30 Nov 2015

 He actually plays right outside our chapel on this street! He does it for money, and he's acutally CRAZY good. I gave him 5 Złoty, but I need Elder Berlin to hold me back because I want to give him everything I have each time.

That's a dog friend I made.

And the usual plate for Sam on Thanksgiving

Guys. I ate a orange.

A whole entire orange.

That and the fact that I got a haircut all by myself should be reason enough to consider this mission a success.

Yeah, with Piotr and Małgorzata definetley was something special, and I don't expect that to happen every lesson, but those two are really cool. They were at Thanksgiving with us, and just everyhting about them is great! And I do keep a journal and have written in it every night except three. I don't know what happened, because one day I wrote the date according to the date of the previous day, and I realized that it was off. No one knows where those days went. They just disappeared. 

Thanksgiving was awesome! Definitely a "banquet of universal proportions" as Elder Cutting calls it. It was really fun, and no one really ate the corn bread we made, so I was able to eat just about the entire batch in the following days. Very nice. We didn't do a lot otherwise because Elder Berlin spent the entire day cooking. He really likes cooking. So I did some area book work, and did some other studying that I have to do as a new missionary. 

We do take trams and busses everywhere. The city's not too big, so trams usually get us wherever we want. When we go to other cities, though, we take trains. The city we always go to for conferences and the like is Poznań, which is about a two hour train ride from where we live.

Pretty much the entire day is contacting on the streets, then going out tracting at like 4.00, because people put their children to bed here at like 6.00. It's ridiculous. Probably because it's as dark as night around 5.00 here. But that means in the Summer it doesn't get dark until 10.00 or so. We don't really do anything with the Sisters, and everyone is too unimaginative to do anything that isn't street contacting or tracting. Any Ideas? I would really like some. 

Touristy things would be nice for P-Day. Today we went to the tallest building in Szczecin, and looked around there, and that was nice, but we haven't done anything else that's fun. We definitely have time, but Elder Berlin likes taking about 3 hours to do email:) No plans to buy boots. Should I have plans to buy boots?

We have districty meeting every week on Tuesdays. We had a training meeting for district leaders last month, and we have zone conference on Friday. The district meetings are alright. They've never really been anything special, though. 

If Elder Berlin were to leave, I'd be able to get to the Chapel, home, and the stores pretty confidantly, but nothing else. He knows everything and usually forgets that I haven't been here for a year like he has. And yeah, on December 20th or somewhere around there Elder Berlin will have lived in Szczecin for a full year. President Edgren does that sometimes. There's been a couple of missionaries who are in the same city for the vast majority of their missions. I'm not sure how I would feel if that was me.  I'm not sure I would like that, but he really likes it, because he can see the growth that has happened over time.

Our apartment is part of a big building, yeah. It's got a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and study room. The kitchen is pretty big, and has all the parts that a kitchen should have, so that's nice, but the overall size of the apartment is smaller than most of the other ones, they say, but that's not a real problem, we're never in it, anyway. I've never met the people around us, but apparently they hate it when we jumprope, so we don't do that.

No iPads or plans for them.

We can watch mormon.org videos if we want, but probably only on P-days because we're not really doing work if we're watching those.

I do e-mail both Caleb and John! No other missionaries, though. But they're pretty consistant, and seem like they're not dying out in the world. Which is good.

AND SPIRITUAL THOUGHT TIME!

We were teaching a man- Grzegorz (oh, by the way, in Poland everyone is named either Grzegorz, Piotr, Mariusz, Mateusz, or Tomasz. Ask around. They're all that exist.) And we had brought up Alma 32, the chapter about faith, and later on he asked us where our evidence was for this being true. And then it hit me- the verse where Alma says "faith is the evidence of things hoped for and not seen". At least according to Alma, Faith isn't hoping for things that aren't seen. That's hoping. Faith is the evidence of those things that are hoped for. Those things not seen being God, Christ, and everything they've done for us. So my faith, your faith, and the faith of every member of the chruch is the evidence. If you want proof of God, you listen to us. Because we know. And if our faith isn't enough for you, then nothing will be enough. Because there is nothing else that is true, solid evidence.

A pretty normal week this was. But just the overall feel of it was good. And fast. It's interesting how quickly it's going...

I LOVE YOU!!!

Older Liechty

23 Nov 2015

Guys. Food in Poland is so inexpensive. I love it.

That kebab was a medium, and it was about 13 Złoty, which is about three and a half dollars in American money. I could buy one of those every single day, and do everything else i need to do and have money left over. I love this!

 We get them from this store called Safari, and the guy who works there a ton is named Amr. He's from Alexadria, Africa, and he's the nicest man I have ever met in my life. He's so great! But he's pretty solidly Muslim, and doesn't really believe in Christ. But we'll get it through to him. Not a problem.

The thing that Sister Cutting was talking about probably is my favorite experience on my mission so far. I still get chills when I think about it. We were in a lesson with a man named Piotr, and his wife, Małgorzata, with the senior couple, and things were getting a little tense, because we were talking about the future of Poland and the fact that he believes that there's no possible way to bring hope to these people because their definition of hope is having enough money to buy food for the next day, and that all religion does is give hope for the life to come, not this life. And while this was going on, Elder Berlin turned to me, and the following dialogue happened-

"Do you have something to say yet?"

"not yet"

Do you have a testimony?"

"yeah"

"You have something to say."

*Spiritual fire ensues*

It made me realize really well the promise given in D&C 100:6, where the Lord says that what we need will be given to us "even in the very moment" what to say. And it's tough realizing the amount of faith it takes to do that, to just open your mouth and start to speak even though your head it totatlly devoid of words. But I feel like thats a somewhat hidden blessing that I have. Becuase, lets face it, my social skills were never top-notch, and I rarely had things to say, simply becuase nothing was going through my mind. But because of that, here, I have even more of an easier time not relying on myself!

I don't really have pictures of the town yet, or our apartment... But here are pictures of a pumpkin pie we made, and this food called "gołąbki" which I don't really know what it is. I think it's beef and rice wrapped in boiled cabbage. Nice. But at the same time, I don't think that the workers at the Milk Bar we eat at even know what they're putting into the food. But it's all good. Classic Polish food.

I was wondering about Thanksgiving. That's sad that it's getting smaller, even though one could see it happening in recent years... It doesn't feel like it's coming up. It honestly feels like that I'm stuck in an eternal time trap where nothings going to change, and I'll be here forever. A little gloomy, but also what's happening. And I know that time is passing, and that in three day's I'll already be a month in the field, and an eight of the way through my mission (ALREADY!?) But it still seems kind of... hopeless? No. Not quite the right word, like a disbelief that things are acutally happening, and that things will change, but also being happy that I'm here and enjoying it a ton. I don't really know how to properly explain this. Everyone says that it will go by so fast, and I realize now that in three days, my mission will be 1/8 over, but it still doesn't feel like it will end. And I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Because if I can work that feeling right, then I can better consecrate what I then believe is my whole life. But otherwise, it's just kind of like a doomy feeling. I'm still having a tough time doing all this. One thing that's super intersting and nice, though, is that all the scriptures, from Old Testament to D&C are becoming real people and events to me, and not stories that have really important morals for my life. And that's making it a lot easier for me to take lessons from them.

But as we told Elder Cutting the Polish word for feast, he said "no, no, no" and then described it not as a feast, but as a Banquet of Universal Proportions. 

things are gonna get wild.

And Poland hasn't set up for Christmas yet

We do get to teach lessons pretty often, but there's a film that was made by some Polish Elders that's like "The District", but in Poland, Warsaw mission, and it starts out with
"Welp, looks like eight hours of contacting"

"Let's make some pancakes!"

And I haven't had a full eight hour contacting day, but I have gotten close. But every day it gets easier and I get more used to it. I just still can't teach on public transport. I get carsick, and I can never feel good while talking with people.

Also, I started reading this Old Testament Study guide, and now everyhting back there is making a ton of more sense to me! It's not as scary as I thought. So if you want to do some intersting reading, and all you have is missionary stuff to read, I would suggest that!

Real fast- just because it was an interesting find- while I was studying the Old Testament, and was reading the story of Abraham going to sacrafice Issac, I realized just how much faith Abraham actually had. Because first of all Abraham was once almost killed on an alter himself, and he must know that human sacrifice is a huge abomination before the Lord, and also Issac was the miracle child- born to two 100 year old people. AND He was the child that was supposed to bring out the Lord's promise that Abraham's seed would be greater than the number of sands in the seas and all that. So when he got the revalation from the Lord to do that, he must have been super in-tune with the spirit to know that it was actually Him, and not some crazy idea he got himself. And then to actually do it, even to the point of raising his knife above Issac. What a guy.

LOVE LOVE LOVE

Elder Lykti (that's how the Polaki would spell "Liechty")

16 Nov 2015

Polish Kebabs, man, gotta get these in America!

HELLO

Yeah, every night before planning, Elder Berlin and I do a think where we think back on the day and write down a time where we saw the hand of the lord in our life "Ręka Pana" 

I actually adjusted to the tiny branch really quickly! This week we had as many nonmembers as we did members in sacrament meeting, and as many missionaries as the Poles, but it didn't really seem strange to me. Sacrament meeting is still an hour long, and then we have sunday school for another hour. And then it ends, so church is two hours, and we have institute, and mututal on thursday and wednesday respectively. We have about five strong members- Dagmara, she's been a member for three years, and is endowed and is pretty great. Jan, who has been a member for about a year, and seriously has more faith than anyone I have ever seen in my life. And twins- Nick and Alex (we call her Ola, though) and their mom, Joanna. They're from Florida, actualy, but their Joanna and their dad are Polish, so they know both languages realy well. And they're all pretty recent converts, maybe six months for the kids, and about three for the mom. maybe less. And we're working with their dad. 

I'm still loving it, but honestly it's getting harder. It's taking much more effort to be upbeat every day. But the few little moments when I am able to see the Lord's hand in the work are making it possible. I try to serve, but maybe not as much as I should. There's definitely things I could be doing more.

You know, often I thought of myself as laying down this great foundation for the work to begin here in Poland, and that is how I would comfort myself knowing that I wouldn't be getting a baptism every week. BUT I realized that's incredibly selfish of me. Because this mission has been open for like twenty fife years! There are missionaries that served here that are over fourty years old now! They layed that great foundation. Granted, we're not going to be putting on the the top or whatever the finishing part of that metaphor is supposed to be, but there's so much work done before us that I have been giving no credit to. 

In other news, we got a crazy cool and accepting new investigator yesterday!!

AND WE WERE TRACTING! That's supposed to never work! But we were going around, tracting this nice looking neighborhood, and we met this lady who was from the US, and she gave us cookies, but also was very Catholic, so no success there, BUT THEN we met this guy who has met missionaries before and had a Księga Mormona, and had a relationship with the senior couple who was here before the Cuttings, and he said he would come to family home evening tonight! AND THEN we rang the bell on this one house and the guy let us in and we were able to meet with him right there and talk about the restoration of the gospel and we got a date that we could meet again! Needless to say, it was a good night!

Being the pianist is tough. I do get to choose the songs, but I don't have time to practice, so I can only play the songs with the top hand. But it's getting better! One of the sister missionaries- Sister Sloan- leads the music. But she has no musical background, so everything is a little rough. Yesterday we had three members, and three nonmembers. So... nice? I guess? I don't know if it's good to say that we had as many nonmembers as we did members in Sacrament meeting. Also, after sacrament, another investigator came in (Mikołausz), making nonmembers outnumber the members. But then a different investiator (Mateusz). I haven't really met with any of the people, so it was a little awkward. But oh well. Thus is missionary work. 

It was a little rainy this week, but it was never a problem. We were always inside wehn it was worst, and we have umbrellas if it gets really bad. Also, I'm buying gloves and other things today, so it's not a problem. I'm dry AND warm! Go team!

We do have an english class, but there are only two people who come to it, but we did get to snag onto one lady who kind of wants to hear the gospel. The other guy has no interest. Just wants to learn American slang and stuff. But three of our members did become members because of that english class, so we keep doing it! And we hold it in the Chapel, so we have to tell people that it's not a trap, and that we won't force religion on them if they come. 

We haven't been able to talk with young Piotr... He says he's busy, but will have time when the winter holidays come up. But he said he didn't get an answer to his prayer. I'm not sure how hard he tried, or with how much sincerity, but we need to get to him that he can't give up! Old Piotr is still as scared for the future as always. We're meeting with him on Friday. We don't do a lot of seeking out inactives. Some people are inactive just because they live expensively far away from the chapel, so I don't really know what to do about that... And a lot of others just want nothing to do with the church. But I think there's a lot more we can do with them, and we're just scared because inactive members are tougher to bring back.

That dinner was probably the best food I've had for the last three months! It was with the Pakoras - Alex/Ola, Nick, and Joanna- the ones that came out of English- and it was really good. And we were able to teach them a lesson! I think the missionaries here are looking for immediate results, like that with a single, perfect lesson we can get someone to accept the whole gospel just like we do. But not so much. All the lesson is supposed to do it bring the people close to Christ. And setting up another lesson is helpful, too.

Polish comes very slowly. I can speak, I can testify, and I gave a talk in it yesterday (which went not terribly!) But I still can't understand Polish people. It's rough. 

There is this one store, called Safari, where we have two guys who are kind of interested, but kind of not. They work there, and they're both from Egypt. And muslim. They're names are Amr and Muhammad. They're the coolest people in Poland, though. And they make the best Kebabs! They're just having the hardest time believing that 1. Christ is the actual son of God, 2. Joseph Smith and everyone else are real prophets of God, and 3. That the Kuran isn't in the accepted canon of scripture. So it's hard getting past those walls.

And life is actually much harder than I thought it would be! But don't let that scare the people who are planning on going on missions! Just be expecting that it will be TOUGH! But Christ went through everything. Literally everything. And then some. He knows how you're feeling, because he lived through it. And thanks to that, he knows exactly what it is that will help you get through that. You just have to ask for help. And if you do that, it comes. You just have to work a little more than you thought you would have.

Więc, I dont have much more to say now, BUT I LOVE YOU! loads. OH! and speaking of loads, in Szczecin, instead of saying the word that means "socks" they say the word that means "toast" So some people say "you stink, put your toast in the washer"

And that is what makes this place great.

Starszy Liechty

Me trying to understand my first call on the phone

Good polish food

you were right, mom. I should have listend. I should have practiced.

I'm the branch piano player now.

That scripture was really what I needed. Right then. Thank you. Because just earlier this week it hit me just quite how long two years is. And how difficult it is to work all day straight. For two years. Just thinking about two years ago and how much stuff has happened since then! It's a little frightening... But yeah, I've been reading a lot of those "Be of good cheer" scriptures lately, but I didn't see that one yet.

And fun Polish fact! Word order means literally nothing! you could have a sentence that would read "dar psmu dał Kot" And it would translate to "gift dog gave cat" But because of how Polish works, it would mean "The cat gave a gift to the dog". I was trying to figure out how word order worked here for so long. Now I know why I could never find it.

My address is

 Ul. Piotra Skargi 5A/4

71-422 Szczecin

Polska

PLEASE WRITE TO HIM:)

At least, that's whats written on Elder Berlin's letters. So it should work.

And Elder Berlin's a really good example. Like, probably a perfect person, and has been since he was born. No sins come from this guy. And he's been out a year and two months, so he;s got ten months.And the Cuttings are fantastic! Elder Cutting is a very silly man, but also knows what he's doing. And can get very spiritual.  Sister Cutting, too, is super sweet, and last week, she bore her testimony with some Polish lines that she memorized, and it was just amazing!

The apartment actually is a lot bigger than I thought it would have been. There's more closet space than in the MTC, and the beds are comfier. And I usually get to bed before he does, so I haven't had to deal with snoring quite yet. Excpet for the man sitting across from me at this library. He's snoring. And yeah, it's just us two. BUT Poland is a very dusty place. We swept up this week, and there was just a ton of dust on the ground. No one knows where it comes from.

Elder Berlin likes to cook, so he'll do most of it. But he's not a super fancy cook. Or one who knows specific recipies, or how spices are supposed to work together. And, granted, niether am I, so basically, we'll make some sort of meat thing, and throw spices in and try it with different veggies or other things. There's actually quite a bit of produce here in Poland, and I know how to say pasta (makaron), so don't worry about me! We haven't eaten at a members home yet, but we do have something planned on wednesday, and Christmas. We did eat at the Cuttings for fast sunday, though, and are planning on it again for thanksgiving. No wierd polish food, but good Polish food, yes! I'm glad that these people don't make as much gros food as I thought.

Yeah, counting the six missionaries, only 13 poeple. And yesterday, we had nine right up until sacrament, when three more came in. We have two youth, so we meet with them once a week for "mutual" and churhc is only two hours long. We have a lot of inactives, too, but no one really seems to want to work with them. I don't konw what's up, but there are few days where we have set up meetings with investigators or members, so most of the day is spent tracting, or contacting on the streets. Also, I'm not sure if I said this in the last email, but we went tracting on Halloween, and it was great! But yeah. Szczecin is a little, little branch... We're gonna fix that, though!

We have one member, who's name is Jan Trukszen (maybe) and he has more faith than anyone I've ever seen in my life. It's incredible! Elder Berlin was sick, so he gave him a blessing, and Elder Berlin was healed right there. Straight up. Also, sometimes in the scriptures it talkes about how people quake when they feel the Spirit. I always thought that that was talking about shivers down the spine or something, but during that blessing, I quaked. And then, on Sunday, he was sick, pretty badly sick, too, and Elder Berlin gave him a blessing, and right after it, Jan was totally fine. Miracles IRL.

And we got our first real investigator! His name is Piotr. He's a diadist, but was really interested as to why we were so converted as to go on missions for two years for our church. We set up a lesson with him in a coffee shop, and talked more, and really felt the spirit during it. I really like him, too. He's about 23. Also, there's another Piotr, but he's very old, and also an investigator, and also a professor at a university. But he also thinks that Poland is doomed. He talks with Elder Cutting a ton about how "blood will run in the streets of Szczecin within the year", and that there's no chance for Poland's future. He's very scared. BUT THE GOSPEL. Families, and loving one another, that's whats it's all about. If only we were able to get that message out to the people, then everything would be fine! With time. Poland is just about to break into acceptance. I can feel it.

And for Christmas, Little games I could play in my free time, OH! Also, my rubix cubes! Whichever ones you're wiling to send, but not too many, because I'll need to taqke them home. But yeah.

LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Elder Liechty

2 Nov 2015 - "looks really, REALLY hurt sometimes"

Are y'alls ready? Cuz Poland is SUPRISINGLY NOT THAT DIFFERENT FROM AMERICA!

It's just that everyone speaks the most confusing language in existance.

Ok, so we got on the plane in Chicago, and we sat next to a guy who was a memeber, so we didn't have to feel bad about not teaching a lesson. Just studied and stuff. When we landed in Munich, no one really knew what to do, but one of the guys in our district- Elder Einfeldt- took four years of German in school, so he could understand everything, just not speak it, because Polish had won over his mind. So we were able to find our way to the gate where we took a bus to get to the plane where we flew to Poland. Also, no lessons were taught on that plane. German is too silly a language to learn. We landed in Warsaw, which actually had a good amound of smog, where we could see a single smokestack sticking above the cloud... When we landed down, we got lost in the airport until we found the place where luggage should have been, and couldn't find our luggage. Then we tried to ask someone in Polish where our luggage was, but that didn't help because there's so much we didn't learn, but then eventually found it. We then waited for a while seeing if President Edgren would should up at the baggage claim, but he didn't, so we went outside ready to brave the Polish world alone, and found him standing right there for about thirty minutes. Nice. We drove to a mall to get some pictures done for some legal stuff, then to the mission home for food, and recovery, and that night we also went out to teach a little bit! The group I was with went trackting, and I now understand why few people do it anymore. Then we slept.

The next morning, we did some more legal stuff, became residents of Poland, and went to the Warsaw chapel where we would meet our trainers! My companions name is Elder Berlin. He's from Orem, Utah, and is very great! I feel like he's kind of caught the sads that accompany a European mission, especially the Polish one, so I've been trying to put some of the new missionary fire into him. I think it's working pretty well so far, so we'll see what happens. After we met, we had to leave right away, becasue the city I'm in is a city called Szczecin, which is the longest to get to from Warsaw, so I wasn't even able to have a real goodbye with everyone from the MTC. It was a little sad, but I was excited so I didn't care. On the train, we sat next to each other, so there wasn't much chance to talk with people, but we were able to talk with someone. She was nice, but nothing came out of it. We got home, I unpacked, and we went to bed.

The next day, we had district meeting, where I met the four other missionaries in Szczecin, Elder and Sister Cutting, Sister Pierson, and Sister Sloan. They're all fantastic! Sometimes we see each other outside while contacting, and it's really cool! And then, we went out tracking. And let met tell you- looks really, REALLY hurt sometimes. Like, people hate us. WHAT!? I think they all think we're J-dubs. But sometimes we'd try to talk to someone, and then they like, go halfway across the road and give us the nastiest looks i've ever seen. But we continue. The next day, we had Institue, and at one time near the end, I gave a coment (in polish) about the topic, and when I looked around, everyone was looking at me in shock. Apparently, my Polish is REALLY good for how long I've been learning it. But- I can't understand a lick of whatever anyone else is saying, even the missionaries... It's reallly bad. Kind of frustrating, too. Like, I know how to answer these peoples' problems, but I just kant figure out what those problems are! 

The next days, we went contacting, and we're getting a lot more lessons on the streets than we used to have, and more poeple are giving us theyre numbers. Maybe we;re breaking through the outer shell of the baguette that is Poland. But the branch itslef is actually stuggling a little bit. My very first lesson was with a less active named jerzy, who (remember I can't understand people speaking Polish) even the Polish people can't understand. He's also a very poetic person, so he'll be off saying things like "let the dead bury the dead" and stuff like that that makes absolutely no sense even If you have the contekts. Context. Maybe. Sorry, Polish is a very phonetic language, so I can't really spell anymore. We also taught another less active named zbyszek, who when we entered his home, lived in really poor conditions, and I realized how tough a lot of the people here have it. 

On Sunday, there were 13 people in attendance. Which is about two less than our average. There's only three really strong members that I know of- Jan, Łukasz, and Dagmara (I think that's how you spell it), They're all amazing people, but everyone else is tough... Something needs to change here, and I hope it happens fast. The main goal of the mission president is simply to make Szczecin have a solid foundation in it's branch, and then we can move on to biggering it.

Also, in Polish, instead of saying "Potrzebuję używać łażękę" Which directly means "I need to use the bathroom", you say "Musię korzystać z łażęki" Which means "I must take advantage of the bathroom" So that's neat! Also, when saying "God", you can say "Bóg" or "Boże" The first one is the normal noun, God, but the second one is the adjective version of the word, or "Goddy" Doesn't exist in english, but it's a thing here. AND I went to a real life Milk Bar today! And milk bar "Bar mlescy" literally means "milky bar" As in the adjective! Even Moses has an adjective! EVERYTHING GETS AN ADJECTIVE! Samuelny, Bethi, Maxi, Zachy, Caity, (Sorry, yours is already an adjective), Kenti, and Kaity (sorry, yours, too) AND IT WOULD MAKE SENSE TO THEM! (If it ends in a y or i, its an adjective.) But in the milk bar I had pierogi (Plural, not adjective) And it was amazing. Lets bring that back to America!

Ok, this is how Polish people say goodbye- CZEŚĆ! DO WIDZENIA! NA RASZE! DO ZOBACZENIA! CZEŚĆ! and so on. They take a very long time to say goodbye.

LOVE ALL THE WAY FROM POLAND!!

Starszy Liechty

They have this holiday called All Saints Day where people put candles on the graves for their ancestors in Purgatory. Very nice.