Surprise!!

As usual, because this is the evening of our last day in Poznan, i'm in a hurry and put the pictures in last to first. oh well!!

Ross and I came to the Branch last night to be in on a discussion with Sister Leppanen and Sister Smithee. It was supposed to be the last discussion with Agneszka before her Baptism on Saturday. We walked into the Chapel and there was the whole Branch. They had put together a surprise party for us to say goodbye. We were overwhelmed! They gave us a beautiful book on Poznan and all wrote messages on the inside.

Above is kate Healy with her 2 sons. she just had a baby 2 weeks ago and nothing stops her from jumping right back into the mix. she's great.

Elder Curtis, Sister Smithee, Pavel, and Elder Marsing are on the left.

Marlena and Agneszka are being baptised on Saturday at the Hotel Sheraton in their indoor swimming pool. In the summer it is usually held in one of the lakes.

Michael (Mehow) and his wife Gosia and Grzgorz.

Isa and Justyna

Regina, Bozena and my dear, dear friend Jola.

Ross and I had just finished unwrapping the book on Poznan.

There is always food and this was no exception. These were all really good desserts.

When we walked into the Chapel, everyone was there. I think it beat our attendance on Sunday.

We are so grateful that we had the opportunity to serve in Poznan Poland. We got to know and love so many people and they will be dearly missed.

Our last days in Poznan Poland

It is 6am in the morning. Can you believe how light is is already. by the end of June it will be light by 4am. We just got to the gym and this is the Tram line which just left and it was stacked to the brim with passengers heading for work, school.

Our gym is located on the bottom floor of the apartment building. It's a good little gym with all the machines and free weights. It keeps us from turning into soft marshmellows. Every morning at 6am except on Sunday, that's where you'll find us.

This is the post office where we have mailed home eight packages home of stuff we have accumulated here in Poland. Little did we know as we get ready to depart how much there was.


















This is our last FHE and Institute class before leaving. What a great group.


















We are going to the mall by Renek for one last time. The mall is ready for Easter as you can tell by the bunnies.

These malls are so great. Those machines by the wall are where you put in your parking ticket to pay to get out of the mall. If you want your car washed and cleaned inside and out while you shop, that is available too.


















Inside the mall are hundreds of Easter bunnies, all purple and white.














There are a few outside too. behind me is a park which will be beautiful when the trees and flowers are in bloom.
















You have to look carefully to see the little girl crouched down by the Easter bunnies while her mom takes a picture.











We are looking down from the food court. I wonder who decided where the purple would be placed. I had the urge to mix them up.












We were ordering a pizza to take home. The pizza at Piccolino is the best ever. It is a bit of a trick to order the right one with our limited Polish.




















Here is the master chef. We told him his pizza was the best. He really worked hard to make sure it was the best.















This is a glassed in open area between the two sections of the mall. The outdoor seating is part of a beautiful resturant.
















This is a resturant on the other side. The cool thing is that in the summer, the glass partitions open and there is a huge veranda open to the outside, overlooking the park.









It was a beautiful morning yesterday, Saturday, and we decided to have our last walk around Lake Malta, which is a block from our apartment. There is still snow on the small ski area. There is much construction going on here right now as all of Poznan and Poland is getting ready for the Euro-cup soccor games in August. Part of it will take place here in Poznan.

They are building a huge slide along with enlarging the ski area itself. they have summer skiing as well with a rubberized slope.

It is a really beautiful walk around the lake. This is a tributary that feeds into the lake.




















There is a big skull race in two weeks and the sculls are out for an early morning practice.















We tried to get a picture of the duck but she was hungrey and reached down for her breakfast just as we took the picture.






























This team member is a little late pushing off.
It's amazing how narrow this skulls are.














As you can see.. their shoes are anchored in so they are stabilized as they row.




















This the grandstand for the races. These are huge here in the summer and attract a huge following.



















The very right of this long building is where the skulls and kayaks are stored. The part off the building closest to us has a spa and an Indian resturant.

Here's our guy trying to catch up with his teammates.

The ski hill already has skiers. there is a ski lift on the left side.

This is an incredible facility. You can see the outdoor waterslides. Inside is a huge lap pool. then you go from there over to a huge wave pool that has a natural beach and palm ttrees. You would think you are at some tropical beach, then next to that are all different natural hot springs with mineral pools. 60 pln for a day at tthe beach.

We are just about back to our apartment. This is the backside of the mall.

On this beautiful morning we have seen, skaters, bikers, runners, walkers, nordic walkers.

One last thing, this is an ice skating rink which is open year round. Only one skater there so far.

This is the outside of the rink.

The skulls do their turn around here.

This is the finish. We are on our way back to our apartment.

This finishes up our walk around this beautiful Lake Malta.

Transfer Week!

This is transfer week and Elder Rrogers and Sister Sheahan will be leaving us. Elder Rogers is going to Lodz and Sister Sheahan is going to Warsaw. We will miss them. We ate at a Polish resturant called Chatka Babuni. It is known for it's perogies and the perogies are fabulous. You can order either 7 or 9 and mix them up. So Ross and I had 3 perogiees with mushrooms and potatoes and cabbage, one was cabbage, potato and cheese and one was curry chicken, cabbage and nuts and pinapple. Oh ,my gosh! They serve them baked or boiled. We like them boiled the best.
The plate with the pickle on it is a flavored lard. It is flavored with meat and seasoning and used to spread on bread. They all love it but I think it's disgusting. Lard is fat. The next picture are the pirogies. Umm, good!!










This ia great resturant and has been in Poznan for many years and the food is all Polish.

Tuesday was Name Day in Poland. Everyone has a Name Day and it was Bozena's name day. Name Day is bigger here than birthdays. All the names are on the official Name Calendar and that determines when your day is. We took some

flowers and Piorgies over to Bozena.

Thursday morning was transfer Day. We picked up the sisters at 6:45am for their train which left at 7:30 am. They lived up 64 stairs which meant hauling suitcases down that many stairs.

Ross is buying a parking ticket about a block away from the station. These little machines are located all over town and you better make sure you have a ticket on your dashboard or you might come back and find a boot on your wheel which renders the car useless.

Notice the graffiti on the side of this train. This is graffiti all over Poland. All older buildings have graffiti and not just a small portion but completely covering sides of buildings, trains, buses.

These policemen were training their police dogs. the dogs were beautiful and notice they all had muzzles on.

Saying goodbye at the train station to Sister Sheahan. By the way her Polish was awesome considering she has only been here for 8 weeks.

Now it's time to say goodbye to Elder Rogers. He is going to be a great addition to the Lodz Branch. We will miss him.

The new missionaries come in. Here is Elder Curtis coming to us from the Mission office eager to get back in the field. Great missionaries go and great missionaries come.

We made four trips to the train station today. this finishes it up.