Christmas

This is our "Charlie Brown Christmas tree" at the church.

We drew names for Christmas presents.

Here's what the young ones got...

...and here's the old folks' presents.

Elder Lundin, Janina, Sisters Bailey and Helfrich, and Elder Plumb

with their stockings.

We (missionaries) put on a Christmas pageant for the memebers.

Here's Mary and Joseph, before the baby was born.

Do not laugh, we are younger than Abraham and Sarah when they

had their firstborn.

The baby has arrived.

On the left is our narrator, our branch mission leader, Kazik.

The angel is announcing the birth of the Christ child to the shepherds

and they have come to adore him.  (with dishtowels on their heads)

The wisemen have arrived (they have crowns)

The angel is covering her face with her notes.

Now you can see the angel again.

Our two investigators wanted to take a picture with us.

We had fun doing it.

This is our street on December 26. 

We live on a one-way street.

It seems to us that some people park their cars for the winter.

This is how Klaudia gets to church in the winter.

Reminds Anja of her childhood. 

Zone conference Dec. 15, 2010

You just can't get a serious picture of Elders and Sisters.

The couple on the left in the front row just arrived in Poland

the night before the conference.  They were pretty tired.

Did you guess?

The "crow's nests" are actually mistletoe.

Here you can see the snowcovered berries.

This one shows the berries better.

Snow has melted off some trees.

Take a guess

Guess what these "crows' nests" really are.

I'll take another picture this week in better light.

This tree is right in front of our chapel.

Pre-Christmas pictures

Christmas tree on Długa. the main street in Old Town (Rynek)

More decorated trees on Długa.  We had had snow, but it melted. 

We got more of it the next day.

Scene down Długa at night.

Polish Nativity to be added to my collection.  It is carved into wood.

December 4, 2010

Members and missionaries and one investigator at the dinner table.

This is the other end of the table.  Clarence and I had to set up a little table for us in the hall.  You can see part of Clarence's head behind the Elders.

A special guest came to visit our only Primary child, Klaudia.

Magda making carrot salad.

Jadviga showing her love to Klaudia. I missed the kiss by a split second.

President and Sister Nielson in Gdansk

Dinner at "Sphynks". 

Pres. Nielson holding our branch president's baby.

There are more pictures of this weekend on Nielsons' blog."Nielson Poland Warsaw Mission Blog" I think it's with blogspot also like ours.

Dzień Niepodleglości

This is what went on in Old Town Gdansk on Independence Day November 11.  We missed it all.  We had not been told about it.  Our Elders live just a few blocks from the main street in Old Town, so Elder Lundin got these pictures for us to enjoy also.

People are proud carry their country's flag.

Remembering the Americans who came to help.

I don't know wnough of the history of Poland to tell you about all these pictures.  I'm sure history books will help those of you who are really interested.  I should go on internet to learn more, but history was never my favorite subject.  I'm just glad that Poland is now an independent country and we can serve heere.

Relief Society activity

We had a successful Relief Society activity on Nov. 20.  Here are Sisters Bailey and Helfrich and sister Halina, sister Elzbieta (new in the branch) and sister Violetta.  Violetta's 4-year old daughter Klaudia was there also, but is not in these pictures. 

Here we have Magda, Gabrysia with her baby Nataniel and sister Helfrich.

I had a picture taken just to proof that I was there too.

This is a decoration that Halina taught us to make.  Her mother had taught her when she was a little girl 80 years ago.  It is made of tissue paper.  Pretty need, eh?

We decorated these jars and put candles in them for Christmas lanterns.  I also thought that we could fill some with candy and go carolling to less-actives.

Zone Conference, November 18

All of us had had birthdays since the last conference.  Each of us got a bag of cookies from Sister Nielson.

These are the missionaries in Warsaw Zone, which includes two branches in Warsaw, Lublin, Bialystok and Lodz.

The missionaries of the Bydgoszcz Zone - Bydgoszcz, Poznan, Szczecin and Gdansk.

Next to me (on my right, haha) is Elder Kopischke, the visiting Seventy.

In the second row are the Gdansk missionaries;  Elders Lundin and Plumb on the left and Sisters Helfrich and Bailey on the right.

Our meetings started at 11 am on Thursday and ended at 5 pm.  We were well-fed both spiritually and....

.... physically.

Elder Crittenden had sprained his ankle playing foorball.  There was another Elder who had sprained his ankle walking on the cobblestone sidewalks that they have in Poland and elsewhere in Europe.  I have tripped on them twice, but only bruised my knees and hands. 

Crooked House

It was a cold and windy day when we went to visit the "Crooked House"

Correction

We found out today that November 1st is actually called the  "Day of the Dead" or "Wszystkich Święntych", and November 2nd is "All Souls' Day" or "Zaduszki".

November 1, Polish Memorial Day

Memorial Day in Poland is a BIG holiday.  We took this picture when we first got to the cemetary on Saturday morning.

We saw one grave with a familiar last name.  Clarence's grandmother was a Leszczynski.

Some people had already cleaned around the graves and brought candles and flowers.

We helped at some graves where no-one had come or wouldn't come.  When we started to clean up this grave the lady who was cleaning the next grave, was happy.  She usually cleans it, because no-one ever takes care of this grave.

This is where people bring their candles if their loved-one's grave is in another city and they can't go there.   Otheers come to say prayers for those whose candles are burning here.  This picture was taken on Sunday.  On Monday there were a lot more candles. 

Outside the cemetary walls are the "money-makers"  They sell flowers and candles.  They were all over the place.  I would guess at least 100 of them.  See the crowd of people in the background.  Also the bus.  There were about 5 - 6 busloads of people coming every 10-15 min.  I have never seen that many people in one place.  Not even in New York.

Police would allow only so many people to cross the street at one time or the cars would never get anywhere.

Cars were parked for miles on both sides of the hiway going both ways.

On Monday the young missionaries did "whiteboarding" for a while.  They told  people about family history.  On Monday evening we sang hymns at the cemetary entrance.

With all the candles lit the cemetary was beautiful.