Day 19 Fast Sunday

I have a habit of leaving my cell phone and camera at home when I go to church... a habit I need to change while living in beautiful Poland! Every time I get to church I want to take a picture of my friends, the building and the elders! Mr. Mecham took the camera to church a few months back for documentation purposes and to give us a good idea of what we were in for... the pictures documented well, but gave us no clue about the church in the mission field! I will try to remember to take my camera to church. But for now, these will do. They are acurate. And I will NEVER forget my phone or gps again... since I had to take Basia home from church today and since I didn't have my phone I was terribly lost on the way back.

This is what we see when we walk into the door at church. It is the guts of our entire builiding in view!

If I turn immediately to my right I get to visit the branch bulletin board. It has Elder gludun's missionary plaque proudly hanging! He is the first Polish missionary to serve for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! He is serving in Poland but never gets transfered to Lublin. We couldn't be more proud! There is also a table sitting below it with a Book of Mormon and The Living Christ and a few pamphlets.

If I walk in 5 steps and turn to my left I am looking at our humble kitchen. I am certain that parties happen here. Can't wait for one! A few weeks ago, when the Taiwanese students returned for school, they brought Tai candy and we partook in this lovely kitchen. I don't like Thai candy. I understand why the Thai peeps are so very tiney though... their candy isn't loaded with sugar and high fructose corn syrup or cocoa of any kind. I don't quite know what to compare it to. Maybe peanut butter and jelly in a glob after sitting in the sun for about 1 week?

This is where we have sacrament meeting. That would be the notorius Elder Basha at the pulpit. Notice, no microphone... not necessary... even for the deaf people on the back row! Oh wait... we don't have any deaf people in our branch... they are all Catholic! I will tell you about that in a different post. Missionary work here is difficult!

The room next to where we have Sacrament mtg is the water closet (bathroom). It is the door you see directly in front of you when you enter the church. It is quite big! It has a shower, toilet, sink and.. oh... a washing machine in it. It stinks. I will be cleaning it this week and loading t.p. into it so that I enjoy my potty time in the church again.

Next to the restroom is a classroom. Though I havn't yet seen this one used for anything other than private conversations. We are all joined for sacrament mtg and then we are all joined for sunday school. But I heard, from the grapevine, that primary is going to be established in Lublin and that room will be in use!

Next to the classroom is the President's office. I was brought to repentance for disrespectrully calling the President "prez" (not by the prez). So I won't do that any more. It is respect for the office for which is held. Please forgive me.

That is a tour of our little branch building. We are thankful to have it.

Today was fast Sunday. I have wondered about fast Sunday since I got to Poland. I could only imagine that the same people would get up every time... since that is the only option! haha... I am taken back to pioneer times... or maybe even earlier... like the establishment of the church. Very few, very strong members exhist. They are faithful. And I wanted to promise them that the church is BIG! There are hundreds of memebers where I come from! Callings actually are fulfilled! I wanted to promise them that Heavenly Father is going to flood Poland with members. Sister Gludun then stood up and shared a story and her testimony. She has been a member for 10 years. She has seen the church grow and shrink in Lublin. Appearantly there was a time when there were baptisms every 2 weeks here. The branch was large! They were meeting in a large, stand alone, building. The members were going to get their own building to love! Then the members started moving away where the church was stronger. They left to Germany and England. They went to America. And the Gladun's were alone with the elders. Sister Gladun prayed for somebody else to come to church. She thanked Heavenly Father for people who come to church and an American president. It made me realize again the blessing of strong stakes and wards. Sister Gladun's wish in life is to go to Utah and see with her own eyes the masses of membership. Insert tear up here....
Today our family made up 1/2 of the branch in attendance. The missionaries were 1/5 of the attendance. There were testimonies by 5 people. Elder Basha gave a killer lesson on repentance... He even took President Mecham of guard and asked him to answer the question, "what is fornication?" to everyone in attendace including our chidren. I actully have never seen President fumble with this question so much. Oh President!

Things I learned:
1) don't forget the gps when going to church.
2) prosto means straight. Which is a funny direction here considering I haven't seen a straight road in town yet. Where was Brother Brigham when this place was designed?
3) I can have a conversation with somebody in a different language and I know when to smile and shake my head yes and no without having a clue what is being said. I am sure Basia was saying something like, "you don't understand me because you are a stupid mule" and then I would laugh and say "tak" which means "yes"! And then she would laugh... Just kidding... Basia is kind. She probably didn't call me a stupid mule... just stupid!
So help me... I will learn to say a complete sentance in Polish this week! I am having a hard time deciding which one is the most important to learn first though...
4) Missionaries like garlic mashed potatoes. They also eat anything you give them. For the sake of LeAnn Basha... your son eats everything he is given... and he is always gracious.