Just Stewart & Eva: Easter 2019

We hope that you have had an enjoyable and joyful Easter, ours certainly was.

Before that, though, I want to tell you that we've put our emails into a blog for ease of reading and sharing and commenting, if you like.

Just follow this link https://steweva.blogspot.com/

Postings are shown with the most recent at the top with older ones following. You get the idea.

Working backwards from tonight, we ended the day with a Polish Easter dinner. A young woman (19) is being taught by the missionaries and she attends all our meetings and activities. She plans to get baptized, but she hasn't decided she is ready yet. For most young people, attending our church causes a lot of friction within their families. It's not that their parents or grandparents are active in their church, but they hold on tight to that tradition. This girl invited the four of us missionaries to her parents' home for dinner. We were a bit apprehensive that they might say "It's nice to have you at dinner, now our daughter doesn't want to talk to you any more." It turned out to be quite the opposite. We had a lovely meal and pleasant conversation. The father lead most of the conversation and his manner is typical of Polish men, very serious. He told us he respected the young missionaries and us as retired people for taking the time from our lives to serve other people. He mentioned that very seriously several times during our meal. He does not feel a need for religion himself, but he trusts that his daughter and son are wise enough to decide such things for themselves. He said that he did not know anybody who would do what we do for 2 years, whether old or young. It makes him believe there is still good in the world amid all the bad. He also made an excellent observation that he sees that our church differs from the one he knows in that they focus on traditions and ritual, while ours goes deeper and connects with our inner feelings.

FYI, food was a traditional soup made with white kielbasa and boiled eggs, followed by pork roast, duck (my new favorite meat), red cabbage salad, and then lots and lots of pastries. After eating all that and as much of the pastries as we could stuff, they made us some herb tea, then took our dessert plates to give us clean ones to start again with the desserts. It was awkward getting out of that, but their daughter helped them understand that we were just topped up.

Dessert round 2

We saw many families Saturday walking to their churches with baskets of eggs. The eggs represent new life and they take salt to represent the preservation of life. The priest blesses these with holy water and they have them as part of their Easter meal on Sunday. It was great to see so many families together and people taking pans of food on the bus, etc, to grandmothers house or wherever. It's like our Thanksgiving with food and family. Plus all the stores, even the Zabka (like 7-Eleven) on every corner were closed. Love that.

Before that dinner we served soup for the homeless. It was also the traditional soup plus lots of pastries. We do the preparation of it on Saturdays. It was sweet to see the little cakes wrapped individually and tied with a bow for each person. The dainty morsels in their stained hands was a juxtaposition that reminds you that they too deserve an Easter treat and the respect to enjoy it like anybody else.

Before that we had an Easter "munch and mingle" at our branch. We had salads, eggs, and pastries. Are you getting the idea that pastries are a big deal at Easter? It's pretty awesome.

We had two surprise additions at our Sacrament meeting today, the mother of another young woman investigating the Church came with her daughter and a man who had met with the missionaries a year ago but then got sick. Nobody knew these two people previously, so that was nice. Stewart spoke and Jean sang "Did Jesus Really Live Again?" as a solo. We wanted everyone to have the words to the song in their language. We printed copies for speakers of Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Romanian, and English. It's crazy to think that for 12 people we need that many languages and the lingua franca is Polish, of all languages. It's a linguist's dream. 😁

Going back to Friday, we find that visa problems don't elude us even in Poland. We spent much of the day as companions to a sister who had to come back to Gdansk to be sure she wouldn't be deported. Two elders and a sister from her MTC group had to leave the country last month . They are now serving in Chicago and hopeful that after 6 months they can return to Poland. It was great to be with her again. While waiting for her number in line to come up (3 hours) we were able to visit the art museum nearby that, as luck would have it, houses the painting I've been dying to see since we arrived: Memlings The Last Judgment. It was more than I hoped for. It has a remarkable history and survived WWII and many other wars and occupations since the 1400's. Its iconography and their interpretation are interesting to compare to our own understanding.

Sister Bridge pointing out some of the interesting bits in The Last Judgment

Detail from left panel showing Peter's greeting, sentinel angels,

people before being clothed as they enter heaven.

Now skipping back to Tuesday and I'm sorry for this long edition. The elders had an invitation from a community center in their neighborhood to share about America and our church. The people who run the center invite residents to come learn about new cultures. The elders had spoken with them on the street a while back and asked how they could help. They've helped them with flyers and other projects and now this. There were about a dozen ladies there. We had two extra elders in town on exchanges also. They loved hearing about America, asked a lot of questions about our Church and the elders handled it with aplomb. The Elders read some bits from the Book of Mormon and six of the ladies took copies, at which point we ran out and one lady will get hers delivered. Two of them asked if they could attend our meetings. You know the answer to that. It's pretty rare to have such a positive exchange.

Monday, being p-day, we had a chance to visit Malbork castle, about 40 km away. It's the largest brick castle built by the Teutonic Knights and was very impressive. We enjoyed being there with our elders plus the elders and sisters from Bydgoszcz, about 2 hours away and in our district. Do you know what a Hyundai i20 is? Probably not, but we hear that one can hold 8 adults, but that can't be true.