Repost from President & Sister Nielson's Blog

Katowice Christmas Zone Conference Dec 26, 2012

After a wonderful conference in Warsaw and phones call from our family yesterday, we were up early this morning and drove to Katowice.  Today we are blessed to meet with the Katowice Zone.

 The Katowice Zone.  Seated: Elders and Sisters Sheley and Hutchinson.  Middle Row: Sisters Smithee and Howells, Elders Weir and Garfield, Sisters Holmgren and Ence.  Back Row: Elders Szymanski, Godwin, Neuner, Lanham, Brown, Bokinsky, Harris and Hayes.

The Katowice District.  Elder and Sister Hutchinson.  Elders Brown and Bokinsky (District Leader), Sisters Ence and Holmgren, Elders Harris and Hayes (Zone Leader)

 The Wroclaw District.  Sister and Elder Sheley.  Elders Weir and Garfield with Sisters Smithee and Howells.

The Krakow District.  Elders Godwin, Szymanski (District Leader), Neuner and Lanham.

 We arrived and were loaded down with gifts from home.  We could not fit in one more box. Both myself and the Assistants were holding things on our laps. (President was exempt!) Gratefully, we were able to get everything in the car that we had received from the Poczta.  Elders Brown and Bokinsky were nice enough to help carry everything into the Chapel.

Sister Hutchinson had planned a 'Cafe Rio' lunch for the Missionaries. It was fabulous....and tasted like the real thing! Sister Sheley brought yummy desserts.  Thanks so much to our great Senior Missionaries for making everything special for our Christmas Zone Conference!

                                          We had some very happy (and hungry!) Missionaries! It was now time to test our Missionaries knowledge of Preach My Gospel.

 Elders Hayes and Harris were the fastest in finding quotes and statements in Round One.

In Round Two, Elders Neuner and Lanham along with Elders Weir and Garfield search for statements made by President Monson regarding "Preformance measured".  (Hint: page 150).

 Elder Brown and Bokinsky found the next question easy soon to be followed by Sisters Smithee and Howells.

Elders Szymanski and Godwin write down all 9 Key Indicators in order...followed by their "Purpose".

Elder Sheley and Elder Hutchinson not only acted as judges, but tallied up the scores to find a 'winner'.

...Elders Garfield and Weir earned the most points and took home the Grand Prize...(American) CHEETOS....(There IS a difference!)

The entire Zone did marvelous in the Preach My Gospel Chase and everyone collected a prize as well.  Now it was time to enjoy our White Elephant Gift Exchange.  Eveyone brought one gift and you could not spend more than 20 zl on any item.

 Sister Smithee choose number 1 and she was up first.  She unwrapped a framed picture of Elder Lanham (!?)  We are not sure if he ran out of money, had an extra frame and picture of himself or just wanted to inspire others with his great smile.

Elder Brown was next.  He opened some Polish games.

 Elder Garfield's choice was "Princess" dinnerware!

Sister Ence received a small game of Monopoly.

                                                      Elder Bokinsky got a brand new tie!

Elder Hayes (from Wales and new at this Christmas tradition) opened a toy of some sort.

                         Elder Szymanski opened a packet of Pokemon cards, but he did not keep them long...

Sister Howells received a small game.

Elder Lanham got a nice piggy bank.

Elder Neuner received some Hot Chocolate mix and knew exactly who brought them.

 Sister Holgren opened a bag of Cotton Candy.  Apparently it looked a lot better two days and one long train ride ago.

Elder Weir was one of the last to choose and a very small gift was left under the tree. To his surprise, it was an amber pendant....great things come in small packages!

Losing the Pokemon cards, Elder Szymanski was sent back to the tree to pick another gift. When he opened the 'Jedi' sword, he was ALL smiles!  (My grandsons would have loved it!)

In the end, there was trading and taking as everyone got something they needed or at least laughed about. 
Another successful Zone Conference full of fun, instruction and of course, the Christmas spirit. Tonight we drove to Poznan for our final Christmas Zone Conference.