April 7, 2008..a visit to the zoo; a baptism and davage fast Sunday!

Hey family jak idzie? hopefully well > > I just want to start this, another davage email, off by wishing a happy birthday to Alysia Daly.. my example and dear sister who helps our parents overlook my imperfections and shortfallings because she makes up for them four fold with her incredible demeanor, good looks, academic pwnage.. the all around epitome of perfection :-) Happy birthday lysh.. the big 21.. now your legit .. i wrote you a letter but none of your postcards have your address on it so if you could send me ur address so i can send it next week? will you get it or will you be gone by then? i love you sister > > Another week huh.. hey by the way i went through the whole month of march without hearing a single whisper of a word about march madness.. this saddens me greatly.. is it over? This last week was a lot of hard work and a lot of fun as well. While i was in Wroclaw we went to the zoo on pday and ended up staying the night on monday because our train would have arrived in gdynia at like 1 in the morning. So it was basically the best pday of my life because i was back with my old district and with my papa elder duty. We went to the zoo. oh the zoo... haha. the zoos in Poland are come of the most magical places in this world. I dont know what all this junk is about your dreams coming true at Disney land is about... i never had a dream come true at disney land.. just paid $60 to get scared to tears by some evil witch they call tinker bell.. but at the wroclaw zoo.. anything is possible.. anything... > > we paid $5 to get in and immediately entering the gates being guarded by a smoking larry with no teeth.. i felt something different. One of the highlights was ofcourse the monkeys. Half of them had leprosy sores of some sort all over them and one of them had found a broken piece of beer bottle and he was fighting with the other moneys. he was big dog. We saw lions, tigers, bears... zebras! Over sized rats that the zoo claimed to be beavers... and perhaps the highlight .. the giraffe. Elder barrowes was trying to lure the giraffe with some leaves but he couldnt get it to come over. (there arent any cages, just a 5 foot fence and a moat) So i take a branch and attach some leaves onto it.. elder guinn (in my mtc group) did the same and we were bother waving our leaves back and forth simultaneously while making giraffe noises.. yes i know what a giraffe sounds like.. and he trots over, gives us a skeptical look, then leans down and goes for the leaves! So i touch the head of a giraffe.. life goal #74, complete.. it was an incredible day. We worked later that night and taught a bunch of lessons because the people in wroclaw are the best in poland. > > Back in Gdynia we had a few set ups but they both flaked. Some ive still yet to teach a sit down in Gdynia.. weve got some this week though so im feeling good about it. Errington and I spent a good 2 hours the other night calling all our formers and cleaning up the area book a little bit. So hopefully the work picks up this week, we could really use the lessons. Im not going to lie I dont see Gdynia staying open much longer. Maybe another transfer at the most... its just too far from Gdansk.. and its not very prone to missionary work.. theres so much work to be done in Gdansk, i bet they move the gdynia elders to gdansk next transfer, we'll see though. So yeah this week was just filled with a lot of contacting, got some potentials that we set up with that we are excited about... hopefully they go through. > > We had Pres Engbjerg over this weekend because that guy Piotr i was telling you about got baptized! First baptism in Gdansk in a long time, cant remember exactly how long.. but long haha probably a few years atleast. It was an awesome day all around. That night we watched the morning session of conference in our quaint little hotel room with our district, president, ap's, and piotr (he speaks english too) so we got to watch it in english naturally... it was incredible, no? I was all about that Johnson guy.. i was picking up what he was putting down. Reminded me of conference time back home, minus the basketball shorts and food, real american food mmm. I was great though i hope you all enjoyed it as well. It was 8 pm when the morning session ended so thats all we got to catch.> > Fast sunday the next day was davage.. to a whole new meaning of the word, if it even has meaning. It was Elder Erringtons and Sis McGary's last fast sunday in poland (they both die may 5th) they both bore their testimonies along with piotr and half the branch.. I translated for Sis Regen the senior couple sister... went way well. About half way through the meeting this big larry looking guy (inactive member) that Marcin (member, 24ish, former pol-war missionary, speaks english, awesome) had invited back to church got up. It wasnt really a testimony.. he basically bore his testimony of Marcin and ho wmuch he loved him and how its been hard not being in church for these past 5 years. It was slightly irreverent and the strong spirit that was in the meeting before was now hanging on by its finger tips to the door frame of our hotel room.. the guy sat down and the spirit came back in for a moment.. a couple more people bore their testimonies.. then the man decided to get up again and add more to his testimony. He said basically the same thing as before.. and i could tell Pres Engbjerg was getting a little uneasy on the stand.. me and elder derrick were doing all we could to help each other not laugh. After another 5 minute praising soliloquy of Marcin he sat down again and one of our older sister members got up and bore a 25 minute testimony on something that i was pretty sure was false doctrine. Something about how the Mayan people were the jaredites.. im not sure where she got her facts.. hey it might be true.. i felt uneasy translating it to Sis Regen, felt like i was preaching false doctrine myself. Anyways it was like 20 past the hour and she was still talking .. pres engbjerg finally slipped her a note on the podeum that im sure said something like wrap it up. But i guess he forgot we were in Poland because he wrote it in english i think and she didnt understand it. So she kept on. Finally one of the Ap's sitting up next to President told her in POlish she had to finish it up. As soon as she sat down the big larry guy tried to get up again, Marcin basically tackled him and sat him back down. President got up there and looked a little flustered, but ended the meeting to my and the rest of the branch's relief. Boy howdy it was something else.> > Pres Engbjerg re-organized the branch. Elder Regen (senior mish guy) was called to be the new BP (nope, doesnt speak a lick of polish) Marcin is 1st counsellor, elder Gray (my older brother, trained by duty first)is 2nd counsellor and elder tucker his comp is exec sec. > > Worked a little bit on sunday.. then had a get together at the senior couples place for elder grays birthday. We made him a cake.. i didnt realize there was a difference between baking soda and baking powder, long story short, the cake was incredible nonetheless, just a little liquidy... > > that night heading home from their place elder errington had just missed our train so we had to wait on the platform for like 30 mins.. and this totally smashed guy (not really a larry) comes and starts talking to us.. he was hilarious hahaha...he followed us all the way to gdynia when finally we had to break it to him that we really needed to go. We taught him though, not sure he understood alot of it. check that, any of it. I felt bad i was kinda mean to him. While we were standing on the train riding back, i would be talking to him and teaching a little bit.. and i would kind of start leaning one way while he was listening to me and he would do the same and then kind of fall and hit the wall of the train hahaha it was great.. sorry thats really bad isnt it, it was really funny though. > > > ill answer some questions you had mom.. > > i havent been sick, im superman! snicker bar a day keeps diseases away.. im actually off chocolate for this month because my comp doesnt think i have self control.. psh, ill show him. one week down... > > we actually dont teach english, we just help the other elders get people there.. they teach it in gdansk so its too far for us to travel, and they dont exactly have a lot of ppl coming. this one guy i talked to on the street is still coming though, woot. > > I promise im sending a tape haha, no worries.. this computer once again doesnt work with my camera.. i never get to use the good computers they have in this place because all the polish 20 yr old guys are LAN-ing and playing Call of Duty and CounterStrike.. i should just play them a round for the computer, id feel bad beating them though with my missionary tag on. So maybe ill just develop my 250 pics and send them home haha.. i dunno, i want to get them on a disc but i need a good computer to do it.. maybe if i send my memory card home? and you guys can send me some new ones? i dunno lemme know if that is at all possible.. By the way can you guys send my a picture of our family? it would really help when i teach ppl about families out here.. and mom dont use dearelder and dont send it to my place in gdynia.. i promise that if you just send a package to the mission home that ill get it haha we get mail once a month from them at zone conference.. if you send it to the mission home, ill get it 100 sto pRocent. kk maybbe 99 percent > > cant remember if i had anything else to say, hmm.. oh i love you all! hope life is swell, if its not just listen to some Motion City Soundtrack.. or some Mo tab.. cant believe my 6 month mark comes up in a couple weeks "its like i said, life moves pretty fast.. if you dont look around every once in a while.. you could miss it." > > > name that movie.> > z miłością > > elder sean> > hey it rhymes

March 31, 2008...finding the lost sheep

Hey family :-) once again i apologize.. it seems like i never have time to write emails cause im always on the run.. but im in wroclaw right now and i have a set up with the land lord at the legal office in about 45 mins so ill try to keep it brief again. > > yesterday was great, we had our first priesthood meeting that the Gdansk branch has had in i think 5 years... there havent been enough priesthood holders to hold quorum meetings so usually its just sacrament meeting and then sunday school. But today we split into R.S. and priesthood for the second hour (there isnt a third hour) and it was phenomenal, probably the most amazing spirit ive felt in a priesthood meeting in a long time. Right after church Errington and I caught a 9 hour train down here to Wroclaw and got in at about 1130 last night.. spent the night at Duty and Guinns (my old place) its great to be back here again... i miss it so..... after i get my legal stuff done today we'll be taking another 9 hour train back.. so much for a pday huh? :-) itll be good to get it done.. i wont have to come back down to Wroclaw after this i dont think. Hopefully i sit next to some rad homies on the train ride back that i can talk to.. on the way down they werent very friendly. > Umm alot happened this week.. Errington was sick again so one of the days was kinda shot.. we spent a lot of our week advertising free english and this lecture/'come see what we are all about' event that we are doing in a couple of weeks.. so lot of designing flyers and copying and handing out/putting up.. its a great way to start conversations with people.. beats saying "excuse me for a sec, im a missionary :-)" > > errington and i went and served Waldemar (the old BP that i was telling you all about) he works at this museum of photography and radios? its pretty cool actually.. they have slide shows running of all these pictures of historical places then he has oldies music (like american oldies music) playing in the background.. kind of an interesting mix i know. We had a great time.. we help him move some heavy stuff then worked on the computers using an image program to like crop and 'restore' pictures so that they look good enough to put them on the slideshows he's got running. It was a good times because we also played DJ of his museum so we got to choose the oldies that were playing.. aww davage to the max.. we have another set up this week to serve him at which time we are also going to give him the apology letter that Pres. Engbjerg wrote up to apologize for how things ended with the branch closing 6 months ago and to invite everyone back to church. We are also going to meet with him and share that one bednar talk about denying yourself the blessings of full activity... hopefully we get to him.. he's an amazing guy and i know he has a testimony.. he's just being a little stubborn. Errington and I also met with a less active elderly lady in our branch. She is way funny and talked for a good 2 hours.. she claims she's sick and cant make it to church and that even when she does go to church that noone likes her... poles get offended so easily, bothers me... we'll see what happens with her. Umm lots of other stuff that was amazing went down, talked with some people, had some hilarious experiences .. hopefully ill get to put them in my next email.. if not in my tape home that i need to make sometime soon. ugh im so lazy when it comes to mail i apologize. > > ill answer some questions that dad had real quick than head off to the legal office.. > > im in a branch of about 5-6 active members in Gdansk.. we had 10 members in church last sunday though .. well one was an investigator.. who by the way is getting baptized this coming weekend! he rocks.. Piotr, 25 yr old guy. solid. > > Elders do serve as branch presidents in some areas.. not in gdansk though we have pres anderczowski.. hes an interesting egg. i think hes getting released soon and the senior elder we have is here is going to be it, just a rumor though.. i hope not cause that means more translating for interviews and wat not, just kidding.. i lovve translating :-)> > Every Sunday we rent out a hotel room at the Hotel Mercurie... its a nice room.. its funny, for the sacrament we order bread and filtered water from the hotel.. so about 5 minutes before sacr meeting starts this waitress lady comes in with two wine glasses of water and two slices of bread on this ornate tray. > > As far as all the members that went inactive.. some came back.. actually im pretty sure 3 of the 5 that come to church every sunday were members under Waldemar.. they came back as soon and the branch opened back up.. we are undertaking a serious effort to get a lot of these people back.. its hard though beacause some of the records arent up to date and we know that some are excommunicated.. we just dont know which ones.. hmm.. > > thanks for your emails.. life sounds great back home.. hope its warming up for you like it is for us here > > love you all have a great week :-) > > elder daly

Lots of London Fun!

Day Trip to LIVERPOOL...home of the Beatles! A group of us rode a five hour bus ride to chill for a quick day in Liverpool; I wish we had gotten to stay longer but it was a blast. First we went to the Beatles Musuem which was so so cool - old guitars, posters, reconstruction of the Cavern (one of the first bars they played in), and of course music :)




We hung out mostly around the Albert docks on the River Mersey...love that water lol.

We went to the Merseyside Maritime Musuem, which had a Titanic exhibit that I was so excited to see!!

We went on a ferry ride on the Mersey to see more of the sights of Liverpool. It was pretty sweet, but way windy! Then we walked a little bit more around the city and happened upon The Beatles hotel - Hard Days Night Hotel :) I thought that was pretty clever.

This last Saturday, I had a very British day. First, a bunch of us put on our Oxford apparel to root for them in the Oxford vs. Cambridge football game. We realized that British don't wear team paraphernalia when we got to the game, so we stuck out as crazy Americans...especially when I tried to fake a British accent which was a big mistake when I got a little carried away when I was telling a story and a bunch of Brits turned around and stared me down or just thought I was crazy lol. Anyways, it was a good game but Cambridge got in two goals the last few minutes winning 5-3.

After the game, my friend Andrea and I went to boat race between the two schools as well. It is a big deal in London, so tons of people were there partying it up on the Thames. It was kinda rainy so I got soaked through, but it was tons of fun. And Oxford slaughtered Cambridge, so we were proud :)

I never had the chance to put up pictures from when we went to Stratford a few weeks ago and visited all the Shakespeare sights. We went to his wife's, Anne Hathaway, cottage; took a tour of Shakespeare's birthplace; went to his grave; and then went to the play, Henry IV Part 1. Good times!!

Oh and I saw this on the way to Shakespeare's birthplace and it just reminded me of Harry Potter :)

PLAYS!!! So I found a new love...watching plays in London. I have spent too much money on all the shows I have watched but it has been worth it. Other than the few I already talked about at the beginning, I saw Wicked twice and then Phantom of the Opera, Lord of the Rings (musical type - it was very interesting lol), Sound of Music, and Mousetrap.

March 24....HAPPY EASTER!

hey family, this is going to be a quicky because this internet is so dang expensive.. its the smingis ningis or something like that .. day after easter, basically hardcore water fight day so nothing is open today. this week was great, easter was a blast. We tried hitting up some easter mass but the times were marked wrong and missed the one we were going to go to. we ended up running around all of poland trying to find any church that would be doing mass in the evening. Couldnt find a single one.. isnt that just like the Catholic church .. haha it was fun running around trying to find one though.. Earlier that day we just had a sacrament meeting and then lunch over at a members place.. the food was polish so naturally is wasnt very good.. bigos, kielbasa, beets, dry bland pastries. i just eat that stuff upppp! im way jealous of the amazing food im sure you consumed without me for easter. we have another dinner appointment today with a member, mm cant waitt. > hmm lots of interesting stuff went down this week, we went to a Jehowahs Witness sacrament meeting.. haha it was a blast, we were invited by some JW friends we had talked to earlier. Everyone was way nice to us the meeting was very well done.. for jws.. they passed out the sacrament, but noone took it because there was noone there from the 'elect' 144,000 that are allowed to take it.. i motioned like i was going to drink the wine and got a lot of dirty looks shot at me.. oops, just a joke, apparently not a very funny one.> talked with some amazing people on the streets this week.. no new investigators unfortunately.. the only ppl that actually talk to us are during the whiteboards we do in Gdansk.. and since most of them live in that area and not in gdynia.. we end up giving all those new investigators to the Dl and his comp.. such is life with only one whiteboard. i talked to a muslim guy the other day and that was probably the best conversation i had this week. > > happy birthday dad! ill probably be sending one package sometime soon home with a tape and some stuff for lysh and dad i found.. be excited :-) > > mom- i can pull from my checking if i want, but id rather not, im not in that desperate of circumstances haha.. just figure id try to spend as much as i get every month > > happy easter! hope it was incredible for everyone, im sorry my pictures didnt get sent, theyre amazing, ill try to send them some other time? i duno, it might just be the software on these computers, ill try to figure it out.

More West Country - Cornwall!!!

Another week to the West Counrty!! So so much fun...a lot of beach time which I thoroughly enjoyed :) I did forget my camera on the trip, but thankfully I have great friends to take pics for me...but I don't have all of them yet so I might post a few more fun ones on the next one.

Anyway, our first stop was in the village of Clovelly built into the side of the seaside hills. It was a really cute town with a steep cobblestone street. They use to use donkeys to transport stuff, but now they just use sledges. My favorite part was of course jumping into the ocean and basking in the sun!!!

Next stop...Tintagel Castle!!! It is also situated on the ocean cliffs and only cool ruins are left. According to legend this is where King Arthur was born...but more importantly (to me) this may have been where Tristan and Isolde lived with Lord Mark in Cornwall!! I was pretty excited about this because of my former obsession with the movie Tristan and Isolde with gorgeous James Franco :) Haha...me and my movies - I get real excited!

Our hostel was in the beachtown of Penzance (we watched the movie Pirates in Penzance before we left so we would it appreciate where we were more lol). Anyways, the second day we woke up early and went on a five hour hike along the ocean and cliffs. We first played at the sandy beach. The hike was so beautiful and so much fun!! I love the ocean, so I was basically in heaven! We hiked to Land's End - the farthest western point of England.

Then we went to the Eden Project. This was way cool! Basically they are building biomes (big white-bubble domes) that house plants from all over the world to show that degraded environments can be fixed and what plants we rely on and how we can use them and so forth. Basically it was a Disneyland for plants. The two biomes they have so far are the Mediterranean Biome and the Rainforest Biome. The rainforest on was my favorite because you felt like you were serioulsy in the middle of the jungle - it was hot, humid, and you surrounded by tall trees and gorgeous plants. It was so cool!!!

The last thing we did was go play at the beach and on St. Micheal's Mount which is an island off Penzance. It was really windy but I had fun running around in my bare feet. One of my friends has the pics from it, so I haven't gotten them yet, but I do have this one. Anyway, my trip was just a blast!!!! I love England :)

Oh and for my Easter present...I got snow!!! Ya, it seriously snowed in London on Easter - unbelievable lol :) I guess Provo wanted to send snow our way and punish us for having such good weather this winter haha. I hope everyone had a Happy Easter!!! Love you!