gdansk happiness

Dear Family,
Such a crazy, amazing week!

I love Sister Ostler. She gets the big picture. I've been learning a lot from her this week. She's taught be so much about the basic things. Kindness. Helping others be happy within their families. She's so real in the way she does missionary work and I love her sincerity. We're both working especially hard lately to put off our natural women and help each other to do so. Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: kindness. We are striving to be like Christ in a very fundamental way, loving every single person that we come across and treating them like He would.
Also something I learned in the Book of Mormon this week was how Ammon didn't start teaching Lamoni until he had served him and Lamoni had the desire to know. It really stood out to me this time reading that first he served and then Lamoni was willing to listen. We are going to be like Ammon especially this week by finding through service.
We invited the Spirit this week by working on our prayers. We wanted our prayers to be more specific and heartfelt . Having the baptism was such a blessing and I felt so happy. I can't even describe what it was like to see Basia really yearn to be closer to Christ. Sister Ostler told her after the baptism "You look beautiful" and Basia replied, "I know! It's because I'm without sin." You can really see the light in her eyes and I'm so grateful that we got to be a part of this experience! It's important to remember though that we really didn't do anything. Her whole conversion was led and guided by the Spirit.
Other amazing things this week:
*Great lesson with Janina (see picture) and she made us perogis with wild berries that she picked for over 6 hours! They were SO DELICIOUS.
*Agnieszka is doing great! She and her kids helped clean the chapel this Saturday and she stayed up til 3 am two nights ago reading Gospel Principles and the RS handbook. Keep praying for her :) oh and Mom, look for her friend request on Facebook, we told her to add you! Lidia came with us on a lesson with her this week and it was so much fun.
*always remember an umbrella...we got drenched a few times this week! In the morning it is all sunny and then in the afternoon...BURZA (storm)!

Thank you for all you do and for who you are.
Sister Bezdjian

just another week in Gdansk!

Dearest Family,

I really appreciate all the emails and pictures. Really. We know we are blessed by your prayers. Thank you! I love you all so much, and we pray for you everyday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RAFFIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope it's a great day dad! let me know if anything cool comes in the mail for ya...

I love Sister Ostler. She is so down to earth. She taught me a lot this week about being verbally positive with each other and she's so real with people. I love it. I also like how she decides to not let anything ruin her day. It's very uplifting. We learned a lot together this week about planning and communicating better. I have to learn this lesson too many times but it is always better to be upfront and communicate clearly.
Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: prayer and faith. We are focusing on praying specifically and working hard, expecting results. The other day, we prayed to find a family who would receive us and the third door we knocked on has a family--two kids and at least 5 cousins were there when we returned! I'll keep you updated on them. I keep learning and relearning the importance of planning. Everything boils down to how well we prepare and allow the Lord to place miracles in our paths. Better planning leads to being better led by the Spirit. We invited the Spirit this week by: being patient with each other. I need to focus on being a better companion. Sometimes I am so worried/thinking about our investigators and appointments I forget to be the best companion I can be. I am going to work on that this week.

Something I learned in the Book of Mormon this week was from Alma 5:49. I thought about how that relates to missionary work. I also saw a little note I had written maybe 2 years ago and I thought Dad would appreciate it. "He who is isn't busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan. (If your daughter quoting Dylan isn't the birthday present you get today Dad then I don't know what is.) We read Ammon's lesson with King Lamoni this week as a companionship and identified ways we can better teach like him. Our companionship study has really improved our teaching and even strengthened our own testimonies.

Other than that we have a lot of cool news!
*Our investigator Bozena who makes arrows for her business gave us some as a present! she is really cool.
*Huge rain storms every couple days or so...they make life interesting. And kind of hard to pick clothes. But it's fun.
*We did a whiteboard with the Elders on Saturday downtown and before we even set up this man came up to us! His name is Are and he's from Norway. He and his friend Ania (who is Polish) came to church on Sunday too! THEN after church he took us to the Hilton and we ate Ania's homemade cheesecake. He is awesome! He'll be in SLC in October and here is his email (are@svedsen.com). PLEASE have him over for dinner! He is really great. He also bought us a taxi to our next appointment and now we're set up with the taxi driver (Waldek) in a week and a half to teach his family about the restored gospel.

Coolest story of this week. We had a little "Women's Conference" (there was one in Warsaw but none of our sisters from Gdansk could go) at our chapel on Friday. Well our investigator marzena and her daughter nikki biked there and this dog followed them all the way from brzezno (probably like 4 miles) and so after the activity two of our little neighbor girls (Kinga, 10 and Natalia 13) were going to take the dog back to its owner. Well we were going to go follow up on some tracting but we decided last min, those little girls shouldn't go alone so we went with them. It was really cool! We met Ewa on the tramwaj and she helped us find the address. We met with Ewa, her son Witold and his friend Kalina yesterday and we talked about Joseph Smith as we ate her homemade chocolate cake. It was really fun. They told us they'd read the Book of Mormon.
Then the lady who actually owns the dog, Rex met with us yesterday. Her name is Dorota and she is really cute, has 4 sons under age 11. Wish us luck with her!


I love you all! I hope you love the chapters in Alma. He is a stud. Next week is up to Alma 14. Enjoy the reading and savor it. Love you!!!!


Sara

So Blessed!

Dear Fam Dam,

Dzien Dobry! Oh family. I am so happy to be able to have the technology and time to talk to you all! Seriously. It is so inspiring to hear from you, write to you, and see pictures (you can always send MORE :D I love them!)

I love Sister Ostler. She is so cool. Something I learned from her this week was that she is really good at promising blessings while extending commitments! It is really powerful to hear what she is inspired to say, even if the grammar isn't perfect. She also teaches really personally, sincerely and it is very powerful.Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: patience. Being patient with ourselves, as well as our results and investigators is going to be in the forefronts of our minds this week. I am also grateful for this because it helps us testify more powerfully about being patient while waiting for answers when we talk to our investigators. 
We invited the Spirit this week by: being patient with each other. Also I need to be more patient in the training...getting used to a city, people, and language takes time! So I am working on that personally this week as well.

Something I learned in the Book of Mormon this week was from Alma's experience with the angel. The angel didn't tell Alma to join the church, or to gain a testimony. The angel only warned him to stop destroying the church according to the prayers of Alma the Elder. The choice to follow Christ and be converted was all Alma's.

We had our culture night for this transfer with Sister Marinella (she speaks Russian and Polish) and Janina, an investigator who comes to English and church regularly. It was so much fun! First we had a lesson (the 4 of us) and lunch and Janina's house and we talked about the BOM and the Spirit. Then we all went to Centrum and watched the most ridiculous half polish/russian opera and these people singing/playing flutes in white wigs. They were talented though. It was kind of silly but we had fun spending time with our members (the Lewises and the Harkers were there as well). Then we went out for ice cream at Grycan (the BEST ice cream in the world) and walked around downtown. It was a good culture night!

Other cool things in this week: We are meeting with a way cool lady named Agnieszka. She has 3 kids, a girl who is 11 and two twins boy and girl who are 8 1/2. They are so stinking cute!!!

Remember Rafal the inactive member we ran into? He came to church! We are so excited and he seemed so happy to be back :) In church this week we had miracles. There were 5 of our investigators, and 3 other men we had met who all came (they are meeting with the Elders now)! It was packed in church and everyone was so happy :)

Our investigators are doing well and we are praying to reach the standard of excellence in this upcoming week. Miracles abound and are blooming everywhere!

I love you all so much! 
Sister Bezdjian


p.s. Everyone should be up to Mosiah 24 this week and finished with Alma 5 next Monday. You can do it! (in polish instead of we can do it, they say "We will give advice/counsel" DAMY RADE!) These are some money chapters so enjoy yourselves :) 

"the tramwaj!!! (so much time we spend on those things...sheesh)"

"the elders!"

\

At Jadwiga's!

"perogi lunch with Marinella (dark hair) and Jadwiga (blonde) and Elders"

"us at the neptune in centrum"

"my lovely companion making cookies for us"

"us having lunch with Klaudia and Sister Violetta :)"

"Us shopping and SOAKING wet but still having fun (the rain surprises us sometimes)" 

Training Love! June 25

Dearest Family!
Hey there!
Thank you all for your emails!!! I am so grateful for your faith and prayers for our companionship. Thank you for your love and support. So I am training and it is one big fun adventure! (Don't worry, I've only gotten us lost on the tramwajs a couple times...) I love Sister Ostler. She is really amazing. She hides how cool she is because she is humble and so positive but she really is one of the strongest, most fearless people I have ever met. I know that our companionship has been directed by the Lord and we are meant to serve together in this time. Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: charity. Seeing every person on the street as children of God, as our brothers and sisters has made our contacting more sincere and effective.

Something I learned in the Book of Mormon this week was from Mosiah 11-14. It really stood out to me this time the other doctrine that Abinadi teaches and how he teaches with questions. I really liked that and I want to incorporate his way of teaching this week.

We invited the Spirit this week by: laughing together and serving each other. It's been so fun to learn how we work together and what we emphasize as we teach. We had a miracle this week. We were almost home and Sister Ostler inspired me through her actions to just give a flyer to a man on the phone. Turns out he is a member of our church! His name is Rafal and we had a short lesson on the bench. He had moved away and gotten busy so he hadn't been to church and it was amazing to hear he still had a testimony of the Book of Mormon. I'll keep you updated about him.

Basia, our investigator with a baptismal date is doing great and determined to quit drinking coffee. She has so much faith. Yesterday she told us she is still nervous about baptism but whenever she is in church she feels at peace. We're going over to Jadwiga's house (our less active member) today to help her quit smoking. Goodbye every single papier rosa! (cigarette)

I don't know what else to say, other than I love you all! I am so so happy to be serving here in Poland. We are seeing miracles every single day. On Saturday we saw a guy looking lost holding a map so we helped him even though we were kind of in a hurry. Turns out he's from a small town in Alaska and he's reading the Book of Mormon and investigating the church! How cool is that? He thanked us for helping him and we felt really good that we stopped.
Keep up reading the Book of Mormon! By Mosiah 24 next monday :) Enjoy!

Thank you for all that you do and for who you are.
Sister Bezdjian

new companion in Gdansk!

(This can all be found on the mission president's blog site!)

Sara with Sister McAdams! We are going to miss her!

"Tonight we welcomed 9 new missionaries to Poland. We have been excited to meet this great group.We were not dissapointed, they came off the plane all smiles, excited to finally get here and ready to do missionary work! That's what we love to see"

"Sister Bezdjian will be training Sister Ostler"

and they will be serving in the northern-most part of Poland...the Gdansk Branch.o

"Our new missionaries are now paired up with their Trainers!"

"First, Olek and Alicja were baptized in Gdansk.Their daughter has been a member of the church for over 20 years and has been living in England. How pleased she was to attend the baptism of BOTH her parents. What a great day in the life of this family! And How wonderful it was to have Patryk ( a convert of less than a year) use his priesthood authority to baptize them!"

"Members and investigators from the Gdansk Branch were in attendance to welcome this new couple into the Church. What a great Branch! We appreciate how they love and fellowship the new members of the church"

june 18! Baptisms

Hi Family! 

Oh man. I love you all so much. Thank you for your prayers and support. You guys give me so much happiness. 

I love Sister McAdams. This week she taught me a lot about enduring to the end. She is on her last few days (she flies home this Friday) and she still works so hard! I love serving with her and I am sad that she's leaving. I love her! Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: serving with love. We are striving to help people "along the way" and we know that as we go about "doing good" we will be led to the people the Lord has been preparing. 

Something I learned in the Book of Mormon this week was about the conversion King Benjamin's people experienced. I always love reading his speech and it reminds me how merciful our Heavenly Father has been to me. Realizing that inspires me to be more giving, serve more, and be more like He is to my brothers and sisters in Poland. By next Monday, we should all be on Mosiah 15 so really dig in this week :) They're some deep awesome chapters. I'm going to apply them to myself: How am I like Zeniff? Like King Noah? I also read the talk by President Benson called "Beware of Pride." It was very very enlightening. I strongly recommend you to reading it. 

People are still going crazy for the Euro. But more on that in a minute. First I want to write about baptisms! Well this Saturday Alexander and his wife Alicja were baptized! The Elders received their info from their daughter who lives in England and was baptized there. They are an older couple but really want to follow Christ. The baptism was great, Patryk our recent convert 17 yrs old spoke and then we all walked across the street to the swimming pool. Then we sang a hymn and Patryk baptized both of them. It was really special and we had so many investigators there! Basia, Marzena, Darek and Marzena, and Janina and then the Elders had some of their investigators too. After we had treats in the chapel and everyone was so happy. Sunday they were both confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was amazing. 

Crazy part was on the way back from the swimming pool, there were TONS of fans (it was the Poland game that night vs. Czech Rep.) so there were wild crowds of red and white painted people. And our average age of our members is 85 so that was a fun combination. 

Anyway, so other cool news, Basia set a baptismal date!! For the 14th of July. So amazing. We went over there last night and we talked about the baptism and how she felt and what it is. We read Mosiah 18 a little bit and asked her to be baptized. She nodded and started crying and said "I told Jadwiga earlier today yes, I want to." Then we got our baptismal calendar out and she was worried that she doesn't know enough but we comforted her and told her it will be ok! She is so cute and I love her so much already.  

In other news...

*We had lunch with Lidia and her husband Wojtek who isn't a member...yet :) that was nice.

*We are teaching English at a mall nearby for service and our students are so fun and nice! They're all librarians who are gorgeous, love to read, and are so fun. I showed them all pictures of you and they thought Mom was my sister. Hahaha. Aleksandra was like "she's the prettiest!" [pointing to mom]

*Elders Hayes and Klosowiak are staying here in Gdansk

*Poland lost vs. Czech...everybody was kind of put out about that

Thank you and I LOVE YOU!

Sister Bezdjian

p.s. I am training as of Wednesday! That means that Wednesday morning (our train leaves at 6:30 am) we will head down to Warsaw and that afternoon I will meet my new companion, fresh from the MTC! I can't believe it and I'm so excited. 

GOALO! Gdansk week 12 :)

Dearest family,

Hi! GO POLAND!! Did you know it's the Euro right now and everyone's going crazy? There are tons of Spaniards here and it is so funny! Because they're much louder than Poles and everyone just stares at them. It's hilarious. One guy was doing a "torro torro!" with his Spanish flag and the cars.

Thank you all for your emails and faith. Honestly, I love reading emails from you and they really brighten my day and inspire me to work harder and smarter. Thank you! Also, I know that our companionship is so blessed from your prayers. Thank you for caring about us and the work here in Poland.

I love Sister McAdams. This week she taught me a lot about always being teachable. She is so willing to improve and I think that is her best quality. She is also really open to talking and working things out and I admire that a lot. Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: charity by the means of the Spirit. Having the Spirit and loving our investigators are directly related. We are striving to love them so that we can feel the Spirit in our meetings and discern their needs. We invited the Spirit this week by: repenting and asking for forgiveness. Falling short is inevitable but we can choose to be humble and seek divine correction and help each other improve. Doing that really invited the Spirit this week. Something I learned in the Book of Mormon this week was from Jacob chapter 4. I love reading about the faith the people had that "even the very trees" obey them--but it is Christ's grace that does it all. We all should by read up to Jacob 7 today so way to go! Keep up the good reading :) By Mosiah 5 next week...some of my favorite chapters are coming up!

We had a lot of amazing things happen this week! We visited our less-active member Jadwiga again, and she had a friend there named Basia. We talked about the Spirit, what it is, how we can invite the Spirit, and a few minutes into the lesson Basia was crying and she agreed to read the Book of Mormon. It was really amazing and the best part is, they both came to church this Sunday! Jadwiga has just felt really guilty in the past because she smokes and she feels bad coming to church when everyone knows that she smokes but she was so happy when she came. It was really really good. And Lidia (our recent convert) had a great idea. She heard that Marzena (a former investigator) was in a car/bike accident and so together as a ward we all brought one thing to church foodwise to give to Marzena. We're delivering the items tonight and it was so cool to see everyone pull together and all because of Lidia's great idea!

In other news, we met Krzysztof in a park and he invited us over to meet with his whole family. There's the wife, Krystyna, daughter Agnieszka, son Damian, Grandpa Jozef, Ciocia (aunt, not sure her name), and the dog Kylia. They're wild and awesome! We started calling them Brother Krzysztof and Sister Krystyna and they loved it :) Cutest and saddest part was they introduced grandpa as "Oh, this is grandpa. He doesn't have legs and his wife died two years ago." And he was just laying back in the chair with the hugest smile on his face!

Other coolest thing this week: We met with Bartek and Lidka. Lidka owns the flower shop near our apartment and is athiest. But they both keep joking about converting it's so cute and funny. Bartek started calling their cat "Mormonka" which means "little Mormon." They really liked the Plan of Salvation though. Hopefully they will read the Book of Mormon!

Thank you and I LOVE YOU!

Sister Bezdjian


p.s. As of this week, I am officially trained! See following picture. Sister McAdams made me a certificate and everything. So it is official.

p.p.s. I chopped off my hair! It is shorter than my shoulders and it's kind of weird. But I really like it!