She always has my back & giving 100%

Right now we are teaching a couple people who I taught with Sister Tobler in early December. Renia is our main investigator right now. In our meeting last week she said she new the church was true and that the Book of Mormon was true but she won’t come to church on Sundays because the catholic church is so much closer to her house.. AHHHHH it’s frustrating sometimes!! But mostly just because I love her so much I just want everyone to realize how amazing this gospel is!

On Saturday we got to do another chapel tour for some university students. One guy who came was a guy I taught and talked with on the street like 3 days before hand!! What are the chances!! It was a wonderful opportunity and so much fun!

Sister Stratton and I are doing so good!! I love her so much and we learn so much everyday! She always has my back and is so supportive! She's the coolest! We have made goals we want to accomplish starting next Sunday so pray for me because it’s really hard to correct and sacrifice little things that aren’t necessarily bad but you want to show the Lord that you are willing to give him everything, 100% and be that person I want to become! It’s going to be amazing I can’t wait!!

Kasia, our recent convert, taught the gospel principles class yesterday and I was so proud of her! It’s her new calling you would have no idea that she's only been a member for like a month and a half! Kasia and I were talking after church about the temple. She really wants to go to the one in France, since there isn’t a temple in Poland. She loves France! She was like; will you please come with me to France for my first time going to the temple? It was SO CUTE!!! I love her so much and I’m so glad I have her as my friend and that I can be here for her. I told her one-day I would go with her :)! I just love how the Lord has put these amazing people into my life and I just love them all so much! It’s amazing. I love it here!!!!

 Love,

Sister Pearson

January 20th, 2014 - Sacrifices are worth it!

My week was so great! I LOVE SISTER STRATTON! She is so cool and we get along really well. I LOVE TRAINING SO MUCH! It is seriously so much fun! It is a ton of work but I’m so happy I’m doing it!

Sister Stratton is picking things up really fast and she's very patient and loving. and we are having so much fun! We did a lot of white boards with the Elders this week and she is contacting everyone on her own! We met with our investigators this week and it was a little different because its Sister Stratton’s first week in the country she doesn’t understand or speak a ton of polish so there is a lot of responsibility on me. But I like the added pressure I feel it motivates me and helps my polish. It also helps me to rely more on the Lord, it’s like so much happens for my spiritual growth in one week that it’s so hard to fill you in on all of it! It was a wonderful week!!

This week has made me really reflect on the people I have here and love. We met with Kasia and it’s the first time I’ve met with her since the day she was confirmed. We had some other meetings this week with investigators and members here. I just love them all so much! I was talking to Sister Stratton yesterday about how much I love MY mission. The point of a mission is that they are each unique and each our own. After this long 14-week transfer I’ll have been in Warsaw for almost as long as I was in Katowice. I will only have 1 or maybe 2 more cities and some of the sisters I have served with have been transferred around 5 times by now but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. The Lord has taught me so much about people, charity and love. I don’t’ think I could’ve learned that as well if I wasn’t around the same people for longer time periods of time. I’m just so grateful for it! It’s like so personal and different for everyone. It’s like a gift form God straight to me everyday that I am here. I am grateful for the companions I’ve served with, the investigators I’ve taught, and learned from the members here in Poland and people on the streets. Each moment has enriched my life. It’s just such a testimony builder that God knows me and loves me. This is my mission and I know that I’m only going to get what I put into it. It was a great reflecting week. 

I read a talk this morning from conference, the be ye converted one by the Young Women President, I think, and it was all about how we need to be individually converted to the gospel and how when we LIVE the things we believe and we make SACRIFICES for them that we will be able to grow more and be more converted, and that sacrificing part hit me. Looking back on my life I have seen the sacrifices that I have made because I know that this gospel is true. It hasn’t been the easiest life but it has been the best one I could have. I made sacrifices because I know this is true and in return my testimony has been strengthened. I am converted because I know this is true. My mission is a sacrifice; I could be at home going to school dating people GETTING MARRIED and being a mom but I chose to come here. I chose to share the gospel with the world because I know it’s true and in return I am blessed and truly converted more than I ever could before. It’s like when you sacrifice for something you realize how important it is and how much you love it. That’s what has happened to me. I love my mission and I love the message that I get to share with people everyday for the rest of my life, what a blessing!! The church is true, I’m speaking polish, and there are people everywhere we go who are ready to accept the message of the gospel!

Love,

Sister Pearson

Overjoyed!

I received the cutest note from Jasmine Paquette and wow it really made my day!!

My new companion was supposed to arrive on Wednesday BUT all the new missionaries coming to Poland got stuck in Denver!!! for 4 days!!!! So I was with Sister Mikalauska and her new companion for a few days. Yesterday I met SISTER STRATTON, my new companion! She’s from Bountiful, Utah and she is super cute. We get along so good!! Sometimes I feel super nervous to train a brand new missionary, it’s a lot of responsibility but I cannot wait! I am so excited to help her and I know that the Lord has called me to do this. It makes me want to be the very best I can be so that I can influence her and help her! I know I’m not perfect but the Lord will help me to help her. I am so excited!! Yesterday she participated in her first white board and SHE GAVE OUT HER FIRST BOOK OF MORMON!!!!! I was so proud!!! There are so many miracles that happen when you are a trainee. I can’t wait to serve with her!!

We all went to church in Warsaw 1^st branch again yesterday!! It was like I was floating on a cloud!! It was so nice to be back there!! I can’t believe this has happened. I literally am blessed unbelievably!! I didn’t think I would ever get to serve back here again!! I got to sit with Kasia in church and it was just so beautiful!!! I’m so excited for this transfer!!!

Sylwia was baptized yesterday! I wish I could have been there to see it but my heart is so full of joy for her that it doesn’t even matter!! This gospel is true! I wish I could just transfer all of these feelings over to you and everyone so you could know what it feels like. I have never been happier in my entire life! Everyday I get to go out and talk to people about Jesus Christ and the restoration, the Book of Mormon and how this gospel has changed my life. I get to share my testimony with the people of Poland and even when they don't stop to listen, I receive a witness from he Holy Ghost every single time that what I am saying is true. I have never known with more clarity that the message of the gospel that I share with people everyday is absolute truth and that it will bless everyone's lives. In turn I’m being blessed so much! It almost doesn’t seem fair to be gaining so much from this experience when I’m here to help other people but I do! It’s just the most wonderful thing I have ever done in my life. I love my mission.

Yesterday we were in our trainers meeting and all the trainers and trainees were there. President Edgren was teaching us and he looks over at me sitting in the crowd and he talked about how every single email he has ever got from me has been nothing but positive and happy. He said he’s been able to watch me grow and watch my love for people grow. He said that he could feel my charity and real love for the people I serve with, the people I teach and the people I haven’t even met yet and he said it was amazing to watch. I almost wept like a child.

My mission has showed me so many things about myself; many of those things are things I need to work on, my weaknesses. But I have also been able to be blessed with strengths. Things that I just thought were who I am have been brought into the light as my strengths, something I know the Lord has blessed me with to help other people and it makes me EVEN MORE HAPPY! It’s just so beautiful! I love my mission.

Time is going very fast, I’m scared but also excited. Elder Tiner just went home a week ago and I looked up to him so much. He ended his mission exactly how I want to end mine. He is such a good example to me! I asked him how he did it, how he worked so hard till the very end and how he loved his mission so much but was excited to go home! It’s like he had the perfect balance, and so I asked him for advice and you know what he said? It was BEAUTIFUL he told me that he understands the Plan of salvation. Because of that understanding he sees the big picture he knows why we are here and what we need to do and what he needs to do next. From his mission he knows how much he gained and he knows what he needs to do now, that beautiful soul of a man! So that is what I am going to do, I know God has a plan for me and that included me coming here to Poland, the best decision I have ever made. I know He has plans for me when I come home too :)

nie bój się ; tylko wierze

Do not fear; only believe!!!! The church is true.My testimony went crazy today but I just LOVE EVERYTHING! My happiness might be a little out of control in this moment but anyways I LOVE YOU!!

Sister Hailey Pearson

Happy New Year! Change, Baptism & I love my mission!

GOOOOD MORNING!

So my week was crazy! The week went by really fast. Sister Mikalauska and I had a great time!!! We celebrated New Years Eve and went to a member’s house and made Pierogi with her! It was so fun and so easy! We'll make lots when I come home :) then we had to be inside by 6 because its not safe so Sister Mikalauska and I wrote some letters and danced in our apartment. We felt so refreshed in the morning!! We slept with earplugs in our ears cause it was so crazy outside but it was still great!

On Saturday we got to go to yet another baptism!!! Stanisław was baptized. It was one of the most beautiful baptisms I’ve ever seen!! There is nothing I love more than baptisms, especially as a missionary. I feel like I have this whole different understanding of what these people are actually choosing and it’s beautiful!! Sadly I don’t have any pictures but it was so wonderful. All the missionaries were there and people from Warsaw 1 branch (that I used to be in) and President and Sister Edgren. I loved every minute of it! Stanisław is actually really cool! He has been meeting with the Elders for about 2 months. I use to talk to him all the time at church and just ask how he was doing, he always seemed a little uneasy like he would tell me that the Elders talked to him about baptism again and how he wasn’t sure if he was ready and he was always worried he wasn’t ready. Then one day they were broadcasting the Christmas devotional and he came a little late and I was in the hallway so I said hi to him and you'll never guess what he told me, he said I feel so bad for being late but I was at home reading the Book of Mormon and I just lost track of time! He said he had been reading since he got home from church and didn’t even realizing he had been reading for like 4 hours!! He just said it was so good and he loved it!! It was SO COOL! At his baptism, on Saturday, I said congratulations and he looked so different! I asked him how he was doing and he said "jest to szczególnie dzień, Staję chrzest dzisiej!" and he was SO HAPPY!! I’ve never seen him look like that before! His whole countenance had changed and he was ready. Oh sorry he said..it is a really special day, I am becoming baptized today! It is a testimony builder to me that people are being prepared here in Poland to receive the gospel. This last transfer 8 people were baptized and I was able to witness 4 of them!!!! I didn’t witness a baptism in Poland until this transfer, people are changing. People are being prepared.

Speaking of people being prepared...

Two nights ago, I received a call from Elder Lanham. Elder Lanham is still serving in Katowice as the zone leader. He said, I have something amazing to tell you and so he proceeded to give me the news that someone whom I loved very much and spent a lot of prayers, thoughts and time over was making a big change in their life... he told me that....

SLYWIA CALLED HIM AND SAID SHE WANTED TO BE BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!

She is getting baptized this SATURDAY!!!!!!!!! Sylwia!!! I hope you remember her! Slywia was my first investigator on my mission, she is like the best member in Kato and she wasn’t baptized yet!!! I LOVE HER!! SHE IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! I always knew it would happen one day. The Lord has his hand in all things! We don’t always understand his timing but He loves and knows all of us. I am so happy for Sylwia and that I get to help out in this amazing work!!!

I saved the best for last :) TRANSFERS!! So prepare yourselves!!!!!!! President called last night, and he asked how I was doing and I said good and he said, drum roll please... hahaha…. he said Sister Pearson I have 2 assignments for you, First... I would like you to TRAIN this transfer! We only have one sister coming into the mission and I want you to train her. Secondly, I would like you to... go back to WARSAW 1!!!!!!!!!! He said that he felt like I was taken out of there too soon and that it would be better for me to train in a place I was more familiar with. So he is sending me back to Warsaw 1!!! I almost screamed!!!! I started dancing on the phone.. silently… so he thought I was very composed and I was freaking out!!!

I AM TRAINING AND IM GOING BACK TO WARSAW 1!!!! Remember how much I loved it there!?!?! and how hard it was to leave and everything?! Well I’m going back!!! I’m terrified to train but I am also really really excited for this wonderful opportunity!!! I’m going to learn and grow so much! The Lord will help me and I hope I will help her! There is something really special about being a trainer, I’m so honored :) I CANT WAIT!!

So that’s about it!!! Sister Mikalauska is staying in Warsaw 2 Sister Tobler is going up to Gdańsk!! and Sister Petherbridge to Poznań! I’m going to miss all my dear other companions but it’s another opportunity to have a new best friend :) its going to be a huge adventure and I can’t wait!!! I LOVE MY MISSION!!!

Love Sister Hailey Pearson