the curveball

Fam and Friends,

 

welll this week changed a lot of things. some of you might already know, but none of the missionaries going to ukraine got their visas.  all the russian missionaries did. apparently two embassies in ukraine are fighting over who gets to issue the visas and how often people have to leave the country to renew.  so i guess that's what is happening, and all we know is that we are getting re assigned tomorrow. we talked to the travel agent and she said we are scheduled to be in the states for 4 weeks, we are scheduled to leave the states on nov 28. so we will be here for about 4 weeks ish if everything goes as planned. but, as soon as we get our visas they will have us leave, so it could be sooner or later who knows.  there are 17 of us getting re assigned between the 2 russian zones. they told us that they try to put us in bigger hub cities so we have a quick exit when we get our visas, and they will try to put some of us together..so who knows what is going to happen! haha it's wierd, i feel like i'm waiting for a new mission call.  it was a pretty rough weekend i'm not going to lie. we found out on friday and it was pretty depressing.  i cried a lot, and it was something i didn't expect and it came out of nowhere.  i guess i never realized how bad i wanted to go to ukraine, until they told me i couldn't go.  i doesn't sound like a big deal, but it hit me so hard for some reason.  i got a blessing from the zone leaders on friday night and that made me feel tons better.  saturday i was okay, and sunday i was sad again.  sunday we went to relief society and i was kinda sad. the speaker her name was sister rogers, and pretty much it was the best relief society ever.  she got called to serve as a health missionary to brazil (when she was hoping she wouldn't be called as a health missionary because she didn't like her nursing course she recently finished) and when she got to the MTC she was the only sister speaking portugese and she had to be put with tons of other companionships.  she said she felt like she was always treated as a "odd sister" because she created odd situations.  well her and her district didn't get their visas to brazil, so they went to the NY mission for 3 months.  she ended up baptizing one lady there and one thing she said was "the Lord cares enough about His children to send me to a place that wasn't my mission call to help her come closer to Christ". then, she didn't actually go to brazil, she got relocated to the phillipines.  needless to say, her talk was incredible.  it was the first time in my life i felt like a talk was sincerely written for me to hear it.  i went up to after to meet her and i just told her thank you, and it was a great experience.  it was probably the hardest weekend here in the mtc, but it was followed by many experiences that strenghtened my testimony and the desire of missionary work.  i am nervous about where i am going and with who and when, but one thing sister rogers said was "serve the Lord to the best of your ability wherever you are, whenever, and for how long because it is HIS work not ours" so that is what i will do.  i could be leaving as soon as friday, and as late as next wednesday.  we will find out tomorrow! i just hope i go with someone, not by myself.  so pray for all of us please!  this last week and this week up until everyone leaves will be good. class is a lot more chill and we usually talk more about the gospel and study grammar principles.  i really don't like the unexpected, but i'm trying to be calm and just accept it.  i have had some lasting, incredible experiences and the mtc has been a growing experience all around. this place will always be special to me because of how much i have grown and come closer to Christ.  i appreciate again all of the support and i love you all. pray for the missionaries everywhere, we all need it.  thank you for all you all do for me, and i will keep you posted about what goes on with our reassignments.  love you all!

 

cectpa demille