Monday, December 31, 2012


Dearest Hannah, Andrew, Mom, and Dad,
 
AHHH! Can you believe that less than a week ago we were talking on the phone? That was so great. Really. I'm so grateful we got to do that! It gave me so much energy and happiness to talk with you. Yes, I know I already sound like one of those weird annoying sister missionaries. I'll be weird when I get home. Oh well. But seriously your voices are great! I also finally got to hear those recordings you sent on the zip drive so that was fun! You all are seriously the best. So funny thing: Sister Bown cried when she heard us talking. She was like "you and your family are so amazing!" And then the funny part is that she didn't cry when she talked to her family. Ha ha.
Sis Bown (pronounced like the color Brown without the r) and Sara on a sunny day!

 
Zone Conference was really fun! I loved spending time with the zone.

This Zone did a great job with finding the quotes as shown by Elders Zelezniak and Finch.  Sisters Bezdjian and Bown, Elders Cieslak, Stumpf, Raines, Dodge, Stockford and Tingey were all outstanding.
Sara got to be with her MTC companion Sis Masters at Zone Conference!



 As you probably saw on the blog we had a white elephant exchange, 

Elder Zelezniak received those special house slippers he wanted...
as did Sister Bezdjian.
Sara could use the slippers as her heels are peeling off - yuck
note the healing pox on her hands


really good lunch,
Thanks to 3 crockpots that were borrowed from other Branches around Poland, a delicious Christmas dinner was prepared by Elder and Sister Reed.  A big THANK YOU to them for a great meal!
Elder Roberts, Sisters Masters, Bezdjian, Bown, Forsey, Elders Finch and Gladun. 

 and lots of discussion from 3 Nephi 1 and Luke 1-2. We also watched some really cool videos from lds.org and the Christmas Devotional. I think every time we have Zone Conference I get a headache from the spiritual overload of goodness (plus lots of food).
The Bydgoszcz Zone: Seated: Elder and Sister Reed.  Middle Row: Elders Stumpf and Cieslak, Sisters Masters, Forsey, Bown and Bezdjian, Elders Roberts and Gladun.  Top Row: Elders Finch, Zelezniak, Dodge, Raines, Gudnason, Tiner, Stockford and Tingey.

The Poznan District: Elder and Sister Reed, Sisters Bezdjian and Bown, Elders Tingey (District Leader) and Stockford.
Everyone headed out and the "clean up committee" took over...the home town district...The Poznan District.  It was a great Zone Conference.  We had fun, enjoyed a wonderful Christmas program, received and gave gifts and most of all appreicated Christmas a little more.
It's back to Warsaw to get ready for the weekend.
We love our missionaries and just being with them.  They are so talented and valiant.  
These are days never to be forgotten


Something I learned from the scriptures this week: I studied President Uchtdorf's talk about regrets and resolutions. It is such a good time of year to look back, look ahead, and set goals and resolutions. Some of my goals are for this transfer, some for the rest of my mission, and some for the year in general. I can't wait to start the year afresh and see the miracles.

Sis. Bown is wonderful. I am having a great time with her. She is such a positive person and willing to work. She is from St. George, Utah and is really tall. She has 1 brother and 4 sisters and if you guys thought the parents were strict, meet the Bowns! She had curfew at 10 ON A GOOD DAY. 10 pm! Crazy. 
Morning run!

It is fun being around her and I like learning together. She is a good example of humility because she is pro at tennis and piano but doesn't brag about it at all. Oh and she has handwriting like Hannah too so that's nice. We get along really well and we set a bunch of goals together for the transfer and the new year. 

She taught me something way cool this week. We talked about the stripling warriors and she made a good point--they were warriors, not soldiers. So what's the difference between a soldier and a warrior? Soldiers fight because they're paid, and warriors have their heart in the cause. So we as missionaries are going to work like warriors rather than soldiers.

Also we talked about teaching the doctrine clearly and simply and she had a good analogy. When we teach well and invite them to make commitments, it's like we passed the ball to their court. But you can't cut the ball in half and expect them to bounce it back. We should teach simply and thoroughly.  
And our Christ-like attribute for this week is: humility. We are lucky and blessed to be teaching so many families and finding so many people. I just want to work on giving the Lord the credit and not wanting people to be baptized for my own selfish reasons. Because Irena set a baptismal date! And so did Romana. Let me tell you about her. She is crazy/awesome. So the Elders got a phone call on Christmas from Romana saying she wanted to come to our services. Well Christmas was a Tuesday so they told her you can come on Sunday. Then they set up at did a trade-off because she is a single woman and living in our area. So we went over there and turns out she met the missionaries 9 years ago and really wants to be baptized. Talk about a miracle out of the blue. So her date is the 9th of February and she's studied tons of religions and she thinks we are great people, loves to talk a lot, and is so excited about all of this. We're meeting with her again tomorrow and hopefully Marcin, our recent convert (as of 9 days ago) will come with us!
 
Things I forgot to tell you about on the phone:
*It gets DARK at 4 pm.

*I am working on the splits! I'm almost there. I was super close to the ground but then I did it too much and kind of hurt my leg. But I think I will get there in the next month or two!

*My cooking skills are improving. I can officially make Jesus Bread, polish salad, pizza, and fish tacos and delicous pasta sauce :) I only have ruined a few things so far.

*Also: we had a meeting with our Australian doctor friend with Elder Reed and it was great! He is really loving the Book of Mormon and I think he is feeling the truth of our message.

*We had a christmas obiad with members/investigators after Marcin's baptism on the 22nd and it was so much fun! see the reed's blog for pictures.
 
Love you all! keep the emails/letters coming :)
 
Sara
 
p.s. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Friday, December 28, 2012

from the Reed's Blog....


Christmas Day

We again had the missionaries over for Christmas dinner, along with three of our Branch members – Marian, Bozena, and Arseni. Turkey, yams, and pumpkin pie were not on the menu, but Sister Reed did produce some sage dressing along with chicken for the occasion. We had a great time together, and after our meal we played one of our favorite games – Bonko. There are no language barriers in this game. We were so glad that our three Branch members could come to help us celebrate this very special day.
Elder Tingey, Elder Stockford, Arseni, Sister Bown, and Sister Bezdjian
Marian, Sister Reed, Elder Reed, and Bozena
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Wigilia

Wigilia – Christmas Eve! We had a American Christmas Eve with our missionaries, Sisters Bezdjian and Bown and Elders Stockford and Tingey. We didn’t have a 12 course meal as is the Polish tradition, or watch for the first star of the evening to appear in order to begin our festivities; but we still had a great time. We enjoyed our dinner together with lots of conversation, and then the Elders and Sisters planned a little skit to perform for us – we had to have an audience, so we were the perfect audience.
They had a great time planning the skit.
The skit was a great hit, and the audience couldn't stop its applause! They responded as actors do after a spectacular performance.
After the skit we watched one of the Tabernacle Choir’s Christmas performances of Music and the Spoken Word. That was a special Christmas treat for the missionaries and for us, too. We ended the evening with a candlelight reading of the beautiful story of the birth of the Savior found in the book of Luke and the singing of Christmas carols. We all shared our testimonies of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. It was such a wonderful Christmas Eve to be with our much-loved missionaries with whom we serve here in Poznan.
Merry Christmas from the Poznan missionaries!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Posting from the Reed's Blog (the senior couple in Poznan)


Branch Christmas Party

At this time of year in Poznan our days are pretty short. It starts getting dark around 3:30, and the mornings aren’t totally light until 8:00. The skies are usually gray and overcast during the winter. But in spite of all that, there is a lot of holiday joy going around among people. It’s a beautiful time of year as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. We had a wonderful Branch Christmas party last night with a large group attending. Over half the group were visitors or investigators, thanks to our missionaries. We started the evening with a wonderful dinner of contributions from the people in attendance. We then sang Polish carols (very beautiful carols, we must say), followed by a “white elephant” gift exchange. The gift exchange brought a lot of laughter with each gift opened. There was such a warm spirit at this gathering, and everyone seemed to have a great time.
Most of the group as we enjoyed the meal. We had about 34 in attendance, which made the evening very festive.
Regina opened her gift and found a meat hammer. She's got great plans for this untensil!
Grzegorz received this fuzzy scarf, which brought the house down. He was in charge of the party set-up and did a great job.
We are sure this gift will be most useful!
These boys had a laugh out of their gifts - a gorgeous tie and a packet of tissue!
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Baptism for Marcin

Saturday afternoon Marcin was baptized and confirmed as a new member of the Church. What a wonderful occasion this was! He has been taught by the Elders for several months, and his testimony has grown through those months and continues to grow. He has just graduated from one of the universities here in Poznan, and we hope that he can find a job here in order to stay in the city as a member of our branch. He is a wonderful young man and is a great addition to our branch.
Elder Tingey (who was just transferred to our branch), Marcin, and Elder Stockford
This is the group attending Marcin's baptism. Five of Marcin's friends attended this special occasion for him.
We also have a new Sister in our branch. Sister Bown has joined us, and we are so glad to have her along with Sister Bezdjian. Our missionaries are working so diligently and are very busy contacting and teaching. The seeds of the gospel are being planted in Poznan by these wonderful Elders and Sisters.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Siostra Bown and Sara to be comps in Poznan 12/19/12

This is Sara's new companion.  Siostra Bown is from St. George and she entered Poland October 23rd! Sara will not be writing an email on Monday since she get to talk to us by phone on Tuesday Dec. 25th, Christmas Day!

The Apoxalypse

Dearest family,

Thank you for your prayers. Knowing that you are all praying for me
and our companionship is a huge comfort. Because I won't lie, I've had
a pretty crazy week! We had Zone training on wednesday and then we
found out something crazy. But first answer me this:

What has white feathers and lays eggs?
What do most people get once in their lives?
What has an incubation period of 21 days?
When do you use Camomile lotion?
What did we get from the Griffiths when we were kids?
Why does Hannah have a scar near her eyebrow?
What did the pani doctor tell me I have this week?




That's right. CHICKEN POX. For the second time. It was really crazy
and painful and I DO NOT recommend it! Apparently I just caught it
from the air and stuff. It all started on Tuesday, my head was kinda
itchy but I didn't know why so I just kept scratching. Well that night
my hands had all these red tiny itchy bumps. The next day they were on
my face and feet and knees and elbows and just everywhere. It was
pretty gross.

But anyway!
Sister Allen is an amazing comforter. This week was kind of painful at
times (chicken pox are NOT enjoyable, trust me) and there wasn't much
I could do to help the burning, itching feeling all over my body. But
Sister Allen is so amazing. I was in a lot of pain one night and she
woke up and helped me, brought me cool rags to put on my poxes, told
me stories to get my mind of the itching, and was just overall so
patient with me. The next day one of our investigators had broken her
hand and called us in pain, crying on the phone. Sister Allen sang
some christmas carols and our investigator still keeps thanking her
for doing that.

Something I learned from the scriptures this week: Well, before we
realized it was chicken pox, I was just itching all over and really
not liking it. So I decided to ponder about who also had red
irritating boils all over their skin and I thought about Job. So I
decided to read his story. Well little did I know! I thought maybe his
hardships lasted, 2 or 3 chapters but to my surprised there is 42
chapters of his suffering before he gets back to normal. We had just
had a lesson with a member and an investigator who asked "why does God
let some people be born rich and others are in poverty?" I was
pondering that question as I read the story of Job. True, it wasn't
'fair' that God allowed Satan to tempt Job. But then Job, in the end,
received double what he had in the beginning. And not only that, but
he gained knowledge throughout the experience. Even though he "cursed
the day he was born" I think Job has astounding character for enduring
faithfully and staying true to what he knew to be right. I hope I can
follow his example, even in hard trials. He recognized that God gave
him all those things, and God could take it away too. It was helpful
to think of Job while I was in the depths of chicken pox. Ha ha.
Sister Reed was also really really helpful too. She brought us all
this baking soda and I took a nice bath in it.

My Christ-like attribute for this week is: adapting. I want to be
flexible to the change that's going to happen. Sister Allen will be
transferring to Warsaw on Wednesday and I am really going to miss her.
But I know that change is a good thing and enables other things to
grow. So my goal is to adapt to the needs of our investigators,
members, and contacts that we meet. I'm excited for Christmas and to
celebrate it here in Poznan.

Ways we saw the Lord's hand this week: I am healing from the pox! That
has been the greatest miracle of all. I am so grateful to have health
and be remotivated to go out and work and talk with people about the
gospel. I love missionary work. I can't wait to get out there again!
Also since we've been stuck inside all week (we have officially called
EVERYONE in the area book, phone, and investigators) the Elders and
Elder Reed came and brought us the sacrament yesterday. That was
really amazing and personal as sister allen and I were the only ones
and it was just for us. I love that feeling of renewal.

I love you all! And I pray for you every day. Keep up the good work :)

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


Monday, December 10, 2012

Dec. 10, 2012 -Amazing, freezing week in Poznan Poland

in the rynek (market)

my makeshift shelf in the bathroom


with rotten yogurt in our kitchen

morning soccer

at a cathedral last pday

by the river, serious face


Dearest Family, czyli Dad, Mom, Andrew, Hannah,

Thank you for the pictures! I love love love hearing from you all! It
just brightens my entire week.

Sister Allen is wonderful. Honestly I think we are having too much
fun. We are learning so much and I love the joy of missionary work.
Sister Allen is really good at pondering on the words of the
scriptures so I love hearing her thoughts in companion study.  She
taught me something really cool from the scriptures this week. She was
reading in D&C and it says to "fear not, and hearken not unto the
commandments of men." Me, being a rusher, would just race through it
and keep reading. But Sister Allen is a level up. She stopped and
thought, what are the commandments of men? and pondered it. So then
she told me some and we thought of some together.
-That one has to be skinny and perfect to fit into society
-Take care of yourself---meaning in a selfish way, don't bear the
burdens of others
-Get money
-Eat, drink, and be merry
etc. I'm sure you can think of some more.

Something I learned from the scriptures this week: For district
meeting we answered questions that we get asked all the time, using
the Book of Mormon. It was such an enlightening discussion! Some of
our questions were:
why are you here?
how did you learn Polish?
why does God allow bad things to happen?
I already have been baptized/the Bible/my church. why do I need to be
baptized again/your message/the Book of Mormon?
It was really cool to search through the Book of Mormon to find the
answers and discuss. I'm excited to sum up these doctrines in Polish
and be prepared to tell and testify to people.

Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: I have patience and Sister
Allen has faith. Then at the end of the week we're going to talk about
them and how they relate to each other. I think as we both work on
these, we will strengthen our faith and wax stronger in our patience
to fulfill the goals we have of having one baptism before the end of
the year.

HAPPENINGS IN GDANSK!


 ONE OF SARA'S FAVORITE FAMILIES FROM GDANSK HAD THEIR YOUNGEST DAUGHTER WHO IS NOW 8 ENTER THE WATERS OF BAPTISM.  ANIA WATCHED HER MOTHER, OLDER SISTER AND BROTHER BE BAPTIZED SEPT 22ND - THE WAIT SEEMED LIKE IT WOULD BE LONG BUT IT HAPPENED 12/8/12!  CONGRATULATIONS ANIA!!!







BACK TO POZNAN:
Way we saw the Lord's hand this week: We had so many people in church
this week! It was great. And with two families with kids there too, it
felt like home (aka noise during the talks, kids running around,
parents going in and out). It was amazing to feel the Spirit with our
investigators outnumbering the members. I loved it. I can't wait to
see the branch in Poznan grow and grow. Later Sunday night we had a
lesson with one of the families. They are doing so great. We acted out
1 Nephi 1-4 with the kids and it was actually really fun. I was Lemuel
Zoram, and Laban and the 4 year old was the Spirit, the 8 year old was
Nephi and the 13 year old was Lehi. It was so cute and fun. Oh and the
Mom was the narrator/reading person and Sister Allen was Laman. You
can already see a difference in their family; I love seeing the change
the gospel brings in people.

Other things from this week:
*We met this cute couple walking on the street one cold night. We were
on the way to a less active's house and we started talking to this
lady about the Book of Mormon. Next thing we know she invited us
inside and we had a lesson with her and her boyfriend!

*Sister Allen and I ate frog legs for lunch one day at a Chinese
restaurant. Cool to hear Polish with a chinese accent.

*We had a really fun YSA event. We decorated the Christmas tree in the
foyer! One of our families came and they loved it and then these two
young boys we met came too. That was crazy because we didn't expect so
many people.

FROM THE REEDS BLOG - the two boys were put in charge of the lights
beautiful tree!


*Basically life is great. It's just kinda cold. But even that's kind
of fun sometimes. I am loving the mission and our investigators and
all the opportunities we're having! Heavenly Father is truly blessing
us immensely and I love being able to see His hand in all that we're
doing.

Thank you for all you do and for who you are. I hope you're all
getting ready for the holidays!
Sister Bezdjian

p.s. For those of you who don't know:
I just got an email from my sister, Hannah and she got her mission call! She
is going to the Yerevan, Armenian mission and will be one of the first sister
missionaries in Georgia!!! She will be teaching in Georgian!! I am so excited for her. I am just so happy--I am speechless!