Elizabeth Bown Says "Do widzenia"

Elizabeth Bown, 2^nd daughter of Jim and Paula Bown, enters the Provo MTC on August 22 where she will develop language skills in preparation for fulltime missionary service in the Poland Warsaw Mission. 

Her decision to serve a mission “did not come like a bolt of lightning,” says Sister Bown.  “I turned 21 in September.  I pondered whether or not I should go and prayed for inspiration as I completed the somewhat complicated and time consuming process.  The process went smoothly and perfectly, but I still had not received an answer.  Then President Anderson helped me realize I had been following the promptings of the Spirit as I completed the process and the Spirit testified to me I was making the right decision by choosing to serve."

This beautiful sister missionary drove home from BYU in order to open her call letter surrounded by her family.  “There was dead silence when I read that I would be serving in Poland and would teach in Polish,” she remembers. “Within five minutes I knew Poland was where I was meant to serve and that it was by divine inspiration I had been called there. The spirit testified this truth to me and my testimony of missionary work was strengthened.” 
 

Sister Bown's arrival at the MTC is two months earlier than she was originally supposed to report, due to an urgent request from her mission president.  After 9 weeks of language study and spiritual preparation, she will fly to Poland at the end of October just in time for winter – which are notoriously cold.  According to Sister Bown "from November to March the temperature in Warsaw averages -30 degrees with only 4 hours a day of sunlight!"  Brrrrrr!

The Church was officially registered in 1961 in Poland, a country of historic value relating to WWII and to the music of Chopin. A decade later, Poland's only small branch was closed. In May 1977, the Church was again officially registered but only foreign missionaries served until 1989, when the first Polish missionary – Sister Urzula Adamska was called.  In that same year, ground was broken for the first meetinghouse.  In July 1990, the Poland Warsaw Mission was established.  Approximately 89% of the general population is Roman Catholic. Still in its infancy, the LDS Church in Poland currently has less than 2000 members in 13 operating branches located in Warsaw, Lodz, Bialystok, Lublin, Gdansk, Bydgoszcz, Poznan, Wroclaw, Katowice and Krakow.   

She will be missed in Bloomington, but Sister Bown will be warmly welcomed in this cold country where she is certain to have many memorable experiences during her 18 months of service to the Lord and His children in Poland.