Off on an interview trip! Here we goooooo....

Leaving the house by 6:00 AM, President and I started off on a week long interview trip throughout the country. Our first stop.....Katowice! We were making great time, so we decided to stop in Sosnowiec and visit the Katowice District Leader and his companion. (By the way...we left Warsaw in sunshine and 90 kilometers away we hit a blizzard!)

Elders Brown and Rittmanic (DL) look a little surprised to see us! President has come to join them in Friday weekly planning session.  We didn't call...we just showed up.  This isn't to spy on them, but find them  doing great things.

Weekly planning happens in every companionship each Friday at 11:05am (right after our weekly mission prayer for those with baptismal dates) and goes for 2 hours.  These great Elders went through everything they were taught (Preach My Gospel pgs. 141-150) as President observed and made comments.

From our Book of Mormon reading, they have been diagramming where the cities and areas could have been based on their ideas.  Pretty interesting thoughts, all mapped out on their family room glass window (easy to erase and clean if mistakes made...)

Elder Rittmanic pondering over setting goals and ways to follow through with their plans; and...

Elder Brown making sure that everything is planned for next week so they can use all of their valuable time finding, teaching and doing the Lord's work without interruptions.  They both used a full 145 minutes to plan all they needed to do for next week.

A great planning session with Elder Rittmanic and Brown.  Even being surprised by a visit, they didn't put on a show, they just did what they had been doing all along-  planning and having a vision of what needs to get done.

Leaving the Elders to do some proselyting before interviews this afternoon, we decided to check out the progress on the new train station.  Above is the 'street' entrance to the new mall that will be attached to the new (and improved!) Katowice train station.

Inside the station, much has been done already. It is clean and spacious...a great improvement.

State-of-the-art restrooms!  Just pay your 2 PLN and you are good to enter...

I was THRILLED to see this addition. This could be a first in Poland! (Yes, we had to get one! They tasted just like home!)

Making our way to the chapel for interviews, lessons were being taught. Here, our Zone Leaders, Elders Hayes and Dopp have just finished a lesson with Krzystof who has a baptismal date. Rafal, one of our great Katowice members, was on the lesson to add his testimony to the truths taught by the Elders.

I was able to join the Sisters, Holmgren and Packard, for 9:00 PM planning where they review their day and plan for tomorrow.  President always says, "One dull pencil is better than two sharp minds".  Write down what happened and you will know what you need to do tomorrow and study for in individual and companionship studies.  The Sisters always have this down to an art.

How do you keep a Branch and Young Missionaries functioning so well?  You have a great Senior couple assigned to work with them. Elder and Sister Reed are the perfect fit. We love them and appreciate their efforts!  They are doing great works in the Katowice Branch and District.

It was a great day spent with some great missionaries. The work is progressing in Katowice because Missionaries and members are working together.  Pictured with the Katowice Missionaries is President Krzykawski (First Counselor in the Katowice District), a faithful member who does so much for the District AND the Branch.
It's time to get some rest .... tomorrow brings more traveling and more interviews! You've got to love this work! There is nothing like being in the Lord's service!