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