26 April 2016 - Back to Szczecin!

Turoń from the bridge

All the museums were closed on Monday

Gingerbread!

Turoń is famous for its gingerbread, and we went to the factory, and took a tour, and made our own gingerbread! It was not very tasty, but the professional stuff was, so that's good!

The closest we could get to a normal picture

Elder Ashworth relaxing in Austria

New companion Elder Garrison holding his 3-D self

Here's a 3-D printed version of Elder Garrison.

If I ever serve in Bydgoszcz, I'm getting one of these!

Talks given in Sacrament Meeting through 18 years of regular church attendance : 4

Talks given in Sacrament Meeting through 8 months of missionary service : 6

And that'll be 7 in two weeks!

AAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

POWRÓCIŁEM DO SZCZECINA!!!

I'm back.

The day transfer calls came, one of the members here, Alex Pakora, had heard that I was coming back, and just texted me "YOURE COMING BACK!!!" And then a few minutes later, I got a text from Elder Cutting that just said "We know." And then about half an hour later, President called me and I already knew everything! Elder Ashworth is staying in Poznań, and is now the district leader and senior comp to another Brit who came in one transfer after him! and I'm here in Szczecin with Elder Garrison as a half district leader. Which means that we switch off district meetings and that's about it. Sister Demordaunt left to Gdańsk, so it looks like I'll have to post some real pictures this time around. but the other Sister missionaries are Sister Sloan (with whom I served with my first transfer here) (Did you see that grammar?!), and her trainee! No one knows who the trainee is yet, but It'll be fun serving with a new missionary again!

I got sunburnt, too! But then it started snowing again, so we won't be having that problem for a bit...

This last week we finally got to do some service, and all I did was pull weeds for three hours straight. It was my favorite thing in the world! I hadn't done any sort of manual labor like that for over half a year! I was able to teach Elder Ashworth how to pull weeds the right way, so they don't come back and we started getting super hype and excited every time we pulled out a root! It was good.

I'm back to being FHE coordinator.

Also, I'm super happy to be going back to Szczecin! I've already met some of the members and they were really supprised to see me again, and they're really impressed with the way I speak Polish now! There's been a couple of incidences since I've been gone, so things are about the same as they were when I first got here, but I'm excited. I feel like I'm needed here. And we already have a couple of investigators! One has a baptismal date for sometime in the month, so that's nice, and the other one is brand new, so I don't know about him yet. BUT IM REALLY EXCITED TO BE BACK. I love it here.

And Turoń is the home town of Mikołaj Kopernik, or Nicolaus Copernicus, so that was neat, but his museum was closed, so that was less neat...

The last week was a pretty normal one all around. We weren't able to meet with Dawid again, but we did get a new investigator named Kuba, who seems pretty neat. He's in Ashworth's hands now! Marcin has a new baptismal date for the 28th of May, I think, and he seems a lot more serious about this one. He was also really sad to see me leave, which made me feel really good inside, but also sad. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to return to Poznań eventually. Also, we had an incredibly intense lesson with a member who is now on the verge on inactivity, and his other inactive member friend. We'd been trying to meet with him through the entire transfer, and he kept telling us that his life was falling apart and that everything was bad and that we need to pray for him, but finally we sent him the faith without works is dead scripture and told him that we need to meet to figure something out, because so far, prayer wasn't enough. So we did, and his friend was there, and he started out pretty angrily, and just talked about how hard it is to live in Poland, and how hard it is for Polish members and how hard it is to have a family in Poland and how hard literally everything is.

Let me tell you all a secret- Life is supposed to be hard. We live in a fallen world and that's just the way it is. And if it's not hard to you, then you've either figured it out already, or you're not pushing yourself hard enough. We keep telling people that life is a test, that life is a trial and we're here to prove ourselves to God, and earn our reward. Well if you expect to prove yourself to God, you better expect some pretty tough trials! It's going to be hard, but just imagine if God didn't have the will to let others kill his son. Imagine if he had broken, and saved his Son at that most crucial of moments. What would happen then? we'd all be in an unsavable state, and the entire human family would be doomed. There would be no Savior.

It's tough, but it's worth it.

Alma 5:26

I <3 U

Elder Liechty

18 April 2016

Dear everyone,

We got a new apartment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd put more exclamation points, but I don't have enough time. But really, the last apartment was so disgusting. So gross. I didn't send pictures of the mold monster we were living with, because you'd get really mad at the church for letting us still live there, but we're finally out, so it's all good :D But I have pictures, so don't worry. And the new apartment is just so absolutely fantastic. So great. I can't get over it. The shower is so good. The last week in the old apartment, the showerhead stopped working, so we've been using a bucket and filling it up with the bath faucet, and just pouring it on ourselves and doing it like some third world missionary would be doing it. But then we got the new shower, and it felt like a pressure jet wash, and it was amazing. Truly amazing.

Marcin is still meeting with the missionaries, but I don't really know how he's progressing, but the other day, I told him about fasting, and suggested that he fast for strength, and I fasted with him, but I haven't heard anything more from him, so we'll see how it turns out.  And we met with Dawid last week, and had a decent lesson with him, but he's still not reading the Book of Mormon, and we're having a hard time meeting with him again, nor did he come to church yesterday, but I think there's still potential with him. 

And after one of our english classes, (we have two, beginner and advanced), like, four of the beginner class students came up to us and wanted to have personal lessons with us because the other elders taught something that was really hard in the beginner class. But it was just really funny, because we were having a conversation with one guy, and this mob of Poles trying to speak english trying to set up meetings with us came up and just swamped us! It was funny, and now we have four new people that we can teach english and the gospel to! YAY!

Also, in church yesterday, I gave my first talk without having written every word out! In Polish! Mostly, because I heard I had to give one pretty late, and I was a bit lazy. Didn't want to write it all out, so I figured now would be a perfect time to try it out! I had a short plan and topics written down, but that was it. And in Sunday school we just did the normal lesson stuff, and we do use the teachings of Howard W. Hunter book. 

I'M SORRY I DONT HAVE PICTURES.

I have more than I send, but until someone can explain to me how I can send more than one picture in an email, the most y'all'll get is three or something. Unless something really cool happened. Then I'll send more. Like today! We're going to Turoń, which is super pretty, they say, and I'll get all the pictures. All of them. (And we weren't able to go to Hitler's castle last week, unfortunately)

Scripture of the week-

Alma 56:47-48. All you moms out there are really important. REALLY important. Iza, the member that we visit once a week, it turns out that she has a daughter that she wants to get in contact with again, but she was scared, because that daughter doesn't know that Iza's a member of our church, so we shared scriptures with her about motherhood, and how valuable it is, and how important that relationship is, and how God's going to help you build it up if you do what you can. So you go, moms!

LOVE ELDER LIECHTY!!!!!!

My guts are fine, I'm eating WAY healthier than I ever did, and I'm way less picky. You were right again...

We see cool buildings like this all the time and I forget we don't see them in the US

What we do in our spare time

11 April 2016

Classic train tracks picture. 

(don't worry, it was on inactive tracks)

Hey!

This week's been a pretty normal week, nothing very special... But... it happened- a girl kissed me. On my mission. She just got up and kissed me.

I mean, it was only on the forehead. And it took her like, 5 minutes to get up. And she was 92 years old. But hey- it happened!

She's the mom of one of the members here named Iza, and we go to her house every week to teach Iza and sing to her mom, but it's always the most hilarious experience! Her mom can't hear anything, and Iza's a little crazy already, but Iza will just be talking to her mom in a normal voice thinking that she can hear her, and her mom's just screaming "WHAT?!" "I CANT HEAR ANYTHING" or things like that, and when we're talking with Iza, and her mom wants to say something, she'll scream "SŁUCHAJ!" (which means "listen!") Or just scream Iza's name "IZAAAAA... IZAAAAAAA!" It's great!

And we have a new investigator! His name is Dawid, we've only taught him a couple of lessons, but he's been to church, and he seems interested, so that's good! Otherwise we just have a lot of people who aren't answering their phones.

And Marcin was going to be baptized last Friday, but when the baptismal interview came around, it turned out that he was not ready yet, and some crazy stuff happened, and his relationship with the missionaries is not nearly as good as it was before. I don't know the whole story, because the other Elders obviously don't like talking about it, so we don't bring it up. So that's sad. I'm just worried for how it will affect Elder Vance, because he said many times while I was with him, that if something happened, and Marcin would just drop off, or give up right at the end, that he'd just lose all trust in anyone ever again. And that happened... But he seems alright, so maybe he's been able to overcome it.

You keep asking what we do all day, but really 7/10 days, we're doing just that- walking up and down the streets talking to people or tracting. About twice a week we'll do things with the other elders, where we write something on the ground with chalk, like a scripture from the Book of Mormon or something, and talk to people with that, or Elder Jeffs will play the guitar and sing while we talk to people, but that is what I'm doing all day if I don't have a lesson or something else planned. We do also hand out flyers for our English class, but usually only like half an hour every day.

We've gone to the park to play frisbee a lot lately! Sometimes the schedule works out that we have both meal hours together, so we'll go to the park and play sports in our church clothes and it's awesome. Some people will come up and just ask "what are you doing?", then we get to talk to them about the church! Sneak attack. And we've tried to find some cool places to visit, but we keep getting lost... :), but next week, we're taking a trip out to this other city, which is arguably the most beautiful city in Poland, so good things will be happening then. Also, we might be visitng Hitler's Castle today! I don't know what it is, but I'm excited!

The only clothing items I've bought here are scarves. Because I like scarves. But everything else is REALLY expensive. Or it seems, because one American dollar is worth four Polish zlots, so everything looks really expensive, and I'm scared to buy anything. But if you encourage me... I guess I'll have too..

Things are pretty good here! I'm probably learning new phrases from Elder A, but I can't remember any right now. He likes making fun of the American accent, though, and always tries (but it's not very good), and it's pretty great! He's a funny guy, and he's fun to be with. And we buy groceries at a store called Biedronka, which is like just a Walmart, except WAY smaller. I usually spend about 40 zlots, or 10 dollars for the food each week. 

I couldn't really name any time that I've felt super guided by the Spirit, but every time we're walking around contacting people, I try to say a little prayer to know which way to turn to be able to help the most people, and usually it works out nicely, but I can't think of any times that I've felt a need to go a certain way, or go down a certain other street while tracting. But that's a trend I've been noticing this transfer, and it's something that I want to fix, so I can rely on the Spirit a lot more in my missionary work.

Also, we were able to watch conference in English this last week, and something in one of President Monson's talks really made me thing. He said something like "choose the harder right, over the easier wrong". But if you take the first phrase there, "Choose the harder right", it becomes something that I've been trying to do lately. Because there are a lot of good things, and there are the bettter things, and there are the best things, and the best things are harder to do than the good, or better things, and basically, we need to go above and beyond the basic rules and the bare minimum. Because does God only do the bare minimum? NO! He most certainly does not! And if the scriptures have any value to them, we should take their advice and example our lives after the perfect man! So choose the harder right, over the easier right.

Love,

Elder Liechty

4 April 2016

I wish Poland had a neat nickname, cuz like, John and Jacob in Japan always get to start their emails with like "Hello from the land of the Rising Sun!" And things like that. I just get to say "Hello from the land of Pierogi!" But hey- Pierógs are pretty tasty.

Yeah, Elder Vance just went with the other elder, Elder Jeffs. But they cherry picked all the good potentials and investigators from us, but that's okay, whatever helps the investigators... ALSO you know our investigator Marcin? Two things- one, he has a baptismal date set for the 8th! Which is super close, and crazy, so pray for him, and two- He found and read my blog! In fact, he's probably reading this right now! In which case... Cześć, Marcin! Jak tam u ciebie? Mam nadzieję, że dzisiaj napisałem coś dobrego o tobie! Do zobaczenia! Haha... He's cool. 

No one here has iPads, but there's been rumors circulating the whole mission that they're going to be here soon, but those rumors have been going on for years, so I don't have a ton of hope. We got to watch All the sessions except Sunday afternoon session. And they were all in Polish, so I didn't really get the super spiritual high that I got six months ago. But throughout this next week we will be watching them, because the mission president allows us, and it will be good, and I will be able to understand it all. :D I mean, I could get the gist of what they were saying, and sometimes I even got a couple minutes at a time, but it just doesn't have the same power if you just realize that they're talking about something, rather than hearing what they have to say about that topic. We get the Liahona in Polish and in English.

I got a haircut, don't worry :)

Those packages are super expensive... Don't worry, I won't be sad if they don't come often. And I'll probably give you my address at the end of this transfer, to make it easier to get things here, but with the apartment change (on the 15th) and the transfer, it'll just make things confusing. 

Otherwise, we have no investigators right now so we're not out doing as much work as I'd like, and things have gotten better since the first few days. And my Polish is definitely getting better now that it has to! The gift of tounges, and the gift of interpretation of tounges (which are two different things, I found out) are real! I realized, also, that God could really just give me the language if he wanted to, and it wouldn't make life any more difficult for him, so clearly there's a reason that it takes time to learn a language, and that the people that He sends to me or any other missionary are going to be content with the level of language that you're at. It'll all work out.

My British accent is getting pretty good, too. Elder Ashworth's American accent it pretty good, but his accent sounds like that of a huge nerd, so it's really funny when he does it. Hopfully some English terminology will slip its way into my emails :)

Also, I discovered the pattern to doing everything right! WOO

2 Peter 1:5-7 and Moroni 7:38-48 AND D&C 4:5-6 . Peter gives us a progression of things that begin with Faith, and you build virtue off of the faith, and then another trait off of the virtue and so on, until you reach Charity, the pure love of Christ. 

D&C is the chapter that missionaries love, but verse 6 give us those exact same traits, (with two switched in order) plus two more- Humility and Diligence. So why is humility added into the mix here? Let's turn to the scriptures for an answer- Moroni 7 is a letter from his father, where he beautifully describes what it takes to gain faith. We start with Faith, but to have faith, we need hope, but to have hope, we need to be meek and humble, but be that, we need Charity. What's that? That's exactly what D&C 7:5 says? Yes. Yes it is. 

So basically, You start with Faith, work through the progression that Peter gives us until we have Charity, at which point we can be humble, and work towards... FAITH! and then to charity again, and back to faith and so on until you become perfect. End. Koniec zabawy 

:D

LUV

Elder Liechty 

p.s.

I'll try and take more attractive pictures of myself in the future