heyehyeheyehyehey

hey!

Sorry again for being a day late, but I finally got my residence card! After almost 5 months, I am legal again!!!

So, the daily schedule starts out with studies until 11:00. Then we'll usually go outside to contact people for a couple of hours, usually in a park that is near our home called park citadela. Then we'll go in for Lunch, after lunch, we'll usually go near the middle of the city, and either english contact, which is just going around and passing out english fliers, or street contact. Then we'll go tracting after a couple hours of that, and then go home for dinner at night. Normally we don't do that, but the last hour of the day is REALLY dead, and everyone gets super angry if we knock on their doors, so until it gets light at night, we take dinner at the end of the day. If we have a lesson with someone, it's usually around 3:00 or 4:00, and throughout the week there are planned activites that break up the work. What I said is a normal friday.

Poles usually just say they don't have time and keep on walking, they'll often ingore us, and things, but no one is mean. Or outwardly mean, at least. I kind of wish there was more persecution, though... it'd make for a better time. More easily identified trials. And I meet crazy people all the time! Mostly old women. They got hit by the crazy bomb the hardest, but every once in a while (at least twice a week) there'll be some guy who comes up, or gets stopped by us and just starts talking about all this stuff and about God and aliens or something and then just walk off after he's given his opinion. It's always fun!

I do very much miss the Cuttings' meals, but there is one member- Bożena, who feeds us every week, so that's pretty nice! Haven't discovered any new foods yet... And most P-days are spent relaxing at the chapel. Today, however, we're doing this thing called an escape room! Tell Max about it, he'll probably understand this next reference- it's like those computer games, where you're in a room or building, and you have to find certain items and keys and different combinations to locks and stuff to get out and it's just one huge puzzle. It's like that, but in real life! We did one a few weeks ago, and it was really fun!

DAD! You'd be scolding me so hard for getting sunburnt! HA. Just kidding. Also, I wish it was spring here... Poznań is still being really cold. Just yesterday it was still 0 degrees C when we went outside!

And in answer to all your questions,

1. Weronika moved her appointment to this Thursday, so we haven't been able to meet with her, and Grzegorz said he wasn't able to meet at all this week until Tuesday (in a week). We did meet with this one girl named Alexandria, but she said she didn't want to meet with us again until she read the whole BoM, so that was a little stinky, but this last week we somehow stole an investigator from the other Elders, and are teaching him later today. Elder Vance feels really awkward about it because he feels bad for the other companionship, but hey, if the guy (Marcin) will have a good experience with us, then that should be okay. And he might switch back to the other elders if we don't suit his needs. His sister is a member, so he was in church before any of us knew him, so it's not like we're stealing the hard finding efforts of the other companionship. He's kind of like a district investigator. Also, he's bringing a friend to our lesson tonight. We'll see.

2. On the flyer that we pass out, there's the main English class, which happens twice a week, and there's another option for individual appointments, and they'll call, and we'll tell them the deal. The other elder's number is on there first, so they get most of the calls, and most of the appointments. Tak jest. And in our main classes, we start out with a prayer and a spiritual thought, and then go into english. And we also have a religious discussion after every english class, which everyone is invited to. About five or six people usually stay for that. And we advertise for the class a TON so we're able to start out with prayer and a spiritual thought and not suffer any number damages.

3.Well, I was at the mission office yesterday, but that was just bad timing, unfortunately. The next time I'll get anything from the office is at zone conference, which is in about two weeks. Can't think of anything specifically, WAIT socks. Mine are getting holes in them, and it's pretty lame. But that's all I can think of.

4. I can watch Mormon messages, but while I'm emailing isn't the best time, because I only have a limited time to do so, but we usually hang out at the chapel during P-day, and there I can watch all the mormon messages I want. I haven't seen the easter one yet, but I've heard of it and I'm really excited!

5. We'll stay here for General Conference, I don't know the schedule with all the time change dealios, but it'll be at our chapel. And probably in Polish. :D

6. Sorry, I've been really stinky at taking pictures... I'll get pictures of the apartment and stuff, and more with me in them. so I don't have any with me in front of Polish things, but I do have one of me riding a Whinnie the Pooh ride. And yeah, the poem was boring, I know, it was just the only new picture I had.

7. And I do like it when you send the spiritual stuff! I probably won't reply about it, and give my commentaries, for lack of time, but I do really appreciate it! It always gives me a boost for the day!

This week wasn't any more exciting than any other week, but I feel like just generally I'm making my way out of a depressive slump that I've been in for like the last month. Which is good. I really can't think of any specific thing that I did, either. I think it's just the general spiritual uplift after enduring a hard time. Just keep doing those good things- praying, reading your scriptures, going to church. The primary answers. And you know, while they may be primary answers, they are the primary answers. The basic fundamentals of spiritualness. And as missionaries, we have a few points that lead to activity in the church, and those are among the first. And conversely, they are among the first- especially prayer and scripture study- that people stop doing that leads to inactivity. SO DO THOSE THINGS! :D

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Starszy Liechty

Also, these are some goats that Poznań is unreasonably famous for. Every day at noon they come out, and bump their heads together twelve times, and then come back in unbelievably slow. But the entire country knows Poznań for it, and everyone loves it. It is, however, the most dissapointing thing I've experienced on my mission. I can't describe to you how lame it was. And, like, there's this huge throng of people there, and they cheer and clap every time they bonk heads, and it's just a little bit ridiculous! :)

7 March 2016

Hey, everyone! Turns out- Fasting actually DOES work!

I mean, I never really had any doubts about fasting, but I never really put much effort into it in the first place. I never really knew what to fast about, either. But this last week, our mission president called for a mission-wide fast in order to find people, because, as I've said, our mission is nearing an all-time low on investigators and baptismal dates. So we all fasted, and lo and behold, the next week we found like, five really good potential investigators, and have lessons set up for almost every day this week! I realize that that might not seem impressive to some, but I've only had this many lessons in a week one other time in my mission, so it's pretty great!

Grzegorz is doing very well! We've only been able to teach him a couple of times, but he accepts the fact that an apostasy happened, and is reading the Book of Mormon. We're meeting with him again this week, and it's great! We're also teaching this girl named Weronika, (we teach the girls, too, because there aren't any sisters here) but it's a little different there. Because with our english class (which is killing it here, there's like 20 people each week) We also do these individual lessons, where we tell them that we'd love to meet with them for some time, but as our main purpose is to teach the Gospel, we would like to take some of that time and teach them about our church. And surpisingly, it's having great success! The other companionship takes most of those lessons, but we have a couple, and they're going well.

So basically next week is going to be pretty good, but this week was kinda boring. But it flew by unreasonably fast. Like, probably the fastest week of my mission so far. And solo contacting is just when we're on the streets and we're talking to people separately. Sometimes Elder Vance likes to go tracting separately as well. I haven't done it yet, but he said he did it in the past.

And three hour church was pretty good. The last hour wasn't like a real thing, though. It was more like a discussion on various things in the branch with the members. One of the topics was a temple trip out to the Freiberg Temple when it re-opens in September. Also, in church we have two new members who moved in from other places, on is a Polish lady from Canada, and the other is a man named Markus from Austria. He's awesome- super funny, and pretty solid as a member.

Also, a couple of funny stories from this week-

We were out tracting with the other elders, and we took this time to slit up, so I was with Elder Ashworth, who got in the country last transfer, so technically still a trainee, so that was fun, and also he's from Manchester, England, and there was a time while we were waiting for a bus and I asked him to explain cricket, and he got all up and started going off on everything and was moving around a lot, and all that, and it was probably the most british thing I have ever experienced. 

And also, we were playing that game "heads up" with the branch for FHE, and the card I had was "floor" and the Polish word for that is "podługa". However. The Polish word for Childbirth is "poług". And when it was my turn (I had figured out what I was) and I shouted "Czy jestem poługiem?!" (am I childbirth!?) and everyone just stared at me, and I looked through the dictionary, and realized, and died.

And this is a big ol' poem about clouds on the wall. Don't really know what it says.

LOVE SAM

29 February 2016

Ok, I'd like to start off with an apology- I've been a bit of a complainer lately. Sorry. I would give my excuses, but I don't have time for any of those; I'm on a mission!

BUT

Things are pretty much the same. We did, however, get let in to a man named Grzegorz this last week! Elder Vance and I were talking about how we'll be telling stories when we get home from our missions and it'd go a bit like this-

"We had this crazy miracle find this one time, we knocked on the door, and the guy let us in!"

"ok, then what?"

"Well, he listened to us"

"Ok..."

"AND THEN SAID WE COULD COME BACK!!!!"

But in all seriousness, it was pretty great. A nice relief after days of no one.

When people ask how things are going, tell them that it is much tougher than I thought, but that I wouldn't trade this time for anything in the world. Like Dieter F. Uchtdorf said "Life is not meant to be appreciated only in retrospect", and neither is a mission. It's time for me to truly love it!

And yeah, I heard about her (A friend from high school is also going to Poland)! It's going to be weird, because outside of my family, and closest friends, pretty much everything has been fading away into obscure past life memories, and it's kinda freaking me out. But when she comes, even though we weren't really that close of friends, it'll be like this flash of Lone Peak and the days of eating corn dogs with John while playing Smash Bros for hours on end. Ahh... Good times. I wonder if we'll ever serve near each other...

There are a couple of good places to eat here, the missionary favorite is called KraszKebab, but I still think the Kebabs we had in Szczecin were better. But that old place closed down now, so I'm stuck with second place. And don't worry, I am eating healthily. Except for that one day where I had chips and chocolate for breakfast because there was no one there who said I couldn't! Adulthood!

In the Zone i'm in, (Bydgoszcz) Exchanges only happen once a transfer, because it takes so long for missionaries to travel to other cities. Within our district, though, we usually do an activity together about twice a week. But everyone here loves solo contacting, so I don't really get to teach with the other missionaries.

And church was great! There's a few more members here than there are in Szczecin, so pretty much everything was done by members today! Except presiding, playing the piano, and giving one talk of three. And I'm just the piano player. But I'm getting really good! I've sight read a few hymns with both hands, and have played for a few musical numbers during sacrament meeting! And it was two hours, but Elder Jeffs (Branch President) is changing it to three hours starting next week. And no sister missionaries.

Speaking of which- I'd really like to commend Sister Missionaries for what they do. A lot of the Elders in the mission make fun of the sisters for not knowing what they're doing, or things like that, but really, from the beggining sister missionaries have a step up on the Elders. Because even though missionary work is a voluntary service, all able bodied young men are called to the work. And the social pressure, as much as we hate to admit it, is there, and driving many 18 or 19 year old boys on missions. Sisters on the other hand go entirely by choice. Or should... But when they go on missions it's because they want to share the gospel! It's very impressive to me that they do that. So way to go, Sister missionaries! (Or other young women who are planning on going on missions!)

LUV

Starszy Liechty

We also burned a tie for my 1/4 mark.

WHICH HAPPENED!?!?!!!

Whoa...

22 February 2016

Hellllooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

So, I don't really know what the whole branch is like. There's like, seven or so active members but all only on a technicality... Last week we had four people, two of which were older women, you know- like it is. And the other two were pretty strong members- i'm told- so that's pretty good. And again, I am the piano player. Like seriously!? You always told me, and I was sure that no matter where I went, everyone would be able to play the piano, but I'm the only one ever. At least I'm getting really good now! I can play several songs with both hands, and can sight read the top hand and some chords with most of the other songs! PRTY CRZY!

There are no senior couples here. There's just me, Elder Vance, and the other companionship- Elder Jeffs, and Elder Ashworth. Elder Ashworth is from England! Manchester. Where is Nana from? Elder Jeffs is the Branch president, he's been a branch president pretty much a third of his mission, and this transfer is his second to last transfer. And I'm seriously missing it... First of all, the Cuttings are like, my favorite people of all time. they're just so great! And senior couples just bring a maturity and order into the mission that no amount of 18-21 year old boys could do. Like, we get stuff done now, but its just strange... 

Poznań definitely is prettier than Szczecin was. Also, pretty much every city in Poland has a thing called a "rynek" which is basically just the old town square, except Szczecin, so I went to go see Poznań's, and it was pretty great! But Szczecin was easy to get around because it was entirely up and down, but Poznań is a big square, pretty much, so transport is an issue.

Elder Vance is from Colorado. Don't know the city. And we kind of have investigators, but none of them are progressing, so we're pretty close to step one again. And I see the other missionaries prawie codziennie. Pretty much every day. We do a lot with them.

On another note- We had to throw all our members out the window last week! I mean, there was only four of them, but it was great! Basically, the lock to the door got stuck, and we couldn't get out, and the old ladies were freaking out, and eventually we decided that we'd all half to leave through the window! It's like a 1.5 floor window, so youths could jump out of it no problem, but old women have a bit of a tougher time... After calming them down and explaining them the plan, one, named Bożena, finally tried, but then freaked out when she was about to start, and ran back, but then got the courage to try again and made it. Then the next lady, named Iza, made it out just fine... Except she was wearing a pretty short skirt, which was already a little scarring, but Sergiusz, who was helping them, looked really shaken up at the end. But that day is definitely going down as one of the best.

And something just hit me earlier this week, with my conversations with others and general observations, is how much church and stuff is considered just a tradition. Like baptism when kids are born, like, unless someone is really religious, they just see things like that, and going to mass every Christmas and Easter simply cultural things. Few, FEW people have ever really considered what it means when they say they've been baptized and what it means when they say that they believe in God and in Christ.Whenever I ask them why they believe in Christ, they just get blank and don't know. We need to be active believers. We need to know what it means to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ. Because that's what we are. The "Latter-Day Saints" part is important as well, but that's not the bolded part on all the signs. Like Nephi said "We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins". HES SO IMPORTANT. Don't forget that!

Enough preaching. Sorry, I don't get enough opportunities on the streets, so I do it here. :D

Love

Starszy Liechty

16 February 2016 - Transferred to Poznan

Jestem w Poznaniu!!!!

(I'm in Poznań- crazy how that little "w" changes that word like that. Ahhhhh, Polish.)

Yep- I moved away from my hometown! Pretty crazy stuff, but the whole last week was pretty crazy, too. 

On Wednesday, we met with an investigator named Grzegorz for the first time- he's the one who sang out during the Christmas Sacrament Meeting, and comes to church all the time- but we finally met with him, and he fed us, as all Poles love to do. However. He said it was his favorite meal growing up, and he kept repeating that it was "from beef" but as far as I know, no part of beef should have hair like that. Turns out it was cow intestines. YEAH! It tasted kind of like a barn smells, so that was nice, and it just had the wackiest texture. You know, I'm just not the biggest fan of eating parts of animals that move independantly of the animal. It's just not my favorite thing to do.

Then on Thursday, we went to the Georgian Ballet (that's the country, not the state) (Also, every transfer, we get a "culture night" where we do things like go to ballets or other cultural things) And that was awesome. I can't really describe how they were dancing, but it was cool- just trust me on that one.

And Friday to Sunday were mini missions for two of the members in our branch- Alex and Nick! They're so 15 years old, though. Like, I thought I hadn't really grown up in the last few years, but seeing them is kind of like "oh, look at me, adulting all over the place" It's nice. So Nick stayed with us, and Alex/Ola stayed with the sisters. And they were really good! They've been members for about a year now, and their testimonies are fire!

And then on Monday, I moved to Poznań.

My new comp's name is Elder Vance, and he's pretty cool, haven't really had enough time with him to figure everything out. 

This transfer I'm working on loving other people. There's a Christlike attribue assesment in PMG, and that's the one I scored least on, so... Sorry, everyone I knew...

Hubert is still a little crazy, but not crazy enough, I guess, but he's in Norway right now for some work, so people won't be able to meet with him. And the other people got back in town, but didn't really want to meet, so... the new elders have a pretty fresh board to work with! WOO! Poor guys, though- Of the four missionaries (excluding the senior couple) only Sister DeMordaunt stayed. She's totally freaking out.

Ugh, last transfer felt so short! I mean, it was two weeks shorter than the other ones, but in ten days I'll be 1/4 of the way done... I need to work harder. I want to be more consecrated, but no one around me wants to go as far as I do. What do I do? I guess we still need to see how this first week goes, but it's going to be good. Poznań is doing some good things right now.

Ok, I have less time on this computer than others, so I gotta go!

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Starszy Liechty

And happy Valentines Day!

They do celebrate it here, just not as big as in the States

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8 February 2016

Another slow week... We got a new investigator, though! His name is Hubert, but I think he's a little insane, so I'm not sure if things will continue that much with him. We taught him about the Restoration, and he was like "Oh yeah, I learned that in Catholic school when I was young!" 

Ehh...

And a pretty exciting story this week! Early, some guys came to the Sisters' apartment, and said they were the police and they were looking for this guy named Marcin and they asked some weird questions, and then left after a while. BUT two days ago, in the morning some guys went up to their apartement and started knocking on their door and trying to break in and yelling at them. So long story short- Elder Platter and I now live in that apartement.

Two of our investigators are back in town now, so we're going to be meeting with them again soon, and others are finishing up school, so they'll have time, but nothing really has been happening. And surprise! This transfer is two weeks shorter, and we have transfer calls on Saturday! Probs I'll stay, but the mission president likes doing crazy things. 

And when it comes to music, President Edgren gives us all the freedom we want. But Elder Platter likes listening to videogame soundtracks like I always did, but after a transfer of that, I don't really feel like I want that. I can wait to listen to that again. So if you do send anything, just MoTab would be good. And we don't talk all the time, but it's not awkward when we don't. At least, it's not for me... 

The timeline is a history of God's dealings with mankind. So we have the Old Testament, New Testament, and Book of Mormon with a history of what happened, where it happened, and things like that. Then it shows the great apostasy and then the Restoration, and it's really a great visual. It's hanging up now in our sunday school room, so I'll take some pictures and send them to you.

And speaking of humility- looking through both the history of the Book of Mormon, and Bible, the one thing that starts people off into apostasy is the buying of costly apparel. Expenisve clothes. It's interesting how unvariant it is throughout the histories. And I don't really know what counts as costly apparel, but we should be careful. Pride is one of the sneakiest sins that ever exist.

I LOVE YOU ALL!

(also, all I told the haricut place was to make my hair shorter. I didn't know any other haircut vocab.)

Starszy Liechty

1 February 2016

Pies!

Polish people have these little houses out in the boonies for their gardens that are also out in the boonies, because they can't have gardens in the city. It's super cute and what all of Poland should look like...

This week was a pretty dull one, as well... But FINALLY our investigators are getting back in town this next week, so things should be picking up. But that also means I have like nothing to talk about this week, so... sorry.

I haven't been injured at all in any way, but Elder Platter got pretty sick, and we stayed in one day (which was crazy boring, but I got pretty good at yo-yo, so that's nice) But that's about the biggest health issue I've had out here.

When I give talks I usually write them out all in English and then translate as much as I can and give it. Usually it takes up enough time because I talk slow enough and it makes it good. But the members all complain about missionary Polish, and say they can't understand us... So that was a blow to my ego, but it's only because Polish people don't understand accents because no one in the world ever bothers to learn Polish. But at least now I have this super-secret language that only about 4 million people in the world understand! WOO! But giving talks is kind of a deuce, because it consumes like, four days of studies because there's no other time to write it.

I'm starting to understand people really well now! I can understand missionaries no problem, and as long as people speak clearly, I can get it. But when they slur their speach and mumble, or don't have enough teeth to say words, it gets hard...

I'll usually play the prelude music as people walk in, but a lot of the time people walk in like, five minutes late... There's a lot of cleaning up (in the most positive sense) that needs to be done here, but it's actually happening! Elder Cutting, as the Branch President is doing a fantastic job at making our little branch something that works by itself. He instituted the Home and Visiting Teaching programs, which at first was like "dude, there's no one TO home or visit teach" but it's building relationships with members, and one less active member has come back basically to full activity!

The streets are streets... But last night, (sunday) we were by our home at 19:00, with an hour left of missionary work, because we took dinner at 20:00 because everyone is asleep after 8:00 here... But we could have rightfully taken an hour of study during that hour, because Sunday messes up the usual schedule, but instead, we decided to go and talk to people! And we were able to get one guys number, and give out a Book of Mormon to a couple that passed us! I realize that we didn't set up with anyone, but we had more success than an hour straight of "nie mam czasu"s or "nie dziękuję"s. It was good.

Ok, that's all for now!

Love yooouuuuuuu!!!!

Starszy Liechty