Week 96 (2) - Bialystok Photos

The Murri's are the senior couple in Bialystok, and they work with the Zone Leaders several hours each week. The following photos were sent by Elder and Sister Murri with narratives. Enjoy!

E Wedel is a chocolate shop

 The girl you see in the above photo is Patty.  She is the YSA leader for Poland.  She gave them a language lesson while we waited, so the lunch time wouldn’t exceed the recommended schedule. Here I thought these two were fluent. They were bold enough to ask for what they should improve on.  She told them, but she also said their skills were very good.  My favorite photo is the one below.  It is closer to capturing their happiness.  They get serious faces if they know I’m getting my camera out.  (E Wedel is a chocolate company.)  The background for these photos is in the Rynek.

Some history of Bialystok:

The following are photos of the border between Poland and Belarus.  The sign in the first photo warns not to cross.  About twenty feet down, the fence just ends.  They were tempted to jump over the patch of green that divided the two sides, but they were obedient and did not cross.  The last two photos are of the official crossing point.  The first thing you get to on the Polish side is a Biadronka store.  That is an inexpensive grocery store.  We went in and bought drinks and chocolate for the ride back to Bialystok. 

Today, we will see your boys for a Birthday celebration / possible transfer goodbye meal.  Mini transfers take place on Monday, and we will be out of town.  We are all hoping that nobody leaves!  I think they are also hoping to stay.  Yesterday they brought M over to meet us and teach him in our apartment.  He looks promising, as does B.  I’d love to see them get to finish teaching them.  

B wanted to show how she gets her water and the well works. She does have pipes in her home, but they are broken.  She hauls this water (but not today). She said today was the first time she could just come and enjoy...  “It was like a vacation.”  Here is the village church.  She showed us the gate where she would walk along the path to come.  The door was missing from the gate, and the path looked unused for a long time.  B is 64.  Above you will also see the cemetery.  She showed us where her relatives were buried (at least the ones on the Polish side of the boarder).  We feel that she will love to learn about family history, and may feel our church is different when we talk about that?  Belarus is only 6km away:

The fire was getting bigger as they kept building.  I asked her if it was getting too big, and she said “Let them play.”  She is a warm and kind person. We all had a blast.

B’s neighbor had lots of interesting things.  She said they have “the soul of an artist”.  The shell casings and helmets found supposedly were Russian (according to what I tried to understand):

The first shot is the mechanical part that connected to the flour grinder.  I think the stones from that grinding make up the picnic table in photo 2.  B said they would ride to church in the wagon.  The tree has a scythe in it.  The mission President was trying to describe one in Zone Conference, so I took it’s photo.

Notice the pole with the stork nest on top.  They are everywhere in Poland.

I also have too many photos of this excursion to help B with her country place. It was a wonderful day! This home was owned by her great grandfather.  She also grew up here and came back here to live with her Aunt and Uncle when she had small children.  Her husband was serving in the military at the time.  She loves it here (I would too), but it is too hard for her to maintain now.  Your sons and my husband sharpened the lawnmower blades and mowed the large grass.  She had us build a fire to roast polish hotdogs for a picnic after.  Photos above show ancestors head scarfs, the tile is radiant heat source from the fire.  The ladder is inside her barn portion of the house.  Animals would have been kept there back in the day.  The tree is a huge oak that gives off “good energy”. She made us all lie down on separate beds to feel this energy, and that it is a good place to sleep.  The boys looked uncomfortable with this, but they were good sports.

The branch FHE Picnic:

The upside-down glasses on the picnic table have captured pesky hornets.  By the grin on his face, you can tell it was Elder Hadfield’s work:

Week 96 - Bialystok

Hey everyone!   This week was a good one.  We had quite a number of meetings, and we also had time for some solid finding.

Monday: It was a pretty normal p-day, we played tennis with the senior couple in the morning and got some kebab's for lunch.  There was a market on the main square of the city, so we checked that out.  Had group FHE in the evening.

Tuesday: Weekly planned and studied in the morning, had a meeting with a part-member family with the senior couple, then met with B. in the evening.  Went alright, not too bad.

Wednesday: Met with M. in the morning, which went alright.  We had district council around noon, which went alright.  Did some studies and contacting after that, had a meeting with a potential, and the Łódź elders came over in the evening for exchanges the next day.

Thursday: Met with K., a potential, in the morning.  It was a brief meeting, but we'll meet again with him tomorrow.  We did a lot of contacting, then later on we had a meeting with J.  Wasn't the best meeting, but we'll try to have a better one this week.  The other elders also had a meeting with L., and they said that that meeting went really well, so we're excited to build on that.

Friday: Had a meeting with a potential in the morning.  Did some studies and some more contacting, then met with a former, B.  The meeting wasn't the greatest, she talked and talked and talked, but she ended up coming to church yesterday.  So we'll see where things go from there.

Saturday: Had a meeting with P. in the morning, and that went way well.  We taught the Plan of Salvation, and we felt good about it, that we were able to teach according to his needs, and it was a good meeting. Met with the part-member family again, which was alright, then met with H.  She recently had knee surgery, and we're helping her to prepare to go to the temple in November.  So we're way excited for that.  

Sunday:  Church was good.  I had a Sunday School lesson about the scriptures, and it went well.  We are a blessed people to have access to the scriptures and to have living prophets and apostles, whose words are scripture.  We visited a couple potentials, but they were both busy, so we did a bit more contacting before coming back to finish studies.

And yea, that was our week.  It was a good one, we're looking forward to building off of it.  Hope you all have a great week, we'll talk to you later!

-Elder Hadfield

Week 95 - Bialystok

Hey all!  This week was really good.  Also way fast, as they usually are.

Monday: Played our weekly tennis match with the senior couple and had group FHE in the evening.  It was a pretty normal p-day.

Tuesday: We had the office elders come up for exchanges, which was way fun.  It was a blast doing some more missionary work with Elder Erickson, that guy is a legend!  We worked hard, did a lot of contacting, and it was a great exchange.  Also had a race with Elder Erickson to see who could finish a giant triple cheeseburger faster, and I'll have you all know that I won handily, though he'll tell you otherwise.  Had meetings with M. and B., which ended up going alright.  We're hoping B. will start to make progress as a result of that meeting.

Wedsnesday: We had a little bit of a road trip with the office elders down to Warsaw to make it there for MLC.  MLC was way good, we talked about mission work and about loving the people we serve and serve with.  We also are having a new area-wide initiative involving the Book of Mormon comign up, and we're excited to start using that for finding and whatnot.

Thursday: We had district council, which was good.  Also met with J., and that meeting was way solid.  We read the Book of Mormon together, and he likes what he sees so far.  He enjoys what the church has to offer so far.  Also met with H. in the evening and finished up.

Friday: We took a day with the senior couple to go up to some of the cities north of Białystok to visit some less-actives that probably haven't been contacted in years.  We also took our culture night and rode some bikes around one of the lakes up there.  It's a very pretty area up north.  That took pretty much all day, and we feel good about what we were able to do.

Saturday: We had a meeting with K. and H. in the morning, and that ended up going pretty well.  We also did some tracting, which went well.  We had a guy tell us to come back in a month or so.  Also met with a new guy named R. in the evening, which went well.  We'll hopefully meet with him again this week.

Sunday: Had church in the morning and then lunch at the senior couple's place as usual.  We did a finding activity on the rynek in the evening, and there were a lot of people out.  We had a number of decent convos.

So yea, that was the week.  Just want to thank you all for your support, you have been super helpful to me as I serve here in Poland.  I've loved my time here and wouldn't trade it for anything else.  I'm grateful I have a little more time here to serve, looking forward to another great week here.  Love you all, have a legendary week!

-Elder Hadfield