June 3, 2013 - My First Marriage Proposal!

This week was AMAZING!!! They just keep getting better and better!! This week Sister Packard and I taught 14 LESSONS!!!! Doesn’t sound like a lot but for my mission it is a huge deal!! A list is sent out every week with everyone who taught 12 or more lessons and we made it!!!! We were third on the list!!!! Out of the whole mission we were 3rd in teaching the most lessons, which is a HUGE deal for us and we were so excited!!!! All because of the Lord!! We made goals and He helped us reach them and surpass them!!!

To start off the week last P- day we went to Helena's house and made Pierogi!! It was really fun and they were delicious!!  A funny story, this week my companion and I decided we would contact every non white person cause were sick of the cranky polish people so I go to contact this guy and start talking to him and he doesn’t speak polish! So we switched to English and I’m teaching him about the book of Mormon and how happy it’s made me and he interrupts me mid sentence and asks me where I’m from, so I tell him. Then he asks how old I am so I tell him and then kept teaching. He stops me again and says I like you! I want to have the relationship with you. It took everything in me to not burst out laughing! He then goes on to ask me if I wanted to get married. He actually said the words I want to marry you. Would you be interested in marrying me? I told him I was on a mission and this is what I am doing right now not even thinking about things like that. He said after my mission he wants to marry me and gave me his number to think about it when I am finished my mission. It was the funniest thing ever! My companion almost peed her pants. We laughed so hard! I never thought my first time being proposed to would be like that. But hey! At least I left a good impression on him!

We taught the law of chastity to Sylwia. It didn’t go very well. We fasted about it yesterday and we both feel that we need to give her some space. We can’t make this decision for her. She is the one who has to have the desire to be baptized so we continue to pray for her but we know that there isn’t a whole lot more we can do for her. She needs to want this. So we are giving her some space to figure it out. It is really heartbreaking; she was supposed to be baptized this coming up weekend. But all in the Lord's timing and in his will!!

On a happier note we have a couple other investigators we are teaching and I hope they will all continue to progress!! They are all so unique and I love them all so much! Virginia is the lady who let us in her house! Yesterday out of the blue we were shooting to teach one more lesson to get our 14 and its been raining like crazy here. There was no one outside and all the sudden we get a call from Virginia!! She asked where we were and said she had her 2 dogs for a couple hours and wanted us to meet them. So we met her and started talking to her. She let me walk one of her dogs and took us to the graveyard where her husband is buried. She misses him so much We were able to share some scriptures with her, teach her a little bit about the plan of salvation and testify that she can live with her husband again. It was one of the most beautiful moments ever!! It meant so much to her. Virginia said we could come over and teach her more! She is so lonely and is by far one of my favorite people here in Poland. She is so kind! We are really excited about that! We are going to help garden too!

Friday was Sister Packard’s birthday so I really tried to make it special for her! We have been getting along so well and the more I pray for her and serve her the more I love her. It works out really great! We had a really fun day. I took lots of pictures!

My polish is getting better. Yesterday when I was fasting I fasted for many things one of them was to help me understand the polish language more and I was able to understand so much more polish than usual!! The people in our branch (church) bore beautiful testimonies. I love my little branch! :)

I love this work; it makes me so happy to be a part of it! I love you so much and can’t wait to hear from you again next week!!

Love your daughter

Sister Hailey Pearson

May 27th, 2013 - My First Polish Home!

WELL CZEŚĆ TO YOU!

I had such an amazing week I don’t even know where to begin!! Well first off I GOT THE PACKAGE with the shoes in it! I actually got it this morning during our studies. They delivered it right to the door!! We weren’t even going to answer it because no one ever calls our domophone but we did and thank goodness because it was a package for me!!!!!!!!! I love the shoes!!!! They are so cute and Sister Packard sang a new shoes song while I danced around in them! They are super cute and really comfy already!! I haven’t been having my shin splints very much since my blessing and now with these shoes I’m sure they will go away completely!! I’ve been doing everything I was told! Certain exercises and drinking water and all sorts of things so thank you very much for these. I can already tell that they are going to do wonders!! I feel so tall and awesome!! Thank you for the letter!! I really want to serve in Krakow!! That is the place I went to when I visited Poland the first time and they JUST opened it up to sisters last transfer when I got here so the chances are good!!! Thank you for everything else in there too! The Elders are going to FLIP when they get the maple candies! But don’t worry they are more for the polish people not the missionaries!

 SO! Where to begin! I GOT MAIL! On Friday we had special training with President and Sister Nielsen.They brought our mail and guess what!!!! IM LOVED!!!! It was so exciting!! They had this huge stack and so I was dividing it and there were 3 for the elders and the rest was all for me!! I felt kind of bad but hey I’m still a Greenie! It’s to be expected! I got a letter from you and from Amber!! And the cd's!! and one from REAGAN!! Bless her soul I miss her so much!! And a postcard from my dear cousin Logan and a few others! It was just so nice to have a little piece of home!! 

So last P-day Sister Packard, the Elders and I went to go and play some sports together and when I say play sports I really mean goof off and pass a soccer ball back and forth so I was playing with Elder Dopp, Neuner, and Elder Smith. None of us were very good and so it was fun! Poor Elder Smith. I wish you could’ve met him! He cracked me up 100% of the time. He is hilarious and so goofy! He went to shoot the ball into the net that was being guarded by Elder Dopp and they both ran for the ball at the same time and kicked it at the same time. Elder Smith got hurt! So he sits on the ground and naturally I’m laughing because I’m sick like that (I get it from you!). So I’m helping him and I’m concerned but I’m also laughing and so was he we all were but then we realized he was actually pretty hurt so he’s taking his time and were now sitting on this bench and with a lot of encouragement and like 15 minutes later he finally takes his sock off so we can look at it and his ankle is HUGE!!! So we had to carry him to the doctor’s office. We found out that he totally broke his ankle!! And he had to go home!!! :( I was so upset. It was so unexpected!! We all miss him so much! But it taught me to make every minute count because you never know what will happen!! So sad!

I went on my first exchange!!! It was very cool to see how other people do stuff and I had to be BY MYSELF!! For like a whole 4 hours!! It was CRAZY! But actually kind of nice I’m not going to lie! I was so relieved when Sister Packard came back. I missed her! It made me appreciate her more being on an exchange with a different sister. I was glad to see her again!

On Thursday we were having a contacting competition where we just talk to everyone (like everyday) but we keep track of how many people we each contact. I went up to a lady and started to talk to her. Well, walk and talk and then she started speaking English! So we had a really good conversation. We talked to her for so long we walked her all the way to her house!! She showed us her garden and her yard. It was so beautiful!!! Granny would’ve loved it!! She told us to come inside!! MY FIRST POLISH HOME!!! This lady is so rich! Her house is huge! (for a polish home). She has traveled all over the world and her husband died about 5 years ago. She gave us a whole tour and said we could come back and teach her!! She also gave me some carbonated water so she is definitely my favorite!! We invited her to the BBQ we are having on Saturday and she said she would come!!! Her name is Virginia and she is so awesome!!! So kind and friendly!! We are hoping to start teaching her!!

On Friday we had special training with President and the missionaries from Wrosław came which means I got to see SISTER BLAKE!! My companion from the MTC!! It was so fun to see her and talk about the good old days! And to remember that I am not alone in this whole training thing! She is so precious! I miss her so much! She told me my hair was longer! And redder! And that I lost weight!! Holy moly could I love her anymore?

Saturday we had our first branch BBQ!!! It was so fun! Sister Packard and I had 5 OF OUR INVESTIGATORS SHOW UP!! Which is so amazing!! Thank goodness the Elders were there to help us talk to all of them but our branch is super cool! Everyone is so nice and understanding and I love talking to them all even though I can’t understand them and they can’t understand me! It’s like a constant game of charades!! But the Polish version!! It’s so fun!!

That’s about it for my week! Church was amazing yesterday as always and it’s so amazing to go and feel the same spirit even though I can’t understand what they are saying!!

Oh, we taught Sylvia finally and went over all of the baptismal questions. She isn’t living the law of chastity and we had to have quite the fun conversation with her but its quite a problem and were not sure what to do because she really wants to get baptized but doesn’t want to change so please pray hard this week for her.We are teaching her Law of Chastity on Thursday so I will have an update next week!!! She most likely will not be getting baptized June 8th anymore though :( this broke my heart by the way. You can teach these people and feel a glimmer of what Heavenly Father feels for them. It can be almost overwhelming the sadness, hope and love you feel for them. It has its ups and downs but this one was a down. So we will have to see! All in the Lord's timing of course!

About the chapter in Mosiah I was telling you about last week! I think it was 9? Anyways it’s talking about how the people go and they work and till the ground and build buildings and plant fields and do all this work! Then in the next verse it says they began to prosper and multiply in the land. And it hit me like a ton of bricks!!!! This is the work I need to be doing. The people in the book of Mormon always had to work really hard before the rejoicing and prospering and having families and babies! And that is what a mission is for me! I need to do this work and it is super hard. I miss home a lot and if I think about how long I will be doing this for it makes me want to hop on a plane! However I know that this is where I need to be and that after this I will be blessed and I WILL be given the promised blessings! It was comforting to read such a simple scripture and have it mean so very much to me! I love the Book of Mormon so much!

 I miss you all so much. I just love more than anything hearing about how you are all doing back home. It’s the simple stories and funny moments of home that make me feel comforted and happy so please always keep them coming!! Thank you so much! I love you sooo much and I love everyone! Thanks for the pictures! I miss you all and pray for you all the time!!!

xoxox

Love you!

Siostra Hailey Pearson

May 20th, 2013 - Teaching Sunday School, Starting English Classes and My Fair Lady

This was a good week :) First of all it was just better! P-day was ok but raining so we just went to the mall and had NO LUCK in finding any shoes :( HOWEVER!  My shin splints are getting much better!! I barely had them at all this week!!!! So thank you for your prayers and everything you've done! My district has been very concerned and helpful so that’s nice :) I’m in good hands!!

So first things first! On Tuesday our Elders went on exchanges and ELDER BLOM CAME HERE!! It was so nice to see him again! The bonds we made in the MTC will never be replaced! It’s a special time we had there. It was so fun to see and to talk to him again. We all went out for lunch and talked about all our memories. It just totally made my whole day to see him again!!

We had kind of a slower week this week doing most of the same things I just had a great attitude about it! We walked to some schools and gave them flyers (invites) for our English classes that we are suppose to be teaching but currently have no kids!!!! :( It’s so sad. We are really trying to get that up and going. Hopefully people from the school will call! We go to the Elders adult English classes to help them and that’s always fun. None of them are members. It’s a great way to serve and give them an opportunity to know about the church.

On Thursday we were suppose to have a lesson with a woman we met on the street but she didn’t show up :( sadly this has been the case with all of the lessons we have set up on the street! It’s frustrating! But I know that we are here to find people that are willing to hear the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ and we will find them eventually! Friday we had a lesson with Ola she is one of our investigators. Half her lessons are English lessons and half are learning the gospel. We taught her all about the book of Mormon and a bit about Joseph Smith. She is so happy and bubbly. She reminds me so much of Elder Wilde's mom except a polish version! She would crack you up!! She’s great! We taught her all the parts of the body in English! It’s what she wanted to learn and it was fun!

Saturday we had our culture night!!! We went to see My Fair Lady! It was awesome!! It was all in Polish so I didn’t understand most of it but it was a great opportunity to get to know my district more and have a wonderful time! A bit of a change in our weekly schedule!!

Over all I just had a great week! It was really fun. The Lord is helping me so much! Its crazy how fast your week can change!! I was struggling a little bit but He is helping me love it! Even though these people can be reeeeaaallly hard, I know that this is where I am suppose to be. I know the Lord sent me here because I can handle it! We talk to EVERYONE on the streets and sometimes were lucky if someone takes a pass a long card. We are the happiest people in the world if someone actually stops and listens to us! Sister Packard and I say that as long as we are doing absolutely everything we can then we have nothing to feel bad about! People still have agency. I am able to find joy in the things we are doing here and I just love it so much!

Tonight we are going on exchanges!!!! My very first one!! I’m kind of nervous but it will be fun to switch it up with another sister and see how she does things so I will let you know how that goes! Yesterday, at church, we taught Sunday school!! In front of everyone! We talked all about member missionary work and how much we need them ESPECIALLY here in Poland. I even spoke in front of everyone! Believe it or not I was one of the least nervous! My district can be crazy and think their polish isn’t good even though they have all been here for 8 months and I’ve been here for 3 weeks!! But I love them all a lot. I’m so glad to have them here! Yesterday the Elders gave me a blessing for my shin splints and I haven’t felt them since! It was so amazing because Elder Dopp didn’t even mention the shin splints! Maybe he forgot... but he said things that meant so much to me and its so cool because we were talking about it after and it is so amazing to have a blessing and have the Lord tell me EXACTLY what He wants me to hear! The priesthood is amazing and I’m so blessed to have these worthy Elders here!! It was very comforting and helped me in so many ways so thank you for telling me to get one!! Well, that’s about it for this week! I love you all so much and I miss you all soooo much!

I also read Mosiah chapter 4 versus 9 to 19 and my mind was BLOWN!!! it was all written just for me!!! Read it and ill tell you all about it next week!!

Love you!

Siostra Pearson

Sharing the Gospel in Poland

The Chapel in Katowice, Poland

My district

Me outside on the balcony of our apartment

Washing clothes the old fashion way, in the tub. Our washer broke.

Downtown Katowice

My First Tram Ticket

DownTown Katowice

Week 2 in Poland - Contacting an Australian in Poland

WELL CZEŚĆ!! Happy Mothers Day EVERYONE!

I got to speak to my beautiful rodzina (family) yesterday and it was sooooo amazing!!! They are such strength to me! I love them all so much and it was super amazing!!

This week was really good! It’s so full and so busy and I know I couldn’t do any of this without the Lords help! Last week for P-day we went to a mall (YAY) it was exciting to be in the world again but there is not a ton of things to do here in Katowice. So if anyone wants to do some research and find something cool to do then let me know!! For now we just do somewhat lame things but its ok cause its  PDAY!! AND EVERYONE LOVES PDAY especially because EMAIL!!!

We taught our English class it was really fun. It reminded me of Ukraine :) but we were helping the elders teach adults. It was still really fun! The weather got a bit nicer this week! Thank goodness!! I’m still white but that'll change :) so we were contacting in this huge park and we weren’t talking to anyone so it was super lame. I was praying in my head to find people. I find that when I’m praying I feel so much better about everything. Then we went to this guy sitting on a bench and said our bold statement and he listened!!! So we kept talking and gave him a book of Mormon and he was reading it, it was so cool!! We set up an appointment to teach him! He didn’t show up :( but that’s ok cause he has a book of Mormon and it was still a wonderful experience!! I loved it!! My polish is improving since I have to talk to random strangers every minute I’m outside!! We talk to EVERYONE without exceptions so its getting fun! Except I don’t understand anything they say to me but that'll come soon enough!! Getting used to the language makes things very fun, I just love it!!

I did my first white board!! The elders and us set up a white board with a question on it like if you could ask God one question what would it be and we try to stop people and have them answer it and talk about it. The four of us were out doing it  and I went up to this man and started talking to him (in polish) and he said oh I’m sorry I don’t speak polish. I swear the choir of angels was singing from heaven! I said that is ok neither do I! We started talking and he told me he is from Australia!! So I talked about Travis and Kyle serving their missions there and talked about how beautiful and awesome Canada is and why I was here in Poland. He was so kind and nice , FINALLY!  I told him what we were doing here and I asked him the whiteboard question. I gave him a pass-along card actually 2 because they were my favorites. I told him all about them. He said he would check them out. It was so awesome!! Truly a blessing from the Lord to feel like I accomplished something because sometimes you get kind of down when no one talks to you for a straight like 6 hours!! It was so awesome!!

The Reeds had us over for dinner this week (a senior missionary couple) It was nice to have real food and to get to know the people from my district better. We all showed each other our little mission "face books" with all our pictures. It was really fun sharing them with everyone. I loved it! Then we went out to visit less actives with Sister Reed cause she has a car! I found out that Poland is BEAUTIFUL!!! We got to leave the city and go into the countryside and holy moly was it ever nice!!! The people looked happier and nicer. There were real forests, fields and trees. It was so beautiful!! A nice little break from the ghetto city that I’m in :) not that i don’t love it cause I do it was just a nice change!!!

We taught Sylvia, our investigator, this week!!! We had our lesson with her , it was my first lesson with her. We taught her all about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and why its important which lead to baptism of course. She has been taught for 3 months. The spirit was so strong in the lesson. I would open my mouth to say things to her and things would just come out!! It was such a blessing and I felt so much love for her and such a desire for her to accept the things we were teaching her Then at the end of our lesson we extended the invitation to be baptized on June 8th... AND SHE SAID YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So she is getting baptized on June 8^th. I am so lucky to be a part in her conversion. Sister Packard says that we had to be companions for this to happen. That makes me feel special. I am so thrilled! Sylvia is making the best decision of her life. We were all crying and  were so happy afterwards it was the most amazing thing ever!!!

 Well have to go now, I love you all so very dearly!!

P.S. CONGRATULATIONS TO MY DEAR JAYDEN AND JENSEN!!!!! I so wish I could have been there on Saturday to be a part of your special day. I was there in spirit!! I am so happy for the both of you. Miss you so much!!! You both looked amazing! (mom sent a pic) and to everyone else your looking good!! My mom sent a few pictures. I miss you all like crazy!!!!

xoxoxox Stay beautiful!! The church is true! Remember who you are!!

Love Sister Pearson

My first companion in Poland Sister Packard & I

A view of Katowice, Poland 

My room