Weekly Email - February 18th

Hello to all of you at home,

I will start from the beginning.

On Monday, we were going to go to the museum under the Rynek in Krakow. We had heard that it was free on Mondays, except for it was not free on Monday it was free on Tuesday. So we figured we will come back on culture night. So instead we went to the mall and had a goody from the bakery. It was a raspberry pie thing with sour cream. It was delicious.

Tuesday we wanted to meet with O because his baptism is coming up. He was sick so we weren’t able to go and teach him. We did get a call from Sister Nielson that there was a package for us to pick up at a hotel. So we headed there to pick it up. Elder S was sick with a cold so we had to cancel our appointment with T. He was sad, but we really didn’t want to get a 96-year old man sick.

Wednesday we had English class. We had 3 new students. Well, one of them had been there once before. He brought a friend and then there was a lady there that we had met once before. They are all beginner English. So that is cool. We had dinner at the chapel afterwards. S came afterwards and we taught him a lesson. We talked about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. We had a good lesson and he is feeling really good about his baptism.

Thursday we did contacting and institute. There was no one that showed up to institute. It was sad that no one came because he does a really good job and I really enjoy his lessons. So we ended up leaving. We also got 2 referrals one from B and one from the office. She lives in a satellite city of Krakow. We have been trying to reach her but haven’t had any luck yet. We will keep calling her though and see if we can set up an appointment to go and see her. We actually did try finding her house on Friday and that’s when we found out that she doesn’t live in Krakow but in a suburb. After that it was culture night, so we went to dinner at u Babcia Malina (grandma raspberry), it’s an old style polish restaurant. I ordered a Golabki and potatoes. It was really good. It’s a cabbage roll swimming in gravy and stuffed with hamburger meat mixed with all kinds other stuff. Then we went to the Rynek museum. It is kind of hi-tech because they have computers where you can read all the information. It was neat with really cool exhibits. They had pieces of the original roads when they first built Krakow in the 12^th century; they had wooden beams and cement. They also had artifacts like measuring devices and tools. They even had 2 real skulls there. One was from someone that had early medical procedures back in the 11^th century. The other one came from someone that was tortured to death. It was interesting and informative. They had videos to watch at the end of the reenactment of the Tatar invasion. The Tatars came in and there was a guy with a trumpet or a horn and he ran up to the tower to alert the citizens of Krakow. He was shot to death. So in his memory they play the trumpet every hour on the hour at the church on the Rynek in Krakow. This is not where this man played the trumpet but it’s in his memory.

After that we went to the grocery store to see if we could buy some chocolate candy on sales after Valentine’s Day. They didn’t have any on sale though so we didn’t buy any.

Saturday we had to open the chapel in the morning for the District President. T showed up to clean the chapel too. We did some contacting around the chapel and then we had an appointment to teach a lesson to M at the chapel. He had a lot of very honest questions. He is very nice and we will meet with him again. After that we contacted some more. Then President K called and asked us to come with him to visit P. It takes about 45 minutes each way and then an hour visiting so it took the rest of the day. We gave a lesson regarding the Unspeakable Gift from God from last conference by Elder Craig C. Christensen. We had a good visit.

Sunday we had a visitor at church from the US. He was there for business. I translated during Sunday school; President K translated Sacrament meeting. I got to bless the sacrament again. O came to church too, he was feeling better today, so that was good. We visited with Brother U for a while and then we went home ate and then finally we got to see T, the 96-year old. He was happy to see us. He is such a nice man and is so trusting. He is a lot of fun to teach. He is very devoted and wants to do what is right.

We are waiting for our transfer calls. I really would love to stay in Krakow, but we will have to see.

We heard from President K about the meteor in Russia. That was really exciting. Then Brother U told us more about that. If you haven’t heard of it you need to look up current events. Maybe you have already written me about it, or maybe you are not going to write about it.

We are still waiting for transfer calls from President. I’m getting pretty stressed here. My theory is that we are both staying in Krakow and the Elder S will be training hopefully Elder C and I will be here to with someone that has already been here for one transfer. Maybe he won’t call at all and in that case that means we are staying here just like we are and that wouldn’t be bad at all.

Did you hear that the Pope resigned? I’m sure you heard already. So I guess they are looking for a new Pope. I also heard that his house got struck by lightning. Is that true?

Well, I guess I will let you go and I will make another recording when I hear from the President.

Hello again,

So we just got our transfer call from the President. Elder is S is staying here and he will be getting a new companion. And I will be moving to Szczecin. Elder C will be my District Leader. I will be serving with Elder S who has been here 2 months less than I have. I will be the senior companion. Szczecin is on the border to Germany in northern Poland. There are 4 missionaries there. They are doing really good in Szczecin. It’s a small place though. There isn’t a whole lot around there. I’m really sad to be leaving the branch here. I’m also sad because I would love to see Krakow in spring. I will also miss our 2 baptisms O and S and I will miss M. I will also President K and The U’s. Elder N is staying in Kielce and is getting a greenie. Maybe even Elder C. Elder L is also staying in Kielce and Elder B is joining him.

So I guess I’ll talk to you from Szczecin next week. I will have met the branch members already when I talk to you. I’m so sad to be leaving. I bid my farewell to you all.

Love you all,

Brian