28 December 2015

OK

Time to clear up some stuff.

I did not get transferred, I'm still in Szczecin, Elder Berlin, on the other hand, is now in Łódź, after having served more than a full year in Szczecin. My new companion is Elder Platter. (He's shorter than me!) This is his last transfer, and he's been in Szczecin once before about half a year ago. I didn't email yesterday because Tuesdays get turned into P-days when there's a transfer. I spent the entire pretty much with the Cuttings (I like how you're vicariously moming through sister cutting). So here we are. 100% caught up. 

Last week was pretty full of events. Starting on Thursday, at least. We had Wigilia, which is Polish Christmas Eve, and is also a lot more celebrated than Christmas day itself. We ate very gross food. Na pewno. There was this spaghetti in this red ramen noodle like liquid, which was actually pretty good. There were also pierogi, which were pretty tasty, also. But we also had this food called śledź. Don't eat śledź. It's like this pickled carp. very powerful. Also a fish. Entire fish. Bones, skin, body parts and all. Nice.

Christmas day was spent mostly at the Cuttings, and Piotr and Małgorzata were there, too. There was a chat with them that got pretty heated at some points, and there was a part where Piotr just said somehting along the lines of "I'm fine where I am as a buddhist, and I'm not going to change" which kind of just dumped cold water on the whole chance of teaching him. And the rest of the day we spent with a less active named Lech.

The next morning was very quiet. Too many hangovers to be loud outside. So we didn't really teach many people. That day we also got our transfer calls, and after Elder Berlin heard he was leaving, we had to spend a lot of time with people saying goodbye. Too much time. There's too many "just friends" here, and not acutal investigators. I think it's starting to get on Elder Cutting's nerves. We're changing that this transfer.

I can't really remember the rest of the week. Not much happened because everyone we were working with is out of town. But we did some less active work, and really, keeping the sabbath day holy is something they- and everyone in the world- are struggling with.

listen.

Back in the Old Testament, the law was that if you didn't keep the sabbath day holy, you were killed. Now, that's not just some harsh punishment for a group of isrealites who had no idea what they were doing. That was a law, and a punishment set up because it was such an obvious thing to do. Just as obvious as it is today to not kill someone, or we will recieve capital punishment. So, if that was the law origionally set up by God, and if that was the punishment set up by Him, I think that if we start to keep the Sabbath day holy, we'll start to get blessings as if we stopped being serial killers. A somewhat harsh comparison, yes, but the gospel is God's gospel. Not ours. Don't be suprised if something doesn't go the way you think it will.

Just gotta figure out what it means to keep the Sabbath day holy...

Ok, I didn't really take pictures this week. Sorry.

But here's this. :D

Lovueh

Samblam

21 Dec 2015

Hello!

Ok, for Christmas, my time for Skype is 16.00/4.00 PM to znaczy że it will be 8.00 AM for you guys, right? Should be. The Cuttings will be there to notify you of any changes to that.

And I guess this one'll be short also because 1. Not much happened, and 2. We'll be TALKING WITH EACH OTHER ON FRIDAY!!

The German tower thing didn't happen, because for obiad (lunch) we decided to get a nice 50 cm pizza to eat all by ourselves. But language made it so we got two 50 cm pizzas all for ourselves. THAT was a good lunch. We had to call in one of the members to help us finish it, but we showed that cashier up. She was all "whatever, you boys can't eat this much" and the look on her face when she brought the second pizza over was so smug. Ugh. I'm an American. Of course I can eat that much.

And there were complications with getting a place to perform the baptism (because we usually do it in a pool, because only Warsaw has a font, and the pool we usually use is undergoing renovations), and it got pushed back to Wednesday! But everything is planned out, it should all work, and we'll be able to talk about that on Friday!

In Poland, they pretty much celebrate Christmas Eve to New Years straight, and Christmas Eve, "Wigilia" in Polish, is celebrated way harder than any of the other days, like, everyone in the country has this 12 course meal, or the less well off people only have 6 or 8 courses, and then there's midnight mass, normal stuff, but the Christmas day is just Drink Alcohol day. The streets are totally empty. Not only do we have permission to pretty much take the day off, but there's really nothing to do in the first place. So for Wigilia, we're actually going to Grzegorz and Maliwina's, and then most of Christmas we're spending at the Cuttings. Then after we skype, we're going to spend the rest of the day with a less-active named Lech.

Our Christmas program was great! I actually played some songs in Sacrament meeting with BOTH HANDS!!! WOO!! I'M LEARNING! But the song I sang was with the member Alex Pakora, and we sang a carol called "przyjbieżeli do betlehem pasterze". It wasn't anything special, just singing a few of the verses. But there's this one guy, another Grzegorz, who comes every Sunday, but refuses to take the lessons. We think he's just lonely. But while we were singing, he joined in, and then other people joined in with him, and it was a little weird. BUT THEN later in the program, the sister missionaries did a Silent Night thing, which WOULD have been beautiful, had Grzegorz not have started singing along with them. And then try to harmonize. Oh boy... But otherwise it was pretty good! The whole thing was people reading excerpts from the Christmas story, and other parts of talks and a script that Sister Cutting wrote up. I liked it

Ok, that's all for now! Talk to you later! Love you

Also, our Advent wreath was much prettier this time 'round

14 December 2015

The most hideous Advent Wreath ever

Their Christmas tree:)

Welp.

We're the Primary leaders.

The baptism of Grzegorz and Malwina hasn't happened yet, that's next week. But they have two kids- 5 and 2 years old. And they are more rowdy than any kid I have ever seen in my whole life. They're absolutely insane but lovable. So in all, I'm the piano player, Family Home Evening director, and one of two primary instructors. Elder Cutting really has no problems with doing things like that. Like, he's already asked me to set two people apart to their callings in Polish, and expects the missionaries to give like, 20 minute talks on Sundays. It's worked out so far, so I guess he's got a working plan.

Also, I'm singing in front of everyone for the Christmas Sacrament meeting next week.

The mission is pushing my bounds in more ways than I ever thought

Speaking of that market thing that we went to, we've met a ton of really nice people, and have invited them to this open house we're actually doing today! So hopefully that works out well. But one thing that did happen there... eugh... Remember how I told you about that Polish dish that is like, some leftover meat parts surrounded by this gelatin? I ate that.

It was disgusting.

There are some decorations here, but not really like the States. in the Centrum, where all the malls are and stuff, there's more lights, but still not a lot. Nor are there christmas markets. the holidays here are different, though, Everything starts on Christmas Eve, which they call "Wigilia", and they party through the New Year, so I don't think much happens before Christmas. 

The piano's good... I still only play with one hand while in Sacrament Meeting, but while practicing I'm able to play both hands, just pretty slowly, so I think I'm getting as much help in this as I am in everything else. But the problem is that I'm the only person in the Branch who knows what music is. One of the sister missionaries can sing pretty well, and conduct, so she does that. But it's tough. So that means Elder Berlin can't play guitar. One thing we even noticed, was that when he's singing by himself, he always manages to turn the song into the minor key!

Here is a list of our investigators-

Tomasz and Mateusz Synak- They're brothers, but we meet with them separately, and they both seem more interested in just seeing what the church is. But hey, technically, they're progressing

Michał- he's our star-child. We actually just got a baptismal date for him for Jan 30, and he seems really interested. He and he's fine with knowing that answers come in time, and that as he keeps searching, they'll come. 

Daniel- He's from Ukraine, actually, and has met the chruch, and is really excited to be baptized in February when he turns 18. But he's got a smoking addiction, that we're working with.

Simon- we just met him a few days ago, but hes a real, honest truth seeker. And he has a lot of deep, soul searchy questions that are all answered perfectly by the Book of Mormon, so that's awesome.

Piotr and Małgorzata- The proffesor and his wife, who have known the church for like, 40 years. He knows the BoM better than everyone in the world, and no one really knows why they don't want to be baptized. She just recently started to really investigate, though. And they're both Buddhists.

Grzegorz and Malwina- With a baptismal date. The problem that they live 50 minutes away is that he often works in Ireland, and she doesn't have a drivers liscense, and no busses run out where they live. So we'd have to use the Cutting's car to get there, but that's not really an option... Also tithing is a big issue with them. Money's real tight in every home in Poland. 

Jan Pakora- the father of two youth in our branch (we got some!) His wife is also a member, but he doesn't really have a huge interest in the church

We see the Sister missionaries during district meetings, mutual, english class, institute, and on sunday. And some service projects we do. Which aren't often at all. 

We always E-mail first thing in the morning now, but we are planning on seeing this cool German tower that was used during WWII, so that'll be neat!

Also, it's crazy- the pretty much childlike (not childish) faith that these people have here is amazing! Like, we grow up in the church and we hear about miracles, and everyone I've ever asked is like "yeah, I believe that God could heal me, but I just don't think that he would" and all those stories of being careful of being dissapointed if a blessing doesn't work. BUT we gave a blessing to one of the members, who had five days of migraines straight, and then caught the flu, and right afterwards, she looked super healthy again. Like, two for two actual miracle healings that I've seen! I feel like we're selling ourselves short back at home. Or maybe it was just me, but the power of the priesthood is God's power on earth. When Christ was healing everyone, we think of that as that great time and power that he had, but I have it, Dad has it, and a ton of other men have that power. THAT is something pretty amazing.

Oh yeah, we had Advent. But there was nothing green in our house at all. Or candles... so... (see picture above)

LOVE YA!!

Sam

From Kent's letter:

A lot of times I talk about how things are struggling here, but don't let that fool you- Those who are members, Dagmara, Jan, Łukasz, Nick, Alex, and Joanna, are probably some of the strongest members in the world. Nothing will get through them. With them, the branch will float. That is for sure. The mission is fun, I am enjoying myself, don't worry about that!

7 Dec 2015

HELLLOOOOOOOOO 'MURICA!

Is that still a thing?

Or am I going to come home telling two year old jokes?

Transferrs are every nine weeks/two months, so we won't be having them until right after Christmas!  But I know how to say Pasta in Polish, so even if Elder Berlin leaves, I'll be able to survive. There's one missionary who's moved around every transfer, and I think I would like that the most, except for the having to pack all the time. That would stink. Speaking of stink, our bathroom. Polish plumbing. Ugh. Also, Amr, the Egyptian guy I talked about once, hates swear words, so instead of saying the S-word, he'll say "Man, that's stink!" He's cool.

Ohhh raking leaves. We'd probably be doing that if Polish people weren't so self-reliant. Seriously, though, they HATE getting helped. But they love helping. 

We've been trying to figure out ways to do contacing in more fun/effective ways, but it's tough. So now I'm sending a formal request to everyone in the world to help us think of things. Or maybe just the ward. But I think Elder Berlin is going a little crazy, because everything that he's tried has failed, and now I think he's a little scared of doing new things. But just this last Saturday we visited this Targi (market thing) and were able to share some Amerykańskie Jedzenie (american food) And meet people in a not-threatening way! WOO! Turns out Polish people are acutally REALLY NICE! 

Also, while Elder Berlin was talking with someone, I was manning the sample table, because of my Costco skills, and was actually able to keep up on conversations with other people! One old man even thought I had Polish parents or something because I spoke Polish "Bardzo piękny" (Very pretty) Pretty good confidence builder, that was. And we do have an english class, but only Małgorzata goes to it. And we kind of privately teach this other guy named Patrick. No one wants to learn English here for some reason! All the other cities are doing really well, too! Ideas there, too?

I did get both packages, nie martwcie się. The first thing Elder Cutting said when he saw the postage price was "WHAT!?" And then "You're not worth it". He's a funny guy. They're taunting me, though. Christmas is too far away for these things, and I'm not even sure if I should wait until Christmas. Were you expecting me to wait? And speaking of Christmas... SKYPE!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! We're probably all going to be at the Cuttings for skype, and do it around 15.00, here, so I think that's 7.00 for you. Should be. Be prepared- because for some reason I think I look different. I've become tough and manly. Probably because I work out every morning. Well, most mornings. Sometimes it's better to clean the dust. But I think being on a mission is also making me grow muscles faster. Nice side-effect blessing. Also Elder Berlin loves to run- he was on cross country- and the fact that I can run makes him very happy. 

The best part of the day question is a tough one. Because it's probably in the morning when I'm able to to personal studies, which is great because I'm learning a ton more about everything than ever before, but the fact that it's not talking to people is an issue. It's just not quite fun yet. The three points that one of our teachers had for us before we left were these- Be diligent/work hard, have a goal, and have fun. In that order. I feel like I have the first two down, but that last one is a tricky one. The world does a lot of work to make that not happen.

We have an advent calendar, but I totally forgot about the song! Also, I forgot all the German words! So having those would be nice, and also could translate it into Polish but probably not because that's SUPER hard. But we'll make one. 

Oh. So there's this couple who's actually being baptized next week. Sorry, I forgot to ever say anything about them to you, but I did none of the work with them, so It doesn't really feel different than hearing of a stranger being baptized. Which is still great! Don't get me wrong. But they live like 50 minutes away, so we can only talk with them by phone, and only Elder Berlin does that. But their testimonies are super powerful! Like, the man, Grzegorz, sometimes teaches us when we talk with him. He and his wife, Malwina, have two kids. So basically we got ourselves a family! And also, theres this Ukranian couple, who just showed up one day in church. They speak Polish pretty well, but can't read it, so we finally got our hands on some Ukranian copies, and got them to them. But seriously, these people are so prepared themselves. We did literally nothing with them, and they're super interested and wanting to know! 

Every other investigator is a tooth and nail type of battle though, so we've got that to bring us back to earth.

Kocham was!!

Starszy Liechty

Also, this is what our chapel looks like! It's literally just an apartment that we rent out of a nice building on that street with the accordian player.