26 June 2017

Welcome home!!!!!!

Ha. I got to welcome you guys home before you got to welcome me home. Take that!

Those pictures at the Blue Lagoon are cool. What was that all over your faces? Was that ice or something?

I'm going to start saying whenever there's a baptism in the mission so everyone back home realizes that it happens here and that it's not all hopeless like I'm sure a few people think. In the last two weeks there's been four baptisms, and one of them was in Kraków! Do you remember that person I talked about and said how I couldn't say much about them for privacy, but during the lesson they said that they felt the Spirit really strongly? Two weeks ago Elder Sommerfeldt and I were able to go to Kraków to conduct their baptismal interview! They're now a member of the church, and fully active. Also, another girl that I taught with Elders White and Fuhriman in Kraków wants to be baptised, but is waiting for permission from her parents, but she's been going to church and has already read all the Book of Mormon and D&C and a ton of the teachings of the presidents of the church books! One day...

Things stay pretty light here for a while, it usually gets dark around 10:00 here. And I always wake up a little early because the curtain in our room isn't long enough to cover up all the sunlight! But I like waking up and knowing that I can sleep another hour before I'm supposed to get up! I'm pretty glad that I get to finisz off in the summer. Everyone's a lot happier during the Summer, so that's the image I'll leave with. Also I'll have a rockin' missionary white shirt coller tan line to show off!

We did get to go to a school last week! Luckily we got to go, because it was the very last day of the shcool, and we were able to give two presentations. The kids thought we were hilarious, and a couople of them came up to us after class and talked with us, and that was pretty cool! Hopefully some of them start to come to our English class. Also, we've been doing sports every saturday for a while now, but this last week was really fun! We played vollyball with a bunch of strangers and some of our englihs class students, and the Americans destroyed. Basically all the volleyball training I got in the MTC payed off! Also, I can still jump pretty high because of frisbee, and as the shortest person on our team I was still able to spike it down on the others. And Elder Sommerfeldt played volleyball in high school, so he was just way better than everyone else in the first place, and the people we played against didn't stand a Chance.

I think I'm either going to go to Poznań again, or stay in Kato. Only because I leave a bit early, and so does the rest of my group, and if I go to Poznań, then I'll be with someone that's from my group. But then again that same person could come down here and we could die silently together. I'm probably going to stay here. We also know that President Turek doesn't want people in their last transfer to hold any leadershipo positions if possible, so I'm probably not going to be Zone leader anymore!

Also, another thing that's going on, is that we're doing a TON of less active finding, where we just go to the addresses of people who haven't been to church in a really long time and find out if they still live there and what they're opinion on the church is. Basically just updating the branch list. In the last few days, we've been having a lot of success and gathering a lot of information that others hadn't and two less actives even let us in!

I studied humility a lot one time, and a lot of the quotes I found and a lot of the questions they told you to ask yourself to see if you were humble lead me to think that if someone is truly humble, then the people who are around that person want to be better. A humble person just naturally brings others to Christ, though his or her nature. Meaning that that person is an example, and others will want to be like that person. And so yeah, if you're alway beating up on yourself for not being perfect, then that's not really an exemplary attribute, but if you recognize your weaknesses, and turn them into strengths, as humility should do, then it would be something that lots of people would emulate, because turning weaknesses into strenghts sounds like the best thing any of us could do! And that would link back to the having a vision part that you talked about, because if we see our goal, then we'll clearly see that thinking negatively of ourselves is not the sort of thing heavenly beings do. Also Jesus Christ never said "I'm just the absolute worst". He did, however say in a single sentence that he was the greatest and least in the kingdom of heaven, knowing his own divine calling but at the same time knowing what others thought of him (Matt 11:11). He knew exactly where he was and where he was going.

I love you all so much!

I promise we're going to make some good things happen in Kato this week!

Love

Elder Liechty

There's also these statues in Kato that symbolize three uprisings that happened here in the early 1900's. They're supposed to be wings

19 June 2017

Nuts. I thought of something really clever this morning that I could say at the beginning of this email, but I forgot.

Darn.

Anyway, your trip sounds SO FUN. Those pictures are beautiful! We need to go back. We just need to tour the entire world. Take a year out or so, and go to all the places that are really cool and pretty... Wait. I just realized- while I was writing that sentence, I considered making two different weird and not really funny references to church and scriputre... I AM GOING TO BE A WEIRD RM! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! 

That's also SWEET that you got to see the homes of dad's ancestors! Is that part of the reason you went to Iceland? I totally forgot that we had ancestory there!

Yeah, it was so cool to be able to see Sister DeMordaunt and her family! Her mom is hilarious, and is probably reading this right now. Hello Sister DeMordaunt's mom!... or... I guess she's also Sister DeMordaunt... huh... But yeah, I wasn't able to see Nathan Garrison, but we were able to talk on the phone for a few minutes and that was really great! I probably wouldn't have been able to survive if I saw another RM, because every day is just harder and harder to not get trunky, and I can't have a single conversation with another person without the fact that I've only got a little over one transfer left coming up, and like, John goes home in about 12 days, and all my other friends are sending emails about their missions ending and it's getting really tough. I had no idea that I'd have such a hard time with this... The countdown timer in the center of town still doesn't help...

We haven't gone to any schools yet, we will on Tuesday and I'll tell you how it goes!

We have no investigators...

P-day today is kind of boring, because we all had to go and do normal things like get haircuts and deep clean our apartments, but I think there's this car show going on in one of the malls that Elder Sommerfeldt wants to see, so we'll go to that. We're also probably going to eat a Kebab. Classic.

We've been going out and knocking on doors lately to see how it works, because nothing else has worked so far. But do you guys remember that video you made Zach, when he turned twenty, and it was like "when you were 18, you could do (anything and 18 year old does) but now that you're twenty..."  Then it switches to a video of me and Max knocking on a door and saying that they were missionaries from the church, and then someone just yells "NEIN!" and slams the door? Hahahahahahahahah.... it's true... Don't worry about us, though! We just laugh about it, and then go on our merry way, waiting for someone to say yes. It happens! I've had it happen before, so I know it's possible! We just have to figure out what it is that works in Katowice before this transfer is over! (the 3rd of July, for those wondering)

I also finished reading Isaiah with the help of a study guide last week, and I'd reccomend it to all of you! Like, he testifies of Christ and of the Restoration and of the millenium so much, it makes one wonder  how anyone could think that our church ISN'T true! Just take the time, find a book that will explain what wimples and crisping pins are, and get to work. Like Jesus Christ said- 'Great are the words of Isaiah' (3 Nephi 23:1).

Love you all!

Elder Liechty

OH! Last week we had a scavenger hunt in Ikea, and it was really fun! It was also really fun dodging around all the workers, but sometimes getting caught, and they'd just look at us like we were children. Super fun!

12 June 2017

Luuuuuuuuuukies. I want to go to Iceland. Do something dangerous for me.

Also, my companion and I are now officially hippies, and aren't sleeping in our beds anymore. Just straight on the ground because in our English class one of the students was saying how he just sleeps on the ground, and we were like "whaaaaaat? Nah, man, that aint cool" but then all the other students were saying how good it was for your back and that it's way cool, and so Elder Sommerfeldt and I decided to try it out because both of our backs are pretty destroyed from walking around all the time and also our beds are really springy and saggy so by this point I'm really willing to try anything to make not hurt as much. So far it's just been really uncomfortable, but my back has stopped popping as much, which is a bonus, and I don't want to sleep in anymore, and that's also nice! I'll tell you how it's going next week!

We saw the Kamps, and that's so sad the temple was closed! That's where they were headed after they visited us. And the Barneys came as well, but we just saw them passing through, and the Garrisons are here, but I'm not sure if they're going to make it down to Kato because Nathan (Elder Garrison) never served here and again- there's just nothing to do in Kato. (There is a ton of cool stuff outside of Kato, though, we found out). The DeMordaunts are coming and in three weeks a really old missionary from two years ago will be visiting Kato and having a family reunion with a bunch of Polish people! We have to be there to translate. (It's really weird pluralizing all these missionaries' last names because we call them that all the time that it's practically become their first name. It's like saying "The Beths are coming over tonight", or "The Sams want to talk to you". Weird.)

We haven't done any presentations, but we've set up two. One will be this wednesday, but we found out that we're going to be in Warsaw on Wednesday, so the other Elders will take that one over, and the other will be the 20th. Which is already so close. I can't believe that we're already 12 days into June. It feels like it literally just started, and I'm FREAKIN' OUT.

Our English class here is actually pretty weak... We don't really know what we need to do. We do the same things we've done in all my other cities and there's always people, but here it's just not working the same. We just teach the advanced course which only has one guy in it, and he's pretty cool. He's our polish tutor as well, (we meet with him twice a week to learn Polish from a Pole). He'll be baptized one day, just you wait.

There's two English speakers in our branch and they're from South Africa! I don't know what they're doing in Katowice. No senior missionaries... Sunday dinners are especially hard, because I'm used to buying food for every day except Sunday, so now I'm usually left with a few pieces of bread for dinner on Sundays. Maybe a carrot or two. :D I'm going to enjoy coming home for Sunday dinner again!

Most of us are leaving the 28th (including the sisters, whos missions are over the same times as ours), but three are leaving on the 14th, because they're going to different schools that start earlier. Two elders from our original squad are going home on the early date, so we'll probably not even be able to say goodbye 😢

Was it fun to be in shcool again, if just for a little bit? Is writing papers even that bad? I feel like I've gotten a lot better at doing things like that on my mission. Like, I'm a lot better at expressing myself than I used to be, and writing one of those 40 page theses that I'll probably have to do one day still seems like an incredibly daunting task, but not quite as daunting at it used to seem. There's a ray of light now, at least!

Well... While I may have lost some things in the past, we have learned a very valuable lesson, that no price could buy; I can't be entrusted with valuable things. I will lose them. Now we will know for ever and ever, that if someone thinks I need something that's worth more than $15, I don't, because it'll be gone within 30 days ;D

I found out why I freak out whenever I think about going home! And it's really cheasy and cliché! I mean- lets be real, getting blessed by priests and yelled at by crazy old people and just being ignored for days at a time certainly weighs on a person, and it'd be very reasonable to want that to stop. But while I've been on my mission I HAVE been able to help a soul or two, and the scripture where it says "how great is the joy when you bring one soul to Christ" is actually true! On the mission I'm just actually able to help more people, and the help is a lot more visible. Back home I don't think that I'll have that opportunity, or at the very least not as often, and I LIKE being able to help people! It's simple, and I'm sure every missionary feels the same way, but that's how it is, and being home's gonna be rough for a bit.

I've got just under three months to do what I can here. I'm not going to waste it!

Love you all!

Elder Liechty

(It's good that sister Kamp's mom took pictures, because I didn't take anything this week :|

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HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

I needed those pictures because we're going to try to do presentations at high schools about America for their English classes. Missionaries in other cities have been doing it, and they say it's the best way to find investigators and English class students in the world. So we thought we'd give it a shot, but we have to hurry because the school year is over in a month.

Wow, everyone is just visiting Poland right now! I'm definitely going to want to visit Poland again like a year after I get back. We should totally do a Euprope trip and go to Germany France and Poland and then Caity should go on a mission to Russia so we can have WWII covered!

For all the people who's baptisms I've seen or been a part of, about half are still active in the church. The less active ones all have their own reasons, but they're still remembered by the branch, and are still trying to be reactivated. I'm sorry I can't give many more details than that; people really like their privacy here. But the ones you asked about are as active as they can be considering their situation. I'll be able to tell you more in a few months!

Yeah, tell me how that class goes, and you can prep me on what it's like taking a semester's worth of classes in one week so I'll be ready for that math class!

Ok, get this- it's been a while, but we've added a couple new inspiring chapters to the volumes of priest battles (conversations). Just this last week, I was handing out flyers for our English class, and this lady walks up to me and is like "what's this" and I say "free English classes" and she walks away, but then walks right back to me and askes "who's it run by?" And by this point I know exactly what's coming, and I tell her that it's run by our church, and then she just goes off on our church for being a Satanic sect, and that it doesn't even belong being called a church and that we shouldn't be coming in with our American ideas and Masonic, Christianity-destroying ideas and tells me that I shouldn't be preaching a false Gospel on Catholic territory. This goes on for about ten minutes, and then a Priest walks up, and tries defending me a little bit, but then the lady goes off on him for not also calling me a sect and evil. After another ten minutes, she walks away, and the Priest walks up again. I thank him for his help, but then he's just like "actually, I think you're a sect, also." and then explains how apostate the idea of three seperate beings as the Godhead is. I read the scripture in the Book of Mormon where Abinadi is preaching what sounds exactly like the Catholic idea of God but also helps us understand what we believe, but the Priest literally does not listen and says that what I read isn't true because it's not from the Bible. After a short argument, he asks me if he can pray for me, and I'm like 'sure', thinking that he meant at home in his prayers for all the sinners and whatnot. But no. Right there, in the middle of the street, with tons of people looking around, he lays his hands on my head and then starts saying this blessing! I was so shocked that I couldn't move, and then he high-fives me afterward and walks away. That actually happened. Right after, the other missionaries walk up to me and are like, dude what the freak just happened, and I'm feeling really weird at this point and uneasy, so I ask for a priesthood blessing from the Elders and we go back to the chapel and do it, and honestly the difference between the blessings was so real and amazing that I'm just so much more convinced of the apostasy - I didn't know that could have been so much more strengthened.

THEN the very next day, we go to the Catholic Church itself, it's very heart- the Seminary. This one is actually a lot less eventful. We were invited to Seminary by a couple of Catholic Deacons, and we went, and there we were able to discuss with them some things about our church and we were able to figure out things about their church, and it was all really a pleasant experience. They gave us some Rosaries, and if we go back they'll teach us how to pray using it. I don't really know what to do with it... It was really nice, though, to talk with some really pleasant people from another faith and just be able to discuss our beliefs and not argue for once.

 Still no Priest converts, though :)

Things have been going good here otherwise, we keep slowly getting more investigators, and more opportunities to teach. But that guy that I talked about in my last email has disappeared from the face of the earth. He even had a baptismal date!  I think I'm not super confused by what happened because somewhere along the way I found out that if you count up all the little miracles and tender mercies then it always adds up to more than what seems at the time as some huge crazy impossible miracle that seems to be the thing that changes everything. Because those miracles don't really always change everything. We should still be grateful for them, of course, but we shouldn't count on them to be the means of our salvation.

We also had exchanges with Elders Einfeldt and Lange in this week and they went well. Nothing out of the ordinary to report, but it was fun because Elder Einfeldt and I rode on a train to a far off city to teach an investigator and we were able to chat a bit about how life's going and about the mission (he was in the MTC with me). I got a little trunky again talking with him, but then I whipped myself back into shape and things are going strong again!

Love you all!

Elder Liechty