Miej do siebie cierpliwość.

Dear Family,

I am sort of blowing up inside.  Trying really hard not to be "trunky" - it's harder than I thought, actually... But it's all about controlling your mind, right?  Always was and always will be.  So I'm going to keep controlling my mind and work out my little soul this week, and next... and next and so on and so forth... It's really super unreal for me that time has flown by.  And I'm so used to Poland!  Jee wiz... Well, it made me cry that you were all hooping and hollering thinking about me coming h...  so I will probably cry when I see you again.  But for right now I'm going to tell you about some fun miracles this week:

 

Łukasz got BAPTIZED!  :) YEAH!  It was so smooth and awesome.  My favorite part was when Sister Anna Mucha gave a talk on Baptism!  WHAT!  And she spoke from the heart and it was so GREAT! She did SUCH a great job.  She spoke and didn't even look nervous, even though she said she was.  My favorite part of her talk was when she looked at Łukasz and said, I think if Christ were here he'd say, 'Hi Łukasz, I've been waiting for you...' And it brought tears to my eyes, and the Spirit was SO strong.  I'm so proud of her.  She's amazing.  We made cookies again for the baptism and they were delicious.  Oh another favorite part, when Elder Żelezniak forgot his shirt and Sister King and I had to run back upstairs to get it.  We had already taken off our shoes to be at the pool and so we got to run upstairs barefoot...oh how I miss being barefoot.  That was fun.  And then right before our musical number, President Kucia was filling in some time saying some nice words and Sister King was playing with her hymn book, the hymn books here are messed up, I can't wait till they have real ones... but anyways, she was playing with it because it's spiral ring bound but the pages are stuck together and she like accidentally ripped it too hard nad ripped it right in half, really loudly!  haha, everyone in the room had a good laugh, President Kucia made some funny remark about how he must be pretty boring if the Sister was playing with hymn books and destroying them... oh boy.  What a wonderful weekend.

 

Saturday night after the baptism, we still didn't have anyone to go with us to the District Conference.  I knew Sister King really wanted to go.  I didn't mind going but I really wasn't sure if I wanted to... it meant saying good-bye to a lot of people that I love.  So I just had mixed feelings.  But we looked through the phone and called Diana.  We'd just met her once and I'd talked to her for maybe 15 minutes or less on the street.  Well, she was like all down for going to the Conference with us!  So cool!  So she came with us, and turns out she's really awesome.  She's so cute and open and funny!  Haha, I hope that she will get baptized some day.  It was quite the adventure for her to come all the way to Katowice with us and meet a ton of Mormons! :) Yaya.

 

I got a PACKAGE from my lovely family!  And that was fun.  I just forgot to give some really important papers to President yesterday, pook pook... lame!  I guess it's a good thing I'll be in Warsaw next week to give it to the Office.  WHAT!  I want to just deny that I will be in Warsaw next week, I don't want to admit it.  I've just got to focus on the people and on the język.  I would love to just speak polish non-stop for the next 12 days.  That'd be awesome.  I think it'd just drive my companion off the walls though. 

 

Another awesome thing happened when we got to meet with Piotrek.  He's a super funny guy.  I love funny people.

 

I also learned more about our members this week - like the fact that Sasza was going to be a PRIEST and then changed his mind after two years thinking that he couldn't live in celibacy.  He's still single, poor guy.  I love him though, I wish I could just find all these single good mormon men in Kraków WIVES, they'd do so much GOOD as FATHERS!  Aaah! 

 

Today we are going to the Salt Mines and taking our Culture Night as well, it's going to be super fun!  But I also just worry that it will be too much fun, this morning I felt really lazy.  NOOooooooooOOOOOoooo!!!  No laziness allowed.  I think I'm going to try to work out harder this week, and study harder than ever, and just... be cooler than ever... yikes. 

 

Anyways, I know God lives and answers prayers!  I know He wants us to return to him!  Teaching a lesson about how Christ is our Savior to Dagna and Grzegorz this week, I just realized again how MERCIFUL God is, whoa.  What an amazing plan he has for us.  Dagna said that it's unfair that Christ paid the penalty for our sins.  She says she thinks we ought to pay for them ourselves and that is JUSTICE and that is FAIR.  She said that she wants to pay for her sins herself.  I have never looked at it quite that way, or something clicked aobut that, but really it ISN'T fair.  That's why it's so AMAZING, the plan that God has for us is AWESOME.  God loves us SO much.  And Christ loves us SO much.  He already paid for Dagna's sins, and he already paid for yours.  Don't make Him sad by insisting that you want to pay for your sins too.  Then the punishment will be suffered twice.  He already suffered for you.  Give it to him, let him love you!

 

I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true.  I LOVE wearing this Black name tag.  I love the craziness and adventures that a mission brings, but mostly I love the SPIRIT and the PEOPLE and the SAVIOR.  Wow.  This is the life.  I love it.

And I love you guys!

dozobaczenie,

-Siostra Amber Allen

Seek those things which are above...

"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." - Colossians 3:15

 

I've been trying to find Peace this week... He's an interesting character, that peace.  I'm not sure sometimes where to find him.  But I think I find him most when I'm thinking about others, when I'm thinking about the Savior.  :) And everything will work out, you know?

​

We had a lot of miracles happen this week, like the fact that Grzegorz and Dagna have more light in their eyes every time we meet with them... they read to 1 Nefi 9!  Cool!  And we ran into a really nice Baptist lady who took a Book of Mormon!  Then just my companion... she says things all the time that are so mądry.  Like, 'Kids are happy cuz they don't have that box in their head that is titled, 'what could go wrong'" - I need to burn that box in my brain... Then she talked about someone on their mission who felt like nothing was working and that the way wasn't opened until he prayed for it to be opened.  I'm going to pray for the way to be opened more often!

 

I had prayers answered a lot this week.  Even prayers that I didn't put much thought into, just little ones that I shot up and they came back at me fast... Like one day on the way home from the chapel, I prayed that we'd find someone who'd be interested, we had like five minutes before we'd be getting into our apartment for dinner, and because we'd been rejected a lot for quite a while and with no success I was feeling a bit desperate... Well there she was, an awesome young girl who gave us her number and is willing to meet and learn more, I think we gave her a book of Mormon! 

One night I prayed that we'd know where to go, that answer didn't come really so we just went where we thought was best, and turns out Agnieszka was ready in that apartment building to hear the message of the Restoration!  YES! 

Then just today, I was a bit frustrated because Preparation days are always so busy and hectic and I don't ever feel like I have enough time to get everything done that is needed... but I just prayed to God that he'd help me love being a missionary and still try to share the gospel today.  I got to give a book of Mormon to someone like 30 seconds later and get his phone number... that is... AWESOME. 

One prayer I had answered this week doesn't have a lot to do with missionary work, but I know it was God just touching base with me and reminding me that I'm His Daughter.  I was in a tramwaj and knew I'd be on it for a while so I started a conversation rather normally with a young student aged girl.  She's studying economics or something and I told her that sounds important and impressive and that I'm studying Elementary Education and sometimes feel that that isn't very impressive... teaching children 2 plus 2... etc.  Then she very strongly told me otherwise and really gave me a ton of reasons why being a teacher is a GREAT job.  She was so kind.  She didn't have to stand up for my kierunek, but she did.  Tears actually came to my eyes a bit, cuz I know in the back of my brain somewhere, there's  a little worrier, with wrinkles on his face, and purple under his eyes, and his neck muscles are really tight, and he takes notes and the Worrier thinks about school and what I'm going to study and if that's really where I ought to be and what I ought to do and the worrier is also in charge of hitting himself when he lets the normal part of my brain hear him worrying, he's not allowed to be heard while I'm still on my mission...  I also talked to Brother Onken this week about what I'm doing when I go h... and when I told him I was going to BYU-Idaho he got a big smile on his face - that's where he went to school - and he told me to go to the Faculty Jazz Concert that they have 2x a semester.  You know what, I know I'm supposed to study Elementary Education and at BYU Idaho everyone.  Thought I'd let you know that my prayers were answered this week.  Whoa... I didn't even realize that until I just wrote it out.  But cool!  Now we know. 

 

We ordered pizza for lunch once this week.  That was fun.

 

We made the sacrament bread.  And burnt it.  But then we just ripped off the burnt part and used it anyways... people complimented on it... but I've made better.

 

We really want REFERRALS this week!  We also want someone to take with us to go to the Conference in Katowice.  I really want to go.  We want some new investegators and some baptismal dates and some... I sound so needy.  I love what we've got.  We really do have SO much!  I am living in the prettiest city in Poland, I have the best food in the world, I get to speak POLISH everyday!  I love an HOUR of personal study in the mornings and listening to The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing Christmas songs... or The Circle of Life... or I have some recent EFY favorites too.  I love praying for my family by name every night, and I love sunshine.  I love the Kraków Branch.  I love my planner.  I love the rush of the Spirit after a meeting where there was actually PROGRESS made!  I love receiving answers to prayers!  I love singing, and I love the song 'If You Could Hie to Kolob' And I love the Savior.  And Łukasz is getting baptized in Kraków this week - he's the Elder's investegator.  So stoked!  Maybe this means that Kraków is on a role... here we go, we need some more!  I know it can happen.  It's going to happen.  We're still going to see miracles and work our hardest!  While LOVING DEEPER.  I need to love deeper.  I need to love it ALL deeper, especially the hard stuff and the ugly stuff and the... yeah...

 

Well, this is enough rambling.  I love you all, and hope your week is FANTABULOUS!  Keep up the missionary work wherever you are and remember that the Church is SO true!

Love,

Siostra Amber Allen

When Your Best Friend Gets Baptized...

AAAaaaaah!  She's baptized!  I can't believe it.  It's so unreal.  And all this time I just want to tell you guys about it!  Yesterday I even said to Sister King, can I just call my mom and tell her that it happened!  The whole thing is so... unbelievably AWESOME.  Everything I ever dreamed it would be.  I'm just about to burst inside because I'm SO HAPPY! Anna is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  And her TESTIMONY is on FIRE.  That girl is AMAZING.  I'm so proud of her, and I'm SO aware of the fact, more than ever, that we don't even do anything as missionaries.  God does it all!  We just set baptismal dates and set up meetings and try our best to bring the Spirit, but the SPIRIT and GOD do the converting, NOT us.  I couldn't have made up all the miracles that happened to get Anna baptized.  There's just no way.  The baptism was so AWESOME, I could have sprouted wings Saturday night, and then after church on Sunday it felt like someone had pulled out the plug and a lot of stress sort of just left my body.  -- yeah anyways, we've gotten to meet with Anna a lot more lately and I've really gotten to know her these past two weeks.  We saw her EVERY DAY last week and she tells the funniest stories and we laugh a lot and she's just awesome, she's for sure a best friend forever kinda girl! :)  I love Anna!  

 

 

 

 

I feel like the baptism pretty much drowns out everything else that happened this last week... or the last month... or year maybe... yeah... it was pretty EPIC.  It's so true, that idea that if you work towards something and you have to sacrifice a lot to get it...and it takes forever... that once you finally have it, it's like SO much more PRICELESS and AWESOME.  That's how I feel about Anna's baptism.  This is just... awesome.

 

O.k. so favorite parts of this whole deal...

 

We were waiting for Anna to show up and I was super nervous... I felt like just pacing around the chapel.  I knelt instead and prayed really quick... then we practiced the piano and singing because we were going to sing for her baptism, which we did, wasn't too bad!  We sang 'I like to look for rainbows' in Polish.  Rockin' - so then Brat Dziubla shows up and I said out loud 'everything's going to be okay' and he goes 'yeah it is.' - he's so SOLID, he's like an extra grandpa/uncle/dad thing going on here in Kraków, Brat Dziubla is seriously the MAN.  I love that guy.  He made me just feel a lot calmer.  Then Anna shows up and you can tell that she's freaking out too.  Haha, I joked with Sister King (who is also a stresser) that we just got the three most stressing people together and tried to plan a baptism, what a hoot!  And all the time Michał, her fiance, was there and trying to calm her down, he's such a sweet guy. So then finally the talks were over and we were on to the actual baptism.  We had three investegators attend the baptism (SCORE!) and... okay well one is actually a girl we just met in the park, we're not actually meeting with her, but I think it's WAY cool that she showed up!  And so we go downstairs with all the girls and Brat Dziubla - but with out Anna... and I wanted Anna with us the whole time so was a bit worried... expecially because I didn't even know where the basin was - the pool I mean - so anyways, we get lead by Brat Dziubla and turns out that Anna's group didn't know where to go to get to the pool either and wandered around a bit and Elder Skolimowski made some joke about a 'Plan' on the wall that was actually an Evacuation Plan... oh boy... well maybe it lightened the mood for Anna... haha!  Then we get to the pool and have to take off our shoes and socks, except we're wearing tights and I didn't want to take off my tights infront of everyone so I just left them on.  They got super wet.  But I didn't care.  Then Anna gets dressed, in WHITE!  YEAH!  And gets in the pool which is really deep, and Tim Tudor-hart, a convert from England married to Agata, a polish woman, who are both AWESOME and MIRACLES for Anna, got dressed in white too... and they went into the pool and tried going to the other end of the pool to see if it was not so deep - turns out it was just the same on that side :) So they're like swimming around in their white outfits, it was quite comical, actually... Then Tim says his perfectly memorized prayer in POLISH to baptize Anna and down she goes and WHALLA!  She's baptized!  Woot! We go back up and she gives her TESTIMONY,

 

O.k. let me just preface this a little bit, so Anna doesn't like public speaking, she's fine at it, but for some reason it freaks her out.  She was a witness at her sister's wedding last year and had to read the scriptures from a little pulpit and she said she was shaking so bad and grabbing the pulpit so hard that she practically took it with her back to her seat :) haha...

 

O.k. now fast-forward back to the end of her baptism where she was to bear her testimony - she goes right up there and stands there for a good eight minutes bearing the most beautiful strong testimony I've ever heard!  And she thanked the members by name and even said something about Elder Walter and she just was BEAMING.  She said she knew the Book of Mormon was true and that God had TOLD her that.  She explained how she'd just come to realize that we have a living prophet, even though that'd been a problem before.  She talked about how God had just been so much in her life recently and answering her questions that she KNEW he loved her and specifically wanted HER in THIS church.  She even spoke to Michał from the pulpit and told him that he was 'next' :) haha!  And she read one of her favorite verses from the Bible about how Christ talks to the apostles while he's on the cross and asks them to take care of his mother, that they are his family and that they are all brothers and sisters.  She told about how she knew she was now really a 'SISTER' in this branch and of Christ and even though she'd felt it before, never in this way and never so fully.  I can't tell you how big the smile was on my face.  I couldn't stop smiling, it was probably the biggest smile I've ever smiled in my whole life.

 

Then Sunday as the Elders and men in our branch gathered around Anna and placed their hands on her head.  That was so SO cool.  I can't even tell you how cool.  And I was hoping that Brat Dziubla knew what to do when confirming someone, he nailed it.  And you could definitely feel the spirit and God speaking through that man.  I know that the Spirit is REAL, and I know that BAPTISM is real and it is SUPPOSED to happen.  I KNOW this church is true, now more than EVER!  I even know that I knew Anna before this life.  We had to have been friends before.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to get to know her and just be a small part of seeing this all happen.  It's a miracle.  Our lives are miracles.  Missions are miracles.

 

There's more I could say... but I need to do some other stuff, so... I'll write more next week!  :)

Pray for us to find new investegators this week!  And new baptismal dates!   ONWARD!  It's not over!

I love this!

Love,

Siostra Amber Allen

Do I Seek To Please?

Monday October 7, 2013

Galatians 1:10, from our good man Paweł reads: "For do I now persuade men, or God?  For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."

 

And so it goes, my friends, we are an unusual people, a czekawy, and interesting people, unique, what is the word I'm looking for... is it unusual?  Anyways, I know that even though sometimes people are not pleased with me, I can still be happy because they're not supposed to be pleased anyways.  If they were pleased, I'd probably be doing something wrong.  It's just such a paradox sometimes!  :) But it's an awesome one!

 

Missionary work is going along awesomely!  This week we had a lot of fun first lessons on the street.  I love just meeting someone out of the blue and teaching them about the Restoration! 

 

My companion and I are really trying to get some new investegators and working on getting Anna baptized this week!  I'm super excited!  Things are looking up.  Praying like crazy!

 

I really don't have a whole lot left to say today, perhaps a simple testimony:

I know that the Spirit is real.  It testifies to me that this Church is true.  That the work I'm doing is worth it!  I know that the Savior lives and loves us.  He wants us to return to Him and live with our families forever!  I know we have the capacity to change our lives around and be better.  I will become better this week, I promise.

 

Love,

    Siostra Amber Allen​

Confidence

Dzień Dobry! 

An awesome eventful week!  I'm super excited to tell you about it!  I also got e-mails from some awesome people today!  So thanks everyone who sent me something!

You know what, I don't know if I just assumed that my last transfer would be like easy or...what... But it's turning out to be pretty hard.  I love it still, but just a lot of mixed emotions and craziness​!  I guess it's good, the refiner's fire just got hotter, I guess there's some things I really need purged out of me before I go...you know where....  One thing I've been learning again this week is about confidence.  I have felt sometimes that I'm not being guided by the Holy Ghost like I'd like to be.  But then I remember that he that is compelled in all things the same is a slothful and not a wise servant.  Also with being Sister Training Leader and Senior Companion with a Trainee and having this be my last transfer, a lot of people think I've got things figured out out here.  And I insist that I don't have them figured out, I mean I have them way MORE figured out than I did at the beginning of my mission, but I get asked so many questions and have a lot of decisions to make and I just start feeling the pressure sometimes. Then I get sick... haha... I'm sick again, yes.  I have a head cold, it's all up in here!  And anyways, I just hope that I can be the girl that everyone seems to think I am! :)  I was telling President Edgren yesterday... Ah yes, President Edgren visited us this week, he got here Saturday evening and took us to dinner.  It was delicious - Mexican food!  They had Mexican Independance stuff up all around the restaurant, so that was fun, reminded me of Nathan!  I talked to the young kid behind the counter, he looked like 15 or something, they've lived in Poland for two years now.  I hope he likes it here.  He was cool, Martin was his name.  Then the older guy who cleaned off our table and got our orders, he was cool too.  We left them a pass along card.  He says his best friend is Mormon back in Mexico!  Then Sunday, President Edgren came to church with us and had interviews with Sister King and I. (Haha, The King and I... makes me think of Rishi!) As I was talking to him I mentioned that sometimes I feel like I don't know where to go and then I get frustrated that maybe I'm not listening correctly to the Spirit or something and then when you are frustrated, you can't hear the Spirit anyways, so it just gets worse and goes in a downward spiral.  Well, I don't know if it was something President said, or something I just felt, but yesterday I really got this strong impression that I just need to have more confidence.  I need to believe in myself, trust my instincts, act upon them, and stop second guessing myself.  No more question marks.  I know that Christ was confident in himself, and we can be too.  Especially as His representatives!

 

I also got to go on a fun exchange this week to Kielce.  Man those girls..oops sorry, SISTERS... are ripping it up out there.  (My trainee, Siostra Hemming-2 months in the country- is out there with Sister Howell's trainee, Sister Barth -4 months in the country) (Sister Barth is in the picture with me and the other pictures are of Kielce) The Kielce branch is really small, but just got a new chapel, they were also preparing an Anna for baptism there in Kielce.  The baptism went through!  So Poland has a new member as of yesterday! :) YAY!

 

 

 

Me pointing to a map of Kielce

I can't find my gloves or my hair brush... o where is my hair brush? :) So if you want to pray for me to find them, that'd be cool.  I don't want to have to buy new ones...

 

This week we met some interesting characters:

Artur: He speaks 12 languages and wants to learn about 100... :) haha... oh boy...

A girl with bright BLUE hair... President Edgren walked past her and said 'there's some green hair for you' haha... I couldn't figure out if he really thought it was green or if he just said green and meant blue... :)

 

But my favorite part of the week was Sunday when we were in RELIEF SOCIETY cuz we have RELIEF SOCIETY now days!  And we were sitting there and Sister Agata Tutorhart - who is an ANGEL and I LOVE HER!  gave a SUPER inspired lesson on BAPTISM with both Magda and Anna there.  It was the COOLEST feeling of my life.  And Anna knew all the right answers!  And you could tell in her eyes that she understood them too.  It's so cool to see people's progression!  Peter Johnson sent me an up-date of his mission recently and talked about how cool it is to see them progress.  I agree, it's just so AWESOME!  She had a problem with living prophets a while back and yet yesterday during the lesson when Agata asked her and Magda who the living prophet was dzisiaj, she perked up and goes 'THOMAS S. MONSON' AH YEAH!  That's my girl!  I love her!  I seriously love her guts.  I want to come back for her wedding... and we decided that one of my kids will marry one of her kids :) haha.  Ah man, God is good.

 

Anyways, love you all so much!  Keep your head up.  And I'll do my best to keep mine up.  Ah, I love e-mailing.  Thanks for being the backbone to my mission, family.  I would have died long ago with out you.  You keep me strong and happy and excited and energized.  And it's all thanks to God.  I tell people every day that everything good in my life comes from this Church and from God.  and it's TRUE!  Keep sharing the gospel!  Keep shining bright!

Love,

Siostra Amber Allen

Anyways, don't have much time, didn't read EVERYONE's letters