27 June 2016

These Geese were probably the most fun part of the zoo

We went to the Zoo! It was actually really sad, and all those documentaries that talk about animals being mistreated in zoo's were probably about the one that we went to. Also, this picture makes it look like I was hunting meese

Oh yeah (of course potty humor rules, even on a mission:)

HI!!!!

I'm still having a great time here in Bydgoszcz, and mom, it's called a "man-crush" not a "bro-crush" ugh. Get with it;)

And let me tell you about these stretchy pants- they are probably the most beautiful, genius, and attractive inventions made by mankind. Like, just bending down to tie your shoes has become a million time's easier! and who knows? If I ever need to high kick an aggresive man on the streets- I'll be able to thanks to my year of taekwondo training, and these stretchy pants! So many uses.

And we work a lot more here in the Bydgoszcz! Elder Rowley was trained by one of the hardest working missionaries here, Elder Coutu, (he actually finished his mission last transfer) and that's definitely carried over. It's like I'm back with Elder Berlin again! Speaking of which, he goes home in less than two months! WHOA! I hit my year mark in less than two months WHOA! But it's all cool. Anyway, in Bydgoszcz, there is no place to do finding activites except for the bridge that has naked nate on the tightrope. So we're there every day. I'm getting really familiar with that bridge. And travel time is very little now, and we have a lot more time to actually do things!

We're teaching four people right now- Abraham and Rafael, and Isuru and Janaka. We only ever teach them in those pairs. Abraham and Rafael are from Nigeria and are here for school, and are pretty cool. They have a baptismal date for the 9th of july, and if things go to plan, we'll totally make it! Isuru and Janaka are both from Sri Lanka! They're here for school as well, but neither of them had ever heard of Jesus Christ, and only one of them knew that there was a book that existed that was called "The Bible", so Elder Rowley and I have been able to actually teach someone who Jesus Christ is and why he's our savior! And it's been one of the coolest experiences of my life. A couple of days ago, we just watched some of the bible videos with them, so they could get a good idea of his life and the most important parts, and when we watched the video that showed His crucifixion, and ressurection, I felt the Spirit hit so hard, and I just knew that they felt Him as well. They may not have understood everything that was going on, but they understood that what they just watched was one of the most important events that has ever occured in the history of this world. Pretty cool.

The branch here is bigger, but I've already learned an important lesson- the size of a branch or ward does not determine it's functionality. It's up to the people themselves. Having a super righteous Bishop or other great leaders in the branch or ward definitely helps A TON, but if the people aren't willing to pull their part then all the branch has is one person trying their hardest. It's like a talk from Elder Holland. Can't remember when or what it's called, but he talks about a lady who told him how she's sorry that she's never been in a leadership position, and that all she's been is a helper, but then he goes on to say that the helper position is the most valuable and the most important position in the church. So if you're a not a leader, don't think that you have nothing to offer, instead, think that you have one of the most important positions in the church! Because you do!

Bydgoszcz is not really that ugly, I have no idea why they call it that...

The new apartment is pretty good, a little smelly, but we'll be able to fix that up!

Whenever Poland plays, the streets are empty, and the next morning is also eerily silent. But so far they're doing great, so that's pretty sweet! I'm just not excited for the day that they lose (if they lose) and we'll recieve a bunch of the backlash... oh well... POLSKA BIAŁO CZERWONI!!!!!

 Being district leader isn't really a huge thing. We lead District meetings every week, and we text in every night to say that we're in our homes safe and sound. I am an example, though, so that makes me want to work harder! But all the missionaries in this district are super hard workers, so it's not even hard. There's like, nothing I can say that can inspire them more than they're already inspired :D

We have an english class here, but it's kind of small, so we're working on that. 

I don't have any requests that I can think of, but one member here who's from america and is here for NATO (i think) will be going to American Fork, and says that if there's anything you can give him that's under 1 pound, he can take it, so we might just have to take him up on that offer.

Anyway, Bydgoszcz is great, and I hope you have a great time in IOWA!! YEAH! I miss Iowa, sometimes I tell people I'm from Iowa because I'm tired of the looks I get when I say I'm from Utah, so that's great! Can't wait to see some pictures!

LOVE

Starszy Liechty

OH! Also, next week, P-day is going to be on Wednesday! President Edgren is leaving, and we're getting a new mission president, President Turek on Thursday! So we're heading up to Gdańsk to have Zone training and meet the new pres! And then there will be exchanges with the sisters on Tuesday, so in order to keep things all organized, P-day's been moved to Wednesday. So don't forget and don't be sad when nothing comes next monday!

21 June 2016 - Transferred to BYDGOSZCZ!

Saying good bye in Szczecin

This is Naked Nate.

Super cool, because he's just hanging over this river, and he's not welded on or anything, and someone was just genious enough to construct it so he just balances there. If you watch, you can see him wobble and move, and when pigeons sit on him it'll tilt, but he's never fallen! Well done, Bydgoszcz

(Don't worry, I'm getting a haircut)

Alright, are you guys ready? Because I've been transfered to another city with the same impossible to pronounce "szcz"!

BYDGOSZCZ!

(Bid-gaosh-ch)

(kind of)

(lot's of missionaries call it "Brzydgoszcz" because that's a mix of the name of the city, and the polish word for "ugly")

(Bydgoszcz is ugly)

My new companion's name is Elder Rowley, and he's freaking awesome! This is his second transfer, meaning that I'm finishing his training, but he's already a stellar missionary, so there's little I have left to do. He was originally trained by one of the best missionaries here, so that was a blessing. And guess what? HE'S FROM AMERICAN FORK! Like, a five-minute bike ride from our house! He also played a lot of nintendo videogames, and we already get along REALLY well!

The trip was very boring, but my old investigator Jan called me like, 5 times during the ride because he already missed me so much, so I could have some conversations with him. There was also a lady sitting in front of me trying to solve a rubix cube, and it was a little painful watching her. Also, there was a guy sitting next to me who was freaking VAPING IN THE TRAIN! IN THE TRAIN! ugh. It smelled like roasted marshmallows, though, so it wasn't 100% terrible. It was also 4 hours long, and I have no idea how far away I am from Szczecin now.

I haven't met the new branch yet, but Bydgoszcz has one of the biggest branches in Poland with about 30 active members! We even have our own building! It's not a real LDS chapel, in fact, it was an old German Gestapo building. Heh.

My last week in Szczecin was pretty normal, we met with Jan, tried to get him to be baptized, be he wasn't having it, went finding, advertized with english,almost set up lessons with some people. You know, the norm, and then we were trying to face painting again, but the member we were going to do it with got sick, and the weather was terrible again! AH! I even got my own face painted as Darth Maul for an example picture! (freaking awesome, though) And when the day for transfer calls came, Sister Cutting texted me in the morning saying "Whaaaaaat!? Where?" before I got the call, because she had heard from a higher authority that i was leaving, but didn't know that I hadn't gotten the call yet, so the whole day I was kind of just thinking "nuts" And then Elder Ashworth texted me saying "YOU'RE COMING BACK TO POZNAŃ!" And then like ten minutes later he said I wasn't and he was being a total troll, and then I got him back, saying that I got my call and that Elder Garrison was going to Poznań and that Elder Ashworth was going to be both Branch President and Zone Leader, and he was just so stressed about that, then I told him that I was joking too. BUT after everyone had got their calls, no one knew who our zone leader would be (and yes, I am in the same zone as Szczecin was) and Elder Ashworth called me again, and said that it was me! (because zone leaders are always in Poznań or Bydgoszcz) and so I was freaking out, and he didn't tell me that he was joking for like, 2 hours. It was just a roller coaster of a day. I hope you understand what I just wrote. Anyway, I am district leader, though, so that'll be cool!

You're going on so many hikes lately! Am I going to have to step up my game when I get home? Are you two going to be totally crazy health freaks, and I won't be able to eat ice cream in the house? Because I'm going to be eating ice cream in the house. There's no stopping me. But it's good that you're doing things, and not just shutting down now that all the kids are out of the house. I feel like that would be the weirdest experience. Like, leaving Szczecin after being with them for a total of 6 months was just so weird, and dropping off your last kid at the MTC after rasing kids for 25 years or so straight. Man. Crazy. What's that like?

A real szkod that we were n't able to see Sean. I met a lot of Military who know who our church was, and it was really strange. Because no one knows who we are, but then for the last couple of weeks there, we'd be riding on the bikes home, and some Americans would shout "the MORMONS!" YEAH! State side missions would be so whack.

 I don't know our address. I just know how to walk home from the bridge that we do all of our finding activites on. (Bydgoszcz is really small)

I love you all and have a GREAT (actually great, go out and do something more (than dream of your mansion above)) week!

Love

Elder Liechty

13 June 2016

Breakfast for dinner

Investigator, also a singer!

In Germany!

Randomly finding upside down houses!

Elder garrison

Face painting practice

Upside down house

Elder Garrison

In both Germany and Poland

Hello!

Polish is not crazy. It is beautiful.

But it is possible to make words such as "Dziewięćmilionówdziewęćsetdziewiędziesiątdziewięćtysięcydziewięćsetdziewiędziesięciodziewiąty"

That's 9,999,999th

Yeah, at Zone Conference we got a Temple Recommend case that is specific for the Poland Warsaw mission, and a Polish hymn book! I was really excited about the hymn book, because Polish songs sound awesome!

And the face painting thing was an idea that we had for finding, we'd have Sister Sloan, and one of the members, Alex Pakora, paint the faces, and while they were doing that, we'd be talking with the parents and it'd be a lot more relaxed and everything. We decided to do that because Elders in Warsaw said that they did a thing where they shined peoples' shoes and talked to them while they did that and it was great. We made a very pretty sign, and made those example pictures to hang up on the sign, so that's why Elder Garrison has that sweet tiger on his face, but when the day came to actually paint faces, Alex was sick, and the weather was really cloudy and cold and no one was outside. Then it started raining, and so it wasn't as awesome as we'd hoped. But then we went to the Cuttings, and made french toast and had breakfast for dinner and it was all better again! YAY!

I did hear that Elder Ashworth is now the branch president (which is the calling that I dread the most. Like, all the responsibility would just be so scary. Let's all give a hand for the Bishops who have to care for a couple hundred people at once. phew.) And we get our transfer calls this Saturday, which means that I'll be emailing on Tuesday next week, so don't be scared, and I might be in a different city. But I want to stay here. For some reason I just really love Szczecin!

I have no requests for the birthday box. Except for pictures! I always love having the pictures to look through!

I've been reading through this Old Testament study guide, so I can actually say that I've read the Old Testament, and I'm in the middle of 2 Kings. And geez, people can just be so wicked. And of course, everyone has their own agency, and everyone needs to stop blaming things on other people, but the leaders have SO MUCH influence of their people. A righteous nation can become wicked and evil just because one king was good and the next was bad. Being a leader is a big responsibility, but if you've been called by God, to be one in the church, he trusts you. Which means you can trust yourself. The Lord doesn't make mistakes.

I looooooooooooove you all!

Elder Liechty

6 June 2016

Hi!

We went to the Baltic today!! And I walked into Germany! German is such a funny language, how do they talk to each other without laughing? How did Zach serve a mission there for two years!? I couldn't contact anyone without busting up when I heard words come out of their mouths! Crazy people.

And that bread didn't taste very good, so we ate a big chunk of the inside, and planned on throwing the crust out to the pigeons, but we haven't done that yet, and it's still sittting on our kitchen table... But one day we'll do it! Maybe.

WOO! Yup, we've been teaching a man named Jan, (I don't know if I've told you about him) and he was very Catholic, in fact, he was studying in seminary to become a priest, but for some reason, he decided that he didn't like all the teachings of the catholic church, and is now learning about our church. I've learned a lot about the Catholic Church over the last month, and I've learned a lot about our own church as well, but if it's done anything, it's just boosted my testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is God's true and living church on the earth today. But was I was getting at earlier is this, that there's a holiday here called "Boze cialo" here, or "godly body" and it's real neat, but I didn't understand anything that was going on, but it's also a Catholic holiday, and we were invited to go by Jan, and we went, and we marched through the city, said some prayers, and sang our "amens". It was awesome. 

We did have Zone Conference! It was President and Sister Edgren's last Zone Conference ever, so it was a little sad, but it was also pretty cool. We learned the Polish national anthem, because we should have more national pride for Poland, and it's pretty cool. The first line is "Polish has not yet perished" And the rest is pretty powerful, but I don't have it memorized. Geez, give me a break. These people's history is just wack. Absoluticznie szalona.

Walking around shorts, not exercise, size 32 still, and old if you can find them. Order up!

And yeah, I'm having a great time with Elder Garrison! Coming here to friends I had already made, a city I was already comfortable with, and a companion I got along with was very nice. Very nice indeed.

So we went to the Baltyk today,... oops, Baltic, and we didn't have much time to do stuff on the beach, wich was ok, anyway, because the wind was SUPER hard, but we did drive for two hours, get on a ferry, and then go through this neat forest check out a lighthouse that looked like a windmill, walk across the beach into Germany, and eat a bunch of seafood! I ate an oyster! A REAL LIFE OYSTER! And, a salad with a bunch of tomatoes in it. And do you know what? I LIKED IT. Now, which of those two things are you more surprised I ate? Because I was more surprised of the tomato one.

Also, I've been reading the book of Job in the Bible, and it turns out that its 42 chapters long, but the part that everyone talks about is only the first three chapters. Wild. The rest of it is his friends trying to council him, but totally missing the point, and they all end up calling him a sinner, and condeming him for thigns he didn't do. Good job, guys. But really it stresses the importance of two things- Be honest with yourself, and if you know you're right, there's nothing anyone else can do about it, even if you're wrong. But even Job said that if they show him where his fault lies, he will listen. They didn't though, and that's the second point- if you're going to council others, 1. study out the problem and the possible causes beforehand, and 2. Listen to the Spirit and don't rely entirely on your own wisdom. God knows more than you, accept it.

Just like he knows how much I LOVE YOU!!!

From,

Elder Liecht