Week 6

so it has been six weeks now in the mtc! A whole transfer already. We calculated that an 1/8 of our mission will be in the mtc. haha today we are going to the hospital with our new companion from ukraine. he is getting nose surgeory tomorrow and so today he will be going for prep. yesterday we walked to the student health center with him. it was so cool haha. it was only a block but we were able to get out and about for a little bit. We are now the older group of missionaries. tomorrow is the day the new elders and sisters get here so that will be good to see some new faces.

We started teaching in Russian last week at the Teaching Evaluation Center. it is so crazy how much Russian we have learned in the space of 5 weeks. I took three years in spanish and i can't even carry on a good conversation. We can only speak of the gospel and some small things but we can at least have a conversation. The hardest thing is word conjugation. Russian is difficult because it has cases that change the meaning of words. in english we just add or subtract words to the sentence and that changes the context. Well in russian the actual word itself changes the meaning. so you can have the same word but in 7 different forms to make the sentence. That is really what makes it so difficult. trying to figure out which form of the word in a conversation means we speak pretty slow with a lot of "umms" in between the words. haha but I think i will get it. Sorry if my english grammar and spelling is so bad right now. I am kind of putting that aside for right now. haha I can't wait to have the accent that i was hoping for. russians speak from the throat alot so i am sure that is what i will sound like when i return. My time here seems like it has been really short even though it has been 6 whole weeks.

As we start the downhill slope of our mtc stay I think the russian will get better and the knowledge of the gospel will increase. more importantly though, I am very interested in seeing how my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ will change. We have a purpose that we recite from time to time. I happen to know it in english and russian, go figure, but the meaning behind the purpose is what really matters. we are here to invite people to know Jesus Christ is their savior and through him we can live with our heavenly father again after this life. Each and every day my understanding and knowledge of this is strengthened. i have seen many blessings in my life and in the lives of others. The Ukrainian Elder that is our companion right now told us how he came to know Jesus Christ for himself and I could feel the power of how this knowledge can make people happy. 75% of russia is Pravoslavnian or better known as russian orthodox. they either go to church because that is what their family does, it is tradition, they want to be accepted socially, or they just geniunely feel the peace of going to church. To me, it will be so exciting to be able to meet with these people and tell them of our savior jesus christ. Their is also alot of atheists in russia. this will be the most difficult probably. last night we had a excercise where we met people at a PblHOK or Renok. This means market. At the market we were buying things but with our main purpose in mind we told them of who we were and why we were in russia (figuratively). When we told them that we knew that heavenly father lives and that he loves us, they would reply, "I am an atheist, how do you know that" in russian of course. So learning how to bear our testimony in a way where people know how we know and why it is important is a task for sure, but i know that as the time progresses and my testimony is strenghtened, I will be able to tell people how I know that God lives and he loves us. Only through the spirit though can they truly learn this for themselves. This is why I pray to have the spirit with me everyday so i can be prepared to give the people what they need to hear.

This next week and the following weeks we will continue to teach in russian. the other day i thought to myself. Man that was not the way i wanted to sound in russian. I really don't know alot do i? well i learned a powerful lesson in this. The spirit can teach even if the language isn't all the way there. The power of the book of mormon and the bible can testify of what we are trying to say and they will know by the spirit that what we say is true. I know that i will get better with the language because i have faith that the lord can help me, but i am so glad that I get to feel the spirit still while I teach. Yes at the mtc i can know this because even though i am not teaching a real investigator, The practice is what leads me to teach those who are seeking the truth.

I love you all and thanks for the support. until next week