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

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