Fam.
You should send it to the mission office if you're confidant that it'll get there before the 9th of December, but if not, you should probably send it to the Daltons, because I don't know our new address because we did move. Forgot to tell you! But now I've closed down 3 different appartements, and moved a total of 10 times during my mission! I'm tired of moving. I haven't stayed in the same building longer than 3 months!
Speaking of Jan, I have a story. It begins 8 months ago. Before I came to Szczecin for the second time The elders were advertising for their english class, and one guy took a flyer, and said he'd probably not go, but then the Elder Garrison said "zobaczymy" Which means in essence "we'll see about that", and because of that, the guy, named Jan, came to the english class. Let 8 moths pass by, and now he is baptized and confirmed, and wanting to serve a mission, and has thrown behind him all his bad habits. All because Elder Garrison said "zobaczymy". I've thought about this a lot, and I've realized that God works through us, even though we are imperfect. I don't think the Spirit told Elder Garrison to say that, I think he just said that because that's who he is, and that's what he does. And that's how God works through us, and that's why we're where we are when we are. My call was to Samuel Liechty, not some other doofus, but to me. All of our other callings as well, because we, whether we know it or not, are qualified and have in us what it takes. Of course, as time passes we need to learn to better understand the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and follow them and keep improving, but as we're doing that, God's going to use what he can, and that's enough.
Unfortunately, since the first visit, the Priests have either not answered the door/phone, or have said 'no thank you'. Sad, but we're still trying!
Bad news- I forgot my camera charger in Bydgoszcz. Elder Hill is mailing it to me, but it might be a while before I get it. so... I'll try to get pictures from other people!
I don't know how to feel about that fact that I'm nine months away... I'm mostly scared really. For change, and for feeling like I haven't done all that I was supposed to do. The whole fact that there's a time limit to a mission really makes cause for worry on both ends.
Over the last couple of weeks, we had Zone Conference, where one of the area seventies spoke to us, and it was good. There was actually an investigator named Wiktor there, and the whole time the Seventy would just stop and shout 'WE'VE GOT WIKTOR RIGHT HERE!" when talking about the fact that it's possible for things to happen in this mission. At first I was like, 'dude, calm down or you'll scare him away!", but by the end I really liked what he was doing and I could see that he was just not ashamed of the Gospel one bit! Then we had Exchanges, where we went to Wrocław for a day, and that was mostly uneventful, but I actually got to teach a lesson to that very same Wiktor, which was really cool! He really wants to be baptized, but his parents thought he was joking when he told them (he's 16), and now that the date is coming up, his parents are just not letting it happen. Then we had Thanksgiving!! We had a branch party, so there were about 30 people who showed up, and it was really fun and there was a lot of food. But this whole being healthy thing that I started doing a couple of months ago (which is still going on, to all you people who thought it would just be a fad that would pass in a couple of weeks) has made me not able to eat nearly the same amount of food that I once could! I used to be able to eat like, over 1000 cm3 of pizza, but now I can only eat about 300 cm3. A true shame.
Elder Curtis sent an email last week because I went to the mountains with Elder McPherson, and Elders Curtis and Pettit stayed behind because they'd already gone. There was me, Elder McPherson, Elders Rowley (WOO), Adriano, Mandla, and Baldwin and Sisters Barney and Gheen (all from the Katowice district) And we started to climb! We all came into it thinking that it'd be like a walk in the park because we were all used to Utah mountains and such, but it turned out that it was about as high as Mount Timpanogos, and none of us made it to the top because there was not enough time! We did make it to one of the lakes up there, which was beautiful, and while there a small group of missionaries tried to make it to the top, but didn't in the end. While waiting for them, Elder Rowley and I started to build a kairn and it was pretty rockin', but the wind blew it down... not before we got sweet pictures with it, though! Also, it was great just to be able to spend an hour with him again. Gosh, he's just great. I think I say that in emails every time I see him. Because it's true! On the way down from the mountain, we decided to take a different path that would take us along the ridge of the mountian. Bad plan. It was incredibly windy, so much that if you started to fall towards the wind, it would be able to hold you up. Keep in mind that we're here on the ridge of the mountain. Cliffs on both sides. (I exaggerate, the odds that we would actually get swept off the mountain were very low, but it was certainly not the safest place to be) It was actually so windy, that my glasses flew off my face, but I was able to catch them before I lost them forever! After some fervent prayers on the move, we all made it safely past the cliffs and into the forests and on our way down. The wind was still so strong that we could feel it all the way down. All in all, though, that was probably one of the best P-days of my mission. I'd recommend it!
The other Elders are teaching a less active member from the states right now who went less active right after he went to college, and it's just a really sad story... Like, all his family is back home together with families of their own, and are going off doing good things, and he's here, unmarried and living in Poland of all places and just kind of existing. We also are teaching a person with a very similar story. The difference the Gospel makes in people's lives is so real, and so visible when we have those examples to see!
Ok, LOve YOU!
Elder Liechty
xxxoooxoxoxoxoxooxooooxoxxxoxo
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