Hello all,
I am glad we are finally back around to P-Day. We have
had a good long week and only have 2 more to get down and we are off to
Poland! I am getting more and more excited all day. The stories we hear
from Siostra Stay and Brat Hughes make it sound like such a great place
with really great people. They have a lot of problems over there with
smoking and drinking, but the people sound really awesome. I am glad to
hear that Hannah was able to pick my box up, I was worried about that
all weekend. I hope everything in there makes it ok. As for what I
want... Maybe 3 or 4 tennis balls if you haven't sent the package yet.
We have been studying really hard and coming up with
new study plans. They say our language program has changed drastically
in the past 4 months. They said it used to be that they spent about 6
hours a day doing straight language study, now they only do 1. They also
only used to teach "investigators" once a week for TRC (Training
resource center), now we do that about 4 times a week. The goal is for
us to be able to teach ourselves Polish instead of relying on a teacher.
They said so far, most of the "graduates" of this new program are MUCH
more conversational and will talk a lot more, but their Polish grammar
principles and vocab are not as strong.
I have been slowly improving, but I know that when I
get to Poland it will all sound foreign, because I still don't
understand most of what the teachers say. Brat Hughes will not be
teaching us the rest of our time here because he got a 2 week internship
thing in Boston, so he will be back the day before we fly out. I am sad that he won't be teaching us anymore because I really like him.
Yesterday was interesting, we went into our classroom
after mission conference to watch a movie on LDS.org called "The phone
call" I think. (If you haven't seen it you should look it up, it is
pretty funny, it should be under media and feature films). We thought
the building smelled a little funny like burnt rubber or something.
About half way through the movie the fire alarms went off in our
building and we walked out. We were right by the front gates of the MTC
and 5 firetrucks pulled in sirens sounding and all. They proceded to
jump out of the trucks and get all suited up with sledgehammers and
oxygen tanks and everything. We had to go sit in the gym for 30 minutes
while they went in to find out what was going on. They told us we could
go back in and said that one of the hallway flourecent lights had burst
and burnt some of the plastic casing on its housing. That is why it
smelled like burnt plastic, so they fixed the little "electrical
problem" and we went on with our day. Later, at the fireside, President
Brown (MTC president) mentioned it.
I got a package from Grandma Maza that had cinnamon
rolls and Martinellis which was greatly appreciated by me and my room
mates. We are saving the martinellis for when we get our travel plans,
hopefully this Friday.
We were hoping that maybe since it is now August we
might get to see a general authority for one of our Sunday meetings,
that was a no go. I am kinda bummed about that, it would have been neat to hear a general authority talk to us.
That is straszny that you were almost stung, was the
scorpion alive or was it a dead one just sitting there? I would be
really careful in grandma's house, there are probably a lot more where
that came from. From Mom: the scorpion was alive and would happily have stung me. I was just very fortunate. :)
I have been getting better at soccer, that is what we
have been doing with our gym time lately, and I have been averaging
about 1.5 goals a day. I still am right at the same weight which I guess is a
good thing, I wish I could get in a little better shape, but we have been playing soccer instead of going to the gym.
We went and did initiatories at the temple today which
was really cool, it is the first time I have done proxy initiatories and
it was neat to hear all of the blessings that are given there.
My cough has gotten much better, I just started using Vic's vaporub
at night, and it pretty much cleared it up after 2 nights. I think when
my cough gets bad it starts like a chain reaction and just irritates my
pipes so I cough more, so next time I just have to stop it early and I
think it won't be nearly as bad.
I am halfway through the Book of Helaman after starting
the Book of Mormon at the MTC, so hopefully I will finish the whole
thing in the next 2. I also have been going over a lot of the Old
Testament stories like Moses, Samson, Lot, Job, etc.
I am just
excited to get to Poland and start talking to real people. Brat Hughes
said that I have a great sense of humor but I need to talk more and not
be afraid and speaking broken Polish, he said that the Poles really will
be proud that we are learning their language and they are very patient
and understanding, so I am gratefull for that.
I love you all and I am glad to hear from you every
time you write. I am sorry I don't have more time to write back. Thanks
for all of the updates on the olympics and news and what you guys are
doing and planning. I am well over-time now, so I have to go. Thanks for
everything you do.
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