Jiggety-jog

Three weeks ago we joined the other 4 old missionary couples serving in Poland for our semi-annual conference, yes, we'll call it "conference" because we did indeed confer with each other. I think it's the Church's ploy to keep us from revolt. It would be more proper to call it a retreat. We retreated into the mountains of southern Poland to Zakopane and spent the weekend together enjoying the beauty of that resort town and regaling each other with stories of our various little branches in the vineyard. 

It was revitalizing. Somehow it's helpful to learn that others are doing good in the circumstances they're in plus it relieves some of the isolation we feel being separated by hours. Besides the ten of us seasoned folk, we enjoyed hiking and eating and receiving instruction and inspiration from our mission president and wife, along with the three of their six children who are in Poland with them.

Impressive that such old people could climb to the top of this mountain ridge that forms the border of Poland and Slovakia.

Until you see how we got to the top.

Getting 10 strong-willed people of experience going in the same direction, whilst each is overtly trying to show consideration for the others at the same time, made for some lighthearted tug-o-wars over which ice cream stand to try or which restaurant to stuff ourselves at.

See some of the hardships of senior missionary life?

I feel something like guilt for what I share after that. There's no easy segue to the heinous scenes memorialized at Auschwitz-Birkenau. It's not possible to relay the impressions one gets from a visit there. 

The infamous sign (Arbeit Macht Frei) mocking those who were imprisoned there before their certain death decries the irony of the efficient systematization of the camp's gruesome function. The exhibits did not need pictures of the awful sights you've seen in documentaries, rather the artifacts belonging to real individuals tell the story of thousands upon thousands.

I've said before that the Polish people are great at rebuilding, given the many wars they've been the battleground for. They have a saying that a Pole works with his sword in one hand and a brick in the other. One city that is a beautiful example of that civic rebuilding is Kraków. 

 It's central market square is stunning in daylight or moonlight.

 I chuckle at how, despite our denial of it, we inevitably fall into stereotypes. Evidence that I'm not the only husband who would rather sit outside the shops and wait, all day if necessary, rather than ooh and aah over every possible purchase, then oh and ouch over every złoty spent. 

This is what our five wives saw when they had finally visited every single shop in this town.

(We're sitting on a bridge, that's a bonus)

Back to our timeline, as I said, this started three weeks ago. After our senior conference we stopped in Kraków to check a couple of missionary apartments (sisters-neat but quick to say they could do better; elders-gross but proud of how much better it is now). 

The next week we caught a plane out of Warsaw to SLC. It was a sweet, though short reunion with our family. Tip and Katelyn were married in Salt Lake and all we can say in this limited space is that it was wonderful. The ceremony was beautiful, full of promise, and eternal in content.

After packing all we could into our short time, we boarded our plane last week from SLC to Warsaw and into the middle of our Fall YSA conference there. We spent time with these young people who really try to be strong because they are doing it, pretty much, on their own. The group was small, about ten from all of Poland, but they are truly exceptional.

Last night, Sunday, we arrived home again, home again, back to Gdańsk. I'm reflecting that we call this being home. As in the saying, "Home is where the heart is," this is where our hearts are right now. Of course we love and miss our family and friends and our hearts are also "back home," but we really feel this is where our hearts are for another year.

A small note from the temple experience: One of the shushers in the temple cautioned us that when the couple exits the temple we should not do the customary cheer as that can be heard by others inside the building. 

I thought: Should we not cheer the formation of a new, eternal kingdom, joining our cheers with the cheers of all those who have gone before?

The newest Mr. and Mrs. Bridge