3

Dear Hannah, Andrew, Mom and Dad,

Thank you for the letter mom and dad! I just got it today. So good to hear from you :) I can't wait to see you all again!!! (Minus you han, sorry.) It's so crazy to think of how much is left as a missionary...so I'm not thinking about it! I appreciate all your prayers and support though. It really does mean a lot. This week was amazing and full of miracles.

The principle I learned this week was...go with the flow. We had some really great plans for this week and ALL of them changed completely! It was cool to learn to just take the path that was given to us--even if it meant cancelling some meetings to serve our members. Because it all worked out wonderfully in the end and we got more done than we could have if we had relied on our own wisdom and strength.

Sister Blake and I are...having so much fun! She has been so great this week (as always). We were talking about what we learned this week on our way to the library and Sister Blake just talked about how being able to go with the flow is so important in missionary work. Being able to be elastic on plans is so essential because it gives room for the Lord to work miracles. As Sister Blake so wisely said, "Don't stress the small things. And everything is a small thing. " 

She is amazing! I don't think I could ever write enough about how cool my companion is. Another thing I've been learning from her is to just be more open and communicate more. One of my weaknesses is that I just figure my thoughts are pretty obvious so I don't communicate that well. But Sister Blake is awesome at it! She is really straight-forward and it's so much nicer to just talk about things and deal with them than wonder how she's doing, etc.

On Thursday we had our once-a-month leadership meeting with the Zone Leaders and other sister training leaders (Allen and Howells!). It was an enlightening meeting. I learned a lot and it was really helpful to see how the other missionaries are being creative and what ideas Sister Blake and I can use,

BELOW IS FROM SISTER NIELSON'S BLOG ABOUT THE MEETING:

(A Special) Mission Leadership Council...

This morning our Assistants, Sister Training Leaders and Zone Leaders all traveled into Warsaw.

We held Mission Leadership Council at a very special place to all Polish Saints... Nowy Swiat.  We use Nowy Swiat to teach lessons and hold special meetings.  It once housed missionary couples, Church meetings, the Family History Center and our Young Single Adults.

Elders Wilson, Vernon, Neuner, Dopp, Tingey and Raines with Sisters Howells, Bezdjian and Allen.

President went over goals and heard reports from our leaders and what their plans were this coming month.  President also spent time going over the Dedicatory Prayer offered by President Spencer W. Kimball for the country of Poland and then the Prayer of Supplication and Thanks offered by President Thomas S. Monson.  Then we all walked to the special place where this occured.

 As we walked down Nowy Swiat, the missionaries contacted people along the way.  Here all four elders are about to speak to the crowd they are approaching.

 Sister Howells (on the left) is talking as she walks; and Elder Vernon is running to catch up to the couple he wants to share our message with.

 In front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and as you enter Saski Park, Elder Raines is contacting people and talking about the Book of Mormon.  Our other missionaries are scattered around doing the same thing.  We worked our way back into the park where we wanted to meet and visit.

This is where Presdient Kimball offered the dedicatory prayer.  We sang a hymn and had a wonderful prayer.  It was our last Mission Leadership Council, but one I will always remember.  Elders Zelezniak, Tiner, Tingey, Raines, Vernon, Wilson, Neuner and Dopp.  Sisters Howells, Bezdjian and Allen.  What a great spirit there is here in this park and at this special and sacred spot.  Nothing is better than to be in places like this and with the missionaries of the Lord.

So my most amazing experiences this week were both on trains! 

First...we were rushing after English class on Wednesday to make our train at 18:35 leaving for Katowice. (we spent the night there and the next morning at 6:20 AM! we had a train to warsaw.) Well when we got to the station Wed night, there was quite a large line to buy tickets. Luckily a girl working there came up and told us we could use the automatic machine to buy our ticket. So we went and tried. By the way this is at about 18:25. 

Well the machine didn't have our train as an option--probably because it was so close to departing. So we tried again to go in the line and get a paper that said we couldn't buy our ticket but we will on the train. The lady 'didn't understand' (aka wasn't in a good mood) so we just had to go on the train and tell the conductor (It's like 8 złs more to buy on the train). Well we did that and the conductor lady told us we could sit down and she'll come to us. About 30 min later she came BUT it turns out we had to pay CASH!!! With all the traveling of the last week, I'm afraid to say we didn't have any cash on us. I was planning to pay with personal funds with my VISA credit card. So there we are, sitting in the caboose with a bunch of hippy Poles who have their bikes, looking helplessly at the conductor who just told us the fine is 200 złs EACH. 

We scrambled some change to pay for one ticket but we still didn't have enough for the second one when a lady sitting on the other side said "How much do you need girls?" We were like AH! thank heavens! She lent us 50 zł and long story short, she has a Book of Mormon now and we're meeting her later this week to pay her back and teach her the gospel.

Second...we were coming back from Warsaw to Wrocław and we met the coolest people, Maria and Grzegorz. They were SO prepared and we spent the next few hours talking about prayer, reading from the Book of Mormon and hearing their life stories. It was a testimony to me of how God really does prepare people to receive the gospel. Maria had miraculously survived cancer and had been wondering about infant baptism. We explained it and read from Mosiah when Abinadi talks about how children are alive in Christ. She totally understood and wants to read the Book of Mormon. So cool! she lives in Szczecin so we got her info and gave it to the elders there. The other guy lives in Poznań (woot woot) so Sisters Blake and Litka are all over it.

Other cool incidents:

*With the Lord's help, Sister Blake and I got the STANDARD of excellence! It was amazing and everything came together at the last minute!

*Danuta, our investigator who is 62 years old, called us an hour after our meeting. We had extended a baptismal invitation but she said she wasn't sure...it was too soon. Well she called and said I've thought about it. Yes, I want to be baptized! She's got a long way to go though so we're going to work a lot with her. She liked church on Sunday so that was great.

*We finally met with a mom and her son who come to church pretty often. They invited us to a grill in a park yesterday so we went and it was so fun! Her son has been coming to church for 10 years on and off but hasn't been baptized yet. Please pray for them! They are really amazing.

*Cynthia is doing great! She is such an example to me of faith and patience. She takes care of the kids during church and is so patient with all of them.

Everything happens for a reason!
I love you all. Have a great week :)

Sister Bezdjian

Poland is beautiful!