MTC Week 3

 Hello Everyone!

Short Version:

    This week went by quicker than I was expecting. It feels like I was writing to you guys just yesterday. Week one and two I was basically running on adrenaline since everything was new and exciting. Now it's not so new, and the excitement of learning the language is accompanied with the frustration of learning a language. On the bright side, I've gotten into a groove with my studying and class schedule. My vocabulary is still really small, especially since the words I know are all gospel related. To give an idea of where I'm at, I have a stack of beginner Russian children's books from the library. I can't read any of them yet but I do enjoy looking at the pictures and guessing what the words are. It's humbling to know that Jasmine has a higher reading level than I do. Something I've started doing to spice up my language study time is attempting to play the ukulele and sing Russian sentences or read scriptures in Russian. 

Long Version:

    This week has been the first week I've started missing watching movies or TV. To compensate for the lack of entertainment, I started watching the Safety Zone. All the missionaries will know what I'm talking about, but for those who haven't heard of the safety zone it's a 12 part series of videos dedicated to missionary safety. They present it like ESPN commentators so it makes it fun to watch. If I had the option to watch something else, I would, but for now it is sufficient. 

    Russian is coming along well. I hope the short version didn't make it seem like I wasn't learning very much because I am. If you wanna talk about God or the BOM or other church topics, for the most part, I can teach a coherent lesson and answer questions in Russian. But once the conversation moves to daily life or anything other than church topics, I get lost quickly. Yesterday was the day my district put on our big boy/girl pants because we graduated from basic core and are moving on to intermediate core. Basic core is a small pamphlet that has about 10 pages of vocabulary, but keep in mind the pages are about the size of your hand so it's not a lot of words. Intermediate core on the other hand is 260 pages and is the meat of what I will learn during the rest of my mission. 

    My companion and I taught 2 practice lessons all in Russian and we are getting better each time. We still don't know what is going on all the time but we're able to at least say the most important things.  

    The fun tidbit of Russian I'll share is a fun phrase we learned in class. "У Матросов нет вопросов" - [oo matrosev niet vaprosev] It means: sailors don't have questions. It's extra fun because it rhymes. The next time someone asks if you have any questions, seize the moment. 

I decided to include the facebook post I posted last night because I put all my good thoughts of the week in there, so I hope some of you won't mind reading the same thing twice:

"Today in my online MTC class we were discussing the topic "God Is Our Loving Heavenly Father" and there were a two particularly interesting points that stuck out to me from the discussion. 

The first point comes from 3 Nephi 22:10 where it reads, "For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." There was a comparison made between our earthly fathers and our Heavenly Father. I have a great dad who has been around for all of my life. Of course, he's missed a soccer game or maybe a jazz band concert every once in a while, but all in all he's had an active role in raising me to who I am today. I realize that not everyone has been blessed with a dad who has been a part of their life for various reasons, so I am grateful for the influence my dad has played in my life. Through his actions I've seen the love he has for my mom and for each one of his children. He's sacrificed more than I probably know so his family can be happy. As great as he is, however, my dad, like all of us, is imperfect. If an imperfect man, like my dad, can have so much love, how much more does our Heavenly Father have for us. Our Heavenly Father loves us in a truly unconditional way that we can not comprehend. He weeps with us when we suffer and rejoices when we do what is right. It reminds me of another scripture found in the bible, Matthew 7:9-11. "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" This leads me to my second point.
I believe it is a tendency for most of us to take our problems to God; we ask God to fix the things we can't fix. This is a great idea, please don't stop praying and asking for help when you need it. Although, if you only pray when you are in need, I would ask you to reconsider your relationship with Heavenly Father. He wants to hear more than our struggles and our trials. To revisit the earlier comparison, imagine your earthly father again. Imagine going through life never stopping to tell him how your day was, never calling him on the phone to let him know that you graduated college and can't wait to begin your new job. When you get married and have your first child, you don't think to update him because why would you, you don't need anything from him? But one day, life isn't going so well. You find out your budget was off and you need a small loan so you can cover your mortgage. This is only a hypothetical situation but think how selfish that seems. I have been guilty of this type of relationship with God at times in my life. However, these last 3 weeks in the Online MTC where we seem to pray every second of the day, I've been able to feel the spirit so strongly. I haven't had any momentous experiences, but what I wouldn't give to feel like this all the time. Luckily, we can all feel close to God because we can always pray. If recently you haven't been praying much, I would encourage you to start today however simple your prayer might be. God wants to hear your voice and I imagine his mouth turns to a smile when he hears us pray to him.
I'll wrap up with a quote that describes my thoughts better than I ever could:
 "Heavenly Father loves you—each of you. That love never changes. It is not influenced by your appearance or by your possessions. It is not changed by your talents and abilities. It is simply there. It is there for you when you are sad or happy, discouraged or hopeful. God’s love is there for you whether or not you feel you deserve love. It is simply always there."
- Thomas S Monson"

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старейшина Smith