24 Sept 2015 - (Current address) OCT27 POL-WAR, 2005 N. 900 E. Unit 17, Provo, UT 84602

FAMILY

I did get your stationary and it is very beautiful. Keep it up! And modlitwa means prayer. And if you like the Polish words, check out this sentence- "czy czesisz się że czesię się że cię czesisz" pronounced like " chuh cheshish shuh zhuh cheshish shuh zhuh chuh sheshish" it means "are you glad that I'm glad that you're glad?" I also hope that those accents came through.

ONE MONTH!!!! It's pretty crazy, I mean, we joke about it being like "wow, guys! one month down!!" But actually, one month is a real quantifiable number when it comes to how long I've been here. Tak jak (like), time is actually passing... it's weird. Only 23 more...

What grade are those cousins of mine in? And is Benjamin like the star of the football team? If not, make him do like, a million push ups. Then he will be. And that's stinky that you won't be able to see John and Terry, but you could break into their house and leave a nice message for them, that's something I would prawdopodobnie (probably) enjoy. \

I didn't know that Elder Scott had died until someone brought it up in the devotional! But it is really sad, and how likely is it that we will have three new apostles called by the time conference starts? Lots of people are saying that it takes a long time before the perfect person is found. But I don't think it will be that huge of a deal if one hasn't been chosen by October. And I prawdopodobnie will be watching the conference FROM THE CHOIR SEATS, because our whole district has been going to the choir practices every time since we've got here. Sorry I never said anything, I kept forgetting. And one time I wasn't able to listen to some of conference because it was during a marching band competition and we were driving down and couldn't listen to the radio. It felt weird. I didn't like it.

I really like how you've just been sending the regular haps, so keep on doing that, but if there were cool experience that you've had, I'd love to hear them. Also, I do like getting pytanie (questions) because then it gives me something to write about. I've never been good at being able to just say things. And it's wild that everyone is giving their farewells... Are they the last set of people from our ward, or are there more? And speaking of Caleb, he loves saying "awko taco" whenever something is awkward, so tell him that there's a phrase in Polish which means "so-so" but is pronounced "yako taco" (spelled "jako tako") he'd love it. I haven't been able to talk to Elder Stott since I first saw him, but I've seen him walking around and stuff, he looks like he's having a good time! And that's really exciting for the Taylors! Tell Sean that I'm still a burping master and tell Lee that he should email me, it'd be awesome to hear from him!

Ok, I'm going to end with a great experience I had- 

We were in class just doing a regular roleplay, and it was going just kinda normal, like nothing really special was going on about it, (it was my teacher "teaching" me in front of the class) but at the end of the lesson, she asked me to pray to God about the Book of Mormon, and whether or not it was true, and in my broken Polish, just trying to imitate an investigator, I asked that if the Book of Mormon was true, to please tell me, and apparently, Heavenly Father decided that that was a good time to reaffirm my belief in the Book of Mormon, and give me another witness of it's truth. And when it comes down to it, either Joseph Smith saw what he saw and experienced what he did, and God's church is restored on the earth again, or he didn't. And I know so SO very well, that beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he did. That The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church and that the Book of Mormon is true, meaning that it contains God's word and message of love for us all, and through the atoning power of Jesus Christ, we can be saved.

Kocham cię bardzo!!

Starszy Liechty

When there's somethin' strange

In ya neighborhood

Who ya gonna call

Me!

17 Sept 2015 - (Current address) OCT27 POL-WAR, 2005 N. 900 E. Unit 17, Provo, UT 84602

HEY!

I did see Elder Stott today, and it was CRAZY! He's so big. Not the little boy that I used to hang out with. But I'm still the little boy he hung out with. 

It's so crazy that Zach and Katie don't live in this state anymore, like, what. Things aren;t supposed to change, they remain the same forever. duh. 

Also, english is hard to type nowadays, Polish is very phonetic, and English, not so much. And speaking of which, Polish is AWESOME! It's the best language. And I'm learning so much, like, the grammar makes sense, and it's pretty easy aside from the whole "most words have two or less vowels in them" I love it. 

And when we teach investigators, it's so easy to say things! I want to say something, and I might not know the words i wanted, but when start talking, I figure out a way to say it with what i know, even if I barely studied the words before. It's like a neat experience I had last time we taught, Starszy Einfeldt seemed like he wanted to say something, but couldn't, until he mumbled to himself that scripture that says somehting like "open your mouth and I will fill it" and then he just started talking and was able to say exactly what should have been said. 

Our companionship has been getting a lot better, I think that the sickness of Starszy xxxxx humbled him a little bit, and also both me and Starszy Einfeldt have voiced our concerns with him during Comp inventory, so yeah, things are coming along better. And we feel the Spirit in our lessons much more because of it! I love it so much.

My favorite experience prawdopodobnie was in our last lesson with our investigator, Adrian, who is actually our teacher, and while we were speaking, we had the Spirit with us very strong, and at the end, our teacher broke character and just told us "That is what teaching is supposed to be like" And it was great.

Prawdopodobnie my favorite person in my district is Starszy Haskett. He's just really funny, and I feel like we'd actually be friends in real life, and he's actually got a good spirit with him, which is nice to have. But pretty much everyone is really fun to be around, and I could be tight with any of them. Like Starszy Mcmaster. He plays the piano really well, and we'll just go into a room with a piano and play with each other and try to one up each other even though he's way better than me.

I've got three teachers- Brat Jensen, Siostra Blake, and Siostra Barth. Brat Jensen was the first teacher, so he's the one that we all try to impress the most, he's like the aloof father figure that you would do anything to impress. Siostra Blake was our second one, and the first one we ever heard english from, so she's like a really good friend and really peppy and happy all the time. And Siostra Barth was the teacher who was our first "investigator" and she hasn't taught us for long enough to really figure out what I think of her, so I'll get back to you about that.

I think the hardest thing is teaching. I mean, the language is tough, but it's actually not that tough. It comes along. The gift of tongues. Darem Jenzikow. But teaching is where the real stuff happens, ya know? It's where it really matters. And it's the scariest, even though it's where we learn a ton. But that's a quote around here- "There's no growth in the comfort zone, and there's no comfort in the growth zone." Nice.

We did hear the roars of the game (BYU winning the football game in the last seconds, the stadium is really close to the MTC), and a bunch of elders started running outside just to hear the sounds of the game. MAX. YOU FOOL. You watch to the end of games ALWAYS. Homework can wait, the night is essentially and endless resource of time to do things. 

It was really cool to meet the guy who was your missionary (at BYU 30 yrs ago!)! I never really thought about it, but then someone in gym was like "are you elder Leeeiicty?" And I said probably, and he took me to him and it was awesome! You should meet with him, he wants to. And it would be awesome for you, too.

Getting up in the morning is absolutely dreadful every time, but you get used to it. Our room tries to get ready within 30 minutes each day, and I always win. Because I'm used to running late for school. And it's five of us in our room, the other two are in a room of other people speaking slavic languages, but going to Leeds, England. 

Every Tuesday, we clean the building that has the gym in it, and the big Sunday night devotionals, and we have to keep our room clean every day, which we're stellar at. 

And I got to go to the temple today, which is always an amazing experience. And I'm still a little sick, but probably where I had the best experience was prawdopodobnie (probably) was in the temple today, where I started to get a wracking cough, and it would have been really distracting, so I said a quick little prayer to help me maintain it, and as soon as I ended, the pain in my throat was almost all the way gone. Prayer. Modlitwa.

We all started to decide that the food here is pretty unacceptable, so the complaining every mealtime is getting a little out of hand. I just started to eat the salads, because they're the most real thing that's actually served. The food is really good for anyone who stays for a week and a half like the english speakers, but for us nine weekers... ugh. Chicken sandwiches are life.

I love you all SO MUCH!

-Starszy Liechty

10 Sept 2015 - OCT27 POL-WAR, 2005 N. 900 E. Unit 17, Provo, UT 84602

Everyone was right- the days are like weeks, but the weeks are like days...

 But I mean, it's cool, but also scary that there's already two weeks of nine down and then I'll need to be in Poland teaching real people. REAL PEOPLE, MOM. It'll be awesome though. 

Max is right, when it's the three of us, its easy to just stay more alone, or not bond with the two others, and it's not a relationship you build with one person. And also, I didn't think it would happen to me, but one of my companions is a more difficult companion. I mean, he just doesn't respect many things, and he talks innapropriately and swears sometimes, and since there's the three of us, I can just stay more with the other one, and it's much easier to ignore him I guess. Which sounds AWFUL, but it's what has happened. I've been praying for help so I can love him, and I have seen it get better as the days go on, but it's still really tough. A lot more tough than I would have though it would be. 

I did get my suit, and I don't really think I need anything right now, but packages and dear elder notes are really nice. REALLY NICE. Everyone said so. I never believed them. But now I understand.

And this last week I was BARDZO BARDZO chory. Bardzo.

I was very sick. As was our whole district. We were just slammed hard with it and a few of us had to stay in from class one day. I didn't, but I would have if it got any worse, and one of my companions was really sick this morning so I had to stay in and wait while everyone got to go to the temple. But I got to go last week, so at least there's that. AND I got to make this awesome fort with the furniture in the living room area of the dorm until one of the MTC workers told me to take it down. He was just jealous.

Probably when I felt the spirit most was one night when I couldn't sleep, someone in my my room was writing in his journal, so the window was open, and I just started looking out of it. There wasn't anything interesting to look at, like, there was a tree blocking the way. But for some reason, as I was looking out, I felt the spirit in a way that I never had before. Instead of a peircing blow to the chest like it usually feels like, I felt it more like a warm blanket covering me and I really felt God's love for me in a way I never had before. And that is what I want to bring to the people of Poland. That is what I want them to feel, becuase it was honestly the best I have ever felt.

Yeah, I bet Sammy will enjoy actual attention. And you went to a dog show!? Thats so awesome! I've wanted to see one of those forever! Monty would have just layed down in the middle of it.

And on Sundays, there's one big building with a ton of chapels in it where all the zones will go to their seperate Sacrament meetings, and it works out. There's like fifty of us in our zone. Pictures of our family would be awesome! Everyone has them and our family is just an enigma. An abstract idea that not even I am sure if still actually exists. Like, am I really writing an email to my mom right now, or just a huge data base that acts as all missionary's moms? Nobody knows...

Anyway, I would be writing a lot more Polish words in these emails, but there's accents on everything, so I don't know what to do. Cry, I guess. But rest assured- I am actually learning things. And I'm also learning a lot of how English works because of it! Man, languages are tough. Freaking tower of Babel. But yeah, I guess it's necessary.

Love you lotsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sambiel.

3 Sept 2015

So I've got two companions Starszy Alvarez and Starszy Einfeldt. Alvarez is from New Jersey, and his mom is actually from Poland, so he already knows a bunch, and his dad is from Mexico. I think. So he has a New York/Polish/Mexican accent going on and its crazy. Einfeldt is from Cedar City, and we relate a lot with how stuff goes down in Mormon culture, and how things don't weird us out like they do the others. Already I've noticed that the work ethic of our entire district is somewhat lacking, so I try to get things going (me and another elder- Starszy Mcmaster), but it's tough. And I feel like I'm missing a little bit of the whole missionary experience because there's three of us instead of two. But it's cool, the whole district usually sticks together anyway.

Sunday was GREAT! At first is was like "oh, this is another day at the MTC, and we're all already feeling the spirit, and it won't be different." BUT IT WAS. like, wow. Crazy. This church is true, guys.

The best thing so far I think is when we get to teach the investigator. In Polish. I mean, it's really, really, really hard, but it's the most real experience, I guess. And I know that Karina (that's her name) is probably just a returned missionary from Poland, but I definitely feel the spirit when teaching her, and I try to love her just like I will my investigators from the field.

John is great! He left for Japan just this Monday, and we had a very heartfelt farewell. Lots of hugging and chocolate. Lots of unecessesarily long hugs. But I was a fan. And yeah, after I left I saw him and he was able to be my escort. I also saw Jacob Burnham there, and I jumped into his arms and it was fantastic! Turns out the Japanese speakers are in my residence, so we visited them a lot!

I did get my back, and I was very happy to have my scriptures back. And the treats? yes. Very much yes.

Some laundry detergent would be great! unless the boys have some secret MTC tips for doing laundry, but that's all I can really think of. And yeah, there's a ton of LP'ers here

I did see sister Paxton, and I totally didn't recognize her at first, but then it was all "WHHHOOAOAOOOOAHAFHSDUIOF!!" 

so that was cool.

I love it here so much and I can always feel the Spirit here, and Poliski is definitely the best language out there. I really hope I can come back with a good accent. 

Don't cry too much, momma, you'll get dehydrated. 

I love you all, too, and I promise my emailing skills will get better as time goes on and I pray for all of you, too (po Polsku), And good luck with all the things that y'all are doing.

LOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEEEEEE,

Super-starszy Liechty