Who says you can't have enchiladas in Poland?

1. Sister Larcade goes home

2. The view from our apartment

There Is Beauty All Around

Dzień dobry! This week has been a rollercoaster, but it has been awesome! Sister Larcade went home on Thursday and Sister Carlson is my new companion.I am so excited for the work we will accomplish this transfer, it's only been 4 days, but we've been able to witness so many miracles. 

A few days ago, we bumped into Richard on an escalator at Centrum, he's Polish, but he has a beautiful English accent and he works as a translator, he had lived in the States before, but had never met missionaries if you can believe it! He said we won't be able to convert him, but that he is open to talking with us about the faith and the love of the Savior. When Richard told us that, I instantly said "We don't want to convert you, we just want to share our beliefs with you and get to know you." He was very happy to hear that! I used to think that it would bother me whenever someone tells us that they're not interested in converting, but sometimes it just means that they're not ready. We are so looking forward to meeting with him soon, I can just feel the Spirit whenever we talk to him. 

Yesterday, we were able to meet with Irina who hasn't been to church in a long time, do you know what we found out? Irina was taught by an Elder from my stake! I am sure that one of my favourite aspects of missionary work is finding less-actives, this week we also found out that a person we thought was a former is actually a member! She is elderly and sick, but she has a strong testimony of the church and loves when people come to see her. I just love seeing the light come back into peoples' eyes when they are able to feel what they once did as they were first being taught by the missionaries. 

I am beyond grateful that Sister Carlson and I get a new start in this wonderful branch. There are American families here and all the members are so helpful. The branch was scheduled to have a baptism for a little girl, but she was sick on the day she was to be baptised, so please pray for her. I really love my companion, and I feel like I've come a long way since my first couple of transfers in terms of trusting my companions. The gospel of Jesus Christ truly makes us better people, but we have to be careful of not getting too caught up in improving ourselves in one big stride. This is a path of progression, and my mission has taught me that only by going one step at a time can we fulfill Heavenly Father's plan for us. 

I just know that this is where I'm supposed to be! I love this work and I bear testimony that Jesus Christ is our brother. He loves you and I love you. Thank-you so much for all of your letters, they really mean a lot to me. :D

Kocham was!

Siostra Herrera

"In a world filled with hate, we must still dare to hope. In a world filled with anger, we must still dare to comfort. In a world filled with despair, we must still dare to dream. And in a world filled with distrust, we must still dare to believe." 

-Michael Jackson

Snow!!

Hey everyone! I wanted to let you all know that Siostra Larcade and I are getting along great! Most unfortunately, Siostra Larcade has been very sick this week, so we have been working on calling less-active and members we haven't seen in a while. I never knew how much joy it would be to care for my companion, but then I remembered that I am called to serve, and whatever capacity that is, it is a blessing. 

At first, I was fustrated at the fact that we would most likely be staying in another week due to the sickness, but most important now is how my companion is doing and how to best help her. Have I told you all of the awesome district we have yet? Elders Wynne and Coutu have gotten our groceries for us and have brought sacrament! We are really working on driving out selfishness and instead serve each other. 

We must go now, so see you all later! Also, I have pictures, but forgot to bring them, so sorry about that! Please pray for us!

z miłośćą,

Siostra Herrera

Poland is getting a Polish Mission President!!

Hey y'all! Siostra Larcade and I have 3 progressing investigators!

-Grażyna has been coming to church for a few weeks and has a daughter named Roksanna.

-Ada came to church this week with her daughter Amira who is a toddler

-Katarzyna has met with missionaries before in a different location in Warsaw

We have more, but we have been only able to meet with these lovely ladies so far. We hope to help them get better aquainted with the members, so we will see this week. Poland will be getting a new mission president soon and his name is Brat Turek! Sorry this is so short, we are limited on time today!

You all have a great one!

Siostra Herrera

 

Return of the Lumpy Spacebag

Don't worry, Siostra Johnston has taught me how to properly pack one, so we're good!

Ah, it's that time again! My boss companion Siostra Johnston is going to be training a new missionary in Katowice and I am now serving in Warsaw II with Siostra Larcade! I'm so happy we're back together again! I can just tell that this transfer is going to be amazing, I know that this is where I'm supposed to be, thanks for all you do!

Siostra Herrera

Wesołych Świąt!!

That's Merry Christmas in Polish! How are you all?? Sorry for the delay, we are emailing late this time because we went to Oświęcim (Auschwitz) today.

This week has been so amazing!! From Monday to Wednesday, I went on exchanges to Wrocław to be with Siostra Pauga who is from Australia. She is so much fun! We went to a school in Legnica and sang Christmas songs to a few classes, they were so cute! The students were singing along with us and everything! Afterwards they thanked us and even gave the missionaries cards and ornaments! We then went to go see Hania and sang to her as well. On my second to last night, we went to go take some milk to a member who hasn't been able to make it to church and she was so grateful, Ela (she is a talented seamstress) even introduced us to her husband Tadeusz, and he showed us his library. He even took a book and promised to read it through! Despite the fact that we were almost struck by a car on two occasions, I'd consider it a great exchange!  

On Thursday, we got to go introduce ourselves and sing Silent Night in Polish, English and other languages. It was great!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! You are all so awesome!!

Siostra Herrera

Merry Christmas!!

Hey everyone, unfortunately we are very short on time today, so I just wanted to wish you all a wonderful holiday. Don't forget to share "A Savior is Born" with your friends! https://www.mormon.org/christmas 

Let me know if any of you want to Skype so I can fit you in! :D

You're all great! Wesołych Świąt!

Siostra Herrera

Cześć, wam!!

Hey everyone! I'm sorry I've been dropping the ball these past couple of weeks, but I have plenty to make up for it!

What a beautiful week this has been, we were able to see Priscilla and Mickey after not being able to meet with them for a week, and we dropped of our Secret Santa! This year President said he wanted us to have a gift to give that would go to someone who is not a missionary, so missionaries bought or made gifts for other missionaries to give to someone they were teaching or someone in need. I hope that makes sense! Our gift was a bank shaped like a house, but instead of putting money inside, the person could write what they were grateful for on a slip of paper and stick it in the house, so when they opened it on Christmas, it would be a house full of gratitude! Neat, huh? Priscilla and Mickey were so happy to receive this gift, and we were later able to see them at our movie/FHE night (yesterday). We watched The Work and the Glory.

We taught plenty of lessons this week to Anna and Krystyna, I can feel that my Polish is getting better, all I have to do is be brave! Yesterday in particular was a miracle, because I am normally nervous to do free tables, but where we were, there was a giant Christmas tree with beautiful blue and white lights with a star at the top, I thought of the new Christmas video from the Church, and I realized that in this world of beauty, there is no room to fear or feel discouraged if we want to be better. Only the Lord knows our potential, and He will always help us realize it. I made a commitment to Him yesterday that I would do my best to be brave and always pray to Him. As a result, I was able to teach three lessons during the free table and give a book to Konrad. He had a lot of questions and seemed very sincere. I know now that if I want to keep this Spirit, I must keep walking and never look back on my past mistakes.

My goal for the rest of my mission is to always have something to be grateful for, Thanks for all you do!!

Look! I'm on TV!  

http://www.tvn24.pl/czarno-na-bialym,42,m/czarno-na-bialym-z-misja,600742.html

Siostra Herrera

P-day on Tuesday

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you know that our district will be going to Częstochowa tomorrow, so our p-day has been switched. You are all so great, I love you!

Siostra Herrera

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving!

Hey everyone! Siostra Johnston and I have been hitting it hard with contacting and free-tables and have seen many miracles! We were able to teach several lessons and gave out books!

This week were are working on having Priscilla pray about a baptismal date, I love her!

We are also planning out for two Thanksgiving dinners, one for the branch and one for our district, for our culture night we were able to see Disney on Ice! We have a limited amount of time today, so I will post pictures next week! Sorry!! In other news, we are probably getting snow on Thursday!

I love you all so much and am grateful for you letters! Thank-you!

Scripture to ponderize for this week is: Helaman 5:41

Love you!!

Siostra Herrera

You and others before you have brought beauty to this world. Let who you are shine bright to cancel out the actions of those that are too frightened to see beauty. Never fear.

Autumn

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing?? This last week, Siostra Johnston and I went to Warsaw so she could do MLC (Sorry, I can't remember what that stands for, but it's for leaders in the mission), and I got to be in a trio with my former companions Siostra Benson and Sloan! Did  I tell you that Sisters Sloan and Larcade were MTC companions with Siostra Gustafson and I? They are so great!

We ended up going to English class with Elders Wynne and Torres(he said that he'll get me a mole recipe one day!) and afterwards went to the Rynek to go contacting, we had some interesting lessons. We had another nice lesson with Priscilla and Mickey on Thursday and then went to go see Anna who is a recent convert. On Saturday, we had Sobota Sportowe (Sports Saturday) and the Elders had invited their investigator, Marek for some ultimate Frisbee, I didn't end up playing because I was sick, so I went solo contacting while keeping watch over peoples' stuff. We had a great turnout for church and President Urban even ended up inviting two of his family members to take lessons from the Elders starting on Wednesday.

One of my favourite members is Kumo who is here with her mother from South Africa, she is really sweet and always comes out to white boards and free tables with us. She is trying really hard to learn Polish, so I will talk to my companion to see if we can help her more.

My scripture to ponderize for this week is Moroni 10:20

"Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity."

Love you all!

Siostra Herrrera

Welcome to District 12

Hey everyone! So sorry for the delay, I want to let you all know that I've been transferred with Siostra Johnston to Katowice! I really love the feel of this city, it is so alive!

My new companion comes from a family with 6 other siblings and she is the second oldest in her family. She hails from Texas! We have a lot of fun comparing cultures and interesting facts about our home states. Siostra Johnston told me about 'mums which is short for chrysanthemums that girls wear on the fronts of their dresses for Prom. If you want to have a good time, look on Pinterest for some examples (czyli "Texas 'mums")!

This week in Katowice, we were able to teach Priscilla whose boyfriend Mickey is a member of the Church. She is very sweet and already has a strong testimony of the Gospel! The Elders also had a baptism for Matheusz, and he was baptised in a lake! It was freezing but beautiful!

Yesterday was All Saints' Day, it doesn't really bear resemblance to Halloween, but people in Poland go to the cemetery to clean their ancestors' graves and put lamps on them. My camera is broken from when we went to Zakopane, so I will need to get pictures from my companion! Before we went out with our district to see the cemetery, we got a few trick-or-treaters, the first was the cutest little girl in a witch costume, she was so sweet asking for candy!

One thing that I'm not sure I've mentioned yet is that there is an older film floating around Poland that is about the Amish, and the translators mixed up the words for Amish and Mormon, so now many Poles think we are Amish until we show them our phones and tell them that we actually use electricity. Could be worse, I suppose!

Poland truly is a place of miracles, even though we aren't getting 5 baptismal dates a week, I feel joy hearing about the success of others in the mission, knowing that it's becoming a better place one baptism at a time. :) The people we talk to everyday see our tags and are beginning to see the Savior's love at work. I love my mission.

Wzystkiego dobrego!

Siostra Herrera

Puddle Parkour

Hey y'all! Or for you Polish speakers, cześć wam!!

We may have a new investigator, her name is Małgorzata and she has three kids! This Saturday, we also got to go to a concert at Święty Mikołaj (Saint Nicholas), but guess who invited us? The guy who played Jesus in the Testaments! That's right! I got to meet "Jesus"! His name is Thomas and he is Danish. After the concert, he greeted each of us and shook our hands and when he came to me, he appeared shocked! He asked where he knew me from and I said I didn't know, so he asked if I was on the set of the Testaments and I replied no that I had watched it before I was baptized. I was pleasantly surprised! Thomas then said that we must have met in the Pre-Earth life! He really is the embodiment of Christ!

One thing is for sure, when I meet my Savior face to face, I want to reply in the affirmative when He asks if He knows me. I want to one day hug my Savior. I know that He lives and that the path He layed out for us will never turn dark, even if we may not see the end of it at the present time.

Thanks everyone for all you do!

Cheerio!

Siostra Herrera

1. The Observatory

2. Gwiazd

General Conference was a blast!

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay, I was using an i-pad to email last week and couldn't figure out how to access the list for you all.

I love General Conference! One of my favourite talks was "That They Do Always Remember Him". I love the opportunity to repent each day and be worthy to partake of the Sacrament each week. Life is hard, but we always have the Savior walking with us every step of the way. I know that Jesus Christ is not only our Savior and Redeemer, He is our Brother. He loves us so much, even if we have the tendency to turn away from Him. I had only a vague idea of who Jesus Christ really was before the missionaries taught me about Him and the great Plan of Happiness. I know that He lives and that He didn't begin His suffering for us on the cross. He didn't just die there either. He began His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, suffered the trials of judges and the cross, He died and was ressurected after three days. He ministered to both the people of Jerusalem and those living in the Americas, the Nephites. He created the world and everything in it, and He presented Himself as G-d's chosen son to carry out His work for our salvation. Our part is to have faith in Him and commit to keep His commandments. We need to pray for the guidance of the Holy Ghost and then act on those promptings. Prayer is how we talk to our Heavenly Father and the Scriptures is how He speaks to us. The Book of Mormon is the word of G-d and has helped me to better understand my purpose, pull through trials of faith, and know what I can do to be a better sister, daughter and person. I has made my prayers mor meaningful. I love the Book of Mormon! Please take some time to read this wonderful book! It will change your life!

This last Sunday, we were able to witness the baptism of Mark who is now eight! He and his family are from Ukraine, and it was so beautiful! It brought back memories of when I was baptised and the room was filled with so much love! Mark's jumpsuit was really big on him and they had to roll up the pants a few times, so cute!

Hey Mikey, I got to eat it down a mountain today, and it was snowing! Zakopane is the best, and we got to see some chamois!

Love you all, have a great week! 'Till next time!

Siostra Herrera

Siostra Holden and I bought a giant sunflower head and cooked the seeds. :D