29 March 2016

So yesterday was Śmigus Dyngus. I have no idea what that holiday is, but the second word sounds just like Dingus, and I think that's hilarious! And that's also why I'm emailing a day late

We had Zone conference on Wednesday, and it turns out that I'm also the best one at playing hymns in the whole Bydgoszcz District... Why did I not practice?

And on that Sunday we watched the broadcast by ourselves, and Elder Vance decided to bless and pass the sacrament to himself, but I don't know enough about administering the sacrament on occasions like that to be comforable with it, so I decided not to. But speaking of Elder Vance- I'm not companions with him anymore! SURPRISE! The mission president surprised called us, and said that he was changing up Poznań, and now I'm companions with Elder Ashworth! CRAZY! In addition to that, we're changing apartements to a brand new one in a much better part of town pretty soon (don't know exactly when) So we don't have to live in the mold infested horrible one that we live in now! YES!!! I haven't spent very much time with him yet, but I think that things are going to start looking up!

For Easter we went to Bożena's home, and she cooked up some Polish food. It wasn't anything too special or more than what she normally makes for us on the normal Thursday meetings, but it was really tasty! We had żurek, some meat (don't know what kind), Some other meat, but it was white, so it was special, some ham, and some chicken, and meat. Polish people like meat. But other than that, we just did pretty normal stuff. BUT you know how missionaries who have iPads can go around and show people videos and things like that? Elder Jeffs managed to get the Easter video on our puny 1" screen phones, and we went around and showed people the video on that! It was pretty great!

Easter in Poland doesn't seem that huge, but the streets are totally dry on Easter. No one is out. And the day after is a holiday, too, called świgus dyngus, where people throw water on each other for no reason at all, as far as I know. I wasn't outside very much on that day, though, so I didn't get hit. But Elder Ashworth and I stepped into a huge chapel on Saturday, just to see what was going on, because there was a huge Exodous of people leaving the houses we were tracting. We got there, and then after a while of nothing, the priest walked up, and then layed down, and then everyone else started to lay down and we got scared and ran away. :D I do now understand, though, the fear that other people have when we ask them to come to our church services.

No new investigators or any luck with tracting, but Marcin, our only progressing investigator is going pretty great! He keeps going up and down and wanting to give up and stuff, but somehow Elder Vance or I had said just the right thing for him to keep on trying. Elder Vance said that he's never put so much effort into keeping an investigator. However, with the companion switch, Elder Vance is probably going to be the one keeping Marcin, unless he wants to switch... So I'm kind of bummed about that. But oh well, whatever works best for him! 

Poland's security is getting pretty tight with the news of the terrorist attacks, and the President Edgren is trying to keep us a lot more in line and safer so things don't go wrong. I wonder if anything will happen in the year and a half I have left?

Joshua 24:15- saying "I'll fix [whatever I'm doing wrong] later" never ever NEVER works. Take it from a master of procrastination. It never works. The option to choose the lord this day is open to everyone every day. And it must be chosen every day. Every day we need to choose the Lord, or else we'll forget, or we'll want to do it some other time. But that doesn't work. Some say "Why do something I can do tomorrow, today?" But what is today, but yesterday's tomorrow?

Love 

SAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMM LLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEECHTY!!!!!!!!!!!!

21 March 2016

Hiiiiooooo!!

Spring here is kind of just like Winter! We've had one really warm day, where I could go out without my coat, but now it's back down to the ones and twos of the degrees.

AND YES! Marriage! ŚLUB! It's so good to see that those things are happening! Because one of the problems that the church struggles with here is that there's members, but few of them are around the same age, and even fewer are looking at them for potential spouses. So a lot of the young adults have a hard time because now they feel like they can't date, or even get close to someone of the opposite gender, because they aren't mormon. So a lot of people go on trips to Germany to find husbands or wives. It works, apparently, though!

And I didn't know that the Provo City Center Temple is open now! That's so cool! I want to go. I miss the temple so much... It really is the House of the Lord, don't you forget that

Yeah, Elder Ashworth is so British. His accent is pretty heavy, too, so sometimes Elder Jeffs, his companion, will translate for others because he served with another guy from Wales, and knows the language. And I can give a scripture every week! I like the scriptures!

Sundays usually start with an hour of personal study, then we go to church for DAR meeting, which is where the missionaries get together and report on what went down in the last week, and then we have church, and then we go out and contact people for an hour or two, then we have district dinner, where we take our lunch and dinner hour and have a big meal together, then we do some more contacting, then go home and take the rest of our studies. I'd rather go tracting or something than take the studies at night, but Elder Vance likes 'em.

But speaking of tracting- we got let in again! WOO! And it was probably the smoothest experience I've ever had in my life. Mission life. We rang the domofon (house phone), said we had a short message to share, they asked how long, we said 20 minutes, they said ok, and we went in, shared the message, invited the spirit, got their contact information, and set up with them for another meeting, because they decided they were interested to hear more. That is what tracting should be like. LISTEN ALL YE WHO ARE NOT MORMONS- That's all we want when we knock on the door. Fifteen minutes of your time, which I KNOW you have, and a simple "yes" or "no" as to whether or not you want to hear more on another day. End. Koniec zabawy.

We eat at the member's (Bożena's) house every thursday. I cook a bit, but Elder Vance has the buying and eating food system set up so that sharing meals is incredibly complicated, and not very common. So we don't eat together very often... And I don't eat noodles as much. I also try to make rice every once in a while, but I keep burning it. What is wrong with me? I didn't even know you could burn rice. There's this one polish soup called żurek, and it's SUPER tasty. Don't really know what's in it, but there's keiłbasa, and eggs and sour rice. It's delicious!

YAY FAMILY HISTORY WORK! I'm so glad that we're starting that up on your side! I'm just waiting for the day that I meet my 6th cousin out here and we totally get along because our great great great great great grandfather was the same man. WOO!

Last english class, one of our students- Sławek, left for England, and we wrote him a song and sang it for him before he left, and there's a video, and I'll try and get that to you, but the song was supposed to be a total joke, and just some funny thing that we'd all have a good laugh at, but as we got to the slow part, Sławek actually started to cry, and we seriously touched him... There is a light about us, about anyone who is a disciple of Christ. And people notice that, and whether they know it or not, they like it, and want to be around it. We affect a lot more people that we think we do, and often it's not even through our words, just our actions, or just being there. It's like Alma asks in Alma 5- "... Have ye received His image in your countenances?" Because people notice when you have.

And for the scripture of the week-
:Alma30:35-44

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE

Elder Liechty

Also, I don't know what this structure is, but it had something to do with a huge production of some Easter thing.

And it happened- We were the only people in church. 

Granted, there was district conference in a different city, but Elder Vance and I stayed behind for the people who couldn't make it out to Bydgoszcz.

heyehyeheyehyehey

hey!

Sorry again for being a day late, but I finally got my residence card! After almost 5 months, I am legal again!!!

So, the daily schedule starts out with studies until 11:00. Then we'll usually go outside to contact people for a couple of hours, usually in a park that is near our home called park citadela. Then we'll go in for Lunch, after lunch, we'll usually go near the middle of the city, and either english contact, which is just going around and passing out english fliers, or street contact. Then we'll go tracting after a couple hours of that, and then go home for dinner at night. Normally we don't do that, but the last hour of the day is REALLY dead, and everyone gets super angry if we knock on their doors, so until it gets light at night, we take dinner at the end of the day. If we have a lesson with someone, it's usually around 3:00 or 4:00, and throughout the week there are planned activites that break up the work. What I said is a normal friday.

Poles usually just say they don't have time and keep on walking, they'll often ingore us, and things, but no one is mean. Or outwardly mean, at least. I kind of wish there was more persecution, though... it'd make for a better time. More easily identified trials. And I meet crazy people all the time! Mostly old women. They got hit by the crazy bomb the hardest, but every once in a while (at least twice a week) there'll be some guy who comes up, or gets stopped by us and just starts talking about all this stuff and about God and aliens or something and then just walk off after he's given his opinion. It's always fun!

I do very much miss the Cuttings' meals, but there is one member- Bożena, who feeds us every week, so that's pretty nice! Haven't discovered any new foods yet... And most P-days are spent relaxing at the chapel. Today, however, we're doing this thing called an escape room! Tell Max about it, he'll probably understand this next reference- it's like those computer games, where you're in a room or building, and you have to find certain items and keys and different combinations to locks and stuff to get out and it's just one huge puzzle. It's like that, but in real life! We did one a few weeks ago, and it was really fun!

DAD! You'd be scolding me so hard for getting sunburnt! HA. Just kidding. Also, I wish it was spring here... Poznań is still being really cold. Just yesterday it was still 0 degrees C when we went outside!

And in answer to all your questions,

1. Weronika moved her appointment to this Thursday, so we haven't been able to meet with her, and Grzegorz said he wasn't able to meet at all this week until Tuesday (in a week). We did meet with this one girl named Alexandria, but she said she didn't want to meet with us again until she read the whole BoM, so that was a little stinky, but this last week we somehow stole an investigator from the other Elders, and are teaching him later today. Elder Vance feels really awkward about it because he feels bad for the other companionship, but hey, if the guy (Marcin) will have a good experience with us, then that should be okay. And he might switch back to the other elders if we don't suit his needs. His sister is a member, so he was in church before any of us knew him, so it's not like we're stealing the hard finding efforts of the other companionship. He's kind of like a district investigator. Also, he's bringing a friend to our lesson tonight. We'll see.

2. On the flyer that we pass out, there's the main English class, which happens twice a week, and there's another option for individual appointments, and they'll call, and we'll tell them the deal. The other elder's number is on there first, so they get most of the calls, and most of the appointments. Tak jest. And in our main classes, we start out with a prayer and a spiritual thought, and then go into english. And we also have a religious discussion after every english class, which everyone is invited to. About five or six people usually stay for that. And we advertise for the class a TON so we're able to start out with prayer and a spiritual thought and not suffer any number damages.

3.Well, I was at the mission office yesterday, but that was just bad timing, unfortunately. The next time I'll get anything from the office is at zone conference, which is in about two weeks. Can't think of anything specifically, WAIT socks. Mine are getting holes in them, and it's pretty lame. But that's all I can think of.

4. I can watch Mormon messages, but while I'm emailing isn't the best time, because I only have a limited time to do so, but we usually hang out at the chapel during P-day, and there I can watch all the mormon messages I want. I haven't seen the easter one yet, but I've heard of it and I'm really excited!

5. We'll stay here for General Conference, I don't know the schedule with all the time change dealios, but it'll be at our chapel. And probably in Polish. :D

6. Sorry, I've been really stinky at taking pictures... I'll get pictures of the apartment and stuff, and more with me in them. so I don't have any with me in front of Polish things, but I do have one of me riding a Whinnie the Pooh ride. And yeah, the poem was boring, I know, it was just the only new picture I had.

7. And I do like it when you send the spiritual stuff! I probably won't reply about it, and give my commentaries, for lack of time, but I do really appreciate it! It always gives me a boost for the day!

This week wasn't any more exciting than any other week, but I feel like just generally I'm making my way out of a depressive slump that I've been in for like the last month. Which is good. I really can't think of any specific thing that I did, either. I think it's just the general spiritual uplift after enduring a hard time. Just keep doing those good things- praying, reading your scriptures, going to church. The primary answers. And you know, while they may be primary answers, they are the primary answers. The basic fundamentals of spiritualness. And as missionaries, we have a few points that lead to activity in the church, and those are among the first. And conversely, they are among the first- especially prayer and scripture study- that people stop doing that leads to inactivity. SO DO THOSE THINGS! :D

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Starszy Liechty

Also, these are some goats that Poznań is unreasonably famous for. Every day at noon they come out, and bump their heads together twelve times, and then come back in unbelievably slow. But the entire country knows Poznań for it, and everyone loves it. It is, however, the most dissapointing thing I've experienced on my mission. I can't describe to you how lame it was. And, like, there's this huge throng of people there, and they cheer and clap every time they bonk heads, and it's just a little bit ridiculous! :)

7 March 2016

Hey, everyone! Turns out- Fasting actually DOES work!

I mean, I never really had any doubts about fasting, but I never really put much effort into it in the first place. I never really knew what to fast about, either. But this last week, our mission president called for a mission-wide fast in order to find people, because, as I've said, our mission is nearing an all-time low on investigators and baptismal dates. So we all fasted, and lo and behold, the next week we found like, five really good potential investigators, and have lessons set up for almost every day this week! I realize that that might not seem impressive to some, but I've only had this many lessons in a week one other time in my mission, so it's pretty great!

Grzegorz is doing very well! We've only been able to teach him a couple of times, but he accepts the fact that an apostasy happened, and is reading the Book of Mormon. We're meeting with him again this week, and it's great! We're also teaching this girl named Weronika, (we teach the girls, too, because there aren't any sisters here) but it's a little different there. Because with our english class (which is killing it here, there's like 20 people each week) We also do these individual lessons, where we tell them that we'd love to meet with them for some time, but as our main purpose is to teach the Gospel, we would like to take some of that time and teach them about our church. And surpisingly, it's having great success! The other companionship takes most of those lessons, but we have a couple, and they're going well.

So basically next week is going to be pretty good, but this week was kinda boring. But it flew by unreasonably fast. Like, probably the fastest week of my mission so far. And solo contacting is just when we're on the streets and we're talking to people separately. Sometimes Elder Vance likes to go tracting separately as well. I haven't done it yet, but he said he did it in the past.

And three hour church was pretty good. The last hour wasn't like a real thing, though. It was more like a discussion on various things in the branch with the members. One of the topics was a temple trip out to the Freiberg Temple when it re-opens in September. Also, in church we have two new members who moved in from other places, on is a Polish lady from Canada, and the other is a man named Markus from Austria. He's awesome- super funny, and pretty solid as a member.

Also, a couple of funny stories from this week-

We were out tracting with the other elders, and we took this time to slit up, so I was with Elder Ashworth, who got in the country last transfer, so technically still a trainee, so that was fun, and also he's from Manchester, England, and there was a time while we were waiting for a bus and I asked him to explain cricket, and he got all up and started going off on everything and was moving around a lot, and all that, and it was probably the most british thing I have ever experienced. 

And also, we were playing that game "heads up" with the branch for FHE, and the card I had was "floor" and the Polish word for that is "podługa". However. The Polish word for Childbirth is "poług". And when it was my turn (I had figured out what I was) and I shouted "Czy jestem poługiem?!" (am I childbirth!?) and everyone just stared at me, and I looked through the dictionary, and realized, and died.

And this is a big ol' poem about clouds on the wall. Don't really know what it says.

LOVE SAM