Allen the Mormon Nun!

Um my companion LOVES chocolate :) so that's why she's all excited about the Chocolate Factory!

Yeah so we were walking down the dark streets of Poland on our way home, had about an awkward 10 minutes left and tried to contact someone, there really was no one about.  I'm praying that someone will come around the corner...there's the sillouhette of a couple walking around the corner and I say good evening to them and the man goes, 'It's Allen, the Mormon Nun' - in English... haha... WHAT!?  We'd met this guy a while back.  Him and his wife are WAY nice, but not interested in the gospel.  They just speak really good english, and I think they're a bit happy about that, that they speak good english.  Which is fine by me.  They insisted on talking to us in english and we exchanged pleasentries.  I asked him at the end of the conversation to repeat what he'd called me because I thought it was funny.  He said sorry for calling me that, but I said again, 'no I really thought it was funny, I'm going to tell my family about it' - so now you are all hearing it :)  Anyways, if anything they like us and know we're not horrible people!

 

This week we saw lots of miracles.  Anna made it to church!  In Warsaw!  Her baptismal date is the 12th of October, PLEASE pray for her.  I love her so much!  Have I even said much about her?  She's 23, loves rollerblading, and is engaged.  She loves the Book of Mormon and the Bible.  She's just so awesome I can't handle it sometimes.  After lessons with her I feel edified and happy.  That's how it ought to be!  Yes!

 

We got TEXTING back in the mission!  And already set up two lessons with it!  YES!  Let's move forward the work! 

 

My companion and I are getting along and having fun.  Sister King is very brave to talk to people on tramwajs and her polish is improving every day.  She's like me in the fact that she forgets things and we get to re-learn polish phrases sometimes . I'm pretty sure I was like that with Polish for a long time, asking questions over and over again :) Oh polish, how I love thee! 

 

I've been reading in Deutoronomy recently, because that is where Anna is at in her reading of the Bible and I wanted to read with her.  Recently I decided to read all in Polish so that's been also an interesting twist on Personal Study.  I read about how the people are teaching their kids to remember Moses.  Then in the Book of Mormon, which I started over, there's also that again, remember Moses!  Then Nathan sent that e-mail today talking about remembering Job.  I just love the Prophets, and all they teach us.  I'm so grateful for this life.  As hard at it is, it's so beautifully hard.  It's like... ah man... it just wouldn't be near as breathtaking if it didn't have that PUNCH to it, you know? :) :)   I'm grateful for this opportunity to learn and grow.  Roll with the punches :)

 

I know Christ lives and loves us.  I know everything will be alright in the end, and if it's not alright, it's not the end!

Love you all tons,

-Siostra Amber Allen

Strip Yourself of All Ungodliness

I finished the Book of Mormon today!  I love the second to last and the third to last verses in the book of mormon, they're SO GOOD.  They talk about us stripping ourselves of all ungodliness, let's do it together, eh? 

 

I had an experience yesterday when I was really weak from fasting and there was a mom and her son hanging out in the park and the mom was all super protective and coddly with her son, it just made me think of how much mom's love their kids.  Then I had her son, 11 year old Piotrek, read the promise in Moroni 10.  He read it out loud and it just hit me hard that that book is TRUE.  You know when you're fasting, it feels like you're kind of hollow, and your body and spirit are sort of disconnected, and your spirit really can feel the holy ghost better, it was like there was more room for the spirit inside my body or something, weird to explain, but that's how it felt.  Anyways, i got a little teary-eyed, The Book of Mormon is TRUE everybody, in case you were wondering.

 

Sister Pearson and I went on a little exchange this week, that was fun.  :)

Thursday morning Elder Żeleżniak had a really fun super quick District Meeting where we set goals for the transfer.  It got me really pumped up.  He's really good at rallying the troops, even in a small four man city :)  I was greatful for that and had so much faith that things would work out.  He gave us a talk that he received from his Trainer back in the day talking about how we could do a fourty day cleanse and really give MORE to the Lord.  This cleanse starts out with a 24 hour fast then you are supposed to write a list of things that 'poke at your spirit' and promise God that you won't do them for 40 days. 

So  this starts out with the fast - from 14:00 Saturday I decided to fast for 24 hours.  Well things after church were hectic and we wanted to still go contact a referral so 16:00 Sunday comes around and we are no where near any food or water.  So we were talking to a woman and teaching her about the Restoration I started feeling really light headed.  I had to sit down on the grass.  We still had a long bus ride and tram ride to get to the chapel.  It looked like an uphill experience.  I was really worried that something horrible was happening to me. I ate some of Sister King's peanuts and water which she had in her back pack and hoped that would help, I don't think it helped...   We weren't really sure what it was, dehydration or something with my blood... after I got off the bus, I had a hard time getting to the tramwaj and once on the tramwaj I was just sure I was going to pass out or throw up on someone.  We got out of the tramwaj and I tried walking to the chapel and threw up three times on the way, haha, oh looking back now, I'm so stupid, should have just brought food to eat!!!  So then I felt better after throwing up and made it to the chapel.  Sister King was so sweet the whole time, she carried my backpack and then fixed me tacos and told me to put my feet up and lay down.  She's a good doctor.  I love Sister King.  I told Sister King that we still had to give away a book of mormon and teach a lesson that night to reach some goals we'd set (Kind of like James getting that goal after he was sick) and so we went out and I felt good enough and God placed this guy from Egypt on a park bench.  His bus didn't come for 25 minutes.  So we sat and taught him about repentance and prayer - he needs a lot of it, he's really messed up his life.  Poor guy.  Anyways, it was a cool experience, we have his number and I hope God can help him turn his life around.  Then on the tramwaj we met a kid who's uncle is a Mormon!  Cool!  He wants to read the Book of Mormon, so we gave it to him :)  He's a Jehowah's Witness, but if he reads that book, and prays about it, I know he'll be a Mormon in no time too :)

Sister King has been awesome this week, and has really got us into some places that I know I wouldn't have gotten had I been alone, or with any other companion :)  We were talking to different people on this tramwaj on Friday night and it was our stop and I went to get off and saw that Sister King was still talking to someone,so I went and was gong to tell her we needed to get off, but didn't, she wasnt' getting up.  Cool.  So we kept going a few more stops and talking to this lady, who we later found out was named Anetta.  I don't even know what we were talking about but she didn't seem super interested, but was really friendly.  She thought it was cool that Sister King was learning polish, I think it's cool that Sister King is learning polish too!   Anyways, so I decided it wasn't going anywhere and said we're going to get off the next stop, let's give you a pass-along card thingy, and we get off and keep talking to her and she says good bye once, and shakes our hands and Sister King just keeps talking to her... and we say good-bye a second time, shake hands, and I don't know how it happened but somehow we kept talking, she asked us a question or something and then she INVITES US TO HER HOUSE!  We hadn't eaten dinner yet that night and she also FED US!  And introduced us to her son and husband.  Her son loves fishing and is 12 years old and blonde and plays the violin :) I love him!  His name is Kuba.  We got along well :)  Ah man, I love deacons... always have and always will...they're the coolest age.  Anyways, we got to teach them about the Restoration and they listened really nicely.  Sister King was bold enough to ask them to turn off the t.v.  I was so grateful for that, I hate asking if they'll turn it off, I feel rude, especially when they just invited us over and gave us pickle soup - which was so DELICIOUS - and cookies and juice cuz we don't drink tea :)  Ah man, what a fun night.  Kuba read that promise in the book of mormon out loud as well, and the spirit was there.  I asked Aneta what she was feeling, she said 'peace' and that they ought to read more as a family out loud in the bible - EXACTLY!  :) Well they are just going to get baptized, although they don't know it yet  :) :) After that lesson I gave Sister King a huge hug, what a cool feeling!

 

Anyways, some hard things hit this week for me, but I know it's just Satan trying to get the best of me, I'm not going to let it happen.  Nie bój się! :) Nie lękaj się! Everything's gunna be sweet!  I memorized a scripture this week, 'Wszystko mogę w tym, który mnie wzmacnia, w Chrystusie' - it means, 'I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me' - AWESOME! TRUE! And we still saw lots of miracles, so it's just going to be great, whatever happens, I have to trust that God knows best!  and just keep smiling.

I love you all!  The church is true!  It's getting cold real fast here in Poland, I forgot about the cold, weird.

And so it goes,

Love you all

-Siostra Amber Allen

Unto Every Creature

Dear Family,

 

Whoa.  Trying not to stress... do you ever... yeah you probably do... feel like you have a million and a half things to do and no time in which to do them?  Yeah, that's how I feel!  But we get things checked off the list every so often, so that's cool! :)  And I should just enjoy the rush :)  YEAH!  Just going from 3 experienced sisters to one is a lot in a few days!  But guess what!  GOD IS ON OUR SIDE :) And what's the worst that could happen, i could go to jail, maybe a den of lions, have to walk accross a desert in the winter... nah, it's gunna be good! :)

 

This week has been crazy.  I know that several times this week I've had something happen and think, WELL, I'd better tell my family about that!  Then later okazało się że nie pamiętam!  Przepraszam!  Today it is rainy and a bit cold.  I've been meaning to tell you about the weather for a long time but keep forgetting.  It's starting to look a lot like FALL around here, and its psyching me out!  This is not happening!  (the passage of time, that is)  - crazy.

 

Well I had to say goodbye to some of my favorite people this week.  On Tuesday we did a free-board with the Elders and then went to Długas for our last time as a district.  Elder Walter left us this week, NOT COOL.  I'm gunna miss the man.  He's such an AWESOME święta osoba.  (Sorry I just feel like writing more in Polish today, sorry if you have to translate it.)  I also had to say goodbye to Sister Young and Sister Hemming.  Sister Hemming gets the privilege of opening up Kielce for Sisters, I'm so proud of her, she's going to do great things!  And Sister Young gets to go to the great city of Łódż (I was there on an exchange once and really liked it) - and she's going to get the Standard this transfer, I can just feel it :) :) :)  I'm so excited to see what these girls do with their missions and with their lives, they seriously are my heros.  (And I miss them like none other).

good bye to Siostra Young and Hemming

We met again wtih the Rooster ManApparently he's more famous than we think.  -- He talked to us more about aliens this time, aw the adventures!

 

We had a lesson with Anna and she asked to meet with the Sisters again the next day - she's SO AWESOME!  And she's like for sure going to get baptized!  HURRAH!  I'm so, so excited.  So excited that I squealed after she came to ALL THREE HOURS of CHURCH on Sunday!  Oh man, I love her! 

 

my new companion

 

Then I went to Warsaw this week to pick up my new trainee!  Her name is Sister King, from Utah.  She's spunky and has lots and lots of faith.  I'm excited because I prayed for my next companion to have lots of faith.  I really want to see miracles here in Kraków and now that I feel like I know a bit more how faith works after last week - not this last week, but the one before it - I just want to see it happen again.  And one thing this requires is NO DOUBTS.  I can't let them enter my mind.  It's a hard game, but I'm learning to play and it's awesome!

 

In Warsaw we had a fun time, but it was weird cuz there was more down time than I'm used to... You guys are really going to have to put me to work when I get back around because um... I don't like free time.  It's awkward and makes me feel all yucky.  In fact I think Elder Walter had it worse than I do, wonder if he's back in California pacing right now? :) Haha...

 

I got to then participate in a meeting with the leaders of the Poland Warsaw Mission - and I was super emotional and it was stupid.  The night before we'd had a testimony meeting and one of the Elders is 18 years old.  His name is Elder Fogg.  He's Nathan's size too, shorter, skinny, looks like he plays soccer, not blonde, but still... He was sick when he got into Warsaw, and so when he bore his testimony about being homesick and sick at the same time I just got thinking about Nathan and... then the next morning during testimony meeting Elder Rittmanic tells us a story about getting head-butted in the FACE!  I just started thinking about Nathan and Gregg and... lost it.  I stood up to bear my testimony and had a hard time getting the words out.  I thanked the Elders for their example.  I love the Elders of our mission, serioulsy, haven't met a bad apple yet!  I love every missionary in this mission, they're so STELLAR!  I just, man, I know that this work is real.  This church is TRUE!  God stands at the head of this work and He leads out in knowing where we ought to be and what we ought to do.  And because of that I know it's okay that I won't see Nate for so long.  I love you, Nate, and Gregg too!  Please don't get head butted in the face where I can't be there to punch the guy back for you.  o.k. no I'm not going to do that, but, aaah!  Stay safe.  Please? 

 

We met a girl in the train station who was wearing a white jeans jacket on with patches from star wars.  She gets together with other people and like re-enacts starwars scenes or something, not quite sure.  She was cool.  We magically got 16 lessons again this week, a lot of street lessons, but AWESOME stuff, we're going to get 15 lessons every week this transfer, especially if you pray for us to get it and you have faith with me :)  It's gunna be sweet!

 

I gave a talk on Nephi this last Sunday in church.  Because i have a cold, I was a bit worried that my cough wouldn't let me get through it.... It was good for me though, until the last like five minutes.  Then Brat Onken had to go get me a drink of water.  I love our branch! :) :) and it just got bigger, I told you about the two new families that moved into our branch, right?  Cool.  SO COOL.

 

Listen to the Spirit this week, everyone, it's real and it works!

I read in Mormon this morning - everyone is dying and it's so sad, that must have been so hard.  But I know Mormon had the spirit with him and he said something about preaching the gospel to every creature :)  So I'm going to do that, every CREATURE!

 

Love you all so, so, so much,

-Siostra Amber Allen

The Harvest!

our awesome kraków district!

Siostra Allens former companion returns to Poland for a visit!

Schindler's factory

the rynek

fun fun :)

Hey, thanks for giving me the idea for my subject line today, mommy, it is perfect!  What a wonderful HARVEST we get to see!  I loved this week because we really got to see some fruits of our labors.  It's also a bitter-sweet sort of time... the harvest... you can get sweet apples and bitter... beets?  Haha... I don't know... but it's bitter sweet because I got my last transfer call yesterday.  I'll be staying in KRAKÓW!!!!  And I'll be training again!  I'm pretty excited.  The Elders that will be here are Elder Skolimowski (who was with me in the MTC and served with my first two transfers in Poznań) and Elder Żeleżniak who was just released from being the Asisstant to the President.  He's from Australia and has served in Kraków before.  I'm excited to learn from him. --  I'm also sad because I'll have to say good-bye to two of my best friends.  Siostra Young and Siostra Hemming - I just love them so much.  When I thought about them leaving me this morning I wanted to cry.  My tear-ducts must be blocked today, or maybe the stress of last week - it wasn't bad stress, all good stress... is there such a thing?... maybe stress and then the fact that it's all over - last week, and this transfer and... and...and... maybe my tear-ducts are confused on what to do.  Or maybe my emotions are confused.  I am sad to hear about people leaving the church and fighting against the pricks.  Before my mission, that was a bigger blow to my testimony than it feels now.  Being on a mission, out here in the middle of Poland, your testimony gets hit every day pretty hard, but there's no way in earth, heaven, or hell that what I'm doing isn't right.  I just can't deny that this church is true.  It's like seeing the white pearl against the black back-drop out here in the mission field.  God exist, I know it more this week than I ever have before.  I saw his hand, he let us walk on water this week and it's been such a fun ride.  Not easy - but super-duper exciting!  God works in mysterious ways!  I'm so excited to see what I can give the Lord more in this next transfer.  I'm just going to say that I'm always in the middle!  We're not talking about me coming back... just going to work real hard and fight harder than I did the day before.  Faith is real.  Miracles are real!

 

​AAAaaaah!  And I LOVE IT!  It's so hard but I love it :)

 

I read this morning about the Three Nephites - they were blessed for wanting to help save souls.

Let's all find a soul to save this week!  :)

Keep the faith, pray hard, and work hard, and smile!

Love,

Siostra Allen

a ship made of... ME!!!!

us with OLA!!!