Monday, February 24, 2014 6:21 AM Moving Is Fun. Or So They Say. (They Being No One.)

Yeah. About that. I'm moving again. Do you KNOW how long I've been in Bydgoszcz? Seven weeks. That is NOT very long. That is akin unto NO TIME AT ALL. And yet, here we are. Moving again. Packing up an entire life and stuffing it into a train headed for a foreign city with foreign people and foreigness wszędzie. It is not my favorite activity. Especially when you've only been in a city for seven weeks and you decide you like it quite a lot there. I've been ripped off. And that's a fact. 

But enough of that silliness. I'm moving! Woo hoo! New experiences! New friends! New adventure! And where is this misjonarka going to znajdować się? W Warszawie. Now here's the thing. I'm trying REALLY HARD to be happy about this stuff. But first. A moment. I DON'T WANT TO MOVE. I DON'T WANT TO GO TO WARSAW, OF ALL PLACES. I LOVE BYDGOSZCZ. THIS IS DUMB DUMB DUMB. And now. We can forget that moment of weakness and move on to the being happy thing. Warszawa (everyone calls it Warsaw, but I think that's silly, because we say all the other Polish city names correctly. Why do we say Warsaw and not Warszawa? It's dumb. I'm going to change that. It will be my personal mission.) will be good.. There are a lot of people there. As in, a lot of people-Polish-people, and a lot of people-missionary-people. So that's fun! I like people! (I like people? I can't believe I'm saying this. What's happened to me? Oh missions. They mess a person up. Or make them better. ... Probably the "make them better" option, because generally liking your fellow human beings is a good thing ...) And it's a big city. Big cities are exciting. I get to ride the metro. That will be cool. The rynek there is huge and gorgeous, and I can buy lots of over-priced touristy stuff for my family (yes family - that's right. A package is in the works. Be excited, my dzieci). Buying things is a fun activity. I may be able to go on exchanges to Łódź, since Sister Blake is the Sister Trainer and she's still serving there, so that would be INCREDIBLY INCREDIBLY wonderful. I will pray for that. It is the Poland Warsaw (cough cough WARSZAWA) Mission, so serving in the mission capitol is cool, right? And besides that, I'll be close to the mail! Who doesn't love being close to the mail? All in all, there are plenty of magnificent (yeah - magnificent. Just shakin' up the vocab.) things about Warszawa. It'll be super cool. I'm going to be in the Warszawa II District, so I don't get to go to church in the chapel. That's kind of a bummer. But it's cool. I haven't gone to church in a chapel (except on that one occasion) in a year now. I can handle it for another 6 months. 

Have I ever mentioned the fact that packing stresses me out? That is a true fact right there. I have too much crap. And even got rid of a ton of it. And yet, my suitcases still weigh 3 gazillion pounds. OH LIFE. Sometimes I think a nice state side mission would be cool - "Oh, I'm getting transferred? Cool. I'll just go throw my stuff in the car. And update my Facebook account on this iPad I've got here to let everyone know." Wouldn't THAT be swell.

So, since the transfer is over, I have a new planner. Which is in and of itself quite a tragedy. Thus ends The Great Hobbit Planner transfer. (I got this little advertisement for The Hobbit in Łódź with the movie poster on it, and it's beautiful. So I made it into a planner so I could have it with me always. But alas. That is no longer possible.) Tears. So many tears. But anyways. The reason I bring this up is this: that planner contains all my memories from the past week. Bez niego, I have NO IDEA what happened in my life last week. Except for a few highlights. Which I will now share.

Number 1.

We went to Toruń on Saturday night to visit a family in the branch. That was SUPER DOOPER awesome. It takes about an hour by bus to get out there, so it's not a common occurrence. And even more uncommon - all six of us got to go out together! Fun, right? Right. We had a blast. They're a super cool family..

Number 2.

... Alright then. Maybe only one interesting thing happened last week ...

Number 3.

Oh right! We had Culture Night! I completely forgot! Oh the silliness. So anyways. Culture Night. It was possibly even less cultural than last transfer - be it possible. We ate pierogi and had Polish cake. Then we played ping pong and listened to the Piano Guys CD and watched The Living Scriptures (Journey to the Promised Land and Conversion of Alma the Younger). It was AWESOME. Getting the starsi to watch the movies was QUITE difficult (they were being little pills and asking how long they were - like they couldn't spare 20 minutes of their precious ping pong time to watch movies with us), but in the end, they loved them and wanted to watch more. So did we. But, unfortunately, those were the only two in the chapel. And we don't even know how they got there. But man - I tell you - one of the first things I'm doing when I get home is watching ALL The Living Scripture movies we own and buying all the ones we don't. They are HILARIOUS. And oh so quotable. My favorite quote: Nephi comes up on deck of the ship and Laman and Lemuel and all the other wicked people are having a little party, and he's like, "Laman, Lemuel - what are you doing?" And Laman says, "We're singing and dancing! Couldn't you tell?!" OH MAN. Absolutely hysterical.. So now if someone asks what I'm doing, that's my response. It's priceless. And maybe the proudest moment of my life was when Elder Swicegood quoted it. So great.

Number 4.

Transfer calls. Obviously. Already discussed.

It wasn't a crazy exciting week. But that's okay. Sometimes it's nice having a chill week. 

So yeah. That's that.

Love you all!

Siostra Young

2 Chronicles 15:7

Monday, February 17, 2014 5:39 AM So Guess What? Single Day. That Exists.

Fun Fact: According to Monika The English Student That We Have, the day after Valentine's Day is Single Day. So that's nice. I suppose it's only fair that they give us our own holiday, after being forced to watch all the mushy gushy goop that is V-Day. Now WE have a day to celebrate with loneliness and sugar and movies. So charming.

So that's the Fun Fact Of The Day.

And now.

THE EMAIL.

I feel like a day by day run through this week. So yeah. That's about to happen.

Monday

Oh my, P-Day! THAT'S original! We tried to go laser tagging with Elders Kotter and White, but the place didn't actually exist, That was unfortunate. Instead, I took a nap. Which - let's be honest - was probably a gagillion times more enjoyable than laser tagging - sorry fellas. I just loves me some sleep. But it's cool. That was basically the most interesting thing that happened on Monday. Sleep. My life is SO FASCINATING.

Tuesday

We went to POZNAŃ! So it was for reals an interesting day! Yahoo! We had a super lovely Zone Training, at which I got to see Sister Lidtka and Elder Peacock and also other humans, and that was delightful. Humans are - interestingly enough - quite fun. Who knew. Then we went home. On our train ride, we got to babysit Elder Kotter because Elder White stayed in Poznań to do a baptismal interview (and that peson got baptized on Saturday so WOOHOO!). Anyways. That was a fun train ride! Elder Kotter is a goober.. We brought oranges and were eating them, and he peeled his like a PRO (because apparently he loves oranges and has had LOTS of practice) so he ended up with a perfect hemisphere of orange peel. And I was like, "Are you going to drink out of that?" Because I think I'm funny. And he was like, "That's a great idea!" Because he's silly. So then he did it. He poured water into his orange cup and drank it. Apparently it was delicious. Then we talked about cats. Then we got home. Then we had a lesson with Ania and Bartek about Plan Zbaw. Part I. It was very good.. They are COOL. And will probably (hopefully maybe) get baptized someday. Then we went to Monika The English Student That We Have's house and ate some food and talked with her and her mom about their vacation to Egypt last summer. It was every bit as random as it sounds. On the way home, Sister Lenhart found a license plate. So now we have one of those in our apartment.

Wednesday

We had a lovely day. We did a whiteboard with Starsi Retallick and Swicegood. It was SUPER AWESOME. Because I just think the Gospel is SO TRUE and PRAYER IS SO GOOD. I was standing, a little away from the others (because it's EXTREMELY awkward when there are four missionaries bunched up together, trying to talk to people), holding a KM in my hands and talking to people, and praying that I would find someone to give it to who would appreciate it. And when I say praying, I mean, like, I was literally saying a prayer that I would find someone, not like, "Oh, well, it sure would be swell if I could get rid of this book right here!" I was just like, "Please, Heavenly Father, help me to find someone who will want this book.. Help me to find someone to give it to." So I'm just talking to people some more, and actually, a lot of them were REALLY nice. So that was cool. But no one took the book. And then, I talked to this one lady, and it was just SO GOOD. The conversation felt SO natural, and she was so sweet, and guess what? She took the book. And was like, "Wow - thanks." And we have her number, so hopefully we'll be able to meet with her this week. She was SO NICE. Anyways. After that I was pretty thrilled because HELLO PRAYER WORKS.

We had English. It was charming. We had two new students - Ela and Kasia, and they were cool and ALSO interested in the Gospel so we set up to meet with them the next day. But more on that later.

... later ...

Thursday.

We had Zone Training in B-Town! And President Edgren came in for it! So that was fun. We all got interviews. INTERVIEWS ARE COOL. ... Um. What to say about interviews ... They were good? They? What am I talking about - I only had the one. IT was good. Anyways. Yeah. That just about covers that. And then Zone Training was lovely. I really love being a comp to the Sister Overlord, because that means I always get to see Zone Training twice! I am one lucky sistah! Then we ate lunch. Exciting. I know. Then we met with Ela and Kasia of Wednesday. It was really good! They're really cool. Ela is 18 and Kasia is ... well, old enough to be the mother of an 18 year old, because she's Ela's mother. They used to be Catholic (like every other Pole every born) but decided there are a few things that don't add up there, and they wanted to know what the Mormons think. And what do we know, we're TOTALLY Mormons! And we TOTALLY love telling people what we think! So we talked about The Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and apostasy and all that wonderful stuff, and it went really well! Hopefully we'll be meeting with them again this week!

Friday.

HELLO Valentine's Day! We had lunch with all the Starsi at this "American" burger place. Which was QUITE delicious. Oh man. This burger I had. It was incredible. It had pineapple and BBQ sauce and onion and deliciousness. Mmmmmm. So anyways. That was good district bonding time. Then we did a whiteboard with Starsi White and Kotter. We sang hymns in Polish. It was fun. I LOVE singing, and Sister Lenhart has a VERY good voice and ROCKS at singing parts, so basically, we sounded INCREDIBLE. (Okay - incredible? Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I'm just saying, Sister Lenhart is very good, and I can hold a part, so we sounded good. But that sounds way less interesting that INCREDIBLE.) Then we had the aforementioned lesson with Elżbieta. It was good. We brought Danuta (a member) along with. Which was very nice. EXCEPT that bringing two cute little old pani's together isn't always a good idea, because they LOVE TO TALK. AND YOU CANNOT STOP THEM. So we got home late for dinner. But it's all good.

Saturday.

Single Day. Yay. We went to animal shelter again. It was coldish and wettish. But good. I didn't get to hold any puppies. And Harmon - the cat I decided to adopt - bit my finger. She was such a nice cat. She loved to be loved. But apparently, she also loves to bite. It's a good thing I didn't adopt her. I hope I don't have rabies now. We had an English lesson with Monika The English Student That We Have (we had a LOT of contact with her this week, apparently). It was fun. She's so funny. We like her. Then we got flaked by Marek and Tamara. Which, as far as I'm concerned, is just as well. Marek is just WAY TOO WEIRD. We watched Legacy during dinner to celebrate our singleness. It was fun. I love that movie, but DANG is it cheesey. I never even realized there was so much CHEESE going on. But that's alright.

Sunday.

Church. Woo hoo. I translated during Young Women's. It was a LITTLE rough. Polish to English is easy peasy rice and cheesey. English to Polish? ... That's another story. One I do not wish to tell. After church I was talking to Elder Retallick and we were discussing accents and he was impressed with my British accent. That may or may not have made my whole life.. But it's cool. Like, whatever. Also, I discovered that the boy loves Julian Smith and Sons of Provo. We may or may not have been best friends in another life. I had a taco for lunch with McCormick taco seasoning from AMERICA. It was delish. When we went tracting, everyone was EXTRA SUPER grumpy. That was unfortunate.

And look. Here we are! On Monday!

Fun, right?

Missionary life. Always an adventure. And sometimes, not so much. But it's cool!

Love you ALL!

Siostra Young

So yeah. That's basically my week.

Monday, February 10, 2014 5:54 AM Let There Be Cats.

You guys. I REALLY LOVE CATS. I decided last week at the animal shelter that I like cats. I could tolerate their presence without too much unhappiness. But guess what? This week, I decided I REALLY LOVE THEM. This was a long time coming - I think we all know that. I was already a Crazy Cat Lady In The Making, just minus the cat part. (Crazy Pet Rock Lady just doesn't have quite the same ring, does it?) Well, the picture is complete, friends. I love cats. We went to the animal shelter again this week (no właśnie). And we cleaned the living quarters of the cats again. I don't know how it happened. Sometime between scooping up the cat poop and spraying down cat vomit on the floor, I just fell in love with the stupid creatures. It's disgusting. I know. There is no pride in loving cats. I saw Gulliver again (but he wasn't nearly as fun this time - he just slept through the whole experience), and I made some new friends. Their names are Margot, Goliath, and Andromaeche. (Of course, I named ALL the cats. But these cats were the most fun of the bunch. And lemme tell you, there was a WHOLE ENTIRE BUNCH this time. SO many cats. So many.) I decided I wanted to adopt Margot. And Sister Lenhart decided she wanted to adopt Goliath. Unfortunately, that stinkin' White Handbook still exists, and we STILL can't have pets. Such a pity. But probably someday I will go home, and I when that day happens, I will get a pet cat. Or eight. (No, I kid. I only want one.)

Let's see. What else happened this week.

Oh, right.

I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting yesterday.

THAT was an experience.

On Friday, during weekly planning, Elder District Leader Elder Swicegood called us. And said, "Hey, Sister Young, will you give a talk?" And I was like, "Um ... Yeah. I will do that. I love speaking." And he was like, "This Sunday." And I was like, "... Right. Well. Okay then." In this way, I was informed I would be giving a talk. And then he didn't even give me a topic, which meant I had to think of my own. SUCH a delight. I just wish I'd found out about this sooner! Because I had OODLES of free time on trains on Thursday heading into Warsaw and then back to Bydgoszcz (and by oodles I mean, 7 hours). But of course. That didn't happen. Oh life. So then I had to write a talk, and then I changed my topic, and then I wrote the whole thing Saturday night, and then I had to translate the whole thing into Polish Saturday night. The translating took my three and a half hours. Three and a half hours of precious PRECIOUS sleep. Spent translating a talk. But that's cool! When we prepare talks, we learn, right? So it's cool. I learned new things. Learning is always fun. And then I gave my talk on Sunday and it was all whatever. No one booed me off the stand or egged my mieszkanie, so I'm assuming they didn't hate it. Anyways. Speaking. Always fun.

WARSAW.

Guess who went to Warsaw this week? This Siost right here! That's right, my friends! Day Trip To Warsaw. ( Day Trip To Warsaw translates to ADVENTURE! Because we do a lot of the same thing every day. And that's alright. We do that, and we love it, and it's great! But as a missionary, ADVENTURE doesn't just happen every single day! So when ADVENTURE comes along, you gotta love it!) Sister Lenhart had MLC, and as her comp, it is my duty and privelege to accompany her to Warsaw and then hit the streets, preachin' the G hardcore, while she mingles with the high society of the Poland Warsaw Mission in the mission office - chatting it up with all the other awesome missionaries and eating Sister Edgren's cookies and drinking a large variety of juices. I'm not bitter. But GUESS WHAT? I got to spend the day with one of my MTC sióstr! Sister Pearson! Yeah boy! It was SO fun! Ah. I love her. So it was an awesome day. I also got to see Elder Caskey and talk to him in the trian station for a couple of minutes! That was super fun! He's such a goob. I did NOT get to see my Sister Wendel, and that made me SUPER sad, but it's okay. I'll see her around. Sometime. Somewhere. It'll be cool. At the very least I'll see her in June when PRESIDENT UCHTDORF COMES TO POLAND AND WE HAVE A WHOLE MISSION CONFERENCE. (Yeah. Still overly excited about that. I will probably be overly excited about that until the day I die.)

On Friday night, we had a meeting with Elżbieta, bless her cute little heart. She's such a sweet little lady. We love her. And as she prepared the tea and cake and cookies for us (as she does every meeting. Which takes approximately twenty minutes), her tv happened to be on. And do you know what I happened to be on to? To the OPENING CEREMONIES OF THE OLYMPICS. And as she prepared the tea and cake and cookies, we may have seen a small part of it. That made my life. I LOVE the Olympics. And knowing I was going to miss them BROKE MY HEART. (I mean that literally. They took me to the hospital and did some x-rays. My heart is broken. They called it "missingtheolympics-itis". It's quite serious. But I'll survive.) And what do you know - we got to see the actual lighting of the Olympic flame! Ah. Such joy. Such relief. Such wonder. Life is good. Also, our lesson was good. We talked about Lehi's vision, and we didn't finish, so we're finishing that up next week. On Friday. To znaczy, we got ourselves a date for V-Day! And it's a cute little old lady named Elżbieta! Good stuff, good stuff.

The weather here has been CRAZY spring-ish. It's blowin' my mind! It's still February, but I hardly even need my coat! I was informed that LAST winter, it was winter up until May. RIGHT when I got into the country. And I don't know - maybe this is just a little mini-spring and winter will be back in full force in a couple weeks. I don't know. But either way, it's PRETTY crazy.

So anyways. 

Life is good. I love Poland. The Church is true. 

Yep.

Love you all!

Siostra Young

Monday, February 03, 2014 7:32 AM Growing Experiences. Are Fun.

So guess what? Last week, on Wednesday, Sister Lenhart and I made a decision. And the decision was this. That Thursday (THE DAY - to znaczy, the day of the big wedding) was going to be an Ensign Day. (Ensign Day: A day so awesome, and so full of miracles, they write stories about them and send them in to the Ensign, and then people read them and are inspired to be better people and change the world.) We we're going to rack up some miracles and get a new AWESOME investigator who would TOTALLY accept a baptismal date and then rock the Gospel for the rest of her life. We were committed to it. We had faith it was all going to go down. That was the plan.

It was a very nice plan. I would have enjoyed a day like that.

Our day was not like that.

Our day was quite unpleasant.

It started out beautifully. We went to an animal shelter and volunteered. I got to wear jeans. And hold animals. Only later did I find out that holding the animals was not allowed. So that was awkward. But it was great! We cleaned litter boxes (which was not as disgusting as it sounds. Still gross, but not disgusting), and I learned I don't hate cats. In fact, I think I like them. I think I want a cat. I named a cat Gulliver (well, I named a LOT of cats - what can I say, I'm a namer - but Gulliver was the coolest one), and I decided I wanted to take him home. However, that is NOT allowed. Dang it, Jason! Then we clean puppy cages (that was grosser than the litter boxes, I'm sorry to report), and guess what, I met these two puppies (who I also named, of course. Simon and Dewey. Only later did I realize why those names went together so well. But that's alright. Who WOULDN'T want puppies named for a great LDS artist?), and they reminded me that while I may now like cats, I still like dogs WAY better. They were so stinking cute! And just wanted to be held and loved and cuddled. And I willingly obliged. They were tiny. You could pick them up with one hand. Simon was bigger, and reddish-brownish, and he liked to climb on things and make noise. He was presh. Dewey was dark and tiny (like, TINY) and just wanted to be loved. I wanted to adopt them too. Sister Lenhart said no. So. Animal shelter. Puppies and cats and jeans and endorphins. Good stuff.

Then the day took an ugly turn. Nothing worked out. We contacted. No one wanted to talk. They told us we were a sekta and they did NOT want to have ANYTHING to do with us - even a conversation. Ouch. The former we wanted to check on wasn't a home. Calls were lame. Pretty much no one answered, and if they DID answer, it was to say they couldn't meet. Cool. Then we went tracting. Again. No one wanted to talk. And there were creepy larries hanging out in the building we were tracting, standing in the stairwells and giving a running commentary as we knocked on doors and telling us the Church was "nie dobrz". That's nice. I'm sorry, sir, remind me again which of us is dead drunk, living on the streets, and mocking girls in a stairwell? Right. That's what I thought. You have a good night. (Sometimes when I'm upset I accidentally get a little sassy. Those larries are children of God. He loves them. I love them. It's just playful banter between siblings. It's fine.) Anyways. No one wanted to talk.. Surprise surprise. Then we went home. I wanted to make something yummy to celebrate Emily's wedding. I bought something that looked like cream puffs and tried making them. That didn't work. They were possibly the most disgusting cooking fail I've ever had. I had cereal instead. Corn flakes. And I didn't even have sugar to put on them.

That was it. That was my day. It was lame. I was quite unhappy.

But.

I learned a lesson.

I was reflecting on my walk to the library today about Thursday and how it was lame. And I was thinking about it, and how, even though it was possibly one of the least gratifying days of my mission, it was a good learning day. That's not to say I wouldn't have learned a lot having an Ensign Day. That would have been a good learning day too. I would have been like, "Wow! Faith WORKS! Miracles! Miracles are good." But instead it's more like this. "Wow! Sometimes, life is a bummer! But you just keep on smiling and you keep on working, and God is going to make it all work out. That's okay. You just keep going!"

I was also thinking about sacrifice. God blesses us for sacrifice, right? And if I had had an INCREDIBLE day, where would the sacrifice be? I'd still be missing an important day, and that would still be hard, but what am I REALLY giving up? If I'm blessed immediately and everything is perfect rainbows and butterflies, that's really cool, but there's really not much sacrifice there. So. I made a sacrifice, and I haven't seen the blessings that have come from it yet, but I know that if I keep going and hold out faithful and do my best, God will bless me for it. He's going to do it, because He's promised us that as we sacrifice, He will bless us. And He keeps His promises. Sometimes they ARE immediate, and that's awesome. But sometimes they aren't, and that's okay too.

So yeah. Growing experiences. They ROCK. Sometimes not so much in the moment. But the blessings and the learning make it all worth it in the end, right? RIGHT.

In other news.  

I went on exchanges in Poznań! That was SO GREAT! I LOVE Sister Lidtka!

At English on Wednesday, we were talking about home and family. So we were talking about our dream homes. Sister Lenhart was describing hers as I drew it on the board. And she was saying ridiculous things, because I had to draw them on the board. For example, a roller coaster. And a green house with a mango tree. Anyways. She said she wanted a pet whale shark. So I drew an ADORABLE whale shark, and I was like, "He needs a name! What shall his name be?" Then I thought for a minute and was like, "Humphry!" And Sister Lenhart was like, "That's the EXACT name I was thinking of!" What? Humphry? Such a random name! And we hadn't even been together for the past three days because of exchanges! That, my friends, is called COMP UNITY. It was hilarious. ... Maybe you had to be there ...

Guess what? This is the BEST NEWS EVER! President Uchtdorf - as in Deiter F. - is coming to POLAND! In JUNE! I haven't been more excited for anything in maybe my whole entire life. GAH! I don't even know what to SAY about the excitment that is this news! I need to have a freak out or something. Again, I mean. Sister Lenhart and I DEFINITELY had a freak out when we first found out. He's just so COOL! And he's coming HERE! To POLAND! Alright, alright. I'm calming down now.

Anyways. Speaking of Sister Lenhart. She's SO AWESOME. I LOVE HER SO MUCH. She is hilarious. She's just so funny. I love it. And we enjoy all KINDS of awkwardness together. With a name like Anna, that's just how the cookie crumbles. We are just awkward. But I think I'm decidedly more awkward. That's unfortunate, but it's okay. She decided if my life were a movie, it would be Napoleon Dynamite. ... Sad, but true. She's right. Anyways. The moral of the story is that we have a grand old time together and I love her. And she quotes Arthur and What's Up Doc and the Living Scriptures and all sorts of good stuff. It's a real ball.

Well. That's probably sufficiently long and rambly for this week. I love you all SO much and thanks for the prayers and support and awesomeness! May your days be filled with the smell of apple pie (because it smells good) and the joy that comes from snuggling with puppies (because that is an activity that brings much joy).

Do widzenia! Kocham was! I życzie wam wszystkiego najlepszego!

Siostra Young

Jeremiah 17:14