The Bookworm Confessions

The same

2012-02-05T18:27:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow will be one month home from my mission. I'm still getting over walking through the streets of Poland with a name tag that said Siostra Allen and preaching the gospel. Like all return missionaries, I miss it like crazy. But what I've been realizing lately is that very little has fundamentally changed. Sure I can wear jeans, sleep passed 6:30 and go on dates. But the person I was on my mission and my goals and dreams are still just as important to me. I still want to be worthy of the title disciple of Jesus Christ. I still want people who see me on the street to notice something different. And I still want to take every opportunity given me to serve others and testify of my Savior. Being home from a mission does not mean I have to give up the most important parts of being a missionary. I just get to be a little more creative on how to accomplish it. So my name is Tracy Nicole Allen. I am a BYU student who loves to read. I'm studying to be an English teacher and share that passion with others. I sing all the time and love talking to my brother on the phone. I try and eat as much Mexican food as possible and love the Utah mountains. And although I don't wear a name tag anymore, I am still a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Change

2012-01-15T15:43:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday I woke up in Lodz.

Friday I woke up in Warsaw.

Saturday I woke up in Las Vegas.

Monday I woke up in Provo.

In a matter of days everything that was normal to me was turned upside down. I no longer wake up at 6:30. I no longer call everyone Sister and Elder. I no longer ride tramwejs. I no longer speak Polish all the time. I no longer have the constant pull to be outside working all the time in all kinds of weather. I no longer stop people on the street and ask if they want to learn more about the Book of Mormon. I no longer wear skirts and a name tag everyday.

People ask me how I feel since I've been back. The crazy thing is that everything feels so normal. My family is the same. Las Vegas looks the same. BYU is the same. My brain remembers everything and so it feels familiar, but not. I am different. Everything is different because I am different. And so it's not the same.

Someone told me that coming home from a mission allows you to rediscover yourself. I can see that. Now that I'm back I can re-decide what is important to me and what I want to be normal. But in the midst of all this change and rediscovery I'm grateful I have an anchor in the gospel. While I'm figuring out all the details, the core things in my life don't have to waver and that is reassuring.

Remembering

2012-01-15T15:35:00.000-08:00

I found my missionary name tag in my pocket a couple days ago. My coat pocket has holes in it and apparently it had fallen through into the lining. Thoughts of my mission had been floating in my head all day and frankly I was feeling lost in the mix. I was missing the familiarity of missionary life and the comfort of always having a companion. However, finding my name tag was strangely reassuring. It reminded me that even though I no longer wear the name tag on my chest, I am still everything that it represents. I am still Sister Allen a disciple of Jesus Christ. I will still have opportunities to testify of Him and serve others. I can still dedicate my life to Him.

Tracy is Coming Home!

2012-01-02T08:13:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,
I don't think that it's set in yet that I'm going home... this week. That this is my last e-mail to you all as a missionary. So strange. I just feel normal because this is exactly what I've done every P-day for the last year and a half, like clockwork. I'm having a hard time understanding that it's going to end. But end it will. My closet is looking very bare as I pack things up.

I did receive my Christmas package. Thank you sooooo much. I love the makeup and everything fits nicely in that little bag. I'll probably send a couple books home so that I can buy some Polish pottery on my last day in Warsaw. I'm taking the train into Warsaw on Thursday and heard that Sister Bailey and I are going to meet with Anna. A woman I taught last year and then got transfered a couple weeks before her baptism, Sister Bailey came in and finished preparing her for baptism and so we both have a special place in our heart for her and I'm super excited to see her before I leave.

We've mostly been working with three investigators this transfer:
Emilia who moved to Canada today actually, so we won't meet with her this week, but I have her contact information and we're going to stay in touch.
Teresa her granddaughter went into the hospital today so we're going to go by there this evening and see if we can lend some comfort and joy
Magda who lost her phone and so we haven't had contact with her since before Christmas. She lives 30 minutes outside of Lodz and so we tried to visit her last week, but she wasn't home when we dropped by. I'm super sad that I might not get to see her again, but I will definitely send her some letters.
Teresa and Magda have been investigating for a while, so this isn't strange for them to have missionaries change. Plus they saw Elder Smith go home a few weeks ago.
Besides investigators we're going to meet with a few members this week: We're helping Sureeat, a Thai member, prepare to go to the temple and Ania. Besides that, we're going to contact and trakt like normal. So it'll be a normal week sort of.

I am so excited for Scott. Based on his clues, there are only 4 missions I can think of: Mongolia, Russia, Alaska, and Canada. He will do great whereever the Lord sends him.

I love you all so much. I want you to know that I have a testimony of this church. I love it and I love representing my Savior everyday. I know that as we come closer to God we are happier and that the Book of Mormon is one of the most powerful ways of doing that. I can't wait to see all your smiling faces at 11:30 at night. Have a great week. See you Friday.

Siostra Allen

WARNING: Weird things I will probably do
Give Polish hug, kiss on the cheek greetings
Try and feed guests the minute they walk in the door
Comment on how people should dress warmer and fix peoples scarves so they cover their whole neck.
Speak Polish at strange times and expect everyone to understand what I'm saying
Be overly honest. Ex: How do you feel? American response: Great! Polish response: I'm tired and my back hurts
Feel like I have to plan out my day the night before and use a planner
Follow you around because I can't be alone

Christmas 2011 in Poland

2011-12-26T11:31:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how fast time flies. This week and month and transfer and year. There is so much that has happened and yet it feels like yesterday that I was getting off the plane here in Poland with so many hopes and dreams and worries. I am so grateful for the many experiences that I have gained and the people I have come to know and love. During this holiday season I am especially grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and all that He made possible. He is the hope I have in a better world and a happy and successful life.

I love you all so much. It was so fun to talk to you yesterday. I am getting so excited to see you again. It's strange, for the last year and a half it has been normal to never see you and only speak to you twice a year, and in a few weeks I'm going to see you all in the flesh. Crazy! You mentioned a trip with Scott and I to Northern California. That would be really fun. I definitely want to get up there soon and visit grandma and Sherisse and Sammy. We'll figure it out when I get back and when we know the specifics about Scott's call. I know there are three day weekends on Martin Luther King Day and President's Day. Those would probably be the best times to go for me.

We've been really lucky to have a very loving branch here in Lodz. Today we're going to have our third Polish Christmas dinner. Yay, more fried carp! But it's ensured that we aren't bored through the holiday season and it's been fun to participate in some of the Polish traditions. On Christmas Eve we got together and had a White Elephant, Pot-luck dinner, and then acted out the Nativity. Christmas on the mission never really feels the same, but it was fun.

President Nielson was in Lodz last week and told me about how they have decreased the allowed weight on our luggage, so last week I sent two boxes of books home so they wouldn't push me over the limit. I'm debating on how much I want my Polish grammar books and if it's worth it to me to ship them home too. We'll see. I sent them home, but not priority. So they'll probably get there in February.

Thank you so much for the e-mail mom. I am so grateful for your valiant effort in trying to not trunk me out. You are always so encouraging and want me to be doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Thanks for the great example. I love you and I'll hear from you next week.

Siostra Allen

2011-12-20T09:59:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2011

2011-12-20T09:56:00.000-08:00

Hello!
It can't actually be Christmas yet. I remember receiving that chocolate advent calender in the mail from you and thinking I had all the time in the world until Christmas, and now it's very quickly approaching. We had a Christmas Conference in Warsaw last week. We had to wake up really early and catch a train in and then come home that evening. It was held in the Warsaw II chapel meaning I got to go back and see it one last time. We had messages from President and Sister Nielson, watched the First Presidency Fireside, sang carols on the streets, and had a delicious meal with our Zone. It was a really nice opportunity to remember the meaning of Christmas. I guess because I'm always talking about Christ, the Christmas season wasn't feeling special to me. But listening to the words of our prophet and of our mission president was a needed reminder.

I've felt really grateful to be busy this past week. In addition to the missionary Christmas Conference, the Branch had their Christmas party as well. There were many many people and we were exhausted by the end trying to talk to everyone. My little choir is preparing for the program. We did a run through yesterday and even though it wasn't all smooth, I think it'll go quite well. And then we've been teaching a couple of people. We were really hoping all week that one or both of them would be preparing for baptism at the end of the month, but now it's looking like neither one of them will be ready that quickly. Definitely a disappointment, but they are both great and I hope and pray that they will continue learning about the gospel and preparing themselves. As a missionary, it's difficult to not see your investigators progress as quickly as you would like, but over the last 18 months I've learned that people have to make their own choices. As I'm trying to do my best in teaching the doctrine of Jesus Christ and doing that after the manner of the Spirit, then I am a successful missionary whether or not I'm teaching 10 progressing investigators or none. It's learning to trust that God knows you and your heart, whether or not there is outward evidence of what you think and feel and believe and love. You don't have to prove anything to God. He knows and loves you as you are.

Response to your questions:
Yes we do get counsel about depression etc. Our mission president has told us that we are allowed to by disappointed, but never discouraged. Discouragement allows Satan to wear away your faith.
Tell Scott to try and put some structure into his life. The two months before going into the MTC were the hardest things I've ever done. Satan is working so hard on you and I was frustrated by being in limbo. That's part of the reason that I'm grateful to be going right into school, even though, it's a little bit stressful.
I don't have your packages yet, but mail in Poland is slower around the holidays.

Love you, talk to you on Christmas.
Sister Allen

Happy Holidays

2011-12-12T12:01:00.000-08:00

Hello family,

I'm doing quite well today. We had a good week. It was really busy. We've been really lucky lately to be teaching a few people frequently. Thanks for the pictures, it was really fun to see you all together and the house looking so nice and festive.

Wow, Scott's papers are in. That is crazy. I remember that time, it was so, so exciting just waiting for the call. Good thing he'll have a lot to keep his mind occupied with for the next week or so. As for my guesses where he will be called I am going with somewhere in Latin America like Peru or the maybe the Philippines. Zobaczymy.

I did get the package of brown sugar and chocolate chips with the chocolate advent calendar. But if you've sent something more recently, I haven't received it yet. I'll definitely let you know. I'm having to get serious about souvenir shopping now, but the problem is, I just can't wrap my head around going home. I still feel like I have tons of time to figure that out and prepare, but in just a bit I'm going to have a shock. However, if there's something specific anyone wants, please let me know. I still have time get them. And it's always hard to know what people will like. Do the boys want T-shirts, ties, something else?

I LOVE Christmas time. Which I say at least one time a day as we see Christmas decorations around town. We bought a mini Christmas tree and there are a couple presents around it and I hung up my stocking from last year. So there is some merriness in our apartment for sure. Despite all this, it's surreal to me that the holidays are so quickly approaching. Missionaries don't really get holidays. Sure we don't tract on Christmas day, but if at all possible we try to be with ward members and investigators and testify of the Savior. It is a wonderful time of year, and Poland has some fun traditions that I enjoy so I'm glad I get to stay for a second one. Our little choir is preparing diligently for our program. We're going to sing Silent Night in Polish, English, German, and French because those are all the native languages of people in our choir. Cool huh?

You asked about people and lessons we taught. We had a few lessons this week with a woman named Emelia. She is the nicest person ever. The elders met her on the street and when they told her about the Book of Mormon she realized that she already had a copy. Her mother had been a truth seeker and had investigated with many churches. She had read the Book of Mormon and kept her copy. When she passed away Emelia inherited it. The elders set up a time for us to visit her and teach her more and we've had several meetings in the last two weeks. She's actually preparing to move to Canada at the end of the month. But her English is still a little rough, so this is the perfect opportunity for her to learn about the gospel in her native language before she leaves. God definitely has a plan for everything. I'm praying she moves in with a really nice LDS family in Toronto through her schools live-in program.

Life, and a mission especially, is an amazing school. God gives us so many opportunities to learn how to deal with different situations, trials, etc. Right now, several of the people we are teaching are talkers. It's difficult to teach them doctrine, because if we're not assertive, we wouldn't teach anything. It's been teaching me a lot of patience and charity as we've learned how to balance listening to their thoughts and opinions and sincerely caring about them, and then also helping them stay focused on the lesson so that their testimonies can grow. Yesterday we were in a meeting, and the woman was going off on a tangent that didn't have anything to do with the lesson, I knew that if we didn't bring it back quickly, she would remain on this tangent for the next 5 or 10 minutes and so I said a silent prayer asking God to help me know how to teach her and keep the lesson on track. About a minute later, God reminded me of a diagram that I had seen used once to teach the principle of the lesson. Having this concrete drawn-out diagram to refer to throughout the lesson helped us keep the topic focused and it was one of the best lessons we've had with her! It was a very humbling reminder that this is His work and we cannot do it alone. He makes our knowledge and capabilities enough for the situation.

A member I know from Warsaw who is from Lodz originally, was at church yesterday and I got to see her. She's such a fun person from the second branch and so it was really fun to talk for a bit. There will be a Zone Conference in Warsaw on Thursday and so you can look out for some pictures on the Nielsen's blog. We're really excited to go in and spend some time with other missionaries. We've heard rumors of going caroling there too, so that will be fun.

Well, hope you have another great week. Love you.

Siostra Allen

2011-12-04T16:17:00.000-08:00

Sounds like you all had a good Thanksgiving weekend. We did what we could to celebrate the holiday here. Sister Tarasewicz made a huge delicious Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings and invited a ton of people. It was really fun, but I was sitting in between two Polish people and spoke Polish almost the whole time, so it felt kind of surreal to be doing something so American but in Polish. That wasn't really a bad thing, I love all the people in our branch and it didn't take away from the taste. In fact stuffing and pumpkin pie aren't very common here and not very many of the Poles were crazy about it, meaning I had double of my favorite Thanksgiving specialties.

Katie Roundy e-mailed you. I knew her before my mission. Please give her my info. I'd love to get in contact with her. She was one of the last sisters in Lodz several years ago before they reopened it last year. I'd love to hear what she has to say and tell her how the branch is doing. She is allowed to e-mail me directly.

I did get the package. First off thanks for the cookie ingredients. We'll have to send you pictures of us making the cookies. And I've already read 1/4 of the conference ensign. Every day as I read it I have my testimony strengthened that we have living prophets and apostles. I just want to share their counsel with everyone because it's so pertinent.

The works going slow, but we're doing well and working hard and that's the most important thing. I love you all and can't believe it's December this week. Probably because it hasn't snowed yet?!? Weird I know. But we're not complaining. It's actually a beautiful day today for the end of November. It's sunny! Hope you have a great week too. Love you lots.

Sister Allen

P.S. The picture is Sister Stay and I with Maria the RS President here.

2011-11-23T05:47:00.000-08:00

Sorry we're a day late this week. President and Sister Nielson were in town yesterday because they wanted to be at district meeting and so we had P-day together. I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures from Zone Conference. It was really strange to go back to Warsaw after 7 months. Warsaw has changed so much since I've been there last. They've done renovations on the train station and it looks really nice, which is why I was so thrown off. It was pretty dirty and run down before, but now it's very modern. The conference itself was really nice. I got to see old friends and companions and hear counsel from our leaders. It was really enjoyable.

I'm so excited that Scotts turning in his papers. You have to tell me when he get's his call. I'm so proud of him.

That's weird that I got a scholarship. I don't remember applying for one. Do you know how I received it? Either way, I'm happy that it takes a little off your load. Thanks for taking care of that for me. Thanks for the voice lessons too. That is really good thinking. I'll enjoy a little bit of singing. I'm not sure about an audition tape. She might make an exception for me, but to be honest it would be a big stress to make the tape and send it and I've lost a lot of technique from not singing for a year and a half. So I'm not even sure if I would make it. I don't mind not doing Women's Chorus this year, I'll do it next year. I thought a lot about minors this week and even had the senior couple print out some information so I could make an informed decision. It sounds like the TESOL minor would be the overall best for what I'm going into. There are two that are very similar, but one is through the Education department and that's the one I want. So as you're fiddling with schedules, feel free to add a class of two from that.

As far as fingerprints. I haven't gotten your package in the mail yet. I don't know why. Hopefully they come this week so I can get them done. However, I called the Embassy and they said that they don't do fingerprinting anymore. Do you know if it's okay to have a private company do my fingerprints? I left a message with someone for the FBI in Poland to see if there was anything through their department, but it would be easiest if I could find a private company here in Lodz.

Missions are a lot like life, there are really good weeks and ones that are harder. This was a little bit of a harder week for me. Trying to stay focused, teaching my companion the ropes of a new city, trying to find new investigators. But we actually had a lot of really good things happen this week with some of the people we've been working with. So I'm keeping in harmony with the season of Thanksgiving and focusing on those. I love the holidays. Sister Taresewicz is getting things together for a Thanksgiving dinner and we went to Tesco and bought a Christmas tree and lights this week.

Here's my grateful list this year:

I'm grateful to have a testimony of the gospel

I'm grateful I can read- this also means I can read the word of God every day

I'm grateful that my family is supportive of me on a mission.

I'm grateful to be serving in a very supportive and loving branch

I'm grateful to have a companion that is experienced as a missionary and can help in the companionship

I'm grateful for prayer and the fact that I don't have to do everything alone. That my Father in Heaven will help me, especially in missionary work.

I'm grateful to have inspired leaders who are working hard to bless us

I'm grateful to be healthy (I've learned firsthand recently how much of a blessing that is)

I'm grateful to have investigators

I'm grateful that I speak Polish and can share my testimony with others

I'm grateful that I'm learning how to teach with the Spirit

I'm grateful that I love the people that we are teaching

I'm grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and that I can hope for eternal life.

I'm grateful to have a relationship with my Father in Heaven to know he lives and love me.

Love you all lots. Have a great Thanksgiving.

-Siostra Allen

Zone Conference Nov 2011 in Warsaw, Poland

2011-11-17T19:35:00.000-08:00

November 2011

2011-11-14T06:44:00.000-08:00

Hey Mom,

You wrote happy Veteran's Day. That's a biggish day here in Poland too as we celebrate the end of WWI. It is actually Poland's Independance Day. It's when Poland was made into a country again. But they don't really celebrate it very much, at least not like the other holidays they have.

It's been a crazy busy week. Last Monday we took our culture night and saw the Russian National Ballet. It was stunning. Seriously, unbelievable. The same woman played the Swan Princess and the Black Swan. It was a really impressive display of stamina on her part as well as nuance as she completely changed characters. To be honest I didn't even realize it was the same person until they came out for a bow and only she came out.

My new companion is Sister Ellis. She's from Seattle and works as a photographer and graphic designer. She loves indie music and films and is really fun. I think it's going to be a great transfer. The branch in Lodz is so friendly. All the new missionaries here bore a short testimony at the end of sacrament meeting and all the members were happy to meet them. I guess we speak in sacrament meeting a lot. Once every 2-4 months or so. Actually, my little choir had it's first musical number on Sunday and it went quite well. Now we're working on a Christmas program. I love Polish Christmas carols.

We had a lovely meeting with the family we've been teaching about studying the scriptures as a family, a difficult lesson with a less active we've been working with, a fun lesson with the Thai member we're helping prepare for the temple, a great first meeting with a really cool mom and her daughter, and a smaczna lesson with a Mongolian member. Besides that we've been meeting some really cool people. I hope we can meet with them soon.

Funny Story:
Sister Taresavicz, the senior sister here in Lodz, and I took Sister Stay to the train station and were helping her get her bags on. Normally you can help someone and then there's a whistle that tells you to get off the train because it's about to start moving. Well, the whistle never sounded and so Sister Taresavicz and I took a little trip out to a town 30 minutes away from Lodz and had to take a taxi back. Oh well, we just weren't ready to say goodbye to Sister Stay I guess.

Thanks for the great reference in Proverbs. I'll have to look at it during study tomorrow.
And thanks for telling me about Sara Anderson. That is so exciting and she's going to do GREAT!
I'll have to write to her.
Tell Josh I'll pray that he does well during his try-out. I know it'll be good.
I'm so glad Megan is game to live together again. That is exciting. When you talk to or e-mail her next, I'd love her home address so I can send a card or something.
That's a bummer about the fingerprints because I'm already going to Warsaw on Wednesday for Zone Conference and it would be really convenient to do them while I'm there. But we'll make whatever we need to happen.

So I've been thinking about what to do with my schedule and such and got to talk to Sister Taresavicz as I was waiting all morning on Thursday for Sister Ellis to come in. Sister T. worked in education her whole career and so I asked her about what would be best for me to do as I prepare to enter the field. Several other people in education in addition to her have told me that I should diversifty and add a teaching minor that will certify me to teach in a difference subject as well as English. If I do that, I'm much more likely to get hired because the school can use me to fill more than one need. I'm not really interested in Math or Science even though those would be the most marketable, I just don't think I'd be that interested in studying or teaching it. But I've thought a little bit about Social Science, Geography, or English as a Second Language. I'm not sure. Don't worry too much about my schedule this week as I think about it and then when I decide it'll probably be pretty easy to get me into a class associated with the minor to fill up my schdule.

Thanks for all your good wishes. Time is FLYING here in Poland. I hope that stays the case, I try to just focus on the task I'm doing and not think too much about January. There's still work to be done here and I don't want to miss it. I love you and pray for you all. Have a great week.

Siostra Allen

2011-11-08T08:51:00.000-08:00

All the men in the picture behind us have mustaches.

October is chilly but beautiful here in Poland

Painting one of the members homes.

A park in Lodz, Poland that we walk in

Dinner with friends and missionaries

Alex (a new member from Warsaw who came to visit)

We dressed up for a family home evening play for the kids. I am an elf.

No Halloween in Poland, they celebrate the Day of the Dead with lighted candles in cemeteries

More candles!!

Open House

Setting up for Open House

Tracting in Lodz.

Here I am opening the chocolate chip cookies you sent!

So on Thursday a new transfer starts (I've forbidden the words "last transfer" because I am very much in denial of ever having to leave) and sadly I'm loosing Sister Stay. I love her to death and have had such a great experience working with her. I know she's going to do so great in Wroclaw. My new companion is named Sister Ellis from Seattle, so I'm sure I'll have a lot to tell you about her next week. I'm super excited.

It's been a big week. The district wanted to have a chapel open house and this was the only weekend that really worked for the next couple of months. And Sister Stay and I ended up doing a lot of the preparation for it including writing presentations in Polish on topics such as the sacrament and the Book of Mormon and priesthood organization. Luckily that's the strong point of our language abilities, but we were really grateful for a lot of divine help on the project. Overall it went really well. One of the elders contacts invited a huge group. A family we are teaching came! and then a couple of other referrals. We called it a success, because there were a lot of investigators who came, but mostly because the members who gave the presentations had such a positive experience. It was so cool to hear the members teaching the gospel and having the Spirit testify again to them that this is true. Hopefully they'll do it again in a few months and the members will remember that it was a very classy event and want to invite their friends. That's what we're hoping.

As far as airports, I was thinking SLC for a while just for convenience, but I think ultimately I want to come home for at least a night. So Las Vegas is the final answer. Then I can get released by my stake president in person, make sure I have all of my stuff from Las Vegas etc. And I would love to speak in sacrament meeting at some point. If not the weekend I get home, I'll come down for a weekend.

I'll go to Warsaw and get the fingerprints done as soon as I receive the card from Utah State Board of Educators.

You asked about Christmas presents. I know how expensive it is to send a lot oversees but I would like something small to open up. I was thinking some cookies, stationary, and makeup. Things that will be useful on and off the mission and aren't too big to pack up in my suitcase to bring home. Right now I have money, and I'll try to make do. But I am going to start buying souvenirs soon and probably some sweaters and scarves and maybe a coat. So if I do need more I'll let you know.

I'll print out this e-mail and think about classes and then write you a letter so you'll get it soon. I'm not sure what to do about all of those conflicts, but we'll work it out. I do know that you can drop Women's Chorus because I'm going to miss the audition for it on the 3rd. Hopefully I can do it again next year, but not this semester.

Well that was a lot of business, but hopefully it cleared up some questions.
Love love love you,
Sister Allen

End of October 2011

2011-10-31T09:31:00.000-07:00

Hey!
That is so cool that you finished the Book of Mormon. It seems that everyone is finishing it right about now. You, President Nielson just finished it again. I'm part way through Mormon and Sister Stay is in 3 Nephi, so we're not too far behind. It truely is a remarkable book, not just an interesting history of ancient America, but direction from God. I love that you said that as you read you receive answers to prayers. So often it is as we are obedient to other commandments that we have been given that he blesses us with the needed wisdom and insight we desire.

I promise I am taking some pictures, but for some reason the last two times I tried to upload them onto a computer there were some technical difficulties. But I'll have plenty of pictures to show you when I get home.

This week has been crazy. We have worked so hard. I feel like this transfer has been a lot of fine tuning of missionary skills. How to listen to the Spirit, how to teach simply and clearly, how to plan effectively, not to mention language. And as a result we've seen many blessings from that trainting this week. I can't even go into all of the specifics, but a general list is: we've had some really powerful contacts, through spirit filled planning caught some less active members at home and were invited back, taught some lessons that were exactly what investigators needed, and Alex from Warsaw came up and visited Sister Stay and me for the weekend (she's putting in her mission papers next month!!!). Sister Stay and I have gotten along super well and I think we needed to learn some really similar lessons. It's been great to go through the journey of discovery of how to be a better missionary together with someone who just loves this work as much as I do.

Commentary: As a missionary, even though you get 8 hours of sleep, you are exhausted non-stop. Probably because you never stop working. You're either preping for the day, studying and preparing for lessons, on your way to appointments at the same time as trying to talk with people around you on busses and tell them a little about why you're in Poland and see if they'd want to learn more, and then the main work: teaching and finding. It isn't uncommon to work through meal times, especially with projects like the Open House coming up. And then when you finally get home at 9 you have to focus and plan the next day. Lately, Sister Stay and I have been extra tired. As soon as we plan we go to sleep. And then when we wake up, we're already tired. For the last week, as soon as we wake up the first thing we say is: "When is daylight savings time?" We literally started praying that it would come soon so we could have a blessed extra hour of sleep. Well, surprise! We found out on Saturday night that it was daylight savings time in Poland, and we well rested for church the next day.

I feel really really blessed to be serving the Lord right now. The area I'm serving in is literally exploding. We are learning to teach more consise and direct messages and it's helping us teach more and find those who are interested in finding out if what we are saying is true. We're also organizing an open house for our chapel. By chapel I mean a rented part of a building that we use to meet as a branch. There is only the one real chapel in Poland and I've never served in that branch. I think it'll be weird to go back to real church buildings. Anyway, there will be a tour and Q&A and multimedia station. I don't think it'll quite be like Temple Square, but we're going for a similar effect. So, pray that everything will go smoothly and that people with come. And pray for our investigators especially Monika, Gosia, and Magda. They are so great and I love them and love teaching them because I can feel how much God loves them.

Love ya,
Thanks for all you do.

Siostra Allen

2011-10-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

Funny story:
A week ago we were tracting a building and Sister Stay went to open the door she thought it led into a stairwell. Apparently she's just too strong because she broke the door hand knob off. Turns out it was just an apartment at ground level and they no longer had a door handle. We felt so bad. Of course it was our fault and so, we knocked on the door to see if we could come back the next day and buy them a new handle, but the man just yelled at us and wouldn't let us buy a new one, come back, or even leave our contact information in case he changed his mind. So we found the actual door to the stairwell and tracted the building. But when we finished and came outside, the handle that Sister Stay had snapped in half was in one piece. Confusing.

As far as my life goes, we’ve been fighting a lot of apathy lately. As we talk to people we ask them: 1. what direction from God specific to their life and needs would be of value to them, or 2. what meaning the original church of Jesus Chrsit without any variation would have to them, or 3. what meaning would the knowledge that their family could be together forever have. And more often than not they either reply that they already have sufficient faith and don't want any more or that they really couldn’t care less. And these are from the people that believe in God; however, they don’t think God plays a role in their everyday life and they don’t think that Him doing so would really have an impact. I now have faces to go along with every single statement in 2 Nephi 28 and a testimony that the apostasy is real. Ideas about religion are so varied and too many people have become comfortable with the fact that they only feel God in their lives occasionally. I know that this is not something only found in Poland, and not only something found today. I identify with the prophets in the scriptures that testify of the gospel to deaf ears. They always seem so strong, like they never got frustrated. But as I read some of their prayers I recognize the pleading for the people that they love to accept their message and the sadness at others' choices to reject a more full life.

However, very shortly I know that as we try to act as Christ acted some will recognize us as representatives of Jesus Christ. We had the opportunity to do a bit of service this week for one of our investigators and then with a member. As we've painted a rental apartment for this member she's invited us over several times for dinner later and we've gotten to meet her husband who isn't a member and teach him a little bit about the gospel. They even came to church yesterday to hear me speak in sacrament meeting. She said that her children have never been interested in the gospel but that they were really impressed when they heard that we were willing to come help their mother with a real need that she had. That we weren't just a church that preached of Christ, but we were doing our best to become like Him. We've seen some hearts really soften as we've applied this principle and that was a real theme in the last couple of conferences too. When people see us serve they know we are representatives of Jesus Christ.

Love you all and wish you a great week and a Happy Halloween.

Siostra Allen

It's starting to get cold here.

2011-10-17T06:41:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
In similar format to last week I'll just share a couple stories with you. They are all just a little bit funny. Hope you don't mind the lighthearted e-mail.

We had an appointment to meet with a member on Friday. We wrote down her address, looked it up on the map, decided on the best route to get there and then after planning set out. We were running a bit late and so I called her to let her know that we were on the way but everything seemed good. We talked to a woman on the tramwej and then got off at our planned stop. As we approached the street we decided to ask someone for directions. She told us to get back on the tramwej and keep going to the end of the line. We did just that. When we got off we talked to a man to see which way the street we wanted was. He told us we should get back on the tramwej and go back the way we had come. At this point we decided to call the member we were planning on visiting because we were lost and very late. We ended up going back on the tram 25 minutes and then walking through a college campus and a whole bunch of little gardens. But we made it eventually. The irony of the situation was that if we had just walked a bit from the first tram stop we got off at, we would have made it fine.
(As we were waiting for a bus back into town we saw an ice cream truck- the only one I've seen in Poland. But we were so confused that we let it pass without buying any icecream, something we were really sad about later)

One of the Elder's investigators got baptized on Saturday. He's a really cool guy named Jonas from Ireland/Sweden. Because the pool which we normally use was not available they decided on a lake. I'm sure it was freezing water, but it was a beautiful baptism nonetheless. However, Polish people are really paranoid about the cold, so the members thought that they were crazy for getting in the lake this time of year. Especially one of my favorite people named Basia. During the whole baptism she was commenting on how she couldn't believe what she was seeing and how she was going to tell her friends but they wouldn't believe her, and how he would remember his baptism for the rest of his life because you can never forget something that cold... It was so funny.

I love you all and pray for you often. Sister Stay and I are having a grand time here and working as hard as we can. I know when we working dilligently with faith the Lord blesses you. Love you lots.

Have a great week.

Siostra Allen

P.S. The Russian National Ballet is coming at the beginning of November to perform Swan Lake and me and my dancer companion splurged and bought tickets. This will be a very effective use of our one culture night a month. I'll have to tell you all about it.

3 STORIES

2011-10-11T13:40:00.001-07:00

This week has been amazing. We have been focusing on being really led by the spirit in every aspect of our work and we have seen so many blessings. So many that there are too many stories that I want to share, so I've narrowed it down to 3.

Funny story: A couple days ago we were tracting a tall yellow building. We climb the stairs all the way to the top and start knocking doors. The first woman opened and we talked to her for a little bit, she said we could come back another time and so we moved on to the next door. As we're waiting for someone to answer we hear from downstairs what seems to be 20 loud stomping men talking with raised voices. There are dogs barking and people talking. A crow bar dropping. Luggage banging around. You can imagine our confusion. It sounded like there was a mob raid or something and we were a little alarmed that they might come upstairs. So we waited to see what would happen. After several minutes it didn't stop, but we felt like we should venture downstairs. As we came down a couple flights it started to smell a little smokey and then the when we reached the bottom we realized that the building we were in had been on fire, the dozens of firemen and two fire trucks outside confirmed this. The fire was small and they put it out quickly, but it was such a crazy experience. The building we were tracting was on fire. This might not seem like such a good thing, but Sister Stay and I like adventures, and it was kind of fun to have such a random experience and switch up missionary life a bit.

Spiritual story: On a mission, you are helping people see how the gospel can help them in their specific problems. Because of this, lots of people share with you the trials they are having and it can be very overwhelming as they express things that they are going through that you have never and will never go through. How do you help them when it is completely out of your experience? Well, it's not out of God's and so you have to teach gospel doctrine that they can use. We had several amazing lessons this week when people brought up concerns or questions and the spirit was strong as it directed and edified. I am so grateful to know that no matter the circumstance the gospel is true and it does help.

Miracle story: During lunch we were talking about a former investigator who still actively comes to lots of church activities. She's met a lot in the past with missionaries, but is not as interested in meeting now, but we felt like it was important for us to do so. So we spent a lunch hour talking about ways that we could do this and when she might come and how we should approach it, praying about what was best. We finally decided to talk to her that night after English class. But as we were at the chapel beforehand calling people to set up meetings, this former investigator walks in 45 minutes early and we ended up meeting with her that day. Not only that, but through the Spirit we were able to really understand where she's coming from and discoverer many of the concerns that have kept her from progressing in the past.

This week is full of so many stories like these both crazy and amazing. Have I told you lately how much I love my mission. It is amazing because it is the work of God. I know that the message I am sharing is true, that the gospel is restored and because of this we have access to Christ's atonement and a return to God. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Sister Allen

2011-10-08T08:09:00.000-07:00

I also cannot believe it's October. The weather here has been surprisingly warm. All you really need is a cardigan and a light scarf and you're still pretty warm. We're enjoying that quite a bit, but we'll see how long it lasts.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! Hope you have a great day. Sto lat! That's what the Poles say when it's your birthday, it means 100 years.

So how was my week? It was a really good one. We were so excited about General Conference. We were allowed to watch 3 sessions and so I saw Relief Society, Saturday Morning and Sunday Morning. I love all of the sessions, but I was really impressed by relief society. I felt like Sister Beck was helping us see the divine potential of relief society and how it can help us become more Christlike and keep our covenants. That paired with Elder Uchtdorf's talk about not forgetting were so pertinent. I also really loved what the prophet had to say. It is always so good, but his commentary on following the Spirit was really something I've been looking for direction on lately as I try to always follow the spirit to better invite others to come unto Christ.

We were so excited about Conference, but our week was actually spent worrying about how to watch it in polish with our investigators. It's on the internet, but no one knew when or on what site etc. We were scheduling with investigators and reminding less actives about it, but we weren't exactly sure how it worked, and no one else seemed to be able to tell us. So we prayed about it all week and discussed all the options that might be available. On Saturday night we were at a less active's home and miraculously everything went smoothly. They wouldn't have been able to find the information on the English website by themselves, but with the help of the Lord, we were able to help them hear the words of prophets and apostles. But that wasn't the end of our night, we actually helped several members figure out how to watch it on the internet. Basically we were Conference fairies. We just knocked on the door, came in, turned on conference and left to go to the next home.

This week had several hard experiences such as meeting with a less active member who is battling with alcoholism and had recently relapsed getting herself into a really bad situation, then one of our investigators decided she needed to concentrate more on school and that she wasn't going to meet with us, this forced us to adjust our plans for the week. But each time we were faced with a new trial we turned to prayer. Sometimes we just sat and cried with people in prayer begging for understanding and help. Sometimes we were asking for our hearts to be teachable so that we could enjoy the blessings of obedience. Sometimes we were asking for the internet to not cut out so that we could watch conference without problems. Each time, I know that God heard our prayers and answered them in the way we needed them answered. And despite the trials and heartaches it has been an amazing week. We heard the prophet speak, we got to teach one of our investigators with her 8 year old daughter because she was home sick from school. We taught about how the spirit talks to us and how we get answers to prayer. Then the mother came and watched conference with us at a members home and really enjoyed it. We met with a woman who was contacted months ago and has never had time. She teaches Catholic doctrine in elementary schools. That's kind of intimidating, but several times she said that although she teaches about and believes in the Catholic church, when she teaches she doesn't feel anything. At least not the deep spiritual confirmation we obviously felt when we were teaching. She recognized the Spirit!

We kind of joke that a mission is a mini-life. It's full of hard and wonderful experiences and you have to learn to rely on the Lord and grow in abilities along the way. I can really see that. I am a completely different missionary today than I was a year ago. I am so grateful for the experiences I have gained, the people I have come to love, and for the testimony I have gained about this gospel. It means everything to me. I love the gospel. I know it's true.
Siostra Allen.

Two New Posts (sorry, I got a little behind)

2011-09-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

Hey family!
We had a wonderful morning. Right in the middle of language study someone knocks at our door. We were a little confused as to who it could be, but then when we looked through the peep hole it was the mail man! We got your package and it was amazing! Mom, I don't think you realize how awesome you are. Chocolate chip cookies are something nigh unto impossible to find in Poland because two of the main ingredients don't exist here: brown sugar and chocolate chips. So it was such an amazing surprise and we poured two cold glasses of milk on the spot and ate about three cookies each. They were delicious. And then the Book of Mormon ensign! We flipped through it to see everything that it had and I cannot wait to study it tomorrow during personal study. It is literally gold to us. So thank you for such a wonderful surprise to brighten up our day.

As far as our week, we've actually had some good teaching moments. From a really nice mother who is open to learning about another faith, to a friendly grandma who's never heard of us, and then our two Chinese exchange students who really wonder if God exists. Jenny says the most profound things, that we've actually started writing them down just to remember them.
Here are some of our favorites:
We were teaching about Jesus Christ, who He is and what He did. After reading a verse that talked about how he performed miracles like healing the lame and causing the blind to see. She inserted that these were outside ailments and that she thought Jesus Christ also healed us of our internal emotional and psychological ailments. All we could say was YES!
We asked her how she thought God would answer her prayer and she responded: I think he will give me direction when I am confused or have important decisions. I don't think it will be something I hear, but that I will feel his help.
I don't remember what led her to make this comment, but she was describing what she hoped to gain from religion and knowing that God exists. She said: Pure happiness. Not the happiness from winning the lottery, but a deep sure peace and joy.

Those moments and many others like them have blown us away. She is a girl who has never been religious and yet she has spiritual maturity and understands things that many who have been around religion their entire life struggle with. We had the opportunity to hear her pray for the first time in her entire life and express desire to know God and come closer to Him. It was an amazing experience that I don't ever want to forget. It is why I'm here on a mission, to meet amazing people like Jenny and help them develop their own testimony that God lives and Jesus is the Christ.

Love,
Siostra Allen

September 2011

2011-09-26T07:59:00.000-07:00

Hello family,

We've had some really cool experiences during my first real week in Łódż. Two people we met on the street met with us and came to activities at church. One of them started reading the Book of Mormon and really liked it. The other is waiting for a copy in Chinese since she's a student here from China. When she came to instytut she invited one of her friends who is also interested in Christianity from China. There are wonderful people here and I'm loving the opportunity to seek them out and teach them about the restored gospel.

Something cool about Łódż is that we will probably receive the next real chapel here. There is already a plot of land owned by the church, but we have to have a certain number of people coming to church on average to justify building the chapel. So right now our goal is 60 people in church for several months. That's a lot when the average is in the thirties. Both this and last Sunday everyone's been really surprised at all the faces that have shown up. There were 9 less active members who showed up to church yesterday. I had had meetings with several of them, and it was exciting to see them come and bring their husbands and friends. I am going to see some miracles happen here over the next couple of months. I can already feel it.

Love you and hope you have a great week. I'm praying for you all.

Siostra Allen

I love it here in Lodz, Poland

2011-09-12T06:35:00.000-07:00

So I got transferred this week. But of course you already know that. Łódż is great! It's like a mix of Warsaw and Katowice because it feels a lot more like a city than Katowice did. It's much more beautiful with tourist streets and more going on, but it still has the traditional Polishness that I really felt in the śląsk. The branch has about the same number of active members as the one in Katowice, except here there are a lot more families, whereas in Katowice most of the members were individuals. My new companion is wonderful- like all my companions have been. She is from Utah and is a dancer! So I get a nice reminder of home. She is so friendly and hard working. I had met her a few times at zone conferences etc. but never spent tons of time with her. She got into the country in December and trained really early as well so she is a fantastic missionary and speaks Polish quite well so we're really excited to help each other really get good and continue to excel at missionary work. We realized that between the two of us we have been companions with almost every other sister in the mission. Which means we have hopefully learned a lot about styles of missionary work and what is effective and different ways to approach situations. I just know this transfer is really going to allow us to grow in amazing ways as we share that knowledge.

We do travel on the train alone during transfers so I talked to a nice older woman on her way to the beach and then a Czech man who is a professor of history and was going to a conference. Trains are one of my favorite places to talk to people because you're just sitting in the same car passing the time, and often people are really curious who you are and why you're in Poland. Lodz is really close to Warsaw. Our district is just Lodz because we have 3 companionships of missionaries and then a senior couple. But we are in the Warsaw Zone. It's only about an hour and a half train ride so not too bad. It's strange, I've never been in a place that we had to travel to Zone Conference and where there wasn't Zone Leaders.

You asked if things like youth conference, seminary, Women's Conference happen here in Poland. The answer is yes and no. They do have seminary and instytut, except it's only once a week and then most of it has to be done on your own. They don't have youth conference, but they did have a regional efy in Germany for the youth (14-18) and YSA conference in Romania for young adults (18-30). And then they try and have activities for Poland, it's just difficult because any time that happens it means traveling time, finding them places to stay, expenses, and then with all that getting enough people to make it a fun activity. But they work with it and do have activities.

Love to All Back Home,

Siostra Allen

Transfer to Lodz, Poland!! New Address

2011-09-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

Hey mom,

Glad to hear that you all had a great week. It's really comforting to know that Heavenly Father is taking care of you and I don't need to worry about anything going on at home. As for the transfer news, I'm moving to a city called Łódż! (wooj- the j is like a j in jam) It actually means boat in Polish, but it's not on the ocean or anything. It's right in the middle of the country and has lots of textile industry and a good branch. I'm sad to leave Katowice of course, it's been a great place to serve, I LOVE the people here, and I've learned so much. But I feel really peaceful about this change and feel like it's the right thing. I'm going to be with Sister Stay who's been in the country for a while, so we can hit the ground running. Of course I'll have more to tell you next week, but until then, here's my address:
ul Piotrkowska 257A/ 39
90-456 Łódż
Poland/ Polska
I'll take a train there really early on Thursday morning so keep me in your thoughts as I'm traveling.

Some of my thoughts recently:
I've been thinking a lot about the scripture “By this shall men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another”. We have to show that love and service to others so that they can recognize us as disciples of Christ. As we do that, the miracles will come and people will want to know more about where we find so much joy. That is something ever single member can and should do. Though simple, it's such a powerful statement of who we are and what we believe. The woman who sells us fruit every day asked us for a Book of Mormon today. Why did she do that? Because we love her and how she corrects our polish grammar and smiles at the huge amounts of fruit we buy and how we always buy the same thing, yet never know exactly what we want when we get to her stand. We think she is wonderful and she could feel that and so she wanted to learn more and felt comfortable enough to ask. That is what missionary work is. "Preach the gospel, and when necessary use words".
I was also thinking about some of our investigators who are heavily involved in various other religions or completely atheistic. For a lot of them, accepting the gospel would be a big change of how they think. I was teaching them, without really thinking they would accept the gospel right now, hoping that maybe in the future they would be more open. But then I realized that this is a gospel of miracles. It is just as easy for God to enlighten a mind that has misunderstood something as it is for him to help another individual overcome an addiction to more fully follow Christ. If they are willing to ask for knowledge, God will give it to them and their hearts can be changed. That is the beauty of the gospel. Alma 42: 27 I think invites us to drink of the waters of life freely, but none are compelled to come. It is always an invitation, it is always our choice. But if we want to drink the living water and are struggling on the path there, He will give us the aid we desire and miracles follow.

Love love love you all. Have another great week and talk to you next Monday.
Siostra Allen

My Testimony

2011-08-31T06:58:00.001-07:00

Everything seems to be going so well. I'm excited for all of the new beginnings. We have transfers in a week and a half, so you'll hear next week what's going to happen. I've been here for a while and they normally don't keep sisters here too long, but then again, I wouldn't be surprised if I stayed. So we'll see.

I don't have tons of time so I just wanted to share my testimony with you all today. I truly know that this church is true. I know that God lives. That He loves us individually and completely. Because He loves us, He sent His son Jesus Christ to atone for the sins of the world. That by Him, we can hope in eternal life with our Father. I know that it is by following Jesus Christ and applying his atonement through daily repentance that we day by day become worthy of this great blessing. I know that life is not easy and we are often tested to the very limits of what we are able, but when we learn in these situations to rely on our Savior instead of our own abilities, that everything is possible. I know that truths and the authority to perform sacred ordinances were restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith almost two hundred years ago, and that they remain on the earth through living priesthood authority. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and testifies about Jesus Christ. I know these things because the Holy Ghost has testified of them to my mind and to my heart, and I cannot deny them.

I'm sorry but I'm out of time. I love you all and I'm grateful for all your love and support. I can't wait to get your letter.

Lots of love

Siostra Allen

End of Summer 2011

2011-08-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

Hey!
We just had Zone Conference this week and then President and Siostra Nielson stayed for the weekend and spoke in church. It was so nice to have them around. They are so wonderful and give such amazing and wise advice. We were more than grateful for the visit down here.

Well, I have three funny stories for you all this week:

The first is that I found my youngest brother Joshua's Polish counterpart yesterday. He's a younger version of my brother because he's only 8, but the resemblance is crazy. His name is Dominik and when he came to church with his family I almost fell over. I told him all about Josh and showed him pictures of my family and then took a couple pictures of my own to send home, however they are on Sister Folsom's camera so I'll have to wait to get them from her before I send them. Seriously, it's funny because there aren't tons of red heads here, but he has red hair and glasses and is really lean and super nice, just like Josh.

Another funny story is something that anyone who knows multiple languages is familiar with. Sometimes translations aren't word for word. This can cause problems if there was a specific wording that you really liked in one language and it isn't translated the same. But sometimes, you find the coolest translations. This morning for instance we were reading in 2 Nephi 15 and the English version is something like wo unto the drinkers of wine and strong men who drink or something like that. But in Polish it's roughly wo unto the heroes of the drinking of wine and those that reside in the apartments of alcohol. So much cooler right? When we read this Sister Folsom asked if I could translate it because she was pretty sure she didn't understand it right. But she did.

And lastly, as a result of lots of meetings and translating for meetings etc. we were pretty tired this weekend. We actually forgot our phone at the chapel on Saturday and then forgot our keys at the senior couple's apartment twice in a row yesterday. It was funny because both times we were walking to the chapel to do a white board and contacting everyone on the way, and both times we took about an hour to go the 7 min walk to the chapel because we were talking to such cool people many of which took Book of Mormons. Then we would walk up to the chapel and just as we were approaching the door, would get a call that we had forgotten our keys and we had to go back the way we'd come. The first time it was a little annoying. But we laughed a little and turned around.After dropping by the McGraths we started out again talking to some even cooler people and giving away our last Book of Mormon. And as we walked up to the chapel again, there was another phone call. We had walked all the way to the McGrath's apartment and chatted with them for a bit and then completely forgotten to take the keys. We felt pretty foolish, but I guess we weren't supposed to do that White Board last night, instead we were supposed to walk to the chapel and home twice and meet the people we did. It's always funny how things work out.

Well I love you all and wish you a great week.

Love,
Sister Allen

2011-08-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

I don't even have enough time to describe the last week. It has been amazing because I have seen the Lord's hand in everything we have done. I really feel like one of the reasons I'm serving with my companion is that she is teaching me about prayer. Whenever we are confused about what to do or what to teach or what to plan we talk about it for a second and then she says, “Let's pray about it” and even though it isn't always a strike of lightning and we suddenly know where we're supposed to go, somehow I know he is directing us because we always end up in the right place at the right time. We have experienced too many small miracles for them just to be coincidences.

She told me that in an MTC devotional a general authority said that as missionaries we have the amazing ability to ask for miracles and the Lord will give them to us. I know God answers prayers. I always have, but sometimes I don't expect Him to really make things happen, that he always has a different plan for me. He doesn't always answer my prayers exactly like I want Him to, but often He answers them ten fold what I ask for. Yesterday after church we were exhausted, hungry, and Sister Folsom was feeling sick. Our plans ended up changing because an investigator called and said she could meet that evening. Everything was accounted for except the next hour before returning home. Even though we didn't feel up to it we decided to go contact. On the way to the park I prayed that He would send us at least one mildly interested person in the next hour that would listen and we could teach for a little while. We taught almost continually for the next hour going from park bench to park bench. Three people took Book of Mormons and two of them set up meetings for this week. It was amazing. More than I had asked for. Which testifies to me that prayer is more powerful and more effective than I ever imagined.

I love you all and I'm happy to hear that you're doing so well. I love Katowice, Poland, and being a missionary. This church really is Christ's. He really did die for us. God really is our Father. And we really can live with Him again. And whenever I have questions or feel confused as I pray and study I always find my answer. Especially in the Book of Mormon. I truly stand all amazed the more I learn about the gospel.

Have a wonderful week,

Sister Allen

A slower week

2011-08-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

Hi Mom,

You are so right about how hard presidencies in the church work. To be honest I think they are even more difficult than a mission. Missions are great because you have the opportunity to be completely committed. That's all we do is build the church. But serving as a member, you are required to do so much and still maintain balance of work, family, etc. I do feel very blessed because as a missionary I get to learn the value of so many things, and how to do them effectively that will be able to transfer into future callings.

Here's a miracle story from the last week:
We didn't have a chance to meet with very many of our investigators this week because of vacation and what not, which resulted in lots of very open days to fill with lots of tracting activities. As we tried to stay focused we really felt the blessings of the Lord, and later where able to see his hand guiding us. For instance, in an efforts to set up some meetings, Thursday we called all of the potentials in our Area Book. Even ones that were found a year ago. Marek answered and set up an appointment. He now lives in Krakow but just so happened was coming to Katowice for the weekend. When he set up, he didn't have anything to write down the address to the chapel so we said we'd call back later.

On Saturday we last minute had to change our schedule and switch our tracting time with a whiteboard. This left us whiteboarding in the evening right when said Marek and his wife were walking down the street. We contacted them and talked for an hour not realizing that this was who we had a meeting with on Monday. But we gave him the address to the chapel, important since his phone had broken and we would have had no other way to get a hold of them again. Our change of plans seemed really irritating in the moment, but later we understood that Heavenly Father had something a little bit bigger planned and we were able to be where we needed to be at the right time.

I love you all so much. I'm doing great
Btw: There might not be an e-mail next week. If I can't e-mail I'll try and write so either way you'll hear from me. Love ya and talk to you later.

Trzymajcie sie

Siostra Allen

2011-07-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

Life is great in Katowice except for maybe the weather. My Companion keeps on saying, "So in the summer we can do more white boards or go to the park on P-day etc." and then she realizes it's the middle of July and this is summer. I think there's only been one day in the last week that it didn't pour rain non-stop. I personally like this kind of weather, but it does make it hard to do good missionary work in Poland where the majority of our finding is contacting people on the streets. Oh well, there must be some amazing people that need to be found by tracting.

Kato update: What's new here besides the weather...

We met with the coolest family this week. This couple has two cute teenage daughters. They came to our concert last month and after wards we were talking and they invited us on a "driving tour" of the area so they could show us some of the original towns that haven't been changed by all the wars. We did that last P-day and it was so cool to see these little pieces of history and culture. One town was created to house the workers at a mine nearby and it was just really cool to see that everything was constructed to center around family and community.

The even cooler part of this story is that when they dropped us off we asked if we could visit them and share what we believe with them and they said yes. I was a little worried that they were just being nice, but it was a fantastic meeting and they invited us back. We can't wait to meet with them again.

Dorota planned a really fun event for Pioneer day and it was a blast. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, pioneer day was celebrated even in Poland, but probably slightly differently than they do it in Utah. There weren't any handcarts. Just eating contests and potato sack races-- and everything was inside because of the weather. Then after wards we sang hymns for a while which was really cool because one of our investigators who was there loves to sing and it was a great way to share with her what kind of music we have.

This investigator is a cute 20 year old linguistics major who met missionaries in December; she randomly called us to know if there were still English lessons going on. She is really active in her own church, but we had a great lesson with her. She reads and prays about the Book of Mormon so she can know for herself that it's true. That's the great thing about missionary work, we don't have to convince anyone of anything, just invite them to find out for themselves and every person that studies it out and prays about it can know.

Gosia, the relief society president, is working really hard to get the women in church visiting teaching and so we've been helping her out. If there are sisters that can't go with their companion we volunteer to go with them so that they can do it. I have such a testimony of the power of visiting teaching. I know it uplifts and strengths both the teachee and teacher and that branches that do it well, are more unified and happy so I am excited to help Gosia out with this project.

Dominika never ceases to be amazing. She's almost done with her second reading of the Book of Mormon and is so solid that sometimes I forget that she is only 18.

That's about it on this side of the world. Hope you're doing well over there too.

Siostra Allen

2011-07-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

Hey,

We're working hard here in Katowice. As every missionary knows there are some times when you have a ton of investigators and you are rushing from one lesson to the next and then there are sometimes when you feel like you're starting from scratch. We're at one of those points where we have one great progressing investigator that we meet with every couple days, and the rest of our time is spent contacting on the street and in the parks trying to find new people. However, for all the street contacting time we've had, some of our most successful contacts were just conversations we struck up on a tramwej or bus or randomly walking from one park to the next.

A short picture of missionary life:
Sometimes contacting can be difficult. For every 100 people that you try to stop, maybe only 15 will even listen your second sentence. Most of those 15 are going to tell you that they aren't really interested, a couple might take a Book of Mormon, and maybe only 1 will be willing to meet with you. It takes a lot of patience to stay happy and optimistic, but something I've learned is that as I do, the Lord always blesses me. And that one person that is willing to talk fills me with so much joy that talking to all of the people that were less than kind is some how worth it.

Two of my favorite examples are from last week:

One woman we contacted is a practicing Catholic and when we first offered her the Book of Mormon she wouldn't take it. But then we talked about life and how faith can help us over come difficult times and read in 2 Nephi 2 how trials help us understand our blessings and learn and grow from them. At the end when she gladly took a Book of Mormon she said, “I hope this book can help bring me some of the hope and peace I've really been looking for lately”!

Another woman was found in the middle of nowhere walking her dog. When we asked “what meaning would this have in your life” she said, “None. I'm atheist”. But then we asked her what had made her choose that path and she said that she had never thought about God much, and then got out of the habit of going to church when she went to college. She was concerned that so many Christian people say one thing and do another. But we talked to her about how God really does exist, but if we do nothing to build a relationship with him, he will not force us. Then we talked about how real faith is shown through actions and all of the sudden she was a open and gave contact information so we could meet when she gets back from vacation.

It is when I meet people- who all of the sudden are thinking about how faith can bless their life and what they can do to come closer to Christ and they want to read the Book of Mormon in hopes that it will help them do that- that I remember, "This is what I'm here to do". This is AMAZING.

I know that this is the restored church of Jesus Christ and that the Book of Mormon really does contain the writings of prophets in Ancient America whose sole purpose was to help people believe in Christ. I know that prayer works. God listens to us, loves us, and blesses us when we qualify for those blessings through obedience and diligence. I love this work and am so grateful for my chance to be apart of it. My heart literally aches when I think of how little time I have left. I want to make the most of it and serve every day with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. I love you all and thank you for your support and encouragement.

Kocham was!

Siostra Allen

Cze뜻 wam

2011-07-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

Cze뜻 wam!

Transfer weeks are always crazy because half the week you're trying to do missionary work as well as prepare for someone to move and then the next half of the week you're trying to do missionary work as well as getting adjusted. It's been a big change for Katowice- we had three from our district get transferred to Warszawa, 3 remain, and 3 people get transferred here. However, I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone new.

My new companion is studying Neuroscience, wants to be a doctor, plays the harp, has made a couple wedding cakes, swims, and runs marathons/triathalons! She's my first companion that's taller than me, which is fun. She does really well with the language and is ready to work hard. She's great.

You asked:

What's new in Kato?
Besides transfers it's pretty much the same. The YSA's are getting ready to go to Romania for the YSA Conference. And then 4 young men are going to serve mini-missions for a few weeks at the end of August which is going to be amazing! even though it's going to be slow for the branch getting member lessons and recent convert lessons. They really are a lot of the life blood of the branch right now. Oh well. It's going to be such a great experience.

What do we do on P-day?
Normal study, e-mail, run errands, grocery shop, clean and then it's about 2 or 3. Then we usually just listen to Mormon Tabranacle Choir and write letters. Lately everyone in our district has gone over to a Ward Sister's home and we hang out and play games etc. It's been really nice and relaxing recently.

Say hi to everyone for me, Love,
Siostra Allen

District Conference

2011-07-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

working on teaching skills

Southern Poland's District Conference Lunchtime

Hey!

It's strange to think of summer as scorching as I know Las Vegas is this time of year. Poland gets unbearably hot as well; however, the last few days have turned grey, cold, and rainy. Last Monday I decided to buy a rain jacket because I don't have one and right now they're on sale. It was sunny then and I had no idea I would need to use it so much so soon. But as you know I love Fall weather, so while everyone else is complaining about the sudden cold stroke, I'm secretly reveling in the beautiful gloomy sky and being able to wear my cute new jacket.

You asked about my language skills. I'm doing well, at least I can communicate. There are still so many words to learn and so many grammatical mistakes that I make, but I understand the most part of what everyone says and when I don't it makes for a really good story. Like a few weeks ago I was talking to an investigator who has really bad phone reception. So you have a language barrier, he talks really fast, and I'm not able to hear everything. Well he told me that he hadn't done very well on one of his exams and I thought he said he was waiting for the grades on his exam. My reply wasn't exactly what it might have been had I understood correctly. So even a year into the mission and there are still lots of language blunders to be made.

On Thursday we had a missionary musical concert for us to invite investigators, and members to invite their family members. We were a little worried that there wouldn't be that many people and we were wasting time getting everything ready for it, but over 20 investigators showed up. It helped that we planned it right after English class so a lot of people stayed from that! We were thrilled that it went so well and now we're trying to think of other ways we can use music to find people.

The baptisms went very well. Because we don't have a real chapel we have to rent a pool about 15 minutes away, travel to it to perform the baptism and then travel back. It's hard to make this go smoothly, but everything worked out great.

Oh and you're probably wondering about transfers. So I'm staying in Katowice! I'm so excited to be staying and continue working with the people here. I'll be sad to see my companion go though. We've had a GREAT 3 months finding and teaching some fajnie people. I've learned so much in so many dimensions of my life. Language, teaching, building friendships, planning... she is a bomb missionary and must have trained me well because I'm going to be a trainer again next transfer! I'm so excited about the new things I'm going to learn with this new missionary. I'll have to tell you all about her next week after I've met her.

New transfers are great because they allow you to have new beginnings. To hold on to the positive things that you are doing and make needed changes that will help you progress and become the best missionary you can be. I'm so excited for this great opportunity and hope you all are embracing your new beginnings back home too.

I love you and pray for you often.

Siostra Allen

End of June 2011

2011-06-28T15:50:00.001-07:00

As far as my life goes, we're really busy.
This coming week is the last full one before transfers so next week I'll have news on what's changing!
We're getting ready for our investigator's baptism next weekend. She is so ready and wonderful!
We're planning a musical fireside that members can invite their friends and family to. I'll tell you how that goes.
We have this one new really cool investigator that decided to go with the YSAs to Romania for the European YSA conference (basically an older version of EFY). We are so excited for him. He came to church yesterday for the first time. and there are some great members that are about his age and they really like him. Our investigator will even text them questions he has about the church! He's seriously one of our miracles.
We had a funny encounter with a couple of drunk men. My companion tried to contact them not knowing they were drunk and one of them, put his hands on her shoulders to talk to her. He wasn't threatening, it was just a little invasive. I pulled her away and we were endeavoring to say goodbye, but he kept on asking us questions. Just then one of our investigators shows up out of nowhere. He'd been on the other side of the street and came over to assist. Heavenly Father was looking out for us and we were very grateful. We also can testify about the Word of Wisdom and how much benefit it has. Drunk people just act really dumb.
Well that's our update. Love ya and talk to you next week.

Auchwitz

2011-06-28T15:49:00.001-07:00

You asked about Auchwitz. It was really hard to emotionally take it in. You see all the pictures and evidence and read the accounts of prisoners, but it's impossible to really comprehend what happened there.I took some pictures, but in my opinion it was too sunny and pretty the day we went. It didn't really agree with the mood of the place that we were.

Something that is interesting about missionary work is that each person you teach has such different concerns. Even though a lot of people in Poland come from a similar background, every one is working to overcome a different concern before they can be baptized. For one, they first have to believe that God exists despite the horrible things that happen in this world. For another, they are learning why a church is necessary and it's not sufficient to just study and believe on your own. Another person admits that God probably exists, but they don't know that the Bible or anything/ anyone else can express God's teachings and commandments. And those are just a few. Each person that you sit down with has a different life and different questions, and yet, amazingly the Gospel of Jesus Christ in it's simple and perfect way helps us understand all of them. It meets every person's needs. How is that possible? I'm not exactly sure. But the scriptures talk about the need for an infinite atonement and I believe that holds the answer.

I know that Christ's atonement is real. I have felt it heal me. When I have felt hopeless, as I turned to him I received hope and peace. This is a living gospel that helps people with todays problems. It is beautiful. It is powerful.

I wish you all a wonderful week.

Siostra Allen

Summer Sun is up at 3am

2011-06-06T07:41:00.000-07:00

I think I mentioned that in the winter it gets dark really soon. The sun was set at 3 in the afternoon. Well the inverse of that is the summer when the sun rises at 3 am. Our apartment is on the east side of the building so at 3:30 or 4 am we have full daylight. For the last week, I've woken up really drowsy gotten out of bed to pray and then when I finished, looked at the clock and realized that I had a few more hours of sleep. This morning my companion got up, prayed and took a shower, only to discover when she returned to our bedroom that it was only 4:30. So funny. We'll get used to it, but until then I feel like I'm sleeping in, because only when I sleep in do I sleep during so much daylight.

I'm thinking about how I would describe the last week. It was a good week, because we were working hard. We did a lot of contacting, but it was a lot more positive than last week. We talked to some really cool people and really got to teach and testify. It's funny the more you're here, the more you can do and say, but you want to do more and say more. I'm learning a lot of patience and the value of good planning and preparation.

We went out to visit our investigator last Monday- she lives a 45 minute train ride away from Katowice. We got to meet her sister and hang out with them and two other new members all afternoon since it was P-day! It was really fun. This P-day the YSAs are having a Grill which they planned on Monday so the missionaries could come. The last 5 converts from Katowice are younger than me which is crazy and really fun, it means we have a very young branch. But it's great to do stuff like this because we can build relationships with the members and help support them and so they can invite friends and family to meet us.

By the way, I got both your letter and package. Thank you so much! It was great to hear from you. I'm glad to see that Josh's graduation went well and that everyone is healthy. I keep a couple pictures of the family in my Book of Mormon because a lot of people want to see you all. So now I have a few more to add to it. Also, thank you thank you thank you for the conference ensign. We are loving finally hearing what was said in conference.

2011-05-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

Hey family and friends,
This week has held some of the most amazing experiences of my mission and some of the most difficult. The Zone Conference was unbelievable. As I listened to the words of Elder Teixeira a seventy, I knew that he truly understood what the Lord wanted us to be doing as missionaries, and wanted to help us be successful in achieving that.
At the same time, as we've worked so hard this week to talk to more people- on the street, on buses, at bus stops, etc. We have talked to soooo many more people than normal! How exciting. This is something I've struggled with my whole mission and am still learning. But for some reason, no one was stopping this week. It was very discouraging. Just to add to that, we have met with some of the most aggressive people. By the end of contacting yesterday, I felt like I had received a beating. Offering the most special thing to me, my testimony to so many people and then having so many people ignore and reject it.
But like I said, we also have had some amazing experiences. I feel like my companion and I are working more and more in unity. I love her and love working with her. Some investigators that I didn't really expect to progress, are reading the Book of Mormon and asking to meet with us again. We've randomly had several people just come up to us and start talking, and this morning, someone called in response to a flyer and wants to meet tomorrow! But the most amazing part of this week, was our meeting yesterday with our investigator. She had never prayed on a lesson. We had tried to invite her and talk about why it was important previously, but she always refused. Yesterday we taught a quick lesson after church with her and her boyfriend. At the end he asked her to pray, not knowing that she had never prayed on a lesson before. She was again hesitant and said she couldn't but we talked about the blessings and he encouraged her and she gave the most beautiful prayer I've ever heard. At the end she just started crying and said she felt warm inside. The spirit was strong and truly blessed all of us. I would give months of hard weeks like this just for that experience.
When we choose to continue working and try not to be discouraged, he really pours out his blessings.
I love you all and wish you a wonderful week. Thank you for letting me know how you all are. I'm safe, healthy and happy.
-Siostra Allen

Zone Conference May 2011 Poland

2011-05-28T05:10:00.000-07:00

2011-05-24T07:42:00.000-07:00

Hi my beautiful roommates! I am not writing because I do not know where anyone is, home, school, Provo or abroad??? Let me know your new addresses. I will write you soon. Love, Sister Allen

2011-05-23T07:54:00.000-07:00

Rodzino!

Transfers were 3 weeks ago, and I didn't change, but I didn't think I would since I just got here. The next transfer is at the beginning of July I believe. We'll see what happens. I doubt that they would keep us here exactly the same, so most likely one of us is changing. But we'll see. That being said, there have been lots of middle-of-transfer-transfers lately, so who knows. We're never safe from transferring. Dun dun dun. We do have an awesome Zone Conference this week that I'm looking forward to. Elder Texiera from the 70 will be here. I'll let you know how it goes.

It was an amazing week in Poland. There were 4 baptism Saturday, all under the age of 25. The church is growing, and it's young people who are interested in religion! I actually know 3 of them because I taught Ania when I was in Warsaw. She is so amazing. Only 17 years old, but very confident and soooo nice. We were at her house the week of Christmas and her and her father sang us Polish Christmas songs. So basically, I love her and her family, and am so unbelievably excited that she made such a big step in her life.

And the two newest members in Katowice are no less cool. Patryk and Arek are brothers and life long friends of a member here. When they're together, I feel like I'm with the strippling warriors. They're all huge guys. Patryk was actually the Polish judo champion last year. And they love the gospel. They text their favorite scripture verses back and forth every day as they're reading the Book of Mormon and are always talking about who they want to invite to church with them. It was great because their mother and two younger brothers came to the baptism, not to mention their girlfriends and several other people. They're getting ready to serve mini-missions this summer for a few weeks, and are thinking about serving full time too. I just love both of them, they are always smiling and are going to be such an amazing part of this branch. And Dominka who I mentioned on the phone, she is Arek's girlfriend. She is as wonderful as ever. We just adore them all. So life is pretty great!

Kocham was! Trzymajcie się!

Siostra Allen

Mother's Day

2011-05-03T14:07:00.001-07:00

This week our mission finished reading the Book of Mormon together. I actually finished it in Polish and English. I love the Book of Mormon! I knew the Book of Mormon was true before my mission, but I have really gained a deep love for it here in Poland. It is something I will be forever grateful for. I love the answers and clarification I gain as I read with the Spirit. I love seeing investigators reading it for the first time. As they come to believe in it and see the applications in their life. They know that it is from God and they receive the blessings from continual study.

This week we've had the opportunity to have a few of our investigators who haven't been progressing very much lately, keep commitments. It is one of the most exciting things ever. One man hasn't been to church since the first time he investigated the church years ago, and he was there on Sunday. And the other is a really great young man who comes to church and instytut every week, and has done so for probably a year. He started reading the Book of Mormon! It's the most exciting thing, because I know that this is the only way they can really know our message is true and progress.If they're doing things to find out for themselves.

2011-04-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

It was such a beautiful Easter here. I love Easter, have I ever told you that. It's without the stress of Christmas and so I can just think about my Savior and what event we're celebrating. What it means to me that He atoned, died, and was resurrected. We visited a member yesterday and we asked her that question. What does Christ's sacrifice mean to you? I love the word she used. Podstawowy which means basic or fundamental. It's also very similar to the word they use for a foundation of a house- podstawa. I love that. It really sums it up for me. He us the foundation of my life, upon which everything else is built.

A note from my scripture reading. As I read Ether 12 again, the verse about him showing us our weaknesses found new meaning. I had never noticed before that it says- If men come unto me I will unto them their weakness. The invitation so often repeated in the scriptures, “Come unto me” is paired with a promise in this verse, that he will show unto us our weakness. So when we see our weaknesses, that it is a blessing from Him. But in the same chapter he talks about faith and hope. When we see our weaknesses it isn't to make us feel hopelessly inadequate and worthless. On the contrary, we should turn to him for help in growing and changing. As we “exercise faith in him” he will help us overcome our weaknesses.

There are beautiful tulips here and beautiful green leaved trees and sunshine. I love it. I feel so blessed for it. My mission has given new meaning to 2 Nephi 2 that there must be opposition in all things so that you can more fully enjoy the good. Well, I more fully enjoy the warmth after so many months of winter.

We have some great investigators we're working with right now and I am so excited to see them progress, to see the changes this gospel can make in their lives.

Siostra Allen

Preparing for Easter

2011-04-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,

I finally feel like I'm settling into Katowice. That I finally know and understand the investigators we're working with and the members and missionaries here. Our mission is talking a lot about being the missionary Heavenly Father wants you to be. Sometimes this includes sacrifices and changes that are uncomfortable and inconvenient, but we show our faith by allowing him to help us succeed. I really feel like I am supposed to be in Poland on a mission right now, that the lessons we are learning are for me. I forget who's talk in conference it was, but he talked about desire. As we turn our desires into goals, then plans, and then work hard to achieve them, they truly become reality. But there's a lot of work that transforms desires into reality, it's not a magical immediate transformation. Every member and missionary in Poland wants to find the people who are searching for the truth, who are praying for us to find them. But we have to prepare and work to find them, not just expect God to send them to our doorstep. (Quite the contrary, that's what he's sent us to do. Show up on their doorstep.) And only if we prepare ourselves with the Spirit, through powerful scripture study, prayer, obedience will they be able to feel that our message is good. That's just some of what I've been thinking about lately.

Thank you for the update about home, and thank you for all the wonderful letters that I've received recently. I'm working on writing you all back.

Polish fact of the week (it's been a while hasn't it): Wielkanoc which translated means something like "the great night", is what they call Easter. Easter is just as big as Christmas here. A man told me happy holidays last night and people tell us to call them back after the holidays because they are just too busy to meet. They are all going to visit family this weekend . And I've been warned that everything is closed, so make sure you have groceries for Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday because there will be nowhere to buy them. It's kind of great. I'm really excited to experience it. Plus I love the Easter season anyway.

2011-04-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

As far as my week goes, it's been good. I've had a cold all week, so it's been hard because I've wanted to jump right into the work here but have had to hold back a little bit in order to get better. But there is lots to do and lots to learn. I love Katowice and my companion Sister Mann. There are some great missionaries and great members here and I love teaching the gospel. I love testifying that we are children of God and that he has a plan for us. I love telling people how the atonement can effect their life and I love to tell them that the church has been restored through a living prophet. This is the most amazing work that exists and I truly am grateful to be a part of it. Especially in Poland, this country has really gotten itself into my heart. Amazing things are happening to these wonderful people.

I love you all.

Sister Allen

I've been Transferred to Katowice

2011-04-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

I don't think I expected to go through any culture shock again, but that shows what I know. Any time you make a move there is some adjustment, it's a new city, new people, different strengths and different challenges, new bus numbers to memorize, new streets names and procedures. There is always a lot of change in life, the challenge is figuring out how to embrace it and jump right in. But I am so excited for my time in Katowice. We live in superjednoska which I believe means super unit. I heard it has the largest number of apartments for any building in Europe or something like that. It really is huge. We could probably just go up 5 floors and down a couple of klatkas and trakt if we really wanted to. Maybe not. It's also amazingly well located. We can be at the chapel in 5 minutes- I love it, the spodek (arena), a tramwej station, a bus station, the grocery store, a street market, and empik (the Barnes and Noble of Poland). I think Sister Mann is getting quite annoyed at my frequently exclamations at how much I love our apartment and how amazing it is to be so close to everything.

It is quite industrial here. The air quality used to be horrible with all the coal mines and everything, but now it's not bad. I also love that it has a lot more old buildings in comparison to Warsaw because Warsaw was completely destroyed during the war and so everything has been rebuilt in the last century. The Old Town there is really just a recreation. But here there are gorgeous old buildings everywhere! And there are quite a few big parks. Great for meeting people now that the weather is nice. Basically I can tell this is going to be a great chapter of my mission, I just have to figure out the newness of it.

Thank you for your great insights on conference. I felt like they were very specifically reminding us to obey all the commandments. If we are obedient then God can bless us and give us the strength to overcome adversity. I love General Conference. I love that we have living prophets and apostles who can direct us in the way that God would have us go. I know them to be men of God and their words are not merely wise, but inspired.)

As far as things that I need... I had a list and forgot it. I only remember the Mormon Tabernacle CD with Spirituals and Folk Songs. Sister Leppanen had it and I got a little addicted. And also, as soon as you get an English copy of conference I would love it. We only got to listen to an hour in Polish and half a session in English. I did get the magazines that you sent, thanks and I am saving the CTR rings that I haven't given away to give to members along the way. I'm sure I'll find a few that would really appreciate them.

Here's our address:
ul. Korfantego 22/15
40-127 Katowice
Poland

And as always, if you want to send something to me through the mission office if you're not sure when I'm going to get transferred, the address is
ul. Wiertnicza 135, piętro 1
02-952 Warszawa
Poland

The Moons are actually in Wrocław not Katowice, but they are in our zone so we'll probably see each other at some point.

Yes, please file my W-2 and also, could you look up the balance in my bank account. I really want to make sure that I budget my money for the rest of my mission so that I don't have to write home for more, but I can't do that if I don't know how much there is. Normally I would just look it up online, but unfortunately I can't.

I'm so glad to hear that Scott is healing well, that Josh is playing lots of Basketball and that you both are doing well at work. Good luck with concerts, grading papers and opening new offices. Happy early anniversary! too.

Ok, well I have to go, thanks for all the news from home. I love you all and pray for you. A lot of talks that I heard were on good parenting. Thank you for all your hard work teaching me the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I will be forever grateful.

Sister Allen

2011-03-29T18:19:00.000-07:00

Hi!

Thank you so much for the e-mail. You wouldn't think so, but it makes all the difference. It's so good to hear what you are up to and that everything is going well back home.

So I have a fantastic mission president. You can meet him and his lovely wife in a couple years since they are conveniently from Las Vegas. But really, he doesn't hesitate to act upon the inspiration he receives, even if logically it doesn't make sense. A good example of this is the fact that he had me train Sister Leppanen even though I was four months in the field and there were sisters who had been here longer. A more recent example is the fact that he is transferring over 10 missionaries half way through this transfer. And I'm one of them. Yep, crazy, I know. I'm going to Katowice (Cat-oh-vee-ts-eh) on Wednesday. Google it. It's in the south of Poland. It's bitter sweet because I love all the members here so much, but I'm excited for the change. It feels right despite how shocking it was when I got the call on Saturday night. My companion will be Sister Mann. She's from Wisconsin if I remember correctly. She's a month in the country so I'm half training again, I guess?? Kato is supposedly pretty ghetto, but everyone I've know who served there loved it! It's actually the biggest city in Poland, so I expect to get lost at least a couple times. So that information has basically taken over our lives, as we try to meet with all our investigators and members again and pack all the stuff I've accumulated over the last 7 months.

Some other cool things happened this week. A former investigator invited one of his friends to church and so we chatted and asked if he would like to meet with us. In the past week we've had a meeting with him every couple days, he's read over half of first Nephi and always has great questions. He is so great to teach because he sincerely wants to learn and believe. I'm sad I won't get to keep meeting with him, but Sister Bailey and Sister Leppanen will have a great time. I also discovered yesterday on a lesson with him and a Ukrainian member in our branch that I understand Ukrainian. Not everything, but there are a lot of similar words to Polish, so I can pick them out and follow a conversation. Kind of cool. It was a strange lesson because they would be talking in Ukrainian and I would understand about 10% of the words they were using and then as soon as they switched to Polish I knew because I understood 75% of the words they used.

Also this week, the Young Single Adults had a missionary weekend where they really saw what missionary life was like. They slept at the mission home and woke up at 6:30, did missionary study in the morning, and then went on splits with us. It was so much fun. My companion was a really cool girl named Kamila who converted in the smallest branch in Poland- Szczecin and then moved here for university and is now in the largest branch. She is so cool and it was great to have her answer Polish grammar questions I had and tell me how a Pole would interpret my comments based on their culture. Not to mention, it was so cool to have a Pole testify with me in their native tongue. I wish I had done more things like this, we all learned so much.

Ok, well that's my update. Next week I'll send you an update on how everything is in Katowice! I love you all, thank you for all your love and prayers. I can't wait for conference next weekend to hear the words of our living prophet.

Sister Allen

2011-03-25T16:34:00.001-07:00

I feel so grateful to be here. I love this work. I love the people that I have the opportunity to meet and teach. I love my companion and the other missionaries I get to serve with, not to mention the amazing members. I try and always remind myself that this is such a short amount of time that I have to serve with all my time and all my efforts and to take advantage of that as much as I can.

This week I
Testified about the Book of Mormon to a priest (he was really cool and way respectful)
Taught a Finnish guy who is hitchhiking to Turkey
Recorded a song in the middle of a lesson (yes, our branch choir director is a rock star and he really wanted me to sing a song he wrote for the choir)
Gave out 7 Book of Mormons in an hour (We just filled up a table with church stuff and wrote "Everything for free" on it. People love free stuff)
Saw that faith actually has power to make things happen. Sometimes not the things that you think should happen, but always the things that the Lord wants to happen. We just have to trust him.
Realized the importance of prophets and apostles as special witnesses of Jesus Christ. They are special witnesses because they have seen the Savior and can give uninhibited testimony that He lives. How amazing is that for all the people who cannot believe in God because they have never seen Him. We have the testimony of the prophet who have.
Overall, good week right?

All my love,

Siostra Allen)

P.S. Don't tell me what the weather is there. I think it would make me very envious.

Goodbye tights, Hello short sleeves

2011-03-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

So it just gets warmer and warmer here. I'm actually in short sleeves and no tights today, can you believe it? I can't. It's really great for missionary work because more people are out and about just sitting with their families in parks. And everyone is happier and more open meaning their more willing to listen. It's wonderful! I think I'm going to love spring. Już.
The most amazing thing about being a missionary is teaching with the spirit. I had a few lessons this week where I know for a fact the Spirit directed what happened, and because of that the needs of the investigators and members were met in ways that I was not able to do alone. We asked one of our investigators, who I love dearly and have been working with most of my mission, to be baptized again this week. And when she said no, and I didn’t really understand the reason why because of the language barrier, I didn’t know what to say. And so I said a silent prayer and then all of the sudden, it was there in my head. I wish I could say she now has a baptismal date.. but I think the response full of love, but still a firm testimony that this is right, was important for her and for me. I am so grateful, that the Lord came to my aid.

I think I've always thought gifts of the Spirit would be easier to use. For instance, the gift of tongues means you just wake up speaking a new language right? So wrong. It's lots of hard work and stupid mistakes and prayers for help. The same with the promise in the scriptures that you will always know what to say when you need to. Well yes, He helps you, but you have to prepare yourself and practice answering hard questions that people might ask with your companion, and be actively engaging in your scripture study and studying with investigators in mind.

I know this is the true church. It is the Church of Jesus Christ once again on the Earth in its fullness. I think so many people get it in their heads that we worship Joseph Smith or Mormon or Thomas S. Monson and that is so far from the truth. I am grateful to all of those valiant prophets of God that make sacrifices to serve the Lord, but I worship the living God. I know that He is my Father in Heaven and that He is aware of me and my life and my struggles. I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ I can make the changes in my life necessary to live with Him again and this prospect fills me with joy. I am grateful for the message I have to share with the people in Warszawa.

Spring is Coming

2011-03-08T06:30:00.000-08:00

Hello family and friends from the beautiful city of Warsaw, Poland.
It truly is a beautiful day here. I can't tell you how grateful I am for the spring weather. It just wakes you up and makes you excited about life when the sun is shining and it's not 17 below 0 Celsius.

Stuff:

This week was fat Thursday. It's right before lent when everyone eats as many pączki or donuts as they possibly can. Our goal was 10 a piece, but we got really busy in the afternoon and evening and only had time to eat 7. Probably not the worst thing in the world that I ate 3 less donuts than planned.
I think I'm forgetting little things about the United States. Like what it's like to drive in a car and not on tramwejs and what Americans think is cool and generally eat besides McDonald's. What it's like to live in a house and understand all the conversations around me and read billboards without looking up words in a mini-dictionary.
When you go to the meat counter, or meat store, half of the selection really is sausage- Poles say kielbasa. Sooo good.
I love the Book of Mormon. Every day I am more and more convinced that it is from God for us in our times. Ja wiem że Księga Mormona jest prawdziwa i jest darem od Boga dla nas dzisiaj. It is powerful. Ona ma moc. (As a quick Polish lesson, there are genders in Polish and because Księga ends in an "a" it is feminine. Therefore, you always refer to it as a she.)
More Polish: Tak=yes, No=Ya, Nie=no .........łatwy, no?... Easy, right?
One of my goals, desires, hopes is to find a family that can learn about the restored gospel together. To love it together.
When you work hard on something and prepare for the blessings, they come. Prawda to jest.
Can you believe it's March? I'm glad that I'm so bad at math or I'd start freaking out at how fast my mission is going.

I've had a really great week. I'm working hard and love it here. Hope you all are doing well. Thank you for all your love and support.

Scott, sorry to here about your ACL. I will be praying for you Scott and your surgery. I'm sure everything will be fine and you'll recover fast. I know that it must be discouraging, but keep working hard and having faith and Heavenly Father will help you through.
Josh, wow you're getting tall. I don't believe it. I love you, keep working hard at school and playing hard too. You've always been such a great kid and I'm proud of you. Mam dumę z ciebie.
Well that's it for this week, lots of love.
Siostra Allen

P.S. YES YES YES I would love the right address to that family that the O'Briens know. As soon as they can get it to me we'll go visit.
P.P.S. I'm pretty sure I did send a thank you card to them, but they might not have gotten it. Mail here isn't quite reliable. Speaking of mail I've sent you all a few cards. have you ever gotten them. you only mentioned receiving the package I sent.
P.P.P.S. THANKS for the picture. It was so much fun to see you all, and I can't believe how tall Josh is.
P.P.P.P.S. I can't wait for the package, you're the best.
pppppppppppppppppp.s. Thanks for the addresses too. :)

Beginning of March 2011

2011-02-28T08:43:00.001-08:00

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

2011-02-26T11:43:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-17T15:47:00.000-08:00

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)

2011-02-08T19:24:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-20T15:51:00.000-08:00

Training new senior companions

Gotta Eat right!!! She goes out alot.

Hey Family and Friends-

I had the most amazing experience this week. I have seen miracles happen! I swear, I didn’t do much different this week, nor was it the week where I felt like I did everything perfectly. On the contrary, there is so much that I still am working on. The Standard of Excellence are goals set by the mission president for companions to work towards and stretch themselves. They include everything from how many Book of Mormons you hand out to how many new investigators you gain. It's a great compass for us to keep balanced and not spend all our time hanging out with new converts or just tracting. Ideally there is a little bit of everything. And we reached the goal in all 9 areas this week!

Here are just a few of the miracles I witnessed this week-

The 2 people who now have baptismal dates--- they told us they wanted to meet and we just followed through and invited them to set a date and they did.

Member referrals- The woman who gave us two referrals. We only met with her because I accidentally called the wrong number on the branch list. I really don't think it was an accident.

Book of Mormons- we placed 4 in less that 30 minutes last night on a White Board. My trainee placed one by her self in Polish! And I just walked up to two guys and told them what the Book of Mormon was in 3 sentences and asked them if they would be interested in reading it and they said yes. And then they brought their friend over and he wanted one too. It was insane!

And the member lesson- it was the last thing we needed and none of our investigators were available. At 6:45 pm we ran back to our apartment and just started calling potentials that we had never met with before. One of them said they could meet. There was a branch member who is unbelievably supportive and came on the lesson with us in an hours notice.

I really feel like I did nothing, but the Principle I learned was this: we are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for. Just do everything that you have been asked to do, and expect miracles.

Sister Leppanen and I are so grateful to be the recipients of so many amazing blessings. We both have felt hounded with thoughts of inadequecy and frustration this week and I will testify that the mission challenge of reading the Book of Mormon together right now is the only thing that has gotten me through. Each morning when I open my Book of Mormon I can literally feel my power and strength to withstand all those thoughts increasing. I don’t think I could do missionary work without that time everyday. If nothing else, I have come to love the Book of Mormon on my mission like I never imagined possible.

Oh the referral that Sister O'Brien gave me. We went and found the address. But they don't live there. Could you have them double check the address or maybe give me a phone number or e-mail so I can ask them where they live. And tell them they should definitely come here. It is so amazing. I swear Poland has hidden treasures. No one ever thinks to visit Poland, but it is beautiful and there is soooo much history.

I'm glad you all finally got your Christmas presents. And tell Josh GREAT! JOB! for me. I'll have to see him play next year when I get back. Sounds like he's doing great. I'm so happy.

I love you all so much. Thank you for your prayers and unending support. I read Elder Hollands conference talk again this week and thought of you all. Thank you for everything you do.

Until next week.
Sister Allen

22nd Birthday Week

2011-01-11T13:38:00.000-08:00

Hej-

It doesn't exactly feel like my birthday. Not in a bad way- there are plenty of wonderful people who are taking care of me on my birthday in Poland. For example, Sister Leppanen made pancakes this morning and let me take a nap, I opened some cool presents (thanks by the way- they are awesome!), and after this we're going over to the other sisters' apartment to make a cake. I think holidays just aren't as big a deal on a mission because there is so much else to focus on.

Despite that, like I said, it's been a great day. I'm so happy to hear that life is good back at home. That you finally got the pot that I painted this summer, and that you finally got the package that I sent you over a month ago. Hope you enjoy them. Love you.

As far as my week goes, it's been great. I've learned so much. I think what I've learned most is how important work is to missionary work. It's exhausting. You always have to be doing something that is helping you progress towards your goals, helping you help people come unto Christ. You can't just go home and take a nap when your tired or stop tracting when it's below zero weather. But, work is so much more fulfilling. There is a day for rest (which for missionaries is not Sunday), but during the week just work. This is so important. I just want people to understand that we're not just another company standing on the street trying to get their money- we're volunteering our time and energy to help them find the happiness that God has prepared for all of his children. I know that Jesus Christ really is our Savior. I know that faith in Him means something. We can't say that we believe in Him and then disregard what He taught. We have to strive everyday to be better to be obedient to His commandments. I know that this brings us happiness and freedom from the negative consequence's associated with breaking the commandments. I love this gospel. The Book of Mormon is the word of God.

I love you all. Have a great week.

Siostra Allen

New Companion

2011-01-04T19:56:00.000-08:00

Cześć wam-
I LOVE my new companion! Her name is Siostra Leppanen and she is from Helsinki. She speaks Finnish, Swedish, English and Polish. Luckily I speak two of those languages, kind of. She is really cute and has a wonderful testimony of the gospel. She loves the Book of Mormon and has so much fire for the work.

Miracle story of the week. The first day we tracted, someone let us in. Just to illustrate how amazing that is, I didn't get invited in once, while tracting during my first transfer.

It was a nice Ukranian woman, which made communication interesting, but she said we could come back later this week. This is going to be such an amazing transfer! Right now I feel like I'm just swimming in the blessings. Heavenly Father qualifies who he calls, and I feel like he is giving me the strength and abilities to be the kind of missionary I need to be. The gift of tongues is so real. I am able to put more sentences together and understand so much more than I every was able to before. I know that there are going to be challenging and frustrating times in the next weeks, but right now I'm so grateful for how much fun we're having trying to speak Polish and do missionary work.

Yes I got the Christmas package and it changed my life. Those socks are soooooooooo warm. Instead of wearing 3 pairs of normal socks, I can just wear those and be fine. And the gloves are super warm too. Now my hands don't freeze when we're street contacting and I have to have my hands out of my pockets because it's bad form to talk to someone with hands in your pockets. Dziękuję bardzo. Jesteś super!

It's so weird that it's January, a new year and that my birthday is around the corner. Mission time goes by really fast. The days seem long because they're jam packed with things to do and places to be, but then the weeks and months speed passed. I'm glad to hear that all is well at home and that you had a good holiday.

Kocham was
Siostra Allen

Happy New Year!

2010-12-28T09:38:00.000-08:00

Ok, business first. P-day is being moved to Mondays starting next week. Writing a missionary could become a fun Sunday tradition or something...

And the big transfer announcement is that I'm staying in South Warsaw again!!!! I'm really happy about this. I was not ready to leave the members or the people we've been teaching. I'm so excited to stay here and still help them progress in their faith in Jesus Christ. And I'm training. Which is a little overwhelming but I'm actually really excited. This means I get a brand new missionary fresh from the states... kind of. Fresh from the states in the sense that she's been at the Provo MTC for two months, but not fresh from the states really because she's from Finland. Crazy. She's going to be automatically awesome just by the mere fact that she's Finnish. Anyway, I get to meet her tomorrow and then we can get to work.

But I want to add an addendum to this, don't let this lead you to believe that I already speak Polish fluently or that I'm a rock star missionary who does everything perfectly. Those would both be false statements. I'm still learning so much everyday, and I'm sure the next two months will be a huge growing experience. But I'm going to work hard and do my best, relying on the Lord. It's strange that I've been in the country 4 months and already a senior companion, but currently the Poland Warsaw Mission is what we call a very young mission. Meaning most of the missionaries are new missionaries. 90% of the mission has been here for less than a year and over 50% have been here less than 4 months. So I'm actually already considered an old missionary. There aren't many Sisters who have been here longer because 5 Sisters go home tomorrow. A little crazy, but that's life. This is how it's supposed to be.

Comments about the holidays:
I think "Holiday" should be translated "day of eating more food than is healthy" in polish. I feel like that's all I did ALL weekend. Really good food and really interesting food. It was very satisfying and then it was more than satisfying. I don't think I've eaten a lot for the last two days in an attempt to recover. But it was really fun. And I want to say thank you to Aunt Sherisse and Aunt Hedi and the Beehives and to you for the wonderful bundles of holiday love that everyone sent. They are more than appreciated. Thank you for thinking of me even though I'm so far away. I love you all.

I missed everyone, but your love and the love of members here in Poland was able to remember me that Christmas isn't just about presents and singing fun songs while drinking hot chocolate- it's celebrating the fact that Jesus Christ did come into the world. How wonderful is that? I am forever grateful. I know he was who he said he was. He is the Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, the Son of God. I have felt the effects of his Atonement in my life, his love and his peace. As we take the sacrament each week we promise to always remember him, or in other words, we promise to keep the true feelings of Christmas with us always- Peace on earth, good will to men. What a wonderful thing to be reminded of. I always love the holidays, they are times to remember.

I love you all, it was great to hear from you too. I'll be home before you know it, and until then, don't worry about me too much. I'm being taken care of. I'm safe and happy and loving this wonderful work.

Love you,

Siostra Allen

P.S. About the referral. I'm assuming that Tomasz is the son who lived in America and Dorota is his mother. I'm super excited to go visit them.

Wesolych Swiat (Merry Christmas)

2010-12-21T15:19:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

I can't believe it's almost Christmas. It feels like I've been in Poland forever, and at the same time I feel like I'm just starting to figure out the basics of missionary work. I wonder if that will ever go away?

First things first- The Christmas phone call.
Yes- buy an international calling card, apparently that's the best way.
Then dial:
+48 (country code) then ....... without the 22 before it. Because we're a cell phone they don't use the city code.
Call at 11:15 a.m. your time; 8:15 p.m. our time.
It can only be 40 minutes.
Hope that's okay.

It was a great week. We had a Christmas Zone Conference and a temporary threesome with Sister Stay a brand new missionary. Her luggage got lost, so she stayed with us for three days while they recovered it. It was so much fun to have her with us.

You asked about my plans for Christmas. It's going to be busy. In Poland "Wigilia" or Christmas Eve is the most important part of Christmas celebrations. There's a big dinner with no meat and lots of fish and then you sit and sing and talk until midnight mass. We're going to be going to a member's house. I am SO excited. It's going to be an authentic Polish Christmas. On Christmas day I think we're going to go visit some single members who aren't going to be able to spend Christmas with family. There's a missionary lunch, then we're going over to a Mongolian member's house for dinner, followed by phone calls home. So you'll be able to hear all about it when I talk to you.

Sister LeFevre has been teaching me Polish Christmas carols for the past month- we sing them at the beginning of companionship study. So now I love them! I heard music playing in a store today and started humming along just like I do with English carols. Yesterday we visited a family in our branch- Piotr and his two teen-aged daughters Ania and Asia. I love their family. Yesterday we took a couple minutes to sing carols together before the lesson with Piotr playing the guitar. Are missions supposed to be this fun?

Miracle of the week: Jakub, Kuba for short.
About a month ago we tracted a building near a members apartment we were going to visit. We knocked on a couple hundred doors but no one was interested. Fast forward to this Tuesday. We have a meeting with the same member but decide to contact for 30 minutes in her area before hand. We only stopped two people. The second person was Kuba. He recognized us from tracting his building and talked to us for 20 minutes. He didn't take a Book of Mormon or give us his number which normally means we'll never see the person again. But we gave him our flyer and told him that he could call if he ever wanted to meet and was always invited to church. Miracle of miracles, he called us (that never happens). We met with him. He felt the spirit testify that our message was true. He is such a nice and respectful man. I hope we'll be able to teach him more when he gets back to Warsaw after the holidays.

Oh family. I love you all so much. I can't really wrap my mind around the fact that I'm going to talk to you on Saturday. But I'm excited nonetheless. I have such a testimony of this work. I know it is where I need to be. I am humbled to be a part of Heavenly Father's greater plan for us. He is our father. He loves us so much. He has beautiful things in our future if we will only trust him. The Book of Mormon is a gift from God that can bring us peace and happiness as we study it every day. It is so wonderful that I get to spend my days telling people about it and inviting them to read it. The most valuable present I received for Christmas was the conference ensign that you sent. As I have read from it each morning this week I have felt the prophetic power behind their words. How blessed we are to have a living prophet and apostles to help us make it through the trials and turbulence of life.

Once again, I love you. Thank you for all that you do to support me here. Wesołych Świąt! (merry christmas!)

Siostra Allen

one week before Christmas

2010-12-15T13:09:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe it's almost my birthday again. Weird As far as things I'd like- tights/socks if you didn't send them for Christmas would be great. And some things I've really come to like are headbands and normal ball point pens (they sell a lot of ink pens here but I like the cheap ones better). And then just some homemade cookies or something fun like that. Whatever you have time to send would be fun to receive.

I sent you all a package for Christmas, let me know when you get it. (I've actually sent you a couple letters from Poland, have you received any of them?) Mail here isn't quite reliable. But I think I got your package today. I got a package slip in the mailbox and we'll go pick it up at the post office after grocery shopping. And say thank you to the ward young women. I got their Christmas package too. That is really so nice of them.

As far as cooking goes, we don't have a lot of time to cook so everything we make is normally really simple. We'll make pasta and sauce or rice and vegetables. If you have any good fast recipes please send them my way. I'd love a little variety.

So this week has been a really good one and also a difficult one. We're working really hard right now to accomplish some goals by the end of the year. They are going to take a miracle so we're pooling all the faith we have to work miracles. I know it's possible, but I also know that there is opposition in all things. So when we're showing faith and obedience and God is going to bless us because of it, obviously Satan doesn't want anything like that to happen. Too bad this is the Lord's work- we already know the outcome.

A popular finding technique in the Poland Warsaw Mission is White Boarding. I love WBing. You write something on a white board and try and stop people and get them to respond. Normally it's a question. This week we decided to try something new in an attempt to follow counsel given by Elder Kopishke to testify of doctrine from your first sentence. We drew the Plan of Salvation and started asking people what it was. The first thing that you say in response to them is "God has a plan for us" It was sooooo amazing. Either people weren't interested and you could ask the next person, or they responded to it and we just continued testifying. Better yet, when we briefly explained that we can learn more about the plan through the Book of Mormon a lot of people asked us where they could buy it, they wanted to read it. When we said that we could give it to them for free, they were happy to take it. This is so exciting for a missionary, because we know the amazing power of the Book of Mormon as a testimony of Jesus Christ. It really does change the lives of those who study it with faith and now more people have a copy.

I love you all so much. I'll have more for you next week when we can talk! Have a wonderful day.

Papa (Bye-bye),

Siostra Allen

2010-12-08T08:47:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been colder here than I've ever experienced, but suprisingly I've stayed pretty warm. I have a good coat, boots to help me trudge through the snow, and I layer like crazy. I bought a hat and sweater a few weeks ago and I can buy anything I really need here in Poland, so don't worry that you didn't have time to sew me anything for Christmas. I'm doing great. Transfers aren't until the last week of December because we do 9 week transfers instead of 6 week transfers (Sister LeFevre goes home on the 30th) so if my package gets here by Christmas, it'll come to the right place.

We do get to call on Christmas. Sister LeFevre tells me that last year they e-mailed their parents their phone number and set up the time. And then her family just called her. So definitely plan on calling me, but I'll give you more details as I get them.

My apartment is a very nice apartment in comparison to a lot of the ones I've seen. It has a kitchen, bathroom (with a washer, small washer, in the bathroom), a living room with two comfy chairs that we try not to fall asleep in during study time, and a bedroom. It's right off a major road in South Warsaw- Puławska, so there are lots of tall apartment building around and traffic going by and a tram line that we can see from our window. We put up our Christmas lights and Christmas tree in the window so that the world can see our Christmas spirit. And there is an ambulance unit on the bottom floor of our building- so we say hi to them when we walk past. You never have to worry about a medical emergency while I'm living here. They don't really have central heating here. Some apartments only have warm pipes to heat them, but luckily ours has wall units in all the rooms so it stays pretty warm. I wear socks, but can wear a t-shirt quite easily. It's a great location because it's near a tram stop, but also not too far from the metro. This was nice last monday during the blizzard when none of the tram lines were working and a lot of people had a hard time getting home. We were able to take the metro and then walk the rest of the way- 20 minute walk. So that's nice. Warsaw is really condensed. It has just as many people as Las Vegas, but they all live in 1/8 of the space. Very few people live in homes. They live in tall concrete apartment buildings and use public transportation.

It's been a good week. The weather is a little hard for missionary work, people don't like to come out in it. But we're keeping our spirits up. We are staying obedient and warm and working hard. I feel like this week has been a real turning point for me. As we're working I'm enjoying tracting and contacting and I'm actually understanding a lot more. I have so much more to learn, but I'm excited to be about the work. I dream about missionary work now. Crazy I know.

I'm so glad to hear that everyone is doing well. Josh- good luck at try-outs. I know you'll do great. I love you all, and am again unfortunately out of time, but I'll e-mail next week and then... we can call!

Love you,

Siostra Allen

Winter Wonderland

2010-12-07T06:29:00.000-08:00

Hi family,

Last time I e-mailed you the weather was quite agreeable. It was chilly, but bearable. I wore a peacoat and a couple pairs of socks, that afternoon I thought it wise to buy a hat, but I still was quite warm. Well, yesterday night it started snowing. Not just a pretty dusting on the trees and window sills. No, it was a blizzard. And it kept blizzarding all day and into the night dropping at least a foot of snow on the country of Poland. It's already to the top of my boots. So now Fall is over and it is officially Winter. I will probably see snow everyday for at least the next 3 months. How's the weather in Vegas? Wait don't tell me.

The nice thing about snow is it's pretty. The empty trees are now full of snow and Sister LeFevre and I sang Christmas Carols to each other while we were tracting yesterday. This is my favorite time of year. I just can't help myself from a kind of childish wonder and awe as we put up Christmas decorations, stare at the snow, wrap presents, celebrate with family and friends. It's just such a happy time. And I love that all the happiness is centered around the Savior. I love 4th of July barbeque's and Thanksgiving feasts, independence and gratitude are amazing things to celebrate... but Christmas is celebrating that all the centuries of prophecies were fulfilled with the birth of a child who was the Christ, who fulfilled his purpose in redeeming mankind, who gave us purpose and potential in life. So I'm excited that tomorrow is officially December.

This week was full. We had a Thanksgiving feast on Thursday with the Lewis', an American family in our branch. It was some of the best food ever, and they packed our bags with leftovers, so we've eaten well all week. There was a baptism her in Warsaw, Eustace, Grant's friend. It was a beautiful baptism, and they asked me to sing, so that was fun. Amra got to come too, which was great because she got to see what it looked like and get excited about her own baptism on the 18th of December! She is such a wonderful person. I can't even imagine anyone more prepared for the gospel. One of my favorite things as a missionary is getting to hear people describe how they feel the spirit. A warm feeling in their heart, they are happy when they meet with us or are at church, things make sense. I'm so grateful I've had the blessing of teaching her.

I am so grateful to be here in Poland serving the Lord and for the many blessings and tender mercies he gives me each day. I know He is mindful of me and that this is His work. I finished the Book of Mormon today. I know it's true, even more so now than when I started it. And I imagine that testimony will grow with each other time I read it throughout my life.

I love you all. Stay warm and stay same.

Siostra Allen

P.S. The senior missionaries in the office have a blog and I know there are a couple pictures of my on there. Just so you know: Richardsinpoland.blogspot.com

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

Enjoying Lunch with member from Houston, TX

Warsaw Mall looks very 21st century

Hi Family!
First off. Thank you so much for the pictures. I just got the package and it was so fun to see your adventures in Korea and in Arizona. And I'm glad that you got the ones I sent. I'll send more, if you send more. And I'm so glad that the family reunion was a success and that you're going to be with Grandma and Grandpa for Thanksgiving. Wow, I leave and you travel all over the place. I guess I'm in Poland, so I have nothing to complain about, travel wise. We're going to be having Thanksgiving dinner with an American family in the branch. So no need to worry about me- I'll have a great time and eat well.

This week I had my first Zone Conference. They used to have them about every transfer (or every other month), but according to the new Missionary program introduced by the church, they now only have it 4 times a year. It was wonderful. Elder Kopiske came, the Area 70 for Europe and gave such fine tuned advice and counsel. I feel like I was being educated on the Lord's way of learning. So many of the questions I had were specific things I should be doing and how I should be doing them. He explained that when learning there is always a Doctrine, a Principle and an Application. The first two is what you teach and expound on, the application is varied and individual. It requires prayer and study and sometimes even fasting. My testimony of priesthood leaders grew, my desire to study the scriptures grew (he knew his scriptures and could take you anywhere and everywhere to answer your questions), and I found out that I have a lot of work to do to really aid Heavenly Father in his work and his glory. He asked us to "Teach to Find". Something that is in Preach My Gospel. But something I hadn't paid too much attention to. We need to be teaching people true doctrine on the street as soon as we meet them and testify of it. When we do that the Holy Ghost has to be present to testify of the truth of our words. In this way we can find people who are interested in learning more, because we'll show them that there is more to learn and that they feel good when they are learning about it.

Poland fact: The clouds here move fast. I've never seen anything like it. I'll be eating breakfast in the morning and looking out the window and the clouds will look like there is a tornado coming they are moving so fast. But no, it's actually still somewhat calm weather outside. No tornados to worry about.

Wow, the time has flown. I have to go, but I love you dearly. Have a wonderful week and know that I am so happy to be here doing the Lord's work. The Book of Mormon changes my life every time I read it. Jesus is the Christ, the son of God. He truly died for our sins and loves us. We can learn about him through the words of the prophets and as we live according to his commandments.

Sister Allen
P.S. I've heard it's good to address letters with Elder or Sister. I definitely am Sister Allen now. It's weird to hear or think my first name because no one has called me it for over 4 months. However, Poles really like to know your first name and a lot of them will ask you what it is. So, whatever you want to call me is fine.

Good Week in Poland

2010-11-17T08:56:00.000-08:00

Hi Mom and everyone-

It's been a good week. President Nielson has asked us to set a mission goal of at least one lesson every day. Here in Warsaw, this isn't too bad, I know it is probably more difficult in the smaller branches. If we can't get an appointment with an investigator then we visit a member. So it has been fun to teach a little bit more and get to know some of the members better.

Also, Scott asked me about some of the people I was teaching, so I thought I would share what I told him:

We have one girl named Amra who moved here from Mongolia. She is studying (in Polish) here and met a member of the church who is also from Mongolia at school. Apparently she was over at this Mongolian family's house during General Conference and really wanted to start coming to church with them. We met her the next Sunday and now we've been teaching her. She is one of the nicest people I have ever met. So kind to everyone around her and willing to help. When we taught her how to pray and asked her to pray we told her she could do it in Mongolian (since that is her native language) and so I can say I've heard a prayer in Mongolian on my mission in Poland. Actually I serve in the International branch in Warsaw. So I've heard prayers in Mongolian, French, Polish, English, and Spanish already. I've also heard a Nigerian member read the Book of Mormon in Igbo and yesterday I heard a member from Uganda speaking Luganda. All their languages are so cool.

There is also a man that I met on the street over a month ago. We talked about the Book of Mormon and prophets. I remember him being really patient with my limited language abilities, and interested in reading the Book of Mormon and learning more. So I gave him the Book of Mormon and he gave me his number so we could meet again! That's gold. We set up to meet multiple times but he always had to cancel last minute. We just figured he was being nice but wasn't too interested. But this week we decided to call him again just to see if he had time. We finally got to meet with him. In polish there are two forms of a verb. One is for actions that are not complete. For instance czytać means I'm reading, but I've just read a little, or I'm in the middle. And then there is a form that is for completed actions. For example, przeczytać. You use this when you've completed reading something. He said that he przeczytać-ed the Book of Mormon! You could tell that his copy was used too. It was a good lesson and when he prayed he asked that we would be able to meet again. He's still really busy, but hopefully we can find a time to meet soon.)

Love you all so much,

Sister Allen

2010-11-08T08:26:00.000-08:00

What a fun looking group!

I realize that it is not Tuesday. There is leadership training this week, so they changed around the schedule a bit. But I'm not unhappy, because we've been wanting to go to the Uprising museum here in Warsaw that's closed on Tuesdays. So we're going to take advantage of the schedule change and head over there this afternoon.

What to say about this week. Well, fall is officially here. It's rained almost non-stop since the middle of last week. This has changed some of our day-to-day activities. Before, we did a lot of street contacting- where we just stop people on the street to see if they were interested in learning more. But now that the weather is bad, people don't particularly want to stand out in the rain and talk to you, nor do we really want to walk around in it for hours; so now we do mostly tracting! I really feel like a missionary when tracting. Hi we're from the church... We have a message about ... You try and have the spirit and look like a normal person, not an ax murderer-- tell them who you are and hopefully get them curious all in 30 seconds. It's great.

Polish people are super private when it comes to strangers. We will "dom-a-phone" at least 30 people without anyone letting us into a building. If they don't know you, why should they open the door. Sometimes we hear a person come up to the door, look through the peep hole, and then walk away. That's pretty funny. Yet, I am excited for the day when someone actually lets us in. It does work sometimes! There is a family in the first branch that was contacted through tracting. It's kind of cool to ask everyone for their conversion stories. Most of them involve meeting the missionaries on the street or tracting; so they are living proof that what I'm doing isn't wasted effort.

Legia! Legia is the Warsaw soccer team. Soccer is BIG here. I think even bigger than NBA or NFL in the states. I can't be completely sure, because I've never lived in a city where there are professional teams. But we were on our way to look for an inactive member a few days ago and a crowd of drunk soccer fans got onto our metro car. Half on one side and half on the other. They started screaming their soccer chants back and forth and pounding on the ceiling of the car. I understood them professing their love for Legia and Warsaw and heard the names some other teams, but that's about it. I'm pretty sure it's because I don't know any Polish profanity. Sister LeFevre said that profanity was over half of their lyrics. It was kind of funny. I can add that to the list of Poland experiences.

I figured out how to get pictures on to an e-mail. Tell me if it works. There are some from my first week here. When I went on splits with Sister Bautner and Sister Bailey and I in łazienki park. There's one of the rynek in Warsaw and Stallin's tower with the Hard Rock at night. There's a picture of my first district and a couple with members here in Poland Paola who is from Puerto Rico and Dorota who is from here in Poland. Sorry it's taken me so long to get them to you.

I'm happy. I'm safe. I'm doing the Lord's work and he is sustaining me. I love you all and am so grateful to have you cheering for me at home.

Sister Allen.

P.S. Could you send me the address to Brandon Family Dental. I promised I would send them a postcard. And also the address for Katelyn (serving in St. George) one of my roommates might have it and Jessie's mission address too. And then also Cady Marshall. I want to write them all a letter.

P.P.S. You mentioned that you could make me another skirt potentially. If you find the time in the next month, I would love a second wool skirt. I can already tell I'm going to be wearing it a ton as the weather gets colder and colder. It would be cool to have one that was a color or had a pattern because we have big coats on most of the day, so our skirts are the only color that is able to show. I have a brown coat and brown boots. I'll have to take a picture so you can see what they look like. Maybe next week.

2010-11-02T18:07:00.000-07:00

Open House at Chapel

during Halloween

Yummy Polish Food

Transit system - Bus

Transit system - subway

My second transfer has begun. It feels a lot like the last one, except I understand a little more Polish and have gotten over a lot of the culture shock. So far, so good.

Surprisingly it hasn't snowed here quite yet. We were freezing earlier, but yesterday was beautiful. We had an open house at the chapel in Warsaw (the only real chapel in Poland- all the others are rented offices in buildings) because it was The Day of the Dead here.

They really celebrate this holiday. It's just as big as Thanksgiving in the states. Everyone goes with their families to the cemeteries to put flowers and candles on the graves and remember the people who they've lost. There are many cemeteries near the chapel; so all day people were walking passed and we invited them to come in and see what our church was like on the inside. I was exhausted by the end of the day. But it was a really cool event. We had free tea (Fruit tea) and cookies at the end of the tour, and I was surprised because many of the people declined the offer of food, but were happy to take a copy of the Book of Mormon on their way out. They wanted to read the Book of Mormon more than cookies!!! That's an awesome start. It was also cool because the holiday is so family oriented and there were a lot of young families that came in and did the tour. It is difficult to teach whole families together. You meet one member of a family on the street and only teach them. Or you tract during the day, but not everyone is home. Most members of the church here are the only members in their families. So it was really cool to get whole families there learning together.

We went in the evening to two cemeteries. During the weekend family members had visited every single grave and left flowers and candles on them. We went to the big cemetery were there are a lot of famous people buried and some of them had 50 or so candles piled on top of and around the graves. At the Wola cemetery right next to the chapel there were hundreds of candles at one monument. Soooo cool. They have a lot of respect for their dead here. Their cemeteries are impressive, especially on November 1st.

That's about it for me. It's been a great week and I'm excited to be working here. Poland is the coolest place ever! Love you all.

Siostra Allen

1st Transfer

2010-10-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

So transfers are on Thursday and we just found out....

Drum roll...

I'm ...

staying in Warsaw II with Sister LeFevre!

I am super excited. I've come to love Warsaw and settle into the routine of missionary work and how to do it. I'm excited to work hard and learn even more this transfer. I love the members here, so I'm very glad that I don't have to say goodbye to them and were hoping to start teaching a couple of people that are really cool. Sister LeFevre is an awesome missionary and I'm grateful that I get a couple more months to glean a bit more of her wisdom.

They are moving the mission office this week. I'm sure I would eventually get anything you sent, but I'm not sure when. So if you want to send anything send it to:
Puławska 120-124 m. 58
Warszawa 02-620

The new office address is:
Polska Warszawska Misja
ul. Wiertnicza 135, I Piętro
02-952 Warszawa
Polska

I'm glad that you had a great weekend and that Josh taught an awesome FHE lesson. He is such a cool person. I can't wait to see how grown up he is when I get back. And you can inform him that placek means "pie" in polish. You pronounce it plah-ts-ehk.

I haven't purchased any boots yet, but I've been looking around. I want to get good ones. And I'm inheriting a coat from one of the other sisters so I don't have to buy one. Don't you worry, I've actually started adjusting to the cold. The first few weeks were really hard and I was terrified that it was just going to get worse. But if I layer, I'm perfectly fine. For now, at least. I've been warned about the winter here. Oh well, we'll survive.

They don't celebrate Halloween in Poland, but November 1st is a Catholic holiday that is huge here called day of the dead. People in Poland take amazing care of their dead. Their cemetaries are always very well taken care of and have fresh flowers on every grave. Multiply this 10x for November 1st. Everyone goes to the cemetery. I'm really excited to experience it. Plus we're having an open house at the North Chapel that I get to help with. We're going to have fruit tea (not against the word of wisdom) and cookies and give tours with members in each room explaining what Relief Society and Primary are etc. I'll tell you how it goes next week.

This week has been wonderful. Sławek was baptized on Saturday with two other people. Grant who I've already told you about and a woman named Alicja who has to travel an hour and a half to get to church every week but is so excited about the gospel. She had already been reading in the Book of Mormon before the missionaries started meeting with her. So cool. I know that all three of these people were prepared to receive the gospel.

Out of time. Love you.
Have a great week and say hi to everyone for me.
Tracy

2010-10-19T09:31:00.000-07:00

Missionary Choir that sang at the Baptism

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for the packages. I got them yesterday and they brightened my day. I can't wait to dig into the salsa tonight and the t-shirt you sent is possibly the cutest thing I've ever owned. And it fits too, normally touristy things don't fit very well. And I've already started looking at the grammar book exercises. They are soooo good. I think I'm already speaking better Polish. So thank you for being so thoughtful.

Vacation! I'm glad you all enjoyed Tuscon. Maybe you'll all be moved down there by the time I get back. Just kidding. Unless you want to. But I'm glad that it went well and Dad said that he and Josh had fun while you were in rehearsals. So that's cool that they got to spend some time together.

I think you already presented at the YW thing, but the idea for talking about the 13th article of faith as "We believe", "We follow", We Seek is brilliant. I hope everything went well with it. And your talk sounds super interesting. There are different connotations with the word citizen as opposed to member. Tell me how it goes. Tell Aunt Julie that I'll write her, but it''ll have to wait until next week because it's almost 6:00 which is when P-day ends.

Today was fun. For P-day we took a train to a city south of Warsaw called Lublin. We met the Elders that are serving there (the city is technically in our district and yet it was a 3 hour train ride) and then we went to Majdonek a concentration camp there. The time we spent in the camp wasn't necessarily fun it was sobering and haunting. I've seen pictures of concentration camps and now I've been there, and yet I still can't wrap my mind around that kind of cruelty. As I stood in front of the gas chambers I tried to tell myself that thousands of people died in the very room I was looking at. I know that it happened, but I just couldn't comprehend it. I'm glad that they still have well maintained camps. We need to remember, because if we remember we will not repeat.
So that was a good experience, but not necessarily fun. But the time on the train and at the Kebab restaurant were great. All 6 of the proselyting missionaries in Warsaw (Me and Sis. LeFevre, Sis Brown and Sis Spear. and then Elder Plumb and Elder Curtis) went, so it was a party.

Ok, what's new in the mission field here. Well we had wonderful baptisms on Saturday. And we're preparing an investigator (Sławek) to get baptized this weekend. He is such a nice and humble man. I love seeing him really understand and apply the gospel. He doesn't just come in and say, sorry I didn't have time to read the scriptures in the last couple of days. He comes in with questions about his reading. He is going to be a wonderful member and I'm grateful for the small role I've been able to play in him learning about the church.

Sunday was fun because a ton of investigators came to church. There were 11 non-members in our branch! That's more than 2 per missionary. I work in the primary (which is so much fun) so I didn't get to spend a ton of time with all of them, but it was wonderful to see people who recognized that there is something special there, because it is special in a way that is unique from other churches. And I love our members. They are the most loving and service oriented people I've ever met. Missionary work is wonderful because we get to work with them.

Pop Polish Culture of the Week- They have tons of pizza here, but they eat it a little bit differently. There is a crust with cheese and toppings, but you put the sauce on top. It comes in it's own container (Marinara and a White sauce that isn't Alfredo but is pretty good) and then you put it on top or dip it. Sister Prichet taught me that if you mix the two sauces together it's the best.

So transfers are next week. Weird. My first transfer in the country cannot be almost over. I refuse to believe it. That means that next Thursday the 28th I might be staying here, and I might be in another Polish city. I think we'll know before next Tuesday so I can tell you in my e-mail where I'll be going. You can send anything to the office still because I'll get it at Zone Conference. Or you can wait until I know my new address (if I have a new one) and send it there. Transfers are kind of nerve racking. I think they actually expect me to hold my own after this. But Sister LeFevre is amazing and has taught me so much. And with the Lord's help I can move mountains so why not speak Polish and find people who want to hear the gospel and teach them with the spirit?

P.S. To a miss Jessie Hawkes. I have information that you have a mission call although the location is still unknown to me. Would you be so kind as to forward me your mission address via Dear Elder so I can write you.
P.P.S. I am SOOOOOOOOO excited for you. That's awesome!!! You're going to be such a wonderful missionary!

2010-10-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

District Conference : Tracy is in the Back row

You can see her red hair and glasses

Here is the Mission President and his wife cooking for the missionaries. President and Sister Nielsen from Las Vegas too.

This is the Mission Home in Warsaw. The Church just bought the property this week. They had been renting for the past two years.

This is the brand new Mission office just minutes away from the Mission Home. Their offices are on the second floor.

2010-10-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, busy week. Susan was baptised on Saturday. However she has a very interesting story. You see, the sister missionaries have been meeting with her as a member of the branch for over a year now, and then finally someone realized that she wasn't on the branch list. She joined the church 18 years ago, but no one can remember and there are no records even in Salt Lake, so we made it official...again. But she made the decision a week ago today, so it was a little stressful to organize everything. Normally there is a little more time with investigators.

District Conference was wonderful. They called members of a district council (which is like a high council or a district) for the first time here in Poland as well as counselors for the District President. I think this will be good, because there are so many wonderful members here, it will distribute the responsibility among them. As we spent two days with members from all over northern Poland I was again astounded with their dedication and faith. Most of the active members have 2 or 3 callings... sometimes 7. New members are called to be in the RS Presidency as Executive Secretary etc. And they serve and work to build zion. If anyone can succeed in building Zion here, I know it's them. We're just called to be their full time assistants in the work.

I'm trying to think of anything exciting this week besides conference and the baptism. I guess only that we've been teaching people. For the last month no one has wanted to meet with us. Investigators have fallen off the face of the planet and people who say they are interested don't answer their phone. Then, one day you turn around and you're teaching new people and you have an investigator with a baptismal date! Grant, the Nigerian I told you about in my first e-mail is getting baptized on Saturday. He's being taught by the other sisters, but we went on splits on Saturday and I got to be on a lesson with him. He is awesome! I know he has been prepared to recieve the gospel, and the prayer he gave at the end of the lesson was probably one of the most sincere prayers I've ever heard. His faith and desire to follow Christ are wonderful. The other Warsaw sisters have also been teaching a man named Sławek. They found out that he's actually living in our area and so we started teaching him on Saturday/Monday. He's planning to get baptized in two weeks! He is a super nice man who is kind of shy and quiet, but is excited about the gospel. Yeah, those aren't even the only baptisms happening. We have seven planned for this Saturday alone. Miracles are happening in this country, and it's all because of the faith of the members and missionaries here.

Ok, I've been slacking on my Polish random cultural knowledge. So here you go: everyone in Poland is named after a Catholic Saint- so they have their birthday and their Saint's Day. Not such a bad idea, right? Well some of them can be kind of weird names, so the normal ones get used a lot. Asia (Asha), Ania, Jan (John), Łukasz (Lukas) etc.

Language mishap of the week: This needs to be prefaced by the fact that the first line in the first lesson that we teach to investigators is- God is our loving Heavenly Father (Bóg jest naszym ojcem niebieskim). Well I'm praying in District Meeting and saying how grateful we are to know that Christ is our savior and my mind thought it knew what I was going to say when I started "jest naszym (is our)" and I was preaching false doctrine basically. Istead of Savior I said Father in Heaven. Oops. I'm really grateful the other missionaries held in their laughter during the prayer. )

I haven't received your packages yet. It takes a little while I think. But I generally get things pretty soon after they arrive at the office- benefits of being in Warsaw. And I know sometimes it's hard to know what to send that would be appreciated and needed so here are some suggestions:
Stationary- the stationary you sent was so awesome! They don't really sell stationary in packages here and sometimes you just need to write a note to members that help with something or investigators etc.
Conference Ensign in English- we'll get one in our apartment, but I like to write in mine.
American Cold Medicine (they do have cough drops here, but US cough syrup is better)
Handwarmers- I think I might have already asked for these last two, but just in case I had forgotten...
Love from Polska,
Sister Allen

2010-10-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking about that plaque and the fact that I've now procrastinated finding a scripture for 5 months. Believe it or not I have thought about this and narrowed it down to 15 scriptures. I only have my Polish scriptures with me so I'm trying to find one that I like while translating... Mormon 9: 15-20. I don't know which verses would be best to fit on the plaque, but I know that this is the section that talks about miracles continuing in our day. If you could read through them and pull out 1 or 2 applicaple verses to tell him, thank you so much. This is a land of miracles waiting for people to have the faith for them to happen.

As far as my life goes, I'm doing well. This work is pushing me and stretching me in new ways. This is both good and slightly uncomfortable. My comfort zone is 1000 miles away, quite literally. But this has forced me to rely on the Lord in everything I do and everything I learn. We really can do hard things, like the relief society talk from a few conferences ago says. In fact, hard things are what prepare us to become the people we want to become. I jokingly like to think that this statement should be amended to read, "I can do awkward things". Missionary work is all about awkwardness. You just stop people on the street and ask them if they believe in God- super awkward. Even more so when you have to cross a big sidewalk to contact the person you want. Then you graduate from that and start talking to people who are walking in front of you, so you have to naturally stop them from behind- awkward. Then there's talking to the person sitting next to you on a bus or metro. Sometimes you have to talk really loud over the sound of the engine which is awkward. Even more so on the tramwej where they're sitting behind you or standing up. So you turn around in your seat in order to start a conversation. I have now realized why returned missionaries are so awkward. It's their life for two years. )

Well, out of time, but I love you so much and can't wait to hear about your concert. Say hi to the boys for me.

Love,

Tracy

P.S. In subsequent packages, I've heard that handwarmers are AMAZING in the winter.

Warsaw in September

2010-09-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-24T00:02:00.001-07:00

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.

2010-09-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-09-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

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)

Finally Tracy's 1st P-Day in Poland

2010-08-31T07:36:00.000-07:00

My first P-day here in Poland. I can hardly believe that it's only been a week. So much has already happened. We had three good flights, and thanks to the amazing gift of being able to sleep on a plane, I really didn't experience much jet lag. We spent a couple days at the mission home, going out on splits with the Warsaw missionaries in the afternoons. It was so scary to go out there and start talking to people, but it's really cool when someone actually stops and you talk to them and get to testify about your message. I was on splits with a Sister in the first branch on Monday and a Nigerian man that I contacted has been coming to Institute, Church, FHE. It's so cool when you get to see the effects of the gospel in people's life.

And then on Wednesday morning we got our assignments.......

And I'm in WARSAW!!!

I love it here. So much was lost in the years of war and communism, you can still see it, but they have really tried to restore a lot and to beautify the communist block housing that was left behind. During our first few days here they took us to the rynek which was stunning. I had seen some pictures before, but it is so much cooler in person. And a lot bigger than I expected. And there are huge gorgeous parks everywhere. I love it! I love riding public transportation (most of the time). It's a huge city and I am still trying to get my bearings on where everything is--by the end of the transfer I know I'll figure it out, but until then I'll just follow my trainer around.

My trainer's name is Sister LeFevre and she is awesome! She's been in the country about a year and speaks really well, which is nice because I do not. I'm coming to love the Polish language more and more, and I know I learn a lot everyday. It's really quite amazing, but I remember the first day we went out white boarding (where we take a white board out onto the side walk and have a question written on it. Then we try to get people to stop and write their answer on it and hopefully start a conversation) I think I understood maybe one word that they said. Now I can understand the gist of most conversations.

The weather here has been crazy. The first day was hot and humid. Even more so than the weekend I spent in Houston a couple months ago. It was impossible to wear more than just a lightweight shortsleeve shirt. Two days later it turned into cold fall weather. I pulled out all my sweaters and my peacoat. At least I like Fall. This must be an extra special blessing for me.

The members are great and really patient. A lot of them speak a little English, so if I don't know what a word is I can ask them. And on Sunday they helped me translate a lot of my talk- Sister LeFevre and I spoke in Sacrament Mtg. All of the meetings were on member missionary work and so it seemed appropriate to have the missionaries speak, broke me in pretty fast though. The members were so nice and encouraged me. I admire their strength and their faith so much. Many of them have watched the church grow from a dozen members in Poland to two branches in Warsaw of about 60 people each. The first branch meets in the only chapel we have in Poland. But I'm serving in the second branch which is on the other side of town. )

2010-08-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

Tracy's arrival in Poland is found on www.nielsonsinpoland.blogspot.com.

We fly out tomorrow

2010-08-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's finally here. I'm terrified and excited and amazed at this awesome opportunity. I have come to love Poland, to love the idea of living there and teaching there and talking to Polish people all day. With each day I feel more strongly the desire of the Lord to bless them with the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and feel a driving desire to accomplish this work in spite of fear and my own limitations. It is something beyond anything else I've ever done

Sister Bailey and I had an amazing opportunity at the TRC. The investigators that we were teaching were really good and asked us questions. Normally, not a big deal. But when you're teaching in a different language you have to hope that

1. you understand the words their saying 2. you understand what they're really asking at a spiritual level 3. you know how to answer it doctrinally 4. you know how to answer it in Polish. I gained such a testimony of the Lord's involvement in this work as he blessed us with the ability to answer their questions. It was amazing, and I know that as I work hard and study hard he can bless me to be a more and more effective teacher.

Starszy Oborn is doing so well. In fact so well that they decided he's ready to go into the field. We’re all sad that for safety reasons, they decided that his field of labor will be in Chicago instead of Poland because we love him and will miss him. But we are soooo excited for him. He is a solid missionary and the Lord has a special purpose for him there. There are no coincidences in missionary work.

We have been practicing street contacting, and even though it's really intimidating, it's awesome that I theoretically have the ability to strike up a conversation with someone, get to know them and testify of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. It's not much, but it's something. I was really bad when we really started focusing on it a week ago, but as we've practiced I've gotten better and better. Maybe I will be ready to leave on Monday.

I felt an outpouring of love from home too. I got letters from a ton of my roommates, from the Beehives in my ward, my lovely grandmother, and my mom! It was awesome. And I just want to express my love and appreciation. It really makes a wonderful difference.

Well I'm almost out of time and I have a busy day- I'm going to start packing so that I don't have to rush at the last minute.

Love you all, thanks for your prayers and support,

Siostra Allen)

2010-08-19T07:36:00.000-07:00

Michele,

I tried to email you but got your name mis-spelled I guess. Anyway it came back. Tracy called unexpectedly for five minutes on Tuesday night. Their plans have changed and now they are leaving the MTC and Salt Lake on Sat at 10:30am. They are stopping in Chicago then to London where they arrive at 7:00am Sunday and then leaving at 1:50pm for Poland. She wanted me to email you. Hope you get this....

Cathy

P.S. She loved all the letters she received from her roommates. Thanks everyone!

2010-08-15T08:05:00.000-07:00

You can write Sister Allen at:

Poland Warsaw Mission
ul. Potczynska 50 m 5
01-337 Warsaw Poland
Tel: +48 22 665 9892

You need the phone # on packages.
You can write letters to Tracy at: dearelder.com
It is free and she would love to hear from you!!
When she gets to her destination in the field she will have an email address. I will post it when that happens. I write her mostly through dearelder.com
She does love getting letters through regular mail though. She says it feels like Christmas. Thanks everyone for your love and prayers.

7th week in MTC

2010-08-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy week. We're all really feeling the pressure to be prepared for Poland in a few short weeks. I had a nightmare last week that I had just gotten off stage from a great performance with the choir and then my teachers were there quizzing me on Polish vocab and grammar rules. Needless to say, I've been a little anxious. But between Sister Bailey, and lessons from Preach My Gospel, and letters from missionaries in Poland (I'll talk about this in a second) I am so excited! Last night I couldn't sleep because I was imagining what my first day in Poland would be like contacting people in Warsaw and testifying of the Book of Mormon and that the church was true- it really is amazing how much I can already say. Nothing complex and I forget half of the vocab I've learned, but I can say the things that matter. I seriously can't wait. Two weeks and counting.

Polish fact of the week: Every city has something called a rynek (pronounced ri (like the beginning of the word ridge) neck) which is a central square with shops and stuff. This is where we will be doing our contacting the first day!

More news from the MTC:

I mentioned Starszy Oborn before, the elder who had surgery for a collapsed lung. He's doing so well and might even be able to go to Poland with us in 2 weeks. I have truly seen him healed before my eyes. Everyday there is a miracle in our lives, if we look for it we will find it.

Thursday we taught Staśa (? spelling) who is a native Pole for our TRC. Our lesson went pretty well, but what was cool was that afterward we started talking for 5-10 minutes in POLISH! I had a conversation with a polish person! My red hair reminds her of Anne of Green Gables which apparently has been on television on Fridays and Saturdays. Cool huh? Well, now we're getting ready to teach the second lesson on the plan of salvation this Thursday. Pray for me.

Yesterday we got a letter from the four sisters who are serving in Warsaw. It was such a tender mercy to hear from them and know that I would see them when I got there. That they will be standing next to me as I stumble through Polish. They seem so nice and their pictures made me so excited to get there and get to work.

Rachel asked me what Polish words I've learned lately so I'll give you a summary of some of the words I learned yesterday. We learned some important adj. and adv. like wet, dry , fast, loud, etc. Quantifiers like a little, every, a lot, etc. Family names like aunt and uncle and cousin. And then A LOT of lesson vocab for the Plan of Salvation. So I know that "Upadek Adama i Ewa" means the fall of Adam and Eve and "owoc zakazany" means forbidden fruit. We have some computer programs that are really helpful in facilitating our learning vocab, but I also like to draw pictures that remind me of the word. Sometimes they're really funny neumonic devices (my favorite from yesterday is that mięnki means soft and sounds a little bit like "my blanky") and sometimes they're literal depictions. You might get some of my funny stick figure pictures in an upcoming letter along with a memory card full of well, Sister Bailey and the Elders and me goofing off. It's no fun to take pictures when we're working diligently, which I assure you is most of the time.)

I love you all soooo much and appreciate your support and everything you've taught me over the years. I know that if it weren't for you I would not be the missionary I am today. I love you and pray for you daily. Thanks for all you do.

Siostra Allen

P.S. It's such a small world. Aunt Julie knows a sister missionary who is in Uncle John's stake who came in on Wednesday and said, she was to "look out for Julie's niece". Lo and behold she is my roommate. Tell them that Sister Jurgens says "Hi".

6th week in MTC

2010-08-04T09:05:00.000-07:00

Hello,

(I can't believe it's P-day again. This week has gone by so fast. The realization that we will be IN POLAND in just a few short weeks is starting to set in and our studying has become more intense and focused. Sister Bailey and I have learned so much about how to make our planning and study time more effective. Rather than being general about the things we want to work on, at night when we are planning for the following day we say exactly what we're going to memorize (vocab on page 7 or the endings for this case) and what time we're going to do it. This has literally been a revelation to us. I've seen progress and blessings that would not have happened otherwise. Like the fact that we taught an entire Polish lesson on Thursday. It wasn't eloquent or compex but we've discovered that sincerity and love and music (Sister Bailey and I sang I am a child of God to them in Polish at the beginning of the lesson and it was so calming and peaceful) are spoken in every language. That's what I'm counting on for the next few months, because I definitely won't be fluent in Polish for a while.

I had the amazing opportunity to go to the temple this morning and perform sealings. I loved it. As I was sitting there I couldn't help but think about the blessings that our Heavenly Father has prepared for our families and how much I already want these for the people of Poland. I thought of the women whose work I did and how they lived centuries ago and have been waiting for this so that they can be reunited with their families and because I went to the temple this morning, now they can be. How amazing is that!? I am so sad to leave the temple behind for the next couple of years but I know that even though I won't be able to go, I can take these experiences with me, and that they will strengthen me to be able to do all that is required in order to bless the Poles I will meet.

The MTC is so funny. On Sunday night they show LDS movies like Legacy and The Testaments and Mountain of the Lord. You can tell we're a whole bunch of teenagers who aren't allowed to date, because anytime there's a romantic scene everyone makes a big deal out of it whistling and cat calling. It's soooo funny. We have the greatest Elders ever in the Polish district. We generally go on a spacer (spa-t-ser) or walk once a day just around the MTC and play Stomp in which we try to step on each other's feet when it's our turn and not be stepped on when it's not our turn. So we're working hard, but definitely doing what we can to enjoy the MTC too.

Do you remember the Elder I mentioned a few weeks ago who had some health problems with his lung? Well last week Starszy Oborn's lung calapsed again which is pretty rare, and as a result they had to do surgery. He's back at the MTC just healing up. But keep him in your prayers, if all goes well he will hopefully be able to come with us to Poland in a few weeks.

Polish Fact of the Week: Apparently Poland is the Supermodel capital of the world--everyone there is really good looking, so I guess I'll have to send you some pictures.

What else, I'm doing great. Trying to prepare as much as I can for Poland, but really excited to get out there and get to work. You are right, there is a lot of work being done in Poland now. Everyone assumes that Eastern Europe is milked dry, but there are still people there that God is preparing to hear the gospel. I think we will be able to see it flourish in new and wonderful ways throughout the next decades. )

Sorry that I have to cut this short, I love you all. Stay busy and stay safe. Thank you for all your love and support, it really is a strength to me.

Siostra Tracy Allen

5th Week in the MTC

2010-07-27T23:20:00.000-07:00

MTC Update:

We are officially over half way through the MTC. In less than a month I will be in Poland! That is kind of insane! We get to teach our first all Polish lesson on Thursday and I'm quite nervous. There's a lot to memorize and learn. But I'm also a little bit excited. The spirit is always so strong and I learn so much every week at the TRC. As I push myself to prepare for Thursday I see my hard work in action as I AM able to communicate in another language. Something that I've learned as Sister Bailey and I have been preparing to teach in Polish is that the simplicity with which you are forced to communicate with by necessity is not a bad thing. In fact, it allows the spirit more time to witness of the truth of the message. I'll tell you how it goes.

Polish Fact of the Week: Ziemniak (pronounced gem-nee-ahk) means potatoe. For some reason they use this word instead of "pound it". Also the Hymn Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise has new meaning as it says that we will spread the gospel from pole to pole.

Last night we played a Polish version of Truth or Dare (minus the Truth option). We had just learned the command form and so if you could command someone in the room to do something with correct Polish grammar, they had to do it. It was pretty funny. Elder Lundin had to do the jerk for one of the other classes and Elder Kalinowski licked Elder Curtis' foot. I always appreciate it when our teachers put the time and energy into activities that help us better learn the material they teach us. It really does help. I'm trying to think of what else to write about. We really do just get up and study all day long except for gym time and meals we're always in the classroom. We study and learn (and joke a little) and then sleep and do it again the next day. But we really are learning a lot. It's quite amazing.

The Provo Temple is officially open again and so we got to go today. It is so nice to be able to go again. I love the peace and rejuvination I feel by going and can't wait for the blessing of regular attendance to be available to all members of the church.

I love you all. Thanks for brightening my day with your notes.

Siostra Allen

4th week in the MTC

2010-07-23T09:15:00.001-07:00

(I feel so busy and then I sit down to write you and have the hardest time thinking of things to write about.
Polish is all consuming here at the MTC. I love it! Our teachers try to make things into a game so it's easier and more enjoyable to practive, but we are all naturally competitive so little exercises like a sentance in English that we have to translate correctly becomes epic. Everyone gets so pumped up; sometimes I can feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins as I try to figure out which case certain words need to be put into and if the perfective or imperfective form of the verb would be better. I hope this is a good thing. Occasionally we get a little too caught up in it though. One of the teams has won every single game of "connect three" that we've played and has now begun referring to themselves as Dynasty.

Polish fact of the week: Huli: a Polish person that thinks they're really cool. According to our teachers they wear nike shocks and nike shoes etc. Addidas is not an option. They also have a love of old-school American rap and Chuck Norris.

I was made the Huli of the week for our class on Saturday (we have one every week). The class gets to grill you with whatever questions they want and then they have to give you compliments. Apparently I break a lot of negative sterotypes about sister missionaries. I hope I can keep that rep up. You know how I love to disprove stereotypes.

On a more spiritual note, we've been working on our lesson on the Plan of Salvation this week. It has been so amazing to study and teach about this subject; about the plan that our Heavenly Father has for us to return to him and our Savior Jesus Christ's central role in that. Sister Bailey and I made pictures to correspond to each of the parts, and as we were practicing with two elders in our district we realized that half of our chart would be non-existent without the Atonement of Jesus Christ. At the beginning of 2 Nephi 9 it explains that without Christ there would be no resurrection and our spirits would have no means of escape from the power of the devil. We would literally be his servants. But that isn't our end. There is a plan established and our faith is not in vain. Christ atoned for our sins and as a result we can be found clean at the judgement bar of our Heavenly Father.

Something I struggle with is asking investigators to make committments. Sister Bailey is great at this and we've been discussing their importance and ways to give them that encourage the investigator to act. The devotional we had on Sunday had a great illustration of this with an investigotor taking steps as they did things towards the "doors of baptism". Just agreeing to do something hardly moved them closer to their Savior at all. They had to pray, to read the scriptures on their own, to go to church even when it wasn't convinient before real progress was made. This is our job. Christ is the good shephard. He is always calling, but so many don't know what the sound of his voice is like. We're just teaching investigators how to come unto Christ. We're teaching them what answers from prayer feel like, how to find answers to their questions in the holy scriptures, and the saving power of ordinances in renewing our relationship with our Redeemer.

I have to go. All my love.

Siostra Allen

3rd week in the MTC

2010-07-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

So Sister Bailey is telling me that you tried to call her parents. That's so cool. Thank you so much for the letters and the package. I can't tell you how wonderful they are to receive. I'm glad all is going well, I keep you in my prayers and know that Heavenly Father will take care of you all. Please let me know how the boys enjoyed their camp out and how Scott's birthday was. I sent him a letter, which I don't think he got because I sent it to Las Vegas. Either way, I hope he had a great day.

(We've had a good week. There were a few little bumps, mostly me forgetting and loosing things, but we both figure it's because we've decided to work on patience as a district. I went to the podiatrist yesterday and everything is good to go. Their office doesn't charge for follow up appointments, and because we had already paid for treatment that's what they considered it. When they told me they didn't want me to pay anything I gave them a funny look and asked if they were sure about that. I don't think I've every gone to the doctor and paid less than a $15 copay. I know Heavenly Father is looking out for us. But my medical story of the week is nothing in comparison to Elder Oborn's. He's been having chest and back pain since right before he came into the MTC. When he went to the doctor before he came they told him he was just anxious and it would go away. It didn't, so he went to the doctor yesterday. They gave the same diagnosis but just to be sure they decided to do some X-rays with which they discovered that one of his lungs was almost completely collapsed. They were able to suck out the air that had leaked out of the lung and into his chest cavity and right now his lung have reinflated to 95%. Please keep him in your prayers, we really want him to come to Poland with us in 7 weeks.

Poland fact of the week:

At one point in Star Wars Jabba the Hut speaks Polish. He says "O co chodzi?" (pronounced Oh tsoh hogee) meaning "What's the point?"

The more I learn Polish the more blessed I feel. I know that Heavenly Father gave me opportunities that prepared me to do this. For example, there are a LOT of grammar rules for Polish and because of my background in English I know the difference between an adjective and an adverb and what a direct object is. Essential pieces of information to know if you intend on speaking Polish. Learning Spanish has helped so much as I'm conjugating and deciding what tenses things need to be in. And choir has aided my ability to pronounce words that are very different from English. I honestly don't know how I would be doing without all of those experiences. Either way, I feel very blessed everyday as Siostra Bailey and I read the Ksiega Mormona and can start to piece together what it's saying.

I have so much I want to tell you about what I've been learning here. Sister Bailey and I are currently preparing the second lesson for our TRC appointment on Thursday. I love how basic it is. It answers in such a clear and direct way the three most elusive questions about life. Where I came from? What is my purpose in life? and Where am I going? Knowing that I lived before I came here and choose this means of learning and growing makes all the difference. Knowing that this life is the time to prepare to meet God, where I can experience life and make choices and repent when I mess up is both comforting and focusing. And knowing that I have the potential to live with my Father in Heaven again makes everything worth it. I love that Jesus Christ is the center of the plan. I love that it emphasizes families. And I especially love 2 Nephi 9. Go and read it. It's probably the most amazing doctrinal chapter on the Plan of Salvation (next to Alma 12 and 2 Nephi 2).

In class we got to watch a talk by Elder Bednar about listening to the spirit. His answer was rather suprising. He said, "Be a good boy. Be a good girl. Obey the commandments and honor your covenents. And then don't worry about it." Most of the time we don't even know when we're being guided by the spirit. Don't let your desire for a concrete answer paralyze you. This life is about doing something. I loved this message. I think it's going to revolutionize the way I do my mission, look for answers, and live my life. As long as I'm listening and trying to do what's right I will follow the spirit whether I know it or not.

P.S. Extra Extra Read All About It.

Yes, we do have new dress guidelines. Skirts can be shorter and no nylons are necessary. The latter is my favorite rule.)

Love you all so much, write to you next week.

Tracy

2nd Week in the MTC

2010-07-08T08:13:00.000-07:00

I got your packages and letter last week (very cute stationary, btw). Thank you soooo much. The elders in my district have officially voted you Team Mom because they loved the cupcakes so much. It is fun to hear from you, but I only have 30 minutes on P-day to be on my e-mail (And the computer likes to freeze a lot with the timer still going) so if you want to send me letters while I'm in the MTC just go to dearelder.com and type in the text of your e-mail. They print them off and put them in my mailbox each day. So I can read and think about you guys during the week and have more time to write you on Tuesdays.

I'm glad you guys are all having fun and that Provo and Schofield and Logan have been enjoyable. We did get to see the fireworks, our mission president gave specific permission for us to stay up passed 10:30 to do so. And we sang patriotic songs as we watched and then hymns after about the third Star Spangled Banner. I'm glad Sister Gale was able to get the phone to you. I was so suprised when I found it and not exactly sure what to do with it, but she jumped right in and said she would take it to you. Thank you for keeping my blog up to date. I enjoy being able to share this amazing experience with all those who want to read about it. I'm glad you were able to sell some of the things you were hoping to, and that KaryAnn might get a decent sized bed. You might even want to repost the other things in Provo area and transport them up since the market is apparently better here. I'm glad you enjoyed reading Graceling and our little bird on the front porch hasn't flown away yet and that you had a good sacrament meeting two weeks ago. I do love Sundays too and the rejuvinating spirit that it offers.

(The last week has been intense. We taught for the first time in the Teaching Resource Center with volunteer investigators who spoke Polish. We had to do three 15 minute introductions in Polish where we said we were missionaries and a little bit of our message and then we asked if we could teach the rest of the lesson in our native tongue and gave the first discussion. I LOVE teaching the first discussion. It is so wonderful that my job is to tell everyone that I meet that they are a child of God and that he loves them. That there is a plan to return to him. And that through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can be cleansed from sin. That I get to teach them that there is hope. That the gospel has been restored through Joseph Smith.

I am having trouble memorizing all of the Polish vocabulary. It's just so different from every other thing I've ever tried to learn. But when I get frustrated and think of how impossible it is that in less than two months I'm going to be IN Poland teaching in this language I just have to have faith that God will bless me with the gift of tongues as he has promised. And God always keeps his promises so I have nothing to fear. Sister Bailey is such a help to me. When I don't feel like studying anymore she goes through the vocab cards and asks me questions in Polish so I have to answer. It's easy to get disheartened about learning a language, but when you really think about it, two weeks ago I couldn't even read Polish and now I can say I have two brothers and I'm from Las Vegas. That I like reading and studyied literature (notice the past tense. yep, learned that yesterday). The words are so much fun too. Crazy at first and then just fun.)

For the most part I am doing fine. I have everything I need and the little things I might need to pick up I can grab at the MTC Bookstore. But if you are wanting to send anything to me, I now have a little better idea of what works best.

Long skirts (preferably with pockets) and they can have patterns or be plain.

I have enough collared shirts, if you see any blouses that you think would look good with one of my skirts though I would really enjoy some variety

AND JEANS!!! Jeans are totally fine on P-day and when we do service, so please, oh please send me the dark wash jeans in the vaccum box under my bed in Vegas. And any casual t-shirts that I can wear too.

Well my time is almost up, I love you guys so very much. I thank you again for the thoughtful notes.

Sister Tracy Allen

1st Week in the MTC

2010-06-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

(I love being a missionary! I love the hours of scripture study. I love the classes and all the amazing people here. And I can't wait to get out into the field. Well, yes I can. I'd like to know a little more Polish before I'm expected to teach in the language. So Polish is hard. Really really hard. The words are long, the pronunciation is different, and not only do the conjugate verbs, but also nouns and adjectives. But as I've studied and struggled, my testimony has grown. I know that the gift of tongues exists. I have seen it in the one week I've been here. For instance: Jestem Siostra Allen, a to jest moja kolezanka Siostra Bailey. (I am Sister Allen and this is my companion Sister Bailey)

So you're probably curious about everything. After you dropped me off I went through a line and they gave me my room key and my name tag etc. and then a sister missionary took me to my room, we dropped off my luggage and she took me to the classroom that I now live in. We have class all morning , gym time, lunch, the class in the afternoon, dinner, and more class until 9. I have a completely new conception of exhaustion. But at the same time, it's so great. My companion's name is Siostra Bailey. She is from northern UT. Went to BYU-I and loved it. And just graduated in Elementary Education. She is wonderful! She makes having to be around someone for 24 hours a day a good experience. And she is so patient withy me. She has been studying Polish for the last two months with an RM in her ward and listens to my slow reading of the Ksenga Mormona each night with gentle correction. I have no idea what I would do without her and the funny pneumatic devices we come up with. The Elders in my district are great too. They make me laugh every day. We have had wonderful firesides and devotionals too. Elder Oaks taught on Friday night, a member of the General Relief Society board taught Relief Society, and then for Sunday's fireside we got a sneak peak at the new version of Mormon.org that comes out in a couple of weeks. It is so amazing. Members of the church can make personal profiles on the site and write about their experiences being a mormon. We also got to meet President Nielsen our Mission President and his wife. They leave today for Poland and we are so excited to join them there. After getting to know each other we played a Polish number game that Siostra Bailey and I are very good at. P-days are very strange. It feels weird to wear skirts, to not have class, and the laundry room here is amazing. Kind of intense, but really impressive)

What else to share with you. Oh yeah. Mom, please discover dearelder.com. It's like sending an e-mail for you, but they deliver the letter to me the same day. I've been doing alright so far, but I've only gotten one postcard from Michele. I want to hear from you guys.

I truly know that this is the lord's work. In the few days I've been here I have learned so much about myself. I can feel Heavenly Father blessing me with faith and hope. I know that as I have prayed for direction and help he has answered ten fold. I don't know how I can possibly fit everything in. Language study, religious study, lesson planning, and being the Coordinating Sister (a version of District Leader for the sisters) but somehow everything fits together and we are blessed with the ability to complete all that God has required of us.)

I wish I could remember what else to tell you. Oh, I went to the Health Ctr. today. I will be going to the podiatrist on July 12th. As I recall I need to pay and then we'll bill the insurance. Please let me know if that is not the case.

I'm keeping busy and happy here. I love you all so much and look forward to writing you next Tuesday.

Siostra Tracy Allen

2010-06-24T15:32:00.000-07:00

2010-06-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

2010-06-24T15:29:00.000-07:00

So off she goes...

2010-06-24T15:16:00.000-07:00

So off she goes.... We did the stop, drop and roll as my son likes to call it at the MTC yesterday afternoon. But it was great that all the current missionaries are out meeting and greeting everyone. It felt so much more EFYish to me. But not quite! I am thrilled for each of the directions Tracy and her roommates are taking in this time in their lives. Each has their own path in which the Lord is setting them on and preparing them for incredible things to come... you are all so wonderful and amazing like Tracy expressed to us time and again. Thank you for your influences in her life.

I am not a writer. I may jump from 1st person to 3rd person. I just write it as I think it. But I doubt you will mind much. Here are some pictures of our send off.

**Will post when I hear from her next.

Gone, but not GONE

2010-06-20T07:22:00.000-07:00

I am excited. I am nervous. I am eager to jump in. And I am probably in a little bit over my head. But whichever combination of emotions it is, the time has come. As celebrated a few months ago, I will be leaving this week for an 18 month mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. During this time every waking moment will be devoted to missionary work--finding people to teach, preparing lessons, and teaching them. I won't be on facebook. I won't see the latest blockbuster. I won't know what the newest apple product is. However, while I will not be able to write on here at my leisure. My mother has graciously agreed to post parts of my letters on here so all of you can see what I'm up to if you're curious.

So this is it for a while. I wish you all the best in the next 18 months, and would love to hear from you, even you silent readers. My address for the next 9ish weeks will be:
Sister Tracy Nicole Allen
MTC Mailbox # 145
POL-WAR 0824
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

And then around September:
Sister Tracy Nicole Allen
Poland Warsaw Mission
ul. Polcznska 50/5 (the l has a line through it and the n is accented with the diagonal line above)
01-337 Warsaw
Poland

Silent Saturday

2010-06-19T17:02:00.000-07:00

via: vi.sualize.us

My last Silent Saturday for a while.

Note to Self

2010-06-15T11:55:00.000-07:00

Via:RedHairShades

Giving your own farewell talk is surreal

Whoever invented skype should be sainted

This girl sure loves me a lot. Good thing it's mutual

All afternoon at Kieran's house-- just like old times

Movie night with my family (Heck yes!)

How am I going to live without Zabas

Embrace my last few days of jeans

Find driver's license, I'd really rather not go back to the DMV

Woke up at 6:30 this morning, now let's see if I can go to bed at 10:30

Explore inner red head

Don't read newspapers while walking

I need to pack

"Having Fun Isn't Hard When You've Got A Library Card"

2010-06-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

From: here

Don't judge me, but is it strange that I miss the library? It became a place of escape for me. If I couldn't focus, if I had been procrastinating, if there were too many distracting people at my apartment I could just go to the library. It offered a space of clarity and purpose to my otherwise convoluted life. I always left having made some progress and so I embraced my time there.

I guess that's why today, with my Farewell talk on the horizon and a busy weekend ahead of me, I knew I had to get out of my house and go somewhere I could just think. Not a UNLV student, but confident I could convince any innocent bystander, I packed my missionary backpack with my tools--scriptures, Preach My Gospel, and Teaching No Greater Call, and I drove up to campus. It just felt good to be a student (even for a short stint) again. I know what to do in a library. I'm at home there. And, as usual, I came out having finally made some progress.

I want to be this when I grow up

2010-06-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

Via: YourGrannyWasChic

Silent Saturday

2010-06-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

Congrats to my brother who is now an Eagle Scout!

Houston recap:

2010-06-02T16:59:00.000-07:00

My cousin graduated from Med School this weekend! Which means that I got to go to Texas and see my family after an 18 year absence.

Things I will remember about Houston:

50 mosquito bites on each foot.
Luscious curly hair (I sure hope Polish humidity does this to my hair too).

Enough ice cream to tide me over til Christmas, as if.

Swimming with the kids.

The museum district downtown- with a cool Art museum and the best Children's Museum I've ever seen.

Frisbee and Volleyball in their backyard.

Late night discussions before bed.

Post- Silent Saturday

2010-05-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

Via: owlnet

From Houston, with Love

Inspiration

2010-05-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

From: here

I've been a bit dry of inspiration lately.

There is a paradox that rules my life: the more time I have, the less I get done.

So as I continue on my search for this elusive, but essential, piece of life,

I'll leave you with the words of a very wise younger brother:

"Don't forget to have good dreams".

That's probably as good a place as any to begin my quest.

Happy adventuring to all of you tonight.