Lots of pictures!

once upon a time two elders in my district walked in on my teacher eating a blue ring pop, and she had it all over her face. they never let her live it down. hence, during class our class pulled out ring-pops. she died laughing.

sister smith and I do "matching mondays" where we are twinners. And the elders photo bomb us every time.

I colored/drew on this matroyshka doll. Adorable, huh? Didn't take any other pictures this week. Love you!

Sister Brown being domestic.

the Elders in their natural habitat--- eating dad's bread.

Sacrament meeting at the MTC.....usually it's not this big but because of the mission president's seminar, there were 2 different sessions of Sacrament meeting in the gym. craycray!

doing a "double-handshake" is NOT allowed at the MTC. note Elder Moore's reaction.

also, please print that photo out. 3 copies. you're da best.

we like to raid the free bins at the MTC.....no but really. I found a "Free People" skirts in one, and it fits me awesome!

temple walk

some sisters from another district also going to Russia. The girl in the green skirt, Sister Whitlock, is also going to Yekaterinburg.

temple walks in the summer consist of hiding in the shade of trees. It's been so hot lately!

me with the Ukrainian district of ALL GIRLS. (also, one elder photo-bombed us in the back...)

Sister Garrett, me, Sister Barnes (Elyse Barnes was in Heather's freshman ward apparently)

the Russian-speaking sisters in my zone

 btw, we are officially good on food. you are a gem.

me and Ct. Hodgson
me and my friend Edgar Diaz-Vita
my tray after fast Sunday dinner.....yum
us chilling after a temple walk. now that the temple is closed, we go there and nap.

I LOVE YOU.

Week 5

Well, hey! Another week has passed by in the flash of an eye. Dave, I really enjoyed those pics of my new niece. So cute!

It's good to hear the family had fun in Las Vegas visiting Kristen/Will/Evie. Hearing about mom and dad's adventures trying to get to the Celine Dion concert on time made me laugh like crazy. And once again.....thank you for the package of food I received yesterday! You really are such a great family. And in other news, they're not moving us to Raintree. At least til August, and I'll be gone by then. I officially have less than one month left here in the MTC!

It's interesting being a Sister Leader here in the MTC because homesickness is abundant. In my last letter I talked about a Ukrainian-speaking district of entirely sisters. It's the first ever "full" district (meaning more than 2 sisters who are speaking a weird language) that anyone's ever heard of. Fortunately they all love each other, so that's nice.

So......last Tuesday Elder Keeton Hodgson (Bountiful, Utah) and I put together a lovely arrangement of: God Bless the USA, You're a Grand Old Flag, Yankee Doodle Boy, and Yankee Doodle. Lemme tell ya....it sounded pretty dang good. I memorized it Wednesday, and we officially "tried out" Wednesday for the 4th of July program on Thursday. We made it!

Here's a little hint for anyone that cares.... the way to be an instant celebrity at the MTC is to play NON-HYMNS at the 4th of July devotional, where everyone is already super pumped because it's a holiday. At our sound-check, Sister Kay Nally (MTC pres' wife) wouldn't even let us play our actual song because she wanted it to be a surprise. And apparently it was! Elder H and I did a really good job, but holy cow! We received a TON of applause. Like....several minutes long. And then the man in the MTC presidency got up to conduct the meeting further and asked for another round of applause. And ever since last Thursday, SO MANY people have come up to me (probably because I stand out so much with the red hair and all) to compliment my flute playing. Theoretically the MTC should send you a video, right? You said they sent you one of David playing the piano. Well, hopefully they send one of me! Let me know if you got it. Sister Nally asked us to audition again for a more reverant musical number (so they could use us for church-themed stuff) because she was so impressed with how well we did.

I felt really blessed because the rest of our district came in a little late since they had to grab dinner, and they were all the way in the back of 19M (the gym they convert into an auditorium). But FORTUNATELY, the ushers had accidentally blocked off one too many rows for "reserved" people, and they had exactly enough seats for the rest of my district! It was awesome!

We also got to watch 17 Miracles and the fireworks too. We had a "late night" and stayed up til 11:30 watching fireworks/getting ready for bed. It was crazy. And of course we still had to get up at the same time. hahahahahahahahahahaha. I love the MTC.

This week was a great week, but the hardest thing has been the struggle to try to figure out who I am. I have no idea. I'm 19. I'm trying so hard to be a better person but wow. Is it hard. The hardest part is being self-motivated. I have a vision of exactly the kind of person I want to be at the end of the 18 months, but it's just a matter of getting there that's the hard part. What kind of person does the Lord want me to be? What kind of missionary do I want to be?

The strangest part about being here is that you're under constant watch, and I literally have nobody to talk to about it. This last weekend was probably the most homesick I've felt, but mostly it's just because I met my "halfway" mark here, so it's been weird to think about all of that. DO NOT THINK I'M DEPRESSED. I've been so happy, and I've just been thinking a lot lately about things.

The one thing I'm excited for when I leave the MTC? The little freedoms, such as cooking my own meals. Never thought I'd miss that! I'm so excited to get to the airport and be able to buy WHATEVER I'M IN THE MOOD FOR. Oh my gosh. Just the freedom to pick out what to eat. I miss that. It's just not the same here at all.

Dad, the charges on the card were for a gigantic/super-accurate Russian-English dictionary, a book of 555 verbs and their conjugations, and also I bought some ribbons to stick in my scriptures/smaller photo albums (that's what that like 3$ charge was). I'll mail you the receipts.

I really like the MTC. I try not to think about how much I hate it and how cooped up I feel. Fortunately I love everybody in my entire district, and I especially love my companion Sister Smith. We get along so fantastically.

As I'm sure Heather told you, Andrew Jefferson saw me yesterday running around the temple field. Apparently he texted her about it, so she conveniently happened to drive by. I was like "wow! Hi Heather! Where are you going?" and she admitted that it was no accident. haha. We talked for a few minutes and that was great. Expect a post-mart package today and maybe one more tomorrow. I mentioned to her about getting a new set of scriptures. It's really not a big deal! It would be nice, but it's not a necessity. The new ones come out in August, but they don't come to the MTC book store until late August. Theoretically they'll be available at the BYU bookstore, and I'm sure also at like Deseret Book or whatever.

I love you! I don't have Heather's email address, so if you could send that, it would be nice.
Thank you so much for writing me letters, and make Eric write me one about his FBLA adventures. I know he has time to write his favorite sister. ;)

Have an awesome week!

Cecmpa Brown

Week 4

It is absolutely mind-boggling that I've now spent almost a month here at the MTC. How did this happen?!

Per usual, life around here is pretty exciting. Last Tuesday, our devotional speaker was JANICE KAPP PERRY, and lemme tell ya, I want her marriage (eventually). She and her husband are so cute, and he went up and kissed her several times during her speech. The entire Marriott Center gave him a standing ovation at one point for that. It was absolutely hilarious. She had us sing a bunch of her Primary Songs, and she sang us a bunch of songs. It was a pretty strange devotional, but I loved it.

Fun fact about the MTC: I have received the most compliments EVER in my entire life EVER on my red hair here than anywhere else. Seriously. That is the only thing people say to me-- "I love your red hair!" "That is the most beautiful shade of red!" "Is that natural?"
When we were walking out of the temple, a man passed by me and Sister Smith and said "Red hair in sunlight looks like heaven on Earth."

On Thursday, they allowed us back into "1M" the main building here at the MTC. Do you know what that means?! THE CAFETERIA WAS REOPENED. That caused much exceedingly joy among the hearts of the MTC missionaries. I've never been so excited to see that cafeteria in my entire life. Monday at lunch they served the best entree they've ever had-- Shepherd's pie. It might even have been comparable to Mom's, that's how good it was! (The interesting thing is, is that the menu is the same week after week, but that is the first time ever they've served shepherd's pie! I hope they keep it up.)

On Saturday we had a substitute teacher named Brat Korlikovskyi. He's from Ukraine and is absolutely insane! Singing hymns at the beginning of class, he upped the tempo so much that I probably wouldn't even have been able to sing them that fast in English. He made us play "Telephone" in Russian (the game where you pass a message down a row of people and see how much it changes) for about 45 min. He also made us play a game where we had to identify (or GUESS) when he said "sh" or "shch". They are two Russian letters that sound EXACTLY THE SAME. They look like "w" except one has a tail. Anyway, Sister Brown lost badly at that game, but it was entirely chance since all the other missionaries were just as confused as I was.

We had two birthdays in my district this week. Elder Allen turned 19 on Friday, and we made him a candybar poster (if you know what that is). It also helped that the day before I got a package with caramel popcorn in it, so I gave him a bag of that to make him feel special. :) I'm assuming dad made that popcorn and holy cow! It was so good! Elder Lewis' birthday was Sunday, and I felt kinda bad for him because the food in the cafeteria was especially awful that day. Also, his companion, Elder Moore, was super sick Sunday as well. On the bright side, Elder Lewis was able to sing in the Sunday devotional because he's part of a super-secret-small choir that sang privately for all the general authorities and mission presidents during "President's Week" here. The choir was dang good. The night before (so Saturday), their pianist bailed on them for some reason, so they asked an Elder from my district, Elder Hodgson (from Bountiful, Utah)
 to play for them. This kid is a musical genius. He literally has perfect pitch and is amazing at improvising music. They sounded really good.

Getting packages on Saturday is tricky. I picked up the new supply of bread, raisinets, and goldfish Saturday at lunch (when I get a notification slip in the mail), but that was the only notification slip I got. The mailroom closes at 2pm on Saturdays (my scheduled lunch time), so I was fortunate to be able to pick that package up. Then at dinner, I got another package slip (which I figured was the cinnamon rolls), but I had to wait til Monday at lunch to pick that package up. I was really hoping the cinnamon rolls would be in like a tupperware, but nope. So they were a little stale but still good. The elders don't appreciate raisins in cinnamon rolls as much as I do.

On Sunday, President Cranney (our branch president) did our "mid-way through" interviews. Many prayers have been said on my part. So I told President Cranney the honest truth. I told him how I know I'm supposed to be on a mission right now. I told him how it's harder than I though it would be (at this point I cried a little bit). I told him how hard it is to be 19 because people expect so much from you. I'm torn between being a stupid teenage girl, acting like an adult, and being a servant of the Lord. It's crazy the expectation people have out there. He gave me some good scriptures to read (D&C 121) and spoke to me in Russian for a bit. He showed me 2Nephi 25:26 in English and we compared it with the Russian translation. (pretty sure that's the right scripture). Well anyway, in English, it talks about "turning to the Lord" or something. The Russian translation says "run to the Lord," so we talked about that too. He then asked me if I sang in college, which I was confused about. I told him no. Then he told me that I have the most amazing accent (he was Moscow's mission president a couple years ago), and he's noticed that usually singers have an ear for an accent, and I told him I played piano well and flute very well. Earlier in the interview, he said a lot of other things, but those are the ones I should probably share via internet.

Then later on Sunday right before church, (after Sister Smith and I had been interviewed as companions as well), we were extended the calling of Sister Training Leaders! I feel so extremely blessed to have this calling and also a little over-whelmed. We will serve for about 6 weeks. Which is crazy long, especially for the MTC. We are in charge of an entire zone of sister missionaries, and we have to interview senior companions weekly. We also have a ton of meetings to attend. We have an entire district of sister missionaries going to Lviv, Ukraine and they've been here almost 2 weeks. I love my district of Elders, so I do feel a little bad for the sisters. Hopefully they last 9 weeks just fine. Sister Smith and I journeyed down to where their apartments last night. I talked to one girl who was actually adopted from Russia when she was little and will be serving in Lviv. She wants to go home desperately. She feels dejected, and she hates the food here (what a shocker!) and has thought about leaving a lot. I bore testimony to her that Heavenly Father called her to Ukraine for a reason. I challenged her to remember the spark she felt when she submitted her mission papers and received her call. I also said a lot of other things to her. She told me that was exactly what she needed to here, and I later found her crying in the hallway being comforted by the "district leader". Another girl in that district was also crying a lot because she also wants to go home because she's not sure if she's received confirmation about her mission and maybe should just go home and get married to her boyfriend (who in an RM). this is going to be a crazy calling. But I'm excited!

I've been thinking for a really long time about auditioning to do a musical number at a devotional here, so I went in to talk to Sister Ellis on Monday, a lovely elderly lady who is in charge of coordinating that. They have auditions every Thursday, but it's always while I'm in class. This week I'm going to do it though! I scheduled my audition for Wednesday (because Thursday is a holiday), and I also noticed a sign to try out for the 4th of July Devotional. I asked Sister Ellis about it because I figured Elder Hodgson would be interested in trying out. She ushered me into President/Sister Nally's office (the MTC pres and his wife), and we talked about me and Elder Hodgson doing something! They had been looking for a musical number for forever, and I told them how talented Elder Hodgson was, and I agreed to pull something together. They want a medley of like Yankee Doodle/It's a Grand Old Flag/etc. and NOTHING out of the hymn book. I'm pretty sure we're playing in the Thursday devotional..... but we have to present our medley for them Wednesday which gives us basically no time to practice. Elder Hodgson is so amazing though that I don't think they'll NOT accept us. And I can still do a thing or two on the flute, so hopefully I'm good there. :)

Anway, I think that's it for the week. Congrats to Eric on getting 8th in Help Desk at FBLA Nationals!!!!! That's amazing. So proud of you, bro. I brag about you all the time. I was surprised to hear that Mom and Dad are going to a Celine Dion concert in Vegas. I honestly thought you were kidding when I heard how much the tickets cost. But have fun! And drive extremely safely. I will worry about you until I get a DearElder letting me know that you're safe. :)

I love you all and thank you so much for the support! It's hard being out here (or "in" here, I suppose), but it's also a lot of fun. We get our departure plans in just 3 short weeks. which is absolutely crazy. I'm so excited, but I also have a lot more to prepare for. Keep praying for me! Also, if Kristen wants me weekly emails, she should send me her email address.
I don't have Dave/Laura's either, so let me know what those are. I hope the laptop got to them safely. Also, tell David that ipod is the best thing ever and to treasure it. Keep reminding my nephew/nieces who I am!!! I don't want them to not know who I am when I get back. :)

LOVE YOU!!!!
cecmpa Brown

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

More pictures from the MTC

The elders make fun of all my "selfies" and enjoy stealing my camera to take some of their own.

That pic is of Elder Lewis. You should be getting a note from him in the mail today or tomorrow.

I love you!!!

I have enough hangers here, and I honestly can't think of anything else to say. Everyone is jealous of my stickers, dad. And they're much appreciated. I'm so glad I brought my own sheets/blanket to use here because OH MY HECK. It's all disgusting and uncomfortable. You're great! Keep it real! I'll send a hand-written letter mid-week.

Love, cecpa brown

Mom, just remember that you birthed an incredible human being/daughter of god. Never forget that.

 

this picture is pretty much sums up my district.

Elder Stucki (from Sparks, NV)

Elder Bunn (from Idaho)

Elder Moore (UP, Michigan)

my teacher kept calling me "Sister Moore" for like ALL OF CLASS, so Ct. Moore just gave me his nametag to wear. I joked "oh yes! My first elder name tag!" and the whole district won't let me forget it. Apparently I "objectify" name tags too much? haha.

the classic polygamous missionaries shot. I'm JUST KIDDING.

Ct. Moore likes to steal my camera and take pictures of himself! yay life.

two-handed handshakes at the MTC are NOT ALLOWED. ;)

no but really. an elder from our district saw a girl he knew and they did that. but the very next meeting it was announced that two-handers aren't allowed. too bad!

Sister Smith and I decided to match :)

Pictures from the MTC