Czesc Rodzina

July 17, 2014
We have been working hard in classes. The gym where we usually do devotionals had its floors redone so we got to go over to the BYU Marriott center on Sunday and Tuesday to watch the devotionals. We might get to do it again this week but it depends. Not gonna lie when they opened those gates up to let us walk over there it was like the halleluah chorus was being blasted from the heavens and a stampede of missionaries surged forward. The security almost had to pull out there batons on us because we became like a stampede of penned up animals who were dying to escape to freedom. I considered making a break for freedom considering I could make it to Courtney's apartment here in Provo in less than 5 minutes at a run from the Marriott Center, but some how I found the restraint to not escape. Okay maybe that was a slight over exaggeration, but everyone was feeling a bit whoosy from excitement of getting to go outside the MTC for once. But not gonna lie the second we walked into the Marriott Center it was like I could hear the swoosh of the basketball and scream of the fans from all of the games my friends and I watched in there, and all of the devotionals we got to listen to in there every Tuesday. My companions couldn’t get me to shut up. I was like " and this was the portal we used to enter, and there is the baseball stadium out that window, and that is the row we always sat on for devo, and look there is some random guy I know from college, hi guy, and look there is the bathroom I used that one time, and then and then and then..." until Sister Woodward threatened to kill me if I didnt shut it up. It was definitely bittersweet to get to sit in that stadium considering all of the wonderful memories it reminded me of about college. We shall see if we get to go back this week for sun and tues devo or not. 

We also got to host the new missionaries again yesterday by some miracle. Some districts who have either been here as long as us or longer have not even had the opportunity to host a single time yet haha and this was our second go around. Another 560 missionaries arrived yesterday which was amazing.. Super cool thing to get to witness. Surely, even amidst doubt and discouragement, that many people would not be giving up so many years if this gospel were not the true gospel of the Savior Jesus Christ.

The language is coming along decently. It is frustrating because the gift of tongues is real, but people have unreal expectations and you don’t notice it all of the time because of course God is not going to give it to you all at once. Looking back, I guess I should be a bit more positive about my progress in the language, but I am definitely still one of the ones lagging in the entire group, actually it is kind of just my companionship bringing up the rear and it is frustrating watching everyone else succeed in such high amounts. But it is coming along; all it needs is more positivity, concentration, and hard work. I can pretty much pray in Polish, bear a halfway decent testimony, and reply in simple terms. It is just all of the verbs and a ton of filler words that are missing. Honestly the hardest part is yet to come though. The most difficult thing about Polish that prevents even the children in Poland from being sufficient in the language until their mid teen is something called the decending cases. So even though we are barely beginning to speak the language now, it is all cased wrong. The casing is how the sentence is structured and based off of the endings and casings and context of the sentence, then you have to change and conjugate a bunch of things. So yeah, I don’t even know English grammer, try learning Polish grammar while your teaching is only speaking Polish to you.  It’s a challenge.
Okay love you all. Have a great week. Things are great seriously. I am growing in both spirit, and pant size. Yayyy for me!!
Love Ellie