Baptisms on Saturday Sept. 22nd, 2012 beautiful experience

Agnieszka is an amazingly spiritual mother whom the missionaries met at a church sponsored Grill (barbeque), she is an acquaintance of the branch President Kempa.
After meeting with the missionaries (Sisters Ostler and Bezdjian) she recognized the truth of the Gospel.  Upon learning of the date that Joseph Smith received the Gold Plate from the Angel Moroni Sept 22 which is also her birthday she knew she wanted that date as her Baptismal Date.  We learned this from Sara's letter of July 23rd.  Agnieszka is a strong woman even though as she put it "Satan does not sleep", she was able to with God's help stay strong and resist temptation as she awaited her Baptismal Date.  Agnieszka received the best birthday present ever - THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST.

And Brother Harker learned how to say everything in Polish in just 3 days! So he performed the baptisms and it was really wonderful. FROM SIS OSTLER'S BLOG Wow, it was so powerful! Brother Harker baptized them and they were so happy.  I can't explain it.  When agnieszka got out, she threw her arms around her kids and said, I love you so much! I felt the love of the Lord there with us and with them.  What a neat experience.  Then on Sunday, they were all confirmed.  that too was a wonderful experience.  I wish there were words to describe it. I am just so filled with love for them and for the gospel.  Their lives have changed soooooo much.  You can literally just see the spirit working in their lives.  It's wonderful. 

FROM LETTER 9/10/12 (BEFORE THE BAPTISM)*Agnieszka and kids are doing great! they are so excited and ready for baptism. In their new school Agnieszka proudly told the teacher "We are members of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints!"

FROM LETTER 8/6/12*We had a lesson with Agnieszka about fasting. It was so cute! Tomek (her 8 year old son) has just finished the Book of Mormon reader for kids. Now he's reading the Doctrine and Covenants for kids. He mentioned to her the other day that he had read about fasting somewhere. And he told her "Mom. I've read about fasting. But I don't think I can last longer than TWO days. That would be the maximum." Cute right? He was overjoyed to find out fasting is only for 2 MEALS so he was excited about this fast Sunday.

FROM LETTER 7/27/12 *Agnieszka is doing well! Her 8 yr old son Tomek prayed for the first time in front of us last night! She is amazing and we had a lesson about charity. We love her so much.

FROM LETTER 8/27/12 *Irena, wife of our member Jozef has made the decision to be baptized! Now we're just waiting until she decides what day. She is the epitome of hospitality I think--she ALWAYS tries to feed us when we're over there! It reminds me of Anna and Baba a little bit
Irena is shown with her member huband, Josef, who is very proud of her.
 Irena was also baptized by Bro. Harker

From Sister Nielson's Blog

 Sunday morning...early! Why are we meeting the Missionaries in front of the public library?  We are looking for a site for the Gdansk Branch.  The searching has been slow, but we know the Lord will lead us to the perfect spot to help this Branch grow and thrive in the gospel.  What are they carrying?  Everything needed for a wonderful Sacrament Meeting....hymn books, trays, etc.  "Sacrament meeting on wheels!"

 Our great Elders serving in Gdansk:  Elder Harris and Elder Myler (District Leader).

 Soon, the Sisters arrive...Sister Ostler and Sister Bezjian. 

 And now it's time to get everything ready for the meetings.

 We start with the room.  This is what the 'conference room' looks like in the libray when we arrive.

After some 'remodeling'....

 ...it is turned into a very nice chapel.  Good work, Missionaries!  Yes, they do this every Sunday.

Some of the Sisters in the Gdansk Branch.  (LtoR): Anja, Lydia, Wioletta, Agnieszka, Halina, Sister Harker, Ilena and Jane...an investigator. of the Sisters in the Gdansk Branch.  

Add The Primary in Gdansk is growing, too!!!!!! Claudia (brown sweater) used to be the only member. Now she has plenty of friends!

Add Irena was also confirmed a member of the Church today. 
She and her husband, Josef, are very happy for this day.

Add captionAfter church (and some visiting!),  the members help put the conference room back in order.

Agnieszka, Kasia and Tomek were all confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Little sister, Anna, will be baptized in December when she turns 8...which is considered the age of accountability in our Church.

Add Two great members of the Gdansk Branch, Brother and Sister Harker.  Just to show you how small the world is (especially in the Church), Sister Harker grew up in Hawaii and served in Church Institute with a very good friend of ours...President Teshima, of the Las Vegas Lakes Stake.  The Harkers are residing in Gdansk on business.....but we use them as  full-time Senior Couple Missionaries.  We appreciate all they do for the Branch and all they did for us while we were in Gdansk.

What a great group of Missionaries we have serving in Gdansk.  They work diligently every day to find those who are looking for the purpose of this life and wanting to know what God's plan is for them.  (LtoR): Elders Harris and Myler.  Sisters Ostler and Bezdjian.

Visiting the Ronald Reagan Park in Gdansk where this statue was unveiled last July.  Pope John Paul II and President Reagan.  These 2 men are credited in Poland for helping to topple Communism 23 years ago.  The statue was inspired by an AP photograph taken of them together in Miami, Florida in 1987 when Pope John Paul II was visiting the United States.  

We had a great time in Gdansk visiting with members and missionaries alike.  How do you end a wonderful visit like this?  How about having a delicious Sunday dinner with our dear Sister Missionaries.  Roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy.....it was just like home.  Thank you, Sisters Bezdjian and Ostler for the most delicious meal .....and great company!  They invited US to come and have Sunday dinner with them.  How nice is that?   Gdansk is doing well.  Great Missionaries, Great Members...Great City!  We love Gdansk and the people who live there!

Trying to Catch up on Posts - Sara's mom is now doing them

SEPT 24th 2012 To Hel and Back Ending in Heaven:)

Dear Hannah, Andrew, Dad, Mom,

Hellooooooooo!!!

Life is so great here in Gdansk. We had a FANTASTIC week beginning last monday when we went to HEL and back! Sister Harker was so nice to give us a ride and it was amazing. See the pictures :D

Then on Saturday/Sunday we had the baptism and the confirmations of the Leskows (Agnieszka, Tomek, and Kasia) and Irena. It was a beautiful service and I got to sing with the kids "Love One Another" for a musical number. That was great. And Brother Harker learned how to say everything in Polish in just 3 days! So he performed the baptisms and it was really wonderful. Our friend Ola from our Manhattan English class came with her 4 year old son! That was really good. And Darek and Marzena were there, definitely some of my favorite people in Poland. 

This week in our Manhattan English class we did a "restoration" activity. Each of the students drew a picture based on hearing a discription or only seeing part of it and it was really cool to compare all the pictures after. Then we played Telephone and we used those activities to describe the Restoration. Loved that. 

Funnest part of Sunday was: President and Sister Nielson had dinner with us yesterday! It was great to just spend time with them in our apartment and in church. Sister Ostler is a great host. She made a DELICIOUS roast and I was inspired by the way she took care of the whole meal on Sunday and really made sure everyone was taken care of. She's really got some mad party-hosting skills. 

We invited the Spirit this week by patiently loving our investigators. It is so crucial to have invitations in mind, planned for each lesson but to also heed the Spirit about when and how to extend those invitations lovingly and not out of a desire to "get numbers" or anything like that. 

Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: Preparation with perspective and pacing ourselves. So that's been fun to think about and study. I'm still going to study it further this week. Something I learned in the Book of Mormon this week was from 4 Nephi. I really love that part of the Book of Mormon because it's all the history of the Book of Mormon compacted into one chapter. It's great. I remember my entrepreneurship teachers in Hawaii talking about the "no contention" throughout the chapter and how that is how the people were successful. It is true--both in business and in missionary work. So I was pondering about contention and how the reason the people didn't have contention was because of the "love of God" in their hearts. So what makes us harden our hearts? Love of anything else but God. So I encourage you all to love our Heavenly Father (who loves and cares about us) more than anything else this week--success, pride, encouragement, boyfriends, girlfriends, food, etc whatever it is! I hope you are all at Mormon 1 today and we can all be together on Ether 3 next week :) Thanks for your diligent reading for my birthday guys!

I LOVE you all!!!

Sara

P.S. Oh! We FINALLY decided what our culture night is going be. We're going to see Jennifer Lopez on Thursday! I'm so excited. It's her first concert in Poland and I'm just so grateful Starszy Myler gave us permission to go! We'll take a picture for you all.

SEPT 17TH - LIFE IN GDANSK

Dear Hannah, Andrew, Raffie, and Lindy,

Guess what today is? It's the 17th of September. And it's also PRESIDENT NIELSON'S BIRTHDAY!!! Let me tell you, he is one ridiculously amazing and inspired man. He had us do an exchange this week with the Sisters in Poznan and it was a really growing experience for me. I really look up to President Nielson and appreciate everything he does for me. I learned so much from the exchange and I really experience a change of heart. 

Sister Ostler and I both learned so much from Sis Allen and Sis Folsom and their companionship. We really grew individually and as companions. 

Sister Ostler is really wise. I learned a lot from her this week about how she works and what her vision of missionary work is. We're getting better and working in unity in contacting and in teaching and interacting with members. I love it. 

Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: Knowledge. I am going to study the difference between just intelligence and wisdom. Being wise in all things (aka pacing ourselves, running the marathon not the sprint) is something I'd really like to improve in.

Exciting things from this week:

*I got to see Elder Tiner again! He was in my MTC group and now is the District Leader in Poznan. So fun to hear about each other's different but similar experiences :)

*Sister O met this really nice lady named Wioletta. Turns out she met with missionaries in NY when she was there for 2 months and she wants to meet with us and learn more from us. 

*We started meeting with Wiola, this really amazing girl from our English class. She is so cute and nice and I feel like she is my sister! Please pray for her :)

*We had dinner with Marzena, Nikki and the Harkers this week. It was great to talk to each other and eat and enjoy the evening. 

*Sister O broke her tooth eating a cookie (I know, right?! it was a soft one too.) so we paid a visit to the Stomotolog (Dentist)

*We read a really great verse in comp study today, D&C 3:10 - 

"But remember, God is merciful; therefore repent of that which thou hast done which is contrary to the commandment which I gave you and thou art still chosen and art again called to the work."

It really struck me so many times this week really HOW merciful God is to us. We really don't deserve all the blessings, love, and mercy He grants us. I pondered this week about how merciful we should be to our 

Especially reading the Savior's teachings in 3 Nephi right now--love our enemies so that we can we children of our father in Heaven who sheddeth his light on the good and the bad. 

So this week we should all finish 3 Nephi and by next Monday be in Moroni. Yay for reading and diligence. Keep up the good work and I can't wait to hear about your experiences as my birthday gets closer :)

*Brat Bohdan came on some lessons with us this week and he is a stud! 

*Janina decided to be baptized this week! Her date is the 24th of November :D We are so excited for her!!!

*Agnieszka is doing great. We love her so much and her baptism is this saturday! With Kasia and Tomek and Irena! It is going to be a great day. Also Zbyszek (this man we met on the street a few months ago) is being baptized too. So pray that all goes well on Saturday!

*We got the standard of excellence again. Miracles are just flowing to us and we are so grateful!

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

Sister Bezdjian

p.s. Starszy Myler can do Peter Griffin's voice EXACTLY and he keeps talking to me as we do emails in his voice! Ah, I miss quoting FG with you all :) (sorry maybe that's not very missionary of me but oh well!)

SEPT 10TH 2012

Dearest Dad, Mom, Andrew, Hannah,

This week has been a busy and good one. Lots of traveling! We were in Olsztyn on Monday for Alexander's funeral and in Bydgoszcz on Friday for Zone Conference. Both trips were good and the events were enlightening. President and Sister Nielson are truly amazing people. 

Sister Ostler is such an example to me of patience and caring for other people. She is really patient with me, and she always tries to relate to me and help. She is an excellent example of willingness to bear others burdens. 

So this week was really exciting. Irena, wife of our Brat Jozef has decided to be baptized on the 22nd of September! Along with Agnieszka and her kids Tomek and Kasia. Also Zbyszek (this man we met on the street) will be baptized then too so 5 people! It is going to be wonderful. They are all so excited. 

I'll be honest about the Book of Mormon. We should all be up to 3 Nephi 11 and I'm not there yet! But I will and you all can too. I really would like everyone to finish by my birthday so let's work hard and do what we need to to be up to 3 Nephi 21 next week :) These are some wonderful chapters and I just read part of them in Luke: "Bless them that curse you, do good to them that despitefully use you" and everything. It's definitely not easy. It is the powerful, higher law which we all can improve on. I'm really going to work on having more compassion and charity. Our Christ-like attribute is Hope which is related with patience and love so I'm studying those attributes this week.

Our investigator Bozena came to church and loved it! It was her first time and she said it felt like such a family group. She was great and we can't wait for our next lessons with her. Ada is another new investigator and she is really nice and interested in our church. 

Some fun events from last 7 days:

*Sis O and I tried "Bar-A-Dong" this vietnamese restaurant for the first time. It was sooo good! Sadly we couldn't finish our food so we offered some to this homeless man who talks to us sometimes on the tramwajs. He was like (in Polish) "Oh, thank you so much! But how can I pay for this?" We were like, just keep it, you're fine. You can pay us back by coming to church on Sunday. And then he goes "Oh. I know how." And all the sudden in English he goes, in this really deep voice

"I see trees of green..." and then sings "What a wonderful world" JUST LIKE louis armstrong. It was hilarious! Oh and then he thrust out his hand and all my pamphlets went flying like a grand finale. It was so funny. 

*We met this really cool couple in our neighborhood. They have 3 kids, 2 grandkids (even though they're not too old) and are so cool! So please pray for Jarek and Wioletta. 

*Had a CRAZY lesson with a former investigator...probably the craziest lesson I've ever had. Little scary but we ran out of there as soon as we could!

*Agnieszka and kids are doing great! they are so excited and ready for baptism. In their new school Agnieszka proudly told the teacher "We are members of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints!"

I love you all so much! Keep being strong and doing what you know to be right :) Be the best you can and leave the rest up to the Lord.

Love,

Sara

SEPT 3RD, 2012

Dearest family,

I can't describe the joy at seeing those pics of you with my fellow missionaries!!! ahhh! (and in NORMAL clothes too...that was weird.) I hope you all liked your presents! I love you all so so so much!

Sister Ostler is great. We are learning to blend together in our work. I love being able to learn from her example of diligence and study. Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: Faith. I am excited to study more about how we can implement this attribute more in our work. I really have seen the power of faith in this work--how when we truly believe something and we act on that pewnosc--surety, confidence--we can achieve miracles. 

Something I learned from the Book of Mormon this week: one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon is chapter 12 of Helaman. I love Mormon's commentary on how foolish and vain we are as human beings. We should look to our Creator for advice, help, and knowledge rather than ourselves. 

Today we are in Olszytn for Alexander's funeral and I am so grateful for the knowledge of the plan of salvation. Too few know about Heavenly Father's nature and plan for us and I just hope that soon everyone will have a chance to hear about it. Alexander was baptized in June and was such a good man. He came last week sunday to church with his wife who has alzheimers and sadly she was without a skirt, just underwear. She had taken it off somewhere on the way and he was so surprised and kind of not aware that it had happened. So I stayed with her in the bathroom while he went out to find her something to wear. So then he came back, paid his tithing and then left. Then some other stuff happened, including Alicja (his wife) being taken to a home in warsaw. Then on Tuesday (I think or monday night) he died. And today Starszy Myler gave me some money that Aleksander had given to President Kempa, telling him to give it to me and to thank me for helping watch after his wife. And to buy myself some new shoes (mine are really worn). How sweet is that? I am really beyond words I think. He was such an example of kindness to all and I think I will always remember that. 

I love you all so much! I pray for you all the time and I really wish the best for you. This week has been so busy I don't even know what to write other than faith, hope, charity and love are really so important. We can ALL improve on these things in our live. We will never have enough love, or enough faith. Always we have room to improve on them. I love you so much and please keep us in your prayers!

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

Sister Bezdjian

AUG 27TH 2012 I LOVE GDANSK

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for your prayers. I know that it really does make a difference for us and for me here. We sincerely appreciate all the time and effort from our families so thank you :)

Sister Ostler is so wise. She is still teaching me a lot about prayer. Her diligence in praying specifically for our investigators and their progress is inspiring. She really does pray with such great faith. Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: Compassion. Sometimes this attribute is a little bit harder for me so it is something I am personally trying to ponder and study. Like Sister Ostler said this morning in companionship study "If you don't have that, you're nothing." It is so true.

Something I learned from the Book of Mormon this week: I am in the Helaman right now and just seeing the vivid contrast between the happiness and prosperity and then the pride and downfall is so enlightening. All the bad things that happen right there all come from CONTENTION and DISSENSIONS. If there is anything like that in your life right now, I encourage you to do what needs to be done to fix it. That means swallowing our pride, getting over ourselves and being who we know to be right. 

We all should be up to Helaman 10 today and I have something to confess...I'm not there yet! So don't worry if you're not either. We can catch up :) Let's all be together next week up to Helaman 16. We can do it! I promise that if you do whatever you need to do to read it, you'll find more time to do whatever else you need to. Kind of a paradox, but like Mom wrote me last week, usually it's the paradoxes in the gospel are the most applicable/true. 

Our Book of Mormon English reading group in Manhattan library is wonderful. This week Lukasz had drawn the vision of the tree of life and we had a really good discussion about his vision. Sister Lewis was with us on the lesson and it was so good to have her insights as well. We talked about pride and happiness and I'm so excited to hear what the students have to say about the next few chapters. 

Other cool things this week: 

*Agnieszka and Kasia gave us talks this week. It was so amazing to hear their testimonies and how they found different references in the scriptures. Kasia quoted probably 5 of my favorite scriptures and it was so fun. 

*We had another meeting with Wojtek and Sister Harker was with us. We talked about war and Amalikiasz and how Moroni is so much stronger (in the end). 

*Had some ice cream for dinner with President Kempa and his wife Marzena. It was fun and seriously they are the cutest couple in Gdansk. Marzena is so patient with our terrible polish. She's a great example to me of true patience :)

*Somchit made us sushi and we spent our lunch with her talking and eating her delicious sushi! It was great :) She is so kind to us. 

*Irena, wife of our member Jozef has made the decision to be baptized! Now we're just waiting until she decides what day. She is the epitome of hospitality I think--she ALWAYS tries to feed us when we're over there! It reminds me of Anna and Baba a little bit.

*Janina is working on keeping the word of wisdom. She says she loves to drink her tea but she will try it. She also makes her own wine. She was explaining it half in English half in Polish so we were like "Oh, but does your home-made wine have alcohol in it?" She was like "Oh...Yes." She said she wouldn't drink it because "she must!" So diligent and faithful. 

*Then on Sunday night we had dinner with Will and Abby, this really cute American couple from Alabama. It was so much fun. They are really nice and the Lewises were kind enough to host and entertain us all. 

*Thanks to the faith of Sister Ostler, we achieved the standard of excellence again. I really am in shock at all the miracles that come to us! It must be her diligent faith and determination to serve with all our strength. 

Thank you and I love you!

Sister Bezdjian

august 20th

Dear Mom, Dad, Hanner, and Broseph,

Thank you for your prayers. Seriously we can feel the power and see the results of the prayers from our family and friends on the other side of the world. Thank you all for thinking about us and caring about what's happening here in Gdansk!
Sister Ostler has such great faith. She's teaching me a lot about prayer lately. I love her example of diligent, faithful praying to achieve miracles. is teaching me so much by her example. We have already experienced so many miracles through praying with faith and then working hard, we are learning to do that more in our companionship. Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: Sisterly Kindness. Together we are striving to treat others like our sister/brother. We have found that testifing of God's love for an individual when we teach a first lesson is a powerful way to invite the Spirit.
Something I learned from Preach My Gospel this week was about preparing lessons for our investigators and how to study for them (chapter 2). As we've strived to think of different questions they might have and their perspectives, our teaching is better and stronger.
Our Book of Mormon English reading group in Manhattan library is going well. Sister Lewis came with us this week and we talked about 1 Nephi 5--how Sariah complains but then realizes that the Lord truly inspired Lehi and her faith is strengthened. We asked our students about a time when they felt like that and they shared some really cool personal experiences. Their homework this week is to draw/describe the vision of the tree of life! It will be really cool because Lukasz, one of our students, is a comic artist. (Btw mom if you want to check out his blog, you can at lukgod.blogspot.com)
But by far the coolest thing that happened this week was our miracle yesterday. We were so close to achieving our goals and we needed was one more lesson with a member present. We had a meeting set up for that day around 18:00.
But let me back up for a second. About two weeks ago we were waiting in Manhattan mall for district meeting to start. We had a few minutes of spare time so we started to make some phone calls. Then this young boy came up to us and just started talking. Well we talked to him, a few minutes later met his mom who told us, "I've been looking for you EVERYWHERE. I live in England but I'm here on vacation [she is Polish actually] and I want to be a part of this church." Well we sat down with her really quick, introduced the Book of Mormon and invited her to read it. Now she's in England but don't worry the missionaries will be in contact with her soon. Anyway! She mentioned she had a friend who is a member in Gdansk. Well considering we don't have too many members, we asked what his name was. "Jan."
Hmmm. Never met him.  But she said she'd text us his number and we'd have contact with him. (didn't happen.)
Ok now back to the story. We just had a meeting, we're in a hot smelly bus rushing to the next meeting and trying to call any member who could come to our later meeting that night. (The person we planned couldn't come.) We called everyone to see who could come. No answer. Couldn't make it. Sleeping. Etc. [Oh and btw, I had to go to the bathroom SO bad. It was terrible and we literally had no time to stop anywhere. Stressful situation let me tell you.] We had just hung up on our last hope when all of the sudden we got a phone call from an unknown number. I picked it up, expecting it to be a call about free English class. Turns out it was JAN! The MEMBER! Who wanted to meet with us at 17:30/17:45 at Wrzeszcz PKP (RIGHT by our meeting). He agreed to meet us and then come to the meeting with us. Well what do you know? Well first of all, our other investigator let me use his bathroom so that was great. And THEN we had our lesson with Grazyna (who is reading and doing great!) and was with us and bore his testimony about being a member of the church. I cannot deny that the Lord works in mysterious ways but he knows everything. If we put our trust in him and then we show our faith/real intent by working hard, He makes the work happen.

Thank you for all you do and for who you are.
Sister Bezdjian
p.s. I LOVE YOU FAMILY!!!!!!

August 13 2012

Dear Fambliy,

Thank you all for your letters and emails and pictures! I love LOVE love hearing from you! Your words and smiling faces are so encouraging to me :)
Sister Ostler is teaching me so much by her example. Whenever we have personal study, she asks a question and it's so enlightening to see how she receives answers in her study. I've been trying to do that as well in my study and it's been very helpful. She's so inspiring in the way she expects miracles and revelation. Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: diligence combined with humility. We've both been studying diligence this week (both personally and as we've prepared to teach about enduring to the end) and it is steady consistent effort. As a companionship we are striving to both pace ourselves and expect steady miracles.
Something I learned from the Book of Mormon this week was from the war with Lehonti and Amalickiah. Amalickiah was so sneaky and got him to just lower his standards a little bit, and then poisoned him by DEGREES until he DIED. Such a cool, inspiring story to be true to what we know is right and be consisent in our standards.
The coolest part about reading this was that the same day, we met with Lidia's husband Wojtek. It was the most amazing experience. We had been fasting with Lidia that Wojtek's heart would soften and he would have a desire to meet with us and read the Book of Mormon. Well, when she invited us over for soup we just figured it would be normal meeting with Lidia. Turns out the whole family was there! Somehow by the way Wojtek was asking us questions about ourselves, families, etc. I felt like I should share what I learned that morning about the wars from the Book of Mormon. Marcelinka went down for a nap so Lidia went to put her to sleep. We had been talking about wars/games/etc so it was  a good transition so we talked about that chapter and then invited him to read it. Lidia told us on Sunday that he read it the same day and they even talked about it! We can't wait to see what happens next. The principles I learned were: expect miracles. And always be prepared!
Our Book of Mormon English reading group is going well. Sister Harker came with us this week and their past homework was to read 1 Nephi 4. Most of them had, so we read a little bit together (went over some words too), and then we had a theater! We acted it out. Lukasz played Nephi, Ola was Laban, Aleksandra was Zeezrom, and Mili was the Holy Spirit. Oh and Sister Ostler and I were Laman and Lemuel. That was really fun. Sister Harker narrated and it was so much fun! We also had a really good discussion after and Sister Ostler was so powerful. Because they were asking, "Why would God/The Spirit command Nephi to kill someone?" and she just answered it so well and with the Spirit. It was so tangible. We are praying for our students and we hope that they will see how the Book of Mormon will bless their lives.
Other cool things from this week:
*We met a lady named Grazyna who was carrying these heavy bags the other day. We offered to help so we carried them with her and she agreed to hear our message. When we came by at the planned time, she invited us over to her neighbors and all 5 of us had a discussion about the Restoration. It was great! They can't wait to meet next week.
*The Book of Mormon reading this week was up until Alma 51. I hope you're all still enjoying it as much as I am!
*Our spunky 60-something year old Aleksandra loves the Book of Mormon---well everything from Alma on ("Alma writes beautifully" she says). But she doesn't really like "Nefri." or Joseph Smith --"Is he really that important in your religion?" (hint, answer was YES.)
*Agnieszka is doing great! She's so amazing, we just feel like she is already a member. We love her family so much!

Thank you for all you do and for who you are.
Sister Bezdjian
p.s. LOVE YOU!!!!!

busy week in Gdansk... week 21

Dear Family!

This week was very busy! So much has happened. We went down to Warsaw on Monday to do some legal work and accidentally missed our train on the way back (my bad!) so we caught a later one and ended up getting home later than usual. But the cool part was we met a really spunky elderly couple in our cabin on the way back and we really bonded. Then when the train broke and we had to all stuff in another one, we helped them with their bags and it was a really fun experience.Sister Ostler is so good. She is so grateful and willing to work hard. She's very good at learning by observing. Seriously she is such an example to me of enjoying every moment. We've grown a lot closer this week and it's been fun to see how our teaching has improved. Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: humility (again). I personally need to remember to be willing to do whatever the Lord asks and remember that all our blessings and experiences really do come from Him.

Othing events this week:

*Lukasz, a friend of our investigator Lukasz (who happens to look like Cory from Boy Meets World) has read up to the end of 2nd Nephi in the Book of Mormon! In one week! He is awesome. He didn't make it to church this week but keep him in your prayers.
*We've been meeting with Basia, our recent convert and she is so sweet. She has such a strong testimony. We've been inviting her to tell her family about her baptism and she mustered up the courage to tell her son she goes to church every Sunday (he was like, Mom where do you go on Sundays???).  So that's good.
*We officially moved to our new building! Bye Ulica Daniela Fahrenheita 5, hello bibloteka! that's right, we're meeting in a library. That is, until we find a new place so probably for the next month or so.
*President and Sister Nielson were in Gdansk (for building stuff) and they took us out to Pizza Hut! So nice of them. They have such a wonderful spirit about them.
*We had a lesson with Agnieszka about fasting. It was so cute! Tomek (her 8 year old son) has just finished the Book of Mormon reader for kids. Now he's reading the Doctrine and Covenants for kids. He mentioned to her the other day that he had read about fasting somewhere. And he told her "Mom. I've read about fasting. But I don't think I can last longer than TWO days. That would be the maximum." Cute right? He was overjoyed to find out fasting is only for 2 MEALS so he was excited about this fast Sunday.
*The Harkers took us out to dinner at Degrasso's pizza this week. They are so nice, and always willing to be on lessons with us!
*Thanks to help and guidance of the Spirit, we got the Standard of Excellence again! We weren't really close to getting it but then all the sudden, everything just pulled together!
*We were teaching our English class in Manhattan Mall Library this week. We started reading 1 Nephi chapter 4 and we were JUST getting to the part where Nephi kills Laban when...BAM! we were in total darkness. Turns out we had to evacuate the building and there was a big storm and all the power went out! When we went outside the roads were RIVERS. Cars were swimming and everyone was standing on the mall steps, not wanting to wade through the flood. Sadly it all went away in a few minutes but it was a fun adventure!

The best part of the week by far was sacrament meeting. We were a little bit worried that people wouldn't be able to find the church now that we moved to the library. But there were even MORE people than usual and it was such a powerful meeting. (Not having a piano was an adventure too...singing acapella!) President Kempa asked me to start the testimony meeting so that was a little scary but really good. Everyone had such good testimonies and the Spirit was so strong. One older man (Jan) was there for his first time. We had met him on the bus a few weeks ago. He was feeling the Spirit so much he didn't know what to do! He just kept clapping and he called out "Bravo! Bravo!" when Agnieszka bore her testimony. It was amazing.

I love you all so much. I really do miss you and pray for you everyday.

Love,Sister Bezdjian

 Branch Members

 Hard working companions!

july 30th mission life

Dear Family,

Today has been a great day already. We got on the train this morning to Warsaw at 5:55 am (yikes!) and slept a little bit, had some study on the train, and talked to the couple next to us. Sadly they wouldn't accept a Book of Mormon but it was still good to talk to them and testify to the woman that she will see her uncle (who just died) again. We did some paperwork here in Warsaw and now we're near the train station and in a few minutes we'll be back on the train to Gdansk!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROSEPH YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
I hope it was a great one! You are the best brother ever and I love you so much! Muah and burzaczki ci!!

Sister Ostler is amazing. She truly loves all of our investigators and you can tell in the way she interacts with them. I also love how much she loves to cook! Sometimes she experiments in the kitchen and it's so delicious!! I am really benefitting too much from her good cooking I think.

Our Christ-like attribute for this week is: humility. It is so true that every sin, every thing in contradiction to God and his eternal purposes boils down to pride. Actively this week we are trying to be humble and I'm going to study this attribute more in my personal study.Something I learned in the Book of Mormon this week was how much humility is needed in order to plant the word. It's also impossible I think to feel the Spirit and prideful at the same time. I tried having the Spirit with me more this week by remembering Christ's patience even when I feel like there's so much work to do.

Some fun things in this week:
*We played tennis with the Harkers last Monday for Pday fun! It was great. Even though my swing was pretty bad...after awhile the instructor was like "I can't watch this anymore. I must correct you." Embarrassing right?
*We went to a referral who lived kind of far away. When we got there, she opened the door, said "NIE!" and slammed the door in our faces...oops? We left a letter explaining that she requested our visit and on the way out her neighbor invited us in for coffee! It was really great and Elzbieta (the neighbor) said she would read the Book of Mormon and would like to come to our church.
*Our Manhattan English/Book of Mormon Book Club is going great! We read the introduction together this week and talked about words like covenant, scattered, revelation. It was really cool. Please keep Mili, Ola, and Justyna in your prayers :)
*We had our last neighborhood grill, HAWAIIAN style thanks to Sister Harker! It was sad but our contract on the building is up so we are moving! To where, we don't know yet. For now we are meeting in a library downtown but I'll let you know when we figure it out.
*Agnieszka is doing well! Her 8 yr old son Tomek prayed for the first time in front of us last night! She is amazing and we had a lesson about charity. We love her so much.

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

Sister Bezdjian

p.s. Congrats to Justi who got her mission call to Germany!!!! I am SO SO SO excited for you!!!!

p.p.s. I want to also congratulate Kelsey and Josh who were married this weekend :)