June 9, 2008..leave the key under the mat

Alrighty alrighty.. twas a week for the books .. eh not really nothing too exciting went down. I went on exchanges with my mission hero and future partner in anesthesiology (man if i cant even spell it i dunno what im doing trying to become it) ... elder wood. It was a life changing.. step back an reflect -ing exchange. We lit up warsaw. Rather, Wood lit up warsaw and i sat back and beheld his pure mastery of both Polish and Spiritish in a combination that only future General authorities use with such ferocity and gentleness. So it was good, a lot of people listened. We taught english that night and then had a lesson with Andrzej. oh andrzej.. we went into the lesson wanting to kind of go back to the basics a little bit with him and throw in some word of wisdom. It ended up being a 2 hour question answer session with Andrzej drilling elder Wood with all these questions that didnt really have much to do with the big picture. It's just like you said in your email dad he is looking beyond the mark for sure. Wood answered most of his questions but andrzej still had concerns that really nobody can quell or answer. He is still reading the book of mormon though so cant complain there. He came to church yesterday smelling to high heavens of cigarettes. ive had to dry clean both my suits this transfer because i smell like smoke all the time.. speaking of which...we had interviews with pres engbjerg this week and after hugging me i could tell he was a little uneasy then when i pulled out my planner to let him see it, my lighter fell out of my pocket. The rest of the interview we talked about the dangers of addictions and how they effect our ability to teach with the Spirit. Actually it was a way good interview, he really is an amazing man. he builds missionaries up like noone else.

K so we have this room/office thing that we rent out on this street called nowy swiat.. its downtown warsaw and we rent the room as just kind of a place to have meetings with investigators because our chapel is a little out of the way for most people. There are about 20 missionaries in North Warsaw that use the room.. theres only one key. (it opens up like 6 different locks so it costs like $200 to copy) So after Deuel and I had interviews we had a meeting with a potential down there at the nowy swiat room... the elders that were using right before us couldnt hand the key off to us becuase they had to jet to the other side of warsaw for a meeting.. so i was like 'ah just leave it under the rug'

alright alright before you all start jumping to conclusions about my decision making skills .. ill have you know that missionaries leave it under the rug all the time.. also... the room .. hmm how do i explain this.. k so you have just a regular downtown street.. sidewalk and shops all along it... well our room is situated in between a couple stores in kind of an alley..so one must type in a code to open this gate thing that gives you access to the alley. i duno if that makes sense.. hope so

so we show up to nowy swiat.. say hi to this old man that owns the shop that sits adjacent to our room (outside the gated area... on the street) and we pop open our gate.. pull up the rug.. no key... fetch. The old man comes over and types in our code (apparently he has seen missionaries do it so many times that he found it out) he comes up to us and asks what's wrong. We were calling the other misisonaries at the time because we figured they just took it with them and forgot to leave it. But it soon became clear to me that this old polish man thought he was a real jokster and had stolen our key. After some conversation with him he told me he would give us the key back if we bought him a beer. Heck no am i buying a pole a beer. I reason with him a little bit.. offer to buy him a soda.. offered him the gum in my pocket.. no dice. Only beer he says. Conversation and mind games continued for a long while .. I was trying to be nice and reason with him.. but he wasnt a very reasonable man. He told me that in Poland.. if you lose something .. and someone finds it for you.. that you owe that person 10 percent of what you lost. He told me beer was the only real pay back for this key of ours. Sigh.. i was about to just go buy him a freaking beer but Deuel wouldnt do it. Long story short.. like way long .. pretty much our whole day wasted standing by this door.. our investigator never showed .. the zone leaders showed up the the police (bad idea) .. police did nothing we filed a complaint and we were going to take him to court but we dont have any evidence but our word that he stole the key.. so now we have to get new locks and keys for the door.. none of north warsaw can use the room for the next month.. so i feel pretty good about myself haha.. should have just bought the beer.

that along with breaking the freezer in the creamery by means of ice pick.. probably 2 of the dumb things i wish i could take back. dad all those years of telling us kids we have brain damage.. you might be on to something :-)

i love you all have a wspanialy week

thanks for the love in email form.. dad feel better!

starszy seany

June 2, 2008

Chileeee!!!!!!!!!!!!! thats freaking tiiiighttt!!! Ah lysh im so excited for you, you get to go see dads people. You are going to be famous down there already.. people will see the name Daly on your tag and invite you straight over for dinner. Congrats, that really is so cool. Well this week was good... andrzej came to institute and to church (in a suit and tie nonetheless, he was looking mighty fine) he's been reading.. but says he still hasnt received a confirmation it's true. He needs to stop smoking, drinking, partying.... basically stop living like a pole or I dont think he's going to get one... he doesnt really have that desire to change yet.. maybe soon. We are going to throw down some serious Word of wisdom, faith and obedience lesson this week.

Went on exchanges with Mcrae, he's awesome.. we taught like 30 street lessons and got a handful of numbers .. definitely a magical miracle-filled day.. exchanges always seem to be like that though...

we have a lesson soon, so i gotta get out

i love you all, congrats again lysha!

dobregooo dnia

May 26, 2008..Happy Memorial Day!

alright alright i apologize for the second rate emails ive been sending y'all... i've got a little more time to write so we'll see if we can make some creative magic happen. so we've been teaching this guy named andrzej (andziej?, i dunno polish spelling is impossible) and he's a pretty interesting guy.. think ive told you a little about him. 24 yr old half -hoolie, half really nice guy.. he's got a big heart, he just doesnt really take life seriously. Anywho we taught him a second lesson this week and ..well.. lets just say it was kind of a struggle. First off i dont speak Polish..despite my attempts to trick you into thinking i do.. im going to be completely honest in this edition of 'On the Brink of Apostasy Daily' .. i dont. My companion is sinking in the same boat with me .. anyways long story short and hundreds of wasted language studys regretted.. we ended up discussing the fall of adam and eve for an hour and a half with andrzej. He kept throwing out these questions like.. what physically changed about them after they took the fruit? why couldnt they have children before the fall? why did God give them a commandment he wanted them to break? How was it according to God's will? What kind of fruit was it exactly? ...i ended up frantically drawing this diagram on the board with incorrectly spelled polish words everywhere and yeah we didnt really get anywhere i think at some point i threw in some molecular orbitals with some hybrids... that seemed to quell his concerns for a few minutes. It was a rough lesson .. and my companion is a convert so like sometimes he doesnt know some of the particulars of the Gospel. He was telling Andrzej that murders go to outer darkness no question and that Hitler was there too... I corrected him but i could tell Andrzej was a little skeptical ... ugh just a flustering experience.. i tried to save it by bearing my testiomony at the end.. hopefully he felt something there. Anyway that was on saturday and we had sports saturday after that.. played soccer and v-ball and basketball etc.. andrzej stayed the whole time it was a lot of fun. Towards the end of the night after we had some food Andrzej needed to go for a smoke (he loves that stuff, sigh) so him and i went outside and talked then threw the football around a little bit. He taught me some Polish slang.. not sure wat percentage of it was vulgar.. still need to look those up before i start saying them.. after that we started talking about life and wat not. I asked him that if he received an answer that the book of mormon was true if he would change his life.. he kinda gave me a weird look and was like, im already changing my life, i dont drink anymore. I was like, for real? you dont? Then he said, well yeah i mean like right now.. im not drinking.. im with you. Hahah.. he then tried to convince me that beer is healthy. Hmm.. he did say that he would change faiths if he found out if it was true. I dunno its tough with him, Ive got faith he can change but ive yet to see any desire or try-face in his countenance.

Then yesterday we had a convert baptism in our branch! yeahhhhhh babies.. it was the first baptism in the mission for the month of May and it was elder wood and mcrae's investigator. wood is our Dl.. mcrae is a new trainee, and pretty much one of my favorite people in the mission ( a farmer from homedale, ID nonetheless... represent.) Andrzej didnt come to church but he did come to the baptism which was tight. Filling the font was quite the epic journey. The faucet dealio for the font was spitting out this rusty freezing cold glacier run off so we resorted to the kitchen sink, which isnt exactly the cleanest water in the world.. after about 20 buckets of that water the hot water ran out so we started boiling water on the stove in huge pans and then mixing it with the cold water.. 3 hours and like 3243432 buckets later we had a full font with water that had kind of a greenish algae hue to it. Tobiasz was the investigator that got baptized.. i told him that the green was proof that the Holy Ghost was present, cause thats HG's favorite color... nah, im not that blasphemous.

Andrzej like the baptism i think he wouldnt really give me a straight answer. He just joked a lot about it the whole time.. kinda being punk-ish.

I had some good larry experiences this week but they are kinda long, oh i love larrys.

I talked to this one girl on a whiteboard for like 30 mins and im pretty sure it is to date the best conversation I've had with a Pole on a whiteboard, with a walking talking pole anyways (ha.. ha.. yeah sorry, that wasnt funny) i taught her a pretty basic first and she asked how i got my answer.. i said prayer.. she asked how i knew that answer was from God.. i told her it was a feeling and kinda described the feeling.. but she still didnt think that was good enough.. i asked her if I would be living the way im living and be here in Poland by my own choice if i didnt truly receive and answer from God and didnt know it was true. She said she guesses it could be true but she needs more time to wonder or like ponder on it.. she was the chillest most down to earth pole ever.. why cant i get more of those everyday.

We went to the Bazaar this morning with a bunch of missionaries hahaha it was the greatest ever. Den of thieves for the win though for sure. There are police everywhere checking to make sure stuff is legal. I was walking with some elders and most the people that work there are either asian or russian.. they know like 6 words in polish .. "filma, muzyka, dvd" anyways im looking at the euro dress shoes that have the pointy toes (i wanted them so bad, not sure if pres would approve though) then all the sudden this black guy comes up to me and asked me what i was looking for.. "i got some dress shoes for ya man follow me" so yeah shady black guy leading me up to this parking lot 200 feet away from the rest of the bazaar where there were like 30 other black guys...ofcourse i followed him. (if lysha was there and i the guy was asking me if i wanted candy i woulda asked mom first though ;-) ) so he takes me up there and there were a 3 other elders with me and it was all these black guys decked out in niicce clothes with expensive cars.. he pops open the trunk and pulls out all these like legit american pumas and nikes hahah oh it was hilarious.. i got out of there quick though. Good times, so yeah thats been my week so far, we got some sweet set ups this week so things are looking up for us.

I love you all so much, have a niesamowity week

na razie

Elder Daly

May 18, 2008..New whiteboard contact!

Wat upp family! Once again I have like no time to write this, we have to take off and get to work pretty soon here... so my week.. I contacted this guy on a whiteboard the other day named Andziej, he was way tight I got his number. Called him up, set up.. and wouldn’t you know it he showed up. Taught him a first which went well, it was interesting being in on a sit down lesson with a companion that speaks Polish about as good as I do, there were a couple of times where we had to have him repeat some questions because we didn’t understand him.. but over all I think he was understanding what we were throwing his way.. He’s in love with Deuel because they are the same age and this guy Andziej smokes like a south east African bonfire... and Deuel just laid down the truth and was like.. ‘i smoked 2 packs a day for 4 years and when i found out this church was true and never had one again..’ so yeah, he’s got some other issues too with our moral standards and wat not.. but atleast he is sincere about finding out the truth, we are meeting with him again this week, hopefully he read. He came to a couple of activities we had this week. We had the BYU folk dance team come to Warsaw and perform.. man they are pure talent, it was a way good time. It was great to see Americans, especially from BYU.. there were some awesome Poles that showed up dressed like cowboys and they brought a confederate flag.. haha it was something else. They all started chanting U.. S....A ! At the end of the performance.. I bought a new camera, basically the same one I had... not as cool though. i got more numbers this week than any time ever on my mission.. woot sauce, thanks heavens for summer! my comp is a cool guy, and yeah we lost our phone so i havent been able to send any mail this week, sorry sorry! i gotta head out, love you all!

May 11, 2008-Mother's Day Phone Call Summary

We were able to call Sean on his cell phone, which all of the missionaries carry in the Poland Mission, on Sunday morning. He sounded great and was doing very well. He had injured his knee playing soccer a couple weeks back but was feeling blessed that it was better and he didn't need to get surgery! The work in Poland is slow. There are about 40 million people in the country of Poland and currently 120 missionaries; (soon to be downsized to 70 missionaries) 400 members of the Church total in the country; only 2 chapels one in East Warsaw and the other in North Warsaw. There is definitely a lot of work that needs to be done! Elder Duty and Elder Errington, his past two companions went home last week..they were great companions and spoke the language very well..i think Sean is missing them a little:)
Hope everyone spoiled their wives for Mothers Day! Enjoy the week~hugs~Caran

May 12, 2008...Happy Mothers Day!

wat upp family, i just talked to y'all so i really dont have much else to say that would be of any entertainment value. Thanks for talking to me even though it was early.. laena and lysh, the 10 words I got from you were inspirational and found their way into my journal :-) zartuuuujeee.. P-day has been tight, played some more soccer and basketball.. had some burger king, yeahhhs.. so good, texas whopper, i reccomend. Umm i saw brother Goff and his wife.. he was one of our teachers in the MTC.. He is visiting Poland for a couple weeks .. taking his wife on a lil tour .. showing off his Polish... he's the man, one day ill be like goff. Mmhmm, big week this week Im expecting some big time miracles.. not sure why.. the Lord always seems to reward missionaries who have been rejected and dominated the week before.. which was me and deuel last week.. this week- new week, new start, new tie, new gameplan, k false about the same game plan.. i think ill try to step out of my comfort zone a little bit more this week.. if you dont feel awkward (in a good, virtuous way) atleast once during the day as a missionary than chances are.. yeah .. you uhh.. are doing something wrong? I dunno i was going to break out with something profound but nothing came.. seems to be happening more and more on my mission, my wit and profoundness.. definitely taking a turn for the worse..

well i love you all!

i love you mom, z calego mojego serca .. bez ciebie nie mam niczego, zawsze jestes tam by mi pomagala ... thanks for all you have done and continue to do for me and our family.

trzymajcie sie

May 5, 2008...Happy Cinco de mayo!

it was cinco de mayo today, a special day. Especially for the people of Poland. For it was on this day 162 years ago that the people of Mexico fought for their independence from china, and won... so we had quite the party in warsaw to celebrate such an occurence of importance. We played 3 hours of soccer with Poles and then had some Polish mexican food which was actually pretty decent just way overpriced. So yeah i made it to warsaw. I went from the second nicest apartment in the mission to what might be the worst. But its cozy and thats what counts. Our area isnt the best either but i think i might have told you in my last email.. we dont have areas anymore. President Engbjerg just threw em out the window. So our apartment is pretty far from anything good but we are free to roam Warsaw as we will... and we have.. and yet will. Man the city is ginormous. Centrum is out of control.. so much to see, so many people, I love it already. We have our own real building that our branch meets in. About 70 ish maybe more members, its amazing I love it. I do miss the small branch small district feel but we see so many missionaries all the time here .. its good times. So yeah thats my life.. lot of packing and moving and traveling and unpacking. Love the new trainees, they already speak better Polish than me. So yeah life is good.. my companion Deuel is hardcore awesome. He used to be catholic.. converted at 20.. hes 23, he rocks. i gotta go though.. pday is just about over. Umm what else what else.. my address, i dont have, but you can just send me stuff at the Mission office on polczynska and ill get. Love you all, thanks for the emails, hopefully i can reply to them next week. elder o'daly