Week 7

hey everyone!

it is pday once again and i am sitting here in the laundry room washing clothes. It is just crazy how time is flying. i looked at my calendar and I have about 4 weeks left here at the mtc. Some of you will say well that is like a whole month but it really is less time than you would imagine. So we had a good visit to the provo temple this morning. always a good pday when we get to go do temple work. Also i got to take a well needed nap.

We got to listen to Elder Holland last week. It was amazing! I really enjoyed the message. In the mtc i would call it a prick your heart devotional because it is one of those times where you are listening to the message and then at the same time it feels like you are playing basketball or something. haha but he talked about how his mission was so important to him and that the decision to serve is a decision far more important than anything else right now. I really enjoyed that at the end he finished with the story of peter after Christ was crucified. he explained in the most interesting way i have every heard how the apostles just went back to their fishing again after the death and resurrection of christ. they fish all night catching nothing and then they see this stranger on the shore who tells them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. when they could not even bring in the catch, peter knew that it was Christ. Jesus Christ now appearing for the third time to the apostles asks them if they love him. he asks three times and finishes by saying if you love me, feed my sheep! I am so blessed to be apart of this process. one of the great questions of the soul is how do I love everyone as the savior did and then I knew that loving comes from serving. President Peterson asked me why i wanted to serve a mission and i said something along the lines of that i wanted to gain more faith and a stronger testimony of the gospel. he then told me that if i loved the lord I would feed his sheep. I am so glad that i have already seen this start to change my life. the stronger faith and testimony in the gospel is and will fall into place. I am thankful that i get to experience what the savior was talking about to the apostles so long ago. it goes to show that the scriptures apply to everyones life and can bless them in their own personal way.

Also, in my exciting stay here we had the new districts come in. I met elder Busby and he is a pretty cool elder. he told me that his first day was pretty rough and i said to him that it deffinatelly gets better everyday. Today we have some natives again that will be coming to the mtc. the one that had to stay behind for the surgeory got a new companion from the new american elders who came to the mtc already speaking 6 months worth of russian. it was so crazy that he studies languages for fun. that is so much will power because if i were not here i probably would not be learning russian. I really think that it is one of the coolest languages in the world but it is so difficult. There are so many grammar rules. I was really pumped a couple of weeks ago learning the different cases and then we got 10 new grammar charts. it is going to take alot of practice and a lot of faith. haha I know that through the Lord i will be blessed to be able to learn the language. also everyone i forgot to say that if you want to send me long emails you can because i can log off and stop the timer. also by doing this we can print them off too. so if you want to send a long email telling me what is up then you can. I will just print it off and read it like a letter.

thank you everyone for the letters again because they really do brighten my day. I am getting so close to leaving the mtc already. I know it will be sad that i will not get to see all my friends but we all have a purpose and that is to feed the saviors sheep. If the metaphor is confusing, then we are really not feeding any real sheep at all but we will be preaching the gospel to those who are ready to here it. I am so excited for this but i know i must take advantage of every little moment in the mtc so i can be better prepared for this. I know that my savior lives and that he loves everyone. Through the atonement of Jesus Christ everyone has a chance at salvation. There is such peace in knowing this and I am overwhelmed that somehow through me the Lord is going to bless the lives of the people in Vladivostok. I know that it is possible and that i will be a great tool in the hands of the Lord. I know this because I know he loves me and he will bless me along the way.

got to go now thanks again