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