08/16/2011

So, just a shout out to all you wonderful people, I thought it would be great for us to all pray for Chase as he is struggling with learning the tenses in Croatian. I know he would appreciate it. Thanks for all your cookies, letters and support...I know that he is so grateful. Here we go:

Hey! So this one may be a tad short because I've just spent some of my time e-mailing an Elder who's over in Croatia now. They left us some sort of treasure hunt that ended in some candy and so we've been corresponding a little bit with them. Sounds way cool. Super stoked. Here goes.

The Yo-Yo Woes
So the yo-yo (which was the best thing to happen to this earth since irrigation ditches) has died. Yes, absolutely died and is no longer a member of my MTC family. It is tragic. I calcualate that after 9-10 days I had actually played it to the fraying point of the string and had to bargain my way into a new string from another elder. Even so, I ended up causing it to crack in half after about 5 more days of its use. It was one of the saddest days of my existence here. Ah well, farewell dear freind.

The Pie Fiesta
Thank you so much for the pie! We've a few Brits and Knucks in our midst and I've been trying to explain to them for weeks now the Americanness of Apple Pie and they just will not accept it. Needless to say, with the pie, we definitely gave them all a testimony of what it means to be American. Picture that opening scene in Free Willie, only with some Apple Pie. Mmmmmmmm. So nomnomnom. later we ended up doing the same thing with a 2 pound Rice Krispie Treat that Starjesina Biskup received from his mother. It was pretty disgusting. Man, I love being a teenage boy.

The Cases Case (OR, a Bad Case of the Cases)
This week I've really been trying to understand how and when and why to use the five cases that are in this language. After speaking Tarzanesque Arabic and Englishesque German, these things are tricky for me, but I'm SLOWLY getting them. It just has been making me a little mad because I've been the only person in my class who doesn't really understand them and so on one particular day here I had 7-8 people, including a Serbian teacher, trying to explain them to me. I'm just stubborn and will need to spend approximately 9.8076 billion hours by myself trying to understand it. Good thing I get so much alone time.....

Biskup's Hidden Talent
Starjesina Bishop, who we lovingly refer to as odboika (volleyball) and Biskup (bishop...) is basically my favourite person here. When we all showed up we sized each other up and basically judged eachother on how we'd all learn and teach and be as missionaries. Whatever I decided on him was exactly the opposite of what it is. Everything he does blows out of the water the preconceptions that I've had about anything. Anyways, on a certain day this week we were playing the piano to kind of detox from studying and he hops on right as we're about to leave and flies through All of Me by Jon Schmidt and basically made me nearly cry. It was so impressive. I've likely never seen a better live performance of it nor heard better dynamics. So cool. i think he's probably the single most genuine person that I have ever met. Cannot wait to get him as a companion, insha allah....

The Greeks
After our Temple Walk on Sunday my favourite Brit and I talked to the Greeks for a long time. Interesting bit about them is that they're all European as they don't allow Americans into the country as missionaries anymore citing past issues and mishaps. Anyways, they've Fins and Frenchies and Austrians and Germans and I believe a Portugeuse sister. We just talked to them about everything and it made me super stoked to get over into the country and just be in Europe, albeit South and East of the normal metropolises. Should be fun.

The Croatian Attempt
Dad. Nice try. Srsly. hahaha. Ummmmmm, here's the thing. Imagine taking a google translated paragraph into Spanish and then putting it through a system which takes out every nyay and other "nasties". Yah, it comes across as ?s and I've no idea what it's trying to say. Imagine, then, having your entire vocabulary limited to the subject of the gospel and your favourite colours. It's pretty tricky. I'm sure that you had a really good week, and I'm happy for you but really all I got was that you ate some ribs. Thanks. LOVE YOU!!! :P

The Five-lettered Fiasco
Yeah, I got five letters on a single day. That's um, that's like uh basically it... So yeah.

TRC
Okay, I don't know what I've talked to you about the TRC, but it's fantastic. It's basically my most favourite time here. On Thursdays we go and we teach, as to members, a spiritual thought to either return missionaries or natives. They're all volunteers and they're all super excited to help us learn. As we've two Serbs now, and as the language differs slightly, I got thrown with one of them. We ended up teaching two native serbs. Aleet and Nikola. So much fun. Such great stories. Aleet actually fled during the war. I'm finding out that really I know nothing about the war.... I think I should. If you could find it in your hearts to maybe DearElder me a complete (and by complete I mean brief, but explanitory) history of the war in the 90s over there I'd be very grateful. Thanks! Anyways, it was really fun and spiritual and I think I'm starting to comprehend a lot. In fact, we're now listening to General Conference talks in Croatian and getting like 40%. So fun.

Futbol with Friends
The new Bulgs showed up this week and they've two Brits of their very own. We challenged them to futbol and basically destroyed them totally. I think I scored 5-6 and so did my other 5 teammates. Their Brits just layed down and took it. So fantastic. I love the sport, and it's just beautiful. Can't wait to play some in Europe.

Temple Sightings
We ran into S. Mulder's best friend Josh at the Temple and he's coming in tomorrow. It was really nice to see some real people and real children. The better sighting, however, was the Grandmother of one of the Serbian missionaries now. We talked to her about everything over there and she pumped us way up. I'm so excited and entirely terrified to be over there. It's going to be the best and worst. So excited. Did you ever see Elder Nelson's dedication? Check it.

Anyways, I'm loving it here and loving the work. It's rather polako, but so zabavan. I'm losing all typing skills and some hrvatski words are coming more naturally than English. I take this to be a good sign? I sing hymns and I pray and I study and I work. I love. I live. Ciao, ciao. Until next time. This is ke7dvp, Starjesina Adams. Clear. :P