Jest bardzo dobrze!

Jensen Lillywhite Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 3:42 PM To: Todd Lillywhite Yay! another letter! This week was awesome, and it went by much faster than the last one! thankfully I am adjusting to the schedule and no longer notice just how long each day is... until someone points it out. The other day we were in class and Starszy Johnson suddenly looks at his watch and says "It's only 11:30 but we've been awake for 5 hours! normally I'd be just waking up!"

We got dropped by our first investigator, Lidia. Well, it was a simulation and we are told we were transferred, but Starszy Jourdan, our fearless District leader likes to say that we got dropped. (his actual words were really funny, but I can't remember what they were, it was something like "we got dropped like a sack of garbage. He's delicate like that). In reality, (like, the actual story of that investigator) our teacher, Siostra McAdams, taught and baptized her, (we got to see a picture of her at her baptism, it was adorable, at took place at a public pool) so the other thing Starszy Jourdan likes to say is that Siostra McAdams swiped her from us. 

Siostra McAdams is Lidia, as we know her, but now that she is no longer pretending to be our investigator she is just our teacher and she is hilarious. Starszy Jourdan has a huge crush on her, it is so funny. He joked about asking if he could see her CTR ring and then as soon as she looks away for a second he would get down on one knee and just propose to her in class. However, we are all pretty darn sure that she and Brat Tribe "got a thing going on!" (supposed to be sung, to the tune of "Me and Mrs. Jones") They are always teaching on the same day, he sometimes brings her apples, and whenever they aren't teaching they are off in a room somewhere talking. (we know that they are actually just talking because some of the Starsi infringed on their privacy and looked through the peep hole into the room) It's cute though,

Siostra McAdams frequently calls Brat Jensen Brat Tribe by accident and any time anyone mentions Brat Tribe she goes "Brat Tribe?!" all excitedly and her tone of voice raises an octave. lol, this is what happens when I don't have TV shows, I start "shipping" actually couples! Our district and our teachers all seem to be losing our minds a little. We frequently find ourselves laughing to tears about really stupid things, and have gotten our teachers to join in on it. Especially whenever someone is being "sassy"! Brat Jensen has been crowned "King of Sass" because was kind of making fun of Brat Tribe, who was teaching our lesson one day. However, Siostra McAdams is creeping up on the title and trying to take it away by teaching us ways to tell the Czecs and the Bulgarians to leave us alone and that we only speak Polish in very sassy ways. We copy it constantly, complete with snaps in a z formation and lots of sassy hip/head shaking. I can't wait to be able to show you guys. Though I really wish I could get video of the Starsi doing it, they get the most into it.

We made Siostra Young and Brat Jensen laugh nearly to tears the other day in class by copying Siostra McAdams' sassyness and because of some dumb argument we all had over one word, I can't remember what it was I just remember that we were all freaking out, there was a lot on broken Polish and broken English flying around and our teachers were just dying. Whatever the argument was about I think it must have reminded them of when they were in the MTC and trying to learn Polish or something, that's just the vibe I got from the looks they kept giving each other.

We've also had a lot of fun with Polish words that sound like English swear words like Byc (to be pronounced like b*tch) and zeszyt (notebook, pronounced like ze sh*t). The other day in class someone asked Siostra McAdams what notebook was (even though we all knew) she says, without a trace of embarrassment "zeszyt!" then she turns around and starts writing it on the board. As she's writing Starszy Sidwell says "Siostra McAdams, my notebook is zeszyt!" And you could see her just break, she started laughing and kind of fell against the board. So much fun!

We've also started a fun new game. All the ties are Pokemon! So we look at all the Starsi ties and decide what Pokemon they are. It has spurned quite a few lengthy conversations about the Pokemon games, which has just been tons of fun. We've started doing this with people outside our district too, when Elder Uchtdorf came to speak to us on Sunday he had a Pikachu!

Speaking of that talk, it was amazing! He told us a story of an Italian member in England who brought in over a 100 new members during his mission because he was fearless! He would look in the mirror ever morning and say "I fear no man". Elder Uchtdorf taught us that we need to be fearless, because we have the lord on our side, we are doing his work and we should fear no man! it was really cool.

I used this bit of advice that same day just a few hours later. At the Sunday night devotional we had some Elders and Sisters behind us that were just being amazingly disrespectful. They talked through the whole thing, they made fun of everything, the didn't sing the words to the songs. And they kept asking each other innane inappropriate questions like "would you break the law of chastity for (insert random celebrity name)?" Throughout the devotional I said three prayers: first, for patience, which carried me through most of the talk, I was able to ignore them and even take note. second, that the spirit would speak to them and they would be quiet and learn something from what was being said. And the last, just before the prayer, in desperation, was for guidance from the spirit to know if I should say something. After I had prayed, during the closing song and prayer two things came to my mind, the first was from Elder Uchtdorf's talk "I fear no man" and the second were the words I should say. When the meeting closed I turned around and as calmly and kindly as I could I said: Me: "can you do me a favor? what name is on you badge" Super annoying immature Elder: (quietly, and sheepishly) "The Savior's" Me: "Yes, please remember that." ... guys, I'm getting kinda churchy!

Normally, if I said anything at all, I probably would have just told him to shut his face and leave the MTC if he wasn't going to act like a missionary, but I've been really working hard on trying to develop Christ-like attributes, and instead of wanting to insult him or tell him to get lost so I never have to deal with him again I just wanted to remind him of who he's supposed to be representing. I think it was the right thing to do. My district certainly thinks it was. They all thanked me and Starszy Burdick said it was a Shepard thing do to, that made me happier than you can possibly imagine, and since then I has compared me to Shepard twice!

I'm getting loads better at Polish, I can now read it pretty dern well, I can speak it OK, and I can understand... a little more than last week. And speaking of Polish, you guys need to find "Let it go" in Polish, Starszy Jourdan's mom is sending him the sheet music and he's going to see if we can sing it in our sacrament meeting on our last week... we probably won't get to, but still. It's cool in Polish though, it's called "Mam te Moc" which actually means "I have the power".

I'm not sure what else there is to say... I'm going to try and answer a few individual emails, hopefully I'll have time, if I remember anything I'll put it in there. Basically though, just know that I'm having an awesome time! I still occasionally miss my games and my TV and my kitties and you all so much that I have weird dreams where I am Glen from the walking dead and I am trying to find Maggie on the Silver Sun strip from Mass Effect and Shazi is trying (and failing) to help me, but still. (and that's just the dream I remember the most of...) I'm sorry if it feels like I spent most of the letter just talking about my teachers and class time, it's kind of the only thing we ever do here so...

I love you all! Kocham sie! (that's spelled wrong but I can't figure out how to write an e funky on this computer...)