Hi y'all! At this point, I'm sure many of you are wondering if I'm still alive. Well, I am pleased to say that I am alive and doing well! SOOO much has happened this week though. Hopefully I'll have time to tell you all a little bit about it.
1. The Old Poles
So technically our whole district came a week early (since they didn't want to separate people the day before Thanksgiving). This has two ramifications: one, we stay in the MTC an extra week (*halfhearted attempt at a cheer*), and two, we overlapped five days with the old Polish district (*enthusiastic cheer*). Man, they loved us a lot right when we arrived, and we hadn't even met each other yet. It was so fun to have twelve older brothers and sisters for a few days. They passed on a lot of traditions that the teachers aren't too happy about, like saying "czesc" about everything. "Czesc" means hello, but we all have been using it to say "That was SO czescy" and "I feel czesc right now." Also, saying "czesc" to everyone we pass. I'm a little sick of it, but I think the whole MTC knows "czesc" now.
Anyway, the old Poles left us on Monday morning. Some of the sisters will probably train us, and we'll all get to see each other for zone conferences. We all miss them, though :)
2. The outside world
My companion has had this cough going on for a while, so on Monday we went to the health clinic, which sent us *gasp* across the street to the BYU health center. It was very worldly. There was a TV playing commercials and game shows, and people weren't wearing church clothes. I read my Polish Book of Mormon, though, so that was okay. In all reality, though, it really did feel much different from the MTC. Less peaceful.
3. A Spooky Halloween
This Wednesday, I guess someone crashed into a power line or something like that, because the power went out throughout the MTC for about 4 hours in the evening. I'm sure the cafeteria had a lot of fun with that. It began to get dark, and spooky shadows kept jumping out at us. But since the security at the MTC is so tight, I was pretty sure ghosts wouldn't be able to get in, so I wasn't too scared.
4. Thanksgiving
Drumroll please........we got Elder Uchtdorf! I thought he was perfect for Thanksgiving, since he has given a few talks on gratitude. He and Sister Uchtdorf spoke about gratitude (what a surprise, right?). Afterwards, they started shaking missionaries' hands. My companion and I were sitting up on the tippy top of the choir stands, as far from the center aisle as possible, with a deep chasm to my left where I could see a sliver of basketball court. We were pretty sure he wouldn't make it up to us. But he kept going, shaking hand after hand after hand. And he got to the top of the elders' side and reached across the chasm to shake my hand! So. Cool.
After that, we ate Thanksgiving lunch, which was edible. Then we went to the garage where you dropped me off and assembled food kits for the food bank. 350,000 total meals, I believe. I got really good at putting "Best by" stickers on."
After that, we watched "The Other Side of Heaven." Aliah, I remember you mentioned doing that once, and thinking it wasn't missionary appropriate, but I guess they decided it was. :) And let me tell you, there's nothing quite like watching the kissing scene with 1,500 missionaries cheering them on. Haha, that was great. And apparently, they're making a sequel???????
They turned the Christmas lights on after the evening devotional, which in my opinion should've waited, because it was still Thanksgiving. But I heard y'all already got a Christmas tree, so you probably would support the Christmas lights decision here.
Polish is coming along as well as it could. Obviously, it's a lot of work, but we're praying in Polish now, and we have our first TRC on Wednesday. Let me just say, though, the gift of tongues is real, and prayers really do help. I love our teachers, I love my companion, and I love our district. I can tell we're all going to get really tight. I already feel like I've grown so much. And of course I miss you all, but I know this is where I am supposed to be, and I am really happy. My testimony has already grown a lot, and I'm beginning to see how much God loves all of His children. Thank you so much for the packages, and the letters, and the emails! Seriously, you all are the best family ever. I love you all!
Love,
Siostra Eberting
