Czesc! (PS - Just pretend that there are crescas (like little accents) over that last s and c, just so it's spelled right for my OCD. And it's pronounced ch-e-sh-ch. And it means Hi!)
I'M LEAVING FOR POLAND THIS MONTH! THIS EXACT MONTH, I WILL BE LEAVING FOR POLAND! Let's all just take a moment to let that sink in, shall we? In less than one month (four weeks from today, if we're being exact - but it's not like I'm keeping careful track of every single day or anything ...) I will be on a plane. Headed to Poland - "Cabbage Land", as James has so kindly dubbed it. Is that not the craziest thing you've ever heard?? Oh man. I am so EXCITED! And NERVOUS! And bursting with all manner of emotion! It's crazy, man.
Our Little Baby Missionaries came on Wednesday! There are about a gazillion of them! Our Zone is now 50/50 for elders and sisters. Isn't that amazing?! There are 48 missionaries total, so Sacrament Meeting is now QUITE crowded.
This is random. But whatevs. Coz (There should be a croca (a little dot) over the z. And it's pronounced ts-oo-je (that last part - the je - is like the "us" in "usually"). And it means Whatevs.) One of the sisters in our zone who left on Monday was into Spirit Animals. Weird, I know. But you were warned it was random! So anyways, she gave us Spirit Animals. And she said mine was a seagull. A SEAGULL. Fo reals? That's the worst Spirit Animal in the world. As Starzsy Waskiovic so beautifully put it, "seagulls are the rats of the sky". Nice, right? So we changed it. My Spirit Animal is a sea otter (I know, it's my favorite animal. So I asked if that was cheating, but I didn't pick it - the other sisters did. And they said it's not cheating. So coz.) And now, because it's fun and why not, I will tell you all the Spirit Animals of our district.
Siostra Young - Sea Otter
Siostra Wendel - Koala Bear (some said fox, but I disagree. I feel like she's a koala)
Siostra Pearson - Red Panda
Siostra Lidtka - Arabian Horse
Siostra Blake - Snow Leopard
Siostra Barth - Doe
Starszy Waskiowic - Llama
Starszy Wolfley - Polar Bear
Starszy Blom - Puppy
Starszy Allen - Lemur
Starszy Olsen - Eagle
Starszy Owens - Grasshopper
And on that happy note ...
Our Easter was REALLY good. Except, here's the thing, I'm a sinner. Allow me to explain. A couple of weeks ago, the choir director said you REALLY wanted to be at the Tuesday Night Devotional, because it was going to be REALLY special. Of course, we all think APOSTLE! Naturally. That's exactly what he made it sound like. What was it really? They were filming about the MTC for one of those "inbetween General Conference sessions" things. Not even cool. That was the Great Disappointment. And of course the speaker they had was really really good, but still. It wasn't an apostle. And we were all expecting an apostle. Fast forward to yesterday - the Great Easter Disappointment. We were told we'd be getting a REALLY special Easter Morning, and there would be a general authority. What do we all think? Apostle. Prophet. You know. And who was it? It was a member of the Presiding Bishopric. Which is amazing! And he was SO good! But still. It wasn't an apostle. I just want to know, what do we have to DO to get an apostle down here? So help me, if Easter and General Conference don't do it, NOTHING will! Anywho. Yesterday was amazing. We had Sacrament Meeting with our zone as per usual, but without the Sacrament. Testimony meeting was lovely. Then we went to the Easter Morning Devo (where there was NOT an apostle - just so we're clear) and had the sacrament there. Which was SUPER cool. Over 3000 people got the sacrament in less than 15 minutes. Impressive? Oh yeah. The rest of the day was normal Sunday stuff. And last night our devo speaker was Sheri Dew! She was amazing.
The Language. Oh boy. It is - just - yeah, it is something else. I have really good days, and then I have not so good days. But I think it's coming along pretty well. I would now like to provide a brief explanation of Polish. Let's begin. Polish is the second hardest language to learn for English speakers. Fact. Why, you ask. Because, I answer. Because Polish is this thing called an inflective language. To put it simply, words change based on what part of the sentence they are, and what part of speech they are. They are changed by declining them into cases. Yes. Cases. There are seven cases in Polish. Some for when you're calling out a name, some for direct objects, indirect objects, some show possesion, some for renaming - you get the idea. It's a beast. So the end of the word will change, based on the case, and then based on whether it's singular or plural, then on whether it's a noun or adjective, then on whether it's masculine personal, masculine, feminine, or neuter. Polish in a nutshell. Fun, right? Please, contain the jealousy. I'm really not sure what else to say about the language, because unless you have a pretty good understanding of the principles of Polish, it'll all fly straight over your head. But whatever. On Saturday we talked about the Celownik case. Which is for indirect objects. So that was fun. Oh hey! There is ONE great thing about Polish that makes it a little easier. Yeah, just the one thing - basially it's all hard. It's strictly phonetic, so if you know the sounds of the letters, you can say any word. Just make each individual sound, smash them all together, and boom! Language has happened. The only problem with that is some of the sounds just don't smash together very well, because those Poles love their consenants. It takes a lot of practice. But once you've got it down, you can say anything! Hazzah!
But really, I love Polish. It's really hard. Like, SO hard. But I absolutely love it. It's awesome. It's an awesome language.
Random fun. There's this hymn (hymn number 41 whose name escapes me), and in the second verse (I think ...) it talks about sharing the Gospel from pole to pole. Pole to pole. Like Pole to Pole. Get it?! Kind of the coolest hymn EVER. And it actually is a cool hymn, but that line just makes it fetching amazing! When we were singing it, all the Polish sisters looked at each other and we were like, "Whoa now!" So it's the coolest hymn now. Officially.
Last week we started teaching other companionships as investigators, which was super cool. So we got partnered up with another companionship (Starzsi Olsen and Owens), and they taught us as investigators on Friday night (I am Zofia. Just, you know, so you know what my shnazzy Polish investigator's name is), and then we taught them on Saturday night. It was so interesting! I've NEVER been on the investigator side of things before, so it was really cool to be on that end of missionary work for once. It's helped me think more about the investigators as individuals. It was very interesting.
So we get BYU Creamery ice cream here twice a week. As previously mentioned, I believe. But dang, it so SO good. The best is Graham Canyon. To those of you who haven't had it - repent, and go and get some RIGHT now. I don't even know what it is about it that's so great, but holy cannoli. It's the best. Also Coconut Joy. Sorry, this has nothing to do with anything. I just wanted you all to try some, because it's so good.
Let's see ... What else to tell ... I'm really drawing a blank here, friends! I just don't know what else would be of interest to you people! Seriously - if ANYONE thinks of any questions, just email me and they will be answered. It's really nice to have questions to answer, because sometimes I can't think of things to say. Like now.
Alright - let's be worldly for just a minute here. What's happening with ma Jazz? Updates, updates! I need to be kept informed, seriously. And .... Let's see. Is there anything else about the Great Outside World I need to know about ... Huh. Oh! Movies! What's happening on the Big Screen, people. I know they always say when you're writing missionaries focus on Gospel things, don't talk about worldly things, yada yada yada. And that's nice. But I focus on Gospel things about 104% of the time, which is quite a lot. An occasional heads up on real life isn't going to hurt any, I PINKY promise. It's really nice, actually, to hear about normal things every so often. So yeah. There's that for ya.
I would like to give a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who's written me! Mail is the best thing ever, and I absolutely adore it, and I just want to hug every single soul who's taken some time to write me because I know it isn't convenient. But it means the world to me. So MASSIVE thank you. And even better than mail? Only two things. And one of those things is getting a package. Thank you, family! You people. You're just the best. Thank you oodles and oodles!
Alrighty then. I think that's it for now. I love love LOVE you all so much! Thanks for being amazing, and I shall write again next Monday! Until then!
Much Love,
Siostra Young
Or Siostra Mloda (the l should be an l funky (and l with a line through it at a slant), and should make the sound of a w. So that would be pronounced mwoda - and it means young. Obviously.) Some people in the district (mostly Starszy Allen) call me that. Because it's young in Polish. See how that works? Pretty magical.
PS - Just to clarify ... Who exactly is getting these emails? I'm just curious. And wondering if maybe I should be a little more discrete about the things I write, because, let's be honest, not all of it is really pertinant or useful information. I.e. Spirit Animals. So just, you know, lemme know. That's all!
PPS - If someone maybe went to Spain (cough cough Abigail) or on a California Band Trip (cough cough William), I would love to hear about it. If you can find the time. I'm not, like, crying myself to sleep every night because I don't know what's going on there or anything, and I'm not trying to be grumpy and grouchy about a lack of mail (because there isn't a lack of mail). And I'm not trying to be whiney. But you guys did fun things and I like to hear about the fun things you people do! So that's it. Love you people!
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