week 4

Hello family!

It's pretty hard to believe, but as of today I have been in the MTC for one month! That means I only have 7 more weeks to go until Russia!!!!

I heard someone here say that the first three weeks are the LONGEST two months of your life- haha so true! But seriously, this month has gone by so incredibly fast and I'm going to be sad when it comes time to leave yet I'll be even more excited because then I'll be going to RUSSIA!!!

 

I really am enjoying and loving my time in the MTC!!! I'm sad because the two older districts in our zone are leaving on Monday and Tuesday-it's going to be so sad and lonely when they leave! I'm in a room of 6 girls (including me and Sister Carver) and it will just be us two after Tuesday! Some of the girls are going to a part of Russia where your luggage can only weigh 44 pounds-yikes! We're lucky though, because to fly into Moscow we will probably be flying delta, but they have to take another Russian airline from Moscow to their missions.

 

But we'll only be alone until June 6th, when the new Russian districts come and then we'll be the grown-up districts!

 

This past week was really great!

Our "investigator" Kostya agreed to be baptized! After we extended the commitment to be baptized, he asked "when?" and we said in a month and he went "A MONTH?!". He said he was a bad guy and that he didn't think he'd be ready in a month and I've never felt stronger during a lesson that when I bore testimony to him that God wants him to return to Him and that if I can repent, he can repent because of Jesus Christ and his Atonement! I've never felt that strongly during a lesson and we were so excited afterwards because it was amazing to see the change in him from our first lesson with him! It was an incredible feeling and I truly felt blessed to be able to teach by the Spirit and help change someone's life as I invite them to come unto Christ! Our other investigator Lora also agreed to be baptized and we challenged her to live the word of wisdom which she was nervous about but accepted! I'm really starting to get excited about this work!

 

We had the most incredible speakers these past few days! The president of the Provo temple Robert Daines came and spoke to us on Sunday and then Ronald A. Rasband, president over ALL the quruoms of the seventy came to speak to us last night at the Tuesday devotional!!!!

 

It was so cool during our district review when a member of our branch presidency told us that in the month we've been here, 50% of our Tuesday devotional speakers have been apostles and that we're sure to see more over the next 7 weeks that we're here!

 

AND GUESS WHAT?!!! IN JUNE, ALL OF THE TWELVE AND THE FIRST PRESIDENCY AND THE PROPHET ARE COMING TO THE MTC!!!! They're restructuring the MTC presidency so we are soooo lucky that we'll be here when they do that!!!!

 

I'm realizing more and more everyday that there is nothing I'd rather be doing right now with my life than this. I've been surprised over how little I've been missing the distractions that used to occupy most of my time. I do love and miss many family members and friends, but I LOVE learning this language, I LOVE my companion Sister Carver, and I LOVE my district and zone!!!!

 

Most importantly, I love my savior Jesus Christ! I've realized especially within the past 4 years, how much I love this gospel and how through the Atonement, we can truly be healed and be freed from all of our past heartaches and pains! Elder Rasband gave the most powerful talk on how we can always have the companionship of the Spirit with us as we teach if we bridle our passions, and he bore a very powerful testimony of our divinely inspired mission calls! I can't wait to go to Russia and meet my investigators!

 

So here's a few other updates:

Language: I memorize the first vision in Russian-yay!!!! I've been working on it for a couple of weeks on and off and finally got it! This week we learned some really useful grammar patterns.

 

We learned how to say "I like something", you actually say, "To me, is pleasing, ..." Weird! It was funny-I learned how to say "To me, is pleasing, to watch Spongebob" and my teacher Brat Adams asked if I was going to tell Kostya that during our lesson! Hahaha! I didn't....

 

Our teachers always tell us the most hilarious stories from their missions! When we were learning about cases, Brat Adams told us that we should call our other teacher Brat Savage, "Brat Savage-om" which means brother by the way of the savage! They keep us pretty entertained!

 

 

Another update: Me and Sister Carver got to teach our district this past Sunday! We taught about faith in Jesus Christ using Helaman chapter 5 and we came up with some good questions for our class. It went really well and I was so grateful to have a companion to teach with because it's always been nervewracking to me in the past to teach a class by myself (that isn't a primary class).

Also, we have a new district leader now-Elder Crave.

 

 

Thank you everyone for all of your emails and letters! Mom-thank you for all of the cards you send me every day! You never fail to make me feel loved!

 

Grandma and Grandpa Azbill-thank you for your letter and for the flashlight-I use it every night!

 

Anna-thank you for the unicorn card that speaks magical advice! Me and my room-mates were DYING when I showed it to them! By the way, you should write my companion Sister Carver (same address) and send her a funny card too!

 

I'm sending the photo-cd this week with pictures that you can print out! They stopped printing photos, but I'm not sure about photo cd's so I might be able to get more and send them.

 

I was wondering though: There's this really amazing Russian dictionary that our teachers suggested that we get because it's helpful with cases.

 

It's called Russian-English Dictionary Revised and Expanded Edition (it's red) by Kenneth Katzner.

Apparently you can find it on amazon!

 

I'm out of time, but I love all of you! Please write me if you have time because letters seriously brighten up your day when it's been rough!

Love you all!

-Sister Schmidt