Sara's Mission to Poland: Look Behind the Swine

Sister Allen and Sara at their finest!

Sara cooking in the kitchen in Poznan

Sara in front of their grocery store The Lady Bug
on one of their morning runs.

Dearest family bamily,

Thank you for praying so hard and so sincerely for us. I feel your love and I'm so happy to see you all had a good time in Denver! It looks really fun. I love seing those pictures.

Sister Allen is doing great! She is a woman of skills. I am growing to realize what I talented companion I've been blessed with! She is really good at singing (as I've mentioned) but not only that she is a really good seamstress. She made most of her skirts before the misson and they are all really cute. She helped me this week because my slit ripped and I am not really too good at sewing. So she helped me do it and now it is sewn well and will last. She is also a really good teacher---she really thinks about the lessons from the investigator's perspective and I love hearing her insights from the scriptures.

She taught me something cool this week. Sister Allen had read the story in Matthew about the devils that Christ casts into the swine. And then the people don't want to listen to him. Well she said we need to 'look behind the swine'. There may be 'bad' or difficult things in the restored church that, on the outside, are hard to understand or easy to reject (polygamy, the rumor that we're a sekta) but we need to look behind the swine and see the Lord's hand working miracles through the members of the church and throughout the world (humanitarian work, service, love and care for fellow neighbors and friends, greater patience, moderation).

Something I learned from the scriptures this week: Our district homework was to study the way the Savior prayed. Next district meeting is about "revelation through prayer" so we are studying how the Savior taught us to pray. I noticed that Christ always prayed for the benefit of others. He also prayed humbly, and reverently too. I want to pray more like that. I also had a question this week: How to help someone become humble? I've been studying conversion/the Spirit and I noticed that one of the first things someone experienced in conversion was that they were brought down to humility. So Sister Allen and I have been pondering, How can we help the people in Poland and our investigators feel that? It was really great because I happened to turn to Alma 5 which is exactly the same problem Alma was facing. I don't think I could teach like him but he helped remind the people of how merciful the Lord was to them and to their fathers. He reminded them of Christ and testified of the witness he himself had received from the Holy Spirit. It was a good study.

Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: charity. It is certainly one of the things that I can ALWAYS always improve on. And I think it is the 'magic something' behind every missionary success or miracle. Without it, all our work is worthless. And with it, we can have amazing experiences and be happy.

Fun things from this week:
*We went ice skating with the Reeds and the Elders last week! So fun. And Elder Tiner taught me how to do a step over thingy on the turns. It was really great. Also Elder Reed made us breakfast for dinner and that was delicious. The Reeds are so cool.

*Our prayers were answered when both of us lost our camera cords! Luckily they were still here in the library but MOST luckily, God answered our prayers when we asked to find them.

*We're meeting with a really great lady, Irena, and this week we talked about faith, repentance and baptism with her. She described that there's "wind on her back" telling her that this is a good thing. We said "Hey, that's the Spirit!" She's doing great progress.

* Danka told her family about the church. they got a little bit freaked out but hopefully it will smooth over soon. she's still feeling good about baptism and meeting with us.

* Marcin the elders' investigator gave a great talk in sacrament meeting! He is so cool.

* There is such a CUTE family. Husband is american from cali and the wife is polish. they have 2 little kids and we with the Reeds went over there last friday. we helped them clean for awhile and then we had a lesson. they are so cute! hopefully everything with them will keep going well.

*We had a really cool branch activity this week. We read the Family: A Proclamation to the World. It was really cool. The Reeds divided us into two groups--one read it from the perspective of an adult parent and the other from the perspective of a baby. It was really interesting. I invite you all to read it and think about how it applies to you.

*We met some really cool people on the bus the other day. I love contacting strangers sometimes. It can be such an adventure.

I love you all so so so much! I know that this church is true and that happiness and peace comes from living the restored gospel more than anything else. I love you and I know that Heavenly Father knows and loves each of us individually.

Thank you for all you do and for who you are.

Sister Bezdjian