27 March 2017

Am I an uncle now? (nope)

The week was good, kind of normal. I actually don't remember anything that happened right now...

OH WAIT! That's right- we went on exhanges with the AP's this week! Right now, there's actually a trio of AP's and two of them are from my group- Elders Haskett and Einfeldt. It was really cool to see them again and how we've all grown on our missions. Warsaw is really different. There's a lot of crazy people there, too, but that makes it fun! 

Also, we started up this service project where we we're working with Kamila's mom at her work where she works with kids with mental disabilties. It looks like mostly Autism and Down Syndrome. This last week we played ping pong and bocce ball with them and it was so much fun! It's also really good because Kamila's mom is able to see us do service and not just preaching ;). But it made me feel bad that I didn't do more stuff like that when I was back home becase I totally had the time to do that and just didn't really care enough... Tell Sam Nielson that I say 'hi'

ALSO. Remember how about five months ago we went to the Motor Cross championships?! Just last week was the Diverse Night of the Jumps! A jump competition that was just as awesome as the races were! That's all I really have to say about that one. Just an awesome time of awesomeness.

In answer to your question, I would say it's on the positive side, but I'm not sure if it's love. It's difficult to get there. And I think I found out why. I've sent an email about this before, but I figured out some more things, so I'm going to explain once again: In my studies I've come across a few scriptures where either a prophet or God himself is saying that his prayer is that all God's children will be saved in the last day, or that God is waiting for the second coming because he's waiting and desiring all his children to repent and come unto him. 

Now, the problem I saw in these scriptures is that these prophets and God KNEW that that was impossible. They all knew of the end of the world when God would come down and cleanse the earth of all wickedness. Meaning that there would be wicked people in the last days. But despite that knowledge, they prayed that all would come unto Christ. 

Here's the first reason I think of- Saints don't give up. It's as simple as that. We just keep on trying because we know what is awaiting all who come unto Christ. The second reason explains why I said what I said at the beginning of this paragraph. Ezekiel 33:11 says this "Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?". When I read this I just felt such a personality in God, that I realized that he just absolutely does NOT want any of his children to suffer. Like the sons of Mosiah even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment causes God to shake and tremble. He does not want it. 

And as missionaries, lots of sad things happen (along with the good, of course). I've heard it said that so many bad things have happened, that they've just become dead to the feeling of sadness, though. And the easiest way to cope with it for many is exactly that- don't allow yourself to feel that sadness. But in doing so, you keep yourself from feeling the opposite. Without sadness there cannot be happiness. That's how God and the Prophets have so much hope for the children of God- because they have so much fear of what happens when there are bad choices made. Because they allow themselves to have the full range of emotions. 

So I realized that the way to be able to love someone and to have that hope and faith and charity towards them is to allow yourself to be subject to sadness. Allow yourself to have emotions in general. A scary thought, but how else are we supposed to have a broken heart and contrite spirit? But yeah- to deny yourself any possibility of being sad, you're denying yourself the same possiblity of happiness. If we let ourselves experience and truly go through some of our trials, all we're really doing is allowing us to be more happy when the end of the trial comes.

That was long... I hope you understood all that.

I'm trying to love the people more and more each day.

I love you all very much! Have a great week!

(I told one of the members that sometimes we compare newborn babies to potatoes (at least both me and Elder Pettit do), and she thought it was the weirdest thing. I guess they don't do that in Poland.)

Elder Liechty

22 March 2017

the gang

Elder Fuhriman looking like a scientist in my glasses

Cool wall art

painting painting painting

HI

FREAK, I feel like it was just a month ago that you told me that there was going to be a new baby in the family! NOW THAT'S THIS WEEK. This is crazy. I'm going to be an old man wearing sweater vests every day in like, three weeks. How does this happen?

I still haven't got a picture of Zach's face, I really want to see it before it goes back to normal! 

I'm going to call President tonight to figure out if I can get one and that he remembers it, because he totally forgot about it last week when I saw him. For sure I will see him the 5th of April, so that's the day it should happen. When is the very last day that it can happen, so I don't let it pass and not be as stressed out as I need to be?

All I really want in a package is Pilot G2 Gel Pens .07 mm. Don't worry, if you need help Max or Caity will know exactly where to go. Also pictures of family and such would be really nice. I like those. Also, something for Elder Fuhriman,  he'd probably enjoy getting something. The Daltons are here, you'll be able to send it to them. 

So the Cuttings leave today... I'm really sad about it, but I called them last night to say goodbye, and they just made me so happy! That's one thing I love about them is that they're always able to make a situation that should be sad or would make someone disheartened into something really fun and excited for the future. I'm going to miss them, but they've done their job and it's time for me to finish up mine, and then we'll be able to see each other again! Good luck, Elder and Sister Cutting!

In this last week we also had Zone Training! It went well, I think, but there were definitely some parts where we could have improved. We planned on having way too many things, and the whole time I was really stressed trying to push it forward so we could get through everything we planned. It was also really interesting planning it with three other people, because we had to discuss different ideas and figure out something that we all agreed on before we went on, which was strange compared to district meetings that I got to make all by myself. In the end it took longer, but it was probably a lot better quality than it would have been if one of us planned alone. It was also a bit more difficult though, because we couldn't change many plans once it had begun, because we couldn't all group together in the middle of the meeting and decide where to go from where we were. Different challenges, but I liked it! It was also great to see some old friends at zone training that I hadn't seen in a while, but the longer I'm here, the less and less I know the missionaries! It's strange.

I forgot to say also, that two weeks ago there was a meeting of Zone Leaders and AP's, and while there, all the people from my MTC group were there! Last time we were all together was when we all trained someone at the same time, and I was pretty sure that the next time would be when we flew home, but NOPE! While at that meeting, we played a communist Poland version of Monopoly, and it was really sad and depressing, but we played it to better understand the lives of the Polish people and why they act the way they do. Like, no one does their home teaching here because a few years ago the only people who came into your home who weren't family were people who came to take away your furniture and children. Kind of reasonable.

The branch here is really nice, but some are stuck in old habits of not really helping the missionaries. One really nice thing, though, is that there's so many foreigners here, that the new members are able to look at their example, and be more energetic in the work and in church in general, so we're starting a new generation of Polish members, and it's going to be great! Elder Fuhriman is a great help in this because he knows how to work with members and push them on in missionary work, so the time for a revolution in the way of life here in Kraków has begun!

The more time goes on I kind of just want to laugh and cry at the same time.

Love,

Elder Liechty

13 March 2017

HI

Wait, what does this mean? Is Zach's face going to be something we can laugh at for a long time now, or does it go away after a little bit? Because you don't seem to concerned ;) (His older brother has developed Bell's Palsy)

Alright, you need to be honest with me- are you going to take me skiing all the time when I get home? Because all these trips you're taking is making me want to go skiing more and more. I think I might go to the mountains again for another P-day while I'm here, but I don't know yet.

Whoa... Church at 1 PM. That sounds amazing! But at the same time it wouldn't give the Dalton's a chance to make dinner, so maybe it's not worth it ;) I was talking with Elder Fuhriman about his time in Orem (he broke his hand in the MTC, so he spent about 2 months of his mission in Orem) and he told me that just he and his companion were over 11 wards! WHAT!? 4 to 6 of us have a hard enough time just managing one branch of 20 or less people! It's amazing that that happens! Missions are all so different, so I never try to compare, but it's really cool to see how things work in other missions

The english class with so many people is pretty fun, but everyone there is on such different levels, even though there's different courses, it's hard to meet the needs of everyone. I still like it more, though, becuase it's like we're teaching a real english class and not just sitting in the primary room with three adults and talking about super heroes (you'd be surprised how many times that has happened)!

I sent you another email about the release date, so hopfully we'll be able to figure something out quick. Other missionary moms would be (I only know last names) Einfeldt, McMaster, Haskett, Gheen, Haight, and Stahl. I'm pretty sure we're all planning on going to BYU.

Elder Fuhriman and I are meeting with a lot of people right now, which is really interesting, because I've never had this on my mission before. He really doesn't like finding activities, and he knows how missions are like in the states concerning teaching lessons and working with members, so he does all he can to fill our days with meetings. Sometimes it's really good, and sometimes it just means that we're meeting with people who aren't making any progress at all. For the most part, though, it's way better than trying to do finding activities all the time, and we're helping the members out a lot! We're doing a lot with family history, and now I really want to get into that when I get home. We need to figure out what your side of the family looks like, mom!

Mini-miracle time! Yesterday, as I was standing up at the podium translating for church because the batteries in the microphone ran out, the speaker was saying something about how we should be led by Christ and not dragged. When he said "drag", though, I had no idea what he said, so I just guessed a word, but the second time he said it, I heard it and I knew exactly what it meant, and I didn't even doubt! It meant drag! It was so cool! A word I had never heard before and in a situation where I couldn't try to think about what it meant, I was able to just pull it out of nowhere. Maybe not preaching in a new language, but it was definitley the gift of tongues.

I've also been wondering about some scriptures lately. At the end of his book, Nephi says something along the lines of "I pray that many of my bretheren will be saved, if not all in the last day". Peter says the same thing, and so does Ezekiel in the Old Testament. I've been wondering, because these people for sure knew about the last days, and must have known that Jesus was coming a second time to destroy the wicked, but they still prayed about it! But they knew it wouldn't happen! I wonder if they just had such child-like faith that they prayed for it. They just had so much hope, and I want to know how I can get that much hope as well.

Love you all!

Elder Liechty

6 March 2017

No witam, witam

Elder Fuhriman is great! (I was spelling his name wrong last week) It's been about 8 months since I was with a missionary who had been out longer than 6 months, so it's great to have some of the load lifted off. And since he's from Ukraine, he's got a little bit of the Slavic attitude, and it's already helped me understand how to work with the people here much better. Basically, when we would be trying to figure out some special way to do something to make sure that there's no problems or no one even gets the slightest bit offended, he would just do it and not really care what happens as an effect. And it turns out that the Polish people really like that way of thinking, much more than trying to beat around the bush or make really complicated and detailed plans. He's from West Jordan

Being Zone leader so far isn't really different. Every Sunday we talk to all the district leaders in our zone, and figure out how all the work is going for them, and then report to the mission president, we also go to meetings called MLC, where all the zone leaders and sister training leaders get together and figure out what the mission needs to move along. We do also lead two Zone trainings a transfer. That's basically the jist of it.

That may have been a bit of an exaggeration, but just the missionaries that I would be serving around in Wrocław, no one was sad that I had to stay around them in Kraków for another two months ;)

I still have not gotten the pictures from Elder Dalton... And unfortunately, I won't be seeing the Cuttings before they leave, I'm pretty sad about that, but we're definitely going to meet up after I get home! 

(how did Elder Wynne know about me? I didn't know who he was until he was long gone back home...)

In all my memory, I think I've heard Dad give a talk in church, and I don't think I've ever heard you, mom! Tell me how it goes! Relief society is kind of strange here, because the RS president lives over 2 hours away from anyone else in the branch, and there's so few women in the branch anyway! But all of our investigators except one are girls right now, so that will hopefully help out ;)

Speaking of everyone being girls, we had our english class this week, and 30 people came! That's more than ever before, at the beginning of that transfer, there were two people coming. But of those 30 people, about 26 or 27 of them were girls. We talk to everyone about it, but this happened... We're working on a solution, it's not a very good situation for the elders.

That's all for this week!

Love,

Elder Liechty