the last week.

Fam and Friends

 

It is officially my last day in the MTC.  I look back on my experience here, and i realize how much i have learned and grown from my elders, my sisters, the speakers, the language, and the study time.  I am so grateful to have been here in the MTC for so long.  Some days i curse russian and some days i don't like the MTC, but overall i have been so blessed and i am so grateful.  Most of you already know, but we got our reassignments to Phoenix, AZ!! We are stoked.  It is me, the 3 elders in my district, and one elder from the other zone.  Everyone else got reassignments in Mesa, West Virginia, Little Rock, and the other sisters got temple square.  I am glad that i am not going alone somewhere and that my elders will be with me.  This week was really sad saying goodbye to everyone and watching all of our friends go to their various missions in russia.  A bunch of elders left sunday night, sister huber and 3 elders left monday afternoon, and everyone else (including everyone else who got reassigned) left yesterday morning.  It has been a strange couple of days.  Since sister lewis and sister hart left yesterday morning, i have been kind of like a solo sister.  I still have sister johnson and fitzgerald in my room so they are kind of like my companions, but i go to class and everything else with my 3 elders so it's wierd walking around and being the only sister left in the 2 zones from the older districts.  Yesterday was so strange because we had class and there was only 4 of us, and then our teachers wanted us to practice teaching one more time, so me and elder hopkins were companions and it was the wierdest thing on the planet.  He is kinda like my brother, but it was still wierd.  That will probably never happen again haha it was so strange.  Sunday was a good last day with everyone.  Relief Society was amazing as always, but Sister Elaine S Dalton came!!! that was definitely a treat and she gave an amazing talk and was really motherly in her talk to us so it was way great.  i was grateful to her and her words.  Last night Brother Zwick from the 70 came and spoke about prayer and that was really good as well.  I am really glad for all of the speakers i have heard in the mtc and the spiritual experiences i have had.  It feels wierd that we are leaving tomorrow and we will still be in the states, and then go to ukraine right when it gets freezing.  haha just our luck! I know that this is the Lord's work and everyone deserves to hear the gospel.  We have gotten a lot of advice here to see people as God sees them and to develop enough Christlike qualities to bring people unto Christ.  I really love being a missionary here, and I am stoked to get started on the real work.  Phoenix will be a good experience.  We will have time to study our language (i think/hope) and so i'm not too worried yet about russian.  It will be good to see how missionary work goes in the states, then over in ukraine.  Its really funny though, the mtc refuses to give us english name tags, so we are going to look like freaks in phoenix with our russian nametags.  Last night everyone thought Pres. Monson was going to come to the devotional because he spoke at BYU earlier that day and it was really funny, everyone was all jazzed.  I miss sister lewis huber and hart a lot, but i am so excited for them to get to russia.  It was really really hard to say goodbye to everyone though, i feel like we were kind of a family here and we knew what was going on with everyone and we helped each other out and we had so many great, amazing times in the mtc. All the elders and sisters in our 2 districts will be amazing missionarys and great instruments in the Lord's hands in bringing the people of russia/ukraine (when we get there) unto Christ.  I can't wait for the experiences we will have.  Today we are just packing and getting everything good to go to phoenix.  I still hate packing, that definitely hasn't changed.  It is wierd that i have had like 4 companions in a few days because sister hart was comps with sis lewis and i when sis huber left, then sis hart and lewis left so then i am technically part companions with sister fitzgerald/johnson, and part solo sister/companions with my elders. haha such strange things here in the mtc.  We are going into "babylon" tomorrow and it's going to be wierd to see real people in the airport and such.  I just want to let you all know that this church is so true, the Lord is in charge of this work-which is a good thing, we couldn't do it without His help, and by doing the little things like reading the scriptures, praying, going to church, representing Christ, and being kind to those around you, we can help in this work of bringing people unto Christ.  I love this work and I am so excited to serve the Lord.  I know that trials don't stop, but Christ is there to help us.  Pray for all of us, we need it haha! I am grateful for all of you and your support.  I love you all!! I'll let you know what's up in Phoenix.

 

Love, Cectpa/Sister DeMille