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!!!!!!