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.

***

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.

Illumine

I can always fall back to pictures when I can't come up with a thousand words. Doing that probably makes it easier on you, too. But, I can add a couple of stories from the last few days, maybe.

We had occasion to visit the old town with some visitors one evening. The rainy day mixed with the early darkness revealed a pleasing ambiance on the old streets.

But the real interest is in the people, mostly the people we interact with. The problem with writing about our experiences with people is that they might not want their story shared. Or the story might be completely different from their angle.

...

Our mission president and his wife are adept, as mission leaders must be, at motivating missionaries. I'm fascinated every zone conference that they come up with new ways to share the gospel while eliminating the repetitiveness that can lead to drudgery. As invariably occurs, we finished our conference this week with revitalized confidence and hope.

We left our elders in Warsaw and we made our 4-hour drive home alone. Being late, we stopped at a roadside hotel/restaurant with an "authentic Polish kitchen." The place was empty, but a bell on the desk got a gal to come from the back room. Sister Bridge used her well-practiced phrase to say "Hello ma'am, do you speak Polish?"

This got a quizzical response, so I quickly corrected it to "speak English" She replied in Polish, "No."

I'm proud (note foreshadowing here) that we made her understand that we did not want a room, only food, we got a table and our dinner ordered, ate and paid for it with not one word of English between her and us. (pride)

We went next door to the gas station to fill up and the guy couldn't understand the pump number I told him. (fall)

The sturdiness of the stairs leading to the apartment we visited made me think of a wet paper plate and I mused how I would explain it when I broke through them. They held out, miraculously. Being the last of us to squeeze through the door of his unlit space, I walked right into our frail host as he held out his hand to greet me. Oh! Hi!

The elders were sharing a spiritual message and after half an hour of earnest attention, grasping an occasional word for some kind of context, I found myself searching in vain for two identical bricks in his kitchen wall. Then marveling that it still stood and also supported those stairs.

He's seen this same wall lighten and darken every day since he left the army, these 39 years.

There are people who stand independent, whose countenance somehow brightens the dark spaces. They reflect light for the rest of us to receive. They don't seem to mind being that kind of different.

There's another story there, but maybe later.

365

It's still uncertain why it was that when we entered the MTC the Monday after October conference last year, full of excitement to be returning to our previous mission land of Finland, things out of our control were going to change our course. After the passage of that much time, there are a few things we do know better, however.

We know we don't know everything. We trust there is One who does. We know that if we do our best to do good, there are multitudinous ways for us to do so. We know that our mutual Father loves His children everywhere. We know that what gives the most meaning to our lives is less about the location, the culture, the climate, and more about the individual people we get to interact with.

It's strange that because our recent reconnecting in-person with our children, family, and friends was known to be short, the connection was more strong. Certainly more intentional.

Correspondingly, for several years I was intensely involved in the logistics of the spoken words at general conference. Days before the conference began I had read and re-read all the talks, some several times. And I often had profound personal impressions from that privilege. Being now removed from that daily connection to the words that are intended to inspire, the 35 messages coming all at once felt like a flood. They also became very cherished.

To you it might have become a worn-out, over-trode theme, Jean and I constantly sharing bridges in pictures. They're intended to remind us that bridges don't exist except to connect and to overcome some obstacle.

We feel your love.

An impressive public works project

Unimpressive bridges also serve their purpose

Serene country setting we happened upon

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

September begins

Gdańsk is a popular vacation spot, with its beaches and history and rebuilt old town. August is the month they have a street market in the old town, this year being the 759th. The event adds a lot of vendor booths on the cobblestone streets, it also adds about twice as many people to the city. We noticed a vast difference in traffic and foot traffic getting to our chapel location during August, it being close to the old town and the main train station. Once the street market ended we noticed a sharp decline in visitors to the city, but with the hot weather there were still loads of people about.

School here starts at the first of September, marking the end of summer and two things have happened overnight: 1) The streets have become nearly void of recreators and 2) The weather has changed from 30°C to 20°. I don't know how the weather knew to coordinate that with the end of summer vacation, but it really was overnight. Now the kids in the neighborhood are outdoors only until the sun sets, and that noticeably earlier, the clothes have instantly changed from short and cottony to full jackets with hats and scarves, and the leaves of some trees have started to gain color. We suspect that by the time we return at the end of the month, the forests we drive through daily will be spectacular.

Return, you wonder? We will travel to Utah for our son Tip's wedding to Katelyn. That's another one of the great perks of senior missionaries vs young ones. (If you are a young missionary who has a son, I commend you). We've received permission to travel home for this event and of course we're excited. Jonathan and Maddie were married in September two years ago, James and Milly were married last September, Tip and Katelyn will be married this September. All of them within a week of each other. It wasn't planned that way, but I've been telling people September is special since I was 5. 

And next September we are scheduled to be home from Poland and not just for a week. Lots to do here before then, though. 

Sorry this post just gives you the facts. Over and out.

Can't leave you bridgeless