Monday, September 26, 2016

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

Monday, September 19, 2016

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

Monday, September 12, 2016

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

Monday, September 5, 2016

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