Week 3

Well everyone this is an experiment. because my email time is so limited i think i am going to try this. any personal emails will be answered but i think that in general i will just create this letter thing.

Also, Matt and kari, I don't have kari's email address so if you could email it to me i will try next pday to get an email to her.
Well things are going pretty good. It snowed for the last 24 hours here in provo and so there is like 2 ft on the ground. haha i love it. Also did anyone hear about the provo tabernacle burning down last week. i though that was pretty sad that it was such an old building. it looked like it was a pretty building too. they are still investigatiing what happened but it started in the middle of the night last wednesday i think.

things are going good with my companion and all. We do what is called companionship inventory and i find that it really helps and no i am not being soft. We have gotten along pretty good since then and i find out that he even likes chicken tenders from different restaurants. He is pretty cool and I think that we will work for the next 7 weeks. The language is super hard. I always have trouble with the grammar.

There are several different rules to the grammar that make it hard to conjugate verbs. However in that aspect verbs are pretty stable as far as exceptions. English and some other languages have some pretty difficult exceptions in some verbs. I know spanish had alot of stupid exceptions that didn't make sense. In Russian even though the verbs are pretty lax, the cases are crazy! There is like the nominative case and what not. Accusitive inanimate and animate. prepostional, etc. it is pretty neat that we can already start speaking the few words that we know and form sentences. last night we were working on memorizing the first vision but not in the sense that we were memorizing it. one of our Teaching Evaluation workers was teaching our class because of the christmas holidays have made the teachers schedules crazy. he recited the vision twice in russian the first time was a recitation. the second time we could all see the events taking place in our heads and by the spirit we all knew what he was saying was true. We had a speaker sunday come to the mtc. He is a published writer and an institute teacher at one of the colleges. Dad you may have heard of him but his name is Ted Gibbons. his presentation was on the prophet Joseph Smith during his martyrdom. The view point that he took was from the journal of Willard Richards who was present when the prophet was killed. One of the things that never really made sense to me about the martyrdom was that joseph smith went to the window. I have always thought why if he knew he would die try to escape. That is not true. Brother gibbons explained this through the words of brother Richards. the prophet was not trying to escape but he was drawing the fire away from his good friends. After explaining that the mob was shooting at john taylor who was on the ground, I knew this was true. the Words "O Lord, My God" were not just a final exclamation, but they were a prayer of the prophet Joseph Smith. It was His Greeting to the Lord As he left this world and went to the next.

My testimony has grown so much in the last 3 weeks. I can't believe how fast everything has gone. I am excited about the christmas holidays that are coming up. they are so much more special now that i am not worrying about "what am i going to want this year". It is about the savior. I see that ever so clearly now. I have always known this but how much did i really worry about it as much as well ill get this computer game and this clothing and what not. I love the savior. he was born into this world to save mankind, and because of this we can be with our heavenly father for eternity. I am so blessed to be apart of this work and to help others realize this. We learned that Russia is not a hard place to be successful. it is proportionate to how much you work and I am excited for that. I will learn this language and through the savior many people will come to know the truth. I am so glad that you all support me and i am grateful to be a mccallon. thanks mom and mama for the package. I love the pillow case! I used it the day i got it. Also, my district elders really enjoyed the goodies and what not. No I didn't let them have everything. I shared generously which is weird from me because i am usually pretty stingy. look what these three weeks have done for all of us. I have seen growth from not only me but you all. thannks caleb for getting your friends to write me. I really thought that was cool. I will write as many letters as i can today. the temple is closed for christmas and next week we get to clean it for three hours. Well thanks for all the love and I will be thinking of you all.


love
Elder McCallon