6 months!!!!!!

The 6 MONTH "Tie burning"

6 months!!!!!

Hey Mom!

Yep, six months as of Friday! Weird stuff, that it's going by so fast. It doesn't really feel like I've been out that long, but I'm not really a baby missionary any more. It doesn't help that there's only 2 groups of missionaries here that are younger than me. I think that's why time goes so fast. So for the 6 month mark I burned a tie. It's a tradition here, so I reserved a tie with a pretty bad stain that had served me well and sacrificed it. Unfortunately, it was a nylon tie, so it didn't burn well, it kinda just melted. All in all failure, but still pretty fun. Maybe I'll send the video.

Dang AJ already got his call? That's awesome, I know he's gotta be totally psyched. That was all he ever talked about. I still remember when I got my call, and he kept saying I'd be going to Boise, Idaho, so I told him that's where he'd be going. I guess we're both wrong! Seems like everyone else is getting to that point where it's time to go. Crazy stuff, I can't believe it's been almost a year since I got my call. By the end of this transfer we'll be getting close to Mother's Day, and it'll be time for another Skype sesh!

I've been hearing a lot of stuff about Caleb's lacrosse! Dad said he's actually pretty good! He's an athletic little dude, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. He's getting big. By the time I get home, he'll be about where Luke was when I left. Weird.

I actually remember that Packer talk you used. He was really good with his analogies and stuff. I think that the whole "only being able to see the croc from the right angle" thing relates to perspective. Honestly, back at home, I really didn't see a lot of bad stuff that was right in front of me, but now with perspective and looking from the outside, it's so much easier to see danger. I wish everyone could understand that earlier (including me haha). If we just listened to people who actually have perspective, teachers, prophets, parents, for example, we'd be able to avoid a lot of problems. But nah, teenagers are actually the smartest people in the world, and we don't actually need any help. That still includes me. I've got 2 more years.

Teaching was fine this week. Nothing really new with Ola. After Monday, she got way sick. She's been out of it all week. We're meeting again today, possibly to give her a blessing. Hopefully she gets better, we're hoping to take her to District Conference (kinda like a mini Stake Conference) this week in Katowice, but if she's still out, there's no way.

Really bummer about Ellie. I remember her well. We always visited for Thanksgiving. I lost my first tooth at her house haha. It must be much harder for them, seeing that they don't have the gospel, or the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. Luckily, that's why it's there. She'll have the chance to hear it again up there, and maybe this time, it'll all work out. 

It's kind of weird to think of how few people actually believe in stuff like that. Even the ones who do, usually don't really believe. There are a ton of Christians that I've met here that say they believe, but in their hearts, there's no faith. It's kinda sad. There's so much comfort in knowing that we've still got an eternity after this life.

So as for stories this week, we had a meeting with President, and he told us that our English class should start dividing into more of a college age group, and an adult group. So we had to kind of separate classes. We were telling people about the new times and this one guy just refused to switch classes. He's easily the worst speaker in any of our classes, and we've tried to kick him out of the intermediate class a million times, but he never leaves. So I went for it this time. I told him he wasn't ready for the class, and he tried arguing with me in English, and it was actually kind of horrible. He just started singing the ABCs at me, and then tried to talk to me about the election and Donald Trump or something, and just would not leave. This was after class on Wednesday, so we were just trying to go tracting, but he wouldn't leave! Finally after about like another 15 minutes, we had to call security. They took him out, and now he's not allowed to come into the building between the hours of 5 and 6 on Wednesdays (in other words: our intermediate class). Problem solved!

Also we were leaving a meeting on Saturday, and right as we walked out the door, we heard this dude start swearing really loud. So we looked off the balcony, and saw this guy just cussing at a cop. The cop told him to calm down and come talk to him, and the little jerk just kept saying really rude stuff. Then he tried to run away, and the cop started chasing him, but he was just slow as possible. All the sudden this random dude takes off like a runningback and tackles this guy, then picks him up and pins him against a wall. The cop came over, cuffed him, and the other dude just went off the other way. Citizen's arrest! It was wild.

I think that's it for the week though! Love you tons Mom! Thanks for the Tagalongs! They are amazing!

Elder Haskett

Chillin' in Wroclaw

Valentine's Day miracle

Hey Mom!

Crazy week to start off a new transfer, as usual! But it sounds like things are going pretty well back at home! Glad basketball ended well, and Luke won a tournament! That's always a fun Saturday. Probably going to move up a lot for next week too. And Caleb is in lacrosse, that's hilarious. I always imagine him so little, but he's getting big, it's weird.

Spence got in to BYU! That's awesome.  Braden keeps talking about how lame it is with everyone gone, and how fun it'll be when everybody gets home from their missions for the reunion of the century.

As for Poland, it got cold again. It was around 30F all week. It snowed again on Wednesday (in the middle of contacting) and then again on Thursday (this time during studies yay). Never fun when it's wet. Luckily I have 2 pairs of shoes now, so one can get wet, and the other can look nice for church, and when President comes to town. He came this week! It was really fun. We had a meeting with him today in KFC, that was really cool. I even got to do a little bit of showing off for President when a Polish dude came asking for money cause we're 5 Americans in suits and I translated a bit for President haha. Goin AP for sure.

As far as investigators go, nothin from Jan and Barb. That being said, we had a miracle! We met this girl on Valentine's Day (I know, great start to a story) who gave us her number. Well we met with her on Tuesday, she was awesome, and then again on Friday, where she accepted a baptismal date! She's already read the entire book of 1st Nephi, and is making great progress. We're meeting with her again tonight, with her cousin, who she invited! Fun stuff. She texted me her analysis (she's a law student) of the BoM so far, and she's like "Oh Nephi is such a good example of keeping the faith and fulfilling the Lord's will. I think we could all learn from him. None of his stories seem ''erroneous' to me, he is just so trustworthy, like you guys". Yeah she used 'erroneous'. Przekłamany in Polish, if you were wondering. Super exciting though!

I'll have to look for Brother King's family in Świdnica, that's just at the end of one of the tram lines near my old apartment! Worth a shot!

So another funny experience. We were out contacting, and we saw this lady getting attacked by a duck. She's freaking out, and my first thought is, "I'm gonna throw a rock at it". I drilled this duck. Then when she was saying thank you, we asked if she wanted to talk about the Church, she was just kinda like "Nah it's cool". LAME.

Well I think that's all from me this week! Love you guys! Oh also, President brought the package from you! Thanks for sending! It's awesome, and the Reese's half-pound cups made for a good couple meals!

Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

Cultural night

Elder Haskett and Elder Torres!

Valentine's day❤️

Hey Mom!

Sick again? Jeez! Sounds like everybody's dying back home right now. I've actually been pretty lucky so far. Elder Torres got nailed a couple weeks ago, but I haven't gone down yet. It's funny because I pretty much never wear a hat, and all the old people keep telling me I'll catch a cold. "Zdrowie jest najważniesze", is a pretty common saying here. "Health is most important". Pretty ironic coming from a country that could out-drink and out-smoke anyone. Either way, I'm still invincible, no sicknesses yet.

My leg hair is coming in quite nicely, thank you very much. 

Yeah, they have Valentine's Day here. It's weird because they say it in a bunch of different ways, like "Dzień Świętego Walentego" which is "Day of Saint Valentine". Then there's "Walentynki", which is just Valentines. I also heard "Dzień Miłości" a few times, which is just "Day of Love". Oh well. On another note, "Dzień Singla" is also a thing today. That's "Single's Awareness Day" for ya.

That's pretty sweet that Noah ended up winning league! And varsity! That's super fun. I remember getting pulled up for volleyball. No playing time at all, but it was still super rad.

The new group that comes into the MTC right now will include the sisters that I go home with. That's kinda weird haha. 

So anyways, you're probably wondering right now why I haven't said anything at all about the transfer yet! Well we actually got our transfer calls early this time. President is splitting our branch! We're going to be the Wrocław and Legnica branch, sooooo I'm staying in Wrocław! Kinda awesome. I'll be serving with Elder Park. He was in my district before, we've already been on a few exchanges. Should be awesome. Then, after 30 days, Elder Torres' comp will go home, and I'll go back to Elder Torres. I'll be the one to finish him off! That should be super weird. This should be a pretty fun transfer though. Good thing too, it's 10 weeks long!

So yeah, other than that, this week was pretty sweet. We met with that one girl from last week. Unfortuantely, she said she wants to do some research of her own before she meets with us again. That never turns out well. We also did a ton of finding activitites this week. Lots of contacting and stuff like that. We also snuck onto a college campus and put up a bunch of flyers for our English class, we'll see this week if it works. Rad stuff haha.

Yeah, I'm making a lot of progress in Polish. It helps because in our English class we have a college dude that I've kinda become bros with. He teaches me Polish slang, and I teach him English slang. Works out nicely. It's kinda fun now that I can understand people when they talk to me on the street. 

So we also had Culture Night this week. We went to the Racławicka Panorama. It was pretty cool, it's like this really famous panoramic painting. It's huge. Then we went to a sister in the ward's house for dinner. Sister Malynowska. She's the one who gave us onion-honey juice earlier. It was pretty good this time though. Duck soup. Interesting stuff.

After that we had some extra time, and we didn't have plans, so we played on the playground. You know, adult stuff.

Yeah so a really fun week to finish off the transfer, and a good transfer on the way!

Also, I went shoe shopping. Ecco's are crazy expensive here! They were all like $100! I found a pair of Lasockis here (they're like pretty nice Polish shoes) for like $40 bucks, and I'm not gonna lie, they're pretty hot shoes.

I think that's it for me though, love you tons Mom! Til next week!

Elder Haskett

English class!!

February rap battle!!

Hey Mom!

Sounds like a pretty crazy week! Good thing sports went well, otherwise the sick week would have been a major bummer!

Well it was a pretty fun week for us. On Monday, I found a real treasure- the entire first season of Avatar! In Polish, too! Probably going to have to send those home, I don't want to have to deal with the temptation of all that for the next 2 years haha.

Well other than that, I picked up my battle ax. It's pretty awesome. I've got a watermelon to chop in half ready to go.

Tough week as far as investigators go. We weren't able to meet with anyone. I'm like 90% sure that a few of them still want to meet, but unfortunately, that doesn't include Barbara and Jan. They disappeared off the map. Not answering texts or calls. Weird.

That did give us a lot of time for contacting though! We found a lot of good people that expressed a desire to learn more! Really fun, building up a teaching pool. At least when it's working, that is. We met a girl named Karolina who tried to set up a meeting with us the night we met! We had English class, but we'll be meeting next week!

Speaking of English class, we taught more slang this week. We're talking a lot about the way teenagers talk, and this week, we discussed phrases like, 'ball is life', 'good vibes', and 'all I see is dollar signs'. We tested them all at the end to come up with their own sentences, and they were hilarious. We waited for about 5 minutes for an answer from an older lady, who proceeded to say in the slowest, most enunciated way possible, "I... make... stacks on stacks?" Awesome.

Also, apparently there's a drinking song about Mormons in this country! It's all in Polish, and I learned it, but there's quite a bit of swearing involved, so maybe I won't sing it for you. We were on a tram the other day and some crazy drunk dudes started yelling at us and then singing the song. We told them we were really impressed with their singing, and the "leader" guy said he was an underground rapper. So I rap battled him. He did it in Polish, and I sang a song in English. It was wild. I love this crazy country.

So yeah, I think that's it for the week. Love you guys! Thanks for sending the packages! Till next week!

Also, this is the last week until transfer calls! Yeah a short one this time around, only 7 weeks! It really snuck up on me! Anyways, that means that I might not be able to email until next Tuesday, but I'm not sure yet. Stay tuned!

Elder Haskett

January 31st!

Hey Mom!

Sounds like another good week back at home! I'm glad the rain kicked in while I'm gone, I don't have to deal with the end of the drought, but maybe when I come home our grass might not all be dead. I might even be able to take a long shower! Sounds like sports are going well. 

Anyways, speaking of the long shower thing... so we lost a little game to the sisters this week... now many of the elders in our district are hairless.

Yep, I shaved my legs this week. Took me about an hour and a half. Gotta say, interesting experience. Can't say I'm gonna do it again, the mission makes it a little better, at least I never wear shorts here. I'm much colder now, though.

That being said, it has gotten a lot warmer this week. It's actually been beautiful this week. All positive temperatures. I think we might have even gotten to 10C. Wild.

President came down to visit Wrocław this week. That was really cool. Had some inspiring stuff to say, got us all hyped to work. You know, President stuff. He committed us all to a baptism next month. I'm convinced that he was inspired to ask, so look forward to next month along with me, some cool stuff is coming. Haha he did mention my shoes though. I committed to a baptism and to shine everyday. It doesn't do much though. I'll probably make a trip to the store pretty soon here. 

Super cool that Braden and Spence are looking to head out soon. It's kinda surreal, once you start your papers. I don't think it really hit me though till I was a few days away. 

Pretty sweet too that you guys are going to the temple often too. I miss it. I think it made a lot more sense in the MTC. That being said, I don't think I was ever really that confused.  To be honest, pretty much every church and chapel in this country is a lot more confusing, crazy, and traditional than anything that every happened in the temple. I don't think I'd ever heard this before the mission, but most Christians here believe that the Sacrament literally transforms into the flesh and blood of Christ in your mouth. I got into a pretty wild discussion with a lady at a bus stop this week about it. She said our church wasn't Christian because we didn't believe that. I told her that ingesting blood (yes I said 'ingesting' in Polish, just learned it this week) makes you throw up, and she got really upset cause she thought I was making fun of her. Probably not the best defense, but to be honest, she was attacking me and Elder Torres publicly, and I wasn't just gonna sit there and let the Church get trashed, and that was the first thing I could think of. Anyways, yeah, the temple is rad. Can't wait til there's one in this country.

Lastly, pretty good week for me as far as Polish goes. I'm getting the hang of things. I've had a lot of weird experiences this week, so I'm getting stretched in different directions, but it's helping. Gift of Tongues!

I think that's it for this week from me! Good stuff happening here! Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett