13 June 2016

Breakfast for dinner

Investigator, also a singer!

In Germany!

Randomly finding upside down houses!

Elder garrison

Face painting practice

Upside down house

Elder Garrison

In both Germany and Poland

Hello!

Polish is not crazy. It is beautiful.

But it is possible to make words such as "Dziewięćmilionówdziewęćsetdziewiędziesiątdziewięćtysięcydziewięćsetdziewiędziesięciodziewiąty"

That's 9,999,999th

Yeah, at Zone Conference we got a Temple Recommend case that is specific for the Poland Warsaw mission, and a Polish hymn book! I was really excited about the hymn book, because Polish songs sound awesome!

And the face painting thing was an idea that we had for finding, we'd have Sister Sloan, and one of the members, Alex Pakora, paint the faces, and while they were doing that, we'd be talking with the parents and it'd be a lot more relaxed and everything. We decided to do that because Elders in Warsaw said that they did a thing where they shined peoples' shoes and talked to them while they did that and it was great. We made a very pretty sign, and made those example pictures to hang up on the sign, so that's why Elder Garrison has that sweet tiger on his face, but when the day came to actually paint faces, Alex was sick, and the weather was really cloudy and cold and no one was outside. Then it started raining, and so it wasn't as awesome as we'd hoped. But then we went to the Cuttings, and made french toast and had breakfast for dinner and it was all better again! YAY!

I did hear that Elder Ashworth is now the branch president (which is the calling that I dread the most. Like, all the responsibility would just be so scary. Let's all give a hand for the Bishops who have to care for a couple hundred people at once. phew.) And we get our transfer calls this Saturday, which means that I'll be emailing on Tuesday next week, so don't be scared, and I might be in a different city. But I want to stay here. For some reason I just really love Szczecin!

I have no requests for the birthday box. Except for pictures! I always love having the pictures to look through!

I've been reading through this Old Testament study guide, so I can actually say that I've read the Old Testament, and I'm in the middle of 2 Kings. And geez, people can just be so wicked. And of course, everyone has their own agency, and everyone needs to stop blaming things on other people, but the leaders have SO MUCH influence of their people. A righteous nation can become wicked and evil just because one king was good and the next was bad. Being a leader is a big responsibility, but if you've been called by God, to be one in the church, he trusts you. Which means you can trust yourself. The Lord doesn't make mistakes.

I looooooooooooove you all!

Elder Liechty

6 June 2016

Hi!

We went to the Baltic today!! And I walked into Germany! German is such a funny language, how do they talk to each other without laughing? How did Zach serve a mission there for two years!? I couldn't contact anyone without busting up when I heard words come out of their mouths! Crazy people.

And that bread didn't taste very good, so we ate a big chunk of the inside, and planned on throwing the crust out to the pigeons, but we haven't done that yet, and it's still sittting on our kitchen table... But one day we'll do it! Maybe.

WOO! Yup, we've been teaching a man named Jan, (I don't know if I've told you about him) and he was very Catholic, in fact, he was studying in seminary to become a priest, but for some reason, he decided that he didn't like all the teachings of the catholic church, and is now learning about our church. I've learned a lot about the Catholic Church over the last month, and I've learned a lot about our own church as well, but if it's done anything, it's just boosted my testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is God's true and living church on the earth today. But was I was getting at earlier is this, that there's a holiday here called "Boze cialo" here, or "godly body" and it's real neat, but I didn't understand anything that was going on, but it's also a Catholic holiday, and we were invited to go by Jan, and we went, and we marched through the city, said some prayers, and sang our "amens". It was awesome. 

We did have Zone Conference! It was President and Sister Edgren's last Zone Conference ever, so it was a little sad, but it was also pretty cool. We learned the Polish national anthem, because we should have more national pride for Poland, and it's pretty cool. The first line is "Polish has not yet perished" And the rest is pretty powerful, but I don't have it memorized. Geez, give me a break. These people's history is just wack. Absoluticznie szalona.

Walking around shorts, not exercise, size 32 still, and old if you can find them. Order up!

And yeah, I'm having a great time with Elder Garrison! Coming here to friends I had already made, a city I was already comfortable with, and a companion I got along with was very nice. Very nice indeed.

So we went to the Baltyk today,... oops, Baltic, and we didn't have much time to do stuff on the beach, wich was ok, anyway, because the wind was SUPER hard, but we did drive for two hours, get on a ferry, and then go through this neat forest check out a lighthouse that looked like a windmill, walk across the beach into Germany, and eat a bunch of seafood! I ate an oyster! A REAL LIFE OYSTER! And, a salad with a bunch of tomatoes in it. And do you know what? I LIKED IT. Now, which of those two things are you more surprised I ate? Because I was more surprised of the tomato one.

Also, I've been reading the book of Job in the Bible, and it turns out that its 42 chapters long, but the part that everyone talks about is only the first three chapters. Wild. The rest of it is his friends trying to council him, but totally missing the point, and they all end up calling him a sinner, and condeming him for thigns he didn't do. Good job, guys. But really it stresses the importance of two things- Be honest with yourself, and if you know you're right, there's nothing anyone else can do about it, even if you're wrong. But even Job said that if they show him where his fault lies, he will listen. They didn't though, and that's the second point- if you're going to council others, 1. study out the problem and the possible causes beforehand, and 2. Listen to the Spirit and don't rely entirely on your own wisdom. God knows more than you, accept it.

Just like he knows how much I LOVE YOU!!!

From,

Elder Liecht

30 May 2016

They bought a BIG loaf of bread

...and he must have thought the snail was cute enough to send a picture??

The church is perfect, but the people sometimes aren't. Come on, people, stop trying to come up with the most complicated, detailed and super analytical arguments to leave the church and LISTEN TO YOUR HEART. The Holy Ghost does not speak to your head. He'll put thoughts there, but when he wants to say that something is right, he's going to go straight for your heart and it's up to you to throw up barriers or let him in. Take a step back, calm down, forget your learned ways, and listen to the Holy Ghost. God's ways are higher than your ways, and he's not going to go down to your level to logically work out how his existence is or is not true, or whether or not the LDS Church is his Church. Put down your barriers and exercise your faith for just one moment, and see how glorious the results are!

New favorite Joseph Smith quote: "This learned interpretation is all as flat as a pancake! 'What do you use such vulgar expressions for, being a prophet?' Because the old women understand it- they make pancakes."

LOVE

Elder Liechty

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