Travel Plans Tomorrow

Fam and Friends,
 
Life in the mtc is still rolling along!! i feel like kinda the time is going by slower now that we know that we are leaving soon.  All of us are stoked to find out travel plans tomorrow, as you can tell from my subject.  Well we had some sweet devotionals this week.  Sunday's devotional was...hilarious to be honest! it was a couple that are members of one of the district presidencies here, and the wife gets up and sets up this table with a table cloth and nice china, and her part of the devotional was on table ettiquite!!! haha it was thoughtful of her, but our elders couldn't take it seriously and it ended up being so entertaining.  Here are a few quotes/things i learned "DISCREET is the best word"-in other words, i don't even know what she was talking about.  "if your soup is too hot, you will know because you will feel it" hahahaha.  and, a bite is the size of a wheat thin, for those of you who don't know.  haha it was great.  and then the husband gets up and his devotional was pretty much his family genealogy about some indian tribe here in utah and he was like "you know, all love stories don't end the way you think they will.  my grandpa loved this indian girl and then one day in a playful game, she was shot and killed." say what? haha wow. it ended up being spiritual in a round about way..ok but last night's devotional was amazing!! RICHARD G SCOTT!!!  apostle #4.  he was so sweet and loving, he talked a lot about how to feel the spirit and how to study the scriptures.  but he really talked a lot about eternal marriage and our responsibility after the mission to find an eternal companion and actually go on dates.  he defines "hanging out" as "idleness in flocks" haha it was great.  one thing he said was that the elders should watch the sisters and how they do missionary work because they could learn a lot from us and it would pay off in the long run for them to watch us.  that was intimidating, motivating, and good to hear for sure.  i love our elders though and it is amazing to be surrounded by worthy priesthood holders. he challenged us to pray without ceasing, and more than that, develop a relationship with our Heavenly Father where we can just talk to him.  it was truly amazing. and he got up after the closing hymn and was like "you know, usually i like to shake everyone's hands after but i won't be able to do that tonight and i'm so sorry, but i hope that you can feel my love" and it was so spiritual and so powerful.  he also talked about our mission calls and that there has never been a mission call issued without a prompting from the Lord, that people want us and need us where we are going, and since it is from the Lord, he will help us.  so so so so cool.
 
other than that, we have just been going to class, language stuff, and everything normal.  the temple was amazing today, we went and did initiatories then a session, and all of our names for initiatories were from russia, so that was a treat. we are all anxious to get out of here, but we are all realizing that we have to say goodbye to each other, and that makes me so sad.  we have developed a family relationship with our 2 districts, and we have been through so much together and experienced so many things together.  but, we realize that we are going to do the Lord's work and this will bless our lives.  i love being here in the mtc because it has changed me into a better person, and its preparing me to be a better missionary.  i feel okay about russian so far, but i met a guy from ukraine at the temple walk on sunday and he said that in my mission its a constant mixture of ukranian and russian, so that will be interesting.  gotta love it! well, i love you all and this is the Lord's work.  i can feel the power of prayers, and i know that we are here to save people and to tell them about Christ.  It truly is the best feeling in the world to be able to wear His name along with my name.  We have a huge responsibility, and it is an honorable work.  I love you all so much, I am so happy, I am doing well, and I can't wait to go to Ukraine.  I will keep you all posted!!
 
Cectpa DeMille