Privet family!
That's hello (informally) and its spelled like this привет! wow. That
just took me like 2 minutes to spell on the russian keyboard. haha.
Cause I can't see which letters are which. Anywhoo.
oh and you say it like "PREEE VYET!"

hello! Can you believe that it's August 1st! Time flies when you are
having fun! haha

Sounds like Ethan's farewell was a hit! A whole row of babes at
church? That's pretty impressive. hopefully they'll write to you!
haha. And the food sounded even better. I love that in our family it's
totally normal to write a whole page about the food and what you made.
And it made me miss real food soooo much! This MTC stuff is getting
old. (Sorry Ethan) Maybe you should bring some cliff bars and snacks
with you. Cause yeah...

Anywhoo sounds like you all are having fun with the family reunion and
the Olympics! Oh man. I love the olympics. I'm sad that I can't watch
em. Hopefully some Russians are tearing it up! Although they are
probably better at the winter olympics. Oh and the baby shower! Give
everyone my love! I can't wait to hear about little Baby Harrison!
(And I'm loving the name. i approve 100%) Cause my opinion counts
right? haha

Why is Ethan getting set apart so early? Is there some rule about it
having to be on Sundays? Nevertheless 3 days of holiness will be lots
of fun! John Mayer's mormon right? I heard Christ Martin's getting
baptized so Coldplay is okay too. SHOOT KA! That's what you say in
russian when you are joking. of course it is spelled completely
different. I seriously can't wait for Ethan to get here! And then Kyle
will be here and the MTC presidency should probably be warned. haha.
But seriously it's gonna be sweet!

Ethan/Dad- how was your camping trip? I'm sure it was gorgeous and
full of fun! I want to hear about it!

Mom: Don't worry about the money. Also i used the international stamps
writing to patrick. And I have no idea what voltage of power thingies
to get. Google probably knows.

This week was full of many more adventures. I can hardly believe that
I have 3 weeks left. And only 2 more emails! BAAHHHHH!

1. TRC- Is when we teach volunteers who know Russian. Most of them are
returned missionaries trying to keep up the language. This last week
we started teaching a Sister who served in Yekaterinberg Russia and
about half way through the lesson 3 girls walked in. And Sister Biggs
and I looked at each other like What? Are we supposed to keep going
with our lesson or stop and ask the get to know you questions. And so
we read a scripture and asked them what they thought and then started
asking them about themselves. It was super discombulated. But I made
the mistake of asking Where did you serve your mission? And all of
them laughed and said no we haven't served. We're from Russia! And I
was like what the heck are they doing here in Provo? So i asked them
and apparently they came to Provo to work and go to school! Crazy
thing- I actually kind of understood them! Not everything but the
jist. They were super nice and I could tell they were excited that we
were learning russian and wanted to help us. One of them is Tomiric
and if you watch the Kyiv Ukraine Temple mormon message she's in it!
So yeah after the train wreck of a lesson I watched the video and was
like whoa. I talked to real russians! needless to say it was
interesting. And going to russia is going to be nuts! Because they
talk soooooo fast! And i don't know real world words. I know church
words. haha. But that's good. I'll get it eventually!

2. We got our russian name tags this week. They look crazy. So it says
Sister Carling all in the cyrillic alphabet. Pretty nuts.

3. Our zone is way into unity and we play kickball every friday! It's
very fun. This week I scored 3 points and then it started lightning.
but it's grand. I love my zone!

4. Our investigator Aртём is getting baptized on Saturday! It's so
exciting. he is so eager and willing to keep commitments and he knows
its true and it's amazing! The gospel is true! Even though Aptem isn't
a "real" investigator I'm still stoked. I can't imagine what it feels
like "In the real world"! it's going to be nuts!

5. Watched the Pioneer Day Concet with MoTab on lds.org. You gotta do
it! It's soo good! Grandma Faye wrote and said how much she enjoyed
it. It's really good. I wanna be in Motab soo bad.

6. Facemask saturdays. Thanks to Jessie and Anna's package we have a
load of face masks and my roommates and I unwind on saturdays now and
we did facemasks and ate candy! It was very much appreciated and all
of my elders and roommates say thanks family for supplying us with
lots of goodies! haha

7. Sunday was excellent. We had an amazing lessons by elders bunnell
and betteridge on enduring to the end. And it kind of rang home for
me. Being a missionary is hard stuff and I feel like sometimes satan
is trying to make me think that i'm not good enough or not smart
enough or whatever because he knows how much good I'm going to do in
Russia and so the lesson just kind of made me realize that if I have
faith and I just keep on keeping on  it'll all be good!

8. SYL! Our district is getting super gung ho about speaking our
language. So we have to speak Russian every day except for Wednesday
and Sunday! GAHHH! And we're only allowed 5 english words every day.
Yesterday I only spoke 3! it was nuts. The day before it was more like
12..... haha. but no more kak ckazat (how do you say) this? And using
english in gaps. It's total russian! We have to either write it down
or spell it or act it up or point in our dictionary. The new districts
think we're crazy and i feel bad cause I can't really talk to them but
i know the Lord will bless me for my efforts!

9. yesterday we had an excellent devotional by elder pinegar and it
was on "Why are you here?" and it made me think. Why am i here?! i
knew that it was right, the minute I started filling out my papers but
why? And he just reassured me that I am here to do the lord's will.
And i obviously trust him by my decision in coming on a mission.
Especially to siberia! He told us that the lord knows you. and You've
been called on high by God and you're going there for a reason. I'm
truly humbled by that. Every day I ask heavenly father. You really
think I can do this? RUSSIAN? SIBERIA? What were you thinking? But
last nights devotional reminded me that the lord knows me better than
i know myself and he knows what I'm capable of. So I just gotta try!

well I love you all! Hope you are doing well. Shout out to my homies
who wrote me letters this week. Your handwritten response is on the
way!
mackenzie
kyle
jessica
becca
mom
dad
grandma faye

Also- AMANDA- Sister Nevers says hi! And me too!