Monday, March 24, 2014 3:51 AM Um. I've Been Turned Into A Cow. Can I Go Home?

Sister Young is HOME. In WARSZAWA. And she is the HAPPIEST of all the clams! Or rather, cows. But that's fine. Guess what. I love Warsaw so much. I do. I love it. What? I know. I know. I didn't love it. And now I do. Can I tell you what I think? I think that God snatched me out of Warsaw for that week in Gdańsk (which will be discussed further later on - patience, dzieci) to make me love Warsaw. Because I think I'm here for the duration. And I think he wanted me to love it here, because 6 months is a LONG time to spend somewhere you don't like. That's what I think. But czas pokaże. To znaczy, time will tell. (More specifcally, Saturday April 12 will tell. Can you believe transfers calls are in two and half weeks? That right there - that is supes cray cray.)

And NOW. My life. Last week.

I stayed in Gdańsk until Thursday, at which point I gleefully (yes - gleefully) boarded a train headed for Warszawa (okay. Actually. It was headed for Kraków - sick SICK joke - and stopped in Warszawa on the way down. I DEFINITELY considered staying on the train. But I decided Prez probably wouldn't be the BIGGEST fan of that idea. And so, like a good little missionary who follows orders, I got off in Warszawa). That was nice. Let's see ... What happened in Gdańsk ... You know? Not a WHOLE lot. Monday we wandered the Stare Miasto (to znaczy, old town) and soaked up the classiness that is a beautiful Polish city. We had District Meeting on Tuesday. We had English on Wednesday. Nothing overly exciting. Oh! But hey! One of the starsi in Gdańsk is from NORWAY! Yeah. Dude. Norway. I love the foreigners. They're very exciting people.

So anyways. HOME AGAIN.

The night of my return, we went out and visited a less active and her family. She asked us to come out and teach her 7 year old daughter the Plan of Salvation to prep her for baptism this summer. How precious is that? Anyways. They are a SUPER cool family. And they would be SO ROCK SOLID if they lived closer! They live about an hour and a half to two hours (depending on which bus you take) outside of Warsaw, which makes getting to church a little difficult. But they're SO cool, and we love them SO much! And guess what? Some of them were at church yesterday! Namra (the mom) brought Vanessa and Jakub (the two dzieci) to church! Gah! We were SO EXCITED! They are wonderful. Also - fun fact - Namra told me I look European, and have good Polish. Boom son! I love America - it's a beautiful place. I'm a big fan. But yeah, I'm okay with looking European. Because Europe is one classy continent. ... Alright. Moving on.

Friday night we met with this AWESOME family in the branch - the Mastroiani (I know - I SLAUGHTERED the spelling on that one ...) family. They're Brazilian. Cool, right? Right. And you know what's even cooler? They made us Brazilian food for dinner. It was DELICIOUS. Mmmm. I love being fed by members who know how to cook. It was so much fun. They're such a great family! They have three kids, and they rock. I was talking to Amy - the youngest one, 9 years old - and she was showing us her room and this Disney princess poster she has. So I asked who her favorite was, and she was like, "Guess!" So I was like, "Okay ... Jasmine?" And then she was like, "*gasp!* You KNOW THEIR NAMES?" And I was like, "Um, YES!" Silly dziecko. Of COURSE I know their names! Then she tested my knowledge on princess names. I passed with flying colors. Naturally. She was CRAZY impressed. So later, when we were leaving, she was like, "Hey." And I was like, "Hey!" And she was like, "I like you. Because you're normal. And funny. And you know the names of the princesses, and you think Snow White's voice is annoying too." Then she hugged me. Gah! It was ADORABLE. So that was a delightful evening.

Sunday was SO GOOD. Church was beautiful yesterday. Four of the missionaries spoke (Elders Wride, Dodge, Lanham, and Vernon) and they SMASHED it. They did so good. I was so proud. And there were a TON of random people in Warsaw (naprzykład, the Zalewski family of Bydgoszcz - WOO HOO! I got to hear Prezydent Zalewski's ever so unique way of saying "amen" again! It brought me joy. And he told me I could come back to B-Town. Wouldn't that be nice!, Lydia Kagele, Wojciech z Łodzi, and also Milena and Ewa from Łódź)! That was SO FUN! I love seeing my peeps. Church was just beautiful yesterday.

Also, before church started, the office elders brought me a package from my fam! HELLO the day just got better. Didn't think it was possible, and then BOOM. The day got better.

Let's see ... What else happened of note ....

Listen, I'm sorry. I feel like this email is VERY scattered. Sometimes, emailing is just a lot of work. And requires a lot of effort. And coherency. And sometimes as a missionary, the desire to be coherent when you don't have to be is a little bit lacking. I think my brain is fried. My mission has scrambled my little brain.

Oh. Right. On Saturday we did service for this lady named Ania. We washed her windows. It was actually super awesome. It just feels SO GOOD to do something nice for someone else! And it feels extra good when they appreciate it. Let's be real here - doing missionary work is doing nice things for others 24/7 (it doesn't get nicer than preachin' the G!). But we're the only ones who know that it's nice. Everyone else thinks it's annoying and/or dumb. Which is unfortunate. So doing nice things that people appreciate - that feels pretty darn good.

That's maybe everything.

Seriously. I'm sorry this email is a lame-fest! I need to work on my email skills. I feel like they're sliding RIGHT down hill.

So yep.

Much love!

Siostra Young