Transfer week April 26th

Hey Mom!

So I usually wait until after responding to questions and stuff to talk about the week, but I won't make you wait for the news. Slight bummer, I got transferred after all haha. I'm serving in a city called Katowice (Cat-O-veetsa). The move was rough, all the goodbyes were hard and hauling my bags everywhere was a nightmare. The good news is that I'm with Elder Einfeldt from my MTC district! It was pretty awesome, I've always been around older missionaries, and now we're back together. The interesting news, I got stuck with leadership. Elder Einfeldt and I are Zone Leaders, co-District Leaders, and co-Senior companions. I actually have to do stuff now, haha. Should be fun I guess.

Sounds like you guys had a pretty busy week too! Bummer we got handed a loss in volleyball, it's always to be expected with our program, but we always hope every year that things will change for the better. As long as we win out, we'll at least share league! Of course Disneyland was fun, it always is. I can't wait to come home and be so used to walking around all the time that I'm just the king of Disneyland. 

OK I was already the king of Disneyland, no one can put away churros like me.

But anyways, Ellen sounds like it was really fun! I gotta ask, who was on it? Anyone cool?

Also good that Brenton killed his homecoming talk. Elder Torres was pretty bummed, he doesn't give his for like a month and a half from now. Speaking of which, me writing this means that he's on a plane right now! Crazy!

So yeah, I guess my week. We didn't get to meet with the yoga girl, but the Claw elders are meeting her today. Hopefully things go well. Everyone else is doing fine, I'm hoping when President finally gives in to my begging and sends me back to Wrocław, I'll have some brand new members to meet!

Other than lessons, English was really fun. I met this new guy who's English was phenomenal. We were playing Taboo, and someone got the word "superstition". Naturally I sang the first line of Livin the Vida Loca, "She's in, to superstition, black cats and voodoo dolls", and this dude without a moment's hesitation replied, "Ricky Martin was a legend". I was dying. I'm definitely gonna miss our English class.

Saturday was insane. We had to move out of our apartment into the other elder's apartment cause the sisters kicked us out, we had apartment inspections from the senior couple (passed with flying colors), transfer calls, and then we finished it all off with culture night. That was fun. Didn't make it to the oldest restaurant, incidentally you need reservations, so we hit up another nice place and then the E. Wedel chocolate drinkery. Basically they just melt really fancy chocolate and you drink it. It was like 15zł for like 150ml, haha.

So now I'm here. I don't know much about the city, but supposedly the branch is really cool. I'm probably gonna have to translate for sacrament meetings, which should be interesting. We did walk into a baptismal date! We've got 3 investigators from the old elders, and one is preparing for the end of next month. Also, our Branch President, who's really cool, is getting married next month, and we'll all get to go. I think we've got an exciting transfer in store. Makes sense, I am in charge after all. Co-in charge at least.

That's all I can really think of from my end though! Love you Mom! Have fun this week!

Elder Haskett

Throwback to the MTC

Putting this one in for Blake!! Ward lip sync was this weekend so of course watched all the old videos of years past...fun to watch Logan and Blake together all those years then be in the MTC together!!:)

Ward newsletter April 17th

"Przysięgam uroczyście, że knuję coś niedobrego”

Hey Everybody!

So first things first, I thought I should give you guys a little bit of an update: my leg hairs have all grown back. I figured you were all wondering, didn't want to keep anyone up at night.

Also, we've had some really crazy changes in Wrocław over the past few weeks. I was serving with Elder Park before, and we did stay together a little longer than we'd anticipated, but after about two weeks the switch happened after all and now I'm back with Elder Torres. He's officially one week from his last day in the country as of today, that's a fact I know because he's not afraid to remind me of ("I have less days than you have months, haha"). It's been pretty sweet though, I've been helping him get ready for the culture shock that is the US after 2 years. He'd never even heard of hitting the whip before. Also telling him Eminem was no longer relevant, nor had he been for a long time came as quite a shock. I'm not looking forward to discovering I know nothing about what's going on back home anymore. Knowing how the internet works, that's already probably happened.

One downside of the switchback: I'm not working with any of the investigators I was before. It's cool though, we've had some pretty sweet miracles since being back together. We're meeting with a few more girls that we've found through English class, and, strangely enough, Elder Torres' knowledge of yoga poses. 

Guess I should explain that. We invited a pretty cool girl to Church, who said she couldn't come because she "does yoga, all Saturday and Sunday". That was definitely a new one for me, but Torres talked about the yoga he did in high school, one thing led to another, and we were set up for a lesson!

So yeah, things are going pretty well for me right now. Unfortunately we've got another transfer coming up, which means everything is about to change again. Who knows, maybe next week I'll be training in another city I can't even pronounce. I really hope I get to stay here in Wrocław. President has been calling it Miracle City lately. The elders have been calling it the Turnt Town. 

Elder Haskett

„Koniec psot”

April 17th

Hey mom,

So yeah, this week was pretty sweet for us. We've had a few meetings, both with yoga girl and this other girl from our English class. Things are going pretty well, so we're thinking about dropping a baptismal invitation this week. Good timing too, it's the last week of the transfer already! This one went by really quick, which was surprising cause it was 10 weeks. Other than that though nothing too crazy happened this week. English class was fun, we tried a couple new games. I basically decided to try everything possible until I find a game that makes sense for Polish people. Seemed like I nailed it this week. We put like 100 random English words in a hat and had people draw them and then try to describe them in as few words as possible. Unfortunately our oldest student happened to draw swag, and then dictionary defined it as pirate's treasure. We had no idea what was going on, and a few of the younger dudes in the class thought I was messing with them and kept guessing "booty". Close enough.

Also found a pretty sweet deal on short sleeve shirts. You probably saw the charge this week, I got 4 shirts for like $60 at a pretty nice store. It was awesome.

So I'm not really sure what else to ask for for the upcoming birthday haha. I think you already know that food is always welcome. Other than that I can't really think of anything haha.

I haven't gotten Nema's package yet, I haven't had a chance to meet with anyone from Warsaw in a while, so I'd guess that the next time someone comes to Wrocław I'll get it!

One request! This week is culture night, and we were thinking of maybe visiting the oldest restaurant in Poland, which is also the oldest restaurant in Europe! Only thing is that it's a little expensive, like 80-100zł for a meal. Not sure what the exchange rate is right now, but it's probably like 20-30 bucks? Is that cool? Let me know by the end of the day and I can check!

That's it for me though! Most likely it won't be til Tuesday til the next email. Love you, and cross your fingers that I don't transfer haha!

Elder Haskett

Letter to grandpa B! April 10th 2016

Hey Grandpa B!

Sounds like your Mission Reunion was pretty sweet! And I know just how cool reactivation can be! There are a ton of less-active and inactive members here in Poland, and it's really special to meet with them and see that "spark" rekindled. There was this guy named Łukasz in my first city, and when I got there, he had started coming back to Church for the first time. He seemed so happy. The branch was really strengthened by this too. While it might not be as visible in a place where the Church is so strong like St. George, it's a miracle no matter where you are.

But in the end, it really all does come down to agency. A lot of missionaries here in Poland always look to agency as an excuse, but that doesn't change depending on where you are either haha. Everybody has their own choices to make, but they can't make those choices if they don't know how! It's our job to give them the best possible chance to make the right choice, and that comes down to strength of testimony and teaching all the doctrine in a loving manner. When you do that, you give people everything you need, and then you just have to hope that they'll listen to the Holy Spirit telling them that it's right.

Problem is that they've also got a lot of opposition. There will always be whispers saying that they can't do it, or it's too hard, but when they have the right intentions and work, they'll know that they have God on their side. When they make that recognition, it's life-changing. There are so many members here who have never forgotten their missionaries for helping them to find God in their own lives. Some of them had to make some big changes, but everyone is so happy that they did. I just hope that can happen for some of the people that I've already met. It'd be so sad to see them come this far and then give up. Guess I've just gotta keep praying!

Love you Grandpa!

Elder Haskett

April 10th

He must live near or just love this park!! It's the second time he's sent a pic on the "horsey ride"!!!!! At least this time he's not in a parka!!:)

April 10th

Hey Mom!
Brazil! That's insane haha. It's funny, it seems like everyone is heading South for their missions, just like I was expecting. Me and Kai got booted over here instead. The other missionaries will all have their own secret language. Even Spencer will be able to understand most Spanish with Portuguese. Also way weird to think I'm the oldest missionary. I remember being in the MTC giving advice to the other guys, feeling all wise and stuff, but I only had Blake by like 3 weeks haha.

Sounds like Carp was a success, especially for you. My guess is the rain wasn't all too bad in a nice camper like that! I guess the beach might not have been quite as fun, but you win some, you lose some.

So on to this week. To start, the weather was wild. On Monday and Tuesday we weren't even wearing sweaters. It was so nice. Then it got rainy and then it got cold, but from what I've been hearing it should be warm again next week, and then hopefully stay that way after that! I might actually have to get some shortsleeves. I wouldn't get them there if I were you, they'll be much cheaper here. I'll be on the lookout. Speaking of purchases though, I had to get a volleyball today. We went to a park and pepper. I was dying, having not played in like FOREVER, so my district finally obliged.

But as far as the work goes, pretty solid week this week! The other elders are pretty much taking over with Ola and Olga, so no more lessons with them for me. They seem like they're still doing well, and I can still text them and see how everything's going, so that's cool. Elder Torres and I have been back on the finding grind. We've got one girl from our English class that we're meeting with right now, and we've kinda had a slow transition over to Gospely stuff. We actually met with her again today, and pretty much talked about the Plan of Salvation for like an hour and a half. That was pretty rad. Then there's this other girl we met on PDay a couple weeks ago. She seemed kinda weird at first, she's Buddhist, believes in reincarnation, vegetarian, flower power, and all that jazz. But on Friday she called and said that she wanted to meet, and we had a pretty darn empty schedule for the day, so we went for it. Turns out she was slightly more normal than I had anticipated. She's met the missionaries before, they gave her an Ensign magazine, and she read the whole thing, got a hold of a Book of Mormon on her own, and kinda learned as much about us by herself as possible. Now we're going to be meeting with her on Fridays, so I guess we'll see where things go from here! Only thing is, she can't come to Church, due to the fact that she "does yoga and Tai Chi all Saturday and Sunday." Definitely the first time I've ever heard that excuse. Also she didn't think we understood what she said in Polish, so she made us tell her what "Tai Chi" was in English. Weirdly enough, it's still "Tai Chi".

Tell Caleb thanks for the fast! It worked! Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett

Carpenteria 2015

Because we are missing him in carp this spring break:(

April 2

Hey Mom!

You might not have been trying to make me feel bad... but you still succeeded. Carp, the BYU game, and Ben Patch? Sounds like a pretty intense week!

Yeah, Dad remembered to email me, don't worry haha.

Sounds like West Ranch Volleyball is doing work. Figures it happens right after I left. Val's been telling me a little about it as well. We'll probably get league this year. I heard we also took the ship in Church Ball?

While I still remember that pizza place by UCLA, you don't have me feeling bad about eating the stuff. I've been on a little bit of a pizza kick lately. I'm not sure if the 'kick' thing is a normal phrase back home or if missionaries just made it up, but basically I ordered pizza 3 times last week, and bought a reheatable pizza another time. No, it wasn't DiGiornos.

This week was pretty sweet. Things have gotten kinda weird as far as meeting with Olga and Ola goes, I don't think that Torres and I will be meeting them anymore. The other elders will take over. So yeah, I got robbed there. But, we still did have meetings this week. As we were leaving the library last PDay, some lady walked up to us and was like "Mormoni!" I was kinda bracing for some kind of abrasive conversation at this point, but she turned out to be pretty cool. She wanted to meet with us. Not sure if she's going anywhere cause she can't come to Church on Sundays cause, "She does yoga, all day Saturday and Sunday". We'll see I guess. We also got a girl from our English class to meet with us for churchy stuff this week. Her name's  Tatiana, and she's pretty cool. We watched Meet the Mormons and gave her a Book and stuff. Ball is life.

But yeah, Olga and Ola are doing pretty well right now. At this point, it might take some time to get either of them in the water, but we've already gone through all the discussions. Now it's all kinda "endure to the end" type of stuff.

Conference was pretty sweet! We've only watched the Saturday sessions because of time differences, but we can watch the rest whenever. They seemed pretty good! It was also pretty sweet, our President Cieleński is the translator for Eyring and a few other guys! It was fun hearing his voice come on!

So, going back to English, we tried 20 questions in class again this week. We've got some new faces who had it pretty much down, but all the people from last time were pretty much as clueless as last time. This one lady, Laura, was up, and so far we knew that it was not alive, ran on electricity, moved, and fit in a fridge. She opted for chair. Darn close.

Polish is going surprisingly well. Lately I've been focusing less on vocabulary and more on fluency techniques and sounding like a native. I think it's working, I've never felt so comfortable. On top of that, I read from the Book of Mormon in Polish only now, and I also started Harry Potter. Whenever there's a classic quote, I get so excited. Even, "Harry, jesteś czarodziejem," was like so much more entertaining for some reason.

So, I've got one last request. Remember that countdown clock you got before I left? Well Elder Torres' family sent him the same one. Unfortunately, he remarks on how soon he's going home quite often, and I'd prefer if when it starts coming to an end for me, that I get as little reminders as possible haha.

I think that's it for this week though! Love you Mom!

Elder Haskett