Monday, July 16, 2012

Kiss My Ankle Why Don't Ya

   Well hey there, you fun people! Well, to answer a few questions I've been asked recently:
Are you still in Poznań?:
      I am still in Poznań, yes!  This is how transfers work:  We have 9 week transfers, where we are with the same companion the whole time.  Sometimes they have short transfers, sometimes you're with the same companion for more than one transfer.  Sister Folsom says that we will probably be together until she leaves, which is in October, so I have been assuming I'll be in Poznań for the two transfers with her.  However, I am not completely sure.  BUT I LOVE Poznań so I wouldn't mind staying here.  In fact even after Sister F. leaves, I wouldn't mind staying here.  I'd already know my town and have things down and stuff!  So I'm up for whatever.
So does it rain a lot and it is humid?? How has the weather been so far?
      Well it's been rainy and cloudy and then sunny and then rainy and cloudy, and then sunny...basically Poland weather might be as bi-polar as Provo weather.  But I've LOVED the weather here.  Sister F. doesn't like it a whole lot because she hates clouds... but personally I love it.  Because when it's hot, it's way TOO hot here.  So when the quick rain showers can take away some of the heat and leave us with gorgeous sunsets, I'm all for it!
How many Books of Mormon have you handed out?
       This has been a surprise to me, how many Books of Mormon we hand out each week, that is.  I thought for sure we'd only be handing out as many books as we have lessons, but we hand out quite a few each week.  This week I even got to hand out two English ones and that was SUPERB!  It was weird how many people we kept running into who spoke only english.  I think God knew I needed a break, knew I needed to share some feelings.  Because really I think the past month has been one of the quietest of my life.  I just don't get to talk much!  As for numbers, for example, this week we handed out 17 Books of Mormon!  And each person we gave them to actually listened to us for a minute and were AWESOME people.
What is your favorite food in Poland?
        My favorite food so far, would have to be one of the meals Ewa has made us - the soup especially (Chicken Stomach Soup!)!  Or this stuff that a lady Borzena in our stake made us once.  Bigos.  It's super weird...I think it has saurkraut (spelling?) in it and meat and stuff and you cook it ALOT...like for days...and then we put it on bread... YUM!  The food here is WONDERFUL.  Like seriously, SO good.  Weird stuff, but really good.  There's this one stuff called Mysuria (like "Missouri-uh") and it has cucumbers and sour cream or something in it...weird...but it's pretty good too.  Besides all this food, my companion loves to bake and cook.  SO we have had a TON of homemade pizza, these really delicious pancakes with homemade butter-milk syrup, and homemade bread.  It's SO yummy.  I need to statch her recipes before she leaves me here in Poland, for sure!
        Well besides that, oh snap, I have 10 minutes left... SO I'll type fast!  Check out Brother and Sister Reed's blog, they may have more pictures of us: it is reedmission.com - Sister Reed said to Google it and you'll find it easier, I guess.  I may not send pictures today, so check that out!
       A few quick stories!
       My favorite crazy experience this week was when we were walking around my favorite Park - Park Cytadela (google it see what you find) and there was this man sitting on a bench looking off into the distance.  Sister Folsom said something like, 'Let's stop and talk to the man who is pondering about life' - and so we did.  I didn't speak much, as usual, but Sister Folsom told him a bit about what we believed and we got to leave him with a Book of Mormon.  As we were leaving our final words with him, he stood up and said something about blessings.  I thought maybe he asked if we could pray for a blessing upon him.  Sister Folsom said something back, which I assumed she said something like, 'You can pray to have a blessing yourself!' and then randomly, the man fell to the ground on his knees!  I was so confused... then all of a sudden he bent over and kissed Sister Folsom's foot, and then to the right to kiss my ankle!  WHAT!  It was so weird!!!  I turned around and we started walking away and couldn't help but giggle.  I couldn't stop.  It was so funny.  'Did he really just kiss my leg!?' Yeah...weird stuff happens in Poland :)  But he has a Book of Mormon eh!
       Ewa came to church again this week, and we had a really awesome lesson with her earlier in the week as well!!!  I don’t get to say a whole lot when we are on lessons because Sister Folsom knows about 100% more Polish than I do.  When I speak, even if I knew the words before hand, I can’t seem to get them out without sounding like a frightened two year old.  So sometimes I think God gives me a little different perspective and view point of the lessons than Sister Folsom gets.  She knows what the investigator is coming to understand, and has an over all view of what to teach next…me, I have no idea.  But this week as we sat and taught Ewa, about half way through the lesson I just felt the Spirit so strong, like the presence of the Spirit was almost tangible.  More than that, I just felt like two things were extremely true at that point in time: 1. That the church is true, what we were telling her was right!  2. That God LOVES Ewa, and that I love her too.  It was really super overwhelming, and I just wanted to cry.  I got my chance to cry after the meeting when Sister Folsom was chatting with Sister Reed about it on our way back to the chapel.  I walked ahead of them and just sorta cried for a second.  It wasn’t a bad cry, definitely happy, but I just am praying hard that Ewa will accept and ACT upon that Spirit that I KNOW was in the room. Ewa is SO cool and would be seriously the best Mormon EVER.
      I get to go to a baptism this weekend - Arseni is getting baptized - he's one of the Elder's investegator's but I feel like he's ours a bit too!  Cool, cool kid, I'm super excited!
      One day this week we went over to lunch at the Heeley's and I heard four languages in one day and it was CRAZY!  Elder Sorn sang The Bare Necessities in German for some random reason - SO FUNNY... and Sister Heeley talked with her neighbor in French, then I heard Polish, of course, and then English.  Oh man, so cool.
      Well, remind me to tell you about white boards next week, and about people's responses to our message, like the Living Scriptures animated movie of Alma and Amulek...quite funny actually...
      I LOVE YOU ALL!
     The church is SO true.  Keep the faith
- Sister Amber Allen

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