We sometimes forget how cool it is that Gdańsk is a port city on the Baltic and that many people make it their vacation destination. Some evenings after our classes or assignments we find a new place to see the sea and it never disappoints.
Elder & Sister Schroeder (West Valley, UT) will complete their two years next month and we spent part of a day showing them around the city. It made us re-appreciate where we live, realizing weeks would be needed to see all there is to see. We're blessed to be here.
In this part of the city center you can see the tallest, brownish building which Sister Bridge affectionately directs people to as "the ugliest building in Gdańsk" where we have our chapel on the 8th floor. Makes it easy to find. Beyond that and to the left you can see a cool bridge (another one, not the one behind the camera) out by the port area toward the sea.
You can see the derelict derricks from this bridge in the middle of the old shipyard. Here Lech Wałęsa and many of his 25,000 friends refused to work until they could have a conversation with their bosses (the government) about improving conditions at work, which led to a movement, which led to Solidarity, which led to martial law, which led to resistance, which led to the end of communist government in Poland, which led to the end of the Soviet Union.
I wish I had a segue to these pictures, but you'll just have to switch gears with me.
Saturday was one of those missionary paydays. Natalie, wife of Mateusz, had her baptism day. Our crew of missionaries, our mission president and his family, and Natalie and Mateusz and baby girls hiked along the blustery Baltic beach to find a potentially private spot for the ordinance.
This view of their cutie-pie, Bohdanka, I think is metaphorical.
My hair is fine, I don't know what the sisters (Bridge, Gornichec, Memmott) are complaining about.
Of the elements in this photo, the churned up water, the blackness of it, the elders needing to get close enough to hear and witness the ordinance, the legs whiter than the wet shirts, the joyful embrace of a husband who just used his new priesthood to perform a saving ordinance for his wife; of all these, my favorite is the reflection.
5 comments:
I'm welcoming the tears. What a lovely post. Thanks for setting the tone for the week.
This is Randy Gibbs, not Cindy because I have no idea how to get my name in this blog posting thing. I am so low-tech but love what you share with us from Poland. How sweet the joy is when one soul" accepts the gospel even though millions in the same city have no interest, or so they suppose. NO wonder Alma wanted to have the voice and trump of an angel to declare what we know to be true and to help save them from sin, old traditions, false beliefs and the world in general. I often reflect on the faith of such souls who come into the kingdom with all of its requirements and do it gladly because it's true. Have you ever considered standing on top of the ugliest building in the city and doing the Samuel the Laminate thing? Of course you'd need a 200 mega-watt speaker system and Elder Holland but it's gotta be an idea worth trying. Love you both. Shave a good week. Keep us posted on the wedding plans for Tip.
Cool and well written as usual. Which one of the yachts belongs to the church? 😊
You are correct that you hair is fine. And getting finer and finer and.....
It's not often you have a bridge in front and behind the camera.
You may have mentioned this before but what does Gdansk mean and is there any history behind the name?
👍👍👍👍👍
Hahaha! So true about my hair. Mateusz was interested in pictures of us when we were young missionaries. I sent him a couple and he was kinda shocked I had hair, and red. Sigh...but see Leviticus 13:41 and what Jesus himself said in Luke 12 and again in Luke 21.
As for the name Gdańsk, it apparently comes from the old name of the river flowing through it, Gdania. During times of German governance it was germanized to Danzig, but today using that name gets people in a bad mood. 🤨
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