Cześć!

Hi everyone,

This week was an okay week.  We had a productive week, a lot was going on and it kept us busy. I attended the funeral of the son of a less active member this week, and then after it he asked me to dedicate his sons grave so that was an interesting experience and quite a powerful one. We also have a friend who owns a 'Działka', there really isn't an English word for it, it's some form of a garden but it's more than a garden haha, and we've been going down each week to help him so that was really fun. We dismantled a fridge, scrapped it for parts and cleared out some of his basement. It was fun and it's nice to get outside a bit. We also got a baptismal date this week which is really exciting and it was my first experience of it so far on my mission.

"There was a quote I loved that I read this week and so I'll share it now.

We do not always know how or when blessings will present themselves, but the promise of eternal increase will not be denied any faithful individual who makes and keeps sacred covenants.

Your secret yearnings and tearful pleadings will touch the heart of both the Father and the Son. You will be given a personal assurance from Them that your life will be full and that no blessing that is essential will be lost to you.

As a servant of the Lord, acting in the office to which I have been ordained, I give those in such circumstances a promise that there will be nothing essential to your salvation and exaltation that shall not in due time rest upon you. Arms now empty will be filled, and hearts now hurting from broken dreams and yearning will be healed."

I don't know who needs to hear that but I certainly did, and they are words that have brought great comfort. Amidst all of the craziness of recent times, one truth has been reaffirmed to me over and over again, that Jesus Christ knows me and loves me, He understands me and is with me every step of the way.

Hope everyone has a good week, speak to you all soon.

Starszy Ashworth x

Out & About in Katowice

Elder Ashworth has had a great week with his new companion Elder Chugg who is from Idaho, USA.  They have brainstormed ways to do missionary work on social media and have had a lot of laughs this past week trying those ideas out.  

He's baffled at how our brains can handle more than one language and finding Polish coming more naturally to the point of thinking in Polish.  

After 4 weeks of taking about 25 minutes to walk to Lidl and carrying shopping bags back to the flat he took a right at the end of the street instead of left and lo and behold there's an Aldi 5 mins down the street!  He was over the moon 😊 as well as that he's found a lovely park and says there's even a zoo.  Hairdressers and restaurants opened today in Poland so they've booked themselves in for a haircut next week happy day!  Enjoy the pics.  

Everything will be alright.

So with the current situation not much is certain, and so I got a transfer call this week and President said I'd be getting a new companion. I'll miss Elder Stewart, we had a really fun 4 weeks, but I'm also looking forward to serving with my new companion. He's been out for 21 months so I know I'll learn a lot from him. It's been an okay week, we have a friend who's really progressing and he told us this week that he wants to be baptised and I was just so happy about it. It's amazing seeing the effect that the gospel of Jesus Christ can have on people's lives and the way it can change people. We're still just working on Facebook and we're still trying to find ways to be creative and it's been quite fun. I've had to come out of my comfort zone a lot but I'm starting to have fun with it. I'm learning to cook different things which has been a journey lol, I've had some success and then I've also burnt my rice so it's up and down hahaha.

I didn't really do much else this week, so I just wanted to share a message of hope.

Everything will be alright.

There's a quote I love from Elder Holland and it says,

"Don’t give up. Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead—a lot of it—30 years of it now, and still counting. You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come."

I know that this is true. I know that Christ is there for us in every moment, He's there to calm our troubled hearts, to mend what we cannot mend and to fix what we have to fix. I know to Whom I can turn for peace and that's my Saviour. So to echo Elder Holland, just keep going, keep trying, keep loving, everything will be alright.

Everything will be made up for, everything will make sense. All of the dark clouds will part and Christ's light will shine through.

It will seem but a small moment.

Have a lovely week everyone,

Starszy Ashworth x