My One Year mark! Transfers and Never give up

First of all we had CULTURE NIGHT!! It was so much fun! We went skating in this huge stadium, the nation stadium in Warsaw. I have a couple pictures but I don’t think they will explain why it was so fun. We all went skating together for almost 2 hours and then we went for Mexican food. It was just really nice to be with my friends (the other missionaries) and have fun, you know? It was wonderful!

This week kind of had a little bit of a bump in the middle of it. Wednesday was just one of those days you know? When people were extra harsh and our investigators weren’t accepting the gospel and keeping commitments and being a missionary was just really hard!! So then we finally got to go home and go to sleep and then it was Thursday and it was so amazing!!! We had zero teaching appointments that meant we would be contacting all day long. Considering what the day before was like, I was a little less enthused but we went out and we started talking to people and it was so rough!! The poles just weren’t feeling the gospel. I’ll admit I was struggling a bit and so I prayed in my head. I asked my Heavenly Father to help me WANT to be here and to love these people so I will want to talk to them. My answer to prayer didn’t come right away BUT we ended up teaching 5 people!!  Giving them all books of Mormon and the coolest part was that I felt the Holy Ghost prompting me in my contacts, which was so cool! We were about to go into our office at nowy świat and honestly I was so happy. I was tired and ready to go in but Sister Stratton was like let’s contact for a little longer while we wait for the Elders. So she contacts this lady and the lady stops and starts talking to her. So I go over to help her out and the lady is about 30, looks at us and she calls us angels! She was so touched that we were here in Poland being missionaries.  Sharing this with people! I started bearing my testimony to her about why we are really here and she looked at Sister Stratton and me and started to cry!! Not just a little but like really crying!! We just talked to her about why we were here and how we knew it wasn’t an accident that we met that night. We told her we wanted to meet with her. We gave her a book of Mormon and she was so touched!! Guess what else!! She lived in Canada for 7 years!!!!!!!!! It was so cool! it was exactly what we needed in our lives and such a testimony to me that it matters that I am here. It matters that we talk to people and the message  we are trying so hard to share with people, the gospel, is TRUE. It changed my life.

Then Saturday came, and yup transfer calls. Sister Stratton and I waited and waited and we were trying so hard to focus and not freak out!! And then President called us... which meant that we were not staying together. I almost threw the phone out the window! But instead I took a deep breath and answered it.. President then said that I needed to pack my things because he was sending me to Bydgoszczas as the new sister training leader there!! I am still in shock. I’m  excited! So excited and honoured that I get to be a Sister Training Leader! But I’m so sad to leave Warsaw. It was so unexpected. I’m so sad to leave my dear Sister Stratton!! But I know the Lord has called me to go to Bydgoszcz and I know that it’s going to be great! I’m going to have the best district in the world! My companion is going to be Sister King! I am excited! Sister Stratton being her amazing self said to me, it just means that I have done exactly what I was suppose to have done here. I did what God needed me to do with her as a Trainee, with the branch here, and with my investigators. Now it’s time for me to go and learn something else that will just help me become the person I am trying to become so I cannot wait!!

I’ll be there for my one-year mark! I can’t believe time has gone by so fast! It’s a new adventure! It’ll be great. A whole YEAR!! I have loved every minute if it!!! I’ll make sure to tell you all about Bydgoszcz and everything about it next week. PRAY FOR ME!

Love

Siostra Pearson

Bogdon, Sister Stratton, me and the twins & baby

Magda & me

Skating on Culture Night

At the Mexican restaurant

My District

The "Fish Bowl" we contact here a lot

Charity is the Pure love of Christ

My week!! First of all it was amazing because we went to Dennis's house for FOO FOO ROUND TWO!!! It was AMAZING!!! This time there were 14 missionaries there!! I loved it so much!! I can’t wait to make foo foo for you one day!! So it was a great time! The rest of the week flew by! Honestly not much happened. I’m trying to rack my brain... well I SAW BARBARA!!! It was so much fun! We went for lunch and talked and she is doing great! She’s in Utah right now and hopefully I’ll see her when she comes back!

We also went to a members house this week and she lives a little farther away we had to take a train and well... we accidentally took it a couple stops too far and had to get off and wait for the next train. It didn’t come for a half hour so we were stranded and it was way out in the middle of no where and we were the only ones around so naturally we took a billion pictures with each other!! It was so much fun! It was seriously the highlight of my week. I love my companion so much. She is always there for me and we are always laughing and able to see the good in everything.

I LOVED the talks you sent me with my valentines day package!! They were seriously just what I needed. i don’t know how you do that but I really needed it.

The one form President Monson was so good!! It made me really want to make sure that I have charity even though its so hard sometimes especially when you are serving people who don’t want to be served or helped and honestly are very stubborn and hard most of the time. The only way that I can love them unconditionally and continue loving to serve them is through Christ. He is the perfect example for me and my love for him drives me to love the people.

I love what you said about being a disciple of Christ and that is exactly what I am trying to do. Learn more about Him so I can be like him. I love my mission! I’m so grateful that it’s teaching me to do that :)

I miss you guys a lot but I’m so glad you are there for me :)

Love Siostra Pearson

 

Sister Stratton and I waiting for the Train

Me with Barbara

Just gave Sister M a haircut

"Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?"

All right, so my week!!! It was a busy one that’s for sure! We went on an exchange this week! I stayed here in Warsaw with Sister Blake (from my MTC group) and Sister Stratton went to Łódż! It was a short exchange but we saw so many miracles!

It is like spring here!!! It was seriously so nice!! On Saturday it was 9 degrees!!!! It was just so happy and sunny and all the snow is like gone!! We had like 2 weeks of cold and now it feels like spring! It’s so weird but I’m not complaining!! We just walk everywhere instead of taking the trams.

So GUESS WHAT!!! On Thursday, I had to go to the train station to take Sister Blake there to meet everyone for the mission leadership-training meeting. This meant got to see Elder Lanham!! Elder Kotter!! And Sister Wendel!!!! It was a beautiful little reunion!!

AND THEN I was talking a ton with Sister Wendel and SHE IS SERVING IN KATOWICE CURRENTLY!!!!!  So we talked all about it and how everything was going. She told me all about Barbara!!!! She is doing really well and is going to AMERICA FOR PATRYK'S WEDDING! Her son! She is progressing really well and going to church and they talk about when she will be baptized and I FREAKED OUT!! I knew that Sister Wendel would take good care of her. I told her that she was going to help Barbara prepare for her baptism. The Lord has his own timing for everything and I just KNOW that Barbara is ready and I was filled to the brim with JOY!!! AND THEN GUESS WHAT ELSE!!!!!!!!!! Literally 5 minutes later I was still with all the missionaries and my phone rings, I didn’t know who it was so I answered it and IT WAS BARBARA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I screamed and freaked out and she was laughing and she told me that SHE WAS COMING TO WARSAW!!!!!!!!!!!! And that she wanted to see me! She is flying to America from here AND I HAPPEN TO BE SERVING HERE!!! WHAT A TENDER MERCY!! I cannot wait!! I am so excited to see her! I will take pictures :)

SISTER STRATTON CAME HOME TO ME!!! Praises I missed her so much!! I love our companionship! We have so much fun and I just love her so much!! It was a really awesome week! Like I said before the sun was shinning and people were almost cheerful!! We talked to some really cool people and I just LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Last night Sister and Brother Dresler invited us over for dinner!!! They are the sweetest people in all of Poland!!! We had so much fun and the food was so good!! They sent us home with a ton of it and I felt like I was serving back home!! Except we were speaking polish the whole time! After dinner we sang a couple songs for them!! Actually Sister Stratton played the piano and I sang for them. The spirit was there! It was beautiful and one of the most amazing nights of my mission!

It was a beautiful week per usual full of miracles and miraculous experiences that are helping me become that person I have always wanted to become!

I read a talk this week from the October general conference, “Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?” by Elder Timothy J Dyches It changed my life. It taught me about the Atonement and I was filled with a better love and understanding for my mission and for the Savior. Here are some of the scriptures that stood out to me and some of the talk I was most impressed with.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).

As we draw near to Him, we realize that mortality is meant to be difficult and that “opposition in all things” (2 Nephi 2:11) is not a flaw in the plan of salvation. Opposition, rather, is the indispensable element of mortality and strengthens our will and refines our choices. The vicissitudes of life help us fashion an eternal relationship with God—and engrave His image upon our countenance as we yield our hearts to Him (see Alma 5:19).

If you feel unclean, unloved, unhappy, unworthy, or unwhole, remember “all that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”3 Have faith and patience in the Savior’s timing and purposes for you. “Be not afraid, only believe” (Mark 5:36).

Be assured the Savior still seeks to mend our souls and heal our hearts. He waits at the door and knocks. Let us answer by beginning again to pray, repent, forgive, and forget. Let us love God and serve our neighbor and stand in holy places with a life made clean. The impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, the leper along the journey to Jerusalem, and Corrie ten Boom (a devote dutch christian woman) were made whole. “Wilt thou be made whole?” Rise and walk. His “grace is sufficient” (2 Corinthians 12:9), and you will not walk alone.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/wilt-thou-be-made-whole?lang=eng

These were my favorite parts. Life can be hard but through the Savior we can find peace and understanding! I know that when I have something hard to go through in my life it is because I am learning to be a better person. I am given the opportunity to become more like Christ. I think if we all recognized that DURING our trials we would hardly see them as trials!

Read it!! Also I don’t have sound on the computer in this library but there is a new Mormon Message called “The Other Prodigal Son” I just watched the whole thing without any sound and I was almost brought to tears! So I am suggesting that you watch it, it was beautiful!!

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages#.Uvj0biQUSA8.email

Love,

Siostra Pearson

Changing my approach and the best news ever!

GUESS WHATTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got the best news of life itself this week..... Are you ready... PRESIDENT UCHTDORF IS COMING TO MY MISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!

He’s actually coming TO POLAND!! And will talk to all the missionaries!!!!! I’m freaking out!!! I doubt I’ll be in Warsaw but all the missionaries will meet in Warsaw!! Isn’t that amazing!! It doesn’t happen in our mission very often cause its so small. I always said in the MTC that I wanted to meet President Uchtdorf on my mission. He’s travels to Germany and Poland's right next door AND NOW HE’S ACTUALLY COMING HERE!!! NIE MOGĘ SIĘ DOCZEKAĆ!!!!!!!!! I’m flipping.

This was a super good week by the way, every week feels like a month and I think it’s so impossible for me to learn so much but I do! We were super busy this week. We made tons of white boards with the Elders and I have the coolest story EVER!! Ok so let me explain a white board. My companion and I along with the two Elders set up a white board on a busy street and we write a question on it. It could be any question. Then we just talk to people! However, for my whole mission I usually do the same thing. I stop people and talk to them about the Book of Mormon. I teach them about what it is, why we have it, how I know it’s true and it’s why I’m here! Then I give a Book of Mormon to them and ask to set up another meeting so we can teach them about the Restoration. BUT there this cool thing where missionaries go on the streets and they teach someone and they teach them a whole mini first lesson about Jesus, the Apostasy, Joseph Smith and the first vision and then the Book of Mormon. I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO IT! And to recite the first vision on the street! It is one of my goals. I just talked to Elder Brown about it last week and asked him how he did it. On Tuesday, we had an awesome day! We had a wonderful district meeting and then we created a white board with Elder Boyce and Elder Rittmanic. We were FREEZING!! It was so cold and so windy the cold just cut through all our clothes! Anyways, there’s a ton of people on the street and not one person was listening to me, like not one person!! And then I have my mormon.org cards, because they are my FAVORITE, and I just zaprasać(ed) (this means Invited sometimes Hailey writes in Polish and I have to translate it) this young man and he stopped and took the mormon.org card and was looking at it so I was like, hey! Have you heard of our church? And he’s like ya it’s in America! I talked to him about how our church is all over the world. I asked him if he had ever heard about the Book of Mormon and he said no! I was like WHAT! naprawdę!? he was like ya i haven’t! I was so happy, I started to teach him about what it was and THEN something amazing happened! I’ve never done it before but for some reason instead of my normal routine I said, the Book of Mormon was translated by the power of God through a prophet, Joseph Smith!! I asked him if he heard of Joseph Smith, he said no. I taught him all about Joseph Smith and his story and then in Joseph Smith’s word I RECITED THE FIRST VISION ON THE STREET! I bore my soul and testimony on it and explained the Book of Mormon now and why it’s so important for our day. This kid was so cool! His name is Piotr and he is 17! He offered me chips in the freezing cold as I taught him about Joseph Smith and the Restoration!! We pretty much became best friends. I told him about Oskar, a young man in my branch, and told him they were going to be best friends. It was such a cool experience! We exchanged contact information and I gave him a Book of Mormon and off he went!

I was just filled with so much joy!!! It was amazing!! That contact changed my life!! And then I realized how easy it was to teach people more information on the street and I kept doing it all week!! It was the most amazing thing ever!!! I LOVE TALKING TO NEW PEOPLE ON THE STREETS! It’s just so crucial and you never know what will come of it. I know that it changes people’s lives including my own!

 Another cool thing happened this week!

We had a Relief Society activity. We had a mini pot luck and made recipe books. I love the women in my branch! They are so cool and it takes so much work to be a member here especially a leader. I just love them for everything they do!

We also did an English white board this week. Our district gets together and just talks to people about our English class we offer. I contacted a man and invited him to English class and he said, oh I already speak English, so I switch to English. He’s from AMERICA! We talked about America and Canada and about what it’s like to be a missionary. He’s married with 2 kids and lives in Poland. He has lived here for 7 years. For some reason, I was just myself. I just talked to him about being Mormon and why I decided to come on a mission. How much I LOVE talking to people on the streets and meeting people. How sharing the gospel makes me so happy because it means so much to me. He just kept asking questions and listened to my detailed answers. He said he met some Mormons before and that including me they have always been really nice which he thought was very commendable. He’s not a believing person but he asked if he could ask me some questions about what I believed and I was like YES! That’s’ why I’m here! He asked, so you guys believe that Jesus was in the Americas right?  I talked to him all about how Jesus was in Jerusalem and then after he was resurrected went to the people in America. He was like wow that’s actually really interesting and then we talked about Joseph Smith and why the early saints had to flee west. He even asked about polygamy (which is a lot easier to explain in English rather than Polish). We just talked for a long time. Then he told me he works for national radio here in Poland and he would love to interview me! He said it would be really cool. He loved my personality and story and thought it would be nice to help clear up something’s that people think about Mormons. I’m still talking to President Edgren about it but I was honoured! So we will see what happens with that.

Sister Stratton and I are getting along so good! I love training! It’s so much fun and we are learning together!

I love the quote from the MTC, obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles and this work is full of them!

I love my mission! I just love being a missionary! I love the people I meet and get to serve and serve with. It has just opened up so many new things for me!

  

KOCHAM CIĘ!

xoxo love Sister Pearson

Sister Stratton and me 

Enjoying lunch with Sister Stratton

Me with Kasia

At the Relief Society Activity