January 17, 2011

How is my family this week?

Before I forget, could someone send me Lauren Laws's mission home address? I can't find it in my e-mails and it would be fun to write her.

And I got an e-mail from Aunt Dorthea this week which was a fun surprise. And of course e-mails from all of you!!! Yeah! Thank you for supporting me and keeping me up-to-date :D

Questions I can answer this week: How was my talk? GOOD. The stuff that Dad sent was very helpful and after I figured out an outline of sorts the writing part actually happened, haha.
Funny stories around my talk: We went to a lady's house on Saturday night and it was just supposed to be a visit, the last thing we did in the day so it was later, and we were there for more than TWO HOURS, because she kept on talking even after we said we had to go. And this would be the first time that I've gotten home so late, because as you know we have a curfew and all that - but we couldn't get out of her house forever, which means that I had zero time to finish my talk Saturday night and the whole time we were at her house I kept thinking about how I have to write my talk and how I didn't have any time to do it. So I didn't have any time Saturday night, so I woke up extra early Sunday morning (5 am) and wrote the second half of my talk.
And then, I used a story from the talk that Dad sent, that President Packer told, and because it was from the 70s we didn't have a translation or the Ensign or anything, and so I just translated a little part of it and then half paraphrased half told what happened in the rest of the story. And after I was done with the talk one of the Elders showed me that in the gospel principles manual the whole story is in one of the lessons! So I could have used that to help. So that was funny.
Overall I think it went well, though. I kinda like writing talks here, so I wonder if I'll like it even more when I'm at home and writing things in English, which is easier of course.
Question number two: Amelia asked about baby names! How fun! I think I like "Aliah" the best, but how were you thinking about pronouncing it? Is it "AW-li-uh" or "Uh-LI-uh" or "Uh-lie-AHH"? And out of those pronunciations I like "uh...lie... AHH!" the best. Just kidding, I like uh-li-uh. But I'll keeping thinking about it and we'll take a vote in my district and get back to you!
Oh, and Mom, I guess you don't have to worry about sending the music. It's not a big deal. But tell Michael that he's irresponsible. Just kidding.

OTHER funny stories from this week.
One of the members asked us to visit someone in the hospital, the father of one of her friends, so we went and did that with the Elders. And none of us knew anything about the hospitals here, like in America you have a clear and obvious entrance, and there's a check-in desk that can tell you information, and all of those good things. But here it's like this fenced compound thing, and we went in the back gate and everyone is looking at us weird and we're wearing missionary tags that advertise that we're weird, and there's different buildings with labels like "pediatrics" and we went into the wrong building, which included the psychiatric ward on the top floor, and then we walk clear to the other side of this "campus" so to say, and find the building, but we can't find the stairs or an elevator, and finally we find someone to ask, go to the fourth floor, somehow helps us find the right room, but as we're walking by there are all these EXTREMELY old people, like the sleeping that looks like they're dead and the white hair in all the rooms we pass. We get to room 405 and there's no one inside, so we ask a nurse, and she says, Who are you looking for? And it turns out I forgot the paper with the man's name written on it, so we have to call the member and she says and so we ask the nurse again and she tells us that the man we're looking for left the hospital yesterday, he went home because he got better! It was so AWKWARD and so stressful, and now, it's a LITTLE BIT funny. It's not really funny yet, the memory is still processing, but it's pretty funny. And a once in a lifetime ordeal, so I can't complain. It's funny.
We went out to restaurants a couple times this week (which means twice) and ate good food, and our landlord gave us one crate of potatoes and another crate of kiwis! We have really nice landlords. The kiwis are really yummy.

Oh! And I've been meaning to tell you this. We have almost been experiencing summer weather here. It's amazing! It's not at all summer-ish, actually, but more like spring. The last couple of weeks have been sunny, and mild, and only a little chilly at night. It has been really really nice. Oh, and I realized this week that I've lived in Zadar longer than I lived in South Carolina with Amelia, AND longer than I lived in Idaho Falls. That's crazy! Oh, and I've been meaning to ask, I thought Michael was starting school this semester? Is that going or was there a change in plans? OK, I think that's all, we're heading to Biograd, which is a little town a half hour away, not Beograd which is the capital of Serbia, so we're hustling buns! Love you all!

Sister Laws