Poland has this WILD tradition called Fat Thursday which is the Thursday immediately before Lent...when you are to eat as many traditional Polish donuts as humanly possible. I got excited after eating my first two in the morning and rashly challenged the missionaries in the city of Gdańsk to a competition...which had spread to the entire mission by 10 am. FORTUNATELY, we won. Unfortunately, my weak total compares as follows:
Sister Miller: 6 (I was sick after three) Sister Lueck: 16 (legend) Elder McArthur: 19 (crazy) Elder Wheatley:...31. (We aren't crazy sure how he's standing. He just keeps saying "Y'all don't understand the amount of junk food I consumed in daily life. My body is USED to this." Barely had a stomachache). I have no desire to eat pączki for a LONG time. This week we cleaned out the scary WWII headquarters of a chapel basement for a YWs service project, and prepped like CRAZY for the baptism!!! Happy photos to follow. So proud of Gina and her decision, and it was a beautiful day. This week I really focused on inviting the Spirit into my thoughts and life as frequently and deeply as possible and BOY DID I REAP THE BENEFITS. How have I been surviving a mission before doing this? So many crucial decisions this week were made so much easier through the Spirit. He guided me even in the small and simple things that in the eternal scheme don't matter, but mattered to me. Through trying just a little harder to listen for the quiet promptings, we made a train that was pulling away on the wrong platform, talked to someone ready to hear the gospel, knew how to properly sync subtitles from Polish to Mandarin, a language we don't even speak, and even cooked taco meat properly in a crockpot. Turns out the Spirit is pretty well rounded and knowledgeable...I should listen more often ;) Super grateful for the chance I have to serve here around such amazing people and experience miracles on the daily. God really does love each and every one of us, and with Him we can survive anything (even 31 full size, jam-filled doughnuts in a twelve hour period...) Z miłością i wdzięcznością, Siostra Miller Hi friends and fam! Due to the missionary server being down yesterday, we've been given the opportunity to email briefly today :)
For our Young Women activity this week, we put the girls through a mini-MTC and training experience and then had them practice teaching lessons with us and contacting on the streets!! We even made them little tags and assigned them to the Poland, Bydgoszcz, Śniadeckich mission for a period of ninety minutes. We had a blast and they were way excited about doing missionary work. We had some fantastic lessons this week and met some great people. The weather was BEAUTIFUL on Sunday--the sun was shining and it was so warm. (With the next Ice Age descending on America at the moment, the irony of my sunshiney service in "the North Pole" isn't lost on me). Saturday morning we went to a Catholic funeral for a family friend of Agnieszka's. It was a new experience for me, but on the bright side I understood WAY more of Polish Mass this time than I did the last time I attended one. Agnieszka also took us on a walk by a palace to give her little son some air before we went to the graveside part. We're getting all ready for Gina's baptism this weekend and super excited! Pictures will for sure be included next week. This morning while I ate breakfast I read this talk about the personal narratives we construct for ourselves--the speaker (David A. Paxman) specifically used the example of Zoram in the early pages of the Book of Mormon. When Zoram was basically taken by Nephi and his brothers and asked to join them in the promised land, he obliged. Later, Zoram could have told his life story in a few different ways...one, for example, sounds like this (and imma just quote the talk because that's far easier than paraphrasing): "At first I thought I was caught in a trap, but in the longer view, my presence was planned and prepared for. When Ishmael and his family arrived, I was the extra male needed to marry a daughter of Ishmael. Out of all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, I was given a chance to live with a prophet’s family, marry as an equal, and inherit the promised land along with them and on equal terms, even though my status in Jerusalem society would probably never have afforded me the opportunity to associate with them. I witnessed miracles as God brought us from Jerusalem to a promised land. More to the point, I learned about the true God and my place before Him. We have been extraordinarily blessed. What I could see as a problem was actually the circumstance the Lord used to bless me and my posterity. " With a little different perspective, though, he could have told the same story with this outlook: "I went along because I had to, but the truth is they kidnapped me and hijacked my life. I had to leave behind a good job and my beloved family. I was in line to move up socially and even become a scribe. I never saw my mother again. I was forced to make a promise against my will, and I’ll never know what I gave up. Not only that, my trust was abused. Nephi led me away knowing that I thought he was Laban. Because he led me on in error, he was a liar, and that’s not what prophets do. I have no further obligation to him or his offspring. He said we would be free like them, but I’ve always felt different. " This really resonated with me--because everyone on both sides of the Mississippi has heard me rant about how everybody has a story. The choices we make and our happiness in life are largely determined by the way we choose to tell our story--to ourselves and others. Made me want to reflect back on the way I think about and share my experiences, and I'd really invite you to do the same. Because ultimately, through the lens of Christ, each of us have the same plot: a flawed human being, interacting with other, equally flawed human beings; but each of which in the end may become santified and purified through the grace of a loving and merciful Savior. Wishing y'all the best and sending my love and prayers like always, z miłością, Siostra Miller (if you want to read or watch the talk I extensively quoted, here's a handy little link for ya: speeches.byu.edu/talks/david-b-paxman_zoram-and-i-getting-our-stories-straight/ ) What a whirlwind of a week!
We were in Poznań for a Zone Conference on Tuesday and have had loads of fun getting ready for Gina's baptism in a couple weeks! Our meetings with her are just the best and I've loved getting to know her and becoming better friends. She's the coolest :) On Valentine's Day the elders had this "great idea" to write a scripture remotely related to love on a whiteboard, decorate it with red streamers and heart balloons, and try to ask people "What is love?". But of course they just told us to come help them with a finding activity. Needless to say, we had some interesting conversations...but found a man who had already been given a Book of Mormon and wanted to talk about it! Many ways to skin a cat... On Friday we made crepes with the young women before running to Agnieszka's to talk about the Plan of Salvation. I brought self-hardening clay to try and captivate her young son's attention during the lesson as we sculpted the plan together. We really felt guided by the Spirit during the conversation, and three separate times I felt like I should say something about family history and temple work and how we can be baptized for our ancestors--but I kept resisting. I felt it was too deep. But finally it just came tumbling out of my mouth...and Agnieszka got so excited. She whipped out piles and piles of documents that she has for her family, and filled the table in front of us with photos. "You mean I can be baptized for and sealed to these people?" she asked. I told her she absolutely could, and asked her if she wanted to be baptized herself. She said yes :)) So we'll be planning for that too! I absolutely love her and her sweet family and am so grateful for everything I've learned from them. We will definitely be friends forever :) I do know that as we make and are faithful to our covenants with the Lord, we will receive His promised blessings--including happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. I'm so grateful for the knowledge I have that I can be with my crazy weird family forever!! And I really need to repent and have a better attitude about family history work, because it's been amazing to see how people are being prepared through their hearts turning to their ancestors. It's like there's something to this... Hope nobody is freezing! I wore short sleeves, outside, in February, on Saturday just for kicks. And people told me I was going to Antarctica... Z miłością, Siostra Miller This week started out with me being completely surrounded by at least eight government women, yelling over each other in rapid-fire Polish, trying to figure out how I had been living illegally in this country since last MARCH.
And there I am, gripping my passport with it's too-faded stamp, swallowing my words as I try to squeak out that I actually AM, in fact, legal, registered in another city, and I just didn't use the right words to describe what I needed. The good news is that we got THAT one figured out after a lot of breaking things down into simple sentences and even more paperwork later, but in the meantime, I was pulled away from my companion who was stressed that I was currently in the process of being deported. Don't worry, folks. She still tried to share the gospel with the other people waiting in line. Sure love this trainee. One of the beautiful moments this week came when cute Amelia turned ten and brought a treat to Primary to celebrate. She's normally FULL of energy and it's difficult to get through the lesson, but when the young son of an investigator tried to swipe all the toppings off her birthday cake, instead of getting angry with him, she tapped me on my shoulder and whispered in my ear "We can pretend like it's his birthday and not mine. Maybe then he'll be nice." Stinkin' cutest thing ever. This was BEFORE we spent the lesson talking about trying to do the things that Jesus would do. At our service assignment talking with the people at a old folks' residence, Maria taught me how to make flowers out of crepe paper while all the other grandmas just LOVED UP Sister Lueck--trying to teach her to play dominoes and sneaking her candy under the table--they don't care that she doesn't understand them, they just keep squeezing her and telling her she looks just like their granddaughters. Adorable. I've been taking President Nelson's challenge to study the life of the Savior using the topical guide references a little more seriously recently and have been shocked at how much I'm learning about Him and how much closer I can draw to Him. The scriptures are chock full of testimonies of our Savior. I'm grateful that He atoned for us and that He loves us so much--we just need to choose to develop that relationship and become more like Him. And there's so many blessings waiting for us if we do. Lots of love from Poland, which is still not nearly as cold as I thought, z miłością, Siostra Miller I have a new companion!! Her name is Sister Lueck and she is fresh out of the MTC with so much energy and enthusiasm and she is just ready to go--girl stopped no less than 20 people by herself on Saturday afternoon. Who needs a trainer anyways?
We had a couple really cool experiences-- On the train returning home from Warsaw to pick Sister Lueck up, we started talking to a woman who ended up telling us her entire life story from losing her child to her marriage subsequently falling apart to how she ended up where she is now. We taught and testified of the whole Plan of Salvation and it was really natural and really cool. God puts the people in our path. Sister Lueck and I got proposed to by the same man who came to our chapel while we were teaching Ada! He said he wanted to go to America and asked if he could marry me and go, which I politely declined, then he turned to Sister Lueck and asked the same thing--which she didn't understand, so Ada took the liberty of declining for her. But we gave him a Book of Mormon... After a lesson with Karolina this week, she invited us to her church's mutual...which we went to and met a lot of really cool people, some of which had previously had contact with the church! We had a really cool Christian-music-singing and testimony meeting and we got to bear testimony there too. Really neat. Actually a million things have happened this week but imma stop there. This week has been probably the hardest of my entire life for a couple different reasons, but Sister Lueck has been such a bright spot in it. I love serving with her and she brings so much positivity and energy to the work. She radiates with the Spirit and with light and has brought me so much hope in a time when I needed it. I know we all have that light and the ability to help others around us through our kindness and service and I'd invite everyone to find ways to develop that inner light, the light of Christ and the Holy Ghost, within each of us. It really works wonders. God can answer prayers through us when we listen to the Holy Spirit's promptings. Lots of love from Bydgoszcz-- Sister Miller Hi everybody!
I don't have a crazy large amount of time today because we've got a train to Warsaw in a little bit. Sister Thompson is FINALLY biting the dust...and I'll miss her!!! She'll be back in America in mere hours. I've absolutely adored serving with her and am so proud of her and everything she's accomplished :)) This week we saw some serious miracles and some hard days! We've made lots of new friends and starting teaching new people, which is really exciting. Friday, however, was so empty that we spent 8 straight hours finding and tracting...and it was pretty cold/windy plus some of the roughest rejections I've gotten on my mission so I'm still recovering (physically and emotionally) (just kidding). Saturday we unfortunately had a longtime friend that we teach give us back the Book of Mormon and say she didn't have time...this is always the hardest for me because I just want people to see how much they are giving up when they make that choice! (and yes, we always try to get them to keep the Book of Mormon...just doesn't always work). BUT there are always people out there who are honestly searching for the truth and for God's plan for them! I love being a missionary! I love the constant new adventures and challenges and that I am constantly learning how to rely on God over and over again. I'm grateful for everything this new transfer will bring...it will DEFINITELY be a new adventure ;) I'll tell you all more about it next week, promise. Lots of love from Poland. Remember I love you, and God loves you, and He knows what is best for us--whether or not it's what we think is best for ourselves! Z miłością, Siostra Amy Miller OKAY WOW SO many miracles this week I couldn't describe them all IF I TRIED. God has been so good to us these past few days. Seriously having a hard time deciding which things to write about.
On Friday we had three beautiful, amazing Restoration lessons. I'll just tell about the one at the end of the night--we stopped by our friend Grandma Krystyna's house, we found her a few weeks ago when we walked by her apartment and she was hanging out her window just looking at the city and grinning. We stopped and chatted with her for a little bit and she invited us back, but it's been hard to catch her at a good time. On Friday, though, we taught her all about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, all of which she easily grasped and immediately loved and was willing to read. At the end we taught her to pray and asked her to try...she was a little nervous at first, because it was her first time ever praying in her own words. But she did it, said a beautiful prayer, and looked up at us after she'd finished with her eyes brimming with tears. "I liked that," she said. "And I think I'll do it again." We were just hit by the power of God's love for this sweet grandma living on a little side street in the north of Poland and how happy He was to hear from her. We could have floated home from that meeting. On Saturday we had a very similar meeting where a man we'd met on the street a couple weeks ago absolutely understood everything, had appropriate and honest questions, and was willing to find out for himself by the end of the meeting. This may sound crazy but sometimes we, as missionaries here, get a little bit used to trying to convince people to "just try it." It's super rare that someone just honestly wants to find out for themselves. BUT I know that God really is preparing people and that when we let Him guide us to them, oftentimes they will already be ready and willing to find out for themselves. Sister Thompson and I just felt so blessed by all the meetings we were able to have and how much we were able to fulfill our purpose and testify this week. We also got to teach a lesson at a member family's home who are preparing to go to the TEMPLE to be sealed in a few months. Sister Thompson was a missionary here when the wife of that family got baptized so it was just beautiful to talk about their plans and upcoming steps now, almost a year later. THIS WORK REALLY WORKS, PEOPLE. God sees us and He knows! OH!!! And I passed my year mark on Thursday!!! Woohooooo I still feel like a brand new missionary! This is Sister Thompson's last week...next Monday she'll be on a train to Warsaw. It's definitely going to be sad and it's been a rollercoaster getting her ready to go. I've loved serving with her!!! ALL MY LOVE. God loves each of us so much and He really has a plan for us. z miłością, Siostra Miller Hi friends and family!
New Years was WILD here. If I thought last week looked like World War III...we couldn't have slept through the midnight show if we'd tried. People live mostly in massive concrete apartment buildings here, and every building was having fireworks shot off its balconies, roofs, people were even leaning out windows. We were completely surrounded by smoke and fireworks as we hung out our bedroom window. And the NOISE. The noise was incredible. I still don't think my ears have recovered! Welcome 2019! On Saturday I got to see Natalia for the first time since she was baptized!!! Happy day. Our district took culture night and headed to Toruń, a city famous for its gingerbread, and toured a "living gingerbread factory" -- meaning we got to do a workshop on making their famous Pierniki. It was a blast. We also held a "film night" (Meet the Mormons, haha) and invited all the people we've met recently and actually had a FANTASTIC turnout. Overall, it was a great week. Lots of love all the way from Poland. I know that even when we don't see the immediate effects of our labor, God still will make all things for our good and for the good of others. It was so sweet to hear Natalia bear her testimony in church on Sunday about her road to faith and recent baptism, and I know God's got so much more in store for her. He is in the details, here in Poland and in America and everywhere else all over the world. I know that Christ is our Savior and I love Him! z miłością, Siostra Miller |
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