Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Best and Worst of the MTC

Hello!

This past week has FLOWN by. it seems like a day or two ago that i was in here typing my fingers off... and here i am again! with that being said, so much has happened this last week. Many of you have asked about the best and worst parts of the MTC. There are several best parts: sunday devotionals, tutor sessions where everything just clicks, getting to write home on tuesdays, dominating in four square and volleyball (thanks for the headband by the way!!!!) and the list could go on and on. the worst part is not seeing familiar faces. Sadly both elder barnes and elder wachob left this week :( but luckily sister whitney ward is now here and elder brett is coming!!!! i'm ver excited for his arrival. also i have found familiar faces in people that i don't actually know. our district leader elder mills looks and kinda acts like owen... only shorter and not as smart. i've also found an adam johnson.... only uglier. one of our teachers, sister pico, is pretty much just an older version of kaytlin knudsen. and a sister from the other district reminds me a lot of paige miley... only she's a harvard grad. actually the worst part about the mtc is the lack of hugs. i love hugs.

From hearing about the weather back home i have become very grateful to be here in provo. the weather has been amazing! my companion who is from utah is always complaining about the heat... but i really have no clue what he is talking about. he should just wait til he gets to rostov (its right on the black sea in south russia... its very humid there and get up to 110 in the summer.) my mission i've heard, not very humid at all and only get up to mid 80s usually. though, my winters will be much worse than his... so.... but that's alright :)

So every wednesday we have whats is called TRC or Teaching R-something Center. its been kinda intimidating going to these as we have to do a 15 minute task in russian and then teach a lesson to a volunteer. last week i was especially worried about it as i could not seem to remember any of the russian i had practiced for that task. the morning of i prayed for help, and then just had faith throughout the day that it would go well. even right up until the appointment i couldn't really remember anything, but i was still faithful that it would go well... and it did! luckily Sister Gonzalez (wife of Elder Walter F. Gonzalez of the seventy) spoke to us the night before about having faith and such in our work. she told us "Don't think about what you don't know. This work is not about you, It is the Lord's work... Be humble but believe in him. Believe that he will perform miracles through you." That gave me a lot of confidence and faith, and so i was able to experiment on her words and found them to be true.

Since then I've not really worried about what to say in lessons or even how well i am learning the language. If the Lord needs me to speak russian to his children, i will speak russian. He's pretty powerful. Since i have stopped worrying so much i have been much happier and the language has come a lot easier for me. I now pretty much understand most the grammar rules and can make my own sentences pretty easily... if i had the vocabulary. working on that. the hard thing about russian is that 1. its a different alphabet 2. EVERY word is conjugated! 3. you dont speak exactly how you would in english... you have to mix up the words you use a lot of the times. for example instead of saying "i have a cat" you have to say "at me (dative case) exists cat (accussitive case)" or "oo menya yest kashka" that's at least the english alphabet version.

other fun stories... im sure most of you know john heder from napolean dynamite (the main character).... but i'm sure most of you didn't know that he is the son in law to a counselor in my district presidency. so sunday he attended our sacrament meeting and ate lunch with us. so that was pretty cool... except for the fact there were elder flocking towards us to try to talk to him.

another fun story if i can get it off in time. kendra sent me a package. in this package she sent me a cell phone. the cell phone is old, doesnt work and didnt have a battery. but i decided that i would carry it around in my pocket and pull it our every once in a while to "text my girlfriend" of course this kinda freaks out some of the other elders. Elder King and Elder Seitz were particularly concerned about this. they are good friends with my companion (who was in on the joke of course) and they feared that both me and my companion might get sent home if the sin continued. so last night they decided to have and intervention. they came to our room and asked about the phone. my companion told them that it was a go-phone from my girlfriend. they continued to tell me that i needed to send it home, to which i told them it was really none of there business and got really defensive about it. the zone leader came in and got in on it too. finally we couldnt keep straight faces anymore and told them the truth. it was rather funny. well i got 20 seconds left so goodbye! i love you all and hope all is well!

WRITE ME LETTERS!!!! especially those of you i have not heard from

love elder ellis

1 comment:

  1. D..Elder Ellis,
    I am oh so happy to hear you are doing well and having an enjoyable time. I am sad you dont know anyone like me..I am going to write a real letter to you :)
    kam

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