12 September 2016

I've often wondered how much more my mission would extend beyond the people I met and the time I will spend in the country, and one day I hope I'll be able to see all the effects of what I've done here. They say that no effort is wasted, but when you try to talk to someone and they don't even acknowledge that you exist you sometimes wonder if that effort was wasted, but God's ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts higher than ours, so you just gotta trust Him.

This week was shorter than others because two days were pretty thouroughly lost due to the fact that we were on a train the whole time, BUT what did happen was pretty good! Our english class suddenly got a boost of people in it, and we had a fairly interesting lesson that day, and afterwards we had a Book of Mormon reading, and four people stayed for that! (I don't know if people think that's a big number or not, but that's huge for us!) and in one day we gave out 10 copies of the book! Very nice. 

Then we went to Warsaw where we spent the day with the APs, Elders Quackenbush and Cowley. They are some pretty fantastic missionaries! No wonder they're APs. Elder Quackenbush served with my trainer, Elder berlin, and we spent some good time reminiscing about how much of a missionary machine that man was, and trying to be like him. And during the day we did this finding activity with all the missionaries in Warsaw, which including us equaled to 14. That's so many. The most missionaries I've seen at once outside of the MTC is 30, when we all picked up the new load of trainees. Anyway, in most cities, we will do what we call 'finding activities' which are usually where we wright something on a whiteboard or have a table of free materials that people can take or have people playing music or something like that, but every Friday in Warsaw, all the missionaries go to this place that's called "the fish bowl" which is a place where the Metro, train station, and biggest mall in the city meet and basically force all traffic through this one spot, so there's huge crowds, and they take all the different types of finding activites and do them at once and it's a little bit like overkill, but also people know us and they'll talk to us because they know where to find us. Anyway, we did that, and it was great! Elder Hill was able to have a few really good conversations, and I had a good ol' flashback of working with Sister Demordaunt again! It was a good day all around. For never serving in Warsaw, I've been there a lot, and spent the night in 3 of the 4 elders' apartments! 

And during our study, we listened to a talk by President Hinkley, He spoke with a naval officer from Asia who converted while in america, and the conversation went like this- “Your people are not Christians. What will happen when you return home a Christian, and, more particularly, a Mormon Christian?”

The officer’s face clouded, and he replied: “My family will be disappointed. … As for my future and my career, all opportunity may be foreclosed against me.” 

President Hinckley asked, “Are you willing to pay so great a price for the gospel?”

With his dark eyes moistened by tears, he answered with a question: “It’s true, isn’t it?” 

Ashamed at having asked the question, President Hinckley responded, “Yes, it is true.” To which the officer replied, “Then what else matters?”

I think we can all take from that naval officer's example, because sometimes we forget that it is the God of heaven and earth who is with us, and not some other artificial force such as money or armies. It's true.

This week we're going to Szczecin! WOO

Love you all! 

Edler leighty

5 September 2016

Kasia and Sławek, some of the members here

pretty

Yeah, I laughed at the Po-land picture! Elder Hill didn't get it, so he's in the same boat as dad ;) And the more mac and cheese the merrier! It's so GOOD 

And our P-days are still on Monday, but we've just kept getting wierd things happening that push our P-day to Tuesday. But things should be back to normal now... I hope...

WE HAVE AN ISSUE- I think my camera's broken... Every time I turn it on it says "system error (focus)" And when I turn it off, the lens doesn't go back in. I looked up a few solutions to the problem, and am trying them now, but nothing's worked so far... I'll tell you how it turns out next week...

Elder Hill is great! He's a very hard worker and has a real desire to work, and he gets along very well with everyone even though he gets frustrated with the language. But he's progressed a ton since the first day!

The only person we're meeting with right now is named R., and things are going pretty well with him. I've had a few experiences where the promise of being given what is meted to every man in the very moment has been fufilled with him, and it is so great to see the influence of the Spirit on people! But then so frustrating to see them not follow up on what they said they would do, and lose the feeling they had. So many people thing that our job is to convince others of the church, but that's not it at all. We don't want to do that, nor can we. People become converted on their own.

This next week we'll be going to Warsaw (again!) for exchanges! Susually, the assistants to the president do exchanges with all the zone leaders, and the zone leaders with all the district leaders, and the district leaders with the rest of their missionaries, but for some reason, the AP's want to have an exchange with us in addition to the zone leaders, so I'm confused, but really excited! Then the week after that we go to Szczecin for an exchange there! WOO!

And on Saturday, we had a grill! About 15 people came, but we still had a great time together, and the members got along well. Elder Hill got to try blood sausage,too! I'm not a fan of it, but the Poles are. Crazy people. 

Sunday was the Freiburg temple dedication, but unfortunatley, only missionaries who were serving in Warsaw were able to see the broadcast... Which means that we just stayed behind. In addition, there was no church, so we just gatherd to the chapel in case anyone showed up, (no one did) and watched a session of General Conference to make us feel like we had some sort of meeting on Sunday. It was a weird day. But afterwards, we were able to visit a less active member in the hospital right now for rehabilitation for a drinking problem he has, and he's doing great there! He and his wife are also doing missionary work, and are some of the best member missionaries we have in the branch!

Thank you for sharing your testimony of the Book of Mormon. The impact of it is so enormous, and sometimes it's hard to get that across. We can't talk to Joseph Smith anymore, but we have the fruits of his labor, and it's enough.

Love you all!

Elder Liecht

Aug 29, 2016

I burnt a shirt to celebrate! It was ripped, so It's not like I was losing anything. Also, They say that at the 3/4 mark you burn a suit. So you have six months to convince me not to if you're not ok with that.

:D I've chilled out. I'm still kinda nervous because I know that everything I do is an example to him, but whatevs. I'll just be the kind of good person that I'm always supposed to be, and it won't be a problem!

I did read the BFG! A good book. And in Polish, the did what they could to keep the BFG acronym the same, so it translated to "Bardzo Fajny Gigant" Which means "The Really Fine Giant" Nice

Caity's birthday cake was one of the funniest things I've seen in a while! Well done, you guys, well done.

Also, the other package DID show up! I tore into that one pretty quick! You're getting very creative with the ways you send tic tacs to me now! ;) 

I am still a district leader, the mission is small enough, that most cities are made up of one companionship of Elders and one companionship of Sisters, so basically if you've been in the mission for a while you're going to be district leader. And Elder Hill is doing really well, he's gotten over the initial shock of this not being the MTC, which is good. His language is... that of one who's been learning Polish for only two months. We'll leave it at that. But he's gotten a ton better since he got here, and we speak the language together really often, a lot more often that any other companion that I've had, and that's really nice! His enthusiasm is really good, he knows why he's out here, and he likes talking with people, but the only issue is that he has a back problem, and since this is a city where we walk everywhere we go, it's pretty difficult for him physically. He's also a clean, tidy person, so like usual, I need to step up my game. I'm pretty much the piano player again, because Sister xxx doesn't really like to play the piano, and usually finds an excuse for me to play it ;) 

This email's going to be kind of short because last week was kind of destroyed by the fact that we had to move apartements. Everyone thought that the Sisters' apartment was closing down, and that they were going to move to a new apartment, but it turned out that it was our apartment that was closing, and because life isn't fair, the sisters moved into the nice, huge, new apartment in the center of town, and we moved to their old one that's four flights of stairs up. Yusss. And because of that we spent a lot of time cleaning and packing and moving. Lame. But we did teach this one guy named R., and he's pretty cool, we can only meet with him for ten minutes or so every couple of days, but that's actually more than anyone else that I';ve worked with, which is very nice. Also, the guys from Turkmenistan and Turkey are leaving, and it's tearing a hole in my heart. The one from Turkmenistan could not be baptized because he was not a legal resident of Turkey, and so we're in contact with the Branch President in Istanbul, and things should work out for him sometime in the future, but if we could have baptized him here, we could have done it any time we wanted. That man is probably the greatest and most christlike person I've ever met.

I love you!!!

Sam

23 August 2016

We found it!

The goodbye with Elder Rowley that I never sent.

I miss him very much. We got along so well! But he's off to do great things in Katowice

Sister DeMordaunt and Sister Kamp and Sister Dekker (Kamp and Dekker are training)

The view of Warsaw from on top of Stalin's tower

Stalin's Tower

The original MTC gang! (this was the first time that the five of us had been together since we came into the country (four of us are training, and one is an office elder serving in Warsaw), and probably the last time we'll all be together until we leave the country!)

Me and Starszy Wzgórze (hill)

I'm tired. 

President Turek told me to go to sleep today.

ANYWAY,

about Warsaw- I left on Tuesday, and because that was P-day, we got to go see Stalin's tower, which was built during communist times, and a lot of the older population of Poland hates it. I was able to be there with Sister DeMordaunt, too, because she's serving in Warsaw, now, and it was really fun! I was with Elders McPherson and Schwanke who were both training as well, so we all stayed in Elder McPherson's apartement where we played a riviting game of Dominion, (I got second place...) and then woke up the next morning to go to the Warsaw 2 chapel and wait for the trainees! We had a meeting with President Turek that was pretty short, because most of the trainers got in late, and then we all sat on one side of the room, and the trainees sat on the other, and President just started to list off who the companions were!

My comps name is Elder Hill! He's from Murray, Ut, and looks and acts pretty much just like Caleb M, so if you're wondering what he's like, just think of Caleb! ;) But he's awesome, and willing to work! I just hope that I don't over work him. I used to have a problem where I would just sink or rise to the level of commitment that my companion had already been at, and I wasn't being an agent for myself, but now that I'm in this position, and that I can pretty much do whatever I want and have it be seen as the way to do missionary work I'm stressing out and working harder than I ever have before. But it's super tiring and I'm sure that Elder Hill is starting to worry about the next two years of his life. But so was I at that point, and here I am HALF WAY (in three days) DONE. And I've only gone a little bit crazy! And while I would not say that I love Elder Hill like a newborn baby, I do feel a love and a responsibility that I'm sure is akin to that of a father. And again- it's a little stressful. Like, for reals, though, I've never been this stressed in my life. Someone tell me to take some deep breaths or something! 

I'm really distracted and tired right now, so I can't really remember anything that ahppened in the last week, other than that we just worked really hard.

This email is coming today because we had Zone Training yesterday and there was no time for P-day.

Remember- when Naaman was cured of his leprosy he had to wash himself 7 times. I don't know about you guys, but I'm normally clean after one bath. But remember that sometimes we need to do things that don't seem like they work very well multiple times before they come up with the miracle you need.

Love

Elder Liechty

16 August 2016

The transfer calls are out, and my fate is decided...

Elder Rowley has gone down south to Katowice, to be with his old MTC companion, Elder Litster, and I am staying in Bydgoszcz! I don't know who my companion will be, yet, because... I'm TRAINING! I'm currently in Warsaw for P-day, because I don't have anyone to take care of me in Bydgoszcz, and all the trainies get in on Wednesday, and that's when they're assigned! I'm very nervous, and it makes me realize how prideful I was back in the beginning of my mission. .... I had no idea of what I was doing back then, and still don't. But hey- I don't think anyone really knows what they're doing. So that's me. More on the subject of that next week.

That is SO CRAZY what happened to you! I can't believe that you actually had to spend the night on some rocks hiding from the rain! That's awesome! And pretty scary! Glad you made it out unharmed. And it really does bring up the question of why you all were so safe, and others aren't... But even in Christ's day, not every leper was healed, and not every blind person was restored sight. I guess that's one that we'll just have to wait for a while before we see the bigger picture. And it does also mean that you all haven't yet finished your mission here on earth, so get workin'!

I saw some stats. USA is killin' it! AMERICA! Poland is doing alright. One of the members always likes bringing up the Olympics and tying it to spiritual thoughts, so I get a few updates ;)

This week is going to be a bit short because I don't have as much time as usual, but I'd just like to tell you all that I love you very very much, and that I can't wait until we meet again!

(Also, I hit one year in ten days! HOW CRAZY IS THAT!?)

Love,

Elder liechty

Ok, everyone say it with me, now, Byd-gosz-cz (Bid-goash-ch') Easy. Now say Odziedziczyć 

We do play frisbee because I love it, but I have never heard of Igor, nor has Elder Rowley. And yeah, the package still hasn't made it here, so that's a little unfortunate, but it wouldn't be a real mission experience if one of the packages sent from home got lost who knows where and then shows up one day opened and half the candy eaten!

And we figure out what our fate is this Saturday! Stay tuned!

The only mention of the Olympics is from the American members who are here for NATO, but it still makes me miss them. That's cool that there was a group of refugees, though! Lots of people here are very against the refugee movement, and it's sad to see the feelings of people towards them, but it's pretty understandable. This country has been invaded one too many times.

In Szczecin and Poznań, where we had about three people there, fast sundays were usually pretty quiet, and here it's a bit better, but still a lot of silence. I think a lot of the members think it's silly- everyone getting up and saying really similar things a bunch of times, but it really is powerful to see that people can have the same strength in testimony here as back home. The missionaries usually take a big chunk of time.

This last week was one of those weeks where you've built everything up real nice, and then it comes crashing down on you. We had the potential of having 9 progressing investigators by the end of the week, but instead we have one, and the rest of them have stopped answering our phone calls. I've gotten pretty used to this sort of thing over the months, but I can see that it's taken a bit of a toll on Elder Rowley. He's still pushing through, though, and still has a ton of faith. He loves the Gospel, and just wants people to know it, but they won't let him... We walked into one guy, who stopped us and said "do you speak english!?" and we said yes, and he said that he was a little drunk, but we talked with him, and he just cried and complained about his life, and that God had left him. We were not able to help him in the end. He would not believe in Jesus Christ and would not accept that he would have to change his life and start to follow him if he wants to see a change in his life. He wanted us right then and there to speak the words that would change his life or make him not addicted to smoking or alcohol, which was impossible, and he blamed us for it. I don't know how his life has turned out, but we bore witness of the Savior, and of his Atonement, and he decided to reject that testimony. I hope I can see him again.

On another day, we visited a less active member, who's living conditions are probably among the worst that I've experienced while out here. His house has no light, it smells very very bad, and there's always his drunkard friends there making it disgusting. He lives in very poor conditions. But we visited with him for a bit, and he was drunk, and afterwards, we asked if there was anything we could do for him, and he was just like "are you far?" Which of course makes no sense, but now I realize he was saying something like "take a look around. Of course there's something you can help with, dummy." Then he walked out of the room we were in, and he showed us a pot of rice, and said "look at this. This is all I've had to eat today" And at this point I was expecting a long, angry rant about how rich the church and Americans are and how hypocritical we all are and all that fun stuff, but instead he just said "can you get me some sauce?" We agreed and got some sauce (not red sauce, because that's communistic) and that was that. I'm just really tired of alcohol. I've seen so many people who's lives have been ruined by it. The Word of Wisdom is truly here for our benefit, and we ought to stick to it. Remember- really really wanting something is not justification to do it.

Talk to you all next week!

Love

Elder Liechty

1 August 2016

There was a seagull trying to investigate the church

Science

Also, the Junior Olympics for track and field were hosted here in Bydgoszcz, so we got a picture with the Mexico team!

Why? No one knows

HellooooooooooOOOOOooOOoooooO!

Goin' good! Next transfer is the 15 of August, so two more weeks! Elder Rowley is great, and works very hard. He just really wants to make is parents proud. heavenly and earthly.

The package hasn't come yet, and the one I got doesn't have the po-land map. What does that even mean?

9 hours of hiking?! Ugh. that sounds painful. In Bydgoszczczczszc, we walk everywhere, because the public transport in this city isn't very good and is not very convenient. And I've destroyed my second pair of shoes! YAY! But really, though, this is becoming a problem. Also, the callouses on my feet are huge. Like, my entire heel is a rock. I could break through glaciers with these feet.

Sister Kaegel told me that Dad is a hoot on facebook! Just posting all your adventures and funny pictures. You guys are the best! And it sounds like you're getting into all these extreme sports! Is my lack of being there and doing those things making you want to fill some void? Either way, I think it's fun! Elder Rowley went mountain biking, and it's making me regret that I didn't do it more often. One day, I'll get back into that and back into rock climbing!

What are these people doing leaving on missions? It's really weird when i hear about my friends from the grade below me leaving on missions. It makes me feel old, and I realize that I am old! Mission wise. It wasn't until last transfer when I wasn't the youngest missionary in Poland. 

The main business here is building trams for the rest of the country. At least, that's where you see Bydgoszcz's name all over the place, but I don't know of any members who work in that business. Everyone just does random little things like mow lawns or work in a frame shop. And concerning wild animals, every once in a while we'll see packs of wild Boars. They call 'em Dziki. Just don't get near them and you'll be fine. But they're in very normal places when you find them, like just some neighborhood. It's cool.

The thing we're really lacking right now is energy. We're all still really working hard, but our district has just kind of fizzled out, even though everything's been going the same way it has been. It's tough, because we have all the meetings and the conferences, and we get really inspired, but then you go outside and the next ten people you talk to either just completely ignore you or laugh at you. But Elder Rowley told me a great quote that goes like "the laughter of the world is merely loneliness pathetically trying to reassure itself" From Elder Neal A. Maxwell. It helps me understand where true happiness is, and where family is. Because only in the Celestial Kingdom will people be able to enjoy the happiness that families bring in this life. Also, that book you sent of President Eyring's talks is really great! He's a great man. A Prophet, some might say

Love you guys!

Elder Liechty