I honestly have zero time to email. We went to Ogroduzieniedc
this week. Good stuff happening. New investigator by the name of Tomasz.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Monday, July 20, 2015
"Jiggy, Jiggy, Party Hard" -German Guy (Week 20)
Hello Everyone!
Well, we got another great week over here in Poland. We starting out the week on a high note, the Zone leaders came down from Katowice to do a Zone training about including Jesus Christ more in our missionary work, and helping the Branches here become self-sufficient. This is critical, because without missionaries, I'm not sure if the church would function in Poland. We are trying to get the Branch members more involved in planning things, and getting them to actually do home teaching. Its a work in progress but a work nonetheless.
So my subject line is from while the Zone Leaders were here. We were all doing a group contacting activity near the Rynek on the Plantach. Elder Garcia was with us, he is Austrian and is a native German speaker, so when I contacted someone and they responded in English, and I found out he was from Germany, I immediately pulled Elder Garcia into the contact. He spoke to Elder Garcia for a few minutes in German, then as he was leaving asked us where some good places to Party were around here. We don't know any party places so we told him that we didn't know. He basically was dumbfounded that we don't party. It was pretty funny, but as he walked away he said to us: "See you guys... Jiggy, Jiggy, Party Hard!" It was hilarious.
On Wednesday we met with this cool guy named Michał ( =Micheal) He is an older gentleman who works as a professor at AGH university here in Kraków. It was a short meeting because one of his students was calling him asking for help, so he had to leave after about 15 minutes. He was really cool, and we had a really good conversation about the Apostasy and the role of the Book of Mormon in restoring the Church of Jesus Christ.
So I forgot to mention but we got these cool new toys. Not really toys, they are big banners about 5 feet tall and a foot and a half wide. They have cool stuff like Jestem Mormonem/Jestem Mormonką (I'm a mormon) and pictures of Jesus with quotes from the bible. We can set them up when we go contact people. They are pretty cool, but the blow over really easily. So we need to find a way to stop that/only use them on non windy days.
On Friday we really started to get to work on strengthening the branch, we met with the Branch Mission Leader, and the Branch President and made a game plan to help the branch. A lot of it is Home teaching, basically we as missionaries are going to try and be on most home teaching appointments.
Saturday was interesting. We were planning on spending most of the day out in this area called Czerwone Maki, at the end of the bus line, far out of the city. But when we got out there, there were 0 people on the street. It was bizarre. So basically we went back into Centrum and contacted people around the Rynek and had some good conversations with people. Its pretty annoying how everyone goes on vacation here, the city is very empty.
That's basically my week in short.
Love you and miss you!
-Starszy Everett
Well, we got another great week over here in Poland. We starting out the week on a high note, the Zone leaders came down from Katowice to do a Zone training about including Jesus Christ more in our missionary work, and helping the Branches here become self-sufficient. This is critical, because without missionaries, I'm not sure if the church would function in Poland. We are trying to get the Branch members more involved in planning things, and getting them to actually do home teaching. Its a work in progress but a work nonetheless.
So my subject line is from while the Zone Leaders were here. We were all doing a group contacting activity near the Rynek on the Plantach. Elder Garcia was with us, he is Austrian and is a native German speaker, so when I contacted someone and they responded in English, and I found out he was from Germany, I immediately pulled Elder Garcia into the contact. He spoke to Elder Garcia for a few minutes in German, then as he was leaving asked us where some good places to Party were around here. We don't know any party places so we told him that we didn't know. He basically was dumbfounded that we don't party. It was pretty funny, but as he walked away he said to us: "See you guys... Jiggy, Jiggy, Party Hard!" It was hilarious.
On Wednesday we met with this cool guy named Michał ( =Micheal) He is an older gentleman who works as a professor at AGH university here in Kraków. It was a short meeting because one of his students was calling him asking for help, so he had to leave after about 15 minutes. He was really cool, and we had a really good conversation about the Apostasy and the role of the Book of Mormon in restoring the Church of Jesus Christ.
So I forgot to mention but we got these cool new toys. Not really toys, they are big banners about 5 feet tall and a foot and a half wide. They have cool stuff like Jestem Mormonem/Jestem Mormonką (I'm a mormon) and pictures of Jesus with quotes from the bible. We can set them up when we go contact people. They are pretty cool, but the blow over really easily. So we need to find a way to stop that/only use them on non windy days.
On Friday we really started to get to work on strengthening the branch, we met with the Branch Mission Leader, and the Branch President and made a game plan to help the branch. A lot of it is Home teaching, basically we as missionaries are going to try and be on most home teaching appointments.
Saturday was interesting. We were planning on spending most of the day out in this area called Czerwone Maki, at the end of the bus line, far out of the city. But when we got out there, there were 0 people on the street. It was bizarre. So basically we went back into Centrum and contacted people around the Rynek and had some good conversations with people. Its pretty annoying how everyone goes on vacation here, the city is very empty.
That's basically my week in short.
Love you and miss you!
-Starszy Everett
Monday, July 13, 2015
Przepraszam pana, jaki jest ważność rodziny? (Week 19)
Alright, well sadly I forgot my planner at home so my details for this week might be a little shaky. So we can start with Tuesday... on Tuesday we had to get up early because Elder Mulder had to go to Warsaw to get an Xray (he broke his foot last transfer) and get his cast off. Unfortunately the other Elders failed to inform us of this so we got a call at 5 in the morning saying we had to go the Dworzec to pick up Elder Jackson his comp. We walk outside and it was probably the heaviest rain storm I have ever seen. Like trees blowing over type of deal. We finally get to the Dworzec soaking wet them pick up Elder Jackson and go back home. We later find out we could have woken up at 630 like normal because the train didn't leave for about 2 hours because trees fell down in the Tracks.
We went studies normally and got all that done, then we had to go to the Chapel to pick up Sister Herrera. This was because Sister Holden is a Sister Training Leader and they were having a meeting with president and the ZLs in our chapel so we had to hang out with Sister Herrara. So we had a 4 missionary companionship for about an hour and a half. All we did was go buy pizza for the people in the Meeting, then go right back and eat pizza with President, the Zls and the APs. That was fun because President also did Interviews.
I feel really bad because I cannot remember a lot of what we did the rest of the week. I do remember that on Saturday we had to stay in the Apartment in the morning until about 14 (2pm) because Elder Owens was having back issues, which have since gone away. That was no fun, but I learned some more polish so it was kinda beneficial.
I started contacting people by talking about their families. Its actually really funny because the conversations go like:
Me: "Hello, my friend and I are talking with everyone today about families... What is your family like?"
Them: "I have a brother and a ......"
Me: "Awesome, would you say family is important?"
Them: "Of course!"
Me: "Well, god thinks so too. He also has given us prophets....."
Then I start talking about the Gospel. Its funny to me because I change the subject completely away from Families to talk about Prophets which leads into the Restoration. But it is so much more effective because talking about family makes people warm up really quickly.
Speaking of which, we were in the Park on Saturday and I started talking to this old man. i asked him "What does family mean to you?", He said "Its a man and a woman, and maybe some kids" to which I responded, "That's beautiful, but really. Family, what does it really mean?" He sat there for a couple minutes then threw up his hands a said "I have no idea, I'm no philosopher." Then sat there and talked about how Mormons have a hospital in Salt Lake. I wasn't quite sure why he was talking about that. I thought the conversation was pretty funny though.
Alright, that's about it for this week.
Do Widzenia, kocham was!
-Starszy Everett
[Note: the title of this post translates as "Excuse me sir, what is the meaning of family?"]
We went studies normally and got all that done, then we had to go to the Chapel to pick up Sister Herrera. This was because Sister Holden is a Sister Training Leader and they were having a meeting with president and the ZLs in our chapel so we had to hang out with Sister Herrara. So we had a 4 missionary companionship for about an hour and a half. All we did was go buy pizza for the people in the Meeting, then go right back and eat pizza with President, the Zls and the APs. That was fun because President also did Interviews.
I feel really bad because I cannot remember a lot of what we did the rest of the week. I do remember that on Saturday we had to stay in the Apartment in the morning until about 14 (2pm) because Elder Owens was having back issues, which have since gone away. That was no fun, but I learned some more polish so it was kinda beneficial.
I started contacting people by talking about their families. Its actually really funny because the conversations go like:
Me: "Hello, my friend and I are talking with everyone today about families... What is your family like?"
Them: "I have a brother and a ......"
Me: "Awesome, would you say family is important?"
Them: "Of course!"
Me: "Well, god thinks so too. He also has given us prophets....."
Then I start talking about the Gospel. Its funny to me because I change the subject completely away from Families to talk about Prophets which leads into the Restoration. But it is so much more effective because talking about family makes people warm up really quickly.
Speaking of which, we were in the Park on Saturday and I started talking to this old man. i asked him "What does family mean to you?", He said "Its a man and a woman, and maybe some kids" to which I responded, "That's beautiful, but really. Family, what does it really mean?" He sat there for a couple minutes then threw up his hands a said "I have no idea, I'm no philosopher." Then sat there and talked about how Mormons have a hospital in Salt Lake. I wasn't quite sure why he was talking about that. I thought the conversation was pretty funny though.
Alright, that's about it for this week.
Do Widzenia, kocham was!
-Starszy Everett
[Note: the title of this post translates as "Excuse me sir, what is the meaning of family?"]
Monday, July 6, 2015
Paweł the Mad Scientist (Week 18)
Hellllllo everybody!
Well, another excellent week gone by in Kraków. I guess we can start at the beginning of the week and I can just give a little rundown of my life.
On Monday we had FHE like normal but what was abnormal was that on the way, we met Paweł the Mad Scientist. So basically he approached us in English and started talking really fast about this study he is doing about birthrates and stuff. I normally would have just told him we didn't have time and walked away, because crazy people come up to us quite a lot. But Elder Owens decided to hear him out. We exchanged numbers and went our separate ways. There will be more on this story later.
So on Tuesday we had District meeting, with is always fun because it is awesome to get to talk with other missionaries. We talked about P-days for the transfer as well so I might as well go ahead and fill you in on that. on the 13th, 20th of this month, and 3rd, and 10th of next Email time may be a little short plus on the 13th we will probably take P-day on Tuesday so don't get freaked out. We are doing a lot of the same stuff as last transfer but it will be cool to do all the touristy stuff again. After District Meeting we had lunch, then we went tracting for basically the rest of the day. We are trying to find some families to teach so we are going out to this area in the edge of Kraków to try and find families.
On Wednesday we had a pretty fun and successful day actually. We had a group contacting activity at Teatr Bagatella, which is this theater with a ton of foot traffic. It was awesome and actually I had a really cool experience. I was talking with this guy and gave him a quick first. I talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and gave him one in the end. What was cool was that about 10 minutes later I saw the same guy and he had his nose deep into the book. He was actually reading it. I was so happy because normally we don't get to see any fruits from our street contacting. But it made my heart so warm to see that I was able to help the Holy Ghost work on him and give him a desire to read the Book of Mormon.
So Thursday is the day we actually met with Paweł, basically he told us that he had a presentation and set up his computer then we sat down and he told us a bunch of statistics about how rich white people are dying out, except Mormons. So he wants us to help him write a book about it. He was crazy though... and really racist. It was a waste of time, but kinda funny in a way because he was super nervous the whole time and kept fidgeting and speaking really fast.
Alright so, I'm running out of time but I can skip to Saturday, on Saturday Elder Owens and I went home teaching with Presydent Kucia (Branch President). We visited a half British, half polish family who live about an hour away. It was amazing to me how much my experience of growing up in the church is valued here. I was able to explain how Family Home Evening is supposed to work to this member because he doesn't know, in Poland nobody has experience so we need to teach everyone. It was pretty cool.
Sunday was fairly normal, not too many tourists today which was good because it meant we had enough translator headsets to do a normal meeting. We set up with some members to meet with soon and we got a new investigator in fact. His name is Piotrek (diminutized Piotr. You can call Piotr Robakawski that actually) He is homeless but a really cool guy. He is only in Poland for a little while getting health care but is super interested in temples. He is from Poland but was a Mounty in Canada and currently lives in Portugal. He speaks Polish, English, Italian, and Portuguese and is really cool. I'll tell you how our first meeting goes next week.
Okay, that's about it for this week!
Love you,
-Starszy Everett
Well, another excellent week gone by in Kraków. I guess we can start at the beginning of the week and I can just give a little rundown of my life.
 |
| Krakow from the Dalton's Apartment |
 |
| Uno Shark |
On Wednesday we had a pretty fun and successful day actually. We had a group contacting activity at Teatr Bagatella, which is this theater with a ton of foot traffic. It was awesome and actually I had a really cool experience. I was talking with this guy and gave him a quick first. I talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and gave him one in the end. What was cool was that about 10 minutes later I saw the same guy and he had his nose deep into the book. He was actually reading it. I was so happy because normally we don't get to see any fruits from our street contacting. But it made my heart so warm to see that I was able to help the Holy Ghost work on him and give him a desire to read the Book of Mormon.
 |
| Breakfast at the Dalton's |
So Thursday is the day we actually met with Paweł, basically he told us that he had a presentation and set up his computer then we sat down and he told us a bunch of statistics about how rich white people are dying out, except Mormons. So he wants us to help him write a book about it. He was crazy though... and really racist. It was a waste of time, but kinda funny in a way because he was super nervous the whole time and kept fidgeting and speaking really fast.
Alright so, I'm running out of time but I can skip to Saturday, on Saturday Elder Owens and I went home teaching with Presydent Kucia (Branch President). We visited a half British, half polish family who live about an hour away. It was amazing to me how much my experience of growing up in the church is valued here. I was able to explain how Family Home Evening is supposed to work to this member because he doesn't know, in Poland nobody has experience so we need to teach everyone. It was pretty cool.
 |
| Starszy Owens in a bow tie he found in the Apt. |
Sunday was fairly normal, not too many tourists today which was good because it meant we had enough translator headsets to do a normal meeting. We set up with some members to meet with soon and we got a new investigator in fact. His name is Piotrek (diminutized Piotr. You can call Piotr Robakawski that actually) He is homeless but a really cool guy. He is only in Poland for a little while getting health care but is super interested in temples. He is from Poland but was a Mounty in Canada and currently lives in Portugal. He speaks Polish, English, Italian, and Portuguese and is really cool. I'll tell you how our first meeting goes next week.
Okay, that's about it for this week!
Love you,
-Starszy Everett
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