A nice trip to Lodz....

Sunday morning we got up at 4:30 to get ready to go to Lodz for their Branch Conference. On the way there, we found that we weren't the only ones up! As you can tell by the picture, the sun has not come up yet. This sweet lady is already hard at work balancing the full milk container. She was on her way from her dairy that we had just passed a few blocks back to sell the milk she had just collected. She was really struggling to balance her heavy load on her bike.

We finally made it to Lodz and there we had a wonderful conference with the Lodz members and investigators.

After the Branch Conference these kind members of the branch had fixed sandwiches and fruit for everyone to eat. L to R: Jadwita, Violetta (just released as Relief Society President), Brat Poludnikiewicz (who was just released as Branch President), Krzystoff (Elders Quorum President), and Asia (who was just called as the new Relief Society President). Thank you....everything was delicious!

The Young Men of the Lodz Branch and their Young Men's President, Marek. L to R: Hubert, Dramen, and an investigator friend.

The new branch presidency- Brat Tudor-Hart, Elder Harber and Brat Diarra.

Me and Violetta...she works as a translator for the Church.

Story: Sister Steadman (kneeling) lost her name tag soon after she arrrived in Poland last October. She has been using one of her trainer's badges and just taped her name on it. Earlier this morning we had brought her a new name tag with her very own name on it. Sister Steadman was thrilled to be official. That night we went to visit a member and Sister Steadman could not find her name tag. She had only had it for a couple of hours and somehow it had come off her coat. We looked all over and finally Sister Bautner and Elder Harber helped her find it in a deep puddle of water. And I think she still has it as I am writing this......... We will tease her about this for months to come.

We were able to stay in Lodz Monday and FINALLY took a P-Day. So President and I and the Harbers (along with our tour guide, Hubert) decided to see the sights in Lodz.

Our first stop was Radegast Station which has been turned into a Holocaust Memorial. Passing through this station were 150,000+ Jews who were herded into cattle wagons bound for Auschwitz. Lodz was the first Polish city to have part of their city walled off as a Jewish Ghetto.

Three original train wagons used for deportations stand silently next to the station.

This is actually a long tunnel which leads from the station to a very large brick chimney memorial holding a flame. The inside of the tunnel is lined with original deportation lists.

One of the largest Jewish Ghettos in Poland is located near this memorial. It once held 230,000 Jews. When the Red Army 'liberated' Lodz in 1945, only 880 Jewish survivors remained.

Also nearby is the largest Jewish Cemetary in Europe founded in 1892. These are the walls of the outside of the cemetary lined with memorial plaques.

On a lighter note...this is Piotrkowska Street. The missionaries refer to this just as "P Street". At the beginning of the 20th century it was an elegant boulevard. During WWII it became a gloomy, grey street with blackened buildings from soot. In the 1990's a foundation was formed to clean it up and it is basically a walking mall full of great statues edicated to the city's famous residents and bronze stars embedded in the sidewalk (like Hollywood Boulevard) honoring Poland's film stars.

A building that has been cleaned and restored. This street contains some of the most beautiful buildings in all of Poland. Very ornate.

One of many great statues along Piotrkowska Boulevard.

This statue is dedicated to the famous pianist Artu Rubinstein. It is located in front of the house where he once lived.

One of my favorites....Charlie Chaplan. Very appropriate considering Lodz is the center of Polish cinema and home to one of the best film schools in Europe. It opened in 1948 and was placed in Lodz (2nd largest city in Poland) rather than Warsaw because Warsaw was in ruins.

The way you get around this street is by foot or by these bicycle taxis.

It was soon time to meet the missionaries so we headed to Manufaktura---a series of red brick factories that have been remodeled into a massive shopping and entertainment complex. These buildings once were one of the largest textile manufacturing facilities in the country.

There we found Elders Nielson and Fritzsch. These two Elders were the first to meet the new Standard of Excellence for our Mission that was introduced in 2011.

Getting everyone together for dinner....at Pizza Hut, of course. A missionary favorite! L to R: Elder Fritzsch, Elder and Sister Harber, Hubert, Sisters Steadman and Bautner, Elder Nielson.

The next day, we sat in on the Lodz District Meeting....led by District Leader, Elder Nielson. Here he is going over the new Standard of Excellence goals and what their district did last week.

And district Meeting wouldn't be District Meeting without role play! Sister Bautner and Sister Steadman role play placing a Book of Mormon using bold statements of truth!

It was time to head back to Warsaw, but we didn't want to go until we had visited the sight the Church bought a few years ago on which to build a chapel. It is in a great location.....

...and is a beautiful and deep piece of property. That is what our goal is here in Lodz. To invite enough people to follow Christ and be baptized so we can build a chapel for them.

The Harbers, great friends of ours from Las Vegas, are working with all their might to help accomplish this. Great things are happening in Lodz....you can feel it. And we could sure use your prayers! We love the people of Lodz! There is a great spirit in that branch and we can't wait to visit them again!