This last week has probably had one of the highest ups and lowest downs of my mission. I'm going to give you the details, because I need to talk about it to get it out of my system, but I give you all creative liberty to edit this email for the blog as it does contain some real depressing events.

I'll start by answering your questions on general things, though!

If you could send some Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, that would be awesome. There's some gross weird knock off brand that people sometimes buy, but it's nothing compared to kraft. Also, I need some shorts. IT'S SO HOT. but I have exercise shorts, so I might just use those on the P-days. 

I did eat a radish. I also freely eat onions, peppers, and pretty much everything else i never ate before. Except coconuts, and raw tomatoes. And weird things like monkey brains.

Now for the interesting stuff.

i'll start with the sad one, because I want to end this email on a high note, so here goes-

....My creative editing skills....someone who was baptized is being pretty argumentative and combative and the little branch where he used to serve seems to be falling apart because of all the turmoil....Sam said he felt like a truck full of bricks because of the all the bad feelings going on:(

But now for the example of someone who is humble, and willing to follow after Jesus Christ-

Szymon!

Indeed he was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints this last week, and it has been one of the most miraculous transformations I have seen in my life! He's basically had depression for who knows how long, and was in a really bad time of his life, when- what do you know? The missionaries! He figured that they could help him out, and they very much did. I came here about half way through the whole process, but I've seen him change from quiet, nervous, and sad, to smiley, talkative, and just better all around. The baptism itself was a little awkward because it was the member who was doing it's first time, and didn't get him all the way under the water, so he had to do it again but then it was all good in the end :) Then, that same member confirmed him a member, and set him apart to the priesthood. And let me tell you something- the power of godliness IS manifest in the ordinances of the Priesthood. It was truly a great experience, and a beautiful ray of light in an otherwise dark and gloomy end of the week. It's possible. There are people out there.

I love you!!!

Elder Liecht

16 May 2016

You two have too much time on your hands.

(is it any wonder you're not criminals?)

We've started renting the city bikes to get around places, because our mission isn't a biking mission, and now we can go to places SO FAST! It's unbelievably cheap, too! Like, 5 zlots/1.5 dollars a day! It's great. I also kind of forgot how to ride a bike, so it's been a bit of a strug, but I'm learning again!

Our week was pretty empty of things. Our main investigator, Jan, is visiting his family just outside of Szczecin, and will get back on Tuesdsay, but because of that, we havn't been able to meet with anyone. And the other person I was talking about, Pawel, has been really unresponsive. We don't know what his deal is, but he said he'd come to church this next week. 

The members are doing well, so we are all on the same page, we have four active members- Dagmara, Jan, Alex, and Nick. Those four have super fire testimonies, but it's real tough because the only support they have is among themselves and the missionaries. There's a ton of less actives!

Zone training (not conference) happened last week, and it was pretty great! But I have no pictures, because I'm a bad son. Sorry. But you can look on Sister Demordaunt's blog to find pictures! Also, I finally got your package! I really liked the cosmic brownies, I needed those. And I got zach and katie's letter, and a letter from Quincey! It was a good day.

Scripture of the week:

D and C 121:45

Virtue doesn't just mean being chaste- if that were the case, we couldn't garnish our thoughts with it, because being chaste alone only implies an absence of certain actions and thoughts. Being virtuous also means doing good works. So when your mind is garnished by good thoughts and things like that, they turn into your actions! And through your actions, you fufill your faith, thereby gaining knowledge by the Holy Ghost, that what you did was, indeed, a good thing.

LOVE

Elder Liechty

9 May 2016

Kiedykolwiek piszę po polsku, czy sprobujecie przetłumaczyć czegoś? Lub tylko staracie się rozumieć coś? Bo Google Translate nie może rozumieć języka polskiego...

Anyway, Sunday was pretty good, after skyping with you guys, I ate some spaghetti and meatballs, and Sister Cutting didn't understand why I like spaghetti so much, but that's ok. I always love being with the Cuttings, though, they always give some life advice, and are just really fun to be around. But then every once in a while things get serious and real and we talk about the issues our branch, and the world are facing, and then it gets pulled back up to jokes and stuff somehow. It's really interesting every time, and I really like it. They're really good at mixing serious, needed conversation, with light, happy and fun conversation.

I think before the mission, church and stuff like that was all just... not a side thing, but just something that would fufill itself over time, and would almost passively figure itslef out. But I was going through my scriptures, and sometime in some seminary class or something, I had written "this is life" and now I think I understand that. This is really important. Religion. God. Eternity. It's really important...

Maybe even more important than the banana bread we made last week.

Anyway, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Elder Liechty

May 2, 2016

Dzień doberek!

Jak smakuje serek?

I'm just really happy to be back in Szczecin! The fact that a week has already gone by is pretty crazy, too, but that's the crazy mission time warp dealio that everyone keeps talking about! Annnnddddd... We have two investigators with a baptismal date! Take that, South American missions! ha... But it's really exciting, one of the guys' names is Jan, and he used to be studying in seminary in the Catholic Church, but he didn't agree with all their teachings, so he's looking for a church to join, and it just so happens that he ran into the only true one on earth, so that's neat! And the other guy is Paweł (paul) and his story is just awesome! He wanted to find some guidance in his life, so he prayed, and decided to go for a walk in the park, where he met Sister Demordaunt (is that how you spell her name? I never actually figured out...) and he went to church the next sunday, where he had a conversation with Elder Cutting (Paweł speaks very good english) and Elder Cutting decided that the Elders would be teaching him! This all happened right at the end of the transfer, so I just came in the next day, and Elder Garrison and I met with him, and taught him a first, and he agreed with everything there, and we invited him to be baptized because he agrees with everything we said, and... he... said... yes! And like, with acutal desire! CRAZY! So now he's being prepared to be baptized on the 21st along with Jan, and one of the sisters' investigators, Szymon. I'm not sure if all of them are progressing towards that exact date, but all of them are definitely progressing. Which is good.

Elder Garrison is really fun to be with! Our language skills are about equal, so talking with people is still somewhat of a challenge, but still fun. He's fun to be around. I'm pretty sure this transfer's going to fly by much faster than last transfer did! And I do need one of those mini statues of me! They cost about 200 zlots, or $60ish, but I'm pretty sure that it's worth it. Definitely worth it.

That video you saw was with the lady we had to yell at's daughter! She's super sweet, and I miss her, but she's in good hands with Elder Ashworth.

HAPPY BELATED ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!

It's good to see that marriages are lasting still in these times where Satan is doing all he can to destroy the family. Thank you.

And Sunday. Mother's Day. SKYPE DAY! I'm pretty sure that 9:30 for you guys to skype works for us. That's 17:30, or 5:30 for you guys on the other side of the pond for us, and that's when we usually have dinner with the Cuttings. So yes. It's good. Be there or be square. And if the Cuttings' computer has hangout on it or supports it, then we can totally do that, I just know that it's a Mac, and they can't do anything. But I think it'll work.

I'm co-district leader here, which means that I just lead the meetings every other week, and I'm pretty sure that that won't be hard. I do feel much more comfortable, with the language, with the people, and with talking about things with people (especially spiritual things) and I'm living in a very nice, not moldy apartment, so basically the world is my oyster. I'm so powerful.

WE'RE GOING BOWLING TODAY!

Love

Starszy Liehcyt. 

Liehhty

Liechty. There we go.

Not even I can get our last name right

26 April 2016 - Back to Szczecin!

Turoń from the bridge

All the museums were closed on Monday

Gingerbread!

Turoń is famous for its gingerbread, and we went to the factory, and took a tour, and made our own gingerbread! It was not very tasty, but the professional stuff was, so that's good!

The closest we could get to a normal picture

Elder Ashworth relaxing in Austria

New companion Elder Garrison holding his 3-D self

Here's a 3-D printed version of Elder Garrison.

If I ever serve in Bydgoszcz, I'm getting one of these!

Talks given in Sacrament Meeting through 18 years of regular church attendance : 4

Talks given in Sacrament Meeting through 8 months of missionary service : 6

And that'll be 7 in two weeks!

AAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

POWRÓCIŁEM DO SZCZECINA!!!

I'm back.

The day transfer calls came, one of the members here, Alex Pakora, had heard that I was coming back, and just texted me "YOURE COMING BACK!!!" And then a few minutes later, I got a text from Elder Cutting that just said "We know." And then about half an hour later, President called me and I already knew everything! Elder Ashworth is staying in Poznań, and is now the district leader and senior comp to another Brit who came in one transfer after him! and I'm here in Szczecin with Elder Garrison as a half district leader. Which means that we switch off district meetings and that's about it. Sister Demordaunt left to Gdańsk, so it looks like I'll have to post some real pictures this time around. but the other Sister missionaries are Sister Sloan (with whom I served with my first transfer here) (Did you see that grammar?!), and her trainee! No one knows who the trainee is yet, but It'll be fun serving with a new missionary again!

I got sunburnt, too! But then it started snowing again, so we won't be having that problem for a bit...

This last week we finally got to do some service, and all I did was pull weeds for three hours straight. It was my favorite thing in the world! I hadn't done any sort of manual labor like that for over half a year! I was able to teach Elder Ashworth how to pull weeds the right way, so they don't come back and we started getting super hype and excited every time we pulled out a root! It was good.

I'm back to being FHE coordinator.

Also, I'm super happy to be going back to Szczecin! I've already met some of the members and they were really supprised to see me again, and they're really impressed with the way I speak Polish now! There's been a couple of incidences since I've been gone, so things are about the same as they were when I first got here, but I'm excited. I feel like I'm needed here. And we already have a couple of investigators! One has a baptismal date for sometime in the month, so that's nice, and the other one is brand new, so I don't know about him yet. BUT IM REALLY EXCITED TO BE BACK. I love it here.

And Turoń is the home town of Mikołaj Kopernik, or Nicolaus Copernicus, so that was neat, but his museum was closed, so that was less neat...

The last week was a pretty normal one all around. We weren't able to meet with Dawid again, but we did get a new investigator named Kuba, who seems pretty neat. He's in Ashworth's hands now! Marcin has a new baptismal date for the 28th of May, I think, and he seems a lot more serious about this one. He was also really sad to see me leave, which made me feel really good inside, but also sad. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to return to Poznań eventually. Also, we had an incredibly intense lesson with a member who is now on the verge on inactivity, and his other inactive member friend. We'd been trying to meet with him through the entire transfer, and he kept telling us that his life was falling apart and that everything was bad and that we need to pray for him, but finally we sent him the faith without works is dead scripture and told him that we need to meet to figure something out, because so far, prayer wasn't enough. So we did, and his friend was there, and he started out pretty angrily, and just talked about how hard it is to live in Poland, and how hard it is for Polish members and how hard it is to have a family in Poland and how hard literally everything is.

Let me tell you all a secret- Life is supposed to be hard. We live in a fallen world and that's just the way it is. And if it's not hard to you, then you've either figured it out already, or you're not pushing yourself hard enough. We keep telling people that life is a test, that life is a trial and we're here to prove ourselves to God, and earn our reward. Well if you expect to prove yourself to God, you better expect some pretty tough trials! It's going to be hard, but just imagine if God didn't have the will to let others kill his son. Imagine if he had broken, and saved his Son at that most crucial of moments. What would happen then? we'd all be in an unsavable state, and the entire human family would be doomed. There would be no Savior.

It's tough, but it's worth it.

Alma 5:26

I <3 U

Elder Liechty

18 April 2016

Dear everyone,

We got a new apartment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd put more exclamation points, but I don't have enough time. But really, the last apartment was so disgusting. So gross. I didn't send pictures of the mold monster we were living with, because you'd get really mad at the church for letting us still live there, but we're finally out, so it's all good :D But I have pictures, so don't worry. And the new apartment is just so absolutely fantastic. So great. I can't get over it. The shower is so good. The last week in the old apartment, the showerhead stopped working, so we've been using a bucket and filling it up with the bath faucet, and just pouring it on ourselves and doing it like some third world missionary would be doing it. But then we got the new shower, and it felt like a pressure jet wash, and it was amazing. Truly amazing.

Marcin is still meeting with the missionaries, but I don't really know how he's progressing, but the other day, I told him about fasting, and suggested that he fast for strength, and I fasted with him, but I haven't heard anything more from him, so we'll see how it turns out.  And we met with Dawid last week, and had a decent lesson with him, but he's still not reading the Book of Mormon, and we're having a hard time meeting with him again, nor did he come to church yesterday, but I think there's still potential with him. 

And after one of our english classes, (we have two, beginner and advanced), like, four of the beginner class students came up to us and wanted to have personal lessons with us because the other elders taught something that was really hard in the beginner class. But it was just really funny, because we were having a conversation with one guy, and this mob of Poles trying to speak english trying to set up meetings with us came up and just swamped us! It was funny, and now we have four new people that we can teach english and the gospel to! YAY!

Also, in church yesterday, I gave my first talk without having written every word out! In Polish! Mostly, because I heard I had to give one pretty late, and I was a bit lazy. Didn't want to write it all out, so I figured now would be a perfect time to try it out! I had a short plan and topics written down, but that was it. And in Sunday school we just did the normal lesson stuff, and we do use the teachings of Howard W. Hunter book. 

I'M SORRY I DONT HAVE PICTURES.

I have more than I send, but until someone can explain to me how I can send more than one picture in an email, the most y'all'll get is three or something. Unless something really cool happened. Then I'll send more. Like today! We're going to Turoń, which is super pretty, they say, and I'll get all the pictures. All of them. (And we weren't able to go to Hitler's castle last week, unfortunately)

Scripture of the week-

Alma 56:47-48. All you moms out there are really important. REALLY important. Iza, the member that we visit once a week, it turns out that she has a daughter that she wants to get in contact with again, but she was scared, because that daughter doesn't know that Iza's a member of our church, so we shared scriptures with her about motherhood, and how valuable it is, and how important that relationship is, and how God's going to help you build it up if you do what you can. So you go, moms!

LOVE ELDER LIECHTY!!!!!!

My guts are fine, I'm eating WAY healthier than I ever did, and I'm way less picky. You were right again...

We see cool buildings like this all the time and I forget we don't see them in the US

What we do in our spare time

11 April 2016

Classic train tracks picture. 

(don't worry, it was on inactive tracks)

Hey!

This week's been a pretty normal week, nothing very special... But... it happened- a girl kissed me. On my mission. She just got up and kissed me.

I mean, it was only on the forehead. And it took her like, 5 minutes to get up. And she was 92 years old. But hey- it happened!

She's the mom of one of the members here named Iza, and we go to her house every week to teach Iza and sing to her mom, but it's always the most hilarious experience! Her mom can't hear anything, and Iza's a little crazy already, but Iza will just be talking to her mom in a normal voice thinking that she can hear her, and her mom's just screaming "WHAT?!" "I CANT HEAR ANYTHING" or things like that, and when we're talking with Iza, and her mom wants to say something, she'll scream "SŁUCHAJ!" (which means "listen!") Or just scream Iza's name "IZAAAAA... IZAAAAAAA!" It's great!

And we have a new investigator! His name is Dawid, we've only taught him a couple of lessons, but he's been to church, and he seems interested, so that's good! Otherwise we just have a lot of people who aren't answering their phones.

And Marcin was going to be baptized last Friday, but when the baptismal interview came around, it turned out that he was not ready yet, and some crazy stuff happened, and his relationship with the missionaries is not nearly as good as it was before. I don't know the whole story, because the other Elders obviously don't like talking about it, so we don't bring it up. So that's sad. I'm just worried for how it will affect Elder Vance, because he said many times while I was with him, that if something happened, and Marcin would just drop off, or give up right at the end, that he'd just lose all trust in anyone ever again. And that happened... But he seems alright, so maybe he's been able to overcome it.

You keep asking what we do all day, but really 7/10 days, we're doing just that- walking up and down the streets talking to people or tracting. About twice a week we'll do things with the other elders, where we write something on the ground with chalk, like a scripture from the Book of Mormon or something, and talk to people with that, or Elder Jeffs will play the guitar and sing while we talk to people, but that is what I'm doing all day if I don't have a lesson or something else planned. We do also hand out flyers for our English class, but usually only like half an hour every day.

We've gone to the park to play frisbee a lot lately! Sometimes the schedule works out that we have both meal hours together, so we'll go to the park and play sports in our church clothes and it's awesome. Some people will come up and just ask "what are you doing?", then we get to talk to them about the church! Sneak attack. And we've tried to find some cool places to visit, but we keep getting lost... :), but next week, we're taking a trip out to this other city, which is arguably the most beautiful city in Poland, so good things will be happening then. Also, we might be visitng Hitler's Castle today! I don't know what it is, but I'm excited!

The only clothing items I've bought here are scarves. Because I like scarves. But everything else is REALLY expensive. Or it seems, because one American dollar is worth four Polish zlots, so everything looks really expensive, and I'm scared to buy anything. But if you encourage me... I guess I'll have too..

Things are pretty good here! I'm probably learning new phrases from Elder A, but I can't remember any right now. He likes making fun of the American accent, though, and always tries (but it's not very good), and it's pretty great! He's a funny guy, and he's fun to be with. And we buy groceries at a store called Biedronka, which is like just a Walmart, except WAY smaller. I usually spend about 40 zlots, or 10 dollars for the food each week. 

I couldn't really name any time that I've felt super guided by the Spirit, but every time we're walking around contacting people, I try to say a little prayer to know which way to turn to be able to help the most people, and usually it works out nicely, but I can't think of any times that I've felt a need to go a certain way, or go down a certain other street while tracting. But that's a trend I've been noticing this transfer, and it's something that I want to fix, so I can rely on the Spirit a lot more in my missionary work.

Also, we were able to watch conference in English this last week, and something in one of President Monson's talks really made me thing. He said something like "choose the harder right, over the easier wrong". But if you take the first phrase there, "Choose the harder right", it becomes something that I've been trying to do lately. Because there are a lot of good things, and there are the bettter things, and there are the best things, and the best things are harder to do than the good, or better things, and basically, we need to go above and beyond the basic rules and the bare minimum. Because does God only do the bare minimum? NO! He most certainly does not! And if the scriptures have any value to them, we should take their advice and example our lives after the perfect man! So choose the harder right, over the easier right.

Love,

Elder Liechty