Week 101 - Poznan

Elder Hadfield with President Turek - conducting Zone Conference

Matching duck ties for these friends who came to Poland together (Hadfield, Erickson, Dossett)

Elders Dossett, Hadfield, Maslowski, Malachowski (office)

Notes on the photos from Sister Murri (Bialystok):

The first photo— I didn’t know he had this hidden talent.  He practiced until other missionaries showed up.  He had come to Warsaw early, with us.  (They helped us set up.)  He was a much better player than the sister who played for Zone conference.  When I talked to him about that later, he said he asked her to play to let her share her talent and have the growth.  I was impressed.

The second photo is with President Turek.  Your son is conducting Zone conference.  He did a great job!

The third photo is during a teaching session.  He also did a great job at that!  This companion is Elder Maslowski.  That all changed after Zone conference, and our loss will be Poznan’s gain.

The fourth photo—Meeting up with his former companion and the AP’s.  Note the tie.  It is about to change to the duck ties.  I think it is the group that came out together wanted matching ties.  The store couldn’t match them, but they did have a variety of colors with the same duck on them.  These are supposed to be great ties that a former investigator sells.  They have been treated with a stain resistant chemical.  

The fifth photo is with his bros.  Notice they have all changed out for the duck ties.

The last photo is Elder Malachowski telling them of a tender mercy they had received. This senior missionary grew up in England, although his parents were Polish.  His father had to flee for his life, when Russia took over.  I think his father and uncle had worked for the secret service??  Elder Malachowski is here, but he can’t get his legal papers to stay, until he can document his nationality.  One piece of information he needed was his mother’s birth data.  On a preparation day, they went out to the town they thought she had been born in.  They went to the church (where that type of birth information is recorded) but the priest was away.  The clerk there said he would have the priest contact them.  They then walked around the church and took several photos.  They crossed the street and saw a large estate or castle structure behind a gate.  The groundskeeper asked them if they would like to come in and look around the grounds.  Of course they did.  After that, he asked if they would like to go inside?  Yes!  The housekeeper showed them around.  Again, they took several photos.  A bank owns this place now, and they run events and seminars in it.  The end of the story is that when the priest called them back, he had the mother’s information.  She had been baptized in that church and had been born in that castle.  The mother’s names they had been using was correct, but in the wrong order.  They got details they needed and photos for family history.  His mother’s father had been caretaker of the castle.

I think he has one more Zone conference before you get him back.  We are not in his Zone anymore, but he said he will be in Warsaw for his departure on a day our group will be visiting.  One last chance to take a photo for you, and one last chance to say goodbye.  

Our departure date is around June 4th.  I’m not sure how it works for us.  We may fly home to our daughters home in Denver for a visit, before we return to Eden, Utah.  We told him we would take him boating sometime, and we teased him that we would like to approve any girl he becomes serious with!

Sister Libby Murri

Week 100 - Goodbye Bialystok, Hello Poznan! Elder Uchtdorf in Gdansk

Monday, September 17, 2018 - Gdansk, Poland:

Branch Member, Elder Hadfield, Elder & Sister Murri

4 h 57 min (499.2 km)

Poznan Elders - Hadfield & Long

Hey everyone!

    This week was pretty hectic, but it was a good one.  We got to go back to Łódź (my second area) for a baptismal interview, which was way good.  We had zone conference on Friday, which went well, I enjoyed it a lot.  We also had a conference in Gdańsk with Elder Uchtdorf yesterday, which was honestly so baller!  I loved it, you could just feel the Spirit so strongly as he spoke, it was the coolest.  We slept over in Gdańsk, then made our way to our cities this morning.  Today is also transfer day, and I'm actually in a new city!  I'm currently in Poznań, and I'm interested to see how this transfer goes.  I'm slightly surprised by the transfer, but it should be good.  I'm with Elder Long, and we are whitewashing, so we'll see how this goes.  That's about all the time I have for this week, but I hope you are doing well and have a good week!

-Elder Hadfield

Elder Hadield and Elder Blau meet up in Gdansk

Elders Hadfield & Maslowski

Week 99 - Bialystok

P-day tennis with the Murri's

Elder Maslowski

Elders Hadfield and Maslowski and Elder Murri - service project at Libert's home

H wanted to fix us crepes filled with a cheese mixture.  They were made with love.

Fixing H's lawnmower

Hey y'all!  

I don't have too much time to shoot this email off before our library closes, but life is good here!  We had a good week, we had a lot of lessons this week and we had some good finding as well.  

We went to Warsaw for a conference on Wednesday, which was good, I love that city.  This week will be another good week, we get to go to Łódź on Thursday for a baptismal interview, then we are in Warsaw again on Friday for zone conference.  We're looking forward to those.  

It's also the last week of the transfer, so we'll work hard to the end and see what happens on Saturday.  Sorry this is short, but hope you are all doing well.  Have a good week!

-Elder Hadfield

Week 98 - Bialystok

Hello everyone!  This week was another good one.  We had a transfer last Monday, and so I'm with a new comp named Elder Masłowski.  We had a good week and have been working hard.  We got some solid potentials, so we'll see if we can make some things happen with them.

Monday: We slept over in Warsaw at the APs' apartment because we were there on Sunday for church anyway, and we had to be there on Monday as well.  We played basketball in the morning with the other missionaries and President Turek.  That was honestly way fun, even thought I didn't play well.  We hung out with some of the missionaries that went home the next day, and that was way fun.  I got to see Elder Dickson before he went to the mission home, which was way sick, we had an amazing transfer together a few months ago.  Elder Masłowski eventually got in to Warsaw, and I said goodbye to Elder Dossett so he can go be an AP, and we came back to Białystok.

Tuesday: Didn't have too much happening on Tuesday, we did weekly planning in the morning, and did a lot of contacting and tracting throughout the rest of the day. 

Wednesday: We had another day full of finiding, which was good.  Also met with the K. family with the Murri's, and that went ok.

Thursday: We had a good number of meetings on Thursday.  We met with M. and read from the Bible together, as well as asked him what he thinks about the Book of Mormon.  He said he believes it's true, and so this week we'll review the Restoration with him and help him understand what that means.  We met with J., and that went alright, he's making some slow progress.  We had a meeting with B. in the evening, and we talked about revelation.  That went well, she committed to pray, so we'll see what happens.

Friday: We did our studies in the morning, and we met with H., a member here.  We were going to help her and mow her lawn, but it rained a bit and we were unable to.  We had a spiritual discussion about temples and preparing to go to the temple, since there is a Poland temple trip coming up.  We also had district council in the evening.

Saturday: We met with the K. family again, and it actually went pretty well.  They made a commitment to read Enos and pray about it.  We did some tracting in the afternoon, then in the evening we met with a new guy, S. He's from Ukraine, and he's way open to hearing about the restored gospel.  Our meeting went well, and he committed to read and pray, and we'll meet with him again this Saturday.

Sunday: We had church, which went well.  We had a really good temple prep class with the members, which helped me remeber how important and how amazing going to the temple is.  It feels like it really has been a while since I got to do that.  We had lunch with the senior couple, which was great, and we did a little contacting.  We had a lesson flake in the evening unfortunately, and we did studies in the evening.

So yea, it was a really solid week.  Solid things are happening here in Białystok, and we'll see what this week has in store.  Have a great week y'all!

-Elder Hadfield

Week 97 - Bialystok

Hey everyone!

Life is good here in Białystok. With the transfer, Elder Dossett returned to Warsaw to be AP.  So that's a little bit of a bummer, I really enjoyed serving with him.  We worked well together and had fun, he'll be a great AP though. I'm staying in Białystok and my new companion is Elder Masłowski.  We had church in Warsaw on Sunday, then chilled there overnight. We played basketball with the other missionaries and President Turek on Monday, which was way fun.  We've been working really hard, and it's gonna be a good transfer.  

Elder Maslowski was trained by Elder Toone, which is cool. He entered the MTC last November, so he's a little younger, and this will be fun.  We've worked way hard the past couple days, and it's going well.  It's gonna be a great transfer.  

Don't really have much time, but thanks for the email, the updates from home, and the help with the other stuff.  And thanks for the birthday wishes and everything. Have a great week!

-Elder Hadfield

From Elder and Sister Murri:

Hello, It’s time for a peek at your hard working Bialystok serving Elders. 

The above photos are taken at H’s home.  She had prepared a treat for us, because we had helped her with a light a few weeks ago.  H was baptized 6 years ago.  She has read the Book of Mormon over 31 times.  She is a happy and faithful woman.  The Elders prepared and taught a lesson to prepare her for the temple.  My husband and I are hoping to take her there in November.  The spirit was strong during this lesson.  Afterwards, we went outside to see if we could improve her 3 wheeled lawnmower.  The handle was also not fully attached.  It is amazing what a few nuts and bolts will do.  The Elders were going to mow the lawn, but it had rained earlier, so she had called that portion of today’s plan off.  

This is a photo I snapped from our balcony window.  We had just had lunch together, and the Elders were “finding” on their way to their next activity.  

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: