the conference was amazing. from minute one and throughout the entire event. however on sport day it rained so hard the entire sports facility field was under 2 feet of water, so all the outdoor games could not be held. so that was a huge bummer as Adam had put so much time and effort in planning and every thing,. had several tournaments rained out, a football(soccer) tourney from each of the countries represented, a volleyball tourney, the arm wrestling was held, but all the outdoor events were cancelled. dang. other games were invented at the last minute at the hotel, there was lots of room and the kids had a blast anyway. about 200 kids from 15 countries were there, plus about 50 senior advisers, a huge success and the speakers were beyond belief, Elder Schutze, area seventy and past temple pres, and seminary/institute teacher gave several workshops and one of the fireside speakers, a most amazing man, Each time I saw him he would ask me "is this the most correct way to say this phrase or word:" his English was really quite good.Then during his address at the fireside he was trying to say a word and asked me "is that the right way? I just nodded yes. Really was a very delightful man, and his wife was the sweetest lady you could imagine.
don't know if I will ever have quite another opportunity like this in my life, The conf. next year in is Romania, however Andziez Wentzel said if I wanted to be a part of that one, it could easily be arranged, I only would have to extend my mission a couple of weeks, It is always held the end of July. I really won't have a responsibility in that conference, just to be there with the Polish kids. who knows , that's a long way off. You cannot imagine the Spirit that prevailed throughout the entire conf. from each workshop and class and event and even the dances were so good. There should be some pictures on the conf. website. I think there is one with a lot of people with the yellow service vest on, the lady with her hand in the air is my comp. and you can just see the top of my head in the crowd, the white haired one. in a month or so there will be a lot of pictures available and I am in some of them, like the monster one in the treasure hunt. for what ever reason there wasn't a pic. of Master Yoda or Gandalf. those costumes really turned out pretty good, especially Yoda's green face. Elder Harding was called Elder Yoda the rest of the conf. just too cool.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
De train, de train!
Latest train adventure during travels for Young Single Adult Conference preparation:
the trip was an event to record, I left here at 11:;30 am to catch the 12:07 train, got there in plenty of time and waited on the peron, got on the train and it was PACKED, STANDING ROOM ONLY, and it's a 21/2 hour trip to Poznan and then about 4 more hours to Wroclaw. , so I got off and the conductor told me I was on the wrong train and to take the next one. Here when you buy a ticket it's good for 24 hours and one can take any train, so I didn't understand how I could be on the wrong train, so waited for the next train at 1;30, only it never came, and it's 35 C, that's about 100 degrees and the humidity is about 90%, and that's sweltering. So I waited for the next train, only it didn't come. I asked a young girl if she spoke English and yes she did, so she was helping me, She was told the next train to Wroclaw was at 2;30pm so I waited there with her, She was such a sweet girl, 19 years old and wanted to go to England to be an au paire and learn better English, So we waited for the next train, and waited , finally she went to the Kasa and asked the clerk about the train, and was told I had the wrong ticket, so was issued another ticket, no different from the first one, so don't know why another one was needed. and didn't cost anymore 51 zl. Finally her train came and I just waited there, Then I met fellow, German army guy on leave and going back to his unit, so he said he would make sure I got on the right train, he spoke English, German, Spanish, about every language one can imagine except POLISH. so the train came and had Poznan stated on the front, so he checked with several other passengers and they all said the train went to Poznan, so we got on and the train was absolutely packed, lots of people on vacation at this time of the year. Then the conductor came by checking tickets, looked a mine, both tickets and said "NIE-NIE blah blah stuff in Polish at 90 miles per hour, all this time she was talking to the German fellow not to me, so he told her the ticket was mine, she looked at me said more stuff in Polish, which I have no clue what she said, then said "baggage-Inawroclaw- off 3:22" I definitely understood what she said, take my baggage and get off the train in Inawroclaw at 3:22" Inawroclaw is a small town about 1/2 way between Bydgoszcz and Poznan. so got off I did and the train went on.
So now I'm in Inawroclaw, went to the Kasa to see about the train to Wroclaw, " at 3:30 peron 3, so I got a bottle of water and went up the stairs to peron 3, a lady and man were waiting there, I showed them my ticket and asked if this was the peron for the train to Wroclaw, Nie-nie peron 1 , so I hurried down the stairs and up the other stairs to peron 1, no-one was there and no train, so by then it's 3:35 so went back to peron 3 and the same lady was there, so I asked her again, is this the peron for the train to Wroclaw, she took me and my luggage down the stairs, across the station and up other stairs, outside to another peron and showed me across the tracks where another station was. and indicated that was where I needed to me. Need I say I was a little distraught by now.There was no one there and no activity and I didn't feel like that was where I needed to be, so back down the stairs and back up to peron 3 this time here husband looked at my ticket and said " tak-tak' I was at the right place all the time and they took off, with the lady apologizing of course in Polish,
so I went back to the Kasa and met another girl that did speak English and she went to the kasa with me and then was told the train came at 5:30pm on peron 3 and would not need to go to Poznan, the train would go straight to Wroclaw, so I just sat there and waited, and met another lady with two little girls , her granddaughters, the youngest reminded me so much of Brynne, all pink and bling. so cute, so they invited me to sit with them on the train, in a 1st class car, still hot as blazes, but not crowded, so in about 11/2 hour we got to Poznan and then went on to Wroclaw, even though I was told the train would go directly to Wroclaw. so got to Wroclaw about 9pm that night. tired, hungry, no food. and so sticky hot I probably looked like a homeless person, should have rolled my knee-hi"s down to my ankles, would have looked the part then. So I took a taxi to Sister Kimball's apt and went to bed,
On Sat. I walked to the church to teach the sewing class,there were 2 young women and 4 sisters and we had such a good time ;and the time went by so quickly and then had to leave to catch the train to Warsaw for the YSA conf.meeting NO problem on the train and met a girl traveling to visit her family and she spoke very good English and is a Spanish teacher. so we talked for about for a while and then took naps and read, It's a 5 hour trip to Warsaw, then the last 3 hours of the trip we talked about the Church, she asked so many questions, great questions and we had such a great time discussing the biggest differences in the Mormon church and other churches. So many points we talked about she said made so much sense, I asked her about her upbringing and she was of course raised Catholic but was leaning toward Buddism, One of the things she liked about Buddism is that they believe in re-incarnation and I asked her how or who decides how and where they come back as, She said just where ever one was needed and in what ever form was needed. So I explained to her that we believe we are always who we are now, when I see her in the next life she will recognize me as a lady and I will recognize her as a lady and if she was a dog or some other animal how would I know who she was, She decided that made perfectly good sense. She asked how did Joseph Smith come to translate the plates and how could he do that if he didn't know the language, so we talked about revelation, and she said that made sense too. She said she wasn't ready to make a commitment to any religion and was investigating many things, so I had her read Moroni 10:4 about the Lord's promise and suggested she pray about it as she did believe in prayer. and several other passages she was interested in, by then we were Warsaw and parted, but not without a hug and kiss. I did love give her a pass along card but didn't have a Polish BOM, she said she would stop and ask a missionary for one if she felt so inclined, Who knows what will happen, but I do know the Lord prompted my answers at that time and gave her information needed to help her make a wise decision. maybe a seed was planted and will continue to grow til she understands what to do. She asked why I came to Poland and not to somewhere in the US, I told her maybe to bring this information just to her. and it was worth it. she did agree. Wohoo.
So my trip back to Bydgoszcz was so uneventful . 7 hours and still hot, too hot to eat. The conference is in a little over a week, there are people coming from15 countries and even 2 guys from Canada. come on over. ok, better get busy , the elders are coming to learn how to cook fried chicken , hope they hurry, I am hungry, haven't eaten much in the last 3 days, only drank a LOT of water, hope all this makes sense, was a very long hot 3 days.
the trip was an event to record, I left here at 11:;30 am to catch the 12:07 train, got there in plenty of time and waited on the peron, got on the train and it was PACKED, STANDING ROOM ONLY, and it's a 21/2 hour trip to Poznan and then about 4 more hours to Wroclaw. , so I got off and the conductor told me I was on the wrong train and to take the next one. Here when you buy a ticket it's good for 24 hours and one can take any train, so I didn't understand how I could be on the wrong train, so waited for the next train at 1;30, only it never came, and it's 35 C, that's about 100 degrees and the humidity is about 90%, and that's sweltering. So I waited for the next train, only it didn't come. I asked a young girl if she spoke English and yes she did, so she was helping me, She was told the next train to Wroclaw was at 2;30pm so I waited there with her, She was such a sweet girl, 19 years old and wanted to go to England to be an au paire and learn better English, So we waited for the next train, and waited , finally she went to the Kasa and asked the clerk about the train, and was told I had the wrong ticket, so was issued another ticket, no different from the first one, so don't know why another one was needed. and didn't cost anymore 51 zl. Finally her train came and I just waited there, Then I met fellow, German army guy on leave and going back to his unit, so he said he would make sure I got on the right train, he spoke English, German, Spanish, about every language one can imagine except POLISH. so the train came and had Poznan stated on the front, so he checked with several other passengers and they all said the train went to Poznan, so we got on and the train was absolutely packed, lots of people on vacation at this time of the year. Then the conductor came by checking tickets, looked a mine, both tickets and said "NIE-NIE blah blah stuff in Polish at 90 miles per hour, all this time she was talking to the German fellow not to me, so he told her the ticket was mine, she looked at me said more stuff in Polish, which I have no clue what she said, then said "baggage-Inawroclaw- off 3:22" I definitely understood what she said, take my baggage and get off the train in Inawroclaw at 3:22" Inawroclaw is a small town about 1/2 way between Bydgoszcz and Poznan. so got off I did and the train went on.
So now I'm in Inawroclaw, went to the Kasa to see about the train to Wroclaw, " at 3:30 peron 3, so I got a bottle of water and went up the stairs to peron 3, a lady and man were waiting there, I showed them my ticket and asked if this was the peron for the train to Wroclaw, Nie-nie peron 1 , so I hurried down the stairs and up the other stairs to peron 1, no-one was there and no train, so by then it's 3:35 so went back to peron 3 and the same lady was there, so I asked her again, is this the peron for the train to Wroclaw, she took me and my luggage down the stairs, across the station and up other stairs, outside to another peron and showed me across the tracks where another station was. and indicated that was where I needed to me. Need I say I was a little distraught by now.There was no one there and no activity and I didn't feel like that was where I needed to be, so back down the stairs and back up to peron 3 this time here husband looked at my ticket and said " tak-tak' I was at the right place all the time and they took off, with the lady apologizing of course in Polish,
so I went back to the Kasa and met another girl that did speak English and she went to the kasa with me and then was told the train came at 5:30pm on peron 3 and would not need to go to Poznan, the train would go straight to Wroclaw, so I just sat there and waited, and met another lady with two little girls , her granddaughters, the youngest reminded me so much of Brynne, all pink and bling. so cute, so they invited me to sit with them on the train, in a 1st class car, still hot as blazes, but not crowded, so in about 11/2 hour we got to Poznan and then went on to Wroclaw, even though I was told the train would go directly to Wroclaw. so got to Wroclaw about 9pm that night. tired, hungry, no food. and so sticky hot I probably looked like a homeless person, should have rolled my knee-hi"s down to my ankles, would have looked the part then. So I took a taxi to Sister Kimball's apt and went to bed,
On Sat. I walked to the church to teach the sewing class,there were 2 young women and 4 sisters and we had such a good time ;and the time went by so quickly and then had to leave to catch the train to Warsaw for the YSA conf.meeting NO problem on the train and met a girl traveling to visit her family and she spoke very good English and is a Spanish teacher. so we talked for about for a while and then took naps and read, It's a 5 hour trip to Warsaw, then the last 3 hours of the trip we talked about the Church, she asked so many questions, great questions and we had such a great time discussing the biggest differences in the Mormon church and other churches. So many points we talked about she said made so much sense, I asked her about her upbringing and she was of course raised Catholic but was leaning toward Buddism, One of the things she liked about Buddism is that they believe in re-incarnation and I asked her how or who decides how and where they come back as, She said just where ever one was needed and in what ever form was needed. So I explained to her that we believe we are always who we are now, when I see her in the next life she will recognize me as a lady and I will recognize her as a lady and if she was a dog or some other animal how would I know who she was, She decided that made perfectly good sense. She asked how did Joseph Smith come to translate the plates and how could he do that if he didn't know the language, so we talked about revelation, and she said that made sense too. She said she wasn't ready to make a commitment to any religion and was investigating many things, so I had her read Moroni 10:4 about the Lord's promise and suggested she pray about it as she did believe in prayer. and several other passages she was interested in, by then we were Warsaw and parted, but not without a hug and kiss. I did love give her a pass along card but didn't have a Polish BOM, she said she would stop and ask a missionary for one if she felt so inclined, Who knows what will happen, but I do know the Lord prompted my answers at that time and gave her information needed to help her make a wise decision. maybe a seed was planted and will continue to grow til she understands what to do. She asked why I came to Poland and not to somewhere in the US, I told her maybe to bring this information just to her. and it was worth it. she did agree. Wohoo.
So my trip back to Bydgoszcz was so uneventful . 7 hours and still hot, too hot to eat. The conference is in a little over a week, there are people coming from15 countries and even 2 guys from Canada. come on over. ok, better get busy , the elders are coming to learn how to cook fried chicken , hope they hurry, I am hungry, haven't eaten much in the last 3 days, only drank a LOT of water, hope all this makes sense, was a very long hot 3 days.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
YSA Conference Location
Here are some photos of Szczyrk and the Polish Olympic Sports Facility where the upcoming Young Single Adult Conference will be held.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
June 8th Email
The mission conference was absolutely amazing. Elder Kerr(sounds like Care) was there for the Friday afternoon meeting and it was about an hour til lunch time, so when Elder Kerr got up there he said Pres Engbjerg told a little fib, do you know what a fib is, in our country we don't say someone told a lie, they told a fib. and Pres. Engbjerg told me a fib, he said you would rather listen to me than go to lunch, and I know that is a fib. Such a funny sense of humor, and such a command of the scriptures, I would indeed rather listen to him than go to lunch.
Then after lunch the video conferencing with Elder and Sister Hales was for the afternoon and evening conference. It was schedule to last only 75 minutes, but actually lasted nearly 2 hours and was wonderful. That's the first time video conferencing has been done in Poland through the church. To be taught by an apostle is truly an event and to hear him bear his testimony of the Saviour, the Prophet and the atonement in words no more eloquent than a child is truly amazing, There is no stronger testimony needed than to say" I know the Savior lives, I know Joseph Smith restored the gospel in the latter days and I know that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet for today. so with those simple words we can know our testimonies are as simple as a child's and as powerful as a prophet of God. I seriously love the Lord and love serving Him in Poland.
Then on Sat. we , all the senior missionaries and Pres. and Sister Emgbjerg went to visit the birthplace of Chopin and had a wonderful day of relaxation and visiting and picture taking. only somewhere along the way all my pictures on my card got erased and I have no clue how that even happened, so all I have now are about 15 at Chopin's and all the ones of the zone conference got erased/and all the ones I took on the way there from Warsaw, some of a stork's nest with 4 babies in it and the mama and papa taking turns on the nest. Hopefully I can get some pics of the nest. Then we had a picnic in the parking lot, no one had even heard of a tailgate party, is that just an Arizona thing? Now they know about it. All in all it was a wonderful weekend and we got home about 11:30 Sat. pm and then had church on sunday. Each fast sunday the branch president asks one of the auxillaries to sing for 15 minutes before Sacrament meeting and this time is was the missionaries. for that I could have stayed home. 4 elders and 2 sisters and we sounded quite BAD. no other words for it. I know I sound sad and Sister Marshall is just a bit better and I think the elders whispered. seriously was not a pretty sound or sight. Hopefully we won't have to do that again soon..
Then after lunch the video conferencing with Elder and Sister Hales was for the afternoon and evening conference. It was schedule to last only 75 minutes, but actually lasted nearly 2 hours and was wonderful. That's the first time video conferencing has been done in Poland through the church. To be taught by an apostle is truly an event and to hear him bear his testimony of the Saviour, the Prophet and the atonement in words no more eloquent than a child is truly amazing, There is no stronger testimony needed than to say" I know the Savior lives, I know Joseph Smith restored the gospel in the latter days and I know that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet for today. so with those simple words we can know our testimonies are as simple as a child's and as powerful as a prophet of God. I seriously love the Lord and love serving Him in Poland.
Then on Sat. we , all the senior missionaries and Pres. and Sister Emgbjerg went to visit the birthplace of Chopin and had a wonderful day of relaxation and visiting and picture taking. only somewhere along the way all my pictures on my card got erased and I have no clue how that even happened, so all I have now are about 15 at Chopin's and all the ones of the zone conference got erased/and all the ones I took on the way there from Warsaw, some of a stork's nest with 4 babies in it and the mama and papa taking turns on the nest. Hopefully I can get some pics of the nest. Then we had a picnic in the parking lot, no one had even heard of a tailgate party, is that just an Arizona thing? Now they know about it. All in all it was a wonderful weekend and we got home about 11:30 Sat. pm and then had church on sunday. Each fast sunday the branch president asks one of the auxillaries to sing for 15 minutes before Sacrament meeting and this time is was the missionaries. for that I could have stayed home. 4 elders and 2 sisters and we sounded quite BAD. no other words for it. I know I sound sad and Sister Marshall is just a bit better and I think the elders whispered. seriously was not a pretty sound or sight. Hopefully we won't have to do that again soon..
May 26th Email
hey, I finally got my package and thank you soo much for all the goodies, think I'll have grits for breakfast tomorrow wohoo I like everything in there and another couple were here when I opened my box, they brought it to me so I gave one of the scrabble games to them for their center in Luge, that's about 3 or so hours from here and they do the same thing there that we do here, they just came down to visit with us and see how we are doing, thank you for all the stuff!
May 23rd Email
Have you heard on the news of all the flooding in Poland? There has been so much rain that there is serious flooding in several parts. In Torun, where we went several weeks ago, it is now under water - like over our heads under water! The Visula river flooded way over the banks and there's no president at this time, the election should be in June, but maybe not til Oct or Nov and there's no one to make a decision as to what to do. that's a bit scary for the farmers.
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