Dear Family,
Other
than having a crazy week (as usual) and having some kind of crazy eye
infection, life is great! I leave for Russia in officially less than one
week. That's so weird! We got our travel plans this last week and also
our cyrillic name tags. We drive to the Salt Lake airport at about
5am on Tuesday (we're supposed to be all ready to go at
4:30am) and we fly direct to Moscow at
8:30 am. Any calling home I do would be between
7-7:30 am.
No, we're not allowed to call from the MTC-- it must be from the
airport. I can either call collect, call with a calling card that is
SUPER overpriced from the MTC, or maybe use some change? I dunno. We
have a layover in the Moscow airport for about 4 hours then off to
Ekaterinburg! We arrive there
August 7th at 5:15pm Russia time. It's going to be quite a long flight(s).
The only thing to really say this week is that my Russian has
made AMAZING progress (which is funny because mom just wrote to ask me
about that-- haha). I actually know the grammar REALLY well this week,
and lemme tell you, Russian grammar is freakishly hard. But I understand
it now. My teacher even pulled me out in the hall yesterday to tell me
how well I've been speaking this last week (not that I haven't been
great before ;]). The hardest thing about Russian though, is the
vocabulary. It's a very "scientific" language so for one simple english
word, there's about 7 words in Russia that mean the same thing but more
specific. So the vocab is what is killer. I've made so many flashcards
to continue to build my vocabulary, but it's really hard. My district
does "speak your language" 4+ days a week for the full day, and it hurts
my brain.
For the last couple of weeks, I'd felt really impressed
to ask for a blessing but I just didn't ever ask for one because of
numerous reasons (it's a hassle....it's embarrassing....yada-yada-ya).
But after contracting an eye infection, I knew I needed a blessing
because God gave me the eye infection to humble me into asking for a
blessing since I'm such a stubborn brat :) . I received a blessing of
comfort, and in my blessing, the elder giving it to me (Nathan Allen--
he's so awesome), quoted I KID YOU NOT an entire paragraph from my
patriarchal blessing with only a few words that were different. It was
the coolest thing in the entire world and some amazing promises were
made to me in that blessing. It really set me at peace about a lot of
things.
As we were walking back from the temple walk
on Sunday,
I was talking to some of the missionaries from the other district (the
new one), and this man in a car at the stoplight yelled out his window
"are y'all from Scotland?!?!" and we were like "huh?" then he was like
"y'all have red hair!!!!" and we all laughed and I told him we were
going to Russia, and he goes "Vladivostok is the best!!!!!" and drove
off. We all laughed then took a picture of all of us gingers together.
(that's the pic I sent). cute huh? The elders in that district ALL just
graduated from high school. Heather's friend, Ky Raymond's little
brother Dax is in that district. He's such a nice guy. :)
The last 2 weeks we've been able to skype actual people from
Russia (twice) during our "TRC time". It's been awesome! I understand a
lot of what they say, so it's great to be able to communicate with them.
I have to do a lot of translating for my companion though. One of the
men we skyped told us to "live long and prosper" and flashed us the
Vulcan sign at the end of our skyping with him. He was really funny. All
the Russian people we've talked to seem nice, but it scares me because
all the stories we hear are from Ukraine since both of our teachers
served there. I am scared that the Russian people won't be as receptive
as the Ukrainian people. Obviously the church is stronger in Ukraine
anyway-- they have a temple! hahaha.
I passed my "exit interview" with my branch president with
flying colors. He said that if he had to fill out some kind of sheet of
paper, he would definitely approve me to go on my mission. It's been a
huge learning experience for me here, and it's best (I've learned) to
sometimes keep things to yourself so that other people don't think that
you have big issues. I just enjoy talking my problems out with other
people but apparently if you do that here, people think that you're full
of lots of problems. So I've just learned to keep my problems to
myself.
On Saturday,
our class and another class did a role-play where 2 missionaries and a
"member" were trying to get an inactive, RM back to church. It was a
really awesome thing, and I felt the spirit extremely strong. I was the
member, and the inactive RM was one of the teachers from the other class
who just felt really insecure coming home after her mission. We helped
her realize that if she's felt the spirit before, she can feel it again
in her life ( we relied heavily on Alma 5), and it was really awesome.
It reminded me of one of my RM friends who's now inactive in the church.
I know the church is true and yes, sometimes I get upset at people or
don't want to go to church.... but I can't deny the fact that I've felt
the spirit there and there's no way I would be feeling the spirit if the
church wasn't true. There is no way that I've had all these amazing
spiritual experiences if the church isn't true. The church is true! Just
accept it, ignore the people that are weird and judgmental, and hey,
you can move on with life. There's no point in being angry forever or
feeling ostracized because people judge you. welcome to life. Nobody's
perfect. The people in the church aren't perfect. The people RUNNING the
church aren't perfect. But the Gospel is perfect. And God has perfect
love for you. John
3:16. I've loved studying that scripture this last week. That scripture and Moses
1:39
really do explain why EVERYTHING happens. Why is God the same
yesterday, today, and forever? Because He loves us. He wants what's best
for us. And sometimes, yes sometimes, thats means putting us through
trials because HE KNOWS WHAT WILL MAKE US STRONGER. It's up to us to
face the challenge. Fight or flight? Based on your reactions to
situations, that's what really determines your character. And your
character is what you're ultimately judged by. Are you going to sulk
your way through life? Are you going to decide to take offense to
people? Well, guess what? Everyone has agency and everyone will be
judged for their actions. And you will be judged for your REACTIONS to
those actions (and also your own actions). So, really? What's holding
you back from embracing the Gospel 100%? It's true. You know it, I know
it.
Going on a mission has been really hard, and guess what? I
haven't even left yet! But I'm super stoked for what the next 16 months
of my life will bring and I am determined to not let anything get my
down. I need my positive attitude to last me through the cold winters of
Russia. I know Heavenly Father loves me, and he is looking out for me.
The temple has been closed for most of the summer but today,
we had the opportunity to help clean the Provo temple. Sister Smith and I
helped with the small chandeliers in the celestial room and it was so
cool to see "behind the scenes" of the temple. It was great to be able
to go inside again the week before I head off to Russia.
My p-day is
Monday
right before I leave. I love you! Thank you SO MUCH for your prayers.
Without them, I know I'd be having a hard time here. I love you all so
much.
I'll call
Tuesday. Love you!
cecmpa Brown
some gingers in my district and my cyrillic tag
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