Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Monday, December 29, 2008

Hermana Daly~December 29, 2008..'party, party'

Hola familia!!
> Hope everyone had an Amazing Christmas!!! Christmas in Chile is quite the late night party. We were able to stay out till midnight and we ate with a family my companion taught and baptized a year ago in the sector next to ours, so that was way fun! But Christmas in Chile is really Christmas Eve and everyone opens presents at midnight and then has parties and dances until like 3 or 4 in the morning. Chileans are definitely night people…I was telling the fam over the phone that Church activities are set to start at 7pm, but really don´t start until like 8 or 9 and go till 11 pm…but their Christmas dinner party/karoke/dancing went until 3 am in the church!!! Crazy crazy…I´ll have to come back after my mission and party late with them since I love the late nights lol.
> But Christmas Eve day, our two zones in Arica did something really fun…we all practiced and sang Christmas hymns in the Centro all afternoon!!! The Centro is like the cute little main street of Arica with lots of people…and we even brought a keyboard piano with amazing accompaniment by Elder Somermeyer and Elder Hobbs played the violin. So half of us sang and the other half handed out cards and pamphlets and stuff…which kinda scared people away. So then we just had everyone sing and then lots of people stayed and listened haha – it was way cool!!
> But like Sean, this week was also really slow because not many people were out Christmas day and were busy. (And Remember the Titans isn´t apostate…it´s quite motivational for the working missionary lol – my mission President is just cooler I guess haha…just kidding Sean!) Anyway, but we did have an amazing experience with Jocelyn, who is 19 years old and super bueno! She was a contact we had a few weeks ago and decided to try to find her at home again Saturday night, and she was! She had been taught before by missionaries, but then they left or something happened and she didn´t have more lessons with them. But she liked our whole first lesson and then we challenged her to go the Church the next day. She said she would and we asked if she wanted us to pick her up but she said no, she´ll see us there. So we prayed for her that night to attend Church the next morning because many of our investigators are way nice and agree to go to Church but can´t quite seem to make it or aren´t home when we go get them.
> So Sunday morning came and we weren´t successful in getting Manuel to Church who we went and picked up…he walked the whole 20 minutes with us to the chapel and then didn´t go inside!! Unbelievable lol – he said because he hadn´t showered and wasn´t ready and would go next week. We tried to convince him for like 10 minutes outside the front doors just to go in for the beginning and he wouldn´t. So feeling kinda down we went into the chapel alone, but after the sacrament meeting Jocelyn came up to us!!! We hadn´t seen her there, but she said she came a few minutes late and sat in the back. But she said she had to leave early, so we took the opportunity to teach her a quick lesson in a classroom and commit her to a bautismal date and she said yes, she of course wanted to get baptized!! We were quite excited…she is such a sweet girl…and in her prayer she said she was grateful for us missionaries and to bless us and our families because being here and teaching her the gospel was the best thing to happen!! And this after knowing her barely a day…Heavenly Father truly prepares people for the Gospel!!!
> I am grateful for my mission experiences! My first cambio will come to an end after this week, which is crazy!! My companion will be going home and it´s a surprise who will be my next comp  Love you all and enjoy life!!!!
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly

Elder Sean~December 29, 2008..HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy 2009!! Well 2008 will go down in the books as the year i was missionary.. twas an amazing year that went by way too fast. I dunno if there is going to be a 2009 edition of the putnam family/cousin calendar.. but i loved my 2008 one.. its hard for me to part with it, it was a huge hit among people that served around me... so if there is a new one i will glady pay postage for it to get here.. heck id even wire some money into a foreign argentinan man's bank account.. let me know what i have to do.

This week was really fun but really really slow. there was nobody on the streets for most of the week because of the holidays.. and not only do they have christmas eve and chirstmas.. they also have second chirstmas.. i hate second christmas. We went over to Krystynas for dinner on monday night and she hooked us up.. it was really cool because she houses foreign exchange students and they were from Austrailia, Brazil, and America .. all of them spoke english and were our age, it was awesome. We spoke english most of the time because the exchage students have been here for a year.. but they can't really speak a lick. Elder Owen even dominated them. I went home a thanked the Lord for the gift of tongues. The food was good though and she even gave elder owen and i matching sweater vests. We also got to go over to Karolina and Tomek's (members) for Second Christmas. Had some food and watched the work and the glory.. unfortunately Remember the Titans is too apostate for our mission...and then we played some games.. it was fun.

On Christmas Eve we had to work until 6 pm which was really .. fun There was nobody on the streets after about 2 pm... Most of the day we ran around with the clipboard and asked people how many reindeer santa has and handed out candy, and the Living Christ pamphlets. After 2 pm the only people out were larrys so we went and made friends with some of them.. gave them candy etc. That night we caught a train to torun with the ZL's. Went to midnight mass which was awful. There was no place to sit so we had to sit in the confession booth, k lie, we had to stand for an hour and a half while 15 yr old girls hit on elder owen. We got to sleep in on Christmas day.. had some pancackes and headed back to Bydgoszcz. Elder Owen and I went and visited an investigator named fred for the ZL's... He spent the holidays alone because his family couldnt make it down from germany... he was drunk when we showed up ... we tried to share a quick thought with him, im not sure if he was really "there" though.. we poured out the rest of the alcohol he had in the house and yeah.. we brought him to church on sunday too.. he smelled pretty bad but seemed more coherent. He's doing good i think, zls are still working with him.

On saturday we visited zbyszek again, we taught him a third and about the word of wisdom.. he had a hard time with that. He loves beer. He still doesnt have a job, says he will be able to find one for sure after the new year. He felt bad that he kept taking our money to pay his way to church on sundays.. and says that the distance and money is tough for him and he wants to wait until there is a branch in inowroclaw. So that is where we are at right now. He knows its true just a couple little things he isnt willing to make sacrifices for. He'll come around though we are going to try and keep visiting him each week.

Have a happy new year! laners stay away from the boys at midnight of new years.. and lysh stay away from the centro... i dont care how many Rick look a likes they have running around there partying on new years.

love you fam, thanks again for the call

elder sean

Monday, December 22, 2008

Hermana Daly~December 22, 2008...Feliz Navidad

Hola familia!
> Like Sean, I can´t believe you are in Florida!!! Crazy, crazy --- hope you are having tons of fun and enjoying Christmas summer style like me lol. This past week was crazy…definately a rollercoaster too. Bro. Bott, my profesor from BYU, said that a mission is 50 years of Church service squished into 18 months or two years so it can be quite the rollercoaster – and I definatley believe it!! The first few days were slow, but on Tuesday we had Elder Vewer, assistant to the President, work with us for the day. He was way good – the Elders do have quite the confidence and power you need on a mission. They never take no for an answer. I need to learn to be more like that lol. And I saw what I wanted my Spanish like -- my patience with the language and especially understanding the Chilenas has definately been tried.
> The next day we had interviews and a little chat with President Urra. It was way good and got me pumped for the week. He talked about how sometimes we may not feel like we are getting the blessings and things we want, but Heavenly Father will always bless us in His way and time. My companion and I took that to heart because we were feeling the pressure of not much success, so we continued in patience and diligence.
> But then miracles started happening the rest of the week. The blessings came pouring upon us!!! The number of lessons we taught skyrocketed and we have lots of new investigadors. This is truly the work of the Lord. We are doing that same things, but this week when we talked to people more listened and wanted to know more. Especially yesterday – one woman said ¨hola¨on the street with her son and we were on the other side so we smiled and said hi back. We were walking to an appointment, and we both felt like we should have went and talked to her but it was too late. Then after we decided to go knock a few doors on a different street than we planned…and as we were walking there we heard an ¨hola¨ from a bench and it was the same woman and her son – Ana and Sabastian. So this time we definately went over and found out she had been baptized years ago somewhere else and wanted to go back to church. And she wanted her son baptized ASAP and her nephew and just everyone lol. But her son also has the desire to be baptized. So we are visiting them this week!! A miracle!
> Also we met another man, Manuel, this week who is Christian and doesn´t belong to any church because he knows like everything about the Bible and doesn´t believe any church is true. Also he told us how his father died like less than a month ago so he was angry with God and prayed to Him to show him the way…more like demanded it and said “God, I need to know the way…you need to bring it my doorstep!” I couldn´t believe it…I don´t know if he has quite made the connection of us finding and teaching him on his doorstep to it being the Way – the true gospel and Church of Christ. But I have great hope for him…he definately has a lot of more challenging questions, but I hope he prays sincerely to know the truth and receives it!
> I am just so grateful for my experiences and for the grace and blessings of the Lord! Also on Friday all the Hermanas had a Christmas activity in Antofagasta, so we made the long trip down there and had lots of fun…including playing on the beach!!! And of course lots of food and a present exchange!
> I hope eveyone enjoys Christmas this week!!! I am grateful for the this time where everything is a little brighter and happier as we celebrate the birth of Christ!! I know Christ is our Savior and loves of beyond comprehension. Through Christ, all is possible!! I LOVE you all SO MUCH!!
>
> Feliz Navidad,
> Hermana Daly

Elder Daly~December 22, 2008...Merry Festivus!

Wesolych Swiat na Boze Narodzenie!!!

Hope you all are having a wonder chirstmas time.. playing in the snow, having snowball fights, building snowmen... christmas caroling to the seniors, widows, and shut-in's. Serving others by the means of cookies, warm visits and smiles, and sharing with nonmembers the true meaning of Chirstmas, the birth and life of the Savior, Jesus Christ... oh, wait.. youre in Florida. Sun bathing, buffeting, and attending Will Smiths latest rap concert in Miami. Mmmhmm.. alrighty, well then.. im at a loss for words.. haha nah i kidding, im way jealous. Hope you all are having a way good time :-)

This week was kinda rollercoasterish. We were planning on giving zbyszek a baptisimal date on friday of this week. He called us up the morning of and cancelled. So i called him later that night after i had a baptisimal interview with Zaneta and he was drunk and babbling on about how awesome star wars was. I could hear his mom in the background just laughing hysterically. It was actually pretty funny, but i was way bummed. He had been off drugs and alcohol for a few months. I talked to him on Saturday and he apologized. We are visiting him on tuesday so we'll see.

Zaneta had her baptism on saturday and it was so cool. We had a great turn out and then had a chirstmas eve (Wigilia) celebration afterwards. We had all sorts of polish food. red barszcz.. which is this soup that tastes like seawater. Pierogi .. basically little potsticker dealies with meat and cheese in them. And bigos. Elder Owen and I baked another delicious cake. Unrivaled by all other food there. It was a blast though, good ol polish christmas party. They even had mistletoe.. yeah im feeling pretty refreshed and ready to go this week.

The work was a little tough this week just because set ups are hard to come by during the holiday seasons. We did have this completely awesome guy named blazej in church this week. He's like 22 and he looks just like Ryan off of the Office, fly european suit and all. He's so cool. We've had a couple meetings with him and he really likes the book of mormon. But, like most of our investigators, he can't meet again until after the holidays.

We have a couple of dinner setups for this week which will be a good time.. One with this investigator named Krystyna.. and another with karolina and tomek from the branch.. so heckk yeahs we are celebrating christmas polish style. With some carp and red seawater :-)

Elder Owen and I had some kolenda boys come sing us some chirstmas carols this week.. after they were done i was like.. alrightttt you guys rock it, thanks so much, merry christmas. and as im about to close the door they ask.. "well arent you going to give us money?" ... three cheers for catholicism. i sacrificed a few pennies from our pizza fund.

Thanks so much for the chirstmas cards from everybody and for the package of awesomeness. Eddie Bauer was treating me good on Sunday for sure. I love you guys so much.

The polish people have been really open to our message the closer we get to the holidays. It is such a blessing to serve in a country where the name Jesus Christ is treated with such reverence and respect. Christmas is by far the most sweet bonus of all of the holidays because it touches every soul and provokes a reflection on something greater. Not everyone knows that the magical feeling that comes from the holiday season is actually the miracle of life, the chance that we have here on this earth to show what we are made of, build relationships, even eternal ones. And it is all thanks to the incomprehensible majesty of Christ. About half the people i talk to tell me that they dont want to change their faith. But thats the cool thing about Poland is that they dont need their faith to be changed. We have been called to deepen it.

5 pm my time still works for me .. if something changes just call me whenever.. we'll have the phone with us all day. Merry Festivus.

Love,

Elder Sean

Monday, December 15, 2008

Hermana Daly~Dec 15, 2008...'after the tribulations, comes the blessings!

Hola familia!!
> So my scripture for the week is D&C 58:3-5. It says after the tribulations, comes the blessings! We can´t see them now, but they will come  I am living by this scripture because some days or weeks seem very hard. This last week was one of them and at the same time funny as I look back on it. First it was lots of walking as usual because our investigators don´t seem to remember their appointments lol. And it was quite hot this week, so the sun can really get to you after walking all day haha. Then Wednesday, our toilet was so broken and wouldn´t flush again --- kinda gross, no really gross haha. Then our shower head broke the next day and turned into a wipping snake cord of either really hot water or really cold. Our companionship goal for that day was to stay positive and not murmur, especially about our apartment. We did pretty well with that goal until we returned home that night and put the key in the door and it wouldn´t open. We tried and tried, prayed and prayed, and then tried some more for like 10 minutes and the door would not budge. We were like “En serio!” So we went over to the other hermanas´apartment which is a few buildings away and they came over and tried. Hermana Plauche was quite aggresive at the door…I told her to be careful. She put all her muscle into it and was like “I got it, I got it”, but then the key broke in half and the rest of it was stuck in the lock. Needless to say, we spent the night on the floor of the Hermanas´apartment without any of our stuff. Party lol! But I did try my first pastel de choclo which was way good --- the top part is like the sweet corn at Chevys, which you all know I love. Food always makes me happy! So we couldn´t get into our apartment until late the next day. Our papito Hermano Dario drilled a hole into our door and it took him like an hour to get through…supposedly our lock is pretty durable and the more expensive kind so that made it harder to get through our door. Dad, you would just love our aparment and all the fun stuff you could fix haha. Poor Hemano Dario…our toilet has been on his list for the past three weeks haha.
> Anyway, we did have a couple members accompany us to lessons, which was way good! Missionaries always need help from members, so you all should talk to them this week and help them out either going to a lesson or giving a reference!! KK! It is really hard without the member´s help…now I see why the prophets and apostles are always pleading with the members to help and be member missionaries too…it really is a joint effort! After all the apartment fiasco, we did get to teach a few lessons this past weekend and got new investigators!! We have like four teenager investigators, which I didn´t expect we would have a lot of teens willing to listen to us. But they are all so nice, and hopefully we will be able to get them to church. They all said they would come yesterday, but when we went to get them they either weren´t there or were sleeping or just didn´t answer the door lol. 10 am is pretty early for the young…church at 11 am at BYU was early for me haha. So we are praying for next time! I am in a ward with the other two hermanas as well, so that´s fun!
> The Spanish is still coming along. All the ward members say I speak really well, but I don´t believe them. I still don´t understand tons, so it´s hard but there are a few people in the ward that speak purer Spanish that I can understand so I like them the most lol, just kidding. Everyone is great! We do walk around mostly everyday. We only really use collectivos on P-Days or to get to a meeting far away or when we have a cita (appt) far away. So I´m getting my exercise in, but yes I do need to be cautious with the bread so I don´t get fat lol.
> Well I love you all!!! Don´t freeze too much in the snow hahahahaha, just kidding! I did get to go to the beach today and all the Elders played futbol and then we had a water balloon fight…fun fun. Happy holidays!!!
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly

Elder Sean Daly~Dec 15, 2008...life is good

So me and Owen made our way out to inowroclaw again this week to visit Zbyszek. We tried to teach him a second and we somewhat succeeded but the man is a talker.. It was a good meeting though. the man has such an understanding of the Bible and the gospel of Jezus Christ its incredible. His mom fed us pieces of bread with a huge cube of butter on each piece and then just put a pieces of raw fish on top. It was brutal. Then after the meeting ended we had 10 minutes to catch our train so we threw down and all out sprint for like the 50th time this transfer.... i wonder how funny that looks to poles.. just two kids decked out in suits and backpacks just booking it across the frozen tundra of Poland. We didnt make the train. So we got to contact inowroclaw for an hour.. found a family that was interested so that was cool. Umm Zbyszek came to church yesterday and loved it. We had a meeting with him and a member, Brat Isaak, after church. It was ...awesome. Izaak is this black man that has lived in poland for 30 years and he is the epitome of all that is wisdom. Zbyszek said he knows he needs to be baptized but he still needs a little bit to think about everything. We are pretty confident he'll accept a date on friday when we go visit him again. The Zone Leaders in our district have a baptism on saturday of this week for Zaneta so that will be good. Our zone set a new mission record for new investigators and sit down lessons. So, yeah, things are way good. Owen and I had some great meetings this week with some new investigators.. hopefully we'll get some of these homskils progressing.

elder owen and I went and served this lady named bozena this week. She's absolutely crazy. I dont have time to go into all the details but basically for 5 hours.... five hours... 300 minutes.. we scrubbed inbetween the tile in her kitchen with toothbrushes. No exaggeration. It was awful. I went an bought a new toothbrush for myself afterwards.

Life is good, Elder owen is the coolest... way cooler than ill ever be. He is singlehandedly rocking bydgoszcz and i am just translating for him.

Bydgoszcz really is holy ground for me though.. Ive had experiences that, after the first 6 months of my mission, i just never expected to see during my time in Poland.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Hermana Daly~December 8, 2008...yea for missionary work!

Hola familia y amigos!
> Another week in Arica...crazy! We had zone conference last Thursday where President and Hermana Urra came with the asistants and spoke with us. We have to have a musical number and because my companion thinks I can sing well, I was roped into it. So we had the four hermanas and four Elders. And then since I was the only one that could sing high, I was the designated soprano and soloist for some parts...haha – and now everyone says I will be singing in conferences and stuff for the rest of my mission lol. I understood some of the conference haha...one of the assistants talked about having faith in miracles happening in our missions. I have definately already seen many little miracles with people we meet on the streets! This week my companion and I made a covenant to talk to each person that crossed our path so we can get more investigators and people to teach. It is quite hard and when we need to get somewhere, it takes hours haha. Then we jump into a colectivo (taxi) to get to our destination lol. People are vey Catholic up here, so many don´t care to listen to us but then we get the people who are nice and willing to listen. We haven´t had too many lessons yet because we are still trying to get to know the area, people, and members in the ward. We also had people commited to coming to church yesterday, but no one came which made me sad...perservance – that´s what the mission is all about 
> I´m starting to understand a little more Spanish everyday, but it is still hard. Everyone says it´s because it´s not Spanish...it´s Castillano or however you spell it haha – not quite sure what that means lol. But the people from other countries I can understand haha. I need to get connected to my Chilean roots quick 
> But Arica is fun! Not too hot with the wind...like Pleasanton weather and the downtown Centro is way fun! People are a little richer up here because there are a lot of mines so the houses are pretty nice inside, not what I expected. We did finally get gas in our apartment a few days ago which is good! Our papito...the Hermano who brings us food is way nice and we always have great food! Lots of rice and chicken and bread!
> So ya, trying to stay strong and be patient with the language and people! Yay for missionary work!!!
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly (oh p.s. I´ve changed the pronunciation on my name to the way you say in Spanish or how many people say it in English haha...so it´s easier for Chileans lol)

Hermana Daly~December 8, 2008..short emails!

This is a email to Cameron from Alysia..she didn't send a generic email out this week. But she is doing great!

haha nice new email address camo....are you still dominating at halo??? im loving chile, but am definately not fluent at spanish yet. its hard...you should start taking lots of spanish classes right now for when you get called on a mission to south america :) and i finally got warm water...gas and electricity here is quite different and my companion has to light the gas thing with a match everytime to turn it on, which scares me bc i dont like fire haha. but its good. hows school???? are you still working hard and gettting A´s??? you better be :) well i love you!!!!! have a great week!

Elder Sean~December 8, 2008~short but busy!

lysh you made it to chileeeee yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! oh man im so stoked for you .. your comp looks pretty sicky tight, and a native!? ah you lucky duck that is going to be so cool. Good luck in your first transfer.

So we had a zone chirstmas party in warsaw this week and it was a way good time. Had some danish food.. threw down some cool skits.. elder owen and i sang silent night and jammed on the guitar.. and yeah it was great.

Work is good.. we had a busy week and probly a pretty busy one this week as well.. we have a handful of investigators we are way excited about and we actually have a meeting with one in like 15 mins so i have to go.

and for christmas you guys actually have to call me.. my phone wont call to the states (ive tried) .. ill give you guys a time frame to call in my email next week as well as my number.

love you guys :-)

elder sean

Monday, December 1, 2008

Hermana Daly~December 1, 2008..Hola from Chile!

Hola familia!!!
> I did make it to Chile!!! So crazy!! It was quite the long trip to get here...i don´t even know how long it was but it was fun to be with my district on the plane. My elders rock and we did some missionary work on the plane. One part of a flight I was sitting next to Elder Eddenfield and we talked to an Austrailian guy on and off for like 6-8 hours about the gospel. But he didn´t have any beliefs whatsoever but had fun talking to us. Him and his buddies got off the plane in Lima, Peru to go treking or something fun and wild. Then from Lima to Santiago the other Elders gave a Book of Mormon to a Chilean and then to a guy from Brazil. Pretty cool!!!
> We finally made it to Antofagasta after a bunch of flights and met President Urrak, his wife, and the assistants. They were all so nice! We took a few pics here and there, which I think are the ones he sent you. It was fun, but I was soo dead tired and gross haha. Then that night we had a fun little finding out who your companion was activity where random papers were picked. I was the last one and then met my comp Hermana Flores. She is so so nice!!! I was surprised that all the trainers except one hermana and one elder were nativos. Hermana Flores is from San Felipe, Chile and this is her last cambio before she goes home in january. That night we had a 12 hour bus ride to my new sector, Arica Centro B in the very north part of Chile...the fartherst city away from Antofagasta. Needless to say when we arrived the next morning to meet the zone leaders and other hermanas in my sector, I looked like death haha but everyone was so nice!!
> We went to our apartment, which is ummmm....of course way different than i am used to lol. My Hermana said it is one of the worst she has had, so that gives me hope for other apartments. Elders lived in it before, so it was really dirty and my hermana spent a few hours cleaning out the fridge and scrubbing the floors and bathroom and stuff as I unpacked and took a shower. We don´t have any gas right now, so we have the pleasure of taking cold showers...yessssss lol. The bathroom is pretty scary and our toilet doesn´t quite work properly – it doesn´t like to flush haha. And today I´m definitely planning on buying some plastic bowls and spoons for cereal bc we own like a few pieces of silverware and stuff that are rusty and probably 20 years old haha. But don´t worry mom, I´m not going to die haha. I am trying to embrace Chile, the people, and be grateful for what I am given .
> But oh my gosh....on to Spanish. I have definitely been humbled...the first day I didn´t understand anyone!! It´s getting a little better, but Spanish in Chile is for sure an entirely different language lol. They talk to fast and it just sounds like mumbles to me. I like when we run into someone from Peru (there are a lot here bc we are so close to the border and many work here) because their spanish is a little more easy to understand. Since this is a new area for both my companion and I, we don´t know anyone. So we spent this last week walking a lot, contacting, and meeting members. My companion makes me talk like every other door or person, but since I don´t understand them I just say my little part and then turn to her when they say something back haha. We have taught a few lessons, but definitely need to find investigators. So ya, lots of talking.
> The members are so so nice! A lot are happy to have more hermanas in the ward. The other two hermanas live close to us and help us a lot. One is from Chile and the other – Hermana Plauche is from Georgia so she helps me lots. Oh my companion does know quite a bit of English, so when I am completely lost and don´t understand when she tries to explain in spanish, she tries it in english. So that is good for me not to get completely overwhelmed. Back to the members...a bishop from another area, Hermana Dario, gives us lunch everyday and is way nice. All the nativos that know a few words in English like to say them to me to make me feel better lol. And the zone and district leaders to that too and are all so nice to me. I´m like a little child because I try not to get overwhelmed or frustrated by just laughing it off or smiling and saying ¨no entiendo.¨ They all have fun with that. Some teens in the ward love talking to me and hearing me try to speak spanish and understand...they are pretty funny. And i also gave introduced myself and said my testimony in sacrament meeting (smiling the whole time to make up for my spanish) and everyone liked that haha. I´ve found that smiling and laughing is they key .
> Well I think I have written enough lol. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoyed their Thanksgiving...they don´t celebrate it here so I kinda forgot it happened lol.
> Sean – sounds like you are doing so good!!!! My president is pretty cool to...except that he doesn´t speak english but no worries lol. Continue the good work in Poland. When i tell people here you are in poland....a lot of people don´t know where that is haha. Its pretty funny. Love you!
> Love you everyone!!!! Adios!
>
> -Hermana Daly

Elder Sean~December 1, 2008...Merry Thanksgiving!

Short email because i had to type marysia's conversion story and email it to the office because they are making some sort of gift for all of the polish members for christmas. And i had to type it in polish which is impossible because you have to hit the dang 'alt' key every other word to put the polish letters in... thats how im going to make it big... move back to poland and open up my own polish keyboard shop. All who wish to be rich and successful may join.

Merry thanksgiving to everyone.. hope you all had some good eats. We had whole little chicken guys with rolls, cornbread, mashedpotatoes and some applecrisp that i made to perfection and then elder owen went and put in a cup extra of melted butter.. some people just weren't cut out the culinary arts like i was.

President engbjerg came to church yesterday and we had interviews... he gave an awesome talk that really helped the investigators and at the same time rocked the members world.. it was awesome. Each companionship had an investigator in church... even torun! the first investigator ever in church!! woot.... all three of them are going to be baptized within the next couple of months for sure. Interviews were good.. President Enbjerg is the man. Lysh your mission president could never be as high class as mine.. Enbjerg is actually considering buying south America and establishing the continental language as polish... ill send you some grammar books.

I love my companion. I'm the only reason he doesnt get translated into the presence of the Almighty each day. The mission is a blast, also energy sucking though... i started doing some push ups and sit ups again because i feel like an old man... i got to like 15 pushups and then a vein in my neck burst. ive sworn off all chocolate and nutella.

i miss you family! I get to talk to you guys in like 20 something days though yeahhhh :-) do i get to talk to lysh dawg? i dunno what the rules are but im sending you my cell phone number nonetheless lysh.

thanks for the emails :-) .. laners rock the summit, go around selling hugs for money.. you'll have the most points of everness.

im curious what polish RM's briana knows... thats tight.. tell them i say hi. Thats so cool that briana is rocking byu packing and shipping hahaha her name is on all my packages, its the bomb diggity.

love you guys, have a great week, rock around the chirstmas tree babyy

elder sean

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Hermana Daly Arrives in Chile~November 25, 2008



Dear Brother and Sister Daly,



Your missionary has arrived in the Chile Antofagasta Mission! Sister Urra and I were there to meet her at the airport. We take great pleasure in writing this letter to let you know that she arrived safely and has been assigned to work with Sister Flores, who is from San Felipe, Chile. They will work in the city of Arica. We will love her as one of our own and she will be cared for and especially watched over by the Lord.



This is a most fascinating area of the Lords vineyard. There is much work to be done here and we are grateful to have such wonderful missionaries eager to serve the Lord. The Lord loves the people of Chile and has many things yet in store for the Church here.



Sister Urra and I can be reached via email at pmurraj@gmail.com. The missionaries are asked to write home weekly either through the postal system (letters usually arrive in 2-3 weeks) or through MyLDSMail, the church’s internet email service. Sister Daly’s MyLDSMail email address is alysiad@myldsmail.net, and she will check her email every Monday. Please do not communicate through instant messenger services or send emails to email addresses other than MyLDSMail. Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, and other services are not filtered and can expose missionaries to things that will detract from their spiritual wellbeing.



Attached to this e-mail we are sending you two pictures of when your daughter arrived.

1. Sister Daly with President and Sister Urra.

2. Sister Daly with his trainer, Sister Flores



May you and your family be richly blessed as your missionary diligently serves here.



Sincerely,



Juan A. Urra and Soledad Urra

President and his wife

Chile-Antofagasta Mission

Monday, November 24, 2008

Elder Sean~November 24, 2008...lessons better than snow!

So Owen and I journeyed out to inowroclaw on saturday and met with Zbyszek. He's finished the book of mormon and knows its true. We met for about 2 hours and talked about religion in general then about the restoration while he's stout, ancient, catholic mother yelled things from the other room. He has been getting his life in order for the past couple of months. He recently quit smoking and drinking and he's living with his mom until he finds a job. During the discussion he told us that he would have to find out a little bit more about us but in his words "ofcourse i know i need to be baptized into this church." He came to church with us on Sunday. Its kinda a long story but it ended up that during sacrament meeting elder thomas and I had to keep Czarek (1 yr old child of the ZL's investigator who actually now has a baptisimal date, heck yeahs) entertained in the primary room because he is a monster.. like words wouldnt do his description justice. Anyways owen sat next to zbyszek during sacrament meeting and after it was over I asked zbyszek how he liked it and.. he definitely didnt love it. All he said was "you guys have it better than the JW's" so i guess thats good. Then the investigator sunday school class was about the roles of men and women in the family.. really weird lesson. But Priesthood pulled through for us. It was all about testimony and how to gain one. Overall I think he liked it ... the only problem we have now is the distance. but yeah.. hes a righteous dude.
We had two other investigators in church and we have a handful of other investigators that we are working with that are solid. The work is keeping us busy for sure.. which is good because having lessons indoors beats trudging around in the snow.
Oh we had zone conference this week too.. it was way good.. elder kerr from the 70 came.. talked about becoming like a little child and having that pure faith and trust in people. best speaker ive listened to since holland in the mtc. heck yeahs lysh that so cool you got to hear him speak your last devo there. Safe journeys to and in Chile my dear sister :-)

i love you all! happy birthday again mother <3

elder seanners

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Hermana Daly~November 19, 2008..next stop...CHILE!!

Hola familia y amigos!!!
> This is my last email from the MTC...next stop ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE!!! Oh my gosh, I can't even express how excited I am! And on top of that...guess who spoke at our last devotional last night?!? ELDER HOLLAND...he is my favorite apostle!! It was my thanksgiving/christmas/mission present for the year! I was so excited...I was sitting next to Hermana Jeppson before we knew who the speaker was, and we were like wouldn't that be just so amazing if Elder Holland came...then next second the doors opened and everyone stood up and it was HIM!! We freaked out to say the least and were so happy! It was a great talk...he loves missionary work and since his mission meant everything to him, he had some powerful advice and lessons for us! It was amazing!! He told us so much, but focused on how a huge part of our mission is oursevles...Preach My Gospel was made for the purpose of converting the missionary first, so they could then go out and teach with power and conviction. We need to come to know Christ and when we apply what is said in Mosiah 5:13 and Alma 37:36 about always having Christ in our mind and heart; then we will have a grand amazing mission and will have a launching pad to have that kind of focus on our Savior for the rest of our lives!! I could go on and on about the other things he told us, but time constrains me lol. Just reevaluate you life and ask yourselves if Christ is always in your minds and hearts. And if you are living a life where you have the constant companionship of the Spirit. Elder Holland told us we do have the presence of God with us and a divine companion...and that is the Holy Spirit. The is the key to being effective teachers and really the key to life...I continually learn how important the Spirit is for us!!! I am grateful for the experiences I have had here and for the constant presence of the Spirit!!
> I am just so excited to leave for Chile next Monday!! I am almost fluent in Spanish so no worries...haha just kidding. I'm sure I'll be wondering what language they are actually speaking when I get to Chile, but I know with the Lord's help I can do anything. I'm grateful to have had help with Spanish in the MTC and am so ready to speak the language in Chile with a lot of smiling and laughing when they don't understand me...well I'm sure they will understand my slow gringa accent, but I won't understand them lol. It will be great!
> Thank you all for your letters and love!!! I am so grateful for you!! Have a great thanksgiving and count the many blessings from our Heavenly Father. One of my blessings has been the weather in Provo...it is like summer!!! And during gym time I have been able to just go outside and sun bathe haha...it's pretty nice!
> Have an amazing birthday mother!!! And keep going strong Sean...you are amazing!!! It stinks that we can't really talk back and forth with the limited time of emails for missionaries, but I love you and pray for you everyday!!! Don't freeze in Poland :)
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly

Monday, November 17, 2008

Elder Sean~November 17, 2008..exceptional week!

o man last week for lysh in the mtc.. sorry i havent sent you anything sis.. i do have a package in mind for ya when you first get to chile though.. enjoy your last few days. you fluent?

Happy birthday in 5 days mother :-) you planning on doing anything spectacular? I'm sure Elder Owen wont mind if we celebrate your birthday by taking a day off.. nah but we will definitely do something cool. I love you mom and i hope your bithday is zajespoko!! Anything cool you want from poland?.. im still searching for something mom daly-ish.. promise next year ill get you something even better cuz the date for my release as of now is nov 20th.. kinda a fat and ugly gift..

this week was pretty exceptional... we have lena who is this cool ukrainian woman who is a cook here in poland and she is studying too i think. We taught her a second and have ewa on the lesson as a member. It was a way good meeting and she was so excited about our faith that after an hour she wanted us to keep going.. unfortunately she didnt make it to church yesterday for some reason or other but she is reading the book of mormon and really seems to like it. We also have this guy named zbyszek who slags and i met a day before transfers.. we gave him a book of mormon and we called him a few days ago to find out that he is read the first 200 pages of the book of mormon and he knows its true! how bout that.. He lives in inowroclaw which is an hour train ride outside of bydgoszcz .. we are going to visit him this week and yeah.. miracle story for sure. We have also been working with wojtek which has been a struggle.. he's still puffing the dragon .. we are meeting with him every other day and calling him every night... i still think he'll get over it soon. The whole district spent a day down in torun trying to get elder bishop and poulter new investigators... they taught 11 discussions and got 10 new investigators this week so they are on fire.. we've recorded the highest numbers bydgoszcz has seen in a couple years so things are pretty good.

cam thanks for putting up the lights for me :-) youre the man

i love you family, have a great week <3

sean

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Hermana Daly~November 12, 2008..twelve more days to go in the MTC!

Hola familia y amigos!!!
> This past week has been so good!!! And 12 more days until Chile!! We get our travel plans this Friday...I just can't believe it! I am so grateful for the experiences I have had here and for the Spirit. I absolutely just love my District. We had two nights of bearing testimonies, which is always my favorite! Each time, one of the Elder gets everyone to cry :) Watching all the Elders grow and learn has been such as awesome experience. I feel like I have been so blessed with miracles, for the chance I had to see them all grow and gain stronger testimonies. Their experiences they have been having here are amazing...they struggle but then they are so blessed. I can't even explain it all, it is just awesome! The companions and districts we are put with are truly inspired. Only with each different person we had in our district, were we able to learn and inspire each other and grow in unity! It's amazing! One of our Elders said he feels like we have all known each other for years and feels like brothers and sister...and we truly do. We joke around and tease each other like brothers and sisters, but then we help and edify each other as wells. We just wish we could have a big group hug lol. I'm just grateful that most of my district is going to the same mission as me, so I get to continue to see them and watch them grow and succeed!!
> We have had great speakers of course this week! For Relief Society Sis. Matsumori, who talked about how missionaries can bless primary children :) We have also had meetings and firesides emphasizing the Spirit and Book of Mormon. Oh my gosh, I just love the Book of Mormon. Our teacher challenged us to do better at keeping and writing in a study journal, and as I have done that this week I have learned so much more and have felt the Spirit more as I read. All the scriptures are just so amazing!! I hope everyone is reading them every night and I encourage you to keep a thought/study journal...it truly does make a difference!
> Last night for devotional we had Sis. and Bro. Busche speak! They are originally from Germany, and the wife was so sweet. She talked about how no one is a nobody and how we are all special because we are daughters and sons of God. She also said we are never alone because Christ is always behind the door waiting for us to open our hearts to Him. I love the scripture she shared in D&C 18:10-11. Then Bro. Busche talked about his amazing life story about growing up in the war time in Germany and not knowing if God existed. Then he had a near death experience and still didn't know if God existed, when he heard a voice telling him to pray...and he tried but he didn't know how and after he knew he would recover. He did miracously and make a committment that he would search for that source of power and become a disciple of it...later the missionaries came to his door and he was baptized. He continued to share amazing experiences...it was a great talk.
> Well life is just great!! I hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for your love and prayers!!! I am so grateful for this Gospel and know it is true!!!! Have a great week!
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly

Monday, November 10, 2008

Elder Sean~November 10, 2008..new companion!

This week was the bomb diggity. I birthed a new son this week in Warsaw. He is the man... I definitely got the best of the batch, he's pretty delicious. Despite the fact that we had to sit on the ground with all his luggage the whole 4 hour train ride to bydgoszcz.. it has been really davage. The polish people love him.. he cant say a whole lot but he says what he can and the people just listen.. ive never seen as many people stop for a missionary like they stop for him. We got a plethera of new investigators and even more numbers just in these last few days of work. We had 2 investigators in church and also marysia is still going strong and has never been better. We are still meeting with her every other day.. she loves the fact that owen cant speak polish so she has taken it upon herself to improve her english skills. I got called again at about 8 saturday night by the branch presidency telling me i had a talk haha.. they love me.. it went alright though i talked on the atonement. We've had the chance to teach a few firsts to new investigators and most of them have been students ..they love helping him out... it is going to be the best transfer to date .. no doubt. he's from california.. fresno area.. baller.

Sorry for being short last week.. but the baptism was good.. i cant remember what i told you.. but the branch president wasnt there.. there was about 12 people there.. i gave a talk as well as Ewa whose member. Andrzej the first counselor said a few things as well which was nice.. we all walked to a gym ymca type thing that was abot 10 minutes away.. the whole time gowski and i were comforting marysia because she was way scared of getting in the pool. when we got there whipple and her changed but then it took another 10 minutes of talking and walking her through it until she finally got in the pool.. then once she was in the pool she asked a for a prayer to be said.. then she was baptized.. afterwards we had some refreshments and chilled at the chapel for a while. Then she was confirmed the following sunday which was way scary for me.. hopefully it was alright. She is doing good now though, her progress is amazing.. she is a miracle.

We had a pretty cool experience this week where we met a girl about our age on the street.. she was interested but when we asked to set up for a later time she said her schedule was way busy.. but she had a few minutes right then... so we walked to a nearby park and taught her a first lesson on a bench by streetlight. She was open to reading and finding out if the book of mormon was true .. it was a cool experience.

well i love you guys.. hope everything is going well back home.. the value of the dollar shot through the roof here for a week now its slowly falling back down.. and i think just about every person i talked with on the street asked me if i voted for obama or mccain... despite how racist poles are.. they love obama. i attached a picture of my mission son.. yeah he's got a couple inches on me.. dangit.

trzymajcie siê

elder sean

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Hermana Daly~November 4, 2008..first snow day:)

Hola familia!
> Today was the first day of lots of snow!! It was so fun walking in it up to the temple...not lol :) I'm glad Heavenly Father sent me to a place with no rain or snow, because I am way happier with the sun haha. But less than three weeks until Chile!!! I can't believe it...I am so so excited! I'm feeling really stuck in such a small place right now.
> The last few days have been a little harder than others. We had a lot of TE appointments in Spanish and the teachers have started throwing us curve balls. My companion has been getting really frustrated with the language and teaching when she can't say what she wants, so then it kinda weighs down our companionship because then I start feeling down as well. It's funny how close companionships are...if one companion is feeling one way, the other one will too. But we have been trying to work through it and focus on having patience and trust in the Lord. It has been better since then.
> Halloween was quite different from the ones in the past lol. Our teacher has started doing a game called Nativo - or native - and secretly picks two people in our district that can only speak Spanish. Then he says everyone needs to speak Spanish always and then we guess who the nativos are after a few days. It is hard only speaking in Spanish, but good for us...I slip up a few times lol. But we are trying to all go strong our last few weeks in the MTC. Another teacher who served in Chile came in and told us abunch about Chile...and it got our whole district so so excited and wanting to leave the next second. So we can't wait!!!
> Again I love all the speakers have every week in the MTC. For Sunday we had a Mission Conference where two people from the Mission presidency spoke and their wives. It was great and I learned a lot. One thing I really like was from Sis. Boone, the wife of our mission president. She said we need to be like waterlilies. They grow beautiful and high above the water even though they are rooted in the dirt and scum of the pond bottom. Just how we are in the filfthiness of the world, we need to stand tall above it and keep clean so we can be beautiful shining children of our Heavenly Father. For devotional last night, we had Julie B. Beck speak to us!! She is so amazing and talked about various mission experiences she had when her family was in Brazil with her parents as mission presidents. She told great stories and gave great advice!!!
> Well I hope all is well! I love you all!!!!
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly

Monday, November 3, 2008

Elder Sean..November 3, 2008~Baptism Day!

Hey there family.. well i just survived through one of the longest weeks of my mission. im working on the 'bydgoszcz tapes' that ima send you guys when the magic of bydgoszcz ends.. but as for now youll have to be content with my awful two paragraph emails. So marysia got baptized! yeahhs! other than the persuasion it took to get her in the pool it was an amazing day. She was baptized by elder whipple because she didnt trust me or slagowski to lift her up out of the water.. all of those days spent bulking up in the gym and all of those nasty protein shakes and im still weak sauce. I had the chance to confirm her yesterday. It was a little challenging in polish but it went alright. The branch has been kind of the downer of the whole situation but i dont really have the time or desire to talk about that. We have a meeting with her and a member tonight where we get to teach lesson 5. ive never made it to lesson 5... wait.. whats lesson 5 about?
Wojtek was in church again this week.. he is back living in bydgoszcz for good we hope. We had a meeting with him and the ZL's investigator who is the same age as him and a woman .. they are both struggling with smoking and drinking so we started a little class to help them quit... and ofcourse if they hooked up that would be a bonus haha.. it was really good though.. the womans name is Zaneta.. and she just recently started investigating the church so wojtek was perfect because he is basically a member and he rocked her world by means of the book of mormon.
Transfers are this thursday.. im finally staying in my area! slagowski is leaving me unfortunately as well as elder whipple and the two missionaries in torun that are dying in a couple of days.. our district is completely different except for me and elder thomas... im going to be training a new elder and we have 3 other elders coming up that are.. cool. my trainee will be the man, its a given.
other than that no real news.. hope you enjoy the pics.. i burnt 4 cds of the pictures from the last 6 months of my mission.. so ill send those home with my tape in the future sometime. oh day of the dead was awesome.. kinda... there was noone on the streets all day just people packed in cemetaries.. we went to one and it was enormmmousss.

i love you all so much.. eat some candy for me.. hook the missionaries up with a referral.. and have a most amazing week!

love

elder sean

October 2008 pics from Sean





Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Hermana Daly~Oct 29, 2008..'a spiritual feast'

Hola!!
> So we are so spoiled here at the MTC - not just with food that adds on to my body not-needed pounds lol - but we are spoiled with spiritual food as well!! I love Sundays and Tuesdays the most because we get to here from such wonderful speakers. Last night for devotional we had another amazing opportunity to listen to an Apostle - L. Tom Perry!!! It is just amazing how when an apostle walks into the room, the spirit is so so strong. He was great and just told us some things we could do as teachers and missionaries. One of my favorite parts was singing the closing song, "I Believe in Christ". The Spirit was amazing as we praised and sang of our knowledge of Christ!
> Sunday Elaine Dalton spoke to us in Relief Society and talked about virtue. I liked when she said "Love who you are and how you are...you are uniquely made so you can perform the missions you are called to in this life." I loved this because it is really easy to compare yourself to other missionaries and people, but then I remember which each have unique talents and abilities that the Lord needs of us for His children. Then for our Fireside, we had another powerful speaker - Stephen Allen who talked about not giving into Satan when he pushes our buttons and wants us to give up. We must fight back and continue strong in the Lord's help.
> Spanish is going well. We are just teaching the first lesson abunch in spanish...each time it gets a little better and the teachers we go to help us focus on different things so we can be better teachers. They were pretty amazed at our spanish speaking ability for only being here four weeks....but I told them I was kinda a cheater because I knew some before lol. So ya, just little by little Spanish gets easier.
> Everything else is great! I'm glad it's the time in the MTC is downhill from here...I love it and love learning, but I am starting to get ADD because I haven't been out of like a 1/2 mile radius in a month haha.
> Again thanks for all the letters and love!!! I hope everyone is doing well!!! Love life and live it to the fullest everyday!!!
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly

Monday, October 27, 2008

October 27, 2008..HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Well winter finally found its way to europe .. the beginning of it anyways.. preeeetty cold. how is it over there? .. they have ginormously awesome animal fur hats.. let me know if you want me to hook you guys up with any. We had a leadership meeting for all the dl zl and bp's ... so i spent wednesday and thursday in warsaw then came back friday... they talked about some ok things but I wasn't a huge fan of some of the things that were said. Overall i think it was a waste of time because it took all 4 missionaries out of Bydgoszcz for a few days. But hey they did talk about health at the meeting mom :-) ... they had the couple in charge of mental health come and give a presentation. it was good.. im unhealthy.. which is probly why im ridiculously tired all the time.. so next to my picture of the first presidency i put up the food pyramid.. solved that problem. we're good :-)

Marysza's baptism is still scheduled for thursday as long as we can reserve a pool today. Originally she told us she was deathly afraid of pools because she almost drowned when she was younger so we tried to look for a river or something by they are just wayy to cold so we talked her into having it in a pool. She is doing really good, came to church yesterday and is fitting into the branch better and better every week. I got chewed out again by the branch president. It's a weekly thing that i get to look forward to every sunday. This time he blamed the missionaries for stealing the juice and food in the primary room... he's kinda one of those guys that jumps to conclusions and cant ever be wrong... my love for him just isnt reciprocated .. bummin.

have a happy halloween day!.. we have day of the dead here .. just millions of Poles visiting the grave sites of their loved ones. Ive heard its pretty intense.. no tricking treating though.. szkoda.

pictures next week.. promise

z miloscia wieczna

elder daly

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

HERMANA DALY~Oct 22, 2008..one month to go!

Hola familia!!
> So it has almost been a month!!! Pretty crazy...time has gone by so fast and they say that the second half goes by even faster. We started to teach the first lesson in spanish, which was kinda hard. But we have like a million appointments in the teaching evaluation building to practice teaching. I've learned that once you start speakin in Spanish, our message is must simpler because I can't say much - but maybe that's a good thing :)
> We also went to the RC - the referral call center - for the first time where you call people that order a DVD or Bilble or Book of Mormon and check if that got it and then get them to accept an appointment from the missionaries. But I am not much of a talking on the phone person, so I was terrified lol. But it was in the middle of the day so like no one answered, and the few that anwered were like the daughter or someone else. So I didn't do to well at that...maybe I'll get over my phone-phobia sometime soon haha. But the Elders are way good at it!! One of our Elders had like ten people answered and got all of them to accept a visit from the missionaries, so that was pretty awesome!!
> This last Sunday was great of course! Sheri Dew was the speaker at the fireside, which was awesome! She is such a great speaker --- she talked about how we need to keep our whole focus on Christ, and coming unto Him and walking away from the world. She said we could do that by first clearly understanding who we are. We were saved to live in the last days and are the great and noble ones sent to preach the Gospel. Heavenly Father knew He would need us at this time, and it is our duty to uphold that call and preach the Gospel and do what the Lord expects of us. I really love that knowledge! Also she said we need to be obedient, which is a constant topic for us in the MTC :) And also we need to seek to be more pure in every way, and listen to the Lord through scriptures, personal revelation, and our prophets and apostles. It was a great talk!!!
> Other than that, it is just study - work - and eat! I still love it...sometimes it gets hard or overwhelming, but then I bring my focus back as to why I am here. My district is still great, we are all trying to be better and help each other. I just called to be the Coordinating Sister for our zone, which means I'm kinda like the mom and watch over the Hermanas. Our current coordinating sister and her companion are leaving next week for D.C. She was the best and soo amazing, there is now way I'll fill her shoes but I will try. So that will be fun. There are only six Hermanas total in our zone as of now, so that won't be to hard to handle :)
> Well I love you all!!! Thanks for all your love and letters!! Have a fabulous week!
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly

Monday, October 20, 2008

ELDER SEAN . .October 20, 2008...HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN!!

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!

This is gunna be a quick one because it took me an hour to get my pres letter sent.. the computer keeps kicking me off.

We had 3 investigators in church yesterday.. among them was marysza. she is doing better than last week.. we found out she isnt in love with one of us .. that was just justyna being crazy, we've concluded she has a demon in her, she's dropped. We had a few meetings with marysza this week.. one after church yesterday where we asked her some of the baptisimal questions and she had some amazing answers. We moved the baptism back to the 30th of this month but its looking good for the time being. The branch did a great job of befriending her this week. We also had Wojtek and his friend in church. We gave his friend a book of mormon and we have a meeting with both of them tonight. Wojtek isnt even a member and he is the best missionary we've got. We had a few other 1st lessons with some potentials most of which went davagely. Bydgoszcz is Zion, simply put. I also got a call from elder adams from my group who is in warsaw right now.. he said that andrzej .. a guy that deuel and i taught 4 months ago now wants to be baptized. So thats pretty cool.

Thank you so much for the package... the scrapbook was incredible. Its funny how i go from enormous as an infant.. to rad looking as a pre teenager.. than at 13 something went terribly wrong and not only did i get fatter but i got really really ugly... im still trying to climb back to cute but the mission and daGrassos pizza isnt helping.

thanks grandma and grandpa for the letter as well as the Kjars, you all are amazing

i love you all have a wonderful week!

elder sean

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

HERMANA DALY...loving the MTC!

Hola!!!
> Time is flying by, it's crazy!! So I got the flu shot the first day I came here, but the cold bug went through all the Elders in our District and then finally came to me this week lol. It's just cold stuff though, not the flu so that's good...still annoying but fine haha.
> Anyway, it has been another good week! Just studying away. Our district has two teachers that come in each for about 2 hours and then the rest of the time we do personal study, companion study, or language study. The days feel long, but then at the end you don't know where the time went. I still really need to work at speaking in Spanish...its hard to know what tense you need when you start talking but I'll get there sometime. We are always teaching lessons - we are on Lesson 2 now. Luckily they are all still in English; we will get to Spanish in like a week and a half.
> Sundays are my favorite day because of all the meetings we get to go to and we get to walk to the temple. It was my first Relief Society meeting in the MTC and we had Martha Johnson from the General R.S. Board speak and it was so good!!! Basically the main thing she said was that we must do as God does, and to have His joy we must forgive, repent, and love. We need to give one another all our heart. Finally we are to prepare the way for Christ's return one heart at a time, and we also need to prepare ourselves for Him. She was just a great speaker. Then that night we had a great fireside on the power of prayer, and after the fireside is movie night. The main movie was The Testaments, which I love!!! Makes me cry everytime lol. And also whenever there were the parts about the guy and girl that love each other, all the missionaries were quite funny about it. You had to be there :) haha
> Then last night for devotional, Elder Scott came!!!! It was the best to have an Apostle speak to us. He talked about a lot of stuff, but focused a lot on the importance of the Spirit. One thing I really liked that he said was, "To reach a goal never before attained, one must do things never before done." I think that is true for everything, and especially right now in my life. My companion and I have all these goals and expect our selves to be perfect the first time we teach, but we need to realize that we must stretch ourselves and learn one step at a time. Heavenly Father will help us become who need to be, and we will need to take steps of faith and do things we have never before done. After Elder Scott finished, he asked who had never shaken hands of an apostle. Most of us raised our hands, and then he said he was going to stay and shake everyone's hand that wanted too!!! We were all so excited!!! So my companion and I were in the back so we just talked to each other for about an hour until the lines died down, and then we took our turn to shake the hand of an Apostle of the Lord. It was sooooo Amazing!!!! Elder Scott bore a powerful testimony, and told us the greatest and most effective service we could give to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, is to bear a powerful testimony of Them!! I am grateful to be the Lord's Missionary!!!
> I love you all!!! Thanks for all the love and support! Jordan and Jane...I just got your Halloween candy package ---- thanks so much!!!! Hope all is well!!!
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly

HERMANA DALY...loving the MTC!

Hola!!!
> Time is flying by, it's crazy!! So I got the flu shot the first day I came here, but the cold bug went through all the Elders in our District and then finally came to me this week lol. It's just cold stuff though, not the flu so that's good...still annoying but fine haha.
> Anyway, it has been another good week! Just studying away. Our district has two teachers that come in each for about 2 hours and then the rest of the time we do personal study, companion study, or language study. The days feel long, but then at the end you don't know where the time went. I still really need to work at speaking in Spanish...its hard to know what tense you need when you start talking but I'll get there sometime. We are always teaching lessons - we are on Lesson 2 now. Luckily they are all still in English; we will get to Spanish in like a week and a half.
> Sundays are my favorite day because of all the meetings we get to go to and we get to walk to the temple. It was my first Relief Society meeting in the MTC and we had Martha Johnson from the General R.S. Board speak and it was so good!!! Basically the main thing she said was that we must do as God does, and to have His joy we must forgive, repent, and love. We need to give one another all our heart. Finally we are to prepare the way for Christ's return one heart at a time, and we also need to prepare ourselves for Him. She was just a great speaker. Then that night we had a great fireside on the power of prayer, and after the fireside is movie night. The main movie was The Testaments, which I love!!! Makes me cry everytime lol. And also whenever there were the parts about the guy and girl that love each other, all the missionaries were quite funny about it. You had to be there :) haha
> Then last night for devotional, Elder Scott came!!!! It was the best to have an Apostle speak to us. He talked about a lot of stuff, but focused a lot on the importance of the Spirit. One thing I really liked that he said was, "To reach a goal never before attained, one must do things never before done." I think that is true for everything, and especially right now in my life. My companion and I have all these goals and expect our selves to be perfect the first time we teach, but we need to realize that we must stretch ourselves and learn one step at a time. Heavenly Father will help us become who need to be, and we will need to take steps of faith and do things we have never before done. After Elder Scott finished, he asked who had never shaken hands of an apostle. Most of us raised our hands, and then he said he was going to stay and shake everyone's hand that wanted too!!! We were all so excited!!! So my companion and I were in the back so we just talked to each other for about an hour until the lines died down, and then we took our turn to shake the hand of an Apostle of the Lord. It was sooooo Amazing!!!! Elder Scott bore a powerful testimony, and told us the greatest and most effective service we could give to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, is to bear a powerful testimony of Them!! I am grateful to be the Lord's Missionary!!!
> I love you all!!! Thanks for all the love and support! Jordan and Jane...I just got your Halloween candy package ---- thanks so much!!!! Hope all is well!!!
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly

Monday, October 13, 2008

SEAN..Oct 13, 2008...a baptism?

This was by far the strangest week of my mission to date... without a doubt. Alright so we work this street called Gdanska almost everyday for atleast an hour or two.. its the only street in bydgoszcz that has alot of people on it all the time. Except for saturdays and sundays when there is noone on any street in Poland... ive yet to find out where they hide. There is this girl named Marysza that we see all the time on this street because she hands out little ads for some bank. So we talk to her almost everyday.. she talks alot, and she is really hard to understand, but she is a really nice girl so we invited her to come to english one day.. she came. The Zone leaders taught the class that she is in.. we have two levels. She was interested in hearing about our church so they talked with her a little bit after english and they gave her a book of mormon. We saw her later that night while she was walking to her bus stop.. she unloaded on us pretty much her life problems. She is having troubles with her family and just life in general.. So my companion being the spiritual giant that he is gave her 2 nephi 2 to read.. we saw her the next day and she seemed way happier than normal.. the first thing she said to us was 'jaki wplyw ma ta ksiega' ... perhaps the sweetest thing ive heard out of a Pole's mouth .. ever.. it means like. what an influence this book has.. She loves the book of mormon and she said it totally changed her outlook on life. We met with her later that day with a member about her age (early 20's) ... and taught a full first.. it went well and set up to meet with her again in a couple days. Ewa was on the lesson again (Marysza had read from the start of the BOM to Mosiah by this point) and we taught a 3rd discussion.. the gospel of Jesus Christ.. then we watched the Restoration video .. the spirit was way strong and before the lesson slags and i had talked about how if it felt right we were going to extend a committment to be baptized.. so we felt right and we extended her one. She accepted! So that was easy... i guess thats how its supposed to be with the elect. However the week wasnt over yet. Earlier in the week we had a meeting with this middle aged woman named Justyna. She was kiiiinda weird during our lesson.. treated us more like Dr. Phil than like missionaries. Talked about all these men she was in love with ... we struggled to get a first taught but we still gave her a book of mormon and invited her to come to church. On saturday i get a call from the branch president who im pretty sure hates me.. maybe all missionaries because the missionary work in bydgoszcz has been less than stellar the past couple of years. Its been 2 years since theyve had a baptism... anywho he gives me a talk for sunday on whatever i want.. so sunday comes and both marysza and justyna come to church. Some members did a decent job befriending them but for the most part the members were kinda cold to them. These two investigators arent the 'coolest' people their personalties arent exactly superb.. but they arent by any means crazy.. i was kinda sad the members didnt do a better job at making them feel welcome. Immediately after sacrament meeting marysza asks to meet with slags and i urgently... so we do and she tells us how shes scared of her baptism .. one because she doesnt like pools at all and two she doesnt want people there that she doesnt know. I tried to assure her that she'll get to know the members over the next couple of weeks before her baptism.. so we'll see on that concern.. and we are planning on baptizing her in a river..We went to investigator class with both of them and it went well.. then they went off to relief society and hopefully the women friendshipped them. After church we set up to meet with both of them this tuesday. Then we had district meeting .. during which marysza calls us. She tells us she has been hanging out with justyna all day and that they need to meet with us urgently. We set up to meet with them on the rynek that night. Im kinda annoyed.. but whatev maybe it really is urgent. We meet with them on a bench and justyna starts talking about expressing feelings and im just kinda like.. what the heck are you talking about... she played the spokesperson for marysza and tells us how marysa has fallen in love with one of us. She asked if that was a sin. We let them know it wasnt a sin but it could be a potential problem .. unfortunately we dont have any sisters in our area so we asked her if she wanted to be taught by the zone leaders instead.. she didnt want to be. I talked with the zls about it and they said we could keep teaching her unless we felt like it was a problem for her. She called us today and let us know that she didnt mean what she had said last night and that she was just really happy to have people that care about her because she doesnt have a lot of friends and she doesnt get along with her parents at all (she lives with them). At this point i really dont know what we are going to do... she isnt the most normal of women and she is really needy... but at the same time she really needs the gospel.. she really needs a support system and she knows the book of mormon is true... for now ima pray for sister missionaries to get transfered here... sigh, women. She really is an elect person i just.. i dunno.. need time to brew it over. Her date is for October 25th... that is pending alot of stuff right now though.. however if we feel she is ready by that point than awesome.

Sorry if that was the most scatter brained story ever.. evidence that im a bio major, not english.

On a prettier sounding note... we went to gdansk for pday today! it was great to be back and to see the beach again... we had a meeting tonight with a freakkking awesome woman named aga ... she is so chill and way excited to read the book of mormon. so heckkk yeahhs babies. Mom i think we get the conference talks in ensign form.. probly in polish first but english eventually i hope so your good.. thanks for thinking of me though.. i heard it was an unreal good conference.

i love you all
miss you alot

sean

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

HERMANA DALY . . week #2 MTC

Hola familia y amigos!!!
> It has now been two weeks at the MTC...crazy!!! I just got back from the temple, which was way nice. The Provo temple is soooo beautiful inside :)
> I hope everyone had a great weekend with General Conference!!!...I know I did! It was so amazing. I don't know if I loved it so much because I am more focused as a missionary and was actually up for all the sessions lol or what. But all the talks were so great!!! One theme I got out of Conference was how we shouldn't let life's challenges discourage us, but enjoy life in the Now and continue to have hope. Heavenly Father will never leave us and loves us so much and wants us to succeed. I especially like Elder Holland's talk on how there are mortal and immortal angels all around us to bear us up. He also quoted one of my favorite scriptures, D&C 84:88 which I love. I also liked how he said we need to be more angelic ourselves and love everyone. A lot of talks were about how we need to be more unified and look our for each other. I also loved whenever President Monson talked...again how we need to live life to the fullest, work hard, do our best, be grateful, and the Lord will help and bless us. I could go on and on....Conference was just so great...and experiencing it with tons of other missionaries all scrunched into the gym was great; the Spirit was so strong.
> We also had a devotional last night where Elder Callister from the Seventy came and talked to us. It was a very humbling talk because he talked about how we need to not only be great missionaries, but consecrated missionaries --- we must lay everything on the altar of sacrifice and hold nothing back; we must submit our whole soul and will to the will of the Lord. He then listed some things we need to do such as leave all our fears and just open our mouths at all times and in all places, which is a hard thing for me. But I know I must not fear man because the Lord's message of the Gospel is the greatest gift I can give. He also spoke of other things...then after devotional we have a discussion in our district which was a very spiritual experience. First we all shared what we learned, which was basically how much we need to improve to truly be the Lord's servants. Then we decided to all share our testimonies, which really helped unify our district. There are Elders in the district that I knew were struggling with different things and didn't quite know if they wanted to really put their whole heart into the work. But as each bore their testimonies, it being hard for some to really open up, I really learned a lot more about the Elders. They each have had unique experiences and reasons for being here, and have the desire to learn to be the Lord's missionary. My testimony really grew from theirs and their faith in going on a mission. I know all the Elders are going to do great!
> I learning so much on how to be a better teacher, and still have so much to improve on. As for the Spanish, I didn't realize how much I already knew before I came here. I know and understand everything when it is spoken, I just need to be able to speak it -- which is the more important thing lol :) Practice, practice, practice!
> Well thank you again for all the letters --- and for the packages Briana and Amanda!!!! -- I just love all the pack and ship workers and their boxes I get to open up :) LOVE YOU ALL and have a great week!!!
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly

Monday, October 6, 2008

SEAN..October 6, 2008...the difference between the pope & our prophet?

happy birthday camoooo!! oh man teenager in 3 days remember when you were in like 3rd grade and girls would call you up after school leaving messages pleading for you to come play with them.. i can only imagine how many girls are chasing you now... stay away from them they still have cooties.. especially the idaho girls, you don't know what sorts of parasites they have from working in the fields. i love you cam you are the man.. the son that is going to have to carry on the daly name because lets be honest.. what girl is going to want to marry me... i hope your package gets to you in one piece, i have my doubts. have a great birthday!

This week we had... 3 meetings.. 2 with wojtek. He is an exceptional human being for real. He has a stonger testimony and knows more about the church than I do.. it was really hard to plan for him because he already knows everything and he knows what he needs to do to change. Both of our meetings were really special experiences that I havent had very often since Ive been here... He came to church for the second time this week.. but he is going to be gone working for a while.. however he actually is coming back in 2 weeks i think which rocks! i really think he is sick of not being able to overcome his addiction and he's going to get over the hump in the near future.

Our 3rd meeting was more like a presentation. We got invited to go to this rotary club at this fancy hotel in downtown bydgoszcz. We sat around this huge table and got fed way disgusting rich people food... like jello-ed meat.. rancid stuff. We got the floor for about 45 mins to talk about our experiences in Poland and about our church.. it was pretty cool although there was this one heckler guy that would throw in one liners after pretty much everything i said... ah i wanted to rock his world. At one point they asked us what the difference was between the pope and our prophet.. it got way quiet and i told him like it is... the Prophet pwns noobs like the pope all day long on xbox live madden.. Nah i told them that the pope didnt have the priesthood authority from God and they all were way quiet for a solid 15 seconds.. it was awesome i loved it haha.. none of them were really interested in the Gospel but except for the heckler they were incredibly nice. And we met this brazilian guy our age that is staying with one of the members of this rotary club on an exchange. He knew some english and we sat and talked with him for a half hour after the meeting.. he was awesome. So the only baptism of my mission might be a brazilian.. i asked him if he knew jared roberts and his eyes got way big... "the guy on all the billboards right now in sao paulo?" ... "yeah thats gotta be him" .. so i dunno what Jared is doing down there in Brazil but he is a BIG deal needless to say.

I also got to go on exchanges to torun.. which is one of the prettiest cities in poland about 1 hour away from bydgoszcz.. it was a lot of fun.. one of the most successful days ive had in a long time.

to answer some questions real quick.. solec is about a 40 mins bus ride from bydgoszcz... when Polish ppl feed us it is always a surprise .. ive never had the same thing twice.. alot of soups.. meat cutlets.. sausage .. mushrooms... salads its been pretty good since i got to bydgoszcz.. wojtek is one of the best cooks ever.

alright im out to go enjoy a pday in the rain.. miss you family.. glad you enjoyed new york mom and dad that sounds like a blast... lysha keep rocking the mtc... laners, dont get too popular over there at eagle high, its funny that the boys are too intimidated to ask you and sara out.. consequences of being too davage, cameron have a most excellent birthday sorry im not there to hit the wrong chords on the guitar while we sing happy birthday to ya.

love and lots of it

sean

Sunday, October 5, 2008

October 1, 2008...FIRST MTC LETTER!

Hola familia!!
> How is everyone doing?? I can't believe I have been here a week at the MTC. They say days feel like weeeks and weeks feel like days :). The first few days definately felt the longest with tons of meetings - we did learn some good stuff though!! In a few meetings we had we watched a series called, The District. It was seriously like a soap opera of missionary work, so I liked it a lot lol. At the end of each part we watched they had dramatic previews for the next part that left you hanging off your chair lol. I learned a lot from it though and really saw how missionary work was done. They focused a lot on the importance of planning. We put planning to use and started planning our days, which actually made them go by a lot smoother and quicker so that was great!!
> Our district has 12 people in it, which is a lot for a district. We have four hermanas, and we are also roomies, and are all going to Chile Antofagasta. Then we have 4 elders going to the same mission as us, and then two to Guatemala and 2 to Chile Vine del Mar. So that is our group. We are really starting to unify. We get along really great with the 4 elders going to our mission. My companion is Hermana Ercanbrack (not the one who gave the prayer, mom) and she is from around Pocatello, Idaho. We get along great!! There are six girls in our room total and all the companions really match up, its crazy!!! I'm grateful I have a companion I really get along with the first time around :)
> Then Saturday was our first day we started going to gym for an hour, which really breaks up all the classes. So we always look forward to gym everyday! Then Sunday we had Mission Conference with all the missionaries, which was amazing! I just love listening to all the Elders sing really loud and with a great Spirit...I can't ever hear my own voice over it lol. We had tons of other meetings that day and a fireside that night. On Sundays, we also have the opportunity to walk around and study outside of the temple. It was my first time outside the MTC gates since I got there, which felt SO GOOD. It was like a little fresh breath of freedom lol. And it reminds I'm in Provo and brings me a little feeling of home which I really like. I have also seen about four of my guy friends around the MTC, who are teachers here which was fun. I also ran into a girl that went to London with me and who is going to serve in Portugal!!
> What else....the food is way good!! I have lunch and dinner way early though (dinner is at 4:30) so that's a change from eating chocolate all night long lol. I'm really trying not to eat all the desserts and have done pretty good!! I have stayed away from them all week and then finally got one last night :) But I have been snacking on the Reeses Briana sent me in a package, which are my fav!! Thanks Briana!! I feel very loved by all of my family and friends. I have pretty much gotten a package or letter everyday since I have been here. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! It makes me day. And yes mom, dearelder.com pulled through and I got those amazing rolls and candy. Yum yum :)
> Spanish is going good still. We are still going over stuff I already know, so we will see how I do when we go onto later things. Like me, all the Hermanas already had a basic background of Spanish...but the elders don't at all lol. They are working so hard though!!
> A few more answers to my mom's questions...I do have to wear nylons which isn't too bad, but I would like thigh-highs because they knee-highs fall down haha. And one of the girls in my room does snore, and I'm trying really hard to fall asleep and get use to it. It is like a sprint to get ready for bed by 10:30 and then I usually lay there and don't fall asleep until midnight. Hopefully that will get better. And today for P-day we have to get up extra early so we can go to the temple. The temple was great though!!
> Some last thoughts... in one of the talks the spreaker talked about the funeral of someone and how on the tombstone two dates are engraved, birth and death. But those are not the most important thing on the tombstone...it is the dash in the middle of those two dates. "What matters is how we live, and love, and how we spent that 'dash'". I am working hard to follow that and live life to the fullest. I am so grateful to be here and am learning so much. I know the Gospel is true!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly

Monday, September 29, 2008

September 29, 2008

Alrighty alrighty ... well it wasnt the week of incredible miracles that i hoped it would be but we still saw some for sure. We had zone conference this week which is always a good time. They taught alot about the importance of members. The members in Bydgoszcz are amazing and we've already had the chance to meet for a minute with a couple of families. But most the branch have been members for 15-20 years and have been rung dry with missionaries asking for referrals... which pretty much leaves finding to us which is cruddy because the best way is always through members.

We went out to Solec Kujawski this week and to be honest it was pretty rough. Veronika's mom answered and she was a couple points short of a touchdown if you know what i mean. She was kinnnda crazy. Veronika wasnt there.. we asked if she or her family would be interested and she told us maybe another time because she was busy making apple pie... mmmhhmm..apple pie huh... i wasnt going down that easy so me and slags try to reiterate the importance of our message .. nope... apple pie was more important. We asked for a number or a return time that we could come back and teach and she wasn't cooperative on either front.. so kurCza! .. so we are going to come back once again in a week or two probably.. its kinda of a time eater to go out there... after we got rejected by apple pie woman we tried to find jolanda... we tracted a few bloks.. 2 hours later nothing so that left us kinda down.. by the time that ended it was night and we had another hour until our bus.. so we walked through the completely silent and foggy solec singing in polish at the top of our lungs.. we saw two people in an hour and one of them gave us his number so that was cool.

We had another plethera of flakes this week.. but we did have an investigator come to church.. his name is wojtek and he is an eternal that has been investigating for about 5 years and has had a bundle of baptisimal dates... everytime it doesnt go through because he cant stop smoking and drinking... he moved about a month before i got to bydgoszcz.. he lives 200 km away now and only comes to bydgoszcz a couple times a month... but when he does come down he usually comes to church. It was good to have him there the members were really excited to see him again. We have a meeting with him tonight so we'll see what we can do.. he is in a tough situation. We have a third meeting with tomasz this week and we are getting this awesome member named wojtek actually on the lesson.

Other than that.. we met some interesting folks last night.. we got free pizza from a larry man.. had some 12 year old girls that wanted slagowski's body, set up with a kid our age from ukraine that is learning polish and speaks about like us, and we had a run in with a group of about 10 way funny hoolis that let us teach them about the book of mormon. they were loving us.. they asked when armageddon is.. i told them i didnt know for sure.. then they told me to let them know when Book of Mormon 2 comes out because they are pretty sure that that will have the answer. haha oh and we finally got people to come to english! 2 moms came and dropped off their 6 and 7 year old daughters that hardly speak polish... oh man ill never forget singing the alphabet song with them.... classic memory of the mish number 34432.

the people of poland are simply the coolest.

i love you guys oh so much

sean

Monday, September 22, 2008

September 22, 2008 . . .more referrals!

Oh man i cant believe you go in the mtc in 2 days lysh that is crazy nuts and butter spread!! you need to email me your mtc and mission address before you take off... sorry i missed your talk.. flight was way expensive.. ill do what i can to make it to the homecoming one though ;-) .. you rock sis have a safe trip down to utah ... and my only parting words of mtc advice.. take advantage of the food while you can.. i dont care what ppl say, its the bomb. well the cereal is anyways. have fun, study hard... not too hard or you are going to speak better than your trainer and she will, i promise, cry herself to sleep every night thinking she's not good enough. that's what i did whenever you and i compared college grades. œciskam piêknie herman¹ dal¹

Well this was one of those weekish type weeks. We only had one meeting with this guy named tomasz who seems a little more interested in learning english and going to the states than learning about the gospel.. yep, another one of those.. ohh ill rock his world. We taught him a first than he let us know that he is down for learning about the gospel for the first half of the meeting but then he wants us to teach him english for the last half of the lesson. We gave him a reading assignment from the book of mormon... we met with him for the second time just a few minutes ago today to find out that he actually read. It was good.. we talked about how christ has only one church and about faith for a while than we taught him the plan of salvation.. he liked and thought it was possible and in his words "chill" .. but then he was way excited to jump right into some english.. i dunno it is really tough to know what to do with people like him but we are going to keep teaching him for now and hey maybe he'll discover the truth of the church along the way.

Slags and i went to visit our referral out in Solec Kujawski again this week.. We took our 40 minute rickety bus ride during which all the highschool kids sitting behind us were making fun of us in polish and didnt think we spoke .. i turned around and started talking with one of them and they all freaked out haha it was pretty funny.. we got to our little village and the bus dropped us off at a completely different place than the last time so we were completely turned around. We asked the only lady around for miles how to get to the street we were looking for.. and she happened to be the nicest polish lady is existence.. she was going to the same place we were so we walked and talked with her for about a 30 minute walk.. she was elect... she even told me . and i can't remember what we were talking about but she said "maybe me running into you is a sign from God" ... just like the coolest nicest lady.. she led us to the blok we were looking for.. then pointed to the blok right next to it "i live in that one" .. the conversation never reached talking about the church so i never asked if she would be interested in the church... because im retarded!!! ah so retarded.. she started walking away and i chased her down and told her that we would be in solec next week and that we might see her.. trying to initiate some sort of set up of a meeting... she seemed a little taken back and was like "yeah.." i felt dumb and just gave her a pass along card... ah i still regret it.. i let her get away.. we are going to try and tract into her when we go to solec again this week..
ok so ..referral... we hit the doorbell thingy on her blok and she automatically let us in which doesnt usually happen so i figured she was expecting someone and it probably wasn't two mormon missionaries. When we started walking up the stairs i saw a 18 yr old blonde girl standing outside the door of the apartment with a look of pure confusion and terror on her face.. when we got up there she had a little girl hooli friend there too.. my life is just filled with awkward situations.. its ... ... awesome. Turns out that 18 yr old blonde girl was Monika the referral.. So we told her who we are how we got her address and asked her if she still wanted a book of mormon... she did. Her friend the whole time was laughing and looking at monika like... "who are these crazies" ..i tried to be like my 19 yr old cool self and seem normal but i could tell monika was way embarassed .. i asked her if we could share a message about the book sometime later and she just shook her heard no.. so we just said see you later.. the book is awesome.. and bounced out of there. It sucked.. shes elect. i know it. so she, along with the other lady (jolanda) .. are the reasons we are going back to solec this week and hoping the Lord will have our backs and that we'll have our A game on.. with some better timing as well.

The whole bus ride home that night i felt alot of regret and frustration but at the same time it gave me a reconfirmation that there are elect people in Poland that the Lord has prepared and that he is going to lead us to them. We are way hopeful for those two in solec.. as well as some other just simply amazing people that we've talked with on the streets this week. For now ill just keep opening my mouth and let the Lord do His thing.

Thanks for the emails family.. you guys have no idea what a difference you make in my attitude as a missionary.. Dad that was exactly what i needed to hear.. thank you so much.

I love you guys.. have a most zajafajne week! lysh say hi to the polish missionaries for me. walk up to them and say.. sie manko.. (shay-mahn-koh) ..slang for like 'wat up?!' .. theyll give you a weird look and then you can say ..man you kids need to hit the books some more.

Sean