19 Dec 2016

Dang.

68 weeks in a row of getting of emailing me, and the streak is broken. But it's ok, I'm pretty sure you still love me.

Anyway, since there's no questions that are being asked, I guess I'll just go ahead and talk about neat things that happened in the week! First off, I got the packages, and the letter with my card in it! So you don't have to worry about that anymore. 

Merry Christmas!!

If you want to say Merry Christmas/Happy Holildays in Polish, you say

 'Wesołych Swiąt!"

(Ves-oh-wi-h ("wi" as in wick) ("h" as in the ch sound that you do in German and stuff) Sh-vee-on-t)

It's that time of the year, isn't it?

I really like that book you sent me, one of the things it talks about is Pondering. And I think that Christmas time is a great time to do that! I like to think of the scene of Christ's Birth after everything has settled down, and there's just Mary and Joseph watching over the child. I like to the think of the peace and calm that must have been there, and what Mary and Joseph must have been thinking about as they were sitting there, and what a night that must have been.

Michał is doing good, and he's also reading my blog now, so I'll give him a quick shout-out. 

Hi, Michał!

That should be good:)

During the week there was a lot of confusion and date changing concerning his baptism, but now it is firm and set for the 31st of December, at 13:00. Zapraszam. Like you know, the transfer is going to be happening right before the baptism, so there's no way to know if I'll be here or if Elder Curtis will be here. President Turek visited Kraków yesterday, and he knows who will be here and who will not, and he told Michał, so he could choose who would baptize him, and so he and President Turek are the only people who know what's happenening. We do know, though, that one of us is leaving and I have a feeling that it's me. No real good reasons, but just a feeling.

The missionaries that would have gone home at the end of this transfer went home last Friday, so they could be there for Christmas, and as of that day, there are only 4 missionaries in this whole country who have been out longer than I and my group have! It's crazy! All the people I knew are home, and all the people I know that I have good friendships with are younger than me! (mission-wise, not age-wise) Speaking of that, though, I think I've finally reached the point where when I look in the mirror, I don't see a highschool kid. And then one day, when I had forgotten to shave, and there was a bit of scruff on my face, I looked like a straight 25 year old! Wow.

We had transfers last week again within the city, so I was with Elder McPherson, and Elder Pettit was with Elder Curtis, and it was good, nothing too crazy!

The picture I sent is of a guy named Grzegorz from Szczecin, and Sister Cutting sent it to me, and it just made me so happy to see his face again! He's not even an eternal investigator, but just a guy that shows up at church all the time - it made me really happy to see him!

The work is going good, we're all pretty happy here, and life moves on! I am constantly aware of the fact that the end of my mission is still pretty far away, but at the same time the last four months since my year mark feel like they happened in a couple of weeks or so. Things are ending and I hate endings, and I don't know what to do about it... I'm in the autumn of my mission but it doesn't feel like it should be at all. I have no way to describe these feelings. Ask any missionary, from what I've heard we all feel the same thing.

You see what happens when you don't email me? I just start going off on weird things!

Anyway,

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder Liechty

12 Dec 2016

Sam conducting a Gnome orchestra

The food they have in the Christmas markets is delicious, by the way!

For their cultural outing, onstead of an "old" culture event, they went to a "new" cultural event: Motorcross

Elder Pettit, too. He wants me to let you know that his mom says he has a cute face

Incense from the gift exchange - lovely

IT'S COLD.

Maybe not right now, but a few weeks ago it was as cold as the coldest day I experienced last year, and we're not even close to that time! I keep putting on more layers, but there's just nothing that stops the chill! Last year i came into the country with this weather, so I didn't know any better, but now that I know what it's like in the Summer, it's just tough! It's ok, though, we're surviving.

I hope so too (mailed a debit card, hoping it makes it)! So far I don't need cash, so lets just hope I don't get caught on the bus without my bus pass! That happened once, and then someone started playing country music, and it was just an all around bad day.

They do have a Christmas market here! I don't know what to buy, because it's all very expensive, and I didn't pull out enough money, and I don't know what to get... someone tell me what they want! One really neat thing they do here is make these nativity scenes out of colorful foil and make them really fancy and neat. If you look up "krakow tin foil nativity" on google you'll see what I'm talking about

I actually heard about that commercial! It sounded really funny because we all understand what that man was doing and the types of book he was reading! )A Poloish commercial I saw on FB but didn't send to him since it's got some swearing:)

Michał Is still doing great! It turns out that he won't be in town on the 24th, which I figured would happen, so he told us that he would like to be baptized earlier! But earlier that day we had actually planned out everything we needed to teach him and when we would be able to teach him, and if he can't be baptized on the 24th, it'd have to be pushed back to the 31st, which means that there's a chance that Elder Curtis or I will not be there because transfers are on the 27th, which would be a bummer but it's no problem because Michał is so great it was just awesome to be able to teach him! We're going laser tagging with him tonight! Jan is doing fine as well. He calls and talks to me a lot, and says that he might go down to Kraków for a visit, but I'm not sure if that's going to play out in the end. Either way, I've still got four chances to go back to Szczecin! 

Speaking of laser tag, we had culture night last week, too! Now, let's take a look through culture nights that have already happened, going by transfer- 1. Nothing 2. Georgian ballet 3. Trip to Toruń 4. Trip to the beach and German border 5. Opera concert 6. learning how to make Pierogi from scratch, and 7. (this transfer) Motor Cross World Championships. 

Now, you may be asking "Elder Liechty, where is the culture in that?" Well this time, instead of hundred year old culture, we decided to do some modern culture. And yes, we did ask permission from our mission president. Having been there, though, I would not reccomend that missionaries go to the Motor Cross World Championships. It was probably one of the craziest things I have ever done! 

Also this week, I was in Katowice for two days! Elder Curtis had to go up to Warsaw to do some legal work, and so did one of the missionaries in Kato, so I stayed with that missionary (Elder Baldwin) and spent the day here. They do a lot of less active finding, so that's what we did almost the entire day. No one was home, or they all moved away. Basically, if there's leaders of a ward or branch out there, they must know that there are better ways to find less active members than to have the missionaries knock on their doors. Please use us as a last resort! Then the next day, we had zone conference, we're going to be doing a lot more work having to do with Family History! And we also had a gift exchange! It was supposed to be random stuff that you could throw together in a few seconds, so of course the first thing that came to my mind was to give someone a rock pet. I got some incense. Our apartment smells very nice now.

We'll be at the Dalton's when skyping, but havn't figured out the times yet. It's going to be in two weeks, though! THATS SO SOON!!!!!!!

I love you all so much!

Elder Liechty

6 Dec 2016

Hi Family,

This is ok if it's too late, it can wait til the next thing that's sent, but if it's not too late, could you send some of those gel pens that are just so nice? The PIlot G-2 series or whatever? Max or Caity will definitely know what I'm talking about.

Last week we went to a trampoline park like Jump-On-It in Utah! It was so fun! We were all really sore afterwards because we had not done any sort of movement like that in so long, but it was just great to go and jump around. What's even better is that we got the whole place to ourselves somehow, and we could do whwatever we wanted! WOO!

When we come back and visit Poland we definietly need to spend a lot of time in the south. No one else in my district wants to go to Auschwitz or the Salt Mines, so i'm not sure if i'll be able to to that...

Ah! The home looks so nice! I MISS CHRISTMAS AT HOME SO MUCH! I mean, I love serving, and we've actually been able to find a real place to help people this transfer, but somedays I just want to go home and lay down on my face and do nothing and not feel guilty for it. Nine months, though, that's close enough. (doesn't it just feel like a little bit ago that I hit my year mark!?!? It's going too fast.)

No, sacrament and Sunday School are are in Polish, with one of the missionaries translating for the english speakers through a microphone in the back corner of the room. However, with last Sunday being Fast Sunday, and the branch already being made up of 60% english speakers, and with there being 4 english speaking visitors, almost all the testimonies were in Polish. And do you know who was the lucky one who had to translate them all into Polish on the spot? That's right. Me. I wanted to take a long nap afterwards. BUT what did happen afterwards, was that one of the members came up to me and said that I did the best translation since Elder Allen (he's long gone, but he was basically a Polish genious, and made lessons that people still listen to to learn Polish.) So that made me feel pretty good.

We get invited to dinners at least twice a week! One with the Daltons and the Strobles every Sunday (the Strobles are a family from the states, but the husband Spencer served a mission here a while ago, and he studies medicine here) and usually a meal with Lucas and Helen from Argentina and Brazil. They're here for work, and they're both amazing cooks. Very blessed here.

It's really about the same as all the other areas I've been in. The branch is larger, for sure, but the problems are the same and the way we spend our time is pretty much the same as well. It's just prettier and smoggier here. 

The American's are pretty helpful, and they like to be on lessons with us a lot, but the fact that building friendships with Polish people has that extra layer of difficulty just makes it difficult for finding people for them. But they have given more referrals than other members have.

Ok, you guys ready for a miracle? We begin over a year ago, with the missionary who had my phone before he left. We don't know his name, for it has been forgotten in the anals of time. But what he has done, is while serving in Kraków he gave a Book of Mormon with his phone number in it to a man named Michał. Let time pass by, and let Elder Liechty take up the mantle of this phone, and let him serve his mission for over a year in the north of Poland. In fact, the way the patterns of the mission have been going, is that if you're serving in the North you're probably going to be there for your whole mission. BUT what happens is I get a transfer call from President Turek to go where? To Kraków. The exact opposite side of Poland, breaking all norms and customs of missionary life. And what happens just a few weeks after I get here? Michał calls. What happens after 2 meetings with him? He's preparing to be baptized for the 24 of December. Merry Christmas.

But really, this man is so ready (he's 18 years old). He called asking for time and place of church, and then he actually comes! He's just wearing street clothes and a t-shirt that says "sorry ladies I'm on the night watch" and it's something to laugh about, but guess what!? Two things- first, he came the next week, and he was wearing a collard shirt, a tie, and slacks! And Second- he overheard that the next week (yesterday) was going to be fast sunday, so he asked what that was, and then he ACTUALLY FASTED. WHO IS THIS GUY!? He read 20 chapters of the book of mormon within a week, which is a record for any of my investigators, and he accepts pretty much everything we teach! We don't feel like we're doing anything, and he's just going to end up baptizing himself! 

This work is God's work, and he's definetly the one moving it along. I know that even if we're not seeing the effects of our work, seeds are being planted, and someday, someone will come along to sow just as we were blessed enough to do with Michał.

Love,

Elder Liechty

(I just got my camera charger back yesterday, so pictures will come)

28 November 2016

Fam.

You should send it to the mission office if you're confidant that it'll get there before the 9th of December, but if not, you should probably send it to the Daltons, because I don't know our new address because we did move. Forgot to tell you! But now I've closed down 3 different appartements, and moved a total of 10 times during my mission! I'm tired of moving. I haven't stayed in the same building longer than 3 months!

Speaking of Jan, I have a story. It begins 8 months ago. Before I came to Szczecin for the second time The elders were advertising for their english class, and one guy took a flyer, and said he'd probably not go, but then the Elder Garrison said "zobaczymy" Which means in essence "we'll see about that", and because of that, the guy, named Jan, came to the english class. Let 8 moths pass by, and now he is baptized and confirmed, and wanting to serve a mission, and has thrown behind him all his bad habits. All because Elder Garrison said "zobaczymy". I've thought about this a lot, and I've realized that God works through us, even though we are imperfect. I don't think the Spirit told Elder Garrison to say that, I think he just said that because that's who he is, and that's what he does. And that's how God works through us, and that's why we're where we are when we are. My call was to Samuel Liechty, not some other doofus, but to me. All of our other callings as well, because we, whether we know it or not, are qualified and have in us what it takes. Of course, as time passes we need to learn to better understand the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and follow them and keep improving, but as we're doing that, God's going to use what he can, and that's enough.

Unfortunately, since the first visit, the Priests have either not answered the door/phone, or have said 'no thank you'. Sad, but we're still trying!

Bad news- I forgot my camera charger in Bydgoszcz. Elder Hill is mailing it to me, but it might be a while before I get it. so... I'll try to get pictures from other people!

I don't know how to feel about that fact that I'm nine months away... I'm mostly scared really. For change, and for feeling like I haven't done all that I was supposed to do. The whole fact that there's a time limit to a mission really makes cause for worry on both ends.

Over the last couple of weeks, we had Zone Conference, where one of the area seventies spoke to us, and it was good. There was actually an investigator named Wiktor there, and the whole time the Seventy would just stop and shout 'WE'VE GOT WIKTOR RIGHT HERE!" when talking about the fact that it's possible for things to happen in this mission. At first I was like, 'dude, calm down or you'll scare him away!", but by the end I really liked what he was doing and I could see that he was just not ashamed of the Gospel one bit! Then we had Exchanges, where we went to Wrocław for a day, and that was mostly uneventful, but I actually got to teach a lesson to that very same Wiktor, which was really cool! He really wants to be baptized, but his parents thought he was joking when he told them (he's 16), and now that the date is coming up, his parents are just not letting it happen. Then we had Thanksgiving!! We had a branch party, so there were about 30 people who showed up, and it was really fun and there was a lot of food. But this whole being healthy thing that I started doing a couple of months ago (which is still going on, to all you people who thought it would just be a fad that would pass in a couple of weeks) has made me not able to eat nearly the same amount of food that I once could! I used to be able to eat like, over 1000 cm3 of pizza, but now I can only eat about 300 cm3. A true shame.

Elder Curtis sent an email last week because I went to the mountains with Elder McPherson, and Elders Curtis and Pettit stayed behind because they'd already gone. There was me, Elder McPherson, Elders Rowley (WOO), Adriano, Mandla, and Baldwin and Sisters Barney and Gheen (all from the Katowice district) And we started to climb! We all came into it thinking that it'd be like a walk in the park because we were all used to Utah mountains and such, but it turned out that it was about as high as Mount Timpanogos, and none of us made it to the top because there was not enough time! We did make it to one of the lakes up there, which was beautiful, and while there a small group of missionaries tried to make it to the top, but didn't in the end. While waiting for them, Elder Rowley and I started to build a kairn and it was pretty rockin', but the wind blew it down... not before we got sweet pictures with it, though! Also, it was great just to be able to spend an hour with him again. Gosh, he's just great. I think I say that in emails every time I see him. Because it's true! On the way down from the mountain, we decided to take a different path that would take us along the ridge of the mountian. Bad plan. It was incredibly windy, so much that if you started to fall towards the wind, it would be able to hold you up. Keep in mind that we're here on the ridge of the mountain. Cliffs on both sides. (I exaggerate, the odds that we would actually get swept off the mountain were very low, but it was certainly not the safest place to be) It was actually so windy, that my glasses flew off my face, but I was able to catch them before I lost them forever! After some fervent prayers on the move, we all made it safely past the cliffs and into the forests and on our way down. The wind was still so strong that we could feel it all the way down. All in all, though, that was probably one of the best P-days of my mission. I'd recommend it!

The other Elders are teaching a less active member from the states right now who went less active right after he went to college, and it's just a really sad story... Like, all his family is back home together with families of their own, and are going off doing good things, and he's here, unmarried and living in Poland of all places and just kind of existing. We also are teaching a person with a very similar story. The difference the Gospel makes in people's lives is so real, and so visible when we have those examples to see!

Ok, LOve YOU!

Elder Liechty

xxxoooxoxoxoxoxooxooooxoxxxoxo

14 November 2016

There's a man who keeps snorting his boogers up his nose who's sitting next to me. Thank you, mom, for not letting that habit grow within me.

And concerning my credit card, I don't plan on buying anything soon, so I'll just take out some money and you can deactivate the card and send the new one. If you send it today or tomorrow, I should be able to get it before Christmas. Probably.

HE DID! It's the very same Todd! BACK ON THE MISSION! I am so utterly grateful that that happened! And they're companions! They've been dreaming about this very exact situation since they were lads, and now it's actually come to pass! First the mission calls to the same place, then the going back, then the coming back, THEN the being actual companions... MAN! The roller coaster of emotions for me is just wild, I bet for those two it's just unbelievable!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO

I'll buy something Polish for you. It's funny- we've had the Polish pottery in our house for as long as I can remember, so when I get here, and there's all this hype over this polish pottery and getting it for you families, I'm just like "wait. What? doesn't everyone have this type of bowls and stuff in their house? This is what I eat my ramen noodles in."

Sounds like the Thanksgiving tradition is coming to an end... Are we going to keep meeting up with family for as long as we can, or split off like many others have done? I don't really want to do that. I hate ends to things. Also, tell everyone there that I love them and miss them

A BOY!? I've got some pretty good Polish names then... We've got Zbyszek, Zdzisław, Wojciech, Grzegorz. Maybe Stanisław. But watch out for that one, I haven't met a Stanisław who wasn't absolutely crazy and in love with the sister missionaries.

Jan, though, DID GET BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!! The day finally came. I had my doubts at times, but it really did happen. Thank you so much for your prayers and fasts (I actually told him that you fasted for him, because he started to have some worries, and it seemed like that was what pulled him through. He's VERY grateful to you for that.) (also, he might friend you on facebook soon, or send you a message, so if you get a thing from Jan Zakrzewski, that's him)

Today for P-day, we're doing another escape room! Last time we did what was one of two hardest escape rooms, and got out with about 9 minutes left, where most people don't even make it, and today we're going to do the other hardest ones that has lasers and stuff! GET HYPE!

I do feel as though the Holy Ghost prompted me to share the Gospel with the Priests. When I thought of the idea I prayed about it, and got the confirmation that it would be a good idea. What will come of it? We don't know, but I'm learning a lot about how the Catholic church is organized and what they believe, which helps me understand the people much better.

I have a feeling that I'm going to miss family much more during this holiday season than last, but I'm going to do what I can to not dwell on it! 

Love you all!

Sam

7 Nov 2016

Candles at the graveyard!!

Elder Rowley!!

This is the Błonia. It's a huge field where the Pope came and talked to all the youth in Poland, and now it's just empty and people roller blade around it with their dogs. Good place for talking to people

Service

Graveyard

Graveyard

HI FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

How are you?

This week was very good, and there were many high points, so I will give one now, and the other later on, because it relates with one of your questions! On Friday, we had Zone Training, and guess who was there!? ELDER ROWLEY!!! I love that man so much. We spent some good time catching up and talking about what happened over the last 2 months. He's really such a great guy! At the Zone Training we talked about being more effective with our time, and doing more with what the Lord has given us. Which is definetly soething that I need to work on, but something that Elder Curtis is very good at, so it works.

We did do an escape room last week, and were doing another one today! Last week was pretty easy, and we actually set the record (don't tell anyone, but it's because I had been in one that had all the exact same puzzles as this one, so I knew what I was doing the whole time...) But this time we're tying out what they say is the hardest one, so let's hope I havn't already done this one as well. I also bought some pants (stretchy, of course) because all of my other ones are wearing out. It's become a serious problem.

If all goes to plan, Jan is going to be baptized this Wednesday! hold your thumbs! (that's what they do in Poland instead of crossing their fingers) Pleas please please continue to pray for him and thank you for all that you've done already!

This is where the other high point of the week comes in. Our game plan for the most part has remained the same, just trying to talk to everyone that passes us. But in addition, we're doing what all the other missionaries in the country are calling us either legends or fools for doing- we're setting up interviews and meetings with the Priests and Parishes of the churches in Kraków (which are many) and presenting them the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with the underlying statement that any person claiming to be a seeker of truth will find it in this message. And before you think I'm a fool for doing this, we asked the Mission President what he thinks about it, and he was all for it! He even called the other day to see how it went! We're not doing this to argue with anybody, nor to discredit anyone's faith, but to simply present our message and find those who are willing to consider it. The day we were going to try it out for the first time, it was hailing and very cold, then as we approched the church that we were going to enter, the hail became like, twice as hard, then we entered the church and there was organ music playing because mass just finished, and it was all just a very eery scene... Then we couldn't find anyone. So we walked out, and I called all my Catholic friends or members who used to be Catholic, and asked what we needed to to do find these people, and after that we found one Proboszcz (Parish priest) and started talking. unfortunately, he only had about 15 minutes, so we're going to now have to call in advance to set up meetings to do this, but we gave a quick overview of the Restoration. The first thing he said was "there are many ways to God. It could be with the Mormons, or it could be with the Catholics". then we went on to talk about the First Vision and then he said that everyone has the tendency to say that they're the only correct church and that again, there are many roads to God. Then we told him how we knew we were right, which was the Book of Mormon, and when we talked about the Book of Mormon, he said that the Bible was enough for him, then we quoted 2 Nephi 29 where it says something along the lines of "do ye murmur that you have more words of God? Do you not know that there are mor nations than one, and that god loves all of his children and speaks to them?" Then he got a little more defensive, and repeated that the Bible was enough for him, and then we had to leave. All in all, a very interesting incounter. He was open and kind, and you could see that he really did study and love the scriptures.

There does need to be a bigger emphasis on the Book of Mormon, though. Sometimes I get caught up in stuyding the New and old Testaments, that I don't read the Book of Mormon. When that happens, I can actually feel the strenght of my testimony weaken when I'm talking with people about it. So I've been reading it every day for the last month, and it's helped a ton!

AAAND we finally did some service!!! It was a one time thing, though... The 1 of Novermber in Poalnd is called All Saints Day, wehre people put candles on the graves of their ancestors to help them out of Purgatory. I think. I really need to find out. for sure.  So we went and helped clean off the old graves that no one cared about because they had no family left in Kraków. It was nice to finally be able to do something like that! Also, the graveyard is beautiful at night with all the candles lit, and the pictures don't do it justice, but it's a really cool holiday!

The things i would like most in the package, are pictures, like always, and the Chills on Wheels T-shirt that I got working with Brother Anderson. He wants me to get a picture wearing in it Poland for his facebook page. It'd be awesome!

Have a great week!

Love,

リクティ長老

31 Oct 2016

Final pictures of Bydgoszcz

Goodbye Elder Hill, hello Krakow!

Here's some of the Rynek (town square)

Kraków is really great! Don't know if I said this last week, but Kraków hasn't had a baptism for the last two years. The Catholic influence here is BIG. Huge, one could say. For example, the people here who have heard of the Mormon church, know it as "the cancer of the Catholic church" and in the last week we've (our district) has gotten at least two calls to repentance from other people. Granted, this is making it sound quite harsh, but it's really not that bad. Most people just don't see a point in there being anything other than the Catholic church because of Papal authority and whatnot. Most people even accept that there's been a general apostasy as well, but still go to the Catholic church because there just can't be any other thing. It just boggles my mind! 

But speaking of hard-core Catholics, does anyone here remember Jan? He was someone I taught while I was in Szczecin for the second time. He was the one who was studying to become a Priest, decided not to, i tak dalej... (and so on) and with him I learned a TON and my entire view on the way things work and how to go about understanding the people changed. I learned to be a lot more loving and accepting of people of other faiths. Also, he's like one of my best friends now. ANYWAY, he's been meeting with missionaries for the last 8 months, but for the last 4 or so, he's not really been putting effort into anything and we pretty much lost hope there, BUT THEN in the last couple of weeks, he's come back and something opened his eyes, he stopped smoking and drinking, and he's decided to get baptized!!!! If all goes to plan, then it will be happening on the 13 of November! Pray for him PLEASE

Elder Curtis and I get along pretty well.  He and I are working on our teaching, it doesn't flow quite well, and we have a hard time building off of each others' ideas because we've both got our own plans running in our heads - pretty normal when you have different teaching styles and we've only been together for a week!. But we've both noticed it and are working on working in better unity.

We exercise, but not together 😬 I just REALLY don't want to go jogging. Anything but that

There's one other set of Elders here- Elder McPherson (four months left) and Elder Pettit, who's in the same group as Elder Curtis. There's also a senior couple here named the Daltons, they're awesome! Sister Dalton was very grateful that I could play the piano (there it is again, mom, there's been a total of 3 or 4 sacrament meetings that I've been a part in where I didn't play the piano) so we're going to switch off every week. I am district leader again, and I've been given the assignment from President Turek to figure out how the missionaries can better work with the ward leaders... any ideas?

The dynamics of this branch are so odd. Kraków certainly has a ton of tourists (I've already been stopped by two american members) and every Sunday there will be anywhere from 3-20 people from out of town. This last week there were two Poles, only one of which didn't speak English, 4 members who live here but are Americans, 6 missionaries from America, and 15 people from out of town. All from America. So instead of the meetings being held in Polish, and translated to English, it was the other way around, and it was WEIRD. Sacrament meeting in English is not something that I am used to, and listening to the speakers in English was weird, and hearing american english accents was weird AND THEN they asked me and Elder McPherson to bear our testimonies because we are new here, and it was in English! That was the first time in over a year that I've done that in sacrament meeting in english, and it just felt strange. I was free- I could say whatever I wanted! I had no limited vocabulary, no stumbling over grammar principles, no nothing! Going home is going to be weird.

weird.

I love you all and thank you for your prayers and support!

Love,

Elder Liechty

31 Oct 2016

Final pictures of Bydgoszcz

Goodbye Elder Hill, hello Krakow!

Here's some of the Rynek (town square)

Kraków is really great! Don't know if I said this last week, but Kraków hasn't had a baptism for the last two years. The Catholic influence here is BIG. Huge, one could say. For example, the people here who have heard of the Mormon church, know it as "the cancer of the Catholic church" and in the last week we've (our district) has gotten at least two calls to repentance from other people. Granted, this is making it sound quite harsh, but it's really not that bad. Most people just don't see a point in there being anything other than the Catholic church because of Papal authority and whatnot. Most people even accept that there's been a general apostasy as well, but still go to the Catholic church because there just can't be any other thing. It just boggles my mind! 

But speaking of hard-core Catholics, does anyone here remember Jan? He was someone I taught while I was in Szczecin for the second time. He was the one who was studying to become a Priest, decided not to, i tak dalej... (and so on) and with him I learned a TON and my entire view on the way things work and how to go about understanding the people changed. I learned to be a lot more loving and accepting of people of other faiths. Also, he's like one of my best friends now. ANYWAY, he's been meeting with missionaries for the last 8 months, but for the last 4 or so, he's not really been putting effort into anything and we pretty much lost hope there, BUT THEN in the last couple of weeks, he's come back and something opened his eyes, he stopped smoking and drinking, and he's decided to get baptized!!!! If all goes to plan, then it will be happening on the 13 of November! Pray for him PLEASE

Elder Curtis and I get along pretty well.  He and I are working on our teaching, it doesn't flow quite well, and we have a hard time building off of each others' ideas because we've both got our own plans running in our heads - pretty normal when you have different teaching styles and we've only been together for a week!. But we've both noticed it and are working on working in better unity.

We exercise, but not together 😬 I just REALLY don't want to go jogging. Anything but that

There's one other set of Elders here- Elder McPherson (four months left) and Elder Pettit, who's in the same group as Elder Curtis. There's also a senior couple here named the Daltons, they're awesome! Sister Dalton was very grateful that I could play the piano (there it is again, mom, there's been a total of 3 or 4 sacrament meetings that I've been a part in where I didn't play the piano) so we're going to switch off every week. I am district leader again, and I've been given the assignment from President Turek to figure out how the missionaries can better work with the ward leaders... any ideas?

The dynamics of this branch are so odd. Kraków certainly has a ton of tourists (I've already been stopped by two american members) and every Sunday there will be anywhere from 3-20 people from out of town. This last week there were two Poles, only one of which didn't speak English, 4 members who live here but are Americans, 6 missionaries from America, and 15 people from out of town. All from America. So instead of the meetings being held in Polish, and translated to English, it was the other way around, and it was WEIRD. Sacrament meeting in English is not something that I am used to, and listening to the speakers in English was weird, and hearing american english accents was weird AND THEN they asked me and Elder McPherson to bear our testimonies because we are new here, and it was in English! That was the first time in over a year that I've done that in sacrament meeting in english, and it just felt strange. I was free- I could say whatever I wanted! I had no limited vocabulary, no stumbling over grammar principles, no nothing! Going home is going to be weird.

weird.

I love you all and thank you for your prayers and support!

Love,

Elder Liechty