Thanksgiving 2010

                                           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

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

                                           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.

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

                             
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

                              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!

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. 

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

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.