Week 3

And as I am beginning (or is it ending? The weeks fly by here) week 3 at the MTC), I am now officially a humble person.

Food: the MTC food, as I've said many a time, is awful. It's just awful. And maybe it's because I had the Canon Center for Fall Semester and then ate on campus a ton for Winter but I am SICK of "BYU food" if you know what I mean. Holy cow. However, this last week our normal cafeteria area closed because of the mission president's seminar going on. Well, the food supply has officially hit rock bottom. They run out of food CONSTANTLY, and since my district has the last meal time, we literally stand in line for 30 min (the lines are crazy long because the MTC is super under-staffed) just to scrape together what little salad is left in the bowl. I really am not exaggerating this. Fortunately, my father is so loving and kind and wonderful that the food he sends is well-appreciated amongst my district. We even are nice enough to share with our poor, college-student teachers. I have high hopes that once this seminar ends and we get our cafeteria back, that I will be so much more appreciative of all the food there.

Companion: Sister Smith and I are still getting along great. She's such a wonderful person and tries so hard with the language. Our lessons our going fantabulously, and we committed our investigator, Svitlana, to baptism. We also just taught the Plan of Salvation to our other investigator, Aleksandr. Lemme tell you....it's really hard to teach the Plan of Salvation in Russian. So many of the verb conjugations are really similar to each other, and the verbs mean completely opposite things. Sister Smith is still chugging along on her Russian though-- which is great. We both pray for the Gift of Tongues daily. Our roommates left at 4am yesterday to fly to Russia. So instead of having 6 missionaries crammed into one room, we now just have 2. We're not set to get new sisters this Wednesday either so...looks like we have the room to ourselves for at least a week.

Ailments and Maladies: I'm now able to sleep through the night without the melatonin, but I'm definitely bringing my bottle to Russia with me. My sinus infection/cold is almost over, so that's great. And-- surprise, surprise! The MTC now has some kind of "flu" going around, so shaking hands/touching people is strictly forbidden. But everyone does it anyway.

Mission President: I did get to meet President and Sister Christensen (my mission presidents) at the mission president seminar. It was really cool actually. After the last Yekat missionaries had all seated, and we were peering up at our new mission president, the thought came to my head "finally. we're all together again. I've been waiting for this for forever." And I was like, woah! Where'd that thought come from? But then Pres Christensen started talking and talked about how we had all made a pact in the pre-existence to come to THIS SPECIFIC mission. Yekaterinburg is really special, and I'm excited to head over there. Our president gave us these three points of advice:
1. be clean 2. love everyone 3. work hard.
He talked a lot about praying for love and charity, and that was great to hear. I still believe love is a choice, but he talked about how love is a gift from God. I guess they can be both!

Broadcast: I don't know if you could see my singing in the choir at the broadcast, but it was a lot of fun. Sister Smith and I both decided to quit choir. It was such a huge time commitment, and we would much rather spend that time studying. The Broadcast was awesome, and I encourage you to watch it if you haven't yet. Member Missionary Work is super important. Dad, could you track down the Pratt's home address from Vermont and give it to the missionaries? I've been thinking about them a lot this weekend. Love you!

Russian: Russian is hard, but it is a very rewarding language. I'm still the best in my district, but they're not far behind. Unfortunately, I spend so much time trying to help Sis Smith that I don't really get enough time to study for myself, but that's ok. Russian is very rewarding, and I like how specific and unambiguous the language is. The sentence "Did you read the Book of Mormon?" can have 2 different meanings depending on what verb you use. Did you read the ENTIRE Book of Mormon? or....Did you read the reading assignment from the Book of Mormon we gave you?
I just really love the language, and I'm so thankful to have been blessed to be fluent in Russian in the future (when I was set apart as Relief Society pres, my bishop told me I would soon become fluent in the language). It takes a lot of stress off of my shoulders and encourages me to keep working hard. It's hard, I'm not going to lie. But since I work hard, the words and phrases come to me easily. Part of that is definitely the Gift of Tongues-- which is 100% real, by the way. I feel things come to my mind during lessons that I would not have thought of myself. It's so great. I'm just really pumped to get out to Russia, especially after meeting my mission president.

District: my district is fantastic as always. But it's probably not a good idea to try to run into us at the temple on Sundays (though I don't think we would dislike a box of creamies/popsicles left in ice at the temple ;)). It was really nice to see Dad, Heather, and Eric at the broadcast on Sunday. After I hugged Eric, the Elders in my district pretty much had a cow because "SISTER BROWN, YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO HUG BOYS!!!). But then I told them that he is my brother, and they calmed down quite considerably. Haha. The fact that Dad had sandwiches was great too. But you probably shouldn't plan on that happening again.... I mean, I was fine after. I was really happy to see you, but I don't want you to get used to seeing me too much. :)
   I still LOVE my MTC district. 3 elders are going to my mission (plus me and Sis Smith), and the rest are all going to the mission directly East of mine, Novosibirsk. They're all just fantastic people. My teacher, Brother Mansfield, told us that he just got an email from people that he just sent off 6 weeks ago. They both got to Russia, met their trainers, then the 2nd transfer were paired together. I can't imagine having 2 greenies together who can barely speak Russian! Crazy! It just makes me want to study more. I carry flashcards around with me basically everywhere. You should "google translate" the word for "perfected" in Russian. It's pretty much the longest word ever.

The key to surviving the MTC is just to love. Love the food. Love your companion. Love your cramped room. Love waking up at 5am to get a washing machine. Love waking up at 5:30 to stand in line for the shower. Love your district. But especially, just love the Lord. I'm not a very trusting person, so this last point has been rather difficult for me. But I've been trying my best. Being patient with the Lord's timing is an issue I think we all struggle with, but ultimately it just comes down to faith. Do you have faith that the Lord won't let you fail? If you're trying your hardest, the Lord will never let you fail. Which is amazing. I literally cannot fail at Russian if I'm trying my best. I can't fail at being a missionary if I'm trying my best.

My testimony has grown so much in the MTC. The Spirit is crazy strong here if you want to feel it. It's sometimes easy to get distracted and be silly with my district (which is totally fine), but the best moments we have is when we have Gospel discussions just because we CAN. It's amazing. We're all 19 (Sister Smith is a little older), so being immature is just a given. But it's in the moments of Gospel discussion/study that I'm able to see the Elders in my district for what they someday soon will be-- amazing husbands. Yeah, it sounds weird. But I love them all to death. And one day, they'll make somebody really happy, and that makes me happy. :)

Dad, I sent a box to post-mart with instructions inside. There's not really a rush on engraving my scriptures/hymnal, but if I could get them by the end of the week that would be ideal. There's also no rush on getting that sweater sewn. I don't know if I'll even bring it with me to Russia. Watching my roommates pack and leave has officially scared me into packing light. They had to trash so many things before they left. I'll probably be sending my towels home. The MTC bookstore has amazing quality towels that are super duper thin, and they actually look like they'd do a good job drying my hair. With the missionary discount, it'll be about $5. Which is great. So I'll think about doing that. Also, feel free to go into my amazon account and use my "Amazon cash" to buy stuff. I should have like $60 in online credit. If you could buy me a nice alarm clock, that would be great. One that goes off of batteries and has a back-light and tells time. That's really all I need. Also small. :)

Dave, Mom, Laura, Nathan, and Emily: I hope all is well in Minnesota. I've heard Emily has light-red hair, so that's great. Keep me updated on your lives!

Eric: all the Elders in my district joked about your facial hair. hahahahahahaha. you really need to shave, buddy-boy. Love you to death. I hope life-guarding is going well as well as marching band. Do you have your songs for fall yet?

Heather: keep me updated on your love life. I'm excited for you to date up a storm, as always.

Tiffanie: well hey! I love reading your emails every week as always, and I'm glad I could finally get your email address too! I heard your new mission president is here at the MTC, and I've heard he's a great guy :) I hope the weather is great out in Virginia. Did you have to be at the MTC 9 weeks for spanish speaking? That's crazy!

Well, I love you all!! Pictures will come later today, since I'm dumb and left my camera in the classroom. I love the MTC!!!

Sincerely,
cecmpa Brown