The 6 month mark

Lance hit his 6 month mark on February 22nd.  And now he's serving in Szczecin...a northern town on the border of Germany.

Szczecin is pronounced shchechin.
And I thought the Welsh language was hard to pronounce!

So far, all of Lance's emails have had a resounding theme of "it's amazing!".  And this week's email is full of such sentiments.

The train ride from Warsaw to Szczecin took seven hours, during which Lance was able to enjoy a lot of Polish scenery.  He says it is absolutely beautiful.  And it appears that Szczecin beats Warsaw (not by much, though) in amazing-ness.  The city is near the Baltic Sea and there are several harbors that he plans on visiting.

A Szczecin harbor (not Lance's picture)

Lance shares that those he has contacted have been very willing to listen.  He says they seem very patient there.  His branch consists of about 7 members, including the Branch President...a far cry from the 50 members in his Warsaw branch.  Meetings in Szczecin require the missionaries to do much of the teaching.  He believes the members are very strong in their faithfulness.  

My email to Lance this week contained many questions, of which only a portion were answered.  One of the more important questions I had for him was if he had a new mailing address.  Thankfully, he did share that so I can get his package mailed off to him this week.  

Starszy Lance Kotter

ul Piotra Skargi 5A/4

71-422 Szczecin

Poland

Not surprising at all, he thinks his companion is great.  He mentions that every companion he's had has been wonderful.  

As always, we filled him in on everything going on at home.  I updated him on some of his buddies who are also serving missions, and he was glad to hear about them.  He has one good friend who is serving only 2 hours away in Berlin, Germany.  There are usually a few members of our ward that ask how Lance is doing, so we always let him know there are people who think about him.  He says that he is really excited to come home and see everyone and catch up, but he's loving Poland and wishes time would slow down a little so it won't go by so quickly.  I'm wishing the opposite!

He closes his email by wishing us well in everything we do, and encourages us to continue being awesome.

"Kocham cie!  Barzdo!  I wszystkiego najleprzego!"