Ode to President and Sister Nielson

Well, I wrote a letter to President Nielson today, good-bye's are so hard! 

 

 

Wtorek, 18ego, Czerwca:

     Well, we had a lesson with a lady who said she's been raised in the Catholic church and she'd rather stay that way, that was a sad meeting.  She wouldn't even take a Book of Mormon.  Then our plans got whirl-winded and instead of having the "Member-Lesson" we'd planned (aka having a member with you on a lesson) we had the lesson with the investegator and the one with the member seperately at completely different times.  It was a hard day.  But the best thing about the day was the Blue Earrings Story.

 

          "The Blue Earrings"

       As I got onto the tramwaj, I knew I had to talk to the woman sitting there within the first thirty seconds of standing by her or I'd slowly loose courage and it'd just get harder.  So I immediately talked to her about the Book of Mormon and shared a brief bold statement about it's truthfullness and meaning to me.  She was not interested.  No big deal, I'll just talk to the next person... or maybe I ought to make her feel loved...? (that's always my dilemma, go on to the next person, or make sure that first one knows that I'm not just a robot handing out fliers about my church.)  I decided to talk to her, and she was very nice and up for small talk.  We exchanged pleasantries and talked about how she was married and how people in Poland wear their wedding rings on the right hand instead of the left (yeah cool, huh!)... etc., etc... Then it was her tram stop.  She stood up to leave and I figured I'd tell her how much I liked her blue earrings because I'd noticed them from the very first minute we began our conversation.  I hurried to tell her that I liked her earrings as a 'by the way' compliment and a good bye statement... Well, all of a sudden she stops, puts her baggage down, and pulls these cute blue dangly earrings out of her ears!  Somehow they ended up in my hands and I tried to say no, but somehow, there they were, and she was gone... The tram pulled away without another word... It was the oddest sensation.  I looked there in my hands and couldn't believe it.  She had just given them to me.  She didn't even KNOW me!  And yet she gave them to me because I told her I liked them... I wanted to cry.  No one had ever been so nice to me, especially not in that way, and I was seriously taken aback.  I couldn't get that incident out of my mind and replayed it over and over... should I have refused, and tried to give them back?  Followed her off the tramwaj to give them back?  Did I say thank-you?  Would I do the same?  Would I have the guts to just give something that I'd earned or bought or loved?  Then I thought of the Savior.  He has the same loving attitude that this woman had.  He loves us unconditionally and without holding back.  As soon as you say 'Lord I love thee, but I'm lost and I need your help' - He was willing to die for us, and take away our sins, if only we just ask.  And all we have to do is hold out our hands, let him in.  LET HIM IN.  I think sometimes it's hard for me to let others help me.  I want to help myself.  But really we need to let the Savior in.  Let him serve you, succor you.  Think about him, his life, his sacrifice, and the meaning behind the Atonement, it will blow you away.

 

Środa, 19ego, Czerwca:

       This day was a fun day.  We went to the train station to wait for the Kielce Elders to show up around 8:30 in the A.M.  We sat and Sister Young and I just read out of the Book of Mormon together (Sister Bezdjian suggestion) and commented as we read.  We read in the Words of Mormon and just thought about Mormon and his situation and how awful it must have been.  I'm so glad we at least have hope that things will change in Poland.  At least we aren't all dying off and we're the last strong members of our religion and beliefs....

        After the Elders all got there, we boarded a bus heading to Katowice for Zone Conference.  Zone Conferences are always a blast, and this one was no different.  It was so great to see Sister Bezdjian and talk to her about life and leaving and craziness.... ALSO Sister and Brother Reed are there in Katowice so THAT was an extra treat.  Also Elder Rittmanic is in Kato, he's still loosing weight, it's so weird.  He really looks so different than the boy I knew at the MTC.  And as of transfers last night, he's now a Zone Leader!  Crazy! 

       O.k. I guess I'd better tell you about transfers really quick, now that you're curious!

 

TRANSFERS: SISTER YOUNG AND I ARE STAYING IN KRAKÓW and we're getting an extra companion!  So I'm double training.  I'll be training a new sister AND finishing off Sister Young's training.  It's gunna be SWEEEEEEEEEET! 

 

Anyways, the Zone Conference was SWEET!  We all had to cut up something to give to Sister Nielson for her quilt.  I also got sang to for my birthday (a little late, but hey better late than never, right?) - AND I got birthday cookies!  Homemade, chocolate chip/M&M soft cookies!   Yum!  Then the Assistants also did a really cool little segment on being united as a companionship. There are four three-somes going on in the mission this transfer, it's going to be a party.  The mission is so young.  And we have so many sisters all of a sudden!

My favorite part of the Zone Conference was President's part.  He always does such a good job and says exactly what I need to hear.  He got a bit teary-eyed at the end.  My mission president is leaving me! :(  Arg.  So that made me cry... and we all just cried... Then we had a testimony meeting.  I'll tell you.  Those testimony meetings are like heaven.  It's the best.  I gleened the following truths:

 

"Be a Better Stupid than you were yesterday." - Elder Dopp

"Learn Something new everyday" - Elder Neuner

"Serve for Three" - Elder Lanham (like put 8 years into 2, or like think of who can't serve that you're serving for - for me that'd be like maybe Rachel, and Sister Ostler, and maybe even Tasha and Tavia, not that they didn't want to serve, or that they're not serving, but you know, like think of the mission in terms of how much you can GIVE!  Just GIVE MORE!)

"Let the Book of Mormon change your life." - Elder Meherg

"Learn from and be grateful for the trials." - Elder Dodge

"Time flies.  Love and soak up every second of it." - Elder Rittmanic

"Let it ALL fall under the category of 'what does god expect' and not 'what do others,' or 'what do I expect'" - Sister Blake

"Keep Learning How much you Don't know." - Elder Blom

"Make the reason that you are here LOVE for the SAVIOR." - Elder Tiner

"Give what you LOVE." - Elder Stumpf

"Bear Testimony more frequently." - Elder Smith

"Giving up your will and accepting the Lord's = HAPPINESS." - Sister Packard

BEAM and BE EXCITED like Sister Pearson

"Preserve spiritual confirmations by writing them down." -Elder Walter

Say things like, 'I declare' and 'I bear witness' + SMILE = Miracles :) - Elder Zeleżniak

 

Aaah!  And I just keep getting these feelings this week, I'm not sure if it's just because president is leaving, or WHAT, but I get all anxy.  Like over excited so that my stomach gets all queezy.  I think that usually happens right before transfers, so maybe that's all it is.  But I also felt at that Zone Conference just how much I really love these missionaries.  We are our own little forever family.  I just know it.  We're all so COOL!  Like the coolness couldn't be contained in that room of missionaries.  I felt like exploding with awesomeness! :)  Aaaah!  Seriously.  Elder Walter and Elder Dodge and Sister Young and the members of our branch here in Kraków ALSO blow my mind.  They are just amazing.  Simply amazing.  I'm in the best place in the world.  I love being a missioary.  And I don't want to believe it could ever end.

 

Czwartek, 20ego, Czerwca:

Great, we're only on Thursday... I'm so sorry!  I just saw a letter from Jenny in The Dominican Republic! 

 

Piątek, 21ego, Czerwca:

An angry lady on the street... okay well she wasn't super angry, I've met much worse.  But you could tell there was anger inside of her, you know... and as we talked to her she was just up tight and not happy and I tried to pout it out to her.... You see she was saying that she could do whatever she wants.  That God, if he exists, doesn't have rules because why would he give us free agency AND rules AND if he's nice why would he punish us?  All these crazy questions... and she just wanted to live how she wanted to live...but she was so UNHAPPY because of it... I could feel the calmness coming off of me and the anxyness coming off of her and it was such a stark contrast.  Just another realization moment where, I KNOW THE CHURCH IS TRUE.

 

Sobota, 22ego, Czerwca:

We went to do CULTURE NIGHT! 

Also taught the Law of chastity to one of our favorite investegators... didn't go over super well...she doesn't see why the law of chastity is so important... AAah!  Satan is so good at decieving, it's crazy...

 

Niedziela, 23ego, Czerwca:

We sang a special musical number at church.  We were all nervous for transfer calls, and felt SO much better after they were done.  We get a new companion on Wednesday, I believe.  And we're not going into Warsaw to pick her up, she has to get here by herself - ADVENTURE!!!

 

And that's about it... I'm sorry I ramble, if there's things I'm missing.  I just hope you all know that I know that Christ lives and loves us.  Sister Young and I spent a lot of time last night talking about the Savior, and about our Personal Conversion.  We talked about how it was hard to pinpoint a turning point in our lives but how BIG a role FAMILY plays in our conversion.  Without you guys I wouldn't be here.  Without my amazing parents, I wouldn't even be CLOSE to here.  And without President Nielson and Sister Nielson I ALSO wouldn't be half the missionary I am today.  I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is TRUE with all my heart, no doubt about it.  Let's tell the world!

Love,

Siostra Allen

Something Fierce

 Monday June 17, 2013

 

I'm loving this mission stuff something fierce!  And I think that would be a great band name.  Write it down.  :)  I may just start up a band someday called 'Something Fierce' (if it's not already on the market...)

 

Well, y'all, I just am so glad it's Preparation Day.  It's a beautiful day when I can just read about my family and eat a delicious rhubarb zdrozdziuwka (spelling?) and go to the mall and get our groceries (which we're in serious need of) and just chill a bit before another FANTASTIC week of MISSIONARY work.  I'm grateful that God is okay with breaks.  He's okay with them as long as you know your priorities and still be a missionary.  We still talk to people about the gospel as we're going about our Preparation Day and we still have our name tags and dresses on.  So it's just great!  I love it! 

 

So that picture you sent me of all the cousins, Ashley is so cute!  Someone please tell her that she is so cute.  And everyone just looks taller, weird!  :) So fun!  I loved getting taller, sometimes still wish I could get taller, but I'm happy that my hair is getting longer, that's good...

 

This week was really interesting, lots of questions thrown in our direction.  Sometimes we have just the normal lesson where you pray, share your message and ask them questions, then you have the lesson where they've researched your church a little and they want to know ALL about it.  One young man asked us about homosexual relationships, and then we met another man with the same concerns the very next day, and then a young woman who thought that we shouldn't be against it.  We were able to really testify boldly that we KNOW marriage is between a man and a woman and that it's not something you mess with.  The one lady said that 'I could care less what people do on their own time in their own home, they're not hurting me!  It's their deal, leave them alone.'  Well, actually, I told her, everything we do, everything we have, is GOD's DEAL.  Don't you for a second think that you just got here on your own, grew up on your own, and you eat and breathe and sleep all because of yourself.  This is not your deal.  This is God's deal.  These are his rules.  AND He KNOWS what will make you most happy in the long run, it's all about trust.  Do it his way, he'll bless you.  Pray about it if you don't know it's true. 

 

Prayer is so powerful.  I know with all my heart that prayers are answered.  they are answered for me on a daily basis.  As I pray for help with the language and with just being a missionary, it's hard work, but it can be done with prayer.  Prayer makes everything so much easier.  If you are not praying at least once an hour, pray more!  I could even do better.  But I try to pray consistantly, it really does help loads.

 

 

Did I ever tell you about how hillarious my companion is?  Actually maybe 'we' are hillarious combined.  Like the time when she got her scarf stuck in the hair dryer and started jumping up and down screaming 'it's eating it!  It's eating my scarf!' and I nonchalantly bend down and UNPLUG the silly thing from the electricity... yeah well the blow drier is dead... but her scarf was okay...and our house isn't burnt down.... :) :)

Or did I tell you about the time we got milkshakes we got her first p-day here, they put a half a liter of MILK, like just MILK and then some frozen fruit in it and handed it to us to drink... i'm pretty sure the kiwis were curdling the milk.... gross...

Or how this last week we've seemed to be running into a lot of young guys who listen to our message and may just be hitting on us... we're not sure... ugh!  Actually, this one time, we stopped this guy on a bike and talked to him for a minute.  After a few minutes, he told us he wasn't interested in our church but he'd like to take me out for coffee sometime... Uh, I told him we don't go on dates on our missions, besides we don't have time and etc., etc., uh then he was like, 'really you don't have time?'  Well that's not the point, I promised I wouldn't go on dates on my mission - - this is all in polish by the way - - and, I said, besides, I don't drink coffee... 'Well how about tea, I'll just have you over for tea and you guys can tell me a bit about your church.' Uh... no probably not, you'd meet with the Elders, actually, and actually we don't drink tea... 'Well, WATER, we'll meet and talk over some WATER then, you can't do that?!' - Szkoda that I already gave him my ulotka with my NUMBER on it, we ended up saying, sorry nope, can't do that, catch ya later!  Ha... awkward....

 

I had a weird dream this week... Luke Skywalker was in it... and there was a part where there were two swans fighting, in and out of an under ground lake, dark and watery... a black swan and a white swan...and the black one was the good one... and I asked it why it was black if it was the good one, it said that the necklace it was wearing looked better on black than on white... Then the skywalker dude, we were on a train and we were stow-aways and... not sure who 'we' were, but we jumped off at a train stop, and he waited a bit until it was moving and he fell off a cliff and one of us said to the other, 'he's not very good at train stops...' haha... oh man... weird dreams.  Do we have any interpretations from the crowd?

 

Well, what else can I say?  Pray for us to have an AWESOME last week together.  It's so weird, I don't want to say good-bye to Sister Young.  She's so awesome!  I love serving with her!  We may go do our 'Culture Night' outing this week, not sure what to visit or do, but that'll be fun.  Pray for people to show up to their meetings and to be at least curious about our church.  Pray for them to have their hearts softened.  I gave a talk in church yesterday about the Restoration.  It's hard because I say a sentance in Polish and then interpret directly to English... but it's alright, I'm trying to get the hang of it.  I felt it went well.  I learned from preparing the talk a few things (some of which I already knew).  1.  Joseph Smith WAS a true prophet.  I love and admire that man and really REALLY want to be worthy to meet him someday.  2. We should all be a little more like him, take some SERIOUS thought about SPIRITUAL matters and MAKE THEM A BIGGER DEAL.  He went to great lengths to figure out which church was true before he went out and prayed about it.  He went 'as often as time permitted' to those religious meetings and read the Bible, and THEN he asked.  If you want personal revelation (which why would you NOT want it, in ANY part of your life) you must STUDY it OUT first, and THEN ask God.  Are you asking God what is his will for you?  For those you have in your stewardship?  I love this principle!

 

I know that we all have weaknesses, I have tons.  Some are horrible.  Some aren't that big... BUT I know God loves me.  I know because I asked him.  You can ask him too.  Remember he's always there for you.  He loves YOU. 

=)  Till next week!

- Sister Amber Allen

Monsoon June and the Muffins

Dear Family, This week seemed rather average...except for the fact that...really it wasn't!  Reasons why being on a mission is not 'normal' or 'average' are as follows:

1. It rained, I think at least once every day but Thursday.  On Monday night it rained so hard and we had no parasol that I was soaked to the bone and was still cold going to sleep that night...

2. I'm in Kraków, Poland.  That in and of itself is not average...

3. I am speaking a foreign language.  I'm actually speaking it.  And I understand conversations around me and I really don't think that's very average.

4. We ate at Długa 18 again.

5. We had 18 lessons this week!

6. I have the best family in the whole world.

7. I found out once again yesterday that the church is SO true, God answers prayers, and there's just no getting around it!

 

Enough with the list style, I think I'd better share some stories!

So, Monday night we were set up with Magda, she's a Christian, but not a Catholic, she is actually a missionary for her church too, but serves among the polish gypsies.  She's way cool.  We were set up at a certain time and then after that we were going to go deliver some baby food to this organization we'd heard about through a man we met tracting.  Well, she moved her meeting back so we decided to go out to the baby food party first.  It took us a while to figure out how to get up there, and we were already starting to get drenched, just not all the way through yet... We finally found it, there it was, a club, for college kids, and here we are, two drenched sister missionaries from the states, with baby food and no time to stay....so that was sorta weird... Dropped off the food, left some pass-along-cards with the guy's friends, and headed back to our meeting.  By the time we got back to the meeting, however, we were intensely... how do I put this... marinated in RAIN.  Met a cool guy on the way back, though, on the bus.  He was just super gentelmanly and offered to help us get back to the chapel and made sure we got off at the right stop.  He's got a lucky girlfriend.  He just was so nice!  I wish more men here and around the world were so nice like he was.  He also doesn't believe in God, though, and we had a good long talk about that.  I felt that something at least spiked his curiosity in our conversation.  He really liked the message we were sharing and I felt like some sort of light went on in him.  It reminded me of that moment (because I've been reading in Romans and Acts recently, in the New Testament) when the Roman man says to Paul, 'you almost convinced me to be a Christian.'  I feel like we get there a lot with people, they are almost convinced but not quite.  Maybe it's just not their time, their time will come.  But we're going to testify anyways!

 

Well, the meeting with Magda went well and we actually had the meeting barefoot in the chapel, because all of us were wet and it just seemed better that way.  We set up a meeting with her tonight but not sure if it will go through, pray for it to go through!

 

Tuesday we had District Meeting.  At district meeting, Elder Dodge goes, 'Hey Sister Allen, I hear your uncle is moving from California to Utah...'  Uh... WHAT?  How do you know my uncle Enos?  'Oh that's his real name?  I have secret connections'  Haha... What secret connections?  'You know, just secret ones.'  But after I pushed him a bit more, I found out that Enos was Elder Dodge's scout master/ deacon's quorum adviser when they lived in the same ward in California!  WHOA!  Cool.  Elder Dodge is awesome.  His family now lives in Utah too, I think.

 

Also, Tuesday, after District Meeting, I was sick of cooking and taking 45 minutes to get home to eat and 45 minutes to get back out, so we went out to eat.  We went to our favorite Pizza place, called Długa 18, the place where we'd hang out if we were teenagers here in Kraków.  It's super small, like about half the size of our Piano Room, if you can picture that... or the size of the Play Room.  And they've got a stove and a loduwca... what is that in english... oh yeah, refridgerator.  And it's run by these two brothers in their 20's.  It's fun.  Last time we were there, I saw that their sign they put outside that says their prices was hand written and not super professional so I asked if I could re-do it.  Well, I got lots of awkward points and re-did their sign.  When we went back Tuesday, it was still there, just not outside in the rain :)  - Well when we get there, there's all these hoodlums in there eating pizza and spread all over the two tables that they have in there, so we just stand there awkwardly for like three minutes while they realize we want to stay and eat, and move their stuff so we can sit at the one table... I sat on a really low stool thing instead of a chair, it was great fun... and then they began to interrogate us... well me, rather, Sister Young sort of told me she didn't want to answer questions, so it was just me and five guys firing questions!  One guy even had his smart phone out looking up our church on Wikipedia.  We taught a first, parts of a second, the word of wisdom, and about a billion other things.  Then invited them to listen to us pray as we prayed over the pizza.  You can count that as a lesson!  Now we've got 5 cool polish guys who are our friends and know a ton about our church.  I hope it pays off some day... I had way too much fun with that experience... Always have gotten along better with a bunch of guys, maybe cause I have 6 brothers?  dunno... but that was a blast.  (Always an added bonus when they find out you play soccer!)

 

We also had a lesson on Tuesday with one of our investegators, I'll leave her name out.  Well we taught the Word of Wisdom and turns out she breaks pretty much all of the parts of the Word of Wisdom... including drugs... weird.  I've never had contact with drugs before, really, if I can remember.  So that was new.  She apparently buys muffins with marijuana in them... great!  It was a crazy awkward conversation, but we assured her they were not good for her and she ought to stop, we'll see where that one goes....

 

We walked past the construction sight of the largest soccer arena in Europe this week, it's like less than a mile away from where I live, you should look it up, not sure what it's called, I want to see their rendered pictures of what they say it'll look like when it's done.  (at least an Old guy told me that it's going to be the largest in Europe, so I'm just going off of what he told me)  There's a street built going by it that they haven't built to go all the way through to the other main street, so there were no cars on it, it was sort of a spooky ghost town feeling, but everything was new, so it was just surreal, like we'd stepped into Narnia!  That was a beautiful walk, families on bikes or walks, trees, big puffy clouds on a blue sky, ah man!

 

We also had a lesson with someone this week thats going to need a lot of prayers.  I think I may have told you about her my first week here in Kraków.  We met her crying and maybe drunk at a tram stop and she was just in peices.  I can't believe we actually met with her, sober and smiling and grateful that she'd met us.  In her closing prayer she said 'thanks that I met these two wonderful girls to help me come closer to Thee' - whoa!  I'm so excited to meet with her more.  She WILL be a miracle story, already is.  God has such amazing forgiving power!  It's so unbelievable sometimes, how much he loves, how deeply he loves.  There was a Liahona or Ensign article I read about the Atonement two days ago, and it said that when we don't feel at peace in the Savior's care, he feels injured.  It's a commandment to 'Be still' and to 'know that I am God'  it is a commandment to 'let not your heart be troubled,' and 'neither let it be afraid.'  I never thought about it in this way before.  Reminds me agian of that statement in Preach My Gospel, 'God is our loving Heavenly Father.  He cries with us when we suffer and rejoices with us when we do what is right.'  He's feeling everything I'm feeling right along with me.  Including this weird thing we know as TIME.

 

Sister Young and I talked alot about TIME this week, and how it's really a human thing, not at all a God thing.  I, personally think I ought to think about time a LOT less.  I also think I need to judge less, yes, STILL need to judge less.  Sometimes I automatically think people are being rude because they want to hurt me or because they're out to get me or something. Then I respond back a little snappy sometimes and I really ought not to do that.  Maybe they had a bad day?  maybe I read them wrong?  Really, Sister Allen, calm down! :)

 

Maybe the last couple stories, about Torben from Germany and Sister Onken from England:

Well, Saturday we had a really long day, walking a lot, not much success, doors shut in our face while we were still speaking to the people behind them... yeah, so we were praying hard for a tender mercy, and whalla.  This guy says, 'Nie mowię popolsku' - aka, 'I don't speak polish.'  'Oh cool!  Where are you from?'  'Germany' - and so the conversation started.  He asked how a person leaves our church... which is not a common question... I told him they write a letter and their name is removed from the list.  I guess he'd heard some horror stories of other churches that sort of followed their members around and stalked them... bad idea.  He also wanted to know how we treat people that left the church.  Great, here's a real check of our emergency brake system... What do you actually do?  Well I hope that I'm just kind, I hope I'd still 'invite them to my birthday party' as he said it, haha... he actually said that, 'would you still invite them to your birthday party?'  - yeah!  Christ would do it, and so should we.  In this way ONLY, living what we believe, will we actually be disciples of christ, will we ACTUALLY show what this church teaches, that God is no respecter of persons.  BUT that this church DOES have the authority of Christ in it, and written all over it, and therefore it IS true and we SHOULD act as if Christ was with us at all times.  Torben, was his name, from Germany, and he let us come over to his apartment and teach about the Restoration.  Awesome.  It was so fun.  And we were super grateful - expecially sister young, that she could speak in english! :)

 

The other bright spot in my week is always this one family, by the last name of Onken.  They are the CUTEST thing on planet EARTH and I want to be just like them when i grow up.  Brother Mitch Onken is a returned missionary, music major (already got his degree in music from BYU) and now studying medicine to be a doctor in POLAND... hmmm... and married to the prettiest skinny British woman you'll ever meet.  Sister Sarah Onken is definitely a new role model for me, she is so sweet and so strong.  Her family lives the gospel and you can just see it shining out her face whenever you see her.  AND she invites us over to dinner pretty much every Sunday, so that's an extra awesome!  (I'm glad you guys had the sisters over to your place to eat, it really is a fun relief and good time to meet people and see their example for you!)  We went over to their place yesterday for dinner and had soup and bread with butter.  To top it all off, chocolate chip cookies with milk.  And there was a thunderstorm and little Spencer Onken - age 2.5 or 3 or more... was nervous-talking the whole time about the storm... 'It's not scawy' (his r's are w's :)) and 'that was a big wun!'  and 'I wuv funder stowms!'  Oh it was so fun.  He's so cute.  And Felicity, just had her appendics rupture a couple weeks ago but is back to her normal self now and she's so cute too.  Her and Sister Young had a fun time playing with stuffed animals while I talked to Sister Onken for a minute.  Sister Onken is just the best.  I love their family!

 

I know that God lives and LOVES YOU!

Stay strong, happy, and come what may and LOVE IT.  That's the test of this life time!  Let's do it together! :)

Love, Sister Amber Allen

Loving Your Enemies...

Here is today's email, Monday June3, 2013. Amber has sent lots of pictures and will try to get those posted soon.

 

So I'm just going to e-mail this to a bunch of people this week, my weekly e-mail, I'm not sure how much of it gets on the blog, and this may be a rather long one, so no one is obligated to read...but it's going to be great, so if you do have the time, put on your seatbelt, and hold on... keep your arms and legs inside the cubicle at all times...

 

O.k... so on with it...

 

As you all know I'm on a mission... in enemy territory, aka The World, aka Poland.  There are enemies that I meet everyday.  But strange as it may sound sometimes, they're also my brothers and sisters.  People who tell me I'm crazy, I'm going to go to Hell (even if they say it in a round about way), that I'm being brainwashed, that why would I want to live forever?  There are also the people who scowl at me, throw my fliers on the ground, laugh at me, or some of them drink beer and get drunk and then get really close to my face and tell me they are lawyers and I'm not allowed to hand out fliers in public transportation... um...first time I've heard that in almost a year... Or maybe the guy who told us he saw us walking on the grass and told us to 'hold the prophets and save the green'...  Well, sometimes it's really hard for me to not turn around and walk away muttering under my breath and thinking 'yeah well we'll see where that gets you in the eternities...'  But I really need to STOP doing that.  There's got to be a way to love my enemies... I mean I LOVE Polish people, expecially the nice ones.  But it's the enemies I'm having a hard time loving and showing respect to.  And to their face I usually do a pretty good job, it's what you do when no one's looking that makes you who you are.  I guess I need to put myself in their shoes, remember that not everyone is as lucky as I am and stop judghing.  So if anyone has any shortcuts to loving enemies, throw them at me!  I want to fix this one!

 

I think I need to back up a bit now, with the story telling.  I missed a week, so I've got two weeks worth of story telling to do.  Therefore, we'll start with Monday, May 20th, I went to the trainstation and left my companion.  It was like sending my kid away to kindergarten (however I just saw on her calendar, the time she had alone she marked 'freedom' haha...so maybe thats how the five year old feels going away to school...).  She went home for like three hours by herself and then came back to the trainstation to pick up her new companion - Sister Holmgren.  So Sister Holmgren was here in Kraków for a night a day and a morning...and I was in Łódż.  Well they tell me that Łódż is not the prettiest city, but I'd say it's very quaint.  It's quieter than Warsaw and Kraków, but it's not ugly.  The pictures I sent last week should tell you so.  I LOVED the exchange in Łódż.  I was with Sister Wendel and we saw lots of awesome miracles.  We had four street lessons and I got to meet an AWESOME young woman who I think will get baptized.  She's so great!  I am excited to e-mail her sometime, (I just accidentally forgot my planner today so I've been using Sister Young's to remind me what to write...and her e-mail is in that, so maybe next time).

 

What I learned from the exchange:  Miracles will follow you when you have the faith and determination to succeed, and when you decide to be happy no matter what!

 

Then when I got home from Łódż, a man who lives in Texas and comes here for a couple months a year, a member, took us out to dinner.  His name is escaping me right now, so I hope he doesn't feel bad.  But I was so grateful for that pizza.  So if you ever get the chance to take the missionaries out to eat, or to feed them at your home, do it, they really appreciate it.

 

I talked to a psychologist woman on my way home from Łódż.  We had about four hours of train time so that was a very long conversation.  Hope I didn't bore her out.  She was super nice and we went all over the place with our conversation - those kind of things are really good for your polish!  I love how every person is so different.  If we were all the same, how BORING would this world be!  I'm grateful for that woman on the train, she was so kind and so willing to have an open conversation. 

 

I got home Wednesday night and saw my companion had made me a welcome home sign.  She missed me!  Haha... it feels nice to be missed.  I missed her too.  I love Sister Young, she's so much fun and we have such crazy experiences together, it's just a hoot.  And it's all hand in hand with sharing the gospel, so can't get too much better than that!  Thursday, the 23rd of May, then, that was the 'by bus or by train' day where, I think I sent you the recording last week, but we got switched up on which transportation to take, the bus or the train and we ended up going out to Katowice and back on busses.  I had a hard time sitting still and so I went up and talked to a woman and her five year old boy named Alan.  I told him that was my last name!  :) Fun.  She was cute, at one point we were practicing counting, and Alan decided to count how many earrings were in his mom's face, about 8 in one ear, 5 in the other, and one on her lip and one on the nose.  Haha... oh boy.  They were fun, I really did love them.

 

Then President Nielson came down to Kraków that day and gave us not just Specialized Training but specialized Specialized Training.  (Because originally we were supposed to be in Kielce with everyone else, but he ended up coming and giving us individually that training in Kraków).  It was a great experience and the Spirit was so strong.  I know that my mission president is called for a reason and that he has the keys to the work here in Poland.  I'm going to miss him a lot, he goes home at the end of this transfer (which we are half way through, into it about 4 weeks today).  I'm a little nervous about the next mission president, what he's like and how that will turn out! 

 

Friday we made our own tortillas...a bit salty...and met a woman in a tramwaj that said she was from Great Britain but we didn't believe it...

 

Saturday was a hard day... it was long...

 

And Sunday last week, that is what we've been calling Survival Day.  We set up a meeting with a woman who lives a little outside of Kraków in a place that one of our Elders knew.  She was a self referral - called into the office and requested a visit and free book of mormon, so for this we're definitely willing to go out of our way.  We scheduled a ton of time to get out there and back not sure how long exactly it would take us.  So we get to the end of one line of public transportation and then find a bus, the bus doesn't come for about fourty-five minutes and we hadn't had lunch hour so we went over and decided to look at a Catholic Church.  We walk over there and there were TONS of people coming out of this church, well, come to find out, that's the day everyone was getting their babies sprinkled!  Crazy!  So they, like us, have their little babies in white and they do a big family picture and it was so cute and fun to see, but also sad because you know that there is just something missing!  Anyways, that was a fun little adventure.  Then we go back to wait for the bus.  Finally our bus comes and we head out to our destination, I called the woman as we were going out there - she's actually only 18 turns out - and she tells us we have to walk a bit once we get to the stop.  So we end up walking for about 10-15 minutes to get to her house, in this SUPER cute area on the outskirts of Kraków.  The sun was shining, there were big white puffy clouds in the sky.  We walked on a bridge over a beautiful river with trees and high banks and heard the birds singing.  We got to teach Joanna about the Restoration and also her friend, who was there at the meeting!  Yay!  Referral!  Then we headed back... we get safely back to our bus stop (which is just a big blue post on the side of the road, not even a bench to sit on) and read the times... yep, you guessed it, our bus wasn't going to come for another 2 hours or so... maybe 1 hour and 45 minutes...well we decided to walk... but as we walked we realized we needed to relieve ourselves... so we went off-roading.  To be honest this felt very wierd.  I have not done anything camping-style for like a year at the least, and I left in the middle of winter so... anyways, this was fun... and we laughed a great lot that day... Sister Young got a blister on her foot and ended up walking barefoot and tearing apart her pair of socks... we waved at cars going by and walked all the way to the next stop, way further between stops than I remembered in the past.  Then we decided to wait at that stop and sat across the street on a low concrete barrier until our bus came.  Oh what a day!

 

That day we also had a ton of students at church.  We had a class of about 12 studying religion here in Kraków and it was so fun to have them at church.  Elder Walter gave a great talk on The Restoration and President Kucia also gave a great talk, I've never seen so many people in church that aren't members before.  Pretty awesome!

 

Then Monday, last week, we went to Auschwitz.  It was a crazy 2 hour bus ride out there, pretty sure I got car sick.  And it was a cold and rainy day - we've been having lots of cold and rainy days lately here... So that made it all the more a solemn trip.  The museum wouldn't let us just come in an walk around ourselves so we had to go with a tour-guide.  She spoke in English and we had little head-phones that we could listen to as we tagged along at the back or front of the group of about 30 people.  It was such a sad place.  It's really hard to imagine all of the hard things that happened there.  I couldn't help but think, though, that they can't want us to dwell on it.  Those that have passed on, well, they've passed on and those who were the executioners will recieve their just rewards.  I know God is a just God and he'll make it all alright in the end.  It was not a fun day, though.  We also had a mis-hap at the end of the day, we were hoping to get back and do at least a little e-mailing before the end of the day, but we got on this bus and something was wrong with it, so without telling the passengers, the bus driver drives to this remote bus-fixing-place and we wait for like half an hour for a replacement, or for them to make repairs - we weren't even sure.  So then they get us another bus... we switch busses once, then twice.  And we had to stand the whole 2 hours home.  It was hard.  I was also really weak because I hadn't eaten much earlier that day and I think just the whole experience, at one point I felt sort of like falling over, so I just sat on the floor of the bus for a while and tried to close my eyes.  I was alright, but Tuesday was hard I think, because of that whole ordeal...  Hey but it's over!

 

Tuesday I think was Miracle Pond day.  We felt we should be out by this mall as we planned the night before, so we go out there and on the way past the Pond we see a woman and her son, I stopped them by asking 'What brings you happiness.'  The boy - a ten year old named Anthony - said 'SNAILS' haha and the mom said something else, I can't even remember.  But it made my day and then we got to talking with this mom and turns out she failed a test that day - well got a C on it and doesn't know how she got a C and she was just really worried, she's put so much time and effort into her schooling, etc... She sounded really crushed.  She asked us to pray for her and that she really doesn't have the head to be meeting with us about religion but would we pray for her?  Of COURSE, I said, and put her name in my planner to pray for.   That ALSO made my day... then I also got the opportunity to tell her that really her grades won't matter after this life, what will matter is this son of hers, and how cool it is that she's a mom and 'good job!' and 'keep it up' - She said we were going to make her cry.  :) well good, you should feel that spirit all the time!  Because that's the TRUTH!  Next awesomeness about the Pond.  We saw this man looking out over the pond and sort of in a contimplative way... so I told him we're talking about how we know God loves us and shows us through beautiful days like today and this pond, etc.  We got to talking with him and turns out he's READ the Book of Mormon... whoa!  And I asked him if he believes it's true... well, he goes 'As a person, I'd say it's true, as a scholar/student I'd say it's probably true.'  Man!  So we ask about meeting and teach him a little bit and then I ask about his family.  This man lost two children to death early on.  It sounded so sad.  I didn't ask details... but I did tell him that we prayed to know where we aught to be that day and I KNOW God wanted him to hear that families can be together forever.  We have his number and are planning on meeting in a few weeks!

 

We had a funny experience this week when we walked through a park and saw two younger kids kissing.  We have this fun game we play, Sister Young and I, the awkward game... and if you do awkward things, you get awkward points.  So I was SO going to win this game and I decided to contact the two kissing teenagers.  Well, turns out that we got to sit down with Maciej and Ola and teach them about the Restoration.  Maciej is an AWESOME young man and if he just reads the Book of Mormon, we're going to see miracles in Kraków.  So, moral of the story, there's no growing in the comfort zone and there's no comfort in the growing zone.   So get out of your comfort zone!

 

Then we had a trip to Warsaw on Thursday morning for the Missionary Leadership Council Meeting.  We had a great trip there and got to talk to a guy and offer him a Book of Mormon, he didn't want it but was very nice, he works for Google.  The meeting was great!  I learned a lot and had a wonderful time being back in Warsaw, I love that big city... with all my heart!  We also got to go to Ogród Saski, where Poland was originally dedicated.  There we sang a hymn and prayed together.  It was pretty awesome.  The spirit was so strong.  Then I realized I had no time to get back to my train.  I decided to make a quick-split-second decision and after walking up ahead of the group aways (on the way back to the train station) I decided to RUN.  So I ran, and ran, and ran...probably like 3/4 of a mile!  And I made it, just on time, with my face splotchy as ever!

 

Anyways, this week has been awesome.  I love being a missionary.  I sent some stories to Dad about how we really had to listen and GOT to listen to the Spirit this week, it was a great experience.  I know God lives and LOVES each and every one of you, and life is an adventure so live it up!  Keep up the good work, smile big, and love EVERYONE!

 

Love,

Siostra Amber Allen

The Church is True: And Nothing Else Really...

Sent Wed. May 29, 2013

 

Dear family,

WELL...crazy couple days, to say the least.  I won't get it all in, but the reason why I didn't e-mail on Monday is because we didn't have time.  We went out to Auszwitz - I still don't know how to spell it, and we thought we'd get out there fast and come back fast and have a bit of time...but our bus broke down on the way back and we didn't get in until after prime proselyting time.  So we asked our mission leaders what to do and they said we had 20-30 minutes to e-mail you guys today and that's WAY nice of them.  They totally could have just been merciless and said, next week fellas... Hey and I think I could have held out because of some other cool stuff that's been happening, but it's also really great that I get to write to you.

 

I just hope you all know how lucky you are.  I  hope you all know how amazingly blessed you are.  You are alive.  You have freedom.  You can do whatever you want pretty much and you are healthy and happy.  You have the GOSPEL of Jesus Christ in your life.  You have His Restored Church and you are a part of it and you can joy in it every day.  You can read the scriptures and pray out loud and no one is going to care.  You can.  And it's wonderful.  So do what you are supposed to not because you have to but because you CAN!  It's such a great priveledge to work hard and live the gospel.  To live and breath it.  So please, just be so grateful and realize that nothing else matters!

 

Know that I love you all, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is TRUE! :)  Love, love, love ya!

- Sister Amber Allen

Grinning from Ear to Ear

Sorry folks, I am updating this today! Amber sent this May 20, 2013

 

Can I just say that you're e-mails make me grin SO MUCH!  And I'm in a library, right, so everytime I bust out laughing people are probably looking at me like 'who's the dumb blonde there laughing at nothing?'   But I don't care!  I've got a grin from ear to ear, thanks to you guys, and really you are THE BEST!  I love you all!   You all sound happy and healthy and for that I'm extremely grateful. Sister Young has told me some stories about her family, how her brother wrote her a super awesome note just before she left... how she really loves them... and I feel like I'm thinking more about you guys when she talks about her family.  Being fresh in the country I think you think about them a lot... not that I stopped thinking about you all... it's just that you're here for so long that you start... thinking a lot about other things too!  So yeah, just know I'm loving you from clear over here in Poland!  (And that Sister Young read me something from D&C that was advice to a missionary in the early church and it said that none of his family would die before he got home, I took that as a side-note to me too, so good to know none of you will die before I get home). 

 

Thanks for all of your encouraging-ness!  I re-read that book you guys made me right before my mission - it's a life saver, I tell you, I LOVE IT!  And I read luke's message, he told me to tell the people of Poland about how God saved his life.  I hadn't remembered that it said that, but actually last week we had a lesson with our baptismal date and we taught about fasting!  And of course I shared Luke's story.  It was a great lesson.  Thanks Luke for being a miracle kid!

 

Well... what else... Oh I have a quote that nathan wrote which I wrote again on a peice of paper and put it on my wall... it says the following,

 

"Take every opportunity that presents itself.  You will be EXHAUSTED I can guarantee that, but really you have the eternities to recover.  What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." - Nathan Boyd Allen

 

So basically that's my plan this week... work really hard.  Thing is I've been WAY exhausted lately.  I think it's cuz I'm walking more and hoping I'm doing everything to the best to make Kraków a strong city... and training... and going on exchanges today...and we're getting a new mission president...and we only have like 3 active members to work with who are all men...and well... there's only so much you can do - the rest is up to God... and we just trust him and he really does show us the way.  This week we saw an amazing 12 lessons. Most were street lessons. Which I actually am SO grateful for. They very well could just not happen, but they did and for that I'm so SO grateful! We prayed with almost all of them ON THE STREET. Which is an adrenaline rush in and of itself.

What I'm learning: I am so grateful that a mission teaches a person to not think about what others are thinking about him/her. I'm grateful that God lets us experience this and expecially in Poland where pretty much 90% of the people I talk to every day think I'm crazy or selling something or hate the very idea of talking about religion... You learn to rely heavily on your core - the core of your soul - the rock of your soul, or in other words, Our Redeemer! :) I love the Savior and the fact that he went through times like this too!

 Well, time really does fly. And I really am loving Kraków. I've made it one of my goals to not get frustrated or stressed out... only happiness. So far I'm doing alright! I'm hoping and praying that I'm being a good trainer and that my trainee is learning as much as she can. I'm hoping and praying that my Polish gets better because it's far from perfect. I'm hoping and praying that this exchange goes well and that I do all I'm expected to do here.  Oh yeah, I'm going to Łodż today!  So excited!  But exchanges are a bit nerve racking too - just cuz you are kind of showing off your missionary work to another missionary... and I want to do everything just right!  :)  But it will go fine.  I'm excited!  I'm also excited to let my companion have a break from me and see some other ways of doing missionary work.  This is seriously a GREAT thing that is happening to missionary work all over the world for sisters.  We get exchanges!  SWEET!  :)

 

Some really sad news, Elder Bokinski and Register from my MTC group... they hurt their knees, both of them, and they're going home.  I don't know the details, but even that was enough to make me cry... that's three of us that have gone home early. Will they be able to come back?  I don't know what to think about this and it really kinda hurts.  I hope they are okay.

Also, quick question, do we consider Peter as a prophet? People keep telling me that Christ was the last prophet. But if they believe in the Bible, I'd say we believe he was a prophet too... is that assumption correct?

Oh man, I'm all over the place, sorry!  Did I even tell you any stories about this week?  We saw a crazy homeless guy with like 8 dozen broken eggs and he had a scateboard in his plastic bag in the other hand... oh the things you see in this world... Then another drunk guy called at me from across the tramwaj just yesterday and said that my smile was making his heart thump (as he banged his hand on his chest several times) - uh... what do you do?  Smile anyways?  Haha... Smiling is great - actually a girl came up to us also yesterday on the tramwaj and said she'd seen us about four times now and that we're always so happy and maybe this isn't a coincidence and she'd like to be like us and decided to talk to us - we got her number.  Pray for her to be interested!  SO COOL!  Those are my favorite contacts, when they contact YOU and you realize you've just been doing your job and even if it looks like it's not paying of... whalla, it does!

Amber sent this May 20 , 2013

I heard that President Monson's wife passed away.  Sad.  But at the same time it's alright, he will be okay, he's the PROPHET!  I love prophets.  They're so great.

 

I've been thinking of the song 'In My Daughter's Eyes' - it's a country song... you should look it up for me if you want... and just listen to it vicariously for me.

 

Well, let me read a bit more about what you all had to say and maybe reply more individually.  But if anything, I hope you all know just how much I really do love you!  I'm so grateful to be a missionary!  I love it!  I'm excited to ride a train today and meet new people and see Łodż, I'm more excited to see the miracles the Lord has in store for the people of Poland!  I know that we belong to the true church of Christ.  I know that this organization is full of inspiration and that we are on the Lord's Side and will not fall or fail if we keep doing what is right.  God lives and loves us.  God is good.

Lots of love,

- Siostra Amber Allen