2-Day

2 day is a day of twos. as of 2-day i have been here for 2 months. In 2 days i will recieve my travel plans, and in 2 weeks i will be leaving for Russia! You all have no clue how ready I am to get to Russia. The MTC is great, and i have really enjoyed my time here, but.... i'm ready to get out of here. Every day is the same. I've basically lived the same week 10 times now. and with in those weeks it seems like i live the same day over and over. Within those weeks i have gained 10 lbs. a pound per week... not bad. actually i checked that about 2 weeks ago, so i might have gained somemore. its not so much that i eat a lot, its just that i sit ALL DAY LONG. i'm in 2nd place in our district in weight gained. Elder Hansen has 12 lbs gained. I hope to pass him up these last two weeks and become champion. And i'm sure it wont take long for me to lose it all once i get to russia. walking all day, with not a lot of time (or money) to eat. not many members to feed the missionaries.... so yeah... i'm not at all concerned about the weight i've gained. if i was going to south america... it would be a different story.
So this last week has been a pretty good one. I'm not fluent in Russians by any means, but i feel as if i have a good enough foundation to build upon. I can't wait to get to russia and to speak like an idiot! :) I've gotten a good amount of mail, thanks to Heather's roomates and friends. But i'm still waiting anxiously for some of MY friends to write more. but yeah, i'm doing well. I did get a little sick the other day... i won't go into much detail... but lets just say Elder Rigby cursed my bowels because i was making fun of his digestive system. His curse worked. But i'm all better now!!!!! Kendra i'll write you the details as long as you promise not to share with many. The rest of you are probably a little weirded out by that.... Kendra and I are very close. hahahaha.
It's starting to get colder here in utah... especially when we have early morning gym or have to wait outside in the sack breakfast line. But.... I've been very good about not complaining. I know its going to be a lot colder in Russia upon my arrival. I will, however, complain about losing my hoodie. it was my grey converse zip up hoodie... i took it off while cleaning bathrooms and forgot it in that building. I checked lost and found, but to no avail. If you find it, (or one JUST like it) please send it to me. I loved that hoodie :(
So a little about the Russians in our room. I like them a lot. A couple nights each week we play uno with them, but in russian. It's rather helpful. i have the numbers 0-9, and the colors red, yellow, green and blue down pretty dang well. Its fun learning words from them and just learning a little more about what its like to be russian. But... its really hard to get them to be exactly obedient. Elder Lantukh really likes to sleep in, and Elder Nalimov really likes to go to bed late. We do what we can to encourage them to go to bed and wake up on time but not having much success. oh well, i'm sure they will learn. untill then we just have to be extra sure to be good examples.
Have I mentioned how ready I am to leave this place and get to russia? I do know that i will be flying with 2 of the natives to samara. Elder Maximov and Sister........ something. I hope i get better at remembering names. That has always been a struggle for me. Katy Cunningham sure knows that.....
Well i'm going to wrap this up. There's really not much else to talk about.... and i'm running out of time.
I love you all! and hope you are doing well!

love,
Elder Ellis

Good Friends...

Hello friends and family!
So... I've done a really bad job at writing down thing that i want to share with you this week... so i'm pretty much just going to have to try and remember as much as i can.
We got our roomates! Elders Nalimov and Lantukh. We are trying to get them in habit of waking up on time and going to bed early. They are getting better. But yeah, we have to be extra careful to be exactly obedient as our we will lead them by our examples. I really enjoy having them in our room. for one, the room is warmer with 4 people instead of two. That being said it doesnt smell as good... but it's not horrible. Elder Rigby and i have really enjoyed getting to know them this last week. we've had a lot of fun and they've taught us some russian phrases. some of them they probably shouldn't have, but its ok because i don't remember them anyway. I've learned that i'm really not very good at memorizing russian words. I'm to the point where i can say pretty much anything i feel like... just with poor grammar and simple words. I also speak rather slowly... but i kinda do that in english too. understanding natives speak the language... that will take some time.
So, i realized yesterday one of the blessings of being on a mission. i call it the beard blessing. yesterday, i forgot to shave. When i got to class i felt my face and realized this. after just one day it had come in pretty well... atleast a lot better that it has ever before. I believe that is one reason why we are to shave everyday... just so when we get off our missions we can grow sweet beards with little effort. I'm looking forward to it :)
So, i've recently been reading in 1 nephi in the Book of Mormon... i've never noticed how many principles are contained just within the first 30 or so pages. Just within the first 30 pages I have learned a lot and really strengthed my testimony in Jesus Christ and His atonement. Having the time to study and read from the scriptures, particualarily the Book of Mormon has been such a blessing. I'm really not much of a reader at all... but I do love reading that book. It really helps me to have a much better attitude about things and i enjoy life a lot more. Which is good... because this MTC place is getting kinda old. 8 weeks? Just short of 2 months? I mean, this place is amazing and i enjoy being here... but i'm going a little crazy. I just want to get to russia. but with that being said i know there is a TON more that i can learn while i am here.
Alright so i'll tell you about my best friend. I'm not sure if i mentioned my bear named smelly last week. I believe mom made him for kendra's sock monkey? well... i have him now, and he goes everywhere with me in my pocket. 'smelly' in russian means courageous. when i can finally get around to sending out pictures you will see that smelly makes it into almost all of my pictures. that is, if its not a picture with JUST smelly. but anyways my other good friend is Elder Perry. I think its very appropriate that Last name is Perry and mine is Ellis. Perry Ellis... i believe that's a clothing line. well anyway Elder Perry happens to be nephew to brother and sister johnson that own horseshoe canyon ranch down in arkansas. They are in our stake and were in the young men's / young women's presidency when i was called as a member of the YAC. youth advisery committee. which by the way... i never got my shirt for... and i'm still not happy about it. But i became good friends with them... and behold, (comonly used in the russian language) here there nephew is in my district. he actually worked at horseshoe last summer and plans to after the mission. so i have found a buddy to go canoeing with on the buffalo river in two years. We get along smashingly and have quite the same sense of humor and personality. I believe him, owen, and i will make a force to be reckoned with. unfortunately, he is serving in ukraine. so i wont see much of him until after the mission.
well... That's about all i can think of this week... and i'm quickly running out of time. so i will make and end to my writings.
oh wait... everyone keeps saying i've changed. I'm not sure i agree. i'm still the same old dustin... just i'm focused differently.
well, love you all!

love, Elder Ellis

Speaking Russian!

Well hello!
No problems with the computers this week, so this will hopefully be a longer e-mail. Well, actually i had to reply to my mission president about if i had recieved a letter or something, so that took a little time.
Well lets see... this last week started off with TRC on wednesday. This is where we practice teaching lessons to volunteers. Well last week again was all in russian, and well.... I don't know that much russian. To make things worse, one of the volunteers we were teaching was a girl that's a native russian.... so she spoke SUPER fast. Many times she would say something and we would look to the return missionary to translate from FAST NATIVE russian into SLOW MISSIONARY russian. lol. She also asked some pretty difficult questions. I remember sitting there thinking, "i'm not even sure I know how to answer that question effectively in english... but in RUSSIAN?!?!" so I said a little silent prayer to be able to answer the question, and then starting speaking. And well, I was definitely helped! That stood as a testimony to me that this is the Lord's work and He is willing to help us out. A point I am very happy about!
Also on wednesday the new districts came in. 3 of them are going to Samara as well, but I havent met any of those 3 yet (they are in another zone that we dont see very much) The first day or two with the new district was pretty nice, It was nice to feel like I knew a lot more than others... but then after a couple days we figured out that most of them have some sort of background speaking the language... whether they lived in russia, taught english classes to russians, or just took several semesters of russian at college. So I was again humbled.
I also finally saw Garon! I've seen him a couple times since as well, mainly on sundays when we watch movies (such as Finding Faith In Christ, Mountain of the Lord, The Testiment, Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration) I'm still hoping one sunday we can watch some disney movies... lol.
Lets see... its hard to think of things to say... pretty much everday is the same now... so you've pretty much heard it all before. Oh... its starting to get cold in the mornings (outside, not just in our rooms) So when we have gym in the mornings the sand is SOOOOOO cold on my bare feet. I'm dreading the day they close the field due to coldness... we're cooped up inside WAY too much! I live for the outside world! Speaking of Cold... our room. The first week we got here the temperature in our room was 67 degrees. each week its slowly been making its way down... and we finally hit a record low or 62.3 degrees. we both have two blankets, and i ofter sleep in my fleece footie pajamas... and still wake up cold. Finally we got a good idea on saturday night and put a blanket over the vents in our room. Well, it's working and the room was back up to 66 degrees last night! So i've actually been sleeping quite well! Bad news tho.... we're getting roomates. which means the blanket will come off of the vent, and we will also have to give up our extra blankets. They come today. we also had to consolidate all our stuff in to one closet each. we got really used to our lifes of "luxury" with a closet ofr our clean clothes and one for our dirty clothes... but that all comes to an end today. also instead of having a whole desk to myself, i know only have half.
The neat thing is that our roomates are native russians! which means, i'm going to be forced to talk in russian more often, so i see it as a great opportunity for me to learn and improve. My russian is... tak u tak. or so - so. I can communicate about 85% of everything that i want to say at this point. that doesnt mean i'm using proper grammar, or even the words i would like to say... just getting 85% of my points across. So i am getting better :)
This wednesday we teach again in the TRC, but this time we are teaching the Plan of Salvation in all russian. This message is a lot harder to teach in russian as many of the key words are quite lengthy. Just gotta practice a lot and pray a lot and i'll be ok! Also my study habits are getting a LOT better so russian is starting to come a little easier. still not easy, just not as hard.
OH! Yesterday i got 2 postcards and 2 letters! hopefully my mail drought is over? that was a record for me... but elder hagee got 12 yesterday... soo i'm losing this game. lend me some help? write?
well that's about all the time i have this week! I love you all and miss ya!

Love,
Elder Ellis

Halfway there!

Hello Everybody!
6 weeks down... 6 to go. and then RUSSIA!
I've heard two things about Russian missionaries and having to spend 12 weeks in the MTC. i've heard that 12 weeks here really matures a missionary and allows them to grow up. I've also heard it makes you crazy and the Russian elders are some of the craziest in the MTC. Well, 6 weeks into it... i'm going to have to side with both view points. I've definitely grown a ton in the time i have been here. I feel as though my priorities have been ironed out pretty well. Some of my favorite things are listening to devotionals from leaders of the church, teaching in the TRC, and attending the temple each week. With that being said, some of my other favorite things to do are smash talking everyone on the volleyball courts, acting like a zombie and attacking other elders in the residence halls, and playing with all the toys kendra has sent me. The older district especially loved it when i acted like a zombie. They all agreed I should have gotten here 6 weeks earlier because i would fit in with their district so much better than mine. I agree with them. But alas, they have all left now. we're the older district, and we're getting new missionaries tomorrow.
im pretty excited about the new missionaries we will be getting. we have a few from germany and japan (it would suck to learn a 3rd language in your 2nd language... its hard enough in your first language!) and of all these new missionaries THREE are going to Samara!!!!!! So far i've been the only one going to Samara (wait... elder rosell went there like 3 weeks ago) but anyway i'm way excited for my Samara buddies! Elders Behr, and Morris, and Sister Wilson.
Lets see... oh, i've heard rumor that i'm homesick... and well that's not really true. sorry to anyone that I may have worried. I do enjoy being here a lot! that being said i do miss people from home (especially in this mail drought i've been experiencing lately) and i am very ready to get to russia. But yeah, really happy. My companion and I get along really well now, Russian makes sense (still cant really speak it.. but I understand HOW to), and i have so much junk food and candy (when the older district left they had to lighten their bags... so they left all there food in the free bin... and well, i was first to see it all and so i pretty much took everything i like) so i dont really need treats.... unless you really want to... i wont complain. but i would love more mail! I'm very greedy when it comes to mail... i love it. even if its short, just write! and write often! The other elders are starting to wonder if anybody loves me (ok... not true... but still... i want more!)
Oh, but don't write about your vacation to disney land... Mother. however, do send me something awesome from disney land (which means more than a postcard... but i want a post card too)
Oh i finally broke out my brown suit today! i hated how my shoes matched with it, so i haven't worn it yet... but i fixed it. I got some leather dye and dyed them a darker brown. They're not quite to where i want them to be, but hey... i've got time! untill then they are good enough to wear :)
so with the commencement of this, my second half of my MTC experience, we have begun to do most everything in russian. Each wednesday when we practice teaching in the TRC it now has to be all in russian. Last week was the same and we taught the message of the restoration. it went pretty well. Before hand i was pretty nervous about it because i couldnt really remember all that russian that i had been practicing. so i said a prayer for the spirit to guide fme and to bring to rememberence the things that i had studied. I then went in there with faith that i would do well. When we got in there we soon found out that the 4 return missionaries we weree practicing on were actually Ukrainian speaking. Ukrainian is to Russian as Portuguese is to Spanish... but a little bit more of a difference. BUT even though they werent even speaking russian i was able to pretty much understand the things they were saying, AND i remembered everything i had worked on... even the things i really hadnt studied much at all. It was such a testimony to me that this really is the Lord's work and He is more than willing to help me out in it. As Sister Gonzalez said "Don't think about what you can't do. This work isn't about you. It is His work. Believe in Him, believe that He will do miracles through you" I know that this is His work and that it is very important for me to be here doing this.
well thats all the time we have this week. tune in next week!
love you all!

Love, Elder Ellis

Marshmallows and Russians

Hello again!

so this e-mail might be a little shorter because it took it over 10 minutes to log in today... very frustrating.

I'll start off by saying thank you for the cat posters! I LOVE THEM. They are hanging on my wall in our room, much to the disapproval of Elder Rigby. haha. Elder Rigby and I actually get along just fine now. We work well together and I actually enjoy his company. He's still not one of my FAVORITE people, but hey it'll do. So I've been here for over a month now. sooooo long. and yet it really doesnt seem that long. its the weird mission time warp thing going on. this week the older district is starting to trickle out. a few of them are still here, but they will all be gone by friday. Elder Mills and Hagee were made zone leaders and Elder Rhodes district leader. I was very happy on sunday when i realized i had not been interviewed. Also to clear up another couple of concerns, my leg is doing just fine. nothing wrong with it anymore aside from some pretty sweet scars.

We get our mail everyday before lunch and after dinner. we're not allowed to read our mail until after we are back in our rooms at 9:30 each night, and then we are only allowed to write home on tuesdays. so... a lot of times i will forget some of the things that you all write by the time i write back. so if something is important that needs to be answered, just keep writing it! Mom, you've done a really good job of that... haha.

Funny story. The other night i was sitting there eating my huge marshmellows that kendra sent me, and one of the native russians walked in. he didn't really know what it was so i let him have one. HE LOVED IT. so i went around and gave all the native russians some of my marshmallows. they were all amazed and loved them. apparently they dont have marshmallows in russia. I've had a lot of fun getting to know some of these russians and struggling to communicate with them. Speaking of communicating in russian, tomorrow we have to teach the message of the restoration all in russian! eeeekk! so i've been working and praying really hard for some help in that... i'm not too nervous, but i'm not too confident either.

so far we have had to spend 2 full days speaking only in russian. did.... alright... it was a pretty quiet day. one of those days i was playing volleyball and was lined up against elder james. i call him elder lebron james because he is about quite tall, quite big, and quite black. someone set it to him and he went to spike it on me... and i blocked the crap out of it. so i continued to yell "He B Moem gome" which means "NOT IN MY HOUSE!!!!" oh the good things i can learn russian for.

real quick spiritual thought since i am quickly running out of time. (though i should have 10 more minutes.. urg)

last tuesday Elder Jeffery R. Holland came and talked to us. it was the first time since i've been here they've had us all together in the gym for devotional, and it was quite a good one. he talked about not wasting time on our mission because it really is the Lord's work and His mission. The coolest thing was just being in the same room as an Apostle of Jesus Christ. A strong testimony builder for sure.

well 30 secs left. thanks to everyone who keeps mailing me! mail is the BEST thing.. keep it coming

love you all

love elder ellis

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

Hey Hey

Another week in the MTC. 3 down, 9ish to go. pray for me! haha! Let's see... i'll start off by answering a few questions.

my leg is doing just fine. it turned out to be a boil... i've never had one of those before? so that was a new, gross experience.

Yes, my sleeping schedule is doing fine. No, I am not sleeping wonderfully. apparently NOBODY sleeps well in the MTC. I havent been able to sleep through an entire night without waking up yet, and niether has anyone in my district. also its a little hard to get to sleep at night. funny how i can sit in class all day fighting just to keep my eyes open, and then at the end of the day when i lay down beneath the stars (glow in the dark) i am exhausted.... and yet i lay awake. finally i fall asleep, and wake up several times during the night. one night i woke up shivering violently. i grabbed another blanket (we have extra since there are only 2 of us in a 4 person room) but that didnt seem to help much. finally i got up and went and put on my dino footie pajamas. THOSE HAVE BEEN A LIFESAVER! THANK YOU AMBER! um.... i dont remember any other questions and i dont have time to look.... so let me know if i missed anything. Also, if you have any questions about anything i will be happy to answer. yes, That includes you Mom. Answering a pestering amount of questions isnt so bad when i'm not "stuck" with you. plus, i only have to respond to the ones i feel like... and there is NOTHING you can do about it. aside from call my branch or mission president and have them lecture me. haha.

lets see... some cool things that happened this last week. Elder Evans of the 70 gave a WONDERFUL talk on the Book of Mormon last week. Did you know there's a lot of really interesting and profound stuff in there? and just in the first couple verses?! it talks about the importance of families, being taught righteously in the home, how God chastens those who he loves, the importance of prophets, and so much more. just on the first page! I never really noticed that before. His talk was AMAZING and brought such a strong testimony that he is truely called of God, that the Book of Mormon is truely the word of God along with the Bible. I wish everyone could come to the MTC to hear some of these devotionals. then again... some are better left unheard... haha. yesterday Thomas Durham gave a talk about the hymn that he wrote in the hymnal.... quite possibly the worst talk i have ever heard. Basically he boasted of his family history as hymn composers, carried on with a lot of musician terms that only those with PHD would know, and talked some more about how great he was. However, you really can learn from ANYONE if you are listening through the spirit. and I did.

Oh, so dad. on thursdays we have to clean our classrooms at night. and well, its both a blessing and a curse to be your son. I definitely have your perfectionist gene. that combined with my experiences cleaning the church building all those times... not good. and yet good at the same time. basically without me our district would get a horrible review everytime. I try to say that with humility. it's true though.

So one thing i have learned these last couple weeks is that i really need a woman in my life to take care of me.... mom, do you have any magic stain remover you can send me? tide to go doesn't quite do the job. I'm really not that messy... in fact none of the stains are from any food that i've eaten. I just always find food smeared in random places in the cafeteria that one would not expect. i hate OTHER peoples food ending up staining MY shirts. heres a few other things i need/ want:

NIKE HEADBAND preferably red with a white symbol. i need to step up my game in SUPER SMASH BALL (like four square, but with 9-10 sections that arent squares formed by cracks in the parking lot, and just a lot more intense) and volley ball. also maybe some tall athletic socks. basically i need to look awesome to play awesome. you could prob find one at nike.

RUSSIAN POCKET DICTIONARY. the ones they gave us are crap. the little red one i left at home is apparently a really good one to use.

APPLE RINGS - i love those

DUCT TAPE - i have need for this

My companion and i are getting along much better now. we work rather well together. infact, our district leader Elder Mills (short owen) said that he thinks we will be zone leaders here next week or so because we are spiritual giants. not sure if i a gree with him, but that was an awesome compliment to recieve from someone i respect. but yes, Elder Rigby and are a getting a long much better. I wouldn't say that i really like him too much.... but that doesn't mean i can't get along with him and work well with him and learn a lot from my experience with him.

Well i'm quickly running out of time. i hope everyone is doing AMAZINGLY. most of you i don't really know about since i've not received letters from the vast majority. letters help keep me sane people!

well love you all! hope to hear from you soon! do good things and keep me in mind

love,

Elder Dustin Wayne Ellis