All in all, a very good week

July 31, 2013

The new MTC motto: Proverbs 28:25 "He that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat.” This week has been good! So last Wednesday night we said goodbye to our wonderful teacher Brother Barnes. My district spent most of that day making him the biggest candy message/poster ever. He absolutely loved it, as well as the homemade tie. It was an emotional night.

The giant candy poster

Thursday Brother Kulikovski (don't know if I spelled that right) subbed again. As a refresher, he is the teacher from Ukraine, and I walked out of his first subbed class feeling like I had been hit by a train. Thursday was much better, as I now understand Russian grammar more. My brain still hurt, but no train. That night was the first time with Brother Dean as our teacher. He had come in before to help with things, but I feel like I know him a lot better since he's become our teacher. I also really like his teaching style. That day we "street contacted" a new investigator, and boy was that an experience. Our investigators in the past have been very open and willing to talk to us. Not Sergei. He was looking at his phone the whole time, and even when he finally did put it away he would never look at us when we were talking. But, and this is probably because he had to, he let us set up a return appointment. Unfortunately, due to various things, that will not happen until tonight. That night we also had a district testimony meeting. I'm not sure what to say other than it was incredibly powerful, and the Spirit was so strong there.

Friday we had Skype TRC again. That is always so scary. Sister Finlayson and I Skyped with a young women who was actually in Vladivostok Russia. So basically halfway across the world. She was very nice, but, and I'm hoping this is partly due to the fact that it was over Skype, I only caught maybe 5% of what she was saying. But still, I Skyped in Russian with someone actually in Russia. How cool is that? Friday I also realized that I really want to go to Ukraine. I love the MTC, but I don't know how missionaries used to be here for 12 weeks. Friday is when the soon to depart missionaries have their "in-field orientation" and it always makes me a little antsy to leave.

Saturday was another wonderful day, with wonderful weather, sand volleyball, successful SYL (speak your language), and, like always, really delicious chocolate chip cookies at lunch. On Friday and Saturday we also had Brother Bush as a sub. Both days he shared some great mission stories, and on Saturday Sister Finlayson and I taught him as an investigator who has already received many of the lessons. The lesson went well, and I actually understood most of what was going on, which is always encouraging. It’s funny, but when I only barely understand what is going on, and all of a sudden Sister Finlayson is looking at me with her "say something" expression, all I ever do is bear my testimony, and hope it relates somehow. I end up bearing my testimony a lot, which isn't a bad thing. I just hope they didn't ask a question that I then completely ignore.

Sunday Sister Finlayson and I were released as Sister Training Leaders. It was only ever a three week position, but it was crazy to think how fast those three weeks flew by. I was afraid the new Sister Training Leaders would miss out on the best part, which is welcoming new districts to the zone, but it turns out we get two new zones today! And there are Ukrainian ones! (Not the language, just the country). There are three elders going to Donetsk, and the rest to Kiev; and only four new sisters. Sunday afternoon, with all our new found time, Sister Finlayson and I checked out a violin to play some music (my piano playing duties in church have also been passed on, so I kind of miss piano). Sister Powell and Sister Dryden also accompanied us because Sister Powell wanted to find something to sing. To anyone coming to the MTC: if you like to play music, don't hesitate to rent music or instruments or such. The people here are so accommodating for it, and they have some great music selections. Anyway, now I think I'm going to end up playing in Sacrament Meeting two more times before I leave, because Sister Finlayson wants to perform this coming Sunday, and Sister Powell wants to sing at some point. I was never the performing type, but the mission makes you do some crazy things. That night for devotional I was in one of the overflow rooms, and for the prelude hymns the audio and visual were really off. It was hilarious, because no one ever knows the words to hymns, so they have them up on the screen. Except the sound came through before the visual, so in the overflow room, we would sing what we could with gusto, then go silent for a line, then the next two lines would come on and we would sing the one with gusto again, but then it would be off. I don't know if that made sense, but I found it hilarious. The devotional was very good as well.

Monday was good. We finally taught Vadeem again, and he accepted baptism, which is wonderful. But before I run out of time I want to talk about yesterday. So on Tuesday the elders and sisters coming from out of country arrive. In one of the new zones there is an elder from Serbia, and because the new zone leaders are in my district, he got to spend time with us. He is incredible. So he tells people he is from Yugoslavia, but technically that doesn't exist anymore, so more specifically he is from Serbia. He came in wearing his American flag tie with the big bald eagle, and his two USA pins, and asked why the Ukrainian flag in our room wasn't the American flag. Out of respect of him, I won't go too much into detail about his life, but I am just grateful I got to sit across from him at dinner and hear his stories. He joined the church about 1 1/2 years ago, the only in his family, because he could just see the light around the sisters he met. He loves Utah because of the Spirit that is so strong here, and he actually started tearing up talking about it. He has an incredible testimony, and he is an inspiration to me. It was also put into perspective about how incredible the MTC is. After six weeks, I've started to take it for granted. I'm still really excited to leave for Ukraine, but I also realized I really, really, need to appreciate what I have here right now. Devotional that night was also amazing, and re-inspired me about what I am doing.

All in all, a very good week.

One last note: all my Spanish is out the window. Sometimes I try to think of how to say something very simple in Spanish, and all I can think of is how to say it in Russian. I guess I was only meant for two languages.

Also, a very, very big thank you to all who have sent me letters or packages. It is hard to describe how exciting it is to receive mail, and how much I love hearing from anyone. I'm sorry if I don't write back in a timely manner, but I really do appreciate it all.

Diana 

A big thank-you shout out to Grandma and Grandpa Tanner for the "Halfway through the MTC" package! We loved the Martinelli's and the most heavenly baked confection. Really, it made our day! 
(P.S - now you know what I am wearing today, for this was taken this morning)