Monday, April 28, 2008

London Group

GROUP PHOTO!!! It felt weird not to be able to post anything new from London now that I'm in good old Provo. But we did get our group photos sent to us and I thought they were fun, so I decided to post one of them. Here is everyone in the London program goofing off in and out of the windows of our beautiful flat in London!!! Yay for London....now I'm heading back to the Creamery and BYU classes. Gotta get back into "American Life" haha :)


April 28, 2008...the transfer is in...........

Holy smokes its most definitely transfer week... and wouldn't ya know it I'm doing such a terrible job that I'm getting transferred again. Ugh, I actually kind of did want to stay just because i love this area and my district here so much, but alas, I must part ways. I'm being transferred to Warsaw, the king quesadilla if you will. I' going to an area called Bemowo (buh-moah-voah...maybe buh-mow-vow?) phonetics, never really a talent i tried to master. Ill be serving with elder deuel, he's in the group above me.. i dunno what Pres is doing putting me with a 6 month missionary, hopefully he speaks some wicked Polish or we are in trouble ... ill be serving with two new trainees in my district too so that will be interesting, always fun to meet the newbies.. and they are actually the last group to come in until september because apparently there aren't any missionaries coming into the mtc this next week.. the next group will get into the mtc july-ish.Oh and Bemowo is the outreach district in the mission. Basically as outreach, we focus on working with people only from the ages of 18-30 .. so ill probably be spending most of my time at the university talking with my homies, the college students. That is going to be awesome, they are always the most open people.Well this week was a blast, we had Zone conference in bydgoszcz, had some zone p-day the day after, i rocked my knee pretty good playing soccer.. it's a little better now though, snickers and diet coke cures all.. we went on a tour of 'real' 'legit' poland with Waldemar and we worked alot, went to catholic mass and i joined in singing some sweet gregorian chants. the priest was way spoko, any man that can sing the word 'sakrament' and hit 13 different notes to sing a 3 syllable word is alright in my book, maybe not the Lord's though.. "and i think thats whats important" (the jared roberts) anywho i broke my camera.. rather, the sand broke my camera.. so yeah im fetched until i get it fixed and now i cant get pictures of Gdansk for my last 2 days here.. maybe ill go score a disposable one. sorry for the insane amount of money i pulled .. i should probably check how in debt i am online.. the soccer bookies here dont mess around though, im in a bad way with some people.. i think thats why the Lord is transferring me.. actually i just spent an insane amount of money getting some grammar books copiedim sending my package to you guys this week if its the last thing i do (im a terrible son i know) but once you get my tape the wait will all be worth it..tears were shed, feelings hurt, sleep lost.. but the finished product is something some would consider art. well i gotta go pack, warsaw here i come..!love you all so muchelder sean daly

Monday, April 21, 2008

April 20, 2008...a phenomenal week!

hey family!

this past week was phenomenal ... but what is even more phenomenal is that I made y'all a tape this week which naturally is pretty cool so I'm going to let my tape do most of the filling in on what went down this past week.
But today we went to a city called Hel for pday.. we took about a 2 hour train ride there and let me be the first to inform the world... the road to Hel is most definitely paved with Catholic churches.
It was amazing though.. one of the more northern places in Poland on this kinda peninsula of the Baltic Sea.. yeah i cant really explain it all that well not much of a cartographer but you can check it on like google or something if you have a time .. it is a pretty cool place. We hung out on the beach and just kinda chilled as a district it was a lot of fun. District bonding, nothing better.

We had our wyk³ad this week which went alright. The sisters got a new investigator from it so that makes it a success in my eyes. Joanna didnt have time to meet this past week, hopefully this week. Other than that Gdynia is still Gdynia, the work is still work.. i have a good feeling about this week though. We got to paint some walls for Waldemar this past week as service.. oh deary day... i'll let the tape explain my troubles in attempting such a feat. Zone conference this week in bydgoszcz then transfers next week.. little change will be radabadical (haha lysh remember that?) Oh by the way i got an awesome card from Grandma and Grandpa a few weeks ago, but i thought it was just a post card.. the other day errington goes over and opens it up.. i felt pretty dumb. thanks for the card :-) oh and i dunno if you guys forward out my emails or what not but my friend emily wanted to get them her email is packem@juno.com

Great week... Poland is beautiful, the sun is shining and the people are smiling. i love you family

elder daly

'hold fast to the break of daylight..'

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Last Weeks of London!

Hey everyone...this is my last London blog - sorry it took me forever, finals were insanely busy. But thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!! My mom sent me an amazingly yummy cake and we had quite the party. I got some "alcohol" for my 21st bday...aka sparkling apple juice lol :) Before the chocolate cake party, I went shoppping and spent the night out in the city!!! Yay for 21 :)





The next day, we had the great opportunity to do baptisms in the London temple...it was beautiful!





Later that week, some of us went to the church - St. Matin's in the Field - right in Trafalgar Sqaure and listened to a concherto playing various pieces of Bach. Very fun! The next day I went to my first ballet, Sleeping Beauty, with some friends as well. I was very cultural that week lol :)
Saturday, I was a little crazy and decided I wanted to swim in the Serpentine in Hyde Park. They have a small roped off area for swimming, but of course no one in their right mind swims until the water is a little above freezing haha. But I took up the challenge and marked off swimming in the middle of Hyde Park off my list of things to do before I die lol. Of course all the Brits were looking at me and thought I was crazy. But it was near a cafe where a bunch of people were drinking their tea and then they stared at me with surprise when I walked out on the dock in my swim suit. I stuck my toe in and was like wow, it is freezing!!! My roommates cheered me on and then about 30 of the Brits drinking tea starting cheering for me saying "You can do it!!" and "Go, go, go!" I waved at them...it was hilarious, and then I jumped in. It was way cold but after numbing my body, I did some backstroke and butterfly for my roomies!! Good times!!!



I rewarded my swimming with some delicious noodles at Wagamamas...except they only give you chopsticks, so that was a bit difficult for me lol.

The next week was finals...I did a bunch of all nighters because I of course procrastinated all my papers and tests till the very end. I did a break in the middle of the week and went to Wicked for a third time with Britnee. I have grown to LOVE that play and the girl who played Elphaba had the most amazing voice ever!!! I will miss going to plays!

Thursday, April 17, was the last full day in London. So Brit and I planned a fun-filled day. I rode the largest ferris wheel in the world, The London Eye. The view was amazing!!! I LOVE London - it's certainly my new favorite city :) Then we went to beautiful St. Paul's and climbed liked 600 stairs to the top and get another amazing view of London!! Then that night Brit and I took one more final walk through Kensington Gardens, then walked around Trafalgar Square and Picadilly Circus (which is like the Times Square in NY). Then at about midnight, I decided I should start packing...sad day. I pulled one last all nighter and left the BYU center at 6 am for the aiport.





St. Paul's






















One last meal at the Center...then the park. Oh and I tried to find the bench Johnny Depp sat in for the movie, Finding Neverland and I think I did find it :)














Night Life in London!














One last tube ride...I'm going to miss the good ol' Tube :)

Then of course I had to stock up on all my British chocolate!!!!! Mmmmmm...GOOD BYE LONDON - I WILL MISS YOU AND ALL THE MEMORIES I HAVE CREATED THERE!!!


Monday, April 14, 2008

April 14, 2008..The Investigator and the 3-course meal

hey family! whats s³ychaæææææing? So i decided to stop using myldsmail to send my emails because it keeps freezing up on me, half the time it doesnt send them, and the other eighth of the time i dont get the emails from people. Im not bitter...
This week was incredible because..drum roll.. drum roll again.. and maybe one more time..

we got a new investigator! heck yeahs.. her name is Joanna and she is amazing. Shes like 25 and she just finished college where she majored in some sort of architecture major... im not sure ..the word wasnt in my vocab at the time.. and probably wont be for a while. still working on words like, dog.. sun... box.. actually what is the word for box? fetch.

So since we dont have a chapel here in gdynia we taught her a first lesson inside a little cukiernia bakery type place in the mall next to our apartment. It went well she seemed to accept the lesson ok and she said she'd read and pray so we're praying she follows through for us! We'll have another meeting with her this week. We also had a sitdown lesson with Waldemar the ex-bp.. it went pretty well too. His son was there who had been gone for the past year working at a high class hotel in sicily... so we had some lunch together and we talked about the state of Poland and the world for the majority of the time. As soon as they started talking about taxes and the welfare system in Poland I was pretty lost. He asked me my thoughts on it and i replied with a firm.. "I agree, 100%" We taught him about prayer and he said that he still prays everyday. I also asked him for a referral and he said he's got a lot of people that he knows so he's gunna hook us up with some numbers hopefully. We are going to have some of the members with whom he used to associate with give him a call and invite him to church. Crossing our fingers with him still. He seems really lonely. I dont know where his wife is but shes gone. He has this cat that he loves. I knew from the moment that i saw the "you and your cat" book on his book shelf that he's probably pretty lonely. So yeah.. keep you updated on him.

We had another set up this week with a former investigator. She was way interesting. I had a whole Da grassos pizza for planning session before we went over there because we never told her it was a lunch appointment. So when we headed over there i was already teeming with pizza. And to my surprise and also horror she had prepared a 3 course Polish meal. I dont know if you have ever been to that point where you know that if you put another spoon full of food in your mouth that you are going to blow chunks.. and probably a kidney.. but thats the point i was at on the 2nd course of the meal. And in poland, like anywhere i guess, its way rude if you dont finish it all. So i sucked it up and kept going till i could no longer breath. At that point i think she could tell i was struggling and she assured me i wouldnt get in trouble if i didnt eat it all haha.. saved my life. i threw up later. Anyways we tried talking to her about religion but shes a pretty devout.. yep you guessed it.. buddhist. go figure huh.. she was teaching us all the crazy stuff and how she goes to India every six months to participate in some religious gathering.. it was weird. We taught her some basic priniciples but she wasnt having much of it. She invited us to some meeting they are having next week and said we'd come if she came to our wyklad (discussion/lecture thingy).. she said shed come so we'll see.

Most of our week was spent contacting people about the wyklad. Taught a lot of people.. hung out around the university alot in gdansk which was fun.. talking to people my age.. helping people with their chem homework... its this wednesday, our wyklad.. so we are praying people will come...

anyways that was pretty much my week... hope all is going well over in the states.. lysha travel home safe this week.. thanks SO very much for the music.. you saved my life.. I blast it during language study and it helps me so much.. just something about memorizing polish words and grammar rules while you are on the rolling green plains or ireland that really gets you going.. i love you all .. stay safe

elder sean daly

Monday, April 7, 2008

Last day trips from London...

DAY TRIP TO BLENHEIM PALACE AND COTSWOLDS!!
Blenheim was a pretty nice palace...it was a gift from the monarchy to the Earl of Marlborough when he defeated the French at the Battle of Blenheim. The Marlborough's still live there today.




Pay no mind to our crazy jumping pics lol - we love the challenge of trying to get ourselves in the air with the camera on timer haha :)

Here is Burton-on-the-water and Lower Slaughter, which are villages in the Cotswolds. Basically the Cotswolds are known because they are cute, quaint, little British villages and have great window shopping for the antique lovers and the wealthy lol. Oh and some good ice cream - I got chocolate orange...pretty much amazing :)











So Britnee and I went on one of our London walks through Waterlow Park and had lots of fun with the camera timer...it really entertains us haha.


Brit, Jen, and I took a nightly stroll to the Chelsea and Albert bridges...it was so pretty!!














Some of us took a weekend gettaway to beautiful Brighton, a town on the seaside. The pier was so much fun with some sun, ocean, music, carnival rides, good food, lawn chairs, and yes...
henna tattoos :)



Don't worry, they are not permanent lol.