9 January 2017

Gotta bundle up!

The work is good! We have so many lessons planned this week, that there's only 5 hours of contacting time planned! That's definietly a mission record! We have two really solid investigators named Mark and Darek. Mark is from America, and is just living here, but his friend referred him to the church, and he wants to learn a lot, and is already reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it, and Darek is an old investigator who called us asking to meet again, and has a baptismal date set for the 4th/11th of February! (We find out tonight which one will work) Then Michał is doing really well, and we meet with him twice a week, and we're doing a lot of contacting with Family History, which has been working really well! Things are looking really up for the Kraków branch lately!

You got those pictures from Michał because every Sunday we have dinner at the Daltons', and everyone who can come comes, and that includes Michał! He's doing really good, and our job now is to re-teach all the missionary lessons so he remembers all the basic doctrines of the church. We started up his family history as well, and it's awesome! The other day we had a lesson where we prepared him for bearing his testimony in Sacrament meeting, and basically I'd ask a simple question, and he'd say yes or no, and then we'd get him to expound on it, and just build his testimony that way. It was really cool! 

Elder White is from Lehi, Utah. I probably made the pizzas he bought from Little Caesars!

We just watched from our balcony. There were other elders from a nearby city who go to Kraków for church who were there on Saturday for the baptism who stayed the night with us there so they wouldn't have to travel a lot, so we were able to have a party! Also, everyone from my MTC group was on a group call so we could end the Blackout year together! We had to be in the apartement at 8:00, and weren't allowed to light fireworks... 

It's so cold. They say that there's some siberian winds coming in these next few weeks, and we're going to hit -25 Celcius, so that's going to be absolutley miserable. I've got enough clothes to keep me warm, though, I just need to handle the fact that my hair gets messed up when I put a hat on! There was snow, but it's gone now, or has turned into sheets of ice on the sidewalk, but we did shovel snow last week! We finally found some snow to shovel! Well done, team.

Also, earlier in the week, I led a baptismal interview for someone in the neighboring city! It was a really strange experience, being the one to make the final decision if someone's actually repented of their sins and are ready for that step of baptism. Certainly not something you would really expect 19 year-olds to be doing! But honestly, the fact that anyone makes it to that point means that the missionaries who are teaching them are doing a fine job, and there's really nothing to worry about. I kind of enjoy the feeling of responsibiliy these days! It makes me feel like the things i'm doing finally have a purpose, and I'm not just playing videogames for the empty satisfaction of it. 

Granted, I'm still going to play videogames, but my prioreites are a lot better set in line. :D

There's nothing I want more than to go skiing. That's going to bethe first thing I do when I get home. I don't even care that I get home in August, I'm going to wait and do nothing until the Winter.

Are there any names chosen for the little blob we're going to have as a new family member yet? I'm still sticking with Samuel Frederick Liechty II. I don't see any problems with that one.

Also, this last week I had a talk with another missionary about the rules. For some reason, every time I've heard about rule breaking missionaries, I thought that they were the stuff of legends, that they existed for the sole purpose of story telling and moral building. That is not true. It wasn't a loud or a firey argument, but the tension was very much there. This missionary is also really smart, and is able to work his way out of or into a lot of different situations, but knowing this, I came in with the firm confidence that I was not going to lose any argument, and I had the confidence to do that because I knew for a fact that I had all the Scriptures and Prophets behind my back on this one. There's just really no other way around it! In the end, he agreed to keep the rules, and not try to fight them, so that was good. 

Anyway, to end on a good note, today is Michał's birthday! Guess what we're going to do to celebrate!? TRAMPOLINE PAAAARRRRRKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!! This is now the fourth time we've gone. I have no regrets! WOO!!!

Love,

Elder Samuel Frederick Liechty I