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Dearest Family bo bamily,

 

Thank you so much for your letters! I got a few from Mom and one signed by all the family and one from Hannah and Brother Yeager. It's so good to hear from people. I'm sure there are some people thinking ''oh I don't need to write, she'll be home soon." WRONG. Those letters make my day! Oh and the pictures from Hannah's farewell look so good! We have a good-looking family :) So thank you all very much!

pictures from today on the rynek :)

The principle I learned this week was...what we talked about in our interview. Love and the Spirit are the most important aspects of this work. President was telling me in our interview--when we truly love the Lord and our fellow brothers and sisters, we will want to be obedient (for the right reasons) and we will teach with the Spirit and according to their needs.

these pictures are from Sis Nilson's blog during the specialized training.

The Katowice District. Sisters Pearson and Packard with Elders Dopp, Rittmanic and Neuner along with Elder and Sister Reed, our Katowice Senior Couple who does so much for this great Branch. SARA WAS SO ELATED TO SEE THE REEDS - SHE SERVED WITH THE REEDS IN POZNAN AND LOVES THEM VERY MUCH!!!

We also have been studying the question "Why does God allow bad things to happen?"

 

Many of our investigators, members, and contacts on the street ask this question. So I've been studying it and I came up with 5 main reasons: 

1 There must be opposition in all things. Freedom of choice (our agency) is essential in our progression and for our agency to have any weight, it has to come with real consequences--good or bad. 2 Nephi 2:11. For it must needs be, that there is an ^aopposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

2 Difficulties are a trial of our faith and patience--which is part of why we came to earth. Mosiah 23:21-22.  21 Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to ^achasten his people; yea, he trieth their ^bpatience and their faith.

 22 Nevertheless—whosoever putteth his ^atrust in him the same shall be ^blifted up at the last day. Yea, and thus it was with this people.

3 So the wicked can receive justice. Every person will receive punishment for their own sins. Alma 14:9-11  9 And it came to pass that they took Alma and Amulek, and carried them forth to the place of ^amartyrdom, that they might witness the destruction of those who were consumed by fire.

 10 And when Amulek saw the pains of the women and children who were consuming in the fire, he also was pained; and he said unto Alma: How can we witness this awful scene? Therefore let us stretch forth our hands, and exercise the ^apower of God which is in us, and save them from the flames.

 11 But Alma said unto him: The Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand; for behold the Lord receiveth them up unto himself, in ^aglory; and he doth suffer that they may do this thing, or that the people may do this thing unto them, according to the hardness of their hearts, that the ^bjudgmentswhich he shall exercise upon them in his wrath may be just; and the ^cblood of the ^dinnocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day.

 Alma 60:13.  For the Lord suffereth the ^arighteous to be slain that his justice and ^bjudgment may come upon the wicked; therefore ye need not suppose that the righteous are lost because they are slain; but behold, they do enter into the rest of the Lord their God.

4 Trials remind us that we need to rely on the Lord and they help us to humble ourselves. Ether 12:27   And if men come unto me I will show unto them their^aweakness. I ^bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my ^cgrace is sufficient for all men that ^dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make ^eweak things become strong unto them. 

Alma 4: 3 And so great were their afflictions that every soul had cause to mourn; and they believed that it was the judgments of God sent upon them because of their wickedness and their abominations; therefore they were ^aawakened to a remembrance of their duty..

5 It allows the Lord to show forth His power. 1 Nephi 18:11 And it came to pass that Laman and Lemuel did take me and^abind me with cords, and they did treat me with much harshness; nevertheless, the Lord did suffer it that he might show forth his power, unto the fulfilling of his word which he had ^bspoken concerning the wicked.

Sister Blake and I are....doing great! She is amazing and I love her more and more everyday.

on the train to Katowice on exchange last monday

 She learned a lot on the exchange about planning with the Spirit and it was cool to hear what her perspective is. I learned a lot from the exchange as well. I realized that I need to focus on what the Spirit is prompting us to do during planning than just 'intellectually' planning out the next day's activities. As Sister Blake and I have been focusing on that more, we have had a better atmosphere in our planning sessions. 

 Katowice Sisters Packard and Pearson with whom Sara and Sis. Blake did exchanges.

Sister Pearson (who I was with on the exchange) is a really positive missionary. I think that was the biggest thing I learned from her---she is positive no matter the outcome of the previous contact and no matter the result of what the next one will be. And she really does love the people. She loves them and wants them to be happy. It was fun to work with her and fun to see another city of Poland! (Even though of course, Wrocław is MUCH prettier!)

Brother Kotliński, Cynthia and her family--Mom (Wioletta), 

Cindy, AJ (who got the priesthood on Sunday)

So my most amazing experience this week was...being a part of Cynthia's baptism! As Sister Blake and I were talking about it she was like "Good job! We got our first baptism!" And I was happy and excited but I replied "We didn't do anything!" And that's really how it was. We were so blessed to be here at this time and teach Cynthia the truths she already knows, lives, and loves. It was great to see her so happy after the baptism and the next day after her confirmation. She was so prepared and so humble and it was just a blessing to be a small part of it.

sister blake at the pool for the baptism

Have a great week! I love you all! See you in 4 weeks!

Sister Bezdjian

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Dearest family bo bamily,

 

Thank you for your prayers. We really do feel them and I'm so glad that you all are so supportive of me. Thank you!!!

  

Guess what? Tonight we're going on exchanges! I'm going to Katowice  will be there until Wednesday and Sister Packard is coming to Wrocław. I'm so happy we get to have more exchanges. I can't wait to see what Sister Blake and I will learn from the other sisters. Exchanges are such a great way to improve and evaluate how we are doing.

 

Sister Blake and I are....doing wonderful! She is so amazing. I really love Sister Blake. She is a really good example of faith. We both gave talks this past sunday in church and we've known about it for two weeks. Well she shared with me something her cousin did/does. There is a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants (as well as many other places) that says we should "treasure up in our minds continually the words of life and it will be given" us what we need to say in the very moment we need it (D&C 100:5-8). So Sister Blake's cousin decided to do that with a talk. He just studied the scriptures on the given topic but didn't plan it out or write out his talk. And then when he went up there he just spoke with the Spirit. Cool huh? 

So Sister Blake inspired us to do that with our talks. Her topic was the Atonement and mine was the Savior. It was a really cool faith-building exercise, especially for her because she's only been in the country for 2 1/2 weeks! Crazy. But she did SUCH a great job and I was just so proud of her. It was hard for me not to write what I wanted to say but just a bit before sacrament meeting it all came and it was actually a really fun experience.

So my most amazing experience this week was...we got invited to someone's home for a lesson. They were people that we met on the street this past week but weren't too interested in a spiritual meeting. They more wanted to socialize. But we thought, hey we set up the meeting, and let's try it. We ended up having a really good spiritual discussion and it was so great! They are really cool young college kids so we hope they'll want to find out more. 

Other cool experience was when we went over to a member's house for lunch and she invited her friend over for lunch and gospel discussion! It was so amazing and this sister is such a great example of member missionary work.

 

Other cool things:

 

*Cynthia's baptism is going to be this saturday! we are so excited for her! She probably knows more gospel doctrine than Dad. (Just kidding!)

*Yesterday the Cieleński's invited us over for dinner and it was really fun! They are such a cute fun family.

*We took our culture night on Saturday and went around for "night of the museums" when all the museums in wroclaw are free.

Then we ended the event with a fountain light show at a park. So much fun, especially because Sister Blake is so fun to be around.

*We went by a former investigator family and they are so cool! sis blake will have a lesson with them tonight so I'll let you know how it goes! they are really cool.

Thank you for all you do.

Love,

Sister Bezdjian

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One of Wrocław’s most popular, memorable and iconic attractions is not a cathedral, not a castle or monument, but a legion of little people: Gnomes, or ‘krasnale’ (in local parlance), to be precise. In Wrocław’s city centre these merry munchkins are simply ubiquitous, dotting doorways, alleyways and street corners, constantly underfoot but seldom seen by the unobservant. You may well overlook the first dozen or so that cross your path, but inevitably – and often literally - you will stumble upon these popular local residents. Keep your eyes peeled and you’re bound to notice the little fellas engaged in a variety of activities about town – from guarding public space to passed-out drunk. Beloved by locals and tourists alike, and the object of more photos than the towering Cathedral, these prolific pranksters have become the unlikely symbol of one of PL’s most picturesque cities.

Dearest family,

Thank you so much for the fun phone call last night! Mom, I hope you had a good Mothers' Day and I know it made my day/week just to hear your voices! I loved it and it's going to be really weird to hear those voices and see your faces at the same time. Crazy.

 

The principle I learned this week was...always give appreciation and praise to others. You never know what feelings someone might be having, what natural doubts or questions, so it is always better to express gratitude and praise. It is always better to err on the side of being too appreciative.

Sister Blake and I are....doing great!! I am learning so much from her. She is so fun to be around, so easy to laugh with, and very open and honest. I think she is a great example of being sincere. This week was an adjustment for her (as it was for me my first week in the field) and it was nice because we were able to just talk about it and set some good goals.
Also, she's a good example of diligence. No matter what the person's reaction was she is good about keeping our goals in mind and talking with the next person. She is determined in our purpose of inviting people and helping them come unto Christ.

So my most amazing experience this week was...we were heading back from a lesson at a family's house. The Call girls (Cynthia and Cindy) were with us and we were talking with people on the street as we headed back to the chapel. Well this one lady we actually talked with for quite a few minutes had an interesting conversation. She looked at 9-year old Cynthia and told her something along the lines of "you don't actually know that this religion is true, you just feel safe because you're in a group." And Cynthia totally (yet humbly) stood up to her and said, "That's not true. I know that this is true because I read the scriptures and the Holy Spirit has testified to me that it's true."
Wow! Isn't she so ready for baptism? We can't wait.

 

Another cool thing that happened: We contacted a former investigator who really wants to be baptized. She is just nervous for her family's reaction. But she is so prepared and I really think she is humble and ready to make a covenant with our Heavenly Father.

 

Oh! One more thing. About Sister Blake. She always includes something funny in her emails home so I'm going to copy her. This week at least 2-3 times she got attacked my pigeons!!! For some reason they just fly at her! We were coming home from shopping this week and she was like AHHHHH!!! and ducking (all while holding a purple broom btw because we had to buy one)...she is hilarious. 

 

Hope you have a great week.

Love,

Sister Bezdjian

Pictures of their apartment - nicest place Sara has been in so far.

          

SMALL WORLD AT CHURCH ON SUNDAY SARA AND HER COMPANION MET THE SHERADON FAMILY.  ONE SON HAD SERVED HIS MISSION IN POLAND AND THE OTHER SON HAD SERVED IN GEORGIA.  THE BROTHER WHO SERVED IN GEORGIA  HAD MET HANNAH WHILE HE WAS VOLUNTEERING AT THE MTC.  THEIR FAMILY IS HEADED TO GEORGIA AFTER POLAND BUT WILL BE LONG GONE BEFORE HANNAH GETS THERE.  WHAT A SMALL WORLD!!!

Jesse Sheradon (served in Georgia) at church with brother who served in poland

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Dear Hannah, Andrew, Mom, Dad,

Thank you for all of your emails this week! I love reading your thoughts and hearing about you. President is such an inspired man. He really listens to the Spirit. I just feel like Wrocław is the place where I need to be and Sister Blake is the companion I need to be with. I am loving the mission and working here.

The principle I learned this week was...believe in miracles because they are just waiting to happen.

 

So my new companion is SO COOL. She's from Park City, Utah and likes to be outside. She has long curly blond hair and is so fun loving. It is so much fun serving with her. We are already seeing amazing miracles, learning so much from each other, and loving life! 

This is a picture of Sis. Blake and her best friend Ashton from Facebook.  What a small world.   It turns out Andrew met Sis Blake and Ashton when he, Peter Garbett, and Isaac Mecham went to EFY years ago. And the boys were later invited to Kendall Blake's birthday party.
Sis. Blake also was able to meet Hannah in the MTC - and Hannah shared a note with the Poland bound missionaries to give to Sara.  Sis. Blake had Sis McAdams (Sara's trainer in Poland) as one of her language teachers.
We're so excited that Sis Blake and Sara are together!

She is full of life and creativity and is so much fun to work with. One of the things about her that I'm learning right now is to pray. 

All. The. Time. 

She always, 

I mean ALWAYS wants to pray! It is the greatest thing. 

When we're about to do a bunch of phone calls: hey, let's pray that we'll get some appointments set up. Or we're going to bed: hey do you want to have companionship prayer? Or about to do something that I would normally just do without praying, without thinking: hey, let's pray. Siostra Blake always wants to pray. It is a joy to be around her and she has so many fresh, good ideas for doing missionary work. 

Since we're whitewashing and everything, there aren't too many investigators in our current pool so it is a great finding and re-finding opportunity. It means lots of contacting, area book work, and working with the members. 

Sister Blake had the coolest idea. We went out contacting and she said, let's show Heavenly Father our faith and talk to everyone wearing blue. At first I thought, maybe this will limit us but hey let's try it. As we went throughout the day, it really helped us 1) to really notice people and not just walk past strangers 2) have the faith to open our mouths and talk to everyone wearing a smidgen of blue, no matter the circumstance. 

So an amazing experience comes from this. We were walking on the street, talking to everyone wearing blue and a girl comes walking down wearing blue pants and blue shoes. (Also she had blue eyes.) We stopped her and it turns out she didn't speak Polish. She was from Germany. So in English, we asked if she had ever heard of our church. Turns out she had actually studied abroad in England, and a lot of her friends there were members of our church. Actually (I CAN SEE SARA SAYING ACTUALLY WITH HER POINTING FINGER WIHT EACH OF THESE SENTENCES) they took her to church with them. Actually they introduced her to the missionaries. Actually she loved the message and accepted the gospel and actually wanted to be baptized (!!!) but at that time her school didn't allow it. Turns out she said that was the happiest time of her life. And she has always been wanting to go back to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints but when she moved back to Germany she just "never had the chance." AHHH!! So don't worry we got her information and it is on it's way to the missionaries in Germany.

Other cool miracles and things:

*We have 2 baptismal dates! Julia has been working with the previous missionaries and is so sweet. Cynthia is the daughter of one of members (9 years old) and we have the opportunity of teaching her! So great and she is so prepared and ready to be baptized on the 25th of May!

*Saying goodbye to everyone in Poznan was rough but I felt a peace about how hard I had worked and how I had left the area hopefully better than I found it.

**The branch here in Wrocław is SO AMAZING. They are so nice and their testimonies are as solid as rocks. It was testimony meeting on Sunday and it was great to hear their sweet strong testimonies of Christ.

Anyway, I'm so grateful for being sent to Wrocław and we are so excited to see what other miracles the Lord has in store for us, the members here, and the people who are being prepared to accept His gospel. I know that true happiness is found in the restored gospel and that Heavenly Father truly loves and cares about each one of you.

Love,

Sister Bezdjian

From Sis Nielson's Blog - New Missionaries

Meet the newest Missionaries in the Poland Warsaw Mission. They all looked great and are so excited to finally be 'in country'....ready to use what they have been learning in the Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah for the past 9 weeks.


President will be interviewing each of them to get to know them better.  They will all have new companions tomorrow and these interviews are essential before those assignments are made.

Their first dinner in the Mission Home.....our traditional "Welcome to Poland" spaghetti served on Polish pottery. (LtoR): Sisters Pearson and Young; Elders Wolfley and Blom; Sister Wendel; Elders Waskiewicz and Allen; Sisters Barth, Lidtka and Blake.

THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2013

Day #2 and #3: New Missionaries and assignments...PLUS, an historic event!

Day #2: After arriving in Poland, our new missionaries walk from the Mission Home to the Mission Office.

 This is about a 9-10 minute walk.  It was a national holiday so there were not too many people out and about.  The few that were outside our missionaries spoke to and contacted them.  They were heading to the Office to receive instructions from our Office staff.

Meanwhile... their Trainers arrived at the Mission Home.

The Training Missionaries will meet with President while the Trainees are out contacting.  Then all will receive their assignments and find out who their new companions will be.  Elders Lanham, Van Bakel, Sisters Allen, Packard, Howells, Bown, Holmgren and Bezdjian, with Elders Harris and Mikolyski.

They were instructed on their responsibilities with the 12-week training course that New Missionaries  begin the first week in-field.  We are at the stage in the mission where all of these trainers went through this course when they arrived in Poland.  They are familiar with this and eager to go through it again.  Only this time, taking the lead role.
The Trainees arrived back at the Mission Home and now it is time to hear where everyone is going and who will be companions....

Sister Young will be companions with Sister Allen,( SARA WAS COMPS WITH SIS. ALLEN WHEN SHE FIRST ARRIVED IN POZNAN SHE WILL BE AN EXCELLENT TRAINER)  They will be serving in...

...the beautiful city of Krakow.  President has not had Sisters in this city the entire time we have been here.  It will be great to have Sister Missionaries in one of our favorite places to visit.

Sister Lidtka will be companions with Sister Bown...(SIS BOWN AND SARA HAVE BEEN TOGETHER IN GDANSK SINCE DEC 19TH TO MAY 2ND-WHAT AN AMAZING TRAINER SIS BOWN WILL BE)

and they will serve together in the beautiful city of Poznan.

Sister Blake will be companions with Sister Bezdjian.  They will be serving in...

Wroclaw.  This will be another great Sister companionship that has served in this strong Branch. THEY WILL BE WHITEWASHING SINCE THE TWO SISTERS WHO WERE SERVING THERE 

(SISTERS SMITHEE AND ENCE) BOTH JUST WENT HOME

After everyone was assigned, the combined instruction continued with everyone sitting with their new companions. We enjoyed a great spirit in our meeting.

Soon, we stopped for a 10 minute break and got better acquainted.

It is always amazing how fast missionaries find out how much they have in common and love each other. The Lord does know who needs to be with who.  We finished the training and had a great BBQ for dinner.  We ended Day #2 with a testimony meeting, nightly planning and then everyone hit the sack. Tomorrow will bring another big day.

DAY #3, Thursday:  Everyone was up a 6:00am, a quick breakfast and then off to the train station.  Our last group picture for this group: Elders Allen, Lanham, Harris, Blom, Van Bakel, Wolfley, Sisters Pearson, Packard, Lidtka, Bown, Elders Waskiewicz, Mikolyski, Sisters Bezdjian, Blake, Young, Allen, Holmgren and Wencel.  What a great group of missionaries. Now, off to their specific areas to do mighty works. (Sisters Howells and Barth left the night before as they are assigned to Warsaw)

President and I said goodbye to everyone and then headed to the Mission Office for Mission Leadership Counsel meeting starting at 10:30am.

On the way he was driving a little too fast, and today the Policja were out in full force.  He was accidentally going 85 kph in a 50 kph zone.  The Policja waved him over (this hasn't happened to him in a long time...) and stopped him for the violation.  This was right across the street from the Mission Office.  In fact, President was honking at two of our Zone Leaders as they arrived at the Mission Office and didn't see the Policja ahead.  It was a bad time to get a speeding ticket... especially in front of everyone! Well, there was a tender mercy extended. The Policja saw President's name tag and asked what that was.  President explained he was going to our office (pointing to it) and those were his missionaries (pointing to them), etc.  The Policja told him, "Bye, Bye" and off President went. 

This was an historic meeting in the Poland Warsaw Mission.  This used to be called Zone Leader Counsel.   It is now called Mission Leadership Counsel.  We had some new members of this meeting...two Sister Missionaries.  Their new calling in the Mission is 'Sister Training Leader'.  They attend this Mission Counsel meeting.  They added so much just in their first meeting with us.  We have three Sister Training Leaders in our mission.  The third is Sister Bezdjian who would have been here; but her train back to Wroclaw with her new Trainee was too late, and she needed to miss this meeting.

A great Mission Leadership Counsel.  Sisters Allen and Howells, with our Zone Leaders Elders Tingey (new Zone Leader in Warsaw), Raines (Warsaw Zone), Vernon (new Zone Leader in Bydgoszcz), Wilson (new Zone Leader in Bydgoszcz), Dopp (Katowice) and Neuner (new Zone Leader in Katowice).  Seated are Elder Tiner (Assistant) and Elder Zelezniak (new Assistant). When the meeting was over, it was time to take the second wave of missionaries to the train station so they can return home and do what they do best...  teach people the gospel.

What a busy and productive day, but it's not over yet. Just wait!