Sara's Mission to Poland: One year in Poland...officially this week 3/11/13

Dearest family,

Thank you for all the pictures! They were so cute. It is so fun to see your faces and the house. I love it.

I had the most amazing experience this week when our investigator read 5 minutes from the Book of Mormon by herself! It was amazing to see her accomplish that.

The principle I learned this week was...Don't be so worried about teaching all the doctrine or all I know in one meeting. Keep it simple and testify and realize that these investigators have a lot of time to learn and digest it all. Better to be too short with the Spirit than too long. We had two meetings this week that, for some reason or another, were just way too long! Grr. I hate that. Sometimes it's hard with all the doctrine, listening, invitations, commitments, etc. but I guess sometimes you just have to be blunt at the beginning and tell them, "look we've prepared a lesson for your family this evening and it's going to be 30 min long." Being blunt/more direct is a really good attribute and I'm trying to work on it more.

Sister Bown and I are....doing great! She has taught me a lot this week. We are getting better at reviewing our lessons after we teach. It's been helping us improve and learn A LOT. Sister Bown is really good at evaluating and taking a lot of information and spitting out the important stuff. I speak my thoughts out loud and then after 5 minutes straight of brainstorming-out-loud-then-coming to a conclusion, Sister Bown repeats in one sentence what I was getting at. At first it drove me crazy but now I can see the benefit of her sum-it-up skills.

Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: Charity and Love. We did a comp study from Preach My Gospel this morning where we had to look up the attribute in the missionary library.

We also brainstormed a lot this week how we can explain authority. Because to be honest, a lot of our dear Catholic investigators don't quite get it. So. We took examples of our investigators and practiced how to apply the doctrine to them. For example:

-Romana recently got a fine for crossing the street on a red light
-Blanka is a student
-Angelika rides the tramwaj to work

So we asked each other questions in each of those situations. For example, with Romana, what if a normal pedestrian tried to give you a ticket for crossing on red? Why did you listen to the policeman? Why did you pay the fine? Because he has the authority to do that. And if he started using his authority illegally, he would be kicked out of the Police.

Blanka, what if a fellow student told you what score you got on the test? Why do you listen to the teacher?

Angelika, why do you show your ID to the guy who checks the tickets on the trams?

I hope that all makes sense, I probably was horrible writing it. Oh well. It was really helpful and good to explain it and we're going to keep practicing it in companionship study.

What I learned from the Book of Mormon this week: well. We have officially read my favorite part of the entire BOM. Alma's letter to Corianton. I love his advice, counsel, and the doctrine he teaches. Also the loving but serious way he teaches is awesome.

Other events in the life of Poznań sisters:
*It is officially winter still. Last week I went around without a scarf, gloves, and only 1 layer of tights. I felt so free. Now it's blizzarding again :(

*I have officially sewed an apron for Sister Romana. Pictures coming soon.

*The Elders are officially sick and throwing up...so grateful we are healthy and happy!

*Yours truly spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday (don't worry Hannah, you got it!) and I talked about faith and compared it to repelling with friends.

I love you all so much! I pray for you by name every night.
Love,
Sister Bezdjian
p.s. Keep up reading the Book of Mormon! Even if it's just 5 min a day. I promise if you will make the time, you will see blessings in your life and be more happy.

BRANCH PANCAKE FAMILY HOME EVENING

they acted out Alma 30 and then ate together so fun!