25/10/16 - Transfer to Krakow

OK

No one expected this one. I have indeed been moved from Bydgoszcz, but instead of ruling the northern half of Poland like i thought I would, I got sent all the way to the very south to... KRAKÓW! 

say it with me now "crack-oov" NOT "crack-ow"

My companion's name is Elder Curtis, and he's in Elder Hill's group, so he's been in Poland for just over 10 weeks now. He's quiet, tall, and already REALLY good at Polish. I'm very impressed. Also, he's from Hurricane, Utah.

Kraków is probably the Catholic center of all Catholics. Just a couple of months ago, the Pope came and addressed all the youth of Poland. He does this every other year, and the missionaries are supposed to leave the city for the day because there's just nothing that can be done. It's also beautiful! Way bigger that Bydgoszcz, and has tons of legends and stories and pretty buildings! It also used to be the Capitol of Poland. Don't know what happened... We're able to go to three really amzazing places here for P-day- The Salt Mine; Zakopana, which has a bunch of beautiful hikes, and you're able to cross the Slovakian border; and Auschwitz. I hope that I'll be able to go to all of them.

The train ride down was 7 hours long. And started at 5:30 AM. No one sat next to me, either...

That train was so long I don't think I can ride in vehicles for more that 30 minutes for the next couple of years. Ugh.... But your road trip sounds like it was fun! Have you gone through all there is to do in Utah now, and you're moving on to other states? There's so much of the US that I have no idea about. Like, what even is in Nebraska!? Oh wait... But everyone talks about Oregon, and I want to go there.

The last week with Elder Hill was pretty good, too. It started out with a big trial - at the start, we had had some amazing lessons with people, and they promised to meet with us again and seemed like they had great potential, so the week started out really well. But then Tuesday happened. All our meetings flaked us, one investigator told us how we were just not really important to him, another just turned out to have a huge crush on one of the sister missionaries, and at the end of the night, the people we had talked to earlier either stopped answering their phone, or blocked our numbers. Now, this has happened to me numerous times, so I'm used to it, but this was Elder Hill's first time going through the gauntlet, and I could see just how hard it was and there was nothing I could do about it. That was the hardest part, and as a side note, I have a much better understanding of how parenting goes and how God feels when we're going through trials. But the next day we were able to move on and finish the week strong!

It's a much different feeling every major time mark now that i've passed the year mark. Like, all the fractions are getting smaller now instead of rising. Time's running out and I can feel it! Don't quite know what to feel about that...

Have a great week!!

Elder Liecht

10 October 2016

(What made you choose to be healthier?) All my companions have been way healthier eaters than me, and I realized that each of my companions had, up to the point where they were with me, worked out every morning. Then I came into their lives, and they stopped, and then we split up, and they started to work out again. Then I went on exchanges to Szczecin, and I saw what a huge change that Elder Garrison had made in his habits, and finally I decided that something needed to change. So i did. I don't feel like throwing up every time I eat oatmeal now, too, so things are really looking up! We excercise in the same room at the same time, but we're not doing anything together. I'm jump-roping a lot, too, so now I can be one of those cool people who do the jump-roping shows and stuff.

(Are you working more with members since investigators are so few?) I feel like something like that happening to us would be just what we need. With every person I've talked to through emails in other missions, they say that the members are usually real stubborn like the ones here, but they just have a mission culture of working at it a bit harder than we do. We need to follow through a bit more and work harder with them.

None of the appointments really turned into new investigators, but one person just wansn't home, so there's still a glimmer of hope there. But overall, we have 3 progressing investigators right now which is really good. Michał, Roman, and Greg. None of them want to go to church, though. We haven't been able to bring an investigator to church for the last two months, and I don't know how we can help the people understand how important it is!

President Turek came to Bydgoszcz yesterday, and he interviewed Elder Hill and me, which came at a really good time. Granted, every interview with the President is really good and inspiring. We're going to be getting a new branch president here, as well, and they interviewd all the possible presidentes, but we don't know when the change will actually be happening.

I'll take a bunch of pictures of the city today. It's a very small city, so when it feels like there should be more to it, there's not.

What kind of trees are you replaceing the old ones with? I miss fixing sprinklers. I've found out that I just really like taking things apart and putting them back together again. It's just fun. But I also break a lot of things. Until I get some self control, I'm not going to be able to buy anything nice for myself

Elder Hill and I get along well, the biggest thing we connect on is that we're representatives of Jesus Christ together. And it's actually pretty amazing how much that unites a pair of people! It's like that triangle of Jesus Christ you and another person (friend, wife, companion, nieghbor) where as the two of you draw closer to Christ, you draw closer together simply by the way geometry works! And I am more comfortable training now, and it has a big chance of ending in two weeks! The transfer is over on the 24th, and no one knows what will happen at that point

Elder Hill's sister sent us some sweet socks and shirts from a store here, they're awesome!

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder liechty

3 October 2016

1000 piece puzzle I did that ended up missing 2 pieces...

Showing off the cards he received from our primary kids! In his words, here's a 

cute one instead of the one below:)

This picture is on top of a big structure that people used in a city called 

Ciochecina to evaporate water to get the salt and minerals from it.

Pictures from Ciochecino

YAY CONFERENCE!!!

But before we get into that, let me talk real fast about the Word of Wisdom. You might be thinking i'm going to talk about alcohol or tobacco, but not quite. As the smart people in the textbooks would say, the Word of Wisdom is comprised of both negative and positive commandments, or in layman's terms, commandments that say "don't" or "no" and commandments that meant "do" or "yes". And we think and we focus a ton on the don't's of the word of wisdom, but not very often on the do's, and as I have recently passed through a time in my life where I ate macaroni and cheese for every meal for a couple of days, I'm going to bring up the do's. For the last two weeks (get ready, mom, cuz this I'm about to describe a person other than the Elder Liechty you dropped off a year ago) I've been eating so much healthy food! Like, oatmeal, fruits and veggies, whole grains, and hardly any sugar. That doesn't sound like much nor is it that intense of a diet, but compared to the diet I used to have, that's leaps and bounds better. And I feel fantastic because of it! Like, just cleaner and better all around. Now I have way more energy, and I don't even want to eat chocolate that much anymore. It's crazy.

But like, me... eating OATMEAL!? No one saw that coming.

Anyway, conference. I don't remember the exact words of anything I heard, either, but I do remember from Sister Reeve's talk, how when the children were asked about repentace, the answer that hit me the hardest was the one where they said something like "It will help Jesus feel like the Atonement was worth it". And I love that so much! Usually when I think of sinning and repentace, I think of how whenever I sinned I was personally the cause of some of the suffering that Jesus experienced while in the garden, but that's all I thought about. I never thought about the gratitude he must have when someone decides to actually benefit from his gift. There's two sides to it- the pain that he once had, and the joy that he has yet to have, waiting for us to use his atonement! I haven't quite figured out how to word everything I want to say concerning that, but I hope you get the gist of it

We were able to watch all the sessions except Sunday afternoon, so we'll watch that either later today or tomorrow, but yesterday we watched Saturday morning at 10, ate food that the Tufts brought to the chapel, watched Saturday afternoon at 13, then watched the Priesthood session at 16, with a nice talk with a homeless man about how the heavens are opened once again, and that revelation has not stopped with the ancient prophets, then watched the Sunday morning session live at 18!

This week we had a very interesting lesson with a less active member, who was wanting to come back and repent. He actually belongs to anpther branch, so they're now taking over helping him back to the church. He was also blind, and I was the one who was walking him around helping him find doorways and the like, which was very interesting to be needed in such an immediate and literal way. It opened up a whole new door to ways of feeling needed to me...

Also, earlier in this week, we'd been tracting- as missionaries do- and while we were on the bus, and heading towards our destination, I was prompted to go to the next stop, instead of the first one, and when the bus stopped at the first stop, I was prompted to wait again, so we did. And in the area that we've started tracting, we've already set up two return appointments with people that we've met! Two in one week! That's more than some entire two-month transfer blocks that I've had! Nice! The Lord is leading his work, and everything according to his time-table, so I don't know what will become of those lessons, but regardless, it's a huge blessing!

Have a great week!

Elder Liechty

26 Sept 2016

Hi there!

It's starting to get cold! The weather just turned from summer to fall in a week's time. Prettty neat.

Biking's fun I miss it... And ever since I left szczecin, I haven't been able to do it because the city bikes don't go to places that are useful. Lame.

Why did that movie make you uncomfortable? Was it the stress of what you knew was about to happen? I came across a children's book of Toy Story 3 in our apartment, and i read it and i almost cried because of the story, and because I hadn't read or experienced that kind of story in such a long time. Well done, Pixar.

Don't ever stop stressing member missionary work! If the missionary is doing it right, he won't care that people love the members, in fact, he'll love it because that's what;s SUPPOSED to happen! The work here will not move forward at the pace it needs to until the members and the missionaries start coordinating their efforts way more than they are now. The missionaries leave, but the members stay.

I've been working on a 1000 piece puzzle for a while, and now whenever I close my eyes, I see puzzle pieces. This is a problem.

I know this church is the true and living church of God on earth, and that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. I know that Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. 

I've written that in my journal a couple of times when I felt like I needed too, and when my testimony for whatever reason has become shaken, I look for those entries when  my testimony was strong, and it gives me hope again. So if for whatever reason someone is reading this and is looking for someone to give them a reason to have faith like they once had, look at this, and trust me. Trust the Apostles and Prophets, and trust your neighbors and friends, who all have the same testimony who are there to help you. That's what friends are for.

Love 

Elder Liechty

19 Sept 2016

Dang, everyone's having dreams about me! John Stout just told me of one where I wasn't missing, but we were home from our missions and couldn't have normal conversations with girls... Probably a premonition dream.

Anyway

I'm not lost, and I'm sure that the fact that you didn't get this email right in the morning is worrying you. But don't. Because we were in TORUŃ (say it with me (Tore-u-een)) We live an hour drive from it so the Sisters and us went there for the day! We didn't have a TON of time, but it was good, and very pretty. We visited the gingerbread museum which is this place where they show how they made gingerbread in mideval times and then you get to make your own and its all jolly fun! Then we just walked around. Nice day. 

It takes about 3.5 hours to make it to Warsaw. I did the math, and it turns out that in this 9 week transfer, we'll have done over 30 hours of traveling by train. I used to really like it, but now I'm not a huge fan. It just drains the energy from me and I'm really tired for the next day. I'd rather just travel once or twice a transfer.

When I think about how quickly the time is passing I think of Jacob 7:26 where he talks about their lives passing away like it were unto them a dream. i mean, the part about being cast out of Jerusalem doesn't really apply to us, but you get the point.

Do you like doing things like hikes or going to plays better?

I totally remember him! He was awesome! We got along very well. Ask him if his hair still feels like spaghetti squash. It's always tough when the family doesn't like the change... That's pretty much every member here. Most members have been baptized without thier families, and when we go to visit them the family is never there, as though it was planned that way. It's tough, but nothing will help a person more in his or her life than the gospel. That's a promise that's held through time and time again.

I hope it's a dinosaur (boy or girl grandbaby)

Will Zach and Katie fly out to VA as well? (Going there for Christmas) I can't wait to skype everyone again! I hope that I'll be back in Szczecin again to use the Cutting's computer! It's very convenient.

When we were in Szczecin, there wasn't a ton that happened, because there was some business that we had to take care of pretty quickly so Elder Garrison and I had to use up a big chunk of the day finishing that up, and elders Hill and Fetzer (Elder Garrison's companion) spent the day doing some work! Then we were able to see J., and investigator that we had long ago who was so close to being baptized that we nearly got to reserve the pool, but then he decided not to. He's still a friend to the missionaries, but doesn't listen to them anymore, which was really sad to see.

Otherwise it was a pretty good week! On the train ride back to Szczecin, there was a man sitting next to me, and I was reading the Book of Mormon and I saw him glance at the cover, and after a while I was trying to think of a way that I could talk to him, but for some reason I couldn't get up the courage to talk to him, and of course the thoughts of what could happen if I talked to him, such as baptism and his life being changed forever for the good, and the thoughts of that absolutely not happening if I ddin't say anything. So after what seemed like an eternity of inner debate, I finally started a conversation with him that lasted about 5 seconds. He wasn't interested. So that brought to mind the question- why the heck is it that when I get enough faith to do something, it doesn't end up like those perfect stories you read in the Liahona (that's the Ensign for you friends across the pond). I already have my own answers for that question though, which I'd come to terms with long ago. I just want to hear all of your insights, in case you've thought of anything else that I can add! 

Welp. Love you guys

Elder Liechty

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