Hello All,
I have been called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Poland Warsaw Mission. I will be reporting to the Provo MTC on June 20th 2012. I will be preaching the gospel in the Polish Language.
My hope is that I can fill this blog with things that I am doing to prepare for my mission. I want everyone to be aware of the incredible amount of things needed to do to prepare to serve a mission. Also, I am hoping to have my letters and/or pictures posted to this blog while I am away.
I have quite a few temporal things to do in preparation for my mission.
#1 Priority: Get a passport!
#2 Priority: Get Typhoid Shot (The only one I need!)
#3 Priority: Defer my college education at Brigham Young University
#4 Priority: Start packing up my things
#5 Priority: Survive finals while being excited about the mission :D
I am also still in the process of letting people know where I will be heading. Two of my great friends Elder Michael Campbell, and Richard Fetzer are already leading the way in missionary service and I need to let them know of this great landmark in my life that I have reached.
I wanted to share a quick quote about the Book of Mormon from the Prophet Joseph Smith:
“I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”
History of the Church, 4:461; from instructions given by Joseph Smith on Nov. 28, 1841, in Nauvoo, Illinois; reported by Wilford Woodruff.
Please keep me in your prayers as I continually day-by-day keep preparing to go forth.
Sincerely,
Brother Logan P. Baranowski
Congrats Comrade Logan! (Swedish word for miss companion) -the prophet was probably following my vibe for you. On our 2-week visit in 1982 Poland was under strict martial law so the roads were often deserted outside checkpoints into and out of the big towns. Things may have changed a bit now that capitalism rules.
ReplyDeleteMy Provo neighbor bought a polish MIG jet factory that now makes aluminum Cobra cars. So he learned to speak polish and play Chopin on the piano.
I learned a few useful words that you will likely master in your first week in the MTC. I hear from travel writer Rick Steves that Krakow is like the new Prague for travelers. They use the name Baran alot more than Baranowski in Poland for our family name from what I heard while we were visiting the cousins.
The Swedes controlled and colonized parts of Poland during the many wars in the 1600's so you may be part viking. I will pass along more titbit of info as I think of them.