Krakow & Mielec, the last leg of this trip.

The Krakow District: Elders Roberts, Ball, Hillyard, Sheridan, and Karol; plus Elders Dopp and Vreeken. A great group of enthusiasm all contained in one room! As it is with any city we visit, taking the supplies to the chapel is the first order of business. In the city of Krakow, it is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to find a parking space. So, President stopped in the middle of the street, put his 'flashers' on and was quickly surrounded by 7 men in dark suits! Off they all went to start interviews and put supplies away. And who was stuck parking the car? I'll give you one guess. I did make it back to the chapel before District Meeting was over! Now, you're probably wondering why Karol (from Kielce) is with the Missionaries. Well, Karol has some great news! On June 28th, Karol will enter the mission field! He will be serving in the London South Mission. He will be our 6th missionary from Poland that will currently be serving a full time mission!!


What do our Missionaries think of Karol serving a mission? Does this give you an idea?! They are thrilled! Karol will be a fabulous missionary...He already is! We love him and are very proud that he will represent the Lord as well as his country in England as he preaches the gospel to the people there. Congratulations, Karol!In District Meeting, Elder Hillyard presented a great lesson. We spent 45 minutes in Role Play as everyone learned many wonderful ways to teach, commit and assist people in coming unto Christ. This is a great District. After a busy morning, it was lunch time. Elders Vreeken and Roberts were in the other room in interviews or waiting for their turn.Elders Roberts and Hillyard have a baptism in two days so the Zone Leader, Elder Basha, came from Katowice for the baptismal interview. Great things are going on in Krakow, also!Late in the afternoon, we left Krakow and headed to Mielec. As we traveled through the many towns, traffic was heavy. Every so often, you can understand the reason for the backed up cars as in the case of this enterprising man who needed to take up his fair share of the road. Needless to say, cars had a hard time going around him...As we came into Mielec we wondered why they would have this plane up on poles. As the day continued, however; we understood the signficance of planes and jets in this region. You might ask, "Why are they going to Mielec?" This is the reason....to visit the Pawlik family! President Pawlik is the Katowice District President, and he and President Nielson had some 'business' to discuss. Since we got there late because of long interviews and slow traffic, it was only fitting to have these two talk...

...over dinner! The kids (and myself!) were starving. We had some great pierogi (traditional polish dumplings stuffed with meat, cheese, potatoes or fruit) at a charming restaurant in town. It was so nice to get to visit with Lisa and the kids, while the men talked up a storm at the other end of the table. The food was great, but we were in for even a bigger treat!

After dinner we went to President Pawlik's workplace. He builds the finest Cobra CSX3104 replicas in the world. Years ago, President Pawlik's boss had a relative who bought and imported a Polish fighter jet and invited him to see this relic of the Cold War. He looked at the airplane and couldn't help but notice the striking similarities between it and CSX3104. He wondered if the people who built the plane could build an exact replica of a Cobra. They found the name of the manufacturer and sent them a fax and the rest is history.These are the aluminum replicas that are in productions currently. Each is hand make by skilled craftsmen.They take sheets of aluminum (or bronze as you will see) and stretch it and pound it to exact specifications.

Then the frames are welded to the chassis. They move on down the production line...This particular car is made out of bronze. It will be spectatular when it is finished. The pictures do not do this justice. These are beautiful cars, and the workmanship is amazing.These machines from Korea, Russia and even the USA had produced aircraft for over 60 years. Some of the Russian MiGs were made here. (We now realized why there was an airplane on display as you entered the city.)
When President Pawlik's boss first came here, he saw a silent factory with idle machines. They knew this was the place they wanted to build cars. After meeting with three generations of skilled craftsmen eager to make these cars, they agreed to start work.

It was great to visit and hear about President Pawlik's work. We love and appreciate this man (and his family) as he has given many years to building the church here in Poland. President Pawlik was baptized in Lodz as a youth and has been spreading the gospel ever since.

As we left the warehouse and factory, President Pawlik showed us the numerous bunkers (aka: bomb shelters!)that were scattered in this production area. The workers (especially in the airplane and jet factories) felt that possibly an enemy nation would bomb these facilities, so numerous shelters can be found in the area. They are accessible and apparently go quite deep underground. Thank you, President Pawlik, for the great tour!

Well, this concludes the interview trip for the central and southern parts of the mission. We FINALLY got home at 2:00 am.....beat! Next week, we go north! But first...we have baptisms this weekend, a branch conference, a visiting former missionary, a departing missionary....and probably a whole lot of other stuff....Life never stops in the mission field! We love it!