Monday, December 31, 2007

Sean Alive in Polska!

wows... where to begin. Right now I am in an internet cafe on the rynek in Wroclaw. Its been a crazy, exhausting, yet totally davage and exciting past couple of weeks. Ill start with from when i left the MTC because i think i already told you about Christmas in the MTC and it wasnt anything special to be honest. I arrived at the travel office at 4:00 am and we loaded all of our stuff on a bus and headed off to SLC.. half the time i felt like i was going to throw up .. combination of nervousness and lack of food/sleep i think i don't know. It was pretty surreal to be driving through Provo though.. all the time in the MTC i thought it was just a holographic image displayed to trick us into thinking there was a real world...and that our departure date was really just like the Island (daly 3 echo youre moving out... to the insland) .. that allusion is just for u lysh got onto our flight alright and made it to o'hare in good spirits. 5 hour lay over.. ugh. Talked with some cool people, none of them were really that interested but it was great to get out and talk to nonmembers for a change. we got onto our 747 brit airlines flight to heathrow later that evening after 34234 hours of security lines at the international terminal. got some haagen daaz.. im convinced that is the reason im still alive. anywho, we are on the plane and everything seems to be in order.. our pilot has a british accent as well and our stuardess so im stokkkked at this point. then this lady who had had a little too much to drink starts flipping out and hits a stuardess.. needless to say she was thrown off the plane and onto the run way... or atleast she should have been. We had already taxied out and were ready to take off when she snapped so they had to drive all the way back to the gate... drop her off and find her bag among thousands. 2 hours later we take off.. at this point skeptical as to whether we are going to make our flight to warsaw because as it was before we were going to have a 2 hour layover in London before our flight. During the flight i talked to a highschool aged guy.. he was nice but once again not interested, we got to talk about music and sports though so it wasnt a total loss ;-) i didnt get a chance to talk to anyone else because unfotunately i was sitting by some elders in my district, not the sheep of which i have been called to gather :-( so 7 hours and an eternity later we are about to land in London.. and we are all pretty sure that we can make our flight because we made way good time actually... when our wonderful cheerio captain comes on and tells us theres too much traffic in heathrow so we have to circle around till we can land. 45 minutes later we land in London and i begin to understand why dad hates heathrow so much. We miss our flight and have to wait another 4 hours before the next one. We get to stand in another couple security lines as well as a 90 minute line to get our new boarding pass. Luckily they gave us 10 pounds to spend in the airport while we waited. While we were waiting we contacted some people, handed out some pass along cards and it was good times. About an hour before my flight we all just die pretty much. I dunno what hit us (actually thats dumb to say.. jet lag hit us) but we all collapsed onto the chairs in the airport and fought to stay awake. It was probably bar none the most tired i have been in my entire life. We get on the plane to warsaw and unfortunately im sitting between two elders in my district.. so i didnt get to talk to any Poles. But alot of the other elders and sisters in my district did and they did way good from what i could hear. It was pretty scary to hear the airport announcement in Polish.. well that wasnt the scary part.. the scary part was understanding the word "thankyou" and "please" and thats it. We landed in Warsaw at about 18:00 ish local time.. from the time i left the MTC till the time i arrived i think i slept 4 hours... yeahhhh ugh. It was a way weird airport.. well i dunno if it was weird but it was really quiet and everyone looked european (go figure) and we definitely stood out like a sore thumb so we got some dirty looks. It took our bags almost an hour to appear at baggage claim.. i was certain they lost them, thanks the heavens they didnt. All 14 of us rolled our stuff out to the exit and were met with hugs and highfives by our 3 ap's and Mission President Engbjerg (pronounced Engbeeyao) They were all so nice and it made me feel a little bit more welcome in an otherwise cold foreign place. We drove straight to the Rynek in Warsaw but because we were 6 hours late we didnt get to contact we just took pictures and what not. It was INCREDIBLE. I was impressed with how much character it really had. And it was also freezing. So like i remember in grade school when kids would make fun of me for wearing shorts and a tshirt in the 50 degree weather... i got those same kind of looks from the Poles walking around in just a suit coat and pants haha.. my jacket was packed in the depths of one of my bags and i didnt feel like digging for it so i braved the cold. Ill be honest its not like being in shorts and a tshirt in 50 degress weather. its like being shirtless in greenland. The air is so moist that is just seeps right through the clothing and penetrates your very soul. k im being dramatic but it was cold that first night. and im rambling so ill try to be a little more concise. We spent the next couple of days at the mission home.. went to the uprising museum and warsaw and wat not. Had my first experiences with Polish food.. davage.. the juice is incredible.. lysh you would love it. We got to go running both mornings into some forest in warsaw that still had trenches and stuff... it was so surreal i wish i would have gotten some pictures... It was probably the most essential thing to my health that i did this past week (besides haagen) On saturday we had a meeting where we were assigned our areas and trainers. All of the trainers were there and President did it in slideshow fashion with the pictures of the two missionaries and the area being displayed. Once again needless to state.. the suspense and anticipation was so high my head hurt (ive decided this email is very poetic) I was assigned to Wroclaw with Elder Duty.. hes going home in 4 months so i will most likely kill him if i dont get transfered after 2 months.. which usually doesnt happen. So our district said its goodbyes and duty and some others headed off. took a few trams to the trainstation. and there we waited for our train to come. I wish i could go more in to depth with what exactly was going through my mind and all the poles we talked to. I felt pretty good because i could kind of understand ... some i couldnt understand at all. Anyways we got on the train and headed off. It was kind of crazy. The whole experience kind of fit how i figured my first week in the field being... not understanding anybody, being in a foreign country, and now heading off on a 5 1/2 hour train ride to the middle of nowhere. Although Wroclaw isnt nowhere.. its one of the biggest cities in Poland. Its the furthest area in the mission from Warsaw and pretty much the center of excitement as far as i can tell. Tonight they are having the biggest New Years party in Poland on the Rynek. Unfortunately we arent allowed to go out and see it.. actually probably fortunately. Umm yeah theres so much to say and no time to say it.. got off the train and was met by some missionaries who put us on a tram to our new apartment. We got in at about 20:00 ish and unpacked. Our apartment is wayy nice... and according to Elder Duty one of the nicest he's lived in. Im a fan. We are right on the rynek.. about a 2 minute walk to the center. Also one of the sisters, sister lindquist, from my district is serving here to. Its way nice to have someone i know. On sunday both of us had to give a talk in polish.. it was way fun.. cracked a few jokes.. they laughed .. hopefully it was at my joke and not my language skills.. or lack thereof. Elder Duty said i did well and he claims that ill speak better than he does in 4 months time. i have doubts, but i definitely feel like our group was more prepared coming out of the mtc than most groups. There are 15 members in the Wroclaw branch and we meet on the 3rd floor of a hotel just outside the Rynek. They are amazing faithful members so im excited to get to know them all. Well i have to write a quick email to my president but i just wanted to let y'all know that life is good and im alive!.. oh yeah and i went contacting on the rynek and around wroclaw on sunday night so that was way fun.. not a whole lot of people listen but most of the poles are way nice which has been good. the gospel is still true even here in wroclaw :-) im excited to get to work and share the good word with the awesome people of wroclaw. i apologize for the grammar mistakes and what not.. i was writing fast and i think polish is squishing the english out of me. i love you all! Happy new years! heres my new address.. ill see if i cant get some letters out today. do widzenia ul. WLODKOWICA 35/3 WROCLAW 50-072 WROCLAW POLSKA

Sunday, December 30, 2007






Saturday, December 29, 2007

More pictures from Poland

Dear Parents, Please find attached as promised some additional pictures. Best Wishes,-- Torben EngbjergPresidentPoland Warsaw Missionul. Polczynska 50 m 501-337 WarsawPOLANDPhone: 0048 665 300 801

Sean Arrives in WARSAW, POLAND!

Dear Parents, This is to let you know that a great group of new missionaries arrivedsafely on Thursday the 27th of December in the Poland Warsaw Mission,amongst which was your son. Let me just briefly tell you what we did,and then also include a few pictures for you. The new missionaries were met at the Frederic Chopin Airport here inWarsaw by our assistants and myself. The new arrivals were all veryexcited to be here, especially after several hours lay-over in London.They looked bright and did not seem tired at all. Their first stopin Warsaw was the old marketplace, the "Rynek", for a short walk inthe old part of town, still decorated with Christmas lights, to helpthem feel that now they had arrived in the real Poland. Early eveningwe fed them pizza in the mission home, after which they were allowedto retire early to bed in order to quickly get over the jet-lag. The next day, Friday, after an early-morning jog in the nearby forest,we had introductory meetings in the mission office in the morning,after which they were taken to a museum to see a short historic filmon Warsaw. Later in the afternoon I had a special interview momentwith each of them. In the evening we had a formal welcome dinner inthe mission home, at the conclusion of which we had a testimonymeeting. This is a very strong group, all very closely knittogether, and full of faith. They all bore wonderful testimonies andthey are certainly well prepared to serve. This morning the whole group was again taken to the mission office forfurther instructions and to be introduced to their firstcompanion/trainer in the field, who had come to pick them up fromtheir various work areas in Poland. This moment is always filled withexcitement and a bit of nervous feelings, before they all went bytrain, tram, or bus to their various work destinations, some having totravel as much as 6-7 hours before reaching their apartment in theirfirst work area. My wife and I are very happy with everyone in this group. We feel weknow them all quite well after these first 2-3 days. I do not believethey will have great problems adjusting to missionary work in Poland,and they will soon master the language as long as they are prepared toput in continuous efforts. Your son's first companion and work area is as follows:Elder Daly with Elder Duty, Wrocław District in the Southwest of Poland. Shortly to be sent to you in a separate e-mail is a file including afew photos. This file is sent separately in case your e-mail addresshas limitations in terms of file-size. If you do not receive thefile, please let us know and we can have it printed and sent to you byregular mail. Thank you for your continuous support of these young missionaries whoare a credit to your efforts in raising them. Kindest Regards,-- Torben EngbjergPresidentPoland Warsaw Missionul. Polczynska 50 m 501-337 WarsawPOLANDPhone: 0048 665 300 801

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Elder Daly...bon voyage from the MTC

czesc all! this will most likely be my last email from the mtc. id be lying if i said im sad that it is. Jones and I had our last temple session this morning for 22 months, unless they let us make the trek to freiburg, germany... doubtful. so we made the best of it and ate half our body weight in breakfast food. said our goodbyes to the Asian chef that has made each temple breakfast a memorable one. I think i already told you all that im not going to be able to call on Christmas but i do believe i get to call sometime on my way to Poland. We got our flight plans a couple days ago and im being honest when i say ive never embraced a piece of paper with such fervor. We report to the mtc travel office at 4 am on the 26th. Then we take off from Salt Lake and land in Chicago, O'hare. I would let you all know the time i take off from Salt Lake but i fear that any sort of leak of such information onto the internet (onto my fan webpage and wat not) might cause traffic problems .. and i really dont have time to sign autographs, picture taking, all the lot ...so it will sufficeth me to say we arrive in Chicago in the afternoonish and we have a 5 hour layover (prime time to share the good word.. in english nonetheless..maybe even Polish b/c chicago has the greatest population of Poles outside of Warsaw) then we arrive in London, Heathro? airport at 6 am. Then we have a 2 hour layover and will be arriving at the Warsaw airport at 11:40 am December 27th. As far as I'm concerned it is going to be perhaps the greatest couple of days in recent memory :-) this week has been pretty incredible. We had the Byu mens chorus come throw down on Sunday night and it was unreal. it was so good. I saw a few people i went to school with that are still awaiting mission calls so that was good times. RC and TRC were good as always... i had had 40 minute conversation with an elderly gentleman about the book of mormon so that made my day. The TRC was good, elder jones is still struggling with the language but who isnt. I feel like i know a ton of Polish for the amount of time ive been here. And considering it took me a couple days to get through one verse of the ksiega Mormona the first week.We have 31 new elders in sisters coming in tomorrow.... 31!! apparently its some sort of record, rumors of CNN coming to cover the story... look for me.Included in that are the new Polish so we are all pretty stoked to meet them all and scare them with our polish skills. Zone leadering is going well i got to see off the rochester missionaries at 0'dark:30 yesterday. Other than that life is same old. The food has reached the point of being unbearable i now live off of cereal for 3 meals a day. We had a 'health orientation' meeting last night. It was pretty hilarious, we had a very very, like dumbledore- elderly gentleman give the lecture. He had some good things to say i suppose. It made me realize how good i have it going to Europe and not the tropics of O'ohaikulijullluibo. Although we still use water filters and all those good things. Our teachers have told us we live like kings compared to most missionaries.. haha whether or not that's accurate ill have to let you know. Thank you so much for all of the packages and letters this past week, they have really helped a ton :-) i have another package in the mail room right now actually. I dunno if you got my letter about my Camera memory card.. but hopefully its my adapter. its tough to believe they dont have a usb port, sigh haha. if not ill have to get pictures to yall when i get to Poland. I love you all so much, have an incredibly davage Boze Narodzenie. Eat some good food for me. Im sure theyll let me right a letter sometime during Christmas day. And hopefully ill get to call during one of my layovers. do widzenia starszy daly

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Elder Daly..15 days to go!

hey all! boze narodzenie from the mtc. I don't have much to say other than 15 days and ill finally be making the epic trek to zion. SYL continued this week and i was feeling pretty good about my Polish.. even finished reading my 1st year Polish book. Then i decided the other day to open my Intermediate Polish book... and i was quickly humbled.. at this point though i think the best thing for all of our district would be to just get immersed in it. We get our flight plans friday i think so ill be sure to let you know when exactly i fly out and what not. Needless to say im stoked beyond belief!!! Not that i dont love the mtc :-) The TRC and RC went decently well this week... we have a couple more thursdays and we'll be teaching the Plan of Salvation this week and next thursday. Our district and Branch our doing really well. Its kinda of quiet because we aren't getting new Elders in this week so its just the polish, bulgarians, and rochester, newyorkians.. Although because of Christmas the new Polish Elders come in a week early so they get here the 19th !! elder jones and i are looking forward to orientating them and making sure they carry on the good name. Our district is closer now than ever. We have testimony meetings after every tuesday devo and i dont think the Spirit is ever stronger than in those meetings so im most definitely looking forward to that tonight. Elder Jones and i did a session this morning and it was amazing as always... the temple breakfast that followed topped it off :-) hmmm... our teachers told us some more crazy awesome stories from their missions.. ive decided when i grow up i want to be just like my teacher Brother Goff.. hes changed my life :-) This week we had to teach 2 prinicples of the Gospel in polish to random people throughout the day so Elder Jones and I had a great time doing that, i think it might be the first time i actually felt the spirit while speaking and teaching in polish because it comes a little easier now, not so many stutters and awkward pauses. I take that back actually, anytime i recite the first vision in polish, or im sure in any language the spirit is there. To me personally its one of the most powerful things i think ill share with an investigator. Well its hard to believe that Christmas is already here (btw boze narodzenie=christmas.. 'Godly Birth') i think i might have to send you all a Polish hymnbook so you can break out the christmas carols in Polish this year :-) well i have 6 mintues and not much else to report. thanks cameron and mom for the letter! im glad to hear your pwning school camo.. its basketball season so hopefully youre getting some serious balling in. the new czech and slovene elders showed up last week and they are all like 7 feet tall. ... let's just say i find myself on the third floor running laps alot more now. Hope construction is coming to a close pretty soon on the house. And mom i think i have everything i need.. i think haha if i think of anything ill put it in my letter later today. I think my main problem is i have so much stuff and only 100 pounds i can take with plus a carry on. Hopefully itll turn out alright.. just make some donations to the bulgarian elders. well i hope everyone has a great week. What an awesome time of year this is im so thankful for the astounding and undeserving amount of blessings i have received. i love you all! starszy daly

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Sleep-deprived....Elder Daly

hey family, co slychaC? life in the mtc continues... 3 weeks from tomorrow and im finally out though :-) its been tough to see our 3rd american district leave this week. thats when you know youve been here too long haha. so yeah i didnt get a lot of sleep last night because the american companionship in our room (elder wilkinson, hes my favorite) was talking and packing until like midnight. Then i had to get up and check them out at 3 am and then elder jone and i woke up at 6 to hit up some temple action. Consequently, i might fall asleep at this keyboard... good thing it's p-day! Hmm i cant really think of anything too groundbreaking that happened this week. Elder Justice in my district played the piano at our sunday night devotional in front of 2000 missionaries... a song he wrote called 3 kingdoms. it was pretty amazing, he's pure talent. That Sunday devo was just a rebroadcast of the First Presidency Christmas Devotional that had happened earlier that night. I know Sydney said she watched it hopefully others did as well, it was utter brilliance. I love President Eyring. Someone told me he's one of the top 50 smartest people in the world? I'm not sure if that's true. I'd put him top 5, easy. This thursday was our first time teaching the first discussion in Polish... that was this week right? yeah i think so. It went pretty well. Elder jones struggled a little bit but it's coming along for him. Ive been somewhat discouraged about the whole thing lately because although ive only been learning polish for 6 weeks i think i finally realized the other day that im not going to be anywhere near fluent by the time i get out of here.. and that ill probably completely lost as to what people are saying until like month 5. Disheartening yet im still more excited than ever to get out there. Thank you for the tapes by the way! i thoroughly enjoyed them. dad im sorry i cant be there helping you save the yard, cameron told me he loves that kind of stuff though so i think you have good resources to put to use :-)hmmmm what elsee.. to be honest it really is about the same thing everyday i apologize my life isnt incredibly exciting. Oo at the RC on thursday i received 9 referalls so i was pretty ecstatic! Makes up for my meager totals in the previous weeks. I love talking to people.. it's so interesting to think that every person has a story, personal experiences that have molded them into the person they are. Its a lot of fun to get to know people and teach them a little bit about something that can completely transform their lives if they accept it. Im pretty pumped to just be out and about and talking, teaching, and getting to know people all day ... there isnt anything much better in my mind. im excited to make new friends in Poland. Hopefully with the hooliganiz so they dont give me too much trouble. So ive heard that one of the reasons that missionary work is so difficult in Poland is because everyone thinks that we are either Jehovah's Witnesses, or just some cult-ish american church. And apparently the JW's have a 100 times greater number of members in Poland. I wonder what that Church offers that gets people so intrigued... hmm Well life is good, the branch is doing well. orientated 6 new elders last wednesday going to rochester, ny. They are starting to get in the flow of things although one of them almost went home like day 2 because hes in love with his girlfriend and cant handle being away from her. Needless to say, jones and i talked some sense into him and hes 100% comitted to staying. so sweet bonus there. remember when you first dropped me off and i had a nametag that had 'elder' daly on it and the rest was in polish? Well we finally got 'starszy' name tags so we are officially legit and prepped for the battle of souls thats going down in Poland right now. Although the translation for 'starszy' daly actually means 'older' daly.. and apparently the polish people find that amusing and laugh at you while youre walking around the town squares... im excited for that :-) dziekuje bardzo for all the packages and letters :-) they definitely make for a happier day... alysia ill be responding to your amazing drama filled life today haha.. you crack me up my roomates think youre hilarious :-) well i love you all have a great week do zobaczenia elder daly