Dearest friends and family,

It’s been a good long while since I’ve sent out a group email! This week we had transfers, and after 6 wonderful months in Poznań I have been transferred to Gdańsk, which is situated right on the Baltic Sea!!

Gdańsk is one of the most northern parts of Poland and I understand it gets quite cold here in the winter. The weather is already starting to turn. Since some of my ancestors come from the coastal Netherlands, I am going to experience firsthand what life is like living on the coast of northern Europe. Early this morning, I took a 3-hour train ride northward to the Baltic coast. I was warmly greeted at the train station by Elder & Sister Bridges (the Senior missionary couple), the Elders, and my new companion Siostra Emett!! I am so grateful to be here 🙂

Gdańsk is beautiful!!! Not only is it the largest Polish trading port, it played an important role as one of the world’s capitols for the amber trade. I look forward to learning the unique history here.

My last week in Poznań was fulfilling—we held our cultural activity at the Palmiarnia, a kind of greenhouse in Poznań where they grow all kinds of tropical plants straight from the Amazon rainforest.  It’s the coolest thing!!  They even have an aquarium section with piranhas and all kinds of tropical fish.

Also this weekend, we participated at Zupa, which of course is the service project where we help prepare and give food to homeless people.  We had a great time!  One of our members Brother Martin—who is an officer on the U.S. military base here in Poznań was able to join us.  We helped the Zupa staff wash dishes, prep the food, we taste tested the soup (traditional polish pickle soup.  YUM!!) and then we went to the train station to distribute the food. 

Afterwards we went to a Korean restaurant for my last dinner in Poznań. We experienced an amazing coincidence (or tender mercy!) when Brother Martin who served his mission in the Philippines and who speaks Tagalog, noticed one of the cooks whom he had by pure chance met elsewhere. The cook being from the Philippines also spoke Tagalog and Brother Martin invited her to Church while speaking in her native tongue. And she is so excited to come!! I think it is wonderful how one person from the United States might serve a mission in the Philippines and then be assigned to work at a military base in Poland. Another person from the Philippines would come to work in Poland in the same city as the military base. And God can put it all together! To me that was just another example that God is so present in every part of our lives!!!

I will miss Poznań. The memories I have made are profound and the growth experienced was what I needed. I look forward to staying connected with all my friends here, celebrating their life events, and keeping updated as the Church continues to make strides here.

And finally, I wanted to share one of the scriptures that stood out to me this week. I appreciate the power of true principles to help us make sense of our lives and give us the ability to change our lives for the better.

I love you all! I hope you have a wonderful week 🙂

Siostra Baldwin