Planet MTC

Priveyet family and friends,

 

Good news, i have survived another week in the MTC! I hope everything is well with all of you.  A recap of this week: we go to class, sleep, eat, speak russian, and play lots of sand volleyball haha.  Russian is coming along.  I feel like i am grasping some of the conjugation concepts and what we call "cases"...those are just blessed things that come along with learning russian.  All of our new russians come in today, and we are so stoked.  Although it has been so cool just to have our zone here for the last few weeks.  We have grown so close together and i seriously love everyone.  we had testimony meeting on sunday and it was seriously so amazing.  and saturday nights make the mtc so much better because we all go outside and sing 2 or 3 hymns, it sounds lame but something so little like that can make your whole week so much better.  Our devotional last night was by Elder Ron A Clarke of the 70 and he had a lot of good insights to make us better missionaries and help us along our path of finding people that we need to.  he was a mission pres. in bolivia and he said one day one of the elders knocked on his door and the elder had been there for 2 days. he said "president, i don't like the food. i don't like my companion. i don't like my bed. i don't like the climate" and elder clarke said to him "give me one month to change your mind" and the elder said "i will give you 2 weeks" so 2 weeks later the elder came in and said "president, i don't like the food. i don't like my companion. i don't like my bed, and i don't like the climate. but i met a bolivian family that i love, and the holy ghost has changed my heart. i will stay for them"  man that story just hit me so hard because even if we just bring 1 soul unto Christ, it can change our hearts.  I have been reading the Book of Mormon and I am into Alma, and my goal is to have it finished by saturday so that should be a fun challenge.  sister lewis is the coordinating sister (kinda like a sister zone leader) and so we have the wonderful priveledge of performing what a "companionship inventory" should consist of tomorrow night for the 2 new districts coming in.  we really are so stoked, it's gonna be so fun. 

 

one of the biggest highlights of my life happened last night--all of the foreign missionaries come in a day or 2 early to get more orientation/training stuff--and we had an elder come in yesterday that will be in our zone.  he is from ENGLAND and his name is ELDER POTTER!!!!!!!!!!! i thought about saying all of these cheesy harry potter lines like "why did you break the elder wand!" or "happy christmas harry!" but instead i just talked to him like a normal person and he is awesome, i'm so stoked to have him in our zone.  we also got an elder from germany that is adorable. 

 

other than that, the mtc is still just amazing.  some of the worst parts of it are waking up when you wish you had 3 more hours of sleep, but some of the best parts are just putting on my nametag every morning.  my teachers make class so much easier to go to and so much better to be in.  i am slowly understanding/speaking more russian.  last week in the TRC we didn't even use any of our notes, we just had conversations with them from memory and it felt so good.  i love all of our elders in our zone, they make life so great.  my teacher bro doroshkin even takes time sometimes to quote Nacho Libre with us-funny story about that-apparently him and his district when he was in the mtc used to quote N.L all the time because its so funny/applicable to missionary life in the mtc, and one day him and his comp. were quoting it in the lunch line, and this sister missionary in front of them turns around and just says "BABYLON" and walks away hahahaha. so, so many gems in this place. 

 

well this week should be amazing with conference coming up, it's going to be like a vacation in the mtc.  all saturday classes are cancelled and we will watch the sisters broadcast thingy while the elders are in priesthood.  i encourage you all to pray about something you need/want an answer to and look for it during conference.  i love you all and i'm so grateful to be a missionary in this dispensation.  it is truly an amazing, life changing work for all involved.  i can really feel the prayers and the love, and i'm so grateful for you all.  keep living life in the outside world. LOVE YOU ALL!!!

 

cectpa demille