Week 3

Haha. Just tricking you up. I infact do not know spanish. I am slowly
learning russian! It's coming though! I've got the Missionary Purpose
memorized in RUSSIAN! Say what?! And I have committed my first
"investigator" to baptism! Holla!

Anywhoo life in the MTC has been just dandy. It's been 20 whole days
yet it seems like 10 years but also feels like 3 days. And at the same
time feels exactly like 20. Time at the MTC is a weird thing. Days are
long but weeks are short.

Being at the MTC as a sister missionary is like being royalty. I'm
pretty sure the only door I have to open for myself is the one to the
bathroom. And lately I haven't taken a single one of my trays to the
dishroom in the cafeteria. It's been pretty nice! Not going to lie.
And I do have to keep in mind that once I head to Siberia it will be a
totally different story so I'm living it up now!

Thank you thank you thank thank you for the packages! The elders in my
district were so jealous. Especially the GINORMOUS one from Colette!
Holy Moley. It added so much sunshine to our weeks! haha. You should
have seen the excitement on the elders faces when I shared the
Morphing Flavor starbursts with them. They were so shocked. Strawberry
to Lime!? holy moly! haha and the erasable highliters blew everyone's
world. haha. It was grand. Mom thank you so much for the shorts! I
sleep at a reasonable temperature now! haha With all the construction
paper I was able to waste time wisely by putting my elementary
teachers skills to use and decorated the classroom. We made a russian
calendar and hung up the colors with the word in russian written on it
as well as put up the alphabet in order! It looks especially spiffy.
The elders have drawn a few cartoons to add to it!

Basically this week was super awesome. This was the week we actually
sang for the general authorities. I was a little bummed out because we
literally walk in line up in the corner and walk out so we barely got
to see them but I got a thumbs up from elder anderson! and some great
smiles from elder bednar, elder cook and elder christofferson. On
sunday we were lucky to be able to watch the talk president monson
gave after we sang from a different room and man a live. He's a real
prophet! And he is sooo funny. He's kind of losing it. But none the
less I love him! Oh also L. Tom Perry gave the devotional last night
and we sang there too and as I was exiting he looked me in the eye and
smiled. Totally made my day. Especially since he's one of my
favorites. I know you're not supposed to but seriously. Pretty
awesome. He once said "I don't have a lot of talent at sports or music
but I do have enthusiasm." That's been one of my personal mantras.

A couple letters back Sam asked if we get to watch movies and guess
what!? We do! On sundays after devotional they put on different movies
like the Joseph Smith Movie or The Testaments. This past Saturday
while all the new mission presidents met with their future
missionaries, the rest of us got to watch "The Other Side of Heaven"
it was hilarious to see how excited we were to watch it. People were
clapping and gasping. Including me! (how embarassing I know) 1 month
ago if you asked me to watch that I'd be like " Really? No thanks" but
it was a treat to watch it.

Funny story, we had a sisters only gym time where we played the hand
slapping game and who ever got out told an embarrassing story or
something about themselves. It was fun to get to know them a little
differently, anywhoo one of the sisters was talking about a time when
she and her sister made the long trek to cowley wyoming and got lost
and thought that aliens were coming to get them or something. It was
pretty funny. But I was like say what!? COWLEY? My whole family is
from there. And she was like NO WAY! So we got to talking and I should
have realized that from the beginning cause he last name is Welch!
She's going to Moscow and is in one of the older districts. But she
grew up in Murray and her Dad is Richard Welch and he lived in cowley
his whole life and she loves cowley with her whole heart. Her whole
family goes to Cowley Days every year. So we bonded. She's one of my
favorites. So let me know how we are related. She's writing her Dad to
tell them too. And I told her I'll ask grandma!

Today we went to the temple and did proxy sealings. Missionaries can
proxy as children and not as spouses, but it was a super cool
experience. I highly recommend it. I realized how blessed I am to have
a family active in the church and parents who were sealed in the
temple. My companion's parents are inactive and were never married in
the temple and so today was pretty hard on her. And I've just realized
how truly blessed I am. This whole mission thing is a lot easier when
you have supportive parents and family behind you, when you don't have
health issues, when you don't have depression and when you're a fairly
normal person as well as self-motivated and self-regulating. I truly
am one of the luckiest people in the world and am so blessed to be
born into my family and to have all of you behind me. It means the
world to me!
I'm so excited to spread my happiness and the knowledge of the gospel
to the people in Russia! They have been oppressed for a long time and
need something to be happy for and what better way to be happy than
through the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation or the Plan of
Happiness!

Anywhoo I love you all and look forward to hearing from you! I hope
I'm not forgetting anything. I know this is kind of a crazy letter but
it's amazing how fast 30 minutes can go when you have so much to say!

я любю вас!

That's I love you. (yellow blue vas) Kind of sounds like yellow blue bus!


Cectpa Carling!