Elder "Starszy" Godwin in Poland: Weekly Email

Hello,

I’m speaking from a train heading out of Krakow heading to Szczecin. It is a long train ride. I have 9 ½ hours on the train. At which point Elders C, K & S, should greet me. That should be fun!

This has been a crazy week. We planned S’ baptism. I’m so glad I got to help plan his baptism. When I told S that I was leaving for Szczecin, he told me I will love it there. His mom lives there and he used to live there too. He says it’s beautiful and it’s a port city. Well anyways, he wanted one of us to give a talk, so Elder S is going to talk at the baptism. Brother D. is supposed to perform the baptism.

This past week we also had a lady contact the branch asking for more information. She was especially interested in reading materials and also had some questions. So we called her and made an appointment to go and visit her. So we went to visit her and she was the nicest woman. She invited us in, offered us some fruit tea because she knew we couldn’t have regular tea. She also offered us some cookies. She grabbed a notepad and sat down and started to ask us a lot of questions. She was very interested in what we believe in. She is pretty much home bound, and has a lot of time to read and loves to read. We taught her a lesson and she asked some great questions. Then we set up another appointment to come back for another lesson. So we went back and taught her about the plan of salvation. She listened to what we had to say and it was all clicking in her head. She said that makes sense. That is why you are baptized, that is why you are sealed in the temple and do baptisms for the dead. This is why you do these things for people in the spirit world. That makes so much sense. She also took notes the whole time. It was a really cool lesson. We also set up another appointment for the Elders to go back and teach her. I told her I wouldn’t be there that it would be a new Elder joining Elder S.

We met with S on Wednesday for his last meeting with us before the baptism. We talked for a while and got him ready for his baptism. He was being his baptismal interview with the Zone leaders the next day. He shared with us that he has had many opportunities to read in the Book of Mormon and he prayed about it and he could feel that it was right and true. He felt the Spirit. So we made all the arrangements and we reserved the pool so he is ready for baptism. I’m very excited about his baptism.

I love Elder S. He has been one of the nicest companions I could have had. He is just super kind. I have a lot of respect for him. He reminds me of Karl but taller. He has a lot of talents, but is very humble. He has a lot of faith and is so spiritual.

I got to talk to Elder Caskey briefly yesterday. He was excited to be in Poland. It really wasn’t a reality that he was going to be here until I heard his voice. He is going to be in my Zone, serving with Elder T, my companion from the MTC and they will be in Poznan. It was nice to talk to him. We will see each other at Zone Conferences.

I left a lot of things behind here. I needed to shed some weight because I didn’t want to travel heavy. I still have the same amount of bags, just lighter. I’m alone in my train compartment right now. I’m sure that will change as we pick up more people on the way.

I have heard so many nice things about Szczecin. Everyone I talked to after I got my new assignment say I will love it there. There are boats there too.

We found out that our new mission president is President Steven C. Edgren from Danville, California. He will come in on July 1^st. That will be exciting.

Well, I can’t keep recording for the next 8 hours, so I guess I will let you go. I will record more once I get there. This is going to be a crazy transfer since we will both be new to the area.

I love you all. Everything is going good over here. I’m excited! I hope everything is well in Phoenix and with the ward. There is a sister missionary from Poznan here in Poland. She has been called to serve Chicago Illinois. She will be serving in the same mission as Connor. That is pretty cool! Talk to you later, bye.

Hello, it’s Monday morning in Szczecin. I got in at 7:15 on Friday. There was a lady that was maybe 5’ 3” that offered to help me get my bags off the train. She was really nice. The other Elders were right there when I got off the train. We went to the apartment and dropped off my things and then went and got something to eat. I didn’t get any food on the train so I hadn’t eaten since lunchtime the day before. On Saturday we got up and tried to figure out where things were at in our area. We then went out and started contacting. On Sunday we went to church. We had 4 missionaries there, the branch president, a YSA member who speaks good English, but refuses to speak anything but Polish to the missionaries. She gave us all an English lesson after church. It was awesome. There was also another member there. There are more members but they were just not there this Sunday. Elder S. is awesome. He just served with Elder V. His Polish is really good.

Szczecin is a great city. It is built on a river and everything is on the west side of the river. Except for some industry. It is built the same way as Paris France, but much smaller though. We live in the old part of town. Our apartment is beautiful and we have a great view out of our window. We are looking right out on the river with lots of fancy eating places right here. We have a lot of work to do here.

I love you all! I will talk to you later.