Back to Poznan for District Meeting and Interviews!

It's Monday morning...a very busy day for Assistants...even on the road. Elders Myler and Basha arrive at the chapel before 9 am. Can you tell by the size of Elder Basha's suitcase that they have been on the road for a week now?

No matter where they are, numbers are important to collect and tally. The number of lessons taught, lessons with members attending, number of investigators attending Sacrament meeting, Books of Mormons placed, baptismal dates, etc. are all organized to be sent out to the President and then to the missionaries in their weekly email.

The Szczecin Elders have arrived for District Meeting in Poznan...along with Dagmara, a great member of that Branch. Dagmara and I have some errands to run today so we will not be in District Meeting.

Sister Folsom and Sister Allen are next to arrive. These great sisters are a wonderful companionship and are teaching some great investigators.

With District Meeting underway, the Assistants have got a special assignment. Two missionaries learning to speak Polish were sent to the England Leeds Mission in June. Elders Basha and Myler are having a Polish skype lesson to help them with learning this challenging language.

The Poznan District: Sisters Allen and Folsom; Elders Skolmoski, Sorn, Van Bakel and Berry.

For lunch break, we had a special treat...Magnum ice cream bars! Why?

Because Elder Van Bakel had a birthday a few days ago! After District Meeting, lunch and some contacting and teaching...

It was time to send the Szczecin leaders back home to their city.

Being a little worried that they would miss their train, Elders Van Bakel and Berry decided to 'cut' through a construction zone. They made it....by seconds!

Meanwhile, the Poznan Elders were on exchange with the Assistants. Elders Myler, Sorn(District Leader and Trainer), Basha and Skolmoski (Trainee) in front of the Poznan chapel. It was a great exchange.

Now it was time to get on the road again. We are headed to our next city, Bydgoszcz. A few surprises awaited us...Little did we know that we would be driving through Elder Myler's ancestors' home...

...Gniezno, a small city located near Poznan! What a surprise!

Elder Myler plans on returning to Poland with his family to Gniezno to search out ancestors. The church shown in the background will be somewhere they will go to find family birth and death records. Many churches will not give you information unless you come to them in person.

As we were traveling a two lane road, things were starting to look familiar to President and me.

Following the GPS, we were led to this small mansion tucked away in a forested area.

President and Elders Myler and Basha headed to the front door. But along the way, they were attacked by a huge swam of giant (carnivorous) gnats. It was the most amazing thing I have seen... and they have experienced. They were attacked! (If I had only been able to figure out the 'video' part of my camera!)

When they got to the front door the giant angry gnats left. It was like a cloud left. They knocked on the front door and a man yelled out from a window saying that the man we were looking for (a wood carver that President and I met some months ago) lived in the little shed close by. The woodcarver was going to make something special for us. Months later, we had not heard what was going on, so we went to find out...

This is our woodcarver friend sitting in front of 'a warrior' he was carving for a customer. President told him what we needed, Elder Myler did the translation and negotiating of price and it was a successful trip. Hopefully, he will carve what we want. We will find out in September. This was quite the experience for the Assistants and President. The carving will be 2 meters(6 feet) tall and we will take pictures when we pick it up. I don't know how President thinks he is going to get it home.... It was a fun day...full of a variety of experiences. Never a dull moment in Poland! We love it here!