Symphony, Old Churches, and Gingerbread in Poland

 Did you know Copernicus was from Poland?

This week for culture night we went to the symphony. I think it was a little bit of a sacrifice for the Elders, so for dinner before we ate at McDonalds. It was amazing! It reminded me of going the symphony in Vienna, Mom. It was fun. I sat next to a lady whose husband played the oboe. They played some incredible pieces. It made me miss my clarinet. I can just see Cassi rolling her eyes at that. They played one that had 6 parts. Each part represented a different country’s folk music. When they played the Polish part, you could just see the musicians take pride in the music.

Opera House in Bydgoszcz

Last night we celebrated Renata's (branch president’s wife) one year birthday in the Church. It was fun. She made us dinner, and we brought cake and brownies and had a mini party. Renata is an amazing member, who the night before was on a lesson with us. In the end it took her 3 hours between travel and everything, and yet she is so willing to help. On our way home we talked to a guy from New York. Here was my chance to say anything I want and what do I do? I translate my sentences from Polish to English. I guess simple is the best in any language. Keep to the basics. He was cool, and I hope next time he sees missionaries he will be ready to listen to more. I told him I had a friend serving in New York so if he sees missionaries he will have to go say hi for me.

Renata

Today for p-day Sister Garcia and I went to Torun and saw some great old churches. You will laugh but the most famous one, of course, was under construction. But we got to see a little bit of it. It sure makes our history seem very recent. It was a fun day. We also tried two different gingerbread shops. It was our lunch. One claimed to be the best and the other the true bakery. We took a vote and the true bakery won.

Poland is 98% Catholic, but I think Sister Garcia and I are on our way to meet everyone who is in the 2%. We tracted into a couple Jehovah Witnesses who just started Bible study. I don't understand them. And it isn't the Polish. They are so close on a couple of principles, but they get so lost on many key points. We also had an amazing meeting with a Seventh-Day Adventist. We taught the Plan of Salvation and she understood and agreed with it all. She told us she thought the Book of Mormon agreed with the Bible. It was all good until she got stuck on the fact that we have church on Sunday. We explained that it was to honor the Resurrection, but she stopped listening. She was so close to truth but got stuck on a small detail. We also received a mystery phone call this week asking us if wanted to meet to talk about gospel of Jesus Christ. We quickly agreed and set up to meet them at their house---turns out it was the Green Witness Church. And services were just about to start. We scheduled with them to meet at their house this week. I don't even know what they believe. However, like I say every week every day is an adventure.

This week I was so excited to finish Mormon chapters and stop reading about the wars and then I got to Ether. How many kings get killed? Oh, when will the people learn? But I loved the story about the people getting into the barges. They had to put their entire trust in the Lord- they commended themselves unto Him. I kind of feel like that is like my mission---or really this entire life. We have to endure the storms and when we get too deep in the sea---pray even harder! The Lord will guide us where we need to go.

"As hard as the Mission is, I love it"

We had our adventures as we have every week. We found a dog that looked like mop---literally it had dreds. We also almost tracked into a meeting house of Jehovah Witnesses.  Luckily we found the sign before we rang the bell. It has been a lot of ringing bells this week but it is crazy how when you are about to give up, the mom we walk by on the way to the next building is interested.

Last night we were walking home when we contacted three women. The first said she believed in Jesus Christ, and we talked about how the Book of Mormon testifies of Him. She left not wanting to read. The seccond woman was a mom on her way home who had a little faith but mostly thought Family was important. We agreed and talked about how our family relationships doen't need to end here on earth. too decided to walk away. This is the most frustrating thing about missionary work is when people can't understand why they need the gospel. However, when we contacted the last girl, she didn't believe in anything and didn't see any evidence in her life that God existed. However in the end she promised to read and find out through the Book of Mormon if He really did live. I wish you could hear the conversations. The least likely person decided to try. She was the most closed at the beginning, but at the end she was willing to try. The other two seemed like perfect people ready to recieve the gospel. Yet they made the choice. This taught me many lessons. First, you can never judge people. Second, we are always going to be given choices. But in the end where are we going after our choices?  Are we heading in the right direction or are we willing to try?  It was a good way to end the week with the girl reminding us that we just need to try. The best thing about our message is that is that it is a message of repenatance and growing. As hard as the mission is I love it.

Gifts from the Mission President

Why is it always the last door? Last Saturday we were tracting houses. We planned to watch General Conference in Polish that evening, and we had a meeting before it. We were on our last street when we really had to go to be on time. But we had only five houses left so we decided to finish it. The last house we knocked on- an older man came out to look at us and told us to wait and went back in. We could hear him say to his wife, "there are two girls outside and they have a book, do you want to talk to them?" Next thing we knew she invited us in, introduced us to her family and asked us about the Book of Mormon. We didn't have much time to talk but gave her one. She promised to read it and told us we could come back in two weeks. It was amazing how the Lord will always bless you when you keep trying.

Conference was great! I was able to hear the Saturday afternoon session in English at a member’s apartment and Elder Holland's talk from the Priesthood Session. It is great to hear everyone’s thoughts about conference. It really is amazing to hear the words of the apostles. It was also amazing to see the conference center packed with people. It was interesting to me the focus the leaders of the Church gave to the youth. It is our time to work hard. If anything I felt a build up of energy. The leaders are calling us to work- - all of us! The church is growing everywhere and we have to help. Elder Holland's talk was incredible. It is easy to see in the mission life how easy Satan binds our tongue. Every contact is a battle but the fear is coming from Satan. It is never as bad as it seems.

It is awesome the announcement of all the new temples! Another one in Provo is crazy.

Ok random questions: What does a fire extinguisher, bags of groceries, a case of Books of Mormon, and a DVD player all have in common? These are all things I have carried around Bydgoszcz and up the stairs to our part of town. I love a mission. Yesterday President Nielson was in town for interviews, and he also bestowed many gifts. First was mail! I must say Grandpa Peterson rocks! Thanks for two Dear Elders. It was also great to get a letter from Gary, and from Bishop K.

The Zelewski family is doing great. Oliwia and Olimpia are my two young women. Olimpia is the youngest and she is almost twelve. It is crazy how time flies. A year already?

President also gave us a fire extinguisher and fire blankets. With the fire alarm that was installed last month, I think we are fire safe. The most shocking gift is the DVD player. Every missionary companionship in the world is going to have a DVD player to watch training movies and other missionary tools. We also were given permission to watch any movie with the church logo on it during meals, p-day, and after planning at night---Czyli testaments, Joseph Smith movie, anything produced by the Church. So if you need ideas of what to send ...
Love Siostra Steadman

50 Names and Counting

On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 9:20 PM, Lori Steadman wrote:

President and Sister Nielson,

I hesitate to take any of your time, but Sister Gale, the MTC senior missionary who helped the Polish sisters at the MTC including Sisters Stay, Steadman, Marshall, and Garcia, suggested you might be interested to learn of the unexpected harvest resulting from the companionship of Sisters Steadman and Garcia, who discovered they were related. I've recorded the family history story for my records and included it below:
Recently as our daughter, Sister Steadman, was teaching the Young Women lesson on Family History, her companion, Sister Garcia, pulled out from her bag a story on an ancestor that her mother had sent in the mail. As Sister Garcia read the story, our daughter recognized the story of Hannah Knight Libby Carter, an early convert to the Church in Maine. Both missionaries were delighted to discover they were related! Out of 340 missions in the Church, and only ten sisters assigned to Poland, the chances of these two sisters coming together in this tiny branch of Bydgoszcz were small, as well as discussing the topic of a pioneer ancestor that both sisters would know. But this tender mercy from the Lord was about to be shown in greater depth.

When our daughter sent this information in an email, I was eager to re-read Hannah’s conversion story. In a history written by Hannah’s daughter, she tells of the visit of Daniel Bean and John F. Boynton, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the spring of 1834: “My mother lay very sick. The doctors had given her up. The Elders told her they were preaching a new doctrine and that she could be healed if she could have faith. They laid hands on her and prayed that she would be made whole; she arose and dressed and walked about half a mile to Bear River, where she was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” This healing led to six of the Carter’s nine children joining the LDS Church (see The Courier, Volume 29, No. 1 (2005), Western Maine Saints, [Part 1]Mormon Missionaries in the 1830s, by Mary E. Valentine).

Hannah moved her family to Kirtland, Ohio, to be with the Saints. I was thrilled to discover that Hannah attended the Kirtland Temple Dedication when I visited Kirtland with my daughter two years ago. Hannah remained faithful while experiencing the trials of the early members and continued on to Missouri where a daughter-in-law died at Far West after persecution of a mob. Her family then settled near Nauvoo. After a mob burned her home in Yelrome, Hannah desired to continue with the Saints to Utah. However, her husband and three of her children had never joined the Church and refused to leave Illinois. But, the temple blessings were so important to her that she chose to be endowed in the Nauvoo Temple and crossed the plains at age 64, leaving behind these family members. I can’t imagine making such a difficult choice. In a letter dictated to her son in June of 1852, she showed her deep interest in temple work:

“By request of your mother I am writing to you. She wishes to communicate to you some of her wishes with regard to her deceased relatives . . . if it is not her privilege to live to do the work for her parents and relatives that have gone the way of the earth, she wants to leave this work so that it may be done and done right.”

Kirtland Temple, 2009

I was drawn to study Hannah’s family line on new FamilySearch to discover how these two missionary sisters were connected. I had been involved in family history work for years and examined this line many times before, and I was certain that all of the temple work was completed. However, as I clicked on some of the names of Hannah’s mother’s family, I noticed couples sealed together that showed no children. In a search on the Internet using the parent's names, I was able to find cemetery records in Maine that had been posted online just a few months ago. The cemetery had posted pictures of grave markers and information dating back to the 1800s, with some markers showing children’s names on their parent’s markers. With this information, I was able to further document family records using U. S. Census Records posted online, add their names to new FamilySearch, search for duplication, and prepare their names for temple ordinances. Unless I had traveled to Maine and stumbled upon these markers, I would not have been able to find these names since many of the Maine birth records in this area are incomplete and missing.

In my return email to our missionary, I felt great joy to report that as a result of her service and that of her companion, and the technology that makes research so much easier, there are now almost 50 baptisms and ordinances that she and her companion are a part of that I am working on. I believe this is a tender mercy for our family, Sister Garcia’s family, and for Hannah---a pioneer that sacrificed so much to embrace the gospel message. Could she have imagined two of her descendants together sharing that message in Poland?

When our daughter was set apart, one of the things that stood out to me was that she was promised that she would serve for her whole family. Until now, I never thought of how far reaching that promise could be. Families really are eternal.

Thanks so much for all you do for the missionaries in Poland,

Lori Steadman

sister steadman---thank you so much for your letter and for sharing the hannah's story with me. it truly is incredible. and even more incredible is the fact that because of your sister steadman and sister garcia being companions and having this unbelievable connection, family members were able to be sealed for time and all eternity. wow! i have learned that their are NO coincidences when it comes to the gospel and your story is another testament of that. i will print and keep your email where i will place it in my 'evidence book' that the lord is truly in charge of this work.


i saw both sister steadman and garcia today. they are doing well and are very excited about a woman they are teaching. they are great missionaries and hard workers. you can be very proud of your daughter. this is not an easy mission...no mission is...but sister steadman is passing the test. we appreciate all she is doing to bring the gospel to the people of poland. thank you for raising such a great, faithful daughter!
love, sister nielson



Siotra Steadman vs the Protestant Minister

This week we had an interesting meeting. We set up with a cool girl named Magda. She told us we could meet at her home and texted us her address. Of course it was in a part of Bydgoszcz we don't know very well so we got lost. Finally we got on the right street and started to look for the apartment number. We found 66 and was looking 64. There was an intersection and the next building we could see our side of the street was a church. We soon realiazed that was where we were going. Magda lives in apartments connected to a Christian church, a type of protestant. Our next surprise was that she invited a friend to the lesson. Her friend was I am pretty sure he is a minister in the church. He had read the entire Book of Mormon and had a lot of questions. He kept telling us that if two Books don't teach the same thing that one of them is not correct. He used examples like how the Book of Moromon tells us Christ will be born in Jereusalem and the Bible it says Bethlehem. Oh, it was so frustrating. I felt like he was getting so lost in the details he was missing the true and plain truths of the Book of Mormon. We left that meeting feeling a little tricked. Anyway he wants to meet with the Braci of the Church so the Elders will have a good time. Magda wants to meet again but just us and she agreed to read the Book of Mormon for herself now. So we will see how it goes.


This week I am going to Poznan for an exchange for a couple days. I will be serving with the sister from Finland so I am hoping I can learn from her the best way to learn a foreign language. It is always weird to be on a train alone for a couple of hours.

Church in Bydgosdzcz.

Children of God---Birthday Cookies for Siostra Steadman

A couple days ago we contacted a lady who told us that we are too sinful to talk to God and that we needed to talk through someone else, like Mary. It frustrates me when people don't understand that basic concept that we are children of God and we can have a personal conversation with Him. We can receive our own answers and don't need to have anyone else be a mediator. It was cool that I was able than to teach a young women's lesson on that concept. It is crazy how everyday experiences really help in lessons.

Trip to Torun

Hello Family!


I hope you all are having a great start of the week. This morning we went to Torun for the day as the district. It was fun. We successfully made it on the right bus both times. However, Sister Garcia's wallet took a little longer trip than the rest of us. Luckly it is on its way back to Bydgoszcz. It really is a miracle that we were able to track it down. Other than that we have had a good week. Church was great. I am more and more grateful that I can play the piano. If nothing else that is what I can do to help the branch. All the members told me I couldn't be transfered because of that. Speaking of transfers . . . Dad was right. I am staying in the great city of Bydgoszcz. The shock is that Sister Garcia will be too. We will be together once again. That is 6 months! We must have something we have to learn together.

The famous leaning tower in Torun.

I am excited to be staying here. We have made some great contacts in the last few weeks that we hope will turn into some great meetings. We had a member lesson last week that went ok. We weren't sure how much the investigator took from the lesson. However it was amazing that during sacrament meeting the member bore her testimony how the lesson help her find the answer she needed---the strength to continue. We both felt like we should read from the Book of Mormon. It is amazing to know that even though we do not know why everything works out or happens how it does for a reason.