Tom and Karen Reed — www.ReedMission.com

Here are our outstanding missionaries – fed and ready to go out the door to work.

Elder Neuner, on the left, is new to Katowice, and Elder Dopp has been here for several months. They are the Zone Leaders for our Katowice Zone with the responsibility of helping the other missionaries in the zone and conducting zone training for our area

Elder Rittmanic, our District Leader, has served in Katowice twice on his mission , and Elder Elder Smith is a new missionary to our district.

Sister Pearson is fresh out of the Mission Training Center in Provo, and she has a wonderful trainer, Sister Packard.

The little homes were small, but cozy, and the community well was in the center for easy access.

Instead of horses there were goats. Billy Goat Gruff was looking hopefully for something to eat.

Such a contrast from the castle rooms!

There were home made tools for everything that needed to be done.

One of the houses had a display of carriages used in that era. Here is a hearse probably used by royalty rather than the common folk.

One of the homes had their own little band for entertainment.

Here is the front view of the castle next to the town square.

The town square, which is next to the castle, is lined with beautiful buildings. Rafal was a wonderful guide on this excursion and has become a good friend.

When the castle housed royalty, this was the “Entrance of the Chosen Ones” guarded by sentinels on duty at all times. Only certain people could pass through this entrance to the palace grounds.

The grand staircase leads up to the main gathering rooms.

The hallways are lined with interesting artifacts, paintings, and lighting. Here the trophies of some of the hunts are the decorative features. Rafal, who used to be a reporter, said that he talked with one of the princes who lived in the castle. He told him that he used to ride his bicycle up and down the hallways when he was young. There was one hallway which was very wide, and the prince had a great time on that one.

The room of the hunters displays the hunting trophies.  One of the main past times of the men was “the hunt.”  Many of the rooms are filled with this evidence.

There were elephant tusks, a rhino horn, a coyote, but the most prominent hunt was for deer, which were plentiful in the forests.

The women’s sitting room was peaceful and serene.

The master of the house slept in these elegant quarters on one end of the castle..

Several of the rooms had domed ceilings with interesting paintings.

The library opened up into the main gathering room for conversation with large groups.

On a reading stand in the library was a copy of the Bible which was used by Martin Luther dating back to 1507.

The walls of the gathering room were lined with beautiful art work.

At the end of one of the hallways more of the hunting trophies were greeting us.

The ballroom is now used for concerts of various kinds.

A concert grand piano was on stage at the moment.

The gardens behind the castle are breath-taking, especially this time of year when the green of nature is so vibrant.

Interesting bridges cross the ponds and streams throughout the garden.

We met this man who gave us directions on which path to take to get back to the castle. The gardens are so vast that we weren’t sure of the pathway. Many of the Poles, young, old, men and women, use a bicycle for their main mode of transportation. We have seen this in all of the cities and in the countryside. Actually, it’s more efficient in the narrow city streets which are many times jammed with traffic overloads.

The city square has most interesting architecture.

In the square was Princess Daisy, who came from England and married a German Prince. Daisy was a champion for the downtrodden in the area and was the sponsor of many philanthropic projects in her day (late 1800′s). She is still revered by the people here.  She and Sister Reed had quite an interesting conversation.

Here is a view of the beautiful blanket of green which covers the country sides of Poland in the springtime. There is plenty of moisture in this country . . . and some to spare.

The models of the Basilicas were intricate and beautiful.

Pope John Paul was sitting on a bench in the park, so we stopped to talk with him for a while. He was a great, humble man.

The churches and Basilicas were beautifully displayed in the park.

In the park was Moses displaying the Ten Commandments. They still certainly apply today after all these years. Truth doesn’t change.

You can see how new the park is by the size of the trees. Some day this will probably be a huge tourist center in the country.

At the top of the hill in the park stands a massive statue of Pope John Paul. It must be around 55 – 60 feet high.

This District Presidency was released at our Conference, President Krzykawski (1st counselor), President Pawlik, and President Gaskell (2nd counselor). They have served the District faithfully and diligently for the past 7 years.

Here is our new District President and his Counselor – Mission President Nielson, new District President Zan, returning 1st Counselor President Krzykawski, and our visiting General Authority, Elder Olsson.

The Relief Society sisters who attended the Conference met on Saturday afternoon, while Sisters Reed and Durrant were doing the Primary activities with the children.

The Branch Presidents from the cities in our District – President Kucia (Krakow), President Najberg (Kielce), President Nielson, President Urban (Katowice) and Rafal (counselor in Katowice Branch and translator for most of our meetings)

After a lesson on reverence and a “mouse” story and activity about being as “quiet as a mouse” in sacrament meeting, we had a lesson on “Putting on the Whole Armor of God”.   The children each colored, cut out, and glued the armor on to their boy on the paper. They are also holding their little stuffed mice which they can bring to sacrament meetings to remind them to be as “quiet as a mouse.”

The mouse ears are completed. Evi (center) who speaks English and Polish fluently, was our translator for the activities and helped the little ones with cutting.

Coloring the pieces of armor – doesn’t Sister Durrant look great in the mouse ears? She and Sister Reed had to make ears, too, in order to be a part of the group!

Each of the children cut out and glued their own special popcorn bowls to hold the special treat.

Spencer wanted his own special place to eat his popcorn.

Balloon fun finished up all the activities.

Elder Reed enjoyed chatting with Elder Olsson.

A wonderful surprise at the Conference was to see some of our former missionaries who have now gone on with their lives in most wonderful ways. Sister Day (former Helfrich) and her husband (they are looking forward a their new baby boy in September), Brother Kalinowski (formerly Elder) and Amanda, who will be married in the Oakland Temple in August. Gosia and Dorota from our Branch in Katowice enjoyed seeing their old friends once again.

Sister Packard and Sister Holmgren are with one of our favorite investigators, Sylvia. The Sisters have been teaching her for about 6 weeks now, and she comes to church almost every Sunday. Elder and Sister Reed have helped on a couple of lessons – this is the part of the mission we love the most, testifying of the Savior and His great Church.

Our missionaries from Katowice – Sisters Holmgren and Packard, Elders Rittmanic, Brown, Pofelski, and Dopp, the Reeds, and Elder and Sister Durrant from Wroclaw

These beautiful children, Leon, Nadia, and Patryk are from our Branch. Patryk and his Mom were baptized in December, so they are very new members of the church. The children had never had any church experience before, so being reverent at sacrament meeting was not something they knew how to do. One Monday the Reeds went with our missionaries to their home for a Family Home Evening. Sister Reed taught a lesson on reverence using a primary lesson and the mouse story. The next Sunday they came to church with their little mice, and they sat through the whole meeting as “quiet as little mice.” We have had another FHE with them with a lesson and games, and we all loved it. They are darling children and we love having them in the Branch.

After the Relief Society and Priesthood meetings on Saturday, some of the children and teenagers had a Fooz Ball battle. We never did find out who won . . . . the girls look pretty powerful, though!

After meetings, Primary activities, and pizza, the chapel needed sprucing up a bit. Elder Reed is hard at it. The Senior Couples are the cooks and janitors some of the time along with sharing the gospel on a mission. It’s all great fun!

The guest pianist was featured in Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”. His fingers literally flew over the keys, and the audience gave him a standing ovation following this piece, to which he responded with an encore.

After the concert we walked down the main part of Chorzow since we had never been to the center of the city before. Elder Polselski, Elder Brown, Elder Reed, Elder Rittmanic, and Elder Dopp.

The Elders went on and Elder and Sister Reed enjoyed the lights of the promenade. Since is was late, the stores were all closed, and there were few people on the street.

Here are Dominika and President Nielson at the train station in Warsaw. She has a smile which truly lights up a room. She has that “big white envelope” in her hands and just can hardly wait to see what it says.

Opening the envelope – we can just imagine her anticipation.

And the letter from the Prophet says that she has been called to the ILLINOIS CHICAGO MISSION! President Nielson told us that she let out a big scream, and everyone in the area wondered just what was going on. This is the same mission to which our YSA from Poznan, Marta who has been on our blog so many times, has been called. We are so thrilled for both of them. Dominika will report to the Mission Training Center in Provo in September, and Marta will report in June. Who knows, they may someday be mission companions!

President is showing Dominika some of the things in the instruction book which is included in the package. We talked with her while we were in Lodz, and she is so excited to serve the Lord in this capacity. She will be an outstanding missionary and will represent her country well.

Here are the Senior Missionary Couples in Poland. It’s a wonderful group of people to know and love!

President Nielson opened our meetings on Friday as we all listened to his sage words about the errand of the Lord which we are all on in our various locations.

Friday evening we had dinner at a wonderful Polish restaurant which serves everything from pork to perogi. Polish food is truly delicious.

President Nielson presided over the meeting along with Sister Nielson. The Nielsons will be going home the end of June, and they will be missed by all of us. They both have given their l00% (and even over!) to the Lord for the past three years. We all love them.

Elder and Sister Jensen serve in Warsaw and are the coordinators of the Young Single Adult program in Poland.

Elder and Sister Lloyd serve in Lodz, where this conference was held.

Elder and Sister Durant are the newest couple in the mission, arriving only about a week ago. They are serving in Wroclaw, which is only a couple of hours away from Katowice where we are serving.

Elder and Sister Tufts arrived only a month ago, and they are serving in Gdansk, which is north by the Baltic Sea.

Elder and Sister Hutchinson serve in the mission office in Warsaw. They are truly the glue of the mission!

Elder and Sister Sheley are serving in Poznan, the city in which we previously served for ten months.

And here we are among the group as we all arrived for dinner.

After dinner some of us walked down “P” Street, the most famous and beautiful street in the center of the city. It had just stopped raining as we passed this man on the bench whose nose was running a bit from the cold and wet!

We also enjoyed some beautiful music from Paderewski who just happened to be there that night! We love the statues and monuments displayed in all the cities.

During breakfast at the hotel on Saturday morning, we heard the fire alarm go off, but didn’t think much about it until the fire door to the restaurant closed. Shortly after that the fire trucks arrived, and in came the fireman. The cause of all this . . . . . . ? Someone had burned their toast in the toaster at the breakfast bar, and that had set off the alarm. Quite an exciting breakfast!

This is the entrance to the old textile factory owned by the Pozanski family years ago.

The factory was massive in this thriving town in the early l900′s and employed many hundreds of citizens in the city.

At its peak the factory had hundreds of weaving machines like the machines in the foreground. Our guide turned a couple of them on, and the noise was deafening. He said many people lost their hearing after working for years in the factory. The lint dust from the yarn was also very hazardous to their health.

Here our guide was telling us about the finished products seen here on a display of different patterns woven into the fabrics made at the factory.

Here is a picture of the work crew in action – Andziej, Marek, Basia, Helena, and Gosia.

The reward for all our hard work was potato cakes made by Gosia. They were delicious!

Those potato cakes were really good, along with a fruit salad which Sister Reed brought. Ola, on the right, joined the group to help, too, so she got the potato cake reward along with the others!

Gathering just before Institute – Adrian, Martin Siebert, Gosia, Dorota, and Adrian. What a handsome group of young adults!