Sara's Mission to Poland: March 25th 2013

Dear Family czyli Andrew, Hannah, Dad, and Mom,

Thank you so much for the 1 year in country package! We picked it up this morning and it was nice! Thank you for the brown sugar and the belt and please thank the Emerys for the sour skittles.

I had the most amazing experience this week...when the mother of our dzieci english students prayed at the end of our english lesson! It was a miracle and we loved it. We could feel the Spirit so strongly. Another cool experience was last night. One of our investigators told us that she doesn't know the Bible well at all and would also like to read the Bible with the Book of Mormon. So last night we brought her one and we read the story of Namaan the leper with her (2 Kings 5). It was really cool. And then she started asking us a bunch of questions. Is there stuff about the Book of Mormon in the Bible? We read John 10 about "other sheep" and 3 Nephi 15. We also read about 2-3 witnesses is 2 Corinthians 13:1. It was so cool becuase we felt completely guided by the Spirit in the lesson---which scriptures to share, when to stop talking, when to elaborate, when to ask a question. It was awesome. Then as we were reading about Christ in the Americas, she was like Wait, wait what?? It was great. Then she was asking, well what about other places too, like asia, africa, etc. And so we read 2 Nephi 29. She really loved it. What about evolution/creation? It was the coolest scripture chase I've ever been on. You can tell she is really starting to feel the Spirit. Just in the last few months she has grown so much! It's amazing.

Sister Bown and I are....doing so well! I just keep learning so much from her. She taught me a lot this week about discouragement. I would dare to say she is never discouraged. It's cool when we can evaluate our lessons and she has good ideas about how we can improve but never gets down about it. She's always ready to try again, to do it better, to listen to the Spirit more. We have felt such a huge difference in our lessons this week because some of them...something was

lacking. I couldn't even speak that well so it was kind of frustrating. But then a few hours later the Spirit was guiding our lessons so strongly and everything was great. I think the lesson I leared was to always rely on the Spirit. You can never go into a meeting thinking "I got this." But it should be a prayer, "please Heavenly Father, please help us so we can help them." Our Christ-like attribute this week is Dependable. I want that attribute because it is one of my weaker ones.

What I learned in the scriptures this week: Well I've been addicted to the Bible Dictionary lately. I'll open it up to look up something and then I'll get distracted reading the next definitions! And then 15-20 minutes later I go back to what I was actually doing. It's bad but I love reading it so oh well. One cool thing I read this week was about the devil. It was interesting to me how he is such a miserable being and that all his efforts are aimed at our unhappiness. The other thing in the BD on him was how eventually, he will be conquered and powerless. A comforting thought when we are dealing with his grip in the world.

This week we had Zone Conference and it was so great! Elder Schutze from Germany was there with his wife and I learned so much from him. He is a very nice man and right when he met me he looked at my name tag and asked, "Are you from Armenia?" I told him no, but I am proud to be half armenian. Cool right? The rest of the day he called me "Armieanka." Anyway he is really cool. One of those leaders that just by his character inspires you to be better. His wife talked frist and told her conversion story--how she heard about the Book of Mormon and met the missionaries. Well turns out she had contact with the church many times before actually taught but due to the faults of the missionaries (not having a pen, forgetting to call, etc. etc.) she wasn't an investigator until much much later. So after her talk, Elder Schutze talked about the Do's/Don't's about the missionaries with her. It was funny because he would ask us "is there any excuse for that? NO!" But it was really good. Then after Zone Conference he spoke at a fireside for the members and investigators in Poznan. Irena and Ryszard were there so it was a lot of fun. He talked about names and what they mean and family history and he is a very charismatic person to listen to. Or maybe it's just the German accent. Dad, you would have been proud.

The BYDGOSZCZ ZONE: (Top row LtoR): Elders Kotter, Caskey, Tingey, Harris, Dodge, Bokinsky and Gudnason. (Next row): Elders Sheley, Cieslak, Saltmarsh, Godwin, Zelezniak, White and Tufts. (3rd row): Sisters Sheley, Bezdjian, Bown, Swenson, Masters, and Tufts. (Seated:)Sister and Elder Schutze.

The Poznan District: Elder Caskey and Elder Tingey (District Leader), Sister Bezdjian and Sister Bown. Elder and Sister Sheley.

The Sisters always enjoy getting together and just being around each other. Sisters Bezdjian, Bown, Masters and Swenson. We have the best Sister Missionaries in the Church serving in Poland.

Slumber party during Zone Conference

Morning walk with the cow!

Hmmm...what else? Well because of the Zone Conf. and all, sister masters and swenson came and stayed that night with us! Needless to say, sister masters and I did not get TOO much sleep....too much to talk about and catch up on!! But Poznan is doing great and having progress.