Xmas!!!

Hey Mom!

It was awesome seeing you guys yesterday, so good to talk again! I can't believe that we've only got one more skype call! Time has really flown by. 

The rest of our Christmas was pretty awesome. It was about 8 oclock at night, but we still had time to go to another family's house for Ben and Jerry's! Merry Christmas to us!

Sounds like you guys had a really awesome Christmas, and it also sounds like you're gonna be pretty busy for the next little while! Tell Noah good luck at the tournament!

That's pretty fun that Sabrina might be coming to stay! Hopefully things with the movie go well, and that it's all fun and stuff!

I don't think that I've got a lot to say about our week after skyping yesterday! I think I already covered all the details! The packages were great, and I think I'm pretty much set on hand warmers now haha. Thanks again!

Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

Xmas

Hey Mom!

Haha I'm jealous of your trip to SLO! Sounds like the tournament has been fun so far, and I saw some pictures of the hike and the beach! Looks beautiful! Once again, I miss the beach. Other than the castle and the rest of the games are you guys planning on doing anything else in SLO? Taking out the quads again or hitting up that apple farm restaurant for those awesome fries?

One more week til Christmas! Haha I can't believe that it's almost time already to Skype again. Should be really fun! As far as that goes, we'll be at a member's house. Pretty much any time works for us between 2-7. So for you guys that's 5-10. Let me know what time works the best and I can confirm on Wednesday!

Our week was pretty quiet. Not as much time in city center, in fact, not as much time in Warsaw at all! We were on an exchange this week in Lublin! It was pretty cool. There was like some weird mojo going on there, and I basically couldn't miss haha. Everybody stopped and wanted to talk, so that was really fun. Only downfall is that it was way cold the whole time. I think we're officially to that time of year again. We had an interesting lesson while we were there though. We were at an investigator's apartment, and about halfway through, she tried to start a pillow fight with us? We were like, uhhh, and pretty much just sat there until it was clear that we wanted to leave haha.

The investigator with the date met the missionaries in April, took a Book, and that was it. First day of this transfer, he showed up in church, and said right away that he thought God led him there that day. As far as the baptism goes, we're all really excited! He passed his interview yesterday, and is pretty much just ready to go. It'll happen the day of Christmas Eve. In the words of Brother Bremner, "the missionaries call that a Wet Christmas". The next week, our investigator in Kato is planning on taking the same step. Fun stuff!

We had the funniest tracting/caroling contact of our lives yesterday. In front of the door, I was talking about how terrible it would be to get a tongue piercing, and I did a little demonstration with my tongue out, and this dude opens the door while I'm standing there all awkward, sticking out my tongue, saying "owowowow". Sister Demordaunt started laughing really hard and couldn't stop so she was all curled up in a ball. Anyways, as professional as we all probably looked at this point, it couldn't be compared to the sight we saw on the other side of the door frame. The dude that opens the door is like a college bro, riding on a tricycle, using his feet to steer on the handles, smoking a bong. His homie is chilling behind him on the couch, also smoking, and they're both looking at us like, "wut". They just looked at us, and I think the guy took like 30 seconds to register before he shut the door. Once that door closed, I don't think I've ever laughed so hard on my mission.  

I'm really excited for our next week though. We're of course looking forward to the baptism, but the district is also planning a bunch of other fun stuff to do as well. We've got culture night, Christmas, and Christmas Eve to look forward to, along with a pretty good amount of member-provided meals! Should be good! 

Can't wait to see you guys! Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

Xmas pics

Christmas ties!

Christmas!!

Hey Mom!

Haha sounds like you all got a pretty good workout this week! Proud of you guys! I gotta say, 30 mins of working out a day, inside of our apartment hasn't done me too good. I'm not like, gaining weight or anything, but I feel so out of shape. We played ultimate frisbee on Saturday and I was exhausted. Still got some pretty sweet catches though haha.

I'm glad to hear that they're going hard with the Light the World campaign back home too. We've gone crazy with it. Caroling all the time. It's nice this year, cause we have 12 missionaries in Warsaw, so our "choir" is a little more impressive. We've already been offered a ton of money. Haha I've been talking with some of the other guys that are going home this year about coming back to Poland next December and caroling to earn the money for a plane ticket.

I think that you guys inviting the elders over got me some good karma over here. We got invited over for Christmas day and Christmas Eve! Elder Barlow and I are super excited, it's gonna be awesome. I'm hoping that we can skype from their house like last year, but we might be doing it from the mission office. We'll see. Last year we pretty much just ate dinner there, while one missionary at a time skyped with the fam.

Our week was pretty awesome! Like I said, caroling has officially begun! We've had a lot of success, and we're having a good time doing it. It's nice to actually be able to speak Polish this year, I feel like that's a huge part of why it's going so well. But yeah, just last week, we sang to an old lady who invited us in, and then after a short convo said she'd let the sisters come back. We also found a group of college dudes living together from Indonesia who want another visit, so that'll be cool. Yesterday we sang for every person on the top floor of a huge apartment building. It was like a Mormon concert haha.

I've got another story from the town square. So last week the sisters were talking to a guy that seemed pretty cool. The town drunk (literally we have one of those) came in and started out with his usual routine, screaming at all the people who are trying to sell random stuff, but he went for the sisters. Elder Barlow and I jumped in, and I started to talk to him to distract him, and, after about an hour, I think I became his best friend. We talked about cowboys, we danced, we sang ABBA songs, and just had a grand, old time. At one point he started talking about how he had no one, and I said, "Andrzej, don't forget old friend, you've got me." Then we hugged, and he cried into my shoulder for about 5 mins. Real tender moment. Anyways, other than that, he proposed to Sister Beem, we took pictures, and said our goodbyes.

So one of the kids in the branch got baptized last week! One of our investigators came!... a little buzzed. Haha I could smell it on his breath like right away. Other than that he said it was a good experience. He said he felt really good being around the other members. Then as a Merry Christmas he gave me a little statue of Mary. I guess I wasn't expecting that when I invited him to the baptism, but at least he came.

Haha other than that though our other investigators are doing well. I think that people are just happy in general. Christmas is doing it's magic and whatnot.

Also, my wish came true! We had the primary program this week! It was awesome, they asked me to translate, so I felt like one of the kids. It was half English, half Polish. I translated from English to Polish, so that was fun. The Turek kids also sang I Am a Child of God in German, so we were just crazy multi-cultural. Super fun Sunday.

That's all I got though. Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

???????

Xmas

December!!!!

Hey Mom!

Haha to start things off, I got the Christmas package! Super fun thanks! Also we already got to decorating the apartment, and I took some pictures for you to see, it's looking good. I guessed the winter coat right first try, I think you guys said to open it so I did. It's awesome, thanks so much! 

Sounds like you guys have been doing well! Tough week for Luke in vball, those tournaments are no fun, but it's cool, it sounds like his team will be pretty good if they play the right guys. Glad to hear Noah's having fun in basketball.

It also sounds like church went well last week too haha. Good to know that the answers I gave for Sister Woodard were up to par. Haha hopefully someone learned something.

Excited to hear about Austin's mission call! She emailed me this week too, she seems really psyched. Not a lot of time to prep, haha I can't imagine finding out that I would have to leave in a month. I think I got like 3 or 4?

So Elder McMaster had to take a driver's test cause he's an office elder and has a car. I won't have to test unless I go into the office or become an AP. I'm hoping neither of those things happen. If I could be a regular missionary till the end, that'd be ideal.

Our week was pretty darn good. We had the chance to meet with all of our investigators, everyone is doing well. I think within the next couple transfers some cool things will be happenning with them. We'll see if I stay.

I've also got a lot of stories from the city center I was talking about a bit ago for this week. We probably spent about 10ish hours there in the last 4 days.

1. I think we talked to the Polish, non-pirate version of Captain Jack Sparrow. He was weird, talked like him, and high as a kite. He talked to us for about 15 minutes, and during the time read our palms and took off his shirt to show Elder Barlow a tatoo on his chest. After talking to us, he walked off with a gypsy girl who pickpocketed him. Then he did some interpretive dancing on the square for a while.

2. Gypsy girl turned out to be a fire-dancer. She and a friend brought speakers to the square and preformed for about an hour. One of the songs played was "Give You Hell" by the All-American Rejects.

3. The Hare Krishnas came and did their own preformance on the square. They gave us cookies.

4. A really drunk man that screams on the square at all the people that are trying to sell stuff got in a fight this week. He took a mean right hook to the face and dropped to the ground. I walked over and contacted both, talked to them about Christmas, and gave them Word of Wisdom pamphlets.

5. I finally talked to the drummer guy that just drums all day long on trash. Found out his name's Paul. He was in a warehouse about 12 years back, started drumming on some scrap metal, and decided it makes him feel good. His life has never been the same.

6. We contacted an old guy. He started saying The Lord's Prayer in Hebrew, and of course drew a crowd of old people, cause they're used to all their pastors saying the same thing. Well, then he started to sing another prayer, which caused an old lady to ask if he was drunk. He said yeah, and then the old people started yelling at eachother to settle whether or not it's appropriate to pray when you're drunk. One swore, and then they all went off on him. "If you were in Russia and you had a mouth like that, they'd kill you in the streets." Bold statement, and a call to repentance from an old Polish woman.

We of course had some good contacts too. One group of college kids wants to meet again this week. 

Exchange with Elder Einfeldt was really fun. Throwback to the good old days. Fun to see how far we've come.

I think that's everything this week! Just a heads up, last week I finally caved and bought a pair of gloves, mine had holes and I was dying, haha! That was the charge on the card. I might have to get a new white shirt this week too, but we'll see.

Love you so much Mom!

Elder Haskett

Thxgvg 11

Hey Mom!

Haha sounds like you guys had a fun week! I'm glad to hear your Thanksgiving worked out well, and that everybody had a good time. Dad sent some of the family pics as well. Christmas sweaters, nice. Just a heads up I picked up my own sweater a while back, and it's pretty awesome.

Funny enough, our Thanksgiving had a bit of a delay as well haha. We were set up to go to an American family in the branch's place, but President had a surprise conference on Skype with all the district leaders in the mission... at the exact same time. So I sent the rest of the guys to their place while I was on the conference. I tried to make up for it by going to KFC that night, but the waitress got my order wrong. Later that night we got flaked haha. It was a rough holiday, but I think Heavenly Father was just giving me a test. The sisters felt bad, so they made an awesome Thanksgiving lunch on Friday, which we had as a district. Then on Saturday, we had a little celebration as a branch and ate some Thanksgiving pizza. On Sunday, the same family had us over again, so we could eat some of the leftovers. 3 Thanksgivings in 1! I guess you really do receive no witness until after the trial of your faith hahaha.

Other than all that, our week was pretty cool. I served on an exchange with Elder McMaster. Haha throwback to the MTC. It was really fun. We talked to some pretty interesting people on that exchange. One girl who was really cool and came to church. Another guy who claims to have been exorcised 3 times. All that good stuff. McMaster took his European driver's license test while I was with him as well. Apparently I'm not a good luck charm, cause he failed. What can you do?

We had a branch FHE last week, run by the missionaries. Usually they're pretty week, our games are pretty limited to cards and a chess board. We've also played Mafia before, but we were pretty worried for this last one. Luckily, one of the families brought Apples to Apples, and we had a real party. Brought back good memories.

Our teaching pool is doing pretty well. Our investigator who has been sick has been doing well. He's better now, or at least good enough to go to a recording of The Voice Polski. He invited us to come, but we figured that was probably not entirely in accordance with the spirit of our calling haha. Could've been fun. He said it was at least. Since last week though, he's begun to develop a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Really cool.

Hope you guys have a really fun week. Good luck with sports and everything, and have fun at the Christmas party! BTW, I sent out the package today! It's priority, so it should get there in time!

Love you tons!

Elder Haskett

Lego movie!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving!

Hey Mom!

That's fun that Thanksgiving is gonna be in Cali this year! I guess whether it's in AZ or CA, either way it'll be warm, so no problems. You guys should go with the Domingos to Disney on Thursday, seeing as the big dinner won't be til Friday haha.

Also I'm glad to hear that the boys have transitioned from one sports season to the next smoothly. Dad was telling me that Luke had a pretty sweet ace run against Balboa Bay. Nothing better than a setter that can serve and get it in haha, so you never have to start a game and miss the serve on the first rotation.

Welp, it's good that at least the sisters in the district are doing a good job keeping you guys updated. All the posing for pictures I guess payed off in the end. As for your winter questions, yeah, it's officially cold haha. I've stayed warm alright, but it's jackets and scarves every day now. The shoe dryer, as well as my mini blow dryer are doing a great job of keeping me warm and dry. You wouldn't believe how effective sticking the blowdryer in your shirt/pants is at immediately heating things up.

So the highlights of the week! We had a General Authority come to visit for Zone Conference! Elder Paul Johnson and his wife came and they were awesome. Before the meeting started off, we were all chilling, and I actually got a chance to have an interview with him. We talked about some cool stuff, how the mission was doing, etc, and then he basically spent an hour and a half telling all the missionaries in this mission how cool they were. Haha it was a bit of a confidence booster, so everyone's been feeling pretty good lately. Also, during the talk, he actually quoted something that I said during the interview. It's probably because he thought I was pretty noble. Look forward to the next time he speaks in Conference, he'll probably give me a shoutout or something.

Other than that, we also had an opportunity to start meeting with a less-active member here, and we're seeing a lot of growth. He's been very happy to be able to start coming back to church and has made a goal to go to the temple as soon as possible. 

The office elders here are meeting with a couple from Spain right now through Skype, and they're preparing for baptism. Since I'm the DL, I have to do an interview with them, so I got to meet and get to know them last week. It was pretty cool, teaching a lesson over Skype, and honestly, these people seemed super prepared. I get one more meeting with them, and then they want to be baptized this Saturday.

So I want to tell you guys about an area where we do finding activities in Warsaw a lot. It's basically in the middle of everything, right next to the metro station, train station, the mall, and the city center. Basically it's packed, and it's nuts. We had a really crazy activity a few days ago. So first off, there's a dude there that just drums on a wooden crate, all day long. No breaks. Literally stands there for hours just drumming. So he was there on Friday, as usual. Then this guy came into the middle of the area where we all were, put on some headphones, and started singing as loud as he could. Some of the highlights were Forever Young, where he hit the high notes like a pro, and Take Me to Church, where he put both middle fingers up to the world, and spun around, showing us all who's boss. Pretty impressive show. A Catholic priest walked up to us, didn't say a word, and very dramatically dangled a rosary in our faces, which, to him was probably the equivalent of damming us, or at least casting out evil spirits. Then, last but not least, we got contacted by 2 Presbyterian missionaries from South Korea, who taught us a lesson, then stood by our table for about a half an hour. What a day.

Basically a really good week on our end! Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

Warsaw

November 11

Hey Mom!

Haha I have to say, no one here thought Trump could win it either, but we were all shocked. I had tons of Polish people texting me and keeping me updated on everything haha. It was funny. I think they cared about it more than I did. Luckily, our encouragement to stay neutral on politics in conversation was pretty easy to follow. That being said, a lot of people were either making fun of us on the streets, or fist pumping for Trump's victory.

We're getting excited for Christmas over here as well. I know Thanksgiving hasn't even happened yet, but the carols are already playing every morning. The missionaries love Christmas! Also this transfer actually ends the day after Christmas. So I'll get to tell you about where I'm going over Skype!

It's also good to hear that Blake is doing better. I bet that at least being at a basketball game again got his spirits up. That would do it for me at least.

So our week... our investigator got baptized! It was a crazy week, he decided on Monday, and then the days following were just nuts, trying to get interviews and the font set up. But the stress was worth it. He was baptized on Saturday, then confirmed and given the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday! We're super happy for him, and the branch was really excited as well. The same day of the baptism, we were actually able to help another investigator commit to baptism in December. He's doing really well, and we're even talking about introducing his wife to the church. The other day he texted me and was like, "After our meeting on Saturday, I wanted to try to be a better person, so I took a homeless man to get some dinner. I felt the Spirit really strongly!" Basically we went to bed Saturday feelin pretty good haha.

With a week like that, I'm feeling pretty good in Warsaw haha. The branch is doing really well, and they continue to deliver on the food. The meal of the week this week was a crazy good lasagna. Warsaw life haha.

We're still teaching English classes once a week. We've got a ton of students here. On top of that, we pretty much try to teach as much as possible where people are going to be. If that's outside on the streets, in a park, or tracting, then that's where we're at haha. I can't wait for December to come around so we can start carolling!

So far we've spent most of our PDays getting acquainted with the city, but we've also been to the national stadium here, and today we might go to the rynek to see the sites. For culture night, I'm pushing for us to go see Les Mis in Polish. That would be awesome!

Haha Sister Beem recognized me on sight from the name. It was pretty crazy, but cool to see that once again, we live in a small world. She's pretty chill though. Good missionary.

That's pretty much all I got this week! I'm still finding last things to send home for Christmas! Found some sweet stuff already! Look forward to it!

Love you tons,

Elder Haskett

November 6th

Hey Mom!

It sounds like you had a pretty fun week! Glad to hear that you guys are still enjoying Disneyland, I gotta say, I was craving a corn dog pretty bad these last few days haha. I think it's because I'm used to having these shops called Żabka everywhere, and you can get a good dog there for less than a dollar. They don't have them in Warsaw:(

I still remember the World of Color show. I saw the first half, but then this guy threw his daughter up on his shoulders and it was over. I think you can imagine how uncomfortable asking him to stop would be, as I, a 17 year old would be able to see, and his daughter, probably 3 or 4 years old, would not.

Crazy to think that soccer is almost over. The semester is almost over too. I'm excited for Christmas, but it's way weird to think that time is going this fast. 

Generally speaking, if you ever want a really noble sounding scripture about missionary work, or courage, or facing your fears, you can look to the epistles of Paul haha. 2 Timothy is a pretty good example. There's some good stuff in Romans as well.

I heard about Blake, that's some really sad news. I hope he knows though that a successful mission has nothing to do with the visible outcome, but the way it changes you. I've seen him grow up quite a bit, and it's been impressive. He really loved his mission, and I think that judging from that fact, he had a successful mission. All the guys have been praying for him to heal up quick. 

As for our week, things in Warsaw have been going pretty well! No ping pong, but still a fun time. Elder Barlow and I are getting along well. We don't have much in common as far as mutual interests go, as he's into swimming and ROTC, but we've bonded over the joys of singing really loudly and laughing at the crazy stuff that happens in Poland. Pretty much an infalliable way to make friends.

The big city of Warsaw is a jungle, haha. I'm getting around fine, but it's more of a bear to get familiar with than any city I've been in before. We haven't actually been to the mission home at all. That's fine, I'm just looking forward to the last night in the field party that we'll have when the whole gang makes it to Warsaw. Right now, 3 of the 5 from the OG MTC group are here, and it's been a blast.

Our teaching pool is doing pretty well. We've got one guy who's gettin pretty serious about baptism. I fasted for him yesterday, and things are looking good. Our others are moving a lot slower, but we're still doing well. We'll see what happens!

Interesting stories for the week: we were playing basketball with the other missionaries, and a sister in the zone literally got her ankles broken. She's in a purple cast haha.

Also, we had All Saint's Day this week! It was really cool. I've got some good pics for you all. 

An American family fed us last night! We had a loaded potato soup and some real bacon, straight outta the US, and it was fantastic!

That's pretty much everything from the week though! Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

Halloween

Hey Mom!

Happy Halloween!
Sounds like you guys had a pretty cool week! I have to say, with regret of course, that we did not have a trunk or treat here. I suppose actually having cars would be a requirement for such an activity, but I think we could have made something work with public transportation. Decorate the trams in the city for Halloween or something like that.

Haha, I almost forgot how little it rains back home. Are you guys still on the drought protocol with like 15 mins of sprinkler time a week and all that? I guess if you are, then it's a good thing that it rained! Even if it did cancel soccer haha.

That's really nice of you guys to do all that for the officers in the ward. Smart too, with all the crazy riots and everything happening right now. I bet they were in desperate need of a good deed like that haha. Plus, everyone likes snacks. Maybe if we're nice to the rest of the officers too, we'll get in close with the dudes who ticketed me twice and they'll be chill from now on.

Gratitude is always a good call. I noticed during Conference when Eyering spoke about counting your blessings daily, and was like, that sounds like a cool idea, so a started keeping track of the little things that happen during the day. It's made a pretty noticeable difference. Count your blessings!

So, as for our week, I think it's safe to say that it was nuts. I'm in Warsaw 2, which means that I'm in the same branch as President Turek haha. I suppose I'll have to actually start wearing a tie to church, and probably no more flip flops. Jokes.

I moved over here on Wednesday, the same day we picked up our trainees. I'll be training Elder Barlow this transfer! He's from Michigan, and he's already done a year of study at the Y, which means I'm continuing my streak of being younger than every companion I've ever had haha.

We've also had the chance to meet the branch already, as well as set up quite a few meetings. The branch is nuts. There's like twice as many members here that come on a regular basis than I've ever even seen in one place in Poland, and they were saying that we had an off week cause of fall break. A lot of them are Americans working in the embassy, and they all say that they want to spoil us. I'm looking forward to it to say the least.

Our meetings have been sweet. We've got a guy right now that is thinking about getting baptized within the month, and I think that he could do it. Then there's another that, with a little encouragement, could be ready before the end of the year! To add to it, my investigator from Katowice finally set a date for Christmas Eve! That, if anything, would be my Christmas miracle.

Some fun stories for the week. We came into Warsaw on Wednesday, and there was not one person in the entire city who knew where our apartment was. We had to look blind, pretty much just checking the keys we had at every building near the tram stop we were supposed to get out on. To make a long story short, we got into the apartment, suitcases and all at about 11 o'clock that night:)

How's that for a trainee's first night?

The second: we have like a "Sports Saturday" here every week at the soccer field near our chapel. We mostly play soccer, and I've been working on my skills for a few transfers now. However, it was raining, which means that the artificial turf was quite slippery. I went for a shot at the very beginning of the game, slipped, landed on my butt, and I've been sore ever since. Doesn't help that the chairs at our study desk are wooden.

That's all I got for ya! Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett 

Goose eggs

Warsaw!!

Hey Mom!

So, as per usual with transfer weeks, I'll just start by breaking the news: I'm finally leaving! Haha I wasn't surprised at all, but I will say I was surprised by the destination. I'm going to Warsaw! Haha it's so weird. The other crazy news is that I'll be training again! I don't think I've ever heard of anyone training twice in a row, but I have to assume that it either means that I killed it, or that Heavenly Father was like, "Alright, I think I'll give him another chance". I'm hoping it's the first haha. Either way, it should be sweet. I'll pick him up tomorrow, so I'll let you know next week how awesome I can make him in 6 days. President was like, "whitewash, training, district leader Elder Haskett. I want you to do me a favor. In preparation for the next few days, pray a lot." Haha it seems like that's always the advice given before a crazy transfer.

Some bad news about the transfer: I'll be district leader again, haha. This makes 10 months straight. I'm running out of ideas for district meetings already. However, it's totally worth it, cause Elder Einfeldt and McMaster will also be in the district! Should be super cool!

Anyways, sounds like you guys had a pretty awesome week, besides the soccer beatdowns of course! I still remember Red Ribbon Week very vividly! We did those all throughout elementary school! I had my little red ribbon on the desk, and I remember it was always hard to focus that week cause all the kids were trying to unravel the stitching of the ribbon the whole time. It was sweet.

Sounds like Conference was pretty cool! I think the magic words idea is pretty good. It makes sharing stuff way less forced, which is ideal. I remember getting asked awkward questions about the Church before the mission and always being worried about being too preachy. But when someone asks you a question, they expect you to answer, simple as that. There's really nothing to worry about.

The Standards Night activity sounds like a familiar story haha. Keep those Deacons in line. It's kinda weird to think that Luke won't be a deacon when I'm home, and Caleb will be pretty darn close to 12. 

Yeah, I made sure to do a better job last week contacting the other guys from home and see how the missions are going. It really seems like everyone's killing it. It's sweet to see the bros doing well. I remember reading in Alma 17 at the beginning of my mission where the sons of Mosiah meet back up with Alma, and they're all like, yeah, it's sweet that we've stayed faithful and accomplished so much, and I was always like, "that's what it's gonna be like when we all get back together". I'm still excited for that day.

So anyways, our week. It started off kinda crazy. I already told you all about that crazy PDay, and I stand by saying that it was the best PDay of my whole mission. However, it completely drained me haha. I was sick for the rest of the week, and just exhausted. Same with Elder Mandla, and it just seemed like the week was out to get us. That being said, we still had a great week, but it was hard for the first few days. I wanted to send the district off with a bang for the rest of the transfer, so we did a split on Friday. Elder Mandla stayed back in Kato with Elder Litster to teach a lesson, and Elder Rowley and I went south to a small city called Biełsko-Biała to meet with this kid. His parents aren't members, but they heard that the church is good at dealing with addictions. The son is "addicted to computers" according to tchem. Well we got there, after a long, windy car ride in a manual car that led to some severe car sickness and sat down to talk. But the son wouldn't come out of the car. So the fam just fed and fed us while we talked, waiting for him to come out. After a while, we just went in to his room and talked, and he was like, totally normal. We came to the conclusion that he's just got prioritites mixed, and work is on top, so we told them that they should read the Book of Mormon together, pray, and talk more openly with eachother. It was straight-up family counseling, weird stuff. The car ride home was about as painful as the one on the way there. I was starting to go a little green, and pretty much just praying the whole time not to destroy the back seat of this nice family's car. As a parting present, they gave us some goose eggs. I'm serious, literal goose eggs. I'll send a pic.

Other than that, I'm gonna miss Elder Mandla a bit. We've worked really well together, and we've become pretty close friends. I'm excited for the next transfer for both of us, but it was a good one. Now Elder Mandla is going to have a little mission brother.

That's all I got for you this week! Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

Wow!!!

October 16th

Hey Mom!

Late email today! We pretty much had the best PDay ever, but I'll explain that later.

Sounds like you had a pretty good week, with basketball, soccer, field trips, and the primary program to boot, haha. Funny that Caleb did his part in a deep voice. Was he nervous or just trying to be a character? The primary program would be a fun thing to have here. Unfortunately you need a primary for that. And you generally need at least one person below the age of 12 to have a primary. It would be something to come back to Poland one day and have a bunch of kids in a branch. I guess that's why they say try to teach entire families!

Haha, it sounds like Charlie is having a pretty interesting experience right now on his mish! So funny that happened in like the first month or 2 that he was in the field for! I bet it's gotta be tough, but also a really amazing experience to serve.

We do have crepes here in Katowice, but Elder Mandla and I normally save our money for regular ice cream trips. The people at the shop know our orders now, and I think they've even started to adapt their music, cause one time I told them that they were playing one of my favorite songs, and now they play that artist every time I'm in the store. Good stuff.

So our week was pretty sick. We started off pretty normal, but the end of the week was awesome. We had Zone Training on Friday, good stuff, and we got to hang out with President and the other missionaries again. It was the last time I got to see Elder Blunt before he goes home. That dude was a good missionary. Anyways, Saturday, we got to meet with the part-member family from South Africa again. First of all, they made a sweet stew that I think I'm gonna try to replicate. Also, we were able to direct the lesson we taught toward the son, who's not a member. At the end, we were kinda just testifying, and Elder Mandla was pretty bold with him and said that next transfer he wants to start working with him toward baptism. He came to church yesterday, and I actually gave him a blessing on the request of his mother. Some pretty direct things were said, and his mom told me today that he's been thinking about it a lot. She said there's been kind of a weird, reverent spirit in the house ever since. I'm not really sure what that means, but we're hoping to meet with him this week again and talk a little about what he's going to do next.

Sunday was normal, but what I'm still geeking out about is our PDay. We got a call the other day from that family that was writing to Elder Mandla's grandpa for a while. They said that they wanted to take us up a mountain near where they live, and of course I said yes. Well we pretty much spent the entire day with them. We climbed a mountain, visited the Czech border, and got to ride a sweet ski lift. After that, we visited this lake that feeds the biggest river in Poland, the Vistula, or Wisła. Then we visited the summer home of the flippin President of Poland and got to go in and get a tour. After that they took us to a pizzeria, and then even offered to drive us home! It was honestly the nicest thing that anyone's done for me in my whole mission. Super fun day.

So yeah, this is the last day of the transfer. I think it's gonna be a good one, but it's sad that it's coming to a close. I don't think I'm going to be staying in Katowice next transfer, but we'll see. There's gonna be a lot of exciting stuff happening here next transfer. That also means that next week I might be emailing on Tuesday!

Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

 

October 9th

Awesome!

October 9th

Hey Mom!

Haha I'm waiting for the week when I don't get sent bad news about soccer. Was Luke able to play after hurting his ankle today? I guess if not, it would explain the blowout, if he did, bummer haha. That reminds me of a story we had this week that I'm not going to explain in detail. It involves Elder Mandla climbing up something high, and then jumping off of it:)

I haven't actually heard anything from Blake for a while, but that's a bummer that he's not feeling well again. I'll be sure to keep him in my prayers. Just in case he doesn't say anything in the missionary group chat for a while, be sure to keep me posted in that regard.

That's good to hear that Braden found a healthy food joint.  In the meantime, I'll have you know that I found, "the best kebab shop in all of Kato", according to a group of 12 year olds. I'd say it doesn't qualify as "healthy", but definitely tasty.

I've actually heard a lot about the hurricane in Florida, it sounds crazy! I hope Charlie is ok, but honestly it's probably going to be a gold mine for him as far as service opportunities and work goes! Hopefully he finds a way to turn the situation around into something positive, I'm sure he will.

So cool that Rhett is getting some playing time! I heard about his game winner last week, and now we beat Michigan State!

I hope you guys stay safe with all the riots (not to mention the election:)! Speaking of which, were you able to find anything out about that mail in ballot? If you can't find anything that works, that's fine, I don't care that much, it's just something President wanted us to mention to you all. Let me know either way.

Our week was pretty sweet, and yes, we did stay dry! That doesn't necessarily mean that we stayed warm though! I'm finally starting to get some weather that feels familiar here haha. I think it dropped to around 35 degrees at one point. Luckily we still had some sessions of General Conference to watch, and some investigators that were willing to watch with us!

As far as English class goes, we've upped our game again on advertising, so it's slowly starting to pick up. We've found some cool students lately. One of them wanted to meet about church too. Interestingly enough, the thing that he found in the church that he liked was our programs for helping members find employment and begin to build up self-sufficiency! Somehow he stumbled on the church website through work and then showed up asking questions. The Lord works in mysterious ways, haha!

We've also got this guy right now who's been reading the Book of Mormon, and he literally loves it. He says he can't stop reading. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to meet with missionaries face to face since he got it since he's been busy. But the other day, he said over text, that his "one problem" with the Book of Mormon was that he, "knows that the Earth is flat, and that the sun revolves around the Earth"! Who would've thought this would be a problem? Pretty much told him that if he prayed about the Book, he'd get an answer that everything in it is true, but were also like, "not gonna lie, never had to deal with this problem on a doctrinal basis before."

Also, we were going for kebab in the mall the other day and randomly there was this Polish pop star singing in the mall. Somehow we ended up talking to her, and told her that we were from the US/Australia, and she was asking all these questions, it was just crazy. We got a picture (she was really close in the picture, it was awkward), and she even signed Elder Mandla's Book of Mormon hahaha. Her name's Cleo, if you want to check it out. BTW she said that my Polish was ballin, so that was a little cool, coming from a famous person.

Today, we went back to that castle, Ogrodzieniec again, it was sweet. Got some cool pictures. We even got to bring an investigator. He's a little camera shy, don't have any photos of him, but still a fun day.

Things are going well with the family from last week. We're in contact, and we might be able to drop by for a visit again this week!

2 more weeks in the transfer! They should be good ones!

Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

October 2nd

Hey Mom!

Haha it's good to hear that you guys enjoyed Conference as much as we did over here. There was some good stuff said. I guess there always is. It's just nice to sit and listen as the prophets say all the things we want our investigators to hear. We watched one of the sessions in church, and over the next few weeks we're gonna watch the rest during 3rd hour. Hopefully that will be the spiritual push our investigators need!

It seems like the boys are doing well. I guess a 0-4 defeat isn't that great, but it's better than last week, and you gotta start somewhere. Tell Noah that APUSH isn't that bad from me. If he can nail the AP test like he nailed the ACT he shouldn't have to worry about anything. Also is he planning on taking the SAT?

Hahaha weird news to hear that Eddie got released! Obviously it's been coming for a while now, but I guess I always just saw him and Dad to be immune to other callings, besides scouts and YM. Is he still going to be working with the youth?

That's pretty cool someone in the ward knows Elder Garrison. I've never even been in the same zone as him, but Einfeldt and him were comps and I've talked to him a few times. He's a chill guy. I guess pretty much all the missionaries in Poland are pretty solid people. Gotta be if you're gonna stand up to that deep winter haha. Speaking of which, the weather decided to get cold on us. Last few days have been chilly, and today was pretty much classic Portland rain coupled with a really cold wind. We're getting back into the swing of things. Elder Mandla is hoping for snow soon. Believe it or not, he's had less experience than we have when it comes to snow.

So yeah, our week! We had a good one. First off, right after it started we had an exchange. I served with Elder Litster for a few days. It was cool, he's a good guy. I do remember that like the first day of the exchange we were out walking and we got targeted by some Jehovah's Witnesses (that happens sometimes), and they wanted to kinda Bible bash with us, but we had just read a chapter in Jesus: The Christ about how Jesus is Jehovah and all that stuff, so we were ready to "go to war", so to speak. They didn't really want to hear our answers to their questions though, I think they just wanted to talk "at us", not necessarily "with us".

Also this guy who I met like 6 weeks ago or something claiming to know the date of the 2nd Coming, as well as to have documented proof that the church was founded by the devil found me again this week. He was like, "So, have you thought about what I said to you the other day?" I was like, "Yeah, I thought about it. It's not true". It was kinda awkward and tense for a but, but I think he responded pretty well to it. He was respectful of my decision, didn't really try to argue, and then, without hesitation, proceeded to start preaching to the other elders hahaha.

We also had a pretty serious miracle. You might remember the time that we met with the lady that used to write with Elder Mandla's grandpa. Well we scheduled with her for Thursday, and her son wanted to say hi. When we got there though, her grandson was there to drive us over to her son's house, where we had a 5 course meal with the entire family. We had a great time. Got to kinda break the ice really fast and teach a good amount of the gospel as well. They want to take us to go and climb a mountain over by their house on PDay before the end of the transfer. Also, they were so generous with the Polish compliments, that I think I'll be good at least for like a month or so haha.

Our investigator who's been coming to church and thinking about baptism I think came to a final decision on a date this week after Conference. He's planning, as of now to get baptized on the last Saturday of the year, as a symbol of a new year, along with a new life. That was pretty cool. He told us that he also wants to try to bring his sons to church with him. One of them is married, so that'd be really cool.

Overall a pretty sweet week. Can't wait to watch the rest of Conference, and to see what happens with the rest of the transfer!

Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

PS the travel card is here!

 

Oh Logan!!!

Riding the train!

Missionaries on a train!!!!!

September 25th

Hey Mom!

Sounds like you guys had a rough week for sports! You left out Luke's win though, he said he got one of the two last week. The other game sounded ugly, but I think any game that ends with a red card is a good game. 

Jace's leg sounds like a rough case. 6 weeks of no school for an injury? It musta been ugly. Was he using his hands? Just in case you were wondering, I have to explain my broken arm stories all the time in Poland too. Whenever I have a short-sleeve on, or just roll up my sleeves, I get a "What's that?" "No hands?" I'm excited for winter to really settle in so I don't have to deal with that anymore.

Are Alex and Dante going to the same school? Dropping of Braden and Val at school was kind of a weird experience. I think it's gonna be way weirder when I have to do it for myself haha.

I've heard a lot about the Uchtdorf talk already, I want to check it out later. It's pretty cool to see the blessings that come from persevering in hard times. Whether or not we see it ourselves, there are a lot of blessings that come from a mission. Some people will get a lot of baptisms. Some won't. That's just how it is. But we're promised blessings either way, so I like to think that those blessings are all going into a big back account somewhere. Hopefully that big bank account is taking good care of you guys, and maybe will keep me a little warmer in the winter!

We had a pretty sweet week. I guess I'll do story time first. Earlier in the week, we met this kid out in a park. He was about my age, maybe a little younger, and at first, he said he wasn't interested and took a card. About 10 minutes later, he came and found us, and said "I've been thinking about it, I want to hear what you guys have to say". So we talked to him for a while. Turns out, his family is split right now when it comes to religion. Half believe in God, but have different views on what that means, the other half doesn't believe at all. It's causing problems, and he doesn't know what to do. If you're thinking what I'm thinking, you're thinking of JSH. "Some time in the second year after our removal to Manchester, there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion..." and so on. He wants us to come and share our message with him and his family. Wow!

We're also still working with our past investigators. Everyone is doing well. Still making progress. We hope to be able to teach more and more people as the weeks go on.

I don't have any cool pics from this week! Sorry, nothing fun this PDay, but I think next week we're gonna try for Zakopane! More mountain climbing and cliff pictures! Yay for you!

Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

September 19th

Hey Mom!

It sounds like you guys had a good week, I'm glad to hear Luke's team got a win! I might be confused, but is Caleb playing for a club team? It's weird to think that he's getting big and stuff. I think they still weren't keeping score for his age when I left haha. Tyson's Eagle Project sounds pretty cool! I didn't know that they had buffalo at Hart Park, but I'm glad to hear that now they have a place to scratch haha. Also, I was just actually wondering about Noah's Eagle the other day. If I remember right, I wasn't supposed to drive until I got the project done? Noah's been 16 for 5 months now? What's goin on here?

I still remember Sister Carson from the ward. She came and spoke to the youth last year during summer, I think right after Youth Conference. (It was weird not writing zone or general in front of the word conference.) She seemed pretty cool, and really happy about her decision to be baptized. I'm happy to hear that she's still doing well! That's what we're trying to make happen here in Poland!

Things are going well for us in Kato. Our last week was pretty crazy. We had an exchange with the other elders in the city last week, then had Zone Conference, then another exchange with the elders from Kielce. We were out of the apartment from Monday last week until Saturday. It's good to be back, but we've got another exchange coming up in a few days.

So the first exchange I was with Elder Rowley. He's pretty cool, been out for about 6 months now. He's learning to play the ukulele as well, so we jammed out. Then Zone Conference. It was really centered around faith. We want to focus on building the faith of the missionaries, so that we can build faith in others. Cool stuff. President also shared that one story I used in a talk once about the guy on the roof of his house when a flood came. The two boats came and asked if he needed a rescue, and he was like, "No, God will save me." Then the helicopter comes, and he still says no. He drowns, and asks God in Heaven why he didn't save him, and God was like, "I sent you two boats and a helicopter, what more could you want?" All of our meetings are in Polish now, and I found myself having to translate a bunch of it haha. I guess I'm like the zone dictionary now?

Our exchange in Kielce went well. Funny enough, we were actually able to set up 2 baptismal dates there with the other elders' investigators in the 2 days in the city. It was a good exchange, I guess.

That being said, we still can't get one in Kato! Haha, our older guy is so ready, but he won't pick a specific date yet. I still have 5 more weeks in Kato, though. 

We gave him a blessing last week. He said that there was a lot of crazy stuff going on right now at home and around him. He's been having a rough go, and he's been a little under the weather as well. The Branch President and I gave him the blessing last Sunday, and he said that literally from that moment on, things have been going smoothly for him. He actually spoke about in in church yesterday. Pretty cool.

Our companionship is doing well. Elder Mandla is a boss. We get along no problem, and I think we'll have a chill rest of the transfer. Also, yeah, I think it's finally starting to get cold. We went to Auschwitz again today, and it was a misty wind the whole time that kinda froze us up a bit. That being said, it made it perfect conditions for Auschwitz.

I actually had an idea for a possible present. I was thinking about getting a waterproof coat. It doesn't have to be warm, just waterproof for the snow and rain we've been having. I don't need it right now, but that would be pretty cool for Christmas? I could either grab one myself here or whatever. Either that, or I was thinking about getting a good Polish dictionary. I've had a pretty good one so far, it's a hand-me-down, but I think it might be past due. It came from Elder Vance who got it from his trainer, who got it from his trainer, who got it from his trainer. Pretty old. There's a sweet dictionary that comes in a set for English to Polish and Polish to English, but it would cost like $100 in American money. Either one of those would be awesome!

Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

September 12th

Hey Mom!

You caught me! We were actually in Kraków today, just doing some sightseeing, so it's a late email day for me. That was fun though. We also went through a place that sells some really cool souvenirs, and I think I might try to pick some stuff up and send it home. I remember last year Nema was asking if there were Polish nativity scenes and Christmas ornaments, I found both, so I might try to do that as well.

Haha, soccer season is back on. Ever since Elder Park went home, I haven't played soccer and I'm starting to miss it already. I'll get started again soon so I can take Luke on, and then he can have a go at me in ping pong.

Our week was pretty awesome. We've been doing a lot of work for the branch lately. The BP has us trying to find less actives, according to the 15 year-old church records. Basically, most of them had already moved like forever ago, and we knocked on one person's door, who had apparently been dead for 9 years. Awk. That would explain why they haven't been coming to church.

We also had quite a few meetings with some of our people this week. Our investigator working towards baptism is pretty much set to do it before I leave Kato. Unfortunately that could mean all the way til Oct 24, but as long as I'm here for it, I'm happy. One of our other guys is doing really well. He's the one who's too young to get baptized cause he's 16 and his parents don't approve, but he told his parents pretty much to back off this week. Haha, it was cool too, cause they went to the States for a while, and they were in Utah. Saw temples and stake centers and everything. He said he couldn't even find a Catholic church if he tried there.

Also we were in this city outside of Kato looking for more of Mandla's fam, and we had no dice, but there was this old lady who was like so old that she couldn't take care of her dog, so it was just in this nasty, dirty cage. So we took care of her dog. It was fun.

I think that's pretty much it for this week. Next week should be fun. We might go to Auschwitz again (noooooooo), and also we're gonna have zone conference, so we'll see Pres. Should be cool.

Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

September 4th

Hey Mom!

Sounds like you guys had a good time in AZ! Haha I'm glad the Y won, even if they made it closer than it needed to be again. I guess that's not a good way to start off the season though. Even with the new coaches, we're still choking in the second half haha. 

So Noah's already done with club huh? Haha I guess I couldn't expect much, now that he's on varsity. Even freshmen year we spent all of season at home. I think we mighta gone out of town on Thanksgiving though. I guess that gives me less to be jealous of you guys for though over here:) Maybe the tides will turn next year when I'm home. You'll all stay in Cali for the holidays for basketball, and I'll go from Provo to Mesa and Portland for the holidays by myself haha.

I'm glad you enjoyed the ping pong matches and the shirt burning. You might not get much more of that in the future, my district is terrible at ping pong, and you kinda only hit year mark once haha. And as for it taking a long time, the shirt was 100% polyester, and it was wet cause it rained that night. Not my fault.

Things are going well over here for us. We actually had a pretty insane week I guess I'll start from the beginning.

So Thursday we went out to a city a little ways from Katowice. Elder Mandla's got family that traces back to this area, and his dad sent him a few addresses of people from some old records. Well, we checked out one of them. The house belonged to this lady who was writing to his grandpa in Australia. They had been schoolmates since 3rd grade. She recognized Elder Mandla's face, because she had TONS of pictures of his dad and they look alike. It was insane. We talked to her and her granddaughter that night, and they fed us, and this week we're gonna go back and visit with her son and his family. Crazy stuff.

Then we had a meeting with an investigator on Sunday, who we've been meeting with for a while. He's had all the lessons, so we watched some of Monson's talks and talked about the priesthood and the restoration and stuff like that. He told us that he knows everything about the church is true, and that 100% he'll be baptized, BUT HE STILL WOULDN'T SET A DATE! Hahaha I was like "NOOOOOOO" but it's still really cool. He's definitely ready to become a member of the church.

Later that day, we were at the chapel, and this guy shows up toting a bag full of food. He looked really familiar, and I couldn't figure out why for a while, until I remembered that he got exed a while ago. He wanted to feed us, and then he just started sayin all this crazy stuff and we were like, what the heck is going on. All in all a pretty weird day. 

Overall, we're doing really well right now. I've never had so many consistent investigators before.

Haha, I think it's a little early to start thinking about Christmas, but if you're trying to get stuff together, I guess food is always fun. I can't really think of anything else right now, but I'll let you know.

PS, my instrument run hasn't stopped with the recorder. I picked up Elder Park's ukulele that he left here and it's actually pretty easy. I've got Somewhere over the Rainbow, I'm Your's, and You Belong with Me pretty much down. Ballin.

Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

Reunited!!

The original 5!! It only took a year for the MTC group to be back together and according to Logan it was epic❤️

Pre-dangerous train track shirt burning!!

One year!!!!!!!!!

Hey Mom!

Haha, year mark is finally here! It seems like it's going slower for me too. I think that's probably what happens when you start telling everyone that you've been out a year about 2 months before you hit the date haha. Luckily it's way easier to say "I've been in Poland for a year" than like a year and a half or 17 months or something like that. So now I'll be saying a year until it becomes 2.

Training is going pretty well, Elder Mandla and I get along really well. He's putting a lot of effort in on the language, and he's not afraid to talk to anyone. Good guy. We can also bond over our mutual love of the beach and the ocean. I'm learning some Australian vocab myself.

Glad to hear that you're enjoying your calling with the YW. IMO, it doesn't beat scouts, but I guess, if you're happy, oh well. You couldn't avoid being around girls for your whole life.

The BYU game should be really fun! I miss watching sports a lot. Apparently the Poland VBall team is coming to Kato in a few weeks, and I really want to go see the game. It would make for a really sweet Culture Night haha. Also, who are the new coaches? Is Bronco still hanging around?

So this week was pretty cool for us. We spent the first half taking care of Zone Training, cause it was hosted in Kato. That went pretty well. All in Polish, but our zone is pretty young now, so a lot of the newer guys needed some help. I guess things are a little different now, I used to be the little guy that could sit quiet for the whole meeting. Not anymore. I had another interview with President Turek after. That was cool. He pretty much just told me a lot of his old mission stories. He's a funny guy. Also he said I was making "Impressive progress with the language". So I haven't given up on that hour of language study after all. You've got proof haha.

We met some cool people this week. One old guy that wants to meet with us. According to him, he's "a sure shot for the Nobel Prize in poetry". I guess we'll see the next time they start handing out Nobel Prizes, but for now I'm a little skeptical. At least he wants to meet!

Our investigator who's been coming to church is planning on getting baptized next month. That's good news. It took a while, but I'm pretty sure he'll make the date. 

The shirt burning was pretty cool. We just went out to some train tracks by our apartment and did it there. Yes, we were watching out for trains. Elder Mandla speaks during the video, so you'll hear the accent haha.

Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

 

Wildlife!

That is not a carrot stuck to that window! The wildlife in Poland is CRAZY😂

August 22

When he isn't teaching or studying.....😜 A return to Kraków means he gets to visit his old "friend"! That ping pong table was a labor of love😂

August 22nd

Hey Mom!
Sounds like you guys had a crazy week! I'm glad the Jeep (and Noah) is OK! At least he knows, from experience, what to do in that kind of situation!
Tell Luke Mr Escobar isn't all that bad. He likes to take the eighth graders to the weight room and play sports all the time. 
Also it sounds like the missionaries in the ward are pretty good! We got the almighty APs, someone's gotta get baptized now.
So our week has been insane, but good! On Tuesday I was working with the other elders in the city, then on Wednesday, I got my trainee! Elder Mandla! And even better, he's from Brisbane, Australia! Accented and everything. So I've been showing him the ropes. His Polish is... not the best, but he's going hard on studying the language. Making big steps already. Pretty impressive for a new guy. He also has a really good attitude about the work, and he's fearless. Couple that with the fact that he likes to surf, and I think we'll get along just fine.
I also got to see all the guys from my MTC group on Wednesday. That was really fun. We got a good picture too.
Not gonna lie, me being the oldest is making me feel pretty good about my Polish in Katowice right now. Haha, I remember being around all these guys around the year and a half, 2 year mark for the longest time. Now I'm the old fart, and it really doesn't feel like it.
On Sunday we were able to meet with one of our investigators again. He's really thinking about baptism right now. It's been hard to get him to commit to a date, but he's the type of person that, once he's got one, he'll stick with it. Cool stuff.
This week should be really cool, we've got a wedding to go to! The branch president is getting married, and we're all invited. Should be fun.
Year mark is this week! Can't believe it!
Love you Mom!
Elder Haskett

August 16th

Elder Park is on his way home!So long for now......

August 16th

Hey Mom!
I can't blame you for being obsessed with the Olympics, haha everyone here is too. I heard Michael Phelps did something or other but that's about it haha.
Crazy that school is starting already, I remember when everyone was getting around to it last year. Also I'm sure Noah will do fine at tryouts, the 2 hour cram session that he'll probably be taking on the driveway to get ready will be enough haha.
Glad to hear Charlie and Hunter did well, I'm not surprised really. Also, I don't know if this sounds prideful but in my mind our Priest's quorum was always the stripling warriors haha. We're awesome.
So, this week was pretty crazy. First of all, our exchange. It rained THE WHOLE TIME. This is no exaggeration. Usually Poland rain is kinda like Hawaii, minus maybe 30 degrees at a minimum. It starts and then 15 mins later it stops or turns into a light mist. Not this time. For 48 hours straight we were rained on. It actually started in Kato. As we walked to the station to catch a bus, rain. A lot of rain. Even with umbrellas we were soaked. Shoes were full, pants were drenched. It didn't help that some guy drove his van through the gutter and nailed us with a pretty spectacular fishtail. That happens sometimes. But yeah, same thing in the Krak. We had no lessons scheduled, so that meant a lot of contacting in the rain. We had a good time though. Me and Vance teamed up. We carried a drunk homeless guy about 50 yards to get him out of the rain. We tracted into a naked old guy. Full naked. Accidentally stepped on a bunch of snails. The works. All in all, we got about 5 hours of contacting and I think 8 in tracting, over the course of 2 days. New record.
Most importantly, I got to play on my old ping pong table again. That's a real win. I sent some videos of Park and I playing, they're pretty long, but I think they illustrate our rivalry pretty well. For the record I won 5 games out of 6 that day:)
So other than that, this week was pretty quiet. We got like 3 online referrals, and I don't think that's ever happened to me before.
So, transfers: I'M TRAINING! It's going to be awesome. We'll pick up the little guys on Wednesday this week. I haven't met him yet, don't know any names, but I'm pretty excited! Also, I'll be staying in Kato this transfer as District Leader. This upcoming transfer could be a doozy, 10 weeks. I kinda wanted to move cities this time, but it's cool. I'm the only elder that's going to know the city, so if I had left, we mighta had problems haha.
I picked up a new pair of shoes. That's probably a good thing, cause I'm going into Warsaw this week, and I mighta looked a little like a hobo in the old ones. This last week of rain definitely sent off the other pair of shoes on a high note. At the same time, Elder Park and I got some matching comp pants. They're pretty rad.
So Elder Park is gone now, on a plane as of 6:30 this morning. I'm gonna miss him, but this transfer should be fun. I'm the oldest missionary in the city! Wish me luck!
Love you Mom!
Elder Haskett