We're leaving the 3rd... no wait, it's the 9th.

OK, this week might be a bit out of order, I can't really remember a lot of what happened last week, this wee kind of overshadowed it. What I do remember though it that we got new people in our zone! Some adorable little Croatian sisters and elders, two new Bulgarian elders, and a lone little Slovenian sister. We invite them into our debauchery and fun as often as we can, they are really fun. The Bulgarians joined us for Ninja today, and some of the Croatian sisters and the one Slovenian sister joined us and the Bulgarian sisters in celebrating Sister Talakai and sister Lewis' birthdays the other day. It was super fun, Sister Osmond got a cake and they had tons of party hats, Sister Pria took pictures (of which there were many, in varying degrees of silliness) it was great. We also chose various times before and after class times to sing happy birthday to them so loudly the whole building shook. With sister Talakai we hid in the Bulgarian room and when she walked in we bombarded her. With sister Lewis we were all just hanging out in the hall outside the Polish classroom (where everyone hangs out because we are the life of the party) and when she least expected it, we all surrounded her and started singing! It was super fun!

The reason for my subject line, and the reason I can't remember much of last week is this: On Monday, we had just started our consecration week which is where we speak in nothing but Polish for the whole week... I just tell you now before you get your hopes up about some amazing sorry where I couldn't speak Polish but now I can... our consecration week didn't last that long... :(

We came into class and Brat Tribe says (in Polish) "so this is your last week, right?"

Us - "what? no!"

Brat Tribe - "my schedule says you leave on the 3rd"

So this caused much freaking out and also made us forget all about consecration week... so it was more of a consecration hour...

We went to the travel office, but it was closed for memorial day, so we spent all of Monday freaking out, thinking that we were leaving next week. On Tuesday we checked the travel office and they said "we have you listed as leaving on the 9th"

So we calmed down. But then yesterday we come back from TRC and there's a note on our door that says we have infield orientation on Friday. You are only supposed to do that on the Thursday or Friday before you leave. So we were freaking out again. Brat Jensen said we were supposed to just go anyway, but that we are still leaving on the 9th, but we are freaking out wondering if we really are leaving on the 9th but the MTC thinks we are leaving on the 3rd, and what kind of problems will that cause, are we still going to be able to stay in our rooms, etc.? Finally Sister Young went and asked her boss for us, got the infield orientation thing cleared up (it's next week) and insists we are leaving on the 9th... we are still worrying a little, but not as much. We should find out, 100% for sure tomorrow.

So yeah, that has been the craziness of this week that has overshadowed all other craziness.
Today was pretty awesome too. They hold auditions to perform before devotionals and stuff every Thursday. Starszy Jourdan, Starszy Burdick, Elder Duncan, and Elder Howard (Bulgarians) have been practicing a song as a barbershop quartet, with Sestra Dubois as their accompanist. The song is a compilation of lead kindly light and brightly beams our father's mercy. They auditioned today for sister Nally (whose husband is the president of the MTC) and a few other sister who choose the music. They blew them away, seriously! Sister Nally was so excited, she added a few things to their arrangement and is writing a new piano part for Sestra Dubois and they are going to perform it next week. I'm going to use my new MP3 player to record it and maybe I can send it to y'all. While they were performing it (for like the third time, they we practicing it with sister Nally's new piano part) the other sisters were taking pictures of them and taking video, it was really fun!
I have been playing volleyball more, and I'm starting to get kinda good. I've started to sacrifice my body for the game, I try (keyword is 'try') not to dive (unless we are on the sand) but I will run across the court if I have to, to get the ball, leap into the air to swat it back over the net, even if my arms are killing me, and I am even willing to get hit bit a spike if I think I can keep the ball from hitting the ground. We don't keep score but that doesn't mean the game doesn't get intense, it is awesome!

Starszy Torres would like me to let you all know that he is here :) he's a funny thing.

We haven't had too much crazy in the class this week, I can't really remember for sure though. We had an imaginary shootout with the Bulgarians out of nowhere yesterday. Me and Siostra Holden just kicked open their door and started firing on them. I pulled out an imaginary grenade, then stepped out a bazooka and destroyed the whole class. Sister Lewis then stands up and starts firing back, she chucks a grenade, I scoop it up and throw it back. I look around the corner and she jumps out of nowhere and sticks me with a frag grenade. So i pull it off and throw it at her, she doges it and pulls out a sword. So I get a light shield and sword and we just started striking at each other. Just before the fight ended I had switched to throwing knives and Sister Lewis was deflecting them with her shield. It was a good time.

I've also been having fun with the word for Monkey in class. it is spelled Malpa ( the L has a slash through it so it's like a w so the pronunciation is something like mawpa) I've learned death by monkeys "smeirc malpem" (S and C have accents, and then there's the L funky) which is my favorite. The other day we were practicing using the verb for "to go (by vehicle)" and I was paired with my teacher Brat Jensen, because we have an uneven number in our district. At one point I asked him (in Polish) "Are you going to school on (by the means of) a monkey?" He looked at me in disbelief said (in English) "by the means of... a monkey?" then said (in Polish) "No, I'm going to school on (by the means of) the train... with a monkey" It was really fun.

We've also all started practicing the piano about every other day. each person only gets like 10 minutes, so it's a little ineffective, but whatever. I've found I can still play OK. If I run through the right hand a few times I can at least do that pretty well. I can still read the music alright and stuff too. It's just adding in the left hand that makes it difficult.

Yesterday we had another Skype TRC session with an actual Polish person in Poland. Her name was Ewa (basically Eve) and she was so nice! and patient. I understood almost everything she said, it was really great. According to Brat Jensen she is like the foundation of the church in Poland. Today Siostra Holden found her featured in an article on LDS.org in Polish. She was so fun to teach though, it was a good time. Us and Starszy Jourdan and Starszy Sidwell were the only ones who got to teach though. they others couldn't get a hold of anyone.

That's pretty much all I remember right now of the past week, it was pretty chill. I am also running out of time, if I remember more I will send another one tonight. Or I will at least respond to any other emails I don't have time to respond to now.

Kocham Cie!