Here and there

After a busy week my companion has gone to bed early. This provides two things: 1) Time to stop putting off writing a line or two to you, and 2) A chance to get the bag of chips she's been hiding from me. If you care about either, I'm guessing it's the first.

It's not for lack of events that I haven't written, it's more because of not knowing where to start. So, to the photos...

We and our rental van left home in Gdańsk when it was dark, added young adults at 4-hour intervals, and arrived at Freiberg when it was dark. We planned on a bus for more than 20. The number who could go changed our plan first to two vans, and ended up as one van and a car. 

All I can think of is joy from the trip and from being at the Freiberg temple. 

Five of our eight young people, having been baptized just months ago, learned by experience what it means to be baptized for a dead person.

 "the earth will be smitten with a curse unless there is a welding link of some kind or other between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other—and behold what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect. Neither can they nor we be made perfect without those who have died in the gospel also" D&C 128:18

Our service opportunity allowed us to search everywhere for a leaf that had not already been raked.

"Each temple is a beacon of light and hope. The temple, the House of the Lord, stands as a symbol of our faith in life after death and as a stepping stone to eternal life for us and our families. The temple is a sacred and essential part of God’s plan for our happiness, now and forever." ---Russell M. Nelson

Dresden, near Freiberg and not far from Poland, has been carefully rebuilt in much the same way as our city of Gdańsk.

The old, dark stones contrast the new ones making obvious the painstaking rebuilding effort.

"It matters not how completely ruined our lives may seem. It matters not how scarlet our sins, how deep our bitterness, how lonely, abandoned, or broken our hearts may be. Even those who are without hope, who live in despair, who have betrayed trust, surrendered their integrity, or turned away from God can be rebuilt." ---He Will Place You on His Shoulders and Carry You Home. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, April 2016

And there were bridges.

"Excuse me, we're going to go up on this interesting bridge, will you take our picture on it?" 

I can't fault them for this picture, they did what we asked.

Inspecting missionary apartments gives us a chance to see new cities, such as Białystok (the one in eastern Poland, not the one in The Producers)

There is no want for churches here, just one with authority to perform ordinances and a plan for us to become like our Father.

“Ye shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, declaring my word like unto angels of God” D&C 42:6.

This could've been a selfie if it weren't for the nice man who snapped a picture of us after the Jim Gaffigan show in Warsaw. 

I won't include it here, but he did end up taking a selfie too, "because he's a weirdo."

If I included the picture of the friends and missionaries at our house, you're probably nicer than me and wouldn't react with "Oh, a bunch of people I don't know, eating food. Fascinating!"

We had a great feast, though, and good feelings all around. We hope you did too.

Half of the people it reminded of home, and for half it was their first Thanksgiving. 

They now understand why it's the best holiday. 

Bonus, WE get to relive it for days to come.

"Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul." D&C 59:18-19

Inside and out

Gdańsk branch has been a "mission" branch for some years and recently was included with the other lone mission branch into the Warsaw District. There are two districts in Poland, no stakes. Our first invitation to a district conference was this past weekend. The members in Warsaw opened their homes for travelers. The six members and three investigators who made the trip got a chance to see what a church meeting with more than a dozen people was like. General Conference is just unfathomable; the images and buildings and people are too far-removed. 

Being the only chapel in Poland, it gave a small sense of what our church is like elsewhere, though the purpose of the gym was hard for some to figure. One investigator, on seeing the font said, "I'm going to get baptized before the end of the year." He's been afraid to get baptized in the cold sea. I can't fault him.

The visiting Area Seventy, Elder Cziesla emphasized the need to follow the Spirit as we each minister. Even in small branches where "Peter's telling that story again for the hundredth time" or "There goes Mary again pushing her favorite principle," we need to treat each other with love, even those same six we see every week.

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Gotta admire street performers, even the terrible ones, because they put themselves out there.

This Chopin virtuoso at the Warsaw tram stop did it in freezing weather AND with woolen gloves. 

That was worth a few coins, even from cheap me.

On November 11, 1918 Poland took advantage of the political situation and declared her independence from Germany, Austria, and Russia after 120 years of being divided between those powers. 

Their parades are participatory, everybody walks in the parade instead of watching from the sideline.

We spent the cold and short afternoon of Independence Day with our friends Mateusz and Natalie, (and some kid looking for his gum in the sand).

Gdynia harbor as the sun sets, one of the tri-cities of Gdańsk, Sopot, Gdynia.

The harbor was opened to compete with Gdańsk harbor and has many buildings in the "Socialist Realism" style. These newer ones, however challenge that in what seems to be the "Optimus Prime" aesthetic.

An important reminder that there is no swimming allowed in this area due to yellow submarines.

Walking through the old Gdańsk Stocznia shipyard where the Solidarity movement was born and then shipbuilding died. 

Peering through a broken window at an old and vacant building lighted by discolored glass.

And others we've visited.

Light---more or less

With all the deciduous trees, the various warm colors draw us in as it gets colder. 

Sorry to all you in Utah, we've barely reached freezing temps, it's been a very pleasant and gradual transition into Fall.

The light on the square where we help serve the homeless each Sunday is fading fast. 

It was dark when we finished today and soon we'll be in the dark from the start (3:00)

Couldn't have taken this picture as young missionaries. 

I enjoy reminding the young missionaries that the white handbook does not apply.

But we love walking this road together.

These awesome friends invited us over to their place to celebrate our birthdays. 

Though a month or two late, it was so kind of them.

She prepared a great traditional meal here for us to share in their living room/dining room/weight room/office/master bedroom. 

Halloween is fun, the dressing up, the pumpkins, the gatherings. 

Jean hosted a great party for our English class at the "chapel" and she and the missionaries gave them a good sampling of how we Americans behave on Oct 31. (I hid out in another room)

Their tradition, like others in Europe, centers around Nov 1---All Saints Day.

We were lucky to go with a young member and her mother to the grave of her grandfather. They lit candles, we each said a private prayer remembering the light we've received from those who have crossed through the veil.

I hope you can see how the lighted graves go on through the trees, seemingly forever.

Another day we celebrated with a small meal together on the beach after the sun set on a wonderful, but very cold baptism in the sea. 

Our small group feeling the warmth of the small light we share amid the darkness.

We sometimes feel small, we sometimes feel overwhelmed. Darkness can seem impenetrable.

Candles, whether in jack-o-lanterns or on graves, get our attention only when it's dark.

"And again Enoch wept and cried unto the Lord, saying: When shall the earth rest?

 And the Lord said unto Enoch: As I live...the day shall come that the earth shall rest, but before that day the heavens shall be darkened, and a veil of darkness shall cover the earth;

And righteousness will I send down out of heaven; and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten; ...to gather out mine elect from the four quarters of the earth."

That's the light we're trying to reflect in our small way.