Hey everyone, I don't know if I've told you all yet, but transfers happened and I am in Warsaw II with Sister Lerch. Siostra Carlson is in Łódź, now. 

The day of transfers was crazy! We had to deep-clean our apartment and our vacuum didn't work, but luckily one of the members lent one to us. Sisters Lerch and Gammon and I spent the day in a trio while Sister Barney was on her way. We then ended the night English contacting at the Fishbowl. On Friday, we had a great lesson with Kasia and answered her questions about the Plan of Salvation. This week, we've been doing a lot of contacting and delivering cards to less-actives. We found out that one of the members on a previous list has been dead for six years! We got to meet his wife and caregiver, though. Piotr's wife wasn't interested in the Church or service, but she does remember the missionaries, so that was great! We also went to deliver a card to Teresa, and when we got to her building,  we met her in the hallway on her way out. She was so happy to see us! If y'all remember, she's the lady who can speak and read in Russian. We found out that she likes to do genealogy work at the chapel in Warsaw I! We made an appointment to see her next week. 

This week has been quite interesting, Siostra Lerch is still in her training phase, so it's been nice to review the training books, I never really realized that reading them on a daily basis can help, even if we're not training. I hope none of this sounds boring, but it's been a huge blessing to be with Sister Lerch. We're different in some ways, but we've been through similar life experiences, so I know that I can trust her. 

In other news, our oven door shattered everywhere yesterday, luckily the glass pieces are about the thickness of a Coke bottle, so we've had no trouble cleaning them up (our vacuum's still broken). 

We are going to be making cookies for the upcoming YSA conference! We'll be using lunch hours to make them at the chapel, and for this particular recipe, the cookies last a long time. They're chocolate and the texture is like cake! I'm so addicted to them! 

I think I've ranted, so I'll stop now, but please remember to keep us in your prayers! I love you all and appreciate your kindness :D 

Siostra Herrera 

1. With Kaja

2. The beautiful sky on our way to Santiago's

Hey everyone! We have a limited amount of time today, so I'll give you a rundown of our week: 

Monday, we had P-day and had an awesome lesson with Maria who is a former, we taught her the Plan of Salvation and talked with her she remembers a lot of what she's been taught in the past. She is such a sweet lady! She worked as an engineer and has built roads in Poland and in Africa. She loves African culture and is also a painter, her art along with some of her daughter's hangs in her apartment. We had a nice conversation about art history and it turns out that her favourite period is Surrealism! She was really happy when I told her that my favourite artist is Frida Khalo. Since Siostra Carlson has her cosmetology license, we promised to come back to colour her hair.

Tuesday, District meeting, which was beautiful as always, then district lunch with curry. Contacting for a few hours, then we went to see the Kate and Denis who are from Kiev, Kate has never doubted the hand of God in her life, despite the hardships she and her family have endured since moving to Poland. This family is such a huge strength to the branch, even though it is hard to come to a place where the Church isn't as strong, I'm so glad that they are here to be lights! Tracting in the night.

Wednesday, studies, lunch and then contacting in Wilanowska. We then had an appointment with Maria to colour her hair and enlightened her on how Heavenly Father has a body and how we are made in His image. Dinner, then English, tracting for the rest of the night.

Fat Thursday! In the morning, we had to leave early to go to the mission office to watch the first hour of the missionary broadcast, we then finished studies and then headed out to contact until lunch time. We went to go meet the Elders at the dworzec and bought pączki (at least my companion did, I was feeling nauseous so I had a piece of chocolate instead). Met with Elders to buy tickets to Sieldce. Afterwards, we went contacting and helped Kaja make Valentine cards to send. Night-time tracting.

Friday: Made enchiladas.We took the day to go see Santiago and his family, they live out on a farm. He is from the same part of Mexico my father is from! 

Saturday, made rice and beans for our meeting with Anna. We met with Ela who is a member and her son even came in at the beginning and prayed with us! He really likes Tony Hawk and teaches skateboarding. Contacting before our meeting with Anna, where we made chilaquiles and re-taught her the Plan of Salvation. Night-time tracting.

Sunday, D.A.R., Church, and a meeting with President Neto for less-actives. Dinner at Carters'

'bye everyone!

Siostra Herrera

Semper Invicta/Zawsze Niezwyciężona Gwiezdne wojny

Well, hello there! I apologize if this seems choppy, but I forgot my planner at the chapel and Siostra Carlson is kind enough to let me use hers. 

On Monday (P-day), we emailed and had lunch and a Belgian fries place. Their burgers are excellent! At 6pm, we went to go see Marta who has two boys and we had dinner/English lesson with them. Piotruś and Wojtuś love Star Wars (Gwiezdne wojny, czyli Stary Wars) and showed us their lego figures. They loved my R2-D2 keychain, so I will have to see if I can get some for them. They had a Star Wars picture book, so Sister Carlson and I explained what was happening in each scene in English and in Polish if they didn't understand fully. Marta is amazing! She speaks English really well and is also fluent in Italian after living in Italy for a couple of years. Marta was explaing some Polish cultural aspects to us when the time came for us to leave. We had explained to them earlier that transfers would come on the 15th of February, so the boys were sad to see us go, so they ran upstairs and came back with a doll for Sister Carlson and a sheep doll for me. I have named him Słodkich Snów which means sweet dreams. :D 

Tuesday was district meeting and then we went to go do a finding activity with Elders Wynne and Coutu. We had to leave early because we had exchanges and Sisters Gustafson and Lerch came in from Łódź. If y'all remember, Sister Gustafson was one of my MTC companions and now she's serving in my first city! I love Łódź! We split off with Sisters Carlson and Gustafson going out to tract and Sister Lerch and I tracted in the opposite direction. When it got too late to tract, we went contacting and ended up meeting a lady who happens to speak both Russian and German, I find that is really common among the older generation, she said she was too old to learn English, so she would give the ulotka to her daughter. 

Wednesday, we started morning workout, had lunch and then went out to see Anna. She really has a fun spirit! She hadn't been to church in over a year, but has recently had the desire to come back. We read the talk "Choose to Believe" by Elder Clayton and talked about the difference between hope and faith. What we discussed together was that faith is what gets us going and hope is what keeps us going. Sailor Gutzler had the faith to get out of the plane and walk to the farm in the dark, and she had hope that once she got to the spot the light was shining from, she would be safe. As we shared the story with Anna, she said she hadn't felt the Spirit in a long time until then. She then said that she was grateful that we had come to see her. I love Anna! 

Thursday, we made cookies and took them to Emilia and Dorota who haven't come to church in a while. They weren't home, but we left them on their doorsteps. We taught Katarzyna the rest of the Restoration in the afternoon, went contacting, and then went to go have dinner with Michał and the rest of our district. Michał is a returned missionary who served in Poland as well! It was really funny to compare our missions! 

Friday, we had weekly planning and went to go teach Grażyna, but she told us the lesson was the next day, so we spent the rest of our day tracting and contacting. For the night, we have started mapping out all the less-actives and picking days when we can go see them.

Saturday, we went to Nowy Świat to go teach English and see Ania who is a very talented artist! After English, we went to go contact with Elders Wynne and Coutu on the Rynek, and it brought back so many memories from when the AP's first took our group there to go contact on our first night in Poland! We then had dinner with Kaja whose major is Near Eastern Studies, and one of her finals is to interpret Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs! Yikes! After seeing Kaja, we went to go see Teresa who no one has seen for a while. She was baptised in 1992 and knows both German and Russian, too. She didn't want to talk about why she doesn't want to come to church, but she showed us her photo album/scrap book of the time from when she was baptised to years later when the sister missionaries who taught her were still keeping contact. We shared a story out of the 2010 Liahona on temples and talked with her about why the Lord gives us hard things to do. In the story, President Monson had an operation on his feet which made it hard for him to walk, but he wanted to go see a member of the church in Germany who was too ill to come. President Monson gave him a blessing. I love how President Monson was determined to put aside his own pain in order to be a light in his friend's life. I love our prophet!

Sunday, we had church and President Neto talked about the importance of reaching out to less-actives. 

Yesterday as Sister Carlson and I were contacting, we had a nice conversation with Piotr about the history of Warsaw, and we learned that the motto for the city (czyli the title for this email) means "Ever Invincible".  

Sorry it's choppy, we have to go now!

Siostra Herrera

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