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

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.

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

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

Kato!

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

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

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

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

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. :)