Hailey Arrived in Poland!!

Family & Friends, this update is from the Mission Presidents Blog in Poland. It shows hailey arriving safe and sound! if you would like to follow the nielson's who are currently serving as mission president in poland please see this blog, it will be a great way to see what hailey is experiencing. nielsonsinpoland.blogspot.com

TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013

We have new Arriving Missionaries!!!! April 30, 2013.

Getting ready to receive a large group of arriving missionaries takes lots of coordination and work. We enlisted the Assistants to help us. 

As they were busy removing the transporter seats and sweeping out the garage so we could store all the luggage there, they never forget WHY they are in Poland. They talked to everyone that walked by about the restored gospel...and our street has a lot of walkers!

With the transporter ready....we were off to the airport. 

FIrst job.....find a place to park this big machine! How many Elders does it take to park a transporter? Three. One to drive, one to find the spot and one to help guide the driver as he backs up several times trying to fit into the space! (The transporter is a beast to drive!)

There! The transporter is parked....safe and sound....right next to President's car!

Now it's off to meet the incoming missionaries. (LtoR): Assistants Tiner, Mikolyski and Zelezniak...our new addition!

As we stay with tradition....everyone got a Kinder Egg to enjoy and play with while we waited for the missionaries to arrive. Anticipating a very long wait today because of the number of missionaries that were arriving....we also got pastries!
You'll never believe who came walking through the arrival gates as we were waiting.....

Brother Stohel (aka: Elder Stohel....one of our former Assistants!) and his wife. They just happened to be on the same plane as our missionaries. Our new arrivals were able to have several hours of language tutoring in the air as Brother Stohel helped them with their Polish and tips for being a great missionary. He should know....he was one of the great ones! We will see more of this great couple next week!
HERE  COME  OUR  MISSIONARIES!!!!!

Sister Barth is from Cedar City, Utah.

                                                     Sister Blake is from Park City, Utah.

                                                      Elder Wolfley is from Preston, Idaho.

Elder Allen is from Scotts Valley, California.

Sister Young is from Layton, Utah.

                                                 Elder Blom is from Manorville, New York.

                                            Elder Waskiewicz is from Queen Creek, Arizona.

                                                  Sister Lidtka is from Renton, Washington.

                                                Sister Pearson is from Calgary, Canada.

                        And...Sister Wendel is from Green River, Wyoming.

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.

Making our way to the vehicles with all the luggage. With the help of the transporter, President's car and 2 taxis, we made it back to the Mission Home. Dropping off the luggage...

... we made our way to the Best Mall where pictures were taken to start our residence card applications and a quick lunch was eaten.
It was an absolutely beautiful day, and this group was eager to start doing missionary work.

A nice walk to the nearby Wilanow Palace not only gave these Elders and Sisters a chance to get some fresh air.....

....but it was a great place to start contacting. Sisters Blake and Barth along with Elder Tiner talk to a woman about God's plan for her.

Elder Tiner and Elder Wolfley testify that God speaks to prophets on the earth today.

Sisters Lidtka and Pearson along with Elders Mikolyski and Waskiewicz as they make their way back to the Mission Home. Now, President will be interviewing each of them to get to know them better.

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.   But where are the Assistants?

With so many new missionaries, they opted to eat in the kitchen...good sports! (Elders Mikolyski, Tiner and Zelezniak)

We ended dinner with a 'surprise' birthday cake for Sister Lidtka as today is her birthday...which she gladly shared with the rest of the group! 

After dinner, President had a few words of instruction. Then after family prayer was said, it was off to bed. No one complained....and within minutes, everyone was out like a light! It was a great day.....and tomorrow will even be better. The Trainers are coming!

My last week at the MTC & Tender Mercies

Hello Everyone!

So I now have 2 days left here in the MTC! I can’t even believe this day has come!!!

Well to start off I had probably the best week of all time here in the MTC!!!!!! Were to even begin!!

Tuesday was a good day! But I don’t really remember what happened. So we'll just skip to Wednesday!!!!!!!!!! The best day EVER! To start off the day we went to our last service day!! You know how much I love service!! The guy who runs the service is Joel. At first we thought Joel hated us and we didn’t feel that great about him either but we started being crazy nice to him and figured out his kind of humor and taught him some Polish. Before we knew it we were all the best of friends!! He was still sarcastic and grouchy most of the time but I started joking and being sarcastic back and it was hilarious!! He is why we all loved service so much!! So Joel started calling me Hermana Canuck. He served in Spain aka (Hermana means sister). I asked him if we could call him crazy Uncle Joel! He didn’t yes or no but I did anyways and you could just tell he loved all of us so much!! So we went to our very last service with him and we brought our polish hymnbooks to sing for him and we get there and HE WASNT THERE!!!! So service wasn’t quite as happy but another guy made a video of us singing and saying goodbye!!

Brat Tribe, one of our teachers, took us outside to play a street contacting game!!! Contacting is going to be hard but it was great practice and so nice outside.It was just amazing to do with my district! I just love all of them so much!!

My district (and the Bulgarians) got to be HOSTS!!!!! A host is the missionary who picks you up from the curb when you are dropped off at the MTC and takes you to your room, to get your books and takes you to your classroom and pretty much introduces you into the MTC. We finally got to be hosts on our very last Wednesday!!! So we all lined up on the curb just waiting for the new baby missionaries to come!! And then my very first sister came!!!! She was from Utah and so cute!!! I helped her with her bags and she said goodbye to her family and we were off!! It was so fun because I wanted to make her feel completely comfortable and just convey to her how amazing the MTC really is and how much happiness and fun you can have here!!

I think I did a pretty decent job since it’s my favorite thing in the world to be happy!! I loved being a host so much!!! We did it for the entire afternoon!! It takes so long so I only got to host 3 sisters but I loved all of them!!

To top it all off we ended the night with some tall time and some NIGHT GYM! Which is by far the best and I played my very last game of 4 square! It was only people from my zone!! What a tender mercy!! It was sooo fun!!

Then it was Thursday!!! To start off the day they OPENED THE FIELD!!!!!!!!!!! ANOTHER TENDER MERCY FROM THE LORD!!! So for morning gym we went outside and got to play bocce ball and soccer!!! We had to play a sisters game but it was so much fun!! Just to be outside!! The day was already great!!!

And then the most amazing thing every happened. We were having personal study in our classroom and then who walks in. JOEL!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE FOUND US TO COME SAY GOODBYE!!! He was in California for some race but he came to our classroom and bore his testimony and told us all that he never really gets to know the missionaries at all cause they’re not here for very long and none of them get his humor. He told us that he really enjoyed getting to know us and he was so proud of all of us. He knew we were going to do great things in Poland. Then he told us that he loved all of us and he was really going to miss us!!!! It’s probably hard to understand but if you knew how cold his heart seemed when we first got here it would seem like a big deal!! I was so thrilled that he came just to say goodbye to us all!!! Yet again another tender mercy!!!

We taught our investigator Lidia for the last time!! She is getting baptized in a week!! We won’t be here ha-ha well it was all practice but it was so much fun! I loved teaching her so much!!! Then we had our last TRC ever as well!! It went good. We also had our very last class with Brat Tribe!!!! :( :( :( So we just had story time!!! He told us a bunch of stories about his mission in Poland and pumped us all up completely!!!!!!!!!! Like this one story where they were thinking of fun ways to contact people so they pulled out a ping pong table from the institute building and put up a sign that said, “free game if you win you get a prize”! People would stop and play a game of intense ping-pong with Elder Tribe and he said it was so fun! And they had a table set up with pamphlets and stuff and the prize was a Book of Mormon!!! How fun is that!!! And then... we had to say good-bye to him, it was so hard!!! He is seriously such an amazing person and such a wonderful teacher!! He was a great help to me words can’t even describe it!! We will all miss him so much!!!

Yesterday was our INFIELD ORIENTATION!!!! Which was actually very helpful and fun! It was ALLLLL DAYYY My companion, 2 elders going to England (polish speaking) and the triplets going to Bulgaria were in my group. We are excellent friends so it was extra fun because we got to be together for the whole day!!! I learned a ton as well!! We were practicing contacting and stuff, it was so much easier because we were doing it in English!!! Thank goodness!! It was like our mini graduation!!!

I got the snacks from you!!!! Thank you sooo much!!! Everyone loved it so much and I was actually very upset because I've been trying to eat good since all we do is sit all day long but I was like heck ya I’m going to have a KRISPY KREME!!!! They’re my favorite!!! And so one of the elders just got pictures from his family and he was showing me all of them especially the ones of his niece and nephews! And I turned around to got a donut and.... my district slash also some Bulgarians ATE ALL OF THEM! I almost died inside I was so sad!! But I will be blessed for sharing :) so thank you for sending them!

And that was my last week in the mtc :) It has truly been one of the best experiences of my life!!! I have learned and grown so much here and met some of the most amazing people on the planet!! I cannot wait to take the things I have learned here and apply them in Poland!!! I know I am going exactly where the Lord wants me to go and I cannot wait for the adventure that is coming before me!!!!!!!!

If I could give any advice to anyone going to serve a mission it would be to love every minute! Attitude is everything and I know without a doubt, that is why I have loved it here at the MTC so much! If you’re looking for the good and the fun and the happiness you will find it :)

AAHHHHHHHHH THERE IS A BIRD IN THE BUILDING!!! I THINK IM GOING TO FAINT OR THROW UP OR SOMETHING BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN!! I HATE BIRDS!!! EWWWWWWW

Ok sorry thank you for everything you have done for me while I’ve been here and all the support!!! This Church is true!!

Love Sister Hailey Pearson

Brat Tribe & Sister Pearson

Our District with Joel the Service Guy

These are the best pens

April 21st - The Final Countdown

Hello Everyone!

What a week!!!! I don’t even know where to start!

I got my travel plans!!!!! I leave in exactly one week!!!!! I’ll be flying from Salt Lake @ 11:10 to AMSTERDAM and then straight over to POLAND where it will feel like 2 in the morning but it’ll be mid day and we’re all going to go into this big place smack down in the middle of Warsaw and STREET CONTACT!! IN POLISH!!! It’s all like a crazy dream that I can’t believe is actually happening!

On Tuesday we went to our devotional like usual got seats cause we’re pro at it (we've been here for so long) and I’m reading some Dear Elder letters while we wait and all of the sudden everyone stands up!! And I start freaking out!! It was Elder RICHARD G SCOTT!!! He gave such a powerful talk, the spirit was so strong and I just knew without a doubt in my mind that he is called of God! It was so amazing to hear from him!

It was one of the funniest weeks I’ve ever had though!!! I know I’ve said this a billion times but I love EVERYONE in my zone so much!!!! My district is the best thing that ever could've happened to me and then I got the Elders going to Bulgaria aka the Bulgarians and they just bring SO much fun and happiness to me!! And then the BABIES (new missionaries) are so cute, I’m going to miss all of them so much!! And don’t even get me started on my teachers!! I honestly feel like I have had the BEST MTC experience of all time. I have loved every minute I’ve been here and each week only seems to get better. I am so grateful for this time I’ve had :) and I am very sad to be leaving. BUT I’M GOING TO POLAND IN A WEEK!!!! Its so nerve racking! I feel like I have soooo much to do and so little time. I want this to be the best week ever so it will be :)

  

I forgot the most important thing!!!!! Ok anyone who is reading this needs to hold onto his or her gaunch because I have the most exciting story of all time!!!!!!!!!!! Prepare yourself...

I MET MY FUTURE MISSION PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ya I know! Your thinking what!!! That’s impossible!! But you know how my mission president is leaving in June/ July? Well my NEW one comes into the MTC sometimes to be trained AND my teachers asked him if he would like to come in and meet us, so on Thursday at the end of our class our future mission president and his wife came and met us all and talked to us about them and the mission and it was so coooool!!!!!!!! He was just so great and I felt so much love for him already, I am so excited!!! How lucky are we!!!!! They NEVER do that I feel so privileged. This whole week has made me excited to really start the real part of my mission!!!

I just love being a missionary so much! I seriously see miracles everyday ESPECIALLY with my language! I wish I knew more but its so encouraging because everyone in our TRC said we know more now then they knew when they were leaving the MTC so I know without a doubt I am going to MASTER this language!! That was in part of the apostolic blessing Elder Scott gave!!! wahooooo!!! Elder Scott talked about how his wife served a mission and how much her service blessed their family. So that also made me really really really excited :) This is the most amazing experience I could ever have and I am SO HAPPY I chose to be here!!!

Sorry I’m super frazzled with the whole LEAVING THE MTC STUFF! So my email might be kind of lame and weird and really out of order.

This week my class made up a flash mob song and in the middle of our class we started singing one at a time, all in polish of course, it was so cool!! But really scary for our teachers. I’ll send you a video!

  

I miss all of you! I love hearing how everything is going with you all.

Well I think that’s all for now!!!!! I love you all THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

xoxo

Love

Sister Pearson :)

Two more weeks and then....Poland!

Czesc!!

No word yet on my travel plans to Poland... maybe I’m never leaving!! Just kidding we should be getting them this week!! I am so very excited and also nervous because I have been here for so long I’m like king of the world here!! Everything is sort of easy and natural now! And I LOVE MY DISTRICT AND ZONE!! I am seriously so blessed to have them! I don’t even know how I got so lucky!

   

WHAT AN AMAZING WEEK! Actually there wasn’t anything crazy that happened but every week here is amazing! On Tuesday we taught Lidia again and talked all about General Conference! She watched it and LOVED it!! And then... SHE SAID SHE WOULD GET BAPTIZED!!! WOOOOOOOOO!!! On May 1. April is really hard to say in Polish so we said May 1st even though we won’t be here. I was so excited for her I almost burst into tears of joy!! She’s still having some troubles with her husband but it was cool cause we taught her all about the word of wisdom and the tea thing was a little bit of a struggle but she agreed to start living it so she’s really progressing and I love teaching her!!

My companion is still sister Lidtka! She’s awesome and she’s from Seattle! We stay with the same companion for the whole time at the MTC. Its like exactly two weeks today that I leave but were actually praying we leaving on Tuesday and not Monday because then our last day would be a P day and we could pack and go to the temple and hang out with everyone before we all separate!! Then we'd be leaving most likely with the Bulgarians. I am so sad already to leave these amazing people!! Especially the Bulgarians. They are the best and this is the last two weeks we have with them!!! And the babies too but at least we can all write each other!!

But I cannot wait to go to Poland!!!!!!!!! I keep getting more and more excited! To teach real people and to be speaking the language and talking to people on the streets and stuff!! It’s going to be amazing!!! The language is really coming along! I am nowhere close to being perfect but the Lord is helping me sooooo much!!

On Thursday we had our TRC and this week instead of teaching two 20-minute lessons we had to teach one lesson for 40 minutes!! I was so nervous but we went in there and taught them all about faith and how the Lord has his own time and everything will work out the way it should be because He loves us and knows what’s best for us and the guy we were teaching totally opens up and says that he has faith but sometimes its hard to get more faith. And how his girlfriend just decided to serve a mission!!! And he was so upset about it but in a funny way so we all laughed. I said to him the Lord has a plan for him and he’ said then why would she leave and go on a mission and so I said maybe she’s not the girl for you and he looked so shocked and we were all laughed and had such a great time and it was like we turned into personal councilors instead of missionaries! But the fact that we could teach them for 40 minutes ALL IN POLISH! Completely deviating from our lesson plan to talk about his life is pretty cool if you ask me!! I am beginning to love the polish language so much! And I know that going to Poland is only going to make my polish 1000x better!! Its cool cause all the trc people say that our polish is way better than what their Polish was when they were in the MTC and now they are all fluent!! Which is so encouraging!!

The MTC changed their whole language program, clearly for the better!!

Yesterday we had our devotional and we had this man come from the missionary media something or other. He told us all about how the church is with the times and is on the internet and set up mormon.org a few years ago and different things that they are doing to help people know who "Mormons" really are. At Christmas time they had these HUGE billboards right in Times Square advertising for the church and for Christmas. The effects that came from the campaign were so cool!!! Just this week the church did this huge thing in London where they bought advertising in a bunch of the tube stations and l250 double decor buses. Really neat because the Book of Mormon musical was going to London and you know how the church is in London and I guess their advertisements were, "the Mormons are coming" and so in a meeting with the missionary board that Elder Holland and Elder Nelson are on they were talking about it and Elder Holland in response to their advertisement said alright well lets go then! So this week they just launched all of it, it’s so cool!!!! I wish they could do it all over the world so people would see and know!!

You should Google it because he showed us all these pictures and it was so amazing!! It made me so excited to go to Poland!!! I wish they would do it their!! Anyways I guess even with just this week alone the amount of visits to mormon.org has grown by the thousands. Also the Church bought advertisements to go inside the programs for the Book of Mormon musical and its mormon.org stuff and its says things like; the book is always better. And you’ve seen the show now read the book. I feel privileged to be a part in the work!!!! Especially right when the Lord is hastening His work! There’s a special feeling about it!!!

I love you so much!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!

xoxoxoxoxox

MISSIONARY WORK IS THE COOLEST THING IN THE WORLD!

Love Siostra Hailey Pearson!