Charity:)

April 28th, 2014

Moja piekna Polska!

Hello my lovelies!!!

So I had a good week with Sister Pokli.( her name is super long) She has family from Poznań which is a city in the mission, so she is Polish far back in her line!

This week we have been really focusing on building a  strong foundation for our investigators. Our branch has really struggled at different times with different things, Poland is almost like the Kirtland period in the church, but the people's testimonies are so strong, it is really inspiring! We have been meeting and talking with them about charity. I think that all starts with us as missionaries, but it has really made a huge impact here in the branch. It is so interesting how quickly revelation travels and how grateful I am for the fact that I can learn so much each week and then apply it to the work. At the beginning of the transfer I read Alma 1. This really reminded me of the strong saints in this branch and I shared it with some other missionaries in our branch. Sister Poklinkowska and I have been really feeling a need for charity among the branch and it just so happens that all the missionaries have as well, so we met up with our mission correlation director in the branch and pitched the idea that we were willing as missionaries to fast or pray for how we can help the branch and serve to the best of our ability. This lead to a discussion on charity for each other and members and ourselves.  Then as we started meeting with the members and showing a united front they have reacted wonderfully and everyone is preparing to fast the coming week that there can be more charity in the branch. It is amazing to me how the Lord works through us to the blessing of others! As I was directing the music in church on sunday( I really am terrified of doing that... no idea why;) I felt so much love for all of the members! There is a sweet family in our branch whose daughter hasn't been to church for a while and her husband is awesome and not a member. We have a good relationship with them and are trying to help them to take those next steps as their sweet little girl was blessed this week! So cool. Other than that we are really dry as far as investigators. I know there are people out there who are prepared for the word and we are working really hard to find them, I am sure that we will build a pool of wonderful souls seeking the truth this transfer, it is a blessing I have seen many times on my mission and look forward to seeing again.

Sisters in the Warsaw Zone 1 Branch with the sweetest little girl member!!

I am learning alot this transfer and I learned an amazing lesson this week. We had a leadership training session and we talked about changing the mission culture. I remembered coming into the mission and having so much love and excitement for the work, I still feel it, but as I've reflected on my missionary attitude I've decided that I too can really improve the "culture" of our mission and show these new and incoming missionaries How Much I Love Poland! And more importantly how much I love my Savior, for these two things really do go hand in hand. It was really great!

I hope that Rors has a great time at her play this week! The story of Aunt Rachel brought me to tears, I am so grateful for how the Lord watches over us as we strive to live our part. It is very sweet to know that as we live right we are always blessed to be where we need to be and when:) I am so grateful for that!

I pray for you all every night and I love you! It is a lovely season right now, except that one day it's lovely and the next is freezing rain... but that's how life can be sometimes:) It really makes me appreciate the lovely days!

I am excited to continue on the transfer and see what continues to happen. I love being a missionary and have so many miracles! We see how much peace is given to those with whom we speak.

I can't wait to share more about what happens this week! I love you all:)

Much Love,

Siostra Ali Hemming

I really love you all so much.

Hello, Hello! It's Beautiful!!!!

April 22nd, 2014

Delicious dinner at a members house!

Okay Family, so yesterday was a holiday in Poland called smingus dingus where everyone throws water and squirts everyone... so sorry I couldn't e-mail but I'm still doing great!!!

Easter was such a beautiful time. It was filled with joy and hope in the air. The resurrection of our Savior. What a blessed day.

I am sorry I have so much to say and not much time so it will be a bit jumbled...

Saying goodbye to Sister Stratton:(

So first off... my lovely Sister Stratton went off to Katowice and she seems to be doing so well. I love her so much and was sad to see her go! Then I waited at the station for my new companion Sister Poklinkowska!! She is so wonderful! She is a convert of a few years and has soooo much faith!! I love her so much and can't wait to spend a transfer with her. She has already taught me so much about who I am and what I can do as a missionary. She is one group younger than me but I'm pretty sure she is the most wise sister in the whole mission. We are working alot with the other Sisters on charity in the branch and we are feeling SOOOO much love!!! It is such a blessing. I love these sisters so much. I can't believe how lucky I am to be here!!!

Dying Easter eggs...with brown eggs!

I have learned alot of lessons this week. About love and true peace. About being a real person. I think that this hard time in my life has taught me so much about beign real. I know that we dont' have to be and aren't perfect, and therefore I don't need to expect that of myself and I certainly don't need to expect that of others. I think it has really opened my ability to love and feel more deeply for others in their times of need. I do know however that daily progression towards perfection is something I really desire:) I know that this is possible through my Savior and His atonement. Being a missionary during the Easter Season was the most fulfilling moment. I felt so much love and real knowledge that I was on the Lord's side. I know in whom I have trusted:) We had a delicious Polish dinner with a member who's daughter is currently inactive and her husband isnt' a member. They just had this lovely baby girl and we care so much about them all!

     We have had a lot of funny moments and enjoyed the lovely scenery around Poland!! Sometimes I get up and freak out because I'm in Poland!! I love this country so much and admire them all. I hope to feel that way more often!

     I love you all so much. I testify with all my heart of the love and the glory of our Savior Jesus Christ. He is my Redeemer. I know that He lives and I know that for my eternities I will praise His name because of what He did for me and who He is. He means more to me than I ever knew was possible. The Plan of Salvation includes all of the answers to life's hard questions. And we are taught them from birth!!! so lucky. We lived with God before this life, we have a divine purpose on earth and a Divine Savior to build us up at each step of the way and thanks to Him we will be together again. I couldn't help but think of all of my family members and especially my special Braxton. I know that we wil be resurected free from all ilness and all pain! what a lovely Day!

I love you!

Love, Siostra Hemming

Oh How Lovely Was the Morning!

Oh How Lovely Was the Morning!‏

Singing at the Catholic Mass! Amazing experience!!

April 14, 2014

The missionaries with Pres. and Sister Edgren

Dearest Family!

Hello Hello! Wow. I can't really explain this week very well except to say that it was one of the most beautiful and deep weeks I have had in my whole life. This transfer has been really hard. I have struggled with many things and the work has been slow and other things, but I testify with all the powers of my heart that this is the work of the Lord. " We need not ever feel that we are alone or unloved in the Service of the Lord because we never are. He has promised angels on our right and on our left to bear us up and He Always keeps His promises". I can attest to this fact. All of us who are striving to live and do the best we can are in the "work of the Lord'. I cannot well explain what happened, but I will try, keeping back some of the things that are personal to me to tell my family when I'm home:) I am staying in Warsaw and will be with Sister Poklinkowska who I love! Sister Stratton is going to kato with Sister Ott who I also love. Guess what... good and bad.. President has taken Sisters out of Kielce because they need more priesthood there and good though is that there will be four more sisters in our branch! Even better is that it will be sister Blake and sister Owen! yay:) I love them! I can't wait for our little branch!

Peeps!! Yummy!!

As this week started off, I fasted on Tuesday to remember who I am. I am so grateful for all of those who have prayed and fasted for me at home. I cannot express the immediate power I have felt in response. I read my letters from home, I read my patriarchal blessing " my real letter from home:)" and I prayed, alot. I saw a couple of interesting things... 1. I felt I understood better myself and who I am, was, and can be. 2. I KNEW that I was never alone. Then to finish it off I worked on a Family History Board. I have been working for some time on trying to find something to bless the lives of Polish people dotyczące family history, but I never actually did it. So I took my goals one little step at a time and we got to work on a huge board that explains what it is, how the church can help you do it, and why we do it! Oh how I LOVE my family!!! I read over some of my stories and was so grateful for the examples of my family members through the centuries. Szlachetna historia:) As I did this I was able to listen to the conference that I missed( all of it:)) How inspired! I pretty much just cried while I listened to it... good thing Sister Stratton and I are so close...We may have eaten a lot of chocolate;) ;) That day the most beautiful thing happened!

Easter package!! Wonderful!!!

Every day I look out my window during studies and see all of these wonderful people... down the street is this building and I wanted to tract it... that day I felt very inspired to do so. So we went over there that night and it ended up being a super exclusive place. In Poland you have to ring into a domofon to get into a building and this one had a gate with a domofon and then you had to ring at the building to get inside a klatka( building section). Someone walked right up next to us and let us into the gate and then the building and we started to tract. After like two houses I had the thought to tract speaking English. ( Super crazy because I LOVE to speak Polish) but we did it and at first it was awkward but we continued on and three apartments later this family opens. They ONLY speak English and Spanish. The dad is not really kind to us but the mom looks at us with so much hope, so the dad basically tells us we can come in but he won't talk to us. So we go in and she tells us that she is believing and has two daughters ( 8 and 4)! She says that she wants to meet and talk about the gospel because she is searching for a way to strengthen her faith!!!! It was soooo beautiful and meant so much to me. It was definitely just for me to know that I am lead by the Spirit.

Warsaw!!

We had a lesson with a lady who has schizophrenia(don't know how to spell) and she is such a sweetheart! One of our members was on the lesson and she was a lovely example of Christ-like love for me. She just hugged her and was so kind, the next day at church when she came our member just walked up to her and locked her arm in hers and took her away from us! That is member-missionary work! I love how we all receive revelation from the same source, and so we are taught things in Conference it may have been something we have been thinking on for a while and that is because the Lord has given us revelation to prepare. I think that these examples of deep and pure charity have been put in my path a lot recently and I LOVED President Monson's talk on it!

The next day none of our lessons flaked us! It was also a miracle, and from that time forth my week got better and better. I have had so many wonderful blessings on my mission. I know that Faith in the Savior Jesus Christ was and is the ONLY Rock whereon if men build they cannot fall. We have a member from Thailand who is an ANGEL! she let us in and we talked with her and her beaming smile just brightened my day so much. I have been looking around and loving Poland and remembering my purpose and it has blessed me immensely. How I love my mission. There are so many things that I love about it, and I can't believe I only have a few transfers left. I know that on everyone's mission and in everyone's life there are some lessons that must be learned. Because of these we can be stronger and deeper people. Joseph Smith said that we cannot even begin to comprehend the plan of God unless we've contemplated the darkest abyss and also felt the most overwhelming joy. I feel that because of this I understand others so much better. I feel humbled and so much less judgmental, I think Heavenly Father knew I needed a nice slice of humble pie.

Warsaw!

Then on Sunday we made a pie with the elders and I was able to talk with this cutest old man at a tramwaj stop. I wished him a happy Palm Sunday and he was just so happy and took of his green army cap and wished me a happy sunday!!! I love Poland! Afterwards I got onto a tramwaj and dropped my waterbottle on this ladies' foot... whoops, but what a great opportunity to talk about the gospel! So I did. We ended up having this lovely discussion about eternal families and I pulled out my Księga Mormona and my family picture and showed her a picture of the temple. She is from Russia and so we were struggling to understand each other, but when I talked about the temple she just started crying. It touched me so deeply. She told me that her husband was killed a few years ago and she works all day ( 6-8) at a magazine shope and her hands were so cut up and she had been drinking. It was such a special moment as I could share with her the things I have been taught since birth about how families can be together forever through Heavenly Father's plan, and how I am a Child of God as is she. At the end I was trying to show her that I was from the Church of Jesus Christ and she looked at my tag and grabbed it and then crossed herself and said a prayer while holding the tag... I know this may not sound cool to most of you but it touched my heart so deeply! I gave her a book of mormon and told her that it testifies of Christ and she kissed it and then put it into a protective bag and then into her purse. These are the kind of experiences that can be ours daily as we strive to follow the Holy Ghost and preach by the wayside. Oh how I have felt the Love of God shed abroad in my heart:)

Beautiful blossoming trees

 Sister Stratton and I have been talking and she said something about how it is hard sometimes when we work so hard but we don't have the results, and I think this transfer I've finally learned this lovely lesson. When we work hard people still have their free agency, but we are clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. I know that as a missionary hard work, obedience and Love for the Savior and the People changes us, it changes our very nature. For that I am so grateful.

I know that I have been so blessed by my Heavenly Father this week. I also know that we need to struggle in our lives to be made better, He never gives us things we can't handle if we only have faith. My Faith in my Savior is stronger, immensely because of this experience. I know that we live in an imperfect world, and that we are imperfect people, but this must be because we learn on whom we rely. The scriptures are my iron rod because they testify of the Savior who is the rock of our salvation. I know that if we build on this rock we cannot fall, but we can rise in a way that may appear like falling hahahaha! I know that I will have hard weeks on my mission and in my life, but I have become fascinated with the word "nevertheless". It is found in 2 Nephi 4, it is found in Alma 1 and it is found in Moses 1. Always when talking about the trials of life these strong men and women say " nevertheless" and then excersize faith in the Savior and His atonement. I am so grateful to say that I know that My Redeemer Lives. I am so grateful for this because none of us can atone for ourselves. We can't try and make up the difference by being perfect, we can only strive to love Him more dearly. I testify of the presence of angels in all of our lives, the talk about Family History is so important to us all. I know that we are here for a purpose and have a divine destiny and identity. satan's guise is ALWAYS for us to deny that. It is at the root of every temptation and problem. But we know who we are:)

I love you all so much! Sorry this one is so long, but I thank Heavenly Father for His answer to my prayers, and also for letting it take some time. Love Love Love,

Siostra Ali!

General Conference

04/07/2014

I love Warsaw!!

A lovely park in Warsaw!!

A Beautiful peacock!!

Diana's Temple!  Go Wonder Woman!!

Me and my Zeus!

My Apartment:)