Warsaw in September

I don't know about you, but this month has flown by. We've been working hard contacting and teaching as much as possible. It's amazing how many things get in the way though, from work to vacation to school to illness--there are thousands of reasons people can't meet with us. I understand. Life is hectic. But I know eventually someone will stop and listen and really desire to learn more and meet with us more than once and not flake us. I'll let you know when I meet them.

Poland Fact of the Week: Weird weather
The weather has turned cold again here. I used to think that Provo had the most fickle weather on the planet, but it's definitely Poland. I have literally left the house with my wool coat on, then an hour later taken it off because it was warm enough for short sleeves and then 20 minutes later put my sweater and scarf  on because it was cold again. Dziwny (strange).

Fun story of the week. There are a lot of ways to meet new people. We experienced a very unique one last P-day. We were on our way to Centrum (The Central Metro Station) at the tramwej stop in front of our house when Sister LeFevre saw something fly through the air and land in the road. We were pretty sure it was a wallet and so we waited for a break in the traffic in order to retrieve it. Amidst various forms of ID we found a buisness card and called him, but he was on his way to an important meeting and couldn't come and pick it up from us. When we called again that evening he was home with his sick children and couldn't pick it up so we offered to drop it off. He was very friendly and grateful that we had found it and nothing was missing. And we got to meet his two kids (who were adorable) and lovely wife. We talked to them for over an hour and left them with a Book of Mormon and invitation to church. You never know how you're going to meet someone new everyday.

I'm safe and happy and healthy. Keep praying for me and support the missionaries there in Vegas. I have come to learn that members are the greatest resource for missionaries. With their help missionary work will accelerate, without it, missionary work slows. I know it's hard, believe me, but you never know who might be interested in learning more. It doesn't hurt to talk about it and invite them to activities.

For everyone who has written me (Michele and Rach etc), thank you thank you thank you. Believe me when I say that I've written over 10 letters and haven't sent any of them. But I will repent and send them out today.

Well that's all for this week, enjoy General Conference (I'm so excited for this weekend!!!)

Siostra Allen

Hi wonderful friends of Tracy, I want to apologize for the hacker who posted an inappropriate link on Tracy's blog. I was notified by her cousin, I quickly deleted it but if anyone else happened on to it, I am so upset that it has tarnished her beautiful blog. I am concerned about further hacking.  Please be careful not to open any links unless I authorize it in an introduction and tell you what it is first.  
thanks,
Tracy's Mom
PS  In the process of trying to figure out the security features on this blog I accidentally deleted her format. Sorry.

Ok, This photo is not Tracy but I thought it was a good representation of fun in the mission field.

I was looking for photos on Google images and found the photos of Tracy I have put here on her blog. Somehow I felt so violated. Where's the privacy? Anyway, I ended up looking and reading all these other blogs that were connected to pictures of missions and the word Poland. It was actually very uplifting.

So here's Tracy's letter for this week. I left out the portion to me. Enjoy.

This week has been so busy. We've been running around trying to meet with everyone and get everything done. I'm sure this is typical of missionary work in general, but you have some weeks when you contact and white board and call potentials all week, and then you have some weeks when you meet really cool people that are actually interested. Yesterday was one of those days where we taught and people weren't just asking annoying questions or passively listening, but they really wanted to know, and they really wanted to study the Book of Mormon. It's lessons like that that remind me why I'm here.
This week has been full of experiences that solidify why I'm here. I met a man on the bus who talked about how he was an idealist and wanted to go into social work and help the world. After wards I was thinking about myself a few years ago saying very similar things about helping people, and then it hit me-- this is the most effective way to help people that exists. People will be happier with the gospel of Jesus Christ than they ever would be with me helping them build a school or a well. Not that those are bad things, they are very good things and very good desires, but this is the best work. I am so happy that I get to be a part of it.
The language is frustrating as always. It is frustrating to stop people and have them actually listening to you and interested in the message and I don't know the questions that they are asking and when I try to say what I know, I stumble over my words and try to remember how to say what I want to say. It's not a new experience, I know every missionary goes through it, and so I will remain patient and work on listening and speaking everyday. I know eventually it will come, and although I might not be one of the greatest Polish speakers, eventually I will be able to do what I need to do to succeed in sharing the gospel.
This is a new segment to my e-mail-- funny language mishaps. We'll start with a couple:
The word for beautiful is very similar to hell. So one night I was praying with Sister LeFevre and instead of saying "Thank you for this beautiful day" I said "Thank you for this hell day". I couldn't figure out why Sister LeFevre was laughing through the prayer...now I know.
Then last week at Institute I was talking to a member and they asked me how long we studied Polish before we came to Poland. Instead of saying "two months" as intended to I mixed up the word for months with the word for men. They were kind of confused and amused.
There are a lot of thrift stores here (at least 3 within a block of our mieszkanie), but the word for cheap looks kind of like the word for dancer. So for a week I read all the signs that say "cheap clothes" as "dance clothes" I thought there was a dancing sensation sweeping the country.
Fun polish fact: They have really small markets instead of big grocery stores. And they don't give you bags to put your groceries in, you have to bring your own. They do sell these bags that fold up really small though and now I have one. I'm officially a resident!
Also, the fast food chains that aren't super nice in the US like McDonalds and Pizza Hut. They are like gormet restraunts here. Super super nice.

Well I need to go, I love all of you so much and am grateful for everything you've done for me.
Sister Tracy Allen

P.S. Can I request a few things in a future package. Some U.S. medicine. I am just getting over a cold and even though they do have cough drops here, their cough syrup didn't really work. Could I ask for some U.S. Medicine for a future cold that will probably be contracted this winter? And then there is a grammar workbook that I would love to have for language study. I have the text book but apparently there is a book with exercises to practice too. It's by Dana Bielec. And some nylons- not either of the kinds we got before though. George brand doesn't fit very well and Ann Taylor got a run really fast.
(cookies and tortilla chips are not hated either:)

I know you're in Korea right now, so I don't expect one for a while, but when you have time to send one, I would love those.

Mailing information: Don't use pouch mail unless you're going through Dear Elder. If you use Dear Elder it is free for Poland (isn't that cool) but if you aren't, they have the one page rule which is annoying. You can just send regular mail to the mission home through the postal service.

Sister Tracy Allen
Poland Warsaw Mission
ul.Potcznska 50/5
01-337 Warsaw
Poland

My P-day is once again on Tuesday. This morning we did our scripture study and then went to the other Sister's apartment to make pancakes. It was way fun. I think later we're going to go to a museum.

I have discovered that I am overall a much happier person when I'm wearing wool tights. It's been really cold here all week and so I broke down and pulled the wool tights out. Life has been much more enjoyable since then. So if you're curious about what to send for Christmas... hint hint.

The work has been a little frustrating with a lot of our investigators and potential investigators on extended vacations and then coming back and being really busy with the start of school and work etc. Hopefully it'll pick up a little bit in the coming week. We sure hope so. But we're working hard anyway with visits to less actives, new converts, and lots and lots of contacting. And I did finally get to teach my first investigator lesson.I have documented evidence of the first building I tracked! It will certainly not be the last. But it's super fun and I'm understanding a lot more now. After we talk to a person Sister LeFevre will summarize a couple of things, and I'll have picked up a lot of it. Granted, a lot of that is from her answers. It's a lot easier to understand missionaries than natives. But I LOVE the members here! They are so patient with the missionaries and so stalwart in their faith. Almost every member here is a convert! But they love the gospel and embrace the church when they convert.

Some cool stuff about Poland:
They have awesome public transportation here- they have one metro line that goes through Centrum with a second one under construction. They have tramwejs (kind of like trolleys) throughout the whole city. And then they have buses. So we can get anywhere we need to with that. Sometimes it takes a little while and we have to go a round about way. But we can get there.

The people here are super courteous. Everyday I see someone give up their seat on the bus to an elderly person. If you shake someone's hand while they're sitting down they'll half stand up out of courtesy to you. And if you talk to someone, they will take their hands out of their pockets- even in the middle of winter- even just to say good morning.

You can really see the effects of communism. Their buildings are big concrete blocks. But they're in the process of beautifying them with paint and you can see flowers overflowing off of a lot of their balconies. "Remont" or remodeling is really big here. When they can, the people are really eager to improve what they have. Something interesting to me is that you can own your own apartment. Most people here live in apartments and instead of one person owning the whole building, the individual apartments are owned. But another effect of communism is that people are really protective against outsiders. There is a dom-a phone on the outside of a building so that you have to call in to get them to unlock the door. Then in some buildings there's another one on hall and then the doorbell once you're in the hall. It makes tracting pretty exciting when you have to go to so much trouble just to get to someone's door.

Well, there will have to be more later because I'm out of time. Hopefully next week I can tell you about the awesome members I'm getting to know and the investigators I'm teaching.

I love you all so much and love hearing from you. Have a great week.

Love,
Tracy

P.S. Look up Mika, she won the Polish grammy this year and I met her and her sister on a tramwej. Tell me what you think)