This Week

This past week has been crazy! We are all itching to go to Poland, we barely even get anything done anymore when we don't have a teacher... and sometimes even when we do. We've managed to convince our teachers to spend several class blocks just answering our questions and telling us stories about Poland. It's been really fun, we all can't wait until we have stories like that of our own.

Our Starszy and the Bulgarian Elders have been practicing hard for their musical number, they still aren't sure if or when they will be performing, but if they do it will probably be tomorrow, or Sunday. Starszy Jourdan is sick though and is praying that it's not tomorrow. I recorded them singing it last night on my MP3 player and I saved it onto my camera SD card so y'all can hear it, the quality isn't fantastic, I was closest to Elder Howard who sings base so sometimes he is really loud, but whatever. I have another version where it's a little more even but it's saved onto the MP3 player itself and I can't figure out how to copy or move the file.

I had a really cool experience that I wanted to tell y'all about. So last week I was feeling really discouraged about the language. For some reason every time I opened my mouth to speak Polish I would forget everything, I literally could not speak. I would stutter out a word and then have to sit and think for several long seconds before I could remember another word. It was especially bad in lessons. I don't get to speak much in lessons in general, my companion is a lot quicker on her feet than I am and I often don't know what I want to say in English until after I've thought about it for a while. But last week even during the very brief moments when I would be able to think of a response faster than my companion I wouldn't be able to say it in Polish. So I did the only thing I could think to do and I prayed and begged heavenly father to help me because I was really tired of just sitting there in lessons, saying nothing. As I prayed that scripture in D&C that I can't remember the reference for or even very much of, popped into my head. It's something like "think not what you will say, open your mouth and the words will be given to you in the very moment" or something like that. The point was that I realise I spent too much time thinking about what to say and I just needed to open my mouth and trust in the spirit. We had a lesson planned for the very next day with a brand new person, a less active member named Emilia. I was determined to get in there and as soon as there was a moment just open my mouth and trust that the lord would give me something to say. So that's exactly what I did! I had 3 big moments where I tried this in the lesson (it was a pretty short lesson) The first time was super successful, i had kind of had a thought to what I was going to say before, but as soon as I tried to speak it all just spilled out of me, in Polish, I only had to pause to like of like one word, it was awesome! The second time was less awesome, I had gotten a little emotional after the first time because 1 the spirit was like crazy thick, 2 because my prayer had been answered, and 3 because Emilia's story for why she hadn't gone to church was really sad. So when I went to say something the second time i couldn't talk again but this time it was because I was trying not to cry. The third time was soon after the second and I was even more emotional, but I really felt like I needed to say something, I had no idea what it was but I didn't care. I opened my mouth and immediately knew what to say, and I forced myself to say it, in easy Polish, while fighting sobs. I was really mad at myself for breaking down during the lesson, I've been really good about not doing that, but it was such a cool experience and I have had a much easier time speaking Polish ever since then... Well, I just wrote you a novel and I'm, only halfway through the week, but whatever, I just thought I should share that.

Brat Tribe Proposed! He is getting married! We are all super excited for him. He told us the story Monday morning, but to keep if feeling like class he told it in Polish. He's so animated though that we were able to understand all of it, even when he used words we didn't know. He was gone all last week and we had been wondering why, We were supposed to teach him/Olek on Wednesday and Friday, but on Wednesday he was preparing and on Friday he was celebrating. He proposed on Thursday, but he had not been planning to. He went to Becky's (his fiance) Mom on Wednesday and said he wanted to propose either Friday or Saturday and he needed her help. She said "of course I'll help you, but why not do it tomorrow". They had other stuff going on Friday and Saturday, a graduation and I think a recital or something. Brat Tribe was nervous to bump the date up to the very next day but he agreed to it. Brat Tribe and Becky first met in art class in Junior High. Becky has a sister going to that same Junior high right now, who has an art class in the same room. So, Becky's mom told her that her little sister had left her phone in the art class and she needed to hurry and get it before the janitors locked the door. Little did Becky know Brat Tribe was waiting in there with a picture he had drawn of the temple and their future family in front of it. One of the funny things he told us was that he had drawn a dog with them in the picture, Becky doesn't like dogs. So when he showed her the picture and asked her what she thought of it, the first words out of her mouth were "I don't like that dog..." While she was looking at the picture Brat tribe pulled out the ring got on one knee and then asked her. And of course she said yes! When they left the Junior high all their friends and family were waiting for them outside. It was cute... or so we heard :) it sounded cute. The best part of the story though was when Brat Tribe was describing how Becky came through the door. He walked over to the classroom door and said (in Polish) "Then she opened the door and.." Just then he opened the door and on the other side was Brat Jensen, just standing there. We all just died laughing, Sestra Dubois said they could hear us laughing from the Czech room halfway down the hall. Brat Jensen said he had been standing there for about five minutes just waiting. It was so funny!

Last week the Bulgarian Sisters got locked out of their room. This is the second time this has happened to them... see, this is why I wanted to bring my lock-pick set, I knew I would need it. The poor things had been showering and they didn't realise that none of them had a key. Two of them hadn't brought clothing so they were hanging out in the bathroom in just towels while the Sister Talakai and Sister Lewis went to the front desk to get a key. Sister Lewis luckily had her PJ's with her... but Sister Talakai was in a moomoo (I just realised I don't know how to spell that...) They also didn't have their cards so they couldn't get into the building through normal means. They ended up sneaking through the laundry room and running in and out of classrooms so no one would see them in their PJ's with their hair all mussed. Sadly on the way out of the building they found themselves in a hallway lined with senior missionaries still in the building for some reason (it was like 11:00 at night). Fortunately none of them even looked up when the girls bolted past them. It was quite the entertaining tale!

We had our Skype TRC again yesterday, our last one. Brat Tribe almost forgot about it completely, which I was fine with because I didn't really feel like doing it... none of us did, but then Siostra Holden reminded him (it was honestly like we were little kids in elementary school and class is two minutes from over and we haven't gotten any homework, so we think we're all home free... and then some kid from the front row raises their hand and says "but teacher, you forgot to give us our homework!" and everyone groans) As a result of him forgetting, he had to find people last minute on facebook (they don't just plan to be on skype then, our teacher has to arrange it). Sister Holden and I ended up not having to teach a lesson because by the Brat Tribe got a hold of someone there was only about 5 or 10 minutes left (the others got priority in teaching because most of them weren't able to last week). The person Brat Tribe got was one of his good Friends Marta, who lives in Warsaw. He wanted us to just come an talk to her and get to know her. She was really cool we chatted with her for a while, she taught us the word "Spoko" which is "cool" and informed us that everyone in Warsaw says spoko it is "bardzo pomocny slowo" (that L has a slash through it) Which means "a very helpful word". The best thing she did though was when she leaned out of the frame for a minute and came back with an adorable black cat in her arms! I died! His name was Takila! She asked if we liked cats, I told her I love cats, I have four, I'd have to! Then she asked if we had any dogs. I said "no, I like dogs, but I don't have any" she responded with "I have a dog... but I don't like him." It was really fun and seeing a kitty again. I was super tired yesterday morning, but that rejuvenated me!

I can't remember what else happened this week. We are all just so excited to get out of here and get to the field, all of us, not just the Pols, everyone in our zone! We all leave on either the 9th or the 10th and we are freaking out! Oh, we got our flight plans! We are flying non-stop to Paris and then we have a 2 hour layover before we fly to Warsaw, All the other districts are super jealous because they all have like 5 or 6 our layovers and several flights. I think our flight is at 4:30 p.m. or something. we leave the MTC at 11:30 a.m. Monday morning. So I'll be calling y'all sometime between then. Should I call dad's phone or the house phone or what? Some of you may have work, but I might have enough minutes to call several phones... and if not I'll just get more quarters :)

I'll be sending you at least 1 box with some of the stuff I don't want to take to Poland. I am sending back some of my notes from class too, and some class materials because I can't see myself ever even picking them up again in Poland. I am also sending a list of more songs you can put on my SD card when you get it. There might have been more stories I wanted to share with y'all but I can't remember right now. If I remember anything else I will either write it later today or in a letter to go in my box of stuff

I can't wait to talk to y'all on Monday, watch for my call.

Kocham Cie!