Exciting Transfer!

On the streets of Kraków

Dear Mom & Dad,

You have already heard about my transfer call, I assume. But I talk about it in my voice recording this week too.

I am training!!! :) I am staying in Kraków as District Leader and training! :) I've trained for the 2nd part before, but never the first training.  I am so excited! I got a new calling as well! I am going to be the District Leader here in Kraków and I am going to be a trainer! which means that I will have a brand new greenie! I am so excited for that! I go up to Warsaw to the mission home on Wednesday to be assigned to my trainee and then I bring him back down to Kraków on a train. He's in the MTC right now. He'll be flying over from Utah tomorrow I think.   I haven't been to the mission home since I first arrived in Poland!  That was such an exciting time.  This is  the best transfer call I have gotten yet! haha :)

Did I not tell you about President Uchtdorf 
coming? hmm... I thought I did! Whoops!

Yeah, he is coming in the middle of June. And it's going to be a Mission Conference.
So ALL of the missionaries will be going to Warsaw for the conference as well as ALL of the members in Poland. So it's kind of like a giant Stake Conference for the entire country of Poland. It's going to be so awesome. I will get to see missionaries that I haven't seen in forever. Like I haven't seen my MTC companion Elder Blom since we've been in Poland. I will also get to see Elder Harris and that will be fun because he is going home like a couple days after the conference. All the missionaries in his group are. Also, I will get to see members from the branches that I served in, like Maciej who got baptized in Poznań! I really hope he comes. I have been emailing him about it.

So during General Conference, President Eyring was talking about how children who are brought up in the church will always remember the songs they sang in church. I started to cry because suddenly I remembered something very special to me.
When I was little, we would sit in the second row of the chapel in the McKinleyville Ward building. Before I was able to read, when we would sing the hymns in Sacrament Meeting, dad, you would whisper into my ear the words of each line of the song before each line so that I could sing the songs too. I still remember that, Dad. And that's a special memory to me. I am blessed to have the best Dad ever, who raised me in the church and helped me to grow. I want to be a Dad like you are to me.

Me

This is the new group of missionaries who arrived in Warsaw from Utah on Tuesday.  I wonder which will be Drake's companion. I only know it's not the one in the middle, because his mom posted this on FB and said her son is going to Lodz.  I'm sure Drake will tell us on Monday!

Today, for Elder Taylor's last P-Day in Kraków, we are going to the Wieliczka Salt Mines.

I'll take pictures.

Look it up on Wikipedia or something and share it with the family during FHE! :)

Elder Taylor is transferring to Lodz

I have not opened up the Easter Package yet. I am waiting until Easter.
What was in the package that I sent home that you got a few weeks ago? I don't remember.

Mom, we sang that "Home" song by Phillip Phillips. At the same concert where we did the "I Will Wait" song. Do you not remember? I played the banjo and sang the high harmony.  (Note from Renee -- I wrote to Drake and told him that this song came out after he left on his mission and I thought he'd like it -- little did I remember that he played that song with some friends at a talent night just before he left :) )

"Saving Mr. Banks" sounds like maybe that will be a good movie to watch when I get home.

That's cool that you tell friends about my mission. You're a missionary too!

So you befriended Sister Pawlik on Facebook? :) That's awesome! :)

Love,

Elder Drake Allen

P.S. from Renee -- Dieter F. Uchtdorf is one of our family's very favorite church leaders and speakers.  He is from Germany, which first intrigued us because Scott went on his mission to Germany.  He spoke at a conference McKinleyville in January 2008 and impacted all of our lives.  Drake, just barely 14 at the time, went up to meet him and told him that he was learning to speak German (Drake was teaching himself to speak German, quite well, I might add) and President Uchtdorf urged Drake to continue learning the language.  That impacted Drake's love for learning languages and his love for President Uchtdorf.  I'm sure it helped prepare him for his mission.  He will be absolutely thrilled to get to see President Uchtdorf as a missionary over 6 years later).  This is one of my favorite talks by President Uchtdorf: