What's inside

If there are things out of the ordinary, I try to share those rather than our daily routine of being blessed to serve in Poland. I could tell you the schedule of our days and how we fill them, but I know I don't find that amusing or even interesting, so you wouldn't either. I'll remark (again, probably) with happiness that we don't follow the white handbook like we did (should have) 37 years ago. Our church leaders must've figured out that there wouldn't be a senior couple serving their second mission if that were required. They must also realize that if we ain't got the wake-up-stay-busy-go-to-bed figured out by our age, we won't.

All that to justify the pictures I've chosen to share this week.

While driving between cities we had noticed, more than once, a picturesque city on a hill next to a bend in the river and so decided on p-day to find it. It turned out to be much prettier from a distance. The city itself was run down when we got to see it up-close on the inside. 

I guess that's often how some things and people make an impression on us.

This view made me think of Symbiotes (like Venom) taking over this very old, very beautifully restored, very brick castle. It turns out you can rent rooms here which might make you feel regal, if you could sleep knowing how many people have lived and died there.

I hope this picture serves for your weekly bridge. Again, no shortage of bricks here. The arches make nice picture-frame setups. This is a church, which I think is remarkable.

Jean went in to check out the inside and walked in on a funeral. No pics.

The places and structures are indeed interesting, but really it's the people that have the most lasting impact. 

This is what our Sunday evenings look like, usually with a couple more from the branch, but we love being with all the exceptional young missionaries (Elders Stewart, Long, Sisters Memmott, Emett). Sister Memmott kept her birthday secret until after meetings on Sunday, but she got found out. In this picture Jean is saying "Hurry and take the picture Elder, the wax is melting on the cake!"

I adjusted the camera for several more seconds to heighten that emotion.

We traveled to another city, Szczecin (the missionaries call it "Sketch-in"), a 5-hour drive to the west of us, right on the German border. Elder and Sister Williams (Bountiful) serve there with one pair of Elders. Elder and Sister Womack joined us also. The six of us took time to visit a Slavic and Viking village that has been recreated on an original site dating from circa 1000. 

Elder Williams serves as the branch president in Szczecin but his main assignment is as an area auditor. We traveled so I could audit his branch, which was interesting to audit the auditor. Sorry they got cut out of this selfie a bit. In appropriate auditor fashion, he acted as if he didn't hear any of my sharp witticisms about financial processes. 

One of the devices they used in medieval audits was this chair. At that time it wasn't so much about identifying financial malfeasance as it was about identifying witches. 

Sister Williams, a nurse, reminded me about my tetanus booster status as I was sitting down to try the comfort of the thing, so I chose not to. At the village they also had a guillotine and an iron maiden (Excellent!)  

Winding up, I'm sorry I don't have any profundity to finish with. Please be assured that we did feel the Spirit many times in our service and study this week.

I just have one missed opportunity to share. About halfway home from our drive to Szczecin we stopped for dinner in a pretty city, surprisingly large for being out in that part of the country. We found a great restaurant and checked the trusty Google maps also for points of interest. As luck would have it, this attraction had a stellar 4.5 star rating.

Regrettably, it was already closed so we didn't get to see what kind of crap they have in there, which they must value from the tightness of their security. But, you can see the grass around it was exceptionally lush.

The sign is an abbreviation, but it says "Museum of Municipal Water Supply and Sewage" 

By the numbers

Not that you could guess our PIN or screen unlock codes or anything, but 8-8-60 is nonetheless important in our family. It's so easy it leaves me no excuse to remember to celebrate Eva Jean's arrival on this planet. If you didn't notice, it happened this week.

A strong young couple in our branch, Czarek & Lizzie, and our Gdańsk Sisters surprised her as we arrived at the chapel before English class with a beautiful cake and decorated cookies and singing. The birthday song says something like 

"100 years, 100 years, may she live for us 100 years"

For our zone conference this week we drove to the city of Poznań which has one of the most picturesque market squares. We got to spend the evening prior with the Womacks (Vancouver, WA) who serve there and also have the assignment, like us, to help with YSA in Poland. They're a lot of fun and it's always cheering to commiserate share uplifting stories together.
Painfully, Elder W had to get his knee fixed recently. Thus he can't wear a tie. 

I think we did a 1000 piece puzzle of this once.
It's so pleasant to eat outside in a place like this.

(I have to add that our steaks and ribs and desserts and tip came to $48! For two!!

[Did I say before I LOVE Poland?]) 

Because we took our car to Poznań we drove our 3 Gdańsk Elders home instead of their riding the train. Though the company during the ride was superb, those three were pretty miserable for 3.5 of the 4 hours. I pushed our little car as much as I could to spare them unnecessary misery. After eyeballing the "kilometers to empty" for the final hour and dropping them off at their apartment, we coasted into the gas station Saturday night, feeling relieved and blessed that I didn't have to make Jean push.

Note the number at top center. 1 km to spare.

A kind man attends almost every sacrament service on Sundays. He's always pleasant and has been coming for years. His WofW challenges make him very frail, but he says it's too late for him to quit. He struggles to get by but every week he brings us a little bag of Polish apples. Yesterday before the meeting he pulled out a 20 (equal to $5). He said "I want this to give for poor." I said, "I know what to do with that." He said again, "For the poor." I told him I understood and put it in my pocket.

As mentioned before, on Sundays we help serve soup to the homeless with a lady (Ola) and her friend (Jurek) who have organized and done this beautiful service for over three years. They also have medical volunteers there to help with the folks' ailments. After things got going yesterday, I felt the 20 in my pocket and had a feeling to give it to Jurek, telling him how I had obtained it from an unexpected donor. 

He said, "The medical staff just now asked me to buy some supplies. It cost exactly 20." 

Quotidian

Made it to August, spending much of our time preparing for September. There's lot's coming up next month and it turns out we won't be at home in Gdańsk for almost 4 weeks in a row.

We're planning a Poland Young Single Adult conference for the end of September, which takes a lot of coordinating with our two countywide young adult leaders in far-flung cities and the other senior couple in the city of Poznań. It's challenging to pull it all together when we are so separate, but amazingly, it always seems to work out at the end. We also have a conference for the senior couples early in September, which will be in the far south. In between those two conferences we have the wedding of Alexander and Katelyn. It's tough for us to help from so far away, but Jean is working on the flower concepts already so she can put them together quickly when the time comes.

So that's boring, I know. Let's see what we have in pictures from this week to add some interest...

Here's a bridge picture for the week. Sister Bridge and Elder & Sister Williams (Bountiful) apparently deeply concerned that I've gone over the side into the castle moat.

Elder Williams performs local unit audits, so they came into town to straighten out our branch's procedures. Fortunately the branch president and I retained our membership, for now.

Here's a fairer picture of this delightful couple we got to spend time with after slogging through financial records.

The castle Malbork in its picturesque setting along the river.

One of the churches that spring up in small towns to surprise you.

One evening we drove to the countryside-seaside and visited this charming lighthouse. As luck would have it, we arrived not long before closing for the day, being the last visitors that day. As we ascended the final flight of stairs to the top a lady was scrubbing the floors. Thus we actually got to witness, firsthand, lighthousekeeping.

(lighthouse keeping; lighthouse housekeeping; lighthouse light housekeeping)