Beginning of March 2011

It took me a little while to settle into Warsaw, but now I can honestly say I LOVE it. The last couple days I've been saying goodbye to this beautiful big city and the people here and having quite a difficult time thinking about myself anywhere else. I feel like I'm just figuring out how to be a good missionary and how to serve these people and how to get around town. I even had a couple people say that they were going to pray that I didn't get transfered (one of them being the Branch choir director:) ) Well, much to my suprise and delight, their prayers were answered. That's right- I'm staying in South Warsaw with Sister Leppanen for another two months.Sorry you all probably think I have a boring mission with only one city and two companions for 8 months of my mission, but I'm happy to be here and excited for the hard work we're going to do this transfer. I'm glad you had such a great stake conference. They are so needed to keep us focused on our eternal goals and how to work towards them in our life today. I am soooo grateful that we have living apostles who can give us God's direction for our times. We actually had District Conference this weekend too. Our district president (like stake president) is moving and so they called a new one and reorganized the mission presidency too. So lots of leadership changes. They are great men and I know they have been called of God. I'm sure everyone says this, but something is happening in Poland right now. Somethings really amazing and powerful. If you talk to the members they can even feel it and are starting to get excited. I know that this is a result of our renewed focus and desire to be 100% obedient as a mission. When we are obedient he has to bless us. How cool is that? We can count on blessings when we are following God's commandments. Anyway, I'm so grateful that I get to be here right now and be apart of the changes that are happening. There are people here that are ready to change their lives, they just need to be boldly invited to do so. You asked what Co to jest? means because you saw it in a picture on a white board we did. It means "What is this?" Super simple. Draw the plan of salvation and just start asking people if they know what it is. This gets them to stop because they're curious and then you can just testify that we're children of God and he has a plan for us. Some people aren't interested in religion and move on, but most people what to hear what you have to say. I love it. And when you talk about divine truths like that, the spirit has to testify.

February 2011

 Hej-

Loved the story of cat and mouse! Sooo funny. Glad to know the cat still has it in him and that you successful saved the mouse. Glad you all are doing well and that you're safe and sound. What exactly happened to Scott's knee, I never heard? Hope everything is going well with his healing and he'll have a good surgery. (Thanks for the scripture Scott. I love to share this with investigators when we are talking about prayer. It's such an amazing simple truth that prayer can "direct thee for good". It's good to be reminded)

I actually got your package on Friday. We were miraculously home during the day because of weekly planning and the postman called on our domofon, I was SO excited. I might have already eaten the entire HUGE bag of Reeses Pieces. So much for the great diet I've been maintaining. Actually that's a lie, while I do eat relatively well with pasta and sandwiches, we buy tons of chocolate and nutella, but we make up for it by walking all over Warsaw. I've actually lost some weight in the last months which is weird because most people gain weight, but if you don't eat out a lot and serve in Europe, you stay in shape.

What else is new. We had an awesome weekend here in Warsaw. 5 people got baptized in Warsaw and 1 in Wroclaw- A mother and daughter in the first branch. A great guy named Emmanuel and a rockin' awesome couple in ours. He's investigated the church for a while aka 20 years and possibly knows more about it than I do. It's great that he's finally acted upon what he knows is true and that his wife was able to be baptized with him. That is amazing faith.

By way of other news transfers are next week, this transfer has gone by so fast. So next Monday I'll know where I'm going if I'm going. I really can't count on it. I very well could stay right here with Sister Leppanen. Sorry my mission has been so boring - 1 city for 6 months. But I really do love Warszawa. I told President he could keep me here if he wants to. I love the members and there's lots of work to do. But I'm sure I will love wherever else I'll serve. We're in Alma right now as a mission reading the Book of Mormon and I love it. Alma is my favorite book. So many great story's and powerful doctrine. And now I'm loving all the amazing missionaries in Alma. Recently I've loved Alma 7:15 which counsels us to "fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you". That's something I'm still working on and something I'm inviting everyone to do. Fear not, live as the Savior has shown you. That is the way to happiness. What amazing faith it takes for us to actually do this. It truly is a miracle, every change we are able to make to live as God has directed. I love it.

I sent some fun pictures. There's Sister Leppanen and Sister LeFevre on transfer day. There's the wedding a couple weeks ago. Me and all the books I used during study... ridiculous. Stare Miasto, or old town from last P-day when we climbed to the top of a tower to look over it. Me with a cowboy store because I am a cowboy at heart, at least I was one at Chaparral. And Me with Ania one of my favorite people here. I give her singing lessons sometimes, really we just have fun singing together. And the last one was taken 15 minutes ago so you can see what I look like today! Love you. Hope you enjoy.

Siostra Allen

P.S. Could you also send me Gospel Principles in English. I love it! And we often teach from it at church, so it would be nice to study in English first and then Polish. Dzięks.

Valentine's Day

Sister Nielsen with the sister missionaries in Warsaw District

Glad to see she has many opportunities to sing

Birthday Wishes

Cześć wam!

Happy Valentines day! That's kind of weird to say. I forget about holidays sometimes. We planned to do a bunch of phone calls after P-day tonight to set up meetings with people and then this morning realized that that would probably be a bad idea. We were going to annoy everyone on their dates- chyba nie, maybe not.

How was your week? Pretty good. We had some really great lessons. That's what you live for as a missionary, the times when you can teach really awesome investigators and the spirit is there and they have good questions and a sincere desire to understand what you are teaching. It's the best. Men are great to teach, but I like to teach women most. I feel a sisterhood or somethings with them. I love blasting the worldly motto that you are nothing unless you are beautiful or successful- no, not true. Everyone is a child of God and therefore, inherently has worth. The more they pray and read their scriptures, the more they internalize this and it's amazing to watch.

What else is new here? Hmmm. We had an awesome! Zone Conference on Friday. It's funny that whenever I have something that is going to be very spiritual in my life, the day or week before is horrible! Thursday started out really well. We had a lesson and then a white board. And then the legs of our whiteboard froze a bit and we couldn't fold up the board to take it on the tramwej and put it in the office. After fiddling for a little while I was out of patience because it was cold and just dragged the whole white board onto the first tramwej that went by. Unfortunately it didn't go where I thought it was going and it took us forever to get back to the office. That followed by a flaked meeting and contacting on a street where no one was walking I turned to Sister Leppanen and said, "I hope you realize that Satan wants us to feel really frustrated right now so we loose the Spirit and can't learn everything we need to at Zone Conference tomorrow." And then everything made sense, we laughed a little bit at how comically wrong our day had gone and were ready for the spiritual outpouring of the next day. I know our leaders are inspired. Every single portion of the conference answered questions I had had or clarified things that I have been wanting to work on. So it was great!

I went to a wedding on Saturday. Two members from first branch are now married! In Poland, you basically get married in the Catholic church or the court house. There are very few other churches that are allowed to legally perform the marriage, also very few churches that are even recognized as churches. So this was a civil wedding and they're going to the temple, I think next month. It was fun, and kind of cool to say I've been to a Polish wedding, but temple sealings are so much more amazing.
Speaking of weddings. I heard one of my roommates is going to be having one of her own! I wrote you a letter today, but I still just want to say CONGRATULATIONS LANDEN!

I think I just finally processed the fact that I'm not coming home for a while. That this isn't just another semester abroad. That this is where I am, and this is what I'm doing until further notice. And you know what, it's hard, but I love it. And I'm learning so many amazing things about Poland, and the world, and the gospel, and people, and myself.

We have the fullness of the gospel and teachings of Jesus Christ. He is the way back to the Father. That is the Plan of Salvation in a nut-shell. It's simple and completely possible. I know this to be true.

Have a great week.

Sister Allen

P.S. Could I ask a favor. You can't get CTR rings here besides the really cheap kinds and there is a really awesome new convert I'm working with named Alex. She is sooo amazing and I know she would appreciate a real one. It can be CTR or WS the polish version. But just in the next package that would be really cool. You can take it out of my account if you want.

życie jest dobre (Life is Good)

Cześć
I had no idea Scott had gotten injured or what classes he was taking. I am glad to hear that Hollie, Matt, Kieran, and Cady are doing well. And I'm happy to hear that Josh has some good friends to hang out with. That really is so important. I'm sorry to hear about Brother Milner. That is really tragic. I am so grateful that they know about the Plan of Salvation, that we can be reunited as a family. That is one of the greatest rewards we're all working towards.

I don't think I mentioned Andrzej before. About a month ago, we were doing a white board and I stopped a lot of people. One person I talked to was named Andrzej. I only talked to him for a few minutes. Told him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. He didn't want to take a copy of the Book of Mormon because he didn't have a bag to carry it home in, doesn't have a phone so he couldn't give me his number, and because of an irregular work schedule didn't want to set up a meeting. To be honest, I thought I'd never see him again, and that he was just nicely rejecting me. But a few days later he called and asked if we could meet.  He was the beginning of the week of miracles I talked about in January. We invited him to prepare for baptism on the first meeting and he accepted. He is probably one of the nicest men I've ever met. So full of faith and a desire to do the right thing. He quite smoking in less that a week and never looked back. We visited with him and his sister and her husband- he has a wonderful family who is super supportive, and this Saturday I got to attend his baptism! It was such a great day. I could literally see the changes in him as we met with him each day.    It is amazing to see the Atonement work in someone's life so apparently.

Who else are we teaching. We are teaching the mother of a YSA in the branch. He is really funny and good friends with the missionaries, so we know him pretty well, but I don't think he knew that his mom was meeting with us. Haha. Then one day we decided to invite both of them to have lunch with us and a senior missionary couple- The Hardings. It was really fun and he was really suprised. Her name is Anna and she is just great. I have a testimony of the spirit being felt at church. When her son joined the church I think she expected it to be a phase that he went through, but she came with him sometimes. I really believe it is through the joy and love she's felt at church that her heart was softened and she was ready to accept the gospel. She is so sensitive to the spirit when we teach, it is the highlight of my week when we meet.

You asked what we learn at the leadership training conference- we talk about mission goals and how we're going to achieve them. We're focusing on really applying the advice we received from Elder Kopishke when he was here a few months ago. We're already really seeing a lot more success. So it's great.

Things we can't get here- Reeses, good salsa, ranch, brown sugar, cake mix, ball point pens- the really cheap kinds.

Love you, hope you feel better mom.
Sister Allen