Week 61: Storytime at English

Every week, we teach English.  This last week, we had more students than usual, so we had to split into two classes.  That meant that I had to teach all by myself.  Uh oh!  In my group, I had three old ladies and a high school student.  

After introductions, I shared a grammar principle.  So far, so good.  Then we moved into storytime; but instead of just my telling the story, I thought we could all take turns adding sentences.  I think that's where I went wrong.  

I started us off: There was a boy living in Slovakia.  

Okay, now it's lady 1's turn.

Lady #1: I live in a village outside of Banská Bystrica.  

Oh.  The idea was to connect it with the last sentence.  Then ladies 1 and 2 started arguing about whether the first sentence even made sense in Slovak.  We moved on.

Lady 2: The boy had a sister.

All right, not bad.

Lady 3: His sister's name was Anna.

This is some story.  I asked the high school student to spice things up, maybe add a twist.  

Teenager: His sister died.

Holy cow!  Now we're getting somewhere.  

Me: So the boy went on an adventure to bring his sister back to life.  Nice, we've come full circle back to lady 1.  I wonder what she'll say?

Lady 1: I have a brother who lives in Australia.  Okay, so the boy goes to Australia to find a magic potion for his sister.

Lady 2: Anna goes to the meadow to pick flowers.  I asked her how that was possible, seeing as Anna's dead.  Her response: "It doesn't matter."  The teenager was almost dying from laughter.

Lady 3: The boy goes to town to meet a friend.  All right, teenager, bring it back for us.

Teenager: His friend helps him find a magic potion for Anna.  Thank you.  Well, time to wrap up the story.

Me: But they couldn't find Anna because she was busy picking flowers.

Week 60: huh.

Some time ago, I met a kid on the bus.  He was excited when he found out that I was from America.  We become as good of friends as you can become with someone in the time of a short bus ride.  Before you know it, he has to get off!  Uh oh.  I still didn't have his #.  

"We'll meet again," I said, which is weird because usually, people say that to me, and that means they don't want to see me again.

***

I'll let you in on a secret: I don't sound like a native Slovak.  I don't think I ever will.  BUT.  At least I don't sound American.  One lady told me I have a Hungarian accent, and she's from Hungary.  

Recently, we stopped two teenagers on the street.  Instantly one greeted me like we've met before.  He said he was so happy to see me.  This usually isn't the reaction I get upon greeting people on the street.  I recognized his face, but I didn't know from where exactly.  Then I remembered: the kid on the bus!  Wow.  We're have a meeting in order for this week.

I thought this ad was funny.

Former missionary Brad Earl came to visit with his family on Sunday and ended up joining us for church. He was among the first missionaries (second group) to be called specifically to Slovakia. His Slovak is amazing for having not spoken it for 10 years. He served in Banská Bystrica for a whole year. He gave cool advice. He said if we're feeling miserable or stressed in this work, something is wrong. We're teaching people about God's plan of happiness, so we should be happy, even when it feels like the entire work is resting on our shoulders. Also, none of his family likes Kofola. I guess you have to live here for some time to acquire such a taste.

58: This is not a role-play

The church has recently emphasized privacy in the missionary program.  That includes being sensitive in what we send home in emails to family and friends as it relates to information about people.  Makes sense, privacy is important.

***

At zone conference, we have a segment for role-playing; one missionary pair is selected to teach a fake investigator in front of the whole zone, and then we can talk about what we can improve.  Elder Papenfuss and his greenie [a "greenie" is a new missionary] were selected, only this time, it wasn't a fake investigator.  You might remember Leo from some pictures during my time in Trenčín.  He's been an investigator for "quite some time,"  so he knew what questions would trip up the missionaries.  

The lesson started quite normally but soon became a conversation about deep doctrine.  Leo knew what he was doing.  President Pohořelický was sitting right behind me and was on the edge of his seat, almost as if we were at a football game.  All of the sudden, Leo asked a question that was sure to stump Elder Papenfuss and Anderson.  I had no idea what I would have said.  President was behind me, repeatedly whispering the word "repentance."  Elder Papenfuss replied: "There's something that comes before baptism, and that's repentance."  President probably wanted to jump out of his seat.  It was fun to watch him have a quiet but enthusiastic celebration.

***

There has recently been a number of old men telling me that the worst things come from America.  That's right after I tell them I'm from America.  Thanks.  

57: Závislosť od kázania evanjelia

So you remember that kid from a couple emails ago?  The one who's email I thought was fake?  We had a meeting with him, and he’s showing interest in getting baptized.  He’s also a lot cooler than we are because he’s going to the Olympics for Judo, as he’s ranked #1 in Slovakia and #4 in Europe.  Do you have cool investigators?

Language study can be relaxing, and we get an hour for it on a regular day.  We usually schedule language study at the end of the day so we could just relax.  It’s like coming home after a long day and watching football.  

On one particular day, we were on our way home to do language study, but my companion kept talking to people on the way, and our study would start in a few minutes.  What was I supposed to say?  “Stop trying to save people’s souls, I’m trying to get to my favorite study!”  That wouldn’t fly, so I held my peace.  A potential hour of study turned into a half hour, then 15 minutes, as we continued to talk to an endless supply of people.  

Finally, we were on the walkway to our flat as we walked by two guys, but we didn’t talk to them.  We walked into the building.  As my companion was about to unlock the door to our flat, he stopped and said, “We need to talk to those guys.”  Oh.  So we went and did so.  

Is there such thing as being “too good” of a missionary?  I don’t think so.  My companion is probably one of the best missionaries on the planet.  But we didn’t have any language study that day.  That’s okay, though.

Week 56: Bryndzové halušky

Since time is short, I thought I'd dedicate this email to telling you about the famous Slovak dish, bryndzové halušky.  Bryndza is sheep cheese, unprocessed as far as I know.  

To make halušky, you just need to shred a lot of potatoes and add a LOT of flour.  You boil it in water somehow and put bacon on top.  Then add the cheese.  You can probably tell I've never done this on my own.  And I think milk is important in the process somewhere.

***

I love Slovakia.  Not just the bryndzové halušky, but the people as well.  Whenever they find out we're from America, they usually say something like "How did you end up here?" and then "And you chose to come to Slovakia?"  

They take a lot of pride in how hard their language is.  You'll often hear that it's the "hardest language on earth."  I don't know if I agree with them there, but I just smile and say, "Yes, it's very hard."  You also gotta love the way they pronounce "little bit" when you ask if they speak English.  They say, "Leetle beet."  

Just so you know, I'm serving in the best country in the world.  Also the nicest people on earth.

Guess Who? [This must be the famous Elder Rasmussen!]

[It looks FREEZING and he's in a hoodie?!  Argh!]

Week 55: Week 1 of Half 2 (but who's counting?)

On Tuesday, we had our first district meeting with me and Elder Rasmussen in the same district.  So what did we do afterwards?  If you guessed that Elder Rasmussen and I went to the town square and contacted together, you're right!  One person we talked to was a young teenager with his friend.  That's always the best.  After the contact, I wrote the following words about it in my planner: 

He was anxious to get away.  Not sure if his # is real.

But otherwise, it was fun to be with Elder Rasmussen again.  He's still going strong with his no-English streak.  

***

I'll have you know that my glasses broke.  It's unfortunate, but you don't need to "see" to preach the gospel.  That's actually not true.  There have been a number of cases where I've tried to talk with someone, thinking he was young, but in the end she turned out to be an old lady uninterested in changing her ways.  New glasses are in order.  

***

Have you ever felt like someone was following you?  On one particular day this week, I didn't have any such feeling, but someone was indeed following us.  We were walking and talking with a man for some time about the Book of Mormon, but in the end he didn't want to read it.  So we let him walk on ahead and we stopped.  All of the sudden, two teenage kids came up to us and one said, "Excuse me, I heard a little bit about what you were talking about, and it interests me.  What do you believe?"

I must have been too stunned to talk, because my mouth was hanging open and no words were coming out, so my companion started to explain.  We had a discussion in which the one kid was asking a series of little questions, but it soon became clear that he had a bigger question under them all: How do I repent of my sins?  He asked if it was enough to go to Confession, which they have in many churches.  As he asked that question, an old lady walking by overheard and was quick to pounce: "Yes, go to confession!"  

"Thank you," we said, and she continued on her way.  We explained that it wasn't enough to go to confession, that there are steps to repentance.  First, you recognize that you did something wrong.  Feel truly sorrowful that you did it.  Ask God and any parties involved for forgiveness.  Try to correct whatever you did to the extent that you can.  We used an example of theft from a store: return the item or, if you've eaten it, go back and pay for it.  This process seemed to make sense to him.  We talked about many other things and have a meeting in order for this week.  Then we found out that they were the same two kids that Elder Rasmussen and I contacted on the town square.  Remember?  The one who was anxious to get away?  His number turned out to be real.  He explained that he hadn't thought about these things before, but we said something to him on Tuesday that he had been thinking about until now.  He tried to look us up on the internet but found the Jehovah's Witnesses instead.  Awkward. 

***

I know you all want to see what my companion looks like, but I was bad at taking pictures this week.  That'll have to wait. 

Week 54: Polovica misie za mnou

Today is my halfway mark.  Nice.  [FYI:  Miles's mission is 25 months because transfers are 9 weeks in his mission rather than the typical 6 weeks.]

Transfers.  Guess where I am?  You'll never guess.  Banská Bystrica.  I told you you'd never guess.  

My new companion is Elder Newell.  When he's my old companion, he'll be Elder Oldell.  

I didn't want to leave Prešov, but I'm glad I did because we had a lot of problems with the apartment and the water heater tried to explode the other day.  Good riddance.  

Guess where I am?  I'm in the same district as Elder Rasmussen! (Yes, THE Elder Rasmussen).  He's doing an English fast for a year.  He hasn't said a word in English for 4 weeks and counting.  

Didn't really do a good job at keeping my journal this week, so I don't really have an interesting story.  But I do have pictures!  If you don't have a journal, make one and keep it. 

Out of this burst of pictures, there wasn't a single one in which both of us were smiling. So I just uploaded all three.

This is Romana, one of our investigators. Elder McQuivey and I met her almost 4 months ago, and I continued teaching her with Elder Papworth. Now I'm leaving to Banská Bystrica and she's going to Brno for school. That glass I'm holding says "Kofola" on it. Just so you're aware, I didn't steal it. I tried to buy it from a cafe but they gave it to me for free.

Dungeons and Dragons

When no one wants to play Settlers of Catan with you.

Elder Smith is sad because one of his favorite companions is going AP. Good riddance.

Nice knowing you. Off to Banská.