Monday 28 October 2013

October 28, 2013 - It's a little ghetto but it's home

Not a ton happened this week! I mean it was WONDERFUL! But it flew by and well it was just great and normal! We taught some of our English students a message of the gospel. We did a white board on the university campus and it was TERRIFYING cause its just a bunch of people our age and stuff you know? it was great! We mostly just talked to people about English so we can get more in our classes but we did it with Elder Lanham and Elder Wilson and we all had tons of fun! It’s great talking to people on the streets I just love it and it’s always very interesting!

Thank you so much for praying for Barbara! She is doing really well!! She still hasn’t smoked once!! It blows my mind everyday! She’s been smoking since she was 18 YEARS OLD so I think that’s even longer than what I told you last week. And she quit! Its been like 2 and a half weeks straight with nothing. We are so proud of her and so happy that the Lord has provided this beautiful miracle!! Unfortunately Barbara's co-worker went on a short vacation so this week we found out that she would be working from 12- 11pm everyday of the week! So we were really upset for a while because she couldn’t meet at all which means that her baptismal date had to be changed.. Which also means that it won’t be until next transfer.. Which ALSO means that I might not be here. Which is 100% not the most important thing at all but it was just a tiny bit sad. Just because I have been working with her for 6 months and the progression she has made since I have been here has been outstanding! I am so thankful everyday that I have been able to play such a big part in her conversion, I’m HONOURED  So it would be just a tiny bit sad if I wasn’t able to see her make it till the very end but that’s not why I came to Poland and it doesn’t make all the work we have done together a waste either. In fact I am so incredibly happy for her that I’m not sad at all! Thanks to a lot of prayers actually :) whatever happens will be the Lords will which in turn is mine so I can't wait to see what happens. BUT she didn’t have to work yesterday!!! She came to district conference!! It was so cool! There were people and missionaries from all the cities in our zone! President and Sister Edgren spoke and I got to introduce Barbara to them too! It was so cool! So wonderful that even though her work schedule is CRAZY it’s just until the end of the month and the only free day she had she came to church! It was wonderful :)

Guess what! Everyday we read the Book of Mormon in polish together for 15 minutes and this week I found a new word! It was one of the craziest ones I found so I thought you might get a kick out of it, its zbezczeszczonych. HA! isn’t that crazy!! What’s crazier is that I can actually say it!. We tried pronouncing it how we would if we weren’t learning polish and it sounds impossible but anyways, I thought it was kind of fun. HOW IS THAT EVEN A WORD! I love polish and I love learning it! Sometimes you just have to take a step back and pray and look at your progression, it’s a huge help :)

So ya! Not a whole else happened this week. We did some more service on Saturday! It’s the best! Tonight for Family Home Evening we are having a Halloween night! It’s going to be great! We're carving pumpkins and the whole thing :) so I’ll be sending those pictures next week!

Yesterday was my 8 month mark.. HOW CRAY I cant even believe it. And next week when I email ill be telling you what’s happening with transfers!

Have you been watching the amazing race!?!?!?!

Apparently they are in POLAND RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!! in Gdańsk! This makes sense cause its like the most beautiful place in Poland but how cool!!! I’m not sure if they will make the trip down to Katowice.. Someone might die on all the construction or get mugged by a Larry or something HA! a Larry is what they call the drunk homeless men around here. I’m kidding though, I LOVE Kato!! so so so much! i will cry many a tear if I have to leave. It’s a little ghetto but its home!

I hope you have a wonderful week! My mission has taught me so much. To appreciate all that we have! We have knowledge of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! We know that its true and we are sharing it with our friends and family our brothers and sisters! We have the key to true happiness in this life! How beautiful is our lives. I love you so much and I love my mission! Have fun this week and SMILE! I think I’ve been smiling so much that I have a new smile wrinkle!

Wahoo!! Missions are the best!

 Siostra Pearson

Sister Petherbridge, Sister Packard & Me. This is when we saw Sister Packard in Warsaw last week.

Daniel, Me and Sister Petherbridge. Daniel is being taught by the Elder's.

Service is so fun!

What we looked like when we saw the worms on the ceiling!

Selfie

I thought you would get a kick at Sister Petherbridg's hair! Love her!

Tuesday 22 October 2013

October 22, 2013 - A Joyous week of Miracles

What a joyous week!
So as you know, Sister Petherbridge and I are teaching a woman named Barbara. She is amazing! We have been teaching her since a little before I got here so it’s been a while BUT she's like a completely different person. This goes along with my miracle story for the week, we taught Barbara the word of wisdom and she told us that she has been smoking for 33 YEARS!!!!!!!!!! She knew it was bad for her health and addicting and that it cost a lot of money but 33 YEARS is a really long time. So as we taught her we told her about the Stop smoking program that we teach as missionaries and she agreed to give it a try. We were so excited! And a little nervous since neither of us have taught it before. Maybe a tad more excited than she was and I think that’s what worried me a little bit because if she didn’t have the desire or the drive to follow the program exactly the chances of her quitting smoking were minimized a little bit. But we met with her and we started the program! She seemed to have a bit more desire half way through the lesson and I gained a little more faith. That is when the praying started. I don’t know if I have ever prayed for something so much before! As part of the program we have daily contact which is nice because we already were talking to her all the time and everyday. If we texted her or called her she would say, "tak 3 dni bez papieros" and to our utter shock and Wonder she kept going!! She came to FHE (Family Home Evening) and English class. We had a meeting set up with her later on in the week and before you know it, it was Friday. And BARBARA HADN'T SMOKED!! In fact it was amazing!! She seemed so much happier every time we saw her, which seemed a little strange for someone who was quitting smoking but she was! I know without a doubt in me that it was because the Lord was with her every step of the way. He was answering our prayers and her prayers. She has not smoked since. I don’t know if I have ever been able to take part in such a miracle before!! Our relationship with her has changed from black to white since I first got to Kato. She is growing closer to God and to the Savior and I am so thankful everyday that I am able to be a part in her conversion.
We were also able to talk to her about her baptism again and about her son Patryk baptizing her. She is so close! I know she is ready because everything about her has changed, Her countenance, her happiness and just her desire and love for the gospel! I love everything about teaching her and can’t wait to keep you updated on her progress!!

BEING A PART OF MISSIONARY WORK IS THE COOLEST!!

That was by far the coolest thing that happened this week. In fact, it made it one of the best weeks of my whole mission!

Also for good new Sister Petherbridge and I went to Chorzów this week to visit some church members who are less active. We were STARVING. We brought some bułki and cottage cheese (YES mom it is a miracle but I forgot to tell you that I eat cottage cheese like 4 Times a week here! I don’t know how it happened but it did) to eat on our way out there on the tram but sometimes Polish people are awkward on trams.. Actually they always are so we felt very uncomfortable eating in front of everyone. They don’t say a word on them! It’s dead silent!! So we waited till we got to Chorzów and there happened to be the mini mall close by so we decided to eat in there cause it was freezing. So we get in the mall and we're just looking for a place to sit and eat and we pass this store, and just so you know I went twice this week to look at winter jackets and I only found some in the Northface store and it was the only one that was even close to being warm enough for the winter and it was like 400$! CRAZY! So we kept looking and have had no luck so far, so anyways back to the mall. So we pass this store and what do we see inside but WINTER JACKETS! Tons of them! and they looked nice and poofy and warm for winter! so we run in to check... AND I got my winter jacket!!!! For........ $23!!!!! YES I DID TYPE THAT RIGHT!! 23 dollars!!! For my winter jacket!! Its black and goes to my knees and its practically down filled!!! It was by far the SECOND biggest miracle I have seen on my mission! No need to worry about that anymore. TWENTY THREE DOLLARS!!

We went to Warsaw yesterday for Sister Petherbridge's legal work and WE GOT TO SEE SISTER PACKARD!!! It was like a dream come true! We called her and made plans to see her and there she was! It was only for like an hour but it was a beautiful hour! Last transfer we said this very thing would happen and it did! It was so great! She goes home so soon!! Its so sad but I’m really excited for her!
  
Everyday my testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel is amplified. There is not a doubt in my bones! There is nothing more gratifying than sharing the beautiful message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth today and to have someone stop and hear the truthfulness of the words. Its not an easy work to be a part of but it is the best thing I have ever done in my life

Love you,


Sister Pearson

Monday 14 October 2013

October 14th, 2013 - I thought the spiders were bad and appreciating the Temple

So LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY WEEK!!

On Thursday, the beginning of the day was like any other, it was language study/ snack time and so Sister Petherbridge and I were in the kitchen eating a yogurt and Sister Petherbridge couldn’t remember the word for sheep and it was driving her mad so she threw her head back in anger and as she did she saw.. Something on our ceiling... WORMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like 50 of them all over the ceiling of our kitchen!!!!!!!! So we screamed and ran out!  We were freaking out hyperventilating I almost threw up and fainted at the same time!!!!!!!! We were flipping out!!! It was DISGUSTING ! We called Elder Wilson in a panic and the Elders came over and he killed every single one of them for us and then sprayed the whole kitchen with bug poison stuff. It was very nice of him since we clearly were not in the state to do so. I was still on the verge of puking at this point. Then it was over and done with and we went about our day! We taught Krystyna our member and went to Sosnowiec and visited less active members and took the wrong bus coming home and ended up in the middle of nowhere!! It was a little bit of a detour but we eventually got a bus back to Sosnowiec and then one to Katowice so we were a tad late coming home. We finally get home turn on the lights and THERE WAS MORE WORMS like 20 of them! They were like little inchworms or maggots we don’t really know but we were so upset I almost cried!! What did we do to deserve this nightmare! So we had to kill all of them again by ourselves. We sprayed all the poison and then I died inside. It’s been 5 DAYS and today we only found 5! But one of them was in Sister Petherbridge’s drink.. That was upsetting. Hopefully they will be gone soon.

In other news! We taught Barbara the stop smoking program! It is the special program that the missionaries use and thousands have used it and have succeeded so we are VERY excited!!! It was an hour and a half of reading polish.. It was rough but she’s been doing it and it is day 3!! So pray for her!

Yesterday we gave our talks in church !!! It was TERRIFYING  But we did it :) Rafał helped a bit with the translation I will send you a copy of the English version and then the Polish so you can see :) it was really scary! BUT it was a blessing that we were asked to speak, we had 4 INVESTIGATORS in sacrament meeting!!! Our new one Małgorzata came who we have been doing service for AND another Małgorzata and her daughter Patrycja from our dzieci English class came! They brought us cake! Sylwia came too! It was beautiful! We felt so loved and supported and everyone was really nice about it :) I’m glad I did it! I’m also glad it’s over hahaha.

Sister Petherbridge and I made POUTINE for Canadian Thanksgiving!! It was delicious!!


ALSO this part is crucially important. I got the talk you sent me, a temple of learning by Elder Bednar, and you were so inspired!!!! I RECEIVED SO MUCH INSPIRATION! Since I have been a missionary I have struggled with the thought of coming home and living in the world again and just going back into old habits and things like that. As a missionary its like my eyes have been opened to how bad the world is really getting and its really upsetting. So there were things that I wanted to be better about when I came home. I have been thinking a lot about how I can still live in the world when I come home but be sanctified and live as great as I am as a missionary and just be more awesome and more spiritual! So the talk you sent me answered all of those internal questions of my soul!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know that if I am going to the temple regularly and being worthy of the covenants I have made I cannot be IN the world. I will be able to live a higher standard than I did before and still feel as connected to the Lord and worthy as I feel as a missionary! It’s really hard to make all of this make sense in an email but it blew my mind!!!!!!!! It made me think about my future home and how I can make IT a temple of learning for my children!!! To teach them and protect them and help them prepare to go to the temple! I just discovered that the temple is the exact opposite of the world and THAT is how I will be strong and righteous and be my best self!! Even though it’s really hard to be away from the temple for my mission I think it has taught me to appreciate it so much more! I can’t WAIT to go when I am home :)

So that’s about it for this week! It was great and I loved everything about it!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends. I am grateful to have you all in my life. I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week!

Continue to be your best!

The most love,

 Sister Pearson

Monday 7 October 2013

October 7th, 2013 - Never been so happy in my life!

So this week was amazing!!!!!!!!!  As per usual. GENERAL CONFERENCE!! Need I say more! I can’t believe how amazing it was!!! I received so much inspiration!!! For everything!! President Uchtdorf’s talk!! President Monson talk!! Elder Christofferson and Elder Ballard’s  talks were my favorite!! :) I still have to watch the Sunday afternoon session!! I was so excited!! Also I got the ensigns you sent!! thank you so much! sending them from Germany!! Its genius!!!!! However they might have made a mistake and sent them in Spanish... it wasn’t your fault I checked the order slip but hey a lady we are teaching right now speaks Spanish! Maybe she needs it!! Anyways it was hilarious and it brought us joy!! So this week was really busy and amazing!! We taught Barbara the word of wisdom! She has been smoking for YEARS so it is going to be a real struggle but we are going to teach her the stop smoking program and the Lord is going to provide a miracle!!! I know it!! I think it’s the only thing holding her back from being baptized so please include her in your prayers!! We also got to do some service for Małgożata again this Saturday and it was so much fun! We went out to her summer hut thing again and cleaned like we've never cleaned before! The Elder’s helped so the work goes so fast! We are now teaching Małgożata too. She is so nice!! I’m so happy to help her and teach her! Amazing things are about to happen I just know it!! I don’t really remember what happened this week other than it being amazing!!

The church is true and I have never been so happy in my life to share the gospel!

If you would like to watch or read one of the talks from General Conference see the link below. Click "Watch 183 Semi-Annual General Conference". My favorite is President Monson talk and can be found in the Sunday Morning Session.



Love,

Siostra Pearson