Indian Winter and Russian Accordinaists...n...

Is it really Monday again?  And is the sun really shining?  and..and...and...

WHAT's UP!!! I'm so happy to be e-mailing you all right now. 

And how are you all!

Ok so Inidan Winter - um here we are at the end of march and there's still snow and probably some of the coldest days of my mission were in this last week - the wind was horrible and...owwie! :) hey but I don't really know if you can call it an indian winter, that was kind of a joke...

And russian accordianists - so we contact this guy on a street corner and he's in a group with two other people, one guy holding an accordian.  We cross the street with them and we ask about the accordian and they say - she can play!  Pointing to the girl in the group, and then he takes the accordian and gives it to her and she starts singing this awesome gospel song, but we didn't understand a word...turns out she's russian.  SO COOL !!! Oh the experiences you have on a mission...
Sorry, my thoughts are kind of scatter brained but...

This is what I wrote to President this week:
I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to write to you again in this wonderful life we call a mission! Today I am thinking back on the week to find that one amazing experience. It may have to be that Maria came to Relief Society where Beata taught the lesson and one of her main stories in the lesson was how she had to make the decision to either stay in Mexico with Mario or come back to Poland. They had to make the decision with much prayer and knowing what the Lord wanted for them, not just what they wanted, nor on their time but on the Lord's time. Maria is having a hard time knowing why she's in Poland, where her life will go, etc. Maria had a lesson that seemed to really go in her direction and I'm just grateful that we could help her!

What I learned? I'm so grateful I know who I am and where I'm going. I'm way too lucky. I am way too blessed! And really it's all because my ancestors, they 'obeyed and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea and even according to their faith it was done unto them.' - Alma 57:21. My ancestors were obedient, it's that simple! And now look at all the amazing blessings I have! Whoa. If we could just convince the people of Poland that this will affect GENERATIONS to come and that they could CHANGE their NATION by accepting this gospel...man... that would just be great.
My companion and I are doing wonderfully. I'm grateful for Sister Howell's motivation and desire to work hard and stretch ourselves to achieve worthy goals. We are hungry for more!
Thanks for all you do for us, President! The Zone Conference was just what I needed. Elder Schutze expecially. I sometimes wonder if I'm TOO loud and he just made me feel more comfortable in that skin. Other times I feel I'm not loud enough and so he encourages me to SHINE BRIGHTER. I shouldn't be afraid of shining brighter. Because when I shine brighter people have two choices, they can either follow suit and try to shine brighter, or feel inferior. I hope that they will choose the shining brighter idea! I hope I can do the same, glory in other's successes and try to all the time shine brighter.

President, this is the Lord's work, we're not doing it alone.
(Sending my love to Sister Nielson as well)
Love,
Sister Amber Allen

So, this week was extra awesome.  We had a lot of work to do and a lot of lessons.  We taught 16 lessons this week!  And everyone was so worth it.  One finally happened that was with a man who Sister Howells met about 3 weeks ago, he's from the states, not originally, but we'll say he's from the states, and he speaks english so we had Elder Jensen on the lesson.  It was really interesting to hear his theories that he's come up with over time.  As a young boy he was more believing and now he can't prove there is a God so he's come up with other theories - that there is some great force in the universe, this and that, etc.  But we have the scriptures as witness, and living PROPHETS!  (WHO WE GET TO HERE za dwa tygodnie!) and yes...anyways, I'm so grateful for the wiedze that we have!  We are so blessed!  Just this morning as we came into this library to e-mail, we give our coats to this lady as we come in and then in exchange she gives us a number, the number relates to where she puts our coats...well as she took my coat she noticed my name tag... at first she'd been all nice and kind and said we were cute girls...then as she sees my name tag she shakes her head back and forth solemnly and goes 'you poor girls, in another faith, you are just so young and don't know any different,' - in essence, you don't know what you're doing... you're too young... LET NO MAN DESPISE THY YOUTH!  Never!  I just smiled and thought, oh but you do not have a clue how much we know!  If only you could know it too! 

On a slightly happier note, on the way to the library today we contacted a guy, young, tall, a lawyer, and he gave us his number saying he'd like to read the Book of Mormon.  It took a little more persuading than that...but gentle persuasion is great! :) with a smile and whalla!  We're sharing the gospel! :)

Well, pray for me to have more room for memory of scripture masteries!  I'm still struggling with that.  Got to come up with a better system.

I got a letter from Jenny and Sister Sheahan this week!  Yay!  You all should remember that Dear Elder.com sends me letters...and I'm pretty sure they are free to Poland, so check it out.

We are planning a branch party on April 27th... (don't tell anyone that's my birthday) and so I'm excited!  We are going to do a pancake breakfast and Ropes Course Games. 

We met with an awesome lady in our ward, Grażyna. who has been gone for a while outside of warsaw, and we just studied the Book of Mormon with her for a minute, shared what we'd been learning.  She prayed at the end of the lesson that she could have more desire to read and study the scriptures.  I'm hopeing that she recieves that desire! 

We've been in the war chapters of Alma and the beginning of Helaman recently and President Nielson sent us a text with a quote from President Gordon B. Hinckley that I'd like you all to have,

"You reflect this church in all you think, in all you say, and in all you do.  Be loyal to the Church and kingdom of God.  But if you put your trust in the Almighty and follow the teachings of this Church and cling to it notwithstanding our wounds, you will be preserved and blessed and magnified and made happy.  You're in the midst of Babylon.  The adversary comes with great destruction.  Stand above it, you of the noble birthright, stand above it." - Gordon B. Hinckley.

We can do it!  I am so grateful for the chance to be a messenger for the Lord to the people of Poland.  To let them know that a living Prophet will be speaking to us in 2 weeks!  I'm so excited!  Are you?!

I know Christ lives and loves us.  I'm trying to grow closer to Him every day!

Love you all!

- Sister Amber Allen

Happy St. Patrick's Day Yesterday! :)

Did anyone get pinched?  I wanted so bad to pinch some people...lots of the Elders totally forgot...and they acutally DON'T celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Poland.  That was a shocker.  They celebrate hard core on a lot of other holidays...maybe they have something against the Irish.  Just kidding.  Anyways, I wore green, and look who I saw yesterday!  POZNAń!!!! Oh man I saw Marian and Marlena and Marta and Regina!  I wanted to cry but was basically too happy so just smiled big instead.  I LOVE THEM!  I miss my Poznańers.  They are so amazing and my first family in Poland.  Marta recently got her mission call to Chicago and I'm SO stoked for her.  She's so cute.

We had a Warsaw District Conference this weekend and the President of the Madrid, Spain Temple... I think...Elder Faustino Lopez was visiting Authority.  The talks given were great and I especially loved Sister Nielson's talk.  That woman is a fireball.  I want to be like her when I grow up!  She reminds me of my mom, who is also a fireball, only brunette!  haha... 

This week was truely a week of miracles again! Many things came together to just make it so energy filled and amazing. My companion is so good at picking out miracles and I'm grateful for her perspective.  Probably the most amazing experience this week was maybe when Maria was able to come over to the Cordova's house and spend some time learning about who she is and what the Plan of Salvation has in store for her! She also got to hear it in her native tongue (spanish... Jenny!) ...and here in Poland! I actually always wanted to learn Spanish and was pretty sure I'd be learning it on a mission some day, I'd had myself convinced...haha well God had other plans, but it was nice of him to but some random Mexicans in my life here in Poland, because I LOVE them! 

Lessons learned this week... I need to be less prideful, and more charity filled. I also need to not be a stress ball. Things really are fine. I need to take a big breath and remember, like Gordon B. Hinckley said, everything is going to turn out alright. I've just got to keep repenting and working harder! :)

My companion and I are doing great. Sister Howells and I had a surprise when Sister Nielson showed up for our Planning Session on Friday.  That was a treat!  She brought a letter from my mom with her!  Yay!

Also this week we met with a super sweet family.  The one son is about Spencer's age and has a hard time reading because he is dislexic.  But he's such a cool young man.  I can see him as a deacon passing sacrament and I just want to take him to church with me... really I just want to take them all home with me...take them to the Celestial Kingdom with me.  We asked the boy to read from the przedmowa in the book of Mormon and he did a great job and his parents were in awe that he read for us.  They're youngest, who is a little girl, was also really nice to us and gave us high-fives and stuff and her parents also said she never warms up to people that fast.  People these are SIGNS...we're not just nice people that your kids react to in a good way, there is the Holy Ghost at work here and if you could just recognize it!  It was cool to see their family's dispositions change through the course of the lesson, from skeptical to, 'yeah you can come back!'  YEAH WE CAN COME BACK!  So awesome.  Then AFTER that lesson, we had to find a bus to get home and that's always an adventure and we walked in a different way than that of which we'd came but I felt good about it and we ended up getting on the wrong bus and then getting on another one that would take us straight home and I met an awesome MOM who asked me TONS of questions and I gave her a pamphlet and got her number.  We were totally supposed to be on that random bus at that time of night!  And I was supposed to open my mouth!  You know sometimes it's really hard to open your mouth because the last 8 people have shoved your words down your throat or told you that you're a sect and you aren't christian...and you just have to have faith that maybe this one will listen.  It's sort of hard to keep that perspective...but you just fight against that and work even when it hurts and I love it.

It actually makes me glad that my brothers like cliff jumping and living to the X-treme... Because when you are cliff jumping you kind of just have to... DO IT.  Same with ropes course stuff, we have to just JUMP for the ring, LET GO of that belt on the giant swing... and in life sometimes you just have to DO IT.

Well I've got 5 minutes left... and I just want to tell you how much I love you all!  Thanks everybody for your e-mails, I haven't read them all yet but I see that maybe some cousins and an aunt wrote to me!  THANKS GIRLS!  I love you!   NEVER STOP PRAYING! 

I'm so excited for conference!  I'm so excited to keep learning Polish this week and shoot for the Sun!  

I know there is something I'm forgetting but hopefully I'll remember later to tell you I guess!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is TRUE!  The book of mormon is TRUE!  (ah that's it... this week I was reading about Moroni, CAPTAIN MORONI that is... and he gets angry...it says the word angry 3 times... anyone want to explain to me how angry is okay?  haha... cuz sometimes I get angry... but I'm hoping it's a Moroni type of angry... and that thanks to that motivation I can fortify some cities and change some things!)

Love you all again!

- Sister Amber Allen

"Like...Whoa..."

March. 11. 2013.

Well, here we are to report another great week in Warsaw, Poland. We had lots of lessons (17 to be exact!) and it was really great. The baptism on Saturday was a bit of a bummer, (it didn't happen...luckily there was a girl from the states - 8 years old - named RACHEL - who also got baptized so people could watch a baptism happen no matter what...but the other candidate did not end up getting baptized for some reason) but it's okay! We're still going strong and really trying to run this race full speed here. Sometimes I need to remind myself that the race is also supposed to be fun and not stressful! Haha...hey but I'll be working on that the rest of my life, so better start now learning to not be stressed!

An amazing experience from this week is probably Maria. I met Maria in Poznań, my first or second transfer in the country - with Sister Folsom, and we set up with her but something happened and she didn't make it. Maria is actually from Mexico, was dating a Polish guy, and now is going to school in WARSAW. So I met her a SECOND time about a week ago with Sister Howells and she REMEMBERED ME! Cool. So we got to meet with her last night, give her a book of mormon in Spanish, and she's really awesome! She also thinks, like we do, that this was no coincidence...we talked about the situation last night and she goes, 'yeah it's just like...whoa!'  Haha, I had to laugh and write it down.  "Like...whoa." That's the definition of a mission in a nutshell alright!   I hope she can hold onto that faith that God's playing a part in her life and grab the gospel by the horns and hold on!

What I learned from this experience? God is so in charge! He will make things turn out like they should if we do our part. I'm grateful for a watchful Father in Heaven who knows exactly where I'm at, in what country, and what language I'm speaking...both the language of my mouth and the language of my heart and soul.

My companion and I are doing well. I woke up this morning with something weird going on in my throat, feels like a dragon just laid eggs in there or something...but I am pretending it is not there and therefore it will not be there tomorrow... I hope... and yes. But all is well! I'm grateful to be serving with Sister Howells! She's a great missionary.

President Nielson texted us on Sunday telling us to be the fire in church and Elder Jensen here in Warsaw also gave us a real good pump up telling us that his mission president would tell them to 'light yourselves on fire so that people from all around will come to watch you burn.'  So seriously that's what I've got to do!  And I'm working on it!  My fire gets more oxygen on some days than others, but I'm trying hard to keep it a burning breathing bonfire...maybe that's why there's a dragon in my throat...!!!

Fun things:  Well this week in Poland they celebrated Women's Day!  It's WAY more recognized as a holiday here than I'd ever seen it in the states - do we even HAVE that in the states?  Haha...weird.  There were tulips EVERYWHERE!  We bought three, gave two to Ada and one to a little girl we went to visit who is handicapped and can't walk like most people do.  I guess the traditional gift for Women's Day is a tulip and a pair of tights...haha awesome.  A lot of guys wished us a Happy Women's Day so that was fun.  I plan on celebrating a lot more holidays in the States when I return, life is more fun that way!

Also this week was the Relief Society Birthday Party - they had the gym all decked out and a real good turn out and it was just fun...and delicious...

There were three kids in English instead of just one this week and that was fun!  Yay for more kids in English!  I LOVE teaching.  I'm glad I still want to be a teacher, I seriously do someday want my own classroom and a bunch of crazy kids.  It's going to be hard, but I think I will just love it.

Another miracle story - last night we had been out walking around trying to find this guy's house to give him a Book of Mormon I've been meaning to drop off with him for some time and on our way home from that I realized again that we hadn't gotten anyone's number - contact information - for like 3 days so I was kind of number hungry and prayed that God would give me one number before the night was over - considering I was a block from home and had like 5 minutes the pickings were slim and the odds were not in my favor...but I prayed hard and talked to everyone and after talking to about five or six people who all rejected me, this guy who was in a HURRY even, after simply saying we were missionaries, gave me his number!  WHAT!  that was like less than a minute after I started praying.  That just doesn't happen!  It was so awesome!  I was amazed...and felt loved...and well, little things matter to God!  Keep working for them!

This week we met with two old ladies, one in her late 80's early 90's even, who have been coming to church for like 5 months now.  We've been debating on whether or not to baptize them, but they keep mentioning it and really want to be baptized!  So now we have two sweet old ladies with a baptismal date.  Their names are Elżbieta and Czesława. Yeah, see if you can say THAT! :)  I'm excited for them.

Speaking of old ladies.  We have been visiting with this older woman named Zosia and she is a less active member.  But she came to church Sunday so that was GREAT!  At the end of sunday school, one of the elders was talking to a recent convert about perfume and all of a sudden Zosia's like 'ooh I have some perfume, you should try it.'  and without asking sprayed it on Sister Howells.  She thought it wasn't coming out...so she sprayed it like 8 times...and Sister Howell's shirt was wet from it... then she turned to me!  YIKES!  So we both smelled like grandmas... I didn't get it as bad as Sister Howells...but it was quite an experience :)

We had crazy weather this week, it was beautiful and I felt like maybe I'd have to shave my legs (haven't shaved them in like 2 transfers... that's like four months... I'm going to see if I can wait till my birthday to shave...) and now it's grey again... so not quite sure when spring is coming, but I'm so excited and ready for it.  Didn't realize how much I was missing the sun until it came back! 

This week and last week the book of mormon has really been speaking to me, maybe because I'm in the chapters about missionary work!  In the middle of Alma, there, and it's so AWESOME!  I love the Book of Mormon, it really is true!  I just wish more people would READ IT!  Common! :)

I am grateful to be on a mission serving the Lord, I'm grateful I only have to focus on that one thing.  I'm grateful God gives us the chance to serve Him full time and I'm learning SO much every single day.  I'm grateful for the missionaries with whom I'm serving, they're the best out there.  I'm grateful for God and His Son, Jesus Christ and that he suffered for my sins so I could be free from pain and guilt.  I'm grateful for SO MANY THINGS!  This week I'm going to be focusing on Charity and Love as Christlike Attributes and I'm excited to really search for the gift of Charity more in my life.

Well, that's about all for today, sorry it was kind of long :)  Hey but I love you guys!

- Siostra Amber Allen

Oh that I were an Angel...

Wow, well I spent a lot of time writing president today, so this one will be short.  I didn't read much of your e-mails, just Nathan's, because that sounds like the biggest news this week.  I know that Christ knows your pain, Nathan, and I hope you will be happier sooner than later, because you deserve it, you're always making me smile...so knowing you're hurting makes me cry... so stop hurting so I can stop crying!  Goodness gracious...

I want to know a few things, 1. When does Sarah Hinton get home?  2.  When does Jenny Williams leave?  Did you go to her farewell?  3.  You haven't goten my first package!  Just my second one!?  4. When you send me a birthday package...haha... you don't have to...however I would like some duct tape, my warts are coming back... 5. When is Shon going getting married?  haha just kidding...

Well, this week was...more interesting than others...numbers were down...but my companion kindly reminds me that numbers aren't important and that we were working hard and that she hasn't seen these kind of numbers in a long time and that we should be grateful... Oops! I got so excited to try to get the standard again this week that I got weak in my gratefulness. I'm grateful for a companion to keep me in line. A companion who has had other companions and worse experiences with the work so I can remember how LUCKY I am.

This week I've been crawling inside of my skin to CHANGE THE WORLD. I don't always have this kind of motivation, so I should be grateful for it, but I'm just feeling super stoked and it's a nervous kind of pressure building inside of me and I need some outlet. I'm hearing lots of rumors about how Warsaw WAS 20 years ago... I hear rumors of why it's not in such a good shape TODAY. I am sick of hearing the problems and want to find the solutions as well as put in place reinforcements so that things like that don't happen AGAIN. I want to do some preventative work and some reconstructing - but I'm not seeing how exactly I can do that. The members, a lot of them, have lost hope that the church in Poland will ever grow. There's lots of pressure on the missionaries to baptize, baptize, baptize, but without the hope of the members, it's going to be real hard, and that's a fact. Several members have informed me of their lost hope and they just don't belive that missionaries can even DO anything. I'm sick of being told that we CAN'T DO ANYTHING. I did NOT come on a mission to just find some people on my own and get them baptized and leave. I know God sent us here to make a DIFFERENCE. We CAN do things and we can do BIG things that have LONG TERM effect in POLAND. I just am not sure how to inspire hope in our members.  I'm about ready to have a ropes course activity where we learn to communicate and be LOUD. Anyways, do you have any ideas about how to inspire the members to have HOPE?! I'm working hard and trying to help our companionship work hard and I can only hope that will inspire them...the fact that I'm trying, I'm running, I'm dead tired at the end of the day, I'm trying not to waste time... Is there anything else we can do to inspire our members?

Yes, so I, like we read in Alma this week, feel like Alma who wants to be an Angel and just shake the world.  But I sin in such a wish because really I should be grateful for what I have and love it!  I will work on that this week. 

Besides this all, our miracle story, well there's lots of them. This week perhaps it was Dogmara who actually read to 1 Nephi 7 this week. She started meeting with us and she was looking down more, her hair in her face, and every time we meet with her I feel a bit more strength in her...I'm excited to see her change even more thanks to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think she really is feeling the truth of the message and the fact that she READ this week was SO refreshing!

I learned this week that motivation can only be truly found through Christ. I'm grateful for Him and His mission and His Gospel and His Church - It's TRUE! It's all true! And I'm so excited to be a part of it!

I'm bursting with energy right now - the sun is shining and it's a BEAUTIFUL day and we went for a run this morning and I just feel so refreshed and we're going to go grocery shopping here in a minute and i recorded something for you all but don't have time to attatch it, maybe next week.  I love the work, everyone, I love the work.  I love hard things and overcoming them and looking back and laughing.  I love making right decisions being CLEAN and being GRATEFUL.  I'm grateful that we have a Savior to show us the way.  I'm grateful for the book of mormon which has completely been speaking directly to my soul these past few days.  READ IT! 

I love you all,stay strong,

- Siostra Amber Allen