I am sure you guys remember Brittany saying she is going on a mission to Poland. At this time, she is in the MTC. This is an email she sent to her family, who forwarded it to me and gave me permission to post it on the blog. Oh, and here is a website that lets you send free messages to Brittany while she is in the MTC.
http://ldsmissionresources.org/?do=freeMtcMail
and this is her mailing address.
Sister Brittany Ross
MTC Mailbox #121
POL-WAR 1226
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84604-1793
The free message website asks when her departure date is, and I am sorry to tell you I don't know. I just made one up, and asked Brittany when she does leave. I'll let you know what she tells me.
And here is Brittany's letter:
Dzien dobre!
Jak sie macie? In our district, "jak sie masz" or "how are you?" is more
of an exclamation. We took pictures at the temple on our first Sunday
and one of the starsi blew a picture up and wrote "Jak sie masz!" at
the top. It's a cute picture and it's hanging in our classroom. I
really do have a great district. I am by far the oldest one, I'm even
older than all three of our teachers! But we all get along great, and I
have a feeling we can do some wonderful things for Poland. I'm trying
to take more pictures so I can send some home.
I need to write down everything that happens cuz I don't remember in the
heat of the moment when my time is ticking on the computer! On Sunday,
we had Sis. Matsumori of the General Primary Presidency speak to us in
Relief Society, and we went to meet her afterward. I also forgot to
mention that Elder Bednar came our first Tuesday devotional. It's so
amazing! And I hear Christmas is wonderful here. It's hard to believe
that the holidays are upon us. Time stands still here. I feel like
it's still September. The 3 week people who came with us are leaving
today! That means we are a third the way done. It's incredible!
Polish is coming along. There's a lot of memorizing to be done, but
things are starting to make sense, and we can have simple conversations
(very simple!). I love it!
One of my favorite experiences of this week was when we went to the
Referral Center. We were making follow-up outbound calls to people who
had requested items from the Church. I only reached one person home,
but she was the cutest Southern lady (black, judging from her voice) and
she told me all about her life (pretty difficult family situation), but
mostly, she shared her testimony about Christ with me. She had seen the
missionaries once or twice, but her husband was not kind to them at all,
so she didn't want them to come while her husband was there. I bore my
testimony and tried to encourage her to keep trying to get with the
missionaries because they had a message that could change her life. She
said she admired them because they were always being chased by dogs and
yelled at, but they kept coming back. She said they must have a very
special message to be so devoted. It didn't turn into a referral, but I
felt like we connected, and I hope it made a little difference in her
life.
I feel like I am learning a little better what it means to rely on the
Lord. I want to be able to have the spirit with me all of the time, and
to know that it is guiding me. I'm not perfect in anything yet, and
it's hard to describe, but I know that the Lord answers our prayers, and
I know that we can place full confidence in Him and give Him our
burdens. On our missions, I'm learning that we cannot do anything of
ourselves. I cannot rely on myself alone, but if I rely on the Lord, I
can accomplish miracles. I have felt my testimony grow so much, and I
feel like I can declare without equivocation. I am still so weak and
infirm, but the Lord has said that the gospel will be declared by the
weak and the simple. I know this gospel is true, and I know why I am
here and it's not for me-- it's for those people in Poland whom I can
touch. Thank you so much for your prayers! Everytime I feel
discouraged, I remember that my family loves me. I love you, too!
Bardzo, bardzo!
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
This is Lauren... James seems to think that it is important for me to specify that it is me and not him... maybe he is afraid i will say something embarasing. Anyway. We have a blog here too...ifyouwannasnoopus.blogspot.com
I will let him continue so that i do not embarass him further... :)
This is James, Laurens not embarassing, I just didn't know we had a blog. How do you like our family costume? I married an angel and we had a anvil.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
This blog post thing doesn't look anything like brandis blog site. The hell is going on? I feel so lost. Anyway, if this is the correct place then I'll get started. My name is James and I'm an alcoholic. Wait no I'm not, I'm a father and husband. I love to shoot elk and eat walleye. For those of you who don't know, walleye is my favorite fish. You can't buy it at a store so if you want to get me a christmas present you'll have to buy me a gun. I digress, I'm a proud father of one little boy. He never runs out of energy, he runs into walls. He probably sees them, but doesn't understand that they don't move. My wife is a wonderful person. She watches my son all day. I think that would be an easy job, she disagrees. I have a good job, my title is 'Quality Assurance Team Leader.' The functions I perform are those of a secretary. I just get paid better. This year I shot a small 5x5 elk. It's the first one in 10 years. I love elk steak, whoever reads this, do you know of any good recipies? I know of a couple. I have a degree in Food Science... and am famous for ruining macaroni and cheese. Now it's time to see if this blog went to where it was suppossed to go. I'll post more later.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Fine...I'll Post Something
Well, here's a bit on what's been going on with us.
Emma is about 14 weeks pregnant now. We were down in Salt Lake Saturday visiting her parents when her aunt, who is a nurse in an OB clinic that's closed on the weekend, called and asked if she wanted an ultrasound "just for fun." The baby is still pretty small, but you could see all the fingers and toes and how much it was moving. Her aunt said if she had to guess, she would guess it was a boy, but it's definitely not a certainty yet. We were just happy to see that it looked healthy and in one piece, and that there was no alien head, four legs, or a tail.
In September, just after the second week of the fall semester, I had an artery break open inside my small intestine and I lost half my blood volume over the next few hours. I was hospitalized for 4 days, had all kinds of horrible things done to me to find out what was wrong, and somewhere along the way I pulled a muscle in my leg in a fall from passing out from low blood pressure. Two months later, I still can't do too much. Where I was running 3 miles and trying to go on hiking trips as often as possible and bike across Logan to work, I am barely able to walk a few blocks. I suppose it'll take months before I'm back to normal. I'm just worried about getting fat before then! ;o)
I had to drop all my senior-level biochemistry classes, so now I'm stuck with a couple 1010 classes and online medical terminology. Talk about easy. I don't even feel like I'm in school anymore. I just drive up to campus every couple weeks and take a test. I'm still hoping to graduate next December, but now I won't be able to attend pharmacy school until Fall 2009. That means the youngest I will be when I finish school will be 32!!! That's horrible! But from what I hear about the job market for pharmacy and the 6-figure starting wages, I guess it'll be worth the wait.
Enough about my exciting life! Here's what I know about everyone else:
Kim, my sister, was evacuated for a few days because of the fires in southern California. Apparently, stuff was burned in her town, but her house and business were okay. She was worried about losing business, but she said when she opened the next day she was swamped with customers!
James Bond is living near Twin Falls, ID, and I know he's tried to get on here, but he can't figure it out (insert idiot comment here). He's a manager at a food plant there, they have a house and their son, Kaden, is about 3 years old.
Brad and Jenni Bond moved to Pennsylvania this summer. He's doing a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture at Penn State, and his knees are hurting him because of the low altitude (insert pathetic old man comment here).
My other sister, Melissa, had her baby, Aidan, in August. He's not even three months old but already talking lots of gibberish and wanting to play.
Emma is about 14 weeks pregnant now. We were down in Salt Lake Saturday visiting her parents when her aunt, who is a nurse in an OB clinic that's closed on the weekend, called and asked if she wanted an ultrasound "just for fun." The baby is still pretty small, but you could see all the fingers and toes and how much it was moving. Her aunt said if she had to guess, she would guess it was a boy, but it's definitely not a certainty yet. We were just happy to see that it looked healthy and in one piece, and that there was no alien head, four legs, or a tail.
In September, just after the second week of the fall semester, I had an artery break open inside my small intestine and I lost half my blood volume over the next few hours. I was hospitalized for 4 days, had all kinds of horrible things done to me to find out what was wrong, and somewhere along the way I pulled a muscle in my leg in a fall from passing out from low blood pressure. Two months later, I still can't do too much. Where I was running 3 miles and trying to go on hiking trips as often as possible and bike across Logan to work, I am barely able to walk a few blocks. I suppose it'll take months before I'm back to normal. I'm just worried about getting fat before then! ;o)
I had to drop all my senior-level biochemistry classes, so now I'm stuck with a couple 1010 classes and online medical terminology. Talk about easy. I don't even feel like I'm in school anymore. I just drive up to campus every couple weeks and take a test. I'm still hoping to graduate next December, but now I won't be able to attend pharmacy school until Fall 2009. That means the youngest I will be when I finish school will be 32!!! That's horrible! But from what I hear about the job market for pharmacy and the 6-figure starting wages, I guess it'll be worth the wait.
Enough about my exciting life! Here's what I know about everyone else:
Kim, my sister, was evacuated for a few days because of the fires in southern California. Apparently, stuff was burned in her town, but her house and business were okay. She was worried about losing business, but she said when she opened the next day she was swamped with customers!
James Bond is living near Twin Falls, ID, and I know he's tried to get on here, but he can't figure it out (insert idiot comment here). He's a manager at a food plant there, they have a house and their son, Kaden, is about 3 years old.
Brad and Jenni Bond moved to Pennsylvania this summer. He's doing a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture at Penn State, and his knees are hurting him because of the low altitude (insert pathetic old man comment here).
My other sister, Melissa, had her baby, Aidan, in August. He's not even three months old but already talking lots of gibberish and wanting to play.
Monday, November 5, 2007
HELLO!! Anybody out there?
Hey guys,
We are so bad at posting on this thing!
I am currently living out in the country in Florida (or what people on the east coast refer to as country, anyway). The family who adopted my dogs have now adopted me, too. It is very warm here in Florida, and it doesn't feel like it is going to be getting cold anytime soon. I am not used to wearing shorts and t-shirts in November, but I am excited that I won't be getting stuck in a snowy driveway this winter. It's a nice change.
So, I am currently living with a couple, their son and his wife, and their 5-year-old daughter, 2 pugs, and a schnauzer. Oh, and there used to be a bull in the backyard, but he kept escaping to go to the field to visit a cow that was in heat. And I thought trying to round up Goliath (one of the pugs) was difficult! We had to chase this bull with a car (one time a car and two trucks) until we could bully him back into his own fence. I don't know how people once kept thousands of those animals. They are SO BIG! And they get so angry. I think they have such a temper because they kick themselves in the nuts every time they walk or run. Have you seen how low those big, ol' things hang?!? And when they start bucking, you would think they would knock themselves impotent! (okay, give me a break. Military training is not exactly comparable to that of a finishing school.)
I am flying to Utah for about a week (leaving FL tomorrow, actually) and then I am kidnapping my sister and bringing her back here for a week. The pugs really need their claws clipped. I don't think it's been done since the last time Geneva (who is a dog groomer) did it. Well, and I guess it will be nice to visit her too (obviously, since the flights cost more than paying a groomer here to clip the claws).
Right now, I am involved in a whole bunch of nothing. Ok, not really nothing. I am trying to navigate the VA system- not such an easy task. But there are a lot of good people working for the system who are a lot of help. I would like to know what the VA is going to do for me and expect from me, so I can get some kind of job around here and take some more belly dancing classes (I can't resist the shiny costumes). I am thinking about getting a job working for one of the many horse farms around here. The city I live in is the thorough-bred horse capital of America or something like that. I am so excited to muck stalls and clean horse manure out of horse-shoes!
It would be great to hear how the rest of you are doing. Any news? No? How about fun hobbies? Do your spouse/in-laws/children/roommates drive you crazy or make you laugh? What did you have for dinner last night? What are your favorite TV shows/movies/books?
Oh, and do you know anyone else's email addresses? It would be fun to add more members to the blog. Specifically, I am wondering about Jacqueline Miles, Jenni Burger (keep forgetting her new last name), Amber Hall, Danette Peterson (last name?), Brad Bond, Nancy, or anybody else's addresses? It sure would be fun to hear from the rest of them. If you have an email address, feel free to email me, JaNae, or Mike, and we can send them an invite. Thanks!
We are so bad at posting on this thing!
I am currently living out in the country in Florida (or what people on the east coast refer to as country, anyway). The family who adopted my dogs have now adopted me, too. It is very warm here in Florida, and it doesn't feel like it is going to be getting cold anytime soon. I am not used to wearing shorts and t-shirts in November, but I am excited that I won't be getting stuck in a snowy driveway this winter. It's a nice change.
So, I am currently living with a couple, their son and his wife, and their 5-year-old daughter, 2 pugs, and a schnauzer. Oh, and there used to be a bull in the backyard, but he kept escaping to go to the field to visit a cow that was in heat. And I thought trying to round up Goliath (one of the pugs) was difficult! We had to chase this bull with a car (one time a car and two trucks) until we could bully him back into his own fence. I don't know how people once kept thousands of those animals. They are SO BIG! And they get so angry. I think they have such a temper because they kick themselves in the nuts every time they walk or run. Have you seen how low those big, ol' things hang?!? And when they start bucking, you would think they would knock themselves impotent! (okay, give me a break. Military training is not exactly comparable to that of a finishing school.)
I am flying to Utah for about a week (leaving FL tomorrow, actually) and then I am kidnapping my sister and bringing her back here for a week. The pugs really need their claws clipped. I don't think it's been done since the last time Geneva (who is a dog groomer) did it. Well, and I guess it will be nice to visit her too (obviously, since the flights cost more than paying a groomer here to clip the claws).
Right now, I am involved in a whole bunch of nothing. Ok, not really nothing. I am trying to navigate the VA system- not such an easy task. But there are a lot of good people working for the system who are a lot of help. I would like to know what the VA is going to do for me and expect from me, so I can get some kind of job around here and take some more belly dancing classes (I can't resist the shiny costumes). I am thinking about getting a job working for one of the many horse farms around here. The city I live in is the thorough-bred horse capital of America or something like that. I am so excited to muck stalls and clean horse manure out of horse-shoes!
It would be great to hear how the rest of you are doing. Any news? No? How about fun hobbies? Do your spouse/in-laws/children/roommates drive you crazy or make you laugh? What did you have for dinner last night? What are your favorite TV shows/movies/books?
Oh, and do you know anyone else's email addresses? It would be fun to add more members to the blog. Specifically, I am wondering about Jacqueline Miles, Jenni Burger (keep forgetting her new last name), Amber Hall, Danette Peterson (last name?), Brad Bond, Nancy, or anybody else's addresses? It sure would be fun to hear from the rest of them. If you have an email address, feel free to email me, JaNae, or Mike, and we can send them an invite. Thanks!
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