Week 36 - Krakow

Hello all!

     How's it going?  Hope you are all doing well.  This week was my last week in Kraków, and it was a good one.  We didn't have a ton of lessons, but we did have one with our super solid investigator.  That went well.  He came to church again, and I'm sure he will get a baptismal date soon.  Looking forward to hear how his teaching goes.  On Saturday, we got transfer calls.  For at least the next two months, I will be with Elder Toone in Łódź.  Łódź actually means 'boat' in Polish, fun fact for you all.  But I'm pretty excited for this transfer.  Elder Toone served in Mielec two transfers ago, which means we were in the same district for 4 months.  He's a good guy.  I'm looking forward to the time we'll spend together.  I left Kraków today, and that was pretty hard.  I really came to love that city and the people there.  But I'm excited to be here in Łódź and put in some work.  The branch here is really solid from what I've heard, so that will be good.  This week, I read the first four chapters of the Pearl of Great Price, and they are really solid.  There are some good things in there.  It's a good reminder that "[T]his is [God's] work and...glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."  It's pretty amazing that God and Jesus Christ are literally working 24/7 for our benefit.  If you don't feel like you are anything special, think about that.  Anyways, I gotta go.  I've got work to do.  Love you all, and have a legendary week!

-Elder Hadfield

Dinner with the Jeff's Family

Myśleniec

Comments from Jake's companion, Elder Ashworth:

Hello, everyone! It's the start of a new transfer. This morning Elder Groseclose and I helped put Elder Hadfield on his train to Łódź. It's about time President kicked him out of his second home. I'll miss his constant tiredness and how he was always just so hot, I'll also miss how he walked, he has a funny walk and slams his feet down, sounds like an Elephant haha, I wish him all the best in Łódź and hope that he'll find his field. 

Friday we had cleaning checks and we did ok, enough that our apartment is safe to live in. We had an appointment set up with this fella in a town called Myśleniec, about 45 mins outside Kraków, this man is a member that got baptised in Austria but recently moved back and wanted a visit from the missionaries. The pictures of us eating lunch with the little fluffy dog are from this trip. It took us absolutely ages to get out there as the traffic in Kraków is terrible, we were sat on the bus for an hour before we even got near the border of the city, I took my shoes off and had a nap. We got there and the man was waiting for us at the bus station with his bike, this is all the info he gave us, we had no idea who or what we were looking for, in a foreign city, looking for someone we've never seen before, we turned the corner and out of the crowd of people we picked him out, we knew it was him, he greeted us, and we started the few km walk back to his place. We were greeted then by his 1 and a half-year-old fluffy puppy named Czarek. The sweetest thing I've ever met, reminded me so much of our Oscar back home, just in the way he acted and how he thought he was the toughest thing about. Myśleniec is a beautiful place, small and quaint, reminded me of Springhead, hills and small houses, few schools knocking about. I think I played with little Czarek the whole time. Piotr made us food and was happy to have us round. We chatted about his life and we told him about ours, all whilst sat in his front garden. He then walked us back to the bus stop and sent us on our way home. Nice guy, hope we can go out and visit him often, help him out with the work he's doing on his house and in his garden.

Saturday was the day of transfer calls, the day all the missionaries are stressed out, wondering when President will call. I was sure I was staying so I was cool and wasn't expecting a call from him, Hadfield, on the other hand, had his phone in hand all day waiting. To take his mind off things we went to Bobby Burger for lunch, the burgers they have there are solid! he called during our few hours in the park playing footy. We found a bunch of lads and made some 5 a-side teams and played for a few hours, getting to know them, talking to them about why we're here and that, it's a good way to talk to people about our church, at least I've found it to be effective. When they see how I play on the pitch, they think to themselves..how is this guy a missionary, I've gotta figure him out and ask him questions..always works. I love a game of footy! President eventually called and told Hadfield his fate, He's off to the Boat (that's what Łódź means in Polish).  That evening we had another Lucas dinner at his home. Ribs, shepherd's pie, goats cheese and bacon, salad, smoothies, he made the lot!