Christmas package info

Hello! We received an email from Ambers mission president concerning sending Christmas packages, so if any of you are planning to send her a package please send it to the mission home! Thanks for your prayers and support! Have a great day!
Love the Allens

Please send packages to the Mission Office address in Warsaw. 

(Name of Missionary)

Kosciol Jezusa Chrystusa Swietych w Dniach Ostatnich

Ul Wiertnicza 135

02-952 Warszawa

POLSKA

"Where will ye leave your glory?"

November is almost OVER!?  Crazy... and I see that we have a new Christmas Tree?  Awesome, but there wasn't much snow up there this year, eh?  Gid has glasses!?  Since when?  And Enos came down for Thanksgiving?!  Aaah!!! Oh man I love you guys!  I need an address for them, I want to send them a letter.  And grandma and grandpa back in the picture, yay!  Katherine, nice baby bump – you always look so cute!  Rachel…what is it with you and your tongue?  Girl, keep your tongue in your mouth! Haha… : )  Nice moose! OH I LOVE THESE PICTURES!!! YAY!  Oh my gosh, Tasha doesn’t even look pregnant yet… Aaah!  LIFE!  I also need Tavia's address... need to send that girl a postcard.

Well...that was a bit of gibberish...I don’t really know where to start… Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you had a great one!  We didn’t eat any turkey here, didn’t really celebrate Thanksgiving at all, but I’m still so grateful!  We did end up having a really fun meeting with a family just outside of Poznań on Thanksgiving night along with Elder and Sister Reed.  The father of the family is an older man from America and his wife is Polish.  They have two young kids, a girl and boy.  I really think that Ola, the wife, feels the Spirit really easily and loves the gospel, I’m excited to teach them more!  We got to help clean up their house for like an hour before our meeting and it was just SO MUCH FUN!  I love SERVICE!  And Ola was so grateful for it.  That was a good feeling.  Like yesterday morning, there was a father and his daughter Maria and they looked really poor, we told them we wanted to share the gospel with them and he told us about their destitute situation and that they really were poor. Well I asked the little girl what her favorite food was, her dad said 'candy' or maybe 'chocolate' - can't remember which one, anyways I remembered I had some chocolate in my bag that I really didn't want, so I bent down and un-zipped my back-pack and gave her a bag of chocolate covered nut things, she was pretty happy.  And I was maybe even more happy!!!   Another time this week we saw an older woman carrying groceries and she had a limp, we asked if we could help.  We were supposed to be at the chapel for a meeting but helped her anyways and she was also so grateful - you could just see it in her eyes.  The meeting at the chapel didn't end up happening, so it was alright that we were a little later than we were supposed to be.  Man...God just takes care of you!  Like with Daniel in the Old Testament - we read about him in Young Women's yesterday and how he stood up for what he believed in even though he could have been killed!  But he didn't get eaten by the lions, and he got promotions and all sorts of cool stuff...  - Matthew 10 talks about fearing not those that can take your life, but fear Satan instead, because he can take your Spiritual life.  We need to be more BRAVE in our lives, like that, and just do what God asks of us, because it will all work out - Trust god, and he'll make it all work out.

O.k. got 25 more minutes, I really want to read your stuff and then write back, but I guess I will just type and see where it takes me.  So this week we had some crazy fun things happen, we didn't reach our goals quite all the way this week, but it was still really fun and awesome!  We had a lesson with a woman named Irena who I personally think will end up getting baptized.  She's super spunky and has bright red lipstick and is way nice.  She's got two grown up kids and is divorced but is a fun business type woman with a super full, bright living room where we sat and taught a lesson with Sister Reed.  I loved how Irena described the Holy Ghost - that it's like a wind at her back, kind of softly telling her where to go, what to do.  She recently had a business trip and had some difficulties with a train being late or something and she was in charge of this thing and got really worried at first but then just felt like she should take a certain bus or something and that she wouldn't be more than 10 minutes late.  Sure enough, she walked in only 10 minutes late.  So cool.  I like her a lot.

We have three women with baptismal dates right now, Danka, Izabela, and Bogusia.  Thing is, none of them are really progressing right now, and I think we're going to have to push back their dates.  Danka was the one we met in a restaurant - she contacted us really - and she is kind of a cute old drama queen.  She calls my companion Sister Bet, and it's really funny.  She also diminutizes Grzegorz's name so she calls him 'Grzeszu' and it's hillarious.  It's like calling dad 'Benny' or something - oh man, gotta love Danka.  I think Sister Bezdjian wrote more about her, you should check out her blog too, it's sistersarabez.blogspot.com.  She probably has some fun stories on there that I haven't told...  Yeah, so we're really praying for these women.

I may have also told you about our friend Kamila - she's so cute! and awesome!  She came to church on Sunday for the first time!  AND Marcin gave a talk in church Sunday - he's the Elder's investegator who will be getting baptized on December 8th if all goes well and he stops smoking - I'm praying hard for him, I think he's the coolest thing since sliced cheese - seriously, he's the BOMB!  These young people in Poznań really get me excited, if we could just get a group of young college kids to join the church in Poznań, things would really have a solid basis.  Another young girl we met with is named Iwona - she's musical and studying languages, she's way awesome, and I want her to date one of the elder's investigators, Maciej, they'd be soooo cool together... um then just get them baptized and married in the temple and...and... !!!  O.k. I get carried away sometimes, but it's worth dreaming about!

A fun thing, a crazy thing, and then a spiritual thing, and then I got to attatch some pictures! and maybe a sound recording from sister B.'s recorder :)

Fun thing: We went ICE SKATING LAST WEEK ON MONDAY - and I had LEGS! I haven't worn jeans in a good five months and so that was crazy, and so much fun, I actually felt like I learned a bit this time I went skating, one foot in front of the other as you turn - I'm still really clumsy but I got better at it!  It was cool cuz we had the rink all to ourselves for like the first half an hour, and it was just five Mormon missionaries hanging out on an ice skating rink in POLAND and it just felt so GOOD.  I felt a little guilty for singing a long with Adele a couple of times, aaah!  Music!  Weird...

Crazy thing: We were coming out of an appointment with our investigator and we walked down the street, I contacted this lady and she started talking to me like she knew me from birth...Uh... I didn't really know how to handle the situation because sometimes I DO meet people a second time that I just don't remember, but I didn't know this woman from Adam and...well... haha so I just played along and said can we get your number and set up sometime and I think by the end of the conversation she realized she didn't know me but we just awkwardly parted cuz she said she had something she had to go do... so here comes the crazy part - this guy comes up to us, he's probably like 60 years old - and he says something like, 'what are you handing out little angels?' and Sister B. goes, 'well we have a message about Christ.' and he's like, 'what's this you have?' 'A flier with more knowledge about Christ's gospel,' and she hands it to him, well once he has it in his hand he goes 'WE HAVE OUR OWN RELIGION!' and he rips up the flier, crumples it up and throws it at the ground and sort of yells some other things at us as he walks away.  Sister B. said 'have a good day' and I picked up the ulotka to throw it away and... well...it was funny...but sort of shocking - that people are so...closed minded...so hard...

Spiritual thing:  As I read in 2nd Nephi this week, I've been reading a lot of Isaiah - I love how Nephi says that he loves the words of Isaiah - I think I'm loving them too.  They have so much imagery!  But I want you to look at 2 Nephi chapter 20 vs. 3 - there are three questions there that I want you to answer, expecially the last one - 'Where will ye leave your glory?' - When something good happens in life, who are you giving the credit to?  When you accomplish something great, where are you leaving your glory?  Let's work on giving it back to God - he's the giver of every good gift and we ought to remember that with a sincere heart!

I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the ONLY true church on the earth today - it's a pretty bold statement we have to declare to the world, but it's TRUE, and we stand by it, whether there be lions...scary old men... or anything else.  Stay strong, I love you all!

- Lots of Love from Poznań

- Siostra Amber Allen

Snow White and the 7 Dwarves

So... I just wrote like a whole paragraph of good stuff but part of
this computer's brain isn't working, so I hope this ends up working
today!  Aaah!

First of all, JENNY IS GOING ON A MISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I
LOVE YOU SO MUCH!  So cool, sista!  And to the Dominican Republic, my
cousin Shannon went there... if I'm not mistaken - you should ask her
about it!

Second of all, I have a NEW COUSIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Bridger?  Awesome!
Man, Goldie may be feeling a little lonely right now, tell her that I
felt her pain, but that boys are the BEST!  And she should be happy!

 Aaaah.... life, it comes at you SO FAST.  I can't
believe how fast time is flying, like seriously, this is crazy.  It
doesn't even feel like MONDAY yet, and yet here I am sitting at a
computer e-mailing again... crazy.

This week was AMAZING.  We achieved some really high goals and it was
only because we had the faith to set them.  I can't tell you how much
setting goals and just BELIEVING in them makes SUCH a huge difference.
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.  Sister Bezdjian (have I
told you how to pronounce that yet?  - Bez Jen - like the beginning of
Jenny's name) is so good at this setting goals stuff and just SHOOTING
for it.  She also gets really excited and stoked to meet the goals and
that's half the fun.

When you can get motivated and excited about the work then things like
THIS happen:
I felt like we should go talk to the lady who runs the parking lot
around the corner from our chapel.  We go over there and chat with
her, her name is Basia (said BASHA) and she took a book of mormon,
agreed to read and pray about it, and as she flipped through it right
there with us she told us that her DAUGHTER's name is ALMA!  There are
NO coincidences, my friends!  LOVE IT!

Then Sister Bezdjian felt like we should drop in on a mom who has five
kids and just hasn't had time to meet yet, but was contacted like a
year ago for the first time.  We dropped in, she was HOME! set up and
asked for a referral - we ALWAYS are supposed to ask for referrals
from EVERYONE... and she said to go upstairs and talk with the people
right above her... well we do, and we get ANOTHER family, with three
kids.  The one little boy said to me, 'Jaki pani ma włosy?' - or
something like that, which meant like, 'do you have hair?' or 'what
does your hair look like?' - because I had a hat on over my bun... I
realized what he was saying and took off my hat, then he goes 'Oh!
Jaki włos!' which is like, 'wow nice hair!'  I had a braid in front
and a cool bun in back, it was just a fun conversation with a 9 year
old, I shouldn't be that excited about it, but it was fun.  We asked
his little sister how old she was, and she goes 'cztery!' - she's
four... so cute!  They're all super chubby kids and awe man, so
excited to teach them.

Then we had to have four recent convert or less active members by the
end of Sunday evening, but Sunday morning came around and we only had
ONE... so we had to get 3 in one day...so I was praying hard and
thinking hard and we got one right after church with a girl Agnieszka
who I wasn't thinking would make it to church, but did, and we got to
meet with her right after the block of meetings... THEN we went to
Bożena's house and she wasn't answering her phone OR domophone...but
we kept ringing and kept waiting and finally she answered and let us
up!  Two down... one left... and we had about used up all our options
- don't have many here... so we decided to drop in on this guy we've
never met who was baptized like 6 years ago and we hadn't heard
anything about him, just had his address - was close to our house.  So
we walk over there and ring in and he ANSWERS!  My jaw about fell to
the floor...man, we were SO blessed.  So we got to have a lesson with
Przemysław and that was SWEET, told him to come to church, man... God
totally blessed us this week, we did NOT accomplish our goals through
our own power, of that I can surely testify.

We also had some really powerful lessons this week, lessons where I
felt like my face was hot because I was concentrating so hard and
hoping so much that the people would accept and act on our message.
Especially Kamila - she's our age, and is such an AWESOME young lady
with SO much potential, I sure hope she'll come to church soon.

Also, so sometimes when Izabela - who has a baptismal date on December
8th, answers her phone, she goes 'Hey-Hey, Ho-Ho' and it's just so
cute and funny so I said back, 'hey-hey, ho-ho' and she laughed, and
then I laughed and then we chatted for a while and such... Later that
night we had a lesson with her, I think it was on tithing - which she
ACCEPTED to pay!!!  - and after the lesson she walked with us to our
tramwaj stop and sister B. asked her why she says 'hey-hey, ho-ho' and
she was all like, well haven't you ever heard of the fairytale about
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves?  Well we don't know the word for
Snow White or Seven Dwarves in POLISH so we're like, 'NO!  Tell us!'
and haha she starts in on this story, she's linked arms with Sister B.
and I'm just walking along side listening to this cute little
middle-aged polish woman tell us a Fairy tale about a princess!?!  And
we're walking down a beautiful street in Poznan!?!  It was one of
those times where I was just full of joy about to burst and giggling
at the fact that we actually knew what story it was after about 30
seconds and, oh man.  Life is good, isn't it?  I love it!  So much to
be thankful for, especially right now, I feel so, so, so blessed.

The other night we were so hungry and yet neither of us seem to cook
quite up to par...so we ate like broccili and popcorn for dinner, that
was fun... Are you college kids getting enough to eat?  We should make
a pact to eat better, eh?  Haha, so fun.
Another time this week, we were walking over to go tracting when we
saw some people unloading furniture, it looked way too big to unload
but Sister B. asked if we could help - she's so cool, and ALWAYS
looking for ways to help, and she's SO good with people!  Man, I'm
learning so SO much from my companions, it's just crazy.

Other than this all, I want to say a bit to each of my siblings, but I
only have 7 minutes and still have to copy and paste some stuff
because the computer wasn't working earlier - OH I HAVE SO MUCH STILL
TO SAY!...oh well...

O.k. well, I just love you all SO MUCH! 
AAAh!  The church is so true, love you all!
- Siostra Amber Allen

Potatoes and Carrot Cake

Dear Family,

       Well, I’m no longer chora (aka SICK) – and I’m SO GRATEFUL!  It really stinks to be sick.  I don’t know if I was being a wimp or if it was really just that nasty but I felt so, so gross.  I would drift in and out of sleep and had the worst fever ever… haha but at least it was funny!  Sister Bezdjian had a good time with it.  One time she tried to feed me some bread and I like fell asleep while she was putting it in my mouth and then… oh yeah she was complaining about how she thinks someone destroyed some records that we should have in our apartment of members – their teaching records from before they were baptized, we don’t have some of them – and so I tried to quote Star Wars – you know when they destroy the records and Obi Wan is trying to find the Bounty Hunter and can’t find that planet… He comes and asks Yoda and Yoda asks the younglings and they say, ‘well somebody destroyed the records.’  - Yeah, tried to explain that part while I was deathly ill… was pretty funny I guess, I got some laughs out of it anyways…

        Yeah, but besides that, after a blessing from the Elders, and telling my MOTHER that I was sick (thanks for the prayers mom, I wished I could have told you earlier that I was sick so I could get some mama prayers, those always work 200% of the time!) – I got all better and now we’re working hard as ever.

 

So: Some funny/ awkward stories:

          This week we taught a lady named Jagoda – which means blueberry, I think, in Polish.  Well she’s got a 2 year old, maybe 3… and randomly during the lesson she started breast feeding him in front of us.  Yuck.  He’s WAY too old for that, my good woman…

          Haha, then this guy came into the chapel and asked if he could use the bathroom…’Sure’ – so he goes in there, and doesn’t shut the door.  Then Sister Reed walks by and shuts the door for him, and makes this face, -- you know the ‘Oh my chicken what is he doing!?’ kind of look – haha, yeah.

What else… oh yeah, not so funny – we just double scheduled ourselves this week and forgot to buy stuff and it was sort of stressful…but we made it through and now we’re back on schedule and we learned from our mistake and we’re going to do better.

 

We ate at a cool pizzeria and watched the guys making pizza throw the dough up in the air and swing it around and make the big crusts – super fun, and delicious. 

 

We watched The Restoration video in Polish with some neighborhood kids and their big brother Bartek, ate popcorn, cookies and sok (juice).  By the end, there was popcorn all over the floor, the kids were stealing cookies to take home, and they also didn’t want to leave.  But we gave them a book of mormon – the picture book version – and that was super fun.  We had our member, Natalie, there with us and it was good for her to be an older sister for the night.  I wonder if she ever babysits… she’s an only child.

         Speaking of Natalie – So I was wondering if the Young Women in our ward, preferably the beehives – but really whoever wanted to – I was wondering if you could send a picture of yourselves with your testimony to Natalie and then maybe I could get her to send her picture and testimony to you guys.  If you want to, you could write it and then try to translate it on-line, or I could just try to translate it here…or both… I just think it’d be cool.  She’s always saying how she wants more young women her age to be in church with her and so we can have activities.  I feel so bad for her, I was SO LUCKY to have such a big group of girls my age with the same belief system I had.  I was SO BLESSED to have friends in High School who I could go do baptisms for the dead with, or attend a early morning fireside with!  YOU ARE SO BLESSED!

 

A few things I’ve learned lately:

From Marlena, our sweet recent convert, who is currently sick and probably at home in bed.  We visited Marlena last night and our lesson was on Baptism and Confirmation.  As we talked with her she told us about how before her baptism she was sort of shy and always felt lonely and sad.  After her baptism and activity in the church, she said she was more confident, that now she could talk to anyone – Even OBAMA, she said! Haha, I thought it was pretty funny that out of anyone she chose Obama to be brave in front of.  Cute.  And she says that even though she lives alone, she now never feels alone.  I wonder sometimes, what it would have been like if I hadn’t had the gospel.  I wonder, and know that it would have just been harder.  There really IS SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS to people after they are baptized.  The Holy Ghost is REAL.  It’s not something we just talk about!

 

Speaking of the Holy Ghost, I had a really cool experience this week when as we walked home from an appointment and we were about to turn down the street to walk home when I felt like we should keep walking.  Sister Bezdjian later told me she had felt the same way so when I suggested it out loud, she agreed whole heartedly.  So we keep walking and the first people we see are this young guy and girl standing out on the door step smoking and chatting.  I felt like my stomach kind of leaped or something and sort of felt pulled towards them.  Immediately we walked up to them and started a conversation.  I remember that the way I contacted was really weird.  It wasn't super interesting and didn't say anything fancy, may have just said, 'hey I'm Sister Allen, what's your name?  What are you guys up to?'  Anyways, it turned into a full on conversation and we were able to give sort of a whole Restoration lesson there on their front porch!  We gave a book of mormon to the girl and she said maybe we could chat later.  This whole experience was just AWESOME and I KNOW I saw the hand of the Lord in our lives that day.  The Principle I learned was this:  ALWAYS listen to the Spirit, ALWAYS!

 

 Also, last night we had a lesson with an older member of our branch, named Bożena.  She’s upset with an investigator in our branch who she feels has offended her.  It’s pretty ugly.  Thing is, I don’t think this offending stuff has really been happening as much as she thinks – a lot of it is just built up from months and months of callouses of the mind!  You know, when you think about something long enough it starts to make it’s ugly head bigger… So we suggested she talk to this investigator about it and work things out. Well, she’ll have none of that, she said, no sir.  It just made me sad.  Are you going to let imagination get in the way of friendship?  What if things really aren’t all that bad and all you have to do is talk about it?  Really, people, COMMUNICATION!  Sister Bezdjian read me something this morning about how Moroni was a man of great understanding, then she looked up synonyms for understanding and somewhere found communication.  So Moroni, yeah that guy who shook Hell and if every man (or woman) were like unto him, the very powers of Hell would be shaken forever, yeah that guy – he’s a man of great communication.  You better believe it.  We really need to talk things over with people, in a kind and gentle way, but really just be open and HONEST.  If this world were just more honest with itself! 

Want to hear some MORE cudowny things?  Miraculous, that is?  We had like 30 people at church this week!  THIRTY!  Okay there was more like 28 or 29, but still, THAT’S A TON!  I was STOKED!!!

We woke up Sunday morning and all we did was peel potatoes and make carrot cake and Jesus Bread for like 2 hours.  Man… we had so much to bring – but the OBIAD (Lunch/Meal) after church was delicious!!!  We also had these things called Rogale, they’re special to Poznań and it was a holiday celebrating this guy who came in on a horse and usually gave money to the poor, didn’t have money at the time, but his horse lost his shoe and the peasants sold the horse shoe and had enough money to live, so now they make these super yummy pasteries in the shape of a horse shoe and they’ve got almonds on them and almond flavored filling and they’re seriously DELICIOUS!

Yep, what else…

We are really trying hard to get to bed on time!  We seem to have so much to do at night time recently.  Filling out teaching records, etc.  At the same time, it's so AWESOME that we have so many teaching records to fill out!!!  I also want to just make sure we're taking things at a pace in which the Spirit can keep up with.  If we're moving too fast to feel the Spirit, that's besides the point!  I also am working on saying nothing negative.  It's hard!  Not because I say negative things all the time, but I've realized I do say them more than I thought...in small ways. 

 Basically, my companion and I are doing SO great.  Especially now that I'm feeling completely back to normal health and we're just ripping it up again in Poznań.  We heard about Sister Ostler going home because of sickness, and we're not sure how to handle that, super sad!  I hope you are okay, girlie!  Also, Sister Folsom, I've got a present for her from Pani łucja and I'll try to send it if I get the chance, just don't know where to send it.

Thanks, everyone, for your prayers and smiles.  I can feel them even over here in Poland!  I love you all SO VERY MUCH!  I read something this morning in Preach My Gospel that said, we are helpless without the Atonement of Jesus Christ - and it's true.  Remember as you're being THANKFUL this week, that Christ suffered and died for you.  But I know he lives!  And loves us! 

Much love,

- Siostra Amber Allen

Poland's Day of the Dead

Hey everyone!  Sorry I'm writing so late today!  But I'm glad I get to write still.  

This week has been pretty crazy.  In Poland, they don't celebrate Halloween, but they do celebrate 'All Saint's Day' or Day of the Dead.  So as a branch we celebrated Halloween and had a super fun party and carved pumpkins but later this week we went to the graves and celebrated All Saints Day with Natalie.  Natalie is the 12 year old in our branch that got baptized with out her parents getting baptized.  She comes to church all by herself!  She's so cool.  So on All Saints Day they put candles and lanterns all over the graves and everyone comes and visits the graves of their ancestors.  It's really quite beautiful.  On our way back home from the graves we were on a tramwaj - the long bus-like things that run on rails - and this hooligan pulled the emergency alarm break in the back of the tramwaj.  Then the two men got off the tramwaj and walked quickly away.  That was an adventure.  

We have three baptismal dates in Poznan!  Hold your thumbs that they'll all go through!  (Instead of crossing your fingers in Poland, you hold your thumbs).

Anyways, this week has been so good.  One of my favorite parts was visiting this little girl, Izabela, at the hospital.  We walked part way and rode a bus most of the way, with Izabela's little sisters, and an older sibling and her husband I think... the little girls, Marcela and Martyna are twins and they're the cutest things ever.  We got to the hospital room and were able to sing a couple hymns in polish to them.  We also got them singing with us at one point.  It was just super fun.  On the way home we taught the twins how to play this hand-slap game and they just ate it up.  It was so fun to play on the bus, then they wanted to keep doing it as we walked back to the chapel.  They live right across the street from the chapel, and I may have talked about them before.  Kids are the best, and they have so much potential!  If you have any influence on little kids, just love them, alright?!

I got a letter from the Tonja and Jason Henderson family today!  That was fun!  Thanks guys!  And thanks Rishi for all the letters you have sent.  You're so amazing!

I bought new boots this week, and gloves and a hat!  I'm excited to use them soon.  Sorry I haven't said much about the weather... but fall has basically come and gone and there are not many pretty leaves on the trees anymore, looks like winter!   It did snow a little bit a while ago, but not enough to stay on the ground.  Fall was beautiful here!  And I loved the time change cuz I got an extra hour of sleep.

Well the past few days I've been feeling pretty sick.  I'm thinking I have the stomach flu, I've got a pretty nasty fever.  But I got a blessing this morning and I'm so grateful for blessings and the priesthood!  I'm also grateful for little miracles.  Yesterday my fever broke for long enough that I felt like I could go to church.  I was so grateful for that. 

I know that God is looking out for me and that His Son knows exactly what I'm feeling.  Christ is so amazing.  I can't imagine being sick all the time like some people are, or being like  Wojtek and having MS, or like Bozena who has to get dialysis every other day.  I'm grateful for my usual great health and I'm grateful for the Savior who knows how to comfort me.  He comforts me with family, like the other night when I couldn't sleep i got up and read some letters from family and could get my mind off of my body.  He comforts me with a great companion who knows how to serve me and stay positive.  And with worthy awesome elders who could give me a blessing this morning.  I'm so grateful for our Elders - Elder Tiner and Elder Stockford.  Such awesome young men.  

The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints is TRUE.  Stay healthy, remember the Savior, and find someone to comfort who isn't feeling well.  

Love you all so, so much,

- Siostra Amber Allen

How to Get a Pole to Pray...

Where do I start?  I don't know where to start...

How about I make a list and then...

Haha... HEY YOU GUYS!  THE CHURCH IS TRUE! :)

 

Well, I'll start at the beginning of this week, we found out who our new companions would be and where we'd be spending our next transfer.  I am now serving with Sister Sara Bezdjian, from Salt Lake City, Utah.  She played lacrosse and soccer in high school and she used to have really long gorgeous brown hair.  (Well her hair is still gorgeous, but just short now...oh and still brown).  She's the one that came down for a couple days on an exchange earlier last transfer.  The last 2 transfers she was serving with Sister Ostler - one of my MTC companions - in Gdańsk before that with Sister McAdams for 3 months.  So she's been in Gdańsk her whole mission and now she gets to rock Poznań with me!  It's going to be a blast, I can already tell.  She likes to laugh, and she's good at entertaining us.  I have realized on the mission (if I hadn't before) that I'm sort of...boring.  So sorry for whoever was bored out of their minds whenever they hung out with me.  Gregg would call that a 'hater' - haha, well either way, I'm going to work on being more fun.  But we're also going to work our rear ends off, and it's going to hurt SO GOOD.

 

For example, I've never felt so close to getting what they call 'The Standard' as we got this week.  We were only 2 numbers off.  And we're aiming high and setting the goal to get the standard this week, and I'm so excited.  I love setting goals and getting a bit competitive... I mean that only in a good way.  I mean, really, all it is a bit of faith.  You believe you can do it, you set your sights high, and then you go for it - NO EXCUSES!  NO BEING LAME!  So here we go.

 

This week was really REALLY cool.  There were so many awesome things that happened, to name a few...

1. Izabela came back, she now has a baptismal date again.

2. Danka came out of the wood work.

3. Anna's HUSBAND was on a lesson.

4. Weronika PRAYED!

5. Arseń was on a lesson with Pani Łucja :)

6. Fireside: Armor of God

7. We got an extra hour of SLEEP!!! Hahaha!

8. I got a letter from Allison Barnes, Julia Keleman, and Jenny Williams... and they're going on MISSIONS!

9. I got a letter from Rishi and she's going to have a BABY soon!  (I am excited to see pictures)

10. I made Jesus Bread all by myself!

 

O.k. so #1, #8, #9, and #10 sort of explain themselves.  I'm going to give a bit more about the others...

 

2. Danka - SO we went out to eat at this cool Polish cuisine place and it's like the traditional meat, potatoes, and salads and soups... and we were sitting there eating and I saw some guys eating french fries and really wanted some, so we decided to order them.  We did, and I'm glad we did, because this woman sitting at the next table over just started talking to us randomly, out of the blue!  Haha, her name is Danka.  She's middle aged and interesting, sort of pessimistic, but we're working on it, and just wuper WILLING to listen to us.  She came to Institute that night, took a book of mormon and has read half of it, she said on Sunday, and also came to CHURCH on Sunday.  She may have a baptismal date, we're securing that detail tonight.  Soooo.... SUPER!

 

3. So Anna, cute awesome mom with the three kids and one in a wheelchair!  We got to set up with her and went over to her house Friday and she invited her husband to sit down (which I've been praying and hoping and praying for him to be on a lesson because I know how a family should be united and they should communicate about everything!  And I just knew they both had to be in on this!)  HE CAME AND SAT DOWN AND LISTENED!  And I think he even felt the Spirit, and he asked questions and we asked questions.  And when I asked him if he believed the bible was true he said yes, but that more of it was hypothetical and parables rather than straight up literal.  I was confused with what he was talking about in Polish so I said, 'do you know the Book of Mormon is true?'  He said, 'Well I don't know, I'll have to read it to find out...'  He also believes there are people on other planets, not sure how he found that one out, but he asked it in such a normal way, like he's such a deep thinker, but at the same time I think a lot more spiritual than he lets on.  He would be the BEST bishop, EVER!  So we were going to set up for our next meeting and Anna said 'how about 17:30' and he goes, 'Well I'll still be at work then,' - so we get to meet with them again!  And he said he may read the Book of Mormon!  It's a start!  I just love them so much...and oh man... after that lesson I was about to explode with happiness!  I want to see them all in WHITE!

 

4. Weronika PRAYED this week!  It was amazing to see her just take that leap of faith.  Weronika is a younger red headed fire ball who lives here in Poznań studying medicine.  She used to be Athiest... over our four or five lessons and she began dating an Agnostic guy... but now she's claiming to be Agnostic - where she doesn't really believe there is a God, but she won't deny it.  We talked to her about praying - and she's been saying no like a million times already - and I felt impressed to share the story of our friend Darek, who also didn't want to pray but finally did, and it was just amazing.  So she did it!  And she said she felt 'weird' in a good enough way that she's going to 'try it again'!!!!!! Oh I never thought that seeing someone pray would be so exciting...but it seriously gives you a high.
 

5. Haha, so after the Fireside - which I may not get to talking about... we got Arseń to come with us to a lesson with this older woman.  Which he told us to call her a middle aged dame... but in Polish...haha...So she talks a LOT and he's usually really immature, but he was mature on the lesson and it was just so fun to see him behave infront of an old lady - he just got baptized my first transfer here - and anyways, super funny, don't have time to tell you more...

 

The Principle I learned was this, GOD WANTS YOU TO PRAY!  Pray about everything!  We were missing Sister B.'s new planner this week and after her running around trying to find it for a couple days, I asked if she'd prayed to find it.  Well, nope, so we prayed, and pretty soon there after - we found it!  Then we said a prayer of thanks.  God is THERE for you!  We just have to ask.  And if we can get Poland praying correctly, we can get Poland baptized.
 
My companion and I are doing GREAT!  We have so much to tell eachother, so many ideas to bounce off of one another, and so many things we AGREE on, that it's really refreshing!  I'm stoked to have only 30 minute lessons and to be able to speak more and just there will be some new things going on here and I need this change, it's going to be stellar.  I've already learned so much from Sister Bezdjian. 

 

All I can say is that miracles DO happen.  A man at a door yesterday said it was hard to believe everything about this Joseph Smith character.  Yeah well it's hard to believe that Christ changed water to wine too, I said, but it happened! And so did Joseph Smith story.  And whatever problem you are facing in life right now, it can be fixed through the Atonement and power of Christ, this I know.  MIRACLES will happen in Poland.  Sister B. has more faith in that than anyone I know.  She just EXPECTS it to happen, and it does - it's really weird, but super cool.  :) I'm excited to learn from her and have FAITH!

 

No pictures this week, or voice recordings, I'll work on it.

Mom, I did get your letter!  And I haven't read anything you guys sent me yet but I did look at the pictures - nice deer! 

Love ya all!

- Siostra Allen

Ode to Sister Folsom

 

Luke asked: Have you gotten to give out Books of Mormon this week? Is it getting cold? I feel so sick and my head hurts, maybe you gave me your sickness. Are you feeling better?

I'm feeling MUCH better, I gave out 9 Books of Mormon this week BUT this week was the best EVER because we had 22 LESSONS!  That's the most I've had in one week my whole mission!  And yes, it's getting colder, but last week was also REALLY warm for some reason - people call it a Golden Polish Autumn here instead of an Indian Summer like they do in the States.  It's been so GORGEOUS with all the leaves changing.  Last night there was lots of MIST though, tell me if you got the story I recorded and if you listened to it!

To all the BYU fans, I'm sorry about Riley and Notre Dame and stuff. That's a bummer.  Hey but maybe it's not meant to be, eh?

Well, my companion of four months is going home... it's weird.  Really weird.  But today I thought I'd just write about some things she's taught me:

 

Sister Folsom taught me how to cry when you eat really hot pizza.

Sister Folsom taught me how to never say anything negative, you never know who's listening that you'll bring down with you.

Sister Folsom taught me how to adopt an Eternal Perspective.

Sister Folsom taught me how to always listen to the Spirit, and to learn to recognize it.

Sister Folsom taught me to boot shop in the rain.

Sister Folsom taught me how to LOVE the people, LOVE the language, and LOVE the FOOD! :)

Sister Folsom taught me that when all else fails, MOże Być

Sister Folsom taught me you don't have to get all the right answers to get an 'A'

Sister Folsom taught me that the church is TRUE, it's all TRUE, no matter WHAT others may say, it's all TRUE.

Sister Folsom taught me that my gifts and talents were given to ME to add to God's storehouse and contribute to His kingdom in a unique way that only I can do it.  She said it's not just to catch a cool husband when I get home - it's to build God's kingdom.  So I better use my talents WISELY and realize that even if I can't do something the way she does, or the way someone else does, I'm here because God knew he could use ME, with all my weaknesses and flaws and everything!

Sister Folsom taught me that SATAN is the one telling me ooh, that's really annoying, I'm annoyed and that he's the one telling me I can't do this  It's Satan that whispers little lies to me and when I get frustrated I need to not only recognize what God's saying to me but see how I'm letting Satan in and to STOP it.

Sister Folsom taught me how to get to Kutno, Poland :)

Sister Folsom taught me how to go on an adventure in the mists of darkness, holding on to the iron rod, and making it to the TREE OF LIFE!

Sister Folsom taught me how to make life a PATTERN of PRAYER!

 

Yep, she taught me a TON and so much more I don't have time to write as of now!  But I really love her, and Poland will miss her a lot.  Good luck, Sister Folsom!

O.k., so my new companion will be Sister Bezjdian!!!  I'm SO EXCITED!  Change will be really good for me right now!  I will be staying in Poznań with her for the next two months - which are also the HOLIDAYS!  I'm excited to spend the holidays in my favorite place in the world!  It's going to be sweet!

 

Just so you all know, we're teaching three families right now!  It's really such a blessing!  I am so, SO blessed.  This last week was just a miracle.  One of my favorite things, when I felt the spirit so strong, was when we were walking down this street away from Pan Wojtek's place (remind me to tell you about him) and I said hello to this really old woman.  She said, 'hello, do I know you?' and was a bit startled.  I said, no, I just say hi to everyone.  She said, as she started to cry in a really shaky voice, 'well that's good!  I'm pleased!  Good to know there's still people like that out there,' and then she started to walk back to her house.  SAY HELLO to EVERYONE!  They need you more than you know.

I love you all, and smiles coming your way from Poznań]

Love,

Siostra Amber Allen

My Brother's an ELDER!!!

Oh man, I just got done reading one of Gregg's letters.  What a stud.  He's an ELDER!  And he's learning how lazy americans are...and how grateful we should be for our family, and just how much he loves us all, he's gaining weight like a good missionary should ... and man, I just LOVE MISSIONS!  The things they do for people is unreal.  UNREAL!

 

You know what else is unreal?  This week we had a MOM in Sacrament Meeting and we also had TWENTY-FIVE PEOPLE in Sacrament Meeting - most we've had since like my first transfer.  SO AWESOME! 

 

WHOA!!! WAIT WHAT!  I am skipping back and forth between reading letters and writing this dang e-mail and I just saw that TASHA IS PREGNANT!  WHAT IS THIS!  Aaaah!!!!! I'm SO HAPPY, I'm going to be an AUNT!  :) Haha, please do tell Tasha that her kids will call me Aunt Amber, it's going to be a party.  Oh man, Congrats to Tom and Tasha, my favorite red-headed couple in the whole world!!!  And TIFFANY is putting in mission papers?! and got accepted to BYU-Idaho?!!!  AWESOME!!!  Well, if any of these are rumors, I'm sure sorry... but they make me excited anyways!  So yeah...

 

Well, mom, you asked about the lady with an older fourty year old son... I'm not quite sure who that is, maybe Łucja?  We are not still teaching her, no.  The mother who we had the miracle meeting with (Kamila) never answers her phone and we saw her from her window once and she hurried and closed the window - so pretty sure she's avoiding us.  It happens alot, but I'm trying to get used to it.  The woman who had a baptismal date - Izabela - no longer has one, she also didn't answer her phone for like 2 weeks and flaked us three times.  She randomly called us this morning and set up a meeting tonight, so not really sure where that's going, but no, she doesn't have a baptismal date any more.  Matylda's family hasn't come to church, we invited Matylda to church yesterday, but she didn't come.  We have another meeting with that young mom and dad this week, though!  And there was a mom, Ola, who came to church with her two kids, a girl and a boy!  So fun!  We have a lesson with her tonight as well, so that will be awesome!

 

I woke up yesterday with what felt like a sinus infection.  I was expecting to make it through my whole mission without getting sick because when I got set apart, the Stake President said I'd be healthy like 3 times in the blessing!  Haha, but alas, here I am with stuffy nose and sort of achy head.  It's okay, I work through it, and life goes on!  I worry about my voice, though, if that goes... well... I didn't realize how much a missionary really needs her voice! 

 

O.k. besides this all I guess I ought to tell you some more stories...

 

So one day this week we were walking along the streets of Poznań and getting NAILED.  Like people were laughing at us and being rude and not stopping to talk and I was actually fine with it all, but I think Sister Folsom at that particular moment was feeling pretty...well...nailed.  And then randomly, some lady says to me, 'are you alright?'  (of course she said it in polish...)  And I go, 'yeah, why?'  She's so kind and an older woman with dyed black hair, but really young style clothes - she's like, 'well you just looked tired!'  'Haha!  Maybe I am a bit,'  'Well I am too,' she says - WHAT!  NO ONE EVER just TALKS to me!  It was so cool, then Sister Folsom came up and we talked to Beata for a while and she was so kind and has been to the States - to Oregon - which is where Sister Folsom is from.  So it was just awesome.  Then the NEXT person we meet is Elżbieta.  This woman KNOWS THE BIBLE!  NO ONE EVER KNOWS THE BIBLE!  People here say, 'the bible is enough for me' but no one has read it.  Even the Jehovah's Witnesses who claim they know the bible front to back haven't really read the whole thing through.  If they have, they completely ignore the fact that it doesn't make any sense with out the restoration!  So anyways, both of these women gave us their contact information and it was just great.  THEN!  I saw Bogusia!  (Boh-Goo-SH-UH)  (Yeah, the names here are out of WHACK! and AWESOME!)  she is one of our investegators who got offended at church and has been sick and just hasn't made time to meet.  So she wanted to use a computer with internet...just so happens we were headed back to the chapel and there's one there!  So we got to walk her back to the chapel and give her time on the internet.  Then we had a lesson with her on Word of Wisdom - which she AGREED to live!  And then the Elders gave her a priesthood blessing cuz she's been sick.  So great! 

 

Basically, if things are hard, and you're feeling like you're getting nailed... just wait, God's got something SO COOL in store for you.  I probably write about things like this every week... but that means God is pretty consistant, eh?  Yeah, it means we can surely TRUST HIM!  Because God knows how to give good gifts.  And he knows how to succor his children.  He especially loves us missionaries.  And if you want to feel especially loved... try being a missionary.  You can do it wherever you are, and whenever.  Do you know how AMAZING it is that so many of you know so many MORMONS?  There are no mormons in Poland... well there are a few... but the ones that are here I think at times feel very lonely.  I wish they could see a picture of my ward, a picture of the young woman's.  I wish they could talk to you and feel of your love and know they're not alone.  I wonder why I'm so blessed sometimes.  And it's really because my ancestors chose to live the gospel... and probably somewhere long long ago somebody followed the spirit to move to America.  You Americans don't have a clue how much you've got!  Seriously... You're so blessed.

 

God really is in the details of our lives.  Pray for help.  Read your BIBLE.  And KNOW your BIBLE.  It's true too, remember?

Love you tons, especially Mom, Dad, Gregg, Nathan, Spencer, Rachel, James, and Luke.  I can't tell you how much I love you guys.  I'm going to try to write a letter today and get it in the mail.  I also have a voice recorder I might try recording something and sending it next week, with pictures, no promises though!

 

LOVE YA TONS

The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is TRUE!

- Amber Allen

And then the WORLD got turned UPSIDE DOWN!!!

So, it's Saturday night in Poznań and the Elders call us... three times...while we were planning...and PRAYING even... Haha... we rejected and ignored their calls until after planning and prayer and then we called them back.  What's up?  Starszy Skolimowski starts out by saying, 'have you heard the big news?'  '"No, what?"  'President Monson's announcement, you haven't heard it?'  'NO, WHAT IS IT!?'  - so he's on speaker phone, we hadn't got to watch conference but the Elders watched it with their english speaking investegator at the Reed's apartment - and then he drops the bomb, 'They announced that Elders can now serve at age 18 and girls at age 19.'  'WHAT!!!'  ARE YOU KIDDING?!  Sister Folsom and I sort of...errupted... haha it was very LOUD to say the least in our apartment that night.  After a few seconds of freaking out, I realized they could be pulling our leg.  They've done it before... so we checked for understanding, like a good missionary should, and then decided to check in with a different source, out of the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses, you know?  So we actually rudely hung up on the elders and called Elder Reed who then CONFIRMED this craziness.  We couldn't stop thinking about it.  It was really hard to get to sleep.  I haven't wanted to call my family and Jenny so much in the last six months as I did last night.  I just wanted to talk to you guys so bad about this!  NATHAN!  I did the math and if you leave in July, that means I won't see you for a total of like 3 years and four months.  That really stinks.  But I'm willing to give you up for the Lord.  Besides, sacrifice brings for the blessings, right?  SCOTT!  Have you talked to Scott much about it?  You said you felt like you lost a year of your life, I just kept thinking about you, Nate, and wondering how you were feeling, if you could sleep Saturday night alright.  I think my head would be spinning.  This is going to completely CHANGE things, you know that?  Mormon culture is going to be so different.  And SO many more girls are going to serve.  Jenny!  man, I read your letter today and just cried.  I'd wanted to cry for you when I heard the news on Saturday but I was too excited to cry.  Today, I guess I was just in the mood and have now been able to cry  --cry for happiness that you get to go now and you don't have to wait like I did (if that is, of course, what the 'man upstairs' has in store for you).  Then again, like my Mom said, I definitely was supposed to go on a mission when I went, because that was what was supposed to happen.  I'm so grateful that I met Sarah and Laura and Stirling and Tyler and Bobby and the 8th Ward and learned to play the guitar and everything, no regrets!  Such a good life, I'm leading!  You know that?  WE are SOOOOoooooo BLESSED!  I guess I cried about that too, mom's letter just made me smile and cry.  She has such a strong testimony.

 

Yep so the Lord is preparing an ARMY, you know that?  An army  of young, prepared people.  Let me tell you, Nathan, Scott, Jenny, and who ever else is thinking about serving now - YOU ARE READY.  God wouldn't have changed the time period if he didn't know who was on the earth, RIGHT NOW to send out.  God loves you and, like President Monson said yesterday, he's in the very details of our lives.  (By the way I did get to watch Sunday morning session - and just the segment from Saturday's session when the prophet made that announcement.)

 

Dad, you asked if I'm tired.  Well sometimes I feel tired, expecially now that my legs and feet are realizing what they got themselves into... I do need to go buy some new boots and my favorite pair of shoes are almost worn out as of right now!   But generally, especially on lessons, I'm not near as tired because I can actually understand most of the conversation and I try to add in more things than I used to.  So that's good. 

 

You also asked about service opportunities.  We were able to move a dresser drawer thingy for a lady the other day who needed it moved...um... and I'm sure there's other things we've done as service but for the most part we don't really have any planned things.  I wish we did.  Sometimes after people rejecting us so much all I want is just someone to serve.  I love it when an old lady is walking slowly with tons of groceries and we just get to help her, it feels so good to just simply SERVE because a lot of the time I just feel like I'm bothering people.

 

Transfers are on the 26th of October, so my companion will leave me the 25th or so.  I'm a bit nervous, sad that sister Folsom is leaving, but definitley ready for some change up in here.  I really hope I get to stay in Poznań for the holidays at least.  I love this place so much.  It's so beautiful.  The leaves are starting to change and the people, I love the people here, and the lay out of the city, and the branch, and just... EVERYTHING!  I LOVE IT!  This is my city, definitley was meant to be here.

 

O.k. well, I feel like I haven't shared enough spiritual things, I am a missionary after all.  Just know that FAMILY is so important.  Oh my goodness it's so important.  I recieved a letter from Rishi this week and one from Katherine's family a while ago and I just LOVED getting those letters and recieving e-mails from you all today.  I'm so grateful that God has given us FAMILIES.  We got to meet with a family this week, actually, and I think it may be the first actual FAMILY who we've met with ALL TOGETHER.  We meet at the homes of families sometimes, but only one of the parents listens or something... so this was actually a young mom and dad, with their baby in the room, he's like 10 months old and named after his dad - SO CUTE!  They were so fun.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity we had to TEACH them!  I honestly didn't think that lesson would go through - it's always the lessons you don't think will go through that do.  So God wants you to just LOVE your families, try to find ways to serve them, know that you were put in YOUR family for a reason and God loves you so much.  I want to be with my family forever and I'm going to miss Nathan alot but at least we can still write, eh? 

 

Man, there was so much else I was going to write, but my time's up.

Love you all tons,

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the ONLY true church on the earth today.  I know it as much as I know that I have blue eyes and blonde hair - speaking of which, do we have Norwegian ancestors?  Several people this week told me I look Norwegian!

O.k. Dozobaczenia

-Siostra Amber Allen

SIDELINES

We did not get an email from Amber last Monday October,1,2012 She resent it today.

 

 

My family is very sports oriented and we love to watch, play, and talk about sports, pretty much any time of day all year long.  We're in the middle of BYU football season, and my brothers are playing soccer and flag football and of course they play basketball all year long Monday, Wednesday, Friday.  Dedication.  Haha, well even on my mission, I've been thinking about sports, and really applying the gospel to them really.  Lately I've been thinking alot about sidelines.  The first idea goes something like this:

 

Play hard while you're on/in the field, you never know who's watching you from the sidelines.

 

    I've been thinking about people in my life who probably don't know how much I watched them from the sidelines.  All my cousins who served missions, and my college friends too, Tessa who I watched drawing and inspired me to be an artist myself.  I even have a bookmark I have with me out here in Poland that I got from Sister Susan Standefer when I was in primary.  I defintiely watched her from the sidelines, what an amazing woman.  My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Jones, I watched her and wanted to be a teacher.  Amber Pickering, and Cheris Henderson - I think about them alot while I'm on my mission because I can picture them in my mind's eye with a name tag and a smile just turning the world upside down with their soul-shaking testimonies!

    I think the ones I really learned the most from, though, were my parents, of course.  I can see who I've become because of my parents.  My parents taught me to work hard, to plow through, and to give it my best shot.  In sports and dance and piano I was always encouraged to practice, practice, practice, and to have confidence in myself.  Dad always taught me I could do what I wanted to with my life, he taught me to dream.  Mom taught me to dream about my family, to love deeply and unselfishly.  My parents are also both firm in their beliefs and they're rooted, not to be moved.  I am learning more than ever out here playing on this field, how great it is to have those coaches, who are now on the sidelines watching me play (and cheering me on, rather than learning from me).  I am also grateful that not only could I watch them play, and have their example of being missionaries when they were young, but that now I have their full support.  I know mom prays for me multiple times a day, and dad too.  I'm so grateful for them.  I'm also grateful for all my friends and cousins who care and cheer for me too!  I got a package from Nephi and Katherine's family recently and it just made me SO HAPPY!  Thanks guys!

    There's something else about sidelines that's pretty magical too though, it's the faith that someone is learning from you as you play.  Sometimes we're in the heat of the game and all we can see is the goal line, the ball, the sweat, the dirt, the clock, whatever it is.  But you really hope that somebody is watching, learning, growing from you.  Sister Folsom and I have been talking alot about this lately, about how we're asked to have faith that we'll get baptisms... well Sister Folsom's only seen one which she taught her whole mission.  Yeah, but she's so full of faith that I don't know if there's any room left!  So where is all this hard work of faith going to?  The SIDELINES.  Four times in the last little while, people have been listening when I had no idea they were even there.  I was talking to someone and Hania was listening and then she ended up talking to Sister Folsom and we got a new investegator off of it!  The tramwaj driver was listening once and waved at us kindly.  Another woman was amazed we'd learned Polish that fast and started talking to us because we were talking to someone else.  Also, who knows how many people sit in on our lessons from the other side of the veil... and I have to believe that lots of our work lies in futurity!  WE ARE moving mountains, but we just have to have faith they're moving because we're focused on the ball right now... not on how many people in the crowd are being inspired in they're own simple ways to change for the better.  It's really a great feeling, to know that mountains ARE moving, even if we can't see them.  I KNOW they are, because I can feel it.  God didn't send us here to fail, so something great has got to be happening.

    Point of the sidelines story - KEEP singing, KEEP playing, KEEP praying because SOMETHING will come of it.  Have faith, and someday we'll see the mountains we've moved and it'll be super beautiful!  Some more stories:

 

Just yesterday we were at Park Cytadella, one of my favorite parks, and we were walking in when Sister Folsom got a phone call so I decided to just contact on my own for a minute and I saw the cutest little family out walking in the leaves.  Looked like they were searching for something, I thought perhaps for mushrooms…so I went over, and instead of just saying something about the gospel right away – like Elder Jensen talked about the Nike shoes first and then led into the gospel – I asked first about what they were doing.  It ended up being a really fun conversation especially because even though I told her that my Polish wasn’t very good, she insisted that it was and that if I could understand what she was saying after only 5 months of learning the language, that was pretty great.  Yes, well I prayed for help – that’s the best answer for that one!  And then we got into a little bit of a gospel discussion and then Sister Folsom came over and helped and we ended up being able to leave her with a Book of Mormon!  She says she doesn’t have time to meet, but Ana was interested, and if she just reads, man, so cool!  I know that even though a lot of the rest of that contacting time felt pretty slow, that one contact was why we were supposed to be there yesterday.

Another one, we were on our way to go tracting in another part of Poznań and there was a younger college age man coming out of the grocery store and we contacted him.  He was super nice and surprised that we talk about God to people because not very many people do.  He was up for meeting but didn’t have time and I just kept thinking about what we’d talked about in Zone Conference about how we should try to teach right NOW, if we can.  So I just re-stated that we could teach him right now if he had time, he agreed for us to come back in a ½ hour!  So we did!  And the lesson was so good, but at the end was the best part.  Darek has had some hard things in his life, and he wants help, but when we asked him to pray out loud, he didn’t want to, he said he was too nervous or something… We kept encouraging him for what seemed like at least 10 minutes, I even prayed once, telling him that my Polish stinks but I still pray out loud!  And then he finally did it!  Coolest thing was, that the beginning of his prayer was really slow and labored but as soon as he opened his mouth and just took that leap of faith to pray, it became way easier and the words just flowed from his mouth!  HOW AWESOME IS THAT!  He prayed to his heavenly father because we’re in Poland!  Such a great feeling.  He even said afterwards how much better he felt after the prayer and how we were right, it really did get easier as you pray!

A woman named Eugina said she’s been attending the Catholic Church across from her house for 30 years and has never felt the way she did when Sister Folsom quoted the First Vision story.  She’s committed to read the book of mormon, and those goosebumps were real.

Karol, an inactive member we found randomly on a bench my first couple weeks here has now been at church three weeks in a row and bore his testimony yesterday.  His testimony was much like Darek’s prayer, opened his mouth and at first it was like, ‘I feel good here, I don’t have much of a testimony….’ Some soft stuff….but as he bore witness, the spirit hit him and he was able to testify with great power that this church is TRUE.  And it was AMAZING and I wanted to SHOUT for joy because I felt so utterly HAPPY! 

The principle of all this?  OPEN YOUR MOUTH.  God will fill you with words, God will follow through if you just TRY.  Have confidence my little flock, because you CAN do this!

My companion and I are doing great.  I am just praying that Sister Folsom is happy all the time and praying that I can act in a way that will help her stay happy.  I’m hoping that she can have a smooth transition to go home –then again if you are a ‘consecrated missionary’ you are guaranteed to not have a smooth transition home… so I don’t really know what to pray for… Haha…oh well, so is life.  But we’re really doing great!  We even got free pasteries this week, SWEET!  Literally!

The church is SO true, and I'm so grateful for it in my life!  I'm so glad Gregg is serving with me!  Lots of love from me to you,

-Sister Amber Allen