I've Always Wanted a Little Brother...
And now I have EIGHT!
Promptly upon arriving at the MTC (after many phone calls, one AWESOME trip to Jersey and a wonderful couple of days with the Vans) I was told that I would be in “Special Circumstances” – a “Unique Situation.”
Story of my life, Party People. Story of my life.
My Unique Situation is that I am a “Solo” Sister. That means that instead of having 1 companion to be with at all times, I have 2 companions with whom I share a room and go to the building where we have classes as well as church meetings on Sunday and “P-Day” (my day “off” – as much as is allowed to missionaries) activities (laundry, Temple, etc – and it’s Saturday, in case any one was wondering). What it really means is on a day of classes (Mon-Fri for me) after my Motras (“Sisters” in Albanian) walk me to my classroom – theirs is next door – I spend the day with the Elders in my group (or “District”) alone because I’m the only sister learning Hungarian in this group. The only girl. With 8, 19ish-year old young men. It’s interesting
I’ve only spent two days in classes with them, but I LOVE them so much already! Ruggles and Swearingon, Cunningham and Stevens, Burgin and Himes, Kinghorn and Balaich – they are already the little brothers I’ve always wanted. I’m the oldest – Kinghorn Elder (in Hungarian, the surname comes first) only graduated from High School in May! But oh, I love them! This is a group of outstanding young men and I am already seeing growth in them.
At first when I was waiting for my Mission Call, I struggled knowing there was a reason. There are probably lots, but one of them was so I could be in this group and I feel so very blessed for that opportunity. They stand when I arrive at, and leave the table (during meals) and have started calling me “Anya,” which means mother. They take exceptionally good care of me and I strive to do the same for them. I wan their mothers and mine to know we are all in Wonderful Hands.
Because I have no companion in the classroom, I get to join the other pairs and in so doing have a unique opportunity to get to know them in a way most sisters don’t.
At first I saw this situation as a trial. It is abundantly clear that I have been blessed.
The Motras
Motra Wulfenstien and Motra Nix – on their way to Albania and coming from Tennessee and Washington, respectively. VERY cool chicas, both of them. M. Wulff is hilarious and M. Nix seems more the brainy type. I know them less than I know the Elders because I spend a fraction of the time with them.
Sister Llamzon came in a week before me. She’s going to Temple Square and I met her in Illinois and we have our meals together, so I see her several times a day and I just LOVE it!
So Much To Write, So Little Time!
I would do an injustice if I failed to report on my time leading up to the MTC.
Mom came out with me to see me speak in Sacrament Meeting and be Set Apart. What a wonderful time we had! We stayed with my very first Bishop’s family – they were sooooo wonderful to us! The wife, Shannon, is just one of the most positive, beautiful inside and out people I know. It would have been a great weekend if all we had done was spend time there.
Sunday morning Sacrament Meeting went WELL. My Stake President was not only in attendance, but sat next to me on the stand (and tearfully spoke a few words as well – this was an honor that humbled me greatly). I don’t think this is typical. My talk went very well – I spoke for nearly 20 minutes and still left out things I wanted to say! Joni said if she hadn’t know me, she would have thought it was a homecoming, not a farewell. What a compliment.
All the people most dear to me in the church who were able to come were in the room when I was Set Apart. What a special experience.
Sunday evening, after church and one of the most pleasurable meals I’ve had in memory, it was time to take Mom to the airport. She was sad, and so was I – I just hope she knows that she’s going to be okay. I said in my talk, “ I could not have been born to a better mother if I had hand picked her myself and I am so glad she is my mom.” The same holds true now and forever.
Monday morning one of the first people I knew in New Jersey was the last I saw there for a while. I accompanied Shannon to early morning Seminary and taught for the first time as “Sister Pollack,” and Joni picked me up after breakfast with her AWESOME girls and pictures. It was sorrowful and yet the most exciting experience of my life.
The Vans took EXCELLENT care of me in Utah. Monday a dear friend, Anne, picked me up at the airport and took me to them. Blessing after blessing after blessing, I tell you! Tuesday we did a session at the Temple and they took me for a drive through the AMAZING mountains around here surrounding Salt Lake Valley. I was nothing short of astounded. Tuesday evening brought another treat – Aaron, who baptized me, drove all the way down from Ogden to see me off. It was so wonderful to see him!
Wednesday morning came all too quickly – and here I am.
Standing Out
Our first full day at the MTC included a large Meeting – of all the missionaries who arrived less than 24 hours ago, 3000 or so in all. The teacher conducting the meeting first had us stand based on where we were going to serve. Then he had us stand on how long we had been members of the church. In a room of over 300, I was the most recent convert.
The teacher asked me to come to the podium in the front and for at least 15 minutes I spoke about my conversion to the church and had the very special privilege of bearing my testimony to so many amazing young people on remarkable journey’s like mine. I’ve been stopped several times since in thanks and I never know what to say – for all my bravado about my eloquence, the words to voice my own gratitude flee – or perhaps they simply don’t exist.
It’s been TONS of hard work and FUN already! I am loving every last minute of all this, and I am so happy to have you all along for the ride.
I don’t know how many of you are prayers – but if you are, Ruggles, Swearingon, Cunningham, Stevens, Burgin, Himes, Kinghorn, and Balaich. Pray for these wonderful men – they take good care of me.
I’m loving you all, my Dear Ones.
Friends of the Week:
Joni
Joni is a Utah native turned Jersey Nanny and is just a bit older than I am. She is one of the few girls I know who has been a nanny (although for more than 1 family) longer than I have! Joni is beautiful inside and out to a degree she has no idea exists – she is one of the most supportive people I know, and she will give of herself whatever she is able to anyone in need. She is incredibly FUNNY – and we spend so much time laughing that the muscles in my face often ache if I’ve been talking to her for more than 10 minutes.
Joni was one of the players involved when I was investigating the church and went on to join it. She also introduced me to the family for whom I would go on to be employed by from 31, Jan 2003 through 8, Oct 2005. Many wonderful afternoons we have shared together at sundry Panera Bread locations, and there are two families in New Jersey who have no idea just how many nannies have resigned from miserable jobs and found better quality and much happier situations because of her influence. She has come to know me all too well – when we went to Kelli’s wedding, I made the drive back with a friend who met us there. She called to check in and she knew exactly what we were doing: “singing Broadway Showtunes at the top of your lungs!”
Jillian Nicole
I have known few people longer than I have known Jill – and of those few, I share DNA with almost all of them. We were in the sixth grade together at good ole CHS, where our surnames were right next to each other. This fact led us to share lockers side-by-side for six years, so it was a good thing we hit it off! When we graduated from high school, we stood up to switch our tassels from one side to the other in the ceremony that made us alumni instead of students. I reached down and held her hand tightly in excitement beaming with her from ear to ear.
One of the very few small pangs of serving a mission is that a grand fun tradition must temporarily cease. She has come to expect her phone to ring every Halloween, usually dreadfully early in the morning, and hear my exuberant voice wish a Happy Birthday. Jill has been one of my most faithful friends and I respect her more than most people I know. She is incredibly smart and poised for great success. A year and a half after we graduated from high school, she paid me a wondrous honor I hope I can be worthy to claim one day. I was a bridesmaid at her wedding and signed as a witness on her marriage certificate. I LOVE that. I don’t think she will ever know how much I love her.
Originally written on November 5, 2005
Friend of the Week
Allow me to introduce you to...
Bryce
Bryce is a very dear friend indeed whom I met my first week at KU where we lived together on the awesomely cool sixth floor of good ole Hash Hall. I remember he wasn't around at first and just appeared well into the bonding process already happening on the floor almost a week after the dorms opened, but he quickly became a regular guest on the list of the Usual Suspects and the adventures that happened there, bringing his very unique flavor with him. After he moved down the hill to be an RA at Oliver, we made a habit of dinner together in the cafeteria there once a week-and afterwards the only exposure to The Simpsons I have ever known. I couldn't tell you the title of his major off the top of my head, but it's something to do with Industrial Design and he'll be graduating in December. We will both most likely be the secondary bread-winners in our respective households and I tell him often I hope we live nearby one another saying, "It'll be great! We can have playdates all the time with our kids!" Bryce has a deep passion for cars-one day earlier this summer I said something to the effect of "Car magazines are to you what dirty magazines are to other men." He responded by saying something to the effect of, "Yeah, and car shows are to me what places of ill repute are to other men too." Truer words have rarely been stated.
I love that I don't know anyone quite like Bryce-and he is a really amazing friend. He has been supportive in my every endeavor and action, whether he understands it or not. My coin jar at home is a small pot he crafted and gave to me and if it weren't so heavy it would be sitting in my suitcase right now waiting to go to Hungary with me. He has two cats and a couple of scooters. He writes for a scooter magazine, actually and has convinced me of the awesomeness of this motorized vehicular transportation. He is one of the most geniuely caring people I know and has gone to great lengths to be one of the truest friends I have ever known. I don't know that we've come across the subject we couldn't put on the table, and I always have a ball when I hang out with him. I often feel inadequate to have such a wonderful person available to me and I was humbled by his willingness to help when I mentioned that I wanted to have the Blog available and I didn't know if I'd be able to do it on my own.
He's just a neat guy-if everybody had a Bryce, the world would be having a whole lot more fun.
Helpful Hints on Keeping in Touch
The following website has been referred to me by multiple sources:
http://www.dearelder.comAny one, whether you're a member of the church or not can register for an account. Then, for the duration of my stay at the MTC (approx 10 weeks), you can send me emails that they'll print out and deliver to me for free. You can also continue to use this service after I leave the MTC, but it's no cheaper than sending a letter yourself.
I would also like to point out to anyone daunted by the idea of writing letters that you all have access to computers and can just as easily type them out and print them off (most word processing programs even have stationary templates you can use to give it a little flair if you want to get really ambitious). The cost (sorry for all you tuning in from International locales, I didn't do the research for you but I already know this off the top of my head for the Yanks) of sending a letter to Hungary from the US is $0.80 and you can buy stamps in this denomination at the post office. It's been my experience that you have to ask for them specifically-but you don't have to buy a whole book, you can just purchase one or five or however many you want and they'll just cut out the desired number from a book.
For anyone daunted at the idea of reading my letters-I often receive compliments on my neat handwriting. For the past few years, I've even addressed my employer's holiday cards. Just let me know if you prefer print because if left to my own devices I generally do things in cursive.
Going Public
Well, I'm about to click "Send" on the email that will catapolt this blog into viewing, so I thought I'd give you all a proper Welcome.
As you can see by glancing at the archives to the right, I started this Blog long ago when I first decided to "plant a seed". The seed I planted was to move toward serving a mission and the fruit that has been brought forth has been amazing.
Now, as far as what to expect here...as it reads in my little "mission statement" this is an account. An account of people, places, experiences and feelings. I reckon I'll talk about things you'll understand and things you won't. My time to type will be precious, and I won't have enough of it to explain everything and for that I apologize in advance. Lots of different people will be reading this, so if I say something you don't understand just click at the bottom of the post where it says "Speak your peace" and a box will pop up for you to leave a comment. I'm sending this link to people who'll know what I'm talking about when I refer to Kansas, being a member of the church, serving a mission, living in Hungary, etc. There are seriously centuries of experience and wisdom tuning in here and I am very confident that you'll be able to find answers to your questions.
As you examine the contents of this page, you are also bound to notice that mine isn't the only name attached to it. A very dear friend of mine, Bryce, has graciously volunteered to offer his help for me to maintain this blog and I am very much indebted to him for it. I won't be able to accomplish this without him.
As I write to you from these pages, you should probably prepare yourself-I'm going to be a missionary. Missionaries find and teach people about the church and help them join if they so desire to after learning about it. That means things here will be spiritual and that's not a side of me lots of you are familiar with. Right now I have the luxury of time and my posts can be a little chatty. Once I enter the MTC, things will change. My posts will be shorter when my focus becomes demanded by the Work, but they will continue.
My hope is that this can be a supplement for all of us. That I can still reach out to tons of people I love so that when we correspond individually I can be more personal and not shell out a variation of the same letter to everyone. Realize that I'll be talking about you here, but I will take great care to protect everyone's privacy and never mention full names or any information that might make you traceable to any ill-doers who pass through. However, I have no control over nor will I even be aware of what's written in the comments, so please be mindful of that as you use them.
And although I will be a missionary-I will also still be that beautiful unique spirit you all have come to know and Love. I'll address you as "Party People" and I'll introduce you to each other through posting a short description of the "Friend of the Week". This will be spiritual and informative, but it will also be
fun and I think it will quickly become a perk to your weeks. It's also not meant to be a secret-whether I'm your friend, your sister, one of the companions with whom you served, your daughter, your third cousin twice removed on your paternal grandmother's side, whatever-feel free to forward this along to whomsoever your heart desires.
I'm excited to do this, and I truly appreciate everything all of you have done to support me. Whether you are aware of it or not, each of you has helped me to become a really amazing woman. When missionaries serve, blessings rain down upon them and upon their families-whether you only get a drop or a drenching downpour I know that those blessings will be passed along to some degre to every each and one of you (see what I mean about that Spiritual side of me?).
But now that I've gotten that out of the way, you should keep scrolling down and read about my very first Friend of the Week (it's a great one!)!
Friend of the Week
I most certainly think that along with the public record portion of this blog, I'd like to do something fun with it as well. Hopefully I'll be able to keep on top of this feature, but if not on my own, I do have some help available to me.
So, my fun feature is to highlight one Friend each week that you all can get to know each other and about whom I'll probably mention more than once through next upcoming 18 months (which gives me over 75 weeks worth of Friends to feature!).
My very first friend of the week is....
AlexAnd she'll tell you it's just "Alex" if you try to call her "Alexandra". She's the oldest of the three children in the family I was a nanny for, and she is just awesome. But I'm biased. Alex will be (I can't believe it!) NINE in December, and she came into my life just after her sixth birthday. It wasn't uncommon to be greeted in the early mornings as I read my scriptures or checked my email if I was finished reading by Alex. She'd open the door a crack and see that I was awake and scamper to me to sit on my lap for a minute and give me a hug. Alex is one of the best huggers I know and I she loves to give them often-unless you are sweaty, that's pretty disgusting to her (and if any of you have seen the way I can sweat you know she has good reason to think this). She's funny and full of life. She's very independent and likes to do things on her own (remind you of anyone you know?) and she's full of very intelligent questions that I don't always know the answers to.
She's incredibly smart and I always love reading the stories she writes. She was delighted to learn about Tonga-where they consider it rude if one doesn't belch at the end of a meal to show their satisfaction with it. She looooooooooooved summer camp and can't wait to go back. She became a letter-writing machine while she was there so we're not going to have a problem keeping in touch. Alex has been ice skating for over two years now and she not only competitively figure skates but she also plays hockey. She also loves horses, mac and cheese and riding her bike and she wants to be the first woman to be President of the United States.
She definitely has
my vote!
