Drake -- Dawid and the goats

Poznań Streets
(Note the Sweater!)

Dear Mom, 

That's cool about the Facebook group that you made. That is super fun that you are in contact with the missionaries moms (and dads).

My exchange with Elder Saltmarsh was super awesome.  It was way cool getting to go back to Bydgoszcz.  There was actually like a miracle that happened!

So you remember that Dawid kid? The one that chased us down on his bike?

Well, had lost contact with him and couldn't get a hold of him after our first few meeting with him.

Elder Saltmarsh and I were walking to the chapel and there was Dawid walking down the street! So I talked to him and he said that he wanted to meet with us and his phone number had changed. So he gave us his new number.

It was way awesome! Because Elder Stockford and I are the only the missionaries that had ever seen him. So if I hadn't been in Bydgoszcz on that exchange, we would would have never found him again!

So that was pretty awesome!! :)

In our apartment -- Map of Poland

This week, we did what is called a Free Table. We set up a table at a busy street corner. And put a bunch of church stuff on it like Book of Mormons, pamphlets, cards, stuff like that. And then had a sign saying that we were giving away stuff for free. It was WAY successful!!!! We ended up teaching (with the Sisters included) a total of 9 lessons and gave out 11 Books!! In only like an hour!! It was way cool!!! We are definitely doing that again!!! :)

We had Branch Conference this week and that was cool.

Well, I better get going!! :)

Tell everybody that I love them!

Have a great week! :)

Love, Elder Drake Allen

These are goats above the clock of City Hall on the main square.  They come out every day at 12 o'clock and bang heads 12 times!  Really weird... actually... haha

It's from some old story in Poznań where 2 goats like saved the city from a fire and became heroes...Look it up!
(Just did!  See the video below for the legend and the action 
& be sure to click full screen -- Renee).

Drake -- New Apartment in Poznań

Me in the kitchen

Dear Mom,

All is well. All is well.

I am going on an exchange up to Bydgoszcz for the next few days! I am leaving to go up there today!

I will be with the Zone Leader Elder Saltmarsh.

That will be fun! It will be like I am going back to my hometown!

Our investigator Adam is doing AMAZING!

We set a baptismal date with him!

October 5th!

I have to go now, but I love you all!

Love,

Elder Drake Allen

Our apartment

Kitchen

Our apartment complex from my window

Drake -- Poznan'

On the rynek -- It's waaaay bigger and prettier than the town square in Bydgoszcz

Dear Mom,

So I am in Poznań now (pronounced Pose Nine).  It's a lot bigger than Bydgoszcz and a lot prettier.

It has a way bigger and more interesting old town that's all hilly and stuff

I'll get some pictures of it this week, if I can

So colorful!

Although the city is bigger, the branch is WAY smaller

There are only like 4 members that show up

There are more missionaries than members

So it is WAY different than in Bydgoszcz because we as missionaries run the branch.

Elder Sheley (a senior missionary with his wife) is the branch president and my companion and I are his clerks. So we do the financial stuff.

We have Sister Missionaries here in Poznań. Which is different. I am used to just having Elders.

Elder Christian Todd Peacock from Cedar City, Utah

He will hit his year mark with me

But it's pretty fun, I guess. Sister Bown reminds me A LOT of Terra. She acts a lot a lot a lot like Terra. Which is fun. And she is the same exact age as her too! So they should be friends!

We have a super awesome investigator that we found named Adam!

I will tell you more about him next week, but he is amazing.

We had a meeting with him, he came to church, he is coming to FHE tonight, he wants to meet tomorrow, and he is coming to institute on Thursday

It is SOOO awesome!

He is such a prepared person it is CRAZY!

Having Elder and Sister Sheley as the Senior Couple here is AMAZING

They do SO much to help the missionaries and the branch

You have to see if you can get contact with Sister Sheley and thank her so much!!!

She takes such good care of us! :)

Well, I have to go

Do zobaczenia!! :)

Love, Elder Drake Allen

Poznań City Hall  --On the Rynek (Main Square in old town)

Drake -- Farewell BBQ with the Kagele's

You can see the details of this family BBQ in Bydgoszcz on Kelley Kagele's blog, Never a Dull Day in Poland, but here are the photos to chronicle this fine evening for Drake on his blog, too.

Drake -- Transferring for the first time!

Note from Renee -- Sometimes Drake doesn't write much, which can be sad for me when I'm up that early to see what he wrote (4:30 a.m. this week).  But I'm grateful to get the photos and it was nice that he confirmed where he was going (I had heard two different places) and explained so much about the Polish language lesson.  If you already saw that on Facebook, sorry for the repeat!

Last District Meeting -- Elder Manwill, Elder Allen, Elder Rittmanic, and Elder Vernon

So I am going to Poznań with Elder Peacock

Like you probably already know

It is pronounced poze-nine

Like the word pose, like a model poses

and the number 9

There's a little wheel with handlebars used for ab work outs

So Elder Rittmanic wheelbarrowed me around the apartment

Their apartment is HUGE

  (Elder Vernon is on the ground sick)

Practicing Polish Casing

 Using stuffed animals to practice insane grammar principles in Polish

In Polish, you have to change the word of a noun depending on what the noun is doing in the sentence. And a noun can change up to 14 different ways.

So it is SUPER complicated and is what makes Polish so dang hard

So I was helping Elder Manwill practice changing the words (called casing) by doing practice sentences with different stuffed animals

So the sentence would be like:

The brown bear gives a blue car to a white seal.

and then switch it around so it is like:

The green dinosaur gives the white seal to the brown owl.

and stuff like that

very hard to explain

But I used to do it all the time with beanie babies back home to practice German

Ask James about it

He'll remember

Or maybe even you will remember

Practicing German in the living room with tons of beanie babies on the floor