Drake leaves the MTC.......after 9 wonderful weeks

Saying Goodbye to Brat Tribe --
He is the best teacher ever!

Hey Mom,

So we leave for Poland on Monday. We fly out of SLC at 11:00 am.

I don't know if I will have time to call, but I will try. If I am able to call, it will probably be between 8:00 and 9:30 your time.

If not, I will be able to call you on Mother's Day, which is just in a few weeks, I think.

Also, can you put more money on my debit card? I need the money for baggage fees. I will be reimbursed when I get to Poland.

Also, I forgot to tell you that Ashley McKay is Chad Flake's teacher. Pretty small world.

Everything worked out with the retainers. I have both of them now. It was quite an adventure to go to leave the MTC and go to the Dentist this week. We took a shuttle there and got to walk back.

I am glad Lexie likes her shirt. It seems to fit her well.

We also got to host this week.  I saw Sister Salas once, I think.

We go to the main square in Warsaw right after we get off the plane and start contacting. Pretty scary.

I don't know when my first P-Day will be in Poland when I am able to email you. But pray for me until you hear from me!

Tell everyone hi!

Bye bye!

Love,

Starszy Drake Allen

P.S. from Renee -- ("Host" means to be a greeter for the new missionaries as they get to the curb at the MTC.  Joanna Salas just left Santa Cruz to go into the MTC last Wednesday.  I had told Drake to watch for her.  

And Drake sent Lexie a shirt with a Romanian flag on it from the MTC -- my grandpa is from Romania and Lexie looks the most Romanian of all of us and shares my grandpa's birthday). 

Hold onto your hats! Drake is excited!!!

Polska flag!

Dear Mommy,

SO much has happened this week! So here we go!

First, I lost my retainer. I accidently left it on the lunch tray and so they let me go dumpster diving through the trashcans back in the kitchen. It was scary back there. I had to swim through gross old food, half eaten hamburgers, warm lasagna, and nasty stuff. I did not find it. If you can send me a replacement, you'll porbably have to send it to Poland because I don't think I will be able to get it in time here.

Also, Elder Richard G. Scott came for our devotional this Tuesday!!!!!!! Woooohooo!!!!! YAY!! :D :D It was sooo awesome. We had been here almost 8 weeks without an apostle, and finally got to hear from one!

It was so good. His talk was on receiving answers to prayers. He also gave a SUPER awesome apostolic blessing! He blessed all the missionaries learning a language that they will be able to master it. Yay! :)After his talk was over, we sang the closing song. And then a Sister Missionary got up to say the prayer, but Elder Scott BOLTED to the podium and said "Wait!"

He moved so fast... It was awesome! haha. Then he said, "I have one more thing I need to tell you." You could hear pens clicking across the whole congregation as missionaries were getting to write down what he would say.

The first words he said were, "Remember, the Lord called you on your mission to succeed, not to fail." Then he went on to tell us more of how we would grow and learn form our missions and how it will bless our lives.

Then! We got our travel plans!!! We fly out of SLC on Monday at 11:00AM. Then we fly straight to AMSTERDAM!!! :D Woo hoo! I get to go to the Netherlands!!! I am SOOO excited!!!! It's a 13 hour flight. Then we fly from Amsterdam to Warsaw.

So, I will try to call you from the airport in SLC on Monday morning. It will probably be around 9AM your time. :)

We leave in a week!!!! AAAAAAAAAH!!

At this time exactly in a week, I will be on a plane flying to Europe! What the heck!! haha :)

Sweater Day

Three of the sweaters are mine...

OH!! I finished the Book of Mormon this week!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D Yay! Awesome awesome awesome! :)

I like that book :) Now it's time to share it with others!! :)

I went to the temple today. It was last time I'll go for the next 2 years. Crazy. It will be much needed to go when I get back :)

OR! Maybe we'll get so many baptisms, that they'll announce the Poland temple, build it super fast and I will get to go there! :)

oorrrrr, because the mission is doing poorly...they'll combine it with the Berlin mission...and I'll get to go to the Freiburg temple!!

haha

probably not either of those.

BUT! Dad, if you and Mom come pick me up from Poland we should go to the Freiburg or Frankfurt temple :)

I hope I will be able to at least understand the Poles when I get there. Because I will be running into a bunch of them when I get there!  hahaha  Like KayLee!! :D hahahaha

It is really soon that I will be there.  It's crazy. I don't know if this week will go by slow or fast. If it will be filled with anxiety or just pure excitement. I don't know. haha, but I am excited!!!

Grandma Southwick's story is so amazing. Tell her thank you so much!!

Oh, since I am leaving Monday morning, I think I might be able to email you on Saturday.

I have a lot of packing to do! :)

I'll send more pictures later today ! :)

Love you!

-Starszy Drake Allen

P.S. from Renee -- I just now got Drake's joke about running into Poles after reading the letter the 3rd time.  Yes, I am slow!  :)

Another P.S. -- Click on Drake's first picture with the flag and check out all the Polish language learning aids on the wall.  Looks crazy hard!

Terra -- 3 Months In!!!

Brother Blackham has a Bell helmet! Did you design this one Dad? :]
(and Scott's answer is "No," but he's working on redesigning this very helmet).

The subject tells no lie. Tomorrow I am three months into my mission. So no, I haven't gotten past the "counting up/down the days" stage, but I'm getting there.

This email is going to be short. But happy. :]  Because I have found happiness this week. We were with a member driving in Downtown Cincinnati after we had an appointment there (with a girl from South Africa, I might add. Woohoo diversity!) and it was just such a beautiful place! The buildings were beautiful! The sky was beautiful! The cars were beautiful! The people were beautiful! And it just hit me, THE WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL! Life is beautiful! My life is beautiful!!!! Being a missionary is beautiful!! Now, I can't go as far to say that I am a beautiful missionary, but I can say that it IS beautiful BEING a missionary!! And even though I've been having a hard time recognizing this, and probably still will from time to time, I'm thankful for Heavenly Father and His way of allowing me to experience the beauty of the earth. (Makes me think of "Little Women" when they're singing "For the Beauty of the Earth" at Meg's wedding. It still bothers me that they didn't wait 10 years to film the second half of the movie, and use Kirsten Dunst when she was older. The other girl just doesn't do the job right.) But anyways, life is beautiful and we should all enjoy it. Heavenly Father has presented us with a plan of HAPPINESS and we need to accept it to really enjoy it. 

We went to downtown Cincinnati again this week. It's a lot like San Francisco!!!

I wanted to add a little blurb from a talk that I read this week. It's by Elder James B. Martino. This talk is called "All Things Work Together For Good." At the beginning he told:

"When I was young I looked forward to the spring of the year. As the weather warmed, I was ready for baseball to begin. Like most young boys, I would wish that I could become a great baseball player. I am reminded of a story about a very young boy with similar dreams. With the desire to become the next mighty ballplayer, he decided to go outside and practice. He held the baseball in one hand and the bat in the other, and he threw the ball into the air. With a wish to hit the ball as far as he could, he took a great swing, but the ball fell to the ground without even touching the wood of the bat. Not to be denied, he went at it again. As he was about to throw the ball in the air, his determination grew as the thought of a powerful hit came into his mind. But alas, the results were the same. The ball lay on the ground. But as any good ballplayer knows, you have three strikes before you are out. He concentrated even more, threw the ball in the air, and gave the mightiest swing he had ever attempted. As the ball again fell to the ground, the tears began to swell in his eyes. Then all of a sudden a great smile appeared, and he said, “What a pitcher!” "

What a perspective change!!! And so fast! What an example this is to me. 
I'm going to be like this little boy.

Cool building!

I wanted to add and tell Grandpa Southwick that I ate at a Roy Roger's restaurant this week! (It was renamed Roney's...but it was still Roy Rogers). I don't know who that is, but as soon as I stepped inside and saw all the pictures, I knew Grandpa would know who he was. :] 

My favorite FAVORITE car.

So, this is my short email. Find happiness. Don't go looking for it where you aren't. Find it where you already are. Otherwise, you won't find it! And you'll be unhappy! A lesson I have learned the hard way, but luckily in a short amount of time. Thank you to EVERYONE. I love everything that everybody writes, it all helps immensely. 

I love you!

Love, 

Sister Allen

This is how I often feel.  BUT NOT TODAY!
TODAY I DECIDED TO BE HAPPY!

Letter & Photos from Terra's Ward Mission Leader

(From Renee) -- I received a text yesterday (with this picture), also sent to Sister Ward's mom from Terra's ward mission leader:

"Thank you for teaching these special young women all the virtues that Christ wants them to have.  They are a delight."  Br. Glutz

Then he later sent 3 more pictures in an email with this letter:

"Your daughters asked for me to send these three photos from the sealing session last week. Sister Ward was the reason that a spark was ignited under Tom to quit smoking when she got here last year. The same time I was being released as the Elders Quorum President in a branch that Deb and I were called to serve for 2 years. I have home taught the family off and on for over 20 years and got close, but never succeeded. 

It has now been over a year and he received the Melchizedek Priesthood a few months ago. It was wonderful how the Lord brought back Sister Ward for a 2nd time (I think our Stake President had something as a request for her, he was Bishop when she was in our ward) and brought a brand new and another wonderfully prepared sister to help them down the stretch to an eternal family. I felt it appropriate to ask President Bradley to ask the Mission President to have the missionaries come to the sealing. And permission was granted for them to come and enjoy the celebration. 

Again it is fun to watch them grow and teach."

Brother Glutz

Drake with another Standring boy!

(This is Renee talking here in case you can't figure that out yourself) --

Okay, perhaps I should be calling David a young man instead of a boy, but the Standrings do have 6 boys, and David's one of them, so that's that!  The Standrings live in Crescent City and we became good friends with them in our years living up in the Eureka Stake.  David and Cebre are the same age and took the ACT and SAT together MULTIPLE times :).

Anyway, if you recall, Drake saw Mark Standring in the MTC before Mark went to Germany.  I was wondering if Drake would ever see David, who teaches the MTC and went to his mission to Guatemala.  (Wasn't it just the other day that you were posting that David arrived safely there, Lori?)

Perhaps Drake saw him since Drake's classroom was moved near some Spanish speaking elders. Maybe so!  Nonetheless, enjoy!

A few more pictures!

I'm pretty sure this is Drake's whole district (missionaries going to either Poland, Bulgaria, or Leeds, England (Polish-speaking) plus many of their teachers.    I got this picture from Elder Owen's mom -- yay!

You may want to click on it to make it big enough to see their faces better.  

I might as well add this photo of our missionaries here in Santa Cruz Ward.  On the left is Elder Lewinilovo mostly from Hawaii (also fromFiji) and Elder Lavalua from New Zealand.  They are both SUPER FANTASTIC and are the two elders that Terra mentioned in her letter a week back.  I'll copy and paste that below:

"Mom, I want you to tell Elder Lavalua and Elder Lewenilovu that they are wonderful. They were bigger examples to me than I thought. I always wonder what it would be like to be a missionary there instead of here. Because that is my home! And where I am is home for people too. I don't know, it's just fun to think about. But I wonder how they're doing a lot, so tell them I said hi and thank you for being awesome examples!"

Drake -- Just 2 weeks till Poland!

Ja jestem misjonarzem Kosciola Jezusa Chrystusa Swietych w Dniach Ostatnich

Lots of missing letters that I can't type on the keyboard... :)

Hi Mom,

It is crazy to think that we leave for Poland in just 14 days!

I been pretty sick this week. Yesterday I had a really bad cough and got to get some rest. Elder Waskiewicz is sick, too. Today, I am still sick, but I still went to the temple because it was my second to last chance to go before we leave for Poland. So now we have one more temple day before I am in Poland for 2 years without a temple. We only have one P-Day left after today.

Elder Wasckiewicz (otherwise known as Waski)

We changed classrooms this week because of maintenance in our old room. It is only a temporary new room, but since we leave so soon, we probably already be gone before they are done. It's weird to be a new classroom. The desks are different. But we brought ALL of our stuff from the old room and set it up all exactly the same. So it looks pretty much the same.

Only 2 doors down from my new classroom -- Elder Flake!

I'll send more pictures later today. I don't have my camera cord with me right now.

You can send me questions to answer so I know what to write. haha

-Elder Allen

P.S. from Renee -- Elder Flake is my cousin, Jennifer Johnson Flake's oldest son, Chad!  He is going to Argentina on his mission and has been in the MTC for less than a week.  So this was a mini-Southwick Reunion!  Always fun!

P.S. again -- These pictures are the ones that he sent later on.  No more to come until next week.

P.S. the final frontier -- I think Drake's Polish up above says "I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" minus a few Polish letters not available on the US keyboards, which makes me wonder if they are available on his keyboards when he types at a library in Poland!

Terra -- Our first Baptism!!!!

Us with 5 year old Ashlee. She and her family are learning about the gospel. She has 6 older siblings!

Sister Ward saving Mike's (a recent convert) dog from running away

What a blessing to have a temple so close by!

This week was very rough for me, but Saturday topped it all. So let me tell you about it. 

Saturday morning Sister Ward and I got to go to a very special temple sealing. It was for the Bush family. They joined the church around 20 years ago but went inactive for a very long time. About a year ago, Sister Ward went to their house and challenged Brother Bush to go back to church, and he did. She worked with their family, helped him quit smoking, and just two days ago they were sealed in the temple for all eternity. It was such a beautiful thing. It was so wonderful to see what missionary work really is all about and what each missionary can do for a whole family and future generations. 

The Bush's sealing.  It was amazing!

Then Saturday night was our first baptism!! Our lovely friend Paige was baptized. I led the music, and the guy who played the piano played the hymns with so much Spirit! As soon as he started playing "I Believe in Christ" the Spirit hit me like a wall. It filled my heart completely. And while I was leading the music, Nancy walked in with a few girls from her singles branch. I was SO happy to see her. It meant so much to me. I just wanted to cry right then and there as soon as I saw her. It was like having a little bit of everyone in our family there. It was like having Grandma Allen there, and Cebre there, and you there, and everyone. It meant the world to me that she came and it gave me so much comfort and love and I was so happy. And then Paige was baptized. What an amazing blessing. It was so neat to witness her making her first covenants with God. While she was getting dressed, Sister Ward and I taught the Restoration to the people there. I just cried and cried and cried and the Spirit was so strong and it was such a neat experience. In that moment the restoration felt more real to me than ever before. It was just so cool!!

At Paige's baptism

Sister Vande Merwe, Sister Ward, Paige, and ME!

After Paige's baptism, we went out for frozen yogurt

I'm really excited for Jody and her family to get baptized. They have such wonderful testimonies. It's coming up so soon!

So here's a miracle. Sister Ward and I have been teaching this 18 year old girl named Rachael. Sister Ward worked with her before the last time she was in Eastgate, but she fell away from learning about the gospel. And it's been quite a struggle teaching her because she is just so attached to worldly things and temporal views. The last time we met with her was a couple of weeks ago, and when we talked to her about a certain subject she flat out told us, "I am not going to get baptized. Not any time soon." So we tried thinking of different ways to teach Rachael, ways that would really help her understand that the gospel is wonderful and perfect for her. We decided to have her study the lessons and teach them to us (she's already learned all of them before). We went over yesterday, but she hadn't done what we asked her to do, so we were just going to make it a really quick visit, give her more instruction, and then leave. But on Saturday we received some wonderful advice from a former mission president that is in our ward--he told us that when we ask certain questions like "Why don't you want to come to church?" He told us to ask, "What else?" Five times. 

This came across both mine and Sister Ward's minds. When we asked Rachael, "What is holding you back from being baptized?" she gave us a little answer. And so we continued to ask, "What else?" And finally we asked her so many times, she opened up, and we got down to the real reasons. We talked to her for quite a while, and she just explained how unhappy she was, and it just felt like a sad conversation, but we always brought it back to the gospel. And so we talked more and more about why the gospel is going to help her. Truthfully, I didn't think it was going anywhere, because I felt like whatever we were saying to her, she just rejected. But while Sister Ward was talking, in the middle of her sentence, Rachael interrupted and said, "Does somebody have a white dress I could borrow?" We both just went silent. And Sister Ward asked, "Do you want to get baptized?" And Rachael said, "Yes!"

I was amazed. Holy smokes, I mean what the heck?!?!! Where did that even come from??!? One week she did NOT want to get baptized and was no where near feeling like it's what she wanted, and then BOOM she does! The Spirit was there, and it was able to fill her with so much happiness. And then I was able to feel it too. And even though we were sitting outside, and there were lots of scary bees flying around, and I was sneezing left and right (Oh, by the way, I think I have allergies now.) the Spirit was there and Rachael wanted to get baptized! And so she is now on date for June 1st. What a miracle! 

Our third companion, Layla!

Sister Ward and I drove home the other day after another miracle had occurred singing, "Miracles happen once in a while...when you belieeeeeeve" from The Princess Diaries. It was so fun. And it's so true!  Miracles really do happen!!  And I love them.

Skinny house

Happy marriage to Violet and Erik!!! I wish I could have been there. Seems as though I've been missing a lot of family gatherings lately. I guess that's because I'm busy gathering families here. 

Thank you for all of the prayers, I think they're what are keeping me sane. I love you all!!!

Love, Terra

Sister Ward & I <3 

A little blurry, but this is our investigator, Liz!

Sister Ward's future business!  :)

Sister Ward is gorgeous, it's only fair that I put up a good one of her after I sent you so many silly ones.

Correlation meetings are REALLY getting out of hand. Everyone blocks everyone in. There's no need for lines in the parking lot anymore. :]

Starszy Allen & Starszy Owens on Video!

Hiram ran into Drake and Elder Owens at the MTC tonight.  Super fun!!!

Terra -- The Marathon Runner that I am

I'm standing in Ohio and over the river is Kentucky!

Went to Kentucky for the first time!  Someone we teach lives there.

Well, now that I'm out of my "party pooper on my birthday" funk, let me tell you about Ohio and life here with a better attitude. 

WE HAVE A BAPTISM THIS WEEKEND!!!! Paige! I love Paige. She's my age, (well she was, until I had a birthday) and is super awesome. So, we're really excited for her. And Jody and Denny and their family are getting baptized on the 27th of this month. That date isn't quite as solid, and since it's farther away, more can go wrong, but we are praying and working hard to make sure that it doesn't. This is a special family, and we love them a lot, and they will be so blessed with the gospel in their lives. 

Us and the fam. This is Jody and Denny's family.
They're on date for getting baptized April 27th!!
WE LOVE THEM AND WE'RE SO EXCITED!

The other week we were trying to visit a former member of the church, but when we knocked on the door, three African American guys came to the door, and we asked "Does Sharon live here?' Turns out, we had the wrong door. But we prayed with them, told them about the Restoration, and they became our three newest investigators! They play basketball for UC Clermont and are ridiculously cool. Their names are Curt, Rob, and Wayne. We met with Curt and Rob once, and then once again with Curt. He's the most interested. He also came and watched General Conference with us. It's really neat teaching him and he really enjoyed hearing about the plan of salvation. But then again, who doesn't. Celestial happiness is a wonderful thing to learn about.

Sister Kimball came and stayed with us for a night 
and she taught me lots of good things!

So, here's something no one will believe. We run a mile every morning, and I love it. Two things that I didn't even think were possible. 

After our morning run.  Green grass is the best bed.

Mom, I want you to tell Elder Lavalua and Elder Lewenilovu that they are wonderful. They were bigger examples to me than I thought. I always wonder what it would be like to be a missionary there instead of here. Because that is my home! And where I am is home for people too. I don't know, it's just fun to think about. But I wonder how they're doing a lot, so tell them I said hi and thank you for being awesome examples! And Elder Hammond if you ever see him. AND MITCH FULTZ!!! 

Life of weekly planning

So this week was a little rough. But something that I have noticed with every struggle--each one of them is parallel to something that I have already dealt with before in my life. It's CRAZY. The other morning I got really frustrated and kind of angry, and I told Sister Ward, "Next time I do that, I need to walk out of the room, and then walk back in happy, and if I don't come back happy the first time, I will keep going out until I do." I told her that when we used to do that for Family Home Evening in the blue room, I always ended up coming back happy! It's got to work now too! But seriously, everything directly relates to experiences and lessons and people that I've had or known previously in my life. There's no coincidence there. Crazy. Even while doing service at a members house, I washed of the cupboards and drawers in the kitchen, just like I always had to in ours. All life lessons are worthwhile.

Me, the harpist

Happy as can be!

Sister Ward is a rockin pianist. We're starting a band soon.

This week I got to eat with Nancy Harward (Grandma Allen's cousin). She brought dinner to our church building right after Sister Ward and I had a meeting there. It was a super yummy dinner. Homemade spinach and cheese raviolis. :] Thanks Mom. :] Funny story. Earlier that week Sister Blackham asked us what our favorite meal to eat at home was. I pondered for a minute and then said, "spinach and cheese raviolis." Then we had them with Nancy, and I asked her. "did you talk to Sister Blackham?" She said, "No, I talked to your mom." You knew the answer!!!! The smart mother you are. :] Anyways, it was a fun dinner. Tears almost came at many moments as tidbits of Grandma Allen were brought up, but I was able to hold them back. After dinner, Sister Ward went in the kitchen to do dishes, and Nancy brought her chair to my end of the table and showed me pictures of her family and her daughter's wedding last year. I told her that Cebre got married last year, and I told her how special is was that we could all be together as a family one last time before Grandma passed away. We both just sat and looked at each other, and then the tears came. What sadness we felt in our hearts, as we cried and talked about how much we missed Grandma Allen. But what an enormous comfort we both felt from being in the physical presence of a relative who loved Grandma Allen as much as the other. We sat there are cried, and laughed, and mourned, and thanked God for the beautiful blessing of being with our families forever. This is an experience I will never forget and something that I will be forever grateful for. It was the greatest tender mercy that Heavenly Father could have blessed me with. I love Nancy, and she will always have a very special place in my heart for being my special cousin during a difficult time. 

Our dinner with Nancy

I gave a talk last Sunday, about the Character of Christ. So that was really fun to hear that you focused your Relief Society lesson on that! We both taught the same principles on the same Sunday! That's pretty special. :] I'm constantly thinking about the Character of Christ. This morning I read the talk you sent to my by President Eyering ("Mountains to Climb".). Mom, nothing was more perfect for me to read. How did you know that it was just what I needed? (cue "Cars" song). It really was though, and I'm going to read it again and again. The thing that stood out to me the most (maybe it wasn't written in the talk exactly, but it was implied) was that when we go through difficult times or trials, we are at that moment comparable to the Savior, who went through exactly what we are going through, and much more. We are then standing beside Him feeling some of the same miserable feelings that He already felt for us. Yet He was long-suffering. I want to continue to be comparable to the Savior beyond my struggles. I want to be comparable to Him through how I deal with them with being long-suffering and submissive. That is the more desired comparison, I think. And I think that's what Heavenly Father really wants us to do. We are to follow the example of Jesus Christ in EVERYTHING. Including how we deal with trials. He was the perfect person and the perfect example. Choosing a different way to act (than ways that He did) would just be silly, because we know that those won't bring us true happiness. Yet time and time again we do. I do. It's all a learning process. They are all mountains to climb.

Cooking with the Blackhams on Easter

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes!!! It was a great birthday. :] But I'm still going to consider myself 20, because that was my favorite age so far. Well, being 17...that was too. Maybe 21 will be as well. 

Annabel (one of our investigators) and I on my birthday. She cracked a confetti egg over my head.

I love you all so much. It was super fun seeing familiar faces on General Conference. If I wasn't on a mission, I would have been on TV!! haha. But being here is probably the better choice for me. Be strong and of good courage. Be nice to people. Throw away your trash. And remember to floss your teeth. All important things of life.

Love, Sister Allen

Stuffing eggs!

Sister Ward . . . is crazy.
(to which I said, "Oh good!  Then she's a great match for you!)

Us & our matching braids & bright tights at Logan's for dinner!