What a wonderful week!!! 

We went to Ola’s Babcia’s house for Wigilia (Christmas eve), and it couldn’t have been better!  Her whole extended family was there (her grandparents, mom, sister, aunt, uncle, and cousins) and we had such a good time together!  Before dinner, we started out with a Polish tradition, in which you “exchange wishes.”  Everyone has a wafer (like a really big thin cracker) and you go up to everyone individually, take their hand, and tell them all the good things you wish for them for the coming year. You wish them health, happiness, success, wealth, love, and anything you want for them.  Then you break off a piece of the other person’s wafer and eat it!  It was such a beautiful moment to be there with Ola’s family.  Everyone was crying and you could feel the love.  It was an absolutely unforgettable experience.  My heart is SO FULL!!

Dinner was amazing!  As is tradition, we had 12 dishes to celebrate the 12 upcoming months of the year. We had several different kinds of pierogi, potatoes, soups (my favorite was barszcz, a beet soup with dumplings.  SO GOOD!), and carp!  In Poland, you don’t eat meat on Wigilia.  Instead, you eat fish and the Polish tradition is to eat carp.  I had never tried carp before, but it was spiced pretty well, and I’m glad I got to try it! 🙂

Also this week we visited our friend who has been in a psychiatric hospital for the last several weeks. Siostra Harmon and I took a train out to Toszek, a little town about an hour away from Katowice.  It wasn’t until we got there that we realized the bus schedules online were wrong and the buses weren’t running, so we decided to walk to the hospital!  We were able to find the hospital and find our friend and visit her for a little while.  While she has been in the hospital, she has been learning English by reading a book in English and looking up every word she doesn’t know!  She has been wanting more books in English, and I happened to have an English Book of Mormon with me so we were able to give it to her and she was so happy!!!

This week I have been learning a ton about prayer! In the bible dictionary, it says: “The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them.”  I love this quote! Sometimes I forget how POWERFUL prayer is.  So many times in the scriptures the Lord has commanded us to pray to Him.  We don’t pray to the Lord because he needs to hear us to know what we’re thinking – He already knows us perfectly!  Instead, the process of praying to Him, allows us to better align our will with His will.  What a great blessing! 

 I am so grateful for prayer!  I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here in Poland, and for the opportunity to represent the Savior.  I love this Gospel!  I hope you all have a very Happy New Year!!!

Kocham was!!!! 

Siostra Baldwin
elizabethinpoland.wordpress.com  

Letters/packages:

Kościół Jezusa Chrystusa świętych w Dniach Ostatnich
ul. Wiernicza 135
02-952 Warszawa Poland  

This week was a total whirlwind of service and preparation for the best holiday, CHRISTMAS! 

A couple of my favorite things that happened: 

On Wednesday, we taught Gosia how to make cinnamon rolls. Over 6 months ago, the missionaries were teaching Gosia, but she got really busy and couldn’t take lessons for a while. BUT, she came to our Christmas party last week, loved the food, and asked to teach her how to make American cinnamon rolls! The cinnamon rolls turned out really well, and afterward we got to read some scriptures together and talk about Jesus Christ. It was such a good time!

We got to go to a dom pomocy (a senior assisted living home) with our service group and sing for the older people that live there! We sang Polish Christmas carols and it was so beautiful! It was really one of those moments where you’re just serving someone else and you totally forget yourself- and you realize this (serving others and sharing the light of Christ!) is what it’s all about. Then we individually gave Christmas cards that we had made at another service night. The sweet older people who lived there were SO GRATEFUL and happy! One lady, Marysza, couldn’t stop telling us how much she loved us!! 

One more great experience: the Katowice area includes the small surrounding towns, so yesterday we got to take a train to Zabrze and visit Anna. Anna is a sweet older lady who was baptized a few years ago and she loves the church, but she has Parkinsons and has been sick the last few months so she hasn’t been able to come to church. Siostra Harmon and I went with 2 other sisters in our branch to bring her some presents and to wish Anna and her son a Merry Christmas. Anna was so happy we came, and we were so happy we got to see her 🙂

On Sunday I spoke in Church! I spoke about the prophecies of Christ before His birth, the fulfillment of those prophecies, and His invitation to us to love and serve the people around us. Christmas time is the perfect time to recommit to serve others as Christ did!!! I love the way President Monson put it- “It is good to remember that he who gives money gives much, he who gives time gives more, but he who gives of himself gives all.”  And I believe that’s so true!! 

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!! Don’t forget that CHRIST is the reason!! Kocham was!!! 

Siostra Baldwin 

elizabethinpoland.wordpress.com  

Letters/packages: 

Kościół Jezusa Chrystusa świętych w Dniach Ostatnich
ul. Wiernicza 135
02-952 Warszawa Poland  

First off this week, Congratulations to my beautiful cousin Desirae on getting married!!!  I wish you and Paul the very best!!

This week Siostra Harmon introduced me to the cutest little café in Katowice and I got to have real polish hot chocolate for the first time. It was SO GOOD. It’s literally just straight melted chocolate so it’s thick and chocolatey and rich and just amazingly good!!! I would definitely recommend coming to Poland just for the chocolate 😉

We had Zone Conference with Elder Massimo De Feo on Wednesday and it was amazing! (He spoke in General Conference a couple conferences ago and said, “To me, it is all about love”.)  I absolutely loved his conference talk then so it was such a privilege to get to hear him speak to us!!!

A few points I loved:

-Always have the courage to change when the Spirit tells you to!

– Christ can change our very nature!

Our Savior, Jesus Christ knows us so personally. He knows every struggle and trial and temptation we will ever go through. And because He is the only one who knows us so perfectly, He is the one that can change our very nature if we let Him!

Like it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17,

” Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

In Polish, to be baptized is “zostać ochrzczony”. The literal English translation is “to BECOME baptized.”  When we are baptized, we promise to remember Christ and keep His commandments- and through that process, and through Christ, we can literally become new people!!

For service night, we went caroling and it was a blast!!  We  practiced a bunch of traditional Polish Christmas carols together and then went out to the street to spread a little Christmas cheer!  It was pretty cold but several people on the street stopped to listen to us sing and take pictures.  We even had a drunk man come up to us and start singing along! It was awesome (and SO funny!!)

AND this week we got to go to Ola’s Babcia’s (grandmas!) house and have delicious dinner and then she taught us how to make and decorate traditional polish gingerbread cookies called pierniki!!

This week I am so full of gratitude!! I’m so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and for the opportunity to share His gospel in Poland.  I’m grateful for a Savior who knows us each individually, and who helps us to become better!

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Kocham was and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Siostra Baldwin

Check out the blog!!! 🙂

elizabethinpoland.wordpress.com

Christmas letters or packages?! Send them here!! 🙂

Kościół Jezusa Chrystusa świętych w Dniach Ostatnich
ul. Wiernicza 135
02-952 Warszawa Poland

pics:

1. Our daily wait at the tram stop!
2. BEST HOT CHOCOLATE
3. Ania 🙂

This week has been incredible!! I don’t even know where to start!!! Some highlights include:

– A United Nations global climate conference happening in Katowice the next 2 weeks!! Over 55,000 people representing 200 countries are coming to Katowice for this conference, so we’ve had the opportunity to meet amazing people from all over the world!!! 🙂

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-accord/emphasis-on-urgency-as-climate-talks-begin-in-coal-city-katowice-idUSKBN1O10H5

– A world-wide service day on December 1st called Light the World.  Our goal for the day was to share the light of Christ through service!!!  In downtown Katowice, we set up tables outside and worked with other volunteers to make fleece tie blankets to donate to a foundation that helps needy families!!  It was awesome to see people coming together to do service for people they didn’t even know!!  That’s the true spirit of Christmas!!

My favorite scripture this week is 1 Nephi 7:12!!!

“Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him.”

One of our purposes as missionaries is to find people to teach.  A common method we use is street contacting, but finding people can also come in unexpected ways.  We have faith that the Lord will direct us to people ready to hear our message.  As Sister Harmon and I were preparing for the service-day Light the World activity, we visited several fabric stores looking for fleece we could use to make the blankets.  We walked into an Alta Moda, which turned out to be a high-end Italian fashion store with luxurious fabric used to make custom clothes.  There, we found cashmere (at $150 per meter!), Versace silk (also expensive), and other very nice fabric.  Obviously too much for our tiny budget!  But in the process of searching for fleece, we met the store owner Viola and had a nice conversation with her.  She was very kind to us and treated us to some herbal tea and chocolate wafers and talked with us about the purpose of life.  She said her son might be interested in helping us teach our twice weekly English class so we left the store having met a nice family with an invitation to meet again.

Faith is the first principle of the gospel, and it is ESSENTIAL. Even when it’s hard, if we put our trust in the Lord, we can see miracles happen!! I am a firm believer that there are no such things as coincidences—the Lord has a plan for EVERY SINGLE one of us, and He has great things in store for us!

I love you all!!! Hope this week is the best!!!

Kocham was!!!

Siostra Baldwin

Here’s my address for letters or packages to be sent!! 🙂

Kościół Jezusa Chrystusa świętych w Dniach Ostatnich
ul. Wiernicza 135

02-952 Warszawa Poland

1st Picture: Siostra Harmon and I with Sandra our Relief Society President

2nd Picture: Ola!!! We love her!

3rd Picture: BEST churros EVER

On Monday morning, my Polish district (8 Elders and 4 sisters) left the MTC and headed to the Salt Lake airport. We had a 10 hr flight to Amsterdam that afternoon, a sweet 2 hr layover, and then a 2 hour flight to Warsaw. The flights were both really good!!!

As soon as we got to Warsaw, we met the Mission president and his wife, President and Sister Turek. They’re both AMAZING and they made us feel right at home!!!! We stayed in the mission home Tuesday night, and then Wednesday morning we met our trainers and found out what city we were going to. I’m in……

KATOWICE, which is in the far south of Poland!!! And I LOVE my trainer, Sister Harmon!!!!She’s from Nephi, Utah and she’s been in Poland a year. She speaks really good polish, and I’ve already learned a TON from her!!! She is also very very spiritual and she has a really powerful testimony!!! On my second day I went to buy something at a cash register and I couldn’t understand everything the cashier said to me.  I was slightly flustered but I used what Polish I did know and was able to make the transaction! Then I realized Sister Harmon had been right behind me ready to help if I needed it, but she let me do it all by myself!  Although I still am working on understanding everything, I am much more confident when I need to buy things.

We live in a really nice apartment right across from a HUGE mall!!! The mall has a huge grocery store, a ton of clothing stores, and convenience stores. In Poland these huge malls are everywhere, it’s the best!!!

And the food here is AMAZING!!! Pierogis (dumplings with different kinds of fillings like meat or potato) are so so good!!!

Scripture I loved this week: Mosiah 26:18

“18 Yea, blessed is this people who are willing to bear my name; for in my name shall they be called; and they are mine.”

Missionaries literally bear the name of Christ, but here he is talking to all the members of the church!! When we are baptized, we take the name of Christ upon ourselves!! And because of that, we are His. I think that’s so beautiful!!!!!

I love you all!!! Hope this week is wonderful!!!

Kocham was!!!

Siostra Baldwin

And here’s my new address for letters or packages to be sent!!

Kościół Jezusa Chrystusa świętych w Dniach Ostatnich

ul. Wiernicza 135

02-952 Warszawa Poland

Our Polish district finally received our flight plans and we’ll be flying to Warsaw this Monday (Nov 19!!!).

Since this is my last week in the MTC, I wanted to take the time to list out a few things I’ve been MOST GRATEFUL for during my time here 🙂

1. My Companion!!!

It’s just AMAZING that the Lord knew exactly who I needed to be with these last 9 weeks!! I’m SO grateful for Siostra Sjodin and her amazing example to me!!!

2. Morning Runs

Siostra Aramaki and I go on the BEST runs during our morning exercise time- yesterday we broke our MTC distance record AGAIN and managed to get 4.5 miles in :))) literally one of the best parts of my day!!!

3. AMAZING nauczycielki (teachers!!!)

I don’t even have the words to say how grateful I am for my teachers here. Not only have they taught me Polish, but they’ve helped me grow so much spiritually :))

4. MTC friends

Little known perk of being at the MTC 9 weeks: you get to become best friends with the staff!!!

5. Dystrykt rodzina (District family)

This won’t be the first or the last time I say it, but I LOVE my district family!!! They’re some of the most spiritual people I’ve ever met and I’m so grateful for everything they’ve taught me!!

6. Devotionals

This week we got to hear from an Apostle AGAIN. Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the 12 came to speak to us, and I learned a ton about goal setting and our “Missionary Survival kit”- which includes the scriptures, Preach my Gospel, and the missionary handbook!! The spirit was so strong the INSTANT he walked through the door. One cool thing I learned was that President Nelson carries a Missionary Handbook(the white handbook) everywhere he goes!!!

Every devotional here has given me the opportunity to learn something new!!

7. Choir

Prettiest hymns + best gospel stories = one of the best parts of the MTC!!! I always leave choir SO spiritually uplifted!!!

8. Księga Mormona (The Book of Mormon)

The Book of Mormon is true!!! I don’t even know where I’d be without this amazing book 🙂 God’s love for His children is so apparent on every single page!!!

9. TRC

We had another great skype TRC this week with Filip, the sweetest older man. We got to talk about charity, the pure love of Christ! I just can’t wait to teach these lessons in person!!!

10. My Family and Friends

Thank YOU for all your love and support!! I’ve loved every single letter, package and email I’ve received. You mean the world to me!!!

11. My Savior, Jesus Christ!!!

I am so grateful for this opportunity I’ve had to be here at the MTC. Over and over I’ve been reminded that the Lord knows every one of us individually, and He has a plan for us. I love this gospel, and I love my Savior, Jesus Christ and I can’t wait to get to Poland in 4 DAYS to share this love with the people of Poland!!!

Hope you have the best week,

Kocham was,

Siostra Baldwin

Hello friends and family 🙂 Well, it’s been another awesome week at the MTC!! Hope everyone had a great Halloween!!

This week on the language:

-We’re still out here working on our Polish!!! This week we learned our sixth case (cases are a sets of grammar rules that change the endings of certain words depending on the intention of the word.) Step by step we’re getting more confident in the language!!

-Our first Polish skype TRC is TOMORROW and we couldn’t be more excited 🙂 more to come on that next week!

Spiritual experience of the week

One of my absolute favorite parts of the MTC is choir practice. Every Sunday and Tuesday afternoon, anyone who wants to goes to choir, and MAN, let me tell you, it’s awesome!!! This week the spiritual thought hit me especially hard. Our choir director, Brother Eggett said something that really stuck with me-  Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ is like handing out FREE GOLD!! We have an amazing life- changing message to share with the world, and we should never be afraid to share the message for any reason 🙂

Scripture of the week: 

D&C 84:88- This week I read this scripture another time and it impacted me greatly!

” And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up. ”

Being at the MTC has allowed me to gain such a strong testimony that the Lord will be with us EVERY step of the way when we are facing something challenging. No matter whether our struggles, when we rely on the Lord we can gain strength!! I know this is true!

Hope you all have a great week!!!

Love,

Siostra Baldwin

I love getting mail!!! Please send it to:

Sister Elizabeth A. Baldwin
NOV20  POL-WAR
2005 N 900 E Unit  14
Provo UT 84602

Hello friends and family!! This week has been another great one in the MTC!!!

A couple awesome things that happened this week:

We know MORE than we think we know!!!

On Monday our district decided to have an English fast (where we only spoke Polish ALL day) and although it was so hard it was awesome to realize how much Polish we DO KNOW!! I was able to remember almost everything I needed to be able to say, and I had my English to Polish dictionary on hand when I needed to remember a word.  It was an awesome testament to me that the Lord WILL make it possible for us to do anything we need to if we do our part first 🙂 I studied SO HARD this week but I know I couldn’t be where I am without the Lord’s help!!!

& AN APOSTOLIC VISIT!!!

This week on Tuesday we had the amazing opportunity to get to hear from an Apostle of the Lord, Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The second he walked into the room you could feel the spirit incredibly strong and he gave a great message on PERSPECTIVE!!!

A couple of my favorite points from his message:

-Try to envision what the Lord has planned for you!

-When you are satisfied with where you are, PUSH yourself to what God knows you can become!

Things I’m grateful for this week:

1. Soccer- Poland won the soccer game this week!!!! (Picture Above)
2. TRC’s- Yesterday we had our 4th TRC(where we teach members who speak Polish) but next week we get to skype real members in Poland and it’s going to be great!!
3. MUSIC!!! Our district has created an acapella group we call STARSTRA (In Polish, Elder is Starszy and Sister is Siostra, therefore Siostra+Starszy is Starstra!!!!) and we love singing English and Polish hymns together!! It’s the funnest thing ever 🙂

I’m so grateful for the gospel and for the opportunity to be here!!!

Love you all and hope this week is great!!!

Love,

Siostra Baldwin

I love getting mail!!! Please send it to:

Sister Elizabeth Adelaida Baldwin
NOV20  POL-WAR
2005 N 900 E Unit  14
Provo UT 84602