New Missionaries meet Trainers...and travel to their areas!

New Missionaries in Poland...Day 2. Everyone looks bright and refreshed...ready to start doing Missionary work. A brisk walk to the office to start their legal work was the first order of the day. (LtoR:) Sisters Ence, Smithee; Elders Manwill, Mikolyski and Szymanski in the back.

At the office, the Missionaries were met by our Office Elders, Curtis and Tanner, and our Office Couple, Elder and Sister Peck, for orientation. We love and appreciate our missionaries who work in the office. They do much 'behind the scenes' work that helps our Mission to run smoothly.

After orientation, it was time to 'hit the streets' and do some missionary work. What better place to start than the Rynek in downtown Warsaw.

The Sisters headed out on their own and did a great job talking to people about the gospel.

While the Elders 'contacted', a pre-school walked by on a field trip headed to a historical monument, I'm sure. Lucky kids. (When my kids were little and went on field trips, it was always to the fire station!)

Elder Curtis showing Elders Szymanski and Manwill how to use 'Bold Statements of Truth' to stop people and make them think about God and why we are here.

It was a cold, but great day spent on the Rynek. Thank you to Elders Curtis and Tanner for 'escorting' these new missionaries on their first real day of missionary work.

Famished, it was time to find something 'Polish' to eat. Pierogi was perfect! And it was delicious!

While the Trainees were off with the Office Elders, the Trainers were with President being instructed on the In-Field Training for New Missionaries. This new 12-week course is for Trainees. This requires much planning and 2 hours dedicated each day (instead of 1 hour) to companionship study. These companionships will now have personal study from 8:00-9:00am, 9:00-11:00am, out proselyting until 2:00pm. At that time they have Language Study until 3:00pm. Then proselyte from 3:00pm on...
Now let's see which Trainees go with which Trainers...

Elder Hillyard...meet Elder Manwill.

They will be assigned as a new companionship in Krakow. There are only two Elders serving in Krakow now, plus this new companionship equals 4! Elder Hillyard will be the District Leader there.

Elder Basha meet Elder Szymanksi. Elder Basha is 5'6" and Elder Szymanski is only 6'7". The two extremes of the mission, but they have a million things in common.

They will be serving in Lodz. What a great city to start serving in.

Elder Kennedy meet Elder Mikolyski. We have started calling Elder Kennedy 'the miracle worker', and we know he and Elder Mikolyski will do the same in ....

Elders Mikolyski and Kennedy will be heading to Lublin. They will see much success there as the previous missionaries have done a good job of getting many great things going.

Sister Mann, meet your new Trainee....Sister Ence.

These excited Sisters will be serving in Warsaw II. What a blessing they will be to that powerful branch. Sister Mann has just transferred there from the Warsaw I Branch. She is ready to introduce Sister Ence to the great members and investigators there.

Sister Garcia meet Sister Smithee.

They will be serving in Warsaw l. They have become great friends in the few hours they have known each other. This will be a wonderful companionship.

After the training and assignments, we sat down to dinner. We are so excited for these great missionaries. Their lives are changing. The Lord has them going where He needs them and with whom they are supposed to labor with.

Since our Sisters live in Warsaw and the Elders were taking up too much room, we decided we need to make a change that night...

So the Sisters loaded up their belongings and headed to their own apartments that night. Smart thinking! Now they could plan quietly and effectively that night and tomorrow start their transfer off ready to go.

Meanwhile back at the ranch... the Elders were downstairs trying to get everything organized for the transfer in the morning. Elder Kennedy was coming all the way from Szczecin and now going to Lublin. He decided to leave a few things in the "mini storage" of the mission as did Elder Hillyard. Elder Basha was busy setting up appointments for the next night for he and Elder Szymanski in Lodz.

As Elder Hillyard was repacking his belongings, he showed us one of the items he was taking with him... his prized (filthy!) BROOM! He had packed this handy retractable broom (which was "bought with home funds") in his suitcase. Nice! We love this Elder and know he will be awesome in Krakow.

Transfer morning. After feeding everyone, they headed out for the train station. We just had to get one picture of everyone 'according to size'. This was for Elder Basha as much as for anyone. He loves directing traffic.

Now according to companions. (We think that Elder Hillyard had to carry his socks and personal things in his arms inside plastic bags because his suitcase was full of janitorial items!)This is a powerful group of missionaries. It was so fun to be with them. They are off for an exciting transfer and for wonderful miracles to happen. The new training for missionaries to be more effective teachers is fabulous. People make better decisions with better information. That is what our missionaries are providing.

Now, I need to get ready for Elder Leimer who is coming into the mission home soon. He departs tomorrow. Next week we head out on an 8-Day 9-City Mission Interview tour...at least I don't have to cook! YEAH!