Monday, August 11, 2014 5:04 AM Into The West

This morning, I was singing in the shower. Because why would you NOT do that? And I tell you what, Into The West has taken on a WHOLE new meaning in my life.

But first!

A rundown of my week!

Mondee

I HAD THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! It was flipping beautiful. As previously discussed, my morning rocked. Balloons, streamers, pancakes, email, a pink whale who has been named Bernice - what more could a girl ask for? After that we went to see a castle called Gniew (which means Anger, so that's fun) with Stanley and Elder Jourdan and Elder Jaeger. Then that castle was small, so we went to Malbork. By the time we got there, we didn't have a whole lot of time, so we didn't actually go in. But we DID walk around it! And that was fun. We had a GRAND old time! Castles are SUPER cool. After that we had a meeting as missionaries in the chapel. But first we ate, because we were starving. Okay. So. Meeting. We were about to start, and then Elder Jaeger was like, "Okay. Let's go into the big room for a second." So we were like, "Uh. Okay." And we get out there, and Elder Jaeger was like, "We know it's not a normal pole, but we had to keep up your birthday tradition." So I got bungee corded to a pillar by the elders. Don't worry. There are pictures. Birthday = COMPLETE. It was fabulous. Honestly, it was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER (that could happen to a person on a mission). I am feeling CRAZY flipping blessed.

Tuesdee

We had District Meeting. Yay! We went to Manekin with the Tufties and elders for dinner to celebrate my birthday. Yay again! It was SUPER delicious. I'm going to miss Manekin. I mean, I can make naleśniki at home, easy peasy rice and cheesey. But Manekin just does it SO MUCH BETTER than I could! Oh life. What am I going to do?

Wednesdee

We went to Gdynia. Then we got flaked. Then we preached the Good Word on the streets and no one listened. Yaaaaaaaay.

Thursdee

We vacuumed at Marinella's. That was fun! She's adorable.

Fridee

Planning. Preaching. Eating. ... Not a whole lot to write home about. (And yet, here I am. Writing home about it. Go figure.)

Saturdee

We went to Ines' mieszkanie and took wallpaper off her walls. That was fun! She talked about polygamy the whole time because she found out I'm Brigham Young's great-something granddaughter. She told me to tell someone important (because naturally I have connections, being the granddaughter of a prophet) that the church needs to be more open about Brigham Young being a polygamist. Apparently she's under the impression it's some kind of great secret. If only she knew ... We had dinner at the Tufts with the elders and Bohdan and his wife Basia. And a random Ukrainian member named Sergei who showed up at the chapel this morning. That was nice! I love those Tufts.

Sundee

We visited less active Basia, bless her heart. She's the sweetest thing! Then we went to the Harker's house for dinner with the Tufts and the elders. It was SUPER delicious. And fun. Bless those American members. They are SO handy.

And now, your feature presentation ...

This morning, I was singing in the shower. Because why would you NOT do that? And I tell you what, Into The West has taken on a WHOLE new meaning in my life.

Take a looksie at these lyrics.

Lay down,
Your sweet and weary head.
Night is falling,
You have come to journey's end.

Sleep now,
Dream of the ones who came before.
They are calling,

From across the distant shore.

Why do you weep?
What are these tears upon your face?

Soon you will see,
All of your fears will pass away,

Safe in my arms.
You're only sleeping.

What can you see,

On the horizon.
Why do the white gulls call?

Across the sea,

A pale moon rises.
The ships have come,
To carry you home.

And all will turn,
To silver glass,

A light on the water,

Gray ships pass.

Hope fades,

Into the world of night.
Through shadows falling,

Out of memory and time.
Don't say,

We have come now to the end.

White shores are calling,
You and I will meet again.

And you'll be here,
In my arms,

Just sleeping.

What can you see,
On the horizon.
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea,
A pale moon rises.
The ships have come,
To carry you home.
And all will turn,
To silver glass,
A light on the water,
All souls pass,

Into the west.

(If the lyrics aren't EXACTLY right, my bad. This is from memory. And my memory isn't perfect.)

Basically, I'm in a state. A state of emotional confusion and exhaustion. And I don't know what to feel anymore. I have spent so long waiting for this moment. I've spent so long being excited to go home. But now that it's here, I don't know. I'm not sure I'm ready to let go. I don't want to leave Poland. I don't want to leave my mission. I don't want to leave behind all these people that I love - all these wonderful people and members and missionaries. I don't think I'm ready. But what are you going to do? I can't stay here. I just - I don't know. I don't know what I want. I guess what I want is to feel at peace with all this.

And I think I do.

I was freaking out hard on Saturday. I was crying. Monty was crying. We were a mess. And then a blessing sounded like a REALLY good idea.

So yesterday, before we went out to the Harker's, I asked Elder Jourdan to give me a blessing. And it helped. A lot. It was beautiful, and it's really helped me to be at peace with everything. I'm still sad, and I'm still excited, and I'm still a little scared, but overall I feel okay about everything.

Even though it's hard. It's hard to say goodbye to your life, you know?

It's funny. Leaving home was hard. Super crazy hard. But I knew I was going to come back and see my family again and life would return to a relative sense of a normal and it would be fine. And I was going to be really excited to be home again. Which I am. PLEASE don't get me wrong. I am CRAZY excited. But it's funny, because I'm finding that leaving Poland is MUCH harder than leaving home was. I don't know if I'm ever coming back here. And I know I'm never going to go back to this life. This is kind of it. It's the end. Like, a real end.

I hate endings.

They are dumb.

But I'll get over it.

With all that being said, this is my last email home. (As far as I know.) And I want you all to know - I want EVERYONE to know - how much I love my mission, how much I love the Gospel, and how much I love my Savior. This church is true. It's His church, and it brings more happiness in this life than anything else. This church is about eternity. In eternity, there are no endings. And right now especially, I'm really grateful for that.

Chciałabym podzielić się z wami moim świadectwem po polsku, bo teraz czuję że język polskiego jest językiem wszystkiego duchownego (tak się dzieje, jak służysz na misji w Polsce). Ja wiem że Jezus Chrystus żyje. On jest naszym Zbawicielem, Odkupicielem, i Bratem. On nas kocha, a On nas zna. On dał swoje życie dla nas, abyśmy mogli żyć. Dzięki Niemu, możemy się zmienić - i dla tego jestem bardzo wdzięczna, bo dużo mam się zmienić. Dzięki Niemu, możemy przezwyciężyć śmierć. Dzięki Niemu, możemy wracać do naszego Ojca w niebie pewnego dnia. Kościół Jezusa Chrystusa Świętych w Dniach Ostatnich jest jedynym prawdziwym kościołem na ziemi. W tym kościele, znajdują się kluczy kapłaństwa Boga. Jestem bardzo wdzięczna za te kluczy, bo dzięki nim mogę żyć z swoją rodziną po tym życiu, i przez wieczność. Kocham moją rodzinę. Kocham Jezusa Chrystusa, i naszego Ojca Niebiańskiego. To wszystko mówię, w imię naszego Zbawiciela, Jezusa Chrystusa, amen.

Have fun Google translating THAT puppy. (... Also. If Google translate doesn't work because the Polish is imperfect, don't be hatin'. A year and a half is NOT enough time to speak perfect Polish. I'm sorry. I wish it were otherwise!)

I love you all, and I can't wait to see you all! (Because let's get real here, the ones I don't see in Utah next week I'll definitely see SOMETIME soonish! It's fine. Just go with it.)

Siostra Anna Lin Young

Monday, August 04, 2014 3:38 AM The Great Tczew Adventure

Tczew.

By raise of hand, who has heard of Tczew?

Right.

Better question.

Who knows how to SAY Tczew?

Okay. T-ch-e-v. Now. Say it all together, nice and fast. Tczew.

Ah. There it is. Good job.

On Monday night, I had the great pleasure of exploring Tczew with my friend Elder J. Yep. That happened.

And now, wihtout further ado, THE GREAT TCZEW ADVENTURE.

It was Monday. We had P-Day (we wandered around Jarmark Świętego Dominika - it happens here in Gdańsk every summer, and has been for the past 754 years. Quite the history). It was delightful. After that, Elder J and I went to catch our train. We were both scheduled to go on exchanges to Bydgoszcz last week. So. We went to buy our ticket. I was at the machine, trying to buy our tickets, and they didn't have the train we were supposed to take as an option of trains to take. So I was like, "Ummmm ... Okay." And I bought us tickets for the next available train - about 30 minutes later than the train we were told to take. We went up to the peron, J and Monty and Elder Ja and I. We were waiting and stressing. Well. All of us waiting. I was the only one stressing. But we had the wrong ticket and there was confusion and we weren't sure what train we were going to be on and so on and so forth. Stress.

Meanwhile, a train pulls up. The original train we were supposed to take. So Elder Ja grabs the ticket from me and walks up to one of the train people and was like, "Hey, is this our train?" And he was like, "... No." So Elder Ja took our ticket and walked up to a DIFFERENT train guy and said, "Hey, is this train going to Bydgoszcz?" Um. We already KNOW it's going to Bydgoszcz. Dumb. And the guy was like, "Yeah." So Elder Ja was like, "Cool." He handed me my ticket, took my suitcase, and threw it on the train. And then basically pushed Elder J and I up the stairs. And I was like, "Excuse me, this ISN'T OUR TRAIN." And Elder Ja was like, "It's going to Bydgoszcz!" And then the door shut, and I said, "I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill him - Elder J, I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill you!" Elder Ja couldn't hear me. The train was already pulling away. But I was upset. It was stupid. I was stressing HARD FLIPPING CORE. Elder J was really chill though. That was nice. One thing led to another, things were CRAZY, and Elder J and I had to get off in Tczew - one stop south of Gdańsk. Because we had the wrong ticket. More stress.

So. The two of us were in Tczew. We walked into the train station to buy a ticket to B-Town. I went up to the window to talk to the lady, and asked for the next train to Bydgoscz, and she was like, "Okay. The next train is at 21:30." That translates to 9:30. At night. And I was like, "Ummmm ... What? That's the next one?" And she was like, "Yep. Do you want tickets or not?" And I was like, "Uh. I'll get back to you." So I went over and explained the mayhem to Jourdy, who mostly thought it was HILARIOUS, and we decided we needed to call B-Town. We didn't have a phone. More stress. So we went phone hunting. I told people we were lost and asked if we could borrow their phone for a second. I don't know - I've never been on the other end of that onversation - but I like to think I'd let some poor sucker borrow my phone for a second. Not these people. RUDE. So finally this one lady - after telling us we couldn't use her phone - helped us find a pay phone and a place to buy a phone card. That was nice of her. I guess. I'd rather she just lent us her phone, but alright. It's fine. I was still freaking out, so Elder J volunteered to call. Bless his heart. So he called. He did a stelllar job. Bydgoszcz freaked out a little bit, because we weren't going to get in until about 11 at night. And then, we waited. An hour and a half. For our train. It was a great time.

We wandered around the mall in Tczew. It was SUPER lame. We got hungry. We found a decent kebab place and ate.

Then we got on our train with a bunch of other late night travelers. We stood the whole way to Bydgoszcz in the back near the party of drunkards by the bathroom. That was nice. Then we finally got in and everything was fine and I slept like a ROCK.

The exchange was nice. I LOVE Bydgoszcz. I'm going to miss that city.

The train ride home wasn't nearly as interesting. We were on the right train and everything. But it was fun. I love train rides.

The rest of the week has been pretty mediocre. In a good way.

So. That's it! Pretty exciting stuff!

Oh. And this morning, my BEAUTIFUL companion Monty blew up balloons and put up streamers for my birthday. And we made pancakes during comp study. We're buildling comp unity, so it's okay. And she also got a me a cute pink whale stuffed animal and a scarf that is my exact favorite color of coral. I LOVE MY MONTY. It was lovely.

And after email, we're going to go see a castle with Stanley and the elders. It's going to be a GREAT day.

Love you all SO MUCH!