Sorry, kind of an extreme example, but I am kind of going through some withdrawals. I've already started freaking out getting excited to play Mass Effect again and then I remember that It's only been a week and I won't be able to play it for 78 weeks and I get kind of sad. Then we go to class and hang with our Polski elders and I stop thinking about the stuff I can't watch and the games I can't play and we just have fun.
I really love my whole district! My whole zone really is just awesome! Siostra Holden and I are the only Polish sister, Sestra Dubois, our other companion is a Solo Missionary going to the Czech Republic so she's not in our class and not technically in our district, however, we still consider her to be, she's an honorary member of district F!
All the Elders in our Polish class are hilarious, we have a bad habit of spending all our study time (when the teachers aren't there) just talking and goofing off. However, we are all so excited and committed to learning Polish that we work it into our conversations as much as possible. There are also only 2 out of all 9 of us in our district that didn't do theatre so we also spend a lot of time singing. Last night, before the devotional, Starszy Owens, out of the blue, stood up and sang "sit down, your rocking the boat", the whole thing, from start to finish! I have no idea why he started singing, but it was awesome!
Some of the Elders also know Mass Effect, Starszy Burdick and I had a bit of a philosophical discussion on the ending yesterday and when Starszy Weiler found out Shepard was a Christ figure he said he'll play it when he gets home. We also hang with the Elders and Sisters going to Bulgaria, Bulgarian and Turkish speaking. Elder Kingsly is particularly cool, he and Starszy Torres and I gushed about Community and Castle and Firefly and Skyrim for like an hour, Kingsley is going to Bulgaria but I don't know what Elder is in Bulgarian... We also used to have a bunch of older Polish Elders here but they are all in Poland now, accept Starszy Larson who is in England. We'll bee seeing the others later though, which is super cool.
We also heard a bit of really cool news about the mission in Poland. Apparently some missionaries were teaching a Catholic woman and they would start each lesson with a song. The woman went to her minister/father /whatever they are called in catholic churches, and told him about the LDS missionaries who sang so beautifully. SO the Father (we'll just go with that one) called the mission president and asked if some missionaries could come and sing at their Sunday meeting. The president gathered up a bunch of missionaries with nice voices and had them sing at the meeting. They only had 3 songs planned but they ended up singing 5, and when they were done the father told his congregation that if the LDS missionaries came by their homes they should let them in and listen to their message because they are doing a good work ( I can't remember the exact wording, but it was something like that. Anyway, pretty cool, right? The mission might have just gotten a bit easier... maybe by about .01 percent, but still.
Polish is fun, I'm having some trouble with pronunciation, we never actually went over it in class, I am now very grateful that you guys found that video on youtube, without it I would be having a much harder time. I keep trying to pronounce it like Welsh. But I am figuring it out and we have this really cool computer program we sometimes get to use, which helps a lot. Our teachers speak nothing but Polish... most of the time, we've managed to get them to slip up a little. Brat Jensen (It's weird to hear people talk about him, I keep thinking they are talking about me) Accidentally said something in English on the first day he taught us. We laughed and he got sad and leaned his head against the wall, then he erased everything on the board and wrote in big letters "That is the last bit of English you will ever hear me speak!" of course he broke that vow before class had finished that same day.
I still struggle a bit with remembering the words but our class been told numerous times by various branch presidency members and whatnot that we are progressing faster that the Elders who left for Poland on Monday. Where we are now with the language is where they were after two weeks!
We've also started teaching an "investigator" now too. She's really just pretending to be an investigator, which everyone but Starszy Jourdan knew right away. He thought she was actually an investigator from Poland living two doors down from our classroom. It became even more apparent that it's all an act when she taught out class Monday morning. It was weird because she told us we'd be teaching Lidia but is also is Lidia, very surreal.
Anyway, I'll probably also try to respond to some of your other emails individually, though I may not have time, I spent so long on this email. I found out they don't print the emails off and bring them to you at meal times, prison style, you only get mail letters at meal times. I've gotten 2 letters so far, the first was from the travel office, telling me I actually don't need a visa to go to Poland, but they still needed to look at my passport. And the other was some weird thing telling me that I needed to fill out some weird survey in the medical section of the missionary web services thing. It was the kind of thing where I really just wanted to call Dad and get some advice, but I couldn't :( I found out later it was because I was diagnosed with ADHD for like two months in elementary, Lame...
Well, I miss you all terribly but I know I'm where I need to be and I'm doing the Lord's work... I just wish he'd let me do his work while wearing pants. The MTC is a little frustrating at times, it does feel like BYU on steroids, but with how awesome my district is it's actually been a lot of fun. The spirit is so strong here I feel it all the time, I'm regularly on the verge of tears, in a good way. And I am getting so excited to get to Poland, even though I can't really speak the language and I kind of suck at teaching lessons right now. Ah! long letter! I feel like there is so much more I want to write but I can't think what it is and I only have an hour total to write you all! also, I found out I can't even send hand written snail mail on any day except P-day, so that's a little frustrating. I love you all so much! and I can't wait to write you again and hear from you all next Wednesday!
Love, Siostra Lillywhite
P.S. I want to include pictures but I forgot to bring a card reader, I could buy one here but their like 7 dollars and when have a bunch of them just lying around at home. So maybe you guys could just send me one?
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