we talked about happiness.  And we all made a commitment to work on an attribute that we struggle with, and hopefully, our lives will be happier when we overcome that struggle.  We had them make braided bracelets to wear so that they would remember what attribute they are working on when they look at the bracelet on their wrist.  We will see how the experiment went in 30 days.  We had 12 people there for FHE and all of them joined in and made the bracelets.  We had to show of couple of the guys how to braid, but they joined right in.  Sis. Malinowska made some szarlotkas (apple fritters) and they were very good.

Tuesday we had District meeting and talked about prayer and how we can help the investigators pray and know when they have received an answer.  Most of these people have never said anything but a "rote" prayer.  After the meeting, Wayne and the elders went and bought lunch for President Cielenski and had a meeting with him.  I came home and worked on what we would be teaching for English class and worked some more on my life history.  

On Wednesday we had to go shopping for some things, especially milk.  And since the milk can be stored on the shelf for a long time we decided to buy to cases of it.  There are 12 cartons in a case.  When we got home, we realized that the cashier had only charged us for one case.  So this was an interesting development.  We didn't know how to explain what happened to people who don't speak English and my first thought was that when we did try to explain, they might think we stole it and put Wayne in jail.  So I chickened out and just let Wayne go back to the store.  (ha, ha)  There's a customer counter right at the entrance to the store and that's where he went.  Of course, no one spoke English so they called someone on the phone.  A very nice gentleman came up and Wayne explained to him what happened and he was astounded that Wayne had come back and wanted to pay for the milk.  He then told the other ladies that were at the counter and they looked shocked too.  The gentleman looked at Wayne's missionary tag and asked where he was from.  Wayne told him that he was from the US and that he was a missionary for the church.  Another little seed.

So we have been wanting to take this picture for a little while.  We don't know what this sculpture is for but to us, it is the train that goes nowhere.

Also, we pass this building every time we go to church.  We don't know how this is accomplished.  It really boggles our minds.  One day this building was just the building and the next day, they had this advertisement up across the front of it.  It is like some see through material, because you can still see the windows of the building through it and I would think that the people inside can see through it.  The thing that is boggling is that it is in one piece.  The building is about 250 ft long.  We can't figure out first of all, how they make the advertisement, and second of all, how they put it up.

Well, that's all for this week.  Except for one more gnome that we saw on Saturday.  We think this is a war veteran,  because he was in front of a building for the Polish Vets.  Have a good week.

We love you and miss you all.

19 Sep 2013

First of all - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU - JILL   We hope you have a marvelous day today!

Last Thursday night, we met with the Elders and an investigator by the name of Jacoub.  He has been going on-line to LDS.org and reading all that he can.  We were talking about prayer during the meeting.  It is hard to tell you about the feeling that was in that room.  I thought my heart was going to burst.  And to make it all worth it, Jacoub felt it too.  These are the moments that we will remember for a life time.  And the Elders were on "Cloud Nine".  We are all hoping that he will be baptized.

We went over Friday to clean the chapel and again fix a couple of things.  Good thing Wayne knows how to do a lot of the things when it comes to "fixin' up".  We had dinner with the Elders at this small pizza place.  Very good pizza.

Wayne and I started reading "Jesus the Christ" at the beginning of May.  We finally finished it on Saturday. What a wonderful book.  I had never read it before because I always heard that it was hard to understand.  There were some times when we didn't know what a word meant, but the message that Jesus is our Savior and the one we should strive to become like was very clear.  We also finished reading the Book of Mormon at the end of August and started over again the first day of September.

We went over on Saturday for the Children's English class and of course, no one showed up.  Wayne and I went over to the Renik afterwards to see if we couldn't buy him a winter coat.  We did find one at a place called "Reserved".  As we were walking back home, they had a Swedish Festival going on.  Here is one of the wagons they had. 

Saturday night, we had the elders and sisters over for dinner.  I cooked some pork chops, mashed potatoes and cauliflower.  I cooked 18 pork chops, all but 3 were eaten. 

After they left, I had to prepare a talk for Sunday.  My talk only had to be about 7 mins. because I have to give the same amount of time for the translation.  Also on Sunday, we had an Obiad (luncheon) after church.  Sis. Kuchno made a delicious soup that you put over rice.  Wayne, in the mean time was getting audited.  President Zan went in with him too, because he did it before we came.  So the auditor and Pres. Zan started saying everything in Polish and since Wayne couldn't understand, it was very frustrating.  He's hoping Pres. Zan will let him know what problems there were and what needs to be corrected. 

Our FHE went well on Monday.   We had a lesson on Hope and then played "Pictionary".  It was hard to explain, but once they caught on, it was fun.  One of the words was - caboose.  They didn't even know what that was.  They don't have cabooses on their trains.  Elder Jaeger left for Katowice after.  He was part of an exchange.  So Tuesday for District meeting we had one of our Zone Leaders here with us.  As part of the meeting, they do language training and usually Wayne and I just sit there, dumbfounded!!!!! 

Last night, we had a very good English Class.  We decided to pick some of the articles from the Ensign under the "Mormon Journal" part.  Most of them are simple to read, but usually have a strong message and they are written by members of the church.  So we would read a paragraph or two and then ask the class if there was anything they didn't understand.  We had some good discussions.

So we finally took our camera with us when we went running.  Here is a picture of the beginning of the trail we go on.  And the trail really goes on forever.  The trails go through a lot of wooded areas.  Also, there are squirrels all over because most of the trees are oak and walnut.  In fact, there are a lot of people that come over and pick the walnut trees.  The squirrels are red.  They are fun to watch.  We tried to get some pictures so you could see how red they were.  But it didn't turn out so good.

 

 

 

 

Bye for now.  We love you all and miss you.

12 Sep 2013

Cześć from Poland.  We had an exciting night last Thursday.  Our new missionaries arrived and we decided to meet them at the train station.  They left Warsaw at about 9:30 am and got into Wroclaw at 5:15 pm.  They all looked a little tired.  Here is our new missionaries:

Sister Blake, Sister Poklinskowska, Elder Smith and Elder Jaeger.  Sister Poklinkowska and Elder Jaeger are both from the state of Washington.  They are the cream of the crop. 

We had them over for dinner that night because we knew they wouldn't have anything in their apartment.  We had some chicken noodle soup (homemade) and toasted cheese sandwiches.  It's been getting kind of cold outside.  We leave the one door open to our little deck and it is 63 degrees in the apartment when we wake up.

 

Friday we stayed home most of the day and cleaned the apartment and did laundry.  Saturday the sisters took the train out to Legnica to visit with the Call family and do some contacting.  Since they were gone, the elders and Wayne and I went over to the chapel to do the children's English class.  No one showed up.  It's kind of sad, because the church has a wonderfully outlined 9 week course which teaches some very basic words.  Hopefully, now that school has started, we will get some kids to come.

 

Sunday was very cold and windy.  I taught the Young Women and we talked about virtue.  It was a very good class and all of them participated.  They had a lot of questions.  Next week, the three of them decided they would teach the class.  I tried to take their picture, but Jsonga didn't want to.  I will try again this coming Sunday.

 

Monday, Elder Durrant and I planned our very first FHE.  We are holding it for the singles in our branch and any investigators the missionaries want to bring.  Our lesson was on "faith", we played a game called 4 corners and then I brought some Rice Krispy treats, some cupcakes and drinks.  Everyone had a good time and we hope to continue it for a long time.  Here is our first FHE:

Me, Brat Kotlinski (member), Sis. Malinowska (member), Sis. Poklinskowska, Sis. Blake, Lucyna (investigator), Elder Jaeger and Elder Smith.  There was another investigator there by the name of Yarek, but he had already left.

 

Tuesday the elders and sisters were back on a train to Katowice for Zone Training.  We went over to the chapel to discuss some things with President Cielinski and Wayne needed to put things together for his first Financial Audit which will be done on Sunday. 

 

Wednesday night we had our English class.  We had some students move up to our advance class from the intermediate class.  After we read the story and went over some vocabulary words, one of the new girls said that it was very hard for her to understand.  So we are going to have to choose some simpler stories from the Liahona and discuss what is being read all the way through.  We were missing two people.  But here is a picture of our class:

Monika, Michal, Magda, Mikel, Katja.  We are missing Uliana and Inna.  Hopefully, they will be back next week. 

 

We stopped at a pizza place to buy dinner.  I sick of cooking all the time.  It was very good.  The only thing is they like to put corn on their pizzas.  It's not bad, it just doesn't look like a pizza should.

 

Okay, another gnome.  We couldn't figure out what this one was doing.  He is on a planter that is between two restaurants.  It may be a bottle of booze in his one hand, because that's what everyone does here.  

Well, another week has gone by.  It's amazing to us how fast they go.  We also learned some sad news from our daughter Teri.  Her two boys participate in school football, wrestling and track.  They had their first football game on Friday.  The coach was trying to get one of the boys to go in on the line and he wasn't paying attention, so he grabbed Cassius and told him to go in for him.  On the play, one of the other team members stepped on Cassius' foot as he was tackling another player.  He had to hop off the field.  They took him to the emergency room and they were told that he probably broke his ankle.  Teri took him to an orthopedic surgeon on Monday.  His ankle isn't broken but the tendons were torn and the doctor told her if Cassius wants to continue in sports, they will have to operate and re-attach the tendons.  So Cassius will be out of all sports this year in school.  He is really bummed. I guess the thing that is most discouraging is that he wasn't suppose to be in on that play.  We know he will heal and next year will be a lot better for him.  Get well quick, Cassius.  We love you.

Miłego dnia.
Kochamy cię i tęsknię za tobą.

 

 

5 Sep 2013

It's Thursday and Elder Durrant and I have been without the Elders and Sisters for two days.  It makes it very lonely.  We didn't have English class on Wednesday either, because all the missionaries were gone.

Last Thursday we had a meeting schedule with an investigator and the elders.  But it was cancelled at the last minute also.  But the elders said they would come over and bring us some desert.  They showed up about 8:00 pm with the most delicious sweet roll desert.  I wish I could remember what it was called.  We heated them up and of course, put ice cream on top.  The elders go over to an old members apartment every week to help the lady that is very crippled.  Her son lives outside of Wroclaw and only comes on Sunday, so they kind of watch her during the week.  Her name is Danuta and she is a terrific lady.  Anyway she had her son purchase these from a bakery near her apartment and gave them to the elders. 

Friday, the city turned off our water (because there was a broken pipe) about 8:00 am and didn't turn it back on until 3:00 pm.  So Elder Durrant and I went over to the chapel to clean it and walked on the Renik for a while.  We also saw some new gnomes that we have missed.

 We can't tell what this one is doing.  It looks like it's riding on top of a camera.

Can't remember if I showed this one or not.  But these little guys are holding up a tank where people can put money in.  These are asking for donations to a hospital.

 

This little guy is coming down the pole.

 This little guy is showing off!

And this little guy had too much PIZZA.  And everyone rubs his tummy for good luck.

 

On Saturday and Sunday we didn't have any hot water.  That was fun.  On Saturday at noon we went over to the chapel for English class.  Once again, no kids showed up so we went out to lunch with the sisters.  They took us to a place where they served crepes.  Elder Durrant got a crepe with chicken and cheese and I got one with strawberries, raspberries and peaches with sweet cream. They were huge, so we each took half and had a wonderful meal.  Another 10 lbs added on.

 

Sunday after church I had the YW over for dinner and some games.  I just had sandwiches, fruit and chips, but everyone enjoyed.  By the time the evening was over, we had the whole Call family, the brother of one of the YW, the sisters and elders in our apartment.  It was crowded, but very fun. I had made 3 dozen sugar cookies and they were all gone within 30 mins.  By the way, we had 4 investigators and 1 inactive at church today and testimony meeting was awesome.  Hopefully, the spirit was felt by all of them.  This was also the Sunday of transfers and President Edgren had already called everyone to tell them what their new assignment was.  So here's what happened to our little flock:

 

Elder Stumpf:  headed to Warsaw as Zone Leader

Elder Smith:  our new District Leader and trainer of new missionary

Sister Blake:  staying here and will receive a new missionary to train

Sister Ellis:  will finish up her training in Bydgoszcz (first time in this city for sister missionaries)

 

All of them were excited at the news.  They will all be going to Warsaw on Tuesday to meet new companions.  This is hard to see these wonderful "kids" that we have grown to love leave us. But we also know that it will be a wonderful time for them to grow in the gospel and meet new people.

 

Monday we all decided that we would have our "last supper" together.  An we had to have "Frit Kabobs".  Elder Durrant and I had to do apartment checks during the day.  So we went to the sister's apartment first at about 11:30 am.  Sister Ellis was packing and throwing things away.  After we were done the sisters asked us to go to lunch with them.  So we ran down the street to this outside stand where they made these potato cakes like things.  (10 more lbs)  I'm going to have to learn how all of these foods are made so that I can make some things for everyone when we get home. 

 

Also, the Reeds (Senior Couple) will be leaving on Monday the 9th, so they had their 3 daughters here with them in Poland and they were travelling around the country for a week.  They came to Wroclaw on Monday and we went our with them for ice cream after our dinner with the sisters and elders.  (10 more lbs)  We so enjoy the Reeds.  They are a wonderful example to us and kept our spirits up when we were feeling down.  They will be missed here in Poland.

 

Here we are eating in the elder's apartment after we checked it.

 

And this is our very last picture together.

 

 

 So the elders left early Tuesday morning and took the train to Warsaw.  A 7 1/2 hour train ride.  The sisters didn't leave until 3 pm so we met them for lunch (again) and some more ice cream.  (20 more lbs) 

 

This is our lunch meal.  Elder Durrant, Sister Ellis and I had a pasta dish (huge) and Sister Blake got a steak sandwich.  There was a whole steak on that sandwich.  It was huge also. 

 

The sisters only went to Katowice to spend the night with the sister missionaries there and then went into Warsaw on Wednesday.  So it's been or will be two days without the young missionaries here and like I said, we miss them a lot.

 

We will meet them all at the train tonight at 5:00 pm.  And will get to meet the "newbies" also.  And we will have all of them over for dinner tonight.

 

That's all for this week.  We love you and miss all of you.

 

A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR SON JAMES AND MY BROTHER ROBBIE ON THE 9TH.

HOPE  BOTH OF YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY. 

 

 

29 Aug 2013

This has been a long week, with Wayne's tooth and all.  I have had to make him milk shakes and soft foods to eat, but it is getting better.  Sorry I'm so late today.  We had a very busy morning.

Since transfers are coming, Sis. Malinowska asked us all over for lunch last Thursday.  This was a good test for Wayne.  She made this awesome Polish dish with vegetables, meat, and a kind of sour sauce.  It really tasted good and soft enough for Wayne to eat.  So here is our picture.  This may be the last time we are all together.

Elder Smith, Sister Ellis, Sister Blake, me, Wayne, Elder Stumpf and Sister Malinowska.  She is one awesome lady.  We love her to pieces.

Elder and Sister Lloyd from Lodz made reservations for us to go with them to the Salt Mine in Wieliczka for Friday and they had to pay when they made the reservations.  So we traveled about 2.5 hours in the car on Friday to just outside of Krakow to visit the Salt Mines.  Wayne was still on pain medication, but he drove and everything worked out well.  And we were glad that we went.  This is still a working salt mine, but they have made it a tourist attraction also.  The workers have sculpted statues and other things out of the salt.  When we entered the mine, we walked down 365 steps to the first level.  There were chambers connected by corridors that measure over 155 miles.  Our tour took us to 7 of those chambers.  We were walking on salt and the walls and ceiling were all salt also.  We tried to take some pictures.  Hopefully, you will be able to see some of the things we saw.

                                         This is what we walked through.

                                         This is how they mine the salt.

This is me trying to lift one of those cones of salt with the pulley system they had.  No can do!!

This is the Last Supper carved in the salt wall.

 

This is looking up in one of the chambers at all of the wood columns and walkways they built.

 

This was our lowest point.  It is a little under a football field length and a half of another one down in the ground.

 

Here we are waiting to ride the elevator up.  I don't know why we chose to stand in front of this place, but they had statues of Mary and other saints all over the place.

 

We also drove into Krakow to eat lunch and try to see one of the biggest castles in Poland, the Wawel Castle.  Here is the fortress part facing the Vistula River.

 

 

Here is the middle courtyard.  This place was huge.  We went through the state rooms, but they wouldn't let you take any pictures.  It was very castle-like.  Big rooms and very old furnishings  They had huge tapestries hanging in every room, each depicting a scene from the Bible, starting with the creation. 

 

 

  Here is the whole castle. Or the best we could do.

 

Here we are standing on the stairs going up to the tower.

 

And here is the Vistula River.  Many of the invading countries of Poland used this river to enter the country. 

 

 

Saturday was a stay home day, because Wayne was still hurting.  At least the puffiness had gone away. 

 

Sunday we had the sisters and elders over for pancakes.  Elder Smith's family makes syrup, called Uncle Bob's Butter Country Syrup and he is always bragging about it.  So his mother sent him 3 bottles of it and we decided to try it out.  It is actually buttermilk syrup, but they have done something to the processing so that you can store it on the shelf and the butter doesn't separate like it does in homemade syrup.  It was very good.  I had to make three batches of pancakes to feed everyone.  So after dinner, I went contacting with the sisters and Elder Durrant went with the elders.  We walked so fast and so far that I got a blister on my toe.  We didn't really get to start a lesson with anyone, but the sisters gave out 1 BOM.  The elders didn't have much luck either.  In fact, someone actually told them where they could go.   

 

Monday - Pday.  The elders asked if we wanted to play basketball with them and the sisters.  We just laughed.  They did get two of the YW to play with them, though.  Wayne went and got his stitches out also.  The dentist said that it was healing very nicely.  By the way, the dentist actually called on Saturday to see how Wayne was doing.  Very awesome!

 

We finally got a hold of the four YSA's we wanted on our committee.  One lives in Bialystok, one is  in Szczecin, one in Lodz and one in Katowice.  Two of them have only been in the church for 10 months.  It will be very difficult to meet in person.  So lots of emails and hopefully skype.  All of them said they would be happy and excited to help.  We told them that their first assignment was to find a place.  So that is what they are doing.  We have been in contact with Elder Adler (Area Authority) to find out our budget and what countries we specifically invite.  I guess anyone can come to the conference, but there are 10 countries that we are responsible for.  And we don't know for sure which 10 they are.

 

Tuesday, we had our last district meeting of this transfer.  Sunday, all of them will learn if they are being transferred or not.  Elder Durrant and I will hate to see any of them leave.  We have grown to love these young men and women.  They are all dedicated and sure try hard to help these Polish people try to see the truthfulness of the gospel.

 

Wednesday we were meeting an investigator with the sisters before English class.  But they cancelled at the last minute.  After English class, we had a "linger longer" with all of the people that attend.  The sisters made some cookies, we brought some fruit and the elders brought the drinks.  It was really fun.  The English classes start over every nine weeks (correspond with transfers), so the beginning class will move up to intermediate, and intermediate to ours.  Usually the same people just keep coming to ours after the nine weeks, because it's a good way to keep up on their English.

 

After that, we went with the sisters over to the Renik.  And of course, we had to get some ice cream.  Every transfer the missionaries get one day for "Cultural Day".  This is besides their normal Pday.  So the sisters went to a music forum in the cathedral.  We haven't talked to them today yet, so we don't know how it was. 

 

Wayne just went over to the Post Office to pick up a package from Jeremy.  Yeah, more brown sugar.  I can make some more cookies.  And they sent Peanut Butter, marshmallows and rice krispies.  I'll have to make Rice Krispy Treats for the nursery on Sunday.  They won't even know what they are, but I'm sure they will like them. 

 

Well, have a good week.  We love you and miss you.   

 

 

 

 



 

 



22 Aug 2013

Douglas, this picture is just for you.  No need to say anymore!

On the way to the Sister's apartment last Thursday night we ran into two more gnomes.  These are really cute.  I bet you can't tell what kind of store they were in front of:

 

 

 

Also, we stopped to take the pictures of the "Anonymous Pedestrians".  These represent people as they went "underground" during the middle of the night when Martial Law was initiated in Poland.  And then re-emerged after it was taken away.  So the statues are going down on one side of the street and coming up on the other.  It is really cool.

                                                         Here they are going down......                               

  And here they are coming up.

Wayne had a real hard time eating at the Sisters.  So when he got up Friday morning, we knew something was definitely wrong with one of his teeth.  We called President Cielenski to see if he knew of any dentists we could go to.  He said he had a very good one, but he did not work on Fridays.  He also said he would call around for us and see if we couldn't get in to one that day.  We did get into one that evening (8:00 pm).  The outside of the building looked pretty scary, but the inside was very clean and modern.  So the dentist (a young woman about 4'8" and maybe 100 lbs) came and took Wayne back to the examining room.  Pres. Cielenski came with us just in case they didn't speak English.  But they did and Wayne could understand them.  So they took an xray and found that his wisdom tooth was abscessed.  They shot him up with Novocaine, cut his gum around the infected wisdom tooth and massaged his glands and neck to get all of the infection out.  It was very painful and gross.  She gave him a prescription for pain and an antibiotic.  She told him that he would have to come back and get the tooth pulled.  So we made an appointment for Monday.  She said that the tooth was embedded a little bit in the bone, but shouldn't take very long to get it out.  Friday night was a very long night, but the swelling had gone down considerably.

On Saturday, it was Elder Smith's birthday and we had planned a little surprise party.  Elder Stumpf had found out that his favorite dinner was steak and potatoes and his second was hamburgers.  I told Elder Stumpf I would make the hamburgers.  So the elders and sisters came over for dinner and poor Wayne had to suffer through it all.  Elder Smith was surprised, a little.  Sis. Blake kind of blew it when she met them at the door and said she and Sis. Ellis got there before them for the party.  Oh well.  I had made some cupcakes and we put candles on two of them.  One candle for every ten years.   Sang the polish birthday song, which makes no sense at all.  It goes like this:

Sto lat, Sto lat

Niech zyje, zyje nam

Sto lat, Sto lat

Niech zyje, zyje nam

Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz

Niech zyje, zyje nam

Niech zyje nam.

Sto Lat!

It means that you hope they live for a 100 years.  Anyway, we'll sing it for someone when we come home.  So here is Elder Smith blowing out his two candles:

Sunday morning at church Wayne had to conduct.  He did okay, but you could tell he was hurting.  We had invited the Call family over for dinner, so once again, Wayne had to suffer through another dinner and try to be pleasant.  He did great.  We had barbecue pork sandwiches, vegetable tray and some sliced pineapple and cantaloupe.  AJ Call, who is 14, had 2 1/2 sandwiches.  His mom kept telling him to slow down.  They all speak English so it was fun having them over.  We had ice cream and cupcakes for dessert. 

So finally Monday came and we walked over to the dentist's office.  They came and got Wayne at 12:30 pm.  At 2:30 pm, I was getting kind of worried.  The main dentist, a guy, came out one time and said something to the receptionist.  And in a little while, through the main door, walked in another dentist and he just walked right into the back.  In about another hour, I finally saw Wayne, holding a cold compress against his cheek and they were taking him back into the xray room.  He came and sat by me for a little while and then the main dentist came over and said they needed to go back in, because there was still a little bit of tooth they didn't get.  They had already stitched him up, so out came a couple of stitches and some more digging.  We left the facility about 4:30 pm.  So, the girl dentist had to call for help from the main dentist.  And the both of them couldn't get it out of the bone so they called for a specialist.  When I told Jeremy about the day, this is what he wrote back:

I'm picturing a cold, wet cinder block basement room with single light bulb swinging above a dentists chair and a table full of used, scary looking, torture-like tools.

Despite it all, Wayne was very pleased with the way they cared for him and made sure he didn't feel any pain during the procedure. 

To top all of this off, Tuesday was Zone conference down in Katowice and I was cooking some of the food for lunch.  So, there was no way Wayne was going to be able to stay at the apartment and rest.  We doped him up with pain pills Monday night and called Pres. Edgren to ask him if the Elders could ride in the car with us, just in case anything went wrong.  He said we could do that.  I haven't driven at all in Poland, but I learned very quickly on Tuesday.  People really drive crazy here, but I did okay.  We had Elder Stumpf drive home. 

It was a wonderful conference.  President Edgren told the missionaries that if they felt like going out at 8:00 in the morning to start contacting, they could do that.  They still had to do all of their study and preparation, but now they can do it anytime during the day.  Before, they could not leave their apartment until 11:00 am.  They all were excited about that. 

Sister Reed and I were in the kitchen most of the morning preparing the food.  I took a picture of the kitchen so you could see how tiny it is.  We certainly do enjoy the Reeds.  They will be leaving in two weeks.

 

We tried to get a picture of President and Sister Edgren and this is the best we could do.  They just wouldn't sit long enough for us.  This was during testimony bearing.

 

Pres. Edgren told a story about when he was Bishop and how the spirit influences us sometimes when we least expect it.  He was working on the roof of his house when his phone rang.  It was the mother of one of his priests in the ward.  David was preparing to go on a mission shortly and his mother asked if the bishop could help her find him.  He had not come home for 2 days.  His girlfriend had come home from school and his best friend had killed himself a week ago.  She was afraid that he may have done something wrong, because he wasn't thinking straight.  Pres. Edgren said he would try, but he didn't even know where to begin to look for him.  He got down from the roof and had to go to Home Depot to get some more things.  He said he asked the Lord to be with David and help him make it through this trial.  On the way home from the store, he passed one of his favorite ice cream shops and just knew he had to go back and get some ice cream.  There was no parking in front of the store, so he pulled down a little side street.  When he got out of his car, there was David in his car with his girlfriend.  Pres. Edgren started to walk towards the car, and David got out, looking very surprised.  He said, "Hi, Bishop, what are you doing here?"  Pres. Edgren told him that the spirit lead him here and he hoped that David was okay.  David told him that he was fine now and that he would be in church tomorrow.  David went on his mission and served faithfully.  He also told the president that he was glad he showed up when he did.  Small miracles!  And as David A. Bednar once said - the "tender mercy" of the Lord.

Since transfers will be in a week, Sis. Malinowska has asked us and the elders and sisters over for lunch today.  Another BIG meal. 

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

15 Aug 2013

We had a wonderful week.  The weather has been beautiful.  We went from the 90's+ down to the 70's this week.  Hopefully it stays this way for a little while.

Last Friday Wayne and I prepared for President and Sister Edgren coming to Wroclaw.   We went over to the chapel and did a thorough cleaning. It's surprising how dirty a place can get on Sunday and through the week. 

Saturday was spent on cooking.  Pres. and Sister Edgren had a Fireside on Saturday night and we had a little get together afterwards.  So I made Sloppy Joes.  I cooked up 6 - 500 g containers of ground turkey (beef was too expensive), used 4 plastic containers of ketchup, one container of mustard and a lot of my precious brown sugar.  And I made brownies also.  It was a hit though.  None of the Polish members knew what Sloppy Joes were and they got a big kick out of the name.  But everything went well and we all enjoyed our time with the Edgrens.  The kids got together and decided they were going to have a wedding.  Here is my little Mila and the oldest Zan boy, Samuel.  They were cute.

 

Anyway, the Edgrens came in from England after spending the week with Elders Nelson, Holland and Ballard for Mission President training.  Pres. Edgren said it was wonderful and is very grateful for the insight of the gospel these brethren have.  He said that Elder Holland spent over an hour teaching them from the first 14 verses of 1st Nephi.  He didn't go into detail, but was very emotional when he talked about it.  All of them also attended the very first Pageant presented in England by the Preston England Temple.  It was all about the beginning of missionary work in England and what has taken place since then and they said it was wonderful.  The brethren were there to observe and to make recommendations and if approved by the First Presidency, it will be announced as a Church Pageant, just like the others ones in America are.  Sister Edgren said that if the church does approve it, she is going to make sure her children come to England to see it.  It was that good!

 

Sunday was a good meeting because the Edgrens spoke again.  Pres. Edgren spoke mostly in Polish.  He is awesome.  And then, because there was some food left over from Saturday, everyone went into the RS room and had something to eat.  The Edgrens had a 5-6 hour drive back to Warsaw, so they left shortly after.  Wayne and the Elders had to fix a flat tire on the Edgren's car.  We all hoped they would make it back safe and sound.

 

Monday was P-day and the Sisters asked us if we would take them to the castle we went and saw.  We had to ask permission from Pres. Edgren, because it was way out of the boundaries for the sisters.  He said we could take them and so we did.  They enjoyed the trip and spent over an hour in the castle.  We didn't go in, but stayed outside and enjoyed the sun.  Here we are after they got out of the castle.  Of course, we had to get some ice cream.

 

 

Here's the sisters at the overlook to the castle.  It is an very impressive place.

 

On Tuesday, the Elders and Sisters rode the train again to Katowice for Zone Training.  It was lonely without them.  So Wayne and I just kind of "hung out".  We cleaned our apartment, did laundry and went shopping, and even did the sister's grocery shopping because they didn't have time on Monday, either.  Then we went for a walk and, once again, we stopped at Tra-la-la-la for some more ice cream.  I guess the walk didn't do us any good exercise wise.

 

Tuesday night, Wayne woke up with very sore jaw.  We thought maybe it was a bad tooth or something like that, but non of his teeth hurt.  He took some aspirin and put a hot towel on his neck and cheek.  In the morning when we both got up, his right side of his neck was terribly swollen.  His one gland looked like a baseball.  So we called the place where the church wants us to go and got an appointment.  The doctor wanted Wayne to get an Ultra Sound on his neck, but there weren't any doctors available to do it at that time.  So she wrote out a prescription for an antibiotic and Ibuprofen.  We have to go back on Monday if it isn't any better.  That night was English class, which didn't help and Wayne went with the Elders after to contact some more inactives.  When they got home, about 8:00 pm Wayne looked like, as Elder Smith put it - "Jabba, the Hut".  We all sat down to eat some dinner and Wayne was really struggling.  So the Elder's gave him a blessing and he went to bed after they helped me clean things up and left.  He had a peaceful night.  His neck is still swollen but doesn't hurt as much.  Hopefully the antibiotics do the trick.  We tried to take a picture, but it didn't really work. 

 

So today, I don't know what we will do, if anything.  We are going over to to the Sister's apartment for dinner.  By the way, today is a holiday in Poland.  It's the day they celebrate the Ascension of Mary!?!?!?  The church bells have been going this morning.

 

Have an awesome week.  We love you and miss you.