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| The Colour Wheel in our Polish room :) feat. Siostra Bak and myself |
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| Siostra Bak and I in front of the Polish flag. We're really gonna miss each other! |
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| Siostra Kuchar and I getting ready for GYM TIME (one of the best times of day!) |
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| My Plan Zbawiene (Plan of Salvation) diagram feat. Elder Coutu in the background |
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| My companion Siostra Smith being cute in her jammies |
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| I'm on a cardboard phone, of course |
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| My companion didn't want to be in this photo hahaha she may or may not be holding a bunch of her laundry |
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| Siostra Bak, Siostra Kuchar and I in the laundry room where I'm writing this email! |
I am so excited :'D Tomorrow morning, I get to wake up really early (haha ok that's the only downside here) and catch a bus with some other awesome international missionaries, and go to Salt Lake Temple! woot woot I can't explain my excitement in this email. Also, I only have 11 days until we fly out to Poland! These past weeks in the MTC have been so incredible; filled with crazy new experiences, and fast-paced schedules, packed in Polish and gym-time and studying, and prayer, and joking and eating and not much sleeping but so much fun and so much learning!
Well let me tell you about some of the things I've done
this week. Yesterday we got to Skype a member of the church in Poland,
(we got to meet with her last week as well). I felt myself understanding
a lot more (even though I of course have SO much more to learn) and my
companion and I really felt the Spirit working through us and helping us
say the right things. I love when we get to teach, because it just
makes me so excited for what things are going to be like in Poland. I
know there are plenty of tough times ahead of me, but I also know that
serving others is the best way to feel good. Whenever I'm helping
others, I suddenly forget my own problems and somehow life gets better
again.
Also yesterday, we had a substitute teacher, so we
got to practice more teaching skills (as opposed to Polish). Mind you,
we do actually learn that stuff with our Polish teachers too, but we
just had more time to not worry about the language, and focus more
specifically on how we approach the subject of the Gospel with others.
The teacher took us all out to the 'rynek' (meaning 'town square' or the
main walking area of the MTC), and half of our district acted the part
of investigators, while the other half got to try contacting people and
having a conversation about the church. It was so insightful, and our
teacher gave us a lot of good tips about finding commonalities with
others, and how to use your own personality to share this part of our
lives that means so much to all of us. I am so grateful that I get to
spend 9 weeks here at the MTC. The experiences I've been having here
will remain with me forever.
ALSO yesterday (you might tell that my memory
doesn't extend much further than that!), while we were waiting to Skype,
I found a German hymnbook, and it made me so nostalgic for Germany! I
started singing some songs and I was surprised at how much I still know
of the language. I've heard that there are a few places in Poland that
are heavily German-influenced, so I'm hoping I'll get to go to one of
those cities on my mission. Oh wow, just thinking about going there is
giving me chills. I can't believe it's only 11 days away! Anyway, that
was really nice. But I AM going to Poland, so I have of course also been
practicing singing in Polish, and let me tell you, that language is no
easy task for the tongue! It's physically a very demanding language
haha, well let's hope I'll get a better flow with it after some time.
I drew a picture of the Plan Zbawienie (Plan of
Salvation) in the back of my Księga Mormona yesterday! It was actually
really insightful for me (even though most of us Mormons who have grown
up in the church, have sat through many a Sunday School, Institute,
Primary or missionary lesson about the topic) I still had more to learn!
I got the idea to draw it in my Book of Mormon, after seeing one of our
teachers' have it drawn in his personal book that he took on his
mission. I have become quite acquainted with lds.org and mormon.org
recently. I can't believe I wasted so much time on Facebook and YouTube
and the list goes on. I could have been using that time to study and
make my life better, but instead I chose to use it on a bunch of useless
things. Well, I can't change the past, but I am so thankful that the
sun rises every day, and time does indeed keep passing. I'm really
trying to be a more effective missionary, and just a more productive
person in general. I love all the time we have here to meditate and
contemplate on life.
Last week we did an assessment thing on the computer, and
it was showing us how to use Family History to invite others to come
unto Christ. At the end, it encouraged us to go and look at our own
family trees and so of course I did! I loved looking through the photos
of Uncle Rudy and Djeda. I started looking through more of our family
tree, and I really felt the Spirit of Elijah, testifying to me the
importance of knowing our ancestors. I really felt the reality of these
people- my family. They are still real people today, just as much as
they were when they were alive on Earth, and though their bodies may be
gone for this short time, they will be resurrected because of the
Atonement of Jesus Christ. I could not help but feel so much love for
them while looking through their names. I really felt a lot of love for
you too mum. I am so grateful to think about how much work you put into
studying our family history, and finding those names of our ancestors,
so that they too will have the blessings of temple ordinances in their
post-mortal lives. I really wish I took more time to learn about how to
use Family Search. Actually mum, that reminds me... when I log in,
there's an asterisk on the word 'temple' and it says there's like 8
people to have work still done or something. Do you know what this is?
Or what I am to do about it? Also, do you have ideas on what I can do to
study up more about our family? Like where do I start? I know it's
really difficult here because I'm not physically with you, but if you
could give me some pointers, I would be so happy!!
Well last thing I'll talk about because I'm
running out of time. So a couple of days ago in class we were talking
about the Law of Tithing. We were all giving input, and we were talking
about why all people (even poor) should also pay tithing. I mentioned
something about in the Bible when the widow cast in all she had for
tithing. So anyway, a few words after saying the word 'widow', and
getting some confused looks from my classmates, one of the Elders says
"wierdo...?" and I'm like.. "what?" and then I realised, they mistook me
saying 'widow' for 'wierdo', and I had to repeat myself like 4 times
and point at a picture in the Tithing pamphlet of the widow, before they
all finally understood. It was so bad haha.
Oh and then that same day, I was speaking to another Polish sister from the other district, and I she said a Polish word "powolany" and I was like "Oh that means 'called' right?" and she was like "No, i think it means like preach or something", and I was like.. "Umm, really? I thought it meant called?" and she was like "No, 'cold' is 'zimno mi'", and I was like, oh great, here we go again. And I'm like "NO... CAAALLLED" and she's like "NO. Brrrr *rubbing her hands together* COLD is 'ZIMNO MI'" and so then I had to say the word "called" in an American accent, before she finally understood me lol. So anyway, did you know I'm also learning American here at the MTC? Hahah, ok, well I gotta go eat some dinner now!
Oh and then that same day, I was speaking to another Polish sister from the other district, and I she said a Polish word "powolany" and I was like "Oh that means 'called' right?" and she was like "No, i think it means like preach or something", and I was like.. "Umm, really? I thought it meant called?" and she was like "No, 'cold' is 'zimno mi'", and I was like, oh great, here we go again. And I'm like "NO... CAAALLLED" and she's like "NO. Brrrr *rubbing her hands together* COLD is 'ZIMNO MI'" and so then I had to say the word "called" in an American accent, before she finally understood me lol. So anyway, did you know I'm also learning American here at the MTC? Hahah, ok, well I gotta go eat some dinner now!
Love you all, and be happy and tell Stevie and Maddie and Mandy and Kate that I love them and hope they all feel better!
And have an awesome birthday next week dad!
Kocham was,
Siostra Grgich
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