18 July 2016

This Pokemon game is getting out of hand. Why did it have to come out now!? Maybe it's so I don't lose my life to it. Heh...

Also, my birthday was as good as it could have been, but I actually forgot that it was my birthday until my comp reminded me about it! Anyone who's wondering, this is the song people sing in Poland for their birthdays-

Sto lat sto lat niech żyje żyje nam
Sto lat sto lat niech żyje żyje nam

Jeszcze raz jeszcze raz niech żyje żyje nam

NIECH ŻYJE NAAAAAAMMMMMM!

A kto?

(potem, mówimy imię tego, kto ma dziś urodzenie. Albo ślub. Jest bardzo wszechstronna pieśń)

We also had a branch barbeque that day, so it was kind of like I had a party!

I have never been to Silver Glance Lake. I never even knew that one existed... And what band is uncle Don in? Is he the singer? Is it like classic 70's and 80's? Rock on, Uncle Don, rock on.

There's this guy who comes to our english class named Olgert. He's an old man and is pretty out of it. He comes to our english class, then starts speaking in German, and doesn't understand anything even when the other students explain it to him in Polish. also, we see him everywhere around town. Like, we even got off a train once, and he was just sitting there! Not taking any train or anything, just chilling on the platform in the train station. Basically, the best comparison we have for him is that he's like Mr. Magoo. We love him! He will come in and say "hello" and leave and say "goodbye" and that's it. He comes every week, and always takes notes. He also wears this cute little octopus pin on his jacket. The other day, when he left, he gave Elder Rowley this book of poetry entitled "Jutro było lepiej" or "Tomorrow was better" and the epigraph says "Polska nigdy nie jest większa, niż moj gniew na nią" Which means "Poland is never bigger than the hatred I have for her". Now we think that he's just this quiet ball of rage but still really kind to us. What a great man!

This week, both the Sisters and the Elders had exchanges! Sister Demordaunt and Sister Groesbeck came down here, and Elder Rowley and I went down to Poznań with the Zone Leader, Elder Bebel. It was really awesome to see and work with Sister Demordaunt . Then we went down to Poznań, and spent the day doing normal missionary work. Nothing huge really happened then. It was nice to see Elders Alvarez and Ashworth, though, because they've both been my companions!

And at that barbeque we talked about, a guy we met named Ilham came! He's from Turkmenistan, and we found him while english contacting and the sisters have been able to teach him a few lessons! He's honestly one of the nicest people I have ever met, and he even got me a gift for my birthday! A nice blue shirt and a tie. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait a while before I can wear that shirt, but the tie is really nice.

Answers to those questions:

1. The most suprising thing, chodzing o preparedness, would probably be responsiblity that I have out here. Like, back home, the biggest responsiblity I had was probably my own getting good grades and all that, but then also being Sousaphone section leader. If I hadn't of done anything, or let the people in my section slack off and not do their job, the band would sound bad and not look good, yeah, but the preformance ends and we're all pretty much the same people after that. Out here things got a lot more real and a lot more serious. But it's definitely helped me become a lot more real and genuine myself, so I really have no complaints.

2. I wish I would have studied Poland more and it's history. Understanding the people is really something very important in order to understand how to help them, and that's something I slacked off on doing before the mission, and there's not really much time to do that now...

3. The biggest piece of advice I would give is to study the Atonement of Jesus Christ, because as we learn about that, and the blessings that it'll bring to us and the possible blessings we can recieve if we accept and use it missionary work becomes both a true desire of our hearts and even a need. As we learn about Jesus Christ and what we can do through him, we'll come to understand that we can overcome every trial that comes our way and even become a better person because of it. I would suggest that above studying any other topic.

Love

Elder Liechty