Hey there everyone,
Another week has flown by in the MTC. Another extremely warm week.

News Flash: Did you know the church is true?! Seriously! It blows my
mind every single day! Sister Biggs and I watched Joseph Smith Movie
for like the 3rd time and every time I'm like. Holy Moly! The Church
is true!

ETHAN!
I'm so excited for you and for your farewell! I'm sure your talk will
be great! Mom wanted an idea for a musical number and I think Consider
the Lilies would be great. And Geneva could play the cello. It would
be very pretty!
Also congrats on going through the temple. I'm sure it was wonderful!
Guess what in 2 years we can all go together!

Speaking of temples. Last week our district got to help clean the
temple! It was really cool! The elders had to do hard labor like
scraping carpet glue or something. They just showed me all the
blisters they got. I'm not really sure what they had to do. The
sisters got to clean the chandeliers and sconces. I was a little sad
because they had just finished the Celestial room chandelier right
before we got there. But we did the ones in the sealing rooms. And
man. There's a lot of glass. But it is so pretty! I love the feeling I
get at the temple! Today it reopened and it was packed! We got there
in time for the 9:45 session but had to wait till the 10:15 one. And
there were still lots more people waiting after us! Sister Biggs and I
had lunch in the cafeteria at the temple because this MTC food is
messing us up! It was so cute so see all the cute little old workers
and their smiling faces.

This week was a lot of fun because the new Russians came! We got a lot
of new Russian speaking Elders and Sisters. ALOT. Every class is full
now which is kind of a bummer cause it was nice to study in an empty
classroom. But it's fun. They are all so excited. It also makes us
feel like we are smart! haha. They think we know how to say everything
in russian. But that is definitely not true.... An Elder from Montana
is going to Moscow! He is from Helena. He's my new best friend. I call
him that. haha. he probably thinks I'm a freak. But we bonded of MT
for a while. Apparently he played soccer for Helena High and he had
some not very nice things to say about the Billings West Soccer team.
And how Alex Gallagher broke some kids shoulder in a game against them
once. But anywhoo. He's cool. All of the new missionaries are cool!
Another sister knows Amanda Weed! She went to Romania with her last
summer. She's super great. I love bonding over things in the "real
world" haha.

I went to the real world again to the dentist with Sister Thornhill.
And I heard some T Swift for the first time in 2 months. It was
strange. I'm going to be soo weird when I get back!

Great things learned in class this week.

1. In a conversation about investigators being like spiritual babies
and how they need to learn the basics we compared the MTC to a
spiritual Incubator. And Elder Takasaki exclaimed "We're in the womb
of the gospel!"
Kind of really weird when you put it like that.

2. Had a great lesson about how Ammon is a boss. And basically the
best missionary every in Alma 17. Then in Alma 19:36 we had to laugh
because God has a sense of humor. "His arm is stretched out still"
(Do you get it? Cause ammon just took off all of those guys arms?haha)

3. Russia is exploding! And Ukraine. Our teacher told us about how the
temple in Ukraine is the only temple to be built within 20 years of
the gospel opening up to the country. And it's the highest efficiancy
temple in the world! If you want to do a session you have to call 3
weeks in advance! The Church is really ready in Eastern Europe and
Russia! It's crazy. Our teacher also told us about a talk given by
Elder Holland in Moscow and how he prophesied that He would return in
his lifetime and the number of saints in Russia would not be able to
be fit in 100 auditoriums that size! Crazy! They just organized the
first stake in Russia! I know that the Lord is preparing the people of
Russia right now to hear the gospel and they're just waiting for me!
It makes me realize how important this work is and how I need to be
doing my very best so I can find them and teach them well! So they can
come into this amazing gospel!

4. Our district sang in sacrament meeting and it was awesome! I love
my district so much! We sang Nearer My God to Thee in Russian and it
was a really cool experience. The visiting authority did not speak
russian but said something really cool when he spoke. He said that
while the 10 of us were singing he felt the impression that the
Russian language is made up of the lost 10 tribes of Israel's
languages and he wouldn't be suprised if the people we bring into the
church are from those lost tribes. Pretty cool to think about. Also
makes sense why it's so dang hard! haha

Mom, Becca and Grandma (and David and Greg) thanks so much for the
package! Again everyone was jealous! And we've been pigging out ever
since. I love the bag mom! Thanks so much! (sorry dad. you should get
a matching one!) And the chips and all the goodies were grand. My feet
smell alot better too. : )

Mom asked if she should only send mail once a week like some other
mom's had recommended. And my response is NO! I love getting your
letters and they are definitely not distracting me. Our branch has a
rule that we are only allowed to get the mail once a day and we can't
open it until 9:30 when we go home. So that way I'm not distracted in
the middle of the day and so yeah. It's a great way to go to sleep at
night. : )
So yeah. Keep them coming. And especially those of you I haven't heard
from. You know who you are...... (cough cough Aaron and Sam. cough
cough roomies and pals)

Oh and Mom don't worry about the vitamin C. I have some. And I
definitely need power converters. I guess it's better to get them
here. And if you could get that same watch you got me for christmas
and send it with them that'd be great. I dropped mine in the bathroom
and it broke.... : ( it works but the glass is broken. So I've been
wearing it but yeah. It's not very cute anymore.

I leave August 21st. I won't get my travel plans until about a week
and half before. But I will try my best to let you know and figure out
a time to call you! I have a feeling we are going to leave at some
unholy hour but I don't want to think about that yet because a. I'm
scared and b. I don't know russian! c. i can't believe I'm going to
russia!

But anywhoo I love you all so much! I hope you are doing well. I'm
doing well! In relief society this Sister shared this poem about
Missions and how You've never been so happy you've never been so sad.
You've never been more grateful you've never been so mad. It's all
oxymorons here. Ups and downs and Ups and downs. But mostly ups! It's
85% attitude and I know I can control that! ( you should find that
poem pretty please. it was pretty funny)

The Church is True!

Oh also. Have you read the Book of Mormon? Its a pretty good book. I'm
almost done with it! You should read it!

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