Kato is On Fire

Not literally, don't worry. It's just that there is always something going on here! It's crazy. Last year Kato was basically dead, as far as events and what not, but this year there has been a concert or a festival or something every week, almost every day! This whole week there has been a festival going on in the Rynek, we think it might be a honey festival, because almost every stand is selling honey, but there are some random other things like jewelry and pizza, so we're not sure. And there have been tons of concerts going on for the last month. This week alone we saw I think 3 concerts going on around Kato. There could have even been more, I don't remember. It's funny though because it seems like every morning we see them setting up a stage in the Rynek, or wherever, and then there is a concert later that day, and then, as we head back home we see them taking the stage down... usually so they can move it to a different part of the Rynek. You'd think they'd get tired or taking it apart only to build it back up again, and they'd find a way to move it when it's already put together.

The concerts were pretty cool, we got to stop and watch a few minutes of them as we walked by. There was a marching band concert, which we only saw the sound check of, the Elders were in the area at the time and got to see some of the actual thing. Then on Friday there was a scat group performing. That one was really funny because some Larrys decided to attend and they just love dancing at concerts. And the last one actually wasn't set up at the Rynek at all, it was in the Tesco parking lot right behind our house. That one was crazy, because when we were sitting in our house we could hear the music as clearly as if it was just playing in the other room.

As far as the rest of the week goes, it's been great! We had a couple of really fun meetings with some of the members here. We met with Sandra and Kumo on Monday for FHE. They moved here from South Africa about 6 months ago and they're super fun. We played Uno with them and it was crazy fun! So much fun that they invited us over for dinner on Saturday so we could play Uno again. Sandra made us chicken and rice with this super yummy South African tomato gravy. And Kumo and I made some of my "Sweet Mother Teresa! Brownies".

I finished reading the Book of Mormon out loud in Polish. I made the goal to do it back in my 3rd transfer and I finished it on Thursday. It's been great to because I noticed that day after I finished it that every time I spoke to someone I was able to remember more words and I was able to understand a little better. I think people were able to understand me better too. When we went to drop letters for tracting I managed to convince a guy to open the door for us, and I don't even know how I did it. I rang his domophone, he answered I said "Ulotki" which is a trick we sometimes use to get into buildings, which basically means we're dropping off flyers. It works about 7 times out of 10. This time though, he asked me what kind of flyers, so I told him they were letters about our church. He asked why, I said because we want to invite people to hear our message. he said what do you want me to do about it? and I, thoroughly confused, said "open the door please" and he did! I was so surprised I almost didn't react fast enough to push the door open when it buzzed.

Friday was culture night, and it was so dang fun! First of all, have you guys heard of "lock rooms"? I don't know if we have them in the states. If we don't we need to start one because they are so fun! It's basically like real life Nancy Drew. They lock you into a room with a bunch of crazy clues and stuff and you have 45 minutes to solve the clues and get the door open. We totally solved it. We went a little over time though, the girl let us slide by because we were so entertaining. She said we where the happiest group she's ever seen. Apparently people are normally a lot angrier and stressed when they do it, but we was having a blast! And they played good music during the game so we were even singing! She said No one has ever sung while trying to get out of the room. After the lock room we got pizza, went the the chapel and watched The Book of Mormon Movie. Oh. My. Gosh... that movie is so hilariously bad! It was straight up like MTS3K. We just made fun of the movie the whole time and died laughing. We had a little extra time afterwards and Elder Garrett informed us that he had never seen Saratov Approach, so we watched that too. It was pretty freaky to watch on the mission, especially since Russian isn't too different from Polish, so we could understand a few words here and there. It was a really fun Culture night though probably one of the best ones I've had on my mission.

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We had a small miracle moment this week. On our way back from Sandra and Kumo's house on Saturday night sis Allowitz lost her earring at some point. She was really sad, because they were her favorite pair. Before she had noticed, when we were walking through the park, I had thought I heard something fall, but I didn't really think too much of it. I felt sure though, after I found out she had lost her earring, that, that is what I had heard, and I was certain that if we went back right after church the next day we would find it. So we went back, and we were looking around for about 30 seconds when I saw something turquoise and gold among a bunch of leaves inside a big storm drain. It was the earring! But unfortunately we couldn't get the grate off and I couldn't fit my arm in far enough to get it. So it seemed like all hope was lost. But it wasn't because I totally got a twig, hooked it on the earring and pulled that sucker out of there! It was awesome!

Random Funny Stuff -

Sis Johnston just called me about 2 seconds ago from a mountain top called Zakopane, on the boarder of Poland and Slovakia. She just wanted to see if she could get reception, and it worked!

For a few days there was a random 12 foot square in front of the mall that was roped off for no reason. In the middle of the square was a small pile of rocks... we were thoroughly confused.

We had district language study, and we had a section on family words! As the section started Elder Garcia sang this lovely little song "I have a family here on Earth, they have forgotten me. I want to share my life with them through all mortality!" Haha, we all died laughing!

Elder Park chipped his front tooth trying to catch a Mento in his mouth...

That about sums up this week. Only one more email and then I'll be home!

Kocham was!