Hope & Finding someone prepared to hear the message of the gospel

Zakopane

So this week’s email is going to be a really short one because today Sister Petherbridge and I decided to be spontaneous and have an adventure! These things are still needed in missionary work and we don’t have very many opportunities to be spontaneous with our days planned to the minute! So today we decided to drop everything and go to ZAKOPANE! It’s this really beautiful place czyli it’s the mountains.. The polish version and every pole asks if we have been there and we never have so we decided to go!

It literally took the whole p day so no emails :) except for a couple minutes!

We had a really great week this week. I feel like I say that every week but its TRUE! So I’m going to share one story and then a little about what I’m studying and then sadly I have to go!

Sister Petherbridge and I have been praying to find someone who is prepared to teach. Because there are so many people out there and unless they are prepared they won’t be ready! So we've ben praying and hitting the streets. Friday we were contacting in a park and we walked up to this young girl and asked her how she thought she could grow closer to God. From there we started talking and listening to her points of view. We taught her about repentance and baptism and then about the Restoration of the gospel. She was just listening so intently! We taught her about Christ and the great apostasy and she was like whoa you believe that? So do I! She said she’s never found a church, which teaches about the apostasy and the Restoration. We were like BOOM the fullness of the gospel has been restored!! She asked so many questions and teaching her was so powerful! The three of us had the most beautiful conversation and the spirit was so strong. SHE WAS SO PREPARED! The crazy thing is she told us she really wanted to come to church and meet with us but she was literally on her way to the bus to go home for the summer since she was in Kraków for university so she won’t be back until October. BUT we found her as she was literally on a bus to leave Kraków! Crazy! She wanted as much information as we had so we gave her a Book of Mormon to start reading and some pamphlets and all sorts of things. When she comes back I know she will be baptized. It was amazing to be a part of something like that. A conversation you know just changed someone’s life. It was amazing! 

I was going to share with you what I am studying but I took a while to tell you that story.. So really fast.. You sent me some talks to prepare me for President Uchtdorf’s visit and I read the one on hope.. AND IT BLEW MY MIND!!!! In it I found a theme for me last transfer.. Hope. Which isn't even the craziest part. The whole time I read it my mind was just being blown of how beautiful hope is and how much I want and need it. Right near the end he starts talking about faith hope and charity and how hope helps you with the other 2 and how all 3 go together. I realized that last transfer my whole focus was on charity. I am not even close to being finished learning about it but it was l like my theme. The transfer before that, my Bydgoszcz transfer my theme ended up being faith, faith in Christ, and I am also not even close to being done learning about that. BUT THEN I read this talk and realized I’ve been learning about faith then charity, and NOW ITS TIME FOR HOPE!!  I only have one transfer left! This might not be as exciting to you as it is to me, but it was personal revelation for me and a gift from my Heavenly Father. So I’ve been studying hope everyday. Not for my whole personal study but a little everyday so if you would like to send some talks :D or even links to talks zapraszam because I am going to be learning all about it and hopefully become more hopeful :)

Love,

Siostra Pearson

June 23, 2014 Blessed to be in Poland!

 So this week was beautiful. I don’t know if any other word could describe it. Being back with Sister Petherbridge has made every dream of mine come true! Seriously I am so happy all the time!!! We've already had a lot of really good adventures and it makes me just love life even more! We've been meeting with Danka a lot and she is doing so good! She’s been thinking about serving a mission!! She has some time to prepare. She is the best! She loves helping us out in missionary work and I love her so much!

We had a crazy thing happen to us this week. On Thursday it was a holiday so it was really dead outside but anyways we went to bed that night, and then in the middle of the night something woke me up. Once I came to my senses, you know I sleep like a brick ESPECIALLY on the mission cause I’m so exhausted all the time, so I came to and Sister Petherbridge was like, "do you hear that?" and there was this reeeaally loud music playing. You know like party music and it was right under our bedroom! The weirdest thing is that we live on the first floor so there’s no one that lives under us. Well Sister Petherbridge had been up for like an hour and a half already and she was freakin out! She had the front door open ready to go bust down there and yell at them to turn there music down. It was this crazy party and so she's like, "put your pants on and lets go!" I angry because it was 3 in the morning and us missionaries need our sleep. We went outside so we could look into the basement window and the party was literally in the basement in the room directly under our bedroom but I knew we couldn’t go down there. We were so confused it was so late! hahaha so we called the police. First time on my whole mission! But then they came and asked us some questions and shut down the party. It took like another hour and a half so we were pretty tired the next day! It was so crazy! We had a lot of things like that happen to us this week.

I think that’s what happens to Sister Petherbridge and I when we are together. It doesn’t matter to me though because I am just so happy all the time since we are together!! After the first day we were just so unified again. Teaching the gospel with each other just feels so right! I just know exactly where she is going and we can teach with the spirit and it makes everything beautiful.

I had to say goodbye to the Onken’s this week because they are going back to America. It was so sad! It’s been a really good week. Mostly teaching people well trying to find new people to teach! We're back to finding now, but I think one of my favorite things is still helping Danka. She is doing so well and neither Sister Petherbridge nor I have ever taught a recent convert and it’s really fun!

We made transfer goals and I’ve been having crazy moments of realization that this is my last transfer! I’m going to miss it so much! I feel like if I don’t remember then these next 2 months are just going to fly too fast so I take a minute every now an then to just soak up everything. Being in Poland, being with Sister Petherbridge, being a missionary!! I feel so blessed and happy!

me with Elder Allen

Saying bye to the Onken's 

Onken Family

Danka & Me

Krakow

Krakow

Krakow

Sister Petherbridge & Me

President Uchtdorf's visit to Poland! Reunited Again & My Final Transfer!

There is much that has happened!!! Ok, so first of all I AM COMPANIONS WITH SISTER PETHERBRIDGE AGAIN!!!! It is the biggest blessing of my mission. I seriously am so happy my face hurts! It’s my last transfer and my last companion is Sister Petherbridge! This is the most beautiful thing of all time. We are serving in Kraków. It’s a weird feeling to know how the rest of my mission is going to be here with Sister Petherbridge and I couldn’t be happier. I am going to miss Sister Swenson a lot though.

This weekend was amazing. Oh my goodness I don’t even know where to begin! We came into Warsaw for President Uchtdorf’s visit.

When we first arrived we went to the chapel. I have missed that place so much!! Sister Petherbridge’s investigator was getting baptized!!

All the missionaries came in to Warsaw and we were reunited!! Lots of happiness I thought I was going to explode! The whole weekend was seeing all of my best friends I have made on my mission. It was one big joyful reunion. Just like when Alma, Ammon and the sons of Mosiah see each other again and Ammon passes out from happiness!!! It was just like that! We decided that this experience is what the celestial kingdom will be like. It felt surreal and amazing!!!! I can’t describe it I’ll have to tell you when I come home.

But then PRESIDENT UCHTDORF CAME!!!!! And guess what mom! President Uchtdorf SPECIFICALLY thanked our parents for preparing us for our missions. So President Uchtdorf said thank you to you. I wrote it down so I could tell you!! It was the most amazing thing of my life. We all got to go up and meet him and his wife and shake hands. Then he spoke to us and it was AMAZING!!! I received so much personal revelation. After the conference it was so cool, because I talked to everyone and it was like everyone got something so different out of his talk. For me it was like he was just talking to me and teaching me how to end my mission. It’s not something I’ve been concerned about, but something I really want to do right, and he taught me how! It was really beautiful. I’m going to write you a letter though with more specifics. He really motivated us to make the most of our missions and that this is the Lord's work. He really wanted us to enjoy every part of it. The way he spoke to us was 100 percent by the spirit. He didn’t look at notes once it was smooth and inspired. We were all so inspired by the spirit to just go out there and do everything! I just love him so much!

That night I got to sleep in the mission home!! My roommates for the night were Sister Petherbridge, Sister Lidtka and Mikalauska, all former companions. It was an overwhelming day (in a good way) and we were really tired.

The next day when we went to the Mariott and saw ALL THE MEMBERS IN POLAND!!! I saw so many of them! All my loves from Katowice and Warsaw and Bydgoszcz and Kraków! Everyone in one place!!! It was beautiful! So much love and joy. The talks that were given to the Polish people were so perfect! It was EXACTLY what they all need including us! My favorite part was when President Uchtdorf told them all to be happy and to smile! He said people here in Poland should recognize all of us as different. They should ask us why we are so happy and then we should TELL THEM it is because we have the gospel! It was so beautiful and encouraging for all of them to hear the things that were specific just for Poland. I loved it so much!!

After all that we came down to Kraków again to start off the transfer! I am so excited I cannot contain it. I feel so blessed and happy! Life is so good!!! I don’t know I’ve done to deserve all of this. My mission is already the biggest blessing in my life and now it just feels like it’s getting better than I ever knew it could!

Love,

Siostra Pearson

Back together! Siostra Petherbridge and me.

Reunited in Warsaw with my group from the MTC

Siostra Swenson and I with some Young Single Adults in Warsaw

A place we share the gospel in Warsaw

Elder Lanham & me

Me with Siostra Tobler

Another place we contact people

President Uchtdorf (his wife is in yellow)

Me, right beside President Uchtdorf!

Danka's Baptism! And the Picnic

I had a really awesome week! It started off with culture night and we took the Elders to our fort we discovered and had a picnic!.. In the rain and had adventures in pants rather than skirts this time it was awesome!

This week was a lot of prepping for the branch picnic and Danka's baptism. Speaking of Danka she found 3 jobs this week!!!! FASTING WORKS!

Friday we got everything ready and had the best branch picnic ever to exist! We’ve been planning it for a while now but I don’t know if I told you about it at all. We were brainstorming what to do and I remembered when I was in young women’s and our leaders organized a re-enactment of the Tree of Life vision from the Book of Mormon for us, so I told them about it and President Kucia loved it! So WE DID IT! It was so amazing! I sent you pictures. We set it all up in this little part of the forest, and then as the blindfolded people would walk by we had missionaries be encouragers and some being tempters. Our guest were able to experience a little bit of what it would have been like to be a part of Lehi’s vision in the Tree of Life. They all made there way to the tree of life! It was the best thing of ever!

Saturday DANKA WAS BAPTIZED!!!! It was so beautiful! It’s hard to tell you all about it over the dang computer because there are so many emotions behind all of it! The talks were wonderful and all the missionaries sang, “When I am Baptized” aka the rainbow song it was really cool. The musically talented Elders arranged it and made it amazing. Danka's testimony was just the icing on the cake. It was beautiful! Yesterday she was confirmed and it was a moment of joy I will never forget! Everyone in the branch has been great at supporting her and welcoming her and she is so happy. Truly a BEAUTIFUL day!

This week is going to be a really busy one with transfers and seeing President Uchtdorf!! I cannot wait! I don’t know if there is any way to prepare my self for it. We're just so focused on our little Kraków that it's hard to think about other things! I am dying with excitement though. It is going to be an amazing experience. There’s just so much happiness and excitement! It's a busy busy time with everything with Danka and President Uchtdorf and it’s blazing hot outside! And I'm about to go into my last transfer of my mission. It’s like I’m treading water but in a fun way... I love it!

Love

Siostra Pearson

The Tree of Life re-enactment - Holding to the Iron Rod

Our branch underneath the "Tree of Life"

Me, Danka & Siostra Swenson

Getting ready for the baptism

All Ready!

At the church for the baptism

At home just taking time to smell the flowers!

Excited for culture night!

Picnic for Culture Day

Yes, the ground was wet!

Elder Allen and I singing and walking!