Monday 4 November 2013

November 4th 2013 - I am being transferred to....

So the verdict is in and I'M BEING TRANSFERRED TO WARSAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m going to finish training Sister Tobler and I can’t wait to meet her! I am really excited for this great opportunity! I’ve only ever been in Katowice so I’m going to miss it a ton but it will be nice to have some new faces and new experiences! Plus this is the BEST time to be in Warsaw!! I will be there for American Thanksgiving AND Christmas!!! So I am really excited!! So you can send anything you want straight to the mission office and I will get it right away! Wahoo! I’m really excited! I didn’t think I would be going to Warsaw right now but I have always wanted to serve there AND SISTER PACKARD IS THERE!!!!! So I’m going to see her all the time until she goes home! Its like a dream comes true!! AND Elder Waszkiewicz is in my district! I’m not sure if you remember him but he is from my group in the MTC!! We had so much fun! I have heard nothing but great things about Sister Tobler and I know we are going to get along great!! She just finished her first transfer so I willll be finishing her training and I’m excited that the Lord has blessed me with this opportunity to help out and ahhh! It’s just very exciting :)

Phew, now that that’s out of the way!

 I still have so much to learn in Polish and it’s a reaaaallly hard language to become fluent in, but I will do my best to learn! The Lord helps me all the time and I just want to not have the language get in the way of me connecting with people that’s the hardest part but It’ll come with time.

This week was great!!! First of all on Tuesday Sister Petherbridge and I along with Elder Lanham and Elder Wilson met with these American girls who are teaching English here and the leaders teach us Polish. We have met twice before and it’s really cool cause they are really young and so are we and we found out that they are Baptists and so they had a lot of questions about the church and so this week we talked about our religions the whole time!! It was really cool because it was in English and that never happens! But more importantly we were all open to talk and share our beliefs and respect each other for our faiths. It was really eye opening for me to hear them talk about what they believe and have them react to what we believe and to openly discuss the differences. It was a really cool conversation. I’ve never really talked to anyone deeply who was of the Baptist faith and I definitely never thought I would on my mission especially in English, Poland is 99% Catholic!!!  I have tons of respect for them. We should be meeting again this week so that'll be fun!

The people weren't really feeling it on the streets this week. It was a pity but anything is fun with Sister Petherbridge! We usually just sing our words instead of speak them and sing about the restoration of the gospel in Polish until someone comes and we talk to them. It’s always a good time! Other than that we had some meetings and everyone was getting the transfer buzz. and then.. on Friday we found out the Elder Wilson was going to be the new AP (Assistant to the Mission President)!! Which is crazy because this is exactly what happened last transfer with Elder Neuner and now they are going to be companions again!! For the third time!! Its crazy!!

On Friday we took our culture night and on November 1st, it is the day of the dead here in Poland. It is a really amazing holiday!! It reminds me of the family history work you have been doing because weeks before Nov 1st everyone gets together with their families and they go clean the graves of their loved ones who have passed away. They clean all the graves and make them nice and put new flowers all over and then all these candles. It was really cool to see all these people come together and have such a special time to spend with their living family and remember those who have died. Everyone is doing it in the whole country!! On Friday all the candles, like thousands of them, are lit all over all the graves in the graveyards and you walk around and it was beautiful!! It made me wish we had that holiday at home! Those who have passed on are always in our hearts but I thought it was a wonderful thing to be able to do. That is what we did for culture night, we walked around a graveyard and looked at all the candles! Alright, it sounds a little lame compared to the circus last transfer but it was so great!



On Saturday we went and did some more service for Małgosia and painted the outside of her działka with the Elders and had tons of fun! That night Sister Petherbridge and I were walking home and we were in our service clothes and these kids were walking the opposite way and we were just talking have a grand ol' time and then... we heard something drop and I thought I dropped something so we turn around.. and they had thrown an egg at us!!! I WAS IN SHOCK!! and appalled! That has never happened to me in my whole life and we didn’t even look like missionaries at the time. This is evidence that I have changed and am becoming more Chirstlike as a missionary because before my mission I probably would’ve chased after those dang tweens and scared the poops out of them for throwing an EGG at us!! We are people!!! BUT I took a deep breath and we just turned around and kept walking. Its probably the miracle of the week!! haha

Sunday came and it was fast Sunday and I had a feeling I would be transferred and so I bore my testimony. Its always nice for the members to know I have a strong testimony and its getting a little easier to tell them all in Polish. Its a good thing they are patient!
After church we had transfer calls!! and that’s when I found out I was going to Warsaw!!! AND Sister Petherbridge.. is going to Gdańsk!!!!!! This means they will have two new Sister Missionaries here in Katowice. We didn’t think that would happen and its really scary for our investigators and were nervous BUT we know that this is inspired by the Lord and we have done what we needed to do in Kato and there are other things waiting for us. I know the sisters coming here and I know they will be amazing.
I am very excited for Sister Petherbridge too! Even though I already miss her like crazy!!! She has changed my life and I love her so much! I know we will always be friends so it will be good :)

That was my week! it was a lot but it was good! Sister Petherbridge and I leave on Thursday and then ill be in Warsaw. a new adventure is coming and we can’t wait :) also I got my conference issue!!!!!!!!!!!! IM SO EXCITED!!! I can’t wait to read all the talks and learn from all of them again!!
Enjoy the pictures!

I miss you all and I love you all and I’m praying for you!!

xoxo love

Siostra Pearson


Bobbing for Apples

Me with Elder Wilson





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