14 November 2016

There's a man who keeps snorting his boogers up his nose who's sitting next to me. Thank you, mom, for not letting that habit grow within me.

And concerning my credit card, I don't plan on buying anything soon, so I'll just take out some money and you can deactivate the card and send the new one. If you send it today or tomorrow, I should be able to get it before Christmas. Probably.

HE DID! It's the very same Todd! BACK ON THE MISSION! I am so utterly grateful that that happened! And they're companions! They've been dreaming about this very exact situation since they were lads, and now it's actually come to pass! First the mission calls to the same place, then the going back, then the coming back, THEN the being actual companions... MAN! The roller coaster of emotions for me is just wild, I bet for those two it's just unbelievable!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO

I'll buy something Polish for you. It's funny- we've had the Polish pottery in our house for as long as I can remember, so when I get here, and there's all this hype over this polish pottery and getting it for you families, I'm just like "wait. What? doesn't everyone have this type of bowls and stuff in their house? This is what I eat my ramen noodles in."

Sounds like the Thanksgiving tradition is coming to an end... Are we going to keep meeting up with family for as long as we can, or split off like many others have done? I don't really want to do that. I hate ends to things. Also, tell everyone there that I love them and miss them

A BOY!? I've got some pretty good Polish names then... We've got Zbyszek, Zdzisław, Wojciech, Grzegorz. Maybe Stanisław. But watch out for that one, I haven't met a Stanisław who wasn't absolutely crazy and in love with the sister missionaries.

Jan, though, DID GET BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!! The day finally came. I had my doubts at times, but it really did happen. Thank you so much for your prayers and fasts (I actually told him that you fasted for him, because he started to have some worries, and it seemed like that was what pulled him through. He's VERY grateful to you for that.) (also, he might friend you on facebook soon, or send you a message, so if you get a thing from Jan Zakrzewski, that's him)

Today for P-day, we're doing another escape room! Last time we did what was one of two hardest escape rooms, and got out with about 9 minutes left, where most people don't even make it, and today we're going to do the other hardest ones that has lasers and stuff! GET HYPE!

I do feel as though the Holy Ghost prompted me to share the Gospel with the Priests. When I thought of the idea I prayed about it, and got the confirmation that it would be a good idea. What will come of it? We don't know, but I'm learning a lot about how the Catholic church is organized and what they believe, which helps me understand the people much better.

I have a feeling that I'm going to miss family much more during this holiday season than last, but I'm going to do what I can to not dwell on it! 

Love you all!

Sam

7 Nov 2016

Candles at the graveyard!!

Elder Rowley!!

This is the Błonia. It's a huge field where the Pope came and talked to all the youth in Poland, and now it's just empty and people roller blade around it with their dogs. Good place for talking to people

Service

Graveyard

Graveyard

HI FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

How are you?

This week was very good, and there were many high points, so I will give one now, and the other later on, because it relates with one of your questions! On Friday, we had Zone Training, and guess who was there!? ELDER ROWLEY!!! I love that man so much. We spent some good time catching up and talking about what happened over the last 2 months. He's really such a great guy! At the Zone Training we talked about being more effective with our time, and doing more with what the Lord has given us. Which is definetly soething that I need to work on, but something that Elder Curtis is very good at, so it works.

We did do an escape room last week, and were doing another one today! Last week was pretty easy, and we actually set the record (don't tell anyone, but it's because I had been in one that had all the exact same puzzles as this one, so I knew what I was doing the whole time...) But this time we're tying out what they say is the hardest one, so let's hope I havn't already done this one as well. I also bought some pants (stretchy, of course) because all of my other ones are wearing out. It's become a serious problem.

If all goes to plan, Jan is going to be baptized this Wednesday! hold your thumbs! (that's what they do in Poland instead of crossing their fingers) Pleas please please continue to pray for him and thank you for all that you've done already!

This is where the other high point of the week comes in. Our game plan for the most part has remained the same, just trying to talk to everyone that passes us. But in addition, we're doing what all the other missionaries in the country are calling us either legends or fools for doing- we're setting up interviews and meetings with the Priests and Parishes of the churches in Kraków (which are many) and presenting them the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with the underlying statement that any person claiming to be a seeker of truth will find it in this message. And before you think I'm a fool for doing this, we asked the Mission President what he thinks about it, and he was all for it! He even called the other day to see how it went! We're not doing this to argue with anybody, nor to discredit anyone's faith, but to simply present our message and find those who are willing to consider it. The day we were going to try it out for the first time, it was hailing and very cold, then as we approched the church that we were going to enter, the hail became like, twice as hard, then we entered the church and there was organ music playing because mass just finished, and it was all just a very eery scene... Then we couldn't find anyone. So we walked out, and I called all my Catholic friends or members who used to be Catholic, and asked what we needed to to do find these people, and after that we found one Proboszcz (Parish priest) and started talking. unfortunately, he only had about 15 minutes, so we're going to now have to call in advance to set up meetings to do this, but we gave a quick overview of the Restoration. The first thing he said was "there are many ways to God. It could be with the Mormons, or it could be with the Catholics". then we went on to talk about the First Vision and then he said that everyone has the tendency to say that they're the only correct church and that again, there are many roads to God. Then we told him how we knew we were right, which was the Book of Mormon, and when we talked about the Book of Mormon, he said that the Bible was enough for him, then we quoted 2 Nephi 29 where it says something along the lines of "do ye murmur that you have more words of God? Do you not know that there are mor nations than one, and that god loves all of his children and speaks to them?" Then he got a little more defensive, and repeated that the Bible was enough for him, and then we had to leave. All in all, a very interesting incounter. He was open and kind, and you could see that he really did study and love the scriptures.

There does need to be a bigger emphasis on the Book of Mormon, though. Sometimes I get caught up in stuyding the New and old Testaments, that I don't read the Book of Mormon. When that happens, I can actually feel the strenght of my testimony weaken when I'm talking with people about it. So I've been reading it every day for the last month, and it's helped a ton!

AAAND we finally did some service!!! It was a one time thing, though... The 1 of Novermber in Poalnd is called All Saints Day, wehre people put candles on the graves of their ancestors to help them out of Purgatory. I think. I really need to find out. for sure.  So we went and helped clean off the old graves that no one cared about because they had no family left in Kraków. It was nice to finally be able to do something like that! Also, the graveyard is beautiful at night with all the candles lit, and the pictures don't do it justice, but it's a really cool holiday!

The things i would like most in the package, are pictures, like always, and the Chills on Wheels T-shirt that I got working with Brother Anderson. He wants me to get a picture wearing in it Poland for his facebook page. It'd be awesome!

Have a great week!

Love,

リクティ長老

31 Oct 2016

Final pictures of Bydgoszcz

Goodbye Elder Hill, hello Krakow!

Here's some of the Rynek (town square)

Kraków is really great! Don't know if I said this last week, but Kraków hasn't had a baptism for the last two years. The Catholic influence here is BIG. Huge, one could say. For example, the people here who have heard of the Mormon church, know it as "the cancer of the Catholic church" and in the last week we've (our district) has gotten at least two calls to repentance from other people. Granted, this is making it sound quite harsh, but it's really not that bad. Most people just don't see a point in there being anything other than the Catholic church because of Papal authority and whatnot. Most people even accept that there's been a general apostasy as well, but still go to the Catholic church because there just can't be any other thing. It just boggles my mind! 

But speaking of hard-core Catholics, does anyone here remember Jan? He was someone I taught while I was in Szczecin for the second time. He was the one who was studying to become a Priest, decided not to, i tak dalej... (and so on) and with him I learned a TON and my entire view on the way things work and how to go about understanding the people changed. I learned to be a lot more loving and accepting of people of other faiths. Also, he's like one of my best friends now. ANYWAY, he's been meeting with missionaries for the last 8 months, but for the last 4 or so, he's not really been putting effort into anything and we pretty much lost hope there, BUT THEN in the last couple of weeks, he's come back and something opened his eyes, he stopped smoking and drinking, and he's decided to get baptized!!!! If all goes to plan, then it will be happening on the 13 of November! Pray for him PLEASE

Elder Curtis and I get along pretty well.  He and I are working on our teaching, it doesn't flow quite well, and we have a hard time building off of each others' ideas because we've both got our own plans running in our heads - pretty normal when you have different teaching styles and we've only been together for a week!. But we've both noticed it and are working on working in better unity.

We exercise, but not together 😬 I just REALLY don't want to go jogging. Anything but that

There's one other set of Elders here- Elder McPherson (four months left) and Elder Pettit, who's in the same group as Elder Curtis. There's also a senior couple here named the Daltons, they're awesome! Sister Dalton was very grateful that I could play the piano (there it is again, mom, there's been a total of 3 or 4 sacrament meetings that I've been a part in where I didn't play the piano) so we're going to switch off every week. I am district leader again, and I've been given the assignment from President Turek to figure out how the missionaries can better work with the ward leaders... any ideas?

The dynamics of this branch are so odd. Kraków certainly has a ton of tourists (I've already been stopped by two american members) and every Sunday there will be anywhere from 3-20 people from out of town. This last week there were two Poles, only one of which didn't speak English, 4 members who live here but are Americans, 6 missionaries from America, and 15 people from out of town. All from America. So instead of the meetings being held in Polish, and translated to English, it was the other way around, and it was WEIRD. Sacrament meeting in English is not something that I am used to, and listening to the speakers in English was weird, and hearing american english accents was weird AND THEN they asked me and Elder McPherson to bear our testimonies because we are new here, and it was in English! That was the first time in over a year that I've done that in sacrament meeting in english, and it just felt strange. I was free- I could say whatever I wanted! I had no limited vocabulary, no stumbling over grammar principles, no nothing! Going home is going to be weird.

weird.

I love you all and thank you for your prayers and support!

Love,

Elder Liechty

31 Oct 2016

Final pictures of Bydgoszcz

Goodbye Elder Hill, hello Krakow!

Here's some of the Rynek (town square)

Kraków is really great! Don't know if I said this last week, but Kraków hasn't had a baptism for the last two years. The Catholic influence here is BIG. Huge, one could say. For example, the people here who have heard of the Mormon church, know it as "the cancer of the Catholic church" and in the last week we've (our district) has gotten at least two calls to repentance from other people. Granted, this is making it sound quite harsh, but it's really not that bad. Most people just don't see a point in there being anything other than the Catholic church because of Papal authority and whatnot. Most people even accept that there's been a general apostasy as well, but still go to the Catholic church because there just can't be any other thing. It just boggles my mind! 

But speaking of hard-core Catholics, does anyone here remember Jan? He was someone I taught while I was in Szczecin for the second time. He was the one who was studying to become a Priest, decided not to, i tak dalej... (and so on) and with him I learned a TON and my entire view on the way things work and how to go about understanding the people changed. I learned to be a lot more loving and accepting of people of other faiths. Also, he's like one of my best friends now. ANYWAY, he's been meeting with missionaries for the last 8 months, but for the last 4 or so, he's not really been putting effort into anything and we pretty much lost hope there, BUT THEN in the last couple of weeks, he's come back and something opened his eyes, he stopped smoking and drinking, and he's decided to get baptized!!!! If all goes to plan, then it will be happening on the 13 of November! Pray for him PLEASE

Elder Curtis and I get along pretty well.  He and I are working on our teaching, it doesn't flow quite well, and we have a hard time building off of each others' ideas because we've both got our own plans running in our heads - pretty normal when you have different teaching styles and we've only been together for a week!. But we've both noticed it and are working on working in better unity.

We exercise, but not together 😬 I just REALLY don't want to go jogging. Anything but that

There's one other set of Elders here- Elder McPherson (four months left) and Elder Pettit, who's in the same group as Elder Curtis. There's also a senior couple here named the Daltons, they're awesome! Sister Dalton was very grateful that I could play the piano (there it is again, mom, there's been a total of 3 or 4 sacrament meetings that I've been a part in where I didn't play the piano) so we're going to switch off every week. I am district leader again, and I've been given the assignment from President Turek to figure out how the missionaries can better work with the ward leaders... any ideas?

The dynamics of this branch are so odd. Kraków certainly has a ton of tourists (I've already been stopped by two american members) and every Sunday there will be anywhere from 3-20 people from out of town. This last week there were two Poles, only one of which didn't speak English, 4 members who live here but are Americans, 6 missionaries from America, and 15 people from out of town. All from America. So instead of the meetings being held in Polish, and translated to English, it was the other way around, and it was WEIRD. Sacrament meeting in English is not something that I am used to, and listening to the speakers in English was weird, and hearing american english accents was weird AND THEN they asked me and Elder McPherson to bear our testimonies because we are new here, and it was in English! That was the first time in over a year that I've done that in sacrament meeting in english, and it just felt strange. I was free- I could say whatever I wanted! I had no limited vocabulary, no stumbling over grammar principles, no nothing! Going home is going to be weird.

weird.

I love you all and thank you for your prayers and support!

Love,

Elder Liechty

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