 |
| Sinterklaas prep! |
 |
| We must have been good! Sinterklaas came! |
 |
| Our friend Andrzej! |
 |
| Starszy Haskett and Andrzej |
 |
| Zone Conference! Front row: Starszy White, myself, Siostra Anderson 2nd row back: Starszy Ashworth, Siosra Dekker 3rd row back: Starszy Haskett, Siostra Beem, Starszy Byrd , Starszy Mulder Last row: Starszy Einfeldt, Starszy Barlow |
 |
| Myself and my bro Starszy Quackenbush - he is headed home with Siostra Sloan! |
 |
| Myself and Starszy Dickson (my mom's friend is his neighbor and now our moms are friends! |
 |
| Matching district socks! |
 |
| You know you're from Idaho when you give up your seat for potatoes! |
 |
| Making gingerbread houses with these cute Ukrainian kids for the son's birthday! We teach him English! |
 |
| Aren't they darling?! |
Cześć
Family and Friends!!!!
This
week was full of the Christmas spirit and miracles along the way!!
Tuesday
Morning we woke up and of course guess who had visited? SINTERKLAAS!!! It was so
fun to share that with my companion Dream Beem! She was a sport and took
pictures and went along with everything!!
Later
that day we had zone training! We talked a lot about the area plan which is:
invite a friend, become temporally and spiritually self-reliant, and genealogy
work! It was such a good zone training!
The
main focus was family history work! We are making a huge push for it now on the
mission! This is such a good way to find people here! So many people want to
learn more about their family and who their ancestors are!! This country is so
rich with history and there is so much to learn here!!
I
don't know if you all remember this but when I was in Gdańsk, Siostra Young and
I had helped our young women with her family history. I had said then I felt
that I needed to do more as well! Oh does Heavenly Father have a plan!! I am so
excited to be able to start doing some of my family history work too!!
I
want to share an experience that happened with family history this week! We
went and met again with that cute Ukrainian Family in our ward! We talked all
about family history worked and why it was important! The Dad shared how they
do family history work together every Sunday! They talked about how their
oldest son had just taken an interest in it and wanted to get more involved!
The mom shared the most amazing experience with doing baptisms for the dead in
the temple! She worked in the temple and would help people get dried off when
they came out of the fount! She said that she could literally feel, as she
would put the towel around them, people passing her by that weren't there! She
said she could feel the presence of people's ancestors as they wait for their
work to be done! She then shared how she and her mom both started doing family
history! It is hard for them to find names because so much was destroyed in the
war! However, every time they started and prayed her mom would have a thought
or a dream about it and she would know exactly where to find the information!
The next day they would check and sure enough they found people! I felt the
spirit so strong and I bore my testimony about family history work! On my Mom's
side sometimes it is hard to find the names of our ancestors. I often feel I
haven't done my part with finding them! As I started to speak I just felt this
overwhelming love for my ancestors. I recognized how they had helped me more
than once on my mission! I couldn't help but become emotional! This is going to
be such a blessing in in the lives of the Polish people here as well as in my
own life.
We
also kicked off the holiday season! We started.... CAROLING or in Polish
KOLĘDOWANIE!! The Polish carols are the most amazing thing ever and they have
been so much fun to learn! I will leave the lyrics to my favorite one below!!
We
had an amazing experience with caroling too! We were caroling with Starszy
Haskett and Barlow and we sang to this cute mom! She wanted to give us a 100
Złoty just for singing! We told her we couldn't take it but thanked her! She
asked what we were doing and we told her our purpose! She asked if we did
anything besides missionary work and we told her no. She was so amazed so she invited us in! We
talked with her about the Church and what we do! She was so kind and gave us
tea and chocolate! She said if she hadn't been baptized in her church she would
be a LDS! She promised to come to church soon!
We
also had our Branch Christmas party! It was so much fun!! We had a baptism
before of a young boy in our branch! Our investigator came and although she
didn't understand it all yet she said she felt good there! It was amazing! She
fit in well!! Talk about Christmas miracle!!
Members make a difference!
The
final thing I want to write about is I saw my first primary program in English
and in Polish!! It was the cutest thing ever! They sang primary songs in Polish
and in English!! It was incredible to see their love and enthusiasm of the
gospel! They did such a good job! I couldn't help but think how amazingly
strong their testimonies are!
It
made me think of how sometimes that all gets confusing when we get older! We
stop listening or stop doing the things we learned as a kid! It was such a good
reminder that really all we need to do are the basics: read, pray, go to
church, be a good person, love others etc. to keep that spirit alive!
I
could not be more grateful that my mission has made me go back to the basics
and has strengthened my testimony so much!! It has lit that light of the gospel
so much brighter for me!! I love this time of year and all the light that comes
with it!! SHINE ON!
Kocham
Was!!!!
Siostra
DeMordaunt
