Jinx Infinity!

This week was pretty great, there were so many little things that happened that were just really cool or really funny, so I'm basically just going to write about those things.

I should probably preface this first story by talking about our district's current obsession - Jinx. We have been jinxing each other constantly, and we abide by the jinx rules, when you jinx someone they owe you a jinx juice, or sometimes a jinx chocolate bar, or if someone jinxes someone else too many times in a row, a jinx pizza. Anyway, Sister McCleary and I have got unity out the wazoo so we are constantly jinxing each other.

After we finished emailing last Monday we went with Elders Torres and Jackson to a cathedral on the Rynek and climbed the 289 steps to the top of the tower to look out over the Rynek. It was really cool, and the view was gorgeous. On the way back down the spiral staircase Sister McCleary and I said something at the same time. We then proceeded to shout "Jinx! Jinx again! Jinx again!! Jinx again!!!! JINX AGAIN!!!" In the stairwell for at least 30 seconds until Sister McCleary finally hit me with "JINX INFINITY!" It was a very entertaining moment, the Elders just stared at us. Thank goodness they were the only other people in the stairwell.

We've also jinxed each other several times during lessons, and on the phone with sister Smith, and we've had to fight not to jinx each other at the end of prayers, it's pretty crazy.

That night Sister McCleary left for an exchange to Katowice. About 2 hours after she left though I got a call from Elder Weggersen saying that they couldn't find her train listed anywhere and that there had been a whole bunch of train accidents in southern Poland. Unfortunately I had kept the phone with me, against my better judgement because Sister McCleary had insisted I have it with me in in case we needed to get in touch with an investigator or something. So I spent the next stressed filled couple of minutes telling Elders Wynne and Torres the plot to "Death Becomes Her" in excruciating detail to try and calm myself down until Elder Weggersen called back to tell me that they had found her safe and sound and very confused about why everyone was so worried about her.

Sister Smith came here with me and we had a fun exchange together. We talked to some cool people, and had a good whiteboard with Elders Wynne and Torres. Unfortunately Sister Smith was very sick, so at one point during the whiteboard we had to take a moment to rest on a bench. We called it "reverse bench contacting" because if someone came close by and looked at our badges we would try to talk to them. It wasn't terribly effective. At one point Elder Wynne noticed us sitting down, so he contacted his way over to us to see how we were doing. As soon as he got to us, this really creepy drunk dude came by and started talking to us. Sister Smith was so sick, and just done, that she just looked and him and said "I don't speak Polish" But the guy just looked confused and kept babbling. So Elder Wynne stepped in and started talking to him. He was basically trying to scare the guy off because he kept trying to walk back over to us, and he was super drunk, and possibly crazy. So Wynne, slowly walking towards the guy and around us in a circle to keep him from getting to us was just like "Hey, we're talking to people about baptism" (but in polish) "We want to baptise you, when can we meet with you?" They guy would not leave though, even though he was like "No, I don't want to get baptised, I don't believe in a prophet, I only believe in the Pope" and stuff like that. It was weirdly hilarious though, Sister Smith and I couldn't stop laughing. Eventually Elder Torres noticed and came over to help and we were able to slip away without the creepy guy noticing. It was really funny to see Wynne slowing walking towards the guy, pushing him away from us. It was somehow simultaneously aggressive, and totally not aggressive.

At district meeting Sister Smith and I had to do a roleplay with Elder Wynne. Elder Torres had planned the roleplay and basically we were supposed to tract into Elder Wynne and we would find out what his deal was once it started. So, we knocked on the door and it creepily swung open to reveal Elder Wynne sitting down, waiting for us. He invited us in and we started asking him questions to get to know him. He told us variously things about himself and how is parents left him this enormous mansion after they died. It was around the point when he talked about how, as a boy his father would have to warn him not to fall into holes in the backyard when Sister Smith and I realised where this was going. We linked it to the gospel through prayer saying something like "What would you give to be able to talk to your father again?" Then sister Smith Asked him "What do you believe in?" and Elder Wynne responded "I believe in Harvey Dent". Then Sister Smith lost it and shouted "Flip the table! I'm not teaching Batman!" It was so funny, we all just died laughing. The sad thing is that roleplays like that are actually relatively common in our district meetings.

On Thursday I made Carbonara for me and Sister McCleary. It was pretty good. A little bit different than how dad makes it because instead of being able to buy just straight up bacon I had to buy a slab of pig, so the bacon pieces were kind of big. But it tasted pretty close and it was really good.

On Friday, we had a lesson with Lucyna, and at the very start I asked if we could start with a prayer, then noticed the door behind me was wide open, so I went to casually shut the door, but instead I somehow managed to rip it right off it's hinges and send it crashing to the ground... I'm not sure how that happened but me and Lucyna just stared at it in shock and Sister McCleary just busted out laughing.

That night, Sister McCleary made this really yummy chicken casserole that her mom makes. While we were making it though we had to leave the house several times, to run to żabka to pick up an ingredient, or to make a trash run. Each time we would get back into the house I would change back into comfy clothes, and each time we would leave I would change into clothes that I was alright with being seen in. The last time we got into the house though, Sister McCleary decided to play a prank on me. As soon as I had changed back into my comfy clothes she shouted - "Oh crap sister, I forgot a really important ingredient for the chicken! We need to go to żabka now!" So I changed, once again, into my presentable clothes. And as soon as I was fully dressed Sister McCleary, completely unable to keep herself from laughing her head off at me, said "Just kidding". If you've ever laughed so hard at something that you just couldn't physically stay standing, then you know how hard we were laughing, because we both just collapsed, it was great.

On Friday we had a whiteboard with the Elders. Sister McCleary and I we're having no luck at all and the weather was slowly starting to get worse. I was determined to get someone to stop and talk to me though. Eventually it started Hailing, so we had to concede to the weather. Elder Jackson was still talking to someone though so Sister McCleary suggested we go into the shaded area of the park and try talking to a few people. So we did, and after just a few minutes we finally found someone who wanted to talk to us. I don't quite remember her name but we had a really good discussion with her, even though she was super sassy. In the end she said she was to busy to meet, and she told us that this stuff was for Babci (grannies). We get that response so much that Sister McCleary and I both kind of lost it and said "Czy jesteśmy babciami?" (are we grannies?) It was so funny, the girl just laughed and was like "no I didn't mean it like that!" I felt like we made a good connection with her though, and the next time she meets missionaries she'll remember us and how we made her laugh, and hopefully made her think about spiritual things.

On the way back to our apartment that night we got onto a tram and a man who was straight up drunk off his feet sat next to Sister McCleary and immediately tried to strike up a conversation with her. He was so out of it, and so hard to understand that Sis McCleary was having none of that and said "I'm sorry, I don't speak Polish" the man responded in very broken, very slurred English that he spoke some English. So, Sis McCleary switched suddenly to an Irish accent and said "I'm from Ireland!" then proceeded to fake a phonecall. The guy could not understand a word she was saying, and eventually turned to talk to someone else. It was really funny, and we know at least one woman near us on the tram understood English well enough to understand what Sis McCleary was doing because she just started laughing.

Well, that's basically it for the week, it was basically just tons of little funny moments, I'm not even sure I got them all, it was a hilarious week.

Kocham was!